Support Your Local Redleg

The Cincinnati Reds are not good. They have not been good for some time now. As a lifelong Reds fan, this is disappointing. For the last couple years, they have been an offensive powerhouse (playing in a homer-friendly ballpark doesn't hurt), but each year they trade away some huge part of the offense (see Hamilton, Josh...and there's still a soft spot for Sean Casey). Oh, and (except for Edinson Volquez and the occasional Adam Harang), the pitching is perennially horrifying. This year, instead of the one-or-the-other trade debate on whether Kenneth or Adam Dunn should be treaded...hey, let's do both...and get nothing in return. The roster is now full of relative no names. Bring back this guy...
Maybe I can revive the Oakwood Tournament Team. We'd have no problem. Dip.

I hate you Reds.

But I love you so much.

Let's ride this thing...

I'm not very good at updating this thing, so while I'm on a roll, I'll keep going.

Cort was in town this last weekend, so we decided to use that as an excuse to cook out and drink. Liz, Jeff, Cort, and the Nards came. "Replacement" Scott brought his dog Dodger instead of his wife (who was eating Ben and Jerry's in Hippieville, Vermont). And the Bizzles brought Abigail. It was an interesting night to say the least.

Liz practiced being an aunt...

We tried out the new Cornhole court...

Scott was a ringer as always...

Brian was (not the only one) drunk...

I acted like a moron for the camera...

And Cort and Bear formed the most unlikely of beer pong teams...

All in all, it was a fun night. We're throwing a housewarming party this weekend, because we're getting close enough to having the young man that I probably should not be in an altered state. You know, just in case.

Holla atcha boy.

Triangle of Death

One of the great things about our house is the proximity to some of our favorite food places. We are less than a mile from an In-N-Out, which I drive by twice a day on the way to work. That, alone, is death. We are also equidistant (mmm...yes) from two Chipotles, which both are just under two miles from our humble abode. To keep Preggers happy, we are two miles from Pita Pit, which appeals to her because it reminds her of The Champion and the simpler times at Miami...and it's pretty good. While all of this is awesome for my taste buds...it sucks for my love handles.

Speaking of the house...I spent all day today tearing up the yard in front of the porch (after spending all Sunday clearing out the multitude of crap that's been in the backyard for the last couple years). That was fun. Or not. Normally I watch TV and sleep on days I get off. I was finally done digging just before sunset, so we ran over to Le Home Depot to buy stuff to throw in to the holes. We bought three Hardy White Oleanders and four reddish Asiatic Lillies (I think Asiatic...I know at least they're some kind of lily). It was dark by the time I had them planted in, so I'll have to wait for the morning to see appreciate my landscaping abilities. Somehow I pulled tomorrow off, so there will be more work done around the house. The only good thing about today's work was that I had two pregnant ladies (Becca and Lindsey) sitting on the porch, talking about babies...and how awesome I am. I think they contributed about twenty minutes of work (pumping my ego isn't work). I guess they're doing more important things. Like growing human beings.

Speaking of human beings (I'm all about the segues tonight)...Becca is huge. There was a new approach to Belly Picture Monday this week...

Bear actually looked in to the camera because he thought he was going to the beach. Gets him every time.

We're within a month now.

"Clear right, sir"

I just thought I'd give a shout out to Daniel-san for his appearance (p. 25) in the Naval Safety Center's Approach magazine for the engine failure he experienced a couple months ago in Pensacola. The worst part of it was that he wasn't even at the controls, he was sitting in the back seat. I want to know whether the "clear right" call came before or after the "holy sh*t I'm going to die" cry that I would've been making. I personally love reading Approach, along with All Hands, Naval Aviation, whatever of those magazines are laying around the squadron, but I never know anyone in there. So, not only did I get to read about one of my BFFs' heroic performance in CRM (i.e. teamwork), I also got in some professional reading (and a good laugh). Two birds with one stone.

Bear vs. Skunk

One of Becca's favorite features of the new house is the fact that the backyard has two orange trees. Much to our surprise, we were told by our neighbor that there is an orange-burglar that preys on our innocent fruits. Yes, we have our own skunk. Becca immediately googlified how to catch/deter/kill/befriend the little critter. She came up with using traps, bright lights, etc., to get rid of the skunk. I have a better plan (and one again you'll see that we're losers)...

The whole plan depends on Bear's wits and cunning, and some powdered sugar. We will turn Bear in to a skunk, using the powdered sugar for his stripes, and he will infiltrate the neighborhood skunk gang. Who would be able to tell the difference between the average 10 pound skunk and our 160 pound powdered-sugar-skunk? Exactly. No one. There's a reason we've nicknamed him the The Big Tuna. He'll fit right in.

But, if the recognize that he's not a true skunk, who would win the battle royale? Bear or a skunk? Sorry....The Bear or a skunk?

That's what I thought.

Long time no blog

So we've been kind of busy for the last two weeks with moving in to the new house and all that. Plus I have that whole flying job thing, too....and we've haven't had the internets for a little over week.

So, yes, we're officially in the new house. Most of the big stuff is set up, but we still need to unpack all the random boxes. We're still waiting for our new furniture for the living room. So right now we're cramming both our asses in to the throne (chair and a half).

I spent all last week painting just about every room in the house. It sucked. I started having hallucinations of Bear walking upright and talking like a human by the third day. Needless to say, I don't want to paint again for awhile. Saturday was spent moving all the big stuff from Coronado to here with "Replacement" Scott. Oh, and here's the highlight...we mounted the plasma on the wall on top of the fireplace. It's so money you don't even know. I'm going to wait to send moved in pictures until we get all the furniture and everything put away, but here are some pictures of the house before we moved in (some still have the previous owner's stuff in them)...

Living room:

Dining room:

Kitchen:

Guest bedroom:

Guest bathroom:

Nursery:

Master bedroom:

Master bathroom:

Front:

Back:


The house was originally a 2 bed/1 bath Craftsman style, built in 1954. In 2003, the Finlanders that lived here put on a master suite, with includes a room that we've made the nursery. You can see the wood paneling, which we're debating whether to paint or not. I know it looks really cabin-y, for a lack of a better description, but it's not that bad in person. A lot of old features, some of which are endearing...others which need to be updated. Most notably to update is the exterior color. It's just too dark. It's not a priority right now, frankly, because I don't want to touch a painting utensil for a while, but mainly because of the cost. I trimmed the trumpet vine on the trellis earlier tonight and we'll probably lighten up the window trim and paint the door some shade of red as a temporary fix. Maybe add some bushes/flowers in front of the porch type thing in front. Oh yeah and those Finlanders added a sauna...

(wtf)

Cornhole

After last weekend's party and then the one we went to on the 4th, I've re-caught the beer pong bug. Unfortunately, when asked if her husband could buy the materials to build a custom (beer pong) table for their housewarming party, the mom-to-be said "negatron." Evidently, she believes that a beer pong table is not the most mature thing for a soon dad-to-be to be making. Buzzkill. I still wanted to make something. Solution?

Cornhole!

Lowe's was celebrating my militariness with a discount this weekend, so we headed over to buy some stuff for the new house on Saturday, and also picked up some Cornhole building supplies. My initial thought was to make a Goatse themed set (anyone? are you reading, Johnny C?), however I decided against the idea, as my maturity was already questioned once while proposing something to make. We decided to go pretty obvious with an N* for me and a Miami M for daBecca. It started like this...

I let Preggers make a couple cuts, but she mainly made the frijole-filled canvas bean bags...

Set for assembly...

I guess I didn't think how difficult this would become without power tools. I woke up this morning with Cornhole-induced carpal tunnel. "Sawdust Bear" made his debut this weekend. He was supervising for safety. Finished the painting today, and the second it dried, we played our first match. Per usual, I won (21-13 & 21-2)...


I'm calling out The Champion for a match. West Coast vs. East Coast. I've got to beat you at something eventually.

Skidmarks

Liz came over Friday night and brought 'Nardo with her. We ended up going to see a movie at the base theater. When we got back, we let the dogs out, and then obviously back in a couple minutes later. You know how dogs sit down and then drag themselves across the floor? Well, I think it's one of the funnier things to watch, especially when one of them forgets to wipe...Could you imagine if that was Bear?

I don't do well with bananas...

...or so says Becca when I ask her to throw my peel away.

Lot of stuff has been going on the last week or so. Finally got done with the NATOPS phase, so I'm now a PQM (Pilot Qualified in Model) in the -60S. Now about 4-6 weeks of mission specific stuff and I'm off to my fleet squadron, which I found out will be HSC-8, the home of the World Famous Eightballers. I'm pretty excited about it. I'll report sometime in September. The squadron spaces are all of a football field's length from where I am now. So that means I'll be deploying on a carrier the beginning of next year for seven-ish months, with workups sometime after the baby is born. I'll end up being gone for most of the baby's first year, but on the good side I'll miss a lot of the screaming and still get to see him walk and talk. Oh, and I'll have to knock out SERE school. Blows.

We'll be moving in to the new house in less than two weeks. It's like Becca and I are adults, with a baby on the way and buying a house and all. Who knew? Get your reservations in for visits. If my shiny face isn't enough to lure you here, there's Becca, a 160 dog, a new house, everything that comes with San Diego... and a brand new baby. We've been buying all kinds of stuff because Home Depot/Lowe's are/have been having holiday sales lately. We've bought like five hundred gallons of paint, that I'll get to put up alone...with help from Liz and I'm sure plenty of (non-critical) instruction from Preggers. We ordered new furniture, which in itself is exciting enough. We bought a sectional and two matching armchairs. I never thought I would buy a sectional, let alone a sectional with a chaise on one end. On top of that, the sectional is blue and the chairs are brown. Guess who picked that out? I have my reservations about it, but we'll see. Coolest thing we've bought so far is a wall mount for the TV. The plan is to mount it above the fireplace in the living room. It will be awesome.

The recent LTJG promotees from my squadron hosted huge wetting down in PB last Saturday to celebrated our LTJG-ness. There were like 20 of us throwing in a couple hundred bucks each...which means a lot of alcohol. I don't really know from what place the term "wetting down" originates, but essentially it is a celebration of promotion (i.e. excuse to drink beverages). Wait for it...Google/Wikipedia are testaments to the Internets...this is what they have to say about it. A ton of people showed up. I spent the majority of the time playing beer pong, going 5-1 in the process with my new teammate, "Replacement" Scott. Scott stepped in for my normal beer pong/life partner, "Can't Make a Shot" Becca. Our one loss was to, of all people, the Crosbizzle, who decided to make one shot...the very last one to seal their win. The night ended with Liz driving me through In-N-Out and me cuddling with Bear while discussing my thoughts on life with Becca. Another successful night.

Anyone else get sucked in by Euro 2008? I stopped playing soccer when I was like 10 (when it became obvious I didn't enjoy running for extended amounts of time...or at all) and don't even really like the sport, but evidently watching international soccer tournaments is like doing crack. I wanted ze Germans to win, but nevertheless Espana prevailed. Schweinsteiger!

Tomorrow is I Love America Day, also known as the Fourth of July. Hopefully there will be plenty of old war movies on tv. Somehow, I pulled having today off also, which will render no complaints. We woke up early for a baby appointment. Everything's looking good. 155 bpm heart rate, which is just a number to me but evidently it's in the correct range. Becca got her preggo parking pass, which got her excited. He's been kicking and punching a lot lately. Normally I feel a head/butt, but last night I felt a foot kicking my hand repeatedly. He's ready to get the hell out of there I think. I think we'd all prefer if he stayed in there a little while longer. Looks like Charles (call him Charlie) is the leader right now...but we know that could always change. Any thoughts?

The rest of the day will be spent packing/cleaning, taking Mr. Bear to the beach, and maybe going to the base theater for a free movie. Not a bad little Thursday.

Support your local American Gladiator...

The Big Tuna at 2 Years...

If you know Becca or me, you will quickly come to the realization the we have a (ahem) healthy obsession with our dog, Bear. And there are more than enough reasons for the infatuation. Well, today is Bear's 2nd birthday. He spent it like any other day...

(snoring)

We got Bear from a breeder near Dayton roughly three months after we got married. He flew down on Delta to Pensacola, which he didn't care for very much. Once we finally got out of the airport and opened the kennel's door, he wouldn't come out. Who could blame him? I'd be terrified if the first thing I saw was my face, too. We pulled him out of the cage at 8 weeks old and 20 lbs. Now, at 2 years old, he weighs 160+ lbs (all muscle). I'm not gonna lie (and I'm obviously not biased whatsoever), but he is easily the best dog in the history of the world.

Here are some pictures of Bear's first night with us...






Some highlights...


Before he kicked the habit...



And our Bear today...



So, once again, Happy Birthday, Mr. Bear, may there be more wonderful years to come.

I was canceled again today, so I should probably attempt to study for tomorrow. Once of these days I'll get back in the air.

'Til we meet again...

3 weeks?

I really did abandon my blog there for awhile! I know at least one person reads this. Thanks, Dad.

Nothing really changed from the post 3 weeks ago...I'm still waiting on my NATOPS checkrides. I've been canceled 7 out of my last 9 attempts at flying a helicopter. WTF is with this weather?! We're still dealing with the idiots to get a firm closing date on the new house. Preggo came back from Dayton with even more baby clothes to add to our already overflowing collection.

Just got done watching American Gladiators. It's incredibly overproduced and scripted, but we still can't not watch it. It's our Monday night family hour before I come back to the cave and study (more). Looks like Wolf is gonna get bulldozed next week.

An incident occurred last night that made Preggers feel, in her own words, that "Christmas was canceled." It's sad that we know this, but there are six Bears (Newfoundlands) on Coronado, and one family a couple blocks away has two of them. Preggo walks by there daily (like a creepy stalker) with Mr. Bear to see if they are out so that the Bears can (in her mind) meet and be BFFs, as the kids say. Well, last night after getting back from BW3s in Temecula (a whole other story), we walked by and the two bears were out. Needless to say, Preggers was extremely excited and we made a beeline for them. Bear strolls right on up to them, and within five feet the two other Newfies blow up barking and growling and all that other crap. So I held Bear back, while I think Preggo was holding her tears back. And our Mr. Bear is so much better looking.
We had to go our separate ways, and I think a little something died inside Ole' Preggers when our Newfies didn't get along very well. Maybe they just have to warm up to each...

And then I found $5...

When the Cat's away, the Mice will...

...do absolutely nothing, which the cat may argue is what normally happens.

Preggo left yesterday to go back to Dayton for her baby shower. She'll be gone for a week, which originally would've been a good deal because I've got my NATOPS stage coming up (biggest part of the FRS). But because of a combination of helicopters not liking to work, the marine layer, and a pregnant wife with low blood sugar, I've been canceled 5 out of my last 6 flights. I'll never be one to complain about having time off, but the house is empty except for Mr. Bear, and it's raining out, so I'm definitely not succumbing to his whining and taking him on a stroll. I'm not saying it's nice having a wife around all the time, I'm just saying. Though I don't miss the baby shows that are constantly on in our house.

Belly Picture Monday

Preggers makes me take a picture of her belly progress every two weeks, and if I don't comply, she assaults me with the bump. Needless to say, she is smuggling a basketball under her shirt. This whole having a kid thing is getting real.









For those of you don't know, the little alien in her belly is going to be a boy. I had a flight the day we found out and when I got home, she didn't say a word and just showed me this ultrasound.

"Is that a twig and berries?" (Edited)

I didn't know I had it in me.

Preggo aptly saved this photo as 'money shot' on la computadora (that's Spanish for the computer).