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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This is my family updates blog. I'm sorry to say that it's moved to Facebook. If you would like to continue to read about my life, you need to be my Facebook friend.  |
| Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. And so this week began. It's just as busy, but I have been feeling much better. I have been remembering what's really important, and how to let it go if I can't do something the very second someone asks for it. Lately, I've been reading this book Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. It's got pirates in it. I like pirates as much as I like zombie movies. I used to write pirate stories when I was in high school. I had a particular character - Chastity - she was a female pirate. It was actually some of my better prose work. Pretty sad that I haven't done much better since high school.  At one point I thought they would make funny movies, but not sure I can top Johnnie Depp. But anyway, I'm really enjoying this book. My brother-in-law recommended the author for people who like George R.R. Martin (and I do), so I thought I would check it out. I know what you're saying, right - fantasy is kitschy and for teenage boys who play D&D. Well, I used to say the same thing and I got over myself. If you find a good writer, it's not all...ahem...fireballs and frostbolts. LOL For instance, George R. R. Martin is excellent if you like descriptive, dark stuff. Plus there are zombies in his books...although they're called Others...but trust me, they're zombies.  Jack has decided to greet us with raptor-like shrieks. Oh, he coos and babbles also, but when he really gets excited (like when he sees us), he shrieks. Awesome! He's working on sitting up as well. He's still a bit tipsy, but he's getting there. |
| After a panic attack I can always see how it happened. The warning signs. The stressors. Somehow I lack foresight in this area. When I'm stressed the first thing that goes is my digestive system. Suddenly, everything I eat seems to upset my stomach or give me heartburn or worse. You would think this would be obvious, but I guess living with IBS for the last ten years, I have just gotten too used to it. It's how my body shows stress. I don't get headaches. I rarely feel nervous. I actually enjoy multitasking and being busy. The fact that I can't always eat greasy, fatty, cheesy foods just means I don't gain a bunch of weight. Frankly, I have lived with it and I will continue to live with it. I try not to let it bother me. But I do remember last week wondering why all of a sudden after months of feeling perfectly healthy, my IBS came back and was just as bad as it used to me. Sometimes if the stress gets worse I'll have a panic attack. I guess that's what it is. That's the only way I know how to describe it. Your heart pounds, you can't catch your breath, your brain freezes. This happened to me out of the blue on Thursday night. It really freaked me out. That's the problem with panic attacks - they promulgate more of them. On Friday morning Chris and I were running and not a minute into the run and I have another one. I was running fine one second and the next I was hyperventilating and freaking out. I actually was able to finish the three mile run, but I was fighting the urge to start hyperventilate the entire way. It was like running with a hippo on my chest. It's been a couple years since I have had something like this happen. It's not like my life is horrible or anything. But that's just it. Truly crazy events - divorce, Dad's death, OCS - those I get through just fine. It's all those small daily stressors that add up and overheat my system. I guess it's all just coming at once lately. Being a mom of course. The Navy hit me up for a lot of stuff last week including trying to put together the Ward Room Halloween Party. And of course, there was my operational job which really got the back burner this last week when I had tons of stuff to do. Just typing it out now is kinda making me antsy. But never fear, I made a to-do list and I think I'll be ready for this week. I guess we'll see tomorrow. It was nice to get the weekend break. We went out with Todd, Jaime, and Ian on Saturday afternoon. The guys saw that Jackass 2 movie. Jaime and I went shopping. It was a lot of fun because we have just enough in common to really enjoy each other's company. That night we went out to eat with the rest of the crew here. We hadn't seen Tom since he had come back from deployment. And now he and Laura are moving to Hawaii. Christina is going on an African deployment in a couple months. Drew is leaving for Naval Postgraduate School in December. GOSH, it's like we're all going separate ways. Kinda sad, but I guess that's what the Navy's all about. I actually finished two short stories - "Invalid Item"  and "Invalid Item" . It feels weird to be writing prose, but I have been in a short story phase lately. It's actually relaxing. I write poems so quickly; stories make me sit down and actually think and imagine and escape for more than an hour. This could be the cure for my stress. I actually have two more stories I'm working on. Cool beans! |
| Today we began our husband-wife workout plan with matching iPods. The weight-lifting was different. I don't think I have done any of that for a couple years. I do like the idea of my arms being more buff. They don't look incredibly toned. I feel imbalanced. I have muscular legs but puny weakling arms...even for a female. Buffness is very good trait. Maybe not as useful in modern life as it used to be, but I have grown up with a healthy fear (not a phobia but a niggling pearl of doubt) that at any moment your life may be Katrinarized. It's weird I know. Perhaps I watch too many shows about global warming, the next ice age, the next big meteor strike, the next super volcano explosion, etc. Not to mention WWIII and the anti-Christ. Not to mention the even crazy scary sci-fi threats - robot takeover, alien attack, ZOMBIES, and catification (yep, you never know what brainwashing your pet tabbies are working on you). In such trying times, buffness will be required to wield maces, viking swords, automatic weapons, longbows, poleaxes, etc. Plus we may have to rebuild cities, grow our own food, and dig wells for water. And no cars so we'll be walking or running everywhere. Or riding bicycles. I have maybe played too many video games. Or is it just my imagination. After buffing up we ran 2 miles. I am not used to running with music, and I think it might have thrown me off a little bit of my usual pace. Hmmm... First time I ran with hubby too. I was afraid I was slowing him down. Hmm... |
| For the four-month well-baby visit, the doctor concluded that Jack is indeed a well baby. He's 14 lbs 13 oz which is in the 50% percentile, and a whopping 27 inches long even which is in the 90% percentile. He's pretty tall. No stomach bugs this week. He has generally become more squirmy as he realizes all the different ways his body can move. He's getting stronger in all respects. Really not much to say. That's why I haven't written much lately. I've actually got a couple stories and poems in the making, so most of my writing energy has been consumed doing that. Which is good too. Actually, we got matching iPods yesterday. We made a deal with ourselves that we would workout in the mornings three times a week after dropping Jack off at daycare. We have been toying with the idea of working up to a biathalon or a half-marathon. We'll see how it goes. I would have preferred to test our resolve at least for a month before getting the iPods, but they are lovely and nice to have right now. I'm an American. I have a right to instant gratification.  |
| Here's one for the baby book. Today Jack rolled over on his own. I was changing his diaper and he just went right over to the other side, propped himself on his elbows, looked around, and tried to roll back to the other side again. But he was out of room, so I stopped that. |
| Jack has become a full-on professional squirm bucket. He twists and turns all over the place. He's almost rolling over. He can go from his back to his belly when he's propped up with a pillow. He doesn't like to be flat on his back much. He'll try to sit up. This is a new development as well. It looks like half of a sit-up, and it usually makes him frustrated because he wants to be sitting up completely. He tolerates tummy times a lot better now. The day care place is having him on his belly at certain times of the day, so he's been getting stronger every day. When I took him to the doctor on Tues because of the stomach bug, he weighed 14 lbs, 8 oz which is almost double his birthweight. His height was a whopping 26 1/4 inches. His little legs look so beefy. It's kind of funny. This week went by quickly for me mostly because I was just cruising along not really doing much. Most of the people who task me with stuff were gone on a public relations (sorta) roadtrip. I wasn't invited. I suppose it's good because of the baby but it still sort of makes me mad. But anyway this just means I didn't even have to pretend to work. I worked on my resume. I also did a bunch of Navy Ward Room stuff. The Ward Room on a ship is where all the officers eat. There's some scenes of how it used to be in the Master and Commander movie. When I was on a ship, the CO was not handsome and rugged like Russell Crowe. Plus everyone thought he was crazy. Eating in his Ward Room was a little sobering, but it was kind of cool to see how it works on a ship. It's not a big room at least not on a Destroyer. You come in during meal times and ask the highest ranking person at the table if you can "join the Mess." Once you sit, one of the sailors hands you a meal card which has today's menu printed on it and you circle what you want. Moments later they bring it to you. On the USS Barry I think all the sailors had to do two weeks working in the Ward Room serving the officers. The Ward Room at a shore command is really more like a club for all the officers to get together and drink beer and have a good time. Yesterday I was elected to the BOG (Board of Governors) as the Events Coordinator. This is just the sort of thing I am good at - coordinating, organizing, fundraising. I am already working on the Fall Festival this up-coming month. My latest stress is finding a venue. Being on the BOG should be pretty interesting. Being "involved" in clubs and activities is one of those things that I can do for about a year. I usually can keep up that activity level and motivation for a year, and then I have to take a year off. When I first got to the command two and a half years ago I was pretty involved, and then I took about a year off because I went on a ship, my dad died, I got reassigned to a new, more exciting job that I had to learn, I got engaged and pregnant, got married, had the baby. Now all that exciting stuff has come and gone. Time to get involved again. |
| Jack's doing much better now for all of you who were wondering. The doctor said it was probably just a bug. We stayed home yesterday since he was still eating funny, and he went back to day care today. No problems so I guess maybe it was just a bug. But I was ready to call shenanigans at the earliest possible moment! When we were staying home yesterday, we did quite a bit of playing while MTV Hits was on. It's just one of those extra channels that plays videos 24/7. I saw a crazy dumb video. It was called "Grillz" by Nelly. Here's the chorus: Smile for me boy. What you looking at? Let me see your grillz. Let me see my what? Your grillz. Ah, popular culture! And for those of you who don't know, a grill is like diamond braces or something. So here's this whole video with all these guys showing off their gold dentures and diamond braces. I couldn't believe it wasn't a spoof of something. It looked pretty dumb. There's a whole verse where this guy is sitting in a dentist's chair bragging about how he has silver and gold grillz. Hehehe...I just can't believe it! (pencilsoverpens  - I kinda thought of you and your braces.) I tried to find a link on YouTube but it was just a bunch of people doing spoofs of the actual video...some of which were pretty funny too. Anyway... I finished 1984 last night. Now that I have read it, I am a little paranoid that the government is lying to me. Are we torturing people in Gitmo? Eh, probably. Is it helping to foil plots by terrorists? Maybe. BUT listening to Pres Bush sound bites, I suddenly feel like I have no reason to believe him. I do not buy the line that there are plots being foiled constantly that the public doesn't know about. I think a truly foiled plot would be way obvious like what happened in London. Nor do I believe that there is no public Need-to-Know. Everyone needs to know how big the threat is...what the threat is. Telling us to be afraid and leaving it like that is like institutionalized terrorism. Now I can understand how we want to guard our methods of intelligence, but once a plot is foiled I don't understand why you would keep that classified forever and a day. I suppose I shouldn't be so upset. I mean, they haven't been torturing Americans. But how close are we to that? How far away were we from persecuting people in the era of McCarthyism? I wonder if there's anything I have done that could be construed as supporting terrorism. Probably not. Ok, ok...I need to relax. They haven't renamed NSA the Ministry of Love. Yet. Hehehe... I do see how Orwell's "War is Peace" political theory can be applied...at least in terms of prevention and preemptive measures. If we're at war with the terrorists, we are one step closer to defeating them and acheiving peace. Even if the war never ends. Sigh. And what does Hobbes say? Constant state of war = the life of man - solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. I wonder if that's what the soldiers in the Iraq think. Ok, ok...I'm really done. I have to read a less depressing book next.  No grillz! |
| I was so frustrated this morning when I got to work and not an hour into my day the daycare people call me. Conversation as follows: Daycare person (DP): Did you notice the rash on Jack's head? ME: Yeah DP: What is it? ME: Probably a bit of exzema. DP: Well, are you doing something about it? ME: Not really. The same thing was on his arm and it went away after a couple days. Doesn't seem to bother the baby at all. DP: It could be contagious. We would really like him to go to the doctor for it. ME: He has a doctor's appt next week. I can bring it up then. DP: We want him to go this week. ME: Alright, I'll make an appointment. DP: Also, did you notice that his neck is a little raw? [She asks me these things as if I never look at my baby.] ME: Yeah, he's teething and drooling a bit, that's why. DP: Are you putting anything on it? ME: Yeah, I try to keep it as dry as possible and put some lotion on it at least once a day. DP: Can you mention it to the doctor as well? [I'm incredulous! I can't stop the boy drooling!] ME: I suppose so. DP: We might be able to apply something to his neck as well. Besides, we don't want it to start bleeding. After this, we hang up. I sigh and make the doctor's appt. It seemed a bit overdramatic to me. Of course, I'm glad she is concerned about my baby and the other babies as well, but seriously... Not an hour later my husband gets a call saying Jack's throwing up again. (I was AFK that time.) I'm like WHAT?! It seems pretty ironic that on the 7th he was throwing up, and we take him home and he almost immediately gets better. No incident at all since then, and we really took him everywhere this last week. But as soon as we take him back to daycare, he is vomiting again. WTF?!?! It's so frustrating to have a perfectly fine baby when he's dropped off, and when he gets picked up he looks like death. At least I already made the doctor appt. So tomorrow we are going, and I made a long list of questions to ask him about what is causing this vomit and why would he only be doing it at daycare. Oh...and I guess while I'm there I'll mention that rash and the rawness at his neck. |
| It's been a crazy week. We've been all over the area and seen quite a few museums and memorials. It's one of those vacations that you need to recover from. Jack fared better than the rest of us, I think. But then he got to sleep in his stroller when he got tired. LOL Today the fam went home, and we were sad to see them go. It was such a fun time! (And of course, this means we have to go to work tomorrow.) The day was quiet. I went for a long run - 5.5 miles. Then watched football the rest of the day. Baltimore killed again. The Seahawks did well although not as well as they could have. Gosh, I love football season!! I leave with my favorite pictures of this last week's adventures: Invalid Photo #1005033 Invalid Photo #1005034 Invalid Photo #1005035 Invalid Photo #1005036 Invalid Photo #1005037 Invalid Photo #1005038 Invalid Photo #1005039 Invalid Photo #1005040 Invalid Photo #1005041 Invalid Photo #1005042 Invalid Photo #1005043 Invalid Photo #1005044 Invalid Photo #1005045 Invalid Photo #1005046 Invalid Photo #1005047 Invalid Photo #1005048 Invalid Photo #1005049 Invalid Photo #1005050 Invalid Photo #1005051 |
| Last night sirens woke me up at like 1230. Unlike car alarm this really gets my curiosity going, probably due to the college years working as a dispatcher. There have been a couple times when the police have come to break up a domestic disturbance, and a couple times when ambulances have come to take away sick folks. Last night it was a fire truck outside my window. Being half-awake it was kind of funny to feel my brain moving in slow motion. I see the fire truck..and go to the window. I see them unloading the hose...and I look to see which apartment building they are going into. I see some of the firemen coming up our stairs...and that's when I notice the fire alarm going off outside our apartment. I see our neighbors standing outside...and I go to the front door. I crack the door and smell smoke... At this point, at the point I actually smelled smoke, I had an instinct to just run out the door. BUT I stopped and got Chris and Jack who are obviously heavy sleepers. Fortunately, the fire was small and in one of the apartments in the back of the building. Still, it was a little frightening. Jack was fine with the whole thing. The sirens and lights and alarms seemed to entertain him more than anything. And then he went right back to bed when we were cleared to return to the apartment. Today we went to the National Zoo. There was some pretty interesting animal activity. It's different each time we go. Finally, the pandas proved to be worth the trip as they were actually moving around. We got to see the seals being fed and that was a fun time. Jack held up pretty well, but he was glad to get home and to kick around his play mat. |
| So Chris and I are taking leave this week. The in-laws are coming to town - his dad, step-mom, and little brother Jason. It should be fun. But they aren't coming until this evening, so this morning was nice and relaxing. Just us and Jack sitting around watching Naked Science which is one of our favorite science shows that gets Tivo'd. It's funny how this show tells us the many ways the human race can fall out of existence - the magnetic poles shifting, the sun dying, the universe expanding, the ocean losing salinity, the next ice age. Today it was the super volcano under Yellowstone could explode. All of these things means life as we know it ending. It's a good thing we know this so we can be prepared. Hehehe... I did a little Blanket Dancing with Jack. Today we went to Hawaii. I did the surfers, the hula dancers, the sea life, and (true to the theme) the volcanic eruptions. All to the beats of Justin Timberlake's latest "SexyBlack" which is not my favorite song by any means, but has the beat necessary for this kind of dancing. Jack loves it. I think he just loves me acting all silly. I just got back from a run. And this is where I come to the highlight of the morning. I know you all thought that early stuff was pretty cool but get this... I'm running. Only one on the trail. I see stuff moving up ahead. I don't have my glasses. I squint. Damn nearsightedness. I get closer. Closer. I speed up. Closer. It's two young bucks! One taller than me! Antlers and everything! They were so beautiful. I think my jaw dropped. I know the trails I take pictures of look like we live out in lovely back-country, but this is the suburbs. All these trails follow the creeks that weave in and out of subdivisions. I'm used to seeing squirrels, bunnies, maybe a raccoon. I'm an excellent birdwatcher (having taken to that hobby when I was really young), but I can't read animal tracks. Yes, occasionally we see deer, but it's from far away and it's usually a doe or two. So this was pretty much the closest I was ever to a deer. So I'm slowing down to get a good look, and these two guys just stop and look at me. They were right there next to the trail, not even concerned. Probably because they had antlers and I didn't. It was so cool! Gosh! What an awesome day! |
| The last few days have been hard on poor Jack. On Thursday I had to leave work half-way through the day to pick him up because he was "throwing up everywhere." And sure enough when I got there, he looked positively green. He was making this weak gagging noise as if he was trying to throw up, but had nothing left in his belly. Unable to get him to keep anything down, I rushed him to the doctor where they kept us a couple hours for observation. By that time he was able to drink an ounce or two at a time. It was weird. No fever. Just this uncontrollable vomiting. Oh yeah, and the poop. After "holding it" for two to three days at a time, this kid unloads no less than five times over Thurs and Fri. Go figure! The doctor of course said it was just a bug and usually baby's get through it all fine. And I'm sure he's right. Actually, after this first little sickness, I feel better. There was such a build-up to the first time your baby gets sick. When's it going to be and how bad will it be and will I be able to handle it and...if he's really sick will I get to the hospital in time. Now I feel more confident. The pressure's off in a way. Jack still isn't eating quite right. He used to pack in 5-6 oz every three hours. Now he's down to 4-5, and he fusses through most of the bottles. I think he might be teething, especially since he will only take his milk cold now. He drools everywhere, and is always chewing on his fingers. Maybe before too long he'll be showing us a one-tooth smile. |
| Anyone else hate cutting baby fingernails? I have to wait until Jack is falling asleep and do it really quickly. If I don't do it every other day, Jack will gouge himself. Then people ask me if my cats attack my baby. I'm like, "NO!! You think I would let my cats attack my baby?!?!" I have found that Neosporin gets rid of those mini scratches really quickly. |
| I was rather surprised by the response to chubs in my last entry. This was a word my husband thought up I think. I can't remember. The word has become so engrained into our vocabulary. For instance, I may have mentioned my car as a Chub Bug. That's because when I first got it Chris wanted to always play the Punch Bug game where you punch someone when you see a VW bug. Well, I didn't like the fact that my car incited violence, so we changed it to the Chub Bug game. There are Dragon Chubs. That's the same thing as a shoulder massage. Why do we call it that? I think shoulders are where dragon wings would be. Or maybe it's because Chris has a dragon tattoo on his shoulder blade. It's amazing how much explanation has to go into inside jokes. Like "fuzzypants." Fuzzypants are pajama bottoms that you wear around the house on Saturday mornings and stuff. Why call them that? It's not just because they are comfortable. It's because my cat Syler is aka Spaycekatt Fuzzypants, and if he were a human, he would only bother to wear pajama bottoms because he just lazes around the house all day. And sometimes I don't even remember the story behind something. Like "Blanket Dance." We invented a kind of dancing which is like charades to a beat. The challenge is to call out something like "reading a book" or "bear" or "rain" and you turn it into a dance. It works really great with techno music. But for the life of me I can't remember why we call it the Blanket Dance. And sometimes it just doesn't make sense. Like "totally zombie." Which actually means totally awesome. The logic being zombie movies are awesome movies. Zombie and awesome are interchangeable. Hehehe...yeah...welcome to my world! It's all just part of the weird universe we have created. We think it's kind of funny when no one knows what we're talking about sometimes. When the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" first came out, we were the only people among our friends and family that went and saw it. And I mean, we saw it like five times in the theater that summer. Since no one else was seeing it, we could talk in quotes of the movie and only we would get the joke. Of course, now everyone has seen the movie and knows all the jokes so it's not as much fun anymore. |
| This morning a car alarm woke me up. What could be more worthless? I used to have a car alarm, but when my car got broken into anyway (...in a crowded mall parking lot...in the middle of the day mind you), I decided it was pretty much worthless. I mean, what do you do when you hear those things...roll your eyes? I do. Other worthless things: Celebrity Magazines. Seriously...who cares? I might care if all that useless information was displayed in a edgy, witty blog entry. Courtroom Artists. Why not just take pictures? Why? WHY? Did the artist's union issue a mandate? Beanie Babies. Yep, people still buy them. I have one that says NSA on it. Maybe it has a tiny spy camera in it. Maybe Big Brother is watching me.  Some Power Point slides are completely worthless: ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** GAWD! Bored to tears just looking at it! Do you really understand anything from this? "Bits/Streams (Receptacles)" Ugh! (I stole it off the NSA website by the way.) That's right! Sticking it to the man!  A happier list must follow. I can't believe I talked about Power Point. Things I Find Absolutely Irresistable: ICE CREAM!! Oh the joy!  Thank god they don't serve ice cream in the cafeteria at work because I would weigh like 100 lbs more than I do now. No really! No will power whatsoever!Counting Crows. There's something about their sad slow music that almost makes me nostalgic. I guess that's the right word. It reminds me of when everything wasn't perfect. Do you ever miss a sadness like that? Not that you really miss being sad but more like you're happy that you had a chance to live through it and come out on top. That's what their music does for me. Paper. I have a ton of magazine subscriptions because I love to tear them to pieces. Cut out phrases and pictures and make them into collages...usually collages of inside jokes only I and a couple others really get. Paper is fun! Starting projects. I hardly ever finish them, but they're definitely fun to plan and start and delegate to the next guy. Chubs. Ya know what a chub is? Well, there's a nice happy notch at your waist between your bottom rib and your hip. If you had your arm around someone's waist, your hand would rest there. If you just squeeze a couple time, that's a chub. They're a joy to give and receive! Yea! Talk about ending on a high note. *CHUBS* |
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| Ernesto came to visit us this weekend. He had been hanging out in the Carribbean, so by the time he got up here he was no longer a Storm, but a Depression. Must have been a hangover from all those fruity Carribbean cocktails. He pretty much dumped a bunch of rain on us and shook the trees up a bit. We lost cable and internet for 12 hrs or so, and the lights flickered a little. That's about it. Yesterday, we commemorated the storm by taking a Rain Walk down our usual trail. This is actually a spiritual experience for Chris and me. There's something quite powerful about accepting the fact that we are small, we can't control everything, and we will get wet. The muddy jeans and soaked sweaters are a tribute to this freeing attitude towards nature. Jack liked it because it was new and different. By this time the winds had blown over, but it was still raining steady. Branches and leaves littered the trail, and the trees were dropping, heavy with rain. Immediately, I felt like it was a scene of destruction. Limbs ripped off, trees sad and sore from a night of being thrashed about. Chris put a positive spin on it though. He said it was just left-over debris from the forest's end-of-summer party. And the trees are drooping because they are tired from dancing all night. Hehehe...must have been the fruity Carribbean rain cocktails. That's the way we do it here. We see the positive. It seems like everyone I've been talking to lately has been in the dumps for one reason or another. I'm not sure if it's a end-of-summer thing or some arch-nemesis spraying them with gloomy mist. I listen, but I honestly don't know what to tell these people. I feel like I don't have time to be sad. I have been reenforcing my aura with a bad-vibe-shield (+20 strength). I just hope it holds up. There was a minor blue spell earlier this week. My boss and I were doing my mid-term counseling, and I was lamenting that I feel encapable of finishing long-term projects. It's not that I'm pessimistic and think they can't be done. I just lack the patience or the interest to stick it out to the end. She said it was just because I was young, but for a moment I was afraid I was facing an insurmountable character flaw. Then I remembered that nothing's insurmountable. Speaking of which, I ran 4 miles today! YEA!! *happy dance* *techno boogie* *wookie hops* *Xena warcry* Sup! And to think I thought it would take until December to get up to 5 miles. At this rate I'll be doing that by the end of September. And now that 5 miles is comfortably within reach, I'm looking at 6 miles as a new December goal. Booyah! All those warnings that I may not get back into shape or lose weight after the baby are proving completely and utterly false. I don't know who those women are or what they're obstacles are, but I don't seem to be having any issues. |
| I have a new plan of attack against the terrorists... BEARS!!! Apparently, bears have a sense of smell 7X greater than a Bloodhound, and the strength of five humans. Why have we not harnessed and exploited this unbelievable natural asset (like we do all others)?!?! Their sense of smell is a lot like SIGINT (signals intelligence). Imagine, prey (terrorist) standing in the forest holding a wireless phone. Phone is emanating signals from its antenna. Prey is emanating scent from itself. Signals can be tracked. Scent can be tracked. The thing is only a bear can go up and maul someone's head off. Polar bears have been known to torpedo into seal hovels too. So it's not like underground bunkers would really be a problem either. Black bears are small and stealth in case you need some ninja action. Put a whole army of bears together and we would have had this whole jihadi thing solved a long time ago. Just a suggestion... Speaking of SIGINT, you're probably wondering what the IC (Intelligence Community) has been doing since the 9/11 Commission released their report. The answer is blogging! No really! I happened to find my own Top Secret Bloggereality on the High Side Spynet all for the purpose of sharing info and aiding collaboration between agencies. I'm considering starting my own blog on what my office does. Work has finally slowed down. After a month of being back at work, I have gotten to the end of my to-do list. Today I started making a new one for after the long weekend. Jack and I are into a good morning/afternoon routine for daycare drop off and pick up. Ah...nice long weekend! Four days with my schatzi and our little tiger pup! Nowhere to go and nothing to do...but wait for the tropical storm to come and go. |
| The latest excitement: 1. Fascist Automobile Alert. Another Chub Bug of the same make and model as mine has moved into the apartment complex. It doesn't have a turbo engine, though, so it's obviously a poser. We call it the Nazimobile. After all, Hitler did help design the VW Beetle. Luckily, my Chub Bug is a true believer, and therefore has been saved from this original sin. 2. The Orange Trail. Another first for Jack. Saturday morning was the first time he went for a hike with us without a park map and we ended up wondering a trail, following "orange tree" for nearly two and a half hours. This has happened to us before...quite a few times before. Luckily, I came prepared with extra milk and trail snacks. Jack took to trailblazing quite nicely. He enjoyed talking to the trees and listening to the wonderfully operatic cicadas. Invalid Photo #1004763 Invalid Photo #1004764 Invalid Photo #1004765 Invalid Photo #1004766 3. No Water. So first our apartment complex decided to change out everyone's toilets and shower heads. That was last week. While the new appliances are great, it shot our water pressure to hell. Somehow they recalibrated the water pressure wrong and it burst one of the pipes in our building. I didn't even know that could happen in the summer time. But sure enough, no water. Of course, I didn't know this had happened until I went for a three mile run, came home, jumped in the shower, and turned the spigot on. Nothing! Hehehe... Thankfully, they got it fixed a couple hours ago so I didn't have to blog all sticky. Invalid Photo #1004761 Invalid Photo #1004762 4. Prune Juice. Jack still doesn't poop very regularly, so we've started giving him prune juice if he hasn't had a good BM in more than two days. Works like magic!! So in case anyone is looking for a solution to baby constipation, that works for us. Yeah, yeah, that one was kind of gross. Sorry. 5. Texas Hold'em. Our latest thrill - winning a $500,000 pot of fake money in Texas Hold'em on the XBox 360 Arcade. I have never really played poker before, so finding out I can actually win a few hands by being lucky and betting smart was pretty cool. Actually, on Sunday there was a really interesting crash on the highway that I wish I had pictures of but I don't. A watermelon truck had tipped on its side and spilled watermelons across the road. And because this happened on a bridge, the road below got watermelons all over it too. We saw this on the way to our Sunday morning grocery store visit. |
Today I was mired in Navy Admin Death.  So the Navy has to have everyone evaluated once a year, and half (14) of my sailors are up for evals right now. *groan* Just to put this in perspective, it usually takes me at least an hour to do my eval, so pretty much this took up some of yesterday and ALL of today. If it was just writing, that wouldn't be so bad. Obviously, I like doing that since I'm here on this site. However, it has to be written a certain way with really corny sounding buzzwords and lots of stats on how much of an impact you made. FOR EXAMPLE: Excellent Instructor. Developed and executed training plan, resulting in greater target knowledge base and a 80% increase in effeciency. And when all else fails add "Promote now!!" at the end. CAN YOU DO THIS WITH ANYTHING?? Sure you can!! My husband and I love to come up with eval spoofs. FOR EXAMPLE:  Realistic scarecrow. Bamboozled 50 Chinese hackers resulting in greater network security.Reliable worker. Already performing the jobs assigned ahead of schedule. Has successfully maintained 80% work attendance record.Deadly assassin. Executed 100 terroist resulting in 20% increase in American values.Enthusiastic guinea pig. Volunteered for dangerous assignment as human test subject where he tested and survived over 100 drug injections, providing increased knowledge of the limitations of modern medicine.Sadly, the real thing isn't this fun. It's a lot of editting messy grammar and believe it or not some math. Because in addition to the write-up you have to rate them in 7 performance "traits." Before you do that you kind of have then stacked up the way you want in your head, and based on that, then you have to figure out what their trait average should be. And based on that, the write up should reflect what your rating is. *sigh* It was hard for me to do that with 14. I can only imagine doing all 200-something First Class Petty Officers we have at the command. G'DANG! Whoever is unfortunate enough to have that job will probably be feeling the four stages of Admin Death just like me...only 100 times worse. Stage One: Euphoria You feel compelled to actually give people the scores they deserve. You eagerly attack the pile of evals. In mild cases this may last for all of an hour, but eventually this fades. Stage Two: Depression You realize that no one piece of paper can possibly capture the depth of anyone's personality. This cynicism is multiplied by the idea that anyone up the chain of command will probably rewrite what you have rewritten. You resort to making blind judgment calls based on what color eyes they have. Stage Three: Headache Headache can be accompanied by writer's cramp and a stiffened neck due to the long hours spent in one position, scratching and scribbling notes. If you are interrupted by other minor tasks during the Admin Death crawl, headache may escalate to migraine proportions. Stage Four: Schizophrenia This alternated between a catatonic state of shock from the sheer volume of your task and delusions of your Thesaurus eating you alive. I just barely made it out alive. |
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But I am happy about those Cardinals! The same Cardinals that I'd written off as possibly the worst playoff contestant in history just three weeks ago. Now look at 'em! I'll be pulling for them in the Big Game!