The Sea of (Domestic) Tranquility

     I've been home a week now. Wow! I can't believe that is true. It is amazing how fast these seven days went in comparison to the seven before that. Looking back now, I am shocked that my six month sentence is really over. I thought it was taking forever. As Pretty Girl said in regards to Christmas being so far away, "But that's forever!" To which Mrs. Penguin replied, "We just did forever. It's really not that long." Upon reflection, PG agreed, "No, I guess not." I would have to agree as well.

    Since I have been here this long, the luster of "Daddy's Home" has started to fade. Discipline is being handed out quite frequently, routines are resurrecting, and I started on the dreaded "to-do" list. Unfortunately, it is rather long at this moment, since our house is being packed up in 10 days! That's right. . . all the Penguins will be wandering northward, to our new home at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson right there in Anchorage, a mere 200 mile road-trip from where I grew up.  Be warned fellow Alaskans, you are about to be invaded.

    So far today I have: picked up my computer from the repairs that were necessary after six months of repeated ups and downs on the hard floors of the hospital there in Bagram, taken the older two kids to lunch, bounced on the trampoline with Petunia Picklepuss, spread grass seed on some of the bare spots on the lawn, watered the lawn, made deviled eggs, aired up the tires on my truck, checked the radiator fluid and topped it off, used up the last of the windshield wiper fluid I had on the shelf to refill the truck, aired up Primus' tires on his bike, tried up air up the tires on PG's bike, discovered one of the inner tubes was leaking, pulled the tire off the bike, taken the inner tube out, and raised the handle bars and seat both about six inches on the same bike, tried to start a "Design by Me" Lego project with Primus only to discover after downloading the software that any design that seems recognizable as anything trademarked will be rejected, synced my Ipod touch and updated software for the first time since January, and updated the OS on my laptop. The internet at Bagram was too slow and spotty to accomplish those last two things. Oh, and I let Pet. Puss oversleep by 10 minutes for her afternoon nap.

     Mrs. Penguin has been busy today as well. She has made pound cake, potato salad, caramel brownies, tried to do laundry and run to the commissary. I say "tried to do laundry," because our washing machine, which has been leaking for a couple of months decided to burn up today. So, our bulk pickup just grew by one washing machine.

    Still to do today: Dinner with friends.

    To do tomorrow: Well, that's also dinner with friends (a different set), but the to-do list hasn't seemed to grow any shorter, so I may try and knock off another item or two.

    One final note for the day. . . Just in case you were wondering, planning to move 2 1/2 weeks after getting home from a six month deployment wasn't one of my best decisions. But, we'll make it work. In the meantime, I know I won't be bored. I'll be too busy. Keep Wondering and Wandering.