Happy Birthday to the US Army

It looks likely that my son will, if not make a career of service in the Army, be re-enlisting for another few years. Captured below are two videos saluting the Army NCO, and the Army's 234th birthday in the Year of the NCO. So, as a proud mother of a wonderful son, proud of his service and his discipline as a Soldier, I salute Matthew and all the brave enlisted men and women serving and who have served, today.

My Son Is Home from Iraq

Need I say more?

Sadly, the Long Weekend is Nearly Over

My nephew got to play in the Davis v SJSU on Saturday, they were ahead 10-0 until the end of the game and SJSU won 16-10. But the nephew got to play and that was exciting. Spending some time with my sister and her family (+ nephew's girlfriend) was fun. The next morning we had a bit of an adventure trying to find the train station to get my nephew back to Davis, but it all worked out and he got home just fine.

My almost daily posting on my beading blog has gotten me on the first page and pretty well positioned on that, of a Google search for "beaded badge lanyards" - not sure how many people actually search that, but I'm there if they do, so that makes me rather happy. Got a comment from Lois at A Beaded Affair who was searching on 'copper' and went to her very lovely blog and Etsy shop - I recommend her to you, too. Lots of wonderful artists I'm discovering who are doing beautiful work at Etsy.

Back to work tomorrow. I love having three day weekends but going on a business trip just one day afterwards will probably mean a lot of catching up next week. Speaking of which, the Saturday after this is the 13th - and my son's birthday, which fell on a Friday back in 1985.

Hard to believe it's been 23 years. I got to talk with him for over half an hour on Saturday morning, which was wonderful. He finally received the package I had shipped to him (Muscle Milk - he's always working out whenever he can, and wants to bulk up - maybe so the pack he carries isn't equal to 50% of his body weight? He's always been a wiry guy).

I also sent him a bunch of phone cards via a special deal the Army & Air Force Exchange Service has set up so non-military people can purchase and send them to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines they know who are overseas. I don't know if he has them yet or not.

By the way, even if you don't know a soldier overseas, there are special programs that will send your donated phone cards to a service person in the branch of your choice - just go to https://thor.aafes.com/scs/default.aspx and scroll down a bit to read the details.

It's been a while since I mentioned any of my favorite web comics, but A Girl and Her Fed is having a donation drive that's worth checking into. The artist is going to put her web-comics in print and with a donation of $30 you can help that happen and get some original art as a thank you.

Dave Kellett's got a new Sheldon book out - Pugs, God's Little Weirdos and I just received my copy with an original sketch and Dave's autograph. Sheldon's pug, Oso, is definitely a little weirdo.

Finally, and not about a comic strip, I got my copy of Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi. I'm waiting to read it on the plane, but it's been hard.

Stay Safe Son

Woke up at 4:15 this morning to take my son to the airport for the first leg of his journey back overseas. We got to the airport at 5 and I parked and walked into the terminal with my son, expecting to part with him at the security line. The check in line was very long, but as it turned out, it was because nobody was mentioning the shorter one for my son's airline. I figured it out and he walked over to the shorter line. In about 10 seconds an attendant from the airline came up to him and took him out of line directly to a kiosk, got his pass for him and took us up to the counter where she proceeded to get my son's girlfriend and I passes to go back to the boarding area. Wow! We got an extra hour with him before he boarded the plane.

I tried to get some pictures of him as he was boarding, but they were blurry - I think I had the camera on the wrong setting. Yep, it was set to "close up" - dang. Here's the best of the lot:

"Smile son!" I said. The kid is such a goofball. I kept my composure - probably wouldn't have if his girlfriend hadn't been there, though. Now it's 5 or 6 more months until he's back. God bless and watch over you, dear - and the same to all the sons and daughters headed over and still there, too.

Thank You, Charles Stross!

Charlie Stross, SF author of The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, Singularity Sky, Halting State, Accelerando, the just released Saturn's Children (and many more), has posted about the Author Advocate Defense fund in his blog today and the fund got a nice run of donations, it's over $1k now. If you can't donate, please post about the fund, because others will donate if they hear about it from someone they trust.

Some good info on how to post about the fund are in this post on Absolute Write by my blogging forum co-moderator L M Ashton - just skip the parts about joining the blog carnival (or not - join AW and join the carnival!) - there's advice about what to say, links to information about the cause and code for a donation button, all in the post. (Thank you again, Laurie, for taking the time to do the post and organize the carnival)

A bit of personal stuff...

Tomorrow is my son's last day home. Three weeks seems like a nice, long time for a vacation from work, but when the job you have to go back to is soldiering in Iraq for 5 or 6 more months, it's way too short. My dad came up from L.A. to visit earlier this week and we had two lovely days with him. We shopped and ate out and just sat around and talked, it was wonderful. My son has caught up with friends, visited Las Vegas, and also taken care of some important stuff he could only do in person here, so I think he'll go back satisfied that it was a good visit.

Otherwhere on the web...

I hope you're all watching Dr. Horrible's Musical Blog. Act II is up now, Act III goes up the 19th. The FAQ's on the Master Plan page are a good read for the background to how the whole thing was conceived.

Gonna Pimp My Review Blog Post and Think About Our Servicemen, Past and Present

I have been working all day on a review for my other blog Drive By Booking (although I do have about 3/5ths of a post specifically for this blog in draft - that'll go up tomorrow). So I thought I'd just post briefly tonight and ask you to take a peek over there.

If you know someone published by a small press (not self-published, but small POD or ePub press is fine as well as offset publishers) ask them if they'd like to have me do a review of their book. They can contact me at the email over in my sidebar.

Hope you've had a good weekend - for my U.S. friends, I hope you enjoy your Monday off as well. As it's Memorial Day, I'd like to also mention my thanks to those who have and are serving in our Armed Forces.

My paternal grandfather was in the Army. My father, the Air Force. My sister and her husband and my brother were all in the Navy. My brother served in the first Gulf War on the USS Tarawa. Now my son takes his place in this line of servicemen as a Army Paratrooper and there's my daughter's significant other who just got back from 6 months tour in Kuwait with the Navy. You can understand, I'm guessing, the significance of this holiday for me. I'm blessed that on this day I don't have a lost loved one to mourn, but I do have a heavy heart for those who do and am prayerful that my son and my daughter's SailorBeau will stay safe during their service.




dawno