My boyfriend Kurt has got to be the luckiest guy around. Of course, it's because he's dating me... :o) Just kidding. We went to his work's Christmas party on Thursday night where we had a great time hanging out with his buddy John and John's wife Lisa. I got rather tiddly on four beers and a rum & coke -- which means I got even more talkative!!! But Kurt is definitely the one with all the luck in this relationship. During the first raffle of the night, a dvd player came up and Kurt's number was called. So tonight we watched Patch Adams on dvd, and he's also rented Terminator 2 for some time where I don't need to be watching tv. We couldn't believe it when he won. He bounded up to where the commanding officer was giving out the prizes, barely touching the ground, and I just sat in my chair laughing almost on the point of hysteria. It was the one thing we wanted on the cart, although I could have used a new tv. It was really just the coolest thing.

The USS Wisconsin has now made Norfolk's Naval Museum, called the Nauticus, her home. So today Kurt and I trekked down to Waterside to check out the last battleship in the Navy. I was flabbergasted by the teakwood deck since I'm so used to an all-metal ship, but the teakwood reflects the heat and also protects the metal deck underneath from rust. A destroyer (the USS Mahan, DDG-72) was tied up to the pier just behind the Wisconsin, and since Kurt's last ship was a DDG of the same class, we went on a tour with the rest of the civilians and learned lots of cool things about the ship. Our tour guide was a trip and kept telling us outrageous tales, like that the radar dishes they've got are actually DirectTV dishes, one hooked up to the commanding officer's personal room and the other to the executive officer's room, and that sometimes some of the men who work on things like that will hook the rest of the ship in with those dishes. Some folks actually believed him, which was rather sad. :o) What I thought was funny was their cable reception, so they can get cable tv, is actually right behind the mast, and if they're going in a certain direction they lose all tv reception. Guys and their television... :o)

Kurt also managed to finagle a trip below decks to the area where he worked on his last ship. So he showed me the consoles he used to work on, and the space where he spent the majority of five years while he was aboard the Russell. He was astounded when he read the literature that was given to us at the start of the tour about the Mahan because apparently their commanding officer was the same man who was the executive officer on the USS Russell during commissioning, when Kurt was aboard the Russell. It's a small world...

I loved being aboard the Mahan -- I've been on a good deal of ships in my life for a quasi-civilian, and I tell ya, I've missed the smell of a ship. Strange thing to miss...

Now all I have to worry about is finals, and when I'm finally going to quit procrastinating and actually work on my take home finals. I'll get to them... I usually can put them out of mind and enjoy whatever Kurt and I have planned. Which isn't too exciting -- cleaning out the truck tomorrow and giving the dog a bath. Damn we sound like an old married couple!!! :o)

And yesterday, at my mother's house, my mother almost accidentally referred to Kurt as her boyfriend's son-in-law, anticipating not one but two marriages. Of course, I kid that she and I can have a double weddding. I mean, how many folks can boast of having a double wedding with one's mother?? :o)

I've been watching too much Food Network lately... so Season's Eatings to you all! ;o)