It is finished.

Thank heaven.

I somehow was convinced to be the Assistant Treasurer for our local CG spouses' club. Sounds easy enough, right? There is no attendance requirement, so if Lu'au is having a bad day, I don't HAVE to be at meetings. They said I was in charge of taking the membership forms and entering them into a spreadsheet to be made into a directory. This could be done, they said, at my own pace with no real deadlines. Cool. Sounds like the perfect responsibility list for me! I'm happy to help, so I said yes. (Surely there are some retired Admirals' wives' dressed in white gloves and pearls, giggling in a corner because they have pulled off another con on an unsuspecting junior officer's wife.)

That whole little "entering membership forms" doesn't really mean *only* that. It means being places to ADVERTISE membership. Like the Coast Guard Day picnic. No problem. I can plan volunteers to be there, coordinate with the Picnic Chair to get us a table... as soon as I can find out who that person is. I can do that.

Oh yeah, the membership kick-off event is a Welcome Tea, usually held at the Commandant's house. And guess who plans that? The ASSISTANT treasurer! Uh... ok. So much for "at my own pace" and "with no real deadlines".

I like planning parties... but this one seemed a little "higher stakes" than most parties I plan. There were about 80 people there - from the Commandant himself (who, ironically enough, I didn't ever speak with) to other Admirals wives & husbands, to other lowly spouses like me.

I tried to plan the best I could and I think things went pretty well overall. I was in charge of announcing new members and I think I missed a few. And then I forgot to ask if there was anyone I missed. Ooops. So much for welcoming someone into the group.

Being the people-pleaser I am, I am really nervous that people weren't happy with the event. That I did something wrong. That I forgot something important. AND IT'S ALREADY DONE. And yet I'm worrying. Worrying that my major (yet still unknown to me) faux-pas will somehow affect my husband's career. Worrying that I shouldn't have agreed to help in the first place. Worrying that I was way in over my head...

So much for day-after regrets. Hopefully everyone had fun. I'll make it up to the new members and send them a letter or email or some sort of concession.

le sigh.

"87 - more than just a Coastal Patrol Boat" or "Yay for HALIBUT Day!"

Ok, so you all know by now that I'm kind of a dork when it comes to the Coast Guard. Reference me getting my picture taken with ADM Allen at my graduate school graduation.

You now have more fuel for your fire -
When CO and I were counting down until our wedding, I would try to make big numbers a little more relevant by comparing them to lengths of Coast Guard cutters (hey, doesn't EVERYONE do that?). We started off with the Eagle (the CG's training barque - that CO was on while at the Academy), and moved down from there...

We got really excited when it got down to 110 (he was on a 110-foot ship at the time), and then 87, and 82...

It would have been cool had we been counting down the same way for the baby's due date. But alas, pregnancy brain has taken full control over my faculties and we have not been counting this way. But today is the day! Today is 87 days - and 87 feet equal the size of Marine Protector Class Coastal Patrol Boat (I don't know why it's called a boat when it's technically a ship). And CO used to be on one of those, the HALIBUT... Yay!

I also have one more chance at playing this game. In 5 days, we'll be down to 82' ships. And we'll celebrate POINT BRIDGE Day! (82s are now decommissioned so don't try to look them up as being active.)

The list is out.

THE list. You know, the one we get to look at, analyze, and choose where we want to be for the next few years. THE LIST.

What do you do if you don't really like most of the options?

CO has always gotten cool assignments. This time, Alabama's on the list. Uh (pause). I'm not sure I'd be suited for Alabama. There's one good place on the list - we'd be happy to live there. We'd already have a house, a church, friends within a few hours...

sigh.

Today I'm thankful for...

- a pasta shop within walking distance of our current apartment. It makes heavenly pasta - fresh and cheap. Hallelujah!

- my absentee ballot arriving! CO already mailed his back to his state of residency. I got my ballot in the mail yesterday from Hawaii and am researching the issues on the ballot. Hmm... I have to figure out what I think about cannabis enforcement?

- chocolate. It makes me happy.

- the fact I don't have to work tomorrow! Woohoo! No screaming at me by some little "ankle-biter" tomorrow!

- all the friends/family having babies.

- my family's health. I'm reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It's really interesting.

- the chance to live in Australia. We're loving it! (As evidenced by the fact my husband got to go surfing at Bells AGAIN today!).

- my CO having a stable, good job that he enjoys. He really believes in what the Coast Guard does and really likes his job. I'm thankful they sent him to grad school and consented to let us go to Australia for part of it.

- my birthday being a short time away. Well, I might as well celebrate it!

I'm a bad American

So, this week has been a big week in American politics. And Australia has been covering it pretty well. But why does that make me a bad American? Um... I'm registered to vote. Kind of.

Yeah, the former poly-sci professor doesn't have an updated voter registration. You see, I was registered and did vote in Hawaii, but I haven't gotten a new driver's license since I moved to the South. It's not fair that dh can keep residency where ever he wants, and I have to change every 6 months when the military moves him/us. So, whatever. I still have my Hawaii drivers license. Plus, it was a great picture.

The state of Hawaii sent me a nifty little notification thing when we were at dh's family's house in FL that my address wasn't up to date. So now what do I do? I wasn't going back to the state in the South for another 6 months. I don't really live in Florida (and who knows if my vote would have counted - hanging chads and all...). And I don't live in Hawaii. So... I did nothing. And now I'm not registered to vote. In one of the greatest elections of my voting career thus far.

Any suggestions, anyone??

Pictures: San Fran, CG-style

We visited the Bertholf just hours after its commissioning. We got to take a tour - in a group of people. Some were civilians, but there were two Captains (rank) and they asked good questions. It was strange to be in a CG setting with dh in civilian clothes.

The Bertholf is a pretty ship!

Me in front of the Bertholf

We got to see our Navy League friends from Hilo. They came for the ship commissioning, and would have given us tickets had we arrived in time. We went out for lunch with them and caught up on Hawaii happenings. They're the reason I joined the Navy League.

Happy (belated) Coast Guard Day

Happy Belated Coast Guard Day!

We finally made it to San Francisco yesterday and celebrated CG day by touring the Bertholf and the exchange :) (yes, I did marry dh for the exchange privileges). Pictures of the Bertholf to come later. It's a pretty ship, very streamlined, and almost Navy-like (spaces are enclosed, rather than open like on 378's). I liked it. It makes me laugh though - a brand new ship, they *just* got it to SF and they're going to have to send it to drydock. I guess it's to work out the kinks of the first ship in its class... but still. Drydock before really being underway?

I'm excited today to see Dan & Dee, our Navy League friends from Hilo. They were here to watch the commissioning (and got tickets for us) but we flew in just as the ceremony started. (Secretly I think dh was happy about missing the ceremony, but whatever.) We're going to meet up with them today and also putz around San Francisco. I don't want to do anything stressful - just enjoy the last few days on American soil. We're getting really excited for our next big adventure :)

August Updates

We're still here in Florida. We had thought about heading west today, but it ended up not working out. I'm a little disappointed because if we could have made it, I could have gotten to see the Bertholf commissioning. I thought it would have been cool; dh thought it was "just another 45minute ship commissioning..." But we're here, and it'll be good to spend a few more days with dh's family before we're gone for such a long time.

In other CG-related news, dh made the next rank - woohoo!!!

Also, travel claims stink. I mean, talk about bureaucracy at its worst (hahaha no offense Jen, my bureaucratic friend). It seems that the CG doesn't know what to do with us - first by being in grad school. They had no idea what to do with dh for his internship this summer... it's been horrible trying to get all of our paperwork done to go abroad because he doesn't have access to CG computers and therefore the CG networks. Grrr... paperwork stinks, but we think we're finally working it all out.

It's hard to imagine that in less than a week, we'll be in Australia! I still feel very under-prepared for it, and perhaps that's best. And the parts that I'm thinking about are quite trivial. Current thought going through my mind "remember to get measuring cups and spoons from the exchange because you don't really want to deal with the whole metric conversion stuff." Yeah, moving to another country and I'm worried about having to convert 500 grams of flour into something I already know.

DH and I drove a few hours and went to visit his grandmother in her nursing home. She has a cool story - she is Australian and met dh's grandfather (a storekeeper in the Army) when he was stationed over there in WWII. They fell in love, married, and then he was transferred back to the states. She took a warship to the states (I think it was norwegian?) and set up her life here. It's really quite interesting, I think. These days she lives in a nursing home and has advanced Alzheimer's Disease. It was neat though that when we visited, she got very excited to have people there to visit her, and we actually saw little moments of the true Nana dh grew up with.

I'm going to add some more pictures to the days below. I like to look back and remember what happened.

Sorry for the rants...

Martha Stewart got boarded?

Well, the boat she was on did get boarded.

Check out her story here.

And yes, shamefully, I will admit. I read her blog.

Long shot...

Anyone know what style Rockport shoes would best go with a dress uniform?

Is it the Margins?

Hurry up and wait

I am pretty sure that's the military's unofficial motto.

In our case, we're waiting on what we're going to do this summer. As in less than 4 weeks from now. Most business school students that are finishing their first year (like my beloved dh) are heading off in the next few weeks to exciting places to do internships with fabulous companies. My dh knows he's not allowed to do that. He's just waiting to see if/where the Coast Guard wants him. Ideally, he'd be out West working on finance projects. They want him there. He asked his detailer to go there (a detailer is the person who tells us where we're going to go). The detailer hasn't gotten back to him yet. I'm all about being flexible. I like a little bit of mystery. I like adventure. But with us planning* to leave the country in August, I kind of feel like that is more than enough unknown for me.

*Oh yeah, and conveniently, the type of visa that we need can't be applied for until 124 days from the start of school. And fyi, it's not that time yet. It's really quite annoying - as we can't even work further on our visa application until 124 days from the start of school. And we need the visa before we can go on to other things. Grrrrr.

I guess now is the part where I learn patience.


HWotD:
'ano'ano - seeds
"ah-no-ah-no"

So I finally got around to reading ALCOAST 164/08

ALCOAST 164/08
COMDTNOTE 1754
SUBJ: WEB-BASED ACCESS TO SKILLSOFT TRAINING FOR SPOUSES

as taken from COAST GUARD MESSAGE SYSTEM at
http://www.uscg.mil/announcements/
on 9 April 2008. Comments in red are my own.

1. THE COAST GUARD REALIZES THE CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY
MANY SPOUSES ATTEMPTING TO FIND EMPLOYMENT DURING AND
AFTER RELOCATION TO A NEW DUTY STATION.
(Really? You could have fooled me.)
A MOBILE CAREER CAN BE DIFFICULT TO MANAGE AND DEVELOP.
(Shocker! So having a different job every year ISN'T
helping me find a new job, even with a Master's degree?)
I AM PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE AVAILABILITY OF A TOOL THAT
CAN HELP GROW PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SKILLS IS NOW BEING
MADE AVAILABLE TO SPOUSES AND DEPENDENTS OF ACTIVE DUTY AND
RESERVE PERSONNEL. THE SKILLSOFT TRAINING SYSTEM WILL ALLOW
SPOUSES AND DEPENDENTS TO MAINTAIN SKILLS OR OBTAIN NEW
TRAINING TO ASSIST WITH THEIR JOB SEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT.


So, it continues. Btw, I don't think I could ever be military.
They shout at you even in emails. All caps all the time.


2. SKILLSOFT IS AN ONLINE TRAINING SYSTEM PREVIOUSLY
AVAILABLE ONLY TO COAST GUARD MEMBERS, THAT INCLUDES COURSES
IN LEADERSHIP, PROJECT MANAGEMENT, COMPUTER APPLICATIONS,
AND OTHER GENERAL COURSES AS WELL AS ONLINE BOOKS. EFFECTIVE
IMMEDIATELY, SPOUSES OF ACTIVE DUTY AND RESERVE PERSONNEL ARE
ABLE TO ACCESS THIS PROGRAM FROM ANY COMPUTER WITH INTERNET
ACCESS.



Has anyone tried this? What does it do? What kinds of
training does it offer? Maybe I'll try it myself. I have
time. I can only get a part-time job.

Who??

Dh came home from school the other day and told me the name of one of his professors. I gasped in awe, and asked, "for real?" in my best valley girl impression. And sure enough, his professor's name is Edmund Fitzgerald. For those of you (aka my sisters) who haven't spent the last few years of their lives obsessing over maritime history (and really, maritime museums are a good idea for family vacation activites), Edmund Fitzgerald was the name of the ship that was lost in one of the most famous Great Lakes shipwrecks.

I've been intrigued by this for the past few days and have looked up more details about the wreck from some of the the most reliable sources known to man, including my favorite, wikipedia. And this paragraph reminded me of so much: "A documentary created and aired by the Discovery Channel investigated a large "fold" found in the hull plating... Through the use of wave tanks and computer simulation, the Discovery Channel team concluded the loss of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was due to a Rogue wave." Oh yes! I remember now! Also on our family vacation, I made/encouraged my sisters watch the aforementioned Discovery Channel program. Hence my new-found fear of rogue waves.

Also on the wikipedia entry, it says that "Coast Guard Cutter Woodrush [the cutter who was sent to the scene] was replaced by a brand new buoy tender in 2001, USCGC Maple. On her maiden voyage, the Maple visited the final resting place of the Edmund Fitzgerald and dropped the last Woodrush life ring down to the wreck."

I love stuff like this! Perhaps I'll see if Netflix has any documentaries about it and I can add it to my queue.

You know your husband is a cutterman when...

He can back a ship in to its moorings faster than he can back a car into its parking space.

Military 101

I should have known we were going to move again within the next few months. The sign? I just ordered return address labels.

I'm baaaaack!

We're back.

We really enjoyed our condo, rented through the Armed Forces Vacation Club. It was clean and nice, and good sized for the 8 people we had there. It was a really good deal for a week, and they have rentals all over the US and the world (CONUS and OCONUS for all of you military people - lol). We think it might be helpful for our next PCS, as a condo could have a kitchen and space... Everyone that we talked to through the AFVC was really helpful. I'd recommend them!

On the down-side, we really hadn't done our homework as to which condo to choose from the AFVC's site. We chose one that was in the middle of Sevierville, a town my sister described as "redneck ghetto-licious". It wasn't THAT bad... but let's just say that the view out of our window was Wal-Mart.

We had a great time with my sisters and my nieces, and later in the week, my parents. All of them drove down from the great north. More updates and thoughts to come later :)

This is for you, sisters. Maybe they'll come out with it on Guitar Hero sometime soon. We could only hope.

It's Monday. Am I supposed to be happy?

For those of you who don't know, I've taken a week off from the preschool and am working at a flower shop for about a week leading up to Valentine's Day. Working at a flower shop has been therapeutic. There's just something about flowers that are very happy. I'm not doing floral design, but instead taking orders, cleaning, and processing flowers.

So, I took a lot of orders. They kind of range from normal to pitiful. Guys - have an idea of what you want to get before you order. If you don't know, it's ok to ask. But please, have your message in mind when you call a florist. There's only so much we can help with... writing your personal note is something YOU should do. Not the friendly helper on the phone.

Another note, if you don't know a girl's last name, you probably shouldn't be buying her flowers. It makes me fee very sad that you are that lonely.

I've been taking Hawaiian classes online and today I got a Hawaiian words magnet set in the mail along with a cool picture dictionary. It made my day.

Also - I forgot what it was like to have dh gone for a while. He went to California this weekend to see his brother, and so I was alone Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was lonely! I used to survive pretty well a week or two when dh was underway (out on the ship) and not bat an eye. But I could barely survive 3 days this time! What kind of weak military wife am I? On the other hand, the ship experience was good for teaching me how to go out to eat alone. I no longer feel awkward when dining by myself, which I did this weekend. But he's home now, and I'm happy!

You had me at... the Thadmiral

I was planning not to watch the State of the Union (either with or without the game) but as I was sitting and eating my fabulous German Apple Pancake (orignially from my blogging soulmate, Swiss Ms.). I decided to turn on the tv and venture away from "Make Me a Supermodel." And who popped onto my screen, but Adm. Thad Allen, the Commandant of the Coast Guard. I knew I couldn't change the channel with the Thadmiral on the screen. After all, he did pose for a picture with me at GWU's graduation. He and the retired James M. Loy (how could I not after the Curse of Semper Paratus speech?) are my Coastie Heroes. And Adm. Allen has been a great Commandant who has had to deal with a ton of sticky issues and has come through amazingly.

I tuned in at the perfect time. Just the right amount of little sneaky, giddy, silly grins by the President. And just in time for the bit about "supporting military spouses" and something about helping them find jobs... I wish that I could have been there for the parts about international issues, but I think I'd rather read it.

Any comments on the SotU?

Academy days

Dh went to the CG academy. And lived through it. He also loves basketball.

This video of freshmen (4/c) makes him happy.

Do they have PowerPoint?

At the preschool I work at, this week and next week the 4-year-olds are learning about "Community Helpers." They ask parents and grandparents to come in and share their experience about doing a certain job that helps the community. (Hence the term community helpers). So far they have a firefighter father, a veterinarian father, a dental hygienist mother, a seamstress mother and a few other people. I being the good slave, I mean, assistant teacher, asked if they needed a coastguardsman, which of course is logical, because the largest body of water in the area is Vanderbilt's pool (ok, that or the Cumberland River).

For some reason, the other teachers thought it was a good idea. Or perhaps they were just humoring me. Anyway, we slated DH to come and speak to the kids on Friday morning because DH doesn't have class on those mornings.

I go home and ask/tell DH that I've volunteered him for this wonderful task. He looked at me kind of confused, and the first question he asked was "Do they at least have PowerPoint?" Uh, no. I don't think the best medium for reaching 4-year-olds would be PowerPoint, honey. Thank heaven he was mainly referring to being able to show pictures. I told him I'd print some off for him.

In honor of that, today's word mildly relates to that story:

HWotD:

papa - class
"pa-pa"

I was in the papa makua in hula.