• When taking a four year old boy to a “you pick it” strawberry field, it is probably a good idea to add a couple of dollars to the total when you check out to cover the cost of the produce the child has eaten in the field.
• If you have a problem with my child going to the grocery store dressed in a cape and mask, keep it to yourself.  I don’t tell you how to raise your children, so please don’t presume to tell me how to raise mine.
  • On a side note, I think some of the people I ran into this weekend need remedial training on the fact that properly disciplining your child is not automatically classified as abuse.  Taking your child by the hand and forcing them to move from the traffic lane of a grocery store parking lot while verbally reminding him of his age and expected behavior is not abuse.  Allowing your post-toddler child to stand in a lane of traffic and cry huge tears because of some issue or another while you kneel down and try to sweet talk him into acting like a human being is abuse.
• I went with Irish Woman to help tear down and clean up from a fund-raiser at the zoo on Sunday morning.  Out of a group of 10 to 15 adults, I was one of two who carried a multitool and the only one with a toolkit in the car.  Not sure if that makes me weird, but it sure opens my eyes about some of the people in our social circle.
• What is it about an event that requires a nice dress, make-up, and a hair-do that turns a normally sensible woman into a nervous wreck?
  • Follow-up question – Why is it that when a normally very self-confident woman is dressed up to go to a formal event, telling her she looks wonderful can make her want to run to the bedroom and change everything about how she looks, including hair color?
  • Is it possible that my lack of personal fashion sense scares hell out of Irish Woman when I look at her and say she looks great?  
• Trying to explain a Northern Plains, Scandinavian, Lutheran outlook on life to your Irish Catholic wife from Kentucky is a lot like translating a foreign language.  There isn’t enough common ground to just talk about it, and you spend a lot of time defining terms.
• Today, I used both 550 cord and WD-40 to do maintenance on the riding lawnmower.  If I’d find a way to use duct tape, I’d have had the testosterone trifecta.
• There is nothing like dropping your kids off at a family reunion with your ex-wife’s family to remind you why you don’t regret the divorce that much anymore.

• Do security scans for a co-worker, and you’ll become a part of his work flow.  Teach a co-worker to do security scans, and he will fulfill his work flow while you grab lunch.
• The search for Girlie Bear’s very own muzzleloader continues.  The shop I checked this afternoon had the rifle I’m looking for, but it was used, only had open sights, and cost almost as much as the new rifle/scope combo I found at the last shop.
• My gun store looked like the golden horde had been through it.  There were precisely 8 used revolvers under the glass, no new ones, and none of them were .22’s, which is what I’m in the market for.
• It did, however, have 9mm Makarov plinking ammunition.  It was even at a good price, so it wasn’t a wasted trip.
• Recipe for an easy bedtime – Take one four year old boy, have him play hard at camp all day without a nap, throw him in a swimming pool for two hours, feed him pizza, then let him watch a movie.  Little buddy is down for the count.
• The apocalypse may be upon us.  I tried to leave left-over pizza at the home of our friend with the pool tonight, and she wouldn’t keep it because the two college age girls in the house didn’t want to eat leftover pizza.
• Knob Creek has announced that they will be having a night shoot in a couple of weekends.  Of course, it’s the same night as the family campout in Indiana.  Efforts to convince a group of adults to caravan south for the shoot have begun.
• Tomorrow promises to be interesting.  It’s going to be just Daddy and Boo for most of the day, and I plan to fulfill precisely zero of my responsibilities except to have fun.

• Rural Maryland and Delaware are very pretty.  It reminded me of Wisconsin or Minnesota, but with toll roads and insane drivers.
• Loading a large cargo plane is a lot like Tetris, except that instead of hitting the restart button when you screw up, you have to scramble so that the darn thing doesn’t tilt back on its tail.
• I’m going to have to get down a better pair of boots if I’m going to load more aircraft, preferably ones with steel toes.
• For the first time in my life, I saw an Air Force NCO use “knife hands” while correcting the performance of one of his subordinates.  I didn’t know they taught that in the Air Force.
• Driving in suburban Maryland ought to count toward your sentence in purgatory.
• Learning how much a 2000 square foot ‘fixer-upper’ is going for in suburban Maryland makes me appreciate how much more I get for a third of the money in Kentucky.
• Got neither the pat down nor the porn-o-scan at the Baltimore airport.  It was almost refreshing to just go through the metal detector.
• While boarding our flight home, the flight attendant closed the door and welcomed us to the flight to Raleigh-Durham.  Most of us got the joke.  Unfortunately, some didn’t.
  

  For when you really want to have a good 4th of July

  

  Somehow I don’t think we’ll be seeing art like this on the nose of a drone anytime soon.

• Flying hung over must really suck.  At least I remember it did when I was that young and dumb
• The pat down at the TSA checkpoint was professional and thorough. I was told I ought to get a PSA test, though, which is troubling.
• The only thing questioned at the checkpoint was the laser pointer, but when I offered to smash it and put it in the trash, the nice man lost interest.
• The kid who was an angel on the ground, the one all the women coo’ed over, sprouted horns and a hellish howl at 35,000 feet.
  • You know, it’s a sad state of affairs when a man travelling alone has to think twice before offering advice to a mother travelling alone with her child, but she did say thank you when giving him his pacifier worked.
• You can tell the military is in transition from a strong wartime footing, but isn’t back to a full peacetime setting yet.  Soldiers still travel in camouflage uniforms, but they were pressed, complete with creases.
• I have become such a groundhog.  A  little turbulence during the descent and landing made me airsick enough that I wasn’t right until for a couple of hours.  I’m definitely going to eat very lightly tomorrow before flying home.
• When you’re trying to get over being motion sick, that “new car smell” in a rental car is not a pleasant aroma.
• Man, there are a lot of Navy guys in Annapolis. Must be something going on.
• Annapolis in early June reminds me a lot of Monterey in July.  I’m sure once the heat and humidity hit in force, the comparison will disappear.
• I had forgotten just how good crab cakes are.  I really need to try making them at home if I can get a good source for fresh crab.

It must have been a good day to be a dog today. Bluegrass has a grass stain on her forehead and what looks like a black eye. My guess is she hit a slick spot in turn three and hit the wall before tumbling into the infield. I swear that dog is part thoroughbred.

If you’re going to show up for a large event with a horde of 13 people 15 minutes before it starts, don’t get pissy with me because I was smart enough to arrive early enough to find seats for my family. No I will not move everyone so your ex-wife’s sisters cousins mother-in-law can sit next to you.

Who’s the bigger fool, the fool or the fool who marries him?

Yeah, I stepped on my schwanz a bit tonight.

I saw this over at Blackfive, and wish I’d seen it sooner.

FOR A DAY OF BATTLE
Heavenly Father, on a day of battle I commit myself body and soul to thy keeping. When I am in peril of life give me courage to do my duty. When I am tempted to sin give me strength to resist. If I am sick or wounded grant me healing. If I fall, of thy mercy receive me to thyself, forgiving me all my sins. Bless all who are near and dear to me and keep them in thy fatherly care. And in thy good providence, out of this evil bring a lasting peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. — Isiah 6:8

Some choose to forfeit safety and comfort for the sake of others, and some of those never make it home. Please take a moment to remember those who sacrifice on our behalf.

The difference between the Siamese and the black Lab is that the Lab at least looks guilty when you catch him trying to get into the bacon.  Shadow gives me the soulful eyes routine and walks away sadly.  Koshka growls at me and makes a last second kung-fu move to snag a bit of hog belly before high tailing it under the couch to glower at me and wait her next opportunity.