Had an amazing lunch out with Deb yesterday at a great Mexican restaurant we'd never tried before. I had the Carnitas, which featured pork chunks that Deb said were deep fried. Whatever they were, they were freakin' GOOD. I'm having the leftovers tonight.

Then she took me to Target where my eyeballs had to suffer looking at the current spring/summer fashion and colors. Jesus Christ it's hideous. Humans, or at least caucasian humans, cannot look good in those freaking day-glo colors. The clown-striped capri pants and and the blowsy brown shirt the color of M&M candies dissolved in milk. Gah.

Dear Clothing Manufacturers,
All women are not 98-pound 17 year olds. Please make some clothes that grown-ups can wear. Thank you.
Badsnake

I escaped to toys and sporting goods for a while. I played with these really cool enormous foam Incredible Hulk fists that you put your hands into and when you punch stuff it makes crashing noises and a tinny little voice says, "Hulk Smash!" Hee. Then I found Deb and let her torture me with shoe shopping. She picked the red high heels with a wide pleather strap across the top with edges cut like a saw blade, which put a nasty red mark across her feet after five minutes of wearing them around the shoe department. I wouldn't have bought them for her if I didn't know that she can take a great deal of pain when the motivation is right.

Deb served an amazing ground turkey and chorizo meatloaf for dinner. We watched a teeny bit of the Oscars. Enough to appreciate Queen Latifah. Ungh. After dessert (triple chunk brownies), I got to go tuck in Sara while Deb and Jake spent some time together at our house.

For the folks who've been asking me how to adopt a soldier, here's my answer from the Comments section of the entry where I first mentioned it.

To adopt a soldier, first be sure that you've got the time and motivation to really do it, then go to to http://operationmilitarypride.org/index.html. Look for the section that says "Sign Up" and then select "Supporter" from the pull-down menu. The online form is a little glitchy. If it automatically brings up an e-mail window with your information semi encoded in the message section, go ahead and hit "Send." (Unless the auto-e-mail it has pulled up isn't an active account. In that case, transfer the message info to your correct e-mail account and send it.)

Addendum:

Please realize that the request for items from soldiers was made before the war started. Chances are, if you get a soldier's address, he or she is now on the move and wants to travel light. I'm sending consumable stuff to my Army Guy because I know he's on the move. The mail might not ever catch up to him. I'm more comfortable sending books and stuff like that to Air Force guy, because the AF generally sets up in one spot and flies in and out from there.

Letters are easy to send and only cost the standard .37�, postcards .23�, but packages are trickier. Pay close attention to the guidelines on package restrictions. The customs form you have to fill out is somewhat extensive. You have to list everything inside individually (or categorically, like "books"), the value, and how much it weighs. I've also gotten conflicting instructions about whether you should write the soldier's rank on the letter or package.

It's also been hard to think about what to write to someone I know nothing about. I'm not including anything saucy or racy in my letters. I'm not even using strong language. I don't write anything related to politics or my personal views on the war. I've ended up writing fairly tame slice-of-my-life type stuff with a couple jokes thrown in and always include my wishes for their safety and my thanks. I hope that one day I'll hear back from one or both of them, but I'm not really holding my breath. They're kind of busy right now and writing letters to strangers probably isn't on the top of their priority list.

My mom applied to adopt a Marine last week but hasn't gotten a name yet. My father was a Marine who served in the Korean War. She says, "Is there any other branch of service?" He wasn't career military, but he sure was proud of his service in the Corps.

My heart goes out to those guys on the front line.