Menu Plan Monday

Jenny, this one is for you. My best friend Jenny has this awesome blog that you can read (link to the left.) It has amazing pics and lots of cute little tid bits, including Menu Plan Mondays. It's a chik blod-world thing. :-) Anyway, I read that and then headed over for chow...I thought I'd share a glimps of our menu. The big brown things are called "mermites" and they actually do a pretty good job of keeping things hot, but this is what we eat all of our meals out of since we work about 50km off post. The food isn't that bad...for the first month or so. The problem is more lack of variety. It's also hard to eat healthy. There is always salad, but iceburg letuce with tomatoes get old after a while.

Don't get me wrong, it's world better than MRE's, but I'm looking for ward to getting some real food back home.

Wishbone!

Wishbone is awesome! Wishbone is this little dog that takes the leading role acting out classic books. I've spent most of this week studying third world civil war and let me tell ya, that's not exactly an upper, ya know? Well, I got home one night and checked the mail and I had a box! One I didn't order from Amazon.com. So i opened the box and lo and behold...some good books, and...WISHBONE on DVD. :-) Thank you Aunt Linda! Talk about an upper. I was about as excited to get these silly kids DVD's as I was to get that DVD of a fireplace from Jenny a while back. It's one of my silly little quirks, but if you've never seen Wishbone, well, the best in life is just passing you by!

Smiles!

Hey look what I found! Aren't we cute? This was taken at an Angels game, it looks like eight or nine years ago from the look of Cole. :-) Maybe I'm guessing him a bit young though. I've always loved this pic though! Have a smiley day, just like us! :-)

Post Office

This is our post office. It doesn't look like much, but there is rarely a line and it is open 7 days a week. Notice the painted barriers in front. Each unit that serves here paints a barrier before they go, so there are festive barriers all over the place. Barriers like that surround everything. Part of it is for wind block, but mostly for blast protection and to keep cars from driving into certain areas. The road is one of the 2 paved roads on base. everything else is just sand, and are just general suggestions since people pretty much drive where ever they feel like. There is a REALLY low speed limit though, so it's not like it would hurt if a car hit you. it's like 15mph. You have to be careful not to idle too fast. :-)

Sunset

Sunset is always a bit odd here. You never really get a clear view of the sun because of all the sand that
blows around all the time. This is taken from the front steps of my baracks building. Its one of those little white trainer buildings. On the ground just to the left of the sun is a scud bunker, they're all over the place. There are sidewalks, but like all roads around here they are more like suggestions. It's not odd to be following a vehicle and they just veer off and start driving into the middle of the desert. I mean it's not like there are any obstacles. :-) This was obviously on my day off, because I am normally at work at that time. Speaking of work, I am almost done for the day and am ready to go home. I have a hot Yahtzee date when I get there. :-) All is well here. One more day down.

Lout

Merriam-Webster’sWord of the Day
September 16

\LOUT\
noun

Meaning
: an awkward brutish person

Example Sentence
Because the drunken louts behind her at the hockey game had pushed her to the brink, Brianna bludgeoned them with a stuffed Maverick mascot.

Did you know?
“Lout” belongs to the large group of words we use to indicate an undesirable person, a boor, a bumpkin, a dolt, a clod. We’ve used “lout” in this way since the mid-1500s. As early as the 800s, however, “lout” functioned as a verb with the meaning “to bow in respect.” No one is quite sure how the verb sense developed into a noun meaning “a brutish person.” Perhaps the awkward posture of one bowing down led over time to the idea that the person was personally low and awkward as well.

**Yes, I am avoiding school again. I signed up for the "Work of the Day" email. :-)

Angels

That's right baby, the Angels are kicking butt! They are 19 1/2 games up in the AL West and have the highest win percentage in major league baseball. GO TEAM!!!

Hockey

I LOVE college hockey. I caught the but parking cars for

hockey in college and have never lost it. I am a MAV fan. I am also totally excited about the season starting. Not that I get to be there, but I will in a few months. I can't wait for the season to start! I love how rough and fast paced it is. Football is so start and stop that I tend to lose interest after awhile. But hockey...it's ON for 20 min, then you get a 15 min break. I love that the action never stops. i must say though, that I love college not only because of my beloved school, but also because the refs keep the fighting under control. I like to see a rough game, but not little boys on the playground. So keep an eye out and root for my UNO Mavericks! The pic is me and my friend Darrin at a game last season. :-)

Study Break

I'm going crazy! I am completely overwhelmed with this class i'm taking. Here's the book: Contending Theories of International Relations: A Comprehensive Survey. An apt title. It is incredible comprehensive! AHHHHH!!! So here are some fun stories to help me kill some time after surfing myspace and returning all my emails, and checking Jenny's blog, and my bank account, and the...ect. You get the picture. :-)




The view of Butterfly Valley, Turkey from the water









Me playing with my underwater camera. :-)









The Tarsus mauntains from across Antalya harbor








Self portrait along the Bosphorus in Istanbul











A dude selling little spirograph sets. Fairly common, I thought it was pretty amusing. :-)






Quintesential Cole.









My baby bro with his face busted in from the bloodiest incident ever at Manchester High School!










Our AWESOME non-alcoholic beer on base. It's actually better than you would think. Graded on an army curve.






How pretty....It's a big mount of sand! This is a berm.






Oh, something cool did happen yesterday. My friend Potter broke his arm (not the cool part) and I helped fix it up and take care of him throughout the day. Well in the evening I could tell more of what was wrong and recommended that he go back to base to get it looked at. It turns out it was broken just where I thought it was (yeah me) and the doctor said if I hadn't splinted it the way I had and treated him as I did throughout the day he would have had to get reconstructive surgery because of the kind of break it is and where. As is, he just has to get a cast. YEAH! It's really nice to get to help someone in a tangible, visible way. I like being a medic. He'll be back at work tomorrow.

Well, I must be off. Please pray for me with regard to my school work. I need focus and modivation and insight. The material is interesting, just expansive. Thanks!

Lazy day

Yesterday was a vert lazy day. I slept until noon and watched TV all day. NCIS season 4 to be exact. :-) It was a nice repite. Then morning dawned...I could go into a long diatribe about my crappy morning, but I'll spare you all my whining. Suffice it to say I was in a truely foul mood, which honestly doesn't happen much. Eventually, around noon, the final thing went wrong pushing the morning from crappy to absurd, at which point (with the assistance of some morning caffiene) I regained my sense of humor.

I'm fine now and about to go take my turn in the tower. I wouldn't say I'm happy Brianna, but at least I'm not snarling Brianna anymore. :-)

Hurricane

Guess what? I'm sitting here at K Crossing riding out a hurricane. Yup. We had a crazy storm last night, then again tonight. Crazy wind and sand and even some rain that is in the form of mud by the time it hits you. Lightning and thunder...it's quite a sight...at least what you can see.

Oh yeah, and in a truely "gifted" moment I burned the heck out of my hand with one of those jet flame lighters. It hurts. :-{ (that's me pouting.)

Other than that it's just same old, same old. I've gotten to actually be a medic the last couple days, so that was cool. Not so cool for the guy who got stung by a scorpion though.

83 days and counting.

South Gate

I know I've talked about South Gate before. It is the gate of K Crossing that leads south into Kuwait. It is also the hang out of the crazy kuwaiti police that I have a lot of fun with. Well, this is south gate. Not much to look at, but the pic at the top to the left was taken there from the inside.

Trevor-this one's for you babe!

In the army we have creeds. The Soldier's Creed. The Non Comissioned Officers Creed. And this week I found posted in our company headquartes the Specialist Creed. (non army people, now is when you click on the link to the non comissioned officers creed and read it first lest you completely miss the humor of what is to follow.)

The Specialists Creed

No one gets away with more than I. I am a non Non-Commissioned Officer, a beast of burden. As a junior enlisted soldier I realize that I am a member of an under appreciated, much chastised group of soldiers which is known as the ribcage, or perhaps pancreas, of the Army.

I am proud of myself and my fellow Specialists and will continue to bitch, whine and sham until the absolute last second regardless of the mission at hand. I will use my grade and position to avoid responsibility, accountability and any sense of presence of mind.

Ignorance is my watchword. My two best excuses will always be on the tip of my tongue "I didn't know," and "It wasn't me." I will strive to remain invisible and unavailable for details. Never ever volunteer for anything is my rallying cry.

I am aware of my role as a SPC and if you need me for anything, I'll be on appointment. I know the other soldiers, and I will always refer to them by their first name or in some cases derogatory nickname. On weekends, or days off I will consistently drink myself into oblivion, and I will never answer my phone. I understand that for a person in my hierarchal position, rewards are going to be few and far between, and punishment will always be swift and severe.

Officers of my unit will have maximum time to accomplish their duties, because I will be accomplishing them for them. I will kiss up to their face and badmouth them behind their back, just like everyone else. I will be loyal to those with home I serve, provided there's something in it for me. I am the last bastion of common sense that stands between me and the Army philosophy of "Work Harder, Not Smarter." My voice is a tool and my complaints are a weapon that I wield with unmatched skill and finesse. I will not forget, nor will I allow my comrades to forget, Specialist is the greatest rank in the Army and rank has its privileges.

Most of you don't know Trevor. Trevor was my neighbor my first year at UNO and we have been great friends ever since! He joined the guard not long after me (follower!) and is almost done with his training to fly unmanned aerial vehicles (remote control planes- REAL expensive ones!)

Trevor, as you are about to embark into the world of the post IET Army, may you take your rank and position to heart. I love ya!!!

Camels

I love camels. They are just the coolest! They are cute, and friendly and useful. And my all time favorite thing...they are always smiling! I live about 45 min from where I work. It's a long hot drive and it pretty well sucks.

The bright spot though is that everyday when we are almost to work we have to drive through a herd of camels that hang out on/by the road at that time of day. They'll eat out of your hand (watch for big teeth) or let you pet them. They'll even stick their head in the vehicle. They know we won't hit them (army pays a rediculous price for any camels we hit or accidentally shot on the firing ranges) so they have no modivation to hurry out of our way. There is frequently triffic lined up from both directions as the camels mosey about. They each have their own personalities and they are just so much fun!