Thank goodness we are done with balls for the year!

I cannot tell you how happy I am that there are no more balls to attend this year! Let's just say that they are formal events for which I was not prepared to go to 2 a year. That's 2 dresses in 1 week that I had to wear because you know a girl cannot show up in the same dress!

Anyways, our division ball was this past Wednesday night and though obligatory, was slightly more fun than the regiment ball we attended last Friday night. After much pomp and circumstance to include sounding attention, order arms, playing the National Anthem, presentation of the birthday cake (because the whole reason we are at the ball is because it is the Marine Corps birthday), the reading of LeJeune's birthday message, and 2 other speeches, the guys were finally able to carry swords out of the ceremony. Talk about a lot of pomp and circumstance! If you're familiar with the ball, you will recall that there is a certain uniform that the guys wear, called Dress Blues, the most formal of all Marine Corps uniforms. All the guys are supposed to know that the official uniform for the ball are your Blues. One 2nd Lt unfortunately did not get that memo. And in Snapfish pics to come, you will see the lone guy in Service Alphas (the ugly green on the left when all the guys in the unit are posing for a pic). This 2nd Lt is now known as Service Alphas, which is not a nickname that anyone should want.

After dinner was served, the dance floor picked up starting off with the Electric Slide and then moving on to more contemporary urban classics from artists such as Soulja Boy and Flo-Rida. This was a dancing division! Lots of junior enlisted guys and girls were out on the dance floor doing the Superman, among other dances. A sight to see for sure! Unfortunately, our night had to end early as Jabbar had to actually go to work the next morning. Such a good captain setting an example that was not followed when Jabbar went to work the next day to find out that all the Communication (COMM) guys had overslept and were late for their exercise the next morning. As the Commanding Officer (CO), Jabbar was not too happy with his guys as I'm sure you could imagine.

The next day, while Jabbar was upset with the COMM guys, I went to go pick up Jabbar's car that had been at the shop getting a makeover due to an incident with a guard rail. If I hadn't told you anything had happened to it, you might not be able to tell from the pics.

The day after that was Friday and there we were, at another ball. This time for the regiment. Funny thing...Jabbar paid $150 for both of us to go to both balls only to find out that he had paid for the same memento at both balls. So there we all were...the same people at yet another ball 2 days after the first one, commenting that this seemed like deja vu. The only difference was the wives in different dresses. More pomp and circumstance to include, in the same order, as what I mentioned for the first ball. Only the regiment ball wasn't nearly as 'fun' as the division ball without the junior enlisted out on the dance floor.

Which brings us to this weekend and yesterday, Saturday, and Jabbar's herculean efforts to get our queen box spring up 3 stories on the outside of the house up to the master bedroom. After a stop at the local Home Depot store, which is called Make Man out here, and purchasing 50 meters of rope (way more than he needed), there he was, harnessing the box spring for its 3 story flight up to the roof. All I did was help push the box spring from the 1st floor away from the side of the house so that it wouldn't encounter much in its way. After that I went back up to the 3rd floor only to find that Jabbar had hauled the box spring up 3 stories and over the rooftop fence onto the rooftop terrace. All that Marine training came in handy! What with knowing how to harness a box spring (of all things!), making secure knots, and all that physical training in order to haul the thing up 3 stories! And after all that, he still had to haul the old mattress and box spring down to the 2nd floor for storage. Needless to say, after all that exerted strength, he was pretty much done for the day. Ha!

So now it's Sunday and I was hoping to be able to play today - snorkeling in November to be exact. But Mother Nature had different ideas with her downpour since last night through this morning. Although the rain has stopped for now, it is still a cloudy day which means no snorkeling for us. Instead, I think the day holds sugar cookies in my near future along with possibly another visit to Make Man in order to get my rooftop terrace herb garden started (now that there is no threat of needing to pull up any more box springs onto the terrace! Ha!).