Another Thursday Night

Just another Thursday night here at Club Taji...nothing like a little rain to get the mud-hole going. Just enough to make things sticky. Luckily, the Pakistanis that have been working on our mud situation have been doing a good job alleviating the mud in CHU problems of old. They are actually going to be putting in sidewalks that are (this time, anyway) elevated above the mud so it can't migrate like a glacier onto our doorsteps. So in order to do this, they had to remove my stairs from the front of my CHU. In order to get out now, I have to repel down the front. I am not sure if I can, safely, without someone on belay though...Almost tumbled out the door this evening.

We are changing the name of our school from the Iraqi Counterinsurgency School to the Joint Training Center...or the Combined Arms Center. Apparently they translate the same in Arabic to Marqez Tadreeb Mushtareq. The school is named in Arabic and my Brigadier translated it to Joint Training Center for me...on the other hand, my Brigadier's Boss' Boss, who speaks mighty fine English, translated it for his US COL as the Combined Arms Training Center...this caused quite the stir a few nights ago. When I tried to explain this to the Izzys (the guys in the IZ), they just couldn't quite wrap their little minds around the fact that the school was, indeed, named in ARABIC! So what we translate it to is completely irrelevant...so long as we all agree what to call it. They could care less what we call it. We could call it the Cool School for all they care.

Now I have only about 3 more episodes to go in season 4 of 24. Jack Bauer (who I am now starting to believe is one of the greatest screw-ups of all time) has just tried to cover up a raid that he conducted on the Chinese consulate, and is now trying to apprehend some woman that was hanging out with some guy who slept with the son of the SECDEF...where do these WAVES of terrorist come from? I mean really...they can't even come up with this many terrorist waves in Iraq or Afghanistan...how could they possibly come up with this many waves of terrorists in the US? Needless to say, I am hooked.

Cubbies get a chance to even up the series with the Mets tonight. Since I don't have to wake up early, I think that I may stay up for the game, then switch to the Blackhawks. The Hawks are scaring me...they better start getting the biscuit in the basket, or they will be playing golf in less than a week! One game in Nashville is all it takes to get Home Ice advantage back. I will listen to "Here Come the Hawks" tonight to get into the mood.

Going to go look for a poker game somewhere.

Later!