More Puppies

Another adorable puppy . . . generally I don't like the curly hair of a labradoodle or goldendoodle, but they are growing me. And I hear they are so smart, I like to think they could make me a protein shake every morning for breakfast and have it ready for me when I get home from the gym.

And We're Back

Despite having continued problems with my computer and reaching no resolution yet (don't go to On Call 25/8 in NoVa. Even if their name seems catchy, they are not nice or useful.) I have a computer thanks to my dad who sent me his laptop to use in my laptop's absence. I really appreciate it, being the wife of a deployed Soldier who has no email access has been tough. So having email access back is a big deal.

And what I know is a bigger deal to all of you is what has been happening over at Chris Cooley's blog. I have to say, I underestimated Chris Cooley. His blog is pretty great. My recent favorites are his trash problems - which have been on the NBC4 newscast and noted by the Washington Post - not to mention his Eastern Motors commercials. I think because of Chris Cooley's superior blogging skills, my husband's superior (yet lacking as of late) blogging skills and my interest in both blogs, beer and garlic fries at Gordon Biersch for all involved will be perfect.

I know I have things to catch up on - namely season two of Army Wives. I have mixed feelings on this season and I plan on sharing them. Before my technologically inspired sabatical, a commentor questioned why I cared how Army Wives portrayed Army Wives during deployment. She felt that looking for accurate depictions of Army wives going through deployment on tv was a cry for attention for a position for which I volunteered. While I appreciate any and all comments, I disagree with this commentator. I'm not looking for Army Wives to educate the world on what deployment - or being in the Army - is like. But seeing something that makes me feel that I am less crazy for feeling the way I do through this deployment. . . well that's a nice feeling. Maybe if Lifetime shows it, it means that I'm not the only one who somehow feels that doing the dishes is directly connected to my feelings of my husband's deployment. So, that's all I'm looking for in Army Wives. A truthful depiction of deployment life from the stay home partner point of view to help me feel less alone in all of this.

More on the real Army Wife gossip soon - and get ready for the next season of Project Runway. How did anyone make it through deployment before reality tv???

Happy Birthday Bailey!

Bailey turned 7 years old yesterday. She had her traditional salmon birthday dinner and enjoyed a relaxing day on the couch, sleeping curled up on her favorite blanket.

This is photo is a reenactment of what her birthday celebrations looked like.

Happy Birthday to the best kitty ever!

Sad Computer Face

My computer is in the shop - and I am currently debating with said shop what the repairs should be and what I am willing to pay for these repairs.

Just an update to let you know why I have gone radio silent. Back soon I hope. Real soon I hope because the Riverside computer lab tends to be a little sketch at 10pm.

A Paper Day

Today is my dear husband's and mine first wedding anniversary. It is not how we expected nor how we would have chosen to spend our first year of marriage, but it can only go up from here, right? I am so lucky to not only have the best, most understanding and patient husband in the world, but fabulous friends who did their best to help me enjoy our first anniversary despite my husband's absence.

Also this weekend we celebrated my grandparents'-in-law 60th(!) wedding anniversary. While our day is honored with paper, their's is celebrated with diamonds. I hope we are so lucky to still be so healthy, so active and still so much in love with each other as Nana and Dah clearly are.

Included are some photos - the first a self-indulgent wedding photo from our wedding, June 16, 2007. A photo of a wedding photo of Nana and Dah - using the same saber we used to cut our "wedding cake". Also, a photo of Nana and Dah dancing amongst their families at the party this weekend. So happy paper anniversary, baby, can't wait to drink our wedding wine together next month, and happy diamond anniversary to Nana and Dah, thanks for making it look so easy.

Puppies

We want to get a dog. We spend a lot of time dreaming about what type of dog we should get. It will probably happen within an hour of my husband landing on US soil. It varies day to day what our preferred breed is, but I think this one is pretty darn cute and an excellent contender.

Army Wives

Lifetime's Army Wives came back with its second season on Sunday. There are clearly parts of this show that are completely fabricated and ridiculous and well, you get the picture. But there are parts of that are so true and painful to watch. This was true on Sunday's ep. The plotline with Roxy (the stripper turned Army wife married to the PFC) was very true to life. Her husband was deploying - their first deployment - and she hadn't heard from him as he promised, so she refused to leave the house until she heard from him. She couldn't clean the house, couldn't get dressed. I know what that feels like. I know what waiting for a phone call feels like, I know the feeling that even though it won't change anything, some how hanging out in bed in your pajamas all weekend ignoring chores and phone calls and such seems like it might make it better - even if that just means the laundry still isn't done, the dishes sit in the sink and all of that makes me feel worse too. All that said, I think they did a really good job showing what its like when you are adapting to a new deployment. The scene where she watches the video from her husband made me weep - while I don't have a video of my husband, he's said many of the same words to me as I've cried on the phones throughout this deployment.

Now - as for the plotline of a jealous husband blowing up the bar. Well, this is what I don't get. Being the wife of a deployed Soldier is hard. Just show that. Show that drama. All that drama that Roxy's plotline showed. Or the great plotline with Pamela last season about the middle of a deployment when you can't see your way out and you can't remember what it was like before. It just seems like there has always been a deployment. So show the Army wife drama. Leave the OTH drama to OTH. Where it awesomely belongs.

Chris Cooley, The Cooley Zone and Other Search Terms That Make My Blog More Google Attractive

So Google can tell me what search words lead people to my blog. The overwhelming number one search term that brings people to my blog? Chris Cooley. Yeah. (Note that he has only recently surpassed Lorenzo Lamas. Seriously.) Chris Cooley and Cooley Zone related searches have brought over 38 viewers to my blog - which may not seem like a lot, but its not like I have the readership numbers of the Washington Post.

Anyway, in honor of that, here is a picture from Chris' recent wedding. I don't know how I am not friends with this man. Chris, if you are googling your self, or The Cooley Zone, and happen upon this blog, email me. We can totally hang out. Bring your wife, its cool. I just think we could have fun drinking beer at the Reston Gordon Biersch and watching One Tree Hill. Oh, and dancing only in a tuxedo vest.

Check out Chris Cooley's blog as well - "The Cooley Zone"

This week's Cooley Zone poll asks if they sold Chris Cooley hot pants, would you buy them. I think the better question is, who wouldn't buy them?

Lifetime's Army Wives

Army Wives on Lifetime starts a new season tomorrow. As far as Army shows go, well, for our purposes I am not going to get into why Army Wives is about as close to the real Army as Laguna Beach is to the real Army. However, I think that there are some real points that they make about being an Army wife. I know I'm a non-traditional Army wife - I'm active duty, far away from where my husband's unit is located, no children, etc. But the words of a female Major I worked with at Fort Carson ring in my ears when people tell me how non-traditional I am - if something happens to my husband and two men show up at my front door, I'm just a wife who loves her husband and needs help. And that's true of my situation - no matter what I wear to work, I'm still a wife who misses her husband more and more each day. So for that reason, I thought that I might share my "insights" as to how real to life Army Wives is, from an Army wife point of view. Also, my husband recently sent me the book on which the show is based, so I will try to share tidbits from there too.

I know I promised that I wouldn't comment on the lack of real Army in Army Wives, but just one thing - why does the female officer never wear her cover?????

Favorite Thing I've Been Told During Army Outprocessing Briefs

"Mandatory retirement/ETS** physicals are optional."

**estimated termination of service

Obama's Speech Writer

While listening to a portion of last night's speech Obama delivered after he became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, I had to wonder who is writing his speeches. This line in particular.

"America, this is our moment. This is our time."

It sounded so familiar. Perhaps because it was very close to the below speech.

Mikey: Don't you realize? The next time you see sky, it'll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it'll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what's right for them. Because it's their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it's our time. It's our time down here.

Maybe they were watching a movie on the campaign bus while writing the speech.

Travis Henry, We Hardly Knew Thee

The Denver Broncos (probably my third favorite football team) released Travis Henry this week. Travis Henry was not a Basher (that is, a Bailey's Bashers, the perpetual second place fantasy football team) but he was a great player to read about. Henry has had his share of off field issues. It has been said that Henry has nine children by nine women (I'll admit, that number varies depending on the news source.) He has severe issues paying child support to these children, despite having a contract worth $22.5million from the Broncos with a guarantee of $12million. While Henry's story is good newspaper sports gossip fodder, it is sort of sad to see someone with a good amount of promise unable to break free from their past. Henry was suspended for much of the season last year appeal a drug test that came back positive. He was also suspended while on the Titans for violating the drug policy there. We'll miss you Travis Henry, and we wish you the best. Maybe you'll find your niche somewhere, along with a good financial adviser and life coach.

Because You Can Never Have Enough Cuteness

For those interested (and everyone should be) here is the link to Puppies Behind Bars. Its pretty much the best charity ever. And I'm not sure the cuteness of this program was fully explained last time. The premise is that puppies are given to inmates to train. They live with the inmates in their cells and they work with the dogs to train them to be helper animals - for people with disabilities, especially war veterans. This also helps the inmates learn a trade, learn to love something, have responsibility, all those good things. Its pretty ingenious. With Tony Soprano's help, they are trying to raise $100,000 for their DogTags program to get more puppies to help disabled vets - if they reach that goal, an anonymous donor will match it with another $100,000. So consider this a plea from RNS, give $5 or $10 or $100 to Puppies Behind Bars to help puppies, inmates and vets. Its a triple play. A no brainer. A million other cliches. Oh, and if you don't, the terrorists may win. No one wants that.

Baseball

I enjoy the sport of baseball. Because of my constant relocating of the past five years, I do not have a team anymore. In high school/college I cheered on the Yankees - a remnant of my days cheering on the double AA minor league team in CT affiliated with the Yankees. But as I traveled further West, it became more and more difficult to follow the team - little press coverage, no tv. I know a true fan could follow on the web, but there are a lot of games in a baseball season. So I became a more casual fan - enjoying a game in whatever city I lived in/nearby. St Louis Cardinals, Denver Rockies, San Fransisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals. Baseball, more than any sport I feel, is an experience to go to a game - an afternoon event preferably - so the team is less important.

All this preamble is to say, despite not being a fan of any team right now, I was able to enjoy see Manny Ramirez hit his 500th home run at Camden Yards on Saturday. My parents are huge Red Sox fans and travel to "Fenway South" to see the team. This was the fifth year they've done it - though my Dad wasn't able to come this year. Camden is a great place to see a game and its always been a lot of fun. For all those who missed it - here's Manny hitting one into history.

Too Much Excitement For One Blog

I know its been two weeks since the fantastical endings to both DWTS and Idol. I know I haven't blogged as I promised about these, but it was a lot of tv all at once and then I had house guests (who don't watch reality tv?!) and so here I am. I am writing while watching the Lost finale, because even though its the Monday after, I still haven't seen it.

But let's be quick about it and talk about some of the season finales this year.

- Idol - I declared I was on Team Cook and I was very happy that he did win. I think he has the possibility to be a great Idol. And I am sure that little "Archie" will do just fine with second place.

- DWTS - Yes, Kristi was the best dancer, but I thought Jason was the more entertaining. And Adorable. I guess its reality viewers like me who keep the male winning streak alive.

- The Office - I'm not really allowed to say much about this because my husband hasn't seen it - he has a thumb drive full of tv on its way - but I thought it was pretty good, classic Office. The Kevin plot line almost made me pee my pants.

- HIMYM - It was good, but I kinda wish it was like Lost and we had an end point in sight so you knew that you'd find out who Ted marries.

-Grays - I keep saying I need to break up with this show. This episode proved no different. It was lousy, Meredith is annoying. Don't get me started on Izzy.

- Lost - You knew who survived, so why was it so devastating to watch the others die. (others, little "o", not Others big "O".) And Caleb Nichol, you are evil no matter what your accent is. Oh, Ben - you are Dan Scott evil. Actually thats not even close to the truth. You are like Dan Scott, Caleb Nichol, British Caleb Nichol, Chuck Bass and Oliver Trask evil - all in one.

- Gossip Girl - This show is crying out for a summer season. Who doesn't want to know what is happening? In actuality, it should be like a webcam, on all the time.

We'll see what sort of summer season we have to look forward to - two more (maybe three with a reunion) for Top Chef. Couple of weeks for Next Food Network Star. Another season of My Life on the D List. Good news is - next time DWTS is on, my husband will be home to watch it Lii-i-i-i-i-ve!