I just switched from Republican to Democrat (Viking Kitties secretly switched his meds)

[Tax-chick]

Bill was more like Pat than seems reasonable, looking back. Not *quite* as crazy.

The appraiser is coming to see the house, about the re-fi, at noon or so. Cheerful man - when he called to make the appointment, he told me all about his family’s weekend hiking in the mountains!

[AnAmericanMother]

Even in the U.K. it used to be neutral, meaning to engage in light conversation (see Thackeray who used it in that sense, and not in connection with his adventuress Becky Sharp). If the Bright Young Things have given it sexual overtones, that's since my time (which is about contemporaneous with Thackeray and Trollope).

Oh, well. Another innocent expression hijacked by those obsessed with sex . . . .

[AnAmericanMother]

Poor Pat! Could he get used to the idea doing something interesting in shallow water?

[AnAmericanMother]

Wow. That reminds me of one of Kipling’s characters (in “My Son’s Wife”, a great story by the way). “’E’ll go anywhere so long as ‘tisn’t across running water. That gives ‘im ‘is seizures. Even talkin’ about it for fun like makes ‘im shake.’”

[Monkey Face]

Kinda like “hook up” here. Hooking up meant just that...hooking up a trailer to a truck, or hooking up electric wiring...

Of course, my friend from Scotland, years ago, said she would knock up her husband in the mornings and then give him a piece to take to work for lunch.

I still laugh at it, but it’s so much easier to say!! :oþ

[AnAmericanMother]

Yeah, I bet that water would STING if you got it in your eyes! And heaven forbid you swallow any of it . . . .!

[AnAmericanMother]

Yeah, just to circle back to Kipling, he said that “In England all men spoke one tongue, speciously like American to the ear, but on cross-examination unintelligible.” (from another great short story, “An Habitation Enforced”)

[Tax-chick]

He likes going in the water at the lake or the ocean, but the pool is very threatening for some reason. It’s not like anything has ever happened to him. Tom’s the one we nearly lost in the ocean; Anoreth and I got him out.

[Tax-chick]

In this episode, Seaman Anoreth (in Borneo, Malaysia) contemplates being written out of her grandmother's will, in favor of a sibling with an approved career and no tattoo or motorcycle. *sigh*

***

We went out into the town [which I could not find on the map in the World Atlas]. It is excellent ... much nicer than either Indonesia or Thailand. There are more of the curl-tailed cats from Singapore, plus wild baboons, running around everywhere. The streets are mostly clean, and there are no 10-foot holes in the sidewalk like there were in Indonesia. Best of all, there are absolutely no malls in the entire town.

We went out looking at items for souvenirs at the street vendors. None of the kids' clothes would fit James or Vlad, else I'd have got them Malaysian touristish shirts. In fact, I'm pretty sure James was too big for most of their clothes when he was just born. So no presents as of yet. Maybe later on. I did see a good store with digeridoos and so forth. James would like one of those.

Then we went and got drunk. I had several of a local beer called "Tiger." It was okay, but started to get sour after more than two. Then I had a Guinness, which tastes different here than it does Stateside. Not as bitter, but better than the Tiger, which was beginning to taste more like Heineken than anything. We hung out with some Navy BM2s and had more Tiger beer. We went and got curry with rice and lamb and chicken. This came with fresh pita bread, which they made on a griddle in front of you. It was all extremely good. Real curry in a real Eastern country is much better than the curry at the Iranian restaurant in Seattle.

Then we went back to the bar that had been claimed by the Coasties and had another Guinness, cigarillos, and a liquor each to finish out (Jack Daniel's for me and G&T for the other people.) Then we came back to the boat. There's a large reception with many officers on the flight deck right now, so the duty section, who were required to attend, are also drunk even though they couldn't leave the ship. I had a large piece of cake with ice cream and then made myself scarce. Now I'm considering the merits of going to sleep, because word on the street is that we're going underway for a day tomorrow, plus it's 11:30 at night here.

I've almost finished the lineart for my tattoo ... I still have to get it looking the way I want to. It has a dragonhead ship on it, done traditional-style (with the Oslo treasure ships as a reference) with the moon shining down. It will be in black and white. You'll like it ... I'll show you when I come home on leave. It's classy, as tattoos go. No hooker styling on it. The kind of thing General Patton would like, in another day and age, although one assumes he's in this one somewhere. Grandmama won't like it, on general principle, but oh well. She doesn't have to know, just like when I get my Vincent Black Lightning. I can threaten everyone with no more foreign presents if they tell.

Now I'll got put myself to sleep reading John Stuart Mill, who is rather amusing after several drinks, in a Professor Snape way.

***

The conventional Southern Church Lady part of me is howling with dismay at this epistle, but the part that remembers I used to be rather interesting, back in the day, is shrugging and hoping she's remembering to take her anti-malaria pills.

[AnAmericanMother]

Wow! Good you were on the alert. Ocean can be a dangerous place, especially with a swell running.

I've noticed that my dogs feel the same way about a swimming pool, and if you think about it it makes sense. Those high sides are something that awakes a basic danger instinct - they can't climb out.

As puppies, they would happily enter a lake or the ocean at low tide, where there was a gradual slope and relatively still water. We did a lot of playing in the shallow water before they were ready to strike out swimming . . . except of course for Ruby the Torpedo Boat. She leaped as far as she could into the lake at the age of 12 weeks, sank, struggled sneezing and gasping back to the surface and to shore, clambered up the bank, ran around like a mad thing in circles barking her head off, and then jumped right back in again!

Yesterday she happily leaped into a quarry pond off a sheer rock face, trusting in me to tell her how to get out again. Fortunately she is a smooth handling retriever now, so all I had to do was whistle, she turned around treading water, I gave her a hand signal and she swam about 20 yards to the side and climbed out at a low place. I swear I have to do all that dog's thinking FOR her.

But she can really swim. And fast. One time at a hunt test a judge turned to me while she was making a curling wake across the pond and teased, "Can't you make that dog swim any faster?" "I'm afraid she'll get a ticket."

[Travis T. OJustice]

Yea, glad to see all is well with Anoreth. She’s seeing way more of the world than i did.

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL!

You might suggest, in an offhand way, that location of the tattoo where Grandmama could not accidentally see it would be a good plan. If it doesn't show in an evening gown, it doesn't really exist.

We met a heavily-tattooed couple walking their dogs on our hike. Something I had never seen before was a woman with large and elaborate tatts all across the chest and up the sides of the neck. In addition to the usual sock and glove all-over tattoos on the arms and legs. And the nose rings. She's going to be soooooo embarrassed when she winds up getting a job with a Fortune 500 company and has to wear long sleeve shirts, dark stockings, button up to the neck and wear her hair down all the time!

[Tax-chick]

Yes, it’s been quite a show so far, and she hasn’t quite reached her 1-year anniversary in the CG. (June 14, iirc, which happens to be the day her friend up the street will graduate from high school. We’re going to her party.)

I’m sure my mother is snickering, deep inside. She is, after all, married to a Navy man. And she thinks homeschool isolates the children from Real Life ...

I forwarded the message before I read the part about the tattoo, so we’ll get a lecture about that, but I’ll tell her it’s just in the planning stages and *not* mention if it ever happens.

[null and void]

Sounds like half the people who used to hang out at my house.

Free advice to Anoreth? not at the base of the spine. The nicest thing I’ve heard them called is slut tags.

[Monkey Face]

Good missive, Anoreth!

While visiting your sibs and getting close to yer mum and da, I had to show off my own tat (only to your Mum!!). Not splashy and “SEE ME!” as most tats, are, but at the same time, it’s in a spot that sees almost no sun.

For two years, I thought about getting it, because it does have a name on it, but when I finally had it done, I paid for it with no regrets. Even 20 years later, the colors are still bright, though the outlines have bled a little.

FYI: My left breast, at the cleavage spot, below the bra line.

My daughter has several tats, but she has exposed them to the sun so often that they are truly ugly, and not something to be proud of. Were they on my person, I would keep them covered.

My son also has two, but they are on his arms above the elbow, and seldom, if ever see the sun. They still look pretty good! (I got my tats almost 10 years after him, and 5 years after my daughter, and no, none of us were drunk!!)

[Tax-chick]

*If* the tattoo gets past the planning stage, I assume it will be on her bicep or scapula. That’s where General Patton would have one!

[Monkey Face]

My daughter has one at the bikini line...a little stick figure with a lawn mower...

[AnAmericanMother]

"Tramp stamps"

They always show when you don't intend them to.

You've heard the old joke . . . "I don't know who the twins are - but the one in the middle is Willie Nelson!"

[Tax-chick]

a little stick figure with a lawn mower

That's weird.

My uncle will love it - he's also the kind who thinks about whether General Patton would approve ... *gently banging forehead on desk*.

[Tax-chick]

DP says “ho’ tat” when he sees one on a woman runner. Anoreth would never show that part of her body, anyway. She doesn’t even wear sleeveless shirts or shorts. At least not here - maybe in Borneo she’s hot enough!