Day 164

Today had a little variety in it, which was nice.

Work was just work for the morning, up through lunch.  I don't recall doing anything spectacular this morning.  But around 1pm, the drive team came over to our place and picked me up, along with lots of soccer equipment.

I was pretty mismatched with respect to my uniform.  I was wearing the multicam pattern clothing, but my body armor is ACU pattern.  So I stuck out like a sore thumb.  But I got over it.  I also forgot to take the "Danimal" nametag off, so everyone was pretty amused by that.  They all wanted the funny story, but I didn't share :)

I was surprised at quite how bad the roads were in Kabul.  I think the vehicle was rocking about 15 degrees to each side as we went through massive potholes and bumps.  It was pretty crazy.  Not the most comfortable ride, and wearing body armor makes you a little more tired.  The ride probably took at least 30 minutes.

We got to the orphanage, and it was actually surrounded on all sides by big walls, with armed guards outside.  So I'm not exactly sure where they get their funding, but someone is taking care of this place.  But we ended up with quite a big crowd of kids around us.  First, Col Fenton helped distribute the soccer jerseys, soccer balls, some shoes, shin guards, etc.  Then we gave some candy and soccer balls to the boys.  They definitely tried to take all they could carry.  But they didn't look like they were wasting away, and they all seemed to have shoes on, except one kid was wearing sandals.

Some of them were excited to get their pictures taken, and I was called either "white face" or "white fish" numerous times.  Maybe both, who knows.  One of them also introduced himself as "Volleyball".  So there were definitely some amusing moments.  But it was really all just about dropping off the gear.  It was good to get out of the office, and socialize with a different set of people.  I've been around the people in my office so long that my tolerance is getting extremely low.  Pam and Rob are ok, but they're about the only ones I can stand to be around.  Rose isn't bad, but she's often just doing her own thing.  She also leaves in about a week, so it doesn't matter much.

Sigh.  But I will try to acquire some pictures from today's activities, and then post them.  A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.   But for now, I'm off to bed!

Day 163

Today wasn't too exciting. I'm just stressing myself out over this
trip. So hopefully as the details work themselves out, I'll start to
feel better.

I had my hot chocolate, which was important. Then it was mostly
change after change throughout the day. The interesting diversions
started around 5pm. We all went over to the VIP room, and MG Rapp
promoted our immediate boss to COL. It's a pretty big deal to make it
to O-6, even if it's in the Army. But he was happy. DV's often give
coins, as you may have heard. What they do is put their coin in their
hand and then shake someone's hand to give it to the other person. I
saw MG Rapp do this to COL Millner. So I found a 0.50 euro coin in my
pocket, and I coined COL Millner too. I'm pretty sure he was thrilled
to receive it.

After dinner, I went back to the office a few minutes early, because I
needed to print out an itinerary for my drive team for the upcoming
visit. We were eventually going to sit down and go over it. But we
had left the door open when we went to dinner, because it was a
wonderfully warm 41 degrees today! So who did I find in our area?
The nice cat that keeps walking in. So I picked him up, put him on my
lap for a few minutes. He was very content to sit there too. But
eventually he was escorted out of the building. He is certainly
persistent.

Then a handful of us had to help out another office, and we had to
escort some Afghan ministers on the base here. So that involved
walking their cars from the gate to their destination, and then a
couple hours later, doing the reverse. Luckily it wasn't too cold
tonight.

Not too much else, really. I'm going to go on a mission tomorrow with
the drive teams. I'll tell everyone more about it tomorrow. Good
night!

Day 162

I woke up to another 6 inches of snow this morning.  It had started last night, but it was very light.  We certainly didn't expect any significant accumulation!  But don't worry, it warmed up today and it all melted.  There is still some snow around, but I think it'll be gone soon if the days keep getting warm.

I also learned about Quran disposal today.  Not that I could tell one apart from another Afghan book, but we're not even supposed to touch them.  Nor put anything on top of them.  I think propping your feet up on top of one is right out.

I nailed down a huge and critical portion of the itinerary for this next visit, so that was good.  The progress just goes so slowly, because I have to get consensus from 3 agencies for each change.  Very frustrating.  But in a couple weeks it'll all be over.

I had planned to go on a community relations mission tomorrow, but I don't think that's happening, go figure.  Something about an ungrateful nation wanting to kill us.  But hey, you can't fix stupid.

I'm really getting cynical about the whole mission here.  I already knew my job here was ridiculous.  Combat tourism, really.  But I have serious reservations about the infrastructure we've set up, and how long it will last when we leave.  I don't honestly think 10 years of our influence will cure 1000 years of doing business another way.  Corruption is a fact of life around here, and it's familiar to them.  If a religious item is more important than a life, then I can't help you.  Perhaps others are more optimistic, but I don't see it.

Well, time for bed.  We're now sleeping with our loaded guns next to the bed.  Per instructions...great.

Day 161

Today wasn't too bad, nor too good.  Just average I suppose.

I played a little Skyrim this morning, but not too long.  After that I got ready and dressed, and then I downloaded some movies and TV shows for later.

I got a wrap for lunch, put it in a box, and ate it at my desk in the office.  The wraps are good, and definitely more healthy than some of the options there.

My visit is coming along, but still giving me headaches as we work out the details.  I think everything will fall into place in the next two days, as we get input from the East Coast.

I helped some of our PSD team sort shirts, sweatshirts, pants, shin guards, soccer balls, toiletries, etc. for Afghan children.  Col Fenton befriended some local women who started an Afghan women soccer league.  But they are always in need of gear.  So I think some of the gear was donated, and some bought, but it's all going to them soon.  But we sorted it all into boxes, labeled the boxes, and I think I'll be going with the teams in a few days to drop the stuff off.  Hopefully it will be a rewarding experience.  Something good needs to come from this crappy country.

Well, not too much else to report.  I will hopefully have more good things to write tomorrow.

Day 160

Well today was interesting I guess.  I was pretty busy for most of the day, and didn't even check my normal websites!  Hopefully I'll get a few down minutes tomorrow.

We did take a peek outside today, and this is what we saw:



The one on top is the cat that keeps coming into our office.  Hopefully that answers Rose's question as to it's sex.  I can't say anything for sure about the cat on the bottom, but eh.  I agree it's a problem that they aren't spayed and neutered, but this was just funny.  Of all places, they chose the ceremonial grass in front of the headquarters building.  On display for all to see.

I had another meeting for my upcoming trip, and it was very productive again.  I think with certain collections of people, meetings can actually be productive.  So that's certainly good news.

Oh!  I got a couple things in the mail today.  One of my prior visitors managed to fly off with one of my VIP badges.  Well, today I received it in the mail, and also a coin.  So it was very nice that they thought of me, even if it was late.  I'm pleased.

I also received a package from Emili's Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Ralph!  Some tasty baked goods and rice crispy treats.  I've tasted them to make sure they were safe, and they're definitely good.

Well, I imagine most people have heard the news.  Things have been getting out of hand here in Kabul.  I don't want anyone to worry, because we are all quite safe here.  I can't wait to leave this place.

Day 159

Today wasn't too bad, really.  It was a sleep in day, so I watched Quantum of Solace.  I think I had seen bits and pieces of it, but it was good to see the whole thing.  I also downloaded all the James Bond movies, so that's cool.  I think I've filled up about a third of the new hard drive so far, which should provide lots of viewing pleasure when I get back.

Work was pretty average I think.  We did have another visit from our new office cat.  Someone else let him in this time!  But he really didn't want to go, so I petted him and gave him some treats.  He still wasn't interested in leaving (of course not, he got treats!), so I managed to pick him up.  He just reacted like any normal pet cat.  So he got cuddled a little and then taken outside.  Hopefully he'll keep coming back.  I think he'd make a good pet.

It's kind of funny about the cats.  In the span of 2 days, there are cats howling all over the place.  We're all thinking they're making their mating calls (though they don't sound that enticing).  Who knows, but they are certainly loud!

Canadian Brian is beginning the journey home tomorrow, and we had pizza as a group tonight.  I don't care much for him, but he did turn over possession of some nerf guns.  So we spent the evening shooting each other and trying to knock bottled waters over.  It's quite entertaining.  Gee, I wonder what happened to all my Nerf toys from my childhood.  Mom?  Care to comment?  (smile)



I'm actively working on two visits at the moment, the first of which is really more like 3 visits in one.  I will explain later, but suffice it to say that I have my hands full.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep them all straight in my head.  Well, I'm going to get some sleep.  Good work, sleep well, most likely kill you in the morning.

Day 158

Today was definitely smoother than yesterday, so that was a relief.  Unfortunately, I got the sad news that Helo's heart condition has worsened.  Emili took him for his appointment with the cardiologist, and his heart has really enlarged again.  The vet said this is about when the symptoms of congestive heart failure would normally be seen.  But I'm counting on his indomitable spirit to carry him on.  He's still so young!

Now, just to catch people up on some pictures I've taken:







And I finally got a coin from one of my visitors:





Not too much else going on here.  I managed to find q-tips, but I had to go to US Aid to find them.  Crazy.  I guess other countries don't believe in keeping their ears clean.  Hmm.  Well, good night and I will write more tomorrow.

Day 157

Today was a pretty crappy day.  It started off with the Action Officer in RC-S trying to put my General on the wrong flight.  The correct information was in the itinerary, AND I had specifically emailed him the information (and his boss).  No excuse for that at all.

Then we weren't allowed to drive anywhere, because of the dumbass soldiers to mis-treated the Korans.  So my party was stuck at the airport for a bit.  But it wasn't too big of a deal, because we worked out some teleconferences and moved some meetings.  But then my boss decided to just send the cars up to the airport to pick up the party, in the middle of whatever they were doing.  So that necessitated a third schedule for the day, and more calls to change plans on people.  Not my favorite thing to do.

In the end, he hit all but one of his meetings today, so it wasn't too bad.  Hopefully tomorrow is more uneventful, in terms of the schedule and travel.

While waiting for the party to return tonight, I found myself surrounded by 5 cats!  I knew 3 of them, but there were a couple new ones.  Some were definitely more skittish than others, but it was funny to see.  I also made sure Pumpkin got a good meal before I came back to the room tonight.  It is truly frigid outside right now, and I actually lost feeling in my right hand.  It was as if I had slept on it wrong, and it was completely asleep.  Crazy.

That's probably about it for today.  Tomorrow starts really early for me, so I'm going to sleep now.  Good night.

Day 156

Another day down, uneventfully.  I don't have much to report today, except for my lunch.  They recently added a "Wrap Bar" in the dining facility, so I made myself a wrap with some meats (unspecified), lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, and some ceasar dressing.  It was quite tasty!

I spent a good portion of the day catching up on the Codecademy javascript lessons.  I certainly have a good enough foundation, but I had never really done any object oriented programming in Javascript.  So I'm learning a little bit, taking shortcuts here and there.  Just something to do.

I also read about toxoplasma in cats today, and I was surprised to hear how high the infection rates are.  I think our cats should be fine because they stay inside all the time, but it was crazy to read about.

Oh yes, and we can't walk to Eggers at the moment because of the backlash from some Army soldiers burning Qurans (Korans?).  In any case, they are basically ruining any relations we had with the Afghan people.  So that's always good.  I learned that the appropriate way to dispose of a Koran is to either bury it, or dispose of it in flowing water.  And no, I don't think urination counts as flowing waters.  I'm just anticipating the soldier's questions!

Pretty dull day otherwise.  I will write more tomorrow!

Day 155

Let me start off by telling a story about mold in the rooms. Last
Thursday, we had to have all roommates in our room because the
contractors were going to tear out the floor boards of our rooms
because they were all covered in mold. I believe I wrote that they
only took out the boards, and didn't replace anything.

Today we had to again be in the room at 0800. The contractors showed
up 10 minutes late. They didn't have any wood cut yet. They
mis-measured a couple times. This is good: the wood they installed
was wet. It had water and snow all over it. I'm sure that'll be good
for the mold problem. After they had installed 2 walls, they just
disappeared for 30 minutes. We looked all around the building, but
they were just gone! So the roommates and I chatted, got pretty
irritated, etc. They eventually showed up again and finished the last
2 walls, but it took an hour and a half. This was a ridiculously
simple job, and they wasted an hour and a half of our time just today!
We're pretty irritated, and I think we each went to the US Support
Element to complain.

I got some work done on itineraries, and I'm trying to reign in
control of the big one in March. Should be quite a story to tell when
I'm done with it.

Pam decided we were going to have a "Geek-Off" to determine who the
biggest geek was tonight. She had prepared a list of questions, and
once asked, we each wrote down our answer on a piece of paper. Of
course, I think her definition of geek was pretty different from mine,
but what can you do. She had fashion questions in there (of which I
got a couple correct), along with cars, people, sports,
computers/industry, etc. I think it ended up being pretty close
between LTC Millner and me. However, I answered the final question
correctly (for 10 points!). Who was Crispus Attucks? Not too bad! I
got a history question correct!

But that's about it for today. It started snowing pretty hard here
again tonight, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. Good night.

Day 154

Today will be a media day.  I have several pictures to share.

Today was pretty uneventful.  I watched Dinner for Schmucks, followed by Easy A.  Neither was a great movie, but they each had amusing moments.  If the days weren't so long, I don't think I'd want to be such a vegetable.

I had my meeting with people today, and we ironed out a few things which was good.  They each owe me a ton of information, so hopefully that will be forthcoming soon.  We need to get a good handle on this trip, or it has the potential to spin out of control.

Everything else today was pretty normal and average.  So here are some pictures now.  The first is a Navy poster that someone found yesterday.




The next pictures were from way back on New Years when we had the bonfire.  Someone finally shared pictures!  I'm feeding the fire in its early stages.



And it eventually got going really well!



So that's really it for today.  I'll write more tomorrow.  Good night.

Day 153

Today was also a pretty good day. I went to work as normal, did work
as normal. There are a couple trips happening at once, and I have my
hands in a few of them for various details. Hopefully they all work
out according to plan. I did get to go to a meeting at the Embassy
today, as the official JVB rep. That was kind of cool. I think I
answered the questions correctly, so that was good. Normally it's our
O-6 that goes, so it was a good responsibility for me.

I went to lunch with Rob, and met up with Gibb Gary there. We're all
pilots, so that's cool. I asked Gibb if he'd fly me and Emili down to
St. Lucia for our vacation, and he said maybe. And he was being
completely serious! I don't believe we can get our money back from
United, but it's a nice offer! It's fun to have friends in
interesting places.

Tonight, the JVB fielded a team in the quarterly ISAF HQ dodgeball
tournament. We came in 6th place. I'm not saying there were only 6
teams, but we got 6th, if you know what I mean. I seem to remember
being much better at this game when I was in elementary school. But
after we were eliminated, we went to the Tora Bora to have dinner. We
were in our PT clothing, so we couldn't go to the normal dining
facility. So I bought a ham and cheese sandwich, which was ok. I'm
not exactly sure the currency conversion was on the level, but we
needed to eat. But it was nice to socialize and relax a little bit.
We then went back to the office for a half hour's work, and then I
came back to the room.

Not too much else going on here. I think they're going to fix the
wood paneling in our rooms on Monday. But other than that, things
here are calm. I will write more tomorrow. Good night.

Day 152

Today was a pretty good day!

I started off by picking up laundry, which is always a good thing.  Then I met Aaron and his friends at the Bazaar.  Angela was a no-show.  But we walked around the tents and glanced at stuff.  The merchants are still too pushy to be comfortable with the shopping process, but it was about average for around here.  Eventually we made our way to the food tent.  There's one guy, with his family I think, and he cooks food there for people.  So for $10, I got lots of rice, beans, a couple kebabs, 3 dumplings, and a big thing of fresh naan bread.  It ended up being way more than I could eat, but it was all very good!  Perhaps not up to our sanitation standards, but it was good to try.  Even better, I don't feel sick in the slightest.

After that, I went to work again, and had some minimal progress on an itinerary.  I am not too stressed at this point, because most everything is in place, and we're still a few days away from execution.

Then I was bored, and realized that soap is good to have in the shower.  So Zuromski and I walked to Eggers so I could get some soap and a blanket at the PX.  After that, we grabbed dinner at a place called the Koala House.  It's still government/military food, so we didn't have to pay, which was good.  It is apparently where the Army Corps of Engineer people hang out.  It was nice because it was quiet and the hamburger was pretty good.  So I had lots of new food today, and I'm none the worse for wear.

I had a group of people request an office call of me today, which was pretty cool.  Funny, really.  But I will humor them and we'll meet on Sunday to talk about one of the upcoming trips.  Pumpkin got a dinner meal tonight, and she was pretty happy for that.  And on the way back, I saw Panda on the roof of a makeshift tent that someone put up.  The picture isn't great, but you can tell there is something on the roof!



Not too much else today.  Tomorrow is a normal day of work.  Good night.

Day 151

So guess what I still have in my room.  Lots of multi-colored colonies of mold.  The contractor showed up today, pulled out the moldy wood around the edges of the room at the floor, but didn't replace them.  Nor clean the areas.  AND!!  He wouldn't take down the wood of the window frame because that would be a different work order.  Gotta love contractors.  I found that I had mold all over the side of the comforter that faces the wall, and in moving my bed, my pillow fell into some mold.  So I took all those issued sheets back to the laundry, and they gave me new sheets, but they were out of comforters.  So I can go back tomorrow to get one if I want.  I might actually just forget it because at least now I don't have anything hanging down against the wall.  Sigh.  These are about the worst living conditions I've ever lived in.  At least on a ship the interior is generally climate controlled and all metal.  No mold.

Other than that, my DV's flight went through the system and was confirmed today, so that was a minor victory for me.  He's not a terribly high ranking person, so getting the flight was not the easiest task.  A few other things fell into place, so that was good.  I think his trip will be fine, as long as weather doesn't impact us too much.  There is snow in the forecast, but I think it'll be too warm to stick around too long.

I'm looking forward to getting some "street meat" tomorrow with Aaron and Angela at the Bazaar.  Hopefully it won't be too cold for that.  We have lots of stories to trade from the last few months.

Well that's about it for today.  I will write more tomorrow.

Day 150

Hard to believe I've been gone 150 days. 

My network is sucking, so this is an update on my phone.  Not too much new today.  I'm very happy that Helo and Ella are both doing better now.  Now I need to get through school so we can save money on pet care!

That's all I will write for now.  Hopefully the network will cooperate tomorrow.  Good night.

Day 149

I got off on the wrong foot today.  My trip planner back in the states lied to me about the status of the paperwork.  So I really don't foresee a dedicated flight for my DV.  He's just not important enough, unfortunately.  It doesn't help that his aid sucks at his job.

Anyway, here is the album from our snowball fight! Fun in the snow!

I did manage to download ~350MB of linux updates today during the day.  Now that I know I can just change the router mac address, I'm not too worried about the download limits.  It's still just extremely slow.

Here is a picture of Panda getting a drink.


I also snapped a picture of the mold in my window frame.  I hadn't seen orange mold until I came out here....


That's about it for today.  Not too much else going on.  I'll turn in my award paperwork tomorrow.  Good Night.

Day 148

Today was pretty boring compared to yesterday.  I expect the news about Spera will hit the CS department today, so that'll be interesting.

I didn't even really get anything done today, because it was still Sunday night on the East Coast for most of my day.  So I'm hoping I get some paperwork and information overnight, so I can do something productive in the morning.  I'm also helping with a visit that is coming at the end of March (an eternity from now), and they're already wanting itineraries.  The new guy, Jeff, has this visit, and I'm helping him put together an itinerary that will pacify these people for a few weeks.

Doug made it back from his R&R vacation today, so that was good.  He seems to be in good spirits.  He only has a couple months left, so the light at the end of the tunnel is pretty bright for him.  When we go home together, he will have been out here for a year.  I'm very glad I'm not on that plan.

We were very excited tonight when our PME was cancelled.  So I broke out the Big Cat playing cards and learned to play Hearts.  I tied for last place with Pam, after playing 4 rounds.  So I can only improve from here, I guess.

Ella threw up again this morning, so she's going back to the vets at 2pm today.  The longer this goes on, the less I think bad food and the more I think virus.  We'll cross our fingers for Toonces and Hobbes.

I did order a hard drive today, from Amazon.  I was going to buy it from Newegg, but they wanted to charge me an extra $10 to ship it to a military address!  Amazon had free shipping for me, so they won.  I am getting a portable (meaning no extra power cable) 1.5TB drive for about $145.  Not too shabby, really.  It's also USB 3.0, so the transfer speeds on this laptop should be pretty darned fast.  Hopefully it'll arrive in about a week, and then I can post my review.  Storage is one of those things you can never have enough of, out here.  I believe we have about 90TB of data on the shared drives.  No shortage of media to snag.

Well, I think that's it for today.  The snow was too fine and soft to make snowballs today.  Maybe when it snows next.  Good night.

Day 147

Today turned out to be a really good day!  Of course, we have lower expectations of happiness out here, but it was still good, nonetheless.

I started off the day by talking to Emili on Skype, which was very nice.  Then I went to the spa for my massage.  I remembered my wallet today, so that let me relax more.  It was the best massage I've had yet, so that was really nice.

The afternoon progressed uneventfully until we all just decided to have a big snowball fight.  I think 6 or 7 of us went into the garden here, and we had a blast!  Because we all were acting like 6 year olds, it turned into boys against girls, but the girls were good sports too.  We all got pretty tired after a while, and by the time we were done, we all had steam coming off our bodies.  Pretty crazy, but very fun excursion.

After that, not much else was accomplished at work.  It took a few hours to actually dry out, but it was fine.  But all in all, a pretty good day.  It's about time for bed, so I will write more tomorrow.  Good night.

Day 146

It started snowing again today, and we're expecting another 6 inches or so.  It's a really light fluffy snow tonight,  and it doesn't make good snowballs.

My day started off pretty funny.  I have to explain though.  I mentioned Charles Spera a long time ago on the blog, because he's a creepy sort of guy who is party of the Cyber Center at the Academy now.  Well, I came across this article in the Baltimore Sun that tells a story of how he was caught breaking and entering into an ex-girlfriend's house.  He'll do two weekends in jail and be on probation for 180 days.  It's just hilarious to me because it seems to validate the weird vibes we all got from him.  So that was the news of the morning!

My boss managed to irritate me twice today.  The bosses decided they'd play Action Officer for a delegation that is here now, but they're doing a poor job with the details.  I had to bump people from their scheduled dinner in the VIP room tonight, which wasn't fun.  And he also came to me asking for VIP badges, and he hadn't filled out any of the required paperwork.  So I let him know that he was doing a poor job, and that I wasn't happy.  Not that I think anything will change, but I wanted to voice my opinion.

I got a (very heavy) package from my Mom and Dad today!  Pumpkin will be quite pleased that she can continue to eat well here.  She was actually outside in the snow when I came out of the office tonight, so she got a meal.  But my folks also sent some oatmeal blueberry breads, some crackers, and some chocolate covered cracker things.  And perhaps the best of all, little snack packs of bread pudding!  I didn't even know they made such things!  So thank you very much.  Pumpkin and I will enjoy the treats!

Not too much else really, I put a whole slew of music videos on my phone, but most of them were apparently of a format my phone didn't deal with well.  So I'll look to see if there is a VLC app for Android.  That would be the simplest solution. 

Well, I should get some sleep.  I have a massage in the morning!  Good night!

Day 145

Today didn't start out so hot.  Ella threw up and stopped eating too.  So on one hand, she feels lousy, but the flip side is that Helo's pancreas may be fine after all.  It's like solving a puzzle and trying to eliminate the numerous variables.  So I'm on hold with the vet's office now.  Hopefully I can at least communicate some important information and help Emili out a little bit.

I made some progress on the itinerary for my next visit, but it's still more than a week away.  So my motivation levels are pretty low.  It'll come together, provided I get the documentation I need from the planner on the other end.  

We also spent a good amount of time today working on our awards.  Our bosses want our drafts by the middle of this next week.  So today we were working on appropriate language, and gathered good numbers to show specific things we did or organized.  On one hand, I'd like to be rewarded for a job well done, but I also feel like this job is mostly pointless.  We are just here to let people continue to believe they are very important.  Eh. Maybe when I'm someone important I'll remember that there is such a thing as a video conference through software!

Not too much else today.  I gave Pumpkin some petting and treats on my way out.  Today was pretty warm, and lots of snow melted.  I would imagine she'll be ok tonight.  Well I think that's it for tonight.  I will write more tomorrow.

Day 144

Today was another boring day for me.  I only put forth minimal effort on the next itinerary, but I still have plenty of time.  So I'll get to it more tomorrow.

We moved the rest of the stuff out of our office downstairs, so now all that's left are some desks and chairs.  The next group can start moving in whenever they want, so that's good.  I'm just glad that we don't have to do anything else with regard to our move.  It wasn't exactly the smoothest transition.  Oh well.

Helo went back to the vets last night because he threw up his food again.  He had to stay the night at the vets, and I got a message that he made it through the night alright.  Emili was going to take his medications in this morning and give him an old shirt of mine to curl up on.  We're hoping some familiar smells might make him feel more comfortable.  I'm worried about him, so that's occupying my thoughts.

I didn't do too much else today.  Pumpkin got a good dinner meal, so she was happy for that.  I did go over to the Embassy with Rob to help escort a gentleman back to ISAF.  It was a bit treacherous with the ice, but I brought a flashlight which helped.

A group of us are leaving around the same time in April/May, and we started working on our FitReps and awards today.  The bosses want our award narratives by the middle of next week!  It's so early, and who knows what we'll end up doing in the last couple months here.  Weird to be doing it so early, but we don't have too much choice.  Well, that's all for tonight.  Cross your fingers for Helo.

Day 143

Today was certainly less productive than yesterday, but still not too bad.  I didn't climb up any buildings or anything, so it could only be but so exciting.

I had a nice hot chocolate, settled in, then waited to gchat with Emili.  Helo threw up his food yesterday and wasn't eating, so she took him to the vets late last night.  The hypothesis is that the aspirin was upsetting his stomach.  So we're holding off on that for a few days and hopefully he'll feel better.  Emili is a saint for humoring my request to take him in last night!

I did see something really funny and cute today.  I was in the security area, and there was a cat walking around near a door.  It was nice and sunny so I just thought it found a warm spot.  However, the door then opened only a little bit, a man looked out furtively, the cat ran inside the office, and then he shut the door.  So I'm obviously not the only one with a love of the cats!  I just haven't yet gone to those lengths.  Pretty cute though.

I also helped out one of the guys in the ISAF side of the JVB office.  We are the US Forces Afghanistan JVB, and they are International Security Assistance Force JVB.  We handle the US visits, and they generally handle all the "foreigner" visits.  But I arranged a meeting for one of the visitors and walked him over after dinner.  He was a very friendly General, so that was nice.  The language is always a bit of a barrier, but his English was decent.  Perhaps mine is not as good as it should be!

I also got a very nice letter from Grandma today.  So I got to experience the abridged version of her last week, which was nice.  I think sometimes we both just have boring days.  But that's ok, because I don't think anyone really wants excitement out here, because it would probably be the bad sort.  Well, I think I'll head to bed now.  Good night!

Day 142

I was remarkably productive today.

1) I installed phones on Bill's desk, against his will.  He acts like a 2 year old and can't be a good officer, it seems.  He doesn't want phones, but too bad.  While he was not at his desk, I found old phones, hooked them up to his computer and the network.  One worked, and the other shut down his SIPR port, which was hilarious, because now the network people had to come over.  When he found the phones on his desk, he immediately disconnected them and put them on the floor.  However, the bosses finally took a stand and told him he had to connect them.  So score a victory for me.

2) I found a hand-truck, and I moved my safe upstairs with the help of Jason Dickerson (high school classmate from Clover Hill).  It was pretty heavy, but we made it.

3) I set up a larger water heater so now we can have our hot chocolates, teas, and oatmeals without having to refill the container between each.

4) We disconnected one of the TV's from our old office, carried it upstairs, and mounted it on the wall.  That part was important, but we also pulled the coaxial cable from the old office, and found a little hole in the wall of the new office to feed it through.  It actually involved me climbing up the side of the building to feed it through to the other guy, Rob.  I had to climb up the metal grates of a window (I wonder what they thought) and hang from one arm off the mounting bracket for the AC units.  I was like Spider Man.  Spider Dan.

Other than that, I fixed a few glitches in my DV's schedule, from afar.  We had to switch aircraft when his intended bird was running an hour late.  So minor things here and there.  I also touched base with the planner for the next trip.  Well, I think it's time to relax a little bit.  Good night.

Day 141

Well, I met my DVs today, a 3-Star Admiral and a 1-Star Admiral. It
all went pretty smoothly, so that was good. They came and went, and
they're in another region now. Easy stuff.

A great deal of my day revolved around the visit, but I also managed
to feed Pumpkin a dinner, play with and give treats to a black cat on
my way home tonight, and I ate a calzone at the italian pizza place
here. So all good things.

I think I'm in the 80's for number of days left, which is nice. I
think we'll have to start doing the checkout kind of paperwork soon,
which is a good feeling. I'll have to write myself a FitRep, an award
(not really deserved), and some other random stuff. So I think by the
end of February, the light at the end of the tunnel will be pretty
bright indeed.

Well, not really too much to report. Maybe I'll have good things
tomorrow. Good night.

Day 140

Today was an ok day. I had a nice morning, doing whatever I wanted in
my room. I even missed a phone call on my cell, but it wasn't that
important. So it started off pretty well.

I had forgotten that Col Fenton wanted us to all pay $20 to this guy
who was buying Lebanese for lunch today. So I went to the DFAC and
got a sandwich to bring back to the office. That was at 12:30pm. But
then I had to sit there and wait until the people had brought the food
back. It was supposed to arrive at 1pm, but they didn't arrive until
2:15pm. So I was pretty cranky. I ended up just eating my sandwich
at my desk anyways. Very annoying.

The afternoon was pretty uneventful, so that was good. I was able to
configure Pam's controller for her to play Skyrim, which she was
pretty happy about. Hopefully that'll get her off my back for a
while!

I got a haircut today, so that was nice. It's not quite the same as
home, but maybe I won't need too many more of them.

Well, not too much else going on here. I will write more tomorrow.

Day 139

Well, I finally moved my stuff upstairs today.  Everything except my safe.  I'm the security manager in the office, so I keep some things in a safe.  It's not overly large, but it's too heavy for 1 person to carry.  So I'll see about getting a little hand truck tomorrow.  I also had to wait a long time for my ISAF Secret machine to have network connectivity.  It's a very long story, with lots of heartache and angst, but basically the person who was designated to be in charge of the move didn't know what he was doing.  The people that would have known (3 of us in the office) we not consulted at all.  So some feelings came out at lunch today, and I think some feelings are hurt.  But he'll get by I'm sure.  I wasn't doing the fussing as much at D was.  He was prior enlisted, and I think he made it to TSgt before he was commissioned, so I don't think he has a problem telling a TSgt when he's wrong.

But the new setup is ok.  I think I'm actually closer to Pam than I was to D, but I feel like I'm making better use of my storage spaces.  So that's good news.  I have most of my cat food and treats hidden behind my official binders, but it actually doesn't all fit.  So that's kind of funny.  Pumpkin will be living well in the coming months!

It was still snowing when we came to work this morning, but it stopped around 10am.  It was a decently warm day, so lots of snow melted, but it's already freezing again now.  I hit quite a few slick spots on the way back to the room tonight.  Too bad they can't just give us a snow day off.

Not too much else to report.  I have a visit in a couple days, but hopefully it'll go smoothly.  I think the only variable is weather.  I really don't want them to get stuck in Kabul.  I don't care so much about them getting stuck in the other regions, but not Kabul.  We will see.

Well, it's off to bed for me!  I'm going to enjoy the sleeping in tomorrow!  Good night.

Day 138

I need to start this post by apologizing to certain parties.  I received a fantastic care package yesterday, and I forgot to thank the individuals.  I got Cliff bars, salsa, and chips, and they all arrived intact!  So thank you, and I hope you can overlook the oversight last night Helo, Ella, and Toonces.  :)

So it started snowing last night, and we had about 5 inches of accumulation when I woke up.  And then it didn't stop snowing all day.  So I think we're planning for more than a foot of snow here, which is a good amount!  And the temperature is just right that it makes awesome snowballs.  I think it may continue to snow through the night too, so it'll be interesting to see what the final count is.  The Germans made a giant snowman, which I'll try to share here:

Rob, Jeff and I went for a walk in the middle of the day, got some hot chocolate, and generally just killed time. We just wanted to get out of the office, so I bought a round of hot chocolates with some of my spare euros.  

We are supposed to be moving upstairs, but it's been a CF with the networking.  So I, along with two other people, will continue to sit downstairs until the issues are ironed out.  It's actually really hard to work with the NATO side of the networking people.  Well, I think I'm going to get some sleep.  Maybe I'll have a snowball fight tomorrow!

Day 137

Well, my quality of life just took a turn for the worse. It looks
like we have a 3rd roommate now. There are sheets on the top bunk and
about 5 sea bags on the bed. I don't know if he's ready to fully move
in yet, but we'll see soon enough. I might try to clean up some of my
stuff to make a little more room. We'll see.

Not too much to report for today, except that it was Groundhog Day and
they didn't even play the movie on AFN (Armed Forces Network) today!
Weak. But we're supposed to have snow from now until Monday, so maybe
Phil was right. Who knew that his prediction was good for the whole
world?!

Well, another day down. Tomorrow I'll be moving my stuff upstairs I
think. It's such a mess of cables, I dread it. But I guess I have to
move at some point, and tomorrow should be pretty low key for me.
Well, time to get some sleep. Good Night.

Day 136

Today I decided DV's are like buying a Whopper from Burger King, or a
Big Mac from McDonalds. They look really good in the pictures, all
the pieces fit together and it looks perfect. But then you buy the
Whopper and it's flat, crooked and kind of fat and not in shape.

Today I was up at 5am, and somehow I'm still awake now. I didn't even
nap today! I stood outside in the cold with a couple 1-star generals
this morning, waiting for my DV, and he eventually showed up. Traffic
was bad, so they ended up being 30 minutes late. Not so great. But I
think everything generally went well enough today. One of them got on
the plane this afternoon with one of my badges, but he's aware and
will mail it back.

What else happened today? I sat in on a video conference, because I
was asked to by my next trip's planner. I actually dozed through some
of it, it was that exciting. They went through the itinerary line by
line, and asked who was going to take care of this or that? What kind
of cars will be driven? What color hair will the driver's moustache
be? Not too critical in my mind.

But I started following the Navy gymnastics team through
navysports.com It looks like the Navy Open went ok, and the West
Point Open was also so-so. Good and bad. I doubt he reads this, but
I'm proud of Aaron Ingram, who made his first finals at the West Point
Open this past week. I believe it was on parallel bars, so that was
great. Hopefully much more to come! Andrew did well too, 2nd All
Around I believe. And it looked like the line ups for each event were
a good mix of upper class and plebes, so I think that will pay
dividends down the road later in the season.

Well, tomorrow is Groundhog Day. If Punxatawny Phil sees his shadow
in Pennsylvania, what does that mean for us in Afghanistan?