The Gummi's are IN!

Today was not such a great day.  Meetings postponed, tons of slides to complete, Rugby was a no-go, was told we have to move to far worse accommodations, and then...the Gummi Bears arrived.  All is well with the world now.   I am truly addicted to the things.  I hope that I can ration them off to myself so as not to finish them all off in one night.  I also received a big bottle of Pub Mix from Sam's...my other (un)healthy addiction.  Had some B-R again today, still feeling the calories burned off of me from watching people run a half-marathon.

Rugby didn't go so well tonight...I showed up, my NCO showed up, but we didn't have a rugby ball...and no one else showed up so we were out of luck.

Much thanks must go out to my parents and to my golf partner, Mick, for the boxes full of goodness from home!  Mick sent me the Pub Mix, and he also sent a HUGE bag of peanuts salted in the shell...I cannot get those things here.  My parents sent the Gummi Bears...lots of them.  And a HUGE bag of Pistachios, another one of my favorites.  I now have lots of wasta amongst my peers.

Love to all, and to all a GOLD night.

Fasting over...

Well the B-R fast is officially over.  I did watch one of my guys finish a half-marathon today, so I think that I earned it.  Been slacking off way too much today.  I curse at the show they call 24!  I can't stop watching the damned thing.  Busy day tomorrow, basically have to convince a General that he doesn't want our school underneath him.  Trying to get partnered with their war college.  Anyway, just wanted to write a little before I go to bed.  Thought that I would paste a few pictures from the old soviet style equipment graveyard they have here.  It is pretty huge, but I hear that it used to be bigger!

Hope all is well in the US, and that we win gold in hockey tomorrow.  And, hopefully, Huntsville Rugby pulled in the big "W" against the Renegades today.

Later all...

Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder

The Mud is officially here.  I think that today was the rainy season.  It is muddy beyond belief.  I think that we got all of their annual rainfall today.  There is a half-marathon tomorrow...good luck to all that try to run in this stuff.  Not me.  Breaking in a new computer tonight, so I will keep this short.  Many Challenges with slow internet connection.

Much love to all.  Much Love.

Lost in Translation...again

Well, today I had to prepare a briefing for a Brigadier (General, that is...the Brits call them Brigadiers)...sounds easy, right?  Well, this briefing is for the guy that I advise from the Iraqi Army.  But there's a twist (there's always a twist).  My Brigadier wanted to see what I was going to brief him first.  It seems as though I have a rather high visibility job.  We had a jolly-good (another Brit term I picked up from my NATO friends) time trying to take the guidance we got from our IA Brigadier and create some advice for him and then translate both the intent and wording so that our Brigadier (the American) could under- GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! stand it (Sorry, was watching the US Soccer team, and, since there is very little excitement during a soccer game, I had to generate a little excitement when we got the equalizer).  Where was I?  And if that wasn't difficult enough, I had to originally send it to my COL to review and make him understand it.  Lots of perspective.  It took myself, a small army of contractors, several Rip-Its (have you ever tried that stuff?  It is pretty good, and I am not just saying that because they give them to us for free...they are actually pretty good.  I like the calorie free one, but the other 2 are good as well) and 12000 re-writes, and a good 2 hrs to get the words right...and I still don't think that we are translating the intent to our Brigadier right.  I mean, I understand it, and my IA Brigadier will understand it, isn't that enough?

I have gone at least 4 days without the B-R evil in my body.  Don't know what to think...am I sick of it, or am I really trying to lose some poundage?  I don't think that I could EVER get sick of it, so it must be the latter.  Or, the third option, I am just to darned lazy to get up and get it...or fourth, I am too full to eat any?  Who knows, but I do miss it.

Sunday I am going to try and play a little touch rugby here on Taji with the boys.  Seems we have a little touch rugby club here.  Should be good to toss the ball around once a week.  No grass, but that's ok.  Just to get my hands on a ball will make me feel right again.  Just hope I have time to get there on Sunday.

I am sure most of you have question about conditions here, or whatever.  Feel free to ask by commenting to these posts...I will feel free to answer or not answer, based upon whether or not it will result in me getting killed or such.

Later

P.S.  Huntsville "Wild Turkey" Rugby Rules...Gobble, Gobble, GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! (Yes, USA Soccer scored again in the middle of a [sort of] sentence).

Seriously...I hate it...I really hate Hiller!

In all seriousness, I hate sending reports to people who sit at desks all day.  I don't like keeping those that have no clue informed on my day-to-day activities.  I especially don't like it when someone who sits at a desk, has access to both sides of the net sends me emails with a "Check your SIPR" immediately on it...especially when they know I just left that computer 10 minutes ago.  I have both computers, I even have them sitting at desks...but they are a 10 minute walk away from each other!

Today was all about togetherness for my team.  One of our guys brought in local food from home, which was awesome, and then we had our first team dinner.  I am trying my best to bring together a team of guys that has a mixture of experiences and backgrounds...and so far we aren't trying to kill each other.  I am still trying to assess each persons comfort levels on the tasks I give them.  Part of what I am trying to do is let people naturally slide into the comfort zones and then I can see where they will operate at peak efficiency.    Then I can start to challenge them.

The Army has pretty much cut off all of the funds that used to be available for us to help out our counterparts, so I, as well as my team, have resorted to the Army's version of garbage pickers.  There is this lot called DRMO (Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office) where units go to turn in the crap that they don't want before they redeploy.  Then we go in there and see if their junk is our treasure.  We have found two server rack mounting systems, 4 shelving systems, many (many) tools, an entire phone system, a high-powered Windows Server, plenty of UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) systems, cases of paper, boxes of office supplies (but no sharpies), and power strips in every variety.  We are, after all, putting together a simulation center and need lots of stuff.  The thing is, they should be getting this stuff for themselves...only it doesn't exist in their supply system yet - and we don't have money anymore to buy it for them.  We did find a case of deep-woods Off, though, so at least we got something for ourselves!  I almost forgot the best part...there is this CPT there that does nothing but sit in an office and run the place...and run.  I guess he is a big time runner, so that is about the only thing he does besides sit in that office and sign people into the yard.  He is like Fred Sanford, only lazier on the job, and more active away from the job.  I wish I had his job.  I wonder if he has a wife named Elizabeth?  Anyway, I suspect he is going to become my most visited person.

Time to watch hockey.

Go U.S.A!

Later