work, Work, Work

A leader's job is never done. Supposedly, Fridays are my day off. You wouldn't know it by the amount of work I usually have to do on Fridays. Tomorrow I have a breakfast to go to at 0700, then a meeting with a high-ranking NATO guy later on in the morning...then a teleconference late tomorrow with our simulation contractor. Just another day at the office...

Maybe, one day, I will actually get to sleep in again.  But it is not all that bad.  At least I got to have some Mongolian Grill tonight with Dale's Sauce.  It was pretty damn good.  Well the rain subsided, but the wet ground continues.  It rained hard last night.  I know that it rained inside my CHU last night, but I have heard it was worse in some other peoples CHUs.  The rain was coming directly from the North at about a 45 degree angle, right at our doors.  It probably rained more last night that it had in the previous two months put together.  Good thing it is warmer now.  Maybe this will dry up in a week.  At least they put gravel down on that muddy road between us and the latrine.

Finally got a working copy of 24...midway through season 3 right now.  If there is an absolutely ridiculous impossible way to do something...Jack Bauer will find it, screw it up, then somehow pull it out in the 11th hour...rinse, repeat...for each season so far.  The first season was the best of the three so far.  I will hold my opinion until I am done with season 8, because it seems to be like a train wreck that you can't take your eyes off of.  I must say that I am, indeed, hooked.

I must get some sleep.  Night night, all.

Later on dudes and dudettes...

When it rains...

Here at Camp Taji, apparently when it rains...it POURS, inside my room no less!

I thought that I had seen it all, until the rain came pouring down the inside of my door. I was watching a movie and wasn't really paying any attention, just thought that the rain I heard seemed a bit loud for THE DESERT! So I was going to open my door and have a look-see and I could see all of the water dripping down my door. Not sure how this happened, but I think that the foam that someone once used to stop the dust from coming into the room has now become a water super-highway through the top of the door. Luckily I got a towel down before the water on the floor had time to become migratory.

We got our new NCO in today. Good to see him after these past few months...He was my NCO in Charge back at Shaibah when I first arrived. He was delayed all last night, and finally arrived when I was posting my last gem of a blog entry.

I have still not made it to the barber...maybe by Friday I will get there. We are getting our Brigadier ready for a huge inspection for the next few days, so the work should be light on the brain and heavy on the hands.

Obscure Cubs Trivia of the Day: Who's the only ex-Cubbie infielder with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

That is all for today.

Hasta la vista...

So Sorry

Sorry everyone...I have been a bit lazy on the posting front lately.  Been going to bed early and waking up early to get some work done, and have just not had time.  And last night, I was expecting my new NCO to arrive at about O-dark-30 (what's the O for?  Oh my gosh its early...), so I was up watching the Blackhawks game waiting for him to come in when I fell back asleep just after the final whistle.  Good thing they won 5-2.

Well, Passover has officially passed-over, and I still have several of the meals that they gave me...they are actually quite tasty.  I may as well finish them off.  Still have the maztot as well...may as well throw that, or use as additional body armor or something.  I think that they would help my SAPI plates stop a bullet better, maybe?  Who knows.

The great satellite caper of 2010 is finally at its conclusion.  I have about 2000 channels of viewing pleasure.  so now, it takes me about 2 hours to verify that, indeed, nothing is on.  Not like at home, where you can do it in about 10 minutes.  There really are only about a hand full of channels that are even in English...it is finding them that is the trick.  I have a bunch of favorites set up, but it is still a pain to surf through them.  Maybe on my next day off I clean that up a bit?

No new pictures yet...I am thinking of going to a flat-top, will have to post pics of the new 'dew when I do...that rhymed!  GO CUBS!

Later

Another fine day in the neighborhood...

Well, now that I am back at Club Taji I can relax...except that our email connection to Army Knowledge Online is down...the link I use to connect with my account here.  I hope that no one is trying to contact me...

I did get to play rugby tonight, and it was only three on three...which means that I had to do a lot of running.  We had some good prospects come out and play, and two South Africans.  Still missing the Brits, though.  They have been gone a few weeks now, and Rugby is starting to get a little thin again.  On a positive note, my Margarita mix got here, I found a bag of ice, and now I have frozen Margaritas!  I used Blue Monster instead of Tequila, so instead of going to sleep I will be able to stay awake for the Blackhawks game, I hope.  And, I even got to ice my knees with REAL ice tonight!  What a relief.

I did get to snap a few pictures of the Baghdad Skyline while I was in the IZ, so I thought that I would post them here for you guys to see.  I also received another package from my Cousin Dawn...what was in it was so awesome, I just have to show you.  Just in time for the regular season, too!  I also got an awesome Cubs trivia quiz book.

So now is the perfect time for an obscure Cubs Trivia Question of the day:  How did the great pitcher, "Three Finger" Brown get to be Three-fingered? a.) He had a Birth Defect.  b.) He was hurt in a farm equipment accident.  c.) He was hit by a pitch during a High School game.  d.) He was run over by the caboose of a freight train.

So here are the Baghdad pictures...

The first one is of the clock tower in downtown Baghdad, and the second one was of the skyline over one of the sets of crossed swords, I think. The third is another one of the skyline.

This last one needs a little explanation.  We had our final dinner of the conference at a little restaurant that opened up on Union III where my whole adventure began...  The place is called the Oasis.  I could not remember what I had ordered, but I knew that it probably had something to do with steak, being the carnivore that I am.  I also knew that I ordered some Turkish Coffee...now that is something that I think EVERYONE needs to experience at least once.  Well, when I finally found the sheet that I had placed my order on, I found out that I ordered Pepper Steak.  I like pepper steak, actually, if you ask my mom, I love the stuff.  So since I am one of the last people to get served, my mouth is watering already when it finally comes.  And there it is...a steak and a very large Hot Pepper...I don't think that I have ever laughed so hard.  I had to take a picture just to prove to everyone what I got.  None of us could believe it...I wasn't the only one who took pictures.  At least I ordered a conversation piece...the steak sucked, it was way overcooked.  But I enjoyed the company.

I can't close without sending my sincere thanks to Balls Out! Rugby for sending the Taji Rugby guys three Rugby balls to help us with our training.  Not that we will ever play anyone over here, but who knows?  Many Thanks to Regina and Sharon from Balls Out!

Later everyone...

Back in Taji Again...

Well, I finally returned to Taji. It seemed a lot longer than it really was, especially since they put us up in tents. Now these were no ordinary tents, these were magic tents that seemed to produce mosquitoes by the hundreds. Even after we got the temperature down to a nice 65 degrees, the mosquitoes remained. I was swatting at the things even while I was asleep. People were making fun of me.

Anyway, on my way home I got to stop over at Camp Liberty on the Victory Base Complex. What a HUGE freaking place the VBC is! The PX there was so large and had so much stuff that I was in amazement. I couldn't believe that they had so much of things and we have empty shelves...and we are not that far from them.

So I get back into town to find out that there is a bunch of petty little things going on in my team. You would not believe how living conditions, who gets to ride with whom in vehicles, and who talks to whom, and who emails whom causes so much angst. It is really amazing. We will survive, it is so absurd that I may have to demonstrate that fact through my own absurdity. Not sure how yet. Kind of sorry that I missed April Fools day with my team, I heard they pulled a good one on some other members of the team. Told them the big cheese was about 5 minutes out from coming to our school for a visit, and nothing was up and running. So after they squirmed for a few minutes and tried to turn on all of the computers they finally broke the news to them.

Well, I need to get going. So for now I will leave you with this thought: "Don't eat yellow snow!"

Later...