2 + 2 + 2 = Insantiy

Getting promoted to Sergeant (E-5) and Staff Sergeant (E-6) in the Army is based on a points scale. The scale maxes out at 800 points. You earn points in various ways, and one of them is Military Education.

Military Education can either be done in a sit-down in-person course put on by the Army, or you can do it online via Correspondence Courses. Those damn courses used to be so easy until the Army got wise to us and changed it up so cheating is obsolete. Obsolete until Soldiers figure out how to cheat again-- which will happen sooner or later.

For now, I have to actually complete them myself. :( And, of course, this new system is still full of bugs and the Help Desk folks you can call clearly hate their jobs.

My Platoon Sergeant assigned 2 courses to the platoon. Neither course has been short. And several times I have set aside the time to complete a course on Anatomy or Physiology and the course crashed on me. Two times this has happened. Those two tests are 100 questions each, and both times the test crashed on question 99.

2 different tests. 2 hours it takes me to get to question 99. 2 times it has crashed. No credit gets awarded for an incomplete test. I am going to lose my mind. Thank you, Army, for creating such a stellar computer based education system.

New Paint, New Year!

I painted my living room over the 4 day New Year weekend. I am a party animal. The paint still needs a few touch ups and the tray ceiling needs to be painted. I'm so sick of painting right now I'm living with the flaws for a while! My right arm is exhausted!!

Before: Yucky mint green walls.

After: Yummy milk chocolate walls.

I love having a house. It's one of the better decisions I made in 2011.

Oh, and Happy New Year. It's been a hot minute since I posted anything. I try to keep this blog light hearted and funny. And there is absolutely nothing positive about my outlook on my military career right now. No sense writing depressing or angry blogs. I'll find my positive pants sooner or later and get back to blogging. Until then....

Collin's Dirty Thirty

One of my besties, Collin, turned 30!! Dirty thirty!! We got down in Nashville for the event. We also were cheap and we were ridin' dirty all packed into one vehicle.

Lots of fun, laughter and sangria! Happy Birthday, Collin!!

Veteran's Day 2011

How did I spend my Veteran's Day?

Well let me tell you:

First off, I had the day off. So praise Jesus for that. So I slept until noon. Then I hung out in my pajamas with Picasso and James until around 5pm. Then I dressed myself for the day. James and I went to the movies and saw "Immortals". We could have skipped it and it wouldn't have changed my life for the better or for the worse. Then we went to dinner.

Applebees and a few other establishments were offering free meals to veterans all day. We drove passed Applebees and took one look at the wrap around line and went to a Japanese steak house that didn't even offer a military discount.

Damn it feels good to be a Veteran. :)

FTX November

We packed up our Army stuff and went on a little field training exercise (FTX) last week. Three wonderful days and two luxurious nights, all inclusive. And by that I mean, we trained outside in the cold and rain all day, slept in a tent that reeked of mold and had intermittent heat at best, and ate hot chow out of green plastic rubber maid containers.

Ah, yes, I love the field.

The training wasn't all that bad this go-around. Usually we're running a TMC (troop medical clinic): taking fake casualties all day and most of the night so there is little time for rest. This time we were out there doing Army Training. You know, running around with fake rubber weapons and crawling through dirt. Assaulting objectives and reacting to notional enemies. As soon as the sun went down, all Army training stopped (just like in real life....?) and we got to sleep.

Hooah Hooah Hooah.

All of this training culminated in a fake convoy through several training sites in order to we put all the lessons together. One of my junior Soldiers was chosen to be the convoy commander for our run. I got to be her advisor. You know, the person who has actually done this stuff who could give her ideas and reel her in when she started to get over whelmed.

PFC Bowman did an outstanding job and I was really proud of her! Proud like a Mama Bear!! I have great troops!!

1 year :)

James and I have been together for one year. It feels goooood.

Love you, babe!

Halloween 2011

James and I attempted to throw a big Halloween party, but somehow people didn't get the memo and there was a poor turn out. Halloween is also James' birthday, so it really sucked that he was disappointed.

So thanks to this Halloween, we're not throwing any more parties at our casa for a while. And secretly, I think my house is relieved. There is only so much vomit a house can take in non-vomit approved areas.

Regardless of a lot of our friends being no-show turds, the friends that came out, came in style. We had some good costumes. Here are some of my favorites:

Picasso was a shark.

James was Osama bin Laden, the AFTER version.

Max as Richard Simmons and Jake as Borat!

Darby (Pirate), Me (Cruella DeVille), Collin (Sweatin' to the Oldies Chick) & Sagen (Zombie).

Gross!

This morning James and I were lying in bed just hanging out. I had already let Picasso out of his kennel and he was under the bed happily grunting and chewing on one of his rawhide bones. A totally normal Saturday morning.

We eventually decided to peel ourselves from the bed and start the day. As soon as James sat up, he said, "What the fuck!?" So that made me sit up, too.

There was a dead mouse on the bedroom floor. A dead, completely soaked with saliva, mouse.

Seriously, what the fuck? I don't know who killed it, either Dracula or Picasso, but it definitely was in Picasso's mouth last.

Since our neighbor's house is abandoned, a colony of mice claimed it. The weather is getting cold; even freezing the last couple nights. I think the mice are going on their annual pilgrimage towards warmer environments. Sigh. I guess that means we need to set more traps. I don't want my animals eating those filthy little things. And I swear to God, if Dracula brings a dead mouse onto my bed, I'm going to have a heart attack.

A Little Remodeling

I painted my kitchen. It needed a face lift. Every time I walked in, I felt like I was walking into 1996. Now I'm looking forward to new appliances someday in my future.

Before

After

Much more modern, much more me! It's amazing what some paint can do!

No Smoking

Ok, ok! I won't smoke my pet! Picasso doesn't like physical activity anyway!!