The Mighty Mighty Pave Party

I've spent a better part of the weekend repairing the drywall holes. Shane gets home from Europa on Tuesday night so I'd like the hose to look halfway normal.

The big shindig on Friday was nice... Here is ME looking a little shiney-faced because it was the end of the night and I was leaving. I have no other pictures of ME on my camera... they are all on other peeps cameras.

The handsome fella here is an ex-Pave pilot, who now is a Emergency Helicopter Ambulance pilot-guy - tres exciting! It was nice to see him. It had been a few years.



Here are a couple of my favorite darling Pave girls - the flightsuit dresses turned out DARLING. I still wouldn't make mine into a dress because my legs suck. I have good tits and stomach. Stupid pear-shapeness.



There were base photog-guys there taking lovely pics - I wish my husband had been there. They took a big group pic of the wives but I do not have it yet.



I like this image they had up - it's old-fashioned-looking and the dude was all tired-looking like after flying and he had a Playboy stuck in his leg-pocket. CUTE! (Hey, The Girls Next Door season 2 comes out on DVD tomorrow! Woot woot!)



The set-up was cool... We were in a hangar on base...






They hired the band 'Missing Stateside' to play... they are local and play pretty much all 80s music. Three of the guys are active-duty Air Force and one guy is a retired Marine... Yeay military boys!!



A lil education about the Mighty Pave Low:



The patches people wore were GREAT. The more inappropriate, the better:



No one told me to bring my tiny crotch-rocket motorcycle, or I woulda been out there doing ridiculous smokey donuts, too!



This is the commander - he is always smiling, especially when he has a beer in his hand:



They got all of us wifeys on stage with the band for pictures, and a group of fellas came up and nicely offered donations of single $1 bills. How nice!




When Shane gets home, we'll stop by the squadron and scrounge up some better pictures. He only has 6 days at home so we will be making the most of it...

Combat Grrrrl

My husband's squadron is having a Deactivation Ceremony/Combat Dining Out.
Usually they have Combat Dining INs, where the wives can't come, but since it is a dining OUT, we get to go. AND we get to wear military duds.

I LOVE DRESSING UP!!

Here's what I'm wearing:



I have to wear red underneath because the Pave Lows have this whole 'red scarf' heritage thing... they guys all wear red scarves with their flight suits. The leopard bra is just cuz, and it's super-padded Victoria's Secret goodness.

Here are the boots and the belt:



I'm tucking the pants into the boots... totally obnoxious but FUN!

The guys wear patches on their flight suit... we get to wear our own. Here are my options:



The hootch at the squadron is called "The Lucky Bastards Club", because only instructors are allowed into it, and only men fly the helicopter. So I had Lucky Bitches Patches made for me and some of the other girlies...
The squadron patch has an owl on it, so the wives started calling ourselves the Hooters. I got the Hooters patches on Ebay. Wierd that the auction was for a colored one, and a completely white one... I might try coloring it in with fabric markers...
Not sure if I'll use the bunny or the cupcake, I just liked them. And they were cheap at Hot Topic.

And for my retail therapy today, I got this watch 75% off at Dillard's...
Sparkly!!



I'll take pics tomorrow in my getup...

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:


If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:


If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"


If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling

Indoor Turtle House

A friend brought me a turtle the other day. He/she is an Orante Box Turtle which are native to New Mexico. The poor little guy has infected eyes so I'm being a turtle nurse right now...

The turtle is too young to be outside with my other turtles, so I had to improvise. Box turtles do NOT like aquariums. The best solution for an indoor habitat is a Rubbermaid container, but they are not very attractive.

I used my thinker, and I came up with this:



It's one of those wine barrels from the garden section. BUT when dry and empty, they fall apart, so I used aquarium-grade silicone and I sealed up the whole inside. Made it water-tight, too!



I cut and bent wire mesh-stuff for the top, and I even made a little access door:



But where is the little guy??




There he is!!

No one can come up with a name for him/her... It needs to be kinda unisex, as we won't know for sure until he/she matures...

Our other turtles are named Digger (we've had him in the family for almost 25 years), Patrick (who is now PAT - yes, we found out she's a female) and Cricket (also a female). They're all 3-toed box turtles.

Turtles are good luck. I need all I can get!!

Diet Coke Juice and Chocolate Gum

I am such a sucker for new/wierd food items. If you can legitimately call these food items. I bought these at Target. First, CHOCOLATE GUM:



My kids wouldn't even taste this gum... I was just nostalgic. There used to be a 'fudge gum' in the 80s... I can't remember the brand. Also, in the eighth grade, One of my friends bought me like 20 packs of mint chocolate gum... I think it was Bubblicious or Hubba Bubba...

And I had to try the Diet Coke 'Plus':



Diet Coke with VITAMINS and MINERALS!! So I don't need to drink fruit juice or eat veggies, I just drink my Coke-juice, and all is well.

Looks like a healthy meal, eh?

Fretty Plowers

YEEEESSSSS!! I did really well on my finals and they are DONE! I have been attending school for a YEAR AND A HALF with only TWO WEEK BREAKS and I am finally taking my summer OFF! Yes, it will take longer to finish school, but for my sanity, I need a break.

I planted flowers in pots in front of my house a couple of weeks ago. I chose BRIGHT, HAPPY-COLOURED flowers to make me/keep me happy.

Tully actually gave me the pansies for my birthday in March. It took me a while to plant them. I love getting potted/pot-able outdoor fleurs as gifts.



This is my front walkway. So I get to see them every time I leave/come home.

The rock garden with the 'twig'-looking thing in the center is my brainstorming/work-in-progress. I think I'd like a raised flowerbed there. I was thinking about putting a fountain there, but after my plumbing debaucle, I'm re-thinking that plan.

This pot has a pink hydrangea in the center, but it hasn't 'pinked-up' yet. I'm waiting patiently...



Right next to my front door is a silly lil pot of pink primroses that I bought on a whim at Walmart. Needs a better pot, but I like the pink-ness. That wierd-looking bush on the right was purchased yesterday at Walmart.


I have NO CLUE what kind of bush it is (looks slightly bamboo-ish from far away, but close up it's not). But it was only 11 bucks and I have space to fill in the backyard. It's probably a weed from somewhere else in the U.S. - I had to laugh when I saw that they sell Scotch Broom here as a bona fide plant. In Washington state, where I'm from, it is considered an obnoxious weed. All of the vacant lots were FULL of them!

Here is something by my front door that was NOT supposed to be there:



HENRY! You are such a naughty dog.

He just started escaping from the backyard by running along our cinder-block wall... But then he gets scared and can't get back in and just sits by the front door, shivering.



Henry has 'guilty ears.' He definately knows that he is naughty.

Final Finals!

My two last finals are today. Spanish and Theater. I haven't studied a LICK for my Spanish final, as it is only worth 10% of our grade, and my current class average is approx. 110%. Hooray for extra credit!!

I did study for the Theater final, though. I am well-versed on Brecht, Artaud, Stanislavsky, Freud's contribution to the understanding of dramatic dialogue, and Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, who was considered the first director, in the modern sense. And much, much more...

I'm off to do a little more last minute cramming... Hasta luego!

Oh Dear GOD.

Folks, I'd like to introduce you to the MI-17.

An old Russian beast of a helicopter, it is the chopper that is helping to rebuild the Iraqi army.



"The Mi-17s are brand new, dual engine helicopters capable of lifting 4000 kilograms of cargo, 30 combat troops or 20 patients. The aircraft are configured for transport roles and VIP use."



Looks like a safe, air-worthy flying machine...



I have every confidence in the world about my husband's abilities. He is talented and skilled, and was the number one qualifier in the Air Force for this job. He has countless medals and awards (makes me jealous sometimes)... I just picked up these plaques from the squadron (I photoshopped out our last name and squadron number. I try to be slightly 'safe'):



Oh and he just made MSGT which is excellent and the payraise is GREAT.

But my dear sweet talented husband sent me a picture today... of the MI-17 that HE is training on and flying on every day right now...

Are you ready for it...?

It's a beaut...





There is my dear sweet husband and WHAT IS THAT HE'S STANDING NEXT TO?

GET AWAY! It looks like it might fall over on you AT ANY MOMENT!!

OH dear GOD I know it is probably girly of me but it looks like a rust-bucket.

I love seeing his smiling face, but my confidence has been a wee bit shaken...

Accentuating The Positive

I realize that in my last post, I sounded like a maniac who went around smashing holes in the wall. Really, I'm not insane. I had purpose in the holes I made.

(Although it did feel good to bash drywall...)

I will only think POSITIVE thoughts about my experience. One positive: it was Earth Day yesterday and Home Depot was giving away free lightbulbs (the twisty-wierd good-for-the-environment ones) and I got 2 of 'em. Free. YEAY! If I hadn't had plumbing emergency, I wouldn't have gone to Home Depot and I wouldn't have gotten freebies.

Bijou likey the bulbs:



Things I love:
-Freebies
-Clearance
-Sales
-Clearance Sales
-Coupons
-Yard Sales
-Thrift Stores
-"Additional Discounts"
-Five-Finger Discount (KIDDING!!)

I'm off to run errands/do busy work! LATER!

Don't Call A Plumber, Call VALENCY

Wanna see a picture of a master plumber?
Here she is:

Her pants USED to be black, but now they are GREY and covered in drywall dust.
Her shirt says "Fractions Speak Louder Than Nerds."
THREADLESS. Oh yeah.

Here is how the family room is looking:


The fucking water hadn't stopped dripping. DAMMIT. I yanked down all of the moist ceiling drywall and peeked around up there and I STILL couldn't see anything. Here is the ceiling:



Looks pretty safe with all of those wet electrical wires, eh?

I then stomped upstairs, and with my handy dandy Dremel tool, I started cutting holes in walls. Which is basically what a plumber woulda done and he also woulda charged me a fortune.

Holes in the MBR linen closet... I checked the pipes for the kid's bathtub and my bathtub. TOTALLY DRY:



I then cut a hole where it seemed like the water was coming out (on the left side of the following pic)and I also removed the toilet roll holder and the floor vent to feel around. DRY. Fuck.



NEXT came the toilet removal, but I had to call a guyfriend for help because A)It was HEAVY and B)I couldn't unstick the nuts (ha ha). I was still thinking it might be something with the wax seal. NOPE. Fuckity-fucking DRY.



As I'm sitting on the floor where the toilet used to be, I feel around on the wall that's behind the toilet... it's kinda cold. Possibly kind of dampish feeling. What the hell, I smash into another wall... and... BINGO!



It's kind of hard to see, but just to the right of that brass part on the grey hose is a tiny split... Must have happened ages ago, but just decided on Friday night that it was time to spray EVERYWHERE.

Here is a close-up after I called my husband in the Ukraine to ask where the master water shut-off valve was:



After a trip to Home Depot, I returned with something called a "SharkBite Fast & Easy Plumbing Connection." Looks like this:



MAGICAL! And it cost me a mere $4.83 before the military discount (10% woo hoo!). Now I have soggy drywall to clean up all over my house... thank god I live in the dry dry desert cuz this should dry out OK without creating nasty nasty mold.



I'm actually pretty competent when it comes to drywall, so when it's dry I can patch it up no problemo. So I'll need a sheet of drywall and a new wax seal for the toilet and VOILA! My plumbing emergency will cost me about 20 bucks.

I fucking ROCK.

The Bucket Parade

Hey Ibis, WTF is going on in the family room??



OH NO, IBIS!!



That sure is a lot of buckets...



You better ask Henry if he knows what is going on.



Let's take a look at that ceiling falling down:



Aaaaaaaaah! The sky is falling!

**I'm now not sure if it is the MBR toilet, because I shut it down and drained it and it's still leaking. I shut down the other upstairs toilet and I think it is still leaking. FUCK. I at least want to figure out where it is coming from before I call a plumber... I have NEVER called a plumber in my life!! EEeeek I feel an unhealthy dose of social anxiety coming on...