One of life's paradoxes is that sometimes you need to have had some coffee before you make coffee....

I love the image of attack Olivia. Sort of like Hobbes greeting Calvin at the door.

Looks like she's going to be an early crawler/walker like Emmett was. He started crawling at six months and was walking at nine months. It made him a very exhausting hazard.

Curious international snack foods always reminds me of seeing movies in Chinatown at the Pagoda where you could get Green Grass Soda and Dried Cuttlefish (in a little potato chip bag).

Suzi, we need to get you down to Ti Couz and do some dessert crepes. My favorite is the one with apples, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, topped with chantilly.

As evidence they point out that the deployment ahead of schedule of the USS Dwight D Eisenhower (it's due to arrive in the area around today). The Eisenhower is scheduled to relieve the USS Enterprise, but they could probably hold the Enterprise there for a while longer if they needed to, thus making two carriers available if they wanted to attack Iran

The big thing to know here, tommy, is that a ship is never relieved early. IOW, if the Ike is heading out early, the Enterprise still won't go home until the official end date of it's cruise. Cruises are normally scheduled to be 6 months long and they never end early. There will definitely be some overlap. If you know when the Enterprise went out, you can get a rough estimate of when it is due back. Also, it is more likely for a ship to be held over longer than it's scheduled rotation. The Enterprise ended up doing 9 months in the Persian Gulf during the Iran hostage situation back in 1980. It was known as the 6-pack cruise. They have "steel beach" days every 90 days where they shut the flight deck down and each sailor gets 2 beers. By the time the Enterprise had finished that cruise, they'd had 3 steel beaches and 6 beers. Still, a lot of pissed off sailors, let me tell you, for having to be out there 9 months. One of the things that came out of that cruise was the promise to always stick to the 6 month rotation schedule. Also, one of the reasons we have to have at least 12 active carriers, so that the rotation schedule doesn't get screwed.

where you could get Green Grass Soda and Dried Cuttlefish (in a little potato chip bag).

Do they taste good together? Because I would think that you'd need a tasty beverage to wash down the dried cuttlefish.

I love the image of attack Olivia.

We need video of this.

OW, if the Ike is heading out early, the Enterprise still won't go home until the official end date of it's cruise.

I've heard that the Enterprise's deployment is supposed to end around now. Which is somewhat confusing to me, because if the Enterprise had gone home as scheduled and the Eisenhower had left port when originally scheduled (some time in January, I think) then there would have been a few months where there were no carriers in the Iran/Iraq region.

Relatedly, there was a carrier that was heading home when 9/11 happened (I think it was the Enterprise). They turned that ship around and kept it on station for I think three or four more months, conducting bombing of Afghanistan.

Suzi, we need to get you down to Ti Couz and do some dessert crepes. My favorite is the one with apples, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, topped with chantilly.

Are you trying to kill me? (If so, don't stop.) Sounds delish!

Oh yes, those six-month cruises were SO MUCH FUN. (Where is that sarcasm font?) The two that DH went on while we were together ran each end of the spectrum. The first cruise they had the least amount shore leave cause they had the least senior captain and he was trying to make brownie points. On the second cruise, his captain outranked the captain on the carrier that they were escorting. They hit all the sweet ports and were in Singapore on New Years, even though that had not been on "the schedule". BUT gosh, somehow a bunch of us wives were also in Singapore that same New Years Eve. Utter coincidence, I tell you.

Attack Olivia! What an adorable image. She sounds like she is going to be quite a handful.

I really didn't mean to fall back to sleep for quite so long. In my defense, the death cramps came 2 weeks early.

Suzi, we need to get you down to Ti Couz and do some dessert crepes. My favorite is the one with apples, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, topped with chantilly.

Oh. My. God. WHY have you not taken me to Ti Couz?!?!? All the times I'm schlepped my ass out to your fair city, and I've been denied crepes such as these?!?!?!?

Oh, the trauma.

I love the image of attack Olivia.

Heh. I need to remember to check myself now. It's not always Owen who's instigating and I have to suppress the urge to assume it's him taking her toys. She's learned quickly, that one.

P-C, I was also going to suggest a money market account or something for your savings--anything to get a higher interest rate than a regular savings account while still giving you plenty of access to your money. And you are lucky--not a lot of people can say they have enough of a cushion in their savings to wonder if they should pay off their debt, so relish the choices you have.

Gah. Toddler Zone was freakin' crowded today and full of craxy parents/grandparents. One grandma was walking around trying to SORT THE TOYS. Right out from under Owen. Who then freaked out and tried to take a toy out of her hands. She held on for dear life (which, I guess is her perogative) but then I had to swoop in with the "we don't steal toys" speech that I have to give him when he takes toys from other kids. When I realized he was only going to keep stealing toys, I decided to leave early. Which ended badly.

His pitched fit was worse than usual and I had to strap him into the stroller screaming. And to top things off, the offices inside the building were filled with some sort of tour and EVERYONE was staring while I tried to get him calmed down enough to push the stroller out the door. One guy actually stopped in the parking lot and watched the whole time as I had to strap Owen into his car seat kicking and screaming. I hope he wasn't an expectant father.

And now, I pack for Pittsburgh for a weekend on my own with my college friend. DH gets the kids all weekend and I get to drink wine and sleep late.