When husbands have the day off.

Virginia got another 3 inches of snow last night. Schools are closed, we didn't make it to church, and now we have the fun of dealing with melty, drippy slush. Oh joy.

Ben made the command decision (a Navy term) to take the day off rather than slog through the nastiness and stand in the cold on the train platform trying to get to work, so he's using the time to study for his two classes. In case I haven't shared this piece of data before, he is working on his second master's degree (they're like purses—you can never have too many), taking two classes this term. He has tons of reading to do, and takes every opportunity to get in a few pages.

What with all the reading, he's become pretty efficient. He doesn't even have to hold the book open anymore.

In other news, Ben's been having a facebook conversation with a girl he knows from high school. Somehow they got on the subject of cleaning ceiling fans. Who ever thinks about cleaning the ceiling fan? Certainly not me. But Ben was giving her a hard time about it until he looked up and saw the 1/4 inch of grime caked on the leading edge of our living room fan, and he sprang into action.

Ladder. Bucket. Rag.

When he took the glass shade off, this is what we found. (I can't believe I'm putting this out on the Internet for all the world to see.)

After the initial wave of nausea passed, I remarked that I was glad he didn't think I was a horrible housekeeper because I never cleaned the fan.

He said, "What are you talking about? This is MY job."

I love that man.

And one more thing: Ben is always using phrases he picked up in the Navy. I pretty much know what they all mean, but have no idea why they mean that. All of our family members have been known to add "aye" to the end of a repeated request, as in "Will you hand me a spoon?" "Spoon, aye.") So when he made some comment about "gun decking" some paperwork, I knew what he meant, but wondered why they called it that. So what do we do when we need to know something? Google to the rescue. Here's what Wikipedia had to say:

The term "gun deck" is also navy slang for fabricating or falsifying something. The origin of the term dates to the practice of painting the image of cannon ports on the side of one's ship in order to present the appearance of having more guns than a ship actually does, and thereby convincing any adversary that they were outgunned, forgoing engagement.

(Let it be known that the word "navy" in the first sentence should be capitalized. We're talking about one of the U.S. armed services, not a color.)

Now go forth and use "gun deck" in a sentence today.

Gun deck, aye.

Be thankful ~

Karen