Have you heard about this?

U.S. Navy vessels in Bahrain for evaluation after collision

A few days later, I found an article reported by Navy Times and was reading it to B - with my own commentary inserted about the “three-person legal team” and that the investigation is being done in our AOR (area of responsibility) which means one of the Legalmen at my command would most likely be one of the people on the team, providing paralegal and administrative support.  How lucky!

The next day I got a phone call from my Master Chief saying that there was an emergency with the paralegal working the case and she is unfortunately going back to the States.  I was informed that one of us here in Rota would more than likely be sent to fill in.

Well, as of yesterday, I have been given the awesome opportunity to be the one to go and work on the investigation.  I’m humbled that my command had the confidence in my abilities to send me, and I am really, really excited to be doing this.  

Keep your eye on the news as I obviously won’t be able to write about what happens with everything.  That’s for the PR people to release.

I don’t know how long the investigation will take but this gives me a couple of weeks worth of excuses for why I haven’t updated my blog!

Every Thursday I look forward to checking out MSNBC.com’s “The Week in Pictures”. It’s a page where they post some photos the last week from around the world.  It’s usually a diverse group of pictures: some gritty news photographs, some fluffy rainbow photographs, some sports, some comical pictures.  It’s a nice mix that I look forward to every week.  I like comparing what I liked with what was popular - sometimes I KNOW the one I voted for is going to be the #1 photo, sometimes I know mine won’t be the popular vote, and sometimes I’m surprised.

Some weeks the selection of photographs, which ranges from only 6 or 7 photographs to 15-20 photographs, is only so-so.  There may be only 1 or 2 photos that I think are really interesting.  And some weeks - though not often - there isn’t a single picture I think is really impressive.  Maybe it’s the too-early delirium of 5:30am, but this week, the pictures were fantastic all the way through the slideshow.  So fantastic that I felt compelled to blog about it.  So here it is:

MSNBC.com’s The Week in Pictures

In other news, it’s a very birthdayful week, with Anja turning 8 on St. Patty’s day, my dad turning gray-haired yesterday (how unfair is it that my dad has less gray hair than I do?!) and my brother turning perpetually older than me today.  Happy birthday to all of you!  If any of my Milwaukee readers happen to stop by a post office and see any of my birthday-celebrating relations (the chances are good that someone from my family works in your local post office as they seem to be taking over the U.S. Postal System there), if you don’t mind, give them some birthday spankings, a pinch to grow an inch, and a sock to grow a block.

1. Mourning :: Dove
2. Approval :: Stamp
3. Lotion :: Smelly
4. Pespire :: Sweaty
5. Language :: Barrier
6. Defection :: Canadian
7. Play :: Games
8. Graphic :: Computer
9. Spicy :: Red
10. In love :: Lucky

“Just to let you know, I’m going to be using chopsticks from now on.  I’m not really a silverware kind of girl anymore.”

This is Piazza del Duomo.  It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

We took the subway down to the square and as we came up from underground, you see this massive thing emerge above your head.  I am not prehensile enough to be able to appreciate the size and detail of something so massive and so intricate.

But I do love the girl with the red umbrella passing through the square.

This is what I’m talking about when I mention the detail - I just couldn’t sort it out in my head.

That’s just one tiny part of it…it goes on and on and on and wraps around and just keeps going with dizzying detail.

We first saw it at night, as it drizzled…

But we had to go back during the day, both for the outside in light as well as for the inside.  The inside that is as unbelievable as the outside.

See that little red dot on the far wall, above the stained glass?  The story goes that that’s where one of the nails from the Crucifixion has been placed.

Back outside, during the day the square was full of people…

… and pigeons.

Remember the other part of the square to the left?  That’s the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.  That’s pretty incredible, too.

They have a McDonald’s inside of that place.  Which sells McToast.

We went again during the day for some more pictures.  That’s a Prada store on the right.  It looked so expensive that I had to avert my eyes because I was afraid I’d have to pay to look at it.

Shortly after we got there the first night, there was a large crowd gathering between the church and the Galleria.  I chuckled to Dan that Scarlett Johansson must be coming since there was a giant advertisement that she was featured on that was hanging on the side of the Galleria (you can see it in the first picture).  Behold my deductive reasoning skills.

See those guys flanking her?  They’re Dolce & Gabbana.  ScarJo really was very beautiful.  So beautiful, in fact, that both of us completely forgot how to function our cameras.  Dan forgot to take off his lens cap and I forgot that I have a paparazzi-worthy lens in my bag that could have gotten a close-ish-up picture of her.  This is why I don’t quit my day job.