Tomorrow is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.  Remember that even after all these years, we still have young men and women far from home to defend us.  Please keep the casualties and survivors of December 7 in your prayers, and also please include those who serve now.

but Irish Woman has me tasting a new recipe for strawberry-cranberry jam, and this cartoon keeps coming to my mind.

I’d ask her to taste it first, but I wouldn’t put it past her to have built up a resistance to it over time.

• Girlie Bear says that she sometimes struggles in getting the cadets she’s been put in charge of to behave at JROTC.  She asked me for advice.
  • I wonder if Full Metal Jacket is available on Netflix?
  • Seriously, I advised her to be responsible, civil, and firm.  She can learn how to do the wide-eyed, crazy, knife-hands routine later.
• All units, be on the lookout for a male Siamese, wearing a multi-colored collar.  Answers to the name of Crash.  Under suspicion in the theft of a pound of ground beef from the kitchen sometime between 3:00 PM and 3:30 PM today.  Subject ground beef is still missing.  Suspect is known to be dangerous.  Approach with caution.
• At his therapy this evening, Boo rode the horse backwards.  I imagine that he will remember the sensation and view if he ever joins the Army.
• Ever have those days when you’re in such a foul mood that you worry about your ability to ignore the voices?  Yeah, it’s been that kind of week.
• It occurs to me that someone could be filthy rich if they were to market fortune cookies in the original Klingon.
• If I can get on the nerves of one really annoying person every day, I sleep well at night.
• Either someone was filming a zombie movie at the grocery store tonight, or it was double coupon night for the indecisive.
• Apparently the White Death will be descending upon Kentuckiana by the end of the week.
  • I’m going to stock up on bread, milk, and eggs, so that when local society collapses under the weight of the ice and snow, I will be the only source for French toast.
  • I will leverage this to rule the frozen wasteland.

• I do so love spending time getting things together to do something, only to be told that someone else will be doing it.
• Irish Woman has been spending a lot of time lately arguing with customer ‘service’ people at two major retailers.  I’m afraid it’s starting to degenerate into a Monty Python sketch.
• I think I finally figured out the difference between me and Irish Woman:
  • The popular icons of my ancestors’ culture are THOR, GOD OF THUNDER and ODIN, THE ALL-FATHER.  (Insert sound of thunder and rocks breaking.)
  • The popular icons of her ancestors’ culture are Darby O’Gill and the Little People, as well as Bono.  (Insert lilting sounds of flute music and sheep bleating)
• Tonight, I may have to try to break the laws of time and space and be in three places at once.
  • Quantum theory meets project management and family life.

• Ever have one of those days when you watch a disaster movie and start cheering for the volcano?
• Irish Woman took the kids out and took pictures for Christmas today.
  • Either the kids are getting ready for a stadium tour or they’re preparing to burn down a village.  I’ve never seen such scowls in my life.
• In case you were wondering, it takes exactly 2.24 seconds for a young Siamese cat to go through the door of his carrier, cross the living room and dining room, jump onto the table, grab a piece of turkey thigh meat, and head for the basement.
• I get no respect.
  • I ate a lot at dinner (It was our family Thanksgiving), and was a bit sleepy, so I stretched out on my recliner.
  • Girlie Bear came into the living room, and looked at me.
  • When asked what she wanted, she came up, placed both hands on my belly, and said “Cool, I felt the baby kicking!”.
  • Yeah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  I know, I know.
• A well-known on-line and brick-and-mortar outdoors chain decided to trifle with Irish Woman because their website couldn’t keep up with traffic and messed up her order yesterday.  She is currently plotting something horrible and sticky for their customer service representatives, who are apparently only empowered to repeat over and over again “I’m sorry, but that order can’t be cancelled.  You can return it to the store when it comes.”
  • Seriously, after going in to figure out why she was loudly speaking in tongues at her iMac, I just shut the door to the bedroom and waited for her to stop levitating four feet off the floor.

• Nothing says “I’m sick of turkey!” like driving across town to buy fresh lobsters.
  • One benefit of living and working in a city with a major transportation hub is having a seafood company that sells fresh seafood out of their warehouse.
  • I didn’t know this, but lobsters are graded based on condition and appearance.  Of course, they were out of the more economical, but still delicious, grades, so our lobsters were not only succulent and tasty, but also pretty.  That made a huge difference as they were being cracked, broken, and ripped limb from limb.
  • Twasn’t cheap, but it brought the price down low enough that it can be a rare treat instead of a every-couple-of-years luxury.
  • Boo was hesitant about the big bugs with rubber bands on their claws for a few moments, but then started checking them out pretty thoroughly.
  • He declared that he preferred claw meat to tail meat, and honestly, who can blame him?
  • I just hope he doesn’t start making this his answer to  “You’ve been really good, so you pick out dinner”.
  • You never know just how loved you are until you start cutting up lobsters in a house with cats.
• Lazy Bike Commuter and Suburban Ninja were by on their way home from Thanksgiving.  It’s good to share a cup of coffee and conversation with friends.
• I introduced Boo to “Pigs in a Blanket” today because I was too busy to really cook at lunchtime.  He thought it was outstanding.
  • Hot dogs and crescent roll dough for lunch, lobster and smashed potatoes for dinner.  The boy liked both ends of the spectrum.
• Girlie Bear finished reading “Brave New World” today.  Can’t wait for the “Dad, what exactly was that all about?” conversations to begin.
  • I’m going to give her something a little lighter to read.  I think I might introduce her to techno-thrillers.
• The kids and I have been watching the first season of Star Trek:  The Next Generation over the past few days.  I must say, I could never make it as a Star Fleet captain.
  • “Oh bother, they’ve kidnapped one of my officers and are refusing to release her.  Guess I’ll come up with a convoluted plan to get her back.” wouldn’t work for me.
  • Mine would be more like “Pinpoint exactly where she is, then start bombing everything that’s not close to her from orbit until they send up smoke signals that they’re ready to send her back, along with the genitalia of the jerk who took her.”
  • Also, is it just me, or do the plagues and wars of the next couple hundred years in the Star Trek universe kill off all the unattractive humans?

This is the one day of the year where we’re supposed to reflect on how fortunate we are and celebrate it.  Honestly, I wish I thought to do it more often.

In a world where a lot of people live in fear, in hunger, or in squalor, my family is safe, clean, and fed.  My daughter is getting a good education and has hopes to be a professional after she gets through university.  In a lot of the places I’ve been, no matter the culture or the religion, she would already have been married off and be living a life of drudgery.  Little Bear is free to be who he is, and who he wants to be, no matter what those around him think.  We are fortunate that we live in an area that has the resources Boo needs right now, and even in this country that’s not a given.

My beloved Irish Woman is still the rock that anchors me.  Without her, I’d be adrift, and I need to thank her for that more often.

For those who can’t take advantage of this day because they’re providing a service to my family, thank you.  I’ve been there, and it sucks.  But please never doubt that we appreciate what y’all are doing, and hope that someday it won’t be necessary.

To the rest of you, thanks for listening to my rants and bad jokes.  This relief valve gives me just enough diversion from life in general that I may actually be considered sane most days, and the people I’ve met through the blogs, forums, and on-line communities are wonderful.

So, please enjoy your day, and, again, thanks.

• Girlie Bear is reading The Gunny’s new book, and I told her she could loan it to her friends if she wanted.  She said she was going to recommend it to her friends who are planning on joining the Marines, but wasn’t going to loan our copy to them.
  • She appears to be more afraid that they will attempt to eat it than that they will lose it.
  • Quote of the Day – “How long has this book been out?  You’ve been saying stuff like this to me since I was born!”
• Went into the hippie-dippie health food store to get Boo’s vitamins today.  They have bulk stuff like quinoa and black beans.
  • I may have to practice the black art of capitalism with them on occasion.
• It’s officially winter.  I got the urge to bake this afternoon, and ended up making batches of pumpkin bread and cranberry nut bread.  I would be making cookies and banana bread as well, but Irish Woman needs the oven to prepare toast for tomorrow’s dressing.
• It’s quite liberating when someone almost tearfully informs you of the latest ‘drama’ in their lives, and you just shake your head and say “That’s too bad.” without making their issue your issue.
• Tonight, I tried to explain to Irish Woman why ammunition became scarce and went through the roof, and why .22 is still pretty thin on the ground.  I don’t think I fully explained it to her, and I may have confused myself.
• If the weather holds, I will be going to the woods this weekend with a chain saw.  That’s almost as good as going to the woods with a gun.
• Phase two of Operation “Why Is My M-1 Giving Me Light Strikes Every So Often” commences as soon as the new spring set arrives.
• When asked what I want for Christmas, I said “ammunition” and listed out several calibers.
  • Heck, I offered to print up and laminate a list of which calibers and manufacturers I use so that Irish Woman can reference it whenever the mood strikes.
• This will be the first time in a long time that our Thanksgiving turkey will not have onion breast implants.  She will have to get by on her natural assets and talents.

This one is dedicated to my instructor on this date in 1990, who had to break it to me that I was not going to be kicking in doors, blowing up buildings, and shooting helicopters out of the sky.  He then had to put up with my temper tantrum as I came to the realization that the only things that were going to be in danger from my chosen profession were the coffee urn and my guhor stick.

• Going grocery shopping, three days before Thanksgiving, on the eve of the first sort-of-big snowfall of the year, and while hungry, might not have been the smartest thing I’ve ever done.
• The city has been out brining and salting the roads, but this may be one of the few times that it will do some good.  I’ll give them a pass on this one.
• Apparently Irish Woman gets an email every time I make an order from one of the more well-known gun parts suppliers on the Internet.
  • Yeah, I’m busted for buying an adjustable gas plug for my M-1.
  • So much for being sneaky discreet.
• With all the reading I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been neglecting my blog list.
  • I opened up my reader today, and oh my, but you all have been busy, haven’t you?
  • I’m getting caught up.  Some of you may see some new comments on rather old posts.
• Crash has developed a habit of climbing people as if they were trees so that he can settle upon their shoulders and purr in their ear.
  • It’s kind of cute when it’s done to someone else, but it’s going to the top of the list of things to discourage.
• Holly Chism has put out her latest novel, Highway to Tartarus.  It’s an excellent read for adults.  You’ll want to read the first in the series before you get into this one, but it’s just as good.  Expect a review soon.
• Finding a FaceBook group for my old unit in Augsburg was kind of neat.  Seeing all the 20+ year old pictures of both me and my friends consumed hours.
  • That staff sergeant that I worked for, the one I thought was older than dirt?  Yeah, he was only 28 at the time.
• Girlie Bear told me tonight that part of her Social Studies homework was to write a haiku with each of her vocabulary words.
  • Apparently it’s been a weekly assignment since August, and I’m just now realizing it.
  • I told her that her teacher is a pinko commie twit, but he’s also a flake.
• “No war for oil”, my ass.
  • At $3.45 a gallon for regular unleaded, I’ll push the “Bomb them back to the stone age” button myself if it means we can return to the prices we had in 2003.
  • If we’re going to be accused of being imperialists, we can at least reap the benefits of empire on occasion.