Man, have I been busy! If it isn't one thing, it's another. I'm about ready to just sit home and vegetate, and of course, I have to wait another day. But that's okay. Better to be busy than to be bored!
Friday was Kurt's command picnic. We really didn't take many photos; just a few of Gracie playing in the bounce house. I spent most of the time chatting with my new friend AA, while Kurt talked to her husband and her kids played with Gracie. The food was pretty good, although they called it Southern when it wasn't really. I'd say it was more like soul food. Yummy, but not Southern. If you cook Southern, I expect to see fried chicken. Mmmmmmmm... southern fried chicken.... yum!!! I'm sure a lot of the guys hated the food.
Sailors are the pickiest creatures in the world, which makes no sense as they have very little choice in what they eat every day. But I've known more sailors that subsist on nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because the food on the ship is "gross." Granted, it's not the best food in the world, but most of it is fairly edible. My biggest complaint with ship food is that it's salty because most of it is canned. Oh, and the skin is left on the baked chicken, and skin just totally grosses me out if it's not fried crisp.
What gets me is the culinary specialist (aka CS, the new name for mess specialists) in charge is too darn lazy to cut up the fresh fruit and vegetables they receive, so Kurt's left with nasty brown lettuce and no other fruit than apples and oranges. There were mangoes and pineapples and other exotic fruit rotting away in the reefer because the CS "didn't have time to chop that stuff up." Grrrr. And then they wonder why the guys are the ship are getting pudgy.
Saturday the Chief Selectees held a car wash. I baked up a storm the night before, making poppy seed muffins, blondies, and oatmeal-currant cookies!! I could seriously have given either Michele or Chaos a serious run for their money! I don't normally bake. I'm perfectly content to whip up a yummy, savory meal, but baking is too fussy for me. Plus I don't have a sweet tooth. It's a curse, I know. *wink*
The car wash went pretty well. They had bought a ton of hot dogs and hamburgers and chips to sell, and I guess those sold nicely. Shockingly enough, my homemade goodies didn't sell too well. Maybe we should have a bakesale on the ship, right next to the nasty brown lettuce. I'm sure we could make a killing!
Then on Sunday we took Gracie to the pool. I'm telling ya, I must have given birth to a FISH!! Grace is just crazy in the pool. I have this float for her to sit in, which she loves because she can move herself around the pool without being dependent on Kurt or me. We'll put her in the shallow end where she can walk with the float, and then she'll walk out into the deeper water and kick her feet to move. We also took her into the slightly deeper water, about four or five feet, but we kept getting the dirtiest of looks from the lifeguard. I'm not sure why; there were two adults watching Gracie, and one of us ALWAYS had a hand on Grace's float. So we went back to the shallow end so I could get his eyes off me.
Grace loves the tot pool as well. I'm so glad she's not afraid of the water. She lost her balance a few times in the tot pool and ended up with her head under the water, but as soon as we hauled her back into the air, she'd shake the water out of her eyes and go back to playing without the smallest complaint. She also doesn't mind drinking the water. Ewww. That's a baby for ya, though.
What's nice is Kurt's currently on his way home. We thought when he left for work this morning that he wouldn't be home again till Saturday night, what with all the stuff he needs to get done with the initiation process. Fortunately he can show up to work a little late (6:15am or so), which means he can come home. YAY! He's also promised to take me out to dinner at the Japanese restaurant tonight. Every time we've tried to go, it's been a Sunday, and both Japanese restaurants in town are closed on Sundays. I'm getting me some good sushi tonight!!!