Month: September 2007

Field Time

Well, my hubby is gone to the field. It’s so sad. It could be a couple of weeks before I hear from him or see him. The thing that sucks so badly about this is that they are right across the street and we can’t go over to see them. Rob wanted me to go and get video of the roll-out, but I was pretty sleepy. I awoke at 330 this morning and I was wide awake until around 6 or 7. I don’t know what time I fell asleep.

Casey is getting some rest and I’ve got a good smelling candle lit. I decided to put Desperate Housewives in the DVD player (I bought Season 3 last week) and I’m watching it. It’s my guilty pleasure.

Well, I’m going to finish watching 🙂 Tootles!

League Bowling Nights

I started league bowling tonight. I didn’t do very well, but I guess I did about my average. The first game I bowled a 94, the 2nd a 134 and the 3rd a 124. What’s with the 4’s tonight? LOL. It was pretty fun, though. More fun than it was in Heidelberg where everyone was just out to win, instead of having fun. If we win in the process of having fun, that’s fine, but my goal isn’t to win. But winning is fun, too. Well, anyway…Rob’s going to the field tomorrow morning and I haven’t seen him more than 5 hours in the last 10 days….actually, come to think about it, I don’t think I’ve seen him that much 😦

Oh well. I guess I’ll just get used to never seeing my husband. What a shame. Well, I’m going to bed. TTFN

HOLY SHIT

If you think that terrorist attacks can’t happen here in Germany, think again. Hanau and Ramstein were 2 of the targets.

Please read this story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070905/ts_nm/security_germany_suspects_dc_12

Some 300 police had tracked the suspects since December, when one of them was observed scouting out U.S. military barracks in the German city of Hanau, near Frankfurt.

Please stay vigilent and aware of your surroundings. Those OPSEC commercials are nothing to laugh about (even though the bunny, cat and mouse ones are really cute!)

Thanks for reading.

Exhausted

Well, I knew that when Rob was going to take command, I knew I’d see less of him. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be all the time. I walked to the shopping center today and I called him. No answer. So then, he shuts off his phone…grrrr. It would almost be easier if he were deployed because then at least I would be able to talk to him…lol it’s funny in an ironic sort of way, isn’t it?

Well, I don’t have a whole lot to say today. I’m going to sign off early.

TTFN

Just to get my thoughts out

Today, I don’t really have a whole lot to talk about, but I did want to get some thoughts out in a blog…just to get out! Anyway, the neighborhood is quiet today and the kids aren’t out too much because of the rain. Krystal and her son David came over today to see if Casey could have a play-date. It was so cute! David really loves that puppy! Krystal asked me this afternoon about the litter of puppies that we had heard about from the German vet and he is going to get more information for me and I shall call him back tomorrow to get more information. How exciting!

MythBusters is on TV right now and David Letterman is on another channel. I’m not really interested in that right now. I’ve got laundry strewn all over this house and Rob leaves for the field sometime this week. I really need to get this house in order. I can’t have people in this house the way it looks right now.

What am I going to fix for supper tonight? I could have chicken, but it’s frozen. Perhaps I’ll do a stir-fry or something. I need to give Rob a break–he’s been working so hard lately.

Gizmo and Casey were wrestling today and it was SO cute to watch, too bad that I didn’t get it on film…Gizmo was on the bottom and Casey had pinned him down.

Life is pretty good today. Hum, what to write about…Let’s check the news and see if I have any opinions about stuff that’s going on…

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2007/09/muni_wifi

This is a story about how cities were trying to get city-wide Wi-Fi access for free.


This is a great idea, but it’s really too bad that it can’t be done…That would be quite and undertaking though. Can you imagine going to every single US city and getting free Wi-Fi access? If that’s the case, then why would people buy it for their homes, if you could get it for free somewhere? Well, Perhaps users that want to have access outside of their homes and businesses should pick up the tab and then when you are roaming outside your home, you can use a log-in that is specific to the Wi-Fi available, kind of like what cell-phone companies do to allow access to the network via the users phone. The infomation is stored on the sim card and the phone companies know how you’re using your phone.

It’s interesting because this brings to mind the fact that I have a foreign IP address and I can’t access certain things because I’m in Germany and it’s only available to US residents. Netflix, for example, offers 17 hours of free online viewing–that is, for US residents only. What I think is that there could be a log-in at that site and a verification process as long as you have a .mil address and are stationed overseas to have the opportunity view these things online. I can’t even get on FOX or CBS or NBC who frequently have the shows available to watch online, but not at foreign IP addresses. Why can’t they just do that for us? I would love to write to them and ask if they could do that. They frequently donate shows to AFN or sell it at a very low cost, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t be able to do the way that I suggest…

In other news:

President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq yesterday, his thrid since he’s been in office. Apparently, if progress keeps going like it is now, there might be a reduction in forces, but he gave no indication of how many troops would be going home or when the reduction might take place.

This is pretty interesting. The surge of the troops was only supposed to be temporary anyway, based on the timeline that Congress was trying to place on the funding bill. In addition, the Secretary of Defense, Gates said that all troops have to spend 15 months in theater with a year of dwelltime.

I know several women whose husbands got extended while they were in Iraq. The families are tired of the deployments and Americans in general are getting tired of the war. It’s funny though, a few months ago a study came out and said that families that have been through deployments were more likely to have a successful marriage than those who don’t–Air Force being the exception…that is to say that the rate of deployment had a positive affect on the divorce rate–the longer the trooper was deployed the less likely the couple will get divorced. There were 2 exceptions: Army officer marriages and any rank in the Air Force. I thought it was interesting. I found the text at http://myarmylifetoo.com/. I blogged about it on myspace.com but I don’t remember how far back I did it, so I can’t refer to it.

Anyway, I think this is enough for today. Have a great one and thanks for reading. 🙂

Goings on

I’ve been playing around with this site and I simply can’t decide which template to use. I think I’ll settle for this one…at least for today. (and if you’re reading this after I’ve changed my mind, I’ve probably already changed it a hundred more times since then!!! LOL!)

It’s been really crazy today and the day has barely started. I overslept…if that’s even possible. LOL! I haven’t had to get up at a certain time since January and this morning, I totally screwed the pooch on that. I was supposed to get up and go meet with the PAO and learn a little bit more about my job and so on. Well, I wasn’t out of bed until 9 and didn’t get coffee on until 930. I was on my way out the door to take the puppy for a business walk, when I looked at my calendar and said, “CRAP!” I had to wait until 10 to call and let them know what happened to me this morning. He told me that he didn’t want to stress me out which is good.

Rob is going to the field sometime pretty soon for a couple of weeks. This ought to be interesting. I don’t think that I will be stuck at home the whole time, but the majority of the time, I probably will be. It seems like I have a lot of stuff to do, but then again, I have nothing to do.

I want to type more in this blog and it seems like I’ve put a lot of words down, but I know that I haven’t. I was watching Jeopardy on TV today…some of those questions were pretty easy and some I had no clue about…

Yesterday President Bush made a trip to Iraq to see the Soldiers and that seems pretty cool. He seems so casual, not business-like at all. I can’t say that I blame him though…those stuffy suits and such would be awful.

I had a conversation with the FRSA from our unit today and he brought up some good points about how families are being inundated with tons of information and that there is just so much of it that they don’t want to be bothered with it anymore. He’s right. Families might be overwhelmed with so much info that they’re not even trying to get the info anymore. But that’s a good point…I could consolidate the information and make it easier to access. Perhaps linking the sites where people can get the information would be more helpful than anything. I need to take note of that.

Okay, well now that I realize that I didn’t lose this after all, I guess I’ll publish this 🙂

Thanks for reading 🙂

What would you do?

Today has been a ride. I didn’t think that we would have problems this weekend, but there are always going to be issues. Last night Rob got a phone call about domestic violence (I’m going to say no more about this subject in this post) and this evening we found out that one of our Soldiers got taken to the hospital. Apparently, he got an infection due to a bug-bite on his arm and it progressively got worse. Now they’re going to do surgery on this guy tomorrow. He’s only been in Germany for a couple of weeks.

I suggested to Rob that we go ahead and go down and check this guy out. Not only is it nice, but this guy probably hasn’t made too much in the way of friends and might be scared because of the language barrier. We don’t know if anyone has gone down to check on him or not.

Part 2: We went down to see that soldier and only a couple his friends have come to see him in the last 2 days. I feel pretty bad for him. He doesn’t know what his own medical situation is because all of the nurses and doctors speak German and very little English. We were able to bring the necessities for him that he needed and I was glad that we could help. He had surgery today and doesn’t know a whole lot of what’s going on other than that. He was groggy but alert. I hope that everything works out with him and that he heals alright.

Well, thanks for reading 🙂

Fall has arrived in Germany

Well, it seems as though today has marked the end of summer here in Germany. Today is Labor Day and it’s raining hard today. All day it’s been raining. It’s not so bad. The dog won’t do his business, so I put him in the bathroom. Normally, I would consider tomorrow the first day of fall, except that the leaves on the trees have been changing colors and it’s been raining all summer long. I think we had exactly 2 weeks of very beautiful summer weather. There’s a reason why Germans don’t have air conditioners in their homes…they don’t need it.

Rob’s folding laundry and I just finished a load of dishes. I want to go see Ratatouille at the theater today. Why the heck not…it’s Labor Day.

I really don’t have anything to write about today. Nothing interesting has happened, but I wanted to feed whatever addiction I have towards blogging today. This is where I get to do that. I have felt a little withdrawal from myspace, but I’m glad that I’m not on there. It’s been 3 days since I’ve logged in. I’m proud of myself.

Lilo-kitty is sleeping in the spot that Gizmo normally sleeps in and so he’s walking around and seems distraught that his sleeping spot is occupied. He doesn’t know what to do. He wants to be in the land of the living, yet he’s used to just sleeping…and Lilo probably wishes she could be outside instead of inside sleeping…but she won’t go out. She doesn’t want to get wet.

The rain just keeps coming. I love the smell outside just when it begins to rain. The earth has a sweet smell and the blacktop has a dirty smell from all the motor oil that has dripped from engines. At first it starts out lightly, just enough to perfume the air with its sweet fragrance and then it starts to get a little harder and and harder and soon, you can see puddles form and the large drops of rain splash. From inside, you can see a steady stream of rain and the dark clouds that carry the rain to us. The Evergreen trees collect some of the moisture and from the needled branches you can see the collected raindrops drip. It is semi-dry under the trees and it’s a perfect hiding spot for some strange creatures that share this land with us.

You know what’s funny? I got an email from someone asking about a girl I went to high school with. She and I were never good friends. We attended the same church since we were very young and we were in the same class ever since junior high school. If we ran into each other we were polite and generally said hello. I’m not even sure how the girl got my email address anyway…at least not this particular one. I hardly ever use it, I just got it a few months ago and it was meant as an email address that didn’t have a silly name to it. So, anyway, I responded back and told her what I knew about her, although it’s just not that much. The thing is, I recognized a few of the other addresses and I knew that I was more likely than the rest of the those names to know anything about her. If I knew very little, these other guys probably don’t even remember her name….they would have to look in the yearbook (if they ever had one!) I didn’t give her too much information though. I don’t know this person. At first glace it almost looked like spam because of her name. I can’t believe that I even read the darned email…

Well, anyway, I’ve been at this for a while now. I better get off. I think I am procrastinating and I really need to get some stuff done. But I’ve blogged today and I feel relieved! Have a nice day and thanks for reading 🙂

The Gift

Lilo, my cat, goes outside occasionally. She’s really not supposed to, but it’s hard to keep an outdoor cat inside. She always comes home, though. Yesterday, she went out when I wasn’t looking. She went somewhere and came back just 30 minutes later. She was out at the balcony door and when I opened it to call her, she came in without noticing that she came in. Gizmo was sitting on the window ledge and I found her under the printer table. I shut the door and went back to bed. This morning when I woke up, I went outside to go smoke a cigarette and I looked down and there was a nice mouse laying at the door.

Lilo went out to the balcony to check things out and I asked her to stay there for the day. She’ll sleep on the chair or sit on the balcony edge and watch the world pass her by. Well, as soon as I saw the mouse that she was nudging closer towards me, I praised her, “What a good kitty” and “Thanks for the mouse.” I’m done with picking up her miscellaneous gifts and discarding them.

I know that the gifts that she leaves at the doorstep is a sign of respect and for us to see what a good huntress she really is, but it’s disgusting!

When we lived in Heidelberg and when Rob was deployed, Lilo always brought me things. Almost everyday, consistently she would bring a mouse or a bird. There were days that she brought significantly larger animals and I feared for the rabbits that lived just a few houses down. I guess that Lilo is putting the mouse population into check now and I just hope that she leaves those damn wild rabbits alone. They have diseases and something that is called Rabbit Fever to keep their population in check, since there are no natural predators here on base. I would hate for her to get sick.

Speaking of rabbits, almost all of the dogs here on base will chase the rabbits. No, not my dog. He chases cars instead and he’s almost been hit by a couple. Once by a careless driver who knew we were coming and we were behind her when she pulled out without looking and nearly runs all 3 of us over. Then, there was this time, when Casey and I were going to the vet and he chased one of the technicians in the lot and she pulled out really fast and I didn’t have time to reel the dog in. He was so interested, but I’m glad that she had an awareness of Casey from earlier that morning.

There’s nothing more to say today. I’m posting this and then I’m getting to work. I have tons of things that need to get done! Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Part 2: This evening Lilo got out and she brought me a live mousey-treat for me. I knew something was outside when my fat and lazy Gizmo went to the door and was fooling around. I couldn’t keep them both away from the door long enough for me to rescue that poor mouse. I wrapped him up in a paper towel and gently placed him in the dirt and told him that I was sorry that he was caught. I hope he was just scared and not injured and that he might find his nest again. He was a small mouse, which leads me to believe that Lilo found a whole bunch of them. Lucky me. I get to clean up mouse-guts until she tires of them (which, likely, will be when they are all dead or something bigger and more exciting comes along…) Well, that’s all I gotta say about that. Again, thanks for reading! 🙂

Unbelieveable

So, I’m gonna try this for a blogsite. I think that I’m getting tired of myspace or something. I don’t know why. I just feel like a change for now. We all need change every now and then. I have been addicted to myspace. Maybe I’ll just take a hiatus from myspace for a little while. I need to get my priorities straight for now.

I’m actually starting a new volunteer position with the PAO (Public Affairs Office) here in Hanau and taking over the daunting task of the FRG (Family Readiness Group) as their new leader. I will try to blog over here for the next month and see what I think about this. I actually was thinking that I wanted a place that I could just blog and not worry about anything else.

Well, I’m going to play Wii now. Have a great day 🙂