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
Post contains 80 words, total size 1 kb.

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
Post contains 75 words, total size 1 kb.

Times vs The White House
Popularity IsnÂ’t Everything
Another Great Depression?

Posted by: Sarah at 05:54 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 13 words, total size 1 kb.

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
Post contains 38 words, total size 1 kb.

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
Post contains 228 words, total size 1 kb.

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
Post contains 123 words, total size 1 kb.

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)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

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
Post contains 288 words, total size 1 kb.

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
Post contains 205 words, total size 1 kb.

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
Post contains 115 words, total size 1 kb.

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
Post contains 165 words, total size 1 kb.

First, it was Michael Crichton's linking horse manure to predicting the next century.

Now it's Thomas Sowell:

For thousands of years, horses had been the way to go, whether in buggies or royal coaches, whether pulling trolleys in the cities or plows on the farms. People had bet their futures on something with a track record of reliable success going back many centuries.

Were all these people to be left high and dry? What about all the other people who supplied the things used with horses-- oats, saddles, horse shoes and buggies? Wouldn't they all go falling like dominoes when horses were replaced by cars?

Unfortunately for all the good people who had in good faith gone into all the various lines of work revolving around horses, there was no compassionate government to step in with a bailout or a stimulus package.

If there's a bad analogy involving horses at the turn of the century, I haven't heard it!

Posted by: Sarah at 03:51 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 161 words, total size 1 kb.

My friend said something a while back to the effect of: Sometimes life gets so crappy that you forget it's not normal to do shots of vodka at 3 PM. It made me snicker at the time. I was reminded of it today at 3 PM and thought, what the heck.

Hooo boy. Why couldn't she have said "White Russians" instead?

Posted by: Sarah at 10:14 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.

We had a new ETA for late tonight, so I ran some errands today and started getting excited. I came home to a new message on my machine saying that this timeline is also not happening anymore. The husband is stuck in Europe, waiting on his next leg of the journey. Maybe tomorrow will be our lucky day. Right? This is excruciating.

Posted by: Sarah at 08:12 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 66 words, total size 1 kb.

The last time, I had a vivid dream about the welcome home ceremony. Last night I dreamt that the husband and I were back together in our kitchen. I was wearing the outfit I plan to wear to pick him up, and he was drinking a beer. I woke up with a jolt and realized disappointedly that it was just a dream.

Today has been a very long day. Right now was the original time I was supposed to go pick him up.

I thought I'd better get back to Real blogging today instead of this dumb personal stuff I've been doing. But I can't seem to concentrate on anything lately. I just can't get into the news. Even Blagojevich's bleep-laden tirades couldn't compel me to blog. Only to laugh at home and tease my parents about living in Illinois.

I'm just sitting here crocheting and looking at the clock. Maybe I ought to do some things on that list; it seems healthier than this Waiting Game. I thought about going in to work today even though I got the day off, but the only task I have left to do at work is to put together more of those foam structures. That definitely ain't healthy.

And I haven't heard anything else today, no more updates, no new timeline, no hint of things to come.

Just lots of crocheting.

Posted by: Sarah at 08:59 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 231 words, total size 1 kb.

One chore down...

Poor fella. It's hard out here for a pup.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.

Aw, crap.
I just KNEW it was too good to be true.
Just got word that the husband's return has been delayed.

Man.....now there's no excuse for not washing the dog or cleaning the carpet.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.

I was starting to panic a little that I got nothing constructive done today. And then I did some thinking and decided to throw the list out the window.

I see knitting and Futurama in my future, not vacuums and dog baths.

Posted by: Sarah at 01:22 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 48 words, total size 1 kb.

So T linked to my brain love post, and I realized that I have recently said that I only love my husband with my brain and that I don't want babymaking. Lest anyone think that our love is boring and passionless, I thought I'd point out an old post from his last deployment:

Anthology of Goofy Crap I Said to My Husband Back in 2000

We are mushy too, not just cerebral. I love him with my brain and my heart, and though I often quote that we "care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss"...really, I do love him with all those body parts too.

He will be home so soon...and I am thrilled.

Posted by: Sarah at 01:19 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 117 words, total size 1 kb.

I've only seen the Terminator movies once before, and I was excited to see T2 again. But...I had forgotten how frustrating it is. I mean, the premise of these movies is great: an unstoppable killing machine. (Though Lileks is right that "the abuse that was once reserved for the Terminator is now doled out to human beings, and they not only arenÂ’t killed instantly, they are capable of acrobatic fistfights while hanging from one hand in a elevator shaft.") And this movie has the absolute greatest villain of all time. Robert Patrick turns my blood cold. He could play Santa Claus and I would be scared to death of him.

But the movie is just so interminably annoying. We're going to change the future and save three billion people from dying, but we can't kill anyone in the process because that's mean. John Connor might die and the world could end, but heaven forbid we kill a rent-a-cop. Enough with the lectures on morality and how evil technology is. Oh, and that speech that Sarah Connor gives about how all men do is destroy but women create because they have wombs blah blah blah. Give me a break.

I have lower standards than just about anyone when it comes to action movies. I will tolerate a lot of crap. But despite having the coolest bad guy of all time, T2 is really preachy. Stop with the voice-overs and get to the terminating already.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 249 words, total size 2 kb.

This Stossel article is exactly what I'm scared to death of...
And this Boortz article would be awesome but will never happen...

(Both links via Conservative Grapevine)

Posted by: Sarah at 04:17 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.