over several days

Steaks are awesome If you are reading this, know that I love you

 

I've decided I'm sick and tired of chow hall food. Unfortunately there is only one restaurant here on post and it's not all that great. Just before we got to Joint Base Balad most of everything was closed. Only a few tenatiously clung to JBB like lichen to a rock. Fortunately for me, the PX does sell some frozen meat. Since I work the night shift, I am not bothered by all the extra briefings that day shift has to put up with and attend. So for lunch on Sunday into Monday and again on Monday into Tuesday I bought a steak and grilled it. I used the instant potatoes that my sister lovingly put into a care package for me. Surprisingly enough, they were pretty good. Arica, if you are reading this, the loaded potatoes would make a great repeat if you want to send another box. ;-) Back to the steaks. Jealous eyes followed me everywhere I went as I walked my potatoes and steaks to my desk. I sat my happy ass in my comfy seat, watched Knight and Day and enjoyed a 3/4 in thick T-bone and loaded potatoes. The only thing that could have made the meal better was a cold beer to wash it all down with. Damn these dry countries anyway. I could have had an O'douls, but what the hell is the point in that? Who in their right mind wants to drink fake beer?

 

Sunday 24 APR

 

If I have to spend one more moment with this moron one of two things are going to happen, I'm either going to be short one round when we leave here and he will never be heard of again or I'm going to face a serious UCMJ for beating the crap out of an officer. Either way, something's gotta give. I'm about to just simply tell him he is to give the shift change briefing from now on since he is the one that insists half the information absolutely needs to go on it. I don't even understand most of what he wants on it and his explinations are as good as a 10 year old trying to explain quantum physics. All too often he doesn't even know the words he should use to explain something and the rest of the times he uses words that don't make sense. English is definately not even his second language, let alone his first. He gets me so damned frustrated I want to break his jaw so I no longer have to hear his crappily accented voice.

Latest and Greatest

     I know it's been a while since I have written and you're all probably thinking that I have tons to write about. Not so much. Nothing of import has been going on here. I've gotten settled in completely at work to include putting music on my computer so I have some entertainment at work. You'd be surprised how much faster this seems to make my night go for me. I've also figured out that I can use chat via gmail on my computer at work so I chat to anybody who has a gmail account and is on my friends list. If you have one and aren't on my list, shame on you!

     The biggest problem with work is that it's always Monday. I get up, get showered and change and head to work. Every day. I've not had a day off since we started working full swing. I don't know if I will get a day off. The only thing that breaks up the night is when we get attacked. Some of you may be thinking, "WOW! that must be scary" No, it's just another night in Iraq. Some of the time it's just a minor annoyance, the rest of the time it's nothing more than an alarm that sounds occasionally telling us "All Clear" A few nights ago we had a real fun night. We had 8 different attacks all within a span of about 7 to 10 min. We sat around and listened to it all go down, then shrugged and got back into our emails and reports and spread sheets and, generally, got back to work. As I said, another night in Iraq. I do plan on trying to find out just how many times we've been attacked since we took over and then I'm going to keep a running tally of just how many times the enemy has missed us. I think it would be neat to know the numbers exact.

     On lighter news, I will possibly be on the news back at home. On the way back to my CHU (combat housing unit) this morning I was stopped by our Public Affairs Office (PAO) and asked if I wanted to be recorded doing an Easter greeting. It only took a few minutes and it was done. They gave me a card where I can go and see my recording and send it out as an e-greeting. I've never really thought of things like that. I've seen them often enough on the morning news at home, soldiers greeting friends and loved ones at home during Christmas and Thanks Giving and various other holidays. I just never thought I might be one of those soldiers giving that greeting. I think it's a great thing to do. I never knew any of the ones that I saw but I can imagine what it would be like for their family to flip on the TV and see their son or daughter waving and saying hi. Sometimes, the army really does take care of us.