Huntsville Police Department to enforce DUI laws 4th of July - WAFF.com: North Alabama News, Radar, Weather, Sports and Jobs-

Huntsville Police Department to enforce DUI laws 4th of July - WAFF.com: North Alabama News, Radar, Weather, Sports and Jobs-

Just making sure my Huntsville people are aware...

Amazing Aurora Seen From Space - Yahoo! News

Amazing Aurora Seen From Space - Yahoo! News

Don't you just love when they do a story about a Photo, and then DON'T show the photo anywhere in the story? Not even a thumbnail. Sure, you can click on a link to get it, but most people just want to see the damned photo!

I can't hold my tongue on this one...

Did anyone see the Big Z's tantrum last night?  I, personally, loved the tirade!  Tonight, for an Encore, The Lou needs to get himself kicked out of the game...I predict in the 2nd or 3rd inning. Us Cubs' fans need to stop being so much of a negative energy factory, and start just being fans again...Our love should be unconditional.  Let them work it out.  Stop selling out every freaking game if you want your displeasure to be heard.   I blame the fans for us not winning in 100 years.

Over the last 100 years, players have routinely changed over, managers have come and gone, ownership has changed, GMs have changed.  There are only two constants that have been there with the lovable losers for the past 100 years...the fans and the media, most notably, the newspapers.  

Simple randomness would have given us a team that was a winner...I really do think that it is the collective negative energy generated by the never-ending cycle of criticism and second-guessing by the media and the fans.  Yet we sell out every single game!  What message does that send?  Nothing like the sound of 40,000 boos to suck the positive energy right out of a player.  It's hard enough to get a hit 30% of the time, they don't need our discouragement on top of that!  I would rather have 1000 screaming, Positive, people in the crowd than the 40,000 negative ones.  If you want to tell management that you are unhappy with the way they are playing, don't buy the damn tickets!  They'll get the message.  But stop all the freaking whining about not winning, or how terrible they are.  It has no effect except to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Instead, may I suggest, that we pump them up with positive energy, make them believe that the impossible IS, indeed, possible.  It's easy to do when they are winning, but absolutely critical when they are losing.  The answer is not to criticize the players, but to believe in them more and make them rise up above their troubles.

I am not a positive thinking nut-job, either, but a person that believes that the impossible IS possible...the only thing that is keeping it from becoming reality is belief and vision.  Second guessing the manager, the management, or the players does nothing to encourage vision  and belief in attaining what we all think is impossible at this point.  I am just getting really tired of reading all of the negative comments by so called Die Hard Cub Fans.  They are acting like very Die EASY Cub Fans...

The season ain't over til its over (or you are mathematically eliminated)!  I hope that Big Z's tirade was a spark for a bigger flame, make them do SOMETHING, ANYTHING, to get a win streak going.  It will come, I have faith.

Bleed Cubbie Blue...Bleed til they Feel it.

Go USA!  Beat Ghana!

Later

Another Day Off...down the tubes

Well, I shouldn't say it was down the tubes, so much as it is gone now, and I can't get it back.  On this day, at Camp Taji, Iraq, absolutely NOTHING happened.  I only left the room once during the day to empty the trash.  The only work I did was with a hand vacuum and writing this Blog.  I did sleep all afternoon, then woke up in time to watch the All-Portuguese Match.

How does everyone like the new layout?  I like it better, seems the words are bigger and the pictures post properly.  Feedback?

Luckily, with a bit of foresight, I got a couple of bags of ice yesterday to keep my Diet Pepsi cold, been slamming those down today like water, mainly because I am running low on water, and getting more involves getting out there in the heat to get more.  I have this ice-box like room, and I plan to keep it that way.  Opening the door just isn't part of that plan.  I do, however, have to leave the room eventually to tend to the Jewish Flock here.  A small group reduced to myself and  guy who isn't even Jewish...but at least we have real bread now, and dividing an Airplane bottle of wine by two is far more to my liking that by 4 or 6.  Maybe we will have some more people tonight.  I am going to try and get to Baghdad for the High Holidays, I know that we will at least have 10 guys there.  And, I am not going to even try to lead a Rosh Hashanah service all by myself.  I don't even have a white robe.

Has anyone noticed how many Yellow cards have been issued this World Cup?  Has to be like thousands already or something.

I need to get going...dinner then "Drinks" await...

Later.

Wow, another week down the drain

It's official!  Weeks are now zipping by like days...however, the months are still dragging by.  It has been 6 months since I deployed.  The picture shows the typical visibility during your typical dust storm...taken yesterday.  I thought that I would recap the past 6 months for everyone.

5 Jan - Got stuff from Ft Benning
19 Jan - Got to Baghdad, future uncertain
22 Jan - Sent on a wild goose chase to Shaibah training center via Al Basrah
Superbowl Sunday - Drank two beers
Two days later - On my way to Camp Taji via Bashrah, Kuwait and BIAP
7 Feb - Arrive at Camp Taji in the middle of a huge Exercise at the COIN School
1 Apr - Go back to Baghdad for the first time to attend a silly conference
Some point in May - Travel to Camp Liberty for a very useful conference
14 June - Did NOT get my two beers for the Army's Birthday
24 June - Feeling a bit nostalgic about my first 6 months here...but not so much that I looked up dates or anything.

At least my satellite dishes are installed and I could watch that AWESOME goal last night by Donovan!  Good on him!  He deserved to get the winner.  I was very into that game for some reason...not sure why.  Didn't even go to dinner, just sat in front of the TV and watched and screamed, and wondered if there is some referee conspiracy against the US!  What is it with these guys?  They could have had a serious scandal on their hands had the US not gone on to the round of 16.  That is two good goals that have been disallowed.  I watch a lot of EPL, and these British announcers almost NEVER get it wrong, especially after watching the replay.  If they say that it is a good goal, you can take that to the bank!  And they have repeatedly said that both goals looked good to them.  I am watching the World Cup on Al Jazeera Sports Channel, and they have the best British Announcers in the Biz doing these games.  I am actually quite impressed that their World Cup Channel is actually all in English and the second audio is French.  Very impressive coverage so far.

Well, time to go to work.

Later.

A Monty Python Day...

Today was one of those days that was busy as hell, but then was over rather quickly.  The good news was that power was restored to the school, which meant the soldiers were in better spirits, and, most of all, that we could run the simulation for these guys.

Chapter 1 - The Flying Circus
This morning we had a couple of British Officers join us for the day.  They wanted to look at our facilities and see about how they could work a battle simulation exercise for the Iraqi Staff College's BN/BDE Commanders course.  I am not sure how familiar anyone is with British Officers, but I think that it is a requirement that you ACTUALLY have to talk like you're a member of Monty Python.  These guys had me rolling on the floor laughing (actually doing it, not just typing that over used rofl) all morning long.  I actually felt like a front seat at the Hollywood Bowl or something.  Their sense of humor, coupled with mine and a few of my contractors, made for a very fun morning, in spite of the next two chapters.

Chapter 2 - The Spaghetti General
We had been expecting the new deputy commander, a Major General from Spaghetti-land, I mean Italy.  However, we saw his vehicle take off, so we assumed that he blew us off, and would not be visiting.  Anyway, I was about a paragraph and a half into chapter 3 when he finally showed up and saved me from a potentially embarrassing situation.  Anyway, this new General, who gets to wear a full beard, I might add, just wanted to pop in for a visit.  His deputy is a Brigadier from Great Britain who is also rather funny to listen to.  So the whole time he is giving a little bit of history and context to the school, I can't help but pay attention to nothing but holding back laughter...he wasn't even cracking any dry British jokes or anything...I had had just been wound up into a British Humor frenzy that anything spoken with that accent was going to get me to crack up.  The tour went well, and his English was surprisingly good for an I-Tie (Cheap Eurotrip reference).  He left happy, and I was now exhausted from holding back the laughter.

Chapter 3 - The Inquisition
Just after we thought that The I-Tie General had blown us off, up rolls an Iraqi Brigadier.  He speaks better English than most soldiers I know.  My Brigadier is on leave, so when he starts heading back to his office, I should have been a bit suspicious.  No one, I mean, NO ONE, ever goes into my Brigadier's office when he is not there...unless it is VERY important.  So we go and make the necessary introductions, and I begin to tell him about the simulation, and the class we had going on when he showed up.  He starts into some questions about my Brigadier...That is when the "Danger Will Robinson" alert starts going off in my head!  This is an "Investigation."  Meanwhile, one of my soldiers comes to get me because the I-Tie has doubled back and come to visit.  Turns out, this Iraqi Brigadier is there to take statements against my Brigadier.  Not to worry, there are a bunch of Iraqi commanders that are being investigated...mainly because some soldiers that have been attending these schools have relatives in high places and they don't like the fact that there is never power in the barracks, as if the commander can do anything about it.

Chapter 4 - Lunch with Monty Python
I am not sure what we were joking about at lunch, but suffice it to say that at this point, all it took for me to laugh was to hear a British accent.  We had a great time at lunch, but I am still baffled at what we talked about.  It must be the heat.  ...They did get real American Diet Pepsi in at the PX, so I bought a case.

Later

Anyone remember Chemical Ali?

Was driving around Camp yesterday and saw this building there, with signs basically telling everyone that it is off limits.  I have driven past it at least 1000 times.  It looks rather innocuous, except for the blown out windows.  But it is rather large, so I was thinking how nice it would be to make it a school building for our classes.  Turns out it was the Iraqi Chemical weapons factory...remember that guy, Chemical Ali?  I guess that is where he worked and developed the Iraqi Chemical weapons...And, yes, there were chemical weapons in Iraq.  There would have been even more if we did not come over here and remove Saddam In-sane.  Supposedly, there may be residual chemicals and hazardous material in there, so they placed this building off-limits.  As you can see from the photos, there were workers right next to it, and the windows are blown out, so I doubt that there is anything to worry about.  Probably just don't want us tooling around inside...

Anyway, pretty funny that the only place that the soldiers could fish is on the same grounds as this building, and now that area is off limits, too.

Not much else going on here at Club Taji...except maybe that I finally got my Satellite Dishes.  Now the Great Satellite Caper of 2010 - Redux begins.  We tried to put them together last night, but to no avail.  Hard to get the signal.  Tonight I am bringing in the heavy hitters...a couple of Iraqi Local Nationals with some experience bringing in Satellite signals seemingly out of thin air, they have been doing this since before we invaded.  Seems as though these things were illegal in the Saddam In-Sane days, and they had to get creative about where they hid these things, and also had to be able to set them up quickly.  What good hosts I have!  Anyway, should be watching the World Cup sans snow tonight!  Can't wait.  I mean, AFN has good programming, but nothing compared to the 2000 channels of the worlds Satellite network.

That is all for now...

Sorry for not writing...

I promise to post something later today.  There has nothing worth writing about this week...that is until that abomination of a refereeing performance yesterday at the World Cup...I watched two of the three games yesterday, and the performance of the Refs was nothing short of Shocking.   Quite possibly the worst two-game stretch of officiating I have seen in my 30-something years of football, or international sports in general, for that matter.

I will add more to this rant later...

Ok, its later.  I am still trying to wrap my arms around the appalling officiating that I have witnessed thus far at the World Cup.  These guys are supposed to be the best referees in the world, but I just don't see it.  And FIFA has absolutely no reconciliation process to right these wrongs.  I didn't actually see it with sound, but was Harry Kewel's send-off justified?  I did see that he blocked a shot with his upper arm, but did not hear the commentary to know how justified it was.  Findley's yellow card yesterday...for an intentional hand ball in the opposing box (even though it went off his face, then deflected off his hand) was inexcusable!  Now he can't play in the game against Algeria.  That sux.  The good news is that the US are basically in charge of their own destiny...they win and their in.  They tie and they still may be in, but England would have to tie as well.  So I am hoping for a win on Wednesday.

Enough on the ultimate communist sport...soccer.

I have decided to re-focus my efforts on Fox TV programming.  I have taken up watching every episode of Fringe.  I found a guy to download the HD versions for me, and now I have given myself the deadline of finishing the first two seasons by the end of this week.  It causes me to watch a lot of episodes in my free time.  I am watching episode 18 of 20 for season 1 right now...to give you an idea of how far I am pushing this.  I just got them this week.  The funny thing about Fringe is that I find much of it MORE believable than 24!

Looks like I am still going to be waiting, at least until tomorrow, for my satellite dishes to arrive.  Funny thing, there are almost none in the new pod that I moved to, yet we must have had about 40 in the old pod that I lived in.  Kind of strange.  Lots of AFN antennas, though.  After watching Fringe, I am starting to think that maybe there is a parallel universe where Iraqi Army Officers actually listen to us, and don't try to hug and kiss all the time...

I need to get going, all this TV to watch, and not too much time to do it.

Later!

The Lingerie Store Correlation

I have finally come up with the proper analogy for how the Iraqis view coordination and going for help from fellow officers.  I call it the Lingerie Store Correlation.

This, obviously, only applies to guys...mainly because there are only really guys in the Iraqi Army.  I do give you the fact that these guys do, indeed, hold hands, hug each other a lot, and often kiss each other on the cheek multiple times.  They also like to decorate their stuff with flowers an awful lot, so I am not sure that they would really have a problem with actually going into a Lingerie Store to a.) buy something nice for their wive(s) and/or girlfriends, and b.)  buy something for themselves to have on hand in case they meet some women they feel the spontaneous need to give lingerie to.  That being said, this correlation is just to compare it to the American way of thinking - specifically the American GUY way of thinking.

Does anyone remember the first time they ever went into a Lingerie store?  It was pretty traumatic, and a friend or girlfriend had to drag us in, kicking and screaming.  The second time was no easier, nor the third.  But by the fourth time, we were able to go in by ourselves...we didn't feel comfortable, and may never, actually, reach the level of comfortableness that we feel when entering a hardware store, a liquor store, or a gentleman's club.  We may just reach that comfortable level as entering a movie theater.  But, regardless, we enter, conduct our business, then retreat to a place that is far more comfortable to us...such as a bar, a hardware store, or liquor store.

That is how the Iraqi commanders are.  Some guys are just not comfortable going to the people that will solve all of their problems and getting them to, dare I say, SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS!?!  The first time that you take them there, they will go very reluctantly, complaining the whole way how this guy can't possibly help them.  Then, when the guy actually CAN help them, they will want to go back...but they still need the help of us Americans for courage.  By the third or fourth time they are old pros at it...and even will partake in idle chit-chat with the guy to hide their nervousness (kinda like us guys asking the sales-lady for help with that "Push-up" bra that we would like to see).   It's all the same.  The funny thing is, that each new problem solver is like a whole new lingerie store scenario that you have to start from the beginning with.  They don't get better with the problem solver scenario, just that particular problem solver that you drug them to.

It's actually quite hilarious when you think of it this way.  It's what keeps me laughing every day, and makes it more bearable to watch them try and help themselves.  I mean, we won't be here forever, will we?

Ted Lilly almost had a no-hitter...there must have been some magic, in that old Stanley Cup they found [there with the Blackhawks]...

Later all!

It's HOT!

Sorry folks, but it is really HOT here.  Especially when the power goes out every five minutes at the school, and A/C units don't have time to work.  Turns out one of the wires to the main breaker was loose...since it was a live 500 amp wire, no one was willing to touch it to troubleshoot.  We finally got the public works folks out to take a look at it, and all they did was wait for the power to go out (which it does every day at 1100) and turn a wrench a couple of times.  Who knows what permanent damage was done to the 500 amp Breaker while it tripped 20 times in the last 4 days.  You would think that it would be easy to go to the problem solvers to get problems solved...but I think that is contrary to their nature.  It seems like they have gotten so used to us solving their problems, that they don't even consider the fact that they have people in their own system to do it.  We are working on that.

Did anyone see that goal for the US yesterday?  What a lucky goal!  I am happy for the US Soccer team, but wow, that English keeper must feel like an ass!  He now has about the same status as the guy who scored the own goal against the US for Columbia in 1994...only I am not sure they will let him off the hook by killing him...they will just humiliate him for the rest of his days, which could be for another 70 years!

Well, for some reason they are teaching class tonight, so I guess I will head to dinner and go back out to the school.

Later!

The Wait is OVER!

Let's see, in my lifetime I have seen a lot of things.  I have seen war, peace, war, peace, war, war...and now a STANLEY CUP in Chicago!  The Bears won a superbowl, the Bulls won 6 titles, the White Sox went to the world series, and now the Blackhawks take it all!  The only thing missing is the Cubs going to the world Series.  I really don't care if they win the World Series.  For some reason I would rather hear that they won the pennant than the Series.  Not sure why.  Always imagined it would be Harry Carry saying it, though.

I really didn't know what to do when Kane scored that winning goal in OT this morning.  It was just after 6am, and no one was up yet...I couldn't really even see the puck on my snowy screen.  But I could, however, see Kane celebrating, at least 4 or 5 seconds ahead of the announcers.  I almost feel a little ripped off by that...You would think they would have reacted a little more.  I agree, it was such a harsh angle, I don't think that anyone was even thinking it was even a shot.  I have been in a happy-daze all day.  Not knowing what to do.  I couldn't share this win with anyone, really.  Email high-fives only go so far.  I kind of feel like I took one for the team by going to Iraq so they could win the title...I don't think that the Cubs are paying any attention to my ploy, however...

I am listening to "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers right now...forgot how much fun that song was.

And, to top it off, at about 9:30 last night AFN went out on the Sports channel.  I had to quickly come up with a back-up plan in case it was still out.  I must say, that the only plan I could come up with, knowing that I would be waking up at 0300, was to hope it came back on by then.  Luckily, it worked.  I didn't want to push the Philly CheeseSteaks to a game 7, they have a pretty good record in game 7's so far.  What was with all the Booing after the game?  I understand that their team lost, but it wasn't like it was on bad calls or anything, was it?

Class was fun today...we had a SGT teaching a bunch of officers, and this officer from our own school starts acting like an ass.  He calmed down and we got some good training on the computers in.  Does anyone know anything about 500 amp circuit breakers?  What does it mean when the thing keeps tripping every 5 minutes or so?  Is it time to get a new one at that point?  I mean, it is hot, so a lot of A/Cs are on, but we have had them all on before with no problem.  We also finally went and got a fuel pump for a generator that we, uh, found...The funny thing is there is actually a fuel pump black market here in Iraq.  We (the US) give them these generators, they, in turn, run them until they stop running.  At that point they pull all the electronics and fuel pumps off of them and sell them in Baghdad...then ask us for another generator.  I think that we have finally broken the cycle by doing what Nancy told us to do when we were in school..."JUST SAY NO!"  The funny thing is that when we got the fuel pump put in, the generator guy (yes, we have a generator guy) said that he thought that this might have actually been THE generator that was removed from this particular one...luckily we only paid 185 bucks for it.  What I really think that we did was pay a guy to look the other way for 10 minutes while they ripped this out of somebody else's generator, since we were told that they run about 1000 bucks each.  I am sure there was someone waking up this morning that was saying, "Hey, how come I have no power?"

I need to get to my weekly Euchre match.

You stay classy, Philadelphia!

Places everyone, Places!

Tonight may be the night.  Lord Stanley's Cup will be in attendance.  The Blackhawks are poised and ready to hoist that cup in triumph.  Will they players show up?  Will all of the fans concern rays get there in time?  So far, they have won every game that I have watched "Real Time," while they have lost the only two that I had to stream from my computer.  Granted, the picture is snowy, but it is LIVE, and in color (somewhat).  All I have to say is "LET'S GO HAWKS!"

Man, this picture really stinks, but at least AFN is fixed enough to watch it live...just won't be able to distinguish the puck from the other snow on the screen.  The only think that it will really affect is my ability to jump up as soon as I see the puck cross the line...I will have to wait for the lamp to light and hear the call.  The real good thing about AFN is that they have the US broadcast of the game.  On Satellite, you get the Canadian and the ESPN America version, which does not have Eddie O. doing the Color.  I like having a former Hawk doing the color.

I will write more tomorrow, just got in from work and would like to go enjoy a cigar.  Happy Trails everyone.

Helen Thomas retires in flap over Israel remarks - Yahoo! News

Helen Thomas retires in flap over Israel remarks - Yahoo! News

Oddly enough, she may be the only person old enough to remember Israel the last time around...She is still bitter that she was rejected by King Solomon.

Stop, Hey, What's that sound?

Had a good visit from the boss today, the big boss.  The guy who writes my senior rater comments.  Not sure what he will write.  I don't think that I have been the run-of-the-mill advisor.  So I will either get a really good write-up or an average one.  I doubt that I will get a bad one, but you never know.  Been really hot here.  I mean REALLY hot.  Like 120 degrees hot.  So hot that you walk out into a furnace.  Why can't somebody cut the power to that furnace?  I mean, they cut power to our A/Cs out at the school every day, why can't they cut the power to the blast furnace blowing that hot air all over the place.  But it's a DRY heat...

Well, AFN didn't work last night either, so the Blackhawks had to do it on their own...and did not fare so well, either.  I am going to have to work on other accommodations for Sunday night.  I still don't think that any of the games have been called fairly...the Hawks are getting way too many penalties called on them that Pronger gets away with.  I hate that guy, by-the-way.  I mean I REALLY hate him.  He just may be the Hawks Steve Garvey when all the dust settles.  I hope not.

Other than the AFN problem, I am really digging this new CHU.   Here are some pictures of my 6th place of residence for more than 3 days in this country.  If I haven't mentioned it before, this is the largest of them all.  It has a full bathroom, that I have to share, but right now, no one is in the adjoining room.  I do have to remember to keep it clean, but that is not really a problem.  At least now I can drink something after 8 and not worry about having to get up in the middle of the night.  That is huge, especially when you are losing the water that you will in 120 degree heat!  Staying hydrated is good for you, or so I have heard.  I did go out and by another case of Blue Monster.  I would have sooner, but they have been out them for quite a while.  Our PX is so very feast or famine...on EVERYTHING!  Every month we go through another version of the great potato chip famine of 2010, then it will be air fresheners.   And then it will be [nowhere] near beer.  We were out of that for the past few weeks.  You would have thought that the stuff actually had alcohol in it, the way some guys complained about it.

Well, we have a visitor coming in tonight of no great consequence, but he is getting here late, and a day early. So I better sign off and get a short snooze.

Love...Everybody!

Starting to worry...

I am starting to worry about how I am going to be able to watch the Blackhawks game early in the morning if AFN goes out.  Do I get up and go to the MWR building?  Do I stream it again, and risk my concern rays not getting there in time to help the big play?  Or do I go to the Helo terminal?  They are open late and have a TV.  Not sure what to do.  But, in any case, I need to get up at about 0250 to make that assessment.  I will probably end up doing the one that requires me to not leave my room, so hopefully AFN will be working.  I will write more tomorrow.

Later

The best laid plans...

I am sorry to all the Blackhawks fans out there...I am pretty sure that it was my ill-timed concern rays that lost it for us.  Remember how I finally figured out how to watch the game from my bed?  Well, those plans went out the window last night when AFN stopped coming in...not sure why, either.  All of the sudden, nothing last night at about 2200.  And that nothing continued until this afternoon sometime.  So in order to watch the game I had to stream the game from my home computer through my DirectTV Dish...a little education in 3rd Generation Signals - They are delayed, sometimes by 3 or 4 seconds.  3-4 seconds is not enough time to cancel out concern rays...but when you take that signal, run it through a computers video processor (another 2 seconds), and then buffer and stream that signal (another 6-10 seconds)...that is 16 seconds of delay, way too late for the concern rays to have any affect on the players.  And for those of you that are not familiar with concern rays, please refer to page 91 of Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys.  


I tell you what, this new room is great, the air conditioner works like a champ, and it is a balmy 118 degrees outside.  It is a little bigger than the last one that I had, but it has no automatic thermostat...so I am pretty much freezing my arse off at night.  Better to be too cold than too hot.

I need to start another great satellite caper...I am getting sick of the stupid military commercials on AFN already...and it has only been about 2 hours.  And no Cricket...HOW DO I MISS CRICKET?  I have no idea how THAT even happened.  I don't, surprisingly enough, miss football (soccer).  It is on at least 3 dozen satellite channels, and is on all day and night on some of them.  But the world cup is fast approaching, and I better get another couple of dishes up soon.

I need to get some stuff done before the weekly Euchre games...so I guess I better sign off.

Later all!

Major Save...Niemi like, even!

Well, the move is 99% complete.  The only thing left to do is turn in the keys and get my door mat.  24 Season 8 is on episode 23, I have completed my command brief for the new general coming in...the only thing left to do, work wise, is my May Assessment.  Only about 3 more hours of work, but should be able to get that done during the Hockey game at 0300.  The only question that was left in doubt...HOW TO WATCH THE GAME?

I started to think of different options, but the one that seemed the most logical was also the most pain-in-the-ass option; which involved me getting up at 0245 and disconnecting my TV, carrying it back to my old CHU, hooking it back up to the satellite receiver, and then watching the game.  A pain, yes, but the Blackhawks are worth it...after all, they could use my concern rays!  But at 0300 in the morning, that would be difficult.  So I started to think of other options.  That's when it hit me...there HAD to be some AFN hook-ups here in this new pod.  So after a little searching I found some open connections right at the side of my CHU.  Luckily, Tulsa hardware was still open and I could buy some Coax.  So I enlisted a little help from my XO and BINGO!  AFN and the Stanley Cup Playoffs!  Now I can watch the game from my bed!  Big time save!  Not quite as good as Niemi, but almost.

I am not sure when I will get the hang of the Iraqi Advisor thing...been 4 months, and although every day is exactly like the last, it seems like no two Iraqi reactions are the same - EVER!  It certainly makes this groundhog day interesting, if nothing else.  Well, I have successfully killed the 23rd episode of 24.  I will actually be glad to get Jack Bauer out of my life for good.  His shenanigans were getting a bit ridiculous.

I must get some rest now...Must concentrate on Blackhawks game!

Later...

Move successful...almost

Well I successfully moved to my new CHU.  Unfortunately, I am surrounded by Zoomies.  Only these are Air Force people that don't even fly.  I am not sure what they do.  They do wear their PT clothes a lot, that is for sure.  I don't think that I even know any of their ranks, they never wear their uniforms!  And I don't think that they are officers, mainly because they all have to leave the CHU area to smoke...don't think that officers would tolerate that!  They have this awesome porch that someone built, and from what I found out, they used to hang out and smoke there...but they got told to take it outside the Pod...so there is this layer of dust covering the wood that screams of non-use.
The only thing that I don't have moved is my Satellite system.  The flaw in my plan was to share the two dishes and LNBs with my XO...and now, since I have moved, I have no Dishes to connect my stuff to.  I am going to hang on to my old room until Wed Night/Thursday morning and sleep there so I can watch the Hawks' game.  I will turn in the CHU after that game.  But then I will have to find another place to watch games 4 and beyond (if necessary).
Well, I guess that I am staying at least until December, if not January.  I was kind-of resigned to that fact, which was the whole reason that I moved...best to have a latrine if I am going to be here that long.  So not sure how they are going to work it, since no one knows what the heck is going on.  At least I get to keep two of my NCOs now!  That is really good news.  The only thing that I need to do is get them to kick their negativity habit...shouldn't be too difficult (yeah, right!).

I need to get to bed.  Talk at everyone later.