Fired in Salute

My grandfather was in the Navy during World War II. One night, when I was about 17, he told me his story about the King of Arabia. He was aboard the USS Murphy when they picked up the King of Saudi Arabia to meet with President Roosevelt. The meeting is documented in history, but his stories were not.
The King would apparently not set foot on the ship, so the deck was covered in rugs. He would only eat fresh meat, so there was a herd of sheep on deck as well. One day, he and a couple of his Navy buddies snuck into the throne room, and took turns sitting on the throne. If they had been caught, the consequences would have been quite severe. One of the King’s guards gave my grandfather a coin and a handwritten note. Unfortunately, it was written in Arabic, so he didn’t know what he had written. He showed me the note that night, but had never had it translated. I’m not sure what ever became of the note after he passed away. The shell in the picture was from when they fired salute to the King. He managed to get a hold of one somehow and saved it. The coin he received from the King’s guard he had adhered to the shell and later engraved. The engraving says, “Fired in Salute to King of Arabia Aboard the U.S.S. Murphy. February 12, 1945.”
He gave me the shell that night. It was pretty amazing, and I was shocked and honored that he would give this to me. I’ve kept it for years now. Often wondering what the heck I was going to do with it, but I just can’t part with it. It’s a piece of history that no one else owns.
You can read more about the USS Murphy online, and when it was spit in half, then repaired and redeployed. Years later, the half that sunk was fount. There was a documentary about it on television a few years ago. That’s another really interesting story in itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Murphy_%28DD-603%29 http://deepexplorers.com/?page_id=26
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/0560311.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/0560314.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/0560313.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/0560312.jpg

Be aggressive?

Okay - so it's been a while since I've felt motivated to write anything. A really long time. But something struck me this morning that I wanted to write down. More just to document the thought, mull it over, and maybe get some other views on it.

I was driving to work, and there was this other car coming up behind me rather quickly. I was going to change lanes, but thought I'd wait until he passed. He seemed to be in a bigger hurry, and was driving pretty aggressively.  I don't have much tolerance for aggressive (in my mind, rude, dismissive and selfish) drivers, so I let him pass. Then, out of the blue, it hit me... I think I equate aggressiveness with selfishness.

This makes total sense... I'm the oldest of about a thousand kids. Being selfish was not acceptable growing up. It was really impressed upon me that others always come first - take care of your siblings first. You're the oldest. Set an example. (I'm sure this is why I have such a disdain for every "reality" show out there. But that's a whole other (semi-related) topic.)

I think this also formed my attitude towards competition. I never excelled at sports or games. Even table games or cards. I've always been the designated loser. I never minded that role. I usually get a kick out of just watching others compete - getting aggressive with each other.

So... being aggressive and competitive = selfish? I don't know if that's really true, but it seems to reflect a little bit of my personality.  Maybe I need to learn to competitively go after the things I want in life. Maybe I need to be okay with being a little aggressive.

Just a little.

Zoom zoom!

Wow. This year is off to a running start! I'm amazed that January is half over.

A couple weeks ago we booked our flight to London (yea!). I managed to take a few weeks off to enjoy the trip. We still don't have an agenda yet, so I don't know where all we will be going. But I have to say, it's the generosity of new friends in Oxford, Cornwall and London, who have all opened their homes to us that is really making this trip possible. And not to mention a dear friend who's willing to house sit and keep the kids company while we're away!

Only a few months away and we'll be off to Great Britain! Look for travel plans and lots of photos to come!

Good night 2011

Well, another year has come and gone. Like many of you out there you are journalling, blogging, tweeting, face booking or just thinking in general about what this year has been and how next year will be bigger and  better. And I truly hope that it is.

I've been absent for a while. The desire to write has been gone for a while. Even though it felt so cathartic last year. So, maybe I'll make a little more effort this year, but I'm not committing to any regularity. Just when moved. :)

Earlier this month we celebrated our 18th anniversary. Yep. 18 years. We took a cruise with another couple of friends (who recently celebrated their 30th anniversary). This was a first cruise for all of us. We had a lot of fun together.

The first night we were at sea, on our way to Grand Cayman where we went snorkeling and swam with the stingrays. Then to Cozumel, where we just shopped and had fun at the port. Then off to Belize where we went to see the Mayan pyramids (INCREDIBLE!), then Honduras where we went zip lining. I need to stop and write about each of the adventures before I forget the details. It's all beginning to run together as it is. At least I have pictures. Now we are planning our next trip - UK in the spring. It's been a long time coming.

Christmas was spent with friends in the neighborhood. We started with champagne around noon, had fun visiting and then had a traditional English Christmas dinner. We played a really interesting game that was kind of like a white elephant. We all wore venetian masks, rolled the dice and for every 1 or 6 you took a gift from the table or someone else. At the end of 45 minutes we all opened our gifts to see what we had been "fighting" over. It was pretty funny.

Tonight we're doing "curry night" and ringing in the new year. I'm sure there will be stories to be told.

Well, it's 70 degrees and sunny. I'm thinking about going for a bike ride.

Happy New Year everyone!

Cruisin'

Just a few pics from our cruise.

BELIZE

We had quite the adventure getting here. It was an hour to get to the tour place, then 30 minutes by boat. We were delayed on the way there because stopped to check out a car that had run off the road (the driver  had already been taken away - hopefully for care), then our van got stuck. We were very grateful to the people who stopped to help out and then volunteered to drive us to our destination. 

 HONDURAS
We went on a zip line adventure, but unfortunately all of the pics I took look horrible. But we had an amazing time. I still can't believe I did it (with a little help from my friends). This is the group we went with.

COZUMEL

HERE'S the beach we were looking for. We even talked about going back to this hotel for a vacation. 

Sunken Garden's Hibiscus Festival

I had some fun creating this year's Hibiscus Festival graphic. All of these blooms started as photos of hibiscus from our yard.

12 more steps to go

Apparently, chocolate now has it's own 12 step program. Still, this seems like a really odd choice for Easter candy.