Sunday, March 29, 2009

NE Regional Bridge of Honor Quotes #2

Here are the rest of the select quotes from the RBOH.

"We're making them sit next to each other. We'll generate 10 pages of quotes." - David

"You weren't in skip." - Gus

"Buttercup is such a corny name." - Sarah

"Shift into neutral and rev the engine." - ___________

"Caitlín has to sleep on that side because if the smoke alarm goes off and water comes out, she gets wet first." - Skipper

"This is the real history. Who cares about meeting minutes." - __________

"It doesn't smell bad because they haven't been there that long." - Skipper

"The jacuzzi looks good. I could use that." - Skipper

"I was right for once." - Skipper

"You only need to volunteer 400 hours a year for 7 years." - Skipper

"All's fair in love and war, and this is definitely not love." - Stephen

"No where in the rules does it say that scouts have to be boys." - Skipper

"If I was going to be there, I'd learn from Steve Alexander." - Captain Nichols

"They left me and I didn't have a room key." - Sarah

"The last one ready gets hit with a stick, and the skipper gets to do the hitting." - Skipper

"Rebecca, you should invest in a mechanical pencil." - David

"It's a good thing Rebecca doesn't breath through her hand." - Mr. Fucello

"I'm nice outside of Sea Scouts." - David

"Lock the door dad, so they can't come in." "No, I only do that to you." - Sarah and Mr Fucello

"Honk." "I must be blind." "You couldn't see the blue van?" - Daniel and Caitlin

"He's either looking for Chinese food or looking at someone's hair." - David

"It's too gross to not get a picture of." - Caitlín

"Gus, let me see your creepy drink." - Caitlín

"Cancel, cancel, cancel." - Mr Fucello's GPS

"Rebecca picks the most random things to write down." - Caitlín

"I think I just saw a bunch of turkeys over there." "There are turkeys in the back. Six of them" - Mr. Fucello and Skipper

"Want some ManZone snacks?" "Ultimate ManZone, more power!" - Daniel and Skipper

"When you get really good at the skip drill, we should make a video and post it on YouTube." - Skipper

"Spaghetti, hot dogs, mac and cheese, hot dogs, spaghetti, hot dogs." - David

"We should come up with our own girly line of snacks. Too girly for guys." - Skipper

"At least we won't have any singing on the way back. Daniel's asleep." - Caitlín

"Who wouldn't notice me though?" "Apparently Rachel." - Daniel and David

"If it was raining any harder, we could be sailing home." - David

"I just want to pat them on the head." "They would be so offended." "You are so cute." - Skipper and Caitlín

"On long cruise, we should do one day where we pick up the cadets and teach them how to sail." - David

"Aww, the stupid Sea Scouts got lost again." - Skipper

"When in doubt, accelerate." - Mr Longhi

"Have it say what the skipper wants it to say." "Maybe we should have someone else do it also." - Skipper and Caitlín

"Daniel, do you want ice cream? No? Are you dead?" - Caitlín

"There's Rebecca, ice cream in one hand, pencil in the other." - Sarah

"Wait, Rebecca, you're left handed? How long has she been writing quotes and I haven't noticed?" - Daniel

"I agree with David for once." - Caitlín

"Next year for my birthday, I'm going on a cruise on a tall ship." - Skipper

"Our one head is better than der Pelikan's two." - Skipper

"Sipping on the coffee, but it's not doing any good." - Mr. Fucello

"Daniel was the one partying. 'Don't close the dance, I've still got moves left'." - David

"The 90 year old ladies wanted to dance with him." - David

"No one within 70 or 80 years of their age should dress like that." - David

"Are you starting the ninth page already?" "This is the tenth." - Caitlín and Rebecca

"I'm going to have to break her pencil into three pieces." "I'll set a match to that book." - Skipper and Mr. Fucello

"Oh Sarah, it's very you." - Caitlín

"Rebecca stole a hat from the blues brothers." - Skipper

"Daniel has too much hair." - Caitlín

"Can you give the camera back so we can take one of Rebecca?" "Yeah, Daniel." - Sarah, Caitlín

"I can get a picture of Gus without him doing the peace sign." "Yes!" - David and Caitlín

"Captain Jack Sparrow." - David

"I'm surrounded by dorks." - David

"I'm not going to make it the whole way." - David

"Fill up your lungs sideways." - Sarah

"Wake up people." - Sarah

"Bosun..." "Permission granted." - David, Caitlín

"Isn't it great to know we are so fascinating. We have high entertainment value. Rebecca's stuck with us, she might as well make fun of us." - Skipper

"Who wants to learn navigation? You can't get anywhere if you don't know how." - Skipper

"There will be the most from Gus as usual." - Caitlín

"I hate Tweety." - Mr. Fucello

"Touching my stuff? I'm braking your face." - Skipper

"Not windy enough, is it?" "I didn't say sail, I said boat." - Caitlín

Quotes on the way to the NE Regional Bridge of Honor

From 9:30 am Sat to 12:30 pm Sunday, I collected 10 1/2 pages of quotes from the six scouts and two adults from our ship. There might be one or two quotes from other ships.

Here are select quotes from 9:30 am to about 1 pm Sat. (Select quotes from the rest of the trip will be posted shortly.):

"Everybody stop talking and no one gets quoted." - Mr. Fucello

"The first thing you need to do is hand over all your notebooks and pencils and no one gets hurt." - Skipper (This, as you can tell, didn't happen)

"That's the Alexandria Hotel." "That's a hotel?" "It's a jail." - Mr F.ucello and Skipper

"She said everybody, Daniel. Not you." - Skipper

"Evil quote taker." - Skipper,

"If you weren't so obvious about taking pictures of him then you wouldn't be considered a stalker." - __________

"You have fun just going on random tangents, Daniel." - David

"Are we that interesting?" - Skipper

"I got a 45 on the homeschooler quiz." - David

"Homeschoolers aren't social enough to act out." - David

"The whole world is poisoned. Get used to it." - Skipper

"Let's stop talking about creepy body parts." - Caitlín

"Everything is bad for you nowadays." - David

"What's the difference between roadkill and a lawyer who has been run over? There's no skid marks in front of the lawyer." - Daniel

"There's the ugly shopping center. So pretty." - Skipper

"Crunch, crunch, slurp." - Daniel

"There was suddenly no talking, just crunch, crunch." - Sarah

"You can chew with the roof of your mouth?" - David

"She has a cyst in her ovary with teeth and hair." - Skipper

"Are you sure it's not a really ugly kid?" - David

"We're Sea Scouts, we don't get sea sick. How can we get car sick?" - David

"Just how many times did you throw them out the window if they did that?" - Skipper

"I can't believe it's been two hours." "It's been one." - Daniel and David

"Somalian Pirates stole an oil tanker." - David

"Pirates with style." - David

"The machine doesn't work very well if there's a bullet through the middle." - David

"We'll just have to make sure you don't drive." - David

"And she's writing it down." "I thought she had put that away." - Daniel and David

"Daniel, stop bothering him. You don't want Gus to get angry." - David

"Half the quotes are about the quotes." - David

"At least Rebecca has something to do." - Daniel

"So Daniel, are you ever going to shave off that peach fuzz mustache?" - David

"Why am I the one always being picked on? I'm not the youngest anymore." - Daniel

"Why are we in a tunnel anyway?" "Going through Baltimore harbor." - Daniel and Mr. Fucello

"When I went to Holy Spirit, I was chubby." "You were chubby?" - __________

"Daniel coughs when he hears 'girls' or 'ice cream'." - Skipper

"You guys need to talk slower, Rebecca can't write fast enough." - Mr. Fucello

"How can you use Gus and energy in the same sentence?" - Mr. Fucello

"Permission to hit him?" "Permission granted." - David and Caitlín

"Why does that girl not have her hair out of her face?" "It's not a girl." - Skipper, quoting another person

"She could publish them as a book." - Mr Fucello

"Are you trying to saw your leg off?" "With a comb it is going to take a long time." - David and Caitlín

"Hey Rebecca, I'll pay you if you stop at 5." - Daniel

"Sometime people say I look like a girl." "You do when you have makeup on." - Daniel and Caitlín

"Man am I glad my dad's not the skipper of this ship." - Daniel

"You're not going to be the skipper?" "I'm going to quit right after this trip." - Daniel and Skipper

"I have all the good spork flare there are." - Skipper

"Someday you people actually have to learn to be social. That will be a very humorous day for me." - David

"Could we possibly be any nerdier?" "Anything's possible." - David and Mr. Fucello

"I don't know where to go. I'm just doing what the GPS tells me." - Mr. Fucello

"It's carbonated prune juice." - Mr. Fucello

"You've been here less than 3 hours, and you already have 4 1/2 pages of quotes." - David

"What is wrong with you Daniel? We're going north, and you're speaking southern." - Caitlín

"Wawa means 'goose' in the native NJ language." - Skipper

"Gus is the soul of the ship." - Mr Anderson

"We shouldn't talk around her." - Caitlín

"Why the heck would you sing happy birthday to a hippo?" - David

"Curious about what?" "What human tastes like." - Daniel and Gus

Sunday, March 8, 2009

USS Barry Quotes

by Rebecca

Here are some of the quotes from the USS Barry overnight:

"You have to tell people to obey the signs." - Skipper

"We're all dead." - Sarah

"Ninja quote taker. Sneaky quote taker." - Skipper

"We should just gag you." - Caitlín

"It's a squished tuba." - Scott

"That little kid who was barking like a chihuahua." - Skipper

"There might be some reckless cadet in the way." - Caitlín

"It's like a noodle." - Scott

"You guys are more faggy than us." - Skipper

"It's amazing you are normal." - Caitlín

"Everything's another quote, when it's out of context." - Caitlín

"We're going on strike if we have to do drill again." - Sarah

"What are we going to do at dinner without Daniel to make fun of?" "He won't get locked outside or fall asleep at the table." - Caitlín and Skipper

"They're still just getting in the van." - Caitlín

"They remind me of Boy Scouts." - Jared

"The Sea Scouts challenge us to a duel of napping." "And we lost." - Skipper and Mr Fucello

"What did you win?" "An asparagus." - Caitlín and Scott

"The constant pencil scraping." - Caitlín

"Hey, I'm in charge, and I don't feel like marching." - Caitlín

"Let's just beat ourselves with sticks instead." - Skipper

"The quotes are the best part." - Scott

"Forward Skip!" "About Nap!" - Everyone

"As soon as we stop for breakfast, you get two noogies from everyone." - Skipper

"I was wondering why you didn't have your quote book out, but then I realized we're all too tired to say anything funny." - Sarah

"The Skipper is going to have lobster for dinner every night." - Skipper

Overnight Aboard the USS Barry

by Caitlín

Yesterday we met Ship 1115 (S.S.S. Constellation) and the Henry E. Mooberry Division of the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps at the Washington Navy Yard to spend the weekend learning drill and how to care for dress uniforms, and spend the night aboard the USS Barry.

After waiting around for the Cadets to be ready for us, we watched Sea Cadet Recruit Company Commander B. Thompson drill some of the new recruits before falling in to go over the commands (and how to command) ourselves. I must say, we didn't do too badly with it, either.

Sea Cadet Petty Officer Second Class K. Herbert took us to the navy museum, marched there under the command of Ship 1115 Boatswain, Will Nelson. I wish we'd had more time to look around, but Lieutenant Commander Cirone wanted us back to the Cadet building by a certain time, leaving us only about 30 minutes to look around the museum.
(Sarah and Rebecca at one of the big guns on exhibit at the museum.)



After "route-step marching" (a command which requires the company only to stay in formation, not stay in step or turn corners all at the same time) my crew of Scouts back, we had more time for drill practice. The Sea Cadets challenged us to a game of Knockout, a military version of Simon Says, and a game at which we Scouts failed pretty miserably last time (excepting Jared, who saved us from complete embarrassment).

Only yesterday, the Cadets kept getting "outed" until Jared, Rebecca, and I were the last three standing...and then Rebecca and I were the last two. They just couldn't stop us, even when firing off commands like "leftface-leftface-aboutface-rightface" as fast as they could! Eventually, to get Rebecca and I out, they had to trick us by standing behind us and having another Cadet give an order, which we obeyed although we shouldn't have and lost. When we actually had a chance of winning, the game was a lot more fun.

The options for dinner were your choice of the Subway or Five Guys down the street, and we boarded the Barry at twilight (left) for our tour of the ship and an ice cream social. While stowing our gear, Sarah, Rebecca, Meghan, and I discovered a sailor's stash of an empty Mountain Dew can, Speed Stick, shampoo ("for oily hair only"), and other various toiletries in one of the lockers near our bunks (right). The female Scouts and Cadets were berthed in racks that are on part of the tour route, so the bunks were behind a Plexiglas wall, which made us feel a little trapped and on display.


Before our tour, we had to wait until the Marine Corps retirement ceremony being held on the fantail of the Barry was over. While we waited, Jared read aloud from Gus's manga--backwards; we laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes!




Next, we had a practice-run fire drill and then an actual fire drill, which we found to be a little bit silly, so we had some fun with it:
We learned how to care for and press our uniforms from the US Naval Sea Cadets' Supply Officer, who says that the way to roll neckerchiefs is when they're still wet from the wash. And then finally we were able to take a tour of the Barry--something some of us had been waiting on for a year. Because we were a "junior military" group, the woman giving us the tour showed us parts of the ship to which the public is not normally admitted, such as the engine room. I thought the bridge was the coolest part; it was pretty cool to imagine steering that large a vessel from that high up.

Taps was at 2300 hours--an hour after it was scheduled, and reveille was at 0500 despite the time change--and we went to bed readily. Unfortunately, sleep didn't come easily with people talking and banging things around, a strange new space to sleep, and in a tiny berth.

We were all very groggy when we woke up this morning, and the 20 minutes we had to dress, pack up, freshen up, and get to the dockside for morning muster seemed to turn into only 5 minutes awfully fast. We stood blearily at parade rest for roll call, then drove to Andrews Air Force Base for breakfast (Anacostia doesn't begin serving breakfast early enough for us to have eaten there).

Because the Cadets' plan for the day didn't really include us unless we wanted to participate in even more drill (and we felt like we'd had enough), we took a vote and decided to head home after breakfast. Scott fell asleep at the table, he was so tired!

We said goodbye to and thanked the Cadets and their CO, and departed. Thinking about it, it's amazing how much the unit has grown since we visited the Barry last year; we're a more cohesive group, we can march in formation (proof of that below), and we even have uniforms!
See more photos from the weekend here.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

NCAC Wardroom Dinner and Award Ceremony

by Sarah

Last Saturday, February 28th, was the National Capital Area Council Dinner and award ceremony. Ship 1942 very kindly invited us to take part in the ceremony as practice for the Regional Bridge of Honor we are performing in New Jersey later this month. Five of our scouts, Rebecca, Caitlín, Jared, Gus, and I made the port crew, and Ship 1942 had seven scouts as the starboard crew, boatswain, and boatswain’s mate. Also, our very own skipper was the mate. She looked great in her new dress uniform.

When we all got there, we started by rolling our new neckerchiefs. The Sea Cadets had showed us how to roll them when they came to teach us military drill, and thanks to their help, we were able to roll five neckerchiefs very quickly.

Skipper Ballew of Ship 1942 ran us and his scouts through the ceremony twice. The first time he explained every person’s jobs for their position. For example, the mate and boatswain board at opposite sides of the vessel at the same time, the crew leader requests permission for his/her crew to board, etc. Then we went through it for a second time as if it was the real ceremony and not just a practice round.

Next, Skipper Ballew introduced the guest speaker Alex Smith and his daughter Francis. Mr. Smith said he would be talking about submarines and some people who make submarines by themselves. He then invited us outside to look at his submarine made for only one person. It seemed very small with no room to lie down inside of it, but he later explained that he does not use it for longer than a short day trip with some other submariners.

Dinner consisted of the choice between roast beef, baked chicken, or vegetarian lasagna and green beans, boiled potatoes, and a bread roll. After we ate, the landship ceremony began, and the awards were handed out. We were hoping to receive ship of the year, but that reward was given to Ship 1942. The surprise was the Skipper of the Year award that was presented to Skipper Shay. It was a pleasant surprise for the skipper; she was hoping for the ship of the year and was shocked to hear her name announced as Skipper of the Year.

The ceremony concluded, and the guest speaker began to set up for his slide show he was going to use as part of his speech. While he set up his projector, Skipper Shay grabbed us five scouts, and we stepped back onto the landship. She had surprise certificates for a couple people who have helped our ship get off the ground. The first one was for Commodore Yeckley who received the “Amanda Grace award” because he kept the Amanda Grace at his house until we were able to get a slip for her close by. He also chased her down when she slipped her anchor. The other certificate went to Commodore Alexander for his help with our ship and his generosity with the use of his ship the der PeliKan.

Lastly, Alex Smith began his speech. He first showed us a short video of him in his submarine going underwater along with a convention of other submariners. His picture slideshow showed several different people who build submarines on their own. Two of them had, at one point, taken place as the smallest submarine in the Guinness World Records. Another man was making a huge submarine from scratch, a submarine that he could live up to three weeks in. Also in his slideshow was Sea Scout Ship 188th in Montreal that had previously restored old boats and sold them, but they were now restoring an old submarine. They had taken it apart and started to clean it though there was still a lot left. Mr. Smith said he is interested in seeing how it turns out when they finally finish it.

It was a very enjoyable event, and we will most likely attend next year.