Jet, Car, Ship and a Chipmunk

There is nothing better than drooling over the Blue Angels to distract one desperate HausFrau from an upcoming PCS. Just let me sit in my portable chair and pretend it's Maverick, Goose, IceMan and Viper up there & I'm one happy camper. Didn't hurt that Man provided me with ein bratwurst & zwei beers.

(High.Way. to the Dan-ger Zone!)

The girls were digging it too. One asked if I thought she should marry a pilot uh, no? ok, only if you have to & the other informed me that her Prince Charming would definitely be driving one of those thingies an FA-18 Hornet. Sigh. Please tell me, what am I doing wrong?!

Two days after flying high, it was time to hit the road. We sparkled up my car & drove out to the Baltimore Port. For the mere pocket change of $1300 and the relatively short time of 30 days, my Accord will be ready to rock-n-roll on the Autobahn.

This particular shipping adventure put me closer to the boat than ever before. For those of you who have shipped vehicles, have you ever seen the actual sailing vessel? I snapped this picture of Man driving my car up to the dock. The Wally-Willy is Bremerhaven bound & my car had better be on the 27 May sail date!

If you ever have to use the Mid-Atlantic Terminal at Baltimore, the guys who work there are extremely friendly & efficient. Yes, my friends, this is the vehicle we paid to ship commercially. Apparently, that provides a little bit of customer service that the government flat rate doesn't. After a 90 minute drive, two iced teas and one diet Pepsi, I floated right into the restroom of the MAT, where I found this sign:

Really? The nice shipping guys said it was the Ladies Room, but now I have my doubts. They probably play that trick on everyone. Right? Part of the shipping fee: sense of humor?

Once the car was out of sight & out of mind, I concentrated on unaccompanied baggage. Actually, I didn't think about it too much. I just dumped all the extra pillows & blankies on the office floor, tossed in 4 wine glasses and declared that good enough.

Very nice packers & movers came two days later and cleaned up my office for me! Gosh, with the right mindset (and 6 months notice and a burning desire to move far, far away from here) a PCS may actually be tolerable.

I know what you are thinking and I will neither confirm nor deny the consumption of any chemical enhancers or mood altering happy pills.

Who needs modern pharmaceuticals when your office looks like this?!

Actually, I think I might have to enhance myself with some Cab-Merlot tonight. Sadie, The BestCatEver, hand carried a chipmunk into the Haus last night. She batted it around, played with it, then grew tired and walked away. This is the same cat whose 5-day winning streak can be summed up as: Cat 4, Chipmunks 0.

Today, as I type this, we have a very skittish Charlie the Chipmunk living amongst us. I'll level with you . . . I've screamed twice in the last four hours and totally got the hibby-jeebies when Charlie dashed out from behind the trashcan and scurried-in-a-hurry right across my barefoot.

Can we all say in unison: Chipmunk 1, HausFrau 0?

Ok. Fine. I stood on the kitchen chair too.

And, darn near acted a fool.

And, Sadie, The BestCatEver . . .

could not care less.