Tuesday, December 11, 2007, 05:05 AM - PC
Lisa added a utility on her blog that shows where in the world her readers are.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 04:15 AM - Family, PC, Japan, Pictures
On Sunday I got to do something that I'd wanted to do for the last year or so (since I first heard about it). About a mile off Torii Beach, there's a net with three whale sharks inside. A Japanese diving company runs tours out there so you can dive with them. For only $115, you can dive with the largest fish in the sea...sounds good to me!
Since Lisa doesn't dive, I figured it would be a perfect thing to do while she and Nathan were gone. So, on Sunday I saddled up with two friends and we went out there. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I can't really even explain what it's like to have this huge fish coming towards you with it's mouth open and nudge you into the net. Or to run your hands across it's back from the mouth all the way down to the tail.
Click on the related link below for some (bad) pictures. I also took all the videos that Brian took with his underwater camera and made a little consolidated video shown below. Enjoy!
(Click the Play button in the window below for the video to start)
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Friday, July 6, 2007, 02:46 PM - Family, PC
HA. I'm blogging more than Lisa now! And she has like 18 baby sitters at the Cabin in Minnesota, so she can't use Nathan as an excuse.[ 4 comments ] ( 30 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Monday, July 2, 2007, 10:55 PM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC, Food, Japan
Well, Lisa and Nathan successfully made it back to the States yesterday/today. We got to the airport an hour and a half early (normally that's WAY too early, but we figured Nathan would like to play on the inside playground for a while). As soon as we walked in the terminal, we saw like 500 people in a line that snaked across all of the ANA counters and into the middle of the building. We looked at each other in utter disbelief...never has it been so busy in our small little airport!!
Lisa waited in line with all the stuff while Nathan and I went and changed his diaper, played on the airplane playground, watched the airplanes and airport trucks drive around the tarmac, etc. It wasn't until 11:20am that Lisa finally got up to the counter (for a 12:00pm flight)!!! After about 20 minutes, Lisa got all their tickets AND an ANA escort to take them to the plane. I couldn't go past security, so it was kind of a quick goodbye. After talking to Lisa today, she said that the airline lady walked them all the way to their seats and helped install the car seat too!!
I'll let Lisa tell the rest of the story on her blog, but that's the beginning part.
So, what did I do with my new found bachelorhood? Mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, read my book, and tried a GREAT new ramen restaurant. I'd been wanting to go there for the last year or so, but it just never worked out (they open late). Anyway, the place is basically a shack on the side of the road but their ramen is awesome! Just like the stuff we had in Sapporo. The have a set menu where you choose what type of ramen you want (soy sauce, miso, etc) and you get a drink, gyoza, japanese salad, and garlic fried rice all for about $8. Definitely a keeper.
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Friday, June 22, 2007, 05:23 AM - Family, PC, Japan, Pictures, USMC
Last Friday, I had one of the greatest opportunities of my career: to go visit Iwo Jima. That was one of the very few things I really wanted to do before I left Okinawa and I'm stoked that I got to go. Our Ops Chief was re-enlisting and was able to get a flight from Okinawa to Iwo Jima for 40 people. He swooped up most of the officers and SNCOs of the unit and off we went!
With only 4 hours on the deck and an hour and a half hump up to the top of Mt. Suribachi, we didn't waste any time. We humped up to the top, took some pictures, did the ceremony, humped down to the beach, walked up the beach, got some sand, jumped in the shark infested ocean, and finished humping back. All in all, it was amazing.
;)
;)
On a more somber note, if you're not familiar with the battle of Iwo Jima at all, here's a little history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima
Over 27,000 US troops (mostly Marines) were casualties. Over 6,000 were killed in a battle that lasted a little more than 30 days. More than 20,000 Japanese soldiers died. This battle is one of the most important battles in the history of the Marine Corps, which is why it was such an honor to be able to walk those same grounds.
"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue"—Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
BTW, I made this image by merging a photo of the landing with one of my photos. I think I'm going to mount it in a shadow box style frame and put some sand in it. What do you think?
;)
Click the related link below for some more pictures.
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Sunday, June 17, 2007, 02:04 PM - Family, PC, USMC
About two weeks ago I got back from a conference in the Philippines with about 11 other Marines. Without going into too many details, we had an entire KC-130 to ourselves. A few days before coming back we were told that the primary mission of our flight had changed from "picking us up" to what's called an "HR mission" or Human Remains mission.
Apparently a Navy Chief who was on terminal leave (meaning he was a few weeks shy of retiring) in the Philippines had drowned and we needed to take his body back to Okinawa to make it back to the US. This was my first opportunity to be part of the transportation of remains and it was really neat. One of the other officers with us had worked at an I&I unit (Inspector & Instructor == basically a handful of active duty Marines who run a reserve center while the reservists are at their civilian jobs). Unfortunately, the I&I units have been doing the majority of all burials since the war began which means they have a lot of experience with this kind of thing.
We formed a 7 man honor guard and practiced the ceremony of loading the casket onto the plane and then removing it on Okinawa over the period of an hour just before the casket came. As the hearse drove up, we unexpectedly saw a large number family members which we didn't expect at all. We performed our ceremony, took off, then unloaded the casket in the same manner on Okinawa.
I have to admit, although we didn't know this person and he wasn't even a Marine, we all felt a sense of obligation and duty to make sure that we showed his casket the same amount of respect we would want someone to show us. A few days later the LtCol who runs the Joint US Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) in the Philippines wrote an email to our Commanding General and his boss thanking us for the cermony we put together on such short notice. He mentioned that the family was in awe of the dignity we showed this person.
It's the little things that make me feel good about what I do.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 03:53 AM - Family, Nathan, PC
Today I had a mole removed from my neck. And now I have a band-aid on my neck. Lisa pointed it out to Nathan and said "Dadda's Hurt". Throughout the rest of the evening, Nathan would look over at me with this thoughtful look and do the sign for "hurt" (putting his hand on his head) and either point at my band-aid or say "Dadda". How cute is that?
Before he had his bath, I showed him the spot on my arm where the blood was drawn and said that Dadda was hurt there too. Then, when I was putting his PJs on after bath time, he was sitting on my lap and pointed that same spot out to me and made the sign for "hurt" again.
Amazing...and he's my little boy!
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Saturday, January 20, 2007, 08:00 PM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC, Japan, Pictures
I've been lazy about putting pictures up lately, but today is your lucky day! 17 pictures that we've taken around Sunset Beach (right near American Village) in the last couple of days (click the related link at the bottom to see all of them).
;)
The first four (including the one to the left) are from about a week ago when we went down there to watch the sunset from the beach. Of course we had to stop and get Lisa a Starbucks (and let Nathan stare at the bad ass ferris wheel), so just as we rolled up to the beach we saw the last 10 seconds of the sun setting. DAMMIT!!! As I said to Lisa, we were one Carmel Macchiato too late.
;)
This picture is of the sun rise the morning Lisa drove me in to work because I left my car at the airport. Let's be realistic, when I say airport I really mean the building we call the "terminal" on the flightline. It's really just a waiting area with a door onto the flightline. Aaahhh, gotta love flying Sumo Air!!!
;)
And finally, the pictures from this morning. Today we were going to look at the AN-124 on MCAS Futenma, but it turned out that it took off about 30 minutes before we left. Oh well, we'll go see the one that's flying in tomorrow!!! Afterall, it's the second largest aircraft in the world! Anyway, we decided to go get Starbucks and walk around the beach a little bit. Nathan enjoyed eating his chocolate scone, feeding the pigeons, and being fearless by trying to walk up and down all the stairs by himself. He also tried to jump down from the picnic table bench and...well, you can see what happened:
;)
Don't worry, his nose broke his fall!
And, lastly, a little bit of Engrish for all you lucky readers out there. At the snack bar, they sell Squid Arm Fries for only $5!!!
;)
You also have the option to rent beach ambrellas and ash trays. Sweet!!
;)
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Monday, October 2, 2006, 04:14 AM - Family, PC, USMC
Well, I'm off to <EDITED FOR CONTENT: OPSEC> for a month! We're going over there on the WestPac Express High-Speed Vessel (HSV) which is pictured here:
;)
And described here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... v-4676.htm
Fun, eh? The next 15-20 hours of my life will be spent with 900 of my closest friends aboard this little boat. After that, it'll be 30+ days at <EDITED FOR CONTENT: OPSEC> (which is considered a combat zone but not a tax free zone apparently). We're staying in hotels, eating hotel food, gambling at casinos, and will be partaking in the water park once or twice. Oh yeah, and spending about 16-18 hours a day making sure comm ain't broke.
Most of all though, I'll be missing Lisa and Nathan. It's pretty darn hard to explain how I feel leaving my little guy. He's going to be doing so much growing and learning that he's going to be a differen't person when I get back. How sad! I'm also going to miss Nathan's first (real) Halloween. I hate missing things that he does. The last time I deployed, Nathan started to laugh while I was gone. Lisa recorded it and played it when I called one time.
Deployments are a tough situation for me and my peers. In the Marine Corps, you're pretty much guaranteed to deploy somewhere for some amount of time. Those are the times when you get to actually do your real job without any of the garrison bull shit that normally surrounds you (i.e. my last 3 weeks). You're either killing terrorists or training to kill terrorists; simple as that. On the flip side, that means you're away from your family. So that puts someone like myself in a hurt locker. I like deploying because I get to do my job and see my Marines do their job (and do it VERY well) but I hate leaving my family.
One of the nice things about being in Okinawa, though, is that we rarely deploy for more than a month. That kinda gives me the best of both worlds: I can go to the field and do my real job AND not be away from my family for very long.
Having said all of that, it doesn't make it any easier on Lisa. She still has to be the one who holds down the household with no help from me. She still has to cater to Nathan's every need without any breaks. She still has to show Sandy some love'n in order to keep her calm.
So, in the end, I'm back to square one. I'm glad I'm going but I hate the fact that I'm going. Here's to hoping that a Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) mission doesn't pop up while we're there!
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 03:02 AM - Family, Nathan, Lisa, PC
Lately everyone has been asking me how things are going, how I'm doing, yada yada yada. The answer as of late has been "busy busy busy" followed by a big sigh, rubbing of the temples, and shaking of the head.
On my way home tonight I was gearing up for a big fight with Lisa because when I talked to her aroud 5:30pm,, I told her that I'd be late tonight and would miss dinner. This would mark the 4th dinner I've missed with the family in the last 2 weeks. So, I was all ready to come in and be like "hey, I've got a lot going on at work and I'm trying to do the best job I can being a good husband, father, and Marine so cut me some slack".
As I walked up the sidewalk, I noticed that the light in Nathan's bedroom was on which could only mean one thing at 7:15pm: the bedtime routine had started. I opened the door and wasn't greeted with the typical "DADDY'S HOME!!!!" Nope, tonight I walked upstairs and went in to Nathan's room and was greeted by a "dadduh" from Nathan and a "oh look, Daddy's home just in time to say good night to you" from Lisa. Of course I gave her the evil eye at that time...but then I just looked at Nathan and realized what a jerk I am.
My son, the one who I'm supposed to love, nurture, teach, protect, etc hasn't seen me for about 13 hours. He briefly saw me at 6:15am when I left for work, but that's it. At first I was thinking "hey, I've got a lot of things to do at work in order to prepare for this exercise". Just from looking into his eyes, staring at his face, and touching his skin, all that crap fell away and I saw myself as being a failure in the last couple of weeks. I'm going to be gone for more than 30 days for work, there's no reason why I need to extend that just because I can't get everything accomplished in one day.
If I can't get everything done during the normal 7:30 - 4:30 work day, then I need to do that work after Lisa and Nathan go bed. For most stuff, it's not worth being away from my family because THEY are the priority.
After I kissed Nathan goodnight, we went in and changed our sheets then went downstairs and cleaned the kitchen, picked up the family room, and ate dinner. Actually, I ate dinner while Lisa did all of those things. So what's the other thing I feel like a jerk about? Yup, you got it: not only is Nathan paying for my workload, but Lisa is too. She's acting like a single Mom, doing all the clean up, laundary, cooking, etc ON TOP OF taking care of Nathan. Her day never ends and yet I expect to come home after a LOOOONG day of work and relax.
See, I told you I was a jerk.
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