Random Stuff

So, I tend to stay away from giveaways as a general rule. I don't really have any strong feelings about them, but I tend not to win, so it seems a waste of time. I couldn't resist entering (Army) wife's Sony Touch Giveaway this week, however. We have no way of getting books here unless we order online or fly to the States. I've been staring at the Kindle forever, but just haven't been able to rationalize spending so much for one. A free e-reader, however, that is something I will happily do.

The internet here is wireless, and sometimes sketchy. The last couple of days, it's been out completely and only came back on track this afternoon. I totally forgot about this giveaway until I checked my email and found out I'd won. I'm pretty excited about this. Technically, I won it for Oliver, but I'm not going to tell him about it until it comes. Although, it just occurred to me that they will probably email him for verification (as it was supposed to go to a service member), so maybe I'll have to say something anyway, haha. Anyway, it was a very nice surprise.

In other news, I got another email from the Facebook Team. Apparently, my account was hacked and is now frozen. So, if you got a message that I was in need of some serious funds, I hope you didn't take it seriously. Trust me, if I were ever in such dire straights, Facebook would not be where I'd be heading for help.

I'm actually thinking about just letting it go and not reactivating the account. I really only check it when someone messages me, and most everyone that is my "friend" on there, I have their actual email addresses. Also, I have no idea how I was hacked, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again.

I am not sure I ever really got Facebook in the first place. I know people say it's a great way to reconnect with people, and I did end up friending some people from my past, but I wouldn't say we ever "reconnected" on Facebook. It was mostly a matter of clicking yes, sending a couple messages, then never doing anything but reading the occasional status report. If that is somehow supposed to be "reconnecting", maybe I am a little unclear on the meaning of the word.

So, I don't know if it's worth the trouble to restart this account. I haven't made a cold hard decision yet, but if you never see me on there again, that is why.

Finally, Oliver has been told he needs to be in cammies by March. I'm very excited about this, but concerned because we have no uniform shop. I had planned to just call the NEX, but discovered we cannot call 1-800 numbers from. How utterly unhelpful, and baffling. (Have I told you lately how much I hate the phone system here?) The website where we have to buy them lists only the sizes, which are very unclear, not the measurements, so after puzzling over them for a half hour during a lunch break, we were left feeling very frustrated.

Luckily, I have a very helpful friend whose hubby was the CO of a boat back in Washington while we were there. All the COs, XOs, and COBs were wearing cammies long before anyone else, so she was able to give me some much needed help deciding on sizes and what exactly to buy. I did run up a decent phone bill because we haven't talked in a couple months and I really miss chatting with her, but it was totally worth it.

Now, I just have to make an order for him. Then, the sewing starts. Ugh; that is going to be some work, mostly because I will also have to look online for exactly where to put all the patches. I actually would have taken one set to a tailor shop if we had one just so I would have a handy reference for later (which is what I did with his first hash mark), but that's not really an option.

All this trouble will be worth it in the end, however. We get to toss his utilities into the garbage, and never, ever deal with them again. I hate, hate, hate that uniform. I don't know who dreamed it up, but they were clearly not an enlisted person who had to get down and dirty wearing it. When Oliver was on the submarine, he could ruin a pair in one day if he was on a paint crew or doing something involving grease. This cammie change is very overdue.