Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving All.

I wish I could say I spent the day counting my blessings but really I was out of sorts. I was here in Germany with no family. I had the traditional turkey and the fixins with some people I met recently; "acquaintances". I miss real friends,  you know? I look forward to being done with the sorting-through-the-weirdos-phase and onto the lets-be-friends-phase.

Outside of the less-than-stellar Thanksgiving I had a pretty good weekend. Friday after lunch I ventured up to Heinsberg to visit my neighbor from Colo, Nikki. It was so nice to get out of boring ol' Baumholder and see a good friend.

Saturday, at the ass-crack of dawn we jumped on a tour over to Munster. After two hours on a bus we arrived and started in on our Gluhwein consumption. I collected three new cups. Somehow I only came home with 2 new ones though. It's ok the collection is growing. Munster's christmas market was spread throughout the city which was helpful seeing as though I had 7 hours in this city to kill. Too bad I forgot my camera!!! I know: giant FAIL, Sam! I scored a few lil' Xmas trinkets and a gift for my momma! So I'm ok with my loot.

Flag Flying Etiquette

This is something that's really been bugging me. You see, the way I was raised I was always taught if you're going to do a thing, you might as well do it right. (that is not to discourage people from displaying the Flag, but just saying do it right gah!)

First, It's a day time thing. Take it down at night or be ready for my crazy ass to place a spot light in your front yard.

Second, It's a fair weather thing. Take it down when it's raining, snowing or in the middle of a terrential down pour.

Third, It's a suspended in the air thing. Seriously, don't let it touch the ground. Bad juju peeps, bad juju.

These are a few of the easiest rules but there are others. I don't know about you and maybe it's easily credited to my military upbringing but when I heard the National Anthem, I found the nearest flag, I squared off to it, placed my hand over my heart and sang along. National Anthem and flag are same/same right? Well, if not they definitely go hand-in-hand.

In my old neighborhood I would always see people leaving their flags out all night or in the rain it really, really irritated me. Maybe it's irrational or something.... but really I'd prefer people just know the regs and do it right. Doing it "wrong" could be disrespectful... never know. Just saying. Do your due diligence.

See more here.

Supporting our Troops?

I don't know about you but I'm really sick and tired of the "Bandwagon Patriots". I'm tired of people tooling around with their Yellow Ribbon Magnets on their cars preaching about how much they appreciate, honor, respect or any other such verb, the sacrifices our veterans (past and present), the 1% make. If the other 99% really, truly and honestly, appreciated anything the veterans did the first line item of the Federal budget (which is way past due, FYI) would have been and would continue to be funding Veterans and Active Duty Health care, along side funding for all military required programs effecting mission readiness. But noooo. We are all aware that our country is in the crapper, but to turn around after 10 years of war on multiple fronts, repeated combat deployments, catastrophic-life-changing injuries and 6,826 deaths and say "hey you 1% over there who give more than any other American is willing, we're going to obliterate your health care." Its just completely bat-shit crazy to me.

Seriously?

Stephen Colbert said it pretty well a few nights back. Watch here.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is behind blocking working age veterans from TriCare Usage, see that story on Military.com, here.

So they'll spend their days pillaging our health care, and their nights raping our pensions, spousal programs and TA benefits. It saddens me they'll still find time to screw our Civil Servants (GS workers) but I assure you they will. When will they ever find time for more corporate bailouts, hunting weekends and pissing contests in the schoolyard?

No, sincerely, I insist Keep your damn yellow ribbon, it means nothing without follow through.

Short on time

Ummm, holy crap Batman! Someone just mentioned on Facebook this week that Christmas is 6 weeks away. WHAT? I haven't even started my shopping. To family and friends here and in the States, all gifts from us will be Tardy for the Christmas Party. Sorry.  Evidently this acclimating and re-relocating business causes one Samantha to fall behind on gift buying (along with folding clothes, making regular meals and homework). What am I going to do!!? Eek, the few ideas I had for my husband either wouldn't ship to an APO address (WTF?) or wouldn't ship for at least 1-3 weeks- yeah that won't work. I'm screwed-ola.

Speaking of Christmas gifts I signed up for Crazy Shenanigan's gift exchange and so should you! Head over here for more details.

Good news on the acclimating front though, I finally slept through the night. And not only once but TWICE. Woot woot. Yes, this may sound silly to some but it's a big deal for me.

In other Holiday-related news Thansgiving is a mere 6 days away and I finally have plans. It was starting to look grim. It's funny though, how as soon as you make a plan you get invites all over the place.

Now that I am back from my blogging break I have so many things I want to talk about (hence the randomness of this post). However, organizing them into individual posts which make any kind of sense has been a struggle.

Standby. I'll be back with more VERY soon! :)

Miss me?

Well if you do, you're in good company. I'm told by people who I know well enough to know they wouldn't lie to me just to make me feel better-- that they miss me too! A lot has happened and changed since I last posted. I can't believe it's been almost a month!

Lets do this the rapid- fire way:

*~* Left Colorado for DC
*~* Stayed with Amanda in DC for 13 days- bonded with my God-son and attended Amanda's baby shower for baby 2.0.
*~* Attended a "foodie" expo in DC
       A few hours in the Morning was just for Military Spouses- really cool. Watched a 1 hour cooking demo by Guy Fieri (of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives)
*~* Met Dr. Jill Biden (was floored by the number of people who do not know who she is)

*~* Visited my Granny in NJ.
*~* Returned to Germany.
*~* Fought with my car and WON!
*~* Drank the Pinterest Koolaid and liked it. I'm friggin hooked! I'll be sure to share my favs.
*~* Missed blogging. Missing my family. Missing my friends.
*~* Still missing my man, and awaiting his return.
*~* Became the proud new owner of a Kitchen Aid mixer!! (I know you won't have to hear/see about it anymore on I Want it Wednesdays!!)
*~* Started Christmas shopping TODAY (crap I'm behind, especially if you allow for international shipping)
*~* Currently I'm still trying to acclimate to the time change. Out of the 5 nights I've been home I've slept through the entire night once. And tonight I'm up for the duration. Super. Hoping it pushes me over the edge for bed tonight.
   ~* Also, Currently still working on unpacking my luggage and boxes I mailed myself, but I've successfully washed the dust off of everything in the house. (scoff... priorities you know).

I think that's about it. I'll be elaborating on some of these things over the next few days or so. I think my bloggy-break did the trick. I'm more into it now. :)