Cordova Christmas

I apologize for how unorginized this blog enty is, I cant seem to get the pictures to go in the right spots so please just bear with me.

T
The stoking is something that I will likely have for the rest of my life, and the hoodie (top) is very classy. So classy that if I were to meet the president I would wear that very hoodie.

So this was the first Christmas that I spent away from my family but it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be because I managed to talk to just about everyone over the phone and I managed to rake in some Shark clothing.

About 5 days ago I cut down a Christmas tree for the added sense of Christmas, it is the smallest tree that I every rember having but size matters not according to a very wise person from Star Wars.

I also got this book called "Exposure" from Alex Cutler, and it is a book full of amazing swim suit models in the Caribbean. Not many words in it but still pretty hard to put down :)

I will be cleaning this up soon

This is what my room looks like now. I have been very fortuneate to be given the second biggest bedroom in the house and it is indeed a perfect size for me.

The only problem is that I have some how become extremely lazy and dont clean up anything. Althoug I dont really have a good place to put stuff that doesnt mean that I should leave my clothers on the floor as you see them now.

I am getting underway for a while starting this Thursday and if everything goes according to plan I shall have it all cleaned up in weeks time with everything orginized too boot. If you want to get a hold of my the email should be working: nathanile.d.murphy@uscg.mil.

Pictures from my best trip yet

These were the hundreds of moped like bikes outside of a japanese mall. Also, there were lots of direction signs in english and japanese. Weird, it seems like I can be a world class traveler with only the english language being mastered.

Picture from Russia, I think that this is a statue of

Stalin. It was pretty big, like maybe in the 40 foot range.

My first thanksgiving without family had family

So as far as I can tell, I have been extremely fortunate in the fact that I have always been able to share the holidays with lots of my family. This was my first thanksgiving without any family in the sense of parents, cousins, grandparents and siblings. Even though I miss all of them a lot (I really do miss my family) I managed to have a really good time thanks to BOSN who is the officer of deck force.

He invited every one from the ship over and about 20 were there. It was for starters a beautiful, warm and welcoming house. The best house in Cordova I have seen since I got here. There was a big screen t.v. in the living room that was playing foot ball games and several tables put together to feed about 18 or so people.

It was pretty typical with many of the men drinking beer and watching the football game and the wives making the meal. BOSN was very much like my own dad being a very good and busy host, he kept a warm fire going and took his time to talk with everyone making it a very welcoming enviorment. He even managed to cook some of the food on the grill outside. Of the three or so football games on that day none of them were really close. Not that I am a football buff (because I am not) but it seemed like the games were over in the first half.

After dinner several people continued to watch the football game but I didnt. I was too busy playing some intense games with Jackson. Jackson is a charming young boy who also happens to be BOSN's son. These games were SORRY and TROUBLE. I think that it would have been funner with some more people but it was still pretty much a good time dueling with him over who could roll the higher numbers quicker (With only 2 people you just try to get home A.S.A.P. and dont really have to worry about him hitting you).

After some "motivation" by the women we all left the house and shot some "gernade shells" that BOSN offered. I had the honor of firing the second shot and it was pretty fun. They were shells that are desgined to scare ducks, or bears or whatever you were trying to hunt. We then went back inside and finished off some deseret.

So on behalf of everyone who made it to BOSN's house I say thank you for a great thanksgiving. It was truly better then what I thought it was going to be and for about those 8 hours I didnt think of my family once because you and my fellow shipmates are another family to me and I am very proud to say it.

The sharks are lousy

So I have a while to go before I can show pics of the house but I figured that I would put something on my blog for everyone to enjoy.

These are all funny from the sharks, my fav would definatly be Dan Boyle and Big Joe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m6vykvwvEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9gwDT-r5fY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_FQW0r-dek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s-ohOU8wl0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE7oZCfYqoc

While I was surfing I saw some more that werent as shark related but super funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfjKMpbJOs4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MEpzRGgtok

I think that the last one means that I wouldnt make it into the NHL (as a player anyways). So I decided to add to my Christmas list: Socks.

My Sharks continue to collect points

So my prediction earlier today was very wrong. They didnt win 4-1, the were on the losing end of a 4-3 O.T. score. The good news is that they still get that extra point and are now a sparkling 14-4-4 and 4 points ahead of the closest teams that trail them.

Dany Heatley scored in the game which ties him with the league lead in goals with 14 on the season. It was another snipe, beautiful wrist shot with an equaly beautiful pass by You-Know-Who.

Patty Marleau also scored a very nice goal, and it is the league leading 9 goal on the road. Those are some very impressive stats and if these guys keep it up this is the year that the sharks will go all the way.

I was told to put up my Christmas List on my blog and after some thinking here it goes:

A new electric razor (I lost half of the blade to my current one which still works but not well)

A snow board, with snow boarding extras (whatever it is that snow boarders wear with the snow board) because there is a mountain/hill that my roomates are going to now that there is snow and I think that it would be nice to join them. I would think that the most important thing that someone would need to know is that i am a size 9 and that when I snow board I put my right foot forward.

Pokemon cards (just kidding)

Shark clothing (not kidding)

Socks, preferably long and warm and white

Some video games that I will post once I see what I have after I recieve my house hold goods.

Maybe some moveis or Two And A Half Men seasons (I have the first 3 seasons so anything after that would be appropriate)

A girlfriend (not kidding)

pictures of family, preferably of them smileing and doing fun things.

Something that will motivate me to exercise

A way to charge the battery in my camera

So that is what I was able to come up with after some thought and I will be sure to add or subtract from it accordingly.

I'm not dreaming of a white Christmas

The reason that I am not dreaming of a white christmas is because i am actually dreading it. It has been snowing pretty much on a daily basis since the day before holloween. It wasnt that bad untill about a week ago. Now it is something that makes me wear several of coats, at least two pairs of socks and gloves (or whatever i can get my hands on for additional warrmth). This is the first time in my life that i will be having a white Holloween, a white Veterans day, a white Thanksgiving and a white Christmas.

So far I have been on duty and shoveling snow for Holloween, Veterans day and I am schedualed for Thanksgiving as well. I really hope that means that I can get Christmas off. Although even if I do get Christmas off i wont be where I want to be. I really want to be home in Aldergrove B.C. for Christmas but it looks like that wont be happening this year. Really depressing because I think that all I want for Christmas is to spend a week with the beautiful young siblings that I have.

Looking at moms blog I can tell everyone right now: Nick has the potential to be a professional hockey player. This baby was working hard for dad and accquired a bloody nose, but he kept working and even smiled through his pain. That is the hockey player mentality, working through the pain and doing it for the team. I couldnt be more proud of him.

Also the sharks have been doing amazingly well, I thought that this year they would start to decline (its hard to become better after winning the presidents trophy and setting all of those important franchise records, also other teams have improved dramatically namely Colorado, Los Angeles and Phoenix (two of those dramatically improved teams are in the pacific division with my beloved sharks). My sharks havent lost in regulation time since Oct 22, which is amazing and could also come to an end today when they finish a back to back with the Chicago Blackhawks. I hope that some one lays out Brian Campbell because he should be wearing a Sharks jersey with childhood friend Joe Thorton but appatently he wanted more money then he was worth and Chicago was going to do that for him. I think that one of the key reasons that the San Jose Sharks have been so energized recently has been the all star play of Dan Boyle, and Danny Heatley. Boyle has six points in his past 4 games (including 2 goals) and Heatley put an end to St.Louis penalty killing streak (they had killed 32 straight penalties before Heatley one-timed a shot past Chris Mason) and has 13 goals in 21 games.