Flippantly, I think this should make the case for gay sex among soldiers...

I am totally cutting the moms slack for not posting right away. They need their Shane bonding time!

Nonsense. He hasn't officially been born until it's posted. (Best birth~ma to GC, DW and Shane.)

court martial for " 'becoming nondeployable for reasons within the control of the soldier,'

Birth control works perfectly, of course.

Or are soldiers supposed to be celibate?

Yeah, I'll believe that as soon as I see the guys getting court martialed in equal numbers. Which I highly highly doubt is going to happen.

I haven't read that article, but soldiers aren't allowed to have sex while deployed. Generally, but I assume specifically in this case.

And this may have changed but at least a few years ago, this rule also applied to married couples deployed in the same location.

Sigh. My dad just called and was all "Have you thought about what you want to do while you're here?" and I'm like "Um...WTF?" and he starts talking about the freakin' ART museum. (Of...Indianapolis. I'm not visiting them in NYC or anything). And maybe there's a Barbie Doll exhibit at the Children's Museum. Or have I thought about anything else? My mom invites me to her swimming class. Or am I just going to sit around the whole time? I'm like "Er...yeah? Movies? Shopping? Reading books? It's called a bloody VACATION, and just because I happen to be flying out to spend it with you people for the holidays doesn't mean I don't need one?" And he's like "Well, what are you doing?" and I"m like "Right now I'm frantically doing expense reports so I can be ready to TAKE a vacation, thank you very much!" ARGH. Does he not get that? Has it been so long since he retired? WTF??

Ugh. I insist that I go on an actual vacation within a vacation when I go home--my sister and I take a beach holiday when I go back to Jamaica. The rest of the time I damned well sit around. I don't see why that should be a problem--even when I was jobless, I made a point that I was coming home to do nothing in particular.

But parents are different.

Oh, does that sound familiar! When I drove out to see my mom and my brother and his family this summer, Mom was all apologetic that she was still recovering from walking pneumonia and couldn't go out and do things with me, and I was all, "No problem!!" I actually got several books read that week--sheer bliss.

If only my family would let me read.

Well, luckily these days I stay at my sister's house, and she is totally down with the "hang out, be on the laptop or reading a book, and watch Law and Order" plan. My brother-in-law finds this a little odd, as he'll look in at the two of us doing this from time to time, silently side by side on the couch, and be like "you people!" But really--the only other thing I might do is bake, but I don't feel comfortable doing so in their kitchen! I don't have my recipes/ingredients/utensils around me!