Sideways

Let me show you how this is done. First thing, hold the glass up and examine the wine against the light. You're looking for color and clarity. Just, get a sense of it. OK? Uhh, thick? Thin? Watery? Syrupy? OK? Alright. Now, tip it. What you're doing here is checking for color density as it thins out towards the rim. Uhh, that's gonna tell you how old it is, among other things. It's usually more important with reds. OK? Now, stick your nose in it. Don't be shy, really get your nose in there. Mmm... a little citrus... maybe some strawberry... ... passion fruit... and, oh, there's just like the faintest soupçon of like asparagus and just a flutter of a, like a, nutty Edam cheese... ~Miles Raymond, Sideways

So long, blogger friends & family. I know I've been terrible about updating, I haven't even been busy with work, just busy soaking in the real world.

But for now, Dan & I are off to the heart of wine country tonight! We'll be sipping and tasting with our friends Jeremy & Laura (J. worked with Dan at Bain and L. is his girlfriend) for 3 nights in Napa with 2 full days of wine tours (one to Sonoma in a big bus and one in Napa in our our private limo) followed by the weekend in San Francisco. 

Can't wait to  taste some great wines, eat some fantastic food, relax, travel and get away for a little bit. Looking forward to San Fran too for some great food in Chinatown, a bike trip across the Golden Gate Bridge and who can go to S.F. and not check out Alcatraz.

We'll be back Sunday night with lots of stories to update on, I'm sure!

Ode to Yogurtland

seriously, i really really REALLY love yogurtland. there aren't enough words to properly express my love for yogurtland, but my friend Sarah did a great job of explaining the self-serve yogurt concept awesomeness here. i knew i had a problem when one of my friends that i stood watch with while in the NIMITZ said to my mom when he met her during Tiger Cruise: "i have spent a lot of time on watch with your daughter and for 4 straight hours a day, i talked about my kids, and she talked about yogurtland"

This really wasn't that far from the truth (although, in my defense, I only got to have yogurtland (well, actually Pinkberry, which is yogurtland's vastly inferior second cousin) 2 times in 6 months. Now, I've had yogurtland about 4 times in 7 days! And I did talk about Dan alot in those 4 hours a day too.

About a week before I came home, Dan told me that there was a new flavor at Yogurtland- Red Velvet Cake Batter. Now, given my love for red velvet cakes (and that delicious, creamy and slightly tart cream cheese icing that adorns it. Let's be honest, red velvet cupcakes are nothing more than a brightly colored sturdy vehicle for delivering such delectable icing to your lips) and yogurtland, Dan said it would only be more appropriate if it was named "Molly's Homecoming Flavor"

And thus, my first reunion with Yogurtland on Friday, March 26th. The USS NIMITZ was moored at approximately 0955. By ~1059 I had attacked Dan on the pier (by attacked I mean that Dan was looking at the ship, trying to see if he could see me leave when little did he know I was running up to him with his back behind me and he turns around just as the pitter patter of my little feet alerted him to the fact that I was on my way and then I pretty much jumped on him... good thing he's strong!). 

Anyways, we speed walked the 1+ mile to the car, loaded up Timmy (the XTerra), zipped across the Coronado Bay Bridge in record time given that 10,000+ people were on the pier/parking lot for Homecoming and were at Yogurtland by 1127 (to which Liora, Dan's mom said "don't we eat yogurt AFTER lunch?... after all, it was 1127... and Dan said "shhhh, she's REALLY excited about yogurt") and I walked in to see this sign hanging up.

My first reaction was "OH THEY MADE ME A SIGN!" until Dan said "actually, Rachel made you a sign and I brought it here to be hung up"... but the point is still the same, and this was awesome. I truly do have the best husband/friends ever. I think I squealed. No, I definitely squealed I was so excited.

I will try and update some more this weekend, I'm just having so much stinkin' fun in the real world! This is my first real weekend in the real world and tonight we are hosting GAME NIGHT at our apartment. A group of folks that Dan knows from UVA/their group of friends in SD are coming over and so I should probably head off to the grocery store to get the rest of the ingredients tonight. On the menu: hummus, guacamole, salsa, spinach & artichoke dip, sangria and homemade mini red velvet cupcakes. A motley menu, you say? Yes well, the theme is "Foods that Molly Likes to Make/Eat"- it's only been 7 days, I still have that prerogative, right? :)

Happy Friday!

It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere!

Hi everyone! As I s-l-o-w-l-y re-adjust to life back in the good ole US.. of A (which, given that I have never lived here, can't find any of my clothes in the apartment, the fact that California drivers abominable driving skills, and I am uber dependent on my GPS/husband to get me anywhere, is surprisingly more difficult than I expected), I wanted to still take the time to update everyone to prove that I am still in fact alive and kickin'.... I'll try to do a blog a day til I get back up to speed.

The past few days have brought the return back to work (boo hiss!), a few trips back to the NIMITZ to move my stuff off, the delivery of 35+ pounds of laundry (which, if you're trying to get an idea of how much 35 lbs of laundry is, it completely fills the trunk of your standard 2009 Honda Civic) from deployment to Posh Wash (our local fluff 'n' fold) for a much-needed 24 hour turnaround on all of my laundry, a major holiday Passover (our first newlywed holiday finally!) and a lot of organizing and Yogurtland.

They've also brought not one, but TWO rounds of margaritas (which if you know me, you know I love a good marg!).

The first round came on Friday night at a fantastic restaurant in Old Town, San Diego. While I didn't drink this whole pitcher myself, I did enjoy the performance by the mariachi band that Dan called over to play for our table.

The second round of margaritas came on Saturday afternoon when I received a call that I had a flower delivery from a local florist and would I be available for delivery that afternoon. You can imagine my excitement (I audibly squealed) when I opened the door to see this  bouquet? glass? pitcher? of margarita shaped flowers from a group of wonderful, thoughtful, sweet and caring Chi Omegas. The gals were in Vegas this last weekend (I was obviously a little booked this weekend & couldn't make it) but we were still able to share a good marg (figuratively, I suppose) together, despite the distance. Thank you Bridgee, Lizzy B, molls & Noodle- I'm so grateful to have such wonderful friends as you- thank you for thinking of me and can't wait to hear stories of your trip to Vegas!

More to come later on True Life: I'm Home From Deployment

I'M HOME!

Hi everyone! So sorry I haven't blogged in the past SEVEN days (eek, sorry :/ )

But I have a good excuse, I swear. These two lovely ladies who watched the launch cycle of F/A-18's from Primary Flight Control and who met just about every Sailor onboard the Nimitz and who were CHAMPION Tigers for the past 5 days just kept me totally, completely busy!

That, combined with the fact that I was restless, emotional, stressed, nervous, anxious and everything in between meant that I didn't have a lot of time for work-related stuff, especially blogging.

But, I am HOME sweet home in San Diego, California, U.S.A! I promise to update over the next week or so about Seattle (which you can read about here, thanks to my good friend Molly V. who much more expeditiously documented our Seattle adventures), Tiger Cruise, Homecoming and re-adjusting to life back at home.

Thank you for all of your love, emails, blog post comments, care packages, facebook wall posts, prayers, shout-outs, support and help over the past 6 months. I know I certainly couldn't have done it with out you.

Well, as for me, I'm up much earlier than Dan (back to life as usual, right?) and am enjoying this perplexing set of remotes, Netflix, DVR and cable boxes sitting in front of me :)

Round 2

It looks like we're going to need to start Round 2 of this game. I am sorry to report that all of you are way, way, under. It has been fun for me to try and figure out exactly what kind of logic you used on this, but I feel like I can't declare Gaby the winner since he is SO far under

I can tell a lot of you tried to calculate the distance from San Diego to the Middle East. And while this was a logical route, unfortunately you may have neglected to remember that we are continually underway, all day, every day. Unlike a plane that flies, lands, waits for whatever it has to do and then flies back, we are continually moving and once we got there, we steamed around for 5 full months without stopping.

So, a clue is (which doesn't really help you calculate it, but it should give you a better gauge of how big a number it is): our total mileage steamed to date is more than if you circumnavigated the globe THREE TIMES at the Equator. Also, figuring out what speed a carrier NORMALLY steams at could also be of some help...

The game will run until Sundayday at 0800 PST (which is 1100 East Coast Time). That will give me some time to check my computer before I LEAVE THE SHIP!

Speaking of PST, today was yet another epic day because in addition to being only a week out, we officially arrived in Pacific Standard Time. My watch, iPhod, clock, computer and iPhone are now all in the same time zone, which is the same one as Dan, which makes me very very happy.

Well, it's only 11pm here but I am seriously hurting (I am trying so very hard to get rid of this cold that I have, but something tells me it can only be cured by San Diego sunshine and a good night's sleep in my own bed!) so I am going to try and continue to get as much sleep as possible. (Deployment record of 9 hours last night!!!)

Thanks for all of the well-wishes and encouragement, I really appreciate it and it's definitely helping me get through this next week! Tomorrow my Tigers fly to Seattle and only a little over 36 hours til I get to see them!!!

Let's Play a Game!

Who loves games? I do! I do!

You do too? Ok good, we're going to play a game!

This game came to my mind after I wrote the post yesterday about taking pictures of the little Civic's odometer every morning on our cross-country road trip (see yesterday's post). Tonight in the Zulu module, I found the big Nimitz's "odometer" which displays how many miles we've steamed since July 31, 2009.

This is going to be like the Price Is Right (Dan- you'll be good at this then! Everyone remember to ask Dan about the time that he and his 10 friends also coincidentally named "Dan" were on the Price is Right in Vegas during his Bachelor Party. Dan won a dinette!... ok, small fib. Dan actually won the choice between cash and a dinette and he went with the moo-lah, good choice Dan!... but how fun is it to say that "Dan won a dinette on the Price is Right!"? I feel like that is SOOO P.I.R. to win a "dinette"- who even uses that word in their vocabularly OTHER than when watching the Price is Right? Anyways, once again, I digress...) - the person who guesses closest WITHOUT going over is the WINNER!

So, now it's your turn to get to be on Price is Right (feel free to sport an oversized price-tag shaped nametag too while you post your answer). All you have to do is guess how many miles the USS NIMITZ has steamed so far this deployment.

There are two ways to play the game and I think that Dan and I take 2 opposite approachs to this problem, which is very much like "Guess How Many Jellybeans Are In This Jar?"- (I was never good at as a kid. I quickly picked a random number and instead pondered if I could eat them all myself and would they let me try?). Dan is much more strategizing when it comes to these types of things (which is probably why he won the dinette on Price Is Right, and illustrates in another way how smart I think he at Systems Engineering) and is very calculating and methodological at solving problems and challenges.

While not normally liking to admit that I am wrong, when it comes to this problem, I guarantee you that the Dan approach is much more effective and will most likely yield you an answer way closer than that one that I would have initially said ("I dunno, 2 MILLION nautical miles!!!").

I'm not going to give any clues yet, other than that fact that 1) I am on an aircraft carrier and 2) we've been gone since July 31, 2009. I look forward to hearing what you come up with. If everyone guesses the same way I usually do, then I will give a little bit of information to help you try and calculate it.

Winner gets a cool prize*. Submissions will be accepted until Sunday March 21st. I promise to read all comments/guesses and I will give a clue if it gets out of hand. Ready? Set? Go!



*Prize is yet to be determined. Coolness of the prize is in the eye of the giver (which is me), and the giver and winner's definition of "cool" may be different. That's not the point, but I promise that there is a prize involved. Thank you for playing and good luck :)

Single Digits

I feel like the title to this post says it all. I remember, back toward the end of December, when we went from being triple digits away from home to being double digits.

Today we hit single digits. Even more awesome is that my lucky number has always been "nine." Coincidence? I think not!