Centennial of Naval Aviation

Saturday after Neverland at Naval Air Station North Island we celebrated the Centennial of Naval Aviation. There was a large static display of the Navy and Marine Corps historical inventory of flying machines and later a demonstration which lasted for almost three hours. It was the largest dissimilar formation of airplanes ever, and the largest of any formation since entire fighter and bomber squadrons crossed the English Channel in WWII. It was quite a sight. I took most of the pictures included, but some are from the 'net. You'll see that we had excellent seats for viewing and napping during the lulls. The highlight for me was seeing the Grumman F6F fly-by since RBDI piloted this type plane during his career and seeing Redwolf 202, an HH-60H I flew in combat, right next to a UH-1H flown by the Seawolves in Vietnam.

Cyber Hacked!

This past weekend (well Thursday-Tuesday, so more like, last week) I was enjoying a lovely place called Park City, you know riping it up in the pow, when something terrible happened. Well, if I just went out and told you, it would be way less interesting, so here's the lead in:



Our wolfpack of 5 met up at the top of the Motherload lift. Everyone was pumping tunes. Ready to rock. So we head down to epic-town with the plan being just to meet at the bottom of the lift. Well, while jammin out to some sweet tune-age, RBDIII misses the meet up point, and is now separated. After comms were re-established, I get a text that says something like, "My ski fell off at the bottom of lift, can you go get it?" For some reason, I find this particularly humorous, and point the skis downhill to located said ski. I get to the bottom to find the ski has already been sent back up. I'm riding the lift alone, and think, "Hey, I should check my email and make sure I'm not missing anything." 200 emails. Whoa. Definitely missed something.

Missed the fact...that I was CYBER HACKED!!!

Some loony-toon decided it'd be funny to send my friends, family, and business-folk alike some sort of spam link ranging from movie-looking links, to some, well, slightly more embarrassing links. Yikes.

What to do? I decide I need to write an apology for filling folks emails with what was seemingly a harmless email from a friend. I didn't really expect any real responses, but I got all sorts of responses. "I still hate you" responses, "What are you up to" responses, "I didn't get the email" responses, some business from people in the film world, and some thank you responses. I was most interested by the last group. Who knew that sending out an apology email for spamming peeps would elicit a thank you. Moral of the story, if you take a few seconds to do what you think "the right thing" is, people appreciate it. (Also, you can reconnect with people in your industry, but that's more self-serving and stuff).

Welp, here's to checking gmail on https from here on out. Hopefully more news to deliver in the coming weeks.

Don't Stand So Close To Me

I am reading a deliciously good book; one that has me grinning as I turn the page and wondering what could possibly happen next or when these idiots are going to get caught. I can't help but feel that this is the kind of book that I could write myself, if I had any knowledge of scandalous love affairs in New York City. I'm embarrassed to be enjoying it because it's not a classic or enlightening. So embarrassed in fact that I am thankful it's on my ipad so that I don't have to hide the cover on my bus rides; though I do still shield the screen from wandering eyes. The point of this is to say that on a gloomy, cold, rainy day in San Francisco I was looking forward to eating lunch at my desk and then locating a soft, comfortable reading chair somewhere with a hot tea to lose myself in Rachel and Dex's dramatic lives for what surely be a swift hour.

I try Tulley's coffee right by the office. Their chairs are less comfortable than my desk chair. I try Peet's Coffee and Tea (because it smells divine) only to realize that there are zero places to sit - forget comfortable! So I head to the old reliable Starbucks and resign myself to the fact that I'll have to get comfortable with bench seating next to two men having the typical "can I meet you for coffee to discuss my career" conversation and a woman chatting away into those ubiquitous white iphone headphones. Rachel, Darcy, Hillary and Dex beckon. I settle in with my medium vanilla latte and fire up the ipad.

Dreams squashed. Apparently I am much more approachable than people tell me. A young man, we'll call him Alex (because that's his name) sat down and without so much as a glance from me starting asking me questions. How are you? What do you do? How did you get interested in that? Are you the only girl in the office? Do you have plans this weekend? I promise, to all those readers out there who may be excited for a potential love interest in my life that they would not have entertained this particular option. Honest Promise. How do I exit the conversation gracefully? Here is how that exchange went down:

Me: I'm really interested in this book and only have a few minutes before I get back to work
Alex: Oh how great! An engineer that loves to read!
Me: Yep. (I'm half wanting to tell him that I am engrossed in chick lit but don't want to engage)
Alex: That's just so rare. What are your favorite books?
Me: All of them but maybe the one I'm trying to read now.
Alex: No, really. Pick one. I'll buy you a cupcake if we have the same one.
Me: I don't really want a cupcake but To Kill a Mockingbird or Monkey Wrench Gang
Alex: What are the chances? Me too! Chocolate, vanilla or red velvet?

Lunch time book diversion: Fail. Possible new friend in the city: Fail. Graceful exit: Fail. You can't make that stuff up my friends.

How Come You Don't Call Me?

Earlier this week I discovered that I do not get cell service in my office building. Giant bummer. Texts come in hours after they have been sent. Calls don't register until they've gone to voicemail. Words with friends barely registers. I've even lost connection to Pandora. It's all so troubling. Even though zero events in my own personal life require an immediate connection to those only reachable by phone, they've got a lot going on. So I sent out the following email:

Hello Family (and Friends)–
I’ve discovered that I don’t get cell service in the office building. So if you really need to reach me for matters relating to the following:
· Grandparent and other family drama
· Baby News
· Confirmation Hearing
· Deployment
· Big Breaks
· Teenage Wasteland
· Next Great American Novel or Short Story ideas

Or anything else you deem important enough to not be able to wait until my lunch hour or after work (or you just want to chat). Please call: xxx.xxx.xxxx
Keep in mind that I work in a small cubicle (some of you have been lucky enough to view it via webcam) so calling just to giggle is hilarious but unproductive.

Y’all rock.
TD

That's a lot of ground I have to cover for such a small inner circle! Interestingly enough - at least two of those events happened on that very day (not including the giggle inducing calls from LDL). Things that make you go hmm.

feeling left out

and so we are packing up and moving on ourselves!

our move is less like RBDIII and FTD who moved from the east to the west,

and more like CMD...a move across the street.

for us, this means packing up all of our belongings and driving them 1.5 miles

to our new townhouse.  i never thought i would be excited about living in a townhouse;

BUT we'll have 3 floors!  thats one floor for each hour that little p is awake!

and a dishwasher...oh how i can't wait for a dishwasher. 

life changing.

i'm trying to remain positive because i loathe moving,

and p loathes the sound of packing tape which makes it difficult to construct my boxes while he is awake,

but he isn't sleeping so great (duh) so i can't use it while he sleeps either.

oh dear.

so far this week i have packed 4 boxes.

one a day.

we move in 8 days.

i should get a "move" on it.

thanks for the help P man!

oh those long flowing locks...one day we'll cut it...when we aren't

puking or packing.  and maybe when the sun decides to come out.

i'm no use for anything in this weather. which is why p is always wearing his florida gear.

wishful thinking.

p.s.  sprout #2 is 13 weeks tomorrow and doing great. praise be to God!

spice up my life mom!

dear mrs. b,

lately i have been giving my mom a hard time about eating.

no one really believes this (probably because of my weight),

but i must admit, it's true.

this was me when she tried veggies or meat...

just playing and playing...this is a fun game,

the peas jump right off my tray if i push them just right.

i might try a carrot...

gross! who eats this stuff?

maybe my mom will eat it for me...

no luck.  sheesh.

but then, the best thing i ever ate in my short life

was introduced to me.

JAMBALAYA!!

(my mom says for you and PEW to please not judge...

she had to use what she already had on hand...)

recipe courtesy of mrs. b.

this stuff is delicious!

good.

so good.

thank you.

love,

sweet p

Friday Night in Neverland

A mutual friend had a going away party in SD last weekend. In keeping with tradition, she rented out the Pacific Beach VFW and put on a little costume party. We've had Rubik's cube, favorite MTV reality character, bar golf, and pajama themed parties there as friends have come and gone. Last weekend's theme was "Neverland." Even though we all vowed to attend wearing red leather jackets and gloves on a single hand, we succumbed to the real theme of "Never-Never Land." Pirate was the most common costume, and the best costume probably went to a pair arriving as Captain Hook and Smee. Tick Tock the Croc was also in attendance and scared most people not by threatening to chomp off their hands but by breaking kneecaps and ankles on the dance floor. Our roommates went as Tiger Lily, Michael Darling (complete with top hat and umbrella), John Darling (including teddy bear) and we got to claim the Croc as a member of our entourage. Of course Peter Pan was there in force, and we'll claim a few odd costumes (including a bear boy and the infamous Neverland banana) as part of the Lost Boys. As if living in PB and attending costume parties wasn't a big enough clue, our major weekend goal is to follow Peter Pan's direction: "Follow me and never worry about grown-up things again!" Of course, on Monday we'll have to start running from the shadows of the party nights!