turns out i like gulfport. It has its own rundown charm. I'm enjoying my time at the holiday inn not so much for the quality of the stay but just because there's a palm tree right outside my window. my class, turns out, is taught by the air force and is very technical. My test scores are deceiving and I'm really not as adept at this kind of thing as the Navy thinks, so I'll have to apply myself. Everyone knows: I hate applying myself. really neat guy in class with me, petty officer duhaime. A believer from Maine who wants my opinion on some Christian Hardy Boy type stories he's written. Warm here, and humid. Hung out with my friend, Ryan, today. He was my duty section leader for my last two weeks at Fort Leonard Wood and, at great peril, gave me my last two weeks off. I owe him dinner. Feels so nice to thaw out. Fell asleep hugging my text book out by the pool this afternoon. Turns out I might actually like gulfport.

In Dallas...

...peed on the toilet seat

...and I did it for you Sean

I know that you think the pavement should part
that you think you're oh so something to look at
And, looking, I can tell that you're a work of art
But baby gotsta tell ya - my kid could paint that

The Tate girls at their recital...

I was late but I have an excuse!

A picture of Obadiah....

..hiding from his first crush....

My wonderful family took me out to dinner tonight..

We went out to the 99 to say goodbye to me for a while and to celebrate Bessy and Gracie's stellar job at their piano recital this afternoon. Sigh. I'm gonna miss my folks...

the following slide show is comprised of pictures taken by Gracie Sue and myself...

The Chittenden Tates have finally joined the blogosphere!

Joel, Christine, Bessy, Gracie, Lucy and Oba Fett

My bags are packed. My hair is cut. (all of them). Now I just need to sit back and wait for the Navy to change my orders again.

Name the song...

"Purple Prose"

"Liar, Liar, pantsuit on fire" - Charles Krauthammer

Labrynth is easy for Lucy to win when she can make up the rules as she goes along :-)

For Tom and Steve...

Here's the song.
I was explaining to Tom and Steve a couple of weekends ago how much I wish I could have an entry song...Kinda like back in WWF days when the wrestlers had a song that'd play as they came down the aisle with a folded-metal chair to beat over the head of their opponent(s). Or the President with his Hail to the Chief. Well...this is the song I wish I had blaring every time I entered the post office or store with a wink and a point at the nearest person, mouth agape.


Jungle life
You're far away from nothing
It's all right
You won't miss home
Take a chance
Leave everything behind you
Come and join me
Won't be sorry
It's easy to survive

*I encourage you, of course, to come up with your own...

I called her bluff...and it went straight to voice mail....

Easter dinner and egg hunt at the Woods...

~MAN URINATING INTO EMPTY PEPSI BOTTLE ASSURES FRIEND: "I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING"

Despite warnings that he didn't know what he was getting himself into and that he might "need more than 20 ounces" to finish the job, Peter Horton assured his friend David Anderson that he knew what he was doing.

"This isn't my first rodeo," a visibly flushed and shaky Horton told his friend as they continued south on route 74. "My aim is precise, my control perfect and my experience without parallel" he continued as he fumbled with his zipper and the bottle cap simultaneously.

"I don't doubt your skill-level, Pete" Anderson responded as he turned down the radio and focused on the road. "Never have. I'm just saying that the bottle will fill up pretty quick and then...and then where we gonna be? Let me just pull over."

"There's no going back now," Horton communicated between heavy breaths, his urine already rapidly filling the bottle. "I got this."

The two then waited quietly for 10 seconds.

"Red Alert!" Horton announced. "Red ALERT! We're not gonna make it, Dave!"

"Dang it, Pete, I told you!" Anderson responded as he hurriedly scanned his back seat for another container. "I TOLD you!"

"Pinch, baby, PINCH!" Anderson added, shouting. "We're gonna get through this."

"Help me, man" Horton is reported to have said before pissing himself.

FROM THE LOS ANGELES HERALD EXPRESS

June 30, 1942 Tuesday
The scrap rubber campaign has been extended and the Junior Army still going strong in its collections. Joan Wildhart is shown with her collection.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — When shooting suspect Christopher Williams acted up in prison, he was given nutraloaf _ a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes.
On Monday, the Vermont Supreme Court will hear arguments in a class action suit brought by inmates who say it's not food but punishment and that anyone subjected to it should get a formal disciplinary process first.

This is how we roll at Houghton, Biola...

73

...and I coulda rocked a solid 5 or so more if I didn't get all caught up in the whole england or great britain or united kingdom fiasco....

A truth that will echo throughout the ages: Have lanyard, will twirl.

Text message delete...

In the words of your wonderful brother John...’Better than I deserve’

Dubie takes on marijuana bill

I imagine torture does that to a guy. How can we help relax him? Maybe pay for some massages?

Must have article- “area leprechaun speaks out against pipes, stereotypes.”

Forget desert magic. Sometimes it’s all about the ‘nard.

Mmhmm. It’s been a while. You are away? I’m on my way to a youth event. Picking up pizza. Bored.

It was an official US territory from 1903 to 1979. A 1953 law clarified that all born with one American parent were NATURAL citizens.

Feel free to use me as a reference

Hyacinth Lullaby!

Haha. Did you just accuse him of watching battlestar Gallactica?

Tell her to curl up and die

Statehood is completely irrelevant.

I’m a simple man, I just want the chance to use the line – robbing peter to pay brigham to good effect. Is that asking too much?

yeah...good thing they're blind and can't see that they spelled it incorrectly!

My attempts to teach the girls how to look tough almost always fail...either because they aren't actually tough or because I'm just so unconvincing

Yittle Yucy

My lil Gracie Sue

Name her...

Tampa sued to collect on 147-year-old promissory note worth millions

In the early months of the Civil War, the city of Tampa needed ammunition and other supplies to defend against attack but apparently was short on cash.

So it issued a promissory note for $299.58 to storekeeper Thomas Pugh Kennedy on June 21, 1861.

Kennedy's great-granddaughter says the city never made good on its loan. Now, Joan Kennedy Biddle and her family are suing to collect the payment plus 8 percent annual interest.

~I think this whole case can be dismissed on the grounds that Biddle's great-grandfather lent the money in support of the rebellion and was thus giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

From the archives...

Bweinh!stock, '08

Most exciting game of girl's high school basketball ever...

Dad: "Do you know how I avoided a hot cocoa mouth burn this winter?"

Me: "How's that?"

Dad: "By avoiding hot cocoa this winter. It was the only way."

Me and the nieces reading my favorite poem

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things we did not do that is
inconsolable.”
- Sydney J. Harris

He was your basic hick starter kit
Just wanted to pick a banjo or a fight
Found him slurred or somewhat lit?
Then you found him on Friday night
-Job Tate*


*attributed

Under-appreciated Songs Vol. 51...

~Insensitive
Jann Arden
Oh you probably won't remember me
It's probably ancient history
I'm one of the chosen few
Who went ahead and fell for you

Name him...

Received a touching package the other day from the Family Owen. John and Abigail (who are expecting another child soon who will be, I'm sure, of the same impeccably beautiful variety) sent me a t-shirt for my future son, Reckoner, as Fabigail enjoys the name (along with some I Love Vermont button-making fodder). So much fun! John liking Reckoner, not so much, but he does like the name Vermont for a child. (For the record, Vermont is a marriage between the French words Verde and Mont which means "green mountain") I still want to encourage them to consider, anew, Reckoner or perhaps even Remember or Always...they're the next Emily and Jacob, I swear.
My response is nigh...I've been meaning to send ya'll something for the longest time.

Went and babysat for Lucy and Oba Fett this afternoon. As is par for the Obadiah course he started to rock and roll like Rainman when he discovered that neither of his parents were in the house. Luckily I had Lucy to look to for help in getting him to stop burning the baby with hot water.

b********** (10:17:59 PM): you and i are like the characters in pride and prejudice
cmddsmav (10:18:38 PM): oh? which one's pride and which one's prejudice?

Researchers have uncovered a rare photograph of a young Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan, nearly 120 years after it was taken on Cape Cod and tucked inside a family album.

But as the smug pitch invader rounded Symonds to complete his naked lap, the burly Queenslander put on a hit that left the intruder air-borne - and the crowd gasping.

I hope the next U2 album sounds just like this...

Our turn...

Vermont had its primary today, as worthless an endeavor for me to engage if ever there were one. The dream of a brokered convention is expired and John McCain will most certainly be the nominee we'll send to battle the candidate that Vermont will have an actual hand in determining today. The front of the polling place was alive with supporters for Clinton and Obama and the energy, I admit, made me jealous. I tramped down the stairs of the legion, smiled dutifully at my fellow Vermonters, and taking my Republican ballot I cast my vote. It's no shocker.

I'll vote for John McCain come November, but I hope this vote (and others like it) will persuade that man to be a different John McCain.

Republicans, my word, what have we done?

Hoo Rah

Your tax dollars at work

Building a bookshelf