Officer Development School (ODS) "Boot Camp"

I have been in Newport, RI since July 11th. This is a gorgeous town (I will post pictures when I get the chance). Out of my window I can see the water and it is filled with sailboats. The town is very touristy and reminds me of Charlestown. I hope to tour some of the mansions when Zach comes up for my graduation (only 18 days!).
As for becoming a naval officer, I am learning what military bearing is (1000 yd stare, hands shaped like you are holding a roll of quarters with your thumbs along your pant seam, and no movement or talking), that everything is answered "YES", "NO", or"AYE,AYE" followed by sir/ma'am/Senior Chief as loud as you can say it, that marching with a bunch of nerds (esp. me) in coordinated movements is very difficult, that I hate meetings with our company because the meetings last hours to discuss one point, and that I can function with 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night. I have also aquired 3 jobs: I am the postal officer (I pick up and drop off everyone in my company's mail), I am a duty section leader (I assign when people in my duty section will work on the quarterdeck and everyone complains about their shift), and I am road guard (I wear a bright orange vest and run ahead of our company when we are marching and stop traffic). I have also learned that the sandpit is not fun (rolling around and exercising in the sand and then having a room inspection to make sure there is no sand in your room or you will go back to the sandpit). I now dread the term "on your face", which means get in push-up position look up at the person yelling at you and go down for a push up on their command.
I am going to enjoy "liberty", the time that we can do "whatever we want". I will post pictures in a few weeks.

Manny and The Pool

Manny kept trying to splash around in their water dish, so we could never keep it full. We decided the solution was a kiddie pool because there is no way he could splash out all the water. Max has absolutely no interest in getting wet, but Manny loves it! Of course, as soon as I got the camera out he calmed down, but he runs and and jumps into it, puts his face under, and splashes around like crazy with his paws.

I found this video of manny

I found this and remembered when we first got him and I was trying to get him to wave. He actually does after a little encouragement. I can't believe what a little pudge ball he was. He has changed so much!