A week of farewells...

I must apologize for the length in between my posts. I have been extremely busy here. First, I must bid fair winds and following seas to my friend and coworker, Rob. He did his fair share of time here and it's time for him to go home. He will certainly be missed.

Next, I must bid farewell to Sir Boris Yeltsin. Though the press hails him as the champion of reform and democracy of the Eastern Bloc, there are those of us who remember things a bit differently. Were it not for folks like ol' Boris, I would have been unemployed throughout much of the 1990s. Thanks, Boris! Your neglect for your liver and subsequent mishandling of nuclear weapons, which led to a large portion of your inventory being LOST, sure kept the previous decade interesting for me.

Third, I must say good-bye to my beloved Navy-mobile. Other than the finicky starter and the horrendous outward appearance, it now has no power steering capability, nor will it stop by simply pressing the brake pedal. The emergency brake works, thankfully, or else I would have been a grease spot on the side of an Armored Security Vehicle today.

My first clue that something was wrong was the gushing liquid that filled the floorboard. It smelled like hydraulic fluid. It was hydraulic fluid. "Dangit!" I thought. "Why can't I steer anymore??? Oh Crap! Why can't I stop anymore!?!?!?" A few glimpses of my life before my eyes later, I had brought the vehicle to a halt. I guess the lowest bidder did build the Humvee...Problem is, mine was built by the lowest bidder about 20 years ago. They don't build 'em like they used to.

Well, I don't have much more to say this week. I am doing well here and people back home really love me. Thank you all for the packages, those who sent them. I can't tell you how much I appreciate them.

A, E, L, I love you!

Easter Tradition Lives on...even in Iraq

Greetings all! Here are the pictures I swore I would post. The first is the chocolate bunny I got in the chow hall. Cute little guy, isn't he? Well, as you can see in the second picture, he's even better looking WITH NO EARS! MUUUAAAHAHAHAHAHAA....

Ahem...

Anyway, the other pictures of me screwing around at the Zigurat. The commander and I took a drive out there to grab some Kodak moments and found ourselves in the middle of a dust storm. Great timing on our parts, if I do say so myself. It adds to the ambiance of ancient ruins.

As you can see, I'm a regular Indianna Jones, even though my name is neither Indianna nor is it Jones. Whatever...I feel like a true archeaological pioneer. How many ancient ruins have YOU ever touched, huh?

Well, enjoy the photos. Glad I can share them.

A, E, L, I love you!

Pizza Night!

Greetings!

I write to you today the day before Easter. Yes, it's a wonderful day, that Easter. I remember the days as a kid, waking up, finding candy strewn around the house, and being sick of peanut butter eggs by nine, when we would go to Church and celebrate the resurrection of Christ (the real reason for Easter, by the way). Ahh yes, the pink and yellow peeps and the chocolate bunny rabbit whose ears were never safe from the likes of Dad...He always thought it hillarious to bite the ears off of the bunny. Now, looking back, I do too! E and L, I'm sorry I can't be there to celebrate Easter with you...and to bite the ears off of your bunny!

Anyway, things are going pretty well here. I start every day with a four-mile run, which helps to clear the cobwebs and puts me in a better mood to cope with the Army's way of doing things. I then spoil the runner's high by attending the first of many meetings of the day. Most have no purpose, but I go anyway because I'm not in charge and I follow my orders. Some, on the other hand, are quite handy and it is these to which I look forward. Those happen about once a week.

The meeting I look forward to the most is the weekly meeting of the EWOs at one of the local pizza joints. I figured it out, and if I just count those as a marker of time passing, every Pizza Night counts for 3% of my total time here. Therefore, I am almost 15% done with my deployment! We don't talk much about work at this meeting. It's mostly just a get-together and we talk about things like football, and the college basketball tournament, and so on. By the way, I came in dead last in the prediction for the March Madness basketball tournament. (YAY ME!) More than that, though, these meetings are a way for us to spend an hour or two not thinking about work. I know it's not much, but when every day seems to be the same as the last, you start looking for things by which to mark time.

Well, that's all for this post. I have some pictures I will post later on, but I forgot to put them on my flash drive. Keep checking for photos.
A,E,L, I love you!