Graham and Dad on the USS Yorktown

This weekend Graham and I went to Charleston, South Carolina on a camping trip with Graham's Boy Scout Pack. The USS Yorktown was our destination. It is a WWII and Vietnam aircraft carrier, that has been turned into a museum.

In all honesty this trip is the reason the Graham joined the Boy Scouts. Angie had taken him the first meeting and was about to decide not to join, because it was a dad thing, run by the dads. Plus she was going to have to sell $300 in Boy Scout popcorn! BUT as the meeting was coming to a close, the leader announced that the pack would be taking a trip to camp out on the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. Grahams eyes lit up, she signed the forms, wrote the check, got the popcorn papers. (I hope you all liked popcorn for Christmas, there will be more next year) Since, I have been the one to take over Scout duties, and have enjoyed the duty very much.
Graham is a tiger scout and one of the younger members of the pack. I was never a scout, am one of younger and more inexperienced members of the pack dad's. None the less, I always call the JAG Corps own Eagle Scout, Pete Meno, to check and see what I should be doing before a pack event. This day, Pete did our taxes, told us what to pack, and only charged one meal of tuna noodle casserole (1st Friday of Lent). This aid and friendship is a true bargain.

On this trip there were to be about 70 parents and scouts on the roster, we were to join 3 or 4 other packs to take over the ship. I drove G to Charleston in about 3 hours on Saturday. We met the pack and went on the ship.


The first thing that struck us was how big this ship is. The deck is as big as 3 football fields, and the ship has about 8 stories from bridge to engine room. They then took us to our bunks. Given the size of our ship, our "state room" was very small. All 70 of us slept in a room that consisted of bunks stacked end to end and 4 high. The space was barely big enough to slide in and out of. WWII Navy life may not have been my thing.

While on the ship, we spent the morning going up to the flight deck, and checking out the pilot’s area and other museum displays. We learned that this was the second ship named Yorktown to fight in WWII, the first was sunk at Midway. Of course there are hours of Navy artifacts and history to look at and learn. There is also an additional museum dedicated to the Metal of Honor recipients that is very cool.

In the afternoon we took a ferry out to the mouth of the harbor and toured Fort Sumter, the location of the first shots of the Civil War. The ferry ride was by far Graham's favorite part of this day. He stood, in the wind, at the front rail on the ferry the entire time. He watched the container ships, and the waves wash by. He was almost blue with cold by the time I forced him to come in the lounge area. The Fort itself was one of the most shelled areas on earth by the end of the war, and there is only about one fourth of it left. This did not dampen my curiosity and enthusiasm for the experience, and the tour was great. Graham liked the big cannons.

Later in the evening we eat dinner in the ships mess, and watched movies in the theater. This was all very cool. Graham thought that the Chef Boyardee pasta was some of the best he had ever had.

After a day of walking on the ships steel floor, Graham was out like a light during the movie, and got carried to bed. I would have paid to have been able to sleep like that, but such joy was not my fate.

The next day, the breakfast meal was again one of the best Graham had ever had, and we spent some more time looking at planes on the flight deck.

Charleston is one of the South's most beautiful cities, and my favorite of the cities, I have seen(I am still looking to visiting San Francisco. The Yorktown is a great excursion if you get the chance. Way to go scout leaders, this was cool.

A very presidential Presidents Day!

We had a wonderful adventure to Southwest Georgia over Presidents Day weekend. We took the back roads, enjoyed the scenery and learned to appreciate the south a bit more. We started out early Sunday morning and drove through towns like Milledgeville and Macon to get to our first destination; FDR's Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia.

As you might remember FDR suffered from the affects of Polio. He believed that these warm springs helped him and built a facility to help others and a home nearby. As we were leaving, Erik and the kids continued to the car as I stopped at the counter to talk (because that is just what I do)to this lady named Suzanne. I wanted to tell her that my mother is also named Suzanne. This lady had a picture of herself in 1925 in a frame. She explained to me that she was a patient there and talked about the first time she met the president he asked if he could call her "Suzy" so from then on they called him "Rosy."

That night we stayed near Cordele, Georgia in a Resort on Lake Black Shear. On the way to Cordele we stopped at Andersonville, the Civil War POW camp for Union Soldiers, and National Cemetary and POW museum.

The next morning we took a train from Cordele to Plains, Georgia where we enjoyed some peanuts and heard President Jimmy Carter speak at his alma mater, Plains High School. There were only a couple hundred people there, and Rosalind corrected him periodically through his speech.


It was indeed a very presidential holiday!

(Erik actually wrote this a few weeks ago, sorry for the delay in posting)

This week I had the chance to spend some time with our 3 year old, Tess. For those of you that may not have had a chance to meet Tess, it is fair to call her a Party Kid. If there is a good time to be had, she will be there more often than not. This week she stayed true to form.

On Friday, her daycare had their valentines’ party. She was picked up from daycare sporting a glazed over stare, a flush complexion, and four pounds of red and pink candy. She then stated that her stomach hurt. It was clear that she had hit the candy hard that day.

As the afternoon went on, she and I had to wait in the car. She said that she did not feel good, looked bad, and she was given a bowl to hold any pending stomache actions. Such events took place a few minutes later. As I was cleaning out the bowl, she looked at me with a glazed over expression and in a sorry and broken voice that is used by a college student on Saturday mornings, stated "Dad....We had a parrrty.... at school” This half drunken voice just struck me so funny that I was able to take care of my unenviable bowl duty with a smile on my face and giggling like a school girl.

Some of you may say that she got this trait honest and I have to concede that point, but I thought that I had a good 15 years before she and I would have to have that exchange. My they grow up fast

Scout Sunday!

Graham really enjoys cub scouts. Before Christmas they had a regatta where they built little boats and raced them. He did very well. His boat was viking themed as you can see from the intricately painted sail.











Last week he participated in the Pinewood Derby. He told Erik that he wanted a Nascar theme. When they actually did the cutting though it started to look more like some kind of truck! Graham was good with it though and made it into a Tiger theme.
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Just last night he participated in Scout Sunday at church. He passed out music sheets as people entered the door. All of the boys did a great job, and it was a very nice mass.




Erik and Graham are both looking forward to their camp out on USS Yorktown, the aircraft carrier!

Vaccuum Saga

January 2, 2006 Erik left for the Officers Basic Course at Fort Lee, while the kids and I stayed back in (Home Sweet Home) Liberty. That week I had to purchase a vaccuum cleaner. It was my first real purchase without Erik's input. I knew I wanted to get a Hoover, because my Grandma Rosenberger has had hers for my entire life (at the time I was 26) and it worked great. I also knew that it needed to have a really long hose because our house in Liberty has 2 staircases that connect and I didn't want to lug the vacuum to the landings. I wanted it to be self-propelled to make it easier to push, and I wanted it to have the options to sweep carpet and hardwood. It Definitely had to be bagless. I also wanted it to have a light, just because, and besides I don't even know if they make them without lights.

I went to Wal-Mart, with both kids (6 mo. and 4yrs. at the time) which means I had a limited amount of time to choose. I inspected the vaccuums and wanted the Dyson. But with it being my first major purchase without Erik, I thought I would have some restraint and found the Hoover Saavy that met all of my needs and was just under $200It was really hard to get the box into the cart with both kids and such, but we made it. I took it home, and was very excited. It was perfect! It had an extra hose add-in and attachment for the staircases, the hardwoods could be vaccuumed before dusted! I loved it!

June 2006 We moved to Georgia, met back up with Erik and brought the vaccuum with us. It was my first purchase victory vaccuum! The honeymoon ended last March(2008) when it got a funny smell, and then would only suck dirt when I pulled it backward in reverse! Then it wouldn't switch from barefloor to carpet:(

Since we try to do EVERYTHING ourselves, Erik got on-line and diagnosed it as a problem with the handle. We ordered a new handle for $30 and the new handle came in April. We have a little SHARK sweeper for light cleaning that we used in the meantime. We changed the handle and it still didn't fix the problems.

In May, I took it to Jeff's Vaccuum Repair in Augusta, he said he could fix it. Two weeks went by and they said the part was on backorder, but the gave me a loaner. I used the loaner and checked in with them each month, until October when they called and said the part is not available and the boss wants the room cleaned out! They asked me if they should just throw it away? I told them not to, I was getting a second opinion. So, I returned the loaner and picked up our vaccuum. I was angry that they were just going to throw it away after keeping it for 6 months and didn't notice that when I picked it up they had lost the new handle that was attached to it! I contacted Hoover and they said that guy was not one of their certified dealers and assured me that the part was available, and gave me the name of another guy, Bryan.

In the meantime, I borrowed my neighbor Donna's vaccuum (just before they packed it for their move to Japan) and as I was standing in her kitchen asking her about how she liked her vaccuum I somehow broke the handle so it wouldn't stand up straight. Needless to say she really did love her vaccuum. So I gave her $60 which was the cost of a brand new one just like the one I had broken, and I kept hers. The story should have ended here, but I really wanted the Hoover to survive.

I took it to Bryans, and it took about 2 months to get the part in. In January, he called, it was fixed, and I picked it up and paid $56. When I got home I used it and it was just as wonderful as I had remembered.

Then I got it out a few days later and all the same problems were back! I took it back to Bryan's, dropped it off and he called back a few days later. The motor has a problem and it is what is shorting out the board that he had just replaced. Now I am trying to figure out where to cut my losses.

I still have Donna's old vaccuum and Erik used some Super MEGA Gonzo Glue to fix the plastic piece that I broke. It works good. I just had a sentimental attachment to the Hoover which definitely did not stand up to the old Hoovers like the one my grandma has.

Exciting Morning

Last week, Erik asked me to take today off work so I could attend one of his office functions. I was a little (just a little) bit reluctant to take off. But I knew a JAG Corps. General would be visiting his office this week, and he mentioned there were going to be some awards. I assumed Erik was getting an award, so I took the day off and went to his office. I sat through a presentation for the office and then they recognized three people, and I was one of the three! They called it a Hero award for my community service efforts, and General Chipman gave me a coin. The coin is pretty awesome (in an effort to use the word cool less, Graham suggested I use “awesome” or “fantastical”) as you can see in the pictures that I have added. I would have been excited if the award had been for Erik, but I must admit that it does feel fantastical to get an award of my own.

Fantastical Coin