Julian and Palomar Mtn.

Saturday we took a little road trip over to the mountain town of Julian. It's approximately 60 miles east of our house. On our drive there we took a little detour to Palomar Mountain to check out their observatory and 200 inch telescope. From the bottom to the top of Palomar Mountain was 12 miles, but it took us a good 45 minutes because the road was so windy. Going up and back we saw tons of motorcyclists flying on the road. A lot of the bikers were wearing the full body suits like the BMX guys do, hard core! The observatory at the top of the mountain was neat. We didn't get to see the telescope up close b/c it was closed for research, but we got to tour the museum and look at the telescope from a distance. It's humongous, apparently it's been used for a ton of astronomic discoveries and is still used every night for research. Before we headed out we ate a snack at the picnic area near the observatory and Manburger climbed this huge tree. Isn't he cute?
After that little side stop we drove on to Julian. When we got there it was already packed. Our first stop was the famous "Mom's" where we had lunch and some apple pie. Yummy! That's mainly what Julian is famous for these days...apple pie and apple orchards. It's pretty much a touristy town with lots of knick-knack stores, apple pie restaurants, and...bikers. Not really, but we sure did see a lot of bikers up there. Seems to be a popular spot to ride to. We only stayed for about 2 hours, that's really all you need to see it, unless you really like all the crafty stuff and herbal scented stuff. As for Manburger and I, a quick browse was enough, plus it was getting down right hot. I can't imagine who would travel up there in the summer, yuck!
One neat thing that was going on there was a May Fest to raise money for some local organizations. They had an ompah band playing in a parking lot there and were selling brats and hotdogs with sauerkraut, beans, and potato salad. Manburger got a plate right before we left and we sat and enjoyed the band for a bit. After that it was time to head back to our apartment in paradise. After taking a nap, Manburger and I thoroughly enjoyed a nice cool walk on the beach and looked for shells. Although it was nice to see Julian and the mountains, I definitely like living near the beach a lot more.

Kiss my Wife, Aye Aye, General!

Although I have not yet been selected as NCO of the Universe, though the Petertammensons assure me it is just around the corner, I did get some stuff this week for being MCI West NCO of the Quarter. The commanding general of MCI West, Major General Lehnert came last Monday to the Air Station to give me an award. I knew it was going to be that morning, so Yogurl came along with me. Well, in true air station fashion, they had no idea what was going on when we got there. So we were told to just go sit up front and wait for a minute, and they would tell us what to do when they had it all figured out. So Yogurl and I went and sat up front near the CO of my sqaudron, which made me uncomfortable enough. Then a few minutes later they call attention on deck and in walks the General. Fortunately, I had no idea what was going to happen. He spoke to the whole air station about the state of affairs in Iraq for a few minutes and then got on to the important part. Considering I had no idea what was going on, I think I handled the ceremony pretty well. A few things about the whole thing were pretty funny. To begin with, after I was in front of the general, Sergeant Major Titus called everybody to attention to read off the award. Then as she is reading it, General Lehnert kept asking me questions about where I was from and if I had any kids. I thought it was pretty funny. A little awkward though. I mean he is a General, he can speak whenever he feels like it, but I felt weird speaking while the Sergeant Major was talking. Then after he gives me some awards, he gets the sword out to give to me. So I switch my other awards over to my right hand so I can take it under my left arm. That is just how it is normally done. He sees me switch hands and goes, "Oh here let me have all that stuff, you can get it later." So he takes my stuff and just puts it on a stand off to the side. Then he hands me the sword in a way I wasn't expecting and looks at me like, "Well, here ya go, take it." So I took it and held it incorrectly for a minute. Once he had finished speaking, I quickly adjusted it so that I was holding it properly.
All this might not seem too awkward to you who are not in the military. This next part was the most awkward, though. Yogurl came over and kissed me afterwards, because the General had told her she had to after it was over. Then he says, "Oh no, you have to kiss him again so somebody can take a picture." So the air station CO gets up and takes the camera from Yogurl to take a picture of us. I thought he was ready, so I leaned over and kissed her, and just sat there waiting for the flash. I guess our camera was going slower than normal, because I swear we were kissing for at least 5 or 6 seconds waiting for him to take the picture. So there I am in uniform in front of the whole air station liplocked with my wife while the Commanding General is making my CO take a picture. Then after the picture is taken and we stop kissing, everybody starts clapping. I felt like I was in a teeny-bopper chick flick and not in the Marines.
Afterwards, the CO apologized to Yogurl for everything not being planned out better. He said the General just showed up and didn't want to waste any more time. It was really cool, though, and the General was a really nice guy. The sword I got from them is beautiful. It is only 30 inches long, though. So now I have a 30", a 32", and a 34". Yogurl wants me to sell one of them, and I think that is a reasonable demand.

Vacationing Visitors

We've had all sorts of visitors. Well, actually just a few. But important ones. Earlier in the month, Yogurl's parents came to visit us. It was lots of fun. We went to the beach and to the temple and we drove go-karts around. Yogurl didn't exactly have the killer instinct on the go-karts, but she did much better than the last time she drove one. Apparently last time she ended up just crying and not getting anywhere. Of course she was only 7, so we will cut her some slack. We also went and ate an Armenian restaurant where they had live belly-dancing. We don't have any pictures of that, but I think the folks do if you are interested. It was a great visit, and we were sure happy to see them.
Then I had my birthday. The big 2-4. Can you believe it? I am so old. I told Yogurl not to bother making me a cake, because I was putting on too much weight and didn't need the extra junk. Of course, she still tried to whip something up out of nothing. Nobody is perfect however. Not even Yogurl can make something yummy every time she cooks, and this was proof. She seemed to enjoy it, however, so she ate both of our servings.
Just last week, my brother and his wife came and brought their little baby boy. He is so cute. It was really fun to have them around. They didn't stay for very long, so we hope they come back soon and spend some more time with us.
If you haven't seen Spider-man 3 yet, you're wrong. You need to go and see it. It was sweet. I won't spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen it yet.
One last thing. Yogurl and I went to this place called Henry's Market because they said they were having a big Cinco de Mayo party. You know what they had to celebrate when we got there? Two free samples of tortilla chips. Wow. Great party guys. Yogurl and I went to a Mexican restaurant later to make up for the lack of festivity at Henry's.
That's it for now!

Way to go Manburger!

We have our camera-computer doo-hickey back so we can put up pictures again! Thank goodness! Can you believe it's already May? Where does the time go? Manburger has been up to his usual antics of impressing his wife with his sheer amazingness. This past Friday he was honored as NCO of the Quarter for the air station, and soon he'll receive an award as NCO of the Quarter for all of Marine Corps Installation West. What a Marine! He also shot Expert at the rifle range two weeks ago and has a new shooting badge to add to his uniform. And he gets a new ribbon for his uniforms too for receiving the NCO of Quarter award.
One day when he was at the range he was busy chatting with another Marine while their sights were being painted with sight-black (this is to prevent glare when shoooting). The guy who was putting sight-black on their sights noticed Manburger wasn't paying attention so he painted the end of Manburger's rifle with sight-black too. This is the result....
Looks like he's been out playing war games.

On the military note...this picture shows you why Yogurl should not be a Marine. Being married to one is good enough for me. I definitely look too friendly and silly to ever be tough. I'll leave that up to the real men. Yes, Manburger knows there is no chin-strap on his Kevlar (helmet). Apparently the guys issuing this stuff figure the airwingers aren't going to see any real action, so they give them "incomplete" gear.

Manburger also got to go golfing for the first time in his life. It was sponsored by the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. They paid for some Marines to go golf in a tournament. Needless to say Manburger didn't win anything, but he did learn a lot and had fun.

It was quite a while ago that I made my cake for our church cake auction, but here's a picture anyway. Just seeing the picture makes me want to take a big bite of it. Yum!
What Yogurl didn't mention is that her cake sold for $80! That was the second highest amount paid for a cake that night. The highest was for a pineapple upside down cake that didn't look nearly as good as hers, but sold for a lot due to nepotism. Yeah Yogurl!