This might be the best Christmas Video ever..

Wishing you and yours an excellent holiday season! Be safe and be kind to each other out there.

Mangosteen, Flavor of Vietnam restaurant review

Tonight, I might have had one of the best pieces of fish in my life. My wife and I are spending Valentine’s in San Francisco and we’re staying an older place called the Embassy Hotel. Usually our plan is the Marine Memorial but they were sold out this weekend and I didn’t plan ahead well enough. The hotel is a bit aged, you can see by the furniture that they did have a hay day but have since dropped down a bit in the star power. One thing I like about the hotel, it’s located in the middle of little Saigon, an area that I’ve wanted to check out for a while with a ton of restaurants that are enough off the regular tourist beat that their prices are a bit lower.

Walking around tonight, we picked a place called Mangosteen, they had a bunch of very positive reviews on City Beat on the wall so we went in to see what it was all about and I ordered a spicy bass dish and Heather ordered a seafood curry pot. This place breaks away from the rest of the pack in tastiness and the prices were very reasonable. We’re going to have to come back and try out more menu. With 2 beers the bill came out to 33 bucks and we were barely able to finish it.

Tomorrow, we’re going to hang out with one of my old military buddies, “Chains”, the guy who got me into computers, roller hockey and punk music.

Work has been amazingly brain draining, 600 or so people, it takes a lot of effort to keep up and make it look good. The work is paying off but it’s a never ending job, and no matter how well you do, there are days were everything seems to fall apart. Well little things that don’t matter fall apart and when you’re running that fast, you don’t have the time to slow down.

Made it safe to San Jose

The traffic driving up here was actually went smoothly after I expected to drive through the storm of the century and lots of accidents. It did rain but not till after I was on the Grapevine and then it wasn’t too bad. Glad I missed the big one. I suffer a fear of getting snowed in while on leave or away for the weekend. It happened to me once in the 90’s but I did make it to work on time but the dread still sticks with me. Laugh all you want, just let me enjoy my fears. Have a great weekend, I’m signing off for now and going to spend some quality time with the wife.

Thanksgiving 2008 take one

I woke this morning (actually Thanksgiving morning) to the smell of a smorgasbord of pies baking in the oven, crashed out on my mom’s couch, my nephews Corbin and Mason were sitting on the floor looking up at me. “Uncle Sean, you snore!” Yup, I’m home.

My mom’s a restaurant owner, she did own a dine in place up in Seligman, a small town on Route 66 but sold the place a couple of years ago to retire for a while, that plan lasted a little over a year before she got bored and she opened up a takeout Thai food restaurant in Chino Valley. Low overhead and she had all of the equipment just sitting around, waiting to be put back to use. Like me, she hoards tools that can be used towards a future endeavor so setting up was simple.

Her and my stepdad had came down to San Diego earlier this week serving the dual purpose of driving my Tacoma to San Diego and renewing her Thai passport. The closest place to do this was the Thai Consulate in LA. I requested special liberty on Tuesday and drove them to LA during which time, I introduced her to Audio Books, specifically, a story by Orson Scott Card called Ender in Exile. After finishing in less than an hour, we went out to lunch at a local Thai place and voted on a stop by Knott’s Berry Farm since I could get the three of us in for a total of 15 bucks using the Veteran Day Tribute.

I wasn’t able to talk either of them onto any of the roller coasters but did ride Bigfoot Rapids and a train ride through a mountain, got to show the small town folks the big city when I get a chance. Wednesday, after work, I drove them to Prescott and plugged in the Audiobook again. I have turned my mom into an junky, when we got to her house that night, we didn’t go to bed until we finished up the last half hour of the book.

Thanksgiving day, we had 6 pies, 2 turkeys, a ham and assorted side dishes, maybe 15 people in the house which is actually a light Thanksgiving load for my family. The last time I was here, it was standing room only, new parties would show up eat their fill only to have new people pop in and take their seats. This year was just a family affair. It’s good to be home, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Lessons learned this trip, Sprint sucks out here, if you live here and have Sprint, don't even think about getting wireless internet, it's slower then a herd of turles stamping though peanut butter.

Road tripping San Jose and some thoughts about Veteran’s Day

I’ll be out of town hanging out with the bride this weekend but I wanted to put a post up with a few thoughts on Veteran’s Day before I left.

I served all throughout the 90’s without really thinking about what it means to be a veteran. It was peace time and being in the military was just another job with a lot of travel perks and interesting people to meet. The only weapons I saw were at the range and could identify countries by the names and flavors of the bars outside of the front gate.

We’ve been at war for 5 years and I can honestly say, I haven’t visited a single bar out side of any gate. Being a veteran during a peace time is a different experience then during war. Now, there is always someone out there who is more then willing to punch your card and people look at you differently. You can see the thought cross their eyes, “what kind of action did he see?” You tell someone that you’ve been to so and so warzone an X amount of times and get the evitable “I’m sorry”.

Don’t be sorry because there is nothing to be sorry for, as a member of an all volunteer force. It was a conscious choice on our part to sign up during a war. There is not a single person that enlisted that doesn’t know what they were getting into, in the early part of the war, that wasn’t always true but all of those enlistments have since expired. War isn’t for everyone nor should it be, in this transparent world, much of the mystery of being at war is gone. Log on to your favorite Milblog, check out some military videos on YouTube, watch the History Channel, CNN or Fox and you can get snapshots of just about every aspect of what we do. It’s not easy nor is it the fun vacation club that I remember from the 90’s.

So every Vet you shake the hand of this weekend who is currently in the military, don’t say “I’m sorry” say “thank you” for the conscious choice we made of knowing exactly what we're getting into and still be willing and able to make that sacrifice.

Valentines Day in Iraq

Care Packages have started to arrived and the Soldiers Angels have taken care of me, in the picture below is maybe a quarter of the Valentines Day cards that I’ve received for my unit. It’s a lonely time of year to be away from the family but these folk let us out here know that people still care. Thanks everyone!

Here’s a picture of me and the doc.

I got tapped for being the squadron photographer and spent most of today following my guys around doing training. Took some great shots that I’ll be posting once I get a thumbs up from the PAO.

Right now, real work wise, I’m in the process of inventorying everything and painting the shelves in the office. Haven’t tackled the book shelves in the library yet but it’s sure to happen sometime in the near future.

A side note on the painting, we found another can of the paint that we used on our room with an English sticker on it that said automotive/heavy industrial paint. Hopefully, my future kids don’t look funny.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Merry Christmas

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Thanks Justin for the H/T

Christmas weekend

And I’m sitting at home reading. If you’re a reader, I’m probably one of the best kind of friends to have. If I get caught up in an author it’s not rare for me to buy everything they’ve written or at least an entire series.

There are few addictions in my life that have carried me as far along as reading. It started out when I was a kid and my mom used to ground me to my room for some offense or another and during one of those I picked up a book that I had brought home for homework. I was 7 or 8 and it was Where the Red Fern Grows. My mom told me that I could come out.

But I had no need to. I had found a new friend to play with who would never get boring and could always take me on new adventures. My eyes had became a window into another world and the pages gave me a escape, not just from pain but from everything. I could open up a page and fall into the book.

Over the years, it’s been both my greatest addiction and my savior, times when then it seems like the world is out to get me, I could step away and not have a care coming back refreshed. It’s also became a crutch that I had to control, there are times when I need not to disengage from life but did anyway because I needed to see the next page or go over the next hill.

This weekend, I’m giving in to that habit. I was going to leave town but my S10 is in the shop getting some driveline problems fixed and I can’t afford to road trip with the Suburban. Next weekend my son is coming out for a week and I need to save up my change for that trip.

Plus, I’m still far away from being a hundred percent physically. The bleeding in my lungs has stopped but I still have a nice case of pneumonia and don’t want to do anything that could tear whatever is plugging up that hole. I miss my wife and miss my family and it’s hard to believe that I’m here in the states and that this will be the first Christmas that I will not be spending with anybody.

At least I’m glad I have that shield to protect me.

Knott’s Berry Farm Veterans Tribute

Yesterday I went out with my niece Kate and one of our friends to Knott’s. Every year from the 1st till the 22nd of November they let anyone with a military ID or a vet in free with one guest, 12 bucks a piece for up to 6 additional bodies. Its one of the best deals for Military in Southern California, these guys take care of us. If you go, make sure to thank them.

Had a great day and made a video of it, well mostly a great day, Ghost Rider ate my cell phone, note to self, wear something with zippered pockets when riding roller coasters, 250 or so contacts down the drain so if you know my number, give me a call in a couple of days so I can put you back in and when I got out to my truck, someone had hit my mirror leaving it hanging by the wire. Oh well, it all balances out in the end.

Happy Veterans Day everyone, remember the reasons behind this holiday and next time you see a vet, thank him for his service and the sacrifices he or she made. This day isn’t about politics or about the current conflict, it’s about a group of people who believed in their nation so much that they give up their personal freedoms to give you the chance to have yours.

Here's the vid below or the direct link.

I don’t enjoy fireworks anymore

I missed the 4th last year being in the middle of an Iraqi vacation and I didn’t notice any problems the year before watching the fireworks with my soon to be wife and son. But this year, I noticed that part of my brain was looking for hard objects to hide behind and another part was subconsciously doing measurements of size, direction and how much ground shake there was. I guess I did carry some baggage back with me from Iraq.

Man, I used to love fireworks and the whole season, the great hometown tradition of Prescott Arizona was the 4th of July water fight down town next to the square. People would load into the beds of pickups with a arsenal of water slinging gear such as water balloons, squirt guns in all shapes and sizes and a good attitude. Then around my class graduation in 1991, the local powers that be shut down one of the most enjoyable signature events of the area.

We spent the 3rd with my wife’s grandmother for her 84th birthday and the 4th over at my step sister’s house in Lake Elsinore. Seeing the family is always good.

Cooking with Sean

My friend Stacey was talking about making Crepes for her mom on mother's day which made me crave crepes and I'm still playing with the new video camera. I made a minute instructional video on how to make crepes, check out the fine flipping technique! My wife is up in San Jose picking up the dog so I'm at home sick with a cold that I picked up in DC and bored. Yes, I'm a dork.

For MaryAnn,
I filled these with cream cheese, boysenberry syrup and sprinkled powered suger on top. I ate them to fast to take a picture.

For making one serving of the mix I used half cup bisquick, a little under half cup of milk and one egg, made 4 crepes.

PS. Happy Mother's Day to all of my mom readers!

The Irish Job

A true Saint Patrick's day story (hat tip to Nate of Firefly, thanks!!)

I’m a Big Dork

For the first time in years, I’ve decided to spend this Christmas at my home and not drive to the ends of the universe to visit family (I must be getting old) so I gathered some of my local buddies and invited them over for some free grub on Christmas day. Last week I went out and bought a ham and some fixings and Josh got a turkey he was going to fry (yes, we’re going to have leftovers for weeks, trick is to pack them in to serving sized ziplocks and toss them in the freezer)

Anyway Ultrastar Theaters offered to the military and their dependents a free movie on Christmas Eve and….. us and another couple picked Charlotte’s Web of all things to see. I loved the movie and book when I was a kid (my wife had never seen it) and I blame it sometimes for the total lack of fear I have of spiders. The movie was just as I thought it would be, I had to wipe tears out of my eye and left with a smile on my face.

Then the ham jokes started, “Are we eating Some Pig?” or was it “Humble?” Sigh.
Even with the jokes, dinner was great, “Humble” was tasty and the fried turkey was done just right. Merry Christmas everyone and here is my first real Vlog entry (excuse the mess, just got done with dinner)

Okay one more post before Christmas

My wife is coming home tonight from a trip to north California and I've been posting videos on YouTube all day (and unpacking). I made this video when I our helicopter broke down in 2004 and we were forced to sleep in the aircraft, just letting everyone back home have a taste of what life was like in Iraq (plus it will give you, my readers a face and a voice to go with the blog).

I've also uploaded more videos on my YouTube account Merry Christmas everyone, I got to get crack-a-lackaling on cleaning!

Dodger Dog

My wife’s best friend passed away this past fall and this is a video clip I took of him last Christmas when we had Christmas dinner with her family, great dog even though he didn’t get along with trains or me kissing his girl.

Still unpacking boxes into our new place, Christmas tree was the first thing to go up and internet put in. There are many many books that are looking for homes, eventually they will be up in order along with most everything else.

From my family to yours I wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

us and Gatsby

and Dodger

Moving (physically!)

My wife, Gatsby and myself are about to move into off-base military housing, not because we don’t like our current house or our roommate but because we would like a place where we can have a dog. We’ve actually been planning it for a while and our number has finally arrived.

The best thing about moving into the new civilian managed housing in San Diego from a rental? They move you! Yes, they will pay you to move yourself but I’ve got to the stage in life where I’ve gathered too much crap and am getting to old to be lifting all that I own under my own muscle power.

I still am helping my roommate move but he doesn’t own a couple thousand books, a huge tool box nor some of the other heavy furniture that I’ve picked up over the years. We have and we do have group of Marines lending a hand too.

No great travel plans for this Christmas holiday, after 3000 miles in November, this month our only plans are setting up the new house and having family come and visit us instead of us visiting them.

Merry Christmas everybody and from my family to yours, we wish you all a joyful holiday.

New family member

My wife and I woke this morning and drove up to the PetSmart store up in Lake Elsinore to take a look at a wire hair fox terrier mix mutt who we saw online and once we met him the rest was history. We’ve spent most of the day inviting Gatsby into our family and seeing how he would handle life in general.

Stats, he’s a ear and a half old, right at 25 pounds, looks like the dragon from the movie the never ending story, likes to kiss and hug and the only sounds I’ve heard so far is a light snoring and panting, not a bark.

Took him for a walk tonight around the block to look at the Christmas decorations with one of those 30 foot wind up leashes. Now I know what they mean by keeping a dog in a short leash, some guy down the street is going to be pissed when he comes outside in the morning. Gatsby’s leash caused a swath of destruction across a nicely set up yard full of Christmas stuff (this is where I found out that he’s also a good smooth running partner), this is a dog after my own heart, welcome to the family Gatsby!

Pictures of our day can be found here (no, none of that yard).