One-and-a-Half Day Weekend

Friday afternoon I spent pretty leisurely. I got my "compact" puzzle out... a lake-side sunset theme (that I bought in Florida). Turns out although it's 500 pieces, it's only 8" by 10" in size. So each piece is a little smaller than a dime! A little challenging when piecing together, but that makes it fun. I cleaned up a bit around the house, then had mac'n cheese for dinner as I watched two episodes of Tintin, and then a present from Linda, The House Without a Christmas Tree, which I enjoyed very much (thank you!). On the way home from work, I picked up my dry-cleaned dress blues, and also a lasagna dinner from Mike's next door (I successfully kept the lasagna off the blues) which I brought home to eat. :) This felt like the first day I didn't have to do something to take care of, or set up the house... only live in it... and suddenly I was very lonely. Talking to Mike really made me feel better.

Saturday I slept in way too long for my plan from the night before of heading to Richmond for a day trip. So I took it easy instead, had a nice breakfast, then took a shorter trip to the Virginia War Museum in Huntington Park, Newport News, on the east side of the James River. Been curious about it for a while, and I'm very glad I made the effort. Not only did they have a wonderful collection of things from every American war (including an original G. Washington letter and Capt. Harry S. Truman's WWI helmet), but they also had a very unique display of things from Germany, Japan and Italy during WWII.

After two hours in the museum, I stuck around outside and watched the sun set over the James River bridge from a park bench. I opened up Andrew Nelson's new book Fight for Grace for the first time, and really enjoyed that too. He was my small group leader in San Diego, so it's really neat to read his stuff! Stopped by Food Lion on the way home for hamburger and things, and made an amazing dinner while I watched Bing Crosby in Going My Way. Before stopping by chat, I got into searching for a particular Navy poster on allposters.com, and after looking through nearly 2,000 posters, I found it! It's the "Enlist and Help Him" one that I have on my Navy Times. Also picked up the "For Liberty's Sake" one while I was at it. :)

After Sunday's duty day, I was excited to be let off early on Monday. Unfortunately, I locked my keys in my car and had to wait a good long while for AAA and the Navy Police (escort required on base). The sonar tech I was driving home took me out to eat at Burger King, then I returned to the base to take a shower and do all my laundry. Had to break a $20 at McDonalds (coffee & cookie) so I could use quarters for the laundry. :) When I got home, I watched My Favorite Wife (Cary Grant), had Hamburger Helper for dinner, and had another nice long talk with my darling.

This afternoon I did a lot more on my puzzle (which is comfortably sitting out on the coffee table, as I intended it to be used for), ate some freshly cooked shrimp, salmon steak (that I picked up at the commissary on the way home), and brussel sprouts from the fridge, as I watched Hitch (Will Smith, 2005). 

Jw