Sunday

Well the bad guys have been busy again- they set off two bombs in town and killed more policemen. Way to go guys, what a bunch of real manly men you must feel like. Killing unarmed men who want to make their country a better place is so ignoble.

Jessica Simpson and her husband are on a USO tour of Iraq and showed up here today. I confess I had to do a Google search to figure out who she was. She seems to have a reputation as an airhead; however I must say that it takes a certain amount of courage just to visit this country, especially after a helicopter was shot down just the other day. She was scheduled to visit one of our other outlying FOBs but they were taking incoming rounds at the time she was landing here (luckily there were no injuries). I’m not sure if she went ahead and visited them after she left here or not. I’d like to see other famous people take a tour over here and get an idea what it’s actually like.

The temp is in the hundreds again with the high today being around 105. The wind picked up this afternoon and now we’re having a dust storm. Yeah, summer’s back. Speaking of wind, I still haven’t flown my kite. I know that we have enough wind in the afternoons, but I just haven’t gotten around to doing it- I’m kind of scared I’m going to get yelled out for it. It will probably trip the radar guys out when something pops up on their screen and is basically stationary. Maybe I’ll ask them first.

I got to talk to Sean today for a while. He’s been busy with school and work so I haven’t caught up with him in a while. I have to admit that while I was chatting, my mind wandering to the Oyster Bar in town (his town) and the cold beer and steamed oysters we had before I left. When I come home this summer I’m going to have to take you guys and Ed there on me! Damn a cold draft beer would taste good.

Well I can’t think of much else at the moment.

Today's updates

As usual, I’m slack about posting here.

Since I last posted, one of our sub-bases across the street was attacked (last Friday night) and a soldier was killed. Nobody else was hurt apparently. RIP

On a brighter note, the Indians at the D-Fac had a festival last night and we were invited. The festival was a morale booster for them and a chance to cut loose for a while. They played a bunch of games and cooked up traditional foods. We were encouraged to participate in the games and I got wrangled into participating in the egg drop contest; in order to prevent messes though they used ping-pong balls. The object was to place a spoon in your mouth and carry a ping-pong ball down and back the quickest. It came down to the Base Commander and me so I asked him if he was going to throw me off the base if I beat him. After assuring me that he wouldn’t I trounced him and won a CD case for my efforts.

The food was by far the best I’ve had since I’ve been here. I can’t remember the names of the dishes, nor could I pronounce them, but they were all very tasty. It was really cool to see a hundred and something guys laughing and joking with each other. There was a lot of positive energy in the air last night and they all seemed to have a great time.

Our medical clinic, the actual one not the space we have in the current HSE building, was finally accepted after a year. The Iraqis who had the contract did terrible work and it was obvious it wasn’t going to get any better so they accepted it so that our trades’ guys could try to finish it. It was moved to its new location and they’ve been working to try to correct the issues with it. What makes it so bad is that it’s a prefab building that comes in two sections and then the prefab parts are screwed in place and the Iraqis couldn’t even get that right. They made quite a mess of it in fact. Our guys have done what they can with it and are adding a front porch for us. God only knows when we will move into it though; I really don’t want to do it by myself though and Chris is getting ready to go on R&R soon. Moving clinics is a pain in the rear.

In other news, I’m thinking about getting my vision corrected when I go through Dubai. They have excellent health care and their hospitals have the latest whiz-bang technology (remember this is a VERY wealthy country). I’m still not positive and am waiting on some info from the clinic, but the price is much better than in the States and the couple of folks who’ve had it done by this doctor have been pleased.

Well that’s about it for now.

Yet another Iraqi with a razor....

Well we got a jump on daylight savings time and moved our clocks up an hour on Friday- don't ask me why, I don't know why we still follow this practice anywhere.

It was 90 degrees in the shade today and then a storm blew in from nowhere, whipped some sand around, dropped a few raindrops and was gone again.

I got a package from Ed and Maryann- thanks for the snacks guys!

Speaking of packages, I received a package from LL Bean the other day. That wouldn't be so surprising except that is was a pair of boots that I had ordered back at the end of last August. The box was beat up really badly. I called LL Bean about and told them and they said keep them- they had already sent another pair (which I love by the way- Ridge Runner medium cut) so I sent them back and paid to upgrade to another style of boot. Of course they are backordered till June or July but who I won't be home for a while anyways. I definitely recommend them for service.

Oh, and the title- yeah, I got another Iraqi haircut. This guy was really good, but it still makes me nervous anytime anyone has a razorblade on my face and throat- I don't care who he is. He actually did this thing with a piece of string where they hold part of it in their mouth and part in each hand. They run the string over your face quickly along the cheeks, between the eyebrows, the ears, etc. and it spins taking the fine hairs with it. I have to admit that it brought a tear to my eye when he was doing part of my cheek- it smarts quite a bit, but the rest was kinda neat. He didn't do the neck crack and head slap thing though; none of the barbers we've gotten lately have. I guess Americans don't seem to like it although I have to say it was pretty cool too when you knew he was going to do it (it'll freak you out if you don't know it's coming).

Well it's getting close to bed time.