Hooker pr0n

07/16/2008 - U.S. Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) assigned to Special Boat Teams 12 and 20 rig their rigid-hull inflatable boat to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter assigned to the 159th Aviation Regiment during a maritime external air transportation system (MEATS) training exercise in the Virginia Capes near Fort Eustis, Va., July 16, 2008. MEATS trains members of SWCC on extending their operational reach by attaching special operations crafts to helicopters for transport to remote locations for further training. DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Robyn Gerstenslager, U.S. Navy. (Released)

Good thing I'm not armed

Man Shoots Lawnmower That Won't Start


I can sympathize...




Pau.




- hfs

The many sides of Army 1st Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom were presented for him when he could no longer do so himself. The man who was a scholar, athlete, father, joker — and, lastly, faithful fellow soldier — was celebrated more so than mourned at his funeral yesterday.
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More than 400 people attended services for the 'Aiea man, who was killed July 13 in Afghanistan along with eight other soldiers in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years.

Brostrom's American flag-draped casket was flanked by large bouquets of flowers at Holy Family Parish next to the airport, and a large framed photo of the smiling soldier draped with lei was placed in front of it. Photo by Richard Ambo of the Honolulu Advertiser.

Home sweet home...not.

Many of you will recall our run-ins with Deployment Gremlins while MacGyver was in Iraq. I was under the impression that, once he came home, they would leave.


I was wrong. I should have hired an Exorcist to kick them to the curb.


While I was gone, I got a phone call from one of my friends that was watching the house for me. "Um, how old is your refrigerator?" she asks. That's never a good way to start a conversation.


Said refrigerator is only 1.5 years old.


Said refrigerator is dead. Said refrigerator died about a week before my friend popped into the house. A week is a long, LONG time in Hawaii to leave perishable food without refrigeration.


The mold had mold.


ICK. (anyone know if renters' insurance covers something like this? I'll be on the phone with our insurance company in the AM to find out)


And, of course, Maytag's warranty is only 1 year and I didn't buy the extended warranty. Who would have thought that a BRAND NEW fridge would go T.U. at THE most inopportune time?


Not me - that's why I didn't buy the extended warranty. Maytag will be hearing from me. Loudly. In the meantime, I went out first thing today and bought a new fridge - one that ISN'T Maytag, one that hopefully will not die on me, and one to which I added an extended warranty.


And, in normal fashion (for us), the car and the computer ganged up on me. I forgot to disconnect the car battery while we were gone so, when I went out to start her up this morning (and pull her out of the garage in order to make room for the icky, smelly refrigerator) she gave me nothing. *sigh* 0 for 2.


Wanna know something interesting about my car? When you hook her up to the charger/jumper and turn it on, the damn horn blares. Lovely. The battery is sufficiently dead so she's now sitting on a long, slow charge until tomorrow morning.


She better start.


And then the computer. Why is it that the 3 things that fall under MacGyver's expertise die when HE is gone? Thankfully he's just in Alabama and not Iraq and therefore I was able to place a "tech support" call to him. One hour later I have new drivers installed and a phone call placed to our ISP because our modem isn't putting out like it should. Heh. The Customer Service Rep didn't catch the humor in that statement.


So, while it was glorious to sleep in my own bed last night, it was short-lived. Little Man was up with the sun (even though he didn't go to bed until 1am last night). Hopefully tonight (and tomorrow) are better.


It is truly good to be home. It will be even better once I get these damn gremlins out of my house.




Pau.




- hfs


p.s. if you've sent me email or called in the past 48 hours or so, please be patient. I'm working my way through my "To Do" list and I promise, you're on it.

Home

And I wanna go home, let me go home
And I'm surrounded by a million people I still feel alone
Let me go home, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I've had my run and baby I'm done
I gotta go home
Let me go home

It will all be alright
I'll be home tonight
I'm coming back home




Pau.




- hfs

What are you doing with YOUR life?

Airman Deploys After Losing Son in Iraq

Increasingly he felt conspicuous because he had not deployed, while others had already been more than once. He felt the time had come for him to step up and fulfill his duty, promises to his wife or not.

"It just felt wrong to be the one guy who hadn't deployed even once," he said. "I could have always waited until they exhausted all the other people and called me up. But I wasn't going to wait until all that happened. These are my friends and my co-workers."

Martinez is one of the unit's most respected and well-liked troops, and not because of his son's death in uniform, said Senior Master Sgt. Herlinda Carreon. A lot of it has to do with his willingness to step up, she said.


Soldiers Climb Mount McKinley


"I had 100-percent confidence that Capt. McNulty was going to teach me what I needed to know," Ward said. "We were going in there as a team, and if he was going to slide off a ridge, I was going to try and stop us, or I was just going off with him."

Word got around the national climbing community, and the duo quickly picked up sponsorships for additional equipment. Their title sponsor, Mystery Ranch, specializes in making custom packs for the U.S. special operations community and wanted the Soldiers to test their equipment in the toughest conditions on the continent, said Mark Seacat, a company field representative. According to
McNulty, Seacat also provided invaluable mentorship to the team.

...

The two said they ensconced several unit coins at the peak as they had promised, and the national and battalion colors were flown in honor of the country and the units who had trusted them to come back triumphant and ready to deploy.

"This is a motivator to Soldiers not to sit around, but to take Alaska in to its fullest," McNulty said. "There is so much this state has to offer. Go to MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) and rent equipment if you have to in order to enjoy the state."



Me? I took two kids to the library and the park and managed not to kill either one of them. And you?




Pau.




- hfs

A little bit of Rage

to get your week started.


It has to start somewhere It has to start sometime
What better place than here, what better time than now?



That's just kind of how the weekend went, you know?




Pau.




- hfs

National Lampoon's southeastern vacation - The Downhill Slide

We're on the downhill slide to home. I've not yet reached the point where I close my eyes, rub my temples, and say, "I'm SO ready to go home".


I am ready to go home, just not yet. We still have so much left to do and many friends and family members we want to spend time with. But the allure of home is strong. It's been 4+ weeks since we left home and there's nothing quite like your own bed and your own space.


But I'm resisting the urge to count the days. I don't want to miss out on enjoying the days we have left just because I miss my bed. I've been pondering the motivation behind this trip a lot lately and I've come to the conclusion that guilt was a large part of the motivation. And I think it's that way for many military families.


We live thousands of miles away from immediate family. In addition, there is a rather large body of water separating us from family and friends which makes it even more difficult to visit. My parents live on the eastern side of the United States. My dad is 80 and my Grama is 95. It's hard being so far away. I feel guilty that my kids have not had much of a chance to get to know them which is a big reason we embarked on this trip.


Once the decision was made to take the trip, the guilt of not having seen other family members and friends in the area crept in and quickly ate up the time we planned to spend in the area. It will be the same thing when we head back to the West Coast in a few days. I feel bad that the only time we ever see most of our friends and family is during holidays. I'm sure that, had MacGyver not enlisted and had we lived in the same area rather than moving every 2-3 years, the guilt would not be there or at least would not be as strong. *sigh*


So here we are. Four weeks and 2,600+ miles into our trip. It's been fun. And we still have a while to go before we say our final goodbyes (have I mentioned that I suck at goodbyes?) and lots to do between now and then. Which is good.



In other news, I seem to have had a small job land in my lap. I'll divulge more details once things are finalized and the work starts. It's nothing big but it's a few extra bucks in my pocket - more money to set aside for my Chai addiction or my trip to the MilBlogging Conference in September. Works for me!


I have my application in to start subbing in our local school district once the school year starts in the fall. It's a lot of different hoops to jump through but the pay is good and the logistics (with regard to the kids' school schedules) work well. I'll be subbing at the middle school to start (I know.) and then maybe adding the high school into the mix, depending on how busy the middle school keeps me.


Little Man seems to be mostly over his latest bout with strep. We'll be talking to his PCM about getting his tonsils yanked as soon as we get back. Poor kid. He's lost 4 pounds with this latest go-round as well, which he doesn't have to lose (he's consistently in the 20th percentile for weight - he's a string bean).


Always lots of fun around here!




Pau.




- hfs

National Lampoon's southeastern vacation - Part V: The Curse.

Well, it's smacked us twice, so far. Princess Trouble managed to catch some kind of virus that gave her a bit of a fever and a wicked cough. Now it seems it's Little Man's turn. And, since all of his illnesses involve strep, that's what he has.


This would be the FOURTH time since the beginning of the year for him. Ick.


So we took him into the ER this evening. The triage nurse screened him and his temp was 102* (the Motrin he had had at 1pm was just beginning to wear off) and when they took his temp again once they got him back to his room, it was 105.6*!!! The nurse and I both about fell over. They pumped him full of Motrin and Tylenol, swabbed his throat (a formality - his tonsils were textbook strep), and wrote a script for Zithromax.


One problem - there isn't a single pharmacy in the area open past 10pm. We didn't get out of the ER until 10:10pm. So the antibiotics will have to wait until tomorrow. Tricare spoils me - when we have to go to the ACC on post, they give us the meds right then and there. No pharmacy necessary.


Needless to say, we'll be making an appointment with his PCM once we get back home to see about getting his tonsils yanked. Funfunfun. Poor Little Man! Thankfully the service and wait time at the local hospital were good.


Always an adventure!




Pau.




- hfs

Aloha Kitty Hawk

Sailors line the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk, which arrived at Pearl Harbor's Hotel Pier yesterday. The aircraft carrier will participate in the Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, 10-nation naval exercise.




Pau.




- hfs