Happy B-Day ET!

Terrific Thursday

Today another quiet but uneventful day. After a morning of video games we headed to Subway for a sandwich lunch. We then headed to PAFB for two games of bowling (which I won of course :)) . We then came back home where we spend an hour trying, unsuccessfully, to get "the boy" down the street on his bike without training wheels. Personally I think he'll be 25 and still have those wheels. Anyway, then we worked on our Pinewood Derby tank. After two hours of mistakes, the light came on and we actually got the tank "template" done in about 15 minutes. We will finish assembly and painting by the end of the week-end (I hope)

Great job Magic!

Great job Magic!
Originally uploaded by thuisd.

Not sure where the rest of the team was... Maybe skiing Vail on Spring

Break...

Great job Magic!

Great job Magic!
Originally uploaded by thuisd.

Not sure where the rest of the team was... Maybe skiing Vail on Spring

Break...

Great job Magic!

Great job Magic!
Originally uploaded by thuisd.

Not sure where the rest of the team was... Maybe skiing Vail on Spring

Break...

Great job Magic!

Great job Magic!
Originally uploaded by thuisd.

Not sure where the rest of the team was... Maybe skiing Vail on Spring

Break...

Great job Magic!

Great job Magic!
Originally uploaded by thuisd.

Not sure where the rest of the team was... Maybe skiing Vail on Spring

Break...

Great job Magic!

Great job Magic!
Originally uploaded by thuisd.

Not sure where the rest of the team was... Maybe skiing Vail on Spring

Break...

Great Wednesday

Today was a quiet but fun day. We had lunch at Bambino's pizzeria (http://www.bambinospizza.com/). I am not sure, but I think they have the best pizza buffet for lunch. We then had our closing ceremony for basket ball. It was a delicious meal of tater tots, fried fish stars, and chicken nuggets. The kids had a great time.

Hello There!

Well it's been awhile since I wrote anything. Last week I attended the U.S. Department of Labor's Transition Assistance Program. This is a training program for military members who will soon be "transitioning" into civilian
life. I tell you what... Civilians are crazy... Resumes, interviews, 30 second commercials... I'll be glad when I get a job just so I can avoid the stress of getting one. Speaking of stress, I have never been so stress free. I have not been into the office for over a week, and I have to say I feel great. I can't believe just the difference of being away from the ffice can make me feel.

Anyway, "the boy" is on spring break and, therefore, I decided to take some time off. Both the boy and I have been battling the mean and nasty rhino virus but today we decided to have a bit of fun. Today, we went to the Scout Shop and bought some items we needed. Then the entire family headed off to Hitt's Miniature golf for a great 18 holes. Off to dinner we headed at Hall San Korean BBQ (see my review at http://360.yahoo.com/thuisd). We the enjoyed some ice cream at the Marble Slab Creamery for desert... Yum yum... Altogether a pretty good day!

__________________________________________

Visit our home site at http://thuis.us

An Explanation of Air Force Rank

A young Second Lieutenant approaches the crusty old Chief Master Sergeant and asked about the origin of the commissioned officer insignias.


The Chief replied, "Sir, it's history and tradition . . .

First we give you a gold bar representing that you are very valuable and also malleable.


The silver bar also represents significant value, but is less malleable.


When you make Captain, your value doubles, hence the two silver bars.


As a Colonel you soar over military masses, hence the eagle.


As a General, you are, obviously, a star. Does that answer your question?"


"Yes," said the Second Lieutenant, "but what about Majors and Lieutenant Colonels?"


"That, sir, goes waaaay back in history-to the Garden of Eden. You see we've always covered our pricks with leaves."

The Evolution of an Airman

Civilian
Think you're tough stuff because you are joining the Air Force and all the girls will dig you once you learn how to fly a plane in basic training.


Airman Basic

You're shaved bald, given a uniform that is two sizes too big, and have developed a nervous tic from some T.I. screaming at you all day. You don't think about the girls at home, but you think that female airman at the snack bar at the Lackland Chapparell is checking you out. You push up your government-issue glasses and work up the nerve to ask her to dance. You don't want to learn how to fly a plane. You want to fly on a plane home.


Airman

You've graduated basic training AND tech school and you are proud to be in the military. You think all the chicks dig you AND your one stripe while you are home on leave. You call everyone, "sir," including veterans, your mother, and that slightly-masculine looking mail lady. You spend an hour putting your uniform together at night, using a ruler and level to make sure your one ribbon signifying basic training graduation is centered perfectly on your uniform, as if the uniform itself didn't already signify your graduation from basic training. You obsessively check your name tag in the mirror because when you breathe in a little too much it looks slightly uneven. You spend your entire pay on dry cleaning with extra heavy starch and go through a can of Windex and furniture polish each week on your corofram shoes. Damn, you look sharp.


Airman 1st Class

You are a mentor to all those younger troops, and feel it is your duty to instill pride as you strive to achieve status as senior airman. You now call your mother, "mom," you make fun of the slightly masculine mail lady behind her back and call every enlisted person, with the exception of chief master sergeants, by their first name. Anyone named Jim is an automatic, "Jimbo." You've been able to stretch the Windex and furniture polish to last for an entire month, though you haven't used it in your dorm room because why clean your room? It's not like there are any inspections or anything.


Senior Airman

Twelve months after putting on this stripe you think everyone should give you more respect, because had you been in the service 13 years earlier, you'd be a buck sergeant by now. You've learned that laying a towel on the floor is not a good way to iron your shirt, so you buy an ironing board on you AAFES DPP/Star card, and you think it's a good deal because you only have to pay $3 a month on it for the next five years - just 30 years less than it will take you to pay off the Hyundai you bought from the unscrupulous car dealer outside the base when you were a one-striped airman trying to impress the girls with your stripe AND new car. This makes no difference because you sold the car for $1,000 before you PCS'd to Korea two years earlier, and you haven't seen it since.


Staff Sergeant

You realize you need to set an example, so you take your uniforms to the cleaners once every couple of weeks, then iron it the rest of the time until it no longer maintains a natural crease. You can't remember which pants material is authorized because it has changed so often so you just wear anything blue in your closet and hope no one notices. No one does notice because they are equally as confused, except maybe the new Airman in your office


Technical Sergeant

You really should clean off that coffee stain you spilled on your shirt earlier in the day, but it can wait until you e-mail all your buddies from your previous six assignments. Those pants are a little snug. Better cut down to only one box of Girl Scout cookies a night. You grumble with other NCOs about all these uppity Airmen First Class walking around calling everybody, "Jimbo." Your can of Windex and furniture polish lasts a good year unless the kids are spraying it around the house to make it smell lemony.


Master Sergeant

Thank goodness you can wear shoulder boards now. No one notices you forgot how to crease your sleeves and you're tired of paying the AAFES dry cleaner to do it because it always comes back with double creases, and who needs that headache? Bitter that your colleagues in the other services make E-7 within six months of graduating basic training, you obsessively go over how many days you have until retirement, making sure your figures haven't changed much since you first start calculating that as a Technical Sergeant. Good thing AAFES makes those uniform belts with the stretchy material.


Senior Master Sergeant

You spend your latest pay raise to pay off the Hyundai a couple years ahead of schedule AND to buy some new uniforms, but refuse to go up in size as a matter of pride. You take the shirt out of its plastic wrap, give it a couple good shakes and are impressed with the fact that it sort of looks like a couple sharp creases from a distance.


Chief Master Sergeant

You walk around all day because it looks good for a Chief to mingle, and it might help you to pass the yearly bike test. You tend to wear BDUs more often these days. You are a warrior, after all, and they do have a slimming effect. As a bonus, you can't even detect the coffee stains. You put off those retirement plans because suddenly you get more respect than a four-star general, and you figure this gig ain't so bad after all. You go through a can of furniture polish each week shining all the wooden busts of Indian chief heads that you have decorating your office and house.

How to Prepare for a Deployment to Iraq

There is a 51% chance you will be deploying to Iraq again. The following is a list that will prepare you to better deploy next time. Or what you can do is to send it to the next group that is replacing you so that they can get with the program. (We don’t want any violators).

1. Sleep on a cot in the garage.

2. Replace the garage door with a curtain.

3. Two hours after you go to sleep, have your wife or girlfriend whip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry, wrong cot." Repeat in two hours.

4. Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the middle of your bathtub and move the shower-head down to chest level. Keep four inches of soapy cold water on the floor. Leave two to three sheets of toilet paper. Or for best effect, remove it altogether. For a more realistic deployed bathroom experience, stop using your bathroom and use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor who lives at least a quarter
mile away.

5. When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.

6. Every time there is a thunderstorm, go sit in a wobbly rocking chair and dump dirt on your head.

7. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on "HIGH" for that tactical generator smell.

8. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.

9. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper noise level.

10. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.

11. Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in your food cabinets or refrigerator. Then serve some kind of meat in an unidentifiable sauce poured over noodles. Do this for every meal.

12. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. When it goes off, jump out of bed and get to the shower as fast as you can. Simulate there is no hot water by running out into your yard and breaking out the garden hose.

13. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours before drinking, don’t clean the pot.

14. Invite at least 185 people you don't really like because of their strange hygiene habits to come and visit for a couple of months. Eat every meal with them.

15. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read books.

16. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the sill every time you pass through one of them.

17. Keep a roll of toilet paper on your night stand and bring it to the bathroom with you. And bring your gun and a flashlight.

18. Announce to your family that they have mail, have them report to you as you stand outside your open garage door after supper and then say, "Sorry, it's for the other Smith."

19. Go to the worst crime-infested place you can find, go heavily armed, wearing level 4 gear. Set up shop in a tent in a vacant lot. Announce to the residents that you are there to help them.

20. Eat a single M&M every Sunday and convince yourself it's for Malaria.

21. Demand each family member be limited to 20 minutes per week for a morale phone call. Enforce this with your teenage daughter.

22. Shoot a few bullet holes in the walls of your home for proper ambiance.

23. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and mortar fragmentation.

24. While traveling down roads in your car, stop at each overpass and culvert and inspect them for remotely detonated explosives before proceeding

25. Fire off 50 cherry bombs simultaneously in your driveway at 3:00 a.m. When startled neighbors appear, tell them all is well, you are just registering mortars. Tell them plastic will make an acceptable substitute for their shattered windows.

26. Drink your powdered milk and sodas warm.

27. Spread pea gravel throughout your house and yard.

28. Make your children clear their Super Soakers in a clear ring barrel you placed outside the front door before they come in and place them flat on the floor beside them at the dinner table.

29. Make your family dig a survivability position with overhead cover in the backyard. Complain that the 4x4s are not 8 inches on center and make them rebuild it.

30. Continuously ask your spouse to allow you to go buy an M-Gator.

31. When your 5-year-old asks for a stick of gum, have him find the exact stick and flavor he wants on the Internet and print out the web page. Type up a supply request and staple the web page to the back. Submit the paperwork to your spouse for processing. After two weeks, fill out the form again, it was sent to the wrong base. Never give your son the gum.

32. Announce to your family that the dog is a vector for disease and shoot it. Throw the dog in a burn pit you dug in your neighbor's backyard.

33. Wait for the hottest day of the year and announce to your family that there will be no air conditioning that day so you can perform much needed maintenance on the air conditioner. Tell them you are doing this so they won't get hot.

34. Rent an industrial fan from Home Depot. Buy 200 pounds of play sand. Pay the neighborhood children to constantly throw the sand into the back of the fan you have placed in the opened French doors of your living room.

35. Require your family to wash their hands outside with the garden hose before entering the house for meals. Place a roll of toilet paper outside for drying their hands. Hire a neighbor to walk through the dining room every few minutes looking for rule violators during meals.

If you read all of this and did not laugh then something is wrong with you, and yes all good humor has its basis in truth.

pics

www.flickr.com

More Fruitcake lady

Tigers 2005-2006 recap in pictures

We Finally WON!

Well tonight ends another season of basketball for the PAFB Youth Sports program. Our team (the Magic) really could not get it together. They played great but could just not pull out a win... This was reflected in our 0-10 run going into tonights game. All that changed today when we played the last game. The kids looked like an entirely different team as they pulled of a dominating 18 to 1 win. Great job kids!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Do you think this guy still has a job?

Bill Gates gets the blue screen of death during a televised demonstration of Windows 98.

Explain this to your boss...

The Dancing King

A.L. Update

We got some more news on A.L. (mentioned below)…  She is not as bad as we had originally heard.  Although, she is terribly injured she is in fairly good spirits and overwhelmed by the support everyone has shown her.  She feels lucky (though I sensed some guilt) that she is still alive when no one else she was with walked awayL.  Anyway, we are glad she is “well” but our thoughts are still with her and the other family members who were affected by this incident.

Where were these two in 1965?

These two must have missed the last two videos when they were young....

Perversion for Profit (Part 2) (1965)

Again not for the young ones... The exciting conclusion to part I... 1965 how did we ever make it?

Perversion for Profit (Part 1) (1965)

Not for the young ones...

WOW ... I didn't know about half of this stuff and I have the Internet! Now we know why our parents/grandparents are so strange... it's perversion!

Sad news again

We were notified today right before lunch that another friend of ours has been injured in Iraq by an IED. Due to the sensitive nature of this incident we will only call this individual A.L... A.L. is currently at Water Reed Army Medical center is pretty serious condition... Our thoughts are with her during, what we can only guess, is the beginning of a tremendous recovery.

Another Great Day (he says with sarcasm)

We'll once again work was a ball today... Not only did I get some great news (see "confidential" below), but once again I had absolutely nothing to do. I've said this to a bunch of folks but, my job is a waste of American tax dollars. My bosses keep telling me how important and vital I am but I don't see it. I complete all the menial tasks they give me within the first 30 minutes at work and then try to be "creative" the rest of the day. The good news is that I get plenty of gym time, hey, I've lost 20 some odd pounds and my physical fitness score has raised 21 points just this year. I don't know guess I should just sit back and enjoy the ride but doing "nothing" sure gets boring after a while.

My boss wants me to start working on my annual performance report... He states I have tons of "great" work to add to the report... Again I don't see it. It's terribly hard to write good things about yourself, especially, when you don't have a job to be good at. I just hope he rates me slightly higher than last year when he gave me the lowest rating on a performance report I have received in 19 years. He wrote it to "motivate me to work harder at being proactive and forward leaning"... That report sure raised my morale and motivated me to work harder (at nothing).

We also had our last Basketball practice tonight. I should have cancelled or just called in "sick". We've played about 10 games this year and we have not won a single game. The kids try but we just don't have the team "chemistry" we need to click. Out of the three years I have been coaching kids at PAFB, this has been the most frustrating. I just hope that it is not that we moved up to the next level (7-9 yr olds vs. 5-6), because if so, my coaching "career" may come quickly to an end. Oh well, final game is Saturday and then off to Outdoor Soccer. I don't think I will be able to coach this soccer season due to AF commitments. Who knows maybe the break will do me well and I will come back in the fall full of vigor.

Daily Dose of Stupidity......

In the Beginning was The Plan ...........

Then came the Assumptions.

And the Assumptions were without form and The Plan was without Substance.

Darkness was upon the faces of the Airmen.

And the Airmen went unto their Sergeants and said:

"This is a crock of sh!t and it stinks."

And the Sergeants went unto their First Shirts saying:

"It is a pail of dung and we can't live with the smell."

And the Flight Sergeants went unto their Lieutenants saying:

"It is a container of excrement and it is very strong, such that none may abide it."

And the Lieutenants went unto their Captains saying:

"It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide its strength."

And the Captains went unto the Majors saying:

"It contains that which aids plant growth and it is very strong."

And the Majors went unto the Colonels saying:

"It promotes growth and it is very powerful."

And the Colonels went unto the MAJCOM Commander and said:

"This new Plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the Forces with very powerful effects."

And the MAJCOM Commander looked upon The Plan and saw that it was good.

And The Plan became Policy.

And this, my friends, is how Sh!t Happens ..........

 

 

 

 

Confidential Entry

See http://360.yahoo.com/thuisd (must be a "friend" to view blog)

The Fruitcake Lady

Some mature material-- not for innocent ears _ Pretty Funny though!
https://home.comcast.net/~jfmelnick/fruitcakelady.wmv

Recipe book release

For Immediate Release

Contact: Karen Tosten

1-757-867-8916

ktosten@cox.net

 

The Search for the U.S. Air Force’s BEST Recipes is Underway!

For several decades, Quail Ridge Press has been collecting and preserving classic recipes from all over America for their acclaimed Best of the Best State Cookbook Series.  They are now searching for the Best recipes from military families.  The initial volume will consist of participation by both active and retired Air Force personnel only. (Later volumes will consist of recipe collections from other branches of America’s armed forces.)  Anyone who is or was in the Air Force is eligible to submit their favorite recipe(s). The final chosen recipes will be included in Best of the Best from Air Force Families Cookbook, to be published in the fall of 2007.

Karen Tosten will be researching this project over the next year.  She will be seeking as many recipes as possible, and hopes to gain a greater knowledge of the foods and traditions that make up Air Force “cuisine.”  Military personnel, due to their frequent and far-ranging travels, have had the opportunity to develop a cooking style that incorporates the influence of many different regions and cultures.  Karen has already determined from preliminary research that these opportunities have resulted in outstanding recipes.  She hopes to collect approximately 350 superb recipes for the Air Force edition. 

Each recipe contributed to Best of the Best from Air Force Families Cookbook will feature your name beneath the recipe, your city and state, as well as your relationship to the Air Force (example: Karen Tosten, wife of Major William Tosten, USAF, Yorktown, VA).  Please be sure to include all of this information, along with your phone or email address.  (At a later time, we may request photos and/or stories.)  Mail, fax, or email to:

Karen Tosten, 122 Hedgerow Lane, Yorktown, VA  23693

Email ktosten@cox.net • Phone/Fax 1-757-867-8916

 

If you would like to receive more information, contact Karen at the above address.  The deadline for submitting recipes is May 31, 2006.  Don’t miss out on being included in Best of the Best from Air Force Families Cookbook. 

Boring

Today had to have been one of the most boring days in recent history… Work was totally uneventful and even though we did have a Cub Scout meeting tonight, I could not even get excited about that…. Anyway, I wanted a blog input today, and since I have nothing exciting to write I send a copy of the “termite” e-mail that I have received three copies of :)

---

From:
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 8:44 AM
Subject: RE: Homeowner's Beware

If you use mulch around your house be very careful about buying mulch this year. After the Hurricane in New Orleans many trees were blown over. These trees were then turned into mulch and the state is trying to get rid of tons and tons of this mulch to any state or company who will come and haul it away. So it will be showing up in Home Depot and Lowes at dirt cheap prices with one huge problem; Formosan Termites will be the bonus in many of those bags. New Orleans is one of the few areas in the country were the Formosan Termites has gotten a strong hold and most of the trees blown down were already badly infested with those termites. Now we may have the worst case of transporting a problem to all parts of the country that we have ever had. These termites can eat a house in no time at all and we have no good control against them, so tell your friends that own homes to avoid cheap mulch and know were it came from.

---

Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 10:55 AM
Subject: RE: Homeowner's Beware

There is a little thing called “Strict Liability” this means that if this did happen, and your house was damaged you could sue anyone and everyone in the chain of service…ex: The place that sold it to you, the distribution center that shipped it out, the manufacture/producer, etc… I think places like Home Depot and Lowes will be smart enough to avoid this “supposed” termite infested mulch in order to save themselves from huge law suites. Buy your mulch from a reputable establishment and you’ll most likely be fine. Man, this Business Law class I’m taking is already paying off!!! Hehe

Jim

---

From: Thuis
Subject: RE: Homeowner's Beware

This is a great enough threat that the commissioner of agriculture in Louisianaimposed a quarantine for the Formosan subterranean termite on October 3, 2005. (http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/termites/)

However, this e-mail is a bit overblown… Although the possibility always exists that wood products moved from one area to another might harbor and spread termites. Entomologists have said they doubt that termites could survive the mulch shredding, packaging, and transportation (in shrink-wrapped bags that expose them to high temperatures with a limited air supply and limited moisture) process in the first place, although others maintain that they've encountered examples of these termites successfully traveling in packaged mulch. In any case, there are a number of mitigating factors that could halt the spread of Formosan subterranean termites transported to other areas, such as the fact that they are rarely found above 35° N latitude because the colder temperatures typical of higher latitudes prevent their eggs from hatching (Colorado sits between 36° and 41° N latitude, this is above the 35° N latitudeline).

Excerpted from: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/termites.asp

Dave

Radio

It's got a good beat and I can dance to it

wrong wrong wrong

Does anyone read this?

It's been over a year since I asked this but, does anyone read this stupid blog???

This is where we took "the wife" to dinner for her birthday. It was pretty good. The highlight of the night was the HUGE piece of rum birthday cake that the three of us couldn't finish... HAPPY B-Day J

I am sooo cool

Dressing up for 60's/70's day at SRES

Fancy Blue and Gold Dancing