Adventures in Paradise

Sew Red

For Project Run and Play's "Red" week. I won't be able to show much for these weeks....the puppy is only 21 months old and I haven't sewn that much for her yet. I was pretty okay with using the hordes of baby shower gifts to clothe her...and even at her age, she's still wearing some 12m clothing. My desire to sew for her is countered by the overwhelming size of her wardrobe. It's a good thing kid clothes are so small at this age! But, she had to have Christmas jammies, right? These are the Oliver &S Bedtime Story Pajamas and the puppy loves them, primarily because I have a matching pair of bottoms.

I made my pajama pants from a pattern that I don't love, so when the Nanny asked for a pair in the same flannel, I jumped at the chance to buy a new pattern. These are actually the Nanny's pajamas, made from Lisette for Butterick 6296. I'm much happier with them.

 

 

 

 

Hulk Smash...or Ballistic Missile Modern Art

This week's Project Run and Play theme was "Astronomical Proportions" and challenged sewers to create something inspired by outer space. This is the second of the challenges that inspired me to try and join in the fun. Outer space is where my mind spends a lot of time...for real, not in a metaphoric sense. Three of my last four jobs have had a focus on space, and the one that didn't was a touch and go - nine months, three of which were on maternity leave. 

My inspiration:

This is what it looks like (to an infrared camera) when a Standard Missile 3 intercepts a ballistic missile in outer space. In the most basic terms: When a bullet hits a bullet. In outer space. Whenever I see the IR videos and stills, I think to myself that printed and framed, they would make a great piece of modern art. When I tell the people I work with this, they say things like "Uh, sure. It's good to have creative thinkers like you around." Sigh. At least they don't pat me on the head when they're saying it. Now when they ask my opinion on something, I respond with a straight face "Hulk SMASH" because that's where I am compared to most of them.  But seriously, I spend HOURS with actual rocket scientists, because doing this is HARD. I don't have to do the hard work, they do that, then they hand it to me to break test in operational situations. This particular still photo is from an intercept I directed last fall. And since nobody believes me that it would be cool modern art, I made it myself.

The pants fit better than they look here - she'd been rolling around in the grass. (Military kids still stop to watch the helicopters on base. And yes, that is an Uhura Teddy Bear. Purchased for the puppy at the Star Trek 50th Anniversary celebration at the National Air and Space Museum. I am a geek.) 

This outfit is entirely self-drafted - took measurements from a shirt and pair of leggings that are a bit big (growing room!) and some design elements from outfits of hers that I appreciate. The high-low hem of the tee shirt is more to accommodate diaper butt than for fashion, and it works. And I adore gathered sleeves on her. There's an exposed elastic waistband on the pants that I didn't take a picture of. My first attempt needed some work - the pants were too loose around the waist and way too long, and the placement of the design was off, too.

A little bit more work and I'm happy. I love knit pants on kids but all the store bought legging are weird, even the nicer brands I've bought. These are based on a pair of sweatpants from a store here in Italy and while the pattern needs some tweaking, I'm going to keep it. Same with the tee shirt. It's great on, and she can roll and climb all she likes. 

The white leggings are, of course, inspired by missiles being boosted into space. I started out with gathered fabric but based on the way they looked, I switched to knife pleats, which I think are an improvement. I'm not a fan of ruffles, so I should have known better from the start. The edges are left raw and a bit ragged because flames aren't nice and neat.

The appliqué is hand done except the dark blue that attaches to the shirt. Each of the layers is a slightly different knit fabric, and I plan to make leggings in the red and turquoise to go with the shirt in addition to the impractical white.

Just thought I'd point out that my geek tendencies may have transferred...she regularly picks the two books I brought for the photo shoot here - "Rocket Science for Babies" and "On the Moon", which features a girl who dreams of being an astronaut. It's probably inevitable, my mom and stepdad were career NASA employees, and there's still a piece of equipment on the moon designed by my stepdad. (How cool is that?)

Next adventure...seeing if my masterpieces will survive the post-gelato washing! (Not a post-photo shoot reward, rather a "We've been on base for hours getting the car safety checked and doing pre-weekend shopping and just found out that Auntie M picked the wrong train to get to Naples from Rome and Mamma wants to have the extra 30 minutes be relatively peaceful" thing.)

Weird Things

I e-mailed a few posts, but they didn't make it across the ocean(s), which is too bad. I did try at least.

Here's where I've been:

Not as helpful as some of my older shipboard posts, but when you're on an operational staff at sea, your world compresses to your cabin, your workspaces, and where you eat. I see the sun once in a while, and I even got a few hours off the ship last Friday.

I embarked the ship in the Port of Naples, which features Castel Nuovo on the shores. The "New Castle", so named to distinguish it from the older castles of the area, was built in 1282.

 

The Marines keep e-mailing me like I have a marathon to run in 8 days or so. They're right, of course, but I'm not sure I apprecaite the reminder as I hack my way out of a chest cold. Better last week than next, though. I managed to run the Army Ten Miler on Sunday at nowhere near my best pace, but I spent a lot of time finding places to clear my lungs of the gunk that I was coughing up. (Pretty picture, eh? Welcome to distance running where discussion of bodily fluids seems to be inevitible.) I did a couple of trapeze lessons during the week, but hadn't made it out to run, even what has been my habitual run to work on Wednesdays thanks to a days-long deluge. So, I hauled myself out midday yesterday for a six mile run. It's finally cool enough most days to run in the afternoon again. I'll probably still do some early mornings, but daytime gives you neat views, like this one on my way back to the Pentagon.

Breakthroughs

This morning, as I walked past Tipper, I got this...

...her first ever request for belly rubs from me. She got lots of love, followed by a two mile run (because I wanted to exhaust her before I crated her in the morning...seemed to work, our afternoon walk was very slow). This evening, following another two mile walk and dinner in her crate (and after she spotted the blueberries I'm having for desert), this happened...

And Harvey has a new perch, which he clearly uses when Tipper is crated based on the wrinkles when I got back.

And since I really do live in a cool neighborhood, I'll give you an idea of the sights you see on your way about your business around here:

A V-22 Osprey, on short final, lands a few hundred feet from me, disgorges a bunch of apparently important people and then continues on it's business.

Trying to Make it a Habit

It's hard to break a habit, and even harder to instill a new one, especially with so many other things tagging at your heels. And, to be honest, it's been a tough few months since I left the ship. Not so much related to leaving the ship, though there's always a seriously low period in the post-command timeframe. This time I was expecting it, which helped. Also helping was my initial schedule post-command. I spent a week in Memphis, or near Memphis, for the Navy. The Navy part was not exciting, but we did get to do some good eating. I liked Pig on Beale, didn't like some of the more famous places.

Then, I spent a couple of weeks in Monterey, CA, at the Naval Postgraduate School, attending a school for senior leaders. I took my time, taking two days to drive what could easily be done in a day. I stopped to take pictures and drove Big Sur instead of taking the interior route and cutting west. I spent the night in the middle of Big Sur, and pulled into all the state parks along the way. Sadly, the fog meant the pictures weren't all that great, but there were a few gems.

After about a month of loafing around and not doing much other than hanging out, I headed east, again, taking my time. I drove Route 66 and stopped regularly at anything that caught my attention. As often as I could, I photographed myself doing a headstand in front of landmarks. I spent a couple of days in Santa Fe and fell in love with the town - it's propensity to fund and display public art rivals Paris. My Flikr set is here.

Then school started and we did some good stuff. I've still not uploaded my pictures of the visit to Gettysburg, which we toured in the order that the battle happened. It was a great trip and a beautiful day. It was a blessing for us since the year before had apparently rained the entire day. Shortly before the trip though, I got sick. It took about a month to figure out exactly what was wrong, and another month and an overnight stay in the hospital to get it under control. In the middle of all that, just my problem reached it's height, I came home to find Stormy in pain and distress and had to put her to sleep. Thankfully, my mom was just to the south in Virginia Beach with her dog Sweep, and since Sandy had stranded her, she ended up spending about five days with me. I'm afraid I wasn't great company, but Sweep was uncharaceristically understanding, even allowing me to rest my head on him and sleep for a little while. (If you know Border Collies, you'll know how significant that is.)

I still find myself calling for her when I come into the house. Things are getting better now, and there's a new man in my life. Two, actually. The first I met in Monterey and against my better judgement, I've started dating a guy in the Naval Aviation community. In my defense, he's a maintainer, not a pilot, but he still wears brown shoes. I will refer to him as such here - Brown Shoe, or BS. It suits in many ways.  The other man - well, BS was worried about me being home alone (we only see each other on weekends), and after a week without Stormy, he insisted that I "just go look at the rescue cats..."

Harvest, called Harvey around the house. He's five months old now, and certainly keeps me occupied.

 

Last Day at Sea

It's really hard to wrap my mind around the fact that MAy 25th might have been my last day at sea. It's hard enough to know that it was my last day at sea on a Destroyer. I've been a Destroyer Sailor since 1996 and now there may or may not be another ship in my future. I won't find out for a few years, though I admit the odds are actually pretty good for me. Some of my peers see the end of the Command tour as a relief, and while I admit that my last few days were nerve-wracking, it was more because of the weather than anything else. The prior was probably the best week at sea I'd ever had - we shot just about every weapon on the ship, completed all our major warfare area qualifications and rocked them. It was amazing to see my already great Sailors walking around with their heads held high and gigantic grins on their faces. Heck, even the assessors we had onboard were visibly enjoying themselves. We had a great weekend, topped with a steel beach picnic and a flight deck movie on Sunday.

The weather turned on Tuesday, leading me to make the only decision in my entire career that I will regret for the rest of my life - I took the ship alongside an oiler when the weather, winds and seas made every instinct I had say "No." I ignored my gut, and I was wrong. Nobody got hurt, nothing was broken, but when I think about it too closely it still freaks me out. Once again, my guys were spectacular and they did everything the way they were supposed to do exactly when they were supposed to do it. Nobody could ask for more - but weather will always make me think twice now. Or maybe three times.  The next day we went back alongside after reaching the shelter of the bit of CA that turns sharply southeast and were successful. Then we headed back into the wind and seas.

Thursday was an incredibly rough day, producing the seas you see in the picture I posted earlier. We buried the bow regularly over the course of 24 hours on the trip to San Francisco, causing a small amount of damage. Not too expensive to fix, but impressive to those who hadn't been in big seas before. I was just happy that Friday was clear and the winds had died enough that we could go out and wash down the ship before we entered port. We were looking pretty bedraggled on the whole, both ship and crew, so some music and splashing around was good.

Also helping lift spirits was the release of the advancement results for some of our Sailors. I was really happy that I was able to do that on my final day at sea. I even advanced one young man who had already completed his leadership and other courses once before (long story, but the entire crew was pretty happy to see this moment.)

Then it was time to shift into our shite uniforms and spiff outrselves up to match the ship. We had an 1130 appointment under...

The Golden Gate Bridge. We went under about 30 second early, but I don't there there was anyone who noticed other than me and the Navigator. Our arrival was times to coincide with the dedication of a pavilion on the south side of the bridge. My Mom, my successor and a bunch of other people were there. We steamed along the city waterfront slowly before turning further south into the bay. From the bridge through our mooring we were accompanied by one of the SFFD's fire boats, Pheonix.

I think they were supposed to meet us before we went under the Golden Gate, but that's a little tiny boat and those seas, even having calmed from the day before, were way too much for her to handle. We enjoyed the fuss though. So there you have it...my last day at sea, from rough seas to shelter under the Bay Bridge.

 

Not a Navy SEAL

This guy and some buddies were swimming around near the ship the other day while we were out running the boats. Every once in a while they'd pause in their diving and just hang out watching us, not unlike the way we were watching them. We've seen a couple of pods of dolphins and lots of whales, some surfacing just feet in front of the ship. I'd love to get a picture of them but when they're that close I'm more concerned about stopping the ship and not hitting the big lugs than I am about pulling the camera out. Whales and ships don't mix, and while ships win in just about any encounter, it's not something any of us want. Avoidance is the name of the game.

Sunset

I generally think sunsets are pretty but make for uninteresting photographs unless there are clouds, mountains, people or something else to add contrast and scale. Looking out to sunsets at sea in San Diego, which is generally cloudless doesn't really give you much to look at, unless you're in the middle of an anchoring exercise during sunset.

Marine Layer

Somewhere out there is Coronado Island and the rest of the Coronado Bay Bridge.