Happy Birthday to Me!

Everyone - thanks for the birthday emails and wishes and cards and packages! I had more meetings Sunday than any other day in recent history - happy birthday to me, right?


Well, I did get 3 cakes: 1 from the DCG, BG Lee, 1 from one of the teams here and another from the MAJ who talked me into participating in Korea/Kurdish Friendship Day.

Speaking of KKFD - check me out. That's me in a hanbok. I am sure I sounded awful, but everyone clapped and cheered for me anyway.





I've been pretty busy the past few days, so sorry for the delay in posting.

opposites and superlatives

I've got NPR going in the background, and a recent topic was bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses...I can't remember which radio show. And somehow, I jumped from that to deciding to post this picture. Anyway, the other day a storm came in and came in fast. You know the moment, when the sky competes with itself - rain or shine? I took a picture.

According to the ROK Chief of Staff, I'm "the best soccer player!" I love their extreme vocabulary, the best when they mean good, beautiful when they mean cute, genius when they mean 'not dumb'. Ah, all words used to describe me! Who wouldn't want to work with them?

Until the day they called me fat. mmm. Maybe they meant 'not as skinny as a Korean'?

Interesting Reading

mail call

Finally. Mail. We've only been waiting a month!

This is genius, let me tell you. Fuel and mail came last night and we knew we had a ton of mail - 7 pallets accoring to the mail peeps over at FOB A. There were about 7 of us ready to download the trailer. Its 0130 - 1:30 am for you non-military folks. We just want our mail. Well, the convoy people loaded our full of mail shipping container BACKWARDS on the flatbed. One of our guys said "Now, I'm not a load master, but the doors are blocked." We convinced the driver to drop the trailer, coordinated with the ROKs to forklift the container so we could open the door.

Good news. I had 18 packages. 18! I think that's a record.

I miss my coffee pot.

I know I'm at war. And that I'm in a remote location.

But still.

I miss my coffee pot.

Thanks to Conway's very thoughtful housewarming gift, a Cuisinart Grind and Brew (with stainless steel carafe - keeps coffee hot for hours!), the pink house wakes to the spaceship sounding coffee grinder. Really, it sounds like a spaceship. (Natalie, Lisa and I jumped when we first heard it - so loud!)

Anyway, this little blue translucent contraption does the job. If you look closely, you can see my attempt at a self-portrait.

Its not just the coffee pot I miss, really; the events and moments that come after the grinding and brewing and hot-coffee-keeping, I miss them too. The rare occasion the three of us could sit before leaving and starting/continuing our day - Christy before her 5 min drive to work, Lisa's 50 step commute to her office, me in between PT and work call.

Or when Mom and Dad came to visit (or more accurately to take care of me after surgery and assume the role of "mr. fix it") being able to sit, talk, drink coffee like grown ups.

This picture...

has no bearing on today's post. I just thought you'd like another picture posted.

We had a killer thunderstorm last night. I've never seen lightening bolts so thick. And the eerie orange daylight-like with each strike. I was scared. I can't lie. And the wind! I thought my container was going to blow over.

I was able to sneak in an easy 3 mile run in mid-morning. The sun peeked out. With the storm and the time change and the schedule change, its been too dark to run early in the morning. The sky cleared up around 8 am and now, at 4, more wind and more rain.

Daylight savings time... yeah, the Coalition, at the request of the Iraqi government, changed clocks at 0001 31 Mar. The rest of the country, to include the Iraqi Army, didn't change clocks until the following day. {insert look of annoyance here}

For Maria and her + 3

Cousin, as requested!

Another friend asked to see what the inside of my room looked like. I did the best I could with photoshop to make this panorama. I did not do a good job, but I think you get the idea.

more later...