What Did You Find Under Your Birdfeeder Today?

Dan was out in the backyard and this is what he found under ours. It is about 5 feet long. Wonder if he ate a good meal right after shedding the skin. We have saved the skin so Cole can see it the next time he is at the house.

So how was your day?

John's Frocking Ceremony

A picture from John's frocking ceremony. For those of you not familiar with this practice, it's a custom in the Navy to let sailors who have been selected for promotion wear the uniform and accept the responsibilities of their new pay grade with out getting paid for it right now. John will get his pay raise sometime in the next six months, we hope it is sooner rather than later.

Congratulations again John and we are all very proud of you.

Enchanted

Went to see this movie yesterday. We were quite the group - Tammy, Sami, Cole, Breann, Nikki, Jason, and me. Decided to take our chances on the theater at the Loop. Didn't know what to expect when it came to parking. But when we arrived there were hardly any cars at the end with the theater.

Not many people were seeing movies at 0950 so we were pretty much the only people in the theater. We walked in and the previews started just after we sat down. I want to go see all the movies we saw previews for, but then I remember how much it costs now for a ticket and the concessions are just outrageous.

We all enjoyed the movie, it was very funny and had a happy ending, what more could we ask for.

After the movie we were heading up to see Chris. Stopped at the first Burger King we came to for his lunch. Pull up to the drive through and Tammy orders 5 hamburger, no pickle and the voice comes back with their broiler is broken and they have no burgers. So off we went to the next Burger King. We crossed over from John Young to the Trail and this time we were able to get burgers, but the girl handed the bag to Tammy and it only had one burger, well we finally got all the burgers and off we went. Got as far as Sam's and the traffic really wasn't moving so we crossed back over to John Young and went up to Sand Lake to get to Chris's store. This was really easier in the long run because we were on the right side of the street.

The store was very busy so just dropped of the burgers and Tammy picked up the package she needed to get. Found out later from Chris he was working on pulling merchandise for a family from Brazil, took him 3 hours to get it all. Guess how much they spent!!! Seven thousand dollars, you read right seven thousand. Guess the store did pretty good yesterday.

We got out of Dodge and onto the turnpike, dropped Nikki and Jason off and went to get the kids some lunch. Sonic and McDonalds took care of that. Then over to my house to work on some Christmas Crafts although Cole and Breann were much more interested in playing with the rocks in the Navy room.

Pretty much called it a day ofter that.

John's Promotion is Official

John's promotion is listed in the Navy Times this week. It is definitely official now.

Kim's Thanksgiving

Now we have proof that Kim got a turkey dinner. Still would have liked to have had her at ours, next year for sure.

(I stand corrected :-) - Kim had prime rib for dinner, not turkey. )

Happy Thanksgiving

What a great day! It was so wonderful to talk to Leesha, she called just after everyone arrived and talked to everyone. Still hard to believe she lives in Omaha.

Sami and Breann came early and helped me get everything ready for the day. Made place cards and decided where everyone would sit for the big meal. Breann hung the candy canes all over the house, never knew where you were going to find them.

Then we got Elfed. Office Max had the cute and funny program that you could put you face on an elf and it would dance. We had lots of fun with that. I'm sure we will be seeing a few more of those popping up.

Everyone started arriving at about noon. Munched away on pepperoni, salami, cheese, crackers, veggies, and some wonderful fudge (Jeannie made that, where did she find the time).

Turkey was served just a little after 2 - it was a great meal. My turkey tester (Dad) was right on with checking for turkey doneness. Sami made some delicious carmelized onions, I think they were my favorite part of the meal, well beside the pies.

Got the table all cleared and served up the pie. Your choice of Key Lime, Peanut Butter Cup, Pecan, or Pumpkin or any combinations of those and we had lots of different combos. Topped them off with cool whip and we had some mighty satisfied customers.

Then it was off to watch football, Green Bay won, take a nap or clean up the kitchen. Mum, Tammy and I were the cleanup crew. It went pretty fast so that wasn't to bad.

The last of the guests left at about 1830 or so, it seemed so much later. It sure felt good to just sit down and relax.

Will be back later with the exciting tales of Friday.

Just remembered John is getting frocked on Friday, pretty exciting.

Heros

Just got my every Tuesday call from Andy so we can discuss last nights episode of Heros. We review what happened, if either of us caught something the other didn't, if it reminded us of things from past seasons, also things we would like to see happen and just general thoughts. Then we talk about next week previews, what did that 2 seconds shot of so and so mean, what do we think is going to happen. Then of course we commiserate with each other that there are only 2 more new episodes.

And how was your Monday?

What Happens At Your House After a Big Meal?

Well this is ours, you have the sleepers and the gamers. Not the best pictures, didn't want to use the flash so had some pretty long shutter speeds but you get the idea. Not to be forgotten, Riley was trying to sleep but only got in about a 1/2 hour and he was very tired, he will sleep well tonight.

Andy, Nikki and Riley came over today. Andy and Chris helped Dan get the Christmas decorations out of the attic and then they did some shifting around of stuff that was up there. Now it is my turn to get to work. Will probably start setting up the tree and other stuff this coming weekend, usually takes me 1 - 1 1/2 weeks to get everything done.

Had a great meal of ribs, mashed potatoes and salad. Then just spent the afternoon together.

To backtrack a bit, yesterday I spent the day with Jodi working on a scrapbook for her sister. We put in a bunch of hours and it was well worth it. Got lots of pages completed and they turned out great. Jodi did a fantastic job and I'm sure her sister will love it.

That pretty much covers our weekend hope everyone enjoyed theirs as much.

Congratulation to John

Just got the good news from John, Second Class test results are out and he will be promoted. Not sure when, but that doesn't matter the hard part is done for now.

Do You Want to Know Where We Went Today?

Guess the pictures are self explanatory. Tammy caught me online this morning and asked if I had any plans for the day, of course I didn't and I was really hoping she had something very exciting in mind (I would have been happy with a trip to WalMart). But she went above and beyond. She, Mum and Dad were going to IKEA and did I want to go. Well of course I did when would they be over to pick me up. Not until 0830 and that was forever.

I put the time to good use by watching one of my Tivo'd shows and yelling at Chris. Not really, I yelled at Chris last night so I didn't have to do it again this morning. If I don't yell at least a couple of times a week he starts to feel left out and rejected so I do it just so he feels loved.

Everyone arrived just as Chris was leaving for work so they all had to get out and give him a hug, they were beginning to think he had moved away it has been so long since they've seen him.

Hit the road and it took us no time to get to the store. There were hardly any cars in the parking lot and no line to speak of waiting to get in. It looked like they were expecting another big day so I'm sure the crowds will be arriving later.

We stood in line until 0930 when the restaurant and showrooms opened. Of course our first stop was the restaurant. Had a cinnamon bun snack, the only drawback was they are a Pepsi place. Next time we have to come later so we can have lunch.

Everyone had made fun of me because I brought my IKEA catalog with all the pages marked for things I wanted to get. Well, we saw people with catalogs, notebooks, lists, tape measures and just about anything else you can think of that would help you in choosing furniture. Better to be prepared I always say.

We wandered through the showroom. Mum was looking for an armoir, Tammy was looking for a table and a dresser and I was getting small stuff for storage in my craftroom. We were successful with armoir and table. After the showroom we went downstairs to the Marketplace where the small items can be picked up. This is where I got all the stuff I wanted.

Next was the warehouse. Mum's armoir didn't have a location so I checked on the computer and got a printout to take to full service so they can pull that item for us.

We walked right up to the checkout with no wait. Tammy and I went outside to figure out what we needed to do to get to the loading dock. She went to get the vehicle while I waited with the stuff and Mum and Dad waited for their armoir. Well for a while I thought she had gone home without us. She took quite the tour to get to the loading area and every traffic person told her something different, usually contradicting the last person. But she finally made it and we got all loaded up.

We ended up spending more than 2 hours looking around in IKEA, can't wait to come back.

What a weekend, we spent it over at the beach. Dan got home at a decent time on Friday afternoon and we headed to Cape Canaveral. Took us just over an hour and there was no traffic until we hit the 528 but we were only on that for about 8 miles.

Got all checked in and all our stuff up to the room. Time for dinner and went in search of a Taco Bell. The first on we came too was just south of Ron Jon's. After eating walked down to the beach. There were quite a few people, didn't go anywhere, just looked around and watched a cruise ship pulling out.

Back to the hotel for the night, looking forward to a catless night and seeing if we could sleep until a decent hour (say 0600) so we can adjust to the time change. Well that was blown out of the water when at 0500 we woke up to alarms and lights going off everywhere. Pulled on some presentable clothes, grabbed my camera and down we went to the front of the hotel. One hallway we walked by had water running from the ceiling.

About 2 minutes later two fire trucks and rescue squads drove up. All this time the alarms are still going off. No smoke or flames so that was a good sign. We walked over to the RaceTrack store to get a soda to pass some time. This whole time the firemen were in the mechanical room figuring things out. Turned out to be a faulty sprinkler line and they had to purge it.

Well we were up for the day now. Back to the room for showers, coffee for Dan, and read the paper. It was finally time for breakfast to be served in the lobby. They had a really good selection. Dan had biscuits and gravy and I had cereal and a banana.

Ron Jon's was next on our list, always the best time to shop there, first thing in the morning. We were the only customers, although we did get tired of being asked if we needed any help? We spent about an hour wandering around and checking stuff out.

Dropped our purchases in the car and went to the beach for a walk. Lots of birds on the beach, quite a few people, a couple of fishermen and a few surfers. Walked to the pier and then went up to the main road (A1A) and walked back to the car.

Took a ride towards Melbourne and went by the beach houses, they look really nice. At least one must have been rented because there were 7 cars parked outside of it.

Rode around until lunchtime and decided on Olive Garden. Dan had the mixed grill - chicken, steak and vegetables. I had the grilled shrimp caprese. All of it was very tasty.

Stopped at WalMart on our way back to the hotel. Needed to walk around a bit to work off some of our lunch because we were very full. Spent the afternoon at the hotel. Read some magazines, and watched some tv.

At about 1700 it was off to Publix to get subs for dinner. After eating we still had about 2 hours before the Delta 5 rocket was going to go up so I needed a nap, this mornings rude awakening was catching up to me.

Dan woke me up at about 2030 and out to the parking lot we went to wait. It was about 10-15 minutes late taking off but when it did it certainly lit up the sky and we could hear the roar of the rocket for a long time. Saw the booster rocket separate and we watched until it was out of sight. Called it a night after that.

With no alarms going off we slept until 0630, felt pretty good. Our bill was already under the door so we were all set to leave. Packed up. Went to breakfast in the lobby and we were on our way.

Got home at about 1000. Had a really nice weekend. Can't wait to do it again.

Civic Duty Fulfilled

Today Dan finally got his chance to sit on a jury. He has been waiting for many years, just couldn't understand why both Andy and Chris were called before him.

He turned out to be pretty lucky. He was in the first group of potential jurors to be questioned and then he was pick from that group to sit on a jury for a trial. If he hadn't been pick he would have gone back to the bullpen (can you tell I just watched the World Series) to wait for his number to be called again. There were lots of trials today and no one seemed to be getting off. He was also pretty lucky because the trial was done and over with today.

He found it very interesting and is already looking forward to the next time he gets called.

Look Who's 21...Finally!

Can't believe that Andy is 21 today. We celebrated by going to breakfast at Denny's with Andy, Nikki, Riley, Ashley, Wally and Dan and I. Had a great breakfast, they serve way to much food but a couple of doggy boxes came home.

We also went to the Dollar Tree, we really know how to live it up, don't we. I have been on the look out for some clear Christmas ornaments and got a lead on the internet yesterday that this was the place to go. We did find the ornaments and few other things made it into the shopping cart.

Then it was home to get our chores done. Tomorrow is commissary shopping and that is an all day event. Even though we usually get home at about noon by the time everything is put away it is one and I don't feel like doing anything after that. Plus the big game is on sometime - New England against Indiannopolis both teams are undefeated, hope it is a good one.