Air Force acronyms!

My son, who is in the Air force recently came to visit.  Every time he comes it gets harder and harder to understand his language. You see he speaks in acronym-ese.  What, you may wonder is acronym-ese? 

The Air Force has thousands of acronyms for everything from rank to tank.  And a civilian doesn’t stand a chance!  I guess his training has made him think that the non-military world understands.  I constantly find myself scratching my head in confusion.  

Regular people don’t know what PDS means.  They stand agape at the term ABU.  BMT could mean anything.  And for god sakes what is an MTI?

If you need a list of common acronyms this site has some answers. 

http://afwm.org/pre-grad/common-terms-abbreviations/

If you need a detailed list of thousands try this one!

http://fas.org/irp/doddir/usaf/afdd1-2.pdf

Or you can just  do what I do.  Stop him mid sentence and tell him to speak English!

Free apple bookmark printable

click for free printable

You may wonder where I’ve been lately.  First off, my hubs and I took an impromptu road trip to help our 22-year-old son in the military drive his car all the way across country.  Comfort was in short supply in a tiny little car that was so low to the ground that I hit the ceiling whenever we drove over a pebble!

We are also in the middle of redecorating our family room.  If you’ve ever started a project in a home you have lived in for several years then you have also opened the proverbial “can of worms”.  How so?  Well, after the painting, we had to get a new carpet.  After the carpet we had to get a new sofa.  After the sofa we had to get a better TV stand.  After the TV stand…well you get the drift. 

So as a result my blogging has gotten a bit lax.  After all, waiting 4 weeks for a sofa delivery has sort of displaced a lot of things.  I can barely find a chair to sit in so creativity has taken a back seat.

I know that school is either in session or almost ready so I am reposting a free apple coloring bookmark printable from my other blog Make it easy crafts that you may have missed.  Get them reading…and coloring.  And enjoy those little ones before they get old enough to buy a car for looks alone!

Is this pear ripe yet?

Did you know that pears ripen the best when are off the tree?  If they ripen on the tree they get mushy in the center by the time they are ripe enough to eat!  So that is why that pear you just bought is hard and doesn’t seem ready to eat at all!  That is because it isn’t. And it has nothing to do with keeping them unripe while they make their journey to your grocery store. 

So what do you do to ripen your pears perfectly?  First of all if your pick your pears right off your tree (Like I did) you must chill it in the refrigerator first.  For Bartlett a day or two will suffice.  Bosc and Anjou need longer periods of chilling. Grocery store pears have already had their chilling period.  After they chill out Bartlett pears will need 4-5 days to ripen at between 65-75 degrees and up to two weeks for Bosc and Anjou. I do it on my kitchen counter.  The ethylene gas they produce speeds up the ripening.  You can speed up this process even more by putting your pears in a paper bag with another ethylene producing fruit such as bananas or apples, which will concentrate this ripening hormone.

So how do you tell when your pears are ready?  You simply hold the pear in the palm of your hand and push slightly at the stem end of the fruit.  If it gives evenly, it’s ready to eat.  If you have to push harder than slightly, you must wait a bit longer to enjoy it’s juicy goodness.

Involuntary mom arm

When you drive the older kids around (And by older I'm talking teenagers and above) do you do the mom arm thing when making a quick stop?

If you are not a mom then you may be wondering what in the world am I talking about.

Mom arm
- n
1.  Also called a maternal automobile restraint.  An arm placed in front of an unsuspecting passenger to restrain forward motion in a event of a collision.

2.  An overprotective action which causes involuntary eye rolling in pre-adults.

Since my daughter graduated college last year I haven't had the opportunity to drive with her as a passenger of late.  Last week while we were going out to lunch, a car cut in front of me forcing me to brake quickly.  The old familiar mom arm appeared and she looked at me as if I had grown two horns.  I just shrugged it off.  I doubt that the mom arm really does much in the way of protection in an accident.  The seat beat takes care of that.  Since the mom arm is involuntary it really doesn't matter if the passenger is a child, adult, or stranger.  It just happens.

A few days later I received a phone call from said daughter.  While she was taking her beloved jack russell terrier to the vet, she stopped short and lo and behold the mom arm made an appearance!  Dogs don't roll their eyes, but judging from the horror my daughter felt, I can only imagine the look on her face.  Guess the mom arm works with pets too.

Do you do the mom arm?