Blind leading the Blind

Unique experience of the day:

The guy who works the snack shop here on post is blind. I went to buy a snack and handed him my credit/debit card. He immediately told me that they did not accept credit cards. I told him, “There is a sign over there on the coke refrigerator that says you do.” His reply, “no, there is not.” Not wanting to be rude or insensitive I set my items on the counter and walked over and read the sign. Sure enough, it says they accept MasterCard, Visa and AMEX. I return to the counter and say “yeah, it says that you guys accept MasterCard, Visa and AMEX.” “Where is the sign?” he asks. “It is over on the refrigerator,” “No, it isn’t, there is no sign.” Not really knowing how to handle myself I say, “if you do not accept them that is fine, but you DO have a sign that says you do.” “There is no sign for credit cards,” he replies, somewhat agitated. Trying to behave properly in this extreme PC environment I am starting to think I am going to have to “pull rank” on him, if you know what I mean. Luckily, his co-worker, who can see, came out of the back and cleared everything up. I was right! She tore down the sign and said “Sorry.” With this I left the snack shop, still hungry.

Long, but it is important

First, I recognize two facts, I am a nerd and I live in Washington. These two facts alone mean that 98% of Americans don’t care about the following. But if blogs are supposed to be about things that the writer is thinking about than it is okay for me to have this here.

In my line of work one of the constant frustrations is the need to remind people that we are at WAR. Regardless of what you think about this administration, there are reasons that we have not been attacked since 9/11 and it is not because Al Qaeda is resting. Whether it is this story or the one about the CIA Air fleet being exposed or countless stories about military techniques in Iraq or the most famous, the revelation that the NSA could eavesdrop of Bin Laden’s Sat phone (which he immediately stopped using as soon as the story was published, that was a great intel source that the media took away from us) I get infuriated when I see these weasily reporters write a story because they want the scoop. Do they never consider that the story that they are using to make a name for themselves is endangering lives and National Security? This is not about politics. Anyone who knows me knows that I have quite a few problems with the President’s policies. This is about making sure that my two sweet girls can sleep in peace at night. It is about making sure that their husbands and sons don’t have to leave them to fight this same enemy.

The following story establishes firmly that the President HAD the authority to order the wiretaps. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, the very court that so many are saying he should have gone to has issued an opinion giving him the authority. So, How on EARTH is the New York Times story ANYTHING but the revelation of intelligence gathering techniques to the public, and therefore, the enemy!?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0512210142dec21,0,3553632.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed

Help me out

Someone please explain to me how the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name was a threat to national security requiring all of the hubbub of the last year and yet the leaking of intelligence gathering techniques as published by the NYT is an act of patriotism? They both seem equally illegal to me?

The Feliz-ing of America

My day started very early today. So early, in fact, that Mc Donald’s was still serving dinner when I stopped by on my way in. Suffice to say that I am a little tired. So I am sitting here at my desk writing a very important document (somewhere in the DOD, someone needs to hold down a shelf, so they have me write a massive document) and I since my brain is a little foggy (I had coffee and McD’s Chicken Selects for breakfast) I am thinking my way through the wording and all of the sudden an elf appears next to my desk. At this point you are thinking that I am either hallucinating or I am making something up. I assure that neither is true. This elf, a full grown man (easily mid 50s) in a green sleeping cap with bells on it, a green felt shirt with gold buttons on it, really tight green tights, green pointy shoes with bells on them pushes a candy filled cart into view and hands me a candy cane and says in a loud voice, “Merry Christmas!” My first thought was, his boss knows he is doing this! Followed by, a government employee just said “merry CHRISTMAS,” how unusual, followed by, that is perhaps not the most unusual thing about this man. How secure does one have to be in their masculinity, or total lack thereof to prance around a military base dressed like that!? I was, honestly, caught so off guard that he had probably left the building by the time I had a reaction. How do you put that on a resume? What do you put down as your quals for a job like that? Maybe, “I got some green tights in Jr. high, Yes sir, I am pretty sure they still fit.” What is that guy's salary? Who pays it? This joint is amazing!

Who loved Baird the most?

Judging by this picture, Who do you think loved visiting Baird the most?

Trickling in

I should have many more pictures to come in the next few days, here are two from the Brook's camera that Becky sent to me.

Bailey and Payton did this all weekend

Pictures coming soon

A Great Weekend

We are all still recovering form the great four day weekend that we had in Baird, TX. We had so much fun hanging out with my family. I am not sure that Bailey will even talk to Emille and I when she wakes up this morning to find that we have taken her back to Virginia. Perhaps the most fun thing was watching my family love on her and watching her love on them in return. It really made Emille and I long to be back in Texas. The weather was perfect and Bailey played outside all weekend long. She loved riding four-wheelers with her cousins and constantly sliding down the “wheee.” While on the plane from Abilene to DFW, Emille asked Bailey what she was going to name her new baby doll she got for Christmas she quickly replied, “Beck.” She loves her aunt Becky. On the second leg of our trip we watched as Bailey tried to get comfortable to sleep and would hug her doll and say “oh, baby Beck, night night.”

One Shot, One Kill

When Emille and I stopped at the Chili’s in DFW airport on the way back I asked her, “Bailey, what was your favorite thing about being at the ranch?” She quickly replied. “Deer” and then held up her hands (attempting to make a gun) and made a “pow” sound. I have rarely been more proud. This weekend was a weekend of firsts for my wife. It was her first time she went hunting, her first time to shoot a rifle and the first time to kill a deer. Saturday evening Emille and I were in the stand and she made the perfect (could not have been a better shot) shot on a buck at about 100 yards. At first we thought it was a spike, but upon greater inspection found that if you counted the brow tines and kickers it was a 5-point (honestly, it was the ugliest set of horns I have ever seen). She definitely did her part to clean up the deer gene pool at my parent’s ranch.

A Great Christmas

We had a great Family Christmas time as well. It was so much fun to see the kids open up their gifts. They were all so excited to open the gifts. I really could write pages and pages about this weekend. We had so much fun. It could have only been better if the Vaughns had been there.

In short, Emille and I both killed a deer (5 and 9 point respectively), Bailey got to feed the cows, ride four-wheelers, We all got to go to the Christmas lights in Clyde, ate some incredible food, hang out with family, talk to and about the Vaughns, share communion together at the ranch and Emille and I had it reinforced in our minds how much we long to move back to Texas.

Oh yeah, did I mention my little brother Andy graduated from ACU Friday night. We are all so proud of him and can’t wait to see what the Lord has planned for him.

First Snow

Not that it is really any big deal, but it just started snowing really hard here. It is supposed to keep snowing through early tommorow morning. My diligent goverment co-workers have already started heading home to avoid everyone else on the highways. The ineveitable "working from home" line is being thrown about quite a bit. I can't wait to see Bailey's reaction to the snow! It is so great to have a family that I would love to be with 24/7.

Back to the Main Purpose

Sweet Brylee will smile at anyone who gives her the time of day

Bailey takes a little more convincing

I am sorry that there have not been any pictures posted on this site in a long time. Emille and I have a few rolls of film to be developed and they no doubt include more than a few shots of our precious girls (Iam particularly thinking of one I took yesterday morning of Bailey breastfeeding her stuffed cow). In the meantime, Here are two shot that our good friend Jesse Lee took of the girls the other day at church. I will post some more pics sometime soon.

Thanks Jesse

Truly, this stuff cannot be made up

Location: On Post

My boss is currently working his way through the cubicle farm with a stack of cups and a jug of Sunny D offering everyone a glass. Truly an awkward attempt at morale boosting. 30 seconds of sipping from a tiny cup of Sunny D while the boss stares at you while sipping from his own cup. "Well, have a great weekend" and he is off to the next cube.