It's Friday night and my husband and his friends are having a get together. Are they going to the club to party, I hear you ask?  Partying all night, drinking themelves into a stupor?  Playing poker, perhaps?  Watching movies? None of the above.  Thay're having a milk drinking challenge. Some bright spark decided that they should (a la 'Jackass') see who can not only drink a gallon of milk in the shortest time but who can keep said milk down for the longest.  Th...

Shh....what I'm about to tell you you cannot tell anyone else.  I'm afraid that if I tell too many people I'll jinx myself and it won't come true/be true. The morons next door are moving off base.  Next week.  I heard it from my friend down the street, and my kids also heard the same thing from the moron's kids.   My friend down the street is a no-bullshit kind of gal, so I tend to believe her....and the moron's kids are famously big-mouthed when it comes to secrets,...

Dave got 'Knighted' last weekend. Thule AB has a tradition of awarding those who have served their time in the Arctic circle with a certificate that bestows them with the title of 'Knight of the Order of The Blue Nose'.  It basically honors them for surviving sub zero temperatures, white-out blizzard conditions, perma-frost, constant daylight or constant darkness, arctic foxes, glaciers...you get the idea. Here is Sir Dave being awarded his certificate by the base commander: ...

My husband is coming home in 30 days. I'm really kind of scared.  See, we've lived apart for a year (all except for 3 months in January when he came home on leave).  Living together again is going to take some getting used to. I've done things my way.  It's been just me and the kids.  He's done his thing...it's been just him and 'the guys'.  Trying to get the two to blend together...that's going to be difficult. I'm speaking from experience here.  He's ...

My children and I have been spending quite a bit of time at the pool recently. My 11 year old daughter, who is...ahem...quite developed for her age, shall we say, has been getting a lot of attention.  Not from kids her own age. Not even from kids who are 1 or 2 years older than her. From 18+ year olds. She's pretty good about standing up for herself, and most of the time will handle herself and the situation alone. There have been occasions, and these occasions are becomi...

As of tomorrow, I have 5 weeks until I get to see my honey again. This may seem like a lot to some people, but to us, this is the home stretch.  After an 'annus horriblis', there is finally light at the end if the tunnel and it's getting brighter every day.  Oddly enough, the closer we get to being reunited the more we miss each other, the harder we feel those pangs of separation. 35 more days of fallling asleep and waking up alone, and then I'll be able to fall asleep to the...

...a manicure and some slightly expensive yarn to knit a poncho with.  Yes, a poncho.  More about that to follow.... I got a manicure this morning.  On the spur of the moment I decided I wanted pretty nails, so I went and got them done.  I feel very.....decadent, considering all the bitching I've done in the past about not really being able to afford them and those on welfare having nails that are 6 inches long.  But hey, Dave's been encouraging me to go do something ...

as most of you know, i live on an air force base. we have planes on air force bases.  big ones.  with big engines. here where i'm at, we have B-1 bombers.  huge things.  very loud. for some reason, tonight is the night that the people on mid-shift have chosen to fire up those engines for 30 - 45 seconds, let them die down again for 5 mins, then fire them up again. no amount of double glazing, ai rconditioning, or background noise is going to shut out the sound of ...

I knitted a beenie for Phoenixboi a couple of weeks ago.  It's the first thing I made for someone (an adult, anyway) outside of my family, and I was really quite nervous about it.  I didn't drop any stitches, but felt that my finishing skills could have been a little better.... ...but anyway, I mailed it off last Monday, and have been nervously waiting for him to let me know he got it ever since then. He emailed me today, and he got it!  And it fits!  And he says h...

I've recognized within myself the capcity to hate recently. It's been quite a revelation.  I'm still exploring these emotions that I've been feeling, but I'm pretty sure they're hatred. Let me explain: a couple of years ago, my friend purchased a pit bull puppy from an Airman.  The puppy had had it's ears clipped, to make them stand up (a procedure I disagree with, but that's neither here nor there).  By the Airman (who shall be referred to as asshole from here-on out).&nbs...

I'm readin a book called 'Leaning Into The Wind'...it's a series of essays and poems by women about their life as farmers, ranchers, and homsteaders on the high plains.  This essay is by Louise Steneck, and it;s called 'The Handmaiden'.  I found it quite powerful.....I think that you might too. 'This is how I helped him die. He was a tiny piglet, no larger than my hand, born with a gaping hole in his skull.  His few alloted hours of life would be hours of suffering.  I ...

I have lower back problems.  I herniated the disc between L1 and L2 and I have arthritis in L2.  It's painful, and it makes walking or standing painful.  Heeled shoes don't do me any favors either. I had heard from a yoga teacher that Kalso Earth Shoes might help.  They have this 'negative heel' deal in them, which throws your spine into the proper alignment. I asked my doc about it, and he said the theory had some merit to it, so I went off in search of some Earth sh...

I know I blogged about this already, but I promised I'd write about it when it became official. For those of you who don't know, my husband Lonesome Traveler and our fellow blogger Imajinit tested for the rank of Technical Sergeant (E-6) back in April this year.  TSgt is reputed to be one of the harder ranks to make....and they both found out this week that they made the grade and are now officially TSgt selectees.  Out of all the Staff Sergeants that tested Air Force wide, only 21%...

I have a secret. I'm going to get chastised for saying that I have a secret, but I'm just busting to tell someone. Imajinit knows what the secret is, and he's got a secret of his own. I'll be able to tell what the secret is tomorrow, perhaps Thursday......but until then I'll tell you that this secret has left me with a huge grin on my face...and Lonesome has an even bigger grin on his face. Greywar and Pseudosoldier will probably be able to guess what this secret is. Can anyone el...

My kids got some of that Shrek 'Crazy Hair' candy today.  Shea got the 'sour green tamarind' flavor. I tried it.  It's gross.  If you've ever eaten Bertie Botts every flavor jelly beans, imagine chewing a vomit and booger flavor one at the same time and then you have an idea of what this stuff tastes like. It was so gross it made me gag and I had to spit it out and then rinse my mouth out.  Yukky.  Very yukky. I'm going to go eat some chocolate now to see i...