"I Give You Full Marks for Bravery"

Pirates Tell U.S. Navy to Back Off.

Wow. That's gotta take some stones, eh? These pirates must not have been watching the Military Channel much, because they've clearly missed all the shows on what total bad-asses SEALs and other Special Ops guys are.

I don't know what it says about when the State Department spokesman feels need to remind us that "...These are not pirates who will remind you of Johnny Depp. These are quite different kinds of pirates."

Dur...

More importantly, do they remind us of the other star of the movies?

What Are You Doing Over Here?

I've got a new post or two up over at the Flight Deck while Lex is out of pocket. Lots of pretty new airplane pictures (called plane pr0n, by the way), as well as some updates on the Valour-IT fundraising drive.

Weekend Getaway

Whilst in the grip of fear that one of the best writers on the intertubes may be hanging up his hat, we hopped in the car on Friday and drove to Greensboro NC for an annual Halloween party that we couldn't miss.

There were pirates

Knights and their maidens fair

Even a double Elvis sighting

Rambo made an appearance, but it was determined by some that his costume was lacking a certain (and useless) part of the male anatomy

Of course, the kid came too.

"Help me Daddy-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

Driving from Annapolis to Greensboro with a 6 month-old isn't as bad as you'd think, and being there more than made up for the length of the trip. Our host and hostess are dear friends who take Halloween seriously. Decorating their place takes weeks, and none of the photos I took can ever do it justice. Not being there would have been far worse than the 15 total hours we spent in the car.

I did learn a few things during the course of the party:

1. Length of adult female costume hemlines is inversely proportional to the age of the wearer.


2. As the length of the party increases, the average age of the attendees lowers.


3. If you're closer to 40 than to 30, talking at length with a twenty-something won't make you feel young again. It will make you feel older. Much older.


4. Females have it easy when it comes ot costumes. Simply take an iconic character image (nurse, teacher, fisherperson, etc...) and put the word "slutty" in front of it. Show some leg, overdo the make-up and presto! You've got yerself a costume. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

For a Good Cause

Every fall, the folks at Soldier's Angels and Valour-IT have a fund-raising campaign to raise money to purchase voice-activate laptops for wounded vets.

As part of that drive, there is an inter service competition to see which service can raise the most money.

Further details here and here.

Has It Been 6 Months Already?

Hard to believe that 6 months ago tonight, our little bundle of joy arrived to bless our lives. On one hand, it seems like yesterday. On the other, I can't remember what life was like before she got here.

I'll never forget that first time the nurse handed her to me. I'd never even seen a baby that young before, much less held one. She seemed content to just look around and see what was going on.



In fact, she spent the better part of that first week just sort of looking around.





She was a scant 6 pounds when she arrived, and we wondered if she would ever get bigger. We worried needlessly, as time would tell.




At the risk of tempting the baby-gods, she's been an absolute breeze so far. She slept through the night by 8 weeks, and has now settled into a routine that fits pretty good with ours. She goes to bed at 7, gets up 12 hours later, and is always happy to see us in the morning. There's something about that smile, but maybe it's just me.

Her favorite thing at the moment is to make raspberry noises, which is either an emulation of one of her favorite toys, or a response to the numerous NASCAR (go Tony!) and IndyCar (go Danica) races we've watched together. The unfortunate side-effect of this particular activity is the copious amounts of drool that accumulate on her chin and upper chest. She's wearing a bib all the time these days, just to keep her clothes dry.

We can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring. There's going to be crawling, walking , and even talking by next April. Then things start to get really interesting...

Not Everyone Looks Good All the Time

Zombietime has posted an “ultimate” online archive of un-flattering photos of HRC. Now, I tend to view this political discourse somewhere between the “neener-neener-neener” and “yeah, but you’re a poopie-head” schools of debate tactics.

I suppose it’s only fair, tho, since the left has spent the past 7 years using photos of W looking more – simian, I suppose – than normal. I’m guessing that once HRC is elected, we’ll be seeing a lot more of the photos linked above on the right-hand side of the blogosphere.

Having said that, there’s at least one photo I quite enjoy. Could stand to look at a lot, you might say.

Betcha can’t tell which one…

Worried about my Blogfriends

Several blogbuddies are in the crosshairs of the fires burning in Sandy Eggo.

I saw what these things can be like when I was in Sisters Oregon a few summers ago, and I can't imagine what it must be like knowing that these beasts are only miles from your home.

Good luck to Lex and FbL. Both are updating as conditions allow.