TTT - 7/26: Where'd the Time Go?

Good evening in blogland! (I write these around 8 PM local Kuwait time for those who didn't know.) Here is another Tuesday come up to bite me. Time to think of stuff to talk about!

Good news on all fronts this week. First and foremost, my illness passed within a couple days. I got about 12 hours of sleep last Tuesday into Wednesday so I think I rested enough to help fight off whatever I had. I also happened to have allergy medicine I brought with me that was not being utilized so that probably helped too. ;)

Second piece of good news, the relieving crew has arrived!!!

Friday the Navy's relief force arrived, and Sunday our reliefs came in. The turnover process is in full swing now! We have people getting off the boats so that they can get on, we have people packing up stuff to get shipped home, and there are people everywhere!

The bad news is there are people EVERYWHERE! Getting food is an ordeal with the lines, all the pool tables are always taken, and they bring homeland germs here! I am pretty sure they got me sick, but I am over that since their presence means my presence is about to be terminated in Kuwait! I'm hoping the new crew will take over this weekend, but I'm pretty sure we'll be working all the way up til turnover.

That's about it for this week. Things are kind of hectic, running around trying to get them all set up in the local database. Even with all the excitement of turnover I'm still dealing with boat issues...and not all the issues are with the equipment...

Enough about that. Next week will hopefully be more exciting, but you know me...I'll probably forget all the exciting stuff. ;) See you then!

TTT - 7/19: Not now!

Hello blogland! I see Lynette finally graced you all with her presence. ;) I guess her segment should be called Lynette's Takeover Thursday since she hasn't posted in FOREVER! Anyway, it's Tuesday again, which means you get to read this weeks adventures. Well...sort of...

Today's blog is going to be short. I think the allergies of being in the dust bowl have finally won, and I 'm getting a sinus infection. I hope it isn't that bad, but I am very tired, and, other than my alarm for Tuesday going off, I've been sleeping since I got off work.

The big news this week for me is that the advanced team for our reliefs arrived! WOOHOO!!! My relief has been looking through the shop and checking out some of the paperwork. He hasn't quite acclimated to the time change, but he's real close. The rest of their crew gets here later this week/next week.

Everyone is super excited to see them! I know what the guys we relieved felt like 6 months ago. ;) I have commenced driving my relief around and getting his lay of the land under control. Next week will be more of the same with the ultimate goal of them taking over almost completely.

Just as an update, I did finally get to go to the range! As expected, I can shoot an M16 with relative accuracy, but the new pistols are still not my best weapon. Oh well, next time I'll get to shoot in a far less hostile (read HOT!!!) environment. Someone said it was 135 degrees while we were out there shooting. There are no structures at the range for people to get out of the sun so they left the bus running for 3 hours with the AC on. It was miserable!

But all that is over now, turnover is in full swing! That means we are almost out of this place. I hate to be less than informative this week, but all I can think of is going back to sleep. ;)

I'll be back next week! Hopefully, full of energy and ready to tell of more tales from Kuwait. See you then!

Spring Photo Shoot 2011

Wow it's been a long time since I posted on here! I had every intention of being back before now, but with all the deployment hoopla, which included starting a blog just for that, I have been so incredibly busy. I hope you'll all forgive me, and will enjoy these pictures that a friend of a friend took for us recently. She and her sister are Two Sister's Photography. You can find them on Facebook, or on the web.

www.thetwosistersphotography.blogspot.com

Thanks so much to Bayleigh and Julie for being so great to work with...:)

Red, White, and Blue Baby!

10 years

8 years

3 1/2 years

Rocker Chic

Too cute...er cool, I mean.

I embellished the shirt, and a daycare mom did the skirt.

Makes me smile

Logan's favorite...took us forever to get it!

TTT - 7/12: New Digs

Blog day! As Tracey says, "One week closer to being home with Lynette and the kids!"

Oh the excitement this week! I don't even know where to begin. Let's begin with the move since that is where the title comes from. In preparation for the oncoming crew we have condensed from 7 PCBs (Pre-cast Concrete Building) into 3.5. My PCB was one of the lucky ones that got to move. This is my second move since being here as, if you recall I mentioned weeks ago, the advanced team lived in a different building from the one I just spent 5 months in.

In an attempt to not get all riled up, as this topic has made me for the last week +, let's just say it didn't go according to the plan. We are all moved now and I'm nice and snuggled into an isle bed where everyone can pass by, point, and laugh at the zoo animal. ;) I spend a lot of time in my off hours just sitting here on the internet so some of them who sleep during the day might think I am sewn to the bed. :p

Today was supposed to be the day I told everyone that another topic of my ire is also complete, the range. Sadly, that is not the case and I have rescheduled to tomorrow afternoon...where it will probably be like the last 2 days, 110 degrees with 65-70% humidity. I have sweat buckets the last 2 days because I have been forced to be outside for extended periods that I am not used to...I'm a paper pusher now, I can't handle that kind of heat! :p

Other than that, we are continuing to prep for our departure here. We are starting to hand in gear for inspection by customs. Some of us are gathering items together and shipping them home so we don't have to carry as much to the airport. This is a little spendy, but I definitely think it's worth it! This also helped quite a few of us go from our customary two locker setup from the old building to our new one locker setup in the new one. Sacrifices are being made, but we're leaving soon so we are just rolling with the punches. I feel like the "Greatest" using the Rope-a-Dope until they wear themselves out and I can deliver the knock out blow, going home!

That's it for this week. Hopefully, if all goes well, I will be in full swing of turnover with my relief and start the slow wind-down. Things are about to get pretty hectic and cramped around camp so I'm hoping I keep what little sanity I have left intact. ;)

See you next week!

TTT - 7/5: Independence Week!

Blog day, here again! It's July!!! X amount of time before we come home!!! One less Tuesday to go. And so on and so forth...on to the show!

As per usual, this week was mostly uneventful. As I mentioned last week, I was supposed to go to the range. That was canceled due to weather. The group that went the day before us got stuck their the next morning because the visibility was terrible. Sandstorms are crazy! As the day went on, the "weather" got worse so they postponed our day. I have no idea how or when they plan on rescheduling us because turnover is right around the corner, but the next comment I have is derogatory and not suitable for deployment talk. ;)

Friday there were some NFL coaches on camp, I missed it because I was working on some caching things (more on that later!) It was the head coach from Houston, the coach from Arizona (boooo!!!! :p), former Seahawks head coach Jim Mora, Jr, and former coach Jim Mora, Sr. They changed the time on it twice so I missed it, but ultimately I was working toward a different goal when someone asked if I went. I may have said an expletive or two when I realized what time it was. ;)

The rest of the weekend itself was pretty slow, but I got two packages! One from my lovely wife, who sent me more books than I'll be able to read in a year, and more food than I'll be able to consume in the time we have left here. :p There was also a few DVDs which I appreciated greatly! (Zack and Miri is hilarious btw!) The day before that though, I got my caching stuff!!! I received two fake rocks, 5 nanos, and a small lock-n-lock container. I had an awesome multi/bonus caches set up like one similar to home, but I've run into a couple issues with that. (That's another story.) I hid them all last night (4th of July hides!!!) while the main attraction for the camp was going on. Michael Peterson was here for a "concert." Since I was out hiding caches I didn't get to see it, but apparently he did my storytelling than singing. He is a WA native I am told. The best part is Lynette saw him in Nashville on her latest ombudsman trip. Small world!

I was all fired up today about some stuff. We are moving into a different building in prep for the new crew. There is an instruction on what is going to happen, how the move is going to go, and who is moving where. Some people don't want to do what their told, so as Lynette said to me, "Way to make friends" by calling people out and making sure things go as planned. This is the military people...life sucks for short periods sometimes. DEAL WITH IT! That's my little angry moment...I try to contain those, but it doesn't always work out in my favor. :D

On a positive note for today, I got a FTF!!! I now have to move one of the 9 containers I placed yesterday, but those have other issues anyway. Maybe next week I can talk about the caches I got published...as of now they are a no go. :( I have my best people working on it!

That is it for this week. I hope it was a little more enjoyable than the last few weeks. I also hope as the weeks go by my attitude gets better, but as it stands right now, I won't hold my breath. I bid everyone a good Tues-Mon, and I'll see you next week!