My Place in History

March 1st I took a new job, working for U.S. Central Command's Legislative Affairs Office. My job entails providing Congress with the information they need to make informed decisions about the budget and policies relating to the US and coalition forces efforts over in the Middle East.

The first day on the job I was escorting Admiral William "Fox" Fallon, the Commander of Central Command to hearings on the Hill. He is a 4 star Admiral. I've only ever met two other 4 stars in my career--Admiral Vern Clark and Admiral Mike Mullen, both Chief's of Naval Operations at the time. However, with ADM Clark and ADM Mullen, it was more just a photo-op and handshake, one in the Persian Gulf, one at the Pentagon, and no actual conversation.

But with ADM Fallon, he actually had conversations with me, was genuinely interested in me and my life, and it was a very surreal experience for me! I thoroughly enjoyed the week I spent escorting him to the hearings, and at the end of the week, when the Admiral climbed back out of his vehicle to specifically thank me for my work and to tell me he was happy I'd joined the team, I could not believe my fortune! I then left for 2 weeks of vacation.

A sidebar to the week's hearings was the rumbling of an article that was to be published in Esquire magazine that didn't put the Admiral in a very good light with the President's Administration. I said my farewell to the Admiral on Thursday, and the following Tuesday, everything changed.

While on my two weeks leave, I received a phone call from a friend on the Hill telling me to turn the TV on. Having turned it off because I was tired of listening to the stories of the NY Governor who'd been exposed for his dealings with a prostitute, I turned it back on, not exactly knowing what to expect. Admiral Fallon had resigned!! I thought it was sad, really sad, that the media has this kind of power over our Nation. It wasn't 5 minutes later that I started receiving numerous emails and txt messages about the announcement. I was saddened, after all it's always great to have a boss who likes you! Now I had no idea what was going to happen, did I even have a job?

Turns out yes, I still have a job, and on Monday the 24th of March, I was able to take ADM Fallon to the Hill one last time. I then flew down to Tampa, Fl for all my in-processing for my new job.

Admiral Fallon is a runner, and of course was impressed by my triathlons. He actually led a command-wide formation run down at CENTCOM, and on Tuesday I was fortunate enought to get to run with him. It was a very short, slow 2 mile run, but pretty amazing when there are hundreds of folks running in formation shouting jodies, with the flags out in front waving as we jog around the base. At the end of the run he had a Commander's Call to explain to everyone why he was leaving. It was in that moment that I realized that this Nation is losing a great leader, and a selfless officer.



On Friday, I attended his Relinquishment of Command ceremony, attended by the Secretary of Defense, Dr. Robert Gates, and the Commander of Joint Chiefs of Staff, ADM Mike Mullen. It was a simple ceremony, lacking all the pomp and circumstance of normal retirements and changes of command, but it was amazing nonetheless.



I just know that this moment was a critical moment in the history of the war on terror, and while I wish I were still working for ADM Fallon, I'm glad that I was able to serve under him for even 4 weeks, and I wish him the best.

Fair Winds and Following Seas, Admiral!

Easter with Erik and Erin

Easter came so early this year! It awlays amazes me how we cannot have Santa and Christmas trees in school, and yet both Christmas and Easter are tied to the two pagen rituals of the Winter and Spring solstice! But I digress. It turns out that Easter is determined by the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring solstice....and this year is the absolute earliest Easter can ever be! And it won't be this early again for 200 years. Good thing, don't want to be caught off guard again, ha ha!


So, on Friday I hopped (get it, hopped?) into the car and started the never-gets-shorter-no-matter-how-much-you-drive-it 6 hour drive down to Jacksonville, NC. It was a beautifully sunny, albiet chilly day, so no top down. It got to C2E2 around 3pm and we had a great afternoon of fun in the backyard. Erin of course wanted a picnic, so we had carrots, grapes and hummus in the backyard while playing "Funny Bunny". Erin's actually pretty good, and can count very well! Time got away with us (as usual) and so we didn't get to have pizza and movie night, we just got to have pizza night, and then bathtime and storytime and then we went outside to check out the full moon. It was beautiful.

Saturday morning arrived early, and with the "coc-a-doodle-doo" of E2 waking Nene up at 8am. Guess vacation is over! We had a very full day planned, complete with yummy crepes made by Christopher, and then Erik wanted to ride his bike, but Nene didn't bring hers, so I ran with Erin in the stroller while Erik rode his bike. We did this for 30 minutes, or until Nene's arms were about to fall off. But it was fun. Then we "practiced" hiding and finding easter eggs for the better part of the afternoon. Finally we realized we had tons of things to do and were running out of time!

First, Grandma sent the kids an Easter gingerbread house, so we had fun decorating that, despite Mommy's efforts at breaking all the little furniture I'd made for the gingerbread backyard....



And no Easter is ever complete without the Easter Bunny cake! This is a great idea my sister found years ago, and we've been making it ever since. This year Erik and Erin got to do some of the creative design, and it turned out very well.



Then it was easter egg dying time. Holy Cow! We boiled 7 dozen eggs and Erik and Erin had half of them dyed in about 2 minutes flat!!! So much for thinking this would take a long time......but then they decided that they needed to redye the eggs, and by the end we had a few that were a bit too brown, but overall, the eggs were very pretty and I'm sure the Easter Bunny (or Beagle) was very pleased with what we had to offer.

The kids had just seen Swiss Family Robinson for the first time a few weeks ago, and absolutely had to share that movie with Nene--it's the best movie ever! With Tigers, and snakes, and pirates, ARRRRRR!!!!!

We still had cookies to decorate, and cornish game hens to grill. Oh, where was the time going!?!

Finally got the kids to bed, and then we really had to get down to work. The Easter Bunny had over 84 hard-boiled eggs and 100 plastic eggs to stuff and hide. Not to mention Easter baskets! It was another late night for all.



Easter morning arrived again with the rooster at 8am and then a frenzy of "I see one" or "there's an egg", "oooo jelly beans!!!". Baskets were found quickly, and were quickly overflowing with eggs.

The suprise of the morning came when Erin found a very pretty egg down by Noah's Ark and went to pick it up, but her grip was a bit tight and she cracked the egg. That's when we discovered that in fact we had not hard-boiled 84 eggs. There were apparently a few that we only soft-boiled, or barely boiled at all.......

Let's just say we pretty much lost our appetites after a few egg fights at the breakfast table and the eggs looked more like the Cadberry's than something on a Cobb salad.

We spent the rest of the morning hiding and rehiding and rehiding easter eggs until it was time for Nene to go.


As always, the visits are too few and too short, but it was so great to spend Easter with everyone!

Spring Break in San Diego

I try to get back to San Diego at least once a quarter, just so I remember that DC really isn't where I want to end up. So, while "in between" jobs, I decided to leave the cold weather and head to San Diego to get in some tri training and hang with all my friends who are out west.

I flew out Thursday-Tuesday of St. Patty's Day weekend, and wouldn't you know that it had been 80 degrees all week, but when I arrived the highs were only in the low 60's. Oh well, one look at the sun and sand and sea, and I was home again.











Friday I took in a swim at the outdoor pool, and then went for a short bike ride up on Cabrillo. It was grey and overcast, but still, I was looking at palm trees! Then, as I headed up to La Jolla to meet up with Jess and the Tri Club for the first Friday night cove swim of the season, the marine layer disappated and the sun came out. It was amazing! The swim was great, the seas were a bit rough, but it was just awesome to be in the open water. We all then headed to Jose's afterwards for a great mexican dinner and cervesa!! I love San Diego.

Saturday morning Jess, her boyfriend Pat and I all went to the Del Mar ride. Usually this ride goes up and down the coast on PCH, but today we decided to go inland. OMG, I forgot how hilly San Diego can be! We did a great 48 mile ride though places I've never seen before, and it was really awesome, so great to have so many riders out there! We were pretty beat afterwards, I fell asleep at the pool, and poor Jess had to do her homework.


Saturday night all the Bellas in San Diego to together and we went to my favorite restaurant, the Wine Vault and Bistro, for a 5 course pairing dinner. It was fantastic! I wish we had something like that out here in DC. The owners are the nicest folks ever, and took care of us.


Sunday we were supposed to do the club tri, but after all that wine Saturday night, and a freak rain/thunder/lightning storm in the middle of the night (it never thunders in San Diego), Jess and I decided that we needed to sleep in rather than get up at 5:30 on a Sunday.....so we skipped the race (which turned into a du due to the rain) and instead headed back out to Del Mar for a nice 8 mile run along the coast. It was beautiful, and wonderful to see the runners, bikers, and surfers out!!

Finally it was warm enough for me to actually get some sunning in, so I was out at the pool for a few hours on Sunday, but we just had a lazy quiet evening at home that night.


Monday was St. Patrick's Day, and San Diego always rolls out the green carpet for the celebration. Bryant and I got tickets for the Shamrock Fest downtown, but he had to work during the day.

So, I went shopping, went for another outdoor pool swim and stopped by my old beach house in Ocean Beach. I miss that town!!



Then Bryant and I met at South Beach for a few drinks and their world-famous fish tacos (yummy lobster and shrimp!) then made our way downtown.











It was fun, great live bands, and lots of beer, but it wasn't quite the "Vail" experience without all my girlfriends with me. But we had a great time people watching and listening to the bands. We finally called it a night around midnight, and sadly I was on a plane early Tuesday morning back to DC.