Happy Birthday Ben!

Today we celebrated Ben’s 11th birthday.  He had a Star Wars themed birthday party and invited over a few of his closer friends.  All told, there were 5 friends here to celebrate with.  Karen made a really cool R2D2 cake and we had the kids build their own light sabers as a project (see below).  We built the light sabers out of pipe insulation, pvc pipe and colored duct tape.  They turned out pretty cool and were largely non-lethal.  Everyone had a good time!  Delaney had a friend come over so that she would also have someone to play with without crashing her brother’s manly event. 

In other news, we had a little bit of a snowstorm on Thursday.  We got about 4 inches of snow before it turned to sleet and then rain.  We still have enough snow to cover the grass and it has now gotten colder so everything is frozen solid.  It is supposed to get down to 10 degrees tonight, which would be the coldest we have seen here so far this winter.  I spent a couple days at home this past week dealing with another migraine.  The meds I currently have are doing nothing, so I am scheduled to go back to the doctor on 29 Jan for another visit.  The frequency and duration of the headaches has been getting worse than I am used to, so I hope the doctor can figure something better out.  Karen’s seem to be largely under control now that they put her on blood pressure medicine, although she didn’t really have an issue with her blood pressure.  The bad part for her is the side effects of the meds. 

Karen’s father continues to struggle with a staph infection in his leg that he has been trying to get rid of now for almost 4-months.  He finally was able to change doctors and they have correctly diagnosed the type of staph he is dealing with so that hopefully they can treat it more effectively.  He continues to need crutches and has pretty much been put on bed rest for the last several weeks. 

I am starting to look ahead to retirement as I hit 20-years of active duty in a littloe under 2 years.  It is a bit unnerving to be thinking about changing careers (or at least employer) at this point in the game.  The big questions are where we will ultimately live and what type of job will I pursue.  I have asked a number of friends and associates who work in different aspects of the defense industry for some insights as I try an ddetermine if I want to pursue Government civil service, a support contractor job, a major defense contractor job, etc.  I need to narrow down the vector I plan to pursue pretty soon as the time will quickly fly by, and I do not intend to take another military assignment after my current job.  As much as I love Vermont, it is a relatively expensive place to live and I am concerned that the job options may be limited based on my defense/acquisition background.  A good friend has informed me to expect that my military retired pay should just about cover my annual income tax liabilities……pretty scary when you figure my annual retirement pay should run about $38-40K.