Musings from Gram L

This is Gram L . . . Some South Florida news:

Joanne is still in Oregon with Becki, who has had her tonsils removed. Things have not gone entirely as planned. Becki has had a couple of blood clot episodes, which were frightening, and it was a good thing Jo was there with her. Not sure when Joanne will get back down. It's hard for Becki, since this is finals week . . .

Carrie and her kids are planning a visit in early June . . .

Austin's birthday is today, and tomorrow we are celebrating at his house. He's seven!

My refrigerator is still broken (compresser is gone) and the Whirlpool people can't come for another week! What's an old person to do? I'm staying out at Carolyn & Joe's for the weekend. Meanwhile, we are trying to eat all the hundreds of pounds of meat that defrosted. I'm sick of hamburgers. . .

On Friday, Dr. Liporace dug a huge chunk of my nose off. Apparently there was a skin cancer there, and so now I have a very large scab on the end of my schnoz. Disgusting. . .

Carolyn and Joe are re-decorating their living/dining room area, and it's a huge project. If they don't kill each other, it'll be lovely. Green and yellow are the new colors. . .

Please keep in touch. I love to look at the blob and see what's happening around the world.

Love, Gram L

You are NOT going to believe this...

I couldn't decide whether or not to blog about my experience today, but it's been awfully quiet on the blog so I figured you all could use a good laugh. Never in a million years will you guess what I did today...go ahead, guess...





















here's a hint...I took a class...guess what kind???




















I took my very first, ever, ballet class today. I even had to buy ballet slippers (I refused to buy a leotard and I'll never buy a tutu...that would just be to unkind for the other class members). The community center on base offers all sorts of classess and some of the teachers really wanted to take ballet. Most had done ballet before, and I have not, but it sounded interesting, so I decided to go ahead and try it. After all, my mother always says I am as graceful as a drunken ballerina...and that has to be better than being as graceful as a drunken member of Stomp!

I'm pretty sure the ballet teacher (thankfully a normal sized human being and not a tiny ballerina type) does not understand how our arms and legs are connected because she kept telling us to do things that seemed quite impossible. Then she would come and arrange each of us one by one into the proper form, which we could hold, but then she would remind us to breathe and it would all fall apart. All in all, it was pretty funny, but I must have done something right because a couple of times I was the example of how to arch your foot or hold your arm. We learned first position and sixth position, fifth and lower fifth, how to do a plie and two other things I can't remember the name of. I'll let you know when I graduate to pointe shoes!

So that was the adventure of the day...oh that and a surprise visit from my principal and the Superintendent of the entire Japan district! It was during our Wheel class and they came in during SSR. All of my kids were quietly reading...or at least pretending to read. I was intently highlighting my notes from the SST meeting on Monday. My door was propped open, so I didn't hear them come in or anything. Then I heard some giggling so I looked up and my boss was almost halfway through the room and waving both arms to get my attention (the kids told me later that she had been doing that from the doorway for a while). UGH! So she invites me into the hall to chat...how bizarre...leave my class to talk with my boss and her boss...and then Mary said all sorts of nice things and the Superintendent chit chatted about how I was liking Japan and Yokosuka and DoDDS. It was very odd...I'm going to have to remember to close the door so I hear people coming in. And I told my class they need to learn the polite cough to get someone's attention. Oh well...won't matter if I lose my day job after I become a prima ballerina!

Christ is Risen - He is Risen, Indeed!

I'm feeling kind of far away from you all today. famiy ws here (at Carolyn & Joe's) for Easter dinner, and you're not here. Joanne is in Oregon while Becky has a tonsilectomy, and Josh did surprise us by making it home. We also celebrated Jean's birthday by gifting her with various pieces of outdoor accessories for her patio.

Today is Tuesday. I am here with Carolyn. Whe is painting everything in sight. Just now she's painting the hallway. Rusty stepped on the paint can lid. Now there are paw prints all over the floor.

When Joanne returns from Oregon, Marty (my sister-in-law while my brother was alive) is expected to visit from California. Don't know whether she will stay with me or with the Polaceks.

I'm no help to Carolyn with her painting, but must go and supervise - so will say goodbye for now. Please keep in touch.

Much love, Gram L

Remember: it's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a home grown tomato.

Xavier the Goose

For those of you that have been to our place on the beach, or in Homewood or here on the state line you may have noticed that we (okay, I) keep a cement lawn goose on the front porch. I got the goose when Valerie and Grandma went out the day before my graduation.

Some people think it odd the way the goose gets decorated with various clothing. Heck, the goose has a better wardrobe than me. The goose has begun to take on its own personality. It has even created its own blog. If you would like to go there you can use the title of this post or the link on the right as hyperlink to it.

Enjoy it and respect the goose.

Bill sleeps with the dogs.

 
Valerie told me to post this here, dunno why. 

Out for Dinner

 
Bill, Joanne, George, Alex and Valerie (left to right) went out for dinner at an Italian place in Palos Heights Sunday night. A garlic good time was had my all.

Thanks George, it was great to see you all. We will pray for Becki and her tonsils. 

Sumo and Spring

Hey all...I put some more pics on Flickr (look at the top three sets on the left - the best way to look at the pictures and see the descriptions is to use the collections on the left side of the page. Click on the set you want to look at, next click on the first picture in the set, and then click the next little picture on the right side of the screen. ) and thought I would update the blog a bit.

My Spring Break is this week - yippee!!! Spring has been in full bloom for a couple of weeks and it is really pretty. There are cherry blossoms EVERYWHERE!!! The base is covered and random roads are lined with the trees. The cherry trees are about finished and today, during the cherry blossom festival on base, the petals were falling from the trees so much that it looked like it was a blizzard. Pretty cool! The cherry trees (sakura) are very pretty, but not as nice as the plum trees (ume) that we went to see last month (I really need to post those pics...hopefully this week). In fact, I think that if the Japanese had really wanted to give Washington DC a gift, they should have given plum trees...but that's just my opinion!

Josh came home last night with free tickets to go to a sumo wrestling tournament. I thought that was great because although it seems like something you should do if you live in Japan, I didn't want to fork over the 3500 yen (about $35) to actually go. I was surprised that it was an all day even starting at 8 am. We opted to go for the final match with the best guys. It was pretty interesting. I was glad I had done some reading ahead of time so I knew what was going on. I put some of the info in the captions for the pics in case you wanna know more. We stayed about 35 minutes and then decided to walk back (rather than taking the bus) to base since it was such a beautiful day.

If you look on Flickr you will also see pics of our Kitty Hawk tour. I asked my team leader, Peggy, if her husband would take us on Josh's 16th birthday. They did and it was very cool! We could tell the guy was proud of his ship...the tour lasted about two and a half hours! He even let us see one of the empty bunks...they are crazy small!!! I can't believe that some of the sailors live on the ship even when it is in port here.

Some Kitty Hawk Statistics
Crew:
Ship's Company: 3,150 - Air Wing: 2,480
Length, overall:1062.5 feet (323.8 meters)
Total Cost:
$265,200,000 in 1961
Draft:
36 feet
Total Height Above Waterline:
201 feet
Total Number of Decks & Levels:
8 decks (down) and 11 levels (up)
Electrical System Capacity:
14,000,000 watts
Fuel Capacity:
4,000,000 gallons (15,200,000 liters)
Anchors:
Two - 30 tons each (27.3 mt)
Weight of Anchor Links:
360 pounds each (162 kg)
Max Length of Anchor Chain:
1,080 feet (327.6 m)
Propellers:
Four, 21 feet wide (7m)
Estimated Number of Spaces:
2,400+
Flight Deck Area:
4.1 acres
Hangar Bay Area:
1.6 acres
Telephone/Computers:
2,400 / 1,500
Closed Circuit Television:
Six channels
Worldwide Satellite Capability:
12 channels
Meals Served Underway:
17,000 plus
Average Soda Consumption Daily:
5,040 cans
Water Distilled Daily:
380,000 gallons (1,444,000 L)
Average Number of Stock Items Issued Daily:
330
Inventory Line Items Carried:
60,000
Pounds of Cargo Received Daily:
18,000
Exercise Facilities:
Five
Public Works Force:
300 personnel
Number of Pay Accounts:
5,500
Average Annual Payroll:
$145,000,000
Number of ATMs:
Four
Number of Catapults:
Four ( Steam Powered )
Catapult Length
263 feet (79.7 m)
Arresting Gear:
Four
Effective Landing Area:
120 feet (36.4 m)
Aircraft Elevators:
Four
Elevator Lifting Capacity:
130,000 pounds each (58,500 kg)
General Quarters Repair Lockers:
Eleven
Rolling Airframe Missile Launchers:
Two, 21 missiles each
Close-in Weapons System (CIWS) Mounts:
Two batteries, 1,500 rounds each
.50-cal Gun Mounts:
Nine
M-60 Gun Mounts:
Two
Dentists:
Five
Physicians and Surgeons:
Six
Operating Rooms and Triage Areas:
Six
Hospital Beds:
65
Lawyers:
Two
Chaplains:
Three
Worship Services Held Weekly:
21
Laundry:
One
Ship's Retail Stores:
Two
Barber Shops:
Two
Post Office:
One
Eggs Served Daily Underway:
9,600 - 12,000
Loaves of Bread Baked Daily Underway:
900 loaves
Pounds of Mail Processed Daily:
2,500 pounds (1,125 kg)
Chief Petty Officers, with Embarked Commands:
380

Easter Picture

Here is a picture of a very cute boy sitting on the lap of the Easter bunny. Of course this picture was taken twenty three years ago.  

Fat Tuesday: MMMmm Shrove Tuesday pancakes

Jason and Megan are in Colorado Ski ing
Three dogs are tormenting Jean.
(She was heard refering to herself to the dog as grandma "grandma dosn't liket to be licked.")
See if I got this link right at the top of the page it should take you to Jacksonville Fl

Fat Tuesday: MMMmm Shrove Tuesday pancakes

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7229443167
Roadtrip
Well everytime I get on the internet I check E-BAy for
hobie-Cats and here was one in Jacksonville for $102.00 well it had 2 hrs to go and in 1hr45 min Iwas back and it was still 102.00 wo I waits like a sly fox till bidding is almost over but I get to anxious and with four min to go I Hit the enter button and bid. Someone else bid 150 with 2 min to go but alas I had bid 226 so auto bidding beat the 150 with 152. How exciting , now it will cost that much in gas to go get it!