VT Cheese Festival

One of the best things about Blacksburg in the summer is the number of festivals. There seems to be one pretty much every weekend. This weekend was the first Virginia Tech Cheese Festival. Thankfully it was held indoors at the Moss Art's Centre as the weather this week has really heated up - 90 F with ~80-90% humidity (I wish I was joking about the humidity level). I have been working from home as much as possible as my office is generally in the summer 10-20 F hotter than outside and like a sauna.
I decided to go to this one on my own as it was easy than trying to organize people so I got the bus down there.

Outside the Arts Center

With the ticket, you get a free drink. Someone warned me that I should get a drink first as the queues inside were long and it would be more pleasant with a glass of wine. You don't have to tell me twice. So I grabbed a glass of Riesling and a bottle of Sprite (which turned out to be an excellent decision). Unfortunately the lady was right about the queues and the wine didn't make it to the first tasting!

Cheese

My favorite (they even gave me extra free cheese later!)

 Overall it was not very well organized. They had about 15 vendors split over 3 floors. But each floor only had one queue, so you had to wait in that one queue to try any of them. Even if you didn't want to try some. And they only had 2 drinks vendors, both on the ground floor. Hence why I was very happy to have the extra drink. If you are in a group, you can send someone on a drink run, but I would have lost my space in line and have to start again. Not going to happen.

Very long queues.

Also a lot had bread or crackers with the cheese on, which makes sense. But for someone who can't eat wheat, it sucked!

Looks good

 At least VT can make fun of itself. That the only explanation I have for the amount of cheese related merchandise.

Cheese everything

Cheese hat anyone?

 The Moss Arts Centre is very nice and though I was standing in line for a long time, the view was pretty good at times. And, when not so pretty I had my book. That is when not eavesdropping on the sometimes bizarre conversations around me.

Cathedral style windows

They also had live music outside which was good (though they must have been melting), but as everyone was inside and couldn't hear it, I was a little confused as to why.

Music

 And they had a little petting zoo. Well, some cows and sheep. The calves were so cute. :-)

Chilling in the sun

So cute.

teenagers!

On the way home, I stopped by the UPS store to buy boxes. I am starting to organize my packing. However it was not fun getting them home on the bus!
On the evening, I cooked dinner (the cheese and broccoli bakes sort of worked) with a cheese platter of my recent acquisitions for dessert.

Gouda, Fetina and cubes of horseradish cheese.

Sadly I was woken up in the middle of the night by a bug bite on my leg. It didn't seem bad during the day. Now it is roughly the size of my palm. :-( And the itching is driving me crazy!!!!

 On Sunday I attempt to sell some of my clothes at a consignment store. Apparently my style is too old. Very insulted. But they only want clothes for teens and considering the clothes they had, I think I should be happy to say I don't have any of those. But I did have a nice meal at a friends house on his deck to end the day, so not a complete loss.

Cissi's graduation!

Friday was Cissi's PhD graduation so she is back is Blacksburg! It's only for a week but it is so good to have her back.  I miss her so much! The graduation was at the Coliseum basketball stadium so Cait and I went along as the cheering squad.
Luckily she was on the end of a row so I got some photos of her as we waited. (It took them ages to all file in.) And as proved by the photos, some things never change.

Waiting to start

never without a camera.

talking. 

 The ceremony was very "pomp and circumstance".

Flags. 

National anthem

Cissi finally found us and started waving her grad headband.  At least I had thought she had. Turns out she was waving to someone else in our direction. Still.                                

The whole ceremony was really long. They had multiple speeches and a special music arrangement as well as a few other bits that seemed irrelevant. Finally they got to the doctoral awards. It was odd. So few people were clapping. Yes it took a while but still. Cait and I made sure we clapped for everyone. As you can see, not everyone had the same idea. (Grumpy people!)

On her way

At VT, the graduate advisor place the hoods of their students around their necks on stage. (I am so amazingly glad they didn't do this in the UK - those of you who know my history at UCLan will understand why!).

Happy.

 At this point Cait and I started wooping and yelling!  (Nothing like 2 embarrassing friends!)

She heard us!

Getting her hood. 

Shaking hands

Official.

The hard part - the steps!

We didn't get to see her afterwards :-( as we had to skip out and go back to work. (We left after 2 hours and they still hadn't gotten halfway through.) 

But Saturday we went to campus to take some photos.

Getting ready 

not impressed with the hood

Classic Cissi!

Mom and daughter

We managed to meet up with a couple of her friends and their daughter for some more photos. 

With Emma

Playing hide and seek

Doing the VT sign.

Group shot.

After we had take a lot of photos, Cissi get to take her gown off. I was hot so she must have been boiling and we all headed off to get a cold drink. I miss her so much. She's always such cheerful company.

Congratulations Dr. Cissi!!!

An evening with SWAT

Well they are called ERT (emergency response team) here but same thing.
Last night I spent a few hours at a talk by the VT ERT team and at range safety. It was run by Detective Daniel Hardy, who was great at the presentation and funny. He showed us some of the equipment such as the bullet proof vests, battering rams, and lots of guns.

The shielding in the ERT vest

How to break down your door.

We could also try the gear on. I did actually wear it as there wasn't time for everyone but I did pick it up. Seriously heavy,  ~50 lb and thats not included all the other gear

Getting kitted out

Armed and ready

They brought along a bunch of guns. There were a few shot guns, a sniper rifle and some machine guns! I couldn't tell you the names though. He also talked about the types of ammo (such as the non-lethal bean bags) and other bits of kit they have such as flash-bangs and tear gas.

the guns

After the talk, we could all go up and look at the guns and equipment. Well, everything except the sniper rifle, which was super highly calibrated so he didn't want anyone touching it.

More guns and a flash-bang

top:shot gun, middle: another gun, Bottom: grenade launcher

And more guns

They also brought some of the protection gear in, the usual shield you see in films and a more flexible one called a Bat shield. Seriously. That's it's name.

the old riot/bullet shield

Testing out the newer BAT shield

BAT shield

I have only been around guns once before (despite having lived in the US for a while now), at the range where Caroline and I did a class and went shooting. And then it was cry much "always treat the gun like it is loaded". Not so much here which made me more than a little nervous. I know they weren't loaded but still.... They were pointing them anywhere and I really didn't want to do staring down the barrel of a gun, loaded or not.

I was a little nervous around all this

ERT vest

The best quote of the night: when explaining the sniper rifle, "We use this when we want to reach out and touch someone. And touch them in a very specific place." I guess that's one way of describing a sniper rifle!

"Ruby", the sniper rifle

The rest of the evening was on range safety. And there was not as much as I personally would have liked but I have a somewhat British dislike of guns. and really don't want to get shot. Ever.
But tomorrow should be fun. I have to turn up late due to a work commitment but tomorrow we get to shot the guns.