Oh HOLY COW!! ALMOST ORDERS

It's not in official writing yet... but we are heading for Ft. Belvoir!!!! Our First Choice!!!! whew... So, now the lists start, gotta get to transportation, reserve a UHaul.... well, what about an apartment... oh sooooo much to do!

yay. this has been a long few months..


LAW

Renaissance Festivalitis and computer woes

I had forgotten how much fun the Ren Fest can be. I didn't drink - so migraine didn't rear it's ugly head. DH bought a kilt... NO, I don't have a picture to publish. sorry. And big surprise Janey (her funny blog is on the right, the Brit Milspouse - head on over!) , I didn't eat my head off either!
The people watching was as fun as ever. lordie lordie, the strange ones do wriggle out from under whatever rock they are hiding beneath. hee hee

My poor computer has decided to melt down it's Hard Drive, so the Geek Squad is still hard at it. I am hoping like crazy I don't lose a lot. ALL those bookmarks...all the milspouse ones! I'm hoping I get them back. This is my DHs computer he is letting me use. nice of him.

I am back at work, temping at my last job again for a little while. and waiting waiting for those orders.

anyway... see some of you at Standing By for the Army Wives discussion.

LAW

Another new Grandma!

One of my bestests friends just became a grandma! So welcome, Jayden Christine! We are all thrilled you are here. Your grandma, she's a peach!

LAW

Back home... missing my grandbaby

I'm back. My computer died. or at least succumbed to the cludge. My antivirus software told me it was time to renew... so I did. And it took forever, kept telling me I needed this, that and t'other... and suddenly I couldn't do anything. We were out of town, visiting the most perfect grandchild on the planet, so had to wait until today to take it to the Geeks and get home to use my DH's computer.

Anyway, I tell you that so you understand why I haven't been posting and keeping you up to date on the aforesaid darling child. see... I do these these things for a reason. Since I haven't been able to get on, I haven't checked on any of the other blogs I came to depend on. I'll be doing that tomorrow. Tonight, I have a lousy cold, flying with it was just NASTY.

No, no orders yet. Hopefully soon.....

LAW

MRIs, motorcycles, and such stuff

It's been a busy few days, folks. Since DH is home, we are packing, and going through lots and lots of stuff... lots of it is trash ! We are finding boxes and bins of stuff, and we are wondering why on earth we saved it. We are even finding boxes that haven't been unpacked since the last move, over 9 years ago. Tell me why we schlepped that garbage from the house to the storage locker, to the new house when we finished it and moved it countless times from one side of the root cellar to the other... We will be making our third trip to the thrift shop to drop off stuff tomorrow, these have been full size truck loads! and I won't miss any of it. Now if we could just figure out where to get rid of that Black & White Photo enlarger.....

I've had a pain in my neck (no, a REAL physical pain...not just all the other krep) so the Dr. and I decided an MRI to check on the cervical fusion I had a few years ago would be a good idea. Now these tests are not awful terrible, they don't involve a needle (my criteria for awful terrible) but they aren't fun. Noisy! so I got the results the next morning and all is well, I can have the traction and physical therapy, as well as letting my massage therapist work. Have an appointment with her this afternoon.

And he got a bike. Yamaha VStar 1100 Silverado, used but by an older person. yeah, I AM the one who said no big purchases. So I caved. So.... fine, I'm a weakling. But it was a great deal, and he has time while we wait for those damned orders to tool around and get used to it. And... this is NOT news to him, so don't worry, this is HIS car. Unless we end up somewhere where he can't ride it close to 3/4 of the year, this is his mode of transport to and from work. We are leaving both vehicles up here, selling them for what we can get. Mine has 177 thousand plus miles on it.. not wanting to start paying for repairs, the AC is very bad and the radio sucks. The Big Truck, we won't need anymore, it's over 11 years old and we used it to build the house... besides the mileage is lousy.

And we wait... still don't know where exactly we are heading, they have given us a few options and we are weighing those... but as all of my military readers know, that means diddly squat to the powers that be. WE know where we would like to go, and where we really really don't want to go. They won't give a damn (ok... dream of Rhett saying that to Scarlett..... Gable really was yummmm.... time's up!) and we know it. I'm keeping a good thought and researching housing, jobs, transportation, utility bills etc for all of the places. Makes me feel like I'm doing something constructive!

Time to get back to packing. TTYL

LAW

Packing Hints ( part one of ????)

Get a GOOD heavy duty paper shredder. Take the bills, the duplicate cheques, the duplicate orders... from 1999 -2004. Shred. (took about 3 days, letting the shredder cool down when it quit in a fit of pique and a very hot odour) use the shredded documents as padding for the really delicate "good stuff" crystal and figurines.

Get Space Bags as well as good sturdy plastic bins. space bags are hard to put in the truck so put the bags in the bins. Remember, (unlike this twit "speaking" to you) that even though the bags LOOK small, put enough of them in a bin, the bin is HEAVY!

Make sure your Thrift Shop takes everything else... and keep really careful records of what you donate. (and no shopping while you are in there, although if you DO find that perfect little black dress....what the DH doesn't know won't hurt, right?)

Before you decide to use PODS, make sure they come to your area. We are going to have to either beg for one to come this way, or use UHaul... Best laid plans etc etc.

Ok, that's it so far. As I remember more of my long lost packing skills (Haven't PCSed in a long time) I'll put it down. But if any of YOU have any hints, for heavens sake, let me know.

LAW

Insult all military wives, you insult me

There is a blogger who has decided that all military wives are stupid, dumb, and idiots for remaining military spouses. She calls herself "a feminist" and she decides that after three years of screaming at all of us and the military in general who don't bow to her greater intellect and intelligence, she was done. She has quoted some idiot who decided that military spouses are all subservient, that we condone our spouses being unfaithful, that don't say boo.. well, that made my husband laugh!! I've been a feminist since before she was born! So has he.

When I commented on her blog, she got terribly upset, deciding that I was personally insulting her. However, of course, she won't publish my comment... oh, don't try to get to her site.... she's decided to make it invitation only. hmmmm. that's called not having the strength of your convictions, if you can't allow someone to criticise or oppose your way of thinking....ah well. so much for having a deep conviction in what you believe.

SO - to the Formerly Feminist military wife - Click here: On being a feminist & military spouse

Honey, you may have a dozen degrees, a veritable alphabet soup behind your name. Well, so do many others, including another blogger I have discussed this with, who is equally insulted by your ridiculous generalities. I told you that if you had that opinion about all military wives, you should look in the mirror since you are defining people, and if you don't like yourself, get some counseling. I also told you that you should take your degrees and your attitude and cram it, after you decided that anyone who willingly stays with their military spouse without demanding that the military change, was an idiot, and not a feminist. Course, no one knows how I insulted you, you are too scared to publish it. So do us all a favour, take your degrees, and leave us alone. We have enough problems. I refuse to be defined by anyone, especially someone who is so dismissive of thousands of women and men who are military spouses. I detest being slotted by any definition, feminist, liberal, military wife, white female.... whatever. Your decision to reinforce all the stereotypes that we military spouses are labeled with, is of no help to any of us at all, especially those of us who refuse to be categorized and stuffed in a pigeonhole. So don't, ever, label one of us again.... we are individuals, even you. After all, I didn't say that EVERY overeducated, self important female was a jerk.

LAW

The Bridge Collapse

I used to go over that bridge, every day, for the past two and a half years.... Today, we drove over the bridge for the first time in weeks (my project ended/temp paralegal about 2 weeks ago) But - I had a hair appointment and it's taken me YEARS to find this cutter and he's downtown - and I wanted to have lunch downtown with friends, then we were going to a mall - do some shopping and meet up with a friend for dinner. We went over the bridge the other way about 4 hours before it went down.

So... now the phone keeps ringing with people checking in, the family, friends... and I have been emailing friends to make sure that no one was there... and there wasn't a bus on the bridge, I rode the bus everyday across that bridge, and we all got to be "friendly" as one does on the bus, chitchatting.

Wow. I look at the rubble and know exactly where that is! and the signs I looked at ... holy crap.

LAW