Ways my parents scarred me... FOR LIFE.. 3

This scarring is probably more directly related to my DNA inherited and combined personality..

Let me tell you 2 facts about myself that have proven themselves true repeatedly in my life.
1.  I am extremely gullible.
2.  I am easily spooked.

Today, we're going to talk about #2.. what with Halloween coming/being celebrated this past weekend for the most part.

I'm not sure which parent to blame for this spook problem I have.  Neither of my parents ever seemed jumpy to me.  It also wasn't usually a goal in our house to go around trying to scare someone.  Surprise them every once in a while, accidentally come up behind them and not make enough noise to let them know you were there, these things were more acceptable.  But purposely scaring someone just wasn't something that really happened when I was growing up.

I don't generally like scary movies.  Halloween is only a good "holiday" because it involves copious amounts of sugar, chocolate, and other treats.  Dressing up is hard because if you're a woman and don't want to dress up as a "slutty something" it's pretty much impossible to find something at a costume store.  I'm also probably jaded because I don't really live in areas where there are lots of trick-or-treaters.  /sadface.

But this story has nothing to do with Halloween.  This has to do with being scared out of my mind.

Let me preface this with the fact that I have moderately good to very good hearing.  Or maybe I just notice more stuff than others, whatever.  I can tell the difference between people who walk up the stairs at Teh Dad's house, I wake up when I hear Phil stand up to resituate himself during the night, I wake up when it starts raining, I hear when someone puts their hand on a door knob type stuffs.

When I lived with Teh Dad while I was in high school, he used to come in and wake me up/make sure I was awake for school.  Usually, I was pretty good about being aware of my surroundings when Teh Dad would show up, but one morning, things were different.

I slept through his hand hitting the door knob, I slept through his hand turning the door knob.  I slept through his ankle-popping footsteps into my room.  I did not sleep through him breathing, apparently.  I opened my eyes and saw someone standing over me....  and SCREAMED LIKE I WAS DYING.

Teh Dad was unprepared for this reaction.  My scream scared him.  HE YELLED LIKE SOMEONE WAS TRYING TO KILL HIM.

Teh Dad's yell re-scared me and I immediately stopped screaming and started sobbing.

So that would sound something like this:
(high pitched) AHHHHHHHH!!!  (more baritone) AHHHHH!!!!  *Sound of someone starting to sob* (I can't find an accurate word description of the sound)

It would look something like this:

I probably looked like the girl, but had hair like the mom. (image)

Teh Dad's reaction.

My re-reaction.

Teh Dad told me he was going to turn on my lamp.  I sobbed out an acceptance (I don't do lights first thing after waking up because it gives me a headache).  Teh Dad pulled me up in a hug, where I was still sobbing and starting to laugh, which confused him.  He clarified if I was crying or laughing and I manged to tell him both because the situation was funny, even if it was terrifying.  He, too, started to laugh.

This whole process took less than an a minute but it's one of the most memorable minutes of my life.

After a few minutes, I had calmed down and Teh Dad assured himself of my mental stability and we went on with our normal morning programming.


We'll talk about #1 another day maybe.

Preparing for a hurricane/vacation/both?

So there's about eleventybillion things I could be doing right now, and sitting here isn't one of the top items on the list.

Let's just go through Teh Megan thought processes:

1.  Phil does this spaztastic thing when my cell starts ringing where he jumps up and stares at me as if we're going somewhere.  It's funny.  He refused to do it when I just play my ring tone.  It has to be legit.  He knows.

2.  Phil does this spaztastic thing when I move ever so slightly while sitting on the couch where he sits up/gets up and stares at me expecting me to get up and take him out/feed him.  Needy dog.

3.  I really should at least pull out a suitcase and pretend like I'm going on vacation.

4.  Last night, I got this super late streak of motivation after everyone left where I decided to do the laundry.
4.5  When I woke up at 0145 to pee, because I'd forgotten to go before I went to bed, this random streak of motivation continued when I stopped to put the clothes in the dryer on my way back to bed in the dark.  Who is this person that has taken over my body?

5.  Thanks to Teh Coast Guardian for building my new chairs last night..  Even if we didn't play Mexican Dominoes, I still appreciate it when I get help around the house, even if you don't live here.

6.  I could be cleaning, like I'd really like to do, but my motivation level (during daylight hours apparently) is really low.  I'd rather type up this "real" blog (real vs a weekend wrap-up or Friday Fill in the Blanks).

7.  I feel guilty for missing FitB on Friday.  And the blanks were really good too.  Maybe I'll do it later.

8.  Maybe I'm making up for it by making this blog in list form.

9.  A nap would also be a good option what with my headache and it being a lazy afternoon.

10.  I made pumpkin spice cakes for the Fall Festival.. They smell delightful.

11.  Spaztastic Phil needs to go out on a walk before its time to go to the Fall Festival, but I'm REALLY unmotivated.

12.  This Hurricane Sandy crap is annoying me.  I'm trying to ignore the problem until it goes away.  I was peer pressured into going to get supplies though.  I will at least have water and Beefaroni (even though I probably won't have water to flush the after effects of eating Chef Boyardee).

13.  The view from my window includes red, green, orange, and yellow leaves.  I'm afraid that after Hurricane Sandy blows through, I won't have any leaves left to look at.  :(

14.  The leaves just started changing this week.  I observed all the spectacular leaves in Baltimore/Ft. Meade when I was up there last weekend for the Greyhound haul and was sad that S.MD didn't have these same characteristics.  I was relived when I started noticing the reds and yellows on the trees lining my street during my afternoon walks with Phil.

15.  I'm pretty sure the most amazing, fire-red tree is on base.  It's right outside of gate 3.  If you've seen it in the afternoon, you know that I'm right.  It's probably the most beautiful tree in S.MD.  I probably should have taken a picture before all the clouds started rolling in.  Megan fail.

16.  I'd be ok with having to evacuate sooner than Tuesday...  what with my vacation starting Wednesday and my evacuation location the same place as my vacation starts.......

17.  YAYYYY VACATION!!!!

18.  Boo to the cold front already moving past the mid-west and now it's back up in 50°+ in Denver and the Grand Canyon...  Or at least that is the current forecasting predictions on weather.com.  I was excited to wear scarves and hats and gloves like it was winter time.  Obviously, I need to move to Alaska... or maybe Canada if I wanted to be a little less extreme and have Teh Bear agree with my relocation needs.

19.  I feel like I need to have a Hurricane Party to clean out the stuff in my freezer, otherwise if/when the power goes out, all the food in my freezer is going to go bad/to waste.

20.  Phil is super cute when he sleeps.  I wish Teh Bear would allow Phil on the furniture.  I wish Phil would get up on the furniture.

21.  Dear Commissary,
When you bolt the bag holders to the bagging area, it makes it really hard to use my own HUGE bag.  I wasn't in the mood for that crap today.

22.  Phil is very strange when he is stalkin' me in the bathroom, but then stands and stares directly at the wall.

23.  I've not done much pinning on Pinterest in the past few months.  I feel like I slacker... and like I've reclaimed my life.

24.  I'm considering buying hiking boots.  I probably should have done this last week, but I was too wishy washy.  Sometimes, it's really hard being me.  I'm planning on going to Dick's Sporting Goods tomorrow after church to see what the selection is.  I'm figuring with all the hurricane prep going on, hiking boots weren't on most people's lists.

25.  Dear North Star (aka the huge zit that refuses to go away on my temple),
I've deemed you the North Star because Orion's Belt appeared on my cheek early last week.  When you appeared and refused to go away, it was easy to name you.  Teh Bear doesn't find my constellation references as funny as Teh Sister does.  I wish you would go away... and take all your other star/constellation buddies with you.

26.  Dear Phil,
Please stop being so cute and pressuring me to take you out/feed you.  I'm trying to be unmotivated right now.

27.  I keep looking outside to see if it's raining yet.  It's not supposed to start raining till tomorrow evening, but I don't really believe that.  I think Hurricane Sandy is imaginary.  Except in GTMO.  Apparently it was pretty nasty there.

28.  I edited all the baby shower pics and uploaded them into Dropbox for Mrs. Boomkin.  Sadly, she's still not gotten them out yet despite the fact that she wanted me to have the pics edited LAST weekend.  This is me trying to motivate her and me whining because I worked hard.

29.  I bought a new loaf of bread today, just in case.  I put it on top of the fridge... just in case.

30.  I finally finished watching all the episodes of Weeds on Netflix.  I was content to quit watching it after this season... until I finished the season 7 finale.  WTF!?!

31.  I'm glad that my phone will still have service if there is no power and I don't have real internet.

32.  Today I actually wanted to go to a Dunkin' Donuts.  Not for their gross donuts (which aren't doughnuts, I'll have you notice), but for their Pumpkin Coffee which is much smoother than Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte.  I was disappointed that there isn't a DD in Prince Frederick.  WTF.  I thought DD were EVERYWHERE?

33.  I'm le tired.

34.  This list has gotten pretty long.

35.  The end.

Since I talked about him so much:
Hotel de Phil... with Norman (a greyhound who lives down the street from us)!

While on the way to the meet and greet, I looked in my rearview mirror at one point and saw a black butt and a white nose.  A bit later, I got white butt and black nose.  I deemed them Yin and Yang.

Dominoes, Destinations, Duty, and my Killer

There is only one more full work week till OUR vacation!!!!!!!!  The excitement is building, despite having no more plans to make, only events to show up for.  It's a feeling of surrealism that we're (Teh Bear and I, duh) actually taking a vacation, vacation, and doing something new and adventurous for both of us.

How did I celebrate this weekend?

Thursday night Teh Mom came in from NC.  She was going to Baltimore for the weekend, and she figured that stopping to see me wasn't a bad idea.  I agreed.  We hung out on Thurs night till way too late while I told her the story of my mystery pain and it's solution.  On Friday morning, I got up and went to work.  At lunch time she messaged me that she was heading out then called me to ask if I wanted to do lunch.  I agreed.  She said she wanted something "Southern Maryland-y" so I gave her two options of 2 places I hadn't been to yet:  Smokey Joe's (a bbq place) or Blue Wind Cafe (a gourmet sammich place).  She decided on bbq so I met her and drove us to Smokey Joe's.  We decided for "NC bbq" in MD it was actually really good.  After picking up a bbq sammich for my LPO (she needs a Teh Nickname), we left and I brought Teh Mom back to her car.  She headed on her way to Baltimore and I headed back to work.

After work, I came home and succumbed to the desire to take a nap.  It was delightful.  Afterwards, Phil and I went on a walk (since Teh Bear says I need to practice my walking for our Grand Canyon excursion) then it was dinner and dominoes, Mexican Dominoes to be exact, with Teh Humanitarian and Teh Coast Guardian and Teh Korean and Teh Flying Metal Mouth and 1 other friend later that night.  Teh Coast Guardian won Mexican Dominoes with doubles again, actually double doubles, but this time there was no argument if it was a valid play.  Phil and I came home to play on the internet and take a nap.

Saturday at 03, I woke up, got ready, took Phil out for a quick business and fed him half his breakfast, then left to meet my copilot so we could go transport some newly retired greyhounds back to GEGR's greyhound central (GHC).  At 05 we found out that the hauler with the dog was going to be 2 hours late.  We arrived 30 minutes early, despite getting some bad directions about taking an exit that wasn't necessary since we were already going the right direction.  I explained to my copilot that I had taken someone's watch that afternoon and that I needed a nap since the hauler was already late.  Hotel de Phil (the back of Yurtle) is more comfortable than I expected.  I wrapped myself in Phil's comforter and passed out till 0830 when my copilot woke me up to explain that the hauler was going to be even later than they had told us.  It was decided at that point that other people were going to come meet the hauler and that I could go home so I could make it to work on time that afternoon.  I felt like one of the ladies was frustrated with my having to leave, but both my copilot and another man there understood as they were both prior Navy.  As the man said, "I retired and I know that you can not be late to watch."  I agreed with him and apologized for having to leave to everyone and headed back to my car dog-less.  :(

I made it back home and took Phil on a walk and gave him the other half of his breakfast.  I played on the internets and chatted with Teh Bear on Skype until it was time for an afternoon nap before watch.  I made it to watch on time.. And survived watch, then came home, took Phil out, and collapsed in bed exhausted.

Sunday morning when my alarm went off for church, I wasn't ready to get out the bed.  But I couldn't be late!  I formally joined Lexington Park United Methodist Church today.  I've been going there since February, but finally made it official.  Teh Coast Guardian and Teh Humanitarian also came with me to church, which was awesome.  Afterwards, we hit up Linda's Cafe for lunch then the thrift store for me to drop some stuff off, look for another Phil comforter, and for Halloween costumes for Teh Coast Guardian who has decided he wants to be a banana.

After a skype date with Teh Bear, it was nap time again (I love weekends!).  I was, expectedly (yep, just made that word up for you), woken up by Teh Coast Guardian saying that they were going on a hike at St. Mary's River State Park and it was time to go.  After I was ready, we all piled into Yurtle and headed off.  Phil was a little cramp since I had to split Hotel de Phil (aka sit a seat up for a human to sit in), but he survived.

When we arrived at the park, I noticed Yurtle's TWIN in the parking lot!  I was so excited.  It's rare to see Kia Sportages, but it's extremely rare to see them in S. MD since the closest dealership is an hour away.  ANDDDDDDDD, this car was an EXACT twin, it was even twilight blue!  I left a note on their windshield: Awesome car!

There was a snafu during the hike where Phil decided that a fuzzy black dog was for eating after the dog growled at him.  The fuzzy black dog ended up being ok (Thank Allah, I could just see the vacation money pour from my account), and Phil acted like nothing had even happened after it was all over.  The full path around the lake was 7.5 miles, but we prob walked around 2 miles then turned around.  When we got back to the car, there was a note on my windshield:

I'm glad there are still friendly people in the world!

After we arrived back home, I started wings and pizza for dinner and Teh Coast Guardian and Teh Humanitarian came over.  We watched Louis CK: Chewed Up, which Teh Bear showed to me and I think is hilarious.

I also brought my camera with me on our walk!  Proof:

Playing on the fallen tree.

Catch me!  I'm going to jump.  - Teh Coast Guardian.

Phil's thunder thighs.

Can we say gorgeous day?

Pretending to sit on Phil since he's tall enough to be a personal bench.

Look at the camera, Phil!

Phil and I!  Finally a good pic together not taken by me.

Phil walking Gami (her leash was attached to his for about 3 steps, until he stepped on her leash and she abruptly stopped).

Teh Humanitarian and Teh Coast Guardian.

Peeps of fall in S. MD!

It was such a beautiful day!

WINTER IS COMING!

Walking path wide enough for 3 people and 2 dogs.

The lake.  /swoon.

Teh Phil-boy.  He's so handsome.  Even if he tries to eat fluffy black dogs.

Teh Coast Guardian and Teh Humanitarian and Gami-girl.

Teh Megan!

Next time, I won't bring Phil and I'll bring the Nikon.

Hai Mom!!

The lake.

Being artsy

YAY for excellent walks and weather and friends and no crazy vet bills and
vacation coming up and...  so many more things..
YAY to an awesome life!

Up this week:
-Work.  Rah.

Up this weekend:
-packing..  WOoo!
      *to include laundry, making a list of items to not forget anything, rolling everything I pack, digging my boots out of my storage closet, picking out which size suitcase I'm bringing, prepping the car (to include removing back seat headrests, bring the cargo cover in the apt)...  this list just seems to keep growing, I'll stop now.
-Fall Festival at church (crap, I gotta buy some stuff to make a cake!) to potentially include trunk-or-treat
-potential other Halloween activities during the day on Saturday
-relaxation and socialization!
-If my new (brown) chairs arrive (brown because Target no longer offers the black ones to match the ones that I ordered back in December) before Friday, then Mexican Dominoes at Teh Megan's house since we'll have enough seating for everyone at the table.. AND we can actually use the leaf (which means having to unwrap it from the original packaging...)

Thoughts of a well-spent watch...

The one thing no one EVER told me about when I was considering joining the military was that I'd stand "watch."  "WTF is watch?" you ask.  Oh watch... sweet, sweet watch.  The best kept secret of the military. 

Watch is also synonymous for "duty."  Meaning.. someone is always available to take care of issues.  You'll hear, "I got the watch."  That means that you no longer have to call 911 if the building catches on fire, you don't have to record "all conditions normal" every 30 minutes in the legally binding log book (that you are supposed to write in ALL CAPS for).  Watch means different things in different places.

In bootcamp, watch meant standing at the door of our compartment to challenge anyone that wasn't supposed to be there and circling the compartment every 30 minutes to make sure no one was doing things they shouldn't be.  You got to carry a fakely loaded weapon and practice your best "recruit handwriting" in the logbook (for recording all clears and if any events took place, like if there was a fight club discovered in the showers at 0323 or a boy in the girl's laundry room with the girl that let him in having sex) and even answer the phone if you were lucky enough to be there when it rang.  Extra duty included snow watch, where if the snow was more than 1/4" you got woken up at whatever time it was in the morning and got to go outside and shovel snow.  As much as I wanted this duty, I ended up never getting to shovel snow.

Once I got to training, watch meant sitting in a ladderwell stairwell for 2-3 hours and ensuring that no guys got distracted and ventured too far down the halls of the bottom floor (where the girls lived) and that no girls got lost and went upstairs (where the boys lived).  There were also other types of duty, like colors (which is when the National Anthem is played and the flag is raised or lowered at 0800 and sunset) and duty driver (where you drive people to their "official business" (ex: medical when it's at another base and they don't have their own method of transportation, pick up incoming personnel from the airport, etc)).  There was also a quarterdeck (the entry point of a space/area/building) watch, but since there were 4 ladderwells, that's where most of the watches were stood.  The quarterdeck watch included making records in the logbook, but only one poor soul was submitted to that.  The quarterdeck assistant got to hand out liberty cards (freedom passes which gave us permission to wear civilian clothes and be out in public) and they got to collect them as people came back to the barracks.

When I was in GTMO, duty was sitting on the quarterdeck entry point of our building to check badges for everyone that came in since the space was only available to select people with the proper clearances.  This watch lasted for 12 hours.  The day watch consisted of mostly checking badges and calling "Attention on Deck" when O-6 and above walked onto the quarterdeck.  Night watch was totally different where you got to bring your computer in and watch movies/listen to music and check the badges of any persons motivated enough to come in before 0600 and clean and sweep the sidewalks outside (subsequently giving yourself blisters), and calling the main security watchstander to let them know that there were no terrorists detainees free in the parking lot and nothing suspicious had been seen on the cameras and there were no crazy fires every hour from midnight-0500.  The logbook was completely electronic, I was impressed with the techy-ness of this.  Good times.  Really.

In Bahrain, duty was standing on the quarterdeck, checking badges to ensure that people who had the proper clearance to get in were getting in and people that didn't have the proper clearance weren't.  You also got to call "Attention on Deck!" for any and all stars (O-7 and above).  You got to record when all the important folks came and went in the logbook.  Luckily, the watch was secured at 1800 6pm and started at 0600 the next morning.

Here at VX-1, duty includes sitting at a computer in a office space that is mostly windows that gives you a view of the road and the buildings across the street.  You check badges and make records in the logbook when someone checks in or goes on leave vacation or if a fire alarm goes off or any kind of special non-regular event happens.  You get to answer the phone and do lots of call transfers to other people in the command.  I personally think the best watches are holidays and weekends because you don't have to deal with as many people as you would if it was a week day when everyone was at work.  Except that no people means even more time to fill....

And luckily, all that description above took 30 minutes.  Now onto the thoughts of watch..

-Duty driver walked in with the chevrons on his jacket upside down.  I pointed it out to him, and the other 2 2nd classes that were still here agreed that he was wrong.  He insisted they were facing the right direction.  I insisted they were still wrong.  I even showed him my own jacket so he could see what was wrong.  He still insisted he was right.  Finally, I got him to understand that he had them on upside down, not backwards (there is an eagle in the insignia that is supposed to face a specified direction).  He claimed to have looked it up...  I'm a master of looking up insignia directions for this uniform, dude.  You're wrong.  He fixed it after he finally understood.. Which was good because there was no way I was going to even let him be on watch with his shit so obviously jacked up.  It was the first thing I noticed when he walked in.  Note:  He is a 2nd class.

-It's a hard life being an IS.  All of my exam study material is classified, so no studying for my exam on watch.. and what with only 25 BMR questions, I don't feel like that's the information I need to focus on.....

-I'll be productive and fill out the rest of the log book!
-All columns made on every page!
-All pages stamped!
-Title rows created up to letter Q!

-The duty-driver said I needed to regain my sanity so he took the log book away while I answered the phone.  I really just want to finish the rest of the book and be done with it.  Too bad it wasn't as funny as he intended.....

-I'm pretty sure that rice and black beans with cheese for dinner isn't going to be as delicious as I want it to be.

-I WILL finish the rest of the logbook before dinner.

-Total time working on logbook: 2 hours.  We are about 1/3 of the way through the book and I did the lines for the columns and rows and stamped each page for the remaining 2/3s of the book.  The last time I did that was Memorial Day weekend when I had 2 back-to-back days of watch.  I really need more things to do on watch...  It's really a bummer that reading Thought Catalog depresses me too badly.

**LUNCH BREAK**

-Rice and beans and cheese wasn't as delightful as I wanted it to be.

-Phil appreciated his trip to the dog park (where he actually fetched the ball THREE times!) and his free dinner.

-Apparently a little kid called right after I left for dinner asking where "Mike Cock" was.  I'm slightly disappointed I missed this.

-I was potentially going to dog sit this week, then I was definitely going to dog sit this week, then I was no longer dog sitting this week.  I'm trying not to be disappointed, but it's not working out too well.  I was looking forward to an extra puppy-luppy.

-TWO WEEKS TILL VACATION!!!!!!!  Teh Bear says I need to acquire/find some boots.  Apparently, he is very hardcore about this hiking thing.  Now.. where did I put my DCU boots???  Why do I have a feeling they are in the bottom-most container in the storage closet????  Uggggh (not like the boots).

-I take great joy in finding random lint balls in clothing I've not worn in over 6 months.  YAY for lint balls in the pockets of my NWU jacket. 

-I really wish that Google Reader worked on NMCI.  NMCI is the devil.

-I just went to JPAS to see if there was any work-type stuff I could do.  JPAS is down for maintenance..  Why can't JPAS go down for maintenance during the work week?  WTF?  Their efficiency is disappointing.

-Talking on the phone really passes the time quicker than just sitting here.

-Thank you STFU Parents for the entertainment you have provided.  Too bad NMCI will only load the first page of most of the articles I've opened up.  Mommy-jacking is probably one of my biggest FB pet peeves now that most of the copy/paste statuses have disappeared.  Oh wait..  Biggest FB peeve is liking everything that you see on your FB feed and I get spammed until I have to hide your likes/comments.  /wristS

-Screw NMCI, I will play BUBBLES!

-I WON!  I WON!!!!!!  I've never won bubbles before.  I always end up losing, which is disappointing   But this time, I WON!  And there was someone there to witness it.  I once spent 7 hours on watch playing that game and couldn't win the entire time.  I won after playing for 1.5 hours tonight.

-Tried playing Pacman.  I had to be told that you have to eat all the dots.  Megan 80's Fail.

-Tried playing the flying helicopter game.  Good thing I'm not a pilot.

-Played the shooting the disks game.  Felt like a redneck.  Moved back to Bubbles until watch was over.

-Watched my relief pull in the parking lot at 2315.  Saw no one come from the car until 2328.  So much hate.

Overall thoughts:
This duty day wasn't as bad as one in the past have been.  It passed fairly quickly and there was no depressing articles and no earth shattering realizations.  Whew!  Maybe next month?

Fill in the Blank Friday #22

(image)

 1.  One thing I plan on doing to relax this weekend is     taking a nap after the Greyhound haul on Saturday.   Maybe writing some blogs, but definitely being lazy.  Maybe finally finishing the rest of Weeds on Netflix… who knows.

2.  A big pet peeve of mine is    people that drive significantly under the speed limit.. Example: Speed Limit is 50, driver goes 35.  FML. 

3.  I am really loving   not breaking into a sweat every time I walk outside AND seeing red leaves on the trees...  because WINTER IS COMING!!!

4. The rain is    still absolutely one of my favorite things.  Actually, when it started raining in the middle of the night last night, I woke up, said a little prayer of thanks and immediately fell back asleep.  The only thing better is snow, duh. 

5. My favorite girly indulgence is    earrings.  I’m too lazy to paint my nails or wear makeup, but I LUB ME SOME EARRINGS.

6. A song I always get stuck in my head is    whatever was playing last when I get out of car, usually.  Or sometimes my alarm song.  It just depends on the day. 

7.  The best cure for stress is    music and/or working out (in whatever form you choose, naked activity is considered working out in my book.. so what if I’m excited about vacation?). 

Preview for Mrs. Boomkin!

Mrs. Boomkin and her mom were very adamant this past weekend that I when I came up for Mrs. Boomkin and Mr. Voices's baby-shower was to bring my "good" camera.  They both reminded me several times so I wouldn't forget.

This week has been very busy so I haven't really done any work with these photos, but I told her that I'd upload a few for her to see.  I'll let you make up your own captions.

I wound up with over 200 photos.  Mostly of gift opening where Mrs. Boomkin was looking away from me, but its ok.