No Guam ... No Glory!
Showing newest 3 of 5 posts from April 2009. Show older posts
Showing newest 3 of 5 posts from April 2009. Show older posts

Thursday, April 30, 2009

D-day

6 Witty Remarks

Big day tomorrow (not ready). Deployment (soooo not ready). Barf. So far I burst into tears just about every hour and drank a bottle of wine by myself last night I think I'm handling it really well. I wasn't able to get a Space A flight this week, so I have a commercial ticket off The Rock (as we affectionately call it) tomorrow morning (May 1st here) at 6:15. Chris has to be at the squadron at 5:00, so it works out perfectly. There is no sleeping in the bed alone, no horrible entrance back to the empty house, and no watching them fly into the sunrise like last time . All in all, it shouldn't be THAT bad (sobbbb). I land in Denver before noon on May 1st, and have no doubt that my fab in-laws will help ease the pain.

Despite the looming D-Day (tomorrow.. did I mention I'm not ready??), we had an awesome weekend and a great week. Saturday, we (with 10 of our friends) ran the 40th Annual Guam Perimeter Relay - 48.3 miles around the island. It was a BLAST! Chris ran two legs, I ran one (almost totally uphill in all fairness), and I drove one of the two team support vehicles, which consisted of stopping every mile to blare some music and cheer on our runner. Could have done without the 3:15am show time, but it was still fun. Sunday, we played 27 (TWENTY-SEVEN) holes of golf. We are obsessed. Monday we played 9, and Tuesday we played another 27. Ridiculous. I had my first birdie on a Par 5 on Sunday, and beat Chris by 6 strokes. He beat me by 1 on Tuesday. Luckily he won't play until November, so I'll have plenty of time to practice...

A few pics from the weekend relay:









Pre-run




Chris on his second leg, looking good!!





A few of my fave wives



Typical Guam scenery - in one direction roosters, the other direction:




Scenic overlook. Right after my leg of the race, and I thought I was going to fall off the ledge.




Pre-hills, still feeling pretty good



Post-run, not feeling so good...


Guam sunrise
More later.... from the STATES!!!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Three Days

6 Witty Remarks
I'm not ready. At all.

I'm leaving Sunday (hopefully - Space A, so you never really know) for the States. While I'm so excited to hit up all of the places I've been missing: Target, Starbucks, Bed Bath & Beyond, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, anywhere that serves above USDA Choice meat, and of course home, I'm so not excited. Is that horrible? I know once I get there, once I hold my nephews, have Starbucks with my sister, drink a few brewskis with my crazy brothers, go to my 3 sibling-in-laws college graduation, see my fabulous MIL and FIL, go to Erin's wedding, and spend some time with my awesome parents it will be better, but damn!!! My thrill-o-meter is not exactly peaking right now. Chris deploys next week for 7 months, and I'm just not ready. I'm not sure how you really do get ready for that, but we decided last Friday to hit up Guam's "best resort." It was a TRIP. LeoPalace is the ultimate Japanese getaway. It was absolutely hilarious. The place was surprisingly beautiful, with sprawling grounds (it accounts for over 1% of Guam's total landmass), incredible views (it overlooks the island, including a great view of Mt. LamLam), decent restaurants (still in Guam, but there were good options at least), and my favorite: lots of recreational activities, including (drumroll) a bowling alley and private karaoke rooms. Hysterical. Turns out after 7 drinks (including one that literally tasted like a musty basement -- Chris marveled at how much basement could get into one little glass), bowling and private karaoke is a GREAT idea!! We were of course, the only non-Asians there, but that made us a bit of a novelty so we rocked it. We checked in Friday afternoon, hit one of the 4 pools, went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, and then bowled, karaoked and drank the night away. We had a blast. Saturday morning we got up, checked out the golf clubhouse, and opted on heading back to base to play a round. Even for hotel guests, it is $100 per person to golf. If we didn't suck we would consider it, because the golf course is incredible - designed by Jack Niklaus and Arnold Palmer, it's 36 holes and gorgeous. But again, we're not THAT good, so we'll try it again next year :)

Other than our big night out, it's been pretty busy. Saturday was Chris' deployment bbq, I had a volleyball tournament on Sunday that was fun, I have a ton of homework, Chris has been working non-stop trying to get ready to go, and there have been plenty of squadron events (big annual picnic tomorrow... trying to figure out what to wear - I would normally wear a skirt, but know myself well enough to know that if they need an extra player for the softball tournament I will very calmly scream "I'LL DO IT, PICK ME!") Ahh the dilemma.


Check in.



The LeoPalace grounds - several pools, tennis courts, baseball fields, stadium, dirt bike track, a running track & field, you name it. A Japanese sports haven. A Guam resident's heaven.


Our room. For Guam standards (meaning you don't mind the scratches and marks all over the walls), incredible!! The view was amazing.



The beds however, were a LITTLE tiny. Consequently, when Chris or I wanted to roll over, we both had to roll over. No bed hogging in these.


Our big beautiful windows!



Our big beautiful windows also had huge curtains. Chris found this the perfect opportunity to do "floating head." Once in Tallahassee, we went on a date to a restaurant called the Silver Slipper. We hadn't been dating more than a couple of months, and were still getting to know eachother. The restaurant was set up so that each booth had a curtain you pulled for private dining (totally weird), but Chris did floating head and I about peed I laughed so hard. Turns out later in the evening, I did have to pee, and when I came back from the restroom, I tried to do the floating head. As luck would have it, I went to the wrong booth, yelled "FLOATING HEAD!" and completely traumatized the couple sitting there. I was MORTIFIED. Chris heard the whole thing and was hunched over laughing when I got back to our booth a few seconds later.



The full floating head view



Not bad :)


Sweet waterslide at one of the pools

Pre-dinner.. Right after the basement drink.

Chris' form. I admitedly cheated (yes, no shame - I changed the numbers) and still lost.



Why is it in bowling that you think if you lean the ball will veer that way?

This is probably what I looked like to the other tourists.... lots of drunk Japanese people.


Private karaoke rooms... doesn't sound like fun until you try it... hilarious! Chris standing on the bench and rocking out to Heart.


Saturday at the golf clubhouse.




It looked like rain for about 7 minutes.

The Chapel. We could see it from our mini-balcony.







Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Dinner for the troops

5 Witty Remarks
Literally! We had close to FORTY people for Easter dinner in our little base house. Fortunately the Guam weather was good to us, and we were able to beg, borrow, and steal enough outdoor furniture from the neighbors to accommodate. It was a blast!! We made a turkey, a ham, gravy, about 60 deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, corn, tomato bread, spinach salad, cookie salad, 2 fruit trays, a carrot cake, coconut toasted marshmallows (totally bragging, but they were awesome... I even made the marshmallows!!), strawberry jello poke cake, a fruit tart, and chocolate cookie salad. I feel so domestic!!! Chris also made asparagus fritti, and it was umm, not his best? Last year he fried the asparagus and it was awesome (what anything fried ISN'T??), but almost burnt down our apartment. This year, at my request he baked them and it was pretty rough. I take partial responsibility. Despite being so far from home, it was a great Easter. We went to Easter Vigil Mass at the Cathedral downtown and it was beautiful. The Archbishop of the Marianas said mass and there was a fabulous choir. I gave up fast food for Lent, so in keeping with last year's tradition, we went for a fast food dinner post-Vigil. Last year we went to In-N-Out, but we made do with double cheeseburgers from McD's this year. You take what you can get!!
And, in a true Guam mile marker, a gecko jumped from our ceiling onto Chris' head on Saturday night. I almost peed I was laughing so hard!!! The same thing happened to me about a month ago and Chris made fun of me for weeks. KARMA!!!!

Other than that, school is coming along, I've been indulging in "pool therapy" just about everyday with some of my fave ladies, had volleyball last night (and tomorrow) and have basketball tonight (and Thursday). Chris is doing well but super busy working. He went in at 6:30 this morning and won't be done until close to midnight. I'm taking him lunch so need to perhaps go change out of my pajama shorts and tank top (that I already mowed the lawn in this morning) and try to face the day not looking homeless...

Some Easter pics:

The SPREAD!






I added a little yellow food coloring to the yolks to make them nice and bright since I forgot about a dozen eggs and boiled them about 28 minutes too long (which turns the yolks greenish - oops).








My pride and joy - the toasted marshmallows. Recipe here.




Chris carving the turkey with our rockin' electric knife.




Chris prepping asparagus -- still not sure where this went horribly wrong ;)




The dessert table. The office ended up being a dessert "room" by the time everything was out. The cake on the stand is my mom's famous three layer carrot cake recipe (Prospector's Carrot Cake), and it is A LOT of work. When I told the Commanding Officer that it was a true "labor of love," Chris spit out his beer. When prompted why he was laughing so hard at my statement (because it really was A TON of work), Chris retorted with, "babe, I know it was a lot of work. But I've never heard you drop the F-bomb so many times in one day. I don't know if you can call that a labor of love." I = classy.




Fruit tart

Enough food -- here are some of...
The PEOPLE!

A few Kleins, the Chances, two Donnellys.




More people




More people




And more people!




Chris and I took a short break from panic mode (post 9 holes of golf, pre-40 people arriving) to enjoy the Easter baskets his mom sent us - complete with his and her bubble wands.




So fun!



We did it!!
No Guam ... No Glory!