Across the street the hospital is building a new parkade (parking garage). It’s pretty cool watching it go up because it’s all pre-fab slabs and columns. I’m sure whoever came up with this concept spent a lot of time playing with Legos or something.
There’s no forms to build and no concrete to pour. A couple of times a day this big flatbed truck loaded up with large concrete slabs or pillars will back in to the site. A crane will hoist the pieces up and place them into position and then they get attached together in some fashion. And presto, there you have it, one instant wall, or instant floor/ceiling beam. Very nifty.
I think the outer brick layer must be fashioned in a similar way because one day there was just plain old concrete slab, and then the next day there was brick all over the outside.
Gobble gobble
Happy Thanksgiving!
7 donations, up to 21 people helped.
Yesterday the Red Cross blood donor clinic at work had their 2nd annual Blood Donor Appreciation party.
It was a fun time with music, snacks, cookies and door prizes, but mostly thanks for people who gave up a little bit of their time to donate blood to help others in need. At last year’s party, there were 6 people who managed to rack up 7 donations for the year (still haven’t figured that one out). This year there were a whopping 11, including little old me! That’s up to 231 people those blood donations could have helped. Add that to the couple of hundred other people who donated up to 6 times in the past year and that’s a lot of people helped.
One of the nice things about this year’s event were the speeches from blood recipients sharing their stories about how blood donations helped them survive. It’s really nice to put a face to the people I’m helping with each of my donations and adds just that much more satisfaction to giving blood.
She really can grab the bull by the balls
Monday’s site visit at MD Anderson went exceptionallly well, although like many site visits, we didn’t get to see everything we wanted to. But we saw enough during the quick 4 hour whirlwind tour and were very impressed by their operation and the efficiencies they’ve achieved.
Lunch was at Goode Company, a kind of divy hole in the wall looking place, but with some fantastic Texas BBQ. There was a line out the door to the cafeteria style place, and it was well worth it.
By far the most unique items in the restaurant were the handbags hanging over the cashier. Large sac looking things that you could have fit both fists into, with plenty of room to spare. Fairly decent sized handbags that would hold most of the things women typically stuff into handbags.
The material these things were constructed from was somewhat…unique. No doubt in the spirit of “Use Everything”, if you’ve every wondered what happens to a bull’s dangly bits, this is one way to use them. Yes, the handbags were made from bull scrotum (scrota?). And they were still hairy. Empty, but hairy.
Now, I wonder what they do with the other dangly bit…
Off to Houston tomorrow
Heading off to Houston tomorrow for a site visit to MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Normally site visits aren’t my favourite thing. You fly out either the day before or the same day. You’re trying to evaluate equipment and talk to the people operating the equipment one one side, while the sales rep is talking to you about how great their equipment is on the other side. Lunch, talk with more people, and then fly back later that afternoon.
Tomorrow’s visit will be a little different though, since one of my friends just moved to Houston and doesn’t live too far away. Even though I’ll be getting into Houston in the evening and getting to my hotel late (after dinner with the sales reps), I’m looking forward to getting together and hanging out. Haven’t seen him since my wedding 3 years ago, so it’s going to be a lot of fun getting together and catching up. It’ll be a mini Hooligan reunion!