Company Coming Over

J and I agreed to invite a soldier friend of his over tonight for some grilling.  They guy is legally separated and on his way to a divorce.  Rather sad to be alone on the holidays I think.  So I have no problem with having him over today.

J gave me a condition though, I'm not to do anything today.  Glad he said today because last night right in front of him I made a huge bowl of pasta salad including making the mayo and oil dressing from scratch.  Tasty if I do say so.  Don't worry its no longer raw egg, I made it on the stove top to make sure it came to a boil first and added all the ingredients to it making a cooked dressing.  It shouldn't make anyone sick.

I'll be sticking to my freezer diet food today even while they enjoy the grilling.  I have to.  I'm not active enough to be eating high fat, high sodium barbeque food.  The two athletes can eat it instead.

Yes, J is an athlete.  He can run 14 miles in a day easily and still go to work after and come home.  He's done it before for the "Walk To Afghanistan" they set up monthly.  J and all the other soldiers are required to run as much as they can during the allotted time period.  So yes he can enjoy all the calories he wants when he is working out.

I hope every one has a safe weekend.  Tomorrow is the day we celebrate Memorial Day but officially it is 30 May for the Memorial Day.  I'm not sure why we celebrate it on the last Monday in May when it has it's on particular day.  I guess its for those that are looking forward to the long weekends.

If you get the chance stop by your local cemetery and place an American flag on the grave of a US veteran.   I used to do this every year myself in the family cemetery and in the church cemeteries where my kin folk are buried.  It doesn't hurt to place one on a stranger's grave either if you don't have a family member that served and is buried nearby.

Rendering Proper Respect To The US Flag

Recently an article was posted yet again in our local post newspaper entitled, "Take a minute daily to render proper respect to flag".  I say posted again as last year at about this time another article was in our post newspaper on the same subject.  While I'm really happy to see these articles in our newspaper I'm not very happy when I see folks disrespecting our flag by not following those rules.  The post newspaper is free, its delivered once a week to all residences on post and to the AAFES shops on this post.  So why aren't folks following these simple rules?

First off folks if you live on or work on a military installation you should, when retreat is being played, stop what you are doing.

Here is what the paper had listed as the proper respect.
" When the first note of Retreat is sounded, come to attention, face the flag (or the direction from which the music is coming) and render a salute (soldiers) or place the right hand over the heart (civilians).

For those individuals in vehicles, the following courtesy is to be observed: Cars (and motorcycles) are to STOP, and individuals are to DISMOUNT and SALUTE.  sic( civilians are to place hand over heart)

All of the same courtesies apply when wearing civilian clothes except for the placing of the right hand over the heart as opposed to saluting."

For more information on this topic please see Army's Field Manual 7-21.13 Chapter 4.

By the way, if I'm in a vehicle during retreat you can bet I'm going to be pulling over or telling the driver they need to pull over.  Oh, yes I've told someone who had no clue, an Army wife at that, that she needed to pull over now and why.  She, American born and raised, was shocked that we actually had to do this and not just the soldiers.  Its our country too and we should show our respect to the American Flag!