DIY haircut... ermm, you're doing it wrong.

So... ummm... where does one begin. It all started last night at someone's 21st birthday. Ok, so not really, but that is where he drank, and why he was hung over today, which is why he didn't get a very badly needed haircut.

This might not have gone so badly if he had the correct tools. However, all he has is a small trimmer with a VERY short guard. I wish I had pictures of the process but it goes something like this: First he puts on a baseball cap to use as a guide to try and get the short part even. Then tries to evenly fade into the longer part. (Which is much too long to fade from how short the rest of it is now.) All i can see is the back of his head and hear. "S**t", "d**nit", "c**p", sporadically from the other side of the video. And "Honey, should i just shave it?" as he sits back down to show me what he's done.

There aren't words to adequately describe this hair cut. Unfortunately he went and took a shower before I could take pictures so the ones i have don't quite adequately portray the (insert adjective here, i really cannot come up with the words for this) of this hair cut.

Ok, so are you ready for this... here come the pics. And by the way, he had to go to class like this before he was able to 'fix' it.


His instructors comment was "You're going to have to get that fixed". And since he has to stand a watch after class, he had to fix it now. "How do you fix a haircut like this?", you ask....
you shave it off!!!!


(It's hard to tell but that's a trimmer in his hand)




If you've seen his bootcamp ID photo you know what we were expecting. So really it's not SO bad. But, umm... he definitely looks better with hair.

Also, now that i will be able to see him most weekends, I am going to learn how to cut his hair so that this NEVER.. HAPPENS... AGAIN...

Why March is going to be AWESOME!!!

I have decided. March is going to be awesome and here is why.

1. First and most exciting - His birthday and my birthday! (If you need his address for cards, etc you can facebook or email me.)

2. St. Patrick's Day. I'm not really a drinker and I don't know why I like this holiday so much but I just get a kick out of wearing green all day. (Perhaps because it is so easily and appropriately paired with sparkles on this day... hmm)

3. The weather will be getting nicer! Yay for sunshine! It makes me happy.

4. We will be starting back up with our lunch time "Running from Work" where some of the girls from the office get together on our lunch time and run down the waterfront and back. This will be the official kick off to my 'running through deployment' conditioning.

5. Ok THIS is the most exciting. After March comes April and then... and then... and THEN... MONKEY COMES BACK!!!! (Well, for a day or so then up to Bangor) But still. MONKEY!!!

So, there you go. March will be awesome!

INTERACTIVE POST: Leave a comment and tell me your favorite thing about March. :)

Night classes

So as mentioned in the previous two posts he has night class all week. I guess the big kids (guys who are actually on boats) need to train on the same equipment that the students do so they get the night shift.

Which means that i don't get to talk to him much this week. :( He leaves for class right about the same time I get off work and gets out about 3 in the morning our time. And since he's in class all night that means sleeping all day.

It seems that they're a little more lax with the phones though so i get a few texts in and out during dance.

Sigh. It's not that huge of a deal... It's just going to be a long week not getting to talk to him much. But i'm a big girl. I'm sure i can make it a week. :/

of brownies and robots

...also, the brownies my wifey made are delicious! She also sent me a little robot out of a pop can kit that is really neat. Im probably gonna wait until i get to bangor to make it though, just to make sure its safe. LOVE YOU DUCKY!!!!!!!!!

sososososososososososososososososososososososososososososososososo much!

I run.... in my underwear!

So this week has been weird.

First off, last week (roughly friday) I attempted to purchase a cd-key for WotLK for my second account. It was late at night when no stores were open. Also my second account for some reason refuses to let me upgrade or alter it in any way online. So i went to a website that offered them and purchased one using my debit card.

the charge showed up on my bank statement as "authorized" within minutes. Then the company sent me an email saying that they needed me to fax all of the following in order to get the cd-key i had payed for but not yet received;

Front & back of the credit card, front and back of my ID and a copy of a bill with my name and current address.

Needless to say, I immediately canceled my debit card, as well as called the company for a refund. Which they DID give me. DO NOT GO TO offgamers.com

So I have survived the week with an unsat hair-cut and a steady diet of government cheese. Speaking of government cheese... While i was using the head the other morning before class, my roommate left for work and locked me out of the room. My shoes, cell phone and keys were all in the room still. It was 30 degrees outside and the building to take care of these issues is about half a mile away. So I ran, without shoes on the freezing ground, in jeans and a t-shirt (while the rest of the base is in uniform) half a mile to BLDG 1070. OUCH!

Im just thanking my lucky stars that i fell asleep in jeans and a t-shirt... otherwise the MA girls that i had to run through would of had as interesting a morning as i did... this because they would have to arrest me for being in my underwear, and i have to run right past where they muster to get where im going. ROFL.

Also i got yelled at by some civilian chump in PSD for my haircut - which i cannot get because i dont have a debit card. K reminded me that i can go into the bank with my ID and get cash, but this was after the fact.

We are learning Nav Center Operator in class right now. Its difficult... there are like 200 acronyms to remember and I am not exaggerating.

One guy did almost get kicked out of my class for having alcohol in his room but they decided to keep him... though he is walking a very very thin line now, since he is one of the people who lied about being qualified.

I also JUST remembered that i have class tomorrow night. We are switching our schedule from 0730-1630 all the way over to 2200-0600 for about 3 weeks i think. Booyah.

this isn't too bad, its more in tune with my normal waking hours so... i will be the only alert one in class! hehe.

Delayed posts

Sorry if this is full of typos i'm writing this on my ipod.

Don't worry we havent stopped blogging. It's just that recent musings are a bit too detailed for me to be the one to write about them. Monkey was going to write last night but fell asleep and now he is without internet until at least monday. Which also means that Ducky is bummed. At least it will give us an excuse to both go running this weekend as we have both been slacking on that particular endevour.

I can give you bullets of the entry to come... Lets see if i can remember.

Well one guy just about got himself kicked out. Monkey got locked out of his room and any other day he would have been in only his boxers. He's moving rooms as they just figured out he's a student so he's not supposed to be in geo bach quarters. Umm... Brownies were a success! Verdict: pretty good.

I think thats everything. Though by the time he gets to post there will be three more days of stuff for him to write about.

On another note, if i can manage to get up more than fourty minutes before dance tomorrow i'm going to try to get to the dmv and finally get another step more official. Then i can get new checks and also my military ID. Oooo ahhh nifty. I'll actually need it now that i'll be on base often. (yay!)

Incase you're wondering we still don't know exectly when he'll be venturing back to our side of the world. Something all complicated with the ORDMOD. Oh yeah that was the other thing that he's supposed to blog about. Nothing bad. It's still going to happen it's just going to take a little bit longer to get fully processed and for him to get his official orders that tell him when he has to report to his new base.

Ok, i think that's all for now. My thumbs are getting tired. Have a good weekend!

Happy Valentines Day!!!! -- Tastey Gluten free Brownies for Monkey!!

Go Go Duty Sections!

So! To 'elaborate'.

There are 12 people in my class. 5 of us were actually qualified. The other 7 marked 'Q' for 'qualified' in the Rover and Podium watch sections without actually going through the qualification process. They could get away with it because the section leaders took their word for it. Those guys got in trouble for lying.

The even bigger deal is that we work in a building with top secret information and equipment. So you have people who aren't actually qualified to protect it - pretending they can and being entrusted to do so. The guys who are in a lot of trouble are the ones who lied, and then stood a watch anyways - knowing they weren't really qualified. As a for instance, one guy in my class did a full rove of TRITRAFAC (Trident Training Facility) and didn't sign off the log on classified doors because he didn't know he was supposed to (since he hadn't ever taken the time to stand a UI).

Hence, its possible that 7/12 of the guys in my class will be getting NJP (Non-judicial punishment) or "captain's mast" for all of this. The maximum that can happen to them is this:

--->Loss in pay grade, as in E3-E2 and a reset in 'time-in-rate' so they have to wait a long time to re-advance.

--->Half-Months Pay x2 taken away.

--->60 days restriction. They take away EVERYTHING you have a bed. That's it. You can make a 1 hour phone call each day, from a pay-phone. They have someone escort you to the NEX once every week.

--->60 days extra duty. Meaning while they are in restriction, to keep them busy, they will be cleaning 8 hours every day on top of their normal responsibility's (class in our case).


As K said, the rest of us are getting in a little trouble because we knew that non-quals were standing these watches. Its not as much trouble as those who actually did it though. The 5 of us that were honest are getting either a slap in the wrist (chewed out) or we are getting a phase liberty set-back.

This is bigger than just us though. The section leaders, chiefs (CDOs) and Senior section leader are also getting in trouble for all of this.

One thing K didnt mention is that the only reason all of this blew up is because of me - in a sense. When i went to get the final signature on my qualifications - the SSL (senior section leader) asked why the rest of my class didnt come with myself and ETSN White Chocolate (my nick-name for him). I responded that they didnt need his signature, they were all qualified. The issue came about because the SSL is the ONLY person who can qualify you, and he obviously knew that he hadn't signed theirs off. So he asked what duty sections were letting that happen and i told him it was all of them except for 3 & 6 (mine). Which was true, as far as my class went.

Now the investigation has spread to all classes, including the MTs. They are uncovering several dozen falsely qualified students. Due to the nature of the information and equipment in the building, NCIS is getting involved and the captain is..... very peeved.

Honesty prevails. I'm pretty safe. Might one few E3s left in my class after this all blows over.

So you can be a whiner, a tattle tale, or a liar. Either way, you're getting in trouble.

Monkey was supposed to blog about this one, but seeing as it doesn't seem that's coming soon, I will get it started for him and he can tell the whole story later...

Hearkening back to that whole ordeal with people lying about getting qualified...

So initially, it was just them being punished, getting yelled at for lying. But, the next day they decide to take it out on the whole class. The whole class got put back on white card. Meaning they are back to being stuck on base, having to muster all the time, and the whole bit. 

When the question was raised as to why everyone was being punished including the handful of guy who hadn't lied about it, they were told "because you all knew about it and no body said anything". 

Ok, fair enough, however if someone had said something about it then they would have been called out for whining or tattling. So really the few honest guys would have gotten into some kind of negative light due to the general consensus of everyone else lying either way.

Darned if you do, darned if you don't. Welcome to the Navy. I guess this is the part where they're building character... or something.

A sweet message.

I received an email last night from the wonderful generous lady who married us. And in this email she said something that was incredibly sweet and meant so much to me that I wanted to share it. 

 "...When I look at your wedding pictures, all I see is true love. I still haven't seen that again..."

Thank you Mary, for your kind words! It makes us happy to know that the love we feel is evident on the outside as well. :)

What a day!

So to elaborate a bit on Ducky's post... and just a little more about my day!

Had some sweet crunchy justice occur earlier today. I got in trouble a couple weeks ago because i wasn't 'qualified' yet. All that means is i don't have permission to stand watches here independently - which pisses people off because you aren't pulling your weight in the duty section. It was 80% my fault at that point, I hadn't been spending enough time chasing people down to get signatures. I blame the other 20% on the fact that its not easy to find someone to do it.

Anyways so they had the class raise their hands if we were qualified and i was one of 3 that didn't raise my hand - just being honest. I got chewed out afterward. Here is the funny part. All of those people who raised their hands got in trouble for lying. Booyah. At least i was honest - my instructor looked at me very apologetically. In essence - i was behind on qualifications - but at least i had the stones to be honest about it.

--honesty goes a long way, if you have no integrity - nothing else matters--

So --- about this ORDMOD (order modification). Origionally I had contacted a sailor in the graduating class (from 'a' school) behind mine. I found someone who got stationed in Bangor but wanted to be stationed in King's Bay. He and I had set things in motion to trade orders. Ducky and I have not mentioned it to anyone just because we know not to get out hopes up and we didn't want everyone getting all excited for what might turn out to be nothing. The 'detailer' (person in who literally writes and coordinates orders) called me today to inform me that he had no intention of making the trade because from the Navy's perspective, the money had already been spent on our orders the day we both left Groton. So he was explaining to me the reasons why he wouldn't do that trade. I informed him however, that Ducky wouldn't be moving out here with me and our intention was for myself to stay as a Geo-Bach. I thought this would be counter productive. Apparently I was wrong.

He said "Oh, well that changes some things. Im going to take this new information up the chain - I doubt anything will come of it but i will check."

So I called Ducky to give her the bad news - hence the sad blog preceeding this one. I came home to change cause i needed to go to the store. As I was tying my shoe, he calls me back. I was thinking 'oh great, he is just gonna tell me there is no chance.' He very calmly informed me that he and his superiors thought it would be best to give me and ORDMOD to Bangor.

To say the least - I was....... ECSTATIC!

He is gonna write the orders tomorrow, i should get the new orders next week. Still have to finish school here in King's Bay. But after that - its back to the lab again yo!

:(

So here's the deal. We thought we had a pretty solid chance that he was going to get to switch boats and get moved to Bangor, WA. Just found out that it's not going to work. I don't feel like going into detail about it right now. Too bummed. 

That's what all the excitement was about...

There is still this eensy weensy chance that the detailer can pull a different string and get him moved but i'm definitely not hanging my hat on that one.

Ug, I'm kicking myself because I know better than to get my hopes up about anything when the Navy is involved. I even told him I knew better and I wasn't going to get too disappointed if it didn't work out. Apparently, it doesn't matter. I'm disappointed anyway. Mostly because the reasons are lame. 

Oh well, we tried. 

So now we wait. In 2 years he can request to move again. 

The plan is still for me to stay put as long as we can tolerate it. Blah... I liked the idea of him only being 4 hours away. 

Ok. That's all.


****Whoa! Hang tight folks! Not 45 seconds after i wrote this I got a call back. I'll let him fill you in on the details*****

Mailing address

I can't post it here but he has a mailing address!!! Woohoo!

If you need it you can facebook/email me or get a hold of him.

What's new with Monkey...

Not a whole lot going on in Monkey land. 

Lets see. He got a new phone finally! One that doesn't arbitrarily decide it doesn't want to get a signal and not tell him until he realizes he hasn't received any texts from me all day. This means he also has a new number. He's texting everyone one by one as he enters numbers into the new phone. If you  haven't gotten your text yet you can facebook me or myspace him. 

He got a blackberry and he is very enthralled with it. I am surprised and amused at how excitedly he's embracing it. Daily I hear, "Honey, I LOVE this phone!" He likes that he can get all his mail, and IM's and texts all right there, all at once. :) He has downloaded the MySpace app, but refuses still to get the Facebook app. Whatever... :p

He specifically got a phone that didn't have camera so that he could have it in a secured building, i.e. in class, so that he could text me during the day. But, a guy in class was fiddling with it and they have now been banned from having phones in class. Bummer.

About Friday I think, he got a temporary roomie. He hasn't seen much of him though. There is a garbage bag with some bedding that was left on the table and he's stopped by a couple of time but that's it. I guess he's been put in Geo-bach housing until his wife moves out there but is staying with a buddy rather than staying in his room. So really, B's new roomie is a trash bag with some bedding. At least he's not messy. 

Sofa Sunday yesterday was kind of frustrating. His internet was having issues and we kept getting kicked off of Video chat, if we could even get on at all. It was like in the beginning when I was using my ancient laptop that barely even supported video chat and it was always crashing.

Lastly, he STILL doesn't have a mailbox... *annoyed face*... maybe if we all bug him he will find time to go get one...

Chattin with Miss T

Our niece "Miss T." came up to chat with Uncle B. She put my hood up. I'm not that G.

Runnin my way through deployment.

I've decided. 

This is how I am going to get through our first deployment –

 I will run right through it. POW! Like a train! WHAM! Like a truck! :D Raaarrr!!!

I have decided that I am going to set a running goal while he is gone. All the times that I would be on the web cam I'm gonna run. When I'm feeling sorry for myself, I'm gonna run. If I'm bored, I'm gonna run.

This way, I'll have no time for self pitty, plus I'll get in great shape and sleep really well.

I have broken this out into a three part goal, basically: Pre/Durring/Post

Pre: Get in shape so running feels good again and i'll want to do it. 

So that... 

Durring: I will run everyday (That is realistic timewise). 

So that... 

Post: When he gets back [home] we can run together and I can keep up with him. (Because my 'running' is currently a painfully slow jog for him) :)

*I might add a distance goal to this. But I haven't decided yet. I think I'll wait until I see what kind of shape I get in so I can pick something that is realistic but challenging.*

So there you go. This is me, being proactive and determined to not spend the first deployment wallowing is the suckyness. I plan to run circles around it!

Go Monkey!

Just a quick note: As of today he's second in his class. His rival in the class has been knocked down to 6th. He says the person in first is 4% ahead but with 8 weeks left it might be possible if the guy bombs a test or something. Of course he always wants to number one so he'll be striving for it, but second is awesome! Go Monkey!! 

Also, he's FINALLY GETTING A MAIL BOX!!!! We will email out the address to folks once we get it.
** Oops, spoke too soon, just told me it didn't happen today. He'll try again on Wednesday. Sorry guys. But he may be getting a new phone number soon. No more T-Mobile = a phone that works when it's supposed to. Yay.

OH OH!!! AND there may be a ball!! I mean there is going to be a ball but hopefully it will be timed so that I can go! How freaking fun would that be! So excited about that! *I hope I hope I hope I hope*