The Sunday before last, November 23, I was able to attend Jeremy’s frocking ceremony at his command.  He got promoted today from Petty Officer Second Class to Petty Officer First Class.  That means he went up one pay grade, from E-5 to E-6.

In the Navy every March and September sailors take advancement exams.  Out of those who pass, the Navy picks those who it will advance.  The number varies for each rate (job).  Jeremy’s rate needs a lot of First Classes, so the advancement was nearly 100%.  My rate doesn’t need so many–the Navy thinks it has nearly enough First Classes for my rate–so the advancement was only around 5%.

I didn’t take the advancement exam because I don’t have enough time in rate.  I won’t be eligible until next September.  Seaman (E-3) can take the Third Class exam after six months.  Third Classes (E-4) wait a year before taking the Second Class Exam.  Second Classes (E-5) have to have three years time in rate before being eligible for the First Class exam.  Jeremy made Second a year ahead of me, so he took the exam this September.

And he made it!  And he did quite well, too!  He scored in the 99th percentile.  That means he did better than 99% of the others who took the same exam.

And so I got to go see him get frocked.  “Frocked” is a Navy term for wearing the insignia of a rank without getting paid for it.  The Navy is different from the other services when it comes to advancement.  In the other services a person gets selected for advancement but has to wait until he or she actually gets paid for the new rank before wearing that uniform.  In the Navy a person gets selected for advancement and gets to wear the new uniform immediately (gets frocked) and has all responsibilities and privileges that goes with the new rank but is still paid at the former rank level until later, when he or she is “actually” advanced and gets paid for the new rank.

Usually at a frocking ceremony, the frockee shows up wearing the new uniform and is read and presented with the frocking letter.  At Jeremy’s the reading and presentation was done while he and the others still wore their second class uniforms, and then after, the first classes presented all the frockees with their new uniforms–the same one, but with a first class crow sewn on.

So now he’s an official first class.  And it will be even more official when he gets paid for it.  Since he scored in the 99th percentile, I’m hoping he’ll get paid in the first increment, which will be in January.  It could be any month between January until June.  Who made which increment hasn’t been announced yet.  (It won’t be “announced” as such–it will show up on the advancement website on his profile sheet–the result page of his exam.)

Congratulations, Jeremy!

After that we went to my command’s party, at my LPO’s house (Leading Petty Officer).  We ate turkey again and played taboo and those who wanted to played Uno and Sorry and some played Poker.

After ten hours combined partying we went home, tired but happy.

So I’m thankful first of all, that I had somewhere to go on Thanksgiving.  So many do not.  I’m thinking of my shipmates who are on ships this Thanksgiving.  Some of them are really taking it hard that they’re missing Thanksgiving.  It made me feel a little guilty for enjoying myself this day.  I wish I could do something for them, but I don’t know what.

And then I’m thankful for Jeremy.  It’s so wonderful to have him here to spend the holiday with me.  It could so easily be that he or I would be out on a ship and be separated as we have been so much.  I’m so glad I get to be with him.  I’m very thankful for him–for his love, for his caring, for his companionship, for him.

And I’m thankful that I have a family back home that is supportive and that loves me.  Thanks guys!  I love you too!

And last, but not least, I thank you, God, that you have given me so many blessings.

Thank you.

(Again, hover over the picture to view the caption.  Click to make bigger.)

It was actually cold getting off the plane in Alaska.  We were wearing sweatshirts, but after living in hot Bahrain we didn’t have much in the way of jackets (and no coats at all), and we didn’t bring any anyway.  But it wasn’t too bad, and we didn’t have long to wait until the airport shuttle came and got us.  As I was getting into the shuttle I stepped on the grass and the ground felt spongy under my feet.  That is so different from what I’m used to.  I don’t know if the ground in Alaska really is spongy, especially at this time of year, or that I’m not used to walking on actual dirt anymore, as the ground here in Bahrain is dirt, yes, but quite hard.

It was also interesting how much light there was.  It was after midnight when we landed, and the sky was not entirely dark, although it was black in most places.  It turns out that there are only a few hours of darkness in Alaska at this time of year.  For example at 10:00 p.m. the sun is only just starting to set.  And in June, from what I was told they pretty much have 24 hour daylight.  Of course in winter it’s dark a lot: I was told the sun doesn’t get up until after 10:00 a.m. and it’s down by 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

So we slept a few hours and then got up to get ready for the wedding.  Jeremy’s sister, Jessica, was getting married.  We got to the church in plenty of time to meet the family, talk to them, watch everyone else finish getting ready, take the family photos (very important), and eat lunch (also very important).  Jessica married into a very large family.  Her new husband has 10 brothers and sisters.  The youngest is 4.  And everyone was there for the wedding, including the already married brother and all the college kids.  I really enjoyed my time with that family.  They were really sweet and a joy to be around.  They were very friendly and very accepting; I felt real comfortable around them.

The wedding itself went well.  I think Jennifer, another sister of Jeremy’s, took about 1000 pictures, mostly of Jessica, while she was waiting to walk down the aisle.  Jessica was very beautiful, and her groom, Abraham, couldn’t stop grinning.  It was a very sweet and nice wedding.

After the wedding and after we sent Jessica and Abraham away the rest of us “family” cleaned up and then we changed clothes and went to the mountains and went on a hike.  It was really fun.  We got to see a waterfall and some snow.  Snow in May!

Sunday we went to church there and went to the pastor’s house afterwards, who is Abraham’s dad.  It was real nice to spend more time with Jeremy’s family and Abraham’s family as well as the three members of the bridal party that weren’t technically family but were embraced as if they were.  It was real nice fellowship.

Monday we had to leave to go to Canada.  It turned out there were parks and things to do and see in Alaska.  And we got along so well with the people there, that I wished we’d made plans to stay.  I didn’t really want to leave.  But we had fun in Canada too, and someday we’ll go back to Alaska.  After all, we’ll surely visit Jeremy’s sister.  I just hope it’s in spring or summer.

(There are more pictures in the sidebar.)

(Note: I’ve been having a lot of trouble getting pictures to post properly. To see the captions hover your mouse over the picture.  Click on the picture to make it bigger.  You can also see these pictures on the sidebar on the page titled “Washington, D.C.”  On that page there’s also a slide show option.)

And then we left for leave. We left our apartment around 11:00 p.m. Monday, 5 May. We boarded a plane around 1:00 a.m. Tuesday, 6 May. We traveled to London, UK, where I saw real grass for the first time in almost a year. Grass! Real, green grass! And I saw Queen Anne’s Lace too. It’s been a really long time since I saw any of it.

After a few hours in London we boarded another plane which took us to Dallas. Now why we had to go to Dallas to go to Washington, D.C. I don’t know. I really don’t. But our route took us over the southern edge of Greenland. That was way cool. The clouds parted just enough so I could see some of the land. It looked like mountains or hills with snow in the valleys between the peaks. I also saw rivers that were completely frozen. I even saw some glaciers. And I saw islands. There were lots and lots of islands. I had no idea the southern coast of Greenland was such a network of islands. And around and between the islands were icebergs. Literally millions of icebergs. Big ones,maybe ship-sized to small ones, almost too small to see from the plane. And some were far enough apart that you might be able to take a yacht between them if you were careful to those that were so close together you couldn’t even take a kayak through-you could walk from one to another. I thought it was really interesting how the icebergs made patterns in the water. They were scattered all over, but the close together ones were strung together in the water like ribbons of ice or like strings of pearls if each pearl was tiny and there were thousands making up the string. It was really beautiful.

Then we flew over Quebec and I saw a bunch of frozen lakes. As we entered Ontario, the lakes were beginning to thaw. I never knew before this that frozen lakes thaw from the edges first. Did you know that? Then we entered the U.S. and flew south to Dallas. Overall, we were in the air for 8 or 9 hours. That was a long time to sit in one seat.

We stayed in Dallas a couple of hours and then a little over 24 hours since we boarded our first plane we were boarding our last plane of this part of our trip. We flew from Dallas to Washington, D.C. We debarked, got our luggage with no problem, got our reserved rental car with no problems, and then drove and drove and drove. It took us three hours to get to our hotel. It turns out that traffic is insane in the D.C. area. In Bahrain we think a long commute is thirty minutes. In D.C. they apparently think thirty minutes is a short commute. And I thought it took forever to get anywhere in Jacksonville, FL. Jacksonville did take forever, but it was short compared to D.C.

So we arrived at our hotel midnight local time. If you add in the seven hour time difference and count from the time we left our apartment to the time we arrived at our hotel we had been traveling for 32 hours. That’s a long time! Even just counting the time spent in planes and layovers, it was 27 hours. That’s a long time too.

So we spent three days in D.C. This leg of our trip was a working vacation—Jeremy’s pursuing leads for possible post-Navy employment. In other words, he’s pursuing career options, possibilities for his future. So while he did that Wednesday, I went to Fort Meade (everybody in the military goes to another military base on their leave, right?) and read a book in this lovely park they had there. It was so restful. And it had grass! And I saw a robin. That was cool. We don’t have robins in Bahrain.

Wednesday night we went into the city and walked around some of the monuments. We walked around the Washington Memorial (it was closed, so we didn’t go up), and we walked around the World War II memorial and briefly saw the Vietnam Memorial. It was getting dark at that point and there were hundreds of school kids there, so we didn’t stay long. We also walked through this lovely park they have there and even sat on a bench and watched the ducks for a bit. It was so lovely and restful.  The pictures in this post are from this night.  Hover over them with your mouse to see the caption.  You can also click on them to see them bigger.  And they are also on a separate gallery page: look in the sidebar for the link.

Then Thursday I had a migraine so I stayed in the hotel room and slept and read. I had been intending to visit some museums, but my health had other ideas. Someday Jeremy and I will return to the city and “do it right.” Thursday night we drove around and talked. That was real nice.

Friday Jeremy went to a work-related conference.  I tagged along too even though it was all computer stuff and over my head.  Jeremy really enjoyed networking with the government employees he’s been working with over the last several months. We had to leave early to catch our flight to Alaska.

So on to Alaska!

He bought me a new game for the Wii.  It’s called Sims Castaways.  I haven’t tried it out yet as I’ve been too tired and migrainy (I made that word up) but I plan to.

Sunday was “Husband Appreciation Day” according to the sign on the door of the base library.  I meant to write a post about it, but didn’t do so as I was busy appreciating and enjoying Jeremy.  So here’s my late post:

Some things I appreciate about Jeremy (in no particular order):

1. He’s really good at computers.  This includes troubleshooting as well as being knowledgeable about software and the Internet.  When he gets back for good, I’m going to have him help me write some technology related posts.
2. He’s good at research.  If I want to know something and am having trouble finding it, he can usually do so.
3. He’s smart.
4. He’s very gentle.  I really appreciate that.
5. He’s very forgiving.
6. He’s patient and longsuffering.  Sometimes I need that.  <grin>
7. He’s not a complainer.  For example, he’s never complained about my cooking. (There’s been a few “burnt offerings.”  Hey, you try cooking on a Celsius stove when you’re used to Fahrenheit.)  He’s not critical.
8. I love his sense of humor.  He says the most random, funny things sometimes.  He’s crazy, but in a good way.
9. A correlary to the above: I love it that we can be silly together.
10. He accepts me.  I feel that I can be myself around him.
11. He loves me.  And he values me.
12. He’s an eternal optimist.  One of his favorite expressions is, “It could be worse.”  Since I tend to be pessimistic, he keeps me from getting too negative.
13. He sees the best in other people and has been teaching me to do that.
14. He’s my friend.  We have some good conversations.  I love it that I can share my soul with him.
15. We have a lot of the same interests.  This is good as this means we can have fun together.
16. He’s a hard worker.
17. He’s very persistent.
18. He’s a good leader and can make decisions.  Since I have trouble making decisions sometimes, this works out great.
19. He has a vision for the future.  He’s not wandering aimlessly around “like a lost soul.”
20. He loves God.

I could go on, but twenty is a good number.

I love you, Jeremy!

Jeremy emailed me some pictures.  He said to mention he’s been stationed on the USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81).  It is the only ship in the US Navy to have a British officer permanently stationed aboard.  He adds that he can give us a few hundred other facts about the ship if we would like.  I bet!

Edited to add: If you click on the pictures, they will open up bigger.

Reading the Certificate

Getting Pinned

“Congratulations.” Note the shiny new pin above the “U.S. Navy” on the upper left of his uniform. (his left)

Jeremy’s new certificate.

In case you don’t know, the uniforms he and the officer are wearing are coveralls.  They are a one-piece uniform that is very comfortable and durable and is the standard underway uniform.  You can tell officers and chiefs because of the rank on their collars and the khaki belt they wear. (Yes, Jeff, he’s an O-5, but we call him Commander.)

The pinning took place in the ship’s wardroom, which is the place where the officers eat.  It is usually decorated very nicely, and as you can see this one is no exception.  Normally enlisted sailors aren’t allowed in there.  So it was special for Jeremy to get to have his ceremony in there.

Congratulations, Jeremy!

I am pleased to announce that Jeremy is now Surface Warfare qualified. 

Yay, Jeremy!  (Insert huge round of applause here.)

You may remember from my earlier post about it that he had a whole series of things he had to do to get this qualification:

• He had to complete some books
• And then take a test.  The test was hard, but he passed it.
• Then he had to do some walk-throughs, where he visited each department and demonstrated to the chief in charge of it that he knew about their department.
• Then he had a First Class board, more commonly called a Murder Board.  A group of First Classes (E-6) quizzed him about all the knowledge he was supposed to have about surface warfare and particularly as it applies to the specific ship he was on.  The reason it is called a Murder Board is because it is their job to determine who is ready to go to the real board, or the Chief’s Board.  It wouldn’t do to waste the chiefs’ time by sending them candidates who weren’t ready.  He passed this board “very well.”
• So finally he went to the Chief’s Board.  These can be grueling.  I don’t know how long his was, but I’ve known some boards that were three hours long.  Three hours of being asked any and every question concerning the mountain of information you had to learn about how to fight a ship.  That’s every system on the ship, every department from Operations to Weapons to Engineering to Supply, everything about a ship.  And you only have 15 seconds to answer.  If you take longer, that means you don’t know it.  So this can be very hard.  But Jeremy passed this, and he was told he did very well at this too.

Edited to add: Jeremy’s First Class Board was an hour long and his Chief Board was 45 minutes.  But he did his boards alone, so that means he had to answer question after question for the entire time.

So now he’s official!  He made it!  He can put (SW) in front of his name now.  Yes, the parenthesis are included.  It’s called a designation, as in Rate, Designation, Name.  (Jeff, rate is the same as rank–it’s just the Navy doesn’t call it rank except for officers.)

From the time a sailor enrolls in the surface warfare program he is given twelve months to complete it.  Most people take the whole twelve or close to it.  Jeremy didn’t have twelve months.  He did his in five.  And he did it “very well.”  That’s amazing!  It’s very hard to earn a pin in such a short amount of time.  There’s a huge amount of information to learn and then there are the hands-on stuff where you have to demonstrate proficiency in various things.  And then, of course, you have to coordinate with other people’s schedules in order to get signatures.  So it can be very time-consuming and why the Navy gives people a year to do it.  It is very amazing that Jeremy was able to complete it in so little time.  He worked very hard at it.

Correction:  Jeremy did his in three, not five.  That is even more amazing.

Today he will get pinned.  He gets an actual pin.  And he will get a certificate.  This is a great accomplishment, especially since people in his rate (job) don’t often get the opportunity to earn warfare pins.

I’m very proud of you, Jeremy!

Hoorah!   

Saturday I went to the BSPCA or the Bahrain Animal Shelter.  No, I was not looking for a pet, although I wanted to take a bunch of them home with me.  I went with a friend to volunteer there.  The first thing we did was go into the Cat House and help out there.  There was a staff member sweeping and mopping the cages.  We went behind him and put in the food and water and the litter boxes and beds.  And of course we petted the cats too.  There was a Persian there that looked very funny as it had recently received a haircut.  I never knew they got haircuts.  I hope it looks good when it finally grows out.  There was one cat brought in while I was there.  I never found out why.  Some of the cats had been there since August.  One was such a sweetheart she let me carry her around.  I don’t know why she was there so long.  If I could, I’d adopt her.  But I live in a “no pets” apartment.  There were a few kittens there too.  I expect they’ll go quickly.

After the cats we helped walk the dogs.  The dogs are not kept in kennels but in large pens.  There are around 8-10 dogs in each pen.  It’s easier to walk all the dogs in a pen at the same time instead of individually.  If you know dogs you’ll know why.  If you don’t know dogs, it’s because dogs are like people–they get jealous if they think someone else is getting something they’re not.  Fortunately for them on Saturday there’s usually a lot of volunteers.  So everyone takes one dog and thus the whole pen gets walked at once.  On the other days of the week the staff have to do it when they get time so maybe only one pen gets walked a day.  Even on Saturday, when every dog gets walked, there is still a lot of walking.  That is because there is a lot of pens and a lot of dogs.  It would be easy to spend two hours just walking dogs.

All the dogs seemed small to me, but maybe that’s because I’m used to seeing the big German Shepherd military working dogs on base.  These at the shelter looked to be from 30-40 pounds–so in the medium range of dog size.  They were also mutts and most skinny.  The only one I that didn’t look skinny was the one that looked like a rottweiler, and those dogs don’t look skinny.  My friend said a lot of the dogs had some saluki in them, and saluki is a skinny breed of dog.  There were also a lot of puppies there.  Most were half grown.  But they were all cute and definitely wanted attention.  If I were to be able to get a pet it would be hard to pick out just one.  They all need a good home.

Even though it was hard to leave the animals there, I enjoyed volunteering there and would like to go back.  It was fun being around all those animals that just wanted some care and attention.  But then I like animals, particularly dogs.

Later the same Saturday, I went to taekwondo.  I’d missed two weeks from being out of town and having a migraine.  I’ve had a lot of problems with migraines lately.  I don’t usually get this many.  I had one Saturday night too, but I took my medicine and went anyway.  I didn’t end up staying the whole time.  Maybe it was just as well.  My medicine tends to make me dizzy, and he was having us do these exercises that involved turning around (and around), which is enough to make you dizzy anyway.  Once I spun around too fast and ended up on my face on the mat.  I didn’t even realize I was falling until I was lying face down!  I wasn’t hurt.  That’s why we practice on mats.  The teacher applauded.  That’s what he does every time someone falls.  He says it’s so they don’t feel bad.  It does make it easier to laugh it off.  And it was funny.  I wish I could have seen myself.  I probably looked funny flying around and landing on my face.  So now I can officially say I’ve had my first fall in taekwondo.

The klutziness doesn’t end there.  Yesterday when I was riding my bike home from work I wiped out.  That means I came as close to falling down as makes no difference.  I tried to jump a curb and failed.  I guess I need to find some ten-year-old boy and have him teach me how to do it.  They all know, right?  So I scraped some skin off my knee.  It bled a little bit and hurt some too.  But as both my mom and Jeremy’s mom like to say in situations like this–I’ll live.  The ironic thing was that my senior chief talked to us about bicycle safety at work just that morning.  He’d said that even though it’s not required, we should wear long pants and long sleeves when riding.  I thought that was ridiculous, especially with Bahrain’s climate, but guess what?  I wasn’t wearing pants.  But will this encourage me to wear pants in the future?  Probably not.  So have I learned my lesson?  That would be a negative.  I have learned not to jump curbs.  Does that count for anything?

Well that’s all I can think of for the exciting things that have been happening in my life lately.  In blogging news I took down the “dead” widget from the sidebar.  It’s supposed to tell you the temperature in Bahrain.  It’s really cool, but it stopped working, and I don’t know why.  So I will wait until my computer guru husband comes back and hopefully he can get it working again.  Until then, I put a search bar up in its place.  I figured I have enough posts now that if someone were looking for one it would be annoying to page through all the archives; they should be able to search for what they want.  I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know how well it works.  It’s also rather ugly.  Sorry.  Nothing I can do about that.

That’s all, folks.  I’m off to bake a cake–Triple Chocolate Hot Fudge Cake.  All you have to do is add water.  Sounds easy and delicious.  I love chocolate.  I’d share if there were some way to send it electronically. 

So now I can track where my visitors are from.  Even if there’s only like three dots I think it will still be cool.

I wish I knew why the weather widget doesn’t work anymore….  Any ideas, Jeremy?

So here’s an update on the news in my life:

In early February Jeremy came home for a couple of days.  That was a surprise.  He literally didn’t know until the day he came home that he would be able to.  So my Valentine’s Day came early this year.

Two weeks ago I passed a “test” in Taekwondo and now am at the next level–yellow belt.  I was at the white before which is the beginning level.  So I say I was at the baby stage before and now I’m at the toddler stage.  I had to do Poomse (two syllables–the “e” is like the “e” in “cafe”) number 1 to pass.  This is a form–a sequence of movements.  It was really hard for me to learn–it took me about a month–so I’m really proud that I know it now. Taekwondo continues to be challenging but fun.  I think I understand now why so many parents put their children in it.  I’ve noticed it teaches two things: how to take constructive criticism and how to keep on trying.  That last one encompasses not giving up as well as learning you can do things you thought you couldn’t do.  An example: like the day, right after our warm-up, when the teacher handed us jump-ropes and said, “I do not have time for a 1000, so give me 500.”  I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”  But he wasn’t, so we had to jump the rope 500 times.  I didn’t think it was possible.  I didn’t think I could do it.  But I did.

A few days ago Jeremy again came home, this time for a little over 3 days. He arrived Saturday and had to be back on his ship Tuesday night.  It was great having him here.  While here he threw a party for some of the people on his ship that he’s become friends with.  That was my first time entertaining and it turned out not to be too bad.  There were about 16 people there.  We ordered pizza to feed everybody, so I didn’t have to cook (Yay!  I’m a lousy cook, and I didn’t have enough food in the house to feed that many people anyway.)  They played the Wii (the “rabbid” game is a lot of fun) and played board games and cards or just talked.  They kept talking about how they wanted to steal our couches and beds (we have two extra beds, and one guy did take a nap–and knowing ship working schedules, I’m sure he needed it).  I totally understood them as I’ve lived on a ship.  Comfort is not in short supply on a ship–it’s absent.  And coffin racks are just that–the size of a coffin.  Imagine sleeping in a bed for months that you can’t sit up in and when you turn over you bang against the wall or your curtains (which are the only way you get any privacy).  And how about having nowhere to sit but on a stool or bench (found on the mess decks, which is what the “dining hall” is called) or in a chair.  And the chairs aren’t very comfortable either.  I’m sure it was nice to be able to look at a wall or ceiling that didn’t have pipes running along it either.  The pipes were what I disliked most about ship decor.  I know why they’re out in the open–so you can get to them easily when you need to fix them–but they just bugged me.  They’re so ugly.  No matter how much you paint them, they’re still ugly.  So I’m glad we could provide them a comfortable place to come to for a few hours.  I found out later that it was originally supposed to be only about six or or so people and that one of those had invited somebody else (apparently with Jeremy’s knowledge and permission) who invited other people (apparently without Jeremy’s knowledge or permission) and even went back to base to get still more people.  One of the guys Jeremy had invited seemed quite upset over this imposition and apologized to me about it.  I understood his position, but for some reason it didn’t bother me.  Maybe if they’d stayed longer or been more of a bother or maybe if it’d happened more than just that one night, but as it was it was okay.  I just felt like I was doing a service to them as I know what it’s like to live on a ship and how it can be nice to get away for a few hours and see the inside of a house once again.  So it was okay.  And the original group, which are the people Jeremy directly works with on the ship, are nice people and really like him a lot.  So I felt like I was leaving him in good hands, as it were.  I’m glad Jeremy’s been accepted by the crew of that ship.  That doesn’t always happen with riders (temporarily assigned people).

I still go to church.  I don’t know if I mentioned it, but it’s the Arabic/English church.  It’s called First Baptist Church of Bahrain.  I worked with the kids a couple of times.  It’s a combination nursery and Sunday School.  There’s a couple of two-year-olds and a five and six-year-old and a couple of other ones that come occasionally.  So the “Sunday School” part is basically a preschool level.  And since church is an hour and a half long they have to be kept busy or entertained.  So they get a Bible story–in Arabic usually, but when I’m there in English.  Fortunately they all understand English, even the two-year-old, at least he does as well as a two-year-old understands anything.  And after that they play.  I’d like to teach them some kid’s songs.  They don’t know any and neither do the adults, apparently.  While there’s Arabic hymns, apparently there are no Arabic kid’s songs.  The only song they know is “Go Tell It on the Mountain” which they were taught at Christmas.  (Apparently there are no Arabic Christmas songs either.)  Their regular teachers (different women take turns with the kids) taught them to say Psalm 23 in Arabic.  They came downstairs and recited it for the adults last week, the proud parents snapping pictures with their cell phone cameras.  I have pictures of a couple of the kids.  I’ll have to post them once I figure out how to do that.  I tried to do it, but it didn’t work.  And my “computer administrator” is not here right now.

That’s all the news I can think of right now.  I’ll try to write more regularly from now on.  Although, I’m warning you, if I can’t think of anything to write, I might just copy something into the blog–like a hymn or a local news article.  The only thing is the local news article would probably be plagiarism so I probably couldn’t do that.  We’ll have to see.  Or I’ll inflict philosophy on you.  I think I’ll do that anyway.  I like philosophy.  I always have.  I don’t know why most people don’t.  So be warned.  Or whatever.  See you.