The Daily Navy Wife, Volume 6

While Jason is out to sea, I frequently e-mail him pictures of home. More specifically, I send him pictures of myself--one every day, without fail. I want him to have a daily reminder that I love him, that I think about him constantly, and that he is my reason to smile.

Voila, the wives of March!

I'm not the only one counting.

Be honest, when I told you guys the 100-day results of my deployment count, you probably thought I was a little bit of a crackhead. Who in their right mind is anal enough to keep track of such things? Well, I am. And I'm not the only one! The supply department aboard the USS Carl Vinson has been counting, too!

These are their stats since the beginning of deployment in November:

Lettuce consumed - 41,416 pounds
Hot wings consumed - 32,275 pounds
Laundry processed - 210,565 pounds
Soda sold (not including energy drinks) - 316,569 cans
Coffee consumed - 5,547 pounds. They explained: "Each pound of coffee makes 3.2 gallons of coffee, so we made 17,462 gallons of coffee. That was served as 174,620 ten-ounce cups of coffee. With an average of 8.5 grams of caffeine in a pound of coffee, we've served 46,384 grams of caffeine. With an average of 3,350 beans in a pound of coffee, we've gone through 18,280,950 coffee beans."

The laundry figure doesn't include the loads that picky sailors (like Jason) do on their own in the self-serve laundry room. And if he had his way, there would be a whole lot more lettuce.

I wonder what he would have thought of "The Bum Bum Song"

A couple of months ago my sister sent me a link via GChat, as she often does during the middle of the work day (don't pretend that you don't do it too).

It was to the Google Books page for a book. Namely, A History of the Swedish-Americans of Minnesota, a multi-volumed writing rather ostentatiously subtitled "A Concise Record of the Struggles and Achievements of the Early Settlers, together with a narrative of what is now being done by Swedish-Americans of Minnesota in the development of their Adopted Country."

Snoozefest. BUT!

Check this guy out:


He's my great grandfather, Dr. Ernest G. Sterner, born Ernst Gustav Magnusson in Småland, Sweden in 1882. His parents, John and Johanna Magnusson, changed the family's names when they emigrated to the United States in 1891.

Here's what the book had to say about him:


The book was printed in 1910, before Ernest married my great-grandmother Elise and had children (including my grandmother, Carol).

Later on in the book, Ernest's older brother Otto gets the spotlight, but no picture. Otto was a pretty big deal. Not only was he a doctor, he was also the county coroner and the mayor of Cambridge, Minnesota:


Here's a picture of Ernest, Otto, and some buddies that my cousin dug out of the family archives. Otto is on the far right and Ernest is next to him:


So now you can see where I got my Swedish good looks--from my dashing Grandpa Ernest.

Elin Nordegren, eat your heart out.

P.S. Not the loon, I want to hear the cannon!

Foodie Friday: Waffles!

It's Foodie Friday! Foodie Friday is my weekly feature that gives you a window into my kitchen. I love to cook, I love to eat, I love to read cookbooks, and I love to inspire people to give vegan food a chance. Thus, Foodie Friday was whipped up and baked to perfection.

I know, I know, I said that I was going to talk about waffles last week. But here's the thing, I got invited to taco night at a friend's house last Friday, and who am I to turn that down? Nobody, that's who! Especially because this friend is the one who gave me the waffle iron that made the waffles possible. So off I went with my bags of veggie burger crumbles and soy cheese, leaving my beautiful waffle creations behind to soak up their syrup. But never you fear, because skipping a week gave me the chance to make even more waffles, so really, everyone wins. The lesson? Don't skip taco night (and the opportunity to spend time with friends), the waffles will understand.


Maple-pecan waffles from 1,000 Vegan Recipes, topped with pecans and maple syrup.

Pumpkin waffles from 1,000 Vegan Recipes, topped with dried cranberries and ginger syrup. These were my favorite of the four recipes that I tried.

Lemon-kissed blueberry waffles from 1,000 Vegan Recipes, topped with fresh blueberries and maple syrup (plus some Lightlife Smart Links veggie sausages). These stuck to my waffle iron no matter what I did. I'm still scraping blueberry residue out of that thing.

Naked vegan waffles from WaffleParty.com, topped with fresh strawberries and maple syrup. These were the heartiest of the bunch because they're made with whole wheat flour, but they were no less delicious than the others.

101 days

I introduced you all to my Donut of Misery last December when this deployment had just begun. Now, 101 days in, let's take a look at the numbers. Jason has been gone for:

3.4 Months
14.56 Weeks
101.95 Days
2,446.77 Hours
146,806.21 Minutes
8,808,372.57 Seconds

In that time, the kitties and I have consumed, used, or done the following:

Wine: 12.75 liters - I blame the cats.
Soy milk: 7.5 gallons
Almond milk: 0.5 gallons
Laundry loads: 38
Dishwasher loads: 38
Dry cat food: 52.5 lbs.
Wet cat food: 16.25 lbs.
Cups of tea: 54
Cups of coffee: 54
Vacuuming: 8 times - Ugh, I need to do that more often.
Kitty litter: 135 lbs. - It was all that wine, those lush cats.
Care packages: 7 - I've sent two packages a month so far. Jason's shipmates are jealous.
Postage for care packages: $84.84
Dinners out: 1 - A friend and I tried taking her kids out for pizza. We're sticking with takeout from now on.
Rolls of toilet paper: 17 - Seriously, I go through so much less than Jason does.
Starbucks drinks: 5
Trips to the gym: 16 - I need to do this more often too.

So I guess the moral of the story is that life goes on. Dirty clothes and dishes must be washed, kitties fed and litter boxes scooped. And sometimes, a glass of wine or a frou-frou coffee shop drink make it a little bit more tolerable.

the best box ever

My cats have a new love--a priority mail box.

Lola was the first to occupy the box...


But she was quickly ousted by Jacob.


The real king of the box, however, is Jasper.


I don't live in a dump, I just have cats.

He put a ring on it.

My fellow sailor's wifey Holly posted about this today, and I'm going to jump on the bling train, too. You can read the story about how I got my engagement ring here.

Here are my wedding rings, a matching set from Blue Nile:







They look even more beautiful in person!

(Photographs by Jamison Wexler)