Deployment Update

NavyGuy's deployment has been delayed until May-ish.

Rumors started on Saturday, but we got confirmation today.

On the one hand...
- he won't leave for almost two more months
- he'll be around for his and my birthday
- we'll probably get to bring Tally home from the trainer together

On the other...
- everyone was physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared for the separation, and now, we'll have to go through the process all over again
- backing up the leave date means backing up the return date... so now we're bumping into Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas

Bottom line, there's nothing to be done about it - it's not like the Pentagon called for my opinion.

Ah, the needs of the Navy...

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Cheers and Jeers

Cheers... to possibly having our wedding featured in a Madison magazine!!! I don't know all the details yet, but our wedding photographer asked if he could pass our name along to Brava Magazine, and now I'm working on filling out a questionnaire from one of their writers. I've been running around the house for the past two days yelling, "I'M GONNA BE ON THE COVER OF A MAGAZINE!" and NavyGuy's been shaking his head and reminding me that a) the writer said nothing about the cover, and b) it's an article about us, not just the bride. We'll see about that...

Jeers... to having to work on Saturday instead of being able to visit Tally pup. I'm sending NavyGuy down without me, but with our camera (we're still negotiating the video camera, as he's terrified of being that parent), because even if I can't see her, I need reassurance that she's okay. And happy. And at the top of her class. And making friends. And brushing her teeth. (I'll be sending a checklist with him.)

Cheers... to payday today. Thank god.

Jeers... to NavyGuy's squadron. They deploy very soon, and yet they're being completely ridiculous in scheduling the guys, and leaving them absolutely no time to get any pre-deployment stuff done, or even, I don't know - see their families AT ALL. NavyGuy was one watch twice this week (which means 7am - 10pm at the squadron, no leaving), had two days of night flights, and there's no sign it'll be letting up. Way to go squadron - good job building morale before a deployment, and taking care of your own. Total bulls#$%.

Cheers... to getting my craft mojo back. It had flittered away for a bit, but with the arrival of the latest Creating Keepsakes magazine, and an invite to scrap next week with some of the Navy wives, I'm feeling artsy-fartsy-mojo-licious.

And all of you...?

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De - wait for it- nial

NavyGuy deploys soon. Real soon. I can't give specifics about dates due to security issues (see a great introduction to Operational Security here), but it's within spitting distance.

And I'm waaaaaaaaaaay in denial. Like, "it ain't just a river in Egypt" kind of denial. Yes, I can look at a calendar and I can understand that D-Day (Deployment Day) is coming, but I'm in a weird sort of casual-oh-it'll-be-fine-its-no-big-whoop-worrying-about-getting-the-garbage-taken-out-instead-of-the-fact-that-my-husband-will-be-gone-for-six-months kind of place. I don't know if this is my coping mechanism for the moment, and when it truly sets in that he's leaving soon, I'll have a total melt-down or what. But I'm definitely not feeling what I expected.

We still have a not teeny-tiny list of things to do, and yet, I'm sitting watching Gilmore Girls reruns. And thinking of going to bed early.

It sure is nice vacationing in Denial - wish you were here!

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Reader Question, Answered

Keep your questions coming here!

BeeHive asked:

Do you ever miss Pensacola?

Great question! The answer is yes, and no. There are tons of things I definitely don't miss, including (but not limited to), sweet tea, Southern accents, the oppressive heat and humidity, bugs, fear of hurricanes, and more sweet tea.

Yet, I've realized there are several things that I do miss about Pensacola:

1) That it was a big city. Pensacola had tons of restaurants, stores, bars, and other important city components. Even though the geography of the city could make traveling from one part to another a bit of a challenge, it was still all there. And Anacortes just can't compete there.

2) That it had a fairly substantial sized airport. Traveling home (or anywhere) was vastly simpler when we lived in Pensacola. Drive twenty minutes to the airport, and hop a flight. Now, it's a two hour drive to the aiport in Seattle. Additionally, the Pensacola airport had lots of flights to Wisconsin, which was great for us.

3) That it was relatively closer to home than where we are now. Traveling from Wisconsin to Northern Florida is totally do-able. NavyGuy and I drove it in two days. Flights were a simple jump to Atlanta, then a short connecting flight to Milwaukee. Pensacola is also in the Central Time Zone, so it was easy to keep in touch with friends and family back home - no irritating math to try and figure out if I'm going to wake someone up or interrupt someone's workday. Northwest Washington to the Midwest is a different ball of wax - basically, you have to allot an entire day just for the trip, which cramps my jet-setting style.

4) That it had beaches. Lots of beaches. If you're going to get technical, Washington has beaches. But if I have to wear a wet suit and winter coat to go swimming, it ain't really a beach.

5) That Pensacola meant I could see lots of NavyGuy. Let me explain. When NavyGuy and I were in Pensacola together, he was still in flight school, so he'd go several days without having to do much of anything. Maybe show up for muster at 8am and then back home for the rest of the day. One or two flights a week. So, I got used to having him around. And I'll always associate Pensacola with us. It's where we started our Navy journey, and despite all the struggles, sweat (literally), and sweet tea - I'll always miss Pensacola just a little bit.

Where have you previously lived that you can now look back on fondly?

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A Pox on Your Arm

Thursday night, our conversation before bed...

NavyGuy: I got my smallpox vaccine today.

NavyWife: Oh yeah, in which arm?

NG: My left - see right here (pointing).

NW: (Reaching to touch it) Does it hurt?

NG: No! Don't touch it.

NW: Jeez big baby, I wasn't going to jab my fingernail into it.

NG: No, it's that there's live virus on it.

NW: Huh?

NG: They stick a needle with live cow pox virus into your arm several times, and that's how the vaccination works. It's like any other vaccine, you know, so there's a little bit of the virus on my arm. Hence the bandaid.

NW: WHAT! Agh! Pox on my hand! Pox on my hand!

NG: Oh dear God.

NW: So wait, does that mean you're gonna have small pox on your arm?

NG: Well, a scar from it.

NW: OH MY GOD! I'm gonna get the pox!!! You let me touch your pox arm! You're like a human smallpox blanket! Shouldn't you be quarantined?!? My GOD!

NG: This is why I don't tell you things.

I'll spare you the rest of the conversation, but it went on with me making irrational claims and predictions for some time. (For instance, I may have suggested that all NavyGuy needed was a vaccine against dysentery and he'd be set to travel the Oregon Trail for life!)

But now, three days later, his small pox arm doesn't look right. There's no pox scar. And there should be. So now I'm a little worried that the U.S. government is testing some crazy drugs on naive junior lieutenants in the Navy. I shared my theory with NavyGuy, that perhaps much like how the U.S. Public Health System tested syphilis on unsuspecting African-Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama, now the government is using the guise of smallpox vaccinations to test god-knows-what on Navy officers who just get told, "show up here, at this time, for a medical thing."

Now NavyGuy says I'm not allowed to answer the phone if a FBI agent calls to do NavyGuy's background check for his security clearance. Which must mean I'm on to something...

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Deployment Prep: The Big Meeting

NavyGuy's squadron had a big meeting for all of the sailors, chiefs, aircrew, and officers, and everyone's spouses and/or families were welcome as well. Oh, sorry, NavyGuy would want to correct me and say it was not a meeting, it was a "brief." The word brief in Navy aviation can mean many things and can be used as several parts of speech.

"I have to go plan for the brief." (Noun, meaning, I have to go prepare to give a big speech.)

"I brief at 1600." (Verb, meaning, I will be the one doing the talking during the big speech... at 4pm.)

"The brief was brief." (Adjective, but completely untrue statement. Briefs are never brief in the Navy. But the boys do wear briefs... okay, tangent is running a little amuck.)

Okay, so the pre-deployment brief ended up clocking in at just over two hours, plus a twenty minute pizza break. I took copious notes, which I'll share below, as well as my snarky opinions on each of the speakers and agencies that presented:

1. Chaplain - Emotional Cycle of Deployment
Oh good, let's start with the awkward stuff. Actually, the chaplain was concise and gave useful information that basically amounted to - "you are not going crazy, you are going to act weird for the next month until your spouse leaves, and then it's going to be hard while they're gone. Oh, and it's going to be hard when they finally do come back cuz you'll have just gotten used to living your life without their daily presence. Call the church to talk about anything - we're a confidential service so we can't tell your spouses' commanding officer that your family is stressed about finances." He showed a great emotional cycle graphic (I'll talk more about this in a later post), and offered a deep question for us to tackle: how will you grow your relationship during the deployment?

2. Fleet and Family Support Center - Paperwork and Resources
The representative from this base group was also an excellent speaker. She highlighted a lot of the paperwork that we'll have to address before deployment (everything from wills and power of attorneys, to budgets and military ID cards). She also highlighted several useful websites, and stressed the end-all-be-all word of deployment: communication.

3. MWR (Morale, Wellness, and Recreation) - Keep Busy
MWR is the activities and events office - everything from base bowling leagues to cheap tickets to DisneyWorld. Their rep missed the meeting, but the office is closely associated with the Fleet and Family Support Center, so that lady talked for them. Basically, her message was: this group is great at helping you keep busy, become a fan of them on Facebook because their own website is down at the moment, and keep busy. Did you get that? Keep busy. Cuz that will make everything okay...

4. Education Services Facilitator - women's brains are like spaghetti...
I have no clue what this guy was supposed to be. I think he's part of the Fleet and Family office, and is some sort of unlicensed psychologist, but I think he thought he was auditioning for Second City, because his whole 15 minute schpiel resembled a really uncomfortable stand-up comedy routine. He was ostensibly focusing on couples communication, but somehow he used an analogy that women's brains are like spaghetti (in that every various topic in life touches another, and therefore we jump from subject to subject confusing the hell out of men), whereas men's brains are like storage containers (in that various topics in life are separated into individual boxes, and they only deal with one box at a time). Baloney Sausage! Let's just start with the fact that spaghetti is a terrible food to use as the metaphor - it only involves noodles and sauce! That's not a cacophony of different things touching - that's two things! And I'm sorry, but NavyGuy is just as random during conversations as I am, jumping from topic to topic as ideas pop into his head. The whole spaghetti vs. storage thing lost my interest, and luckily the speaker wrapped things up fairly quickly (while also explaining his lack of using a microphone by saying it was too complicated... sure - he can handle my emotional well-being, but a microphone with one button is just too much...)

5. Family Readiness Group (FRG) - Sassy Wife Zings the Navy
The FRG is sort of a spouses' group for the enlisted and officer spouses (who do not traditionally interact much). The speaker for this portion of the brief was an officer wife who felt perfectly comfortable telling it like it is. But not in a good way. She started off the presentation poorly by announcing that the Navy is the enemy, our husbands are the enemy, and basically some days "we all hate you." AWKWARD! Of course some days I hate the Navy, but that's not something you tend to want to scream in front of 200 people... who are IN THE NAVY! It's one thing to be honest, but it's another to be condescending and sarcastic in front of people who don't really know you. Anyway, she wasn't even really prepared - she only had a few packets printed up, so most of us didn't get any of the handouts, and truthfully, I have no clue what the FRG can really do for me.

6. Legal Department - she said NCIS!
What a doozy. Obviously, talking about wills and legal matters is never going to be riveting for a group of non-lawyers, but the woman sent by the legal office on base had absolutely no public-speaking skills, couldn't keep a coherent thought in her head for two seconds, focused on the most inappropriate aspects of their job (spending ten minutes talking about divorce one month before a deployment is not inspiring...), and merely managed to confuse many of us who thought we understood the process for getting a Power of Attorney. The only fun moment was when she said "NCIS" and the Navy wife I was sitting next to turned to me and was all, why couldn't they have gotten DiNozzo do give the brief? Word.

At this point we took a break for pizza, and many of the younger enlisted guys snuck out the back. I think the legal brief was the last straw for them.

7. Naval Hospital - Pregnancy Rocks
The hospital rep basically reminded us of the important phone numbers and hours of the hospital and urgent care on base. Then she went on to list like 4000 free programs, benefits, and giveaways that pregnant ladies can get... I wonder if I can crash the "Budgeting for Baby" class to get the free tote bag... maybe I could claim I'm not very far along, not showing yet? (Or just eat a huge lunch and call myself 5 months...)

8. Navy Marine Corps Relief Society - ????
I must have blanked out during this guy. My notes literally say "Red Cross card" and "Thrift Shop 10-2, Tues, Wed." Hmmmm.... maybe NavyGuy was listening during this part...

9. Lt. LoveBug - General Overview of what the guys do
LoveBug, one of the other guys in the admin office that NavyGuy works in, got up to give a basic overview of what the deployment is like for those deploying. We got a five minute blast of where they're going, what they'll spend their day doing, how much they fly, and the calendar of dates when they'll be leaving... which is subject to change at any point in time (up to and including six seconds before they board the planes). I have to clarify with NavyGuy what information I'm allowed to share with the world at this point, so I'm going to err on the side of caution and leave this topic vague.

To wrap things up, the Command Master Chief (head of the enlisted guys), and the XO (executive officer... second in command for the squadron), each got up, said nice things about the spouses, encouraged communication, and thanked us all for coming. I helped NavyGuy clean up pizza boxes, we dropped some things off at the squadron, and then stopped for ice cream at the McDonald's on base.

I'm not sure if this pre-deployment brief is common for other squadrons or areas of the Navy - any other spouses out there who have gone through a similar meeting?

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Deployment Prep: Learn How to Change a Tire

NavyGuy will be deploying in March. Tonight, we have an extensive pre-deployment meeting with the entire squadron (officers, enlisted sailors, spouses, families), where we'll get tons of information. I expect it to be long, informative, overwhelming, half-boring, half-terrifying. As part of his job working in the administration department of the squadron, NavyGuy has been in charge of organizing and executing this huge meeting; he's a wee bit stressed. But because he's in charge, I got a sneak peek at the booklet we're going to get tonight, and it does have a lot of useful information...

...such as, "teach your spouse how to change a tire."

(Because the process will result in one of you killing the other, and then the whole deployment issue will be moot?)We got the "opportunity" to check this off the pre-deployment list unexpectedly on Sunday night, when someone drove over a bolt. (Not my fault.) NavyGuy was a shockingly good teacher, and now I could TOTALLY change a tire if the situation arose. And if the car was on concrete. And it was daytime. And the weather was nice. And there was adequate lighting. And I had a ponytail holder. And if someone strong came along to lift the tires, and break the tension on the lugnuts. Hmmm...

Pre-Deployment Advice #1: Get AAA.

Wow... those lugnuts are really on there good and tight...

Maybe a new angle... oooo... not a good look...

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Red Flag... (aka, NavyGuy in Vegas)

NavyGuy has spent the past week in Las Vegas, with his squadron, completing Red Flag training exercises. Here's your brief (and simplified) military/history lesson for the day.

Red Flag is advanced, aerial combat training exercises that are held at Nellis Air Force Base, outside of Las Vegas. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military recognized that it was not adequately training its pilots and flight officers for actual combat missions. An Air Force study discovered that a pilot's odds for survival dramatically increased after participation in 10 combat missions. The Pentagon decided it needed to provide more combat mission experience for pilots, in a controlled and safe environment.

Thus, Red Flag was born. Pilots, flight officers, air crew, and others spend two weeks completing flying missions in the desert outside Sin City. There is a "good guys" Blue Team, comprised of the visiting squadrons, and a "bad guys" Red Team, made up of Air Force and Navy pilots trained to provide realistic threats (in other words, trained to be the enemy). It is a huge, complicated event. Upwards of 50 different aircraft can be participating at one time - all in an attempt to simulate real combat conditions.

So, that's the general gist of what NavyGuy has been in Las Vegas for. Of course I can't just leave it at that - I have to add my own impressions of what Red Flag entails...

~ Okay, let's begin with the fact that my (and your) tax dollars are paying to put him up in his own room at the Embassy Suites for two weeks. Yes, he's serving his country, sacrificing, etc., so it's a small price to pay that he should be comfortable. But really? Couldn't he have shared the room with one other guy?

~ Red Flag is somewhat of a bonding experience for the squadron. Most squadrons participate pre-deployment, so it's a chance for all the guys (and gals) to get to know one another better, and gain each others trust in the airplanes. Weekdays (and nights) are filled with mission planning, flights, briefs, debriefs, and occasionally sleeping. Hence the weekends are filled with fun and frivolity (and more sleep). They are on the Vegas strip after all. NavyGuy has been to many of the major casinos, seen the fountain at the Bellagio, eaten at some great restaurants, visited Hoover Dam, and proven once and for all that he's a terrible gambler.

~ Along those same lines, Red Flag is often when people who are new to the squadron get their official call sign. After what I'm sure must have been "spirited" debate amongst the squadron, NavyGuy will forevermore be known as Ginger. Because of the red hair. And possibly because of a stretchy red dress that he wore at one of the social events soon after the group arrived in Vegas. Allegedly there are many photos of the ensemble... I'm glad the call sign is something I can explain to children and the elderly without embarrassment or shame, but I have to admit it's a little predictable. So I think we'll still call him NavyGuy around here. (Sorry HistoryGirlie, we can't petition to have his call sign changed to Maverick. I already asked.)

~ NavyGuy has this week left, and should be home sometime over the weekend. So far he's been doing primarily night flights, which means he goes into the squadron around lunchtime, and gets back to his fancy hotel room between 2 and 3am. I think he has one more night flight tonight, and then switches to days for the remainder of the exercises.

Perhaps we'll get NavyGuy's perspective on the whole thing when he returns. From the wife side of things, it's annoying having him gone for more time, so soon before he's going to deploy. He's perpetually tired while he's there, and in my case, I wasn't able to fly down and visit him at all. But you can't argue with the Navy, and increasing his odds of being effective, successful, and safe when he is flying missions with real enemies is worth the annoyance.

If you want to know more about Red Flag, there is a good video series on YouTube. Each part is about 10 minutes long (they resemble History Channel type documentaries, but I'm not 100% sure on the source). I haven't watched all of them yet, but they will definitely give you a good look at Red Flag, plus the perspective of many of the participants.

Red Flag Video, Part 1
Red Flag Video, Part 2
Red Flag Video, Part 3
Red Flag Video, Part 4
Red Flag Video, Part 5

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Cheers and Jeers

Jeers... to having to do bathroom checks at work now. Apparently, in order to "save money," the talking heads at Target came up with the brilliant plan to have the Starbucks girls do the mid-day bathroom cleaning. So now along with "steamed milk" and "poured coffee," I'll be able to add "scrubbed toilets" to my resume! (Sense the sarcasm... let it roll around in your ears for a minute.)

Jeers... to missing Stamp Club because NavyGuy had a night flight. Tally had already spent most of the day by herself, so I had to come home and be with her instead of getting my craft on. Grrr.

(Tiny) Jeers... to Tally. For acting like an actual dog, not the perfect puppy we've been honeymooning with for the last three months. After being cooped up all day, it's not surprising that she's been driving me nutty all night long with the jumping, and the nipping, and the stepping on my laptop, and the frantic tearing around the house like a toddler on a sugar high on Christmas. (Of course now that I've typed this, she's decided to curl up on my lap and look adorable. Damn puppy dog eyes. They'll get'cha every time.)

Cheers... to having Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for breakfast. That's all I got for cheers. It was really more of a jeerful day. Bah.

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Flight Suit Up!

Out with the olive...


... and in with the sand. NavyGuy's squadron starts wearing tan-colored flight suits tomorrow. It's what they'll wear when they deploy, so apparently they have to start practicing now...? Maybe they need to break them in? Or figure out which accessories go best with the new color?

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Bits and Pieces

*The espresso machine (fancy name = Verissimo) went beserko all over itself at work today. My co-worker Jennifer was in the process of making a drink when the Verissimo started making the most god-awful grinding sound. We opened the contraption to take a look, and the beast gave a loud pop and a spark! She and I nearly had simultaneous heart attacks, and then read the message screen on the machine: piston error. Lucky for me, this all went down about eight minutes before my shift ended, so it became completely not my problem. Ah the joys of just being a minimum wage worker bee... (no, I did feel bad that I had to leave them with a Starbucks incapable of making any beverage with espresso shots... but not bad enough that I was going to stay and fight the Verissimo!)

*There was also the memorable customer who walked up to the counter, looked at the menu boards (which say Starbucks), looked at my apron (which says Starbucks), and looked at the entire coffee area (which SCREAMS Starbucks), and promptly asked in a forlorn voice, "Oh, is this Starbucks coffee?". I wanted to say no, but I was afraid that might make her stay. (Unfortunately, she stayed even after I said yes and then proceeded to bitch about Starbucks coffee during the entire transaction.)

*NavyGuy got his H1N1 vaccine yesterday, and apparently the hospital on base was also handing out anthrax vaccines like candy, so he got himself hooked up. I can't decide whether to be relieved that he's theoretically safe from an anthrax attack, or disturbed that he needs a vaccine to prevent him from a potential anthrax attack.

*Also, just in case you didn't have enough doubts about the United States Navy, let me paint you a picture... Yesterday, NavyGuy was sitting in his jet waiting to take off on a flight. Apparently, some valve on the plane wasn't working. So the mechanics were called in to trouble shoot. And their solution? Bang on the valve with a broom stick. Yup. A broom stick. Isn't it nice to know your tax dollars are being spent wisely?

*I will be completely unreachable between the hours of 11am and 1pm tomorrow. UNreachable. The world can end around me, and I will still be relaxing at the spa getting a massage. No, seriously, not a metaphor - I have a massage tomorrow! NavyGuy's parents got me a spa gift certificate for my birthday last year and I'm finally getting around to using it. And it's gonna be legendary.

*Tally pup also has a big day tomorrow. In anticipation of NavyGuy hopefully getting some time off before he deploys, we want to find a place to board Tally, so we can relax and know she's in good hands while we're gone. I found a "canine resort" that seems awesome, but they require a meeting with potential doggies ahead of time, as well as a temperament test. So Tally has to be on her best behavior tomorrow and win over the resort folk - wish her luck.

What's up with you guys? :)

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A Little of This and a Little of That...

*All Christmas packages are in the mail. I got up at 5am today, finished wrapping everything, and was in line at the post office by 9. And it wasn't even horrific. I got the good postal worker man (who hooked me up with a sweet sweet media rate for a few of the packages), and was out of the building in under 15 minutes.

*When making quiche, the milk and eggs must be whisked together thoroughly. Failure to do so will result in a husband being sent to pick up burritos for dinner.

*NavyGuy starts his holiday leave today. On the plus side, this means he's home to play with the dog everyday and work on a honey-do list. On the less plus side, this means he's home all day. I predict many Nova and Good Eats marathons broken up by bouts of computer gaming and general lounging.

*Monday night was another squadron holiday party. This time both officers and enlisted sailors were invited. It was at the O'Club, and it was... interesting. Some people were in cocktail dresses; some people were in jeans and "fancy" t-shirts. The party was essentially, "come, pay for overpriced drinks, eat a so-so buffet of lukewarm food, and try to act interested when they announce the raffle prizes for all the enlisted guys..." I muddled through the evening in a Chardonnay-induced haze and managed to snake an extra piece of chocolate cake. They did have nice party favors - sturdy wine glasses etched with the squadron logo (keep in mind "nice"is a relative term).

*Still to be done before family arrives on Monday: clean house, finish holiday decorating, finalize Christmas Eve and Christmas Day menus, bake cookies, wrap more gifts... hmmm... that list doesn't sound quite long enough... I must be forgetting something...

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Weekend Update

~Friday night was NavyGuy's squadron Holiday party for all of the officers and their spouses. The XO (executive officer... second highest guy in the squadron) hosted, and I was pretty nervous. I didn't want to embarrass NavyGuy or ruin his reputation right off the bat.

The night ended up being fairly tame and manageable - a buffet of tasty food and sitting around chatting with the few wives that I am starting to get to know. My only real slip up was letting it be known that NavyGuy has used my scrapbooking tools to make his flight charts... I'll definitely feel bad if his call sign ends up being "Scrappy" because of my big mouth.

~Saturday, NavyGuy and I were all kinds of holiday productive. We bought our new (fake) Christmas tree, which I then set up and decorated beeeeeautifully (pics to come). We also got some shopping done, set up the Willow Tree Nativity set (which NavyGuy thinks is creepy cuz the figurines have no faces and he's threatened to have our future children draw smiles in with sharpies...), and I finally decided on a design for our Christmas cards. They still aren't done, but at least some of the paper has been cut...

~Sunday I had to work. Blah. Then I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Wheat Thins* for a Christmas Cookie Exchange party with "the wives." Well, I remade the wheat thin cookies, cuz the first attempt was a disaster - I bought unsweetened chocolate and didn't realize until I tasted one of the finished treats. Not good. Not good at all. Luckily, the second attempt was a success, and the wives enjoyed the treats. It was nice to sit and chat with a smaller group (and eat lots of sweets), plus I came home with extra cookies for NavyGuy and several new recipes to try out before Christmas.

How was your weekend? What holiday projects did you accomplish? Any fun Christmas parties you're looking forward to? Suggestions for possible call signs for NavyGuy that would be less embarrassing than something craft-related?

*Recipe: Slather peanut butter between two wheat thin crackers. Dip in melted baker's chocolate. Refrigerate. Enjoy.

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Graduation

Graduating from a training squadron and joining an operational squadron is a big deal. So you'd think the ceremony celebrating this achievement would be full of dignity, and solemn speeches about sacrifice and duty.

Oh... have we learned nothing about the world of Naval aviation?

NavyGuy's transition to his new squadron went a little like this:

Everyone show up at the Officer's Club on base. Start drinking free beer and eating chicken wings. Wait around an hour for the skipper to show up and get the show on the road. Whistle, hoot, holler, and generally show no decorum as each graduate is called up to receive their obligatory certificate. Duck, when the men from the new squadron rip off the graduates' old patches and whip them around the room.



At this point, each squadron begins its own fraternity hazing initiation welcome game for the new guys (who have each gotten new name patches that politely name them FNG... "freaking new guy."). Some grads are dragged outside to be doused in champagne. Others do a simple shot with their new squadron.

NavyGuy's new family upped the ante.



That's a tasty little number called an "Irish Car Bomb" ...on steroids! NavyGuy and his buddy T each had to down a half-pitcher of Guinness and a tumbler's worth of Baileys.



Yeah. You can probably guess how our night progressed. NavyGuy was drunk by 4:30 (graduation started at 4), and I had to go home to let the puppy out. T and his wife were nice enough to bring NavyGuy home around 6... where he attempted to drink some water and sober up, but mostly just muttered about how cute Tally is and then fell into bed.

And there ended another proud day for NavyGuy :)

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The End and the Beginning

Today is the end of NavyGuy's training phase in the RAG. He officially graduates and becomes a real-life Electronic Counter Measures Officer (ECMO) - not a student, not a peon - a grown-up NavyMan. This has been a long time coming, and it should be a day of only happiness.

Unfortunately, his hard work, determination, skills, and sacrifices are not being rewarded as they should. NavyGuy has been assigned to a squadron that does not deploy to an aircraft carrier; instead, they are what is known as an expeditionary squadron, or concrete squadron. He won't fly jets off a carrier. He'll deploy to a base on land (probably in some godforsaken place on earth) and will fly his missions from there. This is a big disappointment for him, since flying off of the carrier has been such a dream and focus for him. I feel terrible because today should only be a celebration, but instead it's a feeling of resignation for both of us. But, this is Navy life. The needs of the Navy come first, regardless of who it affects.

The only small plus side to all of this so far is that a friend of NavyGuy's also got assigned to the same squadron, and his wife rocks, so hopefully we can commiserate together and find a way to make the best of all of this.

So, the training ends and the real work begins. I'm headed to the graduation ceremony this afternoon, and then for the obligatory party at the O'Club afterwards. I also went to my first spouses's club meeting for the squadron last night (more on that later).

Congratulations NavyGuy!!! I'm proud of you no matter what the Navy decides to do with you, and I love you :)

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Happenings and Going-Ons

I have to go back to work Thursday and I'm dreading it as much as most new moms must. Tally will have to be left for several hours without us!!! I know, I know - it's not equivalent to having to take your human baby to daycare for the first time. But I'm feeling guilty already. What if she's scared? What if she resents us? What if she poops in her crate while we're gone? (I guess most parents don't have to worry about that specific concern.) The rational grown-up part of me knows she'll be fine... but the rest of me is freaking out!

In other news, Tally met mom tonight... over Skype! "Grandma" is already over the moon about her grandpuppy, and seems ready to hop on the next flight to Seattle for a little face-to-face time with the cutie-pie. NavyGuy's parents and his sister met Tally the night before (again via the magic that is the internet and a webcam); I swear this puppy isn't going to have a moment alone once everyone arrives for Thanksgiving :)

And in non-canine news, NavyGuy is getting closer and closer to finishing his training, and officially graduating. It seems like he's been a flight students forEVER, but if all goes as planned (which, let's face it, it's the Navy - that ain't gonna happen), he'll graduate next Friday and find out what squadron he'll be joining. Send lots of good weather and working airplane thoughts our way, so that he can finish quickly!

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"Single" for Two Weeks

NavyGuy leaves this morning for another two week detachment. This time, he's headed for El Centro, California (inland from San Diego). The weather starts to get pretty yucky up here in northwest Washington this time of year, so instead of wasting time not being able to fly, the training command always plans a few trips to sunny C.A. in order to help the students actually fly. For instance, NavyGuy has been scheduled for seven flights in the past eight days... he's only actually flown once. Ideally, when he and several other students are in El Centro though, they'll be able to get a bunch more flying done, and move along in their syllabus.

Obviously, NavyGuy being gone for two weeks sucks for a great many reasons (including, but not limited to, #7 - I can't watch any more How I Met Your Mother 'til he gets back, and #38 - There's no one else to blame for leaving water glasses around the house). However, instead of focusing on the negative, I'm going to try to find the positive. Namely, some time for fun girl activities and progress on several projects. Today I have a nice little trip to Bellingham planned, for some craft shopping and Barnes and Noble lounging. I've also been brainstorming a to-do list... which I'll list here in hopes that sharing it with the blogosphere will guilt me into accomplishing more of the tasks:

1. Make our moving announcements
2. Finish hanging pictures around the house
3. Start Thanksgiving menu and decor preparations
4. Create a Wonder Pets cape for my goddaughter's birthday party (I have until December on this one thank goodness)
5. Get guest room ready for guests at Thanksgiving!
6. Finish preparing for the puppy's arrival.
7. Start Christmas shopping list

I'm sure there's more that should be on the list, but I'm tapped out for the time being. Anyway, happy weekend to all!

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Book Club

Last night was my first all-base spouses' book club meeting. We gathered at a Starbucks in Oak Harbor (yes, I drove from work at one Starbucks... to yet another Starbucks). The book of the night was The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins... a detective novel written in 1860. I dutifully got it from the library and made it 32 pages in before admitting defeat and realizing I was not going to finish the book in time.

So, I was that girl when I went to the meeting - the girl who shows up at book club without having read the book. I don't like that girl. My old book club in Wisconsin had that girl (who was also annoying in other ways); she would without fail, show up at every book club meeting with some elaborate sob story about how she hadn't finished the book, and HistoryGirlie and I would roll our eyes at each other, sighing at that girl's ridiculousness.

Hence, I was slightly nervous about going to my first meeting without having read the book; luckily, the book club leader hadn't finished reading it either!!! It ended up being a book club meeting with just three people (myself, the leader, and NatalieW), and 2/3 of us hadn't gotten past the second chapter :) Luckily, we're all book nerds, so we had a nice time just chatting about possible selections for future months, reminiscing about recent books we'd read, and "talking shop" (aka, chatting about life as Navy wives). The book club leader is a more seasoned Navy wife, who's actually lived in both Japan and Scotland, so she was giving Natalie and I some perspective on aspects of Navy life we haven't been through yet.

I kept Natalie at Starbucks long after our leader had to go home and tidy up before her housekeeper came the next day (every silver lining has its cloud...). She and I just kept chatting about our lives, our husbands (who share similar loves of geekery and nature documentaries), and our attempts at navigating the Navy. I always enjoy hearing other how other wives view their husband's service and the Navy lifestyle, so it ended up being a fun evening... even if we never actually talked about the book club book!

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Navy Briefing of the Week: Carrier Catapult Shot

When NavyGuy was doing his boat detachment off the coast of Virginia on the U.S.S. Truman, he was able to get some videos! First up is a catapult shot, in which the airplane is literally catapulted off of the deck. I'm going to let NavyGuy explain... (I'd recommend watching the video first, then reading, then watching again to make sense of it all :)



You'll see our airplane taxiing up to the "shuttle" which is the portion of the catapult that protrudes above the deck, and is what attaches to the jet's nose gear to launch us. The person standing in front of us is called a "Yellow Shirt" or "Taxi Director" and he or she is one of the people in charge of directing all the airplanes around the deck of the carrier. Believe it or not, even though the deck is over 1000 feet long and several hundred across, it gets really cramped when there are dozens of high powered jet aircraft moving around. At this point, he's trying to get us all set up and aligned so we're pointing straight down the catapult when we get launched.

The white smoke rising from the deck all around him is actually steam from the last catapult shot. We use steam because the nuclear reactor produces lots of it in the normal generation of power for the ship. Once we're all set up and aligned, you'll see the Jet Blast Deflector or "JBD" come up out of the deck to keep the hot exhaust from blowing anyone overboard. At this point, we're doing our final checks in the cockpit and the pilot is verifying the weight the catapult crew has for our jet. The weight of the aircraft is very important because the cat shot has to be powerful enough to accelerate the jet to it's minimum speed, but not so powerful that it damages the aircraft's nose gear in the launch.

Soon after the JBD comes up out of the deck, you'll hear our engines go to full power. This means that we're "In Tension" which means the the catapult is armed and ready to launch us off the deck. At this point, the only thing that prevents the aircraft from moving down the deck is a small bar called a "Hold Back" which is connected to the nose gear by a small piece of metal which is engineered to break at a certain tension setting, unique to each model of aircraft. When the catapult fires, this piece of metal, which looks a lot like a bar bell in a free weight set at a gym, breaks and releases the aircraft to be launched. Once we're "In Tension" the pilot keeps the throttles at full power no matter what happens, unless a deck crew member walks out in front of the jet and gives us the signal that the catapult has been safed so it can't fire.

Even on the top of the tower, you can feel the hot jet exhaust, which is why the camera starts to bounce a little more at this point. The ground crew checks to make sure that there is no one in the way of the jet, and the pilot checks all this controls. At that point, he salutes the "Shooter" who is the person responsible for firing the catapult, and he "shoots" the aircraft off the carrier deck. We accelerate from 0 to about 170 mph in about 1-2 seconds and we're flying. We climb up to 600 ft and turn left 180 degrees to come back in and land.

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Navy Briefing of the Week: Carrier Safety

We're resurrecting the Navy knowledge of the week! Starting this week, we'll be focusing on aircraft carriers... because NavyGuy is headed out to the U.S.S. Truman for two weeks of training. He's tickled pink to get to fly and be out on the boat; I'm less than thrilled that he'll be gone, but such is the Navy life.

First up, we'll start with the worst case scenarios... how NavyGuy could perish on the boat. Yes, this was an actual briefing he got this week. The information is so ridiculous / horrifying that you just have to laugh (or you'd start crying and never stop). So without further ado...

(Just so you have a point of reference.)

1. Don't fall off the boat. That deck you see in the photo is approximately 60 feet above the water. If you walk off the edge, you will do a belly flop of epic proportions. It will hurt. Allegedly there's a small lip around the edge of the deck, but I highly doubt that would do much except create more chance you'd trip.

2. Don't fall down one of the holes. There are holes in the deck that are typically covered (like a sewer); if someone forgets to cover one though, you run the risk of falling down the hole.

3. Don't drive the airplane off the edge. If the pilot misses the wire that's supposed to catch the plane when they're landing on the flight deck, the pilot is trained to immediately take off again and come back around for another attempt. However, if the arresting gear "sorta" catches the plane, the pilot may not be able to speed up enough to take off again, and the plane will go off the end of the deck. Landing in the water. Bad.

4. Don't walk into turning propeller blades. (Apparently they're hard to see at night.) You'll become "fish bits." (It's just what you think it is.)

5. Don't eject underneath something. When you eject from the airplane, you go flying high up into the air. If you happen to accidentally eject while the plane is parked or taxiing underneath something (like the tower structure on the deck), you'll be squished.

6. Don't get sucked into a jet intake. Think of the scene from The Incredibles where the superhero with the cape gets sucked into the round hole where the air goes in. Bad.

7. Don't fall off the airplane. By the time you climb up into the plane, you're a good 20 feet up in the air; slip on the way up and you're gonna get a serious bruise (if not worse).

8. Don't fall off the airplane into the water. Many of the planes will be parked on the flight deck in such a way that the front portion of the plane is actually hanging off the edge... so again, one slip, and you could end up in the drink.

There are probably more, but apparently these were the most important ones stressed to NavyGuy at his meeting. What's obviously the most worrisome about this, is that 1) they have a full fledged meeting to warn the guys about all of these potential death traps because 2) you know each of these incidents have happened at least once before...

NavyGuy assures me he's going to be "super careful" while on the carrier, but this is a man I've seen fall off a bed, trip over his own feet, and occasionally lose his balance while sitting in a chair. I'm trying to figure out a way to stuff his flight suit with packing peanuts and require him to wear a life preserver at all times...

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