All it takes is a sand storm...

To ruin a good party. Yes, a sand storm

I started cooking around 1300hrs and finished around 1600hrs. We hung out and waited for our soldiers to show. At 1630, in walked the Regimental Command Sergeant Major, CSM Burns. We were a little "caught-off guard" by this surprise appearance, as we usually only see him at the TOC. Thoughts of "Oh crap!" immediately ran through our collective heads. We weren't sure how he'd react once his soldiers started showing up. He stuck around for a bit and then had to go to a meeting and left stating, "I'll be back."

Soldiers began to filter in little by little and I threw burgers and hot dogs back on the grill to warm them up and melt the cheese. Soldiers ate their fill of "home-grilled" food and drank their fill of ice-cold fake beer. Then, as parties usually go, cards and dominoes were brought out as well as an iPod with external speakers.

Around 2000hrs, the CSM walked in again. The soldiers who were there suddenly had a "deer-in-the-headlights" look about them but after the CSM sat down and began bs'ing with all of us they loosened up again... A bit. The CSM is an ok dude, once you get to know him a little.

Then at/or about 2030hrs the wind picked up and we got reports of a 4000ft tall sand storm that was moving into our area. At 2045hrs the party was over as it was a mad dash to get leftovers, plates, utensils and everything else picked up and put away before it got really bad. Visibility went straight to hell in about 5 minutes.

Everybody dispersed, I took a shower and now here I sit, typing away the rest of my night. Or at least until I'm done and put in Star Wars.

I'm done.

May the Force be with you.

Mark 14:26

"What is this, that stands before me?"

Spent most of my day in the TOC setting up my new "office." Finally got the wires run and now all three computers are singing like birds. Finished configuring the Dell after the Help Desk nuked it so it could go on the NIPR LAN.

I'm probably gonna make one more trip down South soon, once we get a cable in. Hopefully next week, sometime... We'll see.

Right now, I'm drinking a fake beer, writing this, converting Real media to MP3's and getting ready to start a Star Wars marathon. Fun, fun, fun.

Luke 22:31-32

"Busted through the conductors booth and busted out rhymes..."

Well, yet another Friday has come and gone. It's 0200hrs Friday night/Saturday morning. Just finished playing poker. Tonight was bad but not as bad as it has been. I need to stick with the advice that Bob Boyett gave me a long time ago and I think I'll be ok.

Justin got a battery for his hooptie today. We slapped it in, jumped it and it started right up. Thinking we would be ok to travel to Diamondback and drop off the old one, into the hooptie we climbed. Everything was fine until we got to the "Cholo's Auto's" place. Then... Justin turned the ignition off. Two batteries later, still no ignition. So, we left the car, one of Cholo's flunkys' was nice enough to give us a ride back to Marez. I got dropped off at the PX to get a haircut while "Flunky" took Justin back to the hacienda where he would get one of the other trucks and come pick me up. An hour and a half later he shows up in Seann's truck claiming that, "All the other trucks were gone" and he had searched high and low before calling in a favor with Seann. I think he got back, realized "Teen Idol" was on and just couldn't miss it.

Got both of my computers set up in the S6 office but I'm waiting for lines to be run to connect me to the internet and the tactical internet (should be done this weekend sometime).

Gonna take a shower, do some crosswords and go to bed.

Mark 14:49-50

Freakin' Generators!!

Ok so I wake up last night/this morning at 0100hrs. Stay up all night/morning and go through the regular daily routine. TOC, PX and so-forth. I'm starting to wear down but I know I can't just go to sleep for fear of getting my schedule any more jacked up than it already is. So, I say to myself, "Self..." (that's Bill Cosby humor) "you need some rest. Take an hour nap. Set your alarm and get up when it goes off." No problem, right? Well, I didn't take in to account the "Iraq Factor." The "Iraq Factor" works alot like Murphy's Law. I set my alarm for exactly one hour, fall asleep and the generator is promptly shut down for maintenance, resetting my alarm clock and allowing me to catch up on more sleep than I wanted. I woke up 4 hours later!! Like I said... Freakin' Generators!!

Jim and I hit the shoppette to get some charcoal for Sunday. Went ahead a bought a case of fake beer too (still no Copenahgen).

Checked in with the TOC again, no problems. Oh! I'm getting an "office". They're moving me in with SSG Blakemore (my brother) and we're sharing a closet. Once we get it all set up I'll take a picture of it and post it here.

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE seems to think that we're long lost brothers. On my field trip last week, the entire commo section down there said it too. I don't see it... I'm much better looking than Blakemore!!

Mark 14:41

Another Day

Another dollar.

Had a couple of issues at the TOC today, fixed 'em. Went to the PX for snuff, they were out. Went to the Sapper Eagle store, they were out. Went to the Hilltop Store, they were out. Went to the Shoppette, they were out. Had to buy Skoal. Not happy.

Justin and I played catch today. He throws like Rick Vaughn before he got his glasses... Hmmm...

Hanging out earlier, came in to grab a sammich and write this so, here you go.

Got two boxes from my lovely, much-better-half. More movies are always a good thing. Got some pictures as well and they are already on the wall, plus a little piece of art from CW, thanks buddy.

Laters.

Mark 14:27

The Past Few Days

Today's my first day back from a "field trip" down to another FOB. Below is a summary of the past few days:

Friday- MSG Brown, Dee, T, Marvin and I caught a UH-60 (I love Blackhawks) down to a FOB a bit South of us. Due to my sleep schedule still being hosed up I didn't sleep at all.

Saturday- The 5 of us spent all day trying to get the ABCS's up and running for the Squadron we were there to support. Ate at Pizza Hut for a late supper.

Sunday- See Saturday.

Monday- See Saturday. Then jumped a flight back here to lovely Mosul. I say lovely because the place we just came from was anything but.

Today- Tried to scrounge some spare parts for our friends to the South but had no luck. Went food shopping at the PX (they actually got a shipment in while I was away). Laundry. Supper. I was watching MXC's first season until Justin came by to tell me that the internet was back up. Since then, I've been catching up on emails, reports and now this.

Here are some pics from the trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark 14:38

Up, down, up, down, up, down...

If someone was to give me a choice right now, between trying to do anything on the internet and poking myself in the eye with a stick; my response would be, "You got a stick?" SISTER MARY FRANCIS!!!! I'm losing what little mind I have left. They keep telling us, " The 24th, give us until the 24th, it'll all be better." I tell you now... If it isn't, you may be seeing me on FoxNews. ***US Contractor Arrested for Stuffing Turkish Internet Providers into Mortar Tube***

Justin and I played catch today (Derrick joined in a little later); it was a welcome diversion from the normally normal normalcy of this friggin' place. We even smacked the ball around with the bat, a bit.

 

Baseballs take funny bounces on an all loose-rock surface, just ask my left cheek. There is just no way to guess which way the ball is going to go once it makes contact with the "ground". Karnac the Amazing couldn't have predicted the balls path today. It was all over the place.

Avoided the chow hall completely today. Spicy Vienna Sausages for lunch, Hormel Beef Stew for Supper and "Mosul Nachos" for my 0100 snack. Yum-mee yum...

After 2 games of Dominoes with Derrick, T and Justin I hit the sack at roughly 2130hrs. 3 1/2 hours later... Here I am. Woooooooooo!!! 

Matthew 8:25-26 

 

Well, that's just great...

 

So, I actually go to bed at roughly 2000hrs (man, I was tired). Yeah... not tired enough, obviously. Woke up at 2356hrs. That's a whopping 4 hours of sleep. So, looks like I'll be up until 7 or 8 again. Geez, can't a man get a break?!?

So, what am I doing right now? Crossword puzzles and typing this entry. Once I'm done with that I think I'll watch the Ben-Hur documentary and read some comics.

2 COR 9:8

Yesterday and Today

 

Well, yesterday did have a bright spot; I got my birthday box from Tab and the boys. Inside I found  Spies Like Us from Mike as well as a note that read, " Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, You are Old!!" He's getting his @$$ kicked when I get home. CW sent me a 2 DVD set about Pearl Harbor with a note that read," Hope you like it, send it back when you're done." Tab says he wants to watch it too. From my lovely wife I got home-made curtains with a bowling motiff, awesome. Now I can get rid of these damn pink ones I have. Her note was for me only... ;)

Today I got my birthday box from Mom, Pop and Nannie. A Louisville slugger, glove and two baseballs, again awesome. Justin bought a glove and Chad's going to do the same. We can't call it "sandlot baseball" because, oddly enough, there's no sand in our area. Just rocks. So, it'll be "rocklot baseball" but hey, it's still baseball.

Today is beautiful. Blue skies, no clouds, temperature is in the mid 70's and there's not a lot of stuff on fire (which is always a plus).

I'm flying to another FOB late this week and will be there for about 2 or 3 days so, you probably won't here from me until I get back.

"Our-feet-are-stained"...

Dead Gator

Yep, my Gator is dead. The transmission is shot. No idea how long it'll take to repair so for now, I've got no wheels. Peachy.

Lousy nachos for lunch... Have I mentioned that our chow hall sucks? No? IT FREAKIN' SUCKS.

Well, I'm 39 today. Don't feel any different now than I did at 29. However, everyone seems to take delight in calling me "old man" now. My response is simple, old is 40. I've still got a year left to be young.

Skies are blue today and it's in the mid 70's, at least until the sun goes down. Then it'll cool off rather quickly. But, at least it isn't raining!!

Sen McCain was here yesterday, at least that's what I heard. Guess he got bored with DC politics and needed a break...

That's about it.

Now Playing: Connection Speed Sucks, Yet Again

Well, I just finished typing a nice long blog and then the connections fails and everything was lost. I'm not about to retype everything so, you'll get a brief version instead. Here goes.

The internet sucks. The chow hall sucks. The PX sucks. However, it has stopped raining.

Watched Pan's Labyrinth last night. Good movie.

Don't send me any big files via email until the internet is better.

My head hurts...

There's the $0.10 version.

Addendum to Tonight's/This Morning's Previous Post

 

I noticed that the internet is a little quicker now so I thought I'd upload a few pics. Below are some of the folks I work with and on the "OIF Pics" page you'll find 3 new pictures as well.

Dee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and Marvin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justin (clean shaven)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justin's Hooptie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MSG Brown (sorry, you're not allowed to see what's behind the yellow box)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SSG Blakemore and Bo C. Phus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and my Wimmins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you didn't read the one before this one... It's right below.

Laters.

Still Raining

Yes. Still raining. The entire compound is one big sloppy mess. And it's still cold. I hate cold and wet.

After checking in at the TOC, Justin and I took the hooptie over to Diamondback to go "grocery" shopping at the PX. Now... grocery shopping. I came back to my hooch with 2 bags of chips, cheese dip, 2 Hormel turkey microwave meals, 3 cans of Hormel chicken salad, Chips Ahoy, a 1/2 a case of Red Bull and a pack of mints. The chow hall is killin' me.

Poker sucked, yet again. It's amazing. Get a pair of Queens, get beat by Kings. Get two pair (J's and Q's) and get beat by a higher pair (K's and A's). Get trip 7's, get beat by trip 8's. Flop a straight and get beat by FOUR OF A KIND!!!! Utterly, utterly amazing. I wanted to punch a wall (or more to the point Chad, when he rolled those 4's). I haven't had a losing streak like this in ... Well, EVER!! I even had on my lucky Irish hat and my Irish coozie that Mom sent me for my birthday wrapped around my fake beer. And STILL couldn't win a friggin' hand.

Tomorrow Scott leaves. Justin and I will see him off around 0830hrs as he boards the freedom bird to begin his journey into retirement. I gave him a signed copy of Free Texas as a retirement gift. He has enjoyed it so far and hopefully will get a chance to put it to practical use once he and the family makes their move back home to the great state of Texas.

I'm watching Major League right now and will try to get to sleep some time after that. Major League has got to be the best baseball movie ever. Bull Durham comes in a very close second.

Speaking of baseball, CW will be playing this year for the Lumberjacks. Don't ask me... Most places name their LL teams after the ML ones so, where they came up with Lumberjacks, your guess is as good as mine. But he's very excited. So is Mike, he wants to be the mascot and has pulled his flannel out of the closet (I have two Monty Python fans for kids... Go figure).

That's all I got.

Rain, rain, go away...

Not much going on today. Except the weather, that is.  It’s freakin’ cold and raining. A day ago I had the AC on and now I’m running the heater. Diamondback is flooded, big time. Not so bad here on Marez, we’re on top of the hill.

 

It’s still taking all day to log into my blog so, I write it on Word and then paste it in after the dang page loads (sometime in the next 45 minutes or so).

 

I’m trying to get a rental car; my company just authorized me to get one. And guess what? He’s got a Jeep!! How cool is that? Only it’s a hard top but, I think I can make it work. Just gotta find a socket wrench.

 

My schedule is stilled all screwy. I’m staying up until 6:00 or 7:00am and sleeping only a few hours a day. Readjusting is quite a pain.

 

Do you like Shakespeare? Or more to the point do you like Hamlet? Yes? Well, do you also like big budget Kung Fu movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Yes? Well then check out Legend of the Black Scorpion. Great movie. It’s Hamlet in ancient China. Weird name for a movie, I know but it was renamed that for international release. It was called The Banquet in China. It’s got Ziyi Zhang (from CT,HD) and the fight scenes are choreographed by Yuen Wo-Ping (The Matrix).

 

That’s all for now… Still waiting to get logged in to the blog. GEEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been a while...

 

In the immortal words of LL Cool J:

 

 Don't call it a comeback
I been here for years
Rockin' my peers and puttin' suckas in fear
Makin' the tears rain down like a MON-soon
Listen to the bass go BOOM 

I am online once again. Although it’s dog-@$$ slow right now, it should be better by the 24^th (hopefully). By slow I mean……………… S-L-O-W. As in less than dial-up speed. My patience (which as you all know, I have an abundance of) has been stretched pretty thin.

I won’t bore you with a long recap of the past month; I’ll just hit the highlights.

 

1. Spent 3 days at Ali Al Salem trying to get a friggin’ flight back up here to Mosul. Have I mentioned just how much I hate Ali? No? I HATE ALI AL SALEM.
2. Got back and found out that we had lost the internet. Immediately after that my mind went with it.
3. Three of my friends are now back in the States. I hope that Tino, Lloyd and Patrick are doing well but they still p!$$ me off for leaving.
4. Justin’s truck is dead. He now drives a hooptie that he got off of some guy in a “drug deal.” (pics later)
5. We have a mascot. Her name is Sasha; most everyone calls her “Kitty”. Dee’s mom even sent cat toys, food, de-wormer and a house for her. I’ll post a picture of her when the innarweb speeds up. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Stu, you hate cats.” Well, I do… Except this one.
6. Another friend, Scott, is leaving as well. To be more specific, he is retiring. He’s a Navy Lt Cmdr and will be moving to the Clear Lake/Friendswood area soon. Wish him well. I just can’t seem to avoid making Navy friends wherever I go. And it pains me to no end (yeah, yeah, Chief… I know).
7. The boys and girls of the 3d ACR are doing well for the most part. However we’ve lost a few this past month, please keep them and their families in your prayers.
8. Had a big S6 cookout last week. I cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, pork steaks and ribs for about 40-50 people. Word spreads quickly around here as about ½ that number was actually invited. Oh well, the bigger the party the better. One thing’s for sure though, I gotta get a real grill over here.
9. Most everything is the same as it was when I left. Except that my luck on the poker table seems to have stayed in Texas.

 

In case you missed it on the main page, TAB HAS BEEN PUBLISHED. You can buy one here: http://www.xavier-house.com  or you can go to Amazon and search for Free Texas. Or just email her to buy a signed copy. I am so very proud of her, the book is awesome.

 

That’s about all I got for now. As long as I can log into the blog in a reasonable amount of time, I’ll update it daily, or so. So if you’re interested in what’s going on over here with me and my compadres (and why the hell wouldn’t you be) you’ll be able to keep up with all the super-duper cool things happening here in Mosul.

   

Mama said knock you out…

A Brief Update...

Internet has been down. Currently it's working partially but it takes an hour just to log into my blog. So, here's what you get until it gets better:

 I am still alive and I shall return.

Peace out!

Jet Lag...

Is a kick in the pants. I'm feeling it today, big time.

Not much to report, hopefully I'll be in Mosul tomorrow.

That was 2 weeks?!?!?

Here I am, back in Kuwait at the apartment. Heading to Ali tomorrow to drop off the passport then back on Saturday to pick it up and hopefully get a flight to Mosul. Kuwait's OK but Mosul is my home away from home and the quicker I get there, the quicker things will get back to "normal" for me.

I miss Tab and the boys already.

Waiting patiently... More or less.

It's 1558hrs here. Mandy's gonna pick me up at 2100hrs for the ride to the airport. I figure we'll get there around 2145hrs. So, that's about 3 hours that I'll sit in the Kuwait airport wating for my plane and my 14 hour trip.

Climbed out of bed today around 1030 or 1100hrs, give or take. Hopped on the elevator to the ground floor and made my way over to the sauna. Spent about 45 minutes in there before I stumbled out, all dizzy and weak-kneed... I love sauna's. I'm gonna have to have one built in the backyard. Showered and returned upstairs to get dressed.

Walked down to the beach again and took a bunch of pictures. I think I have enought to give Kuwait its own page on the website. I'll work on that when I get back to Texas, which will be tomorrow, 1445hrs Texas time.

 

Monday's Road Trips

I slept for about an hour... Remember when, back at Taji, I mentioned my friend Carlton and his ability to snore louder than Pop and Bob both put together? Yeah, I met someone who might give him a run for his money. GEEZ LOUISE!!!! I got in bed sometime after midnight and I think I fell asleep sometime around 5am. Then of course everyone else in the apartment (who had slept peacfully in other rooms) got up, turned on the TV, made breakfast, walked around, talked, etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum.

Mandy picked us up around 1030hrs for the hour or so nightmare ride to Ali Al Salem. Nightmare, you ask? I'm telling you... THESE PEOPLE CAN NOT DRIVE!! The most exciting moment was when the truck in front of us slowed down rather quickly and we went from about 160kph to 90kph, then the truck swerved to the left and I saw it. "Couch," I said rather calmly. Mandy swerved just in time to avoid it. A couch. In the middle of the highway. That definately got the adrenaline flowing and I woke up quite nicely after that.

Got to Ali, picked up our passports, ate lunch (McD's for me) and got back on the "frightway" for our return trip. An hour later I was safe in the confines of the apartment.

Called Mac and he picked me up about 2 hours later. We drove over to Fahaheel, another suburb of Kuwait City. It's a shopping district. Lots of shops, lots of people wanting to sell you "Rolex's", "Tag Heur's", "Prada's" and other knockoffs. I got some pics and we were back on the road headed to downtown Kuwait City to see the Grand Mosque.

The Grand Mosque is well, quite grand. It's the biggest Mosque in Kuwait. We braved the traffic on foot, Mac was almost killed but, I did get some decent shots of it.

Suppertime and we headed over to Chili's. I had fajitas, Mac had a monster fajita pita. It's right next to the Kuwait Towers so I got some cool night pictures of them (see below) after we ate.

He dropped me off at the apartment and we said our goodbyes (I miss my bro and wish we could spend a little more time together). I got on Skype and spoke with Tab and the boys for about 45 minutes. After, I called Mom and we talked for about 20 minutes before the line cut out.

I downloaded the pics from my camera, uploaded a few to JPG Mag, surfed through JPG looking at some of the other cool pics there, then took a shower and here I now sit, once again.

It's about 0043hrs and getting close to the time for me to hit the sack (my snoring roomie left tonight to catch his plane). Hopefully, I'll get a little sleep.