I am up to the sixth cake in a cake decorating class.  Last night we did a clown cake.  It did not scare Citrus. In fact, I have never seen anyone else so excited over a cake.  I think she knows the important reason why she was born a human being and not a chair.

Army Specialist Jeremy Hall’s lawsuit made headlines in the past few days. He was deployed in Iraq and his being an atheist upset an officer and other soldiers to the point where the Army sent him home because his safety could not be guaranteed. 

When he was a gunner and his Humvee was under fire, a commander later asked him if he believed in God.  Apparently Hall responded “No, but I believe in Plexiglas.”  Later he organized a meeting of atheists, which was interrupted by an officer who told him

People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!”

And back in the United States,

Hall currently has a no-contact order with a sergeant who, without provocation, threatened to ‘bust him in the mouth.’ Another sergeant allegedly told Specialist Hall that as an atheist, he was not entitled to religious freedom because he had no religion.

I can see why the Army removed him from his original unit if cohesion of the team was threatened, but wonder why they didn’t just put him somewhere else in Iraq.  Or maybe being an atheist can be the new way to get out of a deployment!

Meanwhile, an officer apparently deployed to Afghanistan in 2005 for the purpose of converting Muslims and other soldiers to Christianity.  Our local paper in Silver Spring, Maryland just did a profile on a new evangelical preacher in the area who recently retired after 23 years in the Navy.

 . . . But then, ‘‘God called me to preach.” The next year, he was shipped to Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province in a support role with coalition troops. There, he followed his calling, preaching to military personnel on the base where he lived and venturing out to hand out Christian literature and, through interpreters, talk to local Afghans about Jesus.

He violated orders, used interpreters, and didn’t get sent home?  When you compare the experience of Hall to the preacher, it gives credence to claims of religious bias in the armed forces regardless of official policy. 

In any case, it irritates me to no end to think of friends being deployed and meanwhile you have someone who puts their mission ahead of everyone else there.  One day this guy in uniform is handing out Christian literature to the local Muslims, the next day someone like my wife shows up to do her job, wearing the same uniform.  The Gazette is a small paper, so I imagine they’ll print my response:

The profile of the new pastor and his path to Sligo Baptist Church was interesting, but I found his prosyletizing while serving as a naval officer disturbing (“Former naval officer hopes to revitalize Sligo Baptist Church as new pastor,” 4/23/2008).

While Corrigan’s service to his nation is admirable, it is widely known among service members that U.S. Central Command’s General Order No. 1A prohibits “proselytizing of any religion, faith or practice.”  Yet the Gazette reports how Corrigan “followed his calling” to preach, deploying to southern Afghanistan to support coalition troops in 2005, where he was “venturing out to hand out Christian literature and, through interpreters, talk to local Afghans about Jesus.” 

As an officer serving in Afghanistan, Corrigan would have been subject to that order even if he was serving in support of coalition troops. The primary reason behind that prohibition is that any attempt to convert a Muslim to another religion is illegal in Afghanistan. 

Additionally, as a policy matter, the U.S. and its allies want to avoid any appearances that our presence in that country is a pretext to convert Muslims to Christianity.  This is already a highly sensitive issue among the populations of many Muslim countries.

What does a lawyer do with her rifle and pistol marksmanship training? 

Sometimes you just need to protect your family from giant corn and squid, or win a flower for your husband at a German carnival.

Today was the annual celebration for the Month of the Military Child at the Child Development Center on base. 

As you would expect, the daycare was covered with red, white and blue bunting, flags, pendants, streamers and balloons.  There was vanilla ice cream with blueberries and strawberries, and you could take home a little cup of soil to plant red, white or blue flowers.  I think we forgot our soil somewhere near the ice cream when Citrus went back for seconds.

The Fleet and Family Support Center had an information table set up but I was not asked if I was a military spouse, unlike the wives.  Ah well.  We got our tchotchkes anyway.

There are about 1.2 million military kids in the U.S., and about half have had a parent deployed. The hundred or so toddlers running around today have a lot more in common than they realize. 

Our daughter found the afikomen at my cousin’s Passover seder and we are now the proud owners of a Moses action figure. 

We now have three action figures in our household, so I raise the question:

Who would win?

Choice #1:  Moses

Weapon:  Has a Shepherd’s Staff/Rod of God!

Noteworthy experience: Confronted the Pharoah with God’s Demand; Argued with God.

Choice #2:  Lunchbots

Weapon:  Can of tea transforms into samurai warrior, bowl of soup morphs into ninja assassin!

Noteworthy experience: An assassin must be invisible as well as deadly, hiding behind the most innocent disguise.

Choice #3:  Elysia, Warrior of Virtue

Weapon:  Formidable kung fu fighter; trained to harness the five forces of Nature and to wield the power of the Ancient Virtues.

Noteworthy experience: A beautiful, golden-haired orphan raised by Master Chung, she dutifully assisted Master Chung as he trained the Warrior Rooz.

We drove back to Maryland from NYC today and it rained.  As usual about half of the Maryland drivers thought the sky was falling, some turning on their hazard lights, others actually pulling over.  The first time I was driving in the rain in Maryland I thought I had accidentally become involved in a funeral procession, there were so many blinking lights.  And when there is the threat of snow, all of the schools in the DC area shut down.  It reminds me of the story about Christopher Columbus and the eclipse of the sun — I think I ought to demonstrate my powers to some neighbors the next time one comes around.

In contrast, when the clouds parted in Seattle between the months of October and April, Elysia was sent home from work for a day of ‘Sunshine Liberty’ (leave).  Washington State drivers leave a lot of braking distance, but they are not scared of this thing we call water.

Back when I created our Flat Mommy, my original idea was to create several articles of clothing that could be affixed with velcro.  I figured Citrus could have fun each morning dressing Mommy in her absence like a giant paper doll.

Then I discovered how much it can cost to make a life-size poster of someone mounted on plasticor ($150++) and decided that a 6″ or 1′ version would be just as good.  I think the way to go is using magnetic paper for inkjet printers, which I’ll try soon.

In the meantime, I have created an online version using javascript code borrowed from somewhere else.  I find it highly amusing, but that may just be me. Which is good, because my HTML skills are very basic and it may only work on my computer.

Elysia received a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal today and there was a brief ceremony at her office. I played devoted spouse and snapped a few photos. We decided against pulling Citrus out of day care even though having her at such things usually throws in a bit of a fun wild card element.

In other news, the roller’s list is out so we are looking at interesting opportunities for 2009, both geographic and type of job. [Note to self:  Since when did I start saying “we” like a typical military spouse?]

It is far from guaranteed that she will get any of the duty stations that she requests, but it is fun to daydream about where we could go once you put aside things such as . . . my career. In the past eight years we have lived apart about three years, including Citrus’s first two years, so that I could keep a job.

In any case, Elysia has new orders for a position in DC that starts next week, so the adventure continues. And since it does not require a PCS (Permanent Change of Station) move, we can continue to pick off the old moving labels that keep popping up from the previous four moves.

Citrus has been involved in a lot of arguments lately.  Yesterday she was yelling at her hand for touching her leg. 

Today the “The blue e was being mean to the yellow e.  The blue e was not making good choices.  We don’t like that!  Rrrrrrrrr.”

[Click on the picture for a photo gallery.]

On Saturday, Citrus and I went to the Parade of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. We had a hard time squeezing through the crowd, but ultimately found a good perch on the steps of the National Archives.

Several celebrities were in the parade, but I am now officially out of touch with today’s pop culture.  As proof, I only recognized Kathy Sledge of Sister Sledge.  Guess what she sang?

We also saw the US and Japan Queens of the Parade, as well as the Queen of Flowering Dogwood. Target had a very good corporate float, complete with an origami version of their mascot.

It was threatening to rain, so we dashed over the the Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue for the 17th Annual Blessing of the Fleets.  They had equipment from the SEALs and Seabees, and Citrus was able sit in the driver’s seat of an up-armored Humvee – she promptly looked for the stick shift and radio.  It is sobering to see 200-lb steel-plated doors, but Citrus brought a pink balloon doggy inside which was a nice touch. It was tempting to try to find a place to stash it.

After a speech from the Navy’s Surgeon General and a blessing from the Navy’s Chief of Chaplains, we watched the ceremonial guard pour water from the Seven Seas and the Great Lakes to “charge” the Memorial’s fountains.

Passed down through generations of sailors, fishermen, merchant mariners and navies around the world, the centuries-old “Blessing of the Fleets” ceremony is intended to safeguard fishing crews and ships from the danger of the seas through a traditional blessing given by a clergyman at the water’s edge.

Citrus held up well through her nap time and enjoyed at least three different versions of “Anchors Aweigh,” including once on bagpipes.  We finished the afternoon with some Navy Bean Soup and took the Metro home.