Macgyver

I return home from the gym, and went to take a shower.  On my way to the master bathroom, I lock the bedroom door, and trip  over my wonderful husband's HERMAN MUNSTER work boots.  Grrrr.  I grumble to myself about the boots and kicked them aside.

I complete my shower, wrap myself in my towel, and head to my dressing room.  When I pull on the bedroom door, it does not open.  I twist and turn and wiggle, and it will not unlock.  Fantastic.

I manhandle the doorknob and call it terrible names.  Nothing.

I review my options..I could put my sweaty clothes back on and climb down the balcony.  I look out the sliding glass door, and figure I wouldn't likely break both my legs.  I remember geometry was not my strongest subject, so I vote against trying to repel down the side of the building with bedsheets.  I begin searching for a tool to dismantle the lock.  I find a flashlight on the bed stand.  Suddenly, a Macyver fever rushes over me, and I tear the clip from the flashlight and twist it into a screwdriver.  I attack the lock, and I think I actually heard it chuckle.  Okay, so the clip that easily bends does NOT work as a screwdriver.  Noted.  I  go through Rick's bathroom and find a man's manicure set.  Perfect.  I open it up and review the contents.  I first find a travel-sized corkscrew.  I pull it out of the holder, and put it aside.  I know it won't get the door open, but I also know I won't ever be unable to open a wine bottle due to not having the right instrument.   I daydream about how I will save the day at the next cocktail party when I produce the portable corkscrew from my purse.  I need to focus.

I find a manly nail file that I think will do the trick.

After hacking away at this dang lock for an hour, I realize this manly nail file will never get the job done.    I'm incredibly frustrated, and my hunger pangs are weakening my mind.  I survey the room, and my eyes fall on the HERMAN MUNSTER boots I tripped over earlier.  I notice the knife-sized pouch above the laces.  Sweet baby Moses!  I pull out what can only be described as a magic wand.  This is not only a knife, but several screwdrivers, pliers things, and I think a spatula.  I begin removing the doorknob.  Once it clangs to the ground, I switch the magic wand to pliers mode, and turn the pokey thing, and the door opens.

WAHOOOOO!!!! FREEEDDDOOOOOM!

Morals of the story:

1.  Let your kids watch Macgyver

2.  Be mindful of what you complain about - It just may be the thing that unlocks the door!

Rick's Weekly Chime-In 9 August......MASTER'S CLASSES COMPLETE!

Hello everyone!

It's me, the worse half, updating you on what's all been going on over the past week. First and foremost, I'M DONE!!!! I finished my last Master's Course today. It only took me 9 months to finish up the course work. I'll tell you though, for this last class, I had a heck of finishing project. Two other A-10 pilots in the course and I were assigned to do a 45 minute minimum presentation on "Gender Issues in the Workplace from a Feminist Perspective". As you guys can imagine, I'm not exactly well versed on feminists issues since I 1. work for the Military and 2. am a fighter/attack pilot that has less than 2% females in that career field. Typical fashion though, we rose to the occasion and did a pretty good job on it. We stole some material from the movie The Proposal (which I have not scen) and used that as a Case Study. It got a great response from the class and most importantly, the Professor. All I have left now is my internship (which will simply be me working) and completing my comprehensive exam (a question picked by the Human Relations Board at OU) and I type up a 20+ page report on my answer and logic behind it. I will be turning in my application for graduation in December this week. It would be great to actually get to see the University of Oklahoma campus, but I won't be making the trip to "walk" in the ceremony. Normally, they have a ceremony here, but OU's contract was not renewed and this was the last class. Again, typical Rick luck, I signed up just in time to perfectly time finishing my class work with the last opportunity that I had here with OU leaving Osan AB. Long and short of it, I'm happy to know that no matter what assignment comes from here, I finished my Master's degree while in Korea.

Aside from that, work was long as usual. Unfortunately, I only got to fly one time this week, but boy, it was an awesome flight. I had the privilege and honor and flying in a 2-ship formation of A-10's in a Army Chief Warrant Officer's "fini-flight". We took our 2-ship of A-10's from Osan and met Chris in his UH-60 about 20 miles southwest of Osan. We proceeded to "rage" as we call it, at 500 hundred feet and lower all across the southern portion of the Peninsula. The visibility was amazing and there was the always cool perfect amount of moisture in the air that create contrails off the wings whenever we did high-g maneuvers. This made us look really cool. Chris took a video from his cockpit of Capt Nathan "Booster" Owen and I flying the A-10's and says it's freaking awesome. Expect that to be posted soon. Aside from that, Rachel and I participated in a fish-fry on Saturday night. It was a small gathering of our closest friends here and we had a really good time. Some of us more than others, but I'll just leave it at that!

This week is another long week for us. Notice a trend here. We do have a "Roll Call" on Friday which quite frankly is an excuse for fighter pilots to get together, tell stories with our hands, make fun of ourselves and people, and generally blow off some steam! Rachel will probably see me in a drunken state on Friday night. 

For both Rachel and I, we do have something really exciting coming up; we've booked a nice hotel for Labor Day weekend in Busan, Korea. We are right on the beach with a view of the Sea of Japan/East Sea.....depending on who you talk to. There are several couples and of course the single, party guys making the trip down there. It will be a nice, relaxing time for us. Looking a little further out, I am going to Alaska on ~September 14 and will probably be there for over a month. We're unsure if Rachel will make the trip up there, but I'm hoping she can so she can see yet another amazing place in the world.

With that, I bid you all a good day!

Love Rick

Flower Market

I took a trip to the amazing Flower Market today. The market consists of several green-house buildings with every kind of potted plant and flower you can imagine. There is every color of orchid, rows of cut roses, and even Venus fly traps! They have many types of plants that I have not ever seen before, including a cactus with what looks like fur on the top. See below! It smells wonderful, and I could roam around there for hours.

Landlord's visit

The washer stopped working yesterday.  Seems the mechanism that engages to hold the water wasn't working.  So, the water just drains.  I figured this out after I started a load of flight suits, and noticed the water was still running well after it should have been filled.  I tried all the usual things, and nothing worked.  Flight suits don't smell awesome after they have been worn all day, and they really don't smell awesome after they have been sitting  in a washer.  I did some research on-line and conceded to talking to the landlord.  I was hoping he would be over today around 5:30, so I wouldn't have to attempt a phone call.

After passing my driving test, I went to the gym.  I returned home about 2:30, and was starving.  I made myself lunch and was just sitting down to eat when the ABSURDLY loud doorbell rings.  I check the monitor, and find a nervous looking landlord.  So, 'same same' meant 3 pm..good to know.  I opened the door and great him in Korean, and we bow.  He  comes in, removes shoes, and goes directly to the light.  This is a great sign.  As he is yanking out wires from the wall, I am wondering how to explain the washer.  The first obstacle is getting him back in the laundry room.  We hadn't exactly hit it off, but when I think of the smelly pile of laundry, I figure I will hogtie him, if need be.  He completes his electrical job, and turns the light on.  Everything is in working order, and I clap and give the ridiculous double thumbs-up.  He doesn't seem to appreciate all the positive reinforcement, so I roll right into my second request.  I walk in the kitchen, towards the sliding door to the laundry room, and give him the international sign for, 'something is wrong with the washer'.  He looks genuinely frightened, but I turn and walk back into the laundry room, and he follows.  I turn on the washer, and explain it won't fill up, but just constantly drains.  I'm speaking English and using the most obvious hand signals I can think of.   He is speaking Korean, and peering inside the washer, and keeps eyeing the pile of soggy clothes.  He then gets on his cell phone.  Wow, man of action!  I take this as he is going to get a Maytag repairman over here ASAP.  Nope.  He starts speaking Korean, and then hands me the phone.  Interesting.  I take the phone and greet the person in English, hoping for the best.

"Hello." I hear from a nervous fella on the other end.

I launch into my explanation of the problem, masking my disappointment of my communication failure.  The fella on the phone then asks to speak to his dad.  The landlord had crawled behind the washer, and I prayed he was doing the math on electricity and water.  I handed the phone back and he began speaking to his son.  He hung up, and adjusted some things in the back, and then pushed the washer back against the wall.  The washer started holding water.  Yippeeee!  He spoke Korean, and explained the hoses in the back had to be held up in place.  He then pointed to the iron.  Hmmmm.  I assume he didn't want me to drop the iron in the washer....Then, I noticed he was pointing to the cord.  Oh!  I made the universal sign for, "I will find something cord-like to tie the hose in place".  He seemed relieved, and we left the laundry room.  He collected his tools and I gave him the stupid thumbs up again.  We bow all over the place, and I thank him and bid him good day  in Korean.  

Driver's test - check

New light - check

Working washer - check

Success!  I'm exhausted.

Our Nation's Army and Air Force peeps, chilling in Korea

Rick's Weekly Chime-In

This whole blog thing is pretty cool, but I typically don't take the time to do it. My goal is once a week to log into this thing and give a recap from my perspective on the week. Here we go.

1. Worked a lot
2. Worked some more
3. Celebrated a friends retirement
4. Typed on the blog

That's it. Until next time......



Just kidding! :-)

Let's see, this week really was another week of 12-16 hour workdays for me. With a lot of our unit gone, the rest of us are really having to pick up the slack. I had my annual mission checkride (imagine a driver's test, only you're flying). This one was pretty non-standard in that I took it at night and as a Forward Air Controller (Misty.......Dad you should know what that is if you're actually reading the book I gave you). Of couse, Korea standard, the weather was crappy and I had to deal with all sorts of stuff that's just too hard to explain on a blog. Nevertheless, at almost 1AM on Wednesday morning Korea time, I had finished the checkride and had actually earned two commendable's on my performance. That's a first for getting those. Aside from that, I got to fly again on Thursday night and again found myself in unfamiliar territory. Chik-Do island is a small bombing range out in the west sea. It's simply two small islands that we drop weapons on. Well, thre are several limitations to actually be able to drop ordinance out there. One of them is that there can be no boats within 3 miles of those things. The fishermen seem to have a problem avoiding this ring since about 80% of the time, we can't drop because of boats within the danger ring. Not on this past Thursday night! There were no boats, the weather was actually good enough to legally drop weapons, and no kidding, all the weapons on my jet actually came off as advertised! My 3 counterparts were not so lucky in that they had aircraft "issues" and were not able to get all their bombs and bullets of the jets. Whatever, I got mine so I was happy!!! Just kidding....but really. On Friday night, we went to Camp Humphrey's (a Army Aviation Camp about 8 miles south of Osan) and celebrated Chief Warrant Officer 4 Chris Delao's retirement ceremony. It was a wonderful time that lasted well into the early morning hours of Saturday. Yesterday, Rachel and I relaxed and then went to dinner and our friends, the Shemchuks. She made some awesome lasagna (not as good as Rachel's) and we had a nice time. After that, Rachel and I finally got to see Transformer's the movie at the base theatre. It was a bit of a let down, but still watching huge robots go mano-e-mano is always entertaining. Today, it was church and study day for Rachel and I. I'm finishing up my LAST master's class this week and Rachel is taking the formidible Korean driver's test tomm morning. Well, I've got to be up in like 5 hours, so I'll chime out for this week. I Love and Miss you all!!!!!

Love Rick

Tuscan Chicken Pasta

It is Sunday afternoon, and my wonderful husband is working hard on a paper for his Master's class.  I decide to go to the Commissary (That is the grocery store on base) to get the week's groceries.  My wonderful husband had requested a new recipe for dinner, Tuscan Chicken Pasta, that required several exotic ingredients that I was worried about finding on-base.  I leave the apartment, go back for the keys, and then head to Base.  I pass through the gate, showing my ID.   Once at the Commissary, I showed my ID AND my Rations card to the door gal, bowed, and dropped my purse into a cart to begin my shopping.  You would think a hurricane was coming based on the amount of people here.  I figured I wasn't in a hurry, and pressed on semi-cheerful.  My sunny disposition turned gloomy when I learned it was take your screaming kids to the store day.  UGH.  I then discovered they were out of the chicken breast needed for the Tuscan Chicken and they did not seem to carry cannellini beans either.   So, I am dodging banshee children and trying to figure out what I could use in place of chicken and cannellini beans.  I'm worried as CHICKEN is in the title of the recipe, so I'm pretty sure my wonderful husband will figure out I bastardized the recipe if I used something else.  I stop by the gal that gives out samples of sushi and bow as I take what she offers.  It's very good and I then see salmon is on sale.  I decide Tuscan Salmon Pasta has a nice ring to it.  I finish shopping, and get in line at the cashier feeling triumphant despite the hurdles of the day.  I show my ID AND Rations card again, pay, and bow to the fella that loads my groceries into the car.  Once parked in the garage at home, I begin hauling my groceries up the three stories of marble stairs.  Just as wonder why it smells weird, I slip on the wet floor.  

"SONOFABISCUIT" I screech, but managed to catch myself before I fall all the way down.  I collect myself, and notice the Korean man holding the mop.  He looks petrified, but bows and greets me in Korean.  Fantastic.  I greet him in Korean, and attempt to bow.  I carefully continue up the remaining stairs, key in our code, open the door, and put the bags down in the shoe room.  I go back down to get the remaining bags.  The Korean man is mopping away, and I smile when he stops.  He ask me if I will be coming back up (I think) and I indicate one more trip.  I hear the door open upstairs and smile because I know my wonderful husband is coming to help.  I slowly stack the groceries in my arms, and I can hear my wonderful husband talking to the Korean man, which makes me think that the man must be a landlord. Fantastic.  What a great impression.

I round the corner and my wonderful husband is there to assist, and explains the landlord will be coming up to look at the light that isn't working despite the bulb being replaced.  We both slip and slide up the stairs with the landlord at our heels.  Once inside, my wonderful husband explains the light isn't working, and we show him the new package of light bulbs in an effort to illustrate we have changed the light bulb.  I'm confused as this exact scene played out about two weeks ago, but I don't say anything.  For one,  I'm thinking this landord wants to point out the shacks around us.  Second, I do not know how to translate what it is I would like to ask him...yet.

The landlord says about three sentences in Korean, and then says 'tomorrow', points to his watch and says 'same, same'

We both thank him and he bows and leaves the apartment with the light bulb.  Hmph.  I guess I will be sure I'm home tomorrow at the same time, and look-up some Korean phrases regarding electricity.

I begin putting the groceries away, and my wonderful husband seems to think it's Christmas.  He begins rummaging through each bag as if it may hold the new puppy he asked for.  I try to explain the frustrating trip to the Commissary and how they didn't have the items needed, and I almost broke my neck while hauling everything upstairs, not to mention scaring the petunias out of the landlord.  I start to ask why we just had the same conversation with the landlord when I noticed my wonderful husband is still man-handling the groceries, and found the cookies I bought.  So, despite the small cramped kitchen and large frustrated wife that was trying to put things away, he breaks open the package with glee and snacks on the cookies.

"New Rule!  Either you get OUT of the kitchen, or you help me put this stuff away!"

I marvel at the fact that living in Korea is turning me into my mother, and put the cheese on the open refrigerator door.  My wonderful husband thinks this statement is the funniest thing he has ever heard.  He leans into the refrigerator, pulls out a beer and pops it open for me.  Remarkable.  He can hardly contain his giggles at this point despite his life flashing before his eyes. The cheese falls off the door, and I fling it at him. He also 'helps put away' a head of cauliflower, a red pepper, and a bag of spinach.  

Domestic Bliss at it's finest.