So we buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, because it's easy and it ships fast. And sometimes they have good deals on the Today's Deals page.

But I sure wish they'd quit offering me personalized deals on things they don't ship outside the US. Grr.

Everything was wet this morning, and the sky was clear. It was still dark when I left for work, so no Fuji sighting until I left. Since Hell must have frozen over, I've walked off the ship two days running before colors (sunset), which happens darned early right now.

Today I only got out five minutes before sunset, so I saw majestically serene Fuji shadowed against the washed-out sky.

Pretty pretty shiny moon hanging in the clear sky this morning about 4am. Nice start for the last day of the year.

My teenage daughter is a clotheshorse.

She has a Christmas party to attend later this week and she's to wear red and green. So none of the red or green she has is good enough.

So she needed more shopping, in which she acquired a black trapeze dress and a long white skirt from the clearance racks, a red shirt, a green sweater, none of which she'll wear to the party. That'll be the black turtleneck sweater dress with red plaid drop-waist skirt and plaid cap sleeves. Along with a green scarf from my closet. And probably one of my bracelets.

Was a glorious sunny day and I didn't need a jacket over my long-sleeved tee shirt. :o)

I came home from duty Saturday morning to discover that the boycat had made an escape through the sliding screen door. Apparently we now have to keep a box or crate in front of it to prevent the stinker from opening it. He was gone until Sunday night and walked up to the door like he'd never been away.

And then he started playing with echoes at 4am this morning. The stairwell echoes in this house, and the stinker was standing in the stairwell yowling just to hear himself yowl. "More than one way to skin a cat" nearly became a reality instead of a metaphor.

Only means something to ya if you're a Chief. Pinned anchors on 35 new ones today in the Hangar Bay, and we are of course all exhausted from the team-building exercises last night. Of course, the process started six weeks ago, and in addition to all of the usual work-busy we've had training-busy as we tried to jam enough knowledge and new ideas into their heads that we had failed to impart while they were still First Class Petty Officers.

Wow. Nine years since I got my first pair of anchors. Where did the time go?

Okay, here's what I have to say about it.

In response to the idea that we'll save more money through preventive care if everyone has insurance...I don't buy car insurance policies that cover new tires, gasoline, windshield wipers, tune-ups, or trips to the car wash. Such a policy would not be cost effective for most people. I buy car insurance polices that cover catastrophic events. Routine stuff is well within my means.

And it seems to me that it's rather the same thing. It's not insurance, this healthcare plan.

It's a healthcare plan. So plan for healthcare clinics for those who cannot afford routine care, instead. Call it what it is. Government health welfare. I think that would go down much better. And for catastrophic care? Maybe subsidized insurance for that at a scale one can afford.

But most healthy adults don't need healthcare insurance. Because it is, after all, a gamble. Insurance provider gambles that we won't get sick, we gamble that we will. And since insurance companies are still in business....

Yeah.

I have also tagged most of the flist as RSS feeds, which, while it won't show me locked entries, should allow me to keep up rather better than not at all. :o)

The cool thing about being here is that the day after we get underway, we're already in the area we'll be operating in. No month or longer transit just to get where we're going.

The down side is that GW is an aircraft carrier, so most anything that doesn't pertain to throwing aircraft off the front of the ship and catching them again isn't as important as everything else. Things seem to be changing somewhat, although it pains me nearly every day to have the CO, XO, or CMC pass down tasking that is basic sailor-crap. Like taking care of your spaces. Sometimes my surface-Navy butt feels like Cassandra.

For example:

Me: Get some caps for those power outlets out on the SPN-46 platforms. We don't want them shorting out on us when we need to use them.

XO three days later on the 1MC: ...make sure caps are on all of your power outlets topside so we don't ground them out in the foul weather. (paraphrased)

Me: Did you get caps for those the outlets?

Sailor: Would you like me to put them on now?

Argh!

I am sucking at getting my people advanced, by the way, although one of my guys this cycle got command advanced to second class (Squee! We were so excited! And he was so surprised! Had no idea!). It seems that the best advice I can give them is to cross rate to another job.

But back to the cool things. Ports I like, no Arabian Gulf, and home quicker. Yay!

Once again, no LJ for a few months unless I happen across an internet cafe, which is not very likely at all.

Last couple of weeks were kind of a blur--nice and boring underway except for the gastrowhatsis that was going around. I successfully avoided it for a while but eventually found myself making that awful choice that no one should have to make--sit or kneel. Fortunately it passes quickly.

Back home for a couple of days and then off again. This time I think I've got the email post bugs worked out.

Very busy. Up the main mast twice at work in two days, and that's quite enough, thank you. Chasing repair parts, finding yet more work that needs doing, buried up to the eyeballs in admin work....

In household news, the stupid cat might not be so stupid after all. He figured out how to open the sliding screen door and has been for three jaunts outside, including several laps of the neighbor's yard. Latch to be installed soon.

And Star Trek...oh, my.

When the wind kicks up and rattles every window in the house, it's easy to see why spirits became such a part of the culture. It sure sounds like something's trying to get inside.

When the girl went on a class field trip down near Mount Fuji on Friday, she had to go down a zip line. So she paid the kid in line behind her 500 yen to sing the Indiana Jones theme while she did.

Friday at work, someone pointed out an alarm on an alarm panel, and hilarity did ensue. The intrusion alarm was for the Sonar Analysis space, but of course there's not much room on the alarm so it said "Sonar Anal Entry". I imagine that would indeed be alarming.

I am puzzled that someone who watched and enjoyed Monty Python's Life of Brian can find the title Holy Trinity offensive for the Holy Grail/Life of Brian/Meaning of Life set. I'd have thought them lost surely by Always look on the bright side of life....

Also at work - down in the Mess, where I eat and hide from take a break from the rest of the ship, there are four loaves of fake bread that used to decorate the top of the salad bar. They've been stacked on a table near the door, and have been getting moved around into different configurations. The funny part? They're two round loaves, a long french-style loaf, and a braided ring. Not laughing? Your mind isn't far enough into the gutter.

So BUPERS says that my services are needed until my projected rotation date. I typed up another request for April 2011. By the time it gets through routing it will be April and I'll be in the window to apply.

They had better say yes this time.

Every year, we've been using TurboTax because the California returns are so incredibly puzzling when filing jointly but with one spouse not resident/not domiciled in California. Ick. It would take me hours (over two days, because I would get so frustrated I would toss it all across the table and come back later) to finish.

So this year, TaxCut was offered free to military with free state filing. Squee! Except that somehow it and I didn't quite understand each other, and it totally botched both the California and Indiana returns.

Ick.

So much for free.

But at least we owe California nothing and they owe us the same. They are sending IOUs for refunds this year because they've spent themselves into insanity. Same for the Feds next year if this insane stimulus piggy bill passes????

So today, I put in my paperwork asking for August 31, 2010, to be my last day in the Navy.

Now I just wait for the reply.

Squee! (Fretworryfret)

And yeah, I know the economy sucks. But ya know? I can go to college for 36 months and draw from the GI bill. And it's not like I won't still have a paycheck--even if it will be smaller than we're having now.

Not last year, but the two years prior we gardened in pots. Tomatoes, peppers, leaf lettuces, and basil have been most successful for us. I love fresh rosemary but I suspect that the hubby let it die just so he could use the dead stems as skewers. As if the live stems wouldn't taste even better. Pretty much, a plant has to be edible to survive in this household.

We got our first plants from wherever, but the last two years the best tomatoes came from Papa Geno's Herb Farm. The plants were quite healthy and thrived in the SoCal sunshine. Miracle-Gro probably helped, but it did make the plants a little leggy at first. ;o) If you're in the US and looking for a good heirloom to transplant, they're a good source.

This year, of course, we can't have live plants shipped. So I'm trying seed, and we'll see how that goes. We're buying from this place this year. I like what they do even if their politics suck towards GM foods. Tomatoes, peppers, basil, and maybe a watermelon, if I can figure out where to plant it.

We renamed Sissy to Missy. It suits her better.

( More Missy )