Friday, March 27, 2009

Stetson Break In

The Hubs had his Steston break-in "ceremony", if you will, last week. This is a long-standing army cav tradition. I was fortunate enough to be able to witness this infamous break-in and it was quite a scene. Basically, the Stetson break-in involves the new troops standing in a line holding their Stetson upside down in their hands while the other members of the unit fill them with every kind of alcohol/food they can come up with.

On this particular night, I witnessed warm beer, various liquors to include vodka, tequila and rum, clam juice, chopped lettuce and who knows what else. Once the hats are filled and running over, the new troops are instructed to drink the contents of their hat until it is flipped over onto their heads. Once the Stetsons were flipped onto their heads and their eyes were burning, the troops ran across the street and jumped in the pond behind the lodge while others looked on.



It was all in good fun and a good time was had by all!

"The tradition of the "Cav Hat" began in the early days before the Vietnam War. The 11th Air Assault Division cavalry scout pilots were looking to distinguish themselves from other troops when they adopted the Model 1876 campaign hat for wear. They felt a need to return to the traditions of the Cavalry so long forgotten. LTC John B. Stockton, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 17th Cavalry Regiment, is given credit for establishing the tradition of wearing the Cavalry Stetson." (http://www.1cda.org/cavhat.htm)

"Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway." ~John Wayne

Thursday, March 26, 2009

An Eye Sore



My beloved dog Aspen managed to scratch his cornea and what started out as a minor scratch developed into an ulcer. We traveled back and forth to the vet for a good week and a half trying various ointments and creams but nothing seemed to work and his eye was increasingly bothering him. We ended up going with the last resort option which was surgery.

Dogs have a third eyelid that slides up over the surface of the eye for protection. The third eyelid can sweep across the transparent cornea of the eye and clean it like a windshield wiper so Aspen had his third eyelid pulled over his cornea and stitched to his upperlid (for 2 weeks)creating a constant cover over the damaged eye.

The poor guy had a heck of time adjusting to being able to see out of only one eye and to make it worse he had to wear one of those cones for the 2 full weeks so he did not scratch his eye, pull his stiches out and further damage his eye. He was bumping into everything and frequently got stuck in akward places because of the mamoth Elizabethan collar around his neck.

He had stiches taken out earlier this week and the good news is that the ulcer is gone and the scratch has healed. The bad news is that his third eyelid is still partially covering his eye because it is still inflamed from the trauma. We are not sure how long it will take to fully retract but he seems to be doing much better and is still the most handsome dog in the world if you ask me!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Now I Know Why They Call it a Throne


Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Pinewood Derby

Sprout's first Pinewood Derby as part of Cubscouts was this past Saturday. He did a great job of picking out his design and colors and had fun building his car with hid Dad! It was male bonding at its best!

While he did not make it to district, we learned a lot of tricks of the trade for next year and had fun in the process!