Calling All Hockey Fans!

The Utah Grizzlies are hosting a fundraising night to benefit the charitable foundation at my work, South Davis Community Hospital. The game is Saturday, March 27th at 7:00pm and the Grizzlies are hosting the Bakersfield Condors.

COST:

Center Seats $18 (normally $24) or Corner Plaza Seats $12 (normally $16). $4 from each ticket will be donated to the SDCH charitable foundation.

INFO:
To purchase tickets, call Ted Davis at 801-988-8033 and mention the SDCH March 27th game or visit http://www.utahgrizzlies.com/ and click on “merchandise” and then click on “theme nights” and find March 27th. Password for the discounted seats: Grizzlies and the user name: Davis.

Funds raised from this event will help fund new cribs and specialty strollers for pediatrics; specialty beds and wheelchairs for patients of all ages; educational toys, computers and books for the pediatrics unit; and training equipment to instruct nursing students and to teach family members how to help care for their loved ones.

Chicago

During the past week, I went to Chicago to attend the American Health Care Association annual conference with some people from work. Our classes ended around noon each day, so we had plenty of time to sight see and explore the city. I had a great time! Here are my adventures organized by each day. BEWARE: there are a lot of pictures!

Sunday

As luck would have it, my dad was also in Chicago on business while I was there. After I checked into my hotel, my dad picked me up so that we could spend the afternoon together.

First, we went to Navy Pier. This is a boardwalk area that had several carnival rides, activities, and shops. We walked around for a while before heading toward the city. We weren't really sure what to do/see, so we kept walking around until we hit the "Magnificent Mile", which is a portion of Michigan Avenue that is famous for its shopping. We continued along this until we made our way to the John Hancock Tower, which has an observatory on the 94th floor.

Looking down from the John Hancock Observatory

View from the top of the tower. The tallest building on the right is the Willis Tower (Formerly Sears Tower), which is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

Me overlooking the city.

Another view from the tower.

After we finished up at the tower, we headed back to Navy Pier to get some dinner. I had such a fun time with my dad and I am so glad that it worked out to spend time together on this trip.

Monday

On Monday, I went with my coworkers (the DON and CEO) to the Willis Tower. This building is 104 stories and is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

Wrigley Field

View of downtown Chicago. The tall building on the right is the John Hancock building.

The Willis Tower has these glass boxes that jut out from the building to overlook the city. It was a little nerve-wracking to be standing in a glass box 1,350 feet above the ground.

Looking down from the glass box.

On our way back to our hotel, we went to Giordano's for some famous deep-dish, stuffed Chicago pizza. It was SO good and SO filling - one slice was more than enough. We also stopped by Grant Park, which is right across from where we were staying. This fountain was pretty interesting and had a mini water show every hour. They were also filming part of the third "Meet the Parents" movie in this park while we were there.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went to lunch at Harry Carey's, then walked around downtown Chicago. Some of the things we saw included...

...the famous Chicago Theater...

...the Chicago Cultural Center...

This building was built in the late 1800's and used to be the public library. This glass dome was made by Tiffany's and was AMAZING. The entire building was decorated with elaborate tiled patterns.

...the Chicago "Bean"...as well as some other interesting places, such as the flagship Macy's store, the Tribune Building (made with pieces of other famous places from around the world, like the Taj Mahal and the Berlin Wall), and the Water Building.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we went to the Chicago Institute of Art. Their galleries featured amazing pieces from several artists, countries, and time periods. Some of my favorites were:

American Gothic, by Grant Wood

The Coffin and Mummy of Paankhenamun

Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso

On Thursday, we came home. It was nice to get away for a few days, even it technically was for work. I would love to go back and spend more time exploring the city!

We're on the MOVE to End Alzheimer's!

Today an estimated 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's. In addition, 78 million baby boomers are approaching the age of greatest risk for developing this fatal disease. Now is the time to ACT to end this epidemic!

My company, South Davis Community Hospital, has formed a team to support and participate in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk® to raise funds and awareness to fight this disease. My personal goal is to raise at least $200 and our team's goal is to raise at least $5000! Will you consider making a donation? You can help us reach our goal by visiting my donation page or the widget on the right side of my blog.

The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research, and funds I raise will go directly toward supporting their efforts.

Thank you in advance for your time and generosity - together, we can help end Alzheimer's!

I Need Some Help

I need some help. I am trying to put a video clip from NBC on a PowerPoint presentation. I think that I need to save the video clip to my computer. The problem is, I have no idea how to do this. Does anybody know? I am assuming that it is similar to saving a YouTube video, but I have never done that, either. I know that I can insert a link to the video on my slide, but I would prefer to add the actual video in case I don't have access to the internet during my presentation. I would LOVE some suggestions.

The clip is http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/clips/stress-relief/982442/.

Thanks!!!

Severe Weather

I had the opportunity to take another trip to Alabama for disaster preparedness training. This time around, there were several more people from my company that went. This was definately an eventful trip!

One day, one of the ladies from my work started saying that she thought it would be awesome if there was some severe weather (tornado). She said that she didn't just want heavy thunderstorms, but an actual tornado to touch down in the area. Let's just say that she kind of got her wish. During class on Tuesday, we heard that there was a tornado watch in the area. That is less severe than a warning, but I guess you still need to be on guard for the possibility of a tornado. A few people from my work went outside, and it was amazing to see how fast the clouds were moving. The sky wasn't really dark, but you could see that in the distance, the clouds were really black and it was raining hard. We also heard a rumor that a tornado had been sighted about twenty miles away, but it hadn't touched down. About twenty minutes later, one of the instructors told us that the buses were there to take us back to our dorms and that we needed to load them as soon as possible. So, we head outside, and the sky is really getting dark, even though it is still in the afternoon. As soon as we got back to the lodging area, we were told that a tornado warning was in effect and that we needed to go to the tornado shelter area.

Brynn, me, Jamey, and Ann in the tornado shelter

After fifteen minutes or so, we received word that the warning had passed, so we decided to see if we could get a ride into town. Then, we heard sirens go off, which signaled another tornado warning. There was a voice over a loud speaker that instructed us to return to the tornado shelter area. Eventually, the warning was lifted and we were able to go about our business, although they wouldn't take us very far away from the base. The next morning, I was watching the news and they said that they believed the neighboring town had received some damage from a tornado or small winds...I am just glad that wasn't us!

Besides the tornado, we still had a good trip. My coworkers and I tried to have as much fun as possible. We played a lot of card games, went bowling, and tried some of the local, authentic restaurants: Cooter Brown's Rib Shack (yes, literally a shack), Dad's BBQ (like Training Table, but all BBQ), and Top O'the River (fried catfish, anyone?).

I was also able to get some sweet boots from the local Tractor Supply Company. I think that a few people from my group were a little surprised when I said that I wanted to stop there, but I am so glad that I did. I wanted to buy some when I was in Alabama in September, but I didn't have enough room in my suitcase. I am glad that I didn't leave empty handed this time!

Sweet Home, Alabama: My Adventures in the Yellowhammer State

During the past week, I had the opportunity to attend a training that is conducted by the Center for Domestic Preparedness and is sponsored by FEMA and Homeland Security. The training was located at an inactive military base (Fort McClellan), which is located in Anniston, Alabama. The purpose of this particular training is to help healthcare providers, emergency responders, community leaders, and others prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic.

I was a little nervous about attending this, but everything went really well. I flew into Atlanta, Georgia, where they had a bus that drove everyone into Alabama. The drive was so pretty! I just love the green, which is something that we don't have a lot of in Utah. The trees were dense everywhere - they are so thick on the side of the freeway, that you could hardly ever see what you were passing. There is also some type of an ivy-like vine that grew over everything. There were some places where it was so dense that it looked like someone had spread an ivy blanket over all the trees and shrubs. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture from the bus.

All of the training and accomodations were on the military base. I stayed in a dorm, which allowed me to have my own room, although I did have to share a bathroom.

This is the room that I stayed in...it was pretty nice considering it used to be military housing.

This is part of the base that I stayed on. It is hard to see from this picture, but in the distance, you can see the Appalachian Mountains in the distance. They look like hills compared to the mountains here, but they are completely green. In the evening, it would almost seem like there was a mist that settled, and it looked really cool around the trees on the base.

Each day was spent in a classroom setting learning about pandemic influenza. Everything was so interesting, and I learned a lot! The class ended by breaking up into groups and doing a drill that put everything we had learned into practice.

We had the evenings to ourselves to do whatever we wanted. The base provided a shuttle that would take you into different places around town. One night, some of us asked the shuttle driver to take us to the most exciting place that would be open, and guess where the driver went...WalMart! We asked if there was a Main Street or some type of historic district or anything like that, and we were told that was the "dangerous" part of the city. So, we spent the evening wandering around WalMart and the Tractor Supply Company. The Tractor store had these really cute cowboy boots, which I thought about buying, but I didn't have room in my suitcase. The next night, we decided to go golfing. We golfed eight holes, and honestly, my golfing ability has not improved. But, it was still nice to get out and enjoy the course.

I took this picture at the golf course. The picture is dark, but it shows the mountains in the distance. You can also see how there are trees everywhere. Seriously, everywhere you looked, it was green.

I would definately recommend attending a training here if you are involved in any type of emergency response/preparedness. They offer several classes besides pandemic influenza, and everything really was beneficial.

15 Minutes of Fame

A few weeks ago, Mike's company had their final "open house/grand opening" for the credit union branch that he manages. Some of the festivities consisted of giving away food, prizes, live radio broadcasts by 99.5, rock walls, and guest appearances from Swoop and Cosmo (U of U and BYU mascots). I think that Mike's favorite part was when the KSL morning show did a live broadcast from the credit union on Friday morning. Mike was so excited that he got to be on the air - I guess that everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame!