Lenticular Clouds

Hello all,

First off, I have to tell you how much fun G and the other girls are having with this thing on the MAC called 'Photo Booth'. They sit around many days and record movies of themselves, shot pictures and just whatever. Well, as many of you know, all my girls are officially undiagnosed ADHD kids. We have a terrible time getting them to focus on regular things, though they usually focus during playtime (go figure). Well, G was working the Photo Booth the other day and got a bt distracted just as she set it up to take a picture. Here is what she got ...

that darn TV

Well, too much fun.

My brother sent me some pictures the other day and I just had to share them. Below are some pics of a phenomenon called 'Lenticular clouds'. I read the short synopse but don't really recall the story behind them. I remember a bit about thing being dry and the rain clouds setting up in just the right conditions and the air coming off the mountain just right, and voila (hey French teacher, check my spelling!!) Anyway, here are some of the more interesting pics he sent. 

Way cool.

dig the cool colors

I love the fall colors in the foreground!! 

Miss that!!

Take care all.

The Last Roll Call ...

     On Friday, I was priveleged to attend a memorial for one of our Soldier's. One of the doctor's, a Colonel in our clinic, ended his 3 year bout with cancer last week following chemotherapy and finally stem cell therapy. He died leaving his wife and 2 sons, 15 and 11. As you all know, this hits quite close to home for us. 

     The memorial service was set-up like most, with the standard 23rd Psalm, the Lord's Prayer, the singing of Amazing Grace, a short Christian sermon, and some touching words of remembrance by our Commander and some of his close friends within the DENTAC.

     There were, however, some striking differences. To start, the memorial began with the National Anthem. This Doctor was first and foremost, a soldier, and a soldier's committment is to the Nation. Quite fitting. Second, positioned at the front of the chapel, the trademark of the passing soldier: the standing M16 Rifle with Kevlar mounted on top, his boots positioned squarely in front, and a picture of the soldier. And finally, the Last Roll Call ...

     This, if you have never experienced it, as I hadn't, is a chilling experience to say the least. This honor is only afforded to those that pass while on active duty. 

     As we entered the final portion of the memorial, the Benediction was offered and while our heads were bowed, our First Sergeant (the senior enlisted member of our company) positioned himself in front of the congregation. When the prayer had been completed, he called out ... (I'll omit the names)

1SG: LTC A!

LTC A: Here First Sergeant!!

1SG: LTC B!

LTC B: Here Fist Sergeant!!

1SG: SGT C!

SGT C: Here First Sergeant!!

1SG: SGT D!

SGT D: Here First Sergeant!!

1SG: COL E!

COL E: 

1SG: COL E!!

COL E:

1SG: COL First Name, Middle Initial, E ! ! !

Taps (begins as the last name is being spoken, softly, as from a distance) ...

(It's even hard to type)

     As we filed out of the chapel, all military, 1 at a time from the pews, marched to the front and offered a final salute. All others, 1 at a time from the pews, were allowed their moment to offer their respects. A befitting end.

I encourage all of you to offer a small prayer for this doctor's family.

Aloha.

the best deal

Hello again,

L and I had some 'us' time and went out to lunch. As I don't get a lot of time, we went to the PX food court, which also saves a lot of time since it is just across the parking lot. We had a few extra minutes before I had to get back to work so we went in to the PX and ended up in the shoe dept. We always look at the shoe sale isle and often, like today, find a gold mine. We poured over the sales and they had their '75% off' mark-down. Well to say the least, we took advantage. We ended up with 4 pairs of shoes and on the way out, caught another sale rack that gave 50% off the already reduced sale price on some other items of interest. 

All-in-all, we got 2 special items (sorry we can't show 'em 'cause they're gonna be gift to someone lucky) valued originally at $50+ each and ...

The boots alone are $118 (PX original price) each and you can see that the pink tennies are New Balance. 

So, we probably walked out with about $350 worth for about $100.

Ya gotta love the bennies.

C'ya

The craziest lost key story ... EVER!!!

Hello again (sorry, a bit of a long story, but worth it in my opinion)...

So yesterday, Saturday, I was preparing to take H to the Stables for her lessons and volunteering. We spend the morning together; have breakfast, clean up so momma doesn't have so much to do, prepare H's lunch, and get her backpack ready so she has all the essentials ... you know, extra socks, pants, shirt, shoes (and supposedly her raincoat, though that didn't happen yesterday). Anyway ...

I went outside to get an extra cooler as I often take the hike to go see the whales, and I wanted some cold water afterward. We keep the cooler in some locked closets in the carport and I keep my key on my regular keyring (i.e. I knew I had them at that point 'cause I needed the key to unlock the closet). I come back in and proceed to help H fix her lunch. We make her sandwich and put her apple and water and soda in her cooler. I pull the ice bin out and fill the cooler with ice so it's nice and cold for her, filling my cooler as well, and then we get ready to go. Now I can't find my keys. You must understand (and any of you that know me will) that this is pretty typical for me. We look for about 5 min, I get totally pissed at myself, and then realize we are gonna be late for her lesson, so we take L's car and I decide to look when I get back.

When I get back we turn the house absolutely upside down. I check everywhere. L follows behind me checking again 'cause I usually don't look so good. I look in places I haven't been in 2 or 3 months, just because. I look in the toolbox (I didn't go near the toolbox that morning but it was in the closet, so hey ...), I look in the trash in case they fell in (I had actually resolved to empty the trash on the carport to get a better look if I hadn't found them by Sunday night), I look in the ice bin in the fridge 'cause I remember filling the coolers (L actually pulled it half-way out to get a better look). Finally, we give up. We resolve that they are permanently gone (even L who can find a needle in a haystack, as long as the haystack is in our living room, gives up) and we decide to bite the bullet and order a new set. 

We make the call and go the the VW dealer and in the end it will cost around $350 for a full set w/ remotes and a spare plain key, plus having the car towed because they have to 'program' the keys at the dealership and if you try and start the car w/o a programmed key, it will lock up and cost several hundred $ more to get it unlocked. (At this point we are kicking ourselves because I only got 1 set when I bought the car and we had been meaning to get the other set for a while, but just got too busy/lazy to get it done.) And finally, I was prepared to bite it again because I have my work keys on the ring, and that would run me at least a couple hundred $ plus a possible permanent counseling in my file for failing to secure sensitive items. 

I looked again, periodically, throughout the day and even dream of lost keys that night. No luck! Enter Sunday ... 

L and I go coupon shopping at the commissary for misc. items and after getting home, we begin putting things away. I get to do the freezer and it's pretty full, so I squat to re-arrange some items and this is what I see ...

Now take a closer look ...

Yup, you guessed it ... my keys. 

Here is the scoop. When I came in from getting the cooler, I put the keys on the counter. I then proceeded to pull the ice tray out of the freezer and set it on the counter to fill the cooler. The fridge has the ice/water in the door thing, so the ice tray has this rotating shaft that is crooked on the end. As I set the tray on the counter the shaft hooks my keys. As I pick it up, the ice shifting in the tray covers up the noise of the keys clanking. I put it back in the freezer, and the shaft goes into the little gear box that turns it, pushing the keys further onto the shaft and effectively locking them in place there. As L and I looked in the ice bin on Saturday, the keys were solidly hooked onto the shaft so they don't fall. The ice shifting, again, covered the noise of the clanking keys. 

This, in my humble opinion, is truly 1-in-a-million!!

Happy days!

in sickness

Just a short note.

   As you all may or may not know, G was part of the big Salmonella-peanut butter thing. She was one of the 3 cases found in Hawaii.  We never did fid out how she got it. 

   Anyway, while she was sick, we were feeding her the B-R-A-T diet. You know, all things bland, and when it came to the chicken broth, she balked at every sitting. She really hated it and now remembers that part of her illness with utmost disgust (no, she doesn't remember the runny diarrhea blasting from her hind end, she just remembers having to eat the broth).

   Well, as with most of you, it is winter here (I know, hard to believe, but it's true ... cool [bordering on cold] and wet all the time). As such, many in the house have come down with colds. Well, G is right on it. Everyone that gets the sniffles now is subject to her taunting and laughing that 'You gotta eat the Broth!!!'. She even went so far as to tell me yesterday, when I was down for the count from pulling a muscle in my neck/shoulder and on muscle relaxers and vicodin, that I was going to have to eat 'the Broth!!'. 

   She taunts us like it's some poison that is going to be worse than the ailment. Too funny! (I don't think it is as good here as you don't get to see her face when she mocks you).

Have a good one.

February, not just for Valentines ...

Hello again,

first off, just wanted to show off a couple of pictures of the boss from our vacation last summer. I had been looking for these pictures for a while but had deleted them from the flash card accidently. You remember the story about the restaurant where L got in trouble for not minding here manners. Well, I found the pics of her being 'the example' for what happens when you don't do what you are told. Here is L and the waiter getting her 'just reward' as he explains to the restuarant what she did.

And here she is as she put's her nose on the wall. Sorry to bring up old news, but this was just too funny.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this as much as I do.

We have been enjoying ourselves lately. As usual, Feb is THE month for birthdays. I celebrated B's happy day with family and friends. As per her usual, L fixed her favorite meal of Chicken Enchiladas and Apple pie. It was 'fabulous' as usual.

G insisted on the hat. 

They also made a cake with one of those special fondit icings. L and B both said that it looked much better than it tasted.  They enjoyed it, but it wasn't what they had intended. All in all, the birthday turned out very well. The party was great and all had fun.

     L, G, H, and I went to the zoo. On the way in, we spied a couple of tourists coming out of their hotel. L is always teasing about the way the tourists dress here. I am sure they feel that it's so much fun, HOWEVER ... please don't try this when you come. I can assure you that all of the locals will have a field day. These 2 seemed to be enjoying the sunshine ... but in the meantime L was snapping the shots.  You have to enjoy the matching outfits ...

    When we aren't busy being the local island fashion police, we have been spending a good bit of time on the east side of the island when we take H to the stables. The walk to the lighthouse is really awesome, as I have mentioned. We took this a couple of weeks ago. I enjoy this as it shows some of the local flora that I for one didn't expect. The cactus are huge.

G really enjoys the walk, though L isn't that fond of it. It doesn't look like much from the beginning, however when you get to the top you know you have done some work. I took a short jaunt during a break and scrambled down the slope to get a better look at some of the coastal rocks. The sea was a little rough that day and I caught some good water spray hitting the rocks.

   We recently added some backyard toys. The girls totally enjoy the trampoline ...

and G and some of the local kids can spend all day on the 'fort'.

     L celebrated her Happy day at the end of the month and she decided that she wanted her own creation of a carrot cake. After she cut it, H yelled out that it looked like 'Pac-Man'. You be the judge ...

Finally, we were invited to a real treat. In Hawaii, the first birthday is really, really a big deal. The celebration is huge. One of the docs at work was celebrating their boy's first and invited us. We had a great time. They had a band, a professional photographer, some Hawaiian dancers, some young girls that had a Hip-Hop dance troop (only 3 at this gig), an all service bar, all-you-can eat buffet, the works ... They had it at Dave and Busters and so we all got game cards. They also had a clown and G and H got some real face painting and they had some balloon artists that could make practically anything.

Life for me has been a bit crazy. I am doing my usual work teaching at the program doing montlhly lectures, then late Feb I got to give a lecture at the 'Tri-Service Symposium'. It is a Continuing Ed course for all of the military general dentists on the island. I spoke for a couple of hours, so I had a bit of extra work to do to get ready. In addition, I got nominated to go to a conference with an organization called Federal Dental Internationale. It is an international conference for dentists of federal organizations. I had to submit a 20 minute presentation to the Chief of Graduate Dental Education for the Army. It all hits at once, you know.

Well, hope all is well with everyone. Until next time ...