Guinness Picture of the week - 29 July 2012

Guinness settling into Navy life :) This is a small "boat" that drives around at the football games.... I think it's a model YP.....

Guinness Pictures/Video of the Week - 22 July 2012

Well - you all know how much we love Guinness but there was a little dog "torture" going on today and it wasn't our fault...

A squirrel decided to sit on the front walkway and torture Guinness relentlessly....  We would have let him out to chase the squirrel but the plebes were drilling on Worden Field (right across the street from where we now live) so that just wasn't an option..... Poor Guinness :)

Some days he loves the big front door window and some days not so much......

Guinness Pictures of the Week (Just a day late!) 16 July 2012

Well I had some other pictures that I was trying to post but Guinness decided that I shouldn't be working on the computer because I should  be paying attention to him. (You know he never gets ANY attention at all... he's so ignored....) So I decided instead to take and post some pictures which are indicative of how my morning of work is going so far :)

Guinness Picture of the Week; 8 July 2012

Obviously I am not at home but luckily I have some reserve Guinness pictures (okay more than a few!) that I can use!

Guinness is always very happy to see his people when they come "home" - wherever home may be at the time!

And Guinness is known for "treeing" squirrels but this is the first one he "buildinged" - hey we think that word works! Notice that he literally scared the peed out of the squirrel!!!

Music & Memories

Music is a funny thing..... Of course there are certain very prominent songs in your life, such as the first song you dance to at your wedding, that will always conjure memories. But there are also a zillion other songs (well for me at least!) that take me back to a time long ago or remind me of someone or something like an event I was part of. These other zillion songs of course don't always spark these memories because so often the music is just running in the background of your daily crazy life but when you are trapped in a car for more than 1,500 miles you've got lots of time for these memories to truly pop into your head.

So as I drove I couldn't help but chuckle a LOT, reminisce a bit and think of many great times and great friends! I tried to keep track of a lot of what I heard that evoked memories for me but since I was driving - and yes I was trying to be safe - I attempted to use Siri on  my iPhone through my bluetooth (handsfree!) but she just doesn't understand me very well a lot of the time so she mangled a lot of what I was telling her.... so here's a compilation of at least some of the songs and my thoughts... it's  not a small list but it's not comprehensive either....And it's totally random!

Perhaps you should be afraid to have such insight to my mind! Or then again perhaps you should be bored by it! Any which way here ya go!

"Iesha" by Another Bad Creation - Or however the heck you spell it! Hearing this silly song takes me back to Middle School Biology. My lab partner (and buddy) Hodge and I had to name the frog we were about to dissect (Mrs. Sawyer insisted) so we named our frog Frogiesha because the song "Iesha" was so popular at the time.

"Under The Bridge"by the Red Hot Chili Peppers - first song I slow danced to with my middle school crush - LOL!

"Ditty" by Paperboy - Erin this song will forever remind me of you! We used to go around singing that endlessly I think!

Jon  Seceda - ANYTHING by Jon Secada reminds me of Erin because I remember in high school she was so in love with him :)

"Getting Jiggy With It" by Will Smith - Oh those college days.... this was so popular then and it was frequently being played at the bar B-52s which was super awesome because they ran the movie "Top Gun" on endless loop on the TVs... yes we were all aero geeks

"Waterfall" by TLC - This song was hugely popular the summer between my junior and senior high school year. I remember it constantly being on the radio when I was driving to Purdue Calumet to take some summer classes. To this day I am annoyed when the radio stations cut out the "rap" portion in the middle of the song.

"Slide" by the Go Go Dolls - This is still one of my all-time favorite songs. And it reminds me of a crazy trip to Houston in 1999 to fly on the KC-135 for the college Micro-G program... of course can't help but be reminded of some great and crazy friends we made from Ohio State there!

"Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" by Us3  - I remember standing in the lunch line at Ball State and hearing this. I was there with a few other gals from Hobart High School for a Student Council Summit of sorts... funny how I remember this song there but the details are hazy on exactly what we were doing there! I do know we had a blast in the indoor pool where we were staying there though! And I'm sure Mrs. Storey was more than ready to go home after dealing with us for a few days!!

Anything by the Spice Girls - College and to  be more specific good times at Indiana State with Erin!!

"Ready to Go" by Republica - I had never heard of Republica til my best friend Dave introduced me to this song. I liked it so much that I had to go buy the CD and to this day it is one of my favorite CDs. Republica always makes me think of my best friend and also dancing at Zunis with my sister Lisa and our friends we ran into there on some random night out! (Again - don't ask why my mind remembers these random things!!)

New Kids on the Block or NKOTB as they like to be called now.... Oh the memories are extensive here! First and foremost they remind me of being a young girl in Hobart! This was the first concert I ever went to and I remember sitting on the floor of our living room dialing over and over to get through when tickets went on sale for their concert. I was super excited to secure a few tickets and was thrilled my mom (she was crazy admittedly but she was too kind on this one!) was willing to take me and Bessie to the concert at Poplar Creek. I got harassed endlessly at school for being a fan of such bubble gum music (and no I don't mean in a good way - they'd call it bullying today) but that didn't stop me from being a fan and yes folks I am still a fan today! I love the old stuff and I even love their new stuff! Their music also reminds me of going to their concerts the last couple years and how much fun Kimi, Jayme and I have had singing along and people watching... it's quality entertainment people! Don't knock it til you try it!!

"Closing Time" by Semi Sonic - Okay so it's cliche but it will always remind me of the time I was bar tending at The OP in Daytona. We played this song for closing every night

"Cyclone" - Oh how can I not think of all my S girlfriends and of course specifically my chocolate sister Cerissa!!!

"Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down - I was fortunate enough to get to attend the Women in Aviation Conference in Reno 10ish years ago. There I met Maryse Carmichael, the first female Snowbird Pilot. This song was part of the airshow (we only got to see it on video) but it will always remind me of her!

"Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice - I chuckle every time I hear this and think of what a "badge of honor" it was in middle/high school if you knew all the words! Hodge - can't help but think of you with this one too buddy!

"Toy Soldiers" by Martika - Talk about a major back in time moment... I remember when I was really young watching "Kids Incorporated" on the Disney Channel and she was one of the main characters

"Defying Gravity" from Wicked (and also the Glee Cast!) - what an amazing musical and while it's not the song from Wicked that reminds me most of Tonya every song does remind me of you TB!

"What a Girl Wants" by Christina Aguilara - How could I not think of Dance Team at Embry Riddle!?!

"Do I Do" by the BoDeans - For all of you who thought I was the sweet girl who did nothing but study.... yeah not exactly so much... I did study and work hard but I also had a lot of fun in college. This song takes me right back to Frat Party fun! There was an awesome band called "Push Down and Turn" (who happened to be one of MTV's Top 10 College Bands in the country that year) who played at a bunch of the frat parties and this was one of the songs they played. I loved it so much that I bought the whole Bodeans CD that this song was on. I still listen to it lots and am excited to say I have tickets to see the Bodeans live at The Rams Head here in Annapolis in September!

Madonna - Reminds me of my Mom and I going to the beach in the summer.... listening to the "True Blue" album until we left it in the car and it melted so we had to buy a new one!!

"I Gotta Feeling" - Oh Garrett.... this song immediately takes me to the club the 4 of us were in dancing having a blast!!!!

"Baby Got Back" - All I have to say to this one is.... Tonto.....

John Mellencamp - Anything by John (Don't call me Cougar!) Mellencamp takes me right back to Indiana... And one of the memories that frequently pops into my head is when a dear friend of mine and I were driving from the Chicago area to Southern Indiana... flipping through radio stations we joked that if we kept flipping we could find a Mellencamp song on for the entire trip - to be honest it was only a half joke because we practically could have!!!

"Rumpshaker" by Wrexx and Effex (sp?) - Cheerleading Tryouts in High School! This was one of the songs. And anytime I think of cheerleading I always think of my amazing coach Dona and her 2 awesome daughters (who I still can't believe are all grown up now!!)

Boys II Men - First CD I ever owned!

"Hollaback girl" by Gwen Stefani - Oh sis I remember watching you cheer when I was a little girl and I love that this was a party song for us to dance around to together as adults because it just reminds me of cheerleading!!

"Macarena" - Sad but true... this reminds me of more weddings than I can count back in the 90s!

Anything from the Avenue Q soundtrack - Kimi!! Fond memories of us singing along at our desks!

"My Sharona" by The Knack - this one cracks me up... there was a guy from Merrillville High School who would come into Mike's Sporting Goods and I became friends with him. His name was Mike Churilla and so we used to sing this song with his name instead! Why does my brain hold onto such randomness?

"Opposite Attract" by Paula Abdul - Did you use to do mini dance recitals where you (and your friends or family) used to make people watch you perform? Oh we did! I remember doing this song with 2 of my cousins at my Aunt Laureen's house! Actually we did "Nothing Compared" by Sinead O'Connor first (at this specific "recital") but all we did was sing that and my Aunts said to us aren't you going to do something more exciting so we danced to Opposites Attract."

"Get Ready This" by 2 Unlimited - CHEERLEADING!!!!!! Oh those good ol' days of being a Brickie Cheerleader..... Scary part is I remember most of our routines all these years later!

"Low" by Flo Rida - I will never forget Mel and I sitting in the car in Daytona discussing how appalled we were that some youngsters know all the words to this song but that we love this song! In fact it's Mel's ringtone for when she calls me ;)

"Lose Yourself" by Eminem - An unnamed fellow crew member did this song in karaoke while we were in Japan and it will forever stick with me as a memory of that!!! Good times!!

And my newest memory.... "On the Edge" by Lady Gaga! Oh my dear Gobi friends I can't wait to hang with all of you again!!

I know there were loads more but you all are probably tired of reading all my random memories anyway.... Sorry if I bored you but I enjoyed the crazy little trip down Memory Lane. Now if only I could get my brain to hold onto the really important info it needs to contain as opposed to this random somewhat useless stuff!!

Guinness Picture of the Week (2 July 2012)

Last night at our new favorite Bar - Davis' Pub.....