Adventures in Paradise

Bird's Eye

After serving in four Arleigh Burke Destroyers over nearly two decades, there aren't many places I haven't been - as far forward and aft as you can get, under engine mounts, inside the firing mechanism of the five-inch gun. In fact, there was really only one place I'd never been - to the very top of the mast. We don't have a Crow's Nest, and we use a wonderful (if not particularly reliable) electro-optical camera as an elevated lookout, but we still have lots of antennae that need to be mounted high. 

I got my chance a little while ago when a couple of the Sailors who work on those antennae wanted to re-enlist up there. I wasn't going to pass up my chance, and neither was the XO, so we got ourselves into harnesses and headed aloft.

The very top of the mast doesn't acomodate so many people, so we did the ceremony on an intermediate platform, then a couple of us headed the rest of the way. Here's what the forward part of the ship looks like from way up high...

and the after part of the ship...

I really do have the coolest job in the world, even if it's only for another 20 days.

Lasts and Firsts

I've had a hard time coming and updating lately. Part of it is the pace of life, part of it is the immediacy of Facebook as opposed to blogging and even more of it in the impending end of my tour in DECATUR. It's hard to maintain daily life and figure out how to detatch gracefully without hurting anyone (myself excepted, that's just a fact of life) or anything. I'm probably not doing it as gracefully as I'd like, but hopefully in a way that people will remember me well.

A few weeks ago was my final return to San Diego in command.

It was a tough one, but I made it through. There are still two more sea details, one leaving San Diego and one entering San Francisco in my future, and one final Underway Replenishment. It's hard to believe after what will be 19 years (next month) those may be my last big moments on a ship. There's always another possible command, but I'm not sure anything will ever top this tour.

I'm slowly beginning the transition to my next tour, which will be at the National War College in Washington, DC. I'm headed out to do some househunting, hopefully to find a place close to the school for the year I'll be there (maybe longer, maybe not...that's left to be seen.) I'm looking for a two bedroom place because I've gotten used to having a place to work.

I don't think I showed the final results of the last baby quilt I made, but now that it's been delivered, I can:

I'm pretty proud of myself for having managed to work all of her color choices into the quilt, from soft and pale to vibrant. I'm even more proud of myself for finding the perfect backing fabric online.

Actually, by some freakish coincidence the stylists of the world have decided that giraffes and other safari animals are in this year, (I don't remember seeing this number of giraffes for the last three kids that have come along),  just in time for the arrival of the first-born of a giraffe-loving friend. It's perfect, isn't it?

And I've also decided that the only way to learn how to free motion quilt is to actually do it. And so, my first attempt...

I had practiced on some scrap until I figure out that I needed to be moving my hands more slowly and my feet faster. The bit above is the first free motion bit I did on an actual quilt. I've been slowly improving as I work through each of the segments...

I have more improving to do, but I've run myself out of the purple thread, so I need more. I sort of wish I'd used a solid lavender instead of the variegated purples, but that's a lesson learned for later. I showed this to a friend and she really loved the colors, so it will probably go live with her almost three year old when I'm finally done.

You're Yella!

The blocks for the purple quilt are done, or most of them are. I've some extra strips and ran out of purple. The LQS didn't have any in the right shade, so I ordered some more. Because it totally makes sense that I ordered more fabric to finish a quilt that I started in order to use up the scraps from another quilt, right? (To be fair, I only ordered half a yard and I'll use it all.) In the meantime, the quilt shop did have yellow, though in a slightly darker shade than I'd used for the test picture. I used about half of what I bought, but I am happy nonetheless.

I took a silks class on Saturday and flew on the trapeze today, but despite the incredible soreness, I put the time during the Red Carpet walk and Oscar ceremony (which I have never before watched in it's entirety) to good use. I did a lot of twitching around and I now have enough of these fabrics (and some that I thought might work but didn't, darn online ordering) to make several more quilts in this color scheme. I've got the backing fabric already, but I'm going to work on that later. Now, I'm going back to Hanami, which has been ignored for days.

While I'm Waiting

The new fabrics arrived yesterday - the large scale bird print on yellow, a yellow diagonal, birds and trees on white, and they're perfect. Now I need the yellow, which I'm going to go get this weekend at the local quilt shop, which I do like to support. As I've said before, they're heavier on traditional prints and I lean in a different direction, but they've got a great selection of solids and batiks.

In the meantime, I had a bunch of scraps from the last quilt I made and I was getting really sick of the string quilt I'd started with them. I like the look, but paper foundation piecing isn't really my thing. And then I saw something online that I figured I could do without nearly as much fuss.

So I did. And the scraps from that quilt will make a second since I had so much of the solid. My iPhone takes crummy pictures, I think since I went running with it and sweated all over the darn thing. Son't sweat on your phone. Anyway. The two blocks in the left-most column are done and squared up, the others have been strip pieced to get the scrappy columns but haven't been sewn to the solid yet. I like it. And there's a little girl who has a knit blanket from me, but not a quilt and she's about to move into a big girl bed. I think she might like this.

Waiting

While I'm waiting for new fabric to arrive (the local quilt shop is a bit of a drive and my working hours are such that it's easier to buy online than in person, especially if I'm looking for something in particular), I decided to change things up a bit...

This is the quilt as it stands on the wall...the white is stuff I had in stash, some of it already in 2.5 inch wide strips. I'd need to cut more to the right length and cut some of the longer ones down to five inches from 8.5 inches to fit the short ends. But I think the quilt needs more yellow and I wondered if a pale yellow instead of white might be a nice contrast to the bold colors, while keeping with K's color scheme.

I pulled a solid fat quarter out and played with a layout. I think I like it better than the white - it softens things without taking away from the energy of the prints. Anyone else like this better?

In the works

The last three or five weeks have been crazy - life is much easier on deployment with a regular-ish schedule and not a lot of distractions. After the maintenance phase, things come fast and furious. In the five weeks since we're returned from the holiday leave period,  we've completed navigation, seamanship, engineering and a set of combat systems qualifications. We're about halfway to completing all of our pre-deployment qualifications and we leave in about five months. It doesn't get any easier that the last few weeks, but this long weekend has been nice.

To begin with, I spent all of Saturday and Sunday cleaning the house, which was beginning to resemble The Black Hole of Calcutta. I did the kitchen, three loads of laundry, and a ton of other stuff. I made some strawberry syrup to add to soda, and pea shoot pesto, half of which I added to some quinoa and the rest of which I'll freeze.Saturday evening, two of us invaded the home of a third friend with food (hence the pesto dish) and a wheel of quilting cottons and worked out some color schemes for her due-in-June daughter. Or at least we tried.

Moose thought we were laying out a new form of blanket for him. This is the Moose I saved at the end of the year, now fat, sleek and utterly content in his new home. He is happy to be snuggled for a bit and then just hang out in the room. We did get him moved from the ottoman off and on and long enough for K to make a couple of choices color scheme-wise...one is sort of sunny...(no idea why the size is weird.)

And the other is light but not quite Easter Egg/baby pastel.
I made sure she knew this was just color guidance because I wanted a general idea of the colors she really likes - she'd have been happy with anything but the theme I saw while she was picking and choosing was really focused on the yellows, oranges with bits of pink and green. So, one NCIS marathon later...

We have a beginning. This is pulled from fabric I had in stash, but the print I really liked was just a fat eighth and I need a little more green and pink for balance, and nothing in the stash works with these shades. The colors here aren't very accurate - the tangerine of the large dots and a set of small flowers seems to blend with the dark pinks, which they don't do in person. I'll have to get a picture during the day. I need to replace some of the diagonals, too.

Trying Again

My sewing mojo has been fairly strong, though I admit there are a dozen + half-finished string blocks waiting for attention. My knitting mojo, aside from a spate of mini sweaters in the days leading to Christmas, has been non-existant for a while. I think I may have found the answer...

Hanami. My friend Lorri has decided to dive into lack knitting with Hanami and it's been on my list of things to knit since I saw it a few years ago. So, I decided to join her in the process. It's good to have someone to commiserate with over the pain of having to move stitch markers and moving lifelines.

I'm adding silver lined beads throughout the shawl because I had to break them out for the cast on and it seemed silly to put them back after I'd seen a few on Ravelry that were accented well with beads.

I've just started the second repeat of the initial pattern and am not hating it, so hopefully this project will stick. If not, Lorri will probably stick me and that's good enough motivation to continue!

Score!

I headed to the mall this week, for the first time during the entire holiday season, for a Genius Bar appointment at the Apple Store. No surprise, but suddenly the issue that I made the appointment for resolved itself, despite the fact that I'd done all of the usual repair-y type things before I even made the appointment. The appointment was free though, so I figure I got off easy...I was afraid I might have had to buy a new external hard drive.

The Williams-Sonoma store was between Apple and my parking spot and I had wanted to get my eyes and hands on various soda siphons before I made a decision. They mostly feel cheap and plastic-y and I'mnot thrilled about the options for new CO2 chargers: the alternates seem to be to buy lots of single use cartridges, to rely on a courier service that doesn't get high marks for customer service, or to make regular trips to Williams Sonoma/Sur la Table for replacement, which in itself is an expensive proposition. So I didn't walk away with a soda water maker.

I did, however, walk away with a 10 inch Le Crueset skillet for $70, about a 40% discount. Normally I see those prices at Ross or TJ Maxx, not Williams Sonoma. I snatched it up because while I do have a cast iron grill pan, it doesn't work for some basic applications and it's hard to clean. It doesn't match the brilliant yellow, green and red of my other cookware, but at that price, gray is just fine.

Two High

New trick!

Well, it's sort of new. I've done this as a flyer before, tonight was the first time I'd ever based it. It was pretty easy, though I had to learn a few things that are different from flying, not the least having another person (or a mini person, as someone pointed out) standing on my shoulders. I'm particularly proud since I twisted my left ankle during warm-up and still managed the full class, including this. The ice I'm using right now feels really good.

What A Year!

I think it's possible that this year will never be topped for me...but I sort of knew that as the year started given that this is my full year in Command. The highlights are mostly ship-related, but the family figures in as well.

January

I started the 2011 having been in command for 16 days, many of them eventful, thanks to our deployed state and our missions up close to the Iraqi oil terminals and Iran. This photo came at the end of the first Underway Replenishment where I was able to show my guys exactly how I planned to handle the ship...flank speed and full rudder, whenever possible.  

February

We got to spend some time ashore in February. The three or four days in port Bahrain where lovely and showed me what a pretty place it could be. I even took a crummy iPhone picture of the Pearl in the Pearl Roundabout, about a month before the place went down the tubes and the Pearl was torn down. We also opened some lovely Valentines from a group of students in CA, my favorite featuring a Valentine's Hippo.

 March

We departed the Persian Gulf in March, after five months in theater. Our first port visit was to Chennai, India where I recieved an amazing greeting. It was new to me given my most only visits to India had been in the north, the most recent when I was seven years old. I am looking forward to another visit - check out the pics on the sidebar for more on our visits to Chennai and Phuket, whch was also in March.

April

April marked our return to San Diego, complete with a lei for the ship, tugs spraying water in greeting, and family and friends on the pier.

May

At the very beginning of the month, my mom and I made a short notice trip up to the family ranch in Oregon, where my grandfather had been dealing with two bouts of pneumonia. He recovered and I rediscovered the beauty of the place I spent so many of my summers as a child and teen. Going feral in this neighborhood was better than any summer camp (and I went to summer camps, too.)

June

The ship spent the month of June participating in Joint Exercise Northern Edge, but before that we got a three day visit to Homer, Alaska. I fell in love with the place and the people. And the animals, but I'm not entirely sure all of them liked us...the little bear that charged us on the beach. This is another place I can't wait to visit again!

July

We returned to San Diego at the end of June and in July I hosted my sister and her kids for a few days. We had a great time exploring the Zoo, Legoland, and ship and generally hanging out together. I introduced them to burgers at my favorite burger and beer place, and we had several meals there.

August

For the Navy in San Diego, August means Surface Line Week. Because we'd entered the shipyard at the beginning of the month, we didn't have the time to participate as much as I'd have liked to, but we still performed admirably. These three won the Professional Seamanship category - taking first place in line throwing and piping and second place in knot tying.

September

In September I found myself back up on the ranch for Rodeo Weekend. My cousin's youngest daughter was the Rodeo Queen and the kids had never seen a rodeo, demolition derby or the Rodeo parade, so the whole family went north. There's four generations in that photo: my grandfather, my mom, my brother and his two kids.

October

My India-visit earned fame got me a story in the local newspaper, which got me a few speaking engagement requests. I avoided a handful thanks to my schedule, and accepted a few, but speaking to the reunion of USS PICKING crewmembers was a highlight - they ranged from WWII to Vietnam era veterans and all seemed very supportive and happy to have me. I thought they were a neat bunch of people.

November

In November I turned 40. I'm not sure how that happened or if I'm supposed to feel any differently, but I don't. I'm having a great time and I have a hard time seeing how any year could top my 40th. I spent the day of my birthday with my family, and the weekend at the drag races. Then I got the best birthday present EVER: got out of the shipyard (finally) and got to test fire my brand new guns.

December

Celebrating the holidays is a little different when you're not deployed...holiday lights go up on all the ships that aren't getting underway or in the shipyard and the competition is fierce. I was one of the underway ships (hooray!) so we didn't compete, but we did get some colorful up and overs on the ship and a tree on the quarterdeck.

2012 won't top 2011 since I will be neither deployed nor in command every year, so I'm actually looking forward with a little dread. Still, this past year will sustain me for a long time.