Kira in the News

Here is some video of Kira in the News. They messed up her name though and called her "Kina Jay" instead of "Kira Jay." The "exclusive video" that they show on the news is some footage that Kira shot with our video camera. Kira was excited about getting on the news and getting her video on the news, but now she is embarrassed by it. I told her she looks good in it though, and the video turned out good.



This is the second time Kira and I have been in the News since coming to Alabama. The first time we were in the news was last year. We were playing bocce ball with our friends Joane and JJ and the photographer from the Tuscaloosa News newspaper took some pictures of us and put one on the inside page of the front cover. Here is the picture:

Held Hostage

So I'm being held hostage in my apartment complex right now. It's been that way since about 10:30 am this morning. I actually did not realize it until after 11 am when I was going to head out to get Pete. I started to driving out to leave my complex and got about half way through when I noticed a truck parked so that it blocked the road. There were two guys standing by the truck and one of them was signaling for me to go back the way I came. I thought that's weird, I can't get out of my apartment the way I just came from. So I rolled down my window to see what was going on. He said something but I could not understand him. So I yelled "what?" and he said "There's a guy in a truck with a gun" and pointed to the front of the complex. Upon hearing that I immediately turned my car around and called Pete. I called Pete to let him know I would not be able to pick him up from work and take him to the Law Institute. Luckily we have great friends and JJ was able to go pick Pete up from Graphics Packaging.
Being a curious person I decided to take a short walk and go talk to some people I'd seen a ways up from the crazy guy with the gun. I found a couple of guys chatting and watching the scene and asked them what was going on. One of the guys told me that the guy had threatened a family member and it had escalated to the point where he was threatening to kill himself. So I watched and chatted with these two guys for a little while and then decided it was way too hot so I went back to my apartment to change my clothes and charge my cell phone.
I went back to see what was going on about 30 min later and the only thing different was that more people had come out to see what was going on and the SWAT team had shown up. While standing and chatting some dumb girl drove by and we all thought she was going to drive right up to the guy in the truck and all the cops. She squeezed past the truck with the two cops in it who had stopped me earlier. The cops jumped out of the truck and about that time the girl apparently woke up and realized that there were about 20 cop cars in front of her and started into reverse. We all had a good laugh at her. I'm sure she was feeling pretty dumb afterward because she did not stop and ask what was going on like all the other people who had tried to leave but realized they could not.
Someone made the comment that they wished they had a video camera. Thanks to my parents, I happened to have one inside our apartment, so I went back to the apartment grabbed a sandwich (I was starving and needed something to enjoy the live action) the video camera and my cell phone. I came back and joined about 5 other people watching the crazy guy. Several other people came out and we all took some pictures and chatted about what was going on. The SWAT team brought out their robot which wheeled over to the suicidal guy and gave him what we believe was a cell phone or walkie talkie. At about 2:00 we saw a cop with a big bag of McDonalds. One of the guys standing and watching with me commented that he was hungry and wanted some food too and wondered why the cops could go out and get food but we couldnt. Come to find out the McDonalds was actually for the guy with the guns in his truck. The robot took the McDonalds over to the truck and left it on the hood. I have a video of the guy opening his door and grabbing the McDonalds with a gun or some kind of pole and then getting back in his truck. About twent minutes after that a cop came over to us and told us all that we were aggravating the guy in the truck. The cop also said the guy had a bunch of guns and ammunition and some of his guns could reach where we were standing and told us to all go inside our apartments. He said that if we came out again he would press criminal charges against us. I don't think any of us would have been out there to begin with if they would have told us not to be out there. They also should have let us know sooner if we were in any type of danger. Maybe they were about to take him down and they did not want a bunch of people to witness it. So now i'm stuck in my apartment wondering what is happening with no way to leave. They have our whole apartment complex blocked off. They even have part of Rice Mine blocked and the apartment complex next to us has police at it too so we can't escape that way either.
I'll post later about how it all ended.
I snapped a bunch of pictures of the ordeal. Here are some of them:


The white truck has the guy with the guns in it. The blue truck is the one blocking anyone from getting out. Where the cones are is where the dumb girl tried to drive through. After she did that they put the cones up.
I also walked out to Snows Mill and took a picture of all the cop cars and SWAT cars. The picture above is that picture. The entrance to our apartment complex is where you can see the side of the police car. All of those cars and truck belong to cops. Next to where I was standing and up the street were some fire trucks.
The SWAT robot is in front of the truck putting the McDonalds on the hood.

SWAT team

All kinds of cops.

Bomb Threat

Kira and I have had a couple exciting weeks. Last week I was at work, at a job where I am temporarily working for a few weeks, when suddenly the secretary at the front desk comes in and says "what are we supposed to do if there is a bomb threat?" Of course that caught me off guard. She said that somebody had called her office on the phone and just said "bomb threat," and then hung up, then the person called again and did the same thing. She dialed *69 but it said the number was blocked. We went into her office and she called the head manager and asked what to do. He said he would look at the protocol for bomb threats and then immediately got on the intercom and told everyone to evacuate the building.

We stood outside for the next hour and a half to two hours. The police showed up to search the building for any bombs. They didn't have any bomb dogs with them though, because both of Tuscaloosa city's bomb dogs are injured right now. The police took a couple of managers into the building with them to see if anything could be out of place or look like a bomb, after a while they decided it was safe, so we all went back to work.

I guess it was a prank from someone, since its been a week now and no bombs. The police are subpoenaing the records from the phone companies now so that they can track down the person who made the call. Last I heard, if the person does get caught, because no bomb was found, he can only be charged with a nuisance. You can only have a bomb threat if there is actually a bomb - that's what I heard from some people today anyway. I should probably look it up myself. I think that would be ridiculous though. If you act like you have a gun, even if you don't and are robbing a store, the law will treat you as if you actually did have the gun. They should do the same thing for a bomb threat, in my opinion. If you act like you have a bomb and cause others to reasonbly believe that you have a bomb you should be held under the law as actually having the bomb.

Right now Kira is stuck at our apartment complex, the Royal Hills Apartments and can't leave, and I can't go home because there is an armed man in a truck there and there are cops all around. Here is the news story: Police negotiate with armed man locked in pickup, and Kira will write about it. She was outside with the neighbors for a little while watching what was going on, and took some pictures and video. Now they police told everyone to go inside there apartments though, which is a good idea, I would rather just have her be safe.

Memory Post

My cousin had this on her blog and I thought I'd post it on mine too.

Here are the basic rules:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! If we're only blogging friends, write about a post that is most memorable.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

3. Remember what your mom taught you; "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." lol Ready? Set? GO!

Temple

We took a trip to the Birmingham temple yesterday with our friend's Andrew and Kelly. It was fun having them in the car to talk with on the hour drive each way as well as at the temple and lunch. We went to the 12 o'clock session and enjoyed it! I always love the temple! We hit up the Cracker Barrel for lunch afterward. It was delicious! Pete had never tried chicken fried steak before so we ordered that so he could try it. I have to introduce him to all the wonderful southern foods.
We've been to the temple a bunch since moving here but this is the first time we've taken pictures. We took pictures with Andrew and Kelly too but they are on their camera. Thanks for coming with us Andrew and Kelly, we had fun!

Quick Update

I decided we should finally post something on our blog since we've been MIA from the blogging world for the last month.
I've been teaching dance lessons at Farley's Ballroom and I love it! I teach private lessons and I also teach a Latin group class on Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm. Pete helps me teach the group class and when he's not working he helps with some of my other lessons. It's great having a job that I enjoy!
We went to a dance at the Northport Civic Center last night hosted by the Tuscaloosa Ballroom Dance Club. Here's a picture after the dance with our friend's Kimmie and Steve:

Kimmie is another teacher at the dance studio. She is hilarious! Steve is one of my students, I taught him his first dance lesson about a month ago when I first started teaching.

My Dad had a business trip in Memphis last week. We were able to spend time with him Monday and Thursday. He flew into Birmingham, stayed with us for a night and then drove to Memphis. He stayed with us again on Thursday night before flying home. My mom and my sister were able to fly out too! They were here Monday night-Friday morning. It was great to have family here, we really enjoyed their company! We all went to the Cheesecake Factory up in Birmingham on Monday night after we picked up my mom and Paige from the airport. It was way yummy!!! My mom, sister and I went swimming and shopping most days while Pete worked...it was a rough week for me ;) My mom decked out our bathrooms and got us curtains for our bedroom so our apartment looks nice in those areas now. I was sad they had to leave! I wish I would have taken some pictures while they were here but I totally spaced it.

Tonight we had our friend's Phillip, owner of Farley's Ballroom, and Kimmie, co-worker at Farley's Ballroom over for dinner. We enjoyed their company! They are two awesome people! Kimmie is from South Korea originally and one of the funniest and sweetest people! Phillip is a great dancer, one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and fun to hang out with! We made Cafe Rio Pork salad's for dinner! They were super yummy and Farley and Kimmie both enjoyed them. Kimmie brought us Tide detergent as a gift. She said it was a custom in her culture to bring a gift when someone invites you to their house. She said she brought tide because it makes bubbles and bubbles are good luck.