Biggio and Bagwell are making themselves at home. Bigg is still recovering from the drive back from Dime Box. He yakked on Mike on the return trip.
We got a gate to put across the arch between the living room and the kitchen but, at 0600hrs this morning they had managed to crawl under it and wander into our room.
Pictures will be posted soon on the main page.
Job 37:23-24
Tab, the boys and I will be heading back to the hizzle in a couple of hours. We won't be picking up our "Killer B's" until Friday. Once we get them and get their official Astros gear I'll post pics here or on the main site (they may even get a page all to themselves).
1 Corinthians 9:24-25
Tab and I did a book signing at Deerbrook Mall and sold 4 books. Today we did one in Webster and sold 16.
Pop cooked a brisket and pork shoulder and we got back around 6ish, man it's good to eat great food again.
On the way to Humble the other day we stopped in Dimebox and bought 2 Beagle pups. Their names are Biggio and Bagwell. So, hopefully by the time I get back in October they'll be completely trained (Mike and CW have their work cut out for them).
John 6:27
On the back porch, drinking cold beer with Mom, Pop and Mike (playing guitar, go figure).
Pop grilled Bratwurst. We also had real sauerkraut! Awesome.
Judges 2:2-3
Tab and the boys met me at the airport, right on time. My wife is still beautiful, CW has gotten bigger and Mike needs a haircut.
I splurged on the way home. I bought an M4 carbine. Been wanting one for a while, thought about it on the way home and stopped at the gun shop on the way back from the airport and bought it before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.
I grilled steaks and zucchini tonight. Man! It's so nice to be able to eat real meat again.
James 2:18
Kuwait Airport has "somewhat" free internet access. "Somewhat" meaning only for one hour. So, here I sit, waiting to board my plane.
The lady at United screwed up. She was supposed to get me Business Class for today, she put it into the computer for tomorrow. So, guess who's gonna be real umcomfortable for the next 14 hours...
Matthew 5:1-2
Justin and I arrived at Ali late Saturday afternoon after a nightmarishly hot C-130 ride from Mosul (he's going on leave as well).
Ali has not changed, it's still the armpit of Southwest Asia. Only now it's hotter than Satan's butthole after a Tabasco Margarita. Geez, I thought Mosul was hot. Mosul was like a nice Spring day compared to Kuwait. Plus they have something here that Mosul doesn't... Humidity. Not much mind you but just enough coming off of the Persian Gulf to make it just that much more miserable.
Beverly picked us up around 1000hrs this morning. A quick stop at McD's then here to the apartment. I took a long shower (I had dust and sand in places that aren't supposed to have dust and sand) and then went to sleep since I had been up for over 40 hours. And now, here I sit.
I'm gonna order some Sushi from the local Japanese restaurant and then hit the pool. It's 2043hrs here, it's dark and it's still 118...
Galatians 6:2
The official website of Free Texas: http://www.showandtelltexas.com/
To borrow a line from my wife (who borrowed it from a Mr. Elwood Blues), "Tell your friends..."
Job 1:1
Horrible. Horrible movie. Two minutes into the credits I almost turned it off when I saw it was a Stephen King story. I figured it all out in 15 minutes and it was all downhill from there. Not even John Tuturro could save the movie because it was just Pete playing a bad guy. Lame.
I'm completely convinced that King is a hack. The only movie ever done based on one of his stories that was any good was The Shining; and he didn't even want his name associated with it because he thought that Stanley Kubrick ruined it. Now granted, I've never read a single book of his but I have seen most if not all of the movies. I suppose it could just be all of the filmmaker's faults...
Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool
I love Harry Callahan. But I gotta tell ya, you get used to watching these on TV and you forget just how much full frontal nudity (male and female), bad language, and blood are in them. Not that those are bad things (well full frontal male nudity is bad), you just forget it's all there. Trivia time. What do Dirty Harry, The Dead Pool and Star Trek: Deepspace Nine all have in common?
Diary of the Dead
Now I'm a big fan of Romero's zombie movies but this was crap. I think ol' George is just that... Getting too old. Even the special guest voices didn't help this movie. "Guest voices?" you ask. Figure it out for yourselves.
War
Jet Li and Jason Statham. How can you go wrong? Great movie. Nice twist.
Flash Point
A great Donnie Yen movie. It's all in Chinese so you have to read the subtitles (and get past the grammar) but it's a really good cop/action/Kung Fu movie.
It's been a long time but sadly, it's happened again; We lost 3 soldiers from 3rd Squadron today, as well as one of their interpreters. Please say a prayer for them and their families.
John 14:1-4
I have heard many variations on my name and it's been used in many pseudo-references. Examples:
Studini the Great, Stu Manchu, Kung Stu, Egg Stu Yung, Stu-Man, Stu-Pendous, Stuey and so forth. References alike: Hey Stu (to the tune of "Hey Jude"), Love Me Stu (to the tune of "Love Me Do"), More Stuman than Stuman ("More Human than Human"- White Zombie) and so forth. Did I mention that I do not like The Beatles?
Well today I was hit with a new one. Steve (Chad's replacement) walked up and said, "What's up Stufish?" Now I immediately thought that this was a reference to the Jewfish AKA the Goliath Grouper. I gave him points for originality but he said it was a Beavis and Butthead reference. The kid in the Winger shirt on B&B was named Stuart and B&B sometimes called him that. Whatever the case, it was a new one to me.
Everything here is samey-same. I've been working on websites more than anything else. If I can get the rest of the information from my sister for the church that one will be done, hint, hint. The other is one I'm doing for Free Texas. Once it's done I'll share it with all of you. Uncle C gave me a great idea and it has already been implemented. >:)
2 days and a wakeup...
Matthew 18:33
Another uneventful day here in sunny Mosul.
Check it out: http://www.ccatexas.org/CCATexas/2004_Leader_Board_Standings.asp?SnID=1460779586
Scroll down to the Ling/Cobia Division. My little sister is in the lead. If she wins she can give me the boat as payment for the church's website. ;)
3 days and a wakeup...
Philippians 1:12
This Sunday was just like all the other Sundays... And Mondays and Tuesdays and etc, ad nauseum...
I finished the groundwork for my sister and bro-in-law's church's website. Once I hear from her and Brother Bobby I'll fill in the details and then post it so everyone can take a look.
And congratulations to her for kicking some serious butt at the fishing tournament this weekend.
4 days and a wake-up and I'll be on a plane to Ali.
Luke 22:27
The TDT is the local newspaper for the greater Temple area. They recently interviewed a certain author you all may know...
http://www.temple-telegram.com/story/2008/06/22/50264
I'll be boarding a C-130 or C-17 in one week for my trip to Kuwait. Three days later and I'll be on a United flight bound for the good ol' US of A.
Have you ever loved someone so much that your stomach gets knotted up when you think about them? Have you ever been apart from that person for what may well seem like an eternity? Have you ever been 7000 miles away from that person and could only talk to her for 10-20 minutes every other day or so? It's not something I would recommend, for anyone. But, with all things, I try and learn something from every situation I find myself in. And what I have learned over the past 9 months is that my wife is a Godsend. I love her very much.
She's the jam in my jellyroll...
1 Corinthians 13:7
A picture of the ESP, Inc. crew here in sunny Mosul.
A whopping 118 degrees today. I remember when I was in the Mojave Desert National Park that it got to 122 that day. We are fast approaching that mark and will probably surpass it within the next few weeks.
"Get up on the chuck-wagon if your feet are draggin'..."
Everything else is pretty much the same as you would expect. It has been a lot quieter lately though. The Iraqi Army has taken over much of the security responsiblity for Mosul and seem to be doing a decent job. Of course it's a little easier for them since 3d ACR had killed or captured a whole lot of the bad guys before the "Sons of Iraq" took over, but hey, they're trying.
11 days, 11 days, 11 days.................
Luke 8:15
As though we have most of the bugs worked out of our internet. So, I should be back to posting at least once a day (hopefully).
Today was our first really clear day in a long while. You could see all of Mosul as well as the mountains. Of course it's 116 degrees out now and staring at the mountains for longer than one minute is not conducive to your mental well-being (this heat will suck your will to live).
Acts 12:14-15
