I have a working webcam now and it looks like HAL. Thanks, R.

I have been walking around all day saying "Ongawa!" and laughing at myself since reading a post in which a friend saw a license plate bearing that personalization and in sharing with Vogon, he automatically associated it with the 250' jump tower at Fort Benning. Old paratroopers never die, they just go to hell and regroup. (Speaking of that, I have some material fomenting on the upcoming anniversary of the invasion of Grenada, but it's harder to get him to talk than it was to get my older relatives to talk about family history.)

I wore my Weapon of Math Instruction shirt all day today and nobody said a word. One of the elementary school math teachers chuckled at it, so at least I amused someone with it. I am now debating pre-ordering one of the LibrArian tees because the librarian battle rap in Little Dee has been hilarious. Where else would someone rhyme anything with "foie gras"?

While I was happily thrashing at finding sources for a Wikipedia article, Vogon said "If Class VI is liquor, what are the other classes?". I didn't have an answer, so I turned to the oracle of Google and inhaled some poisonous vapors sacrificed small animals hit the Enter key.

From the U.S. Army Field Manual 4-0 Combat Service Support, I present: (  the U.S. Armed Forces Classes of Supply. )

Who knew that Texas offered an Airborne specialty license plate?

The recently issued registration renewal notice for the blue car says it's due for new plates. Vogon suggested a Boy Scouts plate because of me, but I want the Scout plates for when I get my own car. I went on the TXDOT website to look at all the specialty plate artwork and y'know, those wings were waiting. After the new plates arrive, even his car will say HOOAH!

The USS Grunion (SS-216), an American sub lost off the Aleutians on 31 July 1942, was found this summer and the search team is hoping to find living relatives of 31 of her crew members.

Since I know some of you are fellow genealogy buffs, I'd like to strongly encourage you to "adopt" one of the crew members and see what your research turns up on finding any surviving relatives. It's really amazing to talk with people that have been able to fill in a piece of their family history. (In case you're curious, I'm doing research on John Stewart Clift.)

As you were.

Thank you to all of the volunteers that support our soldiers in the field and in the hospital like Books For Soldiers.

Thank you to all of the spouses and families that support their servicemembers.

Most of all, thank you to everyone that has served or is currently serving our country.

( 'The Young Dead Soldiers' )

Bets are off on when Himself's second request for a DD-214 would arrive -- it came in today. There's something perversely amusing that when requested in Hell North Carolina it took four months, but when requested from Colorado it took three weeks including the request being forwarded from St. Louis (National Personnel Records Center) to Texas (Air Force Personnel Center).

Thanks to that fun with paperwork Himself won't be able to start at UCD in January. He'll transfer in for summer or fall 2004 and do spring semester at Red Rocks, which we can (mostly) afford despite the delay in getting his GI Bill benefits.

...

Final notes re Karak's party before we break down Naess and Capra to travel:
- Frigits didn't arrive, so we're bringing the Airzooka.
- Cake will be chocolate cupcakes, frosted with a special message in binary because I am uber-l33t. Or something.
- I may wear a dress just to scare you guys. Of course, I'll come with jeans and a sweater because it will upset my reproductive system to wear girly clothing for more than a few hours. (All this time we just thought my muse was drunken and angry. Well, my ovaries are worse. It's like having a straight chick trapped inside me.)
- Himself will be bringing our PS2 because he likes being beaten by Grk. Also, he says GTA livens up any party. *chuckles*

Side note: Our computers are Abbey, Berlin, Capra, and Naess. Props if you correctly guess which two go with each of us.

Hey, JoJo! Your fellow soldier I addressed the magazine package to sent me a postcard of Muttawakil Palace in Samarra, Iraq with thanks on the back. I teared up when I got to "Looking at Carmen Electra reminds us of what we're fighting for." Give 'em a hug for me when he gets back, will ya?

( A scan of the front and back of the postcard, ~220kb .jpg )

My PA lied about the Pill stopping my bleeding. I've only _not_ bled two of the past ten days, which makes bleeding every other week before she decided birth control pills would make me better look downright pleasant. Just over ten days until I can make an appointment with a real doctor, at which point I'll probably have been bleeding continuously for two weeks. Whee.

Himself gave me a new pair of ear defenders for my birthday but they're in the car. Hopefully he'll get a dinner break tonight so then I can have a few hours without having to hear full-volume tantruming because I'm trying to clean/pack more than I'm playing with her right now.

I've come to the conclusion that the best way to get things packed since Himself is not helping (and it's partly his fault we're not doing a partial TMO) is to throw away everything I can't come up with a reason to keep or someplace/one to sell, donate or recycle it. sage_and_sea, I'll get the list of toys typed up sometime this week since I have to wait until midget's napping to go through them.

I'm going to start turning the phone ringer off until noon because waiting up for Himself to get home (he was supposed to get home at a reasonable this week) means I'm up until 0400, when I fall asleep regardless of whether he's gotten home. I know we're _supposed_ to have the phone available when he's home, but when the phone rings before noon here it's either a telemarketer (usually dead noise when I pick up), the base clinic accidentally dialing me, or in today's case, kenwestervelt. He got promoted, leave congratulatory comments in his journal.

And to close with more good news, the Pizza in Paradise numbers from our Papa John's order a few weeks ago turned out to be good for a free order of chicken strips and a free order of breadsticks, so we'll be trying those chickenstrips with tonight's order. After dinner I'll set something up in the slow cooker so I'm not trying to figure out what to thaw at 3 PM for tomorrow's dinner. I should plan the next several days' menu so I don't pack anything I need when I'm working on the kitchen.

More fun side effects of Ortho Tri-Cyclen are migraines, hot flashes and debilitating nausea, so I called the clinic this morning and was told to show up to sick call. Himself agreed the earlier I showed up ahead of time the better chance I had of being seen promptly, so I got there at 1330, filled out my slip, and focused as hard as I could on my needlework.

As luck would have it, I not only saw an actual doctor promptly, he didn't waste my time, and asked if I'd prefer compazine as phenergan makes many people sleepy. When I said I'd been on it for most of the past six years for sinusitis-caused nausea, he asked how many tablets I'd like (30 or 60) and put my scrip in, shook my hand, and was back on his way. We then spent nearly an hour and a half waiting at the clinic pharmacy, but I didn't want to push my luck and ask if I could get it filled at a pharmacy off-base (I don't think they will for things the clinic pharmacy carries) in order to get it faster.

Now that my nausea's under control, Excedrin Migraine has my head not-as-throbbing and now my only complaint is that the Pill hasn't stopped my bleeding yet (I'm on day 3 of the first week, white, pills.) Either way, I didn't deviate from my treatment plan so my arse is covered.

After trying to get ahold of Himself's work for better than an hour to let them know he'd be late, his supervisor called on his cell phone five minutes after Himself left. It turned out the shop's wireless phone battery ran down and had to be recharged in the next section, so no-one could hear it ringing. Buh.

So after being called three times to reschedule around things that shouldn't be my problem (a parade on the road outside the main gate at 0700 on a day I had an afternoon appointment, my PCM wanting to take leave on the day I had rescheduled to, etc.) I finally got seen.

( So what's causing my female problems? I don't know and neither do they. )

I wish life was like the GTA games so I could blow things up and run people over instead of having this simmering resentment at the fact that I am bleeding every other week, am in miserable pain and they're "fixing" it by making me a hormonal raging bitch with birth control pills. I want to see a real doctor. I also need to buy a DivaCup or a Mooncup because having to use my Keeper every other week has caused my latent sensitivity to latex to rear its head and other sanitary methods aren't an option.

Also, I plan on flooding the clinic with copies of their own stupid feedback forms. I took a 1/4" stack of them with me when I finally got that scrip and I'll be scanning it later tonight for anyone interested in filling one or more out on my behalf.

Dealing with the less-urgent mail from last week, I came upon a notice from our auto insurance provider. Every envelope from Progressive we've ever gotten has said "important documents enclosed", so I skimmed over this one when it first came in since we're paid up through the end of the year and our new cards had already arrived.

I should have read it more closely. It turns out they intend to cancel our policy because Himself doesn't have a license for the state in which we're insured, never mind that they haven't said a word to us in the past THREE YEARS that he's had a Colorado driver's license with a clean record (I don't drive here). The notice was dated three weeks after getting our payment for coverage through the end of the year.

We've already talked with his first shirt, who agrees with us, so tomorrow I expect to spend a lot of time on the phone with Progressive and then on to either base legal or hunting for new insurance if they can't be reasonable.

Does an auto insurance provider exist that's both affordable (for an E-3 family on one income) and doesn't pull stunts like this four months before we're guaranteed to be gone?

One of the items in the most recent package from my folks was a Spongebob Squarepants bath sponge with a suction cup holder. Laurel found it as Jake and Himself were coming in after work and asked for it to be opened. We quickly discovered the suction cup on it really does stick to almost everything.

So, imagine Jake sitting in Himself's computer chair with the Spongebob stuck to his forehead:

Jake: [dryly] I think this is the gayest thing I've seen all day.
Himself: [incredulous] Didn't you go to work today?
Jake: Yeah, but this is gayer.

(N.B.: For those of you that don't know us, both of them are in the military. Don't ask, don't tell.)

An F-15E from our base crashed after taking off on a training sortie yesterday. We didn't hear about it until the 11 PM news came on, but weren't worried after finding out no-one was hurt. (Local TV reports: "F-15 Eagle Crashes In Johnston County", "Investigation Continues Into F-15 Crash"; the subject quote is from the second linked story.)

Himself said there were chaplains running all over today asking people if they felt "affected" by the crash. When asked, he replied that since no-one was hurt and the jet's replaceable, he didn't really care. The chaplain just nodded and displayed a cheerfully blank look, so he continued that it really just meant one less jet to work on, though he bet the last maintainers to work on the downed jet were soiling their pants. The chaplain just nodded again and went on to the next guy.

After recapping all of this for me, he said: "I wish I could take you into work tomorrow." I was confused until he explained they're having steak tomorrow as part of some event honoring someone. Heh. I knew it couldn't be Bring Your Favorite Boobs To Work Day.

I've been trying to get more phenergan (for nausea caused by chronic sinusitis) since November with little success, but I finally scored! Apparently the trick was to get him to call, since I continually got the run-around trying to get an appointment myself. (I'll post a comment about that if anyone's interested, otherwise it's boring and mildly whiny.) We also went during walk-in hours, which was surprisingly fast. The killer was the wait after my initial vitals for a PA, which was nearly 45 minutes, but once she got to me I was in like Flynn. (:

I now have a two-week course of Levaquin (I'm buying an acidophilus supplement tomorrow), and a month's worth (plus three refills each) of Allegra-D and Flonase. I have to wait for phenergan because they're out of the tablets right now at the clinic pharmacy (could have gotten suppositories), but the real coup is that I finally got the ENT referral I've been trying to get for ages.

Now I can only hope this ENT is better than my experience in Virginia, where I paid $375 for a 15 minute consult where I got to see the inside of my nose on a 27" video screen. (That ENT was also kind enough to inform me that the CT scan I'd had the month before was done the wrong way to show my sinuses, but if I get my records from Virginia, I'll try to get a print I can scan and show everyone the inside of my head.)

This recently came up in militaryspouses; most of it's a repeat if you followed the thread of "I don't knows" there where someone asked "Is it true that a blue star represents a loved one in the war?". (If you're not a member, it was a protected entry and you're not missing anything.)

( History of the Blue Star service banner )

( Where to buy or get a printable version of the banner )

Just a little (non-forwarded) humor to share...

Earlier this year, my husband's BOA debit card wore out (he didn't handle it as gently as he could) and our local branch suggested we should both go in and have our photos taken for their new photo bank cards. It took us some scheduling since their only employee that handles the photo bit is in on odd hours, but we finally got the photos done four weeks ago.

Today our respective cards arrived with the "call now to activate" stickers over the section of the card front where the photo is. He opened his first and groaned... then showed me that our photos are reversed on the cards.

I'm calling the bank tomorrow.

( 36kb .jpg scan of our mixed-up cards )

Tonight's episode of Dateline NBC (10 PM Eastern), "Justice for Shannon", features the story of Shannon Scheiber's rape-murder, with interviews with her family, the police, and other victims of Troy Graves. I'm taping it for Himself, but anyone who wants to borrow it or make a copy later is welcome to.

(For those of you new to the story, Graves was sentenced to life in prison last year after surrendering to the police. In the time between the Philadelphia and Fort Collins periods of his crimes, he enlisted in the Air Force, where he was my husband's roommate at Medina Annex, Lackland AFB.)

Humble apologies to the fabulous Etiquette Grrls for the title.

It'd be redundant to post this to militaryspouses since anyone there that doesn't practice OPSEC is either clue-resistant (and probably claims to be so amazing they are exempt from communicating like an intelligent being) or will act offended in response to a reminder, so this is for the rest of you who might be curious. It's behind a cut for your convenience and I've edited it lightly for clarity after receiving it from a mailing list I subscribe to.

( Read more... )

Three phenergan left. I am thisclose to calling the clinic and refusing to hang up until I get an appointment. I haven't seen a doctor since November 2001 so you'd think I could get one appointment just to get more phenergan since we never go in and rarely bother them. Bah.

Himself bought me a pillow in hopes of appeasing my back problems. $28 TempSoma from Sam's Club, memory foam core with down-filled cover. So far it's okay, but no dramatic improvement. Also, it smells funny (must be the foam, because the down comforter I've had for a few years has never smelled).

Thinking seriously about the 10-mile fun ride at the Tarwheel Century in April. Himself could easily do the third century (33 miles) without upping his current biking much, but I don't have that kind of endurance yet.

Speaking of endurance, female ejaculation is very draining.
[EDIT: Sorry for severely squicking you out by that, revme. As I explained to Ben, it's a learned thing and I am very happy to have finally done so.]

vogonpoet, I miss you.

As usual, my sinuses did not actually explode, although it would have been a more intense relief than giving birth if they just would already. I apologize to those of you that attempted to IM me on Friday night and experienced my sinus-induced sensitivity to sound.

I spent the majority of the weekend attempting sleep. During this time, Himself made sure we did our monthly Sam's Club run (and let me push the cart, but I haven't seen anything on the news about flattened people so I must've done all right despite being dopey), helped me select the correct graph paper (10 squares/inch) at Staples for charting cross-stitch, and ran several loads of laundry.

I have 5 phenergan tablets left. As much as I hate to do so, this week I'm going to get an appointment even if I have to say I'm bleeding from the ears. I keep getting put off because I'm honest and say I can deal with my sinus pain but would like to see a doctor about more phenergan. This time I'm going to say I'm out and if they can't give me an appointment within the month, I'm going to walk over and wait until someone sees me. (Last time they made me do this I puked on the floor, so hopefully this time I won't have to go in three times and all but prostrate myself on the floor to get a new scrip for something I've been on for 6 years anyway.)

Incidentally, we all have colds now. If we didn't have Zicam I'm sure it'd be less tolerable.

Flame, e-mail me about this upcoming weekend. I should brief you on what I actually have in my kitchen. (Good news: I found the flannel sheets for the futon, so now all I need to locate is a comforter. Heh.)