Suzie's aunt Lisa came down for a visit, and she and Suzie spent some quality Chick-Bonding time at the most chic shopping mall in SA. They hung out in Saks (as in '5th Avenue'), dodging the folks who insisted on giving them Champagne, when their 'attendant' offered to show them them the most expensive item in the store. He took them to a concealed panel in the wall, and withdrew the ring shown below.
The attendant said that the ring cost $485,000! The center diamond is a 6 karat yellow diamond, with 10 total karats of diamonds in the whole ring. Maybe for our 20th anniversary...
Derek found a ball point pen, decided that our computer monitor was too boring, so he spiced it up with some of his own original art-work! Luckily, I could still see through the ink well enough to find out how to safely clean it off (isopropol alcohol, of course), and our monitor is now cleaner than ever!
Part of our duties as Air Force psychologists is treating Soldiers and Airmen for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after participating in combat in-theater. Many of the treatments for PTSD involve revisiting the traumatic event in your mind, while processing your emotional reactions and practicing relaxation techniques. Below, I'm training with some new equipment which employs Virtual Reality to better simulate the specific experience that the client had. The goggles present a 3-d interactive environment, coupled with surround-sound headphones. The platform I'm sitting on rumbles with explosions and the engine of the humvee, and the grey box on the table provides smells which might have been present during the trauma (any combination of B.O., exhaust, weapon-fire, building-fire, middle-eastern spices, etc.). The details of the experience are all orchestrated by the therapist. It all seems like really flashy technology, but it also seemed like it would be easy to get lost in the wonder of science, rather than the emotions of the experience. But it gave a positive indication of where the future of treatment lie.
My supervisors at the Clinical Psychology Residency invited us to participate in Convoy Training. Driving Truck is a whole different experience in the military. In the 21st century, most 'combat' consists of roadside bombs and urban ambushes, so the vehicle operators must be trained and flexible tacticians. They are trained to stabilize blast and gun-shot victims, start IVs, and call in air-support and med-evacs. Below, the vehicles circle to form a box after a simulated roadside blast. The box provides cover for the individuals providing triage for the wounded. The only heads you can see are the shouty-screamy sergeants who are there to provide 'combat stress,' direction and observation.
The Clinical Psych Residents playing the part of Third-Country Nationals, or TCNs--basically useless people-baggage who must be protected at all costs, but would contribute nothing in an emergency situation. We had to wear kevlar helmets and 40-lb body armor the entire day (until 9:00 p.m.), I literally had bruises on my shoulders from where the vest hung (as well as bruises on my booty from sitting in the Korea-era 5-ton truck).
Below are some of the young (18-21 year-old) Airmen who are charged with saving the lives of others. This is one of the most dangerous maneuvers (hence the drawn weapons), where they are returning from delivering the wounded to the med-evac. They are in the wide-open, in an area where they have already come under heavy attack. 
Suzie already posted several pictures of our Big Day at the Beach. These little clear, firm, gelatinous whatzits were all over the beach. Kudos to whoever can tell me what they were. They were about 12-15 inches in diameter at the cap. Mushroomy jellyfish looking things (although they seemed too firm to be jelly fish), maybe a plant, or an anemone?
Here's another perspective of Tyler's first steps into a life of tagging. 'Tyler' isn't much of a street-name, though...
Suzie didn't get the wheat mill she wanted for christmas (probably because she wasn't all THAT good), but she had bushels and bushels of food storage grain from the Cannery that needed grinding, so she borrowed the Relief Society president's mill. After a day and a half of making flour, Suzie thought she noticed something funny about the way the grain was sitting in the hopper.
Hat in hand, Suzie explained to the RS pres what happened, and now we are the proud owners of the Leaning Whisper Mill of Pisa (the manufacturer of which has mysteriously gone out of business. I know, hard to believe!).
They first rocket you to the equivalent of 5000 feet (from sea-level) in less than 20 seconds just to check to see if your ears bleed. If they don't, they shoot you to 25,000 feet, then ask you to take off your mask. I was only too happy to take the stupid thing off, it was like trying to breath through a coffee straw, you really had to employ your diaphragm to suck air in and blow air out.
Once the mask is off, they give you some simple math problems to do and engage you in light conversation. Once you stop making any sense at all (3-5 minutes), they help you get the mask back on with positive pressure O2 so you don't experience too much cerebral atrophy.
Then they let you try the various forms of emergency O2, the first of which is like trying to breath normally with an air-compressor in your mouth (the pressure in the tank is 1800 to 2000 psi). Each time I tried to exhale, I couldn't push hard enough, so my lungs just kept filling. Not pleasant, eventually the air started to fart out around the sides of my mask, but I still couldn't exhale, so they let me take the mask off.
I wonder what my friends are doing on their psychology internships...
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These two are the SLEEPIEST! Jared is always sleepy. Holly is always sleepy when Jared is holding her. It's kinda weird. Actually, she's really sleepy at night too. It's nice for us to get good sleep but it makes it hard to work on things during the day because she's awake and wants to play..jpg)
Tyler is really good at holding the baby! He loves to sit and hold her and sing her songs..jpg)
He always gives her back when she starts to cry.
This is what you can do in Jan if you live in Texas.
