Surprise Trip to Pomona

Hey everybody. Had a fairly normal week but an exciting weekend. On Friday we went and ate at Black Angus with our cashback bonus money from our credit card. We had enough bonus money that it paid for the meal for two, which was a ton of food. Yogurl had the filet mignon and I had the ribeye. I thought mine was better than hers, though significantly more fatty. Yummm. Anyway, we were so full that we took the dessert to go. I could have handled it right then, but Yogurl wouldn't have enjoyed it. We ate it at home while watching Seven Samurai. Great flick, by the way.

The most exciting thing this weekend, though, was my surprise trip. Yogurl and I got to bed just after midnight Saturday night. Then, at 1:15 I got a call from my gunny asking me to call him back. I was about to call him when he called on my cell phone, too. He said that a Marine from my unit had gotten arrested for being drunk in public. He wouldn't be available for pickup until around 7:30, and Gunny was catching a flight to Norfolk in the morning, so he couldn't go get him. He gave me a number to the police department where he was being held, which was in Pomona. For people not from So Cal, Pomona is about 85 miles from our place. I called the jail where he was and they said that he could be picked up right away. So off I went. I got there at like 3:30 and the police officer there told me that the group of Marines they had arrested were more then drunk in public, they were using and distributing ecstasy. After talking to them for a while, it turned out that the Marine I was there to pick up was not part of the ecstasy group, thank goodness. They let him out early so that I could take him home. I didn't end up getting home til about 7. I went to Sacrament meeting at 11, but then I went home and slept some more. So that was my first really unpleasant senior Marine moment. I'm sure there will be plenty more in the future.

Here is a picture of Yogurl with her new water bottle. I think I mentioned it last week. It's aluminum with resin so it is supposed to be safer, because it won't put plastic toxins into her water. Oh speaking of stuff like that, while we were at Costco, there was a sample of organic chocolate milk. I said something about it being organic and the lady who was giving out the samples said she'd grown up without organic stuff and was perfectly healthy. I was a little taken aback that she seemed to be bashing the food she was giving samples of, so I said something about people just liked having peace of mind when they buy their foods. Then she waved her arms around like a kinda crazy lady and said, "Well go ahead and waste your money buying overpriced organic foods then." I'd say that she probably doesn't work on commission.

Zoo

It's been a busy week here. I was running around all week getting finishing touches done on my commissioning package, which included an interview with a few officers from the air station. That interview didn't go quite so well as I hoped. It actually made me really frustrated that I was being grilled by a panel of officers because I want to become an officer, when some schmuck who just graduates from college would be greeted with open arms into officerdom. What's worse is that I still have to do another interview board with my higher command. Ugh.

I did manage to get this Friday as a day off for my birthday. It doesn't have to be the exact day, just in your birth month you get a day off. So I took it off and Yogurl and I went to the San Diego Zoo for my birthday. It was great! We saw all sorts of crazy animals. I also convinced Yogurl to take the skyfari ride with me, which was really fun. It takes you really high over the top of the whole park. You get to look down on all the animals in their cages from above. It was way cool. One of the best parts was at one of the shows they put on during the day, an owl flew right past us. I mean like 3 feet from us. I did my best to capture it in this video clip.I wasn't ready for him, but I did my best to get it. At the start of the video you see him at the bottom of the screen. Yogurl's favorite part was seeing a tree kangaroo with a baby in its pouch. The little baby stuck its head out and tried to swipe at some food in the feeding tray. It was really cute. The best part was that another kangaroo was sitting down examining his own clearly male genitalia, and a grown lady looking at him asked if he had a baby in his pouch too. The Galapagos Tortoise in this picture is nearly 150 years old and weighs 700 pounds. We saw a zoo worker coming out and giving him a glucosamine pill to help his arthritis. I guess he probably isn't as spry as when he was only 90.

Yogurl is happy to report that she survived putting on another relief society dinner thingy. You know, those activities where they get together and complain about men and eat desserts. Anyway, she was very stressed out, but it went just fine, of course. She is also excited that she got a new water bottle. It is aluminum with a resin coated interior so that there is no leaching of harmful chemicals into her drinking water. She is pretty excited to have it.

I guess that is it.