Saturday, December 2, 2006, 06:51 PM - Family, Nathan
Nathan loves all things electronic, including my cell phone. For a while, he just liked taking it in and out of the leather case that came with it. That was the BEST. In the last couple of weeks, he's started noticing that when I'm in my cammies, I wear the phone on my belt, underneath my cammie blouse. Now here comes the fun part. As soon as I walk in the door, Lisa screams "DADDY'S HOME", the dog barks hysterically, and Nathan looks at the door and starts smiling and waving his arms. When I set my cover down by the door and walk up to him in the living room, the first thing he does is points at my left hip (where the phone is) and starts moaning. If he's not in his chair eating dinner, then he'll come over to me and lift my blouse up and walk around me looking at my belt trying to find the phone. As soon as he finds it, he rips it off my belt and walks off to play with it. This is a nightly routine. If he's in the middle of eating then obviously he can't walk around me to find it. So, when he gets out of his chair, that's what he does. If I make the mistake of taking my blouse off while he's sitting in his chair, then he starts protesting loudly and pointing because he can see it on my hip.
Is he going to be like this when he's 16 and wants a cell phone? Man I hope not! I'll tell ya what (in my best King of the Hill impression): he is NOT getting a cell phone (or a car for that matter) while he lives under my roof! Wow...that was very much a fatherly thing to say...how weird!
I'm not even going to get into how Nathan likes to play with the keyboard and mouse, how he has already figured out how to use the remote to the Mac Mini in order to start and stop his Baby Einstein videos, how he MUST watch slideshows of our pictures, he lusts over the laptop, etc etc etc.
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Tuesday, November 28, 2006, 04:01 AM - Family, Nathan
This is how Nathan was on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Sweet, huh? He wasn't getting what he wanted so he melted on to the floor and fussed constantly. Aaaahhhh, the terrible twos. More leadership challenges ahead 
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Wednesday, November 22, 2006, 03:33 PM - USMC
Need I say more?
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Wednesday, November 22, 2006, 05:18 AM
If you've read Lisa's blog already then you know that Christmas is around the corner and she is super excited. Before I left for the Philippines, in fact, she started breaking out the Christmas music, hanging up Christmas bells, drinking out of Christmas cups, etc. So, the question of the week to all of you is: what Christmas traditions do you celebrate? We've got a few that we celebrate:
1. Before we got married we would fight about when we would open presents: Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We finally agreed that every year we would alternate until we could decide which one was "better". Obviously, opening presents on Christmas Day is better...everybody knows that!!!
2. We're starting this tradition this year with Nathan. In an effort to help teach him what Christmas is supposed to be about, each year we're going to help him pick out some toys and books that he plays with and take them to an orphanage or hospital or something. Hopefully that will also help offset the gifts we're going to give him.
3. The tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving. If Lisa had her way, it would go up in September or October. I was pretty firm about it happening after Thanksgiving. We agreed on the day after Thanksgiving because I didn't want putting up the tree to overshadow Thanksgiving.
That's it...not a very interesting post. But now it's time for your comments!
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Sunday, November 19, 2006, 02:42 PM - USMC
So Thursday night I was both excited and sad at the same time because that was the night of my unit's Birthday Ball but Nathan got sick that day also, so Lisa had to stay home. The reason I was excited was because it was my 4th Birthday Ball but the first one that I've been to with a unit. All of the other ones were TBS, Comm School, or the Wing Officer Ball the week prior. So basically this was the first one where I was going to celebrate with my Marines. Sweet!
I'm happy to report that it was better than I could imagine. I. LOVED. IT. Now, the actual setup of it all was kinda crappy. I'm really pissed off about the MCCS Mafia that controls all Birthday Balls over here. But I had an AWESOME time hanging out with my Marines and talking to them about different stuff. I didn't even eat dinner!!! I spent so much time walking around and having conversations with all my Marines that I missed dinner. Oh well, I'd pay $80 to have that good of a time any day.
BTW, how much fun is it to watch people cut a rug? So fun! One of my Marines even split his pants doing it. Sweet! Unfortunately I have no pictures because a) they might be too incriminating and b) Lisa had the camera with her when she took Nathan out to get medicine. Oh well!
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Friday, November 17, 2006, 05:30 AM
The post that was cencored is back up now. Click on the related link below to read it.[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
Friday, November 17, 2006, 12:52 AM
Dear Neighbors in the D Unit,
In case you haven't figured it out already, we're stalking you. We leave our front window and back door open so that we can listen for when you go outside. When you hear the jingle of your dog's collar or your door open, the whole family comes outside and pretends that it was all a coincidence.
Don't be scared, we're pretty harmless. Sort of.
See ya soon!
The C Unit.
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Friday, November 17, 2006, 12:51 AM - USMC
Coincidence? I think not. I showed some of my Marines the picture of the two Hos in my post about the Philippines and it turns out that the one in the pink skirt had "relations" with one of my Marines. And it seems that he's going back there over Christmas to relate some more. Sweet.[ 2 comments ] ( 16 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink
Friday, November 10, 2006, 10:21 PM - USMC
Happy Birthday, Marines! For those of you who don't know, 10 Nov 1775 is when the Marine Corps was born. Every year, the Marine Corps celebrates its birthday through individual units having Birthday Balls. These are formal events that have a very scripted ceremony. They include reading General Lejeune's first birthday ball message, the current Commandant's message, a cake cutting ceremony, etc. It's usually a lot of fun and a great opportunity to celebrate our successes and remember those who have died making the Corps what we are today. This year, I'll be thinking a lot about our friend Fitz who died in February of this year: http://christianlowe.com/blog/?p=35.[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link
Friday, November 10, 2006, 09:20 PM - Pictures, USMC
Well folks, I've been home for a week now and no blog posting on my deployment. So, here ya go! Why am I doing it now, you ask? Oh, that's easy, because I feel like CRAP. Like FLU CRAP. Yes, I was stupid and got a flu shot yesterday at work. Stupid Navy Corpsmen telling me it's okay. Stupid flu. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Yup, I have the flue now. My family left me to go to the BX and hang out, so I'm home alone to blog.
;)
Anyway, back to the Philippines. We set sail on the amazing High Speed Vessel (HSV, discussed here) in the afternoon on 2 Oct. That was after a 12 hour delay of just...waiting at the port. I'm glad that Okinawa has great weather, because there were about 350 Marines just hanging out on the asphalt during the night of the 1st!! Anyway, 30 hours later, we made it to the Subic Bay, The Philippines. Back in the day, it used to be a US Navy base, but not anymore. We left there by bus and headed to our final destination: Clark Air Field. Until 1991, that was Clark Air Force Base. In fact, my parents lived there for a little bit in the '70s!!
;)
We got dropped off at the flightline where we were going to be working and waited to take buses to our hotels. There were about 500 Marines there at Clark, staying in one of three hotels: Holiday Inn, Monte Vista, or Fontana. All of them are old officer/SNCO housing that's been renovated into 2 bedroom villas with a maid's room, living room, and kitchen. All for about $85 per night.
If you know me, then you'd understand that I couldn't wait to get started. So I dropped my seabag and pack on the deck with the rest of my section and took off looking at how things were laid out already. I spent a couple of hours getting some initial stuff worked out and I went back to where my gear should've been...and it wasn't there. Awesome. 4 hours into the deployment and I've already lost my gear.
;)
So, I make my way over to the hotel and head into my villa. I was going to be living with 5 other officers of the same grade ("the single bar club" for the next 30 days. Well...kinda. 4 of them wouldn't get there until HSV-2 which was in like 2 weeks! Sweet! Me and one other Lt shared the villa for about 2 weeks...boy was that nice!
For the next 2 hours, I ask everyone I can think of if they've seen my bags, including some of my Marines that are in a totally different hotel. I run into one of my Marines who was attached to another unit and he said that they saw my bag laying on the grass near the hotel (i.e. someone had put it on the bus at the flightline, then just threw it out when they got to the hotel) and he put it in his villa! So, I go in there and he shows me my seabag. YEEEESSSSS! That's the one with all of my civilian clothes, underwear, etc. Now I just need to find my pack...that has all my government issued stuff, called 782-gear (pistol holster, gas mask, canteens, flak jacket, kevlar helmet, etc). Another hour goes by and I get a call on my cell phone from my villa-mate saying that he's eating dinner with a Marine who says that she has my pack!! Awesome! So, after dinner, I go over to her villa and pick up my pack. It only took like 6 hours, but I was finally in the Philippines with all my gear. Sweet.
;)
Over the next couple of days all of the gear from the HSV and the commercially contracted ship arrive and we start setting up. For the next 2 weeks it was non-stop issues: fuel, power, lack of supplies, etc. Me and my SNCO were working like dogs those two weeks...but hey, that's what it's like during a deployment! After we get everything setup, it's pretty much smooth sailing:
;)
;)
After comm was all setup and operational, we kinda sat back and dealt with the daily issues as they arose. We tried to get as many people up in either a CH-46 or a KC-130 while we could. I don't think we ended up getting that many people up, but my CO asked me if I'd been up yet. I told him no, that I was trying to get my Marines up first. He told me and my GySgt to meet him down by the aircraft in an hour and we'd go fly with him. We ended up getting to watch the KC-130 refuel 4 F/A-18s!! Neat-o!
After all that fun, we came to the end of theexercise time and a typhoon was slated to hit us. That, combined with the fact that our external comm link was going to go down for a day due to a power outage on Okinawa (what a mess that was!), the whole camp tore down and packed everything up. We ended up spending a week there waiting for flights to take us back or the HSV to come in. I left with my Marines on a KC-130 flight back to Okinawa last Friday and got home around midnight. As it turns out, the HSV still has not returned yet. It got caught in the middle of another typhoon, so it had to turn around in the middle of the ocean and go back. That's going to be a horrible story to listen to when those guys get back!
So, that was my time in the Philippines. You can see all the pictures by clicking on the related link at the end of this post. Now for some generic observations about the Philippines:
The People:
In short, they're awesome. Most everyone speaks english and they'll give you the shirt of their back. As one of my friends would say, when they see us walking around, they get a sense of hope from us. Because we're there, more people have jobs and more money is flowing through their economy. None of the Philippinos I talked to understood why we left in 1991! They all talk about what it used to be like when the Americans were there...people had jobs, they made more money, etc.
The Shopping:
It was very weird shopping there, because it felt like America. There was a big American-style mall on the base that we were allowed to go to. They had other "duty-free" shops on base that sold all kinds of American products too. One of the big ones, called Pure Gold, was seriously like walking into a Costco! They even sold Kirkland-brand stuff! I ended up buying Nathan a model of a C-130, some books, and some clothes that were like $2 per outfit! I got Lisa a few things, including a San Miguel t-shirt (the big beer company there).
The Nightlife:
;)
I can't post about the Philippines and not talk about the nightlife. I'll be brief, though. Alcohol is cheap, prostitution is prevalent, need I say more? I however, did not partake of any of the latter and very little of the former. That kinda goes into a different topic which I'll save for a later date. The picture to the side is of two "ladies of the night" that were waiting outside the hotel one morning for their ride back. This was a pretty common sight as well.
The Food:
I can't say enough good things about the food! Pondesal bread, Lumpiya, pork adobo, barbequed bird, fish eyeball (yes, I ate one), all awesome! And sooooo cheap. If you've never had Philippino food, give it a try, it's well worth it!
The Exercise:
I've got a lot to say in my after action report this time, but basically I don't think it was a very good exercise for us. I don't know much about how the flying was or stuff like that, but I think the Marines had a hard time getting into the exercise mindset because they'd go home at 5:00pm and switch over into civillian clothes and go out to the mall. In fact, one night I was talking to a junior Marine and he told me that he was kind of pissed off about having to stay late because he missed a date. A date? Geez, we're in the middle of an exercise...practicing for war...and this Marine is worried about getting some from a Philippino!!
I think that's it for now. That's pretty much all the exciting stuff that happened. If I left anything out leave me a comment and I'll try to answer it.
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