Underwear Parties, how old is too old? submitted by Wookie & Co.

If you’re going to have an underwear party, I think you should probably wear some of your newer stuff. No one needs to see frayed elastic or worn bra straps, and faded colors just wouldn’t contribute appropriately to the festive atmosphere.

Oh, did you mean the age of the wearers? Context would seem to be more important than age. I must admit, though, I don’t foresee that particular context popping up in my post-collegiate life unless my husband and I by ourselves constitute a “party.”

What was your favorite class in high school? submitted by Adventures of M-Squared

Anthropology was both fascinating and a lot of fun. Highlights included:

– A trip to the National Zoo to observe primate behavior

• Note that “primates” also include the human visitors to the zoo

– Guest speakers such as the forensic anthropologist who brought a skull that still had the murder weapon (a knife blade) embedded in it and told us tales of identifying plane crash victims by their teeth (which were not necessarily found with the rest of their owners)

• Bonus fun fact: apparently the term “high fragmentation,” when applied to a plane crash, does not refer to the state of the aircraft.

– A contest to see who could, using only one’s feet (any use of hands was disqualifying), peel a banana and lift the fruit to one’s chin the fastest

• I won!
• When I told my mom of my triumph after school, I thought she was going to choke to death from laughing (I’m sure she was just overcome with parental pride)

Come to think of it, I wish there had been time in my college schedule for an Anthro course. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when major requirements precluded my taking “The Anthropology of Star Trek.”

Have you ever convinced packers/movers to pack something they aren’t supposed to for a PCS? submitted by Ground Control to Major Mom

K-rock to Corpus: our fastest PCS ever.

This one gets a resounding “maybe.” When we moved from Kingsville to Corpus Christi, the entire pack-up, transportation, and unload process took place in the space of a single day. I’m pretty sure the packers threw it all in with little regard to what was technically allowed, since none of it would even be staying on the truck overnight.

That packing/moving team was fantastic. They were efficient, friendly, and motivated to get everything done in one day. Contrast that with our move (just over three months later) from Corpus Christi to Virginia. The lack of professionalism from that team was a huge disappointment after having had such a good experience only a few months prior.

Blogging plays a growing roll in the media. If you were asked to embed as a blogger with a deployed military unit, would you go? What do you think your blog would be like? submitted by To the Nth

Since I asked the question, you can probably guess that yes, I would participate in this hypothetical embedded blogger program. Specifically, I would want to share the story of a Navy squadron. When people outside the military community hear “deployment,” I believe the images that spring to mind for many involve Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Army. Our military and its activities throughout the world are far from monolithic, though, and I would want to shine some light on that heterogeneity.

CODs fly out of all kinds of places -- like Greece -- over the course of a deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Paul Farley/Released)

Let’s say I were embedded with the aforementioned Navy squadron, and let’s make it a COD detachment such as my husband is on now. Sampson jokingly refers to a COD det as a traveling rock-and-roll show: although the pilots fly out to the aircraft carrier on a nigh-daily basis, they live on land. Where on land, specifically? It changes — as quickly as every few days, in some cases — as the ship moves. When the carrier is transiting from one place to another, the men and women on the COD det have to pack up, move, unpack, and set up a base of operations in a new place. The logistical feats they perform are monumental, yet largely invisible to the people on the aircraft carrier. The Boat, collectively, cares only that their cargo shows up, the mail gets there, and the VIPs arrive and depart as scheduled. Those aboard don’t necessarily see the mad scramble necessary to do it all and make it look easy.

The up-close and personal nature of most blogs would be well-suited to highlighting the diversity of the military experience, even within the same branch of the service. A blog filled with those day-to-day struggles, annoyances, and yes, occasional sweet deals (hey, COD guys do get to live on the beach instead of being stuck on a giant gray floating monstrosity) might shed some light on their efforts. Maintaining OPSEC would no doubt require some special considerations about what to publish, but I believe there would be a way to honestly tell the stories of the people who come together to perform a given mission.

Do you think kids should attend year-round school? submitted by Marrying the Navy

I believe kids should learn year-round. I also believe that a significant chunk of learning should not be restricted to the classroom. Kids need time to explore the world beyond the building where they spend the majority of their day in a room with only their peers and a single adult running the show.

Are you a military spouse/fiancée/fiancé/girlfriend/boyfriend? Hie thee to LTJG Wifey’s blog, snag the questions, and add yourself to the Mr. Linky for this week’s MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!

When you vacation what type of vacation do you like to take (beach, historic, adventurous, food oriented, etc.)? submitted by Megan Dub-Yuh

I don’t know that any of our vacations have fit into neat categories. In the future, I would definitely like to take a food-oriented trip to New York City, though. Then you could, in the words of my hilarious mother-in-law, “roll me home from the table.” Yes, a vacation revolving around deliciousness would be right up our alley.

What is your best memory associated with a song (you know we all have tons!) submitted by Ramblings of a Marine Wife

Tough one. It’s hard to choose one memory from such a musical multitude as “the best.” A summertime memory that springs to mind involves “Bohemian Rhapsody” and a beach house filled to the brim with my extended family in various states of inebriation, all singing at the top of their lungs. There was headbanging, too — it was glorious.

Oh, now it’s in my head and the dang cats don’t know the words. Sigh.

If you had six months with no obligations or financial constraints, what would you do with your time? submitted by Married to the Army

Fly. A lot. Preferably someplace scenic, with a variety of cross-country locations within a reasonable distance for the fabled hundred-dollar hamburger.

What is one thing about you that people do NOT typically notice at first that you wish they would? submitted by Our Motto is Patience

Huh. I haven’t the foggiest notion what people do notice about me at first, much less what they fail to spot.

…submitted by The Three Turners: It’s a summer of sequels, and if you had to live in one of each of the following “worlds” (there are three total) which would you choose and why?

Oh, this kind of question can get incredibly complex for people who love speculative fiction as much as I do. I will deliberately keep things simple, lest I wind up writing a geektastic dissertation on the fictional universe in question, its peculiarities, and the minutiae dependent thereon. (You’re welcome.)

X-Men: Be a Mutant, what would your power be?

Something in the teleportation family would be an awfully handy power for a military spouse, don’t you think?

Harry Potter: Be a Witch or Muggle?

As if Angela Noelle’s recent post on her trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter wasn’t already feeding my dream of extremely belated Hogwarts admission! Now really, is it any contest? I’d pick magic any day of the week.

Twilight: Be a Vampire or Werewolf?

I have not read the books or seen the movies. The series I used to read about vampires and werewolves involved no sparkling whatsoever and rather more *cough* explicit paranormal sex. Oh, Laurell K. Hamilton, I do remember when your Anita Blake books actually bothered with plots, though. I lost interest when, somewhere along the way, the books transmuted from decent horror-ish stories to one scene of freaks gettin’ freaky after another.

If we broaden the scope of the question to include more generic vampires and werewolves (my favorites being found in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series), I’d prefer to shift my shape every full moon than make one permanent shift from living to bloodsucking undead.

Are you a military spouse/fiancée/fiancé/girlfriend/boyfriend? Hie thee to LTJG Wifey’s blog (and wish her a happy birthday!), snag the questions, and add yourself to the Mr. Linky for this week’s MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!

It’s now June (woot!)… what plans do you have for the summer?

My very favorite summer plans include welcoming my husband home from deployment. We have all kinds of extravagant ideas for things we want to do, ranging from spending a week in a mountain cabin (where it might even get chilly at night; Sampson is more than ready to be done with the heat where he is) to doing as much Civil Air Patrol flying as we can squeeze in. Mostly, I’m looking forward to anything we can do together, whether we’re off on an adventure or merely braving the perils of backyard grilling. Those bees can be vicious when they’re interested in my cocktail.

What is your favorite summer memory as a kid?

Going to the beach with a horde of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and best of all, cousins. For a solid week every August, we would spend all day on the beach, the adults sipping tasty beverages in “the compound” (a couple of big tent/pavilion things staked in the sand with plenty of beach chairs underneath in the shade) and watching all of us kids run around like sandy, salty, wild beasts. I eventually aged into the beverage-sipping category, which made for delightful days of digging my toes in the sand while enjoying a Bloody Mary or three at ten in the morning. Each night, a different couple would take on the dinner prep, and the rest would show up at that rental unit for the evening’s party. It was wonderful.

If wild animals could be made pets without fear of them ever being dangerous, what kind of exotic animal would you want as a pet?

Big kitty! I have serious reservations about the our back yard ecosystem’s ability to support such a large apex predator, alas.

Guess I'll leave this tiger at Disney's Animal Kingdom for the time being.

Is there anything about deployments that you do like? submitted by The Thrifty Military Wife

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it is refreshing not to have to check the flight sked the night before to find out what time we have to drag ass out of bed in the morning.

I’m starting to run out of questions again… so please give me a question you’d like to see (off-the-wall will most likely make it because we seem to have used a lot of the “traditional” ones).

• Which of your possessions do you wish the movers would break so you’d have an excuse to get rid of it?
• Blogging plays a growing roll in the media. If you were asked to embed as a blogger with a deployed military unit, would you go? What do you think your blog would be like?
• What makes a military ball/bash/gala/what-have-you a wonderful evening? What makes you roll your eyes while at such an event?

Are you a military spouse/fiancée/fiancé/girlfriend/boyfriend? Hie thee to LTJG Wifey’s blog, snag the questions, and add yourself to the Mr. Linky for this week’s MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!