Residents of Wellsville live in TERROR

so while tooling around near my hometown on google earth I found something terribly disturbing. Well really there are a couple of things about this whole scenario that I find amusing/disturbing. If you have google earth then you will want to look this one up on your own (the coordinates are 42"05'15.17"N by 77"56'02.85"W) a google "i" icon should be there with a year-month-date descriptor, make sure to "check" the google earth communities box in the layers sidebar. In case you have a real job that requires you to work five days a week and not a posh government one like myself you may just want to check out the website. It turns out that I grew up in Bigfoot's backyard!!! It's a wonder that I survived my childhood without being dragged off by a giant hairy monster. Thank goodness I escaped its terrible clutches.

~d

28 weeks

This is the "how-insane-can-I-look-while-still-smiling" picture.
Thanks for the shirt mom. It'd be perfect if it had little ties, but oh well. Can't beat $3.

one down, two to go

We now own both of our motor vehicles.
Just in time to sell one of them.
So mr. mira can buy a different vehicle.
It never ends...


at least we've still got $$ in the bank, and we are one step closer (that is, until we acquire said third vehicle) to being debt free. =)

have you noticed

that there are only two more squares on the baby ticker at the top of the page? 'cus I have.

the kid (and other news)

in a few days I'll be 7 lunar months pregnant, and in the 3rd trimester. How odd.

This week at american baby:
Your frisky fetus is on another growth spurt, shooting up half an inch this week to measure about 14 inches from head to toe. He weighs roughly 2 1/2 pounds, and will gain approximately half a pound each week for the next 10 weeks. The average full-term baby weighs about 7 1/2 pounds and measures from 18 to 20 1/2 inches, but many normal, healthy babies fall outside this range. Unless your practitioner has told you of a potential problem, it's safe to assume that your little one is right on track.
and from babycenter: Your baby can now open and close his eyes, and he sleeps and wakes at regular intervals. He may suck his fingers, and although his lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with assistance — if he were to be born prematurely. Chalk up any rhythmic movement you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and isn't bothersome to him, so enjoy the tickle. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. Wonder what he's thinking?

In more personal--but related--news, my niece T stuck her fingers in my belly button yesterday, and said "I think I feel his foot kicking me." I hadn't felt anything, so I didn't believe her, but she put my fingers in the right place, and, sure enough, I could feel what we think was a heel pressing right up against my belly button. The kid usually moves when I push back, but this time he let us explore the shape of his heel for quite awhile before moving on. How neat :) Then, last night, D was shining his new LED flashlight on various spots on my belly, to see if he could get a response. I was about to tell him that the kid was probably asleep, as he wasn't moving at all, when my whole tummy shifted. I think D got him right by his eyes or something, because all of a sudden the kid was pressing his whole back against one side of my belly (that side was HARD, the other side was squishy). I'm pretty sure we could be accused of some kind of kid abuse at this point, what with all the poking and prodding and belly thumping and flashlight shining. (and we're not even talking about the music and...gasp...singing that I may or may not subject him to).
****
In other news, all of the MA's rotated shifts this weekend. Consequently, D stayed up almost all night last night (apparently he got really far on his video game) in preparation for tonight. He's looking forward to working in the cooler nights (appx. 8:30 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.), and having a lot less responsibility. He's also going to try to get shift commander qualified while he's on mids, so that would definitely be a feather in the proverbial cap. The motorcycle safety course went well, from what I hear, and the rumor is that Sicily is a great place for an afternoon of riding (no comment).
****
We're also considering taking on a companion for the cat. The couple we've been friends with since we got here--I babysit their kid on occasion, and the men talk about cars and music and such--have a cat that had two kittens a couple of days ago (making them and our cat almost exactly 2 years apart). After we find out how much exactly it will take to get the feline we do "own" transported across the ocean, I'll consider whether it's worth it to double that. The idea is that our cat would have a non-threatening companion to play with (as opposed to, say, the kid), and perhaps learn to be a little more tolerant of other living things in general. H is inclined towards the kitten, and I am inclined against, for practical reasons. Can we see the pattern emerging?!
****
Since we now have a hard copy of D's orders, he has applied for a sponsor, and we can go to the PSD (personnel support detatchment) office and get the checklist of everything that needs to happen before, during, and after our now impending move. Apparantly, the medical screenings come first, and once we pass those everything else can be arranged. An interesting quote from the middle of his orders:

"Dependents acquired on or prior to the effective date of orders are authorized travel allowances from the place at which acquired to the new PDS (duty station), up to the transportation entitlement for travel from old PDS to the new PDS...Questionable cases should be referred to PERS-40CC for resolution."

Now, I think the said "effective date" means the date the orders were issued, which means that our kid will be a "questionable case" and not authorized to travel with us until we get a special piece of paper for him. Interesting.

I don't think we'll get bored

Catania, located about at the midpoint of Sicily's eastern coast, is the closest city to Sigonella (where the base is located). The "Best of Sicily" website that I'm currently browsing has this to say about Catania:

Since the eighteenth century, Catania has been the second most important city of Sicily, supplanting Messina in that respect. Subjected to Etna's fickle temperament, Catania has been damaged by lava flows and earthquakes on several occasions. A particularly destructive volcanic eruption in 1669 was followed by a serious earthquake in 1693.

Founded by the Siculi and colonized by Chalcidians (a Greek people) from Naxos in 729 BC, Catania was conquered by the Romans in AD 263, eventually becoming the most prosperous city in Roman Sicily. However, archeological evidence indicates man's presence in the area during the early Bronze Age (2200-1400 BC). By the Middle Ages, it was still an important port, though less prominent than Messina. It flourished until 1169, when it was almost completely destroyed by a particularly violent earthquake. Following this catastrophe, Catania was gradually rebuilt...

...It was during the eighteenth century reconstruction period that noble families from across eastern Sicily began to build palazzi in Catania. Thus began a social and economic rivalry with Palermo that continues to this day. One of the essential differences between the cities is that while Catania is somewhat more industrial, Palermo remains the administrative center of Sicily. Though it won't be readily apparent to the casual visitor, the two cities differ from one another in many subtle ways. Catania is certainly less chaotic than Palermo, and most streets and squares are a good bit cleaner. Its residents are generally more open, and organized crime, which certainly exists, is slightly less pervasive here than in Palermo. Most Sicilians, even Palermitans, would agree that it's generally easier to do business in Catania than in Palermo.

For all its Baroque grandeur, the city is not frequented by the number of tourists who flock to Palermo, Syracuse and Taormina, most of whom just briefly pass through Catania on their way to Mount Etna or Syracuse...Catania is a good point for making connections to other places if you're traveling by train or bus. Buses for Etna, the airport, Palermo and various nearby towns depart from the piazzas near the train station (there are several different bus lines with offices off the main square). Fontanarossa Airport is only about 20 minutes from Catania. There are fairly frequent train departures for Taormina, Syracuse, Messina and the mainland.

And if I were to take an afternoon off to explore Catania, here are a few of the sites that might perhaps catch my eye:

*Two Roman ampitheaters (one of which was built over the ruins of an earlier Greek theater)

*Ursino Castle, built in the first half of the 13th century (now a museum),

*a cathedral whose construction began in 1092,

*Mt. Etna,

*various churches and palaces built with volcanic stone,

and, of course, the street markets and family restaurants that abound.

nope, I'm not thinking "bored is in the Sicilian dictionary. Especially when that's just the closest city, and we'll have the rest of the island to explore, not counting the neighboring countries :)

hmmm...

Forecasters predict busy hurricane season

U.S. team expects 9 Atlantic hurricanes, 5 of them major storms

Tuesday, April 4, 2006; Posted: 12:03 p.m. EDT (16:03 GMT)

MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- The 2006 hurricane season will not be as ferocious as last year when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, but will still be unusually busy, a noted forecasting team said Tuesday.

The Colorado State University team led by Dr. William Gray, a pioneer in forecasting storm probabilities, said it expected 17 named storms to form in the Atlantic basin during the six-month season starting in June.

Nine of the storms will likely strengthen into hurricanes, with winds of at least 74 mph, the team said, reaffirming their early prediction in December.

The forecasters said five of the hurricanes were likely to be major storms, reaching at least Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, and boasting winds of at least 111 mph.

But they also said there was less chance of major storms making landfall in the United States compared with 2005's record-breaking hurricane season.

"Even though we expect to see the current active period of Atlantic major hurricane activity to continue for another 15-20 years, it is statistically unlikely that the coming 2006-2007 hurricane season, or the seasons that follow, will have the number of major hurricane U.S. landfall events as we have seen in 2004-2005," Gray said in a statement.

Last season -- at $80 billion the costliest on record in terms of damage -- saw 27 named storms, of which 15 developed into hurricanes.

In addition to Katrina, Hurricane Rita hammered Texas and Hurricane Wilma briefly became the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever observed before slamming into the Mexican resort of Cancun. Wilma then curved back over South Florida, where it wreaked $10 billion worth of damage.

The long-term statistical average is for about 10 named storms per season, of which six become hurricanes.

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Happy Birthday, Ernie :)

A day late, but it still counts, right?



"Let's go play with the sprinkler! Hmm, you go turn it on."












"Hey! I didn't mean when I was right on top of it!"













"Outta my way!"
"No, you get outta my way!"
















"I didn't do anything......"










"Wait, we're going to the beach? YAY!"












"What, you didn't know that mini skirts and big bellies are all the rage right now?"









"You're twenty-how old?! Are you sure?"





"You're still taking pictures?! Oh yeah, I was supposed to show off the hair. oops."

(p.s.: it's now the color it was supposed to be starting almost 23 years ago, if that gives you any clue...)



This definitely deserves some yellow cake with strawberry-cream cheese topping. mmm-mmm-mmm!

by "popular" (read: my mother's) demand:

Our home from October-January was cozy, to say the least. Mr. mira and I agreed that it would be a great place to camp out in if we were on a road trip, but I'm glad I'm not spending my 9 months there, that's for sure. I think I'd get stuck in the bathroom, and I KNOW I wouldn't fit in the kitchen, especially if mr. mira wanted to look in the fridge for anything. BUT, it was a home, and it was free. Living with his sis and bro (and his sis) and our neice and nephew for about 6 weeks was...a learning experience...as well. I won't tell you what we all learned. ha ha.

This is the first thing you saw from the "front" (read: only) door when you looked to the right: Our bedroom. The two tall cupboards had closet rods in them, but we chose instead to shove some shelving into the space to accomodate a few more shirts. The bed lifted up on hinges pretty easily, and we stored all of our shoes underneath, along with other random items that we didn't want to look at on any given day.










Then, as you look ahead into the trailer from the "front" door, we see the "kitchen." Yeah. food was stored in the upper cupboard, the cat's litter box was in the lower cupboard, and the bare essentials of bake/cookware were in the cupboard to the left of the door (visible in the next pic). I'm amazed that we didn't eat out every. single. day. One consolation: the full size fridge. Our neighbors, who had the fancy trailers with a pull-out section and 4 bunks, only had a 3/4 size fridge. neener, neener.


From the bedroom door into the rest of the trailer, we see the aforementioned full sized fridge and pots-n-pans cupboard (the tv was on top of this), the living room couch (read: SIL and BIL's pull-out bed), the dining room table (read: school table for the niece and nephew and later the computer desk). Both seats had storage underneath for all of the kids school stuff and toys, and the table could come down and make a bed, if need be (need never be'd for us, so to speak). The armoire where E and J kept all their clothes was quite nice, if you opened the door, the mirror's reflection gave the impression that the trailer was twice as big. really.
Immediately behind that (along the right wall) is the bathroom sink, complete with a medicine cabinet and tiny lower shelf for various and sundry toiletries.
Through the door at the end of the trailer is the "bathroom" (read: stink room). It was big enough for the toilet, which you can see the top of, and the half-sized shower, which you cannot see. The only floor space was in front of the toilet. no joke.
Along the left wall in the back (behind the table) is the 2 bunks where JT, T, and Bekah slept. After all of our esteemed guests left, D stored his guitars on the top bunk and I put canned goods on a shoe rack on the bottom bunk. There was also room under the bottom bunk, but it was a pain to get to, so we didn't use it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I thought you had to be smart to be in the military

I recently I bought a new pair of boots and this is what I found in the box















honestly, I remember taking some sort of aptitude test before signing papers.
oh well.

local coverage of the storm

(mom-you could make this into a link if you want...)

this is our local station's summary of the destruction on the MS gulf coast. There are a bunch of links, the first two are the before and after video that really help give some perspective.

before and after

bloodsuckers

There are many kinds of bloodsuckers. Today, I present to you the top three, in order of annoyance.

#3
"These flies are ferocious biters with a seemingly unsationable thirst for blood...The bite is generally painless, but usually results in a small flat red spot that within 12 hours becomes excruciatingly itchy... Scratching No-see-um bites can double the length of time they require to disappear and can lead to infected sores."
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-see-um)

I may never go to E (sis-in-law)'s again.





#2

"As the larval flea progresses in its development, the tapeworm inside it is also progressing in development. By the time the flea is an adult, the tapeworm is ready to infect a dog or cat...
Inside the host’s stomach, the flea’s body is digested away and the young tapeworm is released. It finds a nice spot to attach and the life cycle begins again. It takes 3 weeks from the time the flea is swallowed to the time tapeworm segments appear on the pet’s rear end or stool." (The Tapeworm Page)

The dog had fleas. The cat now has fleas. And a tapeworm. Lovely. He really really hopes we never give him a bath again.

#1

"Citibank understands the financial challenges you may face after college ends. Therefore, we offer four repayment plans to make managing your monthly budget a little easier." (http://studentloan.citibank.com/slcsite/fr_r_pla.htm)

Definitely the thirstiest bloodsucker of all. grr.

Psalm 16

Keep me safe, O God,
I've run for dear life to you.
I say to God, "Be my Lord!"
Without You, nothing makes sense.

And these God-chosen lives all around-
what splendid friends they make!

Don't just go shopping for a god.
Gods are not for sale.
I swear I'll never treat god-names
like brand names.

My choice is You, God, first and only.
And now I find I'm Your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
And then You made me Your heir!

The wise counsel God gives when I'm awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I'll stick with God;
I've gota good thing going and I'm not letting go.

I'm happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell-
that's not my destination!

Now You've got my feet on the life path,
all radient from the shining of Your face.
Ever since You took my hand,
I'm on the right way.

(King David, CEV)

I'm trying to make a habit of reading to the baby every day, ostensibly for his benefit. In reality, I'm finding it just as much to my benefit to read out loud what was written so many years ago. Once I get over to the unit, I'll add some of the classical authors to my repertoire, but for now I'm sticking with the Bible. Grandma gave me the _Message_ for Christmas (thanks!) and I am loving it. It kind of feels like I'd imagine a people group who has never had the scriptures in their own language feels when they can read and understand for the first time God's words to them. It's not quite the same, since I've grown up with bibles in the english language, but this version really does makes me pay attention to what I'm reading instead of skimming words I've skimmed many times before (always a good thing, hehe).

I can't even begin to point out how many of those verses made me stop and go "hmm." Suffice to say, "I've gota good thing going and I'm not letting go."

too bad you can't put smells on the internet;

so this is eddie, the chocolate lab I had for a week. She smelled.so I bathed her
twice

she did some disgusting things on my floor, more than twice. And she was just a little too hyper for me. Of course I didn't realize this until after I gave her to my buddy across the street. That dog needed a little more than a single wide trailer to get her puppyish enthusiasm out. plus she ate E's flipflop.well, overall she was a good dog and we are sad to see her go, but try to move a cat, a dog, a brand new baby, and me to italy... E wasn't having it, so I guess we'll stick with the cat, who bye the way is having an official name change..... Spaz.he won't notice; he doesn't come when he's called anyway.

alertness in the womb

interesting article, if you are so inclined. (3 pages)

G for Goofy?

finally!

I have a bump big enough to show through clothes, lol. Behold the product of 20 weeks time.

Oh, and here's a link to a really neat view of how a baby develops, and how the mom's guts squish to make room for baby. slide the bar back and forth, it's strangely amusing.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday I had to squish my belly in order to see the scale. I don't know why I bother, I'm pretty sure it's broken, but the fact remains.
Today I found out that babies flying with Airtran must be at least 14 days old. Hmm. I hope that fits in with the other dates we have to abide by...
Tomorrow marks 20 weeks, which makes me half-way there. yay!

want to test your squinting skills?

First is the head. They had a better view on the screen, but the tech couldn't quite catch it on film. All facial features appear to be present and accounted for.













And here we see a very blurry leg and foot kicking my very full bladder. They tech said, "well, you REALLY don't need to drink that much next time." oops. I suppose this is my opportunity to publicly admit that D was right, that much OJ cannot be good for anyone. It did wake the baby up, that's for sure!














and here, if you were looking at the actual picture instead of a picture of a picture, you would see the umbilical cord and the "turtle" that caused D to buy a Green Bay Packers sleeper and matching hat on ebay a few days ago. =)














All in all, we were both surprised at how much we did recognize without needing the technician to point things out. I guess it helped that he was moving around so much, so you could see actual fingers flexing instead of a white blur near the head. If we want to fork over $250, we can have a 4d ultrasound with pictures on disc to take home with us. Alas, we are too cheap. Anyone who wants to take up a fund is welcome to do so ;-) The doc said that everything is normal and in the right places, and the size is consistant with our dates. What fun.

the pregnant brain

is definitely taking over. At least that's my latest excuse. I used to be able to blame the rigors of school and planning a wedding. Then all I had to fall back on was the color of my hair. When D left last year, I had a ready-made excuse to be scatterbrained again. Then he came back, and I was excuse-less once more. Until now.

example number one: this morning, I told D he could have the shower once I finished rinsing the water out of my hair.

example number two:
Last week, I made an appointment with the local WIC office to see if I was eligible for a "grocery supplement." They gave me a short list of what to bring, and told me where to go. I wrote everything down like a good little girl, including directions, and put the paper somewhere safe. So safe, in fact, that I have yet to find it. SO, on Tuesday while I was getting ready for this appointment, I decided to call a few of the WIC offices to confirm my appointment, figuring that once one of them said, "yes, you have an appointment here today," then I would know where to go. Well, they won't confirm appointments over the phone, so I had to trust my intuition. Bad idea.

The first office is located right outside the main gate. Very convenient. Unfortunately, that's not where my appointment was. Too bad, because I would have been 10 whole minutes early! The distribution center was my next destination. Luckily, it turned out to be the right place, and I was only 10 minutes late. Irritating to me, but nobody else seemed to mind.

The appointment went well; I forgot to bring proof of residence, but they let that slide. The second problem was with proof of pregnancy, since our insurance co. took the only doctor's note that I had. I tried to show ultrasound pictures as proof, but I guess that isn't good enough. Luckily, they let that slide as well, provided I brought a note and proof of residence before attempting any more pickups. No problem. Once the paperwork was complete, I was informed that I didn't qualify, since D makes too much (wow! there's a first for everything!). The lady conducting the interview told me to go on to the nutritionist anyway, just in case.

After studying both my list of what I'd eaten for the past 24 hours (including homemade whole wheat bread with real peanut butter, and real pineapple, yum) and my iron count, the nutritionist decided that I did qualify after all. Apparantly, I was missing one serving of fruit and had a low iron count (11.6 out of 12).

Since I was already at the distribution center, they let me make the first package pickup, which was an experience in itself. I never realized that WIC food came with choices! I am now the proud owner of:

*15 quarts of milk (the kind that comes in boxes, like soy milk does. Little bit of an aftertaste, but I think it'll be fine for homemade yogurt)
*24 oz. peach/grape juice (yum!)
*24 oz. orange juice (kinda weird tasting. Like tang, only not)
*24 oz. pineapple juice (haven't dared on this one yet)
*1 lb. black beans (good thing, I couldn't find them in our excuse for a commisary, and I've been craving* cuban black beans and rice for a couple of months now)
*16 oz. montery jack cheese (maybe my new favorite)
*16 oz. cheddar
*48 oz. liquid eggs (good thing I like to bake)
*1 big box of dry milk
*3 boxes of cereal (including a couple of brands I don't buy because they're usually too expensive!)

yay. Our government really does do things right sometimes.
________________
*well, I don't really have cravings so much as I think about foods that I haven't had in awhile, and I keep thinking about them every once in awhile until I have them. For example, I thought about french fries for about 3 months before finally asking D to pick some up on his way home from work. I am currently thinking about a small hot fudge ice cream sundae. I don't think I'll wait 3 months this time.
________________
ps: before anyone (ahem, mom. ahem, Dr. Sam) complains about my diet, I am a VERY healthy eater, overall. Goodness knows I've done enough food diaries for various classes to prove that =)