Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Especially the mother of my two boys and the one that brought me into this world.
Proverbs 18:22
Psalm 139:13
"If too shallow then dig it more deep, if too narrow then dig it more wide..."
Ok, so we finally get real eggs. Real ones, not that fake powdered crap. And what does our lovely chow hall do? They overcook them to the point that they look, feel and taste like rubber. Figures...
I haven't gone to sleep yet but I'm considering doing so soon. It's 1025hrs over here now and I've got to cook around 1600hrs. So, I may try and knock out a few hours in the rack, we'll see how that goes.
Have I mentioned that our internet sucks lately? No? Well guess what... It does. The other company was supposed to hook us up last week but now it's gonna take at least another month. Figures...
The weather is the only bright spot. Warm, mild days and very cool nights. It actually got down to 57 degrees the other night with a nice breeze. I'm sure we'll all be hating life though soon enough. June is around the corner and July and August are fast approaching as well.
And now I'll leave yall with some words from "Mr. Floyd":
"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the American way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say..."
Numbers 20:10
Yet another Saturday, gone.
I took Justin to the PAX this fine Mosul morning and will pick him up in about a week (providing that the weather holds).
Chad and I had supper at the chow hall this evening around 1800hrs. Burger, chicken nuggets w/hot sauce and cheese fries. Nom,nom,nom...
The PX actually had some food today so, I went "grocery shopping." Got some burgers, which I plan to grill tomorrow/later today (depending on your time zone).
I'm up to the middle of Season 3 of ST: Voyager.
Exodus 33:15
Addendum III
"The" Chad was the main man tonight. He finally took an old man's advice and it worked out well for him. Finally. Now if Derrick and T would just listen...
The Dude is taking a field trip in the AM and I'll be carrying his sorry carcass over to the PAX at 0800hrs. No sleep for me.
All else is status quo.
1 Corinthians 10:24 - Think about this one. If you need help, ask.
Addendum II
Go back to the main page and click on "OIF Pics."
We've been under "blackout" for a while; we lost another soldier. Please pray for him and his family.
Well the skies finally cleared and the wind has settled down. It was a nice last two days. Mild temps and blue skies. It's been in the low 60's at night here, very nice.
Poker is as poker does. We took a break last night but played tonight. After two previous "off-nights", Daddy is back on top. Either way, I have fun and that's what it's all about. I'd rather have a bad night of poker instead of a "good" night stuck in my hooch, ya know?
The only thing out of the norm today was that my "little brother" Matt asked me to mail a big-@$$ package for him (he was unable to make it to the post office because of a scheduled flight). That was about as exciting as it got today.
Deuteronomy 1:21
I was in Fairbanks, Alaska and decided to start a blog. Here it is a year later and I'm in Iraq. Man! Time flies when you're having fun. Seriously, it doesn't seem like it's been a year or even that I've been away from Houston now for 3 years. Weird. And speaking of Houston...
Shout outs to the following folks; Darlene (thanks for the advertising) and the rest of my Bayshore Brethren.
Today has been uneventful. I got approval from my S6 to take leave from the 1st through the 15th of July. Once I get final approval from my boss at Ft Hood, I'll be counting down the days. It's 58 from today (not that I have started counting already).
Feliz Cinco de Mayo to all of my Hispanic friends (that means you too, Lopez).
Well, I better post this before the internet takes a vacation again... Laters.
Exodus 3:14
Getting ready to grill up some bratwurst and drink cold, fake beer. Only in Iraq...
The internet has been especially screwed up these past few days, hence no updated blog. Well after an hour I finally got logged in so, here you are.
Poker. Sandstorm. High Winds. Poker. Empty PX. Poker. 60's at night. Poker. 100's during the day. Poker.
There's your three day update.
Exodus 19:4
You ain't gonna believe this... Derrick pulled another... ANOTHER Straight Flush tonight. 4-8 of Hearts. That's three total in less than a week. The odds are, for lack of a better word, astronomical. He got his name on the board twice.
That was as exciting as it got tonight. I couldn't get a decent pocket to save my life and when I did finally get pocket Mop-Squeezers, nothing came up to help them out. Ah well...
Tomorrow (technically today) should be thrilling. We're cleaning the "Poker CHU." It needs it. We're gonna pull everything out, sweep, mop and rearrange.
I'm going to attempt to go to bed soon. Key word = "attempt."
John 17:12
Below is what my post would have read last night if, right during the middle of the post, we had not gone into "blackout." We lost a soldier yesterday; please pray for him and his family.
Original Post Title: Home on the Range
Weapons Range, that is.
Justin and I squeezed into our body armor this morning and took off down to the range. My "little brother" was running a small arms range for the S6 section. I took plenty of pictures and video and was going to get to shoot as well but, the CO showed up and nixed that. I understand his reasoning and he's a by-the-book type guy so, it was cool. I just shot some more pictures instead of bullets.
Gonna watch ST:Voyager tonight and go to sleep early, I think (hope). I'm tired.
Colossians 1:24
This would have been the Addendum:
So, much for a quiet night of Voyager and an early bedtime. Three guesses as to what happened and the first two don't count.
Congratulations to Derrick. On the board sits a 4, 5, 7 and 8 of diamonds along with I think a club or something. Justin has the "nut flush" with the Ace, Chad has the next high one with the King, or so they thought. Justin goes "all-in" (which to his credit is the right call when there's that many chips already in the pot and you know you've got the highest flush. Chad calls the "all-in" with the King, thinking Justin had something smaller. Derrick (who is trying to stop shaking) calls the "all-in" as well. Justin turns the Ace, Chad turns the King and Derrick turns the 6. The 6 of Diamonds. Straight Flush. Two of them in the past 3 days. Awesome.
Here's today's report:
"Blackout" was lifted about an hour ago. Not much happening today. PFC's Moser and Trekkle are being promoted to SPC so, I'll probably head over there and take some pictures at the ceremony. Other than that, I REALLY HOPE I GET TO JUST WATCH VOYAGER TONIGHT...
John 13:14
If you're scratching your head over that one, it simply means, we are to treat our friends, not as they treat us, but as Christ loves us. Think about it.
No poker game.
I hung out with Chad tonight and we watched The Departed. Ho.Lee. Crap. This is a dang good movie. Did you like The Godfather? Yes? Then you'll like The Departed. Especially if you have an ounce of Irish blood in you (I happen to have 2). Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Alec Baldwin. Granted, I'm not a big fan of the last two mentioned but, the movie rocked.
Just woke up from my midnight nap and here I sit. Eating a sammich and chips and drinking a frosty fake beer. Gotta love it.
I distributed a bunch of Free Texas books today. The Regimental Commander and CSM, their secretaries, 1SG Brown and my brother, SSG Blakemore all got their signed copies today. The CDR and CSM were outside the wire today so I don't know what they thought. But the secretaries loved it and so did SSG Blakemore and 1SG Brown.
Colossians 1:28
Can't a guy just sit in his room and jam some PE without someone showing up, banging on his door and asking for a poker game? Not in Mosul, obviously. 
Foxy and I spanked that behind.
With 2 exceptions (no names... to protect the shamed), everyone did well. Jacob and Justin have hit their stride and are doing well too. Of course Jacob was only paying 1/2 attention tonight as he folded 2 Straights and a Full House... ON THE BOARD!!! Geez...
Here's a picture of our busted up tree.
Isaiah 30:21
This is especially true on actual Mondays. Not much to report today other than the storm that blew through last night blew through HARD.
One of our trees was blown over last night and barely missed Jacob's truck. That would have been a tough one to try and write in a report. It also blew over our wireless link to our innarweb people so, at 0430hrs I was on the roof of our "office" building trying to manually realign the transceiver. After a few minutes of fiddling with the alignment I finally got a blinking link light and locked it in place. About a minute later I got the solid link light and decended from the roof. The internet was still patchy but it was now due to the fact that the main station, about 1km away, was having issues because of the same storm.
So, here I sit, jamming to some old school PE... 
"Fight the Power!"
John 10:9
The skies are a nice brown today. Lovely.
I was gonna write more but a poker game just broke out. Gotta run...
John 14:6
I am officially under 6 months as of today. I will be flying out of here on October 26th of this year. Will I ever come back? Who knows? I can say that I won't volunteer to come back but that doesn't mean I won't get told to come back. But if I do, it will only be for 6 months, never a year again. Ever.
Woke up and went to check mail. No mail. For anyone. No "Mail Plane" ($5 to anyone who can tell me where that comes from, Tab and the boys don't count and neither does Justin). Went to the TOC, checked on them. All's well. Went to the PX. They actually had some new movies in. I got a Jet Li collection and some other Martial Arts movie. Gotta love the Kung Fu Theater.
Finished two more fobs while listening to the commentary on Return of the Jedi. I'm getting ready to work on a few more while listening to commentary for Episode 1.
The internets absolutely suck right now. I talked to Tab for 5 minutes earlier and had to call her back like 15 times due to dropped connections. I will be so glad when the other company gets all of their equipment in and I can say goodbye to the idiots we have now.
With the increase in recent temperatures, I've seen all kinds of new critters running around. I'm going to try and get some pictures of them soon. New birds, lizards and geckos. Pete, our "Safety Guy", said that a group of soldiers were moving some boxes and came across a den of baby cobras. NICE! I think I'll need my telephoto lens for them...
Philippians 4:11 - This is an important one to learn and sometimes difficult for some people.
An "off" night. No biggee, I still had fun. That's the great thing about poker and why I love it.
Jacob was "King Daddy" tonight. That friggin' guy was on fire. And Chad got me on a Nut Straight with a freakin' Full House on an "all in."
One of Jim's "guys" had a going away party tonight and I cooked 50 burgers and 20 hot dogs for them before my game. He (the soldier) is getting promoted and moved down to Camp Liberty (Baghdad). Congrats to him.
T got back from his field trip today, early. Derrick picked him up at the PAX and they both joined in to tonight's game.
That was pretty much the whole day. Oh, it got to 104 degrees today but I tell ya, it ain't so bad. 104 in Texas would have been murder but here, it's dry. I'm sure once we start getting into the 120+ days it'll be hell, though.
John 15:5
Well, I got roped into a Dominos game which, before the bones even got shuffled, turned into a poker game. Finished at 0300hrs.
I still got it... 
Galatians 2:20
Just one.
Last night/this morning I finished 3 fobs, 1 pace cord and 1 rosary, all while listening to the directors commentary of Star Wars (Episodes IV and V). I will probably do more of the same tonight with the commentary for Episode VI.
Let's see... What else? Went shopping, bought movies. Got a haircut. Reconfigured a hard drive for the TOC. It topped out at 102 degrees today.
Borrowed Justin's Hooptie for the ride to the PX and now I smell like exhaust. I'll be hitting the showers very soon.
The IT people at BISD are FREAKING MORONS and I hope that one day they read this. When I get back I think I'm going to write a proposal to that jacked up district and just take their jobs. OR maybe I should just run for mayor of Belton instead of Nolanville. Yeah...
John 6:35
Today was pretty much un-incredible. Same stuff, different day.
We had another "low-fly-over" tonight but this one wasn't nearly as low as last night. Still kicked up a bit of dust though.
I got some of my beads in the mail today. Looks like I can start on the fobs tomorrow (after a brief refresher from Jim) and then as soon as the crucifix's get in I can start work on the rosaries.
I'll be designing and building a website for Rachel and Buddy's church sometime in the next few weeks (as soon as we change internet providers) and that will keep me busy as well. Lord knows I need something to do over here, other than watch DVD's all night.
I got my Gator repaired and I'll go get it reregistered sometime tomorrow. We have a broken hooptie that I'm gonna try and get repaired too. We'll see how that goes...
Jeremiah 2:13
