"Yuk!"

What better way to come back from a 13 day blog hiatus, then pictures of our little Mas-face.

B and I attempted to play vet yesterday. Mason has been itching like crazy!!! It seems a lot of friend's dogs are suffering from some unknown island source. He has been feverishly biting/licking at his front right paw leaving it all red and irritated. A friend gave me some "Yuk!" cream (yes, it is actually called that). It is a gel substance that has a terrible flavor that you put around the area your dog won't leave alone so that they get that bad flavor in their mouth and stop licking. Apparently, Mas liked the flavor or something, because that didn't work. Soo...

Diagnosis: some mystical Azorean allergy that won't go away

Possible Solutions: benadryl, calling an actual vet, yet another bath

Home-remedy: a sock and a string

Poor Mas-face! I gave him some peanut butter this morning to make sure any residual taste of the "Yuk" was gone. :)

Happy Monday!

Oh my poor neglected blog.

moving on...

Monday was a good day! We got some oh so happy good news! B got awarded a "Below the Zone" promotion. Translation: He got promoted 6 months before he was supposed to. Oh sweet songs of happy joy! Him and another airmen were chosen out of 11 candidates in total.

In typical military fashion, nothing can be simple however. There will be a promotion ceremony at the end of August, and then some more waiting he will "pin on" his additional stripe September 22nd (which marks 2 years of his Air Force enlistment).

Some more good news is he then got nominated for "Airmen of the Quarter." This really happened on Tuesday, but we will just slide it in under Monday.

To add to all this excitement, B got a call on Monday saying we had won a prize from the "Lajes SummerQuest" contest I diligently enter both of us in every time. (We won a prize a couple months ago too, in the "Lajes WinterQuest") It is well worth it, they give away great prizes at times, like a 2 day trip to one of the other islands. However, we usually aren't those lucky winners. B got a call that we won a free pet bath from the Lajes Kennel. Not so many sweet songs of happy joy.

Mason is terrified of anything related to kennel, bath, water and all the above. So we will be giving our certificate away, but at the end of the day we have nothing valid to complain about. :)

Italia (through pictures).

dinner our first night in Naples

words cannot describe the absolute deliciousness of everything!!!!

On our way to Rome. We accidently sat in first class and even got to stay seated even after the man came to check our tickets.

The Vatican & St. Peters Basilica. (Yes, we unexpectedly matched)

Tiber River

Trevi Fountain

trying to navigate us

The Patheon

Piazza Venezia (if only we actually knew the history behind these places)

Viva Italia!

I believe this was called the Forum of Ancient Rome

Glimpse of how close we were to the Coliseum, before it started to POUR on us!

If rain wasn't coming from every direction we would have ventured inside. next time

A couple of glimpses of Naples.

Not a very pretty site.

Back at the Navy terminal, dripping with sweat due to running, literally running on the streets to make it on time for our show-time. We were running late due to our pizza not being ready on time, but we made it their with our pizza along with us intact.

Overall a well worth 3ish day trip! Arrivederci!

Weekend Recap.

We have had a most fabulous 4 day weekend. Friday was deemed a "family day' by the commander, which granted everyone an extra day on the Memorial Day weekend.

We have been B.B.Qing from left to right, enjoyed a family/pet 2k walk, Mason triumphed, entertained one evening by the Portuguese custom of street bullfights and woke up to the glorious sun shining this morning.

What a rarity! What a difference to one's mood it makes not to see clouds, rain, or wind in the horizon. We are continuing our fun today and grilling out fajitas on this beautiful day, and letting our friends be taste testers to some Morris Margaritas.

We hope you enjoyed your weekend as well!!

Something Truly Missed.

As the days have been getting warmer, and the sun actually shines during the day more than 1/2 a second, the longing for some patio dining, chips & salsa, and chispa margaritas grows apparent.

It all sums down to we are seriously considering franchising El Mirasol over yonder. Do we have any investors interested?

Rehearsal Dinner @ El Mirasol 2009

For those not from San Antonio, please hop in your car right now, and go, seriously go, you are missing out!

To tame our cravings, we found ourselves with a bottle of tequila in our fridge beckoning to be used over the weekend. Last Saturday night, when most of the base was at the Combat Dining Out, B we opted to be anti-social and stay home to enjoy what turned into a Mexican fiesta. Ole!

On the menu:
Butternut Squash, Ground Turkey Enchiladas with a Cinnamon Spiced Crema (You can find the recipe here, but of course being one who doesn't really follow direction recipes well, many substitutes were made.) If you truly are interested I can email you my version of the recipe.

Homemade Mexican Rice (Lala's recipe)

Homemade Salda & Avocado on the side

...and from a various concoction of different recipes browsed upon, we made ourselves some satisfying homemade not-so chispa margaritas.

For all those others who are stranded live on a not so urbanized island with no El Mirasols around, our margarita recipe is as follows:

1/2 cup silver tequila
1/4 cup orange liquor
1/4 cup water
1/4 margarita mix
1/6 cup fresh squeezed lime

Stir altogether, and pour into two 8 ounce glasses filled with ice and ENJOY!

Yay!! Paris Pictures.

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Meeting Goals.

Confession: I am a horrible blogger. I am inconsistent and never can really come up with blog topics. Truth being told even when I have something to write about, I procrastinate like crazy until I can't hold it in me anymore and feel guilty. Kinda like today....

Anyhow, we are back from Pear-rey. (get it. Paris)
We had a most fantastic trip, but unfortunately my procrastinating skills don't do me well for the blog, as well, as organizing and posting pictures. So keep holding your breath, pictures may be up next week. :)

What I really want to talk about is our progression of our Things We Will Strive to Accomplish List we made back in the beginning of the year. Before we left, B had his PT test scheduled for May 2nd, and lo and behold he scored an excellent!! No more PT tests for a whole year.

Traveling to France last week, gives me 2 dash marks on the board for my 6 country goal this year. It will have its 3rd mark when my friend and I take the "Spaghetti Run" (a 1 1/2 day free trip to Naples, Italy that flies out every other week) to go visit Rome. As well, I am starting my 8th book for the year which puts me almost half way done with 2 out of my 3 things.

Almost at the half-way mark of the year, and things are looking good! :)