Kid Pictures

So Jon figured out how to use the digital camera this weekend and he's actually pretty good for a two-year old. He might even be able to give mom some lessons. He even managed to turn the camera around and take the self-portraits below (I took the last picture though). Micaela is missing from these as she as a new BFF and spent the night over at her friend's house.

His poor lips are always chapped no matter what we do (the babysitter tries too).

Thanksgiving

Well, I have to tell you - the dining facility (AKA DFAC) went all out for Thanksgiving this year. They put up some decorations a week or so ago and they looked nice, but I was not expecting the additional things they had out there today. It was awesome. There is a rule about no photography in the DFAC, but no one seemed to be paying attention to that today, so I took some pictures too.

There is an Army tradition where on Thanksgiving the Officers serve the food to the Soldiers, but here there are so many officers that they limited it to O-5 / LTC and above. I have to say, it was pretty cool to have MG Jones asking if I wanted gravy on my turkey. I've only had the chance to do this once as a Company Commander, but it's one of my favorite traditions. The picture near the bottom is my immediate supervisor (the one in the hat) just getting off his shift. They had a good time I think.

So I said the place looked great right? Well the food wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. They had a lot more options than what I chose to put on my plate (I didn't really feel like standing in line). The turkey was okay, the ham was okay, the cornbread stuffing was not so good, and the corn was overcooked. My coworkers made fun of me because I had more dessert on my tray than dinner food (two pieces of pie and some ice cream were added after this picture was taken).
I really can't be held responsible if the desserts are more satisfying than the meal... but it was still a fun time and I enjoyed having dinner with my "deployed family". Hope your Thanksgiving is just as enjoyable!

Group Photo

It's almost the end of the deployment for the III Armored Corps out of Fort Hood, TX (who leave the end of January) so they arranged for all the staff sections to take "yearbook" photos. My staff section is funny- we took the official photo, a photo with our section hats, and then a photo with clown/rudolph noses (which is definitely my favorite). The other pictures were taken throughout the year. I'm not in any of them because I spend most of my time with the aviation guys over in another staff section, but I thought I'd share the pictures anyways. It kind of sucks that everyone is getting ready to leave in January and I'll still have to stay another month, but I know that last month is just going to fly by with all the new guys (out of Fort Bragg) just learning how to do their jobs and figure everything out.

Running

Things here in Iraq are slow these days. I think that's a good thing. But the result is that I have a little more time on my hands for extracurricular activities, of which there are only a few I like doing. Every night I talk to Kurt, take a shower, then either read my Sony E-reader or I watch one of the TV shows Doug copied for me. Sometimes on the weekends I do something special like go to the VBC Cigar Club night or go to an MWR concert. But more often than not I do something completely contrary to cigar smoking - running. I don't particularly like running, but it feels good when it's over and there is a group that I run with that makes it more fun. They do a lot of races over here (at no cost) that are kind of fun and I normally get free t-shirts out of the deal. One of the public affairs officers here took these pictures and sent them to me so I thought I'd share. These were after some 5K races. I haven't seen the pictures that were taken after the half-marathon, but if I can find them I'll post them too.

Birthday

Well, September 16th was my 29th birthday and it kind of sucked (worked from 7am-11pm)... but September 17th was a great day, so I'm going to call that my birthday this year :) I had a briefing in the morning that went very well (very relieved), so I basically took the afternoon off, went to the gym and just did menial tasks. My roommate had made plans for us to go out to the Turkish Restaurant on base for dinner (my "birthday party"). They actually have pretty good pizza and it is just a completely different atmosphere from the dining facility. They even have fake palm trees outside with Christmas lights and a kind of cheezy fountain out on the patio. My aviation co-workers are all old and they wanted to eat early, so we went to eat and my roommate and her friends showed up later with a birthday cake and even some presents. She got me two huge Toblerone chocolate bars and two CDs from the PX (hmm.. I wonder why she got two of everything). I don't typically like sheet cake, but the one she got was actually really good. I'll probably have some of the leftovers with lunch today. My aviation boss thankfully remembered to bring a camera, because I just never remember to bring mine.

Update

Okay, I know you are all probably tired of seeing pictures of Al Faw Palace, but it’s kind of like the movie Groundhog Day here so I really don’t have much else that I can show you. For those I haven’t really talked to, here’s what “Groundhog Day” normally entails:

Wake up at 5am and meet co-workers for a run or gym time. I head to the dining facility (DFAC) at 7:30 for breakfast (usually cereal, but they also make great pancakes). Get to work around 8am for the morning update followed by meetings. Work in one of my cubicles (usually involving Outlook, Excel, or Powerpoint) from 10-12. Back to the DFAC for lunch (the caesar salad and the gyros are my favorite, and I usually get some soft serve after+). If it is a slow day I might go to the gym again after lunch, but normally it is back to work for meetings or computer work until around 5:30-6pm. Then back to the DFAC for dinner (I have whatever looks good for dinner, and then some chocolate cheesecake). Then back to work. I try not to “work” too much after dinner because I’m just not productive, so that’s when I clean up, clear my inbox and make my to-do lists for the next day. I usually go home around 7:30-8pm. I check my emails, talk to Kurt for 30 minutes, take a shower, and get to sleep around 10. And repeat. The days are long, but the weeks go by really fast.

Every once and a while we get things that spice-up the day such as Vice President Biden’s visit. It was pretty cool that he came to visit, but it had its downside too. My coworkers had a lot of extra work to do planning his aviation transportation, so the office was a little crazy the week or two prior. And then of course he came in on Sunday which is my only half-day off, so missing that kind of sucked. I did get to see him up close and personal at the DFAC, but I was in the middle of eating my ice cream and I didn’t want it to melt so I didn’t bother to get up and have a picture taken like everyone else. It was funny though seeing our 3-star General having to follow him around like a Private where ever he went and stand there patiently while people took pictures (everybody has a boss right?).

And every once and I while I get to sneak away and do something fun. Uncle Kracker came to visit just before the VP and I took one of my coworkers (an old guy who didn’t know who Uncle Kracker was) with me to see the concert. The posters over on my side of the airfield had the wrong time on them so we got there an hour early, but that meant that we got really good seats (MWR put out a few plastic chairs on the basketball court, everyone else either brought their own or had to stand). The concert was really good, he played a lot of his popular songs and he played a lot of other people’s popular songs as well. I meant to take my camera, but I forgot since I left straight from work. Okay, this next part is a little funny. I’m normally decent with maps and directions and once I have been somewhere I can normally remember my way. Well, after the concert we went to meet some friends on a part of the base I had only been to once, and that time I was in the backseat, and it was dark. Well, we found our way to the restaurant we were going to, but on the way home we missed a turn. We saw the guard shack of to our left as we were going in, but we missed the left turn on the way out and went past that guard shack through the gate instead. There should be some big sign or something that says “leaving Victory base or entering Baghdad” but there isn’t. I had been out that way once before (on a convoy with a General and some gunners) so I recognized pretty quickly that we had done something wrong (plus the signs for Route Irish kind of gave it away). My coworker was a little quicker than I was, I wouldn’t have known what to do next, but as soon as I said something was wrong, he did a U-turn and we were going back through the gate. Not a big deal, we didn’t make it more than a couple hundred feet outside the gate, but it was pretty funny in hindsight. I’m going to take a map with me next time and I’ll pay more attention to the guard shacks.

Okay, my half-day off is almost over so I’ll leave talking about my “new” old job for next time. On a good note – only four weeks until my R&R!

Pictures

FUOPians = people who work in FUture OPerations

The made me stand in the back because I'm taller than most of them :)

The entrance to the Al Faw Palace where I work

A picture from the roof of the palace. It was a little tricky finding our way up there (we found what we think was used as a torture room on the way) but it has a great view.

A picture of the JVB or Joint Vistors Bureau (our local hotel) at night. This the view from the balcony where we relax and unwind at night.

These are the fish that live in the lake that surrounds the palace. I've seen them eat whole bagels, a birthday cake and even a small duckling. Yet, I couldn't catch anything when I went fishing...