BlogSport

I tried to post several times on Saturday with pictures and details about Steve's pinning ceremony, but the jpegs I was working with were, um, faulty, and proved repeatedly unsuccessful. I still don't have pictures I can put up here, so I'll just have to tell you without visual evidence to substantiate that the ceremony was great. All the women in Steve's life (wife, mom, sisters) were there (our brothers couldn't make it) and got to witness him assuming the XO position to a General who commands upwards of 150,000 people. That's FIVE TIMES the size of the town I grew up in. And most of the people have weaponry, so...nothing to shrug at. My family was great and I got to see some peeps who I don't often get the chance to visit, so while brief, that was special. I also met Steve's CO and many of the men and women under his command and they were all lovely. It is in no small way a heartening experience to meet your nation's military personnel face-to-face and find them to be smart, capable, warm individuals. If the 18th Air Force is any indication, we're in very good hands, people. As for New Jersey, it was...Jersey, but the trip up and back went off without a hitch and for that I am very grateful.

Other than that, a relaxing weekend of grilling out a couple nights (60 degrees yesterday, and windchills into the 20s today. March is not fucking around, y'all)--steaks one night, brats the next. Blockbuster hooked us up with both Friday Night Lights and Open Water, both of which were very good. FNL was more sophisticated than I expected it to be (relatively speaking; it's still a movie about football, so don't let me oversell it) and Tim McGraw does a fine job of being a drunk, hateful bastard. Open Water was excellent--scary and suspenseful without being gruesome--and while it doesn't necessarily make me want to go diving anytime soon, it did make the Caribbean look EFFING SWEET. Oh man. Which leads to the general topic of:

VACATION. Wheels-up for Italy in 54 hours. Yes, I will be counting down quite a bit between then and now. You know you love it. And me.

posted by ADD @ 08:49