Back to the boat again

It's been over a month since I last checked on Icefire.  Yesterday seemed a good day to change that.  So, shortly before 10 am, I had the Admiral drop me off at the City Marina.  Low tide being predicted for 10:15, it was the right time to do what I had in mind.

You see, I finally got my pickup buoy back from Rob, the guy I purchased my mooring buoy from.  The jury-rigged setup that I initially used to tie the boat up has worked well, but the pickup buoy and pendant is really stout line, with chafe protection.  I've worried off and on about the existing lines chafing through, so I was eager to get that buoy and pendant attached.

It took a while to get out to the boat, though.  Over the last week, there have been 3 or 4 good rainfalls, and the dinghy was almost filled to the gunwales.  My trusty portable bilge pump worked it's magic, though (in about 20 minutes of work).  I'm not sure how much longer the pump's going to last, though: it's starting to leak all over the place, and the discharge hose won't stay in place very long.  But for now, it does the job.

The dinghy pumped out, I put all my gear in and went to start the outboard.......no dice.  15 minutes of working at it later, I said "Screw it!"  The cussed pull-cord was binding up and the engine wasn't even trying to turn over.  So I called the Admiral and told her to come get me, feeling glum.  She suggested we try again when my Mom show's up on Tuesday, so I could have another person along to help troubleshoot (the Admiral being encumbered by kiddies right now).  I responded that I could troubleshoot just fine, but I just didn't have any tools with me.  Muttering a bit as I hung up, I decided to give it one last try.  And wouldn't you know it, the engine sputtered to life immediately!  Go figure.  So, I quickly called her back and told her to never mind picking me up right then.

A short, enjoyable ride in 10 knots of 50F wind later, I was at the boat.  All looked in order from outside.  Quickly tying off the dinghy to the starboard quarter, I hopped aboard with the pickup buoy and surveyed the damage.  Well, there was no damage.  Yippee!  Going below, I found water in the bilge to about 1/2 inch below the bilge access covers.  Not too bad for 2.5 months on the buoy.  Putting the battery on the bus and turning on the bilge pump quickly took care of that.

With that, I donned my dive gloves and went up to the bow.  The mooring lines were in great shape.  Hardly chafed at all.  Money!  I was tempted to just leave things as they were, but I'd brought that buoy all the way there......

So I hauled the mooring ball up onto the bow pulpit to take a look.  All was well with my lines where I had threaded them through; a little chafing, but nothing worrisome.  It being low tide, there was a lot of slack on the actual mooring pendant, so I decided to haul the line in as far as I could.  Ideally, I would prefer to shackle the pickup buoy and pendant directly to the shackle portion of the main mooring, vice attaching it to the line portion (which will sooner or later be eaten up by barnacles and the like).  As I hauled up on the line, I came to a portion that was thicker, and I thought "Ah-ha!  I've reached the chain!"  But alas, I was wrong.  Plucking off some of the barnacle layer, I found just line beneath.  This remained true until I had pulled up all of the slack.  I guess there isn't all that much chain on the mooring pendant to work with.  Might have to change that.

Nevertheless, I was determined to hook up the pickup buoy.  So I threaded the shackle through part of the knotted area below the mooring buoy itself.  It's pretty secure there.  But I figured that it couldn't hurt to have redundancy.  So I tied the boat up using both the pickup buoy pendant and the mooring line I used before.  That way, if either fails, the other line will still be there.  I'm confident that the boat is secure until a hurricane comes now.  :)

So it was a successful trip.  I left feeling good about the boat's safety.

Now if only someone would put in an offer.......

The disease spreads.....

Yep, yet another blog has been created.  The Admiral has decided to chronicle her thoughts about life, the Universe, and everything for everyone to read.  It's called Chronicles of a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom).  Give it a read.

:)

Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas.  It's the most fun, happiest, prettiest time of year!  

Lights, tress, mistletoe, egg nog, Santa, carols...... it's so much fun.  How could you not love it?

This year, we spent Christmas here in Charleston, just us.  We had planned to drive to Indiana to see my Mam-maw.  She's getting up there in age, and morbid as it is to consider, I'm not sure how many more Christmases we'll have with her.  But finances conspired against us.  We're still reeling from some bad moves in the past (that house in Maine is one, but there are a couple others as well), and things are tight enough that we decided that we couldn't really afford to go traipsing off to Indiana this year.  In fact, after thinking it through, we decided that we've been completely accosted by visitors this year, and wouldn't it be nice to just spend Christmas alone with the kids to establish some family traditions of our own?

Needless to say, this was NOT popular with certain members of the Grandparent contingent.  We offered New Year's as a consolation prize.  Alas, not everyone is able to attend.  Oh well, maybe next year.

I must confess to throwing a big monkey wrench into our plans, though.  My mom makes this ridiculously awesome beef reduction sauce, which she always serves with a good roast and mashed potatoes.  A few years back, she taught me how to make it, and I made it for the Admiral.  She loved it.  This year, we decided to have roast and reduction again.

To make this sauce properly, you have to start boiling down beef broth with stewing beef a couple days in advance.  This I did, back on Wednesday.  Yesterday, the sauce was beginning to become tasty at around noon.  But we had a keg of Yeungling that we floated a while ago (I have a kegorator, because it's just much more economical to get a keg than to get a six-pack at a time; besides, beer on tap is SO much better than beer from a bottle or can, am I right?).  Rather than restock (that would be a LOT of beer to drink between now and February, when we have to move), I meant to return the keg to get the deposit back.  That $50 would come in handy (like I said, cash is a bit tight right now).  So we loaded into the car and rolled to the local Coast Guard Station (the cheapest kegs in town.....if you have an ID that will get you on base).  Before we left, I filled the pot to the rim.  We successfully returned the keg, but Sibylla looked like she was about to fall asleep.  Driving helps her take a nap (she's really bad at the afternoon naps she needs to take otherwise), so we decided to drive around for a bit.  After another hour or so of unsuccessfully getting her to sleep, we returned home.......to find the place filled with smoke!  The pot had boiled down completely and the beef and other addings were reduced to a charcoal cake at the bottom of the pan.  And boy did it stink!

It took a little while to clean up and air out the house (I left the pot to soak in soapy water for a while.....the only hope we have of not losing the pot entirely).  Then I ran to the Pig to get more broth, and I started over....feeling quite stupid.

We received a $50 gift card to Carrabas in a Christmas card, so we decided to go there for Christmas Eve dinner.  Loading the kids up into the car, we set out for some good Italian food.  Sibylla, having not taken her nap in the afternoon, only lasted through appetizers before she melted down.  So we had our waiter box up our entrées and we took off.  Unfortunately, I misread the wine list, so the bottle that I ordered, thinking it was $15, was in fact $39!  Oy.  That put us well over our $50.  That's ok, but what annoyed me was that our waiter was sortof scatterbrained and didn't pay us proper attention.  But I didn't have any small bills to give him the tip I felt appropriate for his rather poor service, and I didn't want to put any more on our debit card than absolutely necessary (because of the aforementioned tight budget).  So I ended up giving him a larger tip than he really earned.  But what the heck, it's Christmas Eve and he was working.  Maybe it's ok that I overtipped for mediocre service.

We drove around for a while on the way home, both to get Sibylla to sleep and because we had yet to drive around looking at lights so far this season.  It was a great time.

But when we returned the house was......full of smoke.  Again!  How in the heck did that happen, you ask?  Well, right before we left, I filled up the pot and (I thought) turned the burner down to its lowest setting.  But apparently I looked at the wrong end of the burner knob, because it was in fact turned down only to medium (with two sides to the knob, the wrong side pointed to low, while the side marked to indicate the setting was on medium).  So stupid me, I burned up the reduction sauce TWICE in 6 hours!

The Admiral was about ready to kill me, but she reigned in her ire when I pulled up NORAD's Santa Tracker website.  She thought that was the bomb, but forbad me to try again on the sauce.

This morning, we got up early and tore into presents.  Sibylla's gotten good at ripping them open, but Vasili doesn't understand what's going on yet (what do you expect?  He's turning 10 months tomorrow). Santa was good to the kids.  And to Dad, for that matter.  I got a LOT of cigars (courtesy of my Dad), always a happy day for me.  I also got a cool little starter video recorder from the Admiral and a multi-socket Black and Decker tool from the in-laws.  The Admiral got some running gear, some socks and slippers, and other great things.  :)

So right now, Sibylla's sleeping (I just got back from driving her around the block to achieve this), the Admiral is sifting through old baby clothes to determine which we shall keep and which we shall sell or give away.  I'm looking after Vasili.  We just finished A Christmas Story, and we didn't shoot our eyes out.  :)  So now I've put on Much Ado About Nothing: a great adaption of a Shakespearean comedy, starring Denzel and Keanu Reeves.  :)  Good stuff!

I've also tried one last time (with the Admiral's acquiescence) to make a semblance of the reduction sauce.  It won't be as rich as normal, but it will be something.  And we're not going anywhere to ruin it this time.  :)  I trust it will turn out well, all things considered.  

So anyway, it's been a good day so far.  Hope everyone else's has gone well.

Beginning to look like Christmas!

Yesterday we selected and set up our tree.  In years past, I've always gotten BIG trees, because what's Christmas without an awesome tree?  But we're a bit cramped in our little house here, so we kept the tree small this year.  It's still a lot of fun, and looks really nice.  Plus, the grandparents were awesome enough to supply a killer train that runs around it, just to amuse the kiddies (and us too).

Alas, poor Vasili.  The train scares him.  But he'll get over it.

The Admiral will call me insane, but I do envy the northeast right now, because they look totally like Christmas now, what with that big snowstorm and all.  Now don't get me wrong, I love the warm weather we get here in the south, but there's something to be said for having snow in the winter (especially at Christmas).  I love snowstorms, how it gets quiet and still, even in the middle of a bustling city.  I recall my years at BU, and how even in downtown Boston everything would seem to stop just before a snowstorm.  The light dims, the cloud ceiling lowers, it becomes quiet, and the day gets that almost oppressive feeling.  Then the flakes fall, and all is right with the world.  So yes, I do miss snow sometimes.

Good thing I feel that way, eh, since we'll be heading to upstate NY in a little over a month!  No, I still don't have written orders, but the move is a certainty.  It's just taking a little while to get through the administrative routing chain at the Naval Personnel Command.  So it's just a matter of time.  It's annoying, though, because I can't set up my move until I have orders in hand.  So January is going to be one busy month!

In the meantime, Christmas is gonna be fun.  Today we got a roast for dinner, which we'll accompany with mashed potatoes and a rich beef reduction sauce.  Mmmmm.....I can hardly wait.

Until next time, Merry Christmas!

Breaking my vow....

When I started doing this blog thing, I promised myself that I would do it regularly.  Part of the reason I decided to do it is because I've always thought I should keep a journal, but I never followed through with it.  I figured that blogging would be cool enough that I would stick with it.  But now, it's been over a week since my last entry.  And since I finished my sailing journey down the ICW, the posts have been fewer and fewer.

It seems I'm in danger of breaking my vow.

So I'm going to redouble my efforts and try to find something neat to write about each day.  Really, I will.

For instance, tonight I learned a new combination technique in karate.  11 Combination, it's called.  As with many techniques in Shaolin Kempo, it involves taking the bad guy to the ground.  But this one also is designed to rip the bad guy's leg out of its hip joint.  Or at least cause major pain in the hip joint.  So it's pretty cool.  :)

See?  There's always something to write about.  :)


Right.  Must escort the better half to bed now.  Until next time.....

Oy Vey,,,,,,,

I'm sure I spelled that wrong.....


Why do the Redskins suck so much????


Even today, when they played the best game they've played all year.......in the end......they suck!

Between Sean Suisam and Mike Sellers.....   No, scratch that.  Between Sean Suisam ALONE, they've lost this game to the Saints.  They should have been up 10 points with 3-4 minutes to go in the game, but Sean the SUCKY missed that chip-shot from 20 yards out!

And now, the Saints are gonna get a touchdown in overtime to win it (because Mike Sellers fumbled the ball).  But even without the Sellers fumble, it was Sean's miss that cost them the game.


For criminy's sake, why do I stick with this SUCKY team??????   WHY????????

Gained some weight......

.....but then, that's what you're supposed to do over Thanksgiving, right?

It's been a good, busy, fun weekend.  Except for the frickin Redskins.  Man, they suck!  Why do I love them when they suck so much??

Pretty much everybody came over for Thanksgiving: my Mom and Dad AND Ericka's Mom and Dad.  Normally my Mom and Dad together is a recipe for disaster, and we were very apprehensive about it.  But I made it clear to both of them that at the first snide comment from either of them to either of them, they were both out and would never be invited again.

It worked.  Everyone got along well.  For the most part.

Thursday morning, we got up at the normal time and headed downtown for the 32nd annual Turkey Day Run.  It's a 5k that starts and ends in Marion square, and features Hashers pouring beer for the runners at the end.  :)  Gotta love the Hashers.  I ran and Ericka walked it with here parents and the kiddies in her Bob stroller.  Upon finishing (25:24 was my time: just about an 8 min mile.....not too bad), I turned around and walked back to meet them, then finished again.  Then after lounging and getting a beer, we took off for brunch at IHOP.  Mmm......gotta love it.

Once we were home, it was all about the cooking.  There was a bit of chaos, of course, in our kitchen, but it all came out well.  If I do say so myself, I must assess my chicken and dumplings this year to be the best I've ever made.  And of course, my gravy was great.  :)  After dinner, we all went out to the Festival of Lights again.  As usual, it was wicked fun.  This time, though, we almost killed ourselves on the way back home, because both Ericka and I were barely awake for the trip.  We made it, though, and got a good night's sleep.

The best thing about Thanksgiving was all the wine everybody brought.  For once, our wine rack was full! It looked and felt good.  :)  Of course, it's less full now, but what are you gonna do, right?

I honestly don't recall exactly what we did on Friday, but a lot of the rest of the weekend was devoted to finishing two projects for my MBA classes.  I had a process flow analysis paper due for my Operations Management class and a group intellectual property plan paper/presentation due for my International Intellectual Property class.  Wicked fun, eh?  Oy.....  On the bright side, they're both done, for better or worse.  :)  That just leaves the final in my OM class (a week from tomorrow), and I'm done for the quarter.  Woohoo!

Ericka's snoozing right now, with Speed playing in the background.  This is the second night in a row we've tried to watch it (it's a bit cheesy, but it's a fun flick and it's been a while since we saw it).  The problem with trying to watch movies with Ericka at night, though, is that she falls asleep, without fail, 1/3 of the way through.  Oh well.  We love her anyway.

Yes, that's the royal we.

Not much else to report.  We've got our house back, and we're starting to ponder how to go about house-hunting up in NY.  We're debating whether to take my 10 days of house-hunting leave in January or just find a place during my leave and transit time between commands.  The problem is that if we wait until we're actually moving, there's no guarantee that we'll find a place that'll be available when we need it.  The Navy will reimburse up to 10 days on hotel fees during a move, but if it takes longer than that, we'll be eating the cost.  On the other hand, it's pretty much going to be 2 days up there and 2 days back, with the kids, for the house-hunting trip, which just leaves 6 days up there.  Should be plenty of time, but all in all it's a lot of hassle.

No decision's made yet.  We'll see what my orders say; that'll make a difference in how we play it.

Still no nibbles on the boat.  Here's hoping someone becomes interested.  :)

Selling Out

Since I'm moving to Saratoga Springs, I need to deal with Icefire, my beloved sailboat.  She's secure on the mooring buoy here in Charleston.  But come hurricane season, I can forsee all kinds of potential disasters with leaving her here.  To say nothing about it being a generally bad idea to leave a boat unattended on the water for months or years.

It's conceivable to sail her back up the ICW, then up the Jersey coast, then up the Hudson.  I'm not sure how far up the Hudson I could get her (I haven't looked into bridge heights, water depth, rapids, and the like), but I could get her at least CLOSE to my new home.

But that all requires time, and more importantly money, that I really don't have right now. 

The next best choice is to haul her out of the water and store her on the hard.  But again, that starts costing cash.  Given all of our woes recently with the short sale and other things, the only reason I deemed it feasible to keep the boat was that I own the mooring buoy here and so storing the boat costs us nothing.  Paying for storage on the hard......not a good choice right now.

Beyond that, reality has been slowly settling in over the last year.  With two wee little kids in the house, the Admiral is now less enthused about going out on the boat (at least for a couple years).  And beyond that, she really wants a bigger boat (spoken: catamaran).  For that matter, I do too.

So I think the time has come to offer Icefire up for sale.   That link to the left is the craigslist ad.  I don't think I'm out of the box to ask $18.5k for the boat, all the gear on her, the dinghy, and the mooring buoy.  Yeah I could keep the mooring and rent it out, but I've also learned that moorings can be really hard to police if you're not there keeping an eye on them, let alone if you're 1000 miles away.

I'll use the proceeds to pay off a couple debts, help finance the move, and establish an emergency fund (finally).

So here's hoping I get some reasonable offers before I leave.  We'll see.

If you're reading this, spread the word!

Put me in, Coach....

.....I'm ready to play.


That's what I told Dave the Detailer yesterday afternoon.  So he's officially nominating me for the XO job at NPTU Ballston Spa.

The die is cast.

So assuming Naval Reactors approves me for the job, we'll be heading to Saratoga Springs in mid to late February.  Now that I've accepted what the fates have decreed (not that I believe in fate, but it's a useful turn of phrase), I'm beginning to look forward to it.  When I was there before, I enjoyed Saratoga itself quite a lot.  It's a great town, and a great area.

Should be fun.

Lots to Ponder.....

First, allow me to give the Redskins a big KICK in the JUNK!


DUDES!  YOU HAD THAT GAME!!!!  HOW COULD YOU DROP THE BALL LIKE THAT??????


Oh wait......you SUCK!




Frickin Daniel Snyder........



It really sucks to love a team who continually grabs defeat from the jaws of victory.  ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Ok.....I'm better now......



So I have a serious life decision to make.  Well, I've pretty much already made it, but I need one more positive consult before it becomes official.

Those who know me know that I love Charleston, SC to pieces.  It has been the place that I want to retire to and not leave (except for the around the world sailing cruise that I've always dreamed about) for a number of years now.   That said, I knew I would have to leave again, because I'm still active duty and my stint at any particular job can only last for 2 to 3 years at most.  However, I was not expecting the phone call I received from the detailer (the guy who assigns officers to their jobs) on Friday.  I sent him an email about 6 months ago stating that my CO would be amenable to my leaving early if a good opportunity raised its head, one that would raise my chances for promotion to Commander (my next rank....O-5.....Lt Colonel, to you non-Navy types), and that I really wanted such a job.  I had visions of being called to be the XO on a new-construction submarine in the shipyard (probably because of all the available jobs, that was the one I wanted most....next to being an XO on a submarine at sea, that is).  Instead, Dave the Detailer called and offered me the XO job at NPTU Ballston Spa!

If you're not a Navy Nuke, you have no idea what that means, so I will explain.  When a guy or gal wants to become a nuclear trained sailor in the Navy, he must first (assuming he's an officer) graduate from college and get commissioned.  Then he must go to Nuclear Power School (where I currently serve as Director of Academics on the enlisted side).  Upon graduation, he goes to one of the two Nuclear Power Training Units (NPTUs), either in Charleston or Ballston Spa, NY.  There, he (and I say he because until this time next year only guys go to submarines) trains and qualifies as an operator on a real nuclear power plant, designed to be the same as those in the fleet.  Once completing quals at NPTU, he goes to sea certified as a safe operator.

When I went through the pipeline, I determined that Nuclear Power School was ruthless, in that no sooner did you pass one hurdle, but another (larger) one was placed in front of you.  But I also determined that prototype (NPTU) was pure evil, and its instructors were the spawn of the devil.  From this, you may surmise that I did not enjoy my time at NPTU.  Or even that I pledged to never return to NPTU even if my children were threatened to be roasted alive unless I consented to go.

And if you surmised that, you would be correct.

NPTU was the command that convinced me that I hate Naval Nuclear Power in all its forms.  And I have yet to have an experience to convince me otherwise.  Even when I was an instructor at Nuclear Power School (an easy job that I enjoyed immensely.....when I wasn't at work....which was often.....although that's not entirely fair.....I did enjoy interacting with the students and helping them....I derived a lot of pride from helping them understand and learn things they didn't think they could....and when I later encountered them as successful officers in their own right, I felt pride in thinking I had something to do with that, especially when a few of them said they wouldn't have made it if not for me), and now as Director of Academics (even though I enjoy my current job a lot), I still have an aversion to many aspects of the Naval Nuclear Power mindset.

So why, oh why, would I ever even THINK of taking this job??????

It's simple.  Money.  Well, not really money.  Promotability.

I'm a Lieutenant Commander now.  To become a full Commander, one has to serve as an Executive Officer (XO), or do things that are just as good as being an XO.  My current job is designated by the submarine force as being "equivalent to XO".  That means they've told the promotion board that what I do is the same responsibility as being an XO on a sub.  And there's a certain amount of truth to that.  I have 120+ instructors who work for me, and we're collectively responsible for training almost 3000 sailors each year in the principals of nuclear power.   But it's still not an XO job.  In the last 10 years or so, it's about 50/50 for guys to make Commander out of this billet.  The NPTU XO job is 100% to commander.  So for a guy who wants to go as far as he can, what's the right answer?  I think it's obvious......

You might ask, "Dude, why don't you just go be an XO on a submarine?"   Well, if only it were so easy.  That surely was my goal.  Or at least, it was a waypoint along the path to my goal of being captain of a submarine (because one cannot be captain of a sub without first being XO of a sub).  But alas, the vagaries of the Navy selection process were not in my favor.

When the submarine force selects people for the next career milestone, they have a couple different designations for people.  First, they screen people for XO.  These are the guys who are going to be XOs on subs no matter what.  Then they screen 15 guys as XOSS.  These are the guys who COULD become XOs, but they're on the bench waiting for the call.  Then they screen guys as "Not Screened".  These guys won't be XOs no matter what, and thanks for playing....go find another community in the Navy or get out.   That may sound harsh, but it is the reality of things.  We don't need just anyone being skipper of a submarine, after all.

Well, I'm one of the XOSS guys.

So when I got the word from the Pentagon that my current job was open, I screamed and hollered to get it.  Because while it wasn't an XO job, it was deemed XO-equivalent by the sub force, so it was infinitely better than a job in the Pentagon as a slide chimp for the admiral.  I would have some actual responsibility and at least a prospect at promotion if I didn't get called to be an XO (and one of the Captains at my command at the Pentagon had seen the list and assured me that I was at the bottom of the XOSS list, making my probability of being called to XO only slightly greater than 0.00%).  So that meant that I needed this job, or I was done.  The admiral agreed, so I came to Charleston.

Now, I've been offered this job as XO.  I should jump at it.  But in being offered the job, I learned a few things.  Primarily, the detailer revealed that, while I was ranked below a number of other guys on the XOSS list, they had not been recommended to be XO by their captains at sea, while I was.  This pissed me off to no end, because while he couldn't offer me an XO-at-sea job before these guys, he COULD offer me an XO ashore job and feel confident that I would be approved for it ahead of then.  To this I say, "How in the HELL am I ranked BELOW guys who weren't even recommended for XO by their skippers, while I was?????"

I don't think I'm being overly sensitive when I say this is utter BULLCRAP!!!!!!!!!

But that's how it is.  I can't change it, so I have to live within it.  And lord knows, I am 90% ready to take the job.  Right now, it's most important to me, career-wise, to do everything I can to make Commander (O-5).  Less than that, and I'll feel like a total cad and a failure when I try to retire from the Navy.  And I'll get a substantially lower retirement pay, too.  Going to this new job should ensure that, unless I totally stink it up, I'll get promoted.

But I have to think about Vasili.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know about his atrial septal defect.  He needs heart surgery in the next couple years to correct the hole between the atria of his heart so he can have a long, healthy life.  The hospital here in Charleston is among the top 30 in the country for pediatric cardiology, and we have great confidence in the care Vasili will receive here.  If we go to Saratoga Springs, we could schedule his operation at Boston Childrens Hospital (ranked #1 in the country by US News and World Reports).  And that's great.....but I need confirmation from the cardiologist that his condition won't likely need an emergency surgery.  Because while I'm comfortable scheduling his surgery in a hospital 4.5 hours away from where we'll be (that's about how long it takes to drive to Boston from Saratoga), I wouldn't want to put him in a position to need emergency care RIGHT NOW, but be unable to obtain it.

If I understood the doctor correctly in our last consult, I think the odds of his needing an emergent surgery that can't wait 4 hours is really, really low.   But I want to consult with her again before I make a final decisions.

Ericka, the Admiral, has already started thinking in terms of moving to Saratoga.  And so I have.  But I won't tell the detailer that I'm accepting orders until I know it won't screw Vasili.

I know that if I don't take these orders, I can't expect another shot at an XO job.  I sent the detailer an email 6 months ago telling him to call me if any XO or O-5 making billets come open.  Because of that email, he called me for this job before anyone else.  So I know if I refuse it, I'll go to the bottom of the list for other great jobs.  But obviously it's more important to make sure that Vasili is cared for and gets the best chance to live his life to the full.

Lord, I hope that the cardiologist tells me that there is no problem with moving.  I know it's selfish, but I really want to be promotable.  I know working at NPTU will suck, but I still want to do it, if only for the long term benefits of promotion.

Here's hoping...........