It's that time again

Wow... I don't think I've gone that many days without blogging since I started blogging almost eleven months ago. We've been a little busy. You see, it's that time again...


Today the packers came and packed about half of the first floor of our house into cardboard boxes. Actually, I need to correct myself. The packeR came. Yes, they only sent ONE packer. At least he was a young and energetic guy. [Flashback: When we were moving out of housing in Monterey, CA, they sent ONE packer who was like 85 years old and moved about as fast as ES getting out of bed on a school day. That was the beginning of a very BAD moving experience for us.] Our packer today was pretty efficient and got the front room, play room, and family room packed. He still has the kitchen, laundry room, and garage to go on the first floor. Methinks they're going to need a least ONE more packer to come if they're going to get the three bedrooms and two bathrooms done upstairs in time to load the truck on Friday. [Update: Our packer just left for the day, and he said they're brining 4 packers tomorrow. That should do.]

The timing worked out pretty well. The estimated date of delivery for our HHG (household goods) in Virginia is the same day we expect to arrive in Virginia at the end of September. Good thing we finally got orders and scheduled our HHG shipment when we did, eh?

Yesterday we took LW's car to the Matson terminal. The Navy only pays to ship one car for us. Just before we leave the island, we're going to use the Navy's dime to ship my car to Baltimore. For now, we're paying $1,072 out of pocket to ship LW's car to Seattle. [Aside for anyone else planning on doing this: The Matson commericial office is right next door to the Military Vehicle Processing Center (VPC), you go down the same driveway.]

So we're now a single car family. LW needs the car to take the boys to school, so I am riding my bike to work for the rest of our time in Hawaii. It's not too bad. It's only 4 miles from our house to the barge in the shipyard. It'll be good exercise for me, and with the way the afternoon traffic gets around here, I'll probably make it home faster than driving my car.

We've got plane reservations to fly off the island to Portland, Oregon on 9 September. We'll drive across country from there, and the Navy will pay us mileage and a daily allowance for food and lodging. The SATO people (military travel agents) were pretty quick. I turned in my transfer package on Friday and received my travel reservations on Tuesday, and we received exactly the flight we had asked for.

It's kind of weird thinking about the fact that we've been in Hawaii for over a year already. Where has the time gone???

One year and two days ago, the Mighty MSP arrived in Pearl Harbor.

Reunion on the Pier
This photo marked the end of 10 months
of living apart from my family as a geo-bachelor.

One of my favorite photos of the Mighty MSP in Hawaii.
22 August 2007

It doesn't seem like that long ago that we were a sea-going submarine. In between our arrival in Pearl Harbor and our entry into the drydock for decom in December, we had several short underway periods to participate in exercises off the coast. I feel like I've had two tours of duty on the MSP now, just because being on a sea-going boat is so different from being on a boat in the shipyard. It was more fun when we were going to sea, but we have enjoyed the fact that being in the shipyard equates to more time with our families.

Back on the topic of PCS Moves... ES is 7 years old. When we arrive in Virginia, we will be moving into his 6th house. LW keeps saying someday she would really like to have a move that is NOT all the way across country. Since we got married, we went from Groton to Monterey to Groton to San Diego to DC to Pearl Harbor and now back to DC again.

Odds and Ends

Family Movie Night

Tonight we opted for CPK for dinner and went to Blockbuster and rented a Tom Hanks double header. First up was Big. It was a little over YB's head, but he sat and watched most of it with us and laughed along with us. ES seemed to enjoy it though. Man, it was remarkable how YOUNG Tom Hanks looked.

Next up is The Man with One Red Shoe. I couldn't believe our neighbor B across the street said she has never seen EITHER of these movies! I loved both of these flicks when they came out in the theaters.

Conversation at Dinner Last Night

Just when we thought ES had cracked the Mommy-and-Daddy code...

LW to me: "Tonight is B... A... T... H night."

ES: [Gasp!] "Tonight is BITCH night?!?!?!"

It occurred to me that since the boys have been on summer vacation, ES hasn't been getting anywhere near the spelling and reading practice that he got during the school year. Methinks his misfire on the bath night message is highlighting the cobwebs accumulating in the spelling portion of his noggin.

Sneaky Little Bugger

Our 4-year old YB is learning some tricks of the con artist trade. He wanted a toy and ES wouldn't give it to him. So he went to the front door and called out, "Hi, E___!" (Aside: E is ES's best friend from school and lives just up the street from us) ES immediately dropped the toy and ran to the front door to go play with E, and YB ran back to the play room with a cheshire-cat grin and grabbed the toy that he wanted. E was actually nowhere to be found, YB just said that to distract ES. I wonder where he learned that one from?

Follow-up report on new running shoes

So far I've run 20.9 miles on my new Brooks Adrenaline GTS8 running shoes, and I really like them a lot. No pain in my feet and no need for any sort of inserts.

Planning Our Road Trip

Follow-up to a previous post on what to do about our cars. We're going to ship my Camry Hybrid to Baltimore on the Navy's dime. We contemplated selling LW's car and buying a Toyota Highlander on the mainland. We decided we just can't afford it right now with the new mortgage payments and the fact that sea pay and COLA will be going away when we get back to the mainland.

Aside for anyone who cares: The military Vehicle Processing Center (VPC) here will accept our car any weekday, no appointment necessary. For shipment to Baltimore, they gave me a guaranteed delivery date no later than 35 days after you drop it off at the Honolulu VPC.

Instead, we're going to pay Matson $1,000 out of pocket to ship LW's car to Seattle.

With Matson, we need to drop the car off by any given Wednesday, and the car will ship out on the following Monday. They said it would take 10 to 12 days to ship to Seattle.

Although the Navy won't pay us to ship the second car across the Pacific, they WILL pay us to drive across country. I was curious just how much they would pay us and started searching the internet for answers. I found these two websites were helpful and informative:

• PCS Entitlements
• Navy Times Military Moving Allowances

We plan to fly to the west coast, pick up the car, go to a wedding in Oregon, drive to San Diego for another wedding, then head across country and see some friends and relatives and the sights of America along the way. So far, we're planning on visiting the Avenue of the Giants, Sequoia National Park, Legoland, the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, and we're very excited to finally visit a Great Wolf Lodge and spend a day frolicking in their indoor water park.


A Plug for My Favorite Lunch in Groton

For Andy and Sam who are getting settled in their new home and for anyone else headed to Groton, whence you feel those pangs of lunch-time hunger in yer belly, get thee to the Village Bakehouse! I could eat there every day of the year and not get tired of it. I love their sandwiches and wraps, and I couldn't resist those cookies with the candy-corn in the middle.

Blunoz Self-Portrait with his most favorite cookies at VBH
October 2006

Hawaiian Attire

For party-attire-challenged individuals such as myself, it was hard enough to remember the differences between formal, semi-formal, informal, casual, smart casual, business casual, or even "dressy casual" attire on the mainland. Luckily, they're fairly well defined in websites like wikipedia and this party attire site.

Around here though, I don't think I've heard any of those terms. Moving to Hawaii involves a whole new dress code. "Aloha attire" is actually pretty easy to figure out. It's very low key. All you need is a Hawaiian or aloha shirt with any sort of shorts and "slippa's" (flip-flops) you're comfortable in.

The problem arises when people (such as military officers) want to celebrate a special occasion. They don't want people rolling in wearing ratty shorts and sandy slippas like they just came from the beach. At the same time, they don't want to violate that "aloha spirit" and want to maintain some semblance of the laid back atmosphere of living in Hawaii. This is where you start see the term "aloha crisp" on invitations.

I have searched all over for a formal definition of what is and is not allowed for "aloha crisp" attire and have found none. For the sake of anyone else out there new to the island and trying to figure out what the heck they're supposed to wear to this "aloha crisp" social function, here's what I've gleaned through observation so far.

Aloha Crisp (from the fashion dictionary of blunoz - please refer to the first sentence of this blog post before placing any trust or confidence in the veracity of this definition): Of course, the aloha shirt should go without saying. The difference between "aloha attire" and "aloha crisp" is in what you wear WITH your aloha shirt. Trousers or khaki pants would be good, but because of the warm climate, it would be unreasonable to dictate that shorts are not allowed. If you opt for shorts, then they should be nice, "dressy" shorts - maybe something pleated, no heavy, rugged canvas-like things. They should be clean, ironed, in good repair. I have heard at least one opinion that cargo shorts are NOT acceptable for "aloha crisp" attire. For your feet, something close-toed would be best, but certainly not slippas. I bought some brown leather top-siders at the NEX for this purpose.

Aside: The NEX here is HUGE and has a pretty decent sized shoe department, but you have to take a number if you want something not already stocked on the shelf. A lot of the shoes are in boxes you can just take to the register, but some just have a display and you have to ask for employee to get your side out of the back.

If you're wondering "where's the best place to go to buy an aloha shirt?" three places come to mind:

1. The Swap Meet. Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday at the Aloha Stadium. TONS of aloha shirts for sale at a reasonable price. This is a great place to buy souvenirs if you're just visiting the island.
We bought these matching aloha shirts at the Swap Meet during a port call in 2001. (The picture was taken in front of the Hale Koa hotel. I can't believe that's ES in the middle!)

2. Navy Exchange. If you have a military ID card and can get into the NEX, they have some very nice quality aloha shirts for substantially less money. I found one aloha shirt that I really liked that was 25% cheaper at the NEX than it was out in town.
This is my favorite aloha shirt. It's a silk aloha shirt that I picked up at the NEX. (The picture was taken at the Cirque Hawaii).

3. Hilo Hatties. Aloha Shirt Mecca. They have a lot of nice shirts and quite a wide range of both quality and price. If you are military and/or live on the island ("kama-aina"), tell them that and show your ID - you'll get a pretty good discount.
When my family came to visit from Oregon at Christmas, we got them all matching aloha shirts at Hilo Hatties for us to wear to the Paradise Cove Luau.

There you have it. Everything you never wanted to know about aloha attire. Of course, any of you more fashion-sensitive, attire-saavy people want to set the record straight, please let me know where I need to make editorial corrections above.

You have GOT to be kidding me...

Today will go down in history as the SECOND time in my naval career where the detailer has dropped a bomb in my lap and made a run for it. (Aside: The "detailer" is the guy sitting at a desk at Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee who decides where you are going for your next tour of duty.)

The first time this happened was just after we moved to the DC suburbs for my last shore duty. We had JUST bought a house in Ashburn, VA, about 20 miles outside the beltway to the WEST of DC. Our household goods had JUST been delivered. I hadn't even reported to my new command yet. Then I received a voicemail from the detailer that went something like this: "Yeah, hi, Kevin, congratulations! You're the submarine force's nomination for the flag secretary position at the Naval Academy. The USNA offices will be contacting you to set up an interview with the admiral. Oh, and I'm going on leave for the next two weeks, so I'll talk to you when I get back. Hope it goes well, bye!" Nice. Input from the service member neither required nor desired. There was a week or two there we were really stressed out and wondering if we were going to have to pack our stuff up again and move to the OTHER side of the beltway so I wouldn't have a two hour commute to work at Annapolis. Luckily, I didn't get that job. The detailer dropping that in my lap without even asking what I thought and then taking off on leave just really drove me nuts.

Fast forward a couple of years to this very afternoon. Remember the detailer has recently told me I'm staying in Hawaii. Although we didn't really want to stay in Hawaii, we have come to terms with this and were moving on. We stopped shopping for houses on Realtor.com. LW started working on reservations for our timeshare vacation in January here in Hawaii. LW started making a long honey-do list for things she wanted to change around the house since we were staying for a few more years. I started working on some of those tasks over the last couple of days - like moving furniture around two nights ago. Last night, I cancelled our reservations in the Navy Lodge. I had made reservations for us as a placeholder for the last couple of weeks I expected us to be on the island before transferring, but I didn't need them anymore since we were staying.

So I get this email from the detailer this afternoon...

In essence, it said something to the effect of, "Yyyyyeah, hi, about that job in Hawaii I was going to send you to? Yyyyyyeah, not so much. Admiral ___________ called and picked someone else by name he wants to take that job, so that's off the table. Well, I'm going on leave now through next week, so give me a call the week after next and we'll see what we can work out for your next set of orders."

Um...

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I think I must really be a pessimist at heart.

Case in Point #1: All the past week I've been trying to focus on the positive aspects of staying in Hawaii, but I was still grimacing over the fact that I really didn't want to stay in Hawaii. For example, I was really annoyed the other day when I was drooling over all the HD channels available now on Dish Network, only to find out that you can't get most of them in Hawaii.

Case in Point #2: Now, again, am I trying to focus on the positive aspects of NOT staying in Hawaii. We didn't WANT to stay in Hawaii in the first place. Still, my thoughts are in turmoil right now not knowing where we're going next. At least when we thought we were staying in Hawaii, the path ahead was clear and we could plan accordingly. Although the path wasn't the optimum path / not the path we had chosen, at least we knew which path we were taking and where we were headed. Now, that's all out the window. It's like we've discovered that previous path was washed out by a landslide and there's a heavy fog set in for the next week, so we just have to sit and wait until the fog lifts (when the detailer gets back from leave and I get some orders) to start evaluating the new path we're going to take and making appropriate plans.

Keep in mind, we're about 2 months from wanting to have our household goods and our car packed out and shipped off the island if we're heading back to the mainland, so it would be NICE to have ORDERS so we could reserve the move dates we want. Summer is a big time for PCS (Permanent Change of Station) transfers with a lot of people moving, so a lot of the move dates are already reserved at this point - there are only just so many moving companies on the island.

Argh this is frustrating. I know the Lord has a plan for us... I just wish we knew what it was.

I'm going to go make those Navy Lodge reservations again...

Hawaii it is then

Well, after several rounds of negotiations with the detailer, my attempts to go back to the east coast have failed. We're staying here in Hawaii for shore duty. Although it's not what we wanted, it's actually a good thing for several reasons:

- It's not Japan. (That was the other option on the table, and I just didn't think LW would enjoy living there.)
- We don't have to move.
- The boys can stay in the same schools with the same friends.
- It'll be a good job for my own professional development.
- The job will involve some travel to other submarine home ports, so I'll get to visit family in San Diego and the PACNORWEST periodically on the Navy's dime.
- We don't have to move.
- I can continue to wear all these Hawaiian shirts I've bought. Have you ever been somewhere on the mainland and noticed when someone from Hawaii walks into the room? They always wear some sort of aloha shirt and stick out like a sore thumb, because nobody else on the mainland wears them.
- We can continue to make money on Hawaii COLA (Cost of Living Allowance).
- We don't have to move.
- Friends and family can continue to come stay at the Blunoz family B&B free of charge.
- We can continue to forget what really bad weather is like (our prayers go out to those suffering from tornadoes and flooding right now).
- We don't have to move.
- I can volunteer to do more with the cub scout pack.
- We'll actually get to USE the new swimming pool and community center they're building our our housing area.
- We don't have to move.
- Malasadas.
- Fruity tropical drinks with little paper umbrellas and a pineapple wedge in them.
- We don't have to move.
- I get to say "aloha" more.
- LW can't spend any money at Target or Kohls or any of those other stores she loves back on the mainland. :-)
- We don't have to move.
- We have a couple more years to explore the other islands - next up we'd like to go to Kauai.
- You all get to read more blog posts about our adventures around Hawaii.
- We don't have to move.

Uh oh... Now LW is writing a new honey-do list for me to do around the house since this is no longer just our temporary home.

Big Island - Part 5 wrap-up

We're back home now safe and sound.

I asked YB what his favorite part about our vacation was. Take a guess what his answer was. Go ahead. I'll give you a moment.

Was it swimming with dolphins? Nope. Was it playing in the pool and going down the waterslide? Nope. Was it seeing the volcano? Nope. His answer: "Drinking POG on the airplane."

Another funny story from the plane ride. I was trying to teach ES about the way the plane operated and what was happening when things changed. When the noise happened that I knew was the landing gear going down, I asked ES what that noise was. He responded with an open-mouth gasp and yelled, "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEE!" LW and I both quickly shushed him, put on a sheepish grin and assured everyone around us, no, no, no, everything's fine, there's nothing to see here, move along please.

Let's see... where did I leave off last time? Oh yeah, at the end of the snorkeling trip.

We made it back to the hotel with enough time to do a lot of this...


And some more of this...


And otherwise enjoying the beauty of the swimming pool at the hotel...


...Albeit under a gray sky (vog). All the while, I drove LW nuts whistling, humming, and singing Like the Weather, because it was stuck in my head for the rest of our vacation.

I forgot to mention earlier, this is the first time I've been in a "saline pool." It was actually really nice. Instead of that really nasty smelling chlorine in the water, this water was like a very mild salt-water. Whenever I accidentally get regular chlorinated pool water up my nose, it really stings my sinuses and it's really annoying. With this saline pool, an accidental splash of water up the nose was no biggy. It didn't sting or annoy - just drained like a gentle saline solution.

Monday night we didn't want to go far for dinner because we were tired of being in the car. We walked across the street from the hotel and ended up going to the Merriman's Market Cafe. It had mixed reviews for poor service but good food, so I was a little wary of going there for dinner, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The service was good and the food was fabulous. I planned on just having a salad and some smaller tapas dishes until the waitress told us the specials, and I couldn't resist the seared ahi with pine nut foccacia crust. I know I previously raved about how the seared ahi at Duke's was the best I had ever had, well this tied for first place with Duke's. It was THAT good.

Walking back to our hotel after dinner was one of those moments I really enjoy being a dad. ES was humming the national anthem, so I asked him if he knew the words to the song or what the song was about. He said no. So I walked him through the words and explained what the song was about, and he thought that was pretty darn cool that it was a song about a battle. We talked about the War of 1812 for a bit, then he asked me what the Civil War was and we talked about that for a bit, too.

Tuesday morning, after having gray skies the entire time we were there, we woke up to find the weather like this:

Beautiful, sunny, blue sky on our last morning.

We went to the pool for a couple of hours before we had to get cleaned up and check out of the hotel.

Not long after arriving at the pool, YB declared he needed to use the restroom, so off we went to the LBR by the pool. I had another one of those occasions where I wish I had a video camera in my hand. Imagine if you will... YB standing at the little-boy sized urinal, goggles up on his forehead, swim trunks down around his ankles, doing a little dance wiggling his bare bum back and forth while humming the Indiana Jones theme song. There was an echo in the bathroom, too, so he kept humming louder and louder until the echo achieved a sort of resonance. I thought it was pretty funny, but maybe you just had to be there.

On our way driving out, I was thinking we should have collected some white coral rocks to write some graffiti of our own on our way out of town. The Waikoloa resort area is surrounded by miles upon miles of barren volcanic wasteland. For several miles driving down the road, you'll see the brown lava rocks are covered with things that people have made out of white rocks - names or sayings or drawings. It's like a locally tolerated version of graffiti.

Waikoloa Graffiti

After we turned in the rental car and got checked in at the airport, we visited the Onizuka Space Museum right there at the Kona airport. It's pretty small, but there were a lot of hands-on activities for the kids to do, and they seemed to enjoy it.

ES and I build the solar system.

The Kona airport is a little bit more rural looking than the Hilo airport.

This was our departure "gate." Gate indeed!

Comparison of our vacation in Maui versus the Big Island.

If you are now or are ever in the future stationed in Pearl Harbor, then I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to hop over to one or more of the other islands for a visit. I'm really glad we have had the opportunity to visit Maui and the Big Island. I doubt we would ever have the resources to go visit those places on a family vacation from the mainland.

So which was better? If I had the opportunity to take another vacation to another island, I would still like to go see Kauai. However, if I had to choose between going back to Maui or going back to the Big Island, I would go back to Maui. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad we went to the Big Island and got to see the volcano and all. As for a resort-type of vacation destination though, I think Maui was better than the Big Island.

Keep in mind, we're partial to Marriott. We've been staying at Marriott properties for many years and using the Marriott Rewards points for free stays here and there. I realize there are many other hotels to choose from, so my impressions of our vacations could be biased by where we stayed.

That being said, here's a quick comparison of Waimea (Maui) versus Waikoloa (Big Island):

Outside Restaurants and Shopping:
Waimea (Maui): Surrounded by a lot more stores and restaurants to choose from.
Waikoloa (Big Island): Surrounded by miles upon miles of barren volcanic wasteland. There are like 5 restaurants to choose from in Waikoloa itself, and you'll need a home equity loan to pay for dinner at any of them. If you don't want to eat at any of those restaurants in Waikoloa, then you have to drive 20 minutes to the north to go to Cafe Pesto, or you need to drive about an hour to the south to Kona. I suppose if we had stayed somewhere down in Kona then we might not have felt so isolated, but I had no idea going into it how isolated Waikoloa is.

Hotel Restaurant:
Waimea (Maui): Costs an arm and a leg, but has a long menu with lots of choices. Plus, they give you chips and salsa with this edamame puree stuff that was AWESOME.
Waikoloa (Big Island): Still costs an arm and a leg, but the menu is really short and didn't give you much to choose from.

Got Cats?:
Waimea (Maui): No feral cats to bother you.
Waikoloa (Big Island): A feral cat wandered through the hotel restaurant while we ate our dinner. It turns out there was a feeding station on a nearby walking path with a sign explaining that volunteers fed and cared for the cats there.

Recreation (this is pretty hotel specific):
Waimea (Maui): The Waimea Marriott had that really cool water park with two water slides (that was FREE). The downside was the lack of beach access, but who needs a beach when you've got that free water park?
Waikoloa (Big Island): The Waikoloa Marriott saline pool was really nice, but there was only one water slide and it was really short. While they did have beach access, they charged you a chunk-o-change extra to use any of their gear (kayaks, waterbikes, snorkel gear, etc).

Air Quality:
Waimea (Maui): Breezy, nice, fresh air.
Waikoloa (Big Island): Got vog? Got a husband whistling an annoying song about the sky being coal gray for the duration of your vacation?

Bang for the Buck:
Waimea (Maui): The Waimea Marriott was cheaper per night, but we had to pay like $10 per extra per day for internet access.
Waikoloa (Big Island): The Waikoloa Marriott was more expensive per night. Thumbs-up for including "free" internet access in the resort fee, but the Waimea Marriott was still cheaper if you added the $10 per day for the internet access to our room cost though. The cats and vog were free, too.

San Diego Favorites

Some of our neighbors are leaving on a PCS transfer to San Diego and asked me for a list of my favorites in San Diego. Here's the list off the top of my head. I'll come back and add to it later on if anything else comes to mind. Here we go...

Restaurants: These are my favorite actual sit down and be served by a waiter or waitress restaurants. Just below this, I'll list a couple of my favorite fast food places.

Crown Bistro: THE BEST breakfast in San Diego County. If you take ANY of my recommendations, take THIS ONE and go have an extraordinary breakfast. It's on Coronado. Take I-5 to Rt. 75 over the Coronado Bay Bridge. After the bridge, follow the street through a couple of twists and turns. When you get to the traffic light at Orange, turn left. Orange is the main drag through Coronado, and the Crown Bistro is about two blocks up on the right hand side. EVERYTHING is good there, but my favorite is the Bananas Foster French Toast.

Miguel's: Great Mexican. There are a couple of locations - one on Point Loma near the sub base, one way out in East Lake (Chula Vista). The one in East Lake is nice because they serve this awesome rotisserie corn on the cob. We most frequently went to the one on Point Loma due to its proximity to the sub base. To get to the Point Loma restaurant, take I-5 to the Rosecrans (Rt. 209) exit. Follow Rosecrans down into Point Loma. Turn left at the traffic light at Shelter Island Drive (there's a Wells Fargo Bank on your left and Blockbuster video on your right). Miguel's is right behind the Wells Fargo. Note: While on Rosecrans, you will pass both a Rubio's and an In-and-Out.

Parallel 33: Serves a sampling of foods from everywhere on 33 degrees north latitude around the globe. A little on the pricey side, but excellent food and service. It's on Washington. Take I-5 to Washington Street exit (you'll be able to see the airport runway). Turn away from the airport (east) off the exit ramp and it's about 1 mile up on the right hand side.

Onami: All you can eat sushi, Chinese, Japanese food buffet in Mission Valley. Go for lunch. It's like $23 for dinner and like $13 for lunch, but it's the same buffet either way. They have lots of things to choose from besides sushi (including a dessert buffet, too), but the sushi is really good. Directions are a little complicated, but I can write them out for you if you have an interest in going here.

Red Sails Inn: Seafood. Great food and service - above and beyond what you would expect given their equally great prices. Both indoor our large outdoor patio seating area. Use same directions as Miguel's, but continue on Shelter Island Drive a couple of blocks and it's on the left hand side.

Peohe's: Very nice seafood restaurant with a fabulous view of downtown San Diego. Pricey. It's on par with Roy's. Take I-5 to Rt. 75 over the Coronado Bay Bridge. After going over the bridge, follow the road through a couple of twists and turns then turn RIGHT at the traffic light onto Orange. Follow Orange all the way to the end. Turn RIGHT at the traffic light. You'll see signs for Peohe's about a block or two down on the left hand side after the Burger King.

Tom Ham's Lighthouse: Nice seafood restaurant, not too pricey, great view of San Diego. It's at the north end of Harbor Island across from the airport. Follow signs like you were going to the airport, then turn left at the traffic light onto Harbor Island instead of turning right into the airport. On Harbor Island, turn right and drive all the way to the north end of the island.

D'lish. In the Terra Nova shopping center in Chula Vista (just off I-805 at the East H Street exit). I love their salads and their sandwiches, and their prices are pretty reasonable.

Fast food: The term "fast food" has such a negative stigmatism with it. Here, I am just trying to distinguish between the restaurants where you get waited on (listed above), and the restaurants where you order your food at a counter and sit down with your food in hand.

Rubios. Two words: FISH TACOS. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it. These are the best, true Baja-style fish tacos. But wait! That's not all! They have a lot of other good stuff like carne asada steak burritos, etc. Our boys loved it, too. We used to go there frequently after church on Sundays.

In-n-Out. The menu is REALLY simple. Burgers. Fries. Milk shakes. They make the fries right there in front of you. Watch them pull out a whole potato and put it through the french fry press. The hard-core In-n-Out afficionados use the secret code words like "animal style" that aren't listed on the menu.

Attractions:

Zoo and Sea World: Buy the annual passes for the Zoo and Sea World. It's really nice to be able to just go for like 2 hours in an afternoon to see ONE exhibit and then leave. Note that Sea World is an Anheiser-Busch park, so military and their families can get in once per year for free.

Lego Land. The first time we went there, ES was too short to go on most of the rides and I felt like we got totally ripped off. We subsequently went back a few times after that and the ES loved it.

Mount Soledad. Don't get the wrong idea here. Just because it's called "Mount" Soledad doesn't mean you have to drive for hours on end up winding mountain roads. This is a very large hill wedged in between Pacific Beach (south side), I-5 (east side), La Jolla (north side), and the Pacific Ocean (west side). On a clear day, go up and check out the view from the top where the big white cross is. There's a photo of the view on the wikipedia article here.

Mount Soledad has been a source of controversy in San Diego because of the large white cross on top of the hill. There have been many efforts to take it down. I think the resolution they came to was that they sold the land to the veterans memorial association so it's no longer public land. The veteran's memorial association website has more pictures and driving directions.

Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park. Both our boys love this place.

Flying Leatherneck Museum at MCAS Mirimar. If you drive along Mirimar Road along the northern perimeter of the base, you'll see a spot where there are like two dozen airplanes and helicopters set up on static display. That's part of the USMC Aviation Museum on the base.

Military Shopping: If you need anything from the NEX or commissary, the NAS North Island NEX is the newest, largest, and nicest - comparable to the NEX shopping complexes at Norfolk or Pearl Harbor. PLUS, there's a RUBIO'S in their food court!! (Keep in mind, it's been a few years since we left San Diego, so things could have changed since we left).

Best Wine Cellar: MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) next door to the airport has an awesome package store called The Cellar with some VERY nice, high quality wines for VERY good prices. Try something from Stag's Leap vineyards (it's my personal favorite).

Best Place to Watch Ships Departing or Returning from Sea or Deployment: Cabrillo National Monument at the end of Point Loma. You can see both out to sea as ships approach, and you can see into the harbor.

ES by the Point Loma Lighthouse at Cabrillo, watching Daddy return from deployment in December 2003.

Picture my mom took from Cabrillo when the Mighty MSP pulled into San Diego for a port visit in July 2007.

Saturday morning odds and ends

I hate being sick. LW hates me being sick. She'll get the same bug and she'll have a managable cold for a couple of days and be over it. LW says I'm pathetic and I look like I'm on my death bed. For me, it always takes like two weeks of coughing and hacking my brains out. I really hate being up until 2 a.m. coughing and then being dead to the world when my alarm goes off at 5:30. LW also hates it when I sleep through my alarms. She doesn't fall asleep as easily as I do. I'm ready for this head cold to go away.

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In browsing the blogosphere last night and this morning, I found a couple of really good writers sharing stories of their parenting adventures. I found I could relate to both Dad Gone Mad and Sarah and the Goon Squad. They're both very talented writers and fun to read, although Dad Gone Mad is a little foul-mouthed. I found Dad Gone Mad because it was recommended to me by my Google Reader, and then I found Sarah and the Goon Squad off a link from Dad Gone Mad's t-shirt sales. Anyway, if you need a laugh or two, check them out.

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Chances are we'll be heading to the East Coast again in the fall. The detailer sent me a list of five jobs to consider.

First choice is in Norfolk:
Pros:
- Close to many navy friends who are also stationed there.
- Closer to family in New England.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Great cost of living - we can afford a nice house with a basement and have SPACE to put all our STUFF.
- It's a very career-enhancing job, too, but as a result I'm one of four guys applying for the job.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Good church with friends of ours from church in San Diego.
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...

Cons:
- Long work hours and traffic.
- No Jamba Juice or Robeks.

Second choice is in DC:
Pros:
- Close to friends from our last shore duty there.
- Closer to family in New England.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Manageable cost of living - size of house we can afford is dependent on how far outside the beltway we live.
- It's a very really cool job, too. The detailer said if I don't get selected for my first choice, then I'm his top candidate for this job.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Good church. "Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came..."
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...

Cons:
- DC traffic.


Third choice is in Groton:
Pros:
- Closer to friends in NY.
- MUCH closer to family in New England. LW says my MIL would kiss my feet if we went there. LW is from Boston and I was stationed in Groton when we first met. We haven't been back to Groton since then.
- Closer to our favorite vacation spots in New Hampshire and Orlando.
- Great cost of living - we can afford a nice house with a basement and have SPACE to put all our STUFF.
- The job would certainly help prepare me for my next sea tour if I go back to sea again.
- Good schools (MUCH better schools than Hawaii, and we won't have to pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school).
- Shopping / not listening to LW complain about how she misses Target and all the other stores and restaurants we used to frequent on the mainland. :-)
- Four Seasons - autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers...
- Non-existent traffic / easy commute.

Cons:
- This job would involve sea time, riding lots of other boats and spending time away from my family. Again - good for my professional development, but not so good for my family.

Fourth choice is here in Pearl Harbor: See previous post for pros and cons of staying in Pearl Harbor.

Military Brats

OCA recently posted about changing school systems and different age requirements for kindergarten following a PCS move. It brought to mind a very good book. I could have sworn I had already written about this in a previous post, but I searched back through my blog and couldn't find it. So I said to myself, "Self, you should write a post about Military Brats."

Mary Edwards Wertsch wrote a really good book titled Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress. One of the big take-aways I remember from her book was about the impact military life has on kids' education. In any given school district, they've developed a curriculum with a series of building blocks. First you teach them concept A, then you build on that with concept B, then you build on that with concept C. This is especially true in topics such as math and English. The problem is, when you PCS transfer to another duty station and a new school district, then that school district may have a curriculum where they teach concept B, then you built on that with concept C, then you build on that with topic A.

As a result, military brats have a tendency to score lower than their peers in topics like math and English, at least during the time period immediately after the PCS transfer. On the other hand, military brats have a tendency to score higher than their peers in topics like geography and history. I think that was due to the fact that they've traveled to a lot of places, they use maps to trace where their military parent(s) go on deployment, and they are immersed in the importance of history in the military culture.

This all "rang a bell" in my head, because I think I experienced it first hand. When my dad retired from the Navy, I moved from San Diego to Oregon in between my sophomore and junior years of high school. The Oregon school system had their requirements all mixed up and out of order compared to the San Diego school system. I'm not saying one was better than the other. They were just organized differently. Classes that I had already completed in San Diego as freshman and sophomore requirements were junior and senior requirements in Oregon. As a result, I found myself as a junior sitting in classes with a bunch of freshmen, "making up" the classes that would have been junior and senior requirements in San Diego. My first year in Oregon, I did well in those isolated classes like U.S. Government, but I got D's in 11th grade math and English. I came back though. I took the AP Calculus exam the following year and got a 5 out of 5. English was never my strong suit, but I still got a B.

Getting back to Wertsch's book, I will say that it's been a while since I read it, and the content and anecdotes are probably a little dated. There are a couple of dark and depressing chapters in the middle dealing with alcohol abuse and child abuse in military families. I don't have any data to support this, but I would like to think that the rate of alcohol abuse and child abuse have gone down over the years as our society has become more aware and less tolerant of such behavior. The other chapters dealing with education and social development I think are still applicable today as we military families continue to move from one coast to another every couple of years.

Tangent #1: How many times has ES moved now?
Born in Monterey, CA.
Move #1 to Groton, CT.
Move #2 to San Diego, CA.
Move #3 to Northern VA. Went to pre-school and kindergarten there.
Move #4 to Pearl Harbor, HI. Going to first grade here, now.

He's 6 years old and has moved 4 times.

He's 6 years old and he's living in his 5th "home."

Here's another anecdote in support of Wertsch's point about changing school systems: In spite of (a) the school he went to in VA was top-notch and (b) all the talk about how schools in Hawaii are no match for schools on the mainland, he's behind the power curve on certain things here because they teach them in a different order. They didn't work on penmanship or emphasize writing skills in kindergarten in VA, but they do at his school here in Hawaii. So his classmates who did kindergarten here last year all got that and he didn't. As a result, his writing skills aren't as good as his classmates, but his teacher says he is getting better. I've certainly noticed it getting better just in reviewing his homework.

Tangent #2: Or is this really Tangent #1 Part b?
Sometimes I really envy non-military friends of ours who are able to set down roots and stay in one place. It was a little frustrating to me in VA when we bought our second house, I found myself making many of the same upgrades to the house that I had already done once before in our previous house in San Diego. I found with a lot of things I did around our house in VA that I would have spent the extra money to get the longer-lasting or top-of-the-line solution if I knew I was going to live in that house forever. With another PCS move always lingering over the horizon, it just didn't make economic sense to me to shell-out the extra bucks for the 10-year rated water heater versus the 5-year rated water heater. [Aside: Our water heater has catastrophically failed and flooded the house in both of the past two houses we have owned. I think the next time we buy a house, we should just replace the water heater right away before it floods the house on us.] Likewise, if I were buying new countertops for me, then I would have bought an engineered stone like silestone, because as Wikipedia states, "engineered stone requires less maintenance and is more stain and bacterial resistant" than granite. But we knew we needed to sell our house, and "granite" is one of those magic words in real estate (see Freakonomics book) that grabs the attention of potential buyers.

I look forward to someday buying a house that we're going to KEEP and LIVE IN for a LONG time so I don't have to make the same upgrades again and I can splurge on the long-lasting solutions when things break.

Wrap-Up / Summary:
In any case, tangents aside and getting back to the main point of this post: I have frequently over the years referred friends to Wertsch's book as an interesting insight into how growing up in the military affects your kids. You should check it out. The entire book is available to read at the website linked to the picture above, but I know some people don't like reading books on their computer screen.

Decisions, Decisions...

I just don't know what the right answer is. [Cue music - The Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"] We're "in the window" to start negotiating with the detailer for where we'll go next. Should we stay in Hawaii or should we move on elsewhere? So far, the only job the detailer has offered me is here in Hawaii on the COMSUBPAC staff. We're just not sure if we want to stay in Hawaii.

Why do I bring this up, you ask?

We reached another PCS / New Duty Station milestone today. We took both boys in to the dentist for a check-up. We went to a children's dentistry office over in the Pearl Ridge Mall on the recommendation of several of our neighbors. This place was AWESOME. Every member of the staff had the patience of a saint. Our boys HATE going to the dentist. It takes a lot of comforting, cajoling, bribery and threats just to get them into the car much less out of the car much less in the door to the dentist's office. The staff at this place had children's dentistry down to a science, step by step making the boys understand what was going to happen before it happened, showing them what they would do with the tools on their fingernails before they stuck the tools in their mouth and started on the teeth. When the boys wigged out or were uncooperative, the staff were extremely nice, understanding, patient, and comforting.

After the dentist's office, we gave ES his choice of where to go for lunch. I was having a major Chick-fil-A craving... but alas, it's a LOOOOONG plane ride to the nearest Chick-fil-A. :-(

ES chose Wendy's for lunch. Thanks to my Chick-fil-A craving, I tried getting a chicken sandwich at Wendy's to try and satisfy the craving, but it just didn't do it for me.

Okay, so all that being said, tonight LW gave me a detailed summary of her reasons for wanting to stay in Hawaii:
1) We hate moving.
2) We have an AWESOME dentist to take the boys to.

Yep, that's it. I suppose you could add to that the living in "paradise" thing, snorkeling, hiking, etc. The job the detailer offered me here I think could be fun and interesting at least.

Why, you ask, don't we want to stay in Hawaii / why would we like to move back to the mainland? Well, just off the top of my head, and in no particular order of importance, here are ten reasons for us to leave Hawaii:
1) Be closer to family and friends - maybe the same city to see them on a regular basis, or at least close enough they can come to visit.
2) Be able to take vacations to visit family and friends or to our favorite places like Lake Winnepesaukee without spending all day on an airplane with two small children and then spending a week going through the jet-lag time-zone adjustment, just to turn around and do it again coming back to Hawaii.
3) Not pay thousands of dollars to send our kids to private school because the local public schools are abysmal.
4) Cost of living. ($5 for a gallon of milk?)
5) Changing seasons.
6) Bigger houses for less money. I really miss our house in Virginia.
7) Get our nice dining room, living room, and home theater furniture out of storage.
8) Hawaii drivers drive us nuts.
9) Target.
10) Chick-fil-A.
10 1/2) Chicken biscuits at McD's (sorta goes along the same lines as 10 above).

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Shifting topics, today was our first session back with the PT Nazi since we got back from our Christmas stand down. Aside: For anyone who hasn't read my previous blog posts, we do Command PT three days per week, but on Wednesdays we go to Bloch Arena and have a personal fitness trainer lead us through some interval training, and he always kicks our butts.

This morning, he led us through a great workout as always, but he wasn't too hard on us. He warmed us up with five minutes of jogging in place - alternating knee-highs and butt-kickers, and led us through stretching out. Then he led us through a series that went something like:
Pushups, unassisted situps, squats, lunges, running the bleacher steps hitting every step.
Pushups, Russian twists (in a sitting position with our legs out in front of you, twist your torso to the left and touch the ground, twist your torso to the right and touch the ground, repeat), running laps around the basketball court.
Pushups, squats, side lunges, dips, running the bleacher steps two-at-a-time.
Pushups, crunches, scissor kicks, flutter kicks more laps around the basketball court.
All this lasted for an hour, and we really worked up a sweat. It was a good workout. I wonder what my legs are going to feel like in the morning though. Our COB is a stud though. I couldn't believe as I was driving home tonight, I saw him out in his PT gear running along Nimitz. I guess the PT Nazi didn't dish out enough PT this morning for the COB.

There's one thing I don't understand about my body and PT though. Using my heart rate monitor during our PT sessions, I notice that when we go out running, my heart rate gets really high, but I don't seem to be out of breath and I don't seem to sweat a lot. When we do the interval training though, my heart rate is a lot lower, but I'm always out of breath and sweating profusely. Why is that?

RANT: Driving in Hawaii is Driving Me Nuts

My good friend EP told me that it's a major milestone when you can complain about living in paradise.

One of my favorite quotes from Hey Shipwreck is, "When I get out of here I'm going to a training command, because it must be really nice to do absolutely NOTHING." I'm now going to modify that to, "When I get out of here I'm going to work for Hawaii Driver's Ed, because it must be really nice to do absolutely NOTHING."

WHY don't they understand the concept of NOT BLOCKING THE INTERSECTION here??? To make matters worse, the traffic lights are HORRIBLY timed, or just simply NOT timed AT ALL. People here MAKE the traffic worse than it has to be, because they keep blocking the intersections. If there ISN'T ROOM on the other side of the intersection for you, I DON'T CARE if your light is GREEN, then DON'T pull out into the intersection and block it!!! Am I being totally unreasonable in this expectation?

Of course, on those occasions when I get up to the intersection and realize there's no room on the other side, I stop to keep the intersection clear, and the people behind me get all pissed off and honk at me for not going.

Then there's the whole shaka thing that drives me nuts, too. It doesn't matter how egregious someone has been in cutting you off or making a right turn from the left lane right in front of you, they think that if they give you the "hang loose" hand sign, then that makes it all okay. "Aloha spirit" - thbbbbbbt! :-P

WARNING: Tangent Ahead

This all got me to thinking. I grew up as a Navy brat. Yes, yes, I know that the traditional or technically correct terms are "Army Brat" and "Navy Junior," but I also know I'm not the only one who thinks "Navy Junior" sounds really stupid and always preferred the term "Navy Brat."

There is such a large concentration of Navy bases and commands in San Diego that you really can homestead there. My mom loved San Diego and never wanted to leave, so my dad did a lot of cross-pier transfers from one ship to the next. We spent almost my entire time growing up in San Diego, except for four years up in Long Beach (a whole 2 hours north of San Diego).

It was always heart-braking to have childhood friends move away when they got orders to their next duty station. I remember asking my mom why they had to go off to far away places like Norfolk, and then why didn't they come back to San Diego after a while. My mom explained to me that there was a difference between "east coast" people and "west coast" people and that some families just preferred to live on the east coast. As I grew older, I learned the stereotype that west coast Navy people were much more laid back and easy going, and east coast Navy people were much more formal and even "stuffy" or "uptight." I always thought of myself as a west coast type of guy.

Well, when it came time for me to head off on my own Navy career, I knew I would be moving every couple of years, and I wanted to see what life was like in other parts of the country. The Navy sent me to Orlando for Nuclear Power School and then to Charleston for Prototype. I volunteered for a boat out of Groton for my JO tour, and the detailer was only oh-so-happy to oblige (I guess nobody else ASKED to go to Groton).

It turns out, I really loved living in New England. I love Mystic, CT. I love Boston. I love going up to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. I loved the changing seasons, especially the fall foliage and the snow in the winter. [Aside: I sun burn easily, and I kind of have an aversion to the sun in general. LW makes fun of me because I spend like an half-an-hour lathering up with sun-block lotion before we go out to the pool or the beach.] Then we got to go to Virginia, and we absolutely loved living there. My wife actually prefers VA over CT because the winters aren't as harsh and she doesn't have to shovel as much snow (because there is some strange universal law that it has to snow when I'm out to sea, so she's the one who has to shovel it all).

Now, as I find myself living in "paradise," complaining about the "aloha spirit," and wishing we were back in Virginia, I ask myself, "Self, have you become one of those stuffy formal "east coast" people?"

One thing's for sure though. My body has adjusted to the climate here. I normally have the thermostat in my car set at like 77 degrees. While my family was here visiting from Oregon, each time I got in the car after one of them had taken the car somewhere, I found myself shivering from the cold and looked down at the thermostat to see they had set it at like 65 degrees.

Oh, and when we picked up Nate to take him to dinner two nights ago, he did a double-take and commented on how tan we all are.

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Shifting topics... I don't know if anyone noticed that I didn't report my WW results last week. You could easily have predicted my bathroom scale results based on the lack of exercise reported on my PT log and all the good food we ate over the holidays with family members visiting. I gained back 2.6 pounds over the holidays, but it could have been much worse. At least I'm still at an overall loss since I started WW, and now that I'm going back to work, I will get back into our Command PT routine and be able to plan what I eat and not graze so much on holiday goodies laying around the kitchen.

Week 6 Summary
Result this week: 2.6 pound gain (over two weeks)
Cumulative Result: 2.6 pound loss
Average Per Week: 0.4 pound loss per week

LW has made some really good dinners for us lately that were both healthy and delicious. One of my new favorites that she's made a few times is Baked Shrimp in Lemony Garlic Sauce. First ES decided he liked it on a previous run (he gave it the high praise of declaring it, "NUM NUM!"). Then, this time, YS shocked us by not only TRYING it (this was a monumental achievement just getting him to TRY something different), but also LIKING it and EATING MORE! It turns out this one is actually a WW recipe, and it's only 4 points per serving.

Another new one LW made that was a big hit was spaghetti with ground chicken meatballs from a Rachel Ray recipe. One would THINK given YS's addiction to chicken nuggets that it would have been relatively easy to make the "jump" to chicken meatballs. OMG the fuss he made! He refused to try it and pulled the "I don't like it" routine, to which we gave the standard, "You aren't allowed to say you don't like it until you've at least tried it" response. YS wanted a dinner roll, so LW resorted to Uncle Dave's tactic of putting the chicken meatball inside the bread like a sandwich. Will wonders never cease? He tried it and he LIKED IT. After that, he actually sat there and ate the rest of his meatballs without the bread.

Another long day...

Shipyard Lesson for the Day: For any of you headed for the shipyard, remember this:

"Slow is Fast"

It really is true. This evolution that we started yesterday morning would have been done by early yesterday afternoon if we had taken it slow, not gotten in a rush, followed the plan and used the procedure. It would have been DONE and today would have been a very peaceful stand-down day with nothing on the schedule.

But alas, as a result of seemingly simple series of mistakes around 0900 yesterday, we were in a critique until 1930 and didn't finish routine daily stuff until like 2200 last night, and made it a monumental task for today's duty section to accomplish with lots of extra supervision and "help." So it would have been FASTER in the long run to go SLOW in the beginning and NOT spin us all up on this tangent of corrective actions.

To top it all off, since the CO is on leave, I got to spend lots of time on the phone today with the Commodore and NR representative.

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Flashbacks to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I'm sorry to say LW's sister and husband are stuck in Houston and won't arrive til tomorrow. My SIL is pretty mad at the airline, and justifiably so if you ask me. Their plane from Boston to Houston was late, but made it in time for their connecting flight. When they got to the gate for their connecting flight, they said, "We're sorry, we already gave away your seats to passengers waiting on standby." Um... HELLO! I'm HERE! I HAVE a PAID TICKET in my hand for THIS flight! It's not like they couldn't talk to the air traffic dudes and find out the inbound flight was delayed but would make it in time. I mean, that situation in an of itself is a bummer, and I guess there's not much you can do about it at that point, but that's not the real kicker. (Aside: Where did that expression come from anyway? "the real kicker"?).

The thing that would have made me go nuts on the airline employee would be when they told my SIL that the airline would only pay for HALF of the hotel for lodging in Houston tonight, because it was a "weather related" delay. Ya know what I would've said??? HORSE PUCKY!!! I'm STANDING here in front of the gate LOOKING at the airplane that I have a PAID ticket for and YOU'RE telling me the plane is already full, THAT has NOTHING to do with the WEATHER and you BETTER pay for my hotel room tonight! Knowing my SIL, I doubt she's given up on that battle yet and she'll get the airline to see the error of their ways.

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NAVSTA Pearl Harbor Christmas Gouge: For anyone headed to a boat out of Pearl Harbor, here's something I wish I had known a few weeks ago. Apparently, they take the Christmas decorations on the ships and submarines on the waterfront pretty seriously around here. I mean, in each of my previous homeports, they've had some sort of an award for the best Christmas decorations, but there was no harm / no foul if you didn't participate or didn't decorate. I have just in the past couple of days learned that it is a VERY competitive sport here in Pearl Harbor.

It turns out, all the admirals meet up at the admirals' boat landing on Thursday evening and go for a waterfront tour and judge ALL the ships and submarines' holiday decorations. They have several awards they give out, including a couple for being a "Scrooge" (i.e. miserly, enough to show you knew you were expected to put some up, so you threw up a strand to check-the-block and say you "participated") and for "Saving the Navy the Most Money" (i.e. NO lights?).

The competition is so stiff that apparently the ships that REALLY want to win will have an entourage waiting at the admirals' boat landing with Christmas-themed refreshements and singing Christmas carols to welcome them to their boat and try to win their votes for their respective ship's decorations and holiday spirit.

If I had known about this before all hell broke loose with this critique and another JAGMAN investigation going on, then I MIGHT have actually come up with a PLAN and put up a nice display. As it was, I ran to K-Mart tonight half an hour before they closed and bought a bunch of light strands and light-up candy canes to put up on our barge so we don't get any of the Scrooge-type awards. Hey, at least all the Christmas decorations at K-Mart are 40% off right now!

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If I could do my weigh-in today, I'd be in great shape for the week. Tonight though, LW made Oreo bark...


and chocolate peanut butter fudge...

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One last thing, I thought I'd share a picture of our new "Home is Where the Navy Sends Us" wall. We had seen similar displays in some other people's houses and liked the idea. LW did a great job putting this one together. From left to right, the pictures are:
- Ledge Light off of Groton, Connecticut
- Herrmann Hall at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California
- Point Loma Lighthouse in San Diego, California
- Mount Vernon in Northern Virginia