Bow-Legged Randomness

Tuk Tuk is very bow-legged but he’s only about four inches off the ground so I really don’t notice until I get really low. I don’t know what that look is all about either. Eeeekkk. Lighten up dude, it’s Friday.

All my bloggy BFFs are doing this random thing today…so I will too. However I normally don’t get very far before I bore myself (I can’t imagine what it’s doing to you) so lets see how far I get…

1. My garage door opener in my car is broken. I never realized now much it means to have a garage open on demand until it’s not opening on demand.

2. I had sushi for lunch and I found a bottle of Japanese plum wine in the refridgerator when I got home today so it’s a Japanese kind of day. Oishi desu!

3. The boy has a cold. Lots of coughing. Poor baby.

4. The girl had a filling this week and it was traumatic so I’m not writing about it. This is a happy place. She’s better now by the way. The one bit of grace is that the boy’s check up this week was squeeky clean so he’s reached the ripe age of 15 without a single cavity. Amen for small things.

4.5. The girl just walked by with gym shorts on and said, “I’m going to work out mama.” Okay.

5. After a horrendous couple of days at work, my boss gave me a wonderful bit of leadership advice today. She said, “You deserve what you tolerate.” I will forever keep that in mind when making decisions in work and life. And I’m starting tomorrow with the girl’s room. I’m not tolerating it anymore:)

6. I’m planning a big, huge, dinner Saturday for the husband who has had an equally hard couple of weeks. He’s my other poor baby.

7. Okay enough of that. I want to leaving you with this little video of troops dancing to Lady Gaga. For some reason it was silly enough to make me laugh.

Happy Friday! I love you!

Then & Now

These men were together during an critical time in their lives and a critical time in history. So when the  news of a reunion got out, the response was overwhelming. The organizer said he expected about 20 people, instead he got over 10 times that many. No one wanted to miss the opportunity to once again relive one of the most important times in their lives.

I had my camera with me the entire time, hoping to get some great photos. Instead, I got photos like the above where only half the men were represented.

I was hoping to get candid photos but every time I aimed a camera at someone, they would stop talking and do this…smile!.

This man meant a lot to the husband. They had some great history together.

Now this man…

…came up to me at the hotel and said, “I have to introduce myself to you.” He visited my blog when Cools died and he wanted to thank me for writing the post. What a sweet man. His call sign is Opie…can you see why?

And here he is now…I don’t think he’s changed at all in 23 years.

This is the navigator turned lobbyist at the ice breaker on the the first evening that kicked of the week’s festivities. I teased him about his job and he was so good natured about it. He had a wicked sense of humor and I was very grateful for the conversation. For you see, I wasn’t a part of the husband’s life back then. Most of the wives who were there were a part of the squadron, but me? I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t want to hold the husband back from his reunion and conversation with long lost friends and colleagues so I let him go socialize. This man kept me company with his witty banter. What a sweet guy.

The ice breaker was at a sports bar so therefore most of the people there were men and mostly men who were there for the reunion.

So when this lovely young lady walked in, I thought, “I hope she has a date because this is not quite the young and hip singles scene.” She left about a minute later, poor girl.

The next night found us at an English pub outside of the city. It held about 150 people and we squeezed 270 in. We did it too. This was the husband’s wing commander at the time. He asked, “What do you do now sir?”

“Nothing. I golf and try not to drive my wife too crazy.” The husband was openly envious.

This couple was visiting from England. They just stopped in to see what the pub was like and instead found almost 300 people openly engaged in a fire hazard exercise. I talked to them for about 15 minutes. What a cute couple.

I let the husband wander off to get re-acquinted and I stayed by the crowded and loud bar. I was also extremely hungry and the food there was British. “Nuff said.

The organizer said that he wanted to give all of us the opportunity to reminisce about their time in England so he arranged for “warm beer and crappy food.” That’s a quote. Somehow it made it all better. 

 At the end of the week found all of us at Nellis AFB where we gathered together for a formal dinner. There was a poignant slide show during the dinner that made us laugh and cry.

This photo pains me. For you see, three of the men have passed away, all in airplane accidents. Serving your country is a hazardous duty and no one knows that better than these men do.

 There was a lot of jokes about who was going to go next. I cringed a little because well, the husband was a part of the group, but I guess I understand that kind of humor.

When they had problems with the sound system someone yelled out, “I can’t hear.” Which prompted someone else to yell, “Turn up your hearing aid!”

Here was the husband’s squadron commander at the time.

The husband reminded him that he was fond of saying, “I don’t run a fighter squadron, I run an adult day care center.”

His wife said, “Someone was always in trouble weren’t they?” We all laughed because the these guys worked hard, and they played hard.

Once a bunch of the guys blasted the husband’s room with the fire extinguisher, while he was sleeping. The husband was so tired that he came to the door covered in fire extinguisher “stuff.” According to the guys, the only thing you can see that wasn’t covered with powder were his eyes which was apparently very funny. The husband turned around and went back to bed. The guys got in trouble for that one…for you see, first extinguisher stuff can be toxic if you are sleeping in it.

As a mother of teenagers, I think I know whereof the squadron commander is coming from.

And here is the offender today. Doing well after his court martial.

Here’s a cute, kinda blurry couple. He was telling everyone she was his 4th wife which I thought was funny but she didn’t think so.

Apparently he was always a crack-up.

I looked around the room and saw the best of the best. I was so proud. And very intimidated.

I love this hero photo of the husband. I fell in love with his caring huge heart. He made me feel special, like I was the only girl in the entire world. And he had piercing blue eyes and looked pretty hot in his flight suit.

He did.

Now he’s outside of the airplane looking in and marveling at how small the cockpit was.

It was a special and eye-opening time. I know this is long…but I think these men and now others deserve our respect and our gratitude for keeping watch on that wall while we sleep.

Hosted by Cecilyand Caitlin

April 30, Stairway To Heaven

I love the thought that I will go to heaven climbing pink stairs.

Teaming Up With Fruit

Today Kristina and I finally have a little teaming up you for! The theme is fruit.

She’s bananas…I’m…I don’t know the name of this fruit. I only know I used to eat it all the same in Thailand as a kid. The inside is white and sweet with a pit. Brings back memories!

April 29, Pound Cat

He’s pretty fancy for a pound kitty. I’m getting rather tired of all the dog and cat hair. I’m going to shave him this summer (as soon as it gets warmer.) He’ll look like he did when we found him in the shelter. It will give the vacuum and my poor aching back a little break.

April 28, Into The Crowd

I love the dogwoods but I think they are difficult to photograph. There are so many buds they all blend one by one into each other. So I gave up and just pointed my camera to the crowded branch and looked away. I’m sure I need to have a focal point, it’s a photography rule of composition I supposed. Sigh.

Happy Outdoor Wednesday nontheless. May you do some rule breaking today.

iHeart Smiles…

My little girl and her big huge horse…apparently they know each other well…

This is my entry for this week’s iHeart faces photo challenge. The theme is “Smile.”

And she is certainly doing that. See photos that will make you smile at iHeartfaces.com.

April 27, Fresh Eyes

Looking through fresh eyes at the beauty around me…and I can’t tell if this is one flower or two, but it doesn’t matter.

And the week marches on. I hope yours is beautiful.

The Tie That Binds

The days are long and the work is hard so the only reason I feel they do it is for the love of the horse. I thought about this as I dragged myself out of bed at 5 am on a Sunday morning to drive the girl to the farm to prepare for this show yesterday.

I love her so I sacrifice some sleep. She loves the horse so she sacrifices all of her free time to muck stalls just for the chance of perhaps getting to ride that day. I don’t get the horse thing but I do get the love thing.

Posted on Mosaic Monday at Little Red House. I used Big Huge Labs again to create the mosaic. I also just recently found Photoscapes which is fun too. And it’s all free. I’m addicted to these mosaics now…

April 26, The Bellagio

I’m sure this ceiling in the Bellagio lobby has been photographed many times but one more time wouldn’t hurt. I found it incredibly unique and over-the-top gorgeous. Just like everything else in Las Vegas.

No, we didn’t stay there on our visit though it would have been nice:)

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