We recieved a letter the other day telling us that we are within 90 days of being moved to another house.  I called the housing office for clarification, and was told that we may not get a brand new house after all, that we may end up in the existing homes on the other side of the base.  I asked if we could be moved into an existing home earlier - mum is going to be here in April and I would prefer to be settled into our new home by then - and the answer was 'yes, of course!'.  Th...

I finished knitting JustJohn's baby beanies today.  I had a couple already made but I decided that I didn't like them, so I made three new ones in the space of 12 hours.  They are tiny.  Incredibly small.  I had some good sized apples in the fruit basket on the kitchen table, and I tried a beanie on a Golden Delicious for size - and it fit.  I wish I had the battery power to take a photo, but the kids have (as usual) run down the batteries in the camera and have used...

My mum rang this afternoon to let me know that she was booking her flights to come visit us tomorrow morning.  She's leaving Heathrow on April 18th (or 25th, depending on how booked the flights are) and will fly into Chicago, where she'll have a 4 hour layover before she gets a connecting flight to St Louis.  She'll be with us for three weeks, and I wish I could begin to tell you just how excited I am that she's booking her flights and will be with us for that long.  It's goin...

I bought a journal with some of the money I got for Christmas.  A red one, hand bound in Italian leather.  It's beautiful.  So is the fountain pen I bought to write in it with.  I figured that a journal like that shouldn't be written in with a plain old Bic ballpoint; it deserved something much better than that.  So, I went and bought an old-fashioned fountain pen and I just love the way it feels in my hand and the way my writing looks when I use it. I'm trying to wri...

It's a Sony kind of Christmas chez Dharma.  We were up at 5am; Dave and I woke the kids up because we couldn't stand the suspense anymore. Each of the kids got a PSP - and I got one too - and they got a new PS2 to share.  We've had the PSP's since the end of September and have been dying to give them to the kids ever since.  Davey and Jake were saying that they'd be up at 3am to open presents, but I put the kibosh on that and gave them a 4am start time.  They sl...

I was going to title this 'When eyebrows go bad' but decided that as it's content isn't limited to eyebrows I'd better call it something else. I am going to start with eyebrows, though.  There are 2 ladies on this base who have probably the worst eyebrows I have ever seen.  They're not natural brows, in fact, that's the entire problem: they're so UN-natural looking that they're scary.  One pair belong to a black chick who appears to have shaved off her natural brows - or has ha...

My hair grew!  See: I wish!  The long ponytail isn't mine, it's a phony pony that I bought from the beauty supply store.  I have enough of my own hair to tie back into a wee little single ponytail, but it just wasn't quite the look I wanted to go to last night's squadron Christmas party with.  So, I got the phony pony, clipped it right about my wee little ponytail, and off we went!  Nobody could tell that it wasn't my own hair; a few people even said how na...

Until Sunday, I had 2 methods of making coffee in my home: instant and a carafe-less pot.  I'd been using the instant because my pot had developed a leak, but I was yearning for the taste of real brewed coffee.  Whilst browsing the BX on Sunday I came across a French press for a very reasonable amount.  For the folks who don't know what I'm talking about, a French press looks like this: You put the cround coffee in the bottom of the jug then fill it with not-quite-boi...

I think that has to be one of my favorite 'Wings' songs, with 'Mull Of Kyntire' coming a close second.  I like Paul Mcartney and I LOVED his wife Linda.  She was so...gentle.  I got from her that peaceful, serene feeling that I've talked about in the near past.  I'm said that Heather Mills has turned on him, but I have to say that I did see it coming.  She's made a living off of losing her leg - if it weren't for that, she'd have been a nobody along with the rest of us.&...

Once again, the rain has started to fall and my mood has turned to grey. I don't want to go out, I don't want to talk to anyone, I don't want to shower or clean or even get out of bed.  I don't want to do much of anything - even knitting has lost some of it's appeal.  I haven't returned anyone's emails in ages, I just haven't felt like it.  I haven't called anyone, and I've avoided answering the phone.  I've hidden in the house when people have rung the doorbell and I'...

I know that you're probably saying 'yes, Dharma, we know there was an ice storm and everything is covered in ice' but indulge me a little here.  I've never experienced an ice storm before.  Snow, yes.  Blizzards, yes.  Being snowed in the house and having to dig my way out, yes.  Ice storm, no. So, here are some more photos of everything ice-covered - and I have to tell you that getting them this afternoon was really creepy.  All the trees were creaking, you see....

When I said there was ice everywhere, this is what I meant: In the less than 3 minutes it took me to get these shots, my face was numb with the cold.  Yeah, I'm not going anywhere today....

Having lived in South Dakota for 9 years, I'm used to snow.  So when people started running around like headless chickens yesterday at the prospect of a winter storm, I chuckled to myself and went about my business feeling somewhat superior. The winter storm rolled in alright, but we didn't get snow.  We got ice. About 1/2 an inch of ice.  Covering EVERYTHING. The tree in my front yard couldn't handle the weight of the ice and dropped a bough across the street.  Ther...

I've had a sick kid at home for the past 2 days.  Jake started coughing Saturday and kept us all awake Sunday and last night with his hacking.  He's on a prescription cough medicine that's got codeine in it to supress his cough reflex, but it aint workin'.  Tonight I'm giving him (under medical advice, now - don't be thinking that I'm drugging my child up all willy nilly) some diphenhydramine (that's Benadryl, in case you were wondering) so he - and WE - can get some sleep.&n...