Sillygeuse

I am working part time at my son’s gymnastics center for their summer camp program. One of our campers is a nine year old with Asperger’s syndrome. While most of the counselors have a difficult time managing this boy, he and I have no issues communicating and interacting. This evening, I received an email from him just saying hello. I don’t know why, but knowing that our relationship means something to him, means the world to me.

Just when I think my life is in the can, along comes Heather to brighten my day. She calls me to tell me that her doctors have sent a Red Cross message to have her husband redeployed back home. She finds out from the Red Cross that her doctors, who have not told her anything yet, requested that her husband returned because her life is in imminent danger. Yep! Looks like the cancer is back. Oh yeah, and after that conversation, pest control showed up to tell her she must evacuate her home so they can do a termite treatment. She has to evacuate for two weeks, undergo further radiation, and raise her three girls alone until her husband is brought home. Kinda makes my issue with Baker Hughes seem minor, eh?

The little one is Roxy, our newest family member. She is a rescue that has warmed all of our hearts. Today we took on the added responsibility of keeping another dog, (this makes four plus two cats), for a few days, and as much as Roxy annoys my other two canines, they actually stood up for their pack mate when she was having trouble deciding if the visitor was acceptable. It was amazing to watch three dogs work as a pack to not only defend one another, but to defend their alpha as well. Needless to say, with a Boxer, a Lab, a Pit Bull mix, and a Rottweiler, this would not be the house to burglarize this week. Don’t you know I will come home to find body parts strewn across the house tomorrow!

I think men exist in a different time period than women. Perhaps we are all only off by a few seconds, but I find the evidence to be overwhelming. Take, for example, a moment out of my evening. As I wait in the car for my husband to pump gasoline, he pops his head in the window and asks, “what was that?”, to which I replied, “I didn’t say anything.” I had not said anything. I then thought of something to ask, did just that, and with his head still in the window he just stared at me blankly as if I had not spoken at all. That moment got me thinking about how many times during the day this situation occurs, and I must say it is quite frequent. Perhaps this is where the communication issue truly lies instead of the accepted theory that women have more words to use in a day than a man. Perhaps men are just a second or two ahead of women in time. Odd.

I’ve always been one of those women who does her best to be kind, yet honest, with everyone. I’ve got plenty of good friends, but none of them live in the same city, much less state, that I do. What I’ve found here in my new home, (okay we’ve been here for about nine months), is that no one is really honest here. They are all friendly enough, but when it comes down to it, I am very much not included. I try not to let the “missed” invitations get at me, but after so many, it becomes an emotional burden. I suppose coming from a military town, I have become someone who finds commonality quickly as most military spouses do. It has become evident to me that this is not the case in the civilian world. In fact, the only way I found part time employment was through another former military spouse. So, just to add to the difficulties of leaving my comfort zone and my husband losing his employment, let’s add a good dose of exclusion. Gotta love the South! Oh, and by the way, I am just whining here because I don’t need my DH having this stress added to his world. I apologize for a silly emotional post, so please don’t beat me up for it!

Just when you think everything is going fine, the universe drops an atom bomb on your life. I disappeared for a while because everything went haywire and it has taken a bit to put the pieces of life back together. The good news is that my husband is home and our relationship is definitely on the upswing. I prayed for a change, and I got my wish answered, albeit differently than expected. He was terminated from Baker Hughes Inteq based on lies and false accusations by his direct supervisor. He’s always had a tenuous relationship with the man, and unfortunately, he was able to build a house of cards that led to his ability to terminate my husband. Hopefully, justice will be served and the house of cards will fall at his feet. We’ve taken steps to ensure an investigation is done through the company’s ethics hotline, (odd that I found out about it online and not through any paperwork that my husband was supposed to have received when hired), and we’ve filed a wage claim with the state in order to collect a large sum of unpaid wages. On top of that, my daughter was the target of a bully at school, and her softball coach decided to degrade the team and specifically target one of her teammates. Thankfully, her principal took immediate action upon my notification, and the situation was corrected. Her softball coach underwent a “trial” and has been replaced by a wonderful mom who stepped up to help. My husband has decided to go into insurance sales and has passed the first two exams with flying colors. His father has offered to share office space and will abosrb the cost until we are prepared to take financial responsibilty for our part. I’ve undergone just about every emotion possible, but I am stable now and able to communicate and create again. I’ve taken on a part time teaching position at my middle child’s preschool, and I’ve found that I truly enjoy teaching. It is amazing how preschoolers can warm your heart and show you that every challenge can be conquered. When life hands you lemons, a preschooler can make you a gallon of lemonade with just a simple “tank you, tea-sure.”

I am looking for a pattern that will allow me to make the skirt above. I want this style with a 17′ to 19″ outseam. I haven’t found what I want online and do not have time to spend an hour in Joann’s in order to find it. So, if anyone has any suggestions, please give me a holler!

NYTimes.com
Cut Undersea Cables Raise Questions of Safety
Tuesday February 5, 11:38 pm ET
By HEATHER TIMMONS

NEW DELHI — Four undersea communication cables have been cut in the last week, raising questions about the safety of the network that handles most of the world’s Internet and telephone traffic.

Most telecommunications specialists and cable operators say that sabotage seems unlikely, but no one knows specifically how the cables were damaged or if the incidents were related. The Egyptian government on Sunday dismissed one theory — that a ship traveling off course because of bad weather was responsible for severing the first two cables last week. No ships passed the area in the Mediterranean where the cables were located, the country’s Ministry of Communications said.

“This has been an eye-opener for us, and everyone in the telecom industry worldwide,” said Col. R.S. Parihar, the secretary of the Internet Service Providers Association of India. Today, the cause of the problem may have been an anchor, “but what if it is sabotage tomorrow?” Mr. Parihar asked.

“These are owned by private operators,” he said, “and there are no governments or armies protecting these cables.”

Most recently, a cable operated by Q-Tel of Qatar, which linked Qatar to the United Arab Emirates, was cut Friday. Communications in the Middle East have been hardest hit by the damage, though India, the United States and Europe have also experienced slowdowns.

Telecommunications operators have been trying to diversify the routes used for transmissions, said Alan Mauldin, research director with TeleGeography Research, particularly since an earthquake in Taiwan in 2006 disrupted service in Asia.

The cable network contains “choke points” — like those off the coast of Egypt and Singapore where many cables run, Mr. Mauldin said.

A spokesman for Q-Tel, Adel al Mutawa, said Qatar was operating at about 60 percent of telephone capacity, but that Internet and data transmission services were running at normal speed. Most telecommunications companies affected by the cuts in the last week rerouted service through other cables. Q-Tel will not know what caused the rupture in the Qatar-UAE Submarine Cable System until it sends a repair ship to pull the cable off the ocean floor, Mr. Mutawa said.

Undersea cables carry about 95 percent of the world’s telephone and Internet traffic, according to the International Cable Protection Committee, an 86-member group that works with fishing, mining and drilling companies to curb damage to submarine cables. Information travels faster and less expensively under the ocean than it does via satellite, and undersea cable transmission is gaining market share, the group said.

The Egyptinan Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said Sunday that no ships had passed through the area in the Mediterranean where two cables, known as the Sea Me We 4 and Flag’s Europe-Asia cable, were cut earlier last week.

“The site is a restricted area, which excludes the possibility that the malfunction resulted from a crossing ship,” the agency said. Internet efficiency in Egypt has reached about 70 percent, the statement said.

A third cable, known as Falcon, was cut Friday morning about 35 miles off the coast of Dubai in the Gulf. Wet, windy weather in some areas around the Gulf has shut ports and delayed ships.

Two of the damaged cables, the Flag Europe-Asia cable and Falcon, are owned by Flag Telecom, a subsidiary of the Indian conglomerate Reliance ADA Group.

Flag Telecom has never had two cables down at the same time in the region, a spokesman, Vineet Kumar, said. Flag Telecom’s network is one of the “newest in existence” so it would be unlikely the cables would break because of age or wear and tear.

“There has to be something very abnormal” for these cables to be cut, Mr. Kumar said, but added that the company would not know what that was until the cables are pulled up and repaired.

But he ruled out sabotage, noting that if someone was trying to cut off communications to the Middle East, they would have also damaged the other cables that are still operating.

The most interesting facet of this story is what I think I’ve realized today. Hotmail has been down since cable number five was mysteriously cut. Does this mean that the servers are based overseas? Curious. I don’t know how comfortable I am with that realization, correct or otherwise. It’s just too coincidental for my taste. I may revert to gmail afterall.

Okay I need some parenting help! My 17 month old keeps vomiting only at night. It isn’t at the end of a crying jag or the result of a night terror. We’ve taken him off of formula, and yet, he still vomits. He doesn’t have a fever. He acts perfectly normal. He doesn’t vomit at nap time which is in the exact same bed. What in the world could be the issue?

I just received a phone call from a dear friend. She’s been battling the big “C” for four years now, and she’s only 24 years old. That wasn’t the point to the phone call, though. The point was to tell me that her husband just told her he wants a divorce. He isn’t in love with her anymore. He’s a soldier and is scheduled to deploy in April. He wants her to stay in the house with him until then. Before this came up he said that although she will be facing a round of radiation and chemotherapy, he will not request to remain on rear detachment and stay stateside. Instead, he is more concerned about what the other soldiers will call him if he doesn’t deploy…for a third tour. Now he’s decided he wants a divorce? I’m starting to think that I just may know the most selfish man on the planet. We all know that my friend has no more than five to ten years left, and they have three small children. How in the world can any of this be explained to the girls? What does he plan to do when his soon to be ex-wife passes and suddenly he is faced with raising three girls on his own? I can make this promise publicly: As much as I care for him, I will do everything I can to ensure that the girls will have a stable home…with me. Enough is enough.