So today I have to say goodbye to my husband again. It's just for the weekend -- he's flying home alone to see his family -- but I hate the idea of saying goodbye again so soon, of eating and sleeping alone, all that. Ugh, and I get to do it again next month when he goes to SERE school.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:09 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This is a really interesting example of selectively choosing correlation over causation: Does Global Warming Cause Rape Waves?

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This morning's links, via an old friend:
It Turns Out Motherhood And Politics Do Mix
Using High School Debate Strategies for Political Campaigns

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I am knitting the hardest thing I've ever knitted before.
It sucks.

I have wanted an Aran sweater for a long time, so I started making one. So far I have done eight rows of pattern, four one day and four another. Four is actually too much for one sitting, at least at this point when I haven't really memorized any of the segments of the pattern yet. I have never had to concentrate so hard on a project before.

The pattern isn't available anywhere online, but I found a work-in-progress photo on knitting blog. She had let it sit for over two years and made it her New Year's resolution to finish in 2008. I wonder if she did.

I resolve to do two rows a day.

I also found a hilarious official photo of the sweater. No, I am not making the beret. Or holding a paddle.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:43 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 But---but--the beret is so JAUNTY!! You know,those patterns were varied,clan by clan, so that when the fishermen wearing them fell over board and washed up on shore they could be identified... You could make up your own crazy pattern for "Clan Grok " --we'd be none the wiser

Posted by: MaryIndiana at December 30, 2008 02:34 AM (p105G)

2 So you've accepted the ultimate challenge at last! It sucks. But it will rock when you're done. I have wanted an Aran sweater for a long time, so I started making one. And when the rest of us want something, we just buy it. Oh, you "crafty" folk! But---but--the beret is so JAUNTY!! I agree with Mary. Be like us lazy people. Buy a beret and paddle - and pose! How did you find the pattern? You could make up your own crazy pattern for "Clan Grok" Maybe you could do that after you're done with this first sweater. Gulchwear could be your next project.

Posted by: Amritas at December 30, 2008 02:52 AM (HGaLd)

3 I totally think the paddle adds that little bit of, I don't know, firmness to the look.

Posted by: airforcewife at December 30, 2008 05:08 AM (Fb2PC)

4 I made a sweater of what looks like the same pattern for my husband many years ago. He loved it, but I really didn't knit much after that. Hard, very hard, but in those days I had more spirit to try something like that. I think it wound up in the dog's bed after quite a few years.

Posted by: Ruth H at December 30, 2008 09:50 AM (Y4oAO)

5 I found your blog a couple of weeks ago and love it! I must be a weirdo, but I love aran knitting--it's intarsia that drives me mad. The beauty of aran is that it's repetitious, so once you figure out where the pattern is going, you won't have to hover over your book. Good luck with it! Please keep up with the groking/blogging, I've added you to my daily reading list!

Posted by: Valarie at December 30, 2008 02:46 PM (6uT+v)

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Michelle Malkin:

Fit Republican president = Selfish, indulgent, creepy fascist.
Fit Democratic president = Disciplined, health-conscious Adonis role model.

Posted by: Sarah at 09:12 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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My husband finished his MBA three days before deploying. He took a full load of distance classes every term in addition to his full-time Army job. He was always busy. And he finished the program and deployed, so I was really looking forward to having him home and having him to myself. No more homework, no more projects, no more me sitting alone in the TV room all day Saturday and Sunday while he worked.

He sat me down last night and said that he wants to start a new Master's Degree. Or learn Pashto. Or both. Either way, he warned me, he will be busy again. There go our Saturdays and Sundays.

I admire him for taking his professional development so seriously. But I can't help but feel frustrated that the thing I was supposed to be doing -- raising a baby -- hasn't happened yet and I keep sitting around waiting for my life to start. I could relate to Heidi's recent post about being consumed with the way life should have been instead of what it really is. I don't know what to do with myself besides sit around and wait for baby to show up. That's my only major life goal, and I've been twiddling my thumbs on it for two years now.

Maybe I ought to learn Pashto too.

Posted by: Sarah at 08:53 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 You really must embrace what IS. You don't have your baby yet. When you do finally have one, you will never have time again. You'll find that you can accomplish more things in an hour than you used to do in a day, and yet still never catch up. And you'll fantasize about all the wonderful things you could have done with all that time pre-baby. Absolutely live your life the way it is, even though it's not what you want it to be. I find myself in this battle constantly. When HD goes back to his Dad's house, I want to crawl under the bed and sleep until he comes back. I want everything to stop. Some days are better than others, but what I keep coming back to is that things are pretty damn good, even if it's not ideal. You're alive now. You're healthy now. You must live NOW. There are no guarantees that you will live tomorrow, that you will ever become pregnant again or that there will ever be another Republican president. If you wait for the perfect set of circumstances before you embrace life, you will never, ever truly live. I'm not admonishing you, I'm speaking as a friend who struggles with this same thing daily and doesn't want to see you drown in What If's and Maybe's and One Day's. I promise that on the days I'm able to embrace what I have rather than wallow in what I don't, things get just a little bit better. Ok, Polyanna is shutting up now. Thinking of you.

Posted by: Sis B at December 29, 2008 09:15 AM (0ScrO)

2 I get your point, Sis B, and I hate posts like this because then I always feel like I have to clarify everything: Yes I like my life the way it is (that's part of the problem, that the longer it takes to have a baby, the more I like not having one), yes I am fulfilled on a day-to-day basis with my job and knitting and blogging, etc. But there's something I just can't explain about how I feel these days, that my husband is still working towards goals that will affect our future and I am not. It makes me feel unproductive and stagnant. And we better freaking have another Republican president.

Posted by: Sarah at December 29, 2008 09:45 AM (TWet1)

3 I'm all for learning Pashto!!! :-) And that'd be a great activity to do together :-).

Posted by: kannie at December 29, 2008 01:15 PM (iT8dn)

4 Amritas (& Sarah) - Wow! Didn't realize Mr. Grok already had Persian - how cool! I was a (mediocre) linguistics major in college, so I'm more than a bit chagrined to admit that, while I know enough to be really enthralled by the mere mention of learning it & recognize the roots you mention, I haven't kept up with it enough to even sound intelligent, as "less academic" priorities have taken over life, LOL. But wow. I love this blog for SO many reasons! :-)

Posted by: kannie at December 30, 2008 10:20 AM (iT8dn)

5 I would definitely be frustrated as well, as my dh is currently mired in his masters I can imagine how irritated I'd be if he came home wanting to work on a second one when the first one has been such a time suck. Particularly on the backside of a deployment? I probably would not have been as kind, come to think of it. And I know very well that frustration of wanting your life as a parent to "start". I think finding something else to focus on as a goal would be a good thing. Go for the Pashto!

Posted by: dutchgirl at December 30, 2008 12:10 PM (rVkwX)

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I debated whether I should post that thing on sleep the other day. It seemed unnecessary to cash that chip on the blog. It also made us look like we had problems, and I never like to give that impression.

But if you asked me if we had any reintegration issues in 2005, I would've said that we didn't. A trip back through those archives reveals that we did indeed have a rough patch or two. If I hadn't documented them on the blog, I would've forgotten those tough days and said that we had no problems whatsoever. I wanted to document this issue too.

This reintegration, it is a tricky thing, even for solid couples. My husband is truly my best friend. We like the same movies, the same music, the same foods, the same TV. We're both stingy, both homebodies, and both love Krauthammer. I wanted to show that reintegration is hard even for couples who get along swimmingly. It's an adjustment. I wanted to document that, because to pretend like we weren't frustrated with each other was to lie, in a sense.

He's been home a week now, and we're doing much better. No more grumpiness. He's staying up a little later to be with me and I'm not asking him to stay up as long as I'd like to. We're meeting halfway and doing fine. I want to document that too, to keep a record of when we got back on track.

MORE TO GROK:

More thoughts at SpouseBUZZ.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:27 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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We hung out together every single moment
'Cause that's what we though married people do
Complete with the grip of artificial chaos
And believing in the country of me and you

The husband is walking the dog and I am on teh internets. I am learning to not want to be with him every waking second.

But we did go out together this afternoon. The husband had a very Happy Boxing Day...

But, you know, technically it's mine because it was my permit. I plan to remind him constantly that they are both my guns but that he can borrow one if he wants to.

Heh.

Oh, and CVG got me a funny Christmas present. She was bored of getting me knitting books all the time and decided this year to focus on my second hobby. Her husband picked it out for me, which I find phenomenally cute.

My boys are back from their walk now. Gotta go stick to him like glue again...

Posted by: Sarah at 10:39 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 And believing in the country of me and you What's your immigration policy? When will your second hobby come to eclipse your first? Now that Kim du Toit's offline, there's an online market niche waiting to be filled ... Gotta go stick to him like glue again... Insert appropriate sound effect here.

Posted by: Amritas at December 26, 2008 12:48 PM (miOrm)

2 "Funny Xmas present?" May I remind you that "this book can save your life!" Glad you enjoyed it...I gave hubs the same book, I mean, since he researched it and it was approved by him, I was sneaky and got a 2nd copy for him!

Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at December 26, 2008 04:06 PM (C/w9N)

3 nice. It reminds me that I want to go shooting next month. Found you via milblogging. I'm a future milspouse, possibly milblogging milspouse. Hope you don't mind if I visit from time to time.

Posted by: Annie at December 26, 2008 07:59 PM (wfky/)

4 erlnnwj egoghf phnobwj http://riqjyb.com jbqojpf phnobwj

Posted by: ekejpx at January 06, 2009 11:52 AM (YtHZo)

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I never wrote about the shoe thrower, but Maggie's assessment is spot on.

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Today was great. My husband didn't fall asleep once! Heh.
We had a lovely day. And we just listened to this and had a good laugh.

SNL Christmas Song

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I was just getting ready to head to bed when I noticed that my Christmas cactus has a bloom!

Last year, my uncle was trimming one of the plants that's been in our family for generations. I took the trimmings home and put them in a pot. The cactus has grown a little since I got it, but it has never bloomed before.

A Christmas cactus getting its first bloom on Christmas. Now that just makes me smile.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:11 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I found the pirate ship online that I made at work:

It was actually not a terrible product. It was way too hard for "age 6 and up" like the box says, but it was made from better quality stuff than the other foam constructions I've done lately.

I think I am done with making foam things for a while now. At least I hope so.

Merry Christmas, mateys.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:51 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Times vs The White House
Popularity IsnÂ’t Everything
Another Great Depression?

Posted by: Sarah at 05:54 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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So I have to leave my husband this morning and go back to work to build a foam pirate ship. I wish I were kidding.

A link for this morning: The Politics of Everyman

Posted by: Sarah at 03:53 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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AWTM blogged from her second honeymoon. That's hardcore, and I love it.

Actually, what I really love was when she called me the other evening and asked if my husband was home. She hadn't read about the delays yet. I love that she called me even on the night she thought my husband might have gotten home. She knows I don't have a Do Not Disturb sign.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You may tell me to stay away from the blog, but you know I won't.

And actually, it was my husband who sheepishly asked this evening if I would mind if he took a trip around the internet. It didn't bother me at all, because I had been trying to figure out the polite way to ask him for the same courtesy.

We've been having fun today, doing nothing at all. We went out to breakfast and took the dog on two walks, and I've been talking his ear off and cashing in some of those chips.

We are happy to be together again and to quickly slide back into our old routine. Except now we have two laptops. Think of the fun we can have being on the internet in the same room!

(And don't worry, Chuck. We're having plenty of fun other ways too.)

Posted by: Sarah at 12:01 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I got a call that they were arriving early, so I raced out of the house at 4:25. Guess what? More delays. We just got home, at 10:45.

Longest.
Week.
Ever.

But the look on my husband's face when Charlie tackled him in the kitchen was priceless.

On Tuesday, my husband apparently told his roommate in Iraq, "Do you know what this is?" His buddy said, "Your uniform?" My husband said, "The uniform my wife's gonna peel off of me tonight."

Yeah, three days later, he's still wearing that exact same uniform. Ewww.

We solved the mystery of where he's been all week. The story is too horrible and annoying to repeat.

But it doesn't matter anymore.

He's home.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:06 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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1 It's over at last! You don't have to tell us anything more. I am so happy for you and your husband. I hope you two have one of your best weekends ever. After the last week, the pendulum's gotta swing the other way!

Posted by: Amritas at December 19, 2008 06:35 PM (o2B2q)

2 Upon return from my 1st deployment, (way back in 9 I spent a few hours going through photographs and telling the stories behind them to my wife. That time could have been MUCH better spent (which would have left us both spent.) My point is, Get off the damn computer. Take that hiatus. Stay nekkid for a week. Order delivery. (Begrudgingly) throw on a robe when the delivery guy comes. (Or don't bother.) You have MUCH better things to do than tell us what you're doing. This applies to knitting, too... unless you're knitting a new thong out of licorice ropes. --Chuck

Posted by: Chuck at December 19, 2008 06:52 PM (q4psF)

3 Ha! I agree with Chuck! Enjoy him while you got him!! Hooray!

Posted by: T at December 19, 2008 07:02 PM (/UP5m)

4 Completely jocund I'm sure. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/jocund

Posted by: tim fitzgerald at December 19, 2008 07:07 PM (rASAT)

5 I third what Chuck said. No blog posts for a week, Young Lady! You've got better things to be doing!

Posted by: Miss Ladybug at December 19, 2008 07:15 PM (zoxao)

6 Yippee!!!

Posted by: Beth at December 19, 2008 07:50 PM (qkeSl)

7 Hooray!!! Have a beautiful weekend.

Posted by: Pamela at December 19, 2008 08:06 PM (NqRYi)

8 YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Hallelujah! :-) Enjoy your hubby being home!!! :-)

Posted by: kannie at December 19, 2008 10:20 PM (iT8dn)

9 WOO HOO. Great news!!!! Now go enjoy each other!

Posted by: Keri at December 20, 2008 03:20 AM (HXpRG)

10 most excellent news, it was starting to feel like watching honey exit a bottle. speaking of honey, use in small amounts. It can be like glue....

Posted by: AWTM at December 20, 2008 05:28 AM (A0AhX)

11 Welcome Home! Enjoy your time together.

Posted by: Susan at December 20, 2008 05:42 AM (kOpTG)

12 WOOHOO!!! The wait is over!!! Go have some fun reuniting with your man.

Posted by: Reasa at December 20, 2008 06:30 AM (2W7Iu)

13 I clicked on your blog with a knot in my stomach, hoping so much he was home. And now I have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. I am so happy for you. Have a wonderful, enjoyable reunion. You deserve every moment of happiness.

Posted by: Amy at December 20, 2008 09:30 AM (I9LMv)

14 Congrats, and Welcome home to him!

Posted by: That 1 Guy at December 20, 2008 11:50 AM (8l3lA)

15 Yay!!! So exciting! We are very happy to hear that you two are reunited at long last.

Posted by: Butterfly Wife at December 20, 2008 05:39 PM (1DRG/)

16 Congrats! I'm sitting here smiling for you--you made it!

Posted by: FbL at December 21, 2008 05:32 AM (HwqvF)

17 YAAAAAY!

Posted by: Green at December 22, 2008 12:33 AM (6Co0L)

18 That's awesome, I can conjure up exactly how you feel. Merry Christmas!

Posted by: Pia at December 26, 2008 03:32 AM (SMV/V)

19 owuacoj http://brwkcg.com glugng owuacoj ctupayp hmjudo

Posted by: cifiiqh at January 06, 2009 11:51 AM (sDqen)

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When my husband finally gets home, we will have a big mystery solved. The Mystery of Where He's Been All Week. Because I have no idea.

I keep calling people to give them updates -- my mom, his mom, friends -- and they want to know what's going on. They keep asking me questions that I simply don't know the answer to. They want me to speculate; I have learned it does no good to speculate about the Army. All I know is the one-line sentence I keep getting from the FRG: "We are meeting at the company area at ___ o'clock." Period.

I have no idea where he has been. I don't know if he was flying commercial or military. I don't know what he's been eating, what he's been wearing (he sure didn't have an extra week's worth of clothes in his ruck), where he's been sleeping. I don't know why none of the soldiers in the company have called home. I don't know if my husband has been getting this same hurry-up-and-wait treatment. I don't know if the delays have been due to weather or plane malfunction or what.

I wonder if he is hungry. I wonder if he gets on planes and gets back off of them, or if he's been sitting in the same room the whole week. I wonder if he's getting enough sleep, if he has a book to read, or if he has been as jittery as I've been.

I wonder if he's wondering what I've been thinking all week.

I can't wait to see him and give him a big hug. And I hope to solve the mystery in the car on the way home!

Posted by: Sarah at 07:54 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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With no new info this morning, I came down with a case of the screwits. I put no effort into looking nice: didn't shower, just threw on some clothes and went out to run my errands. And the morning was not going well. Fifteen minutes in line behind some guy buying a coat with no price tag using a tax-exempt number. Went to the military pharmacy -- 10 minutes to find a parking space -- and found 40 people in line ahead of me. Nevermind. And then the phone rang.

My husband is crossing the Atlantic as we speak.

Several people told me not to believe any info I have until it comes from my husband's mouth. Well, that's all fine and dandy except none of us in the unit have heard from our husbands since Monday. The only info we have is the official stuff. So I will head to pick up my husband at the designated time tonight and just hope that it's right. And that it doesn't change again.

It's not like things can get any worse, right?

Oh yeah, and I have to go back to work in the morning. I am trying to get out of that one.

Posted by: Sarah at 07:00 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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No news is good news, right?

So I got in the shower, shaved my legs, put on nice-smelling lotion, got out fancy underpants, and was just putting on the outfit I was going to pick my husband up in when the 1SG's wife called and said they did not get on the flight, that they have been completely scratched from the flight list, and that now we don't even know which day they are coming home, much less a time.

I was supposed to pick him up three hours from now.

This really, really sucks.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:59 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Heh, this is rich. Apparently The Washington Post is selling classified ads to welcome the Obamas to the White House and has specified that they will only accept positive, glowing ads.

My favorite comment on this blog post:

It is only fair that WaPo post only positive comments for the winner of the election, after all, they did the same for Mr. Bush right? If John McCain had won, everyone knows they would have done the same for him too. I am also certain no liberals would have had a problem with that either and would have defended their decision. I am also certain McCain would have been Times 'Man of the Year' had he won, as well. That is why he was on the cover just as much as Obama was. Therefore, they are completely objective. People need to realize the myth of media bias is just silly.

Case closed.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:58 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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