Kicking and Screaming Michael Goes...Into the World of Technology

FWIIIING!

All is well on the home front. I got myself a three day weekend because my platoon sergeant is clueless when it comes to writing awards, and because of my vast knowledge that came from doing my entire platoon's end of tour awards, he asked me to write his end of tour award. He then said I could have any day off I wanted for doing this, and I said, "Friday's good, a three day weekend would be nice." So voila!

I've introduced Michael to the world of Facebook, blogger, and the backspace button. Michael says facebook = crack. It's so cute when he comes home and opens up with, "I love you! Do I have any new friends!?!" He originally started out with a facebook account for work that when setting the privacy settings freaked him out he saw the "Deactivate" button and just went crazy, "DEACTIVATE THE ACCOUNT. I don't even want to mess with it. It's just making me paranoid!" Then I helped him make a separate account for friends and family. This resulted in him finding people he hadn't seen for quite some time along with his family and soldiers he's worked with. So now he's much more excited about it. Every now and again he says something about one of the people he's "friended" and he panics and whispers discreetly, "Can they hear me?"

The reason for the panic is from our Skype-ing, and a consumer report article he read about a program you can purchase that allows you to remotely turn on someone's webcam hooked up to their computer.

Okay, so now I'm going to plug Facebook and Skype. If you have a facebook account, or are interested in getting one, please go ahead and find us. It's another way to keep in touch with what we're doing, plus we can post more photographs of us. It's also free! So it's an easy way to see what we're up to. And then PLEASE download skype. It's a free video chat service. So if you don't already have a webcam hooked up to your computer, you don't have to get one but it would be cool to see us in person and talk, etc. Once you've got it hooked up just email us your screen name, and we'll respond with ours. So that's it for my plug.

Now, onto the world of the backspace button. Michael has this curious habit of using the delete button. Now, this is for all typing errors. So he has to arrow key to the right spot prior to using the delete button. To make matters even better, he doesn't go to the delete button above the backspace, he goes the one in the number pad on the lower right hand corner. He says it's closer so it's easier to get to. Every now and again the number lock key gets accidentally pressed, and he can't use his delete button of choice. As a result, periods start "shooting out." So the first thing he says when I get home is, "Did you ambush me!?" I just look at him wondering if this is a trick question. "Did you ambush me with the number locks key and the delete button!?" As if that would clarify things and magically change the look on my face.

Of course, I responded with a brilliant, "What on earth are you talking about?" Michael's dam then breaks loose, "Someone, I'm not saying who, pressed the number locks key and it took me forever to figure out what happened that made my delete key not work right. As a result, I had to use the backspace button like you've been giving grief about, and I know it was you."

I kind of can't help but smile response and I just calmly say, "Michael, you don't think you might've accidently pressed the number lock key in setting up the computer?"

"....NO!" He then gives me this utterly accusitory glare over his glasses. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."


He still refuses to use the backspace button. It drives me crazy watching him type because of the whole deleting process, which is frequent, and he refuses to use the backspace. He reasoning being, "It'll all disappear if I use that button. I've seen it, it's not pretty."



"Michael, that's if you hold it down."



"Once bitten, twice shy."

So everyday over here is an adventure of some kind. Lately I've been compared to a "raging, snarling henna monster" whenever I wake up. For those of you who don't know a henna monster is a tribal face tattooed war paint that stays on longer. Sometimes permanently on Moari and Polynesian headhunters...how appropriate. Also, I hate running. Michael gets a kick out of it. He chews gum to keep the saliva flowing in his mouth just so he can talk smack to me or any other target of opportunity. It's similar smack talking during our trivia quizzes...even if he's wrong. It's this incredible combination of loving and biting humor where you have to decide between fury or just laughing it off because despite how frustrating it can be it's still pretty funny. I guess it's just his backwards reminder to not take life so seriously.

On a side note, this entire time I've been bolding he's wondering how I did it. He concluded with, "Man, I wish I knew how to do that. The only problem is the entire thing would wind up being bolded cause you got to be careful with that, and I wouldn't know how to turn it off...kind of like my magnetic personality. Just don't know how to shut it off! It's ALL going to be bold!"

So, that's the latest on this side. We're happy little omnivores here in our Mesopotamian honeymoon. Awesome. TTFN.

~R.



Note: Much laughter was used in the creation of this blog post. 100% true...all of it. Cool.

work photos

Well, here I go. I had a bout of insecurity over all this personal info out here in the blogosphere... stolen identity type concerns, you know typical worst case scenario thinking that has stunted my adventurous and creative growth thus far.

Anyway, life is good here, Rachel just finished reading me the New Testament, morning and evenings, now we are in the OT. Good stuff.

She and I do this website called freerice.com where we answer math, vocabulary, english, german, french and spanish, art and geography questions and the UN gives rice for everyright question answered to folks that need it. I am not sure how it works but it is helping me at my scrabble game and artist recognition and you can never know too much about geography...blah, blah...

She has been tearing at these math and psychology classes.

A few days ago I/we went on a market walk, my fun-meter was almost on zero for that...BUT I got to ride to and from in a rotor-wing. About 75% of the group, including myself, actively has or is overcoming "bubble-guts" with this neat flu-like accompaniment/
chaser so that made the flights even funner...of course Rachel is right here resenting my creative bend in vocabulary and insists that I can't use funner...I say, "fun, funner, funest" all the time...survey says...?

WWTD?

WE just got 4 !!! care packages, amazing and humbling. Thank you.

I just got a photo from some good friends of their woodshed, it made me so homesick I nearly welled up in tears, nearly. I have sorted many things out right there...you know what I mean? Where you just get into a groove and sort of follow through, think things all out...? Splitting wood and mowing really work for me.

I think that I have the weekend off with Rachel, unless we get a sandstorm tomorrow and then I will need to travel, so I am praying it is clear.

anyway, more soon

m

Well, the Woolley household has been doing well. Michael will probably put something up here soon. Until then, I have some random things to put up here just for fun. In light of my last post, I thought I'd put some more stuff up here relating to what we do to entertain ourselves. This first video is a favorite of mine. It all got inspired when I was having a bad day and Michael put into youtube, "babies laughing" to cheer me up. We found this one and by the end I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard. Now Michael will pull this video up if I'm having a bad day so that I smile and start to laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxUulGkLu4I

This next one I think is just down right cool. One day we got on a kick of watching this series of videos by this guy who microwaves EVERYTHING except mentos and diet coke. I then asked Michael what happens when you mix mentos and diet coke? He showed me this video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what happens when you microwave and ipod and when you microwave firecrackers...and last but certainly not least...ping pong balls...well, your anticipation may cease for here's what happens...

ipod: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On9N0D0IF_A

firecrackers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDHbqdwI520&feature=related

ping pong balls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpnaN5RFDbg

And this next on, well, it kind of explains itself with my love of cats. The guy singing the song kind of reminds Michael and I of Ricky Martin. He also has a lot of other cool videos as well. Michael likes his one on the powerizer stilts where you can jump over cars and what not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qit3ALTelOo&feature=fvst

Anyway, that's it for our videos. One exciting thing getting ready to happen is Michael's promotion ceremony. He's getting promoted to Staff Sergeant (E-6).

And lastly I thought I'd add a cool picture of our wedding site. It's a plane shot of the park and the band stand. I marked the spot where it was located. So enjoy!

Anyway! I hope everyone's doing okay. It's time for Michael and I to watch "Kung Fu Panda." Michael says, "Holla!" Alright, hopefully Michael will be back soon with a post of his own. TTFN.

-R.

Wild Animal Kingdom

I start this entry with an allegedly accurate video of me prior to and after coffee in the morning...so Michael says. At least I only have one cup a day compared to the gallon Michael has every day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTN2W-uZzLk

If you're wondering what kind of critter that is, that is a Tarsier. The smallest primate commonly found in the Philippines. And what's the capital of the Philippines? Manila! Now, how do I know this? Because lately Michael and I have been filling our time with doing trivia quizzes online. We have a few favorite sites. The topics that we do the most are Geography related (capitals of Europe, what are the names of all the countries in Africa, etc.) and animals. Now, mind you, these are no light of heart quizzes. Naming off the countries of Africa can make you feel geographically challenged (REALLY dumb). And we don't do "average" quizzes. We only do "impossible", "difficult" and "tough." Thus the findings of the Tarsier originated.

Cute, hunh? The fingers freak Michael out. Speaking of diabolical philanges...check these out...

Courtesy of God via the Aye Aye.

The Aye Aye is well known for it's long, skinny middle finger. It uses it to tap to find tasty grubs under the bark of rotting wood. Next question, what is the name of the only scaled mammal? Here's a hint...

Still don't know? Me neither. Just kidding. It's a Pangolin! These frisky, toothless, long tongued, sticky saliva, ant eating creatures only walk on their hind legs because the front legs have huge claws that are completely useless for walking. However, those front legs are great for excavating ant hills. Now, what's crazy is they look like they're walking on all four legs, but look closer and AHA! They also curl up into a tight ball when threatened. Like the Armidillo, which always gives birth to quadruplets, ALWAYS.

Hope I'm not boring you too much.

Of course, no animal kingdom entry would be complete without at least an honorable mention to the largest rodent on the planet...the Capybara. (Mike thinks it's Peruvian for

"Anaconda Food").

Now, you're probably wondering how something like a Mountain Goat would find it's way up here. Well, a little known factoid about myself applies. As a kid growing up, one of my favorite stuffed animals was a mountain goat named "Mary." They are quite majestic and luxurious.

Here's how incredibly these goats are. A picture

says a thousand words...

These are babies with their Moms climbing these cliff-faces. Kind of like the style of R and M Woolley when we finally get back to the world and can go bouldering.

Of course this is lacking some cute baby pictures. So we'll go with a few of Michael's favorites.

They're so ugly, they're cute. They're also the only marsupial in North America. Marsupial means carrying the young in a pouch on the belly. Mikes dictionary definition is: Ugly as sin, and plays dead.

Squad on line.

At ease.

Ready...

Snooze....

That's what Michael and I need to be doing soon. As to the happy couple, we're doing well. I've got my second math test this weekend. I'm taking a Psychology course, but my book still hasn't arrived so I'm going to see what my options are around that. Apparently mail has been slow here. Work's been pretty easy. Mike's been enjoying training all the soldiers on his team. We have a pretty nice schedule together right now. Anyway, time for us to go to bed like the piglets. TTFN.

~R.

check out this divine apparatus...

Machined, milled perfection...form follows fuction, barely. It is actually rather diminutive, about one inch in length but with a sublime balance unseen in today's mass produced, stamped out, throw away societal refuse...It is an Alvin Brass Bullet Pencil Paper, made in Germany, of course. I covet this knurled gem with it's precision honed blade and gratifying heft and utility.

Do I sound Rachelesque? using all my adjectives... She says that I am uncouth and need to use my words to set myself free, not literally said it all together like that, but she has said it in pieces, in the 1000 intimations, insinuations, hints and pregnant pauses where she looks into me with a combination of pity and amazement. Rachel is writing up a storm lately in addition to all this math...she's doing a couple of essay competitions (with 1000's of dollars in prize money) and one for the Women's Equality Day.

Has anyone who has known my beloved Rachel longer than these few months that I have noticed that she is full of witty one liners that only she gets and they immediately put you in this state of confusion because she carrys on like your the obtuse one for not following her OBVIOUS train of thought. I feel defensive and confused as I think back over the last few minutes of conversation to see what I had missed. Like JUST now, out of the blue," Are you judging me?" in this agressive demanding tone. I think we were talking about the movie "Gladiator" or "Smoking Aces" last, so of course I was not judging her...it is a neutral judge-free zone. Now come to find out it was something we had spoken of 10+ minutes ago that she had ruminated on until she was good and spicy about something she had misconstrued that she thought I had said but really only meant and was afraid to say or ... BUT listen it gets better, at least all this is somewhat sane and can be followed, how about when you are woken up by her piling every scrap of blankets and pillows, RUG! and night gown on your head while she huffs off to the loo because of a bad dream she had where I tried to sneak up on her and scared her...

We just had some sweet, dark, pink watermelon from the DFAC, Dining FACility, Amen.





There was a partial sandstorm today, but still hot as blazes. We have got to find a way to efficiently and frugally harness all this solar energy and maybe the wind too. Rachel allowed me the pleasure of bathing her feet in sun heated bottled water here in the confines of our little sanctuary. It is sort of like living in a small boat where everything has its place...and when things ar not put back where they go,"ship-shape", it is easy to generate a real mess and


..."Now I understand, I really understand.." Rachel just said that out of nowhere..



Here is a picture of where I slept out on San Juan Island last X-mas week-end. I went to sleep in the rain and woke to snow that just kept coming down. I miss it pretty badly too. I can't wait to get out in it all with Rachel when we get back.

Anyway, friends M

Dresses...

As I'm starting to get better, and my work load is lessening because the platoon's end of tour awards are hitting the final stages, I'm starting to find renewed interest in wedding planning. Honestly, though, nothing too finalized can really happen until we're back in the states, but it's still good to dream and get ideas. I think come September/October I'll really start to crack down on some of the things I can do here. We're planning on September in Virginia at my Aunt Mary and Uncle Bobby's house. That house is this beautiful, 100 year old house right on the James River. I don't have any pictures yet. But because the wedding would be outside, I'm thinking about some other options with dresses. Instead of doing the traditional ball gown, doing something a bit more fun. I have a few favorites. The one I've been researching the most is 1950's styled tea length gowns. I like the fuller skirt that's a little shorter. I think it's very playful and fun and not quite so fussy for something that we're trying to keep not quite so formal.

I have some pictures for ideas and pictures of dresses I really do love. Not all of them are short, though. Two favorites of mine are from David's Bridal. I can't put the pictures up because they're connected to a flash player. Here are their links, though:

http://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplayView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10051&categoryId=-49978994&currentIdx=15&subCategory=-49999486%7c-49998986%7c-49978994&catentryId=6097081&sort=

That one is probably my favorite right now. I like how simple it is, and it's skirt isn't obnoxiously full. I like the idea of wearing that dress with pearls, hair down, and a simple, elbow length veil with the same style shoes the model has on. The next one is long, and I love the lace and beading. These two are my top runners right now. Of course, I need to try them on before any final decisions.

http://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplayView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10051&categoryId=-49978992&currentIdx=17&subCategory=-49999486%7c-49998999%7c-49978992&catentryId=6097085&sort=

This one on the left is one from J. Crew. I like the fabric it's made of, and that it's very drapey. It's the first dress I found I really liked. I nearly just bought it because I didn't want to get too crazy with dresses, but then I started looking at other wedding dresses and soon changed my mind.

Here are some pictures of dresses that I like aspects of, but don't want to get, or I find them inspiring. I really like the first one on the right, but it's custom made.

The one on the left I find the neckline, the lace, and the fullness of the skirt. I just wish it was about six inches longer. The one in the middle of Grace Kelly's civil ceremony is just beautiful. So those are some pictures of what I like and what I'm thinking about.

I already mentioned before that Michael got his suit made here. He put it on today because we found this random Polo shirt that some unit here gave him. It's got this crazy logo on it, but the jacket covers it up. It looks so good on him. He's very dashing in it, if I do say so myself. He feels very out of place in it, but it's still good to have one suit for whatever life throws your way.

I like the gray for a more casual affair. Plus, it looks really good on Michael. I think it's a little more gentle for a garden, day time wedding. Another reason why I like the more 50s tea length dresses, or a more slender dress if it's long.

Who's that handsome couple you ask? Yes, it's taken in our little box here. It's infront of our wall lockers and the ACU insanity that spills out of them. And if you're wondering where the dress came from. We're required to bring some civilian clothes with us, and one of the things I grabbed was a dress.

So that's us NOT in ACUs for once. It's weird putting on civilians. Especially when you live in your PTs and ACUs. But anyway, we're doing well and happy. We're getting ready to go to chow soon. Thankfully tonight isn't fried seafood night. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

TTFN

~R

I was right...

It was a competition after all to get ready for dinner...she won.

As we were walking to dinner she was like, " should I get the burrito or the hamburger because it is fried food night", which she does without, I go, "the burrito is better for you" foolishly thinking I had provided useful info and that that line was done...think again young jedi...She fixes me in an inquisitive glare accented by the rape prevention lighting provided by KBR at 3 times the cost to the taxpayer and 3 trillion gigawatts of high definition illumination, one or two rads down from a full on radiograpghic X-Ray...and says, and I am not making this up," is this some kind of reverse psychology way of getting me to get the hamburger because you hate mexican food?" What do you say to that? So I go ,"no", and I am sure that I seem even more guilty under the goulish lighting than I feel for absolutely NO reason at all...except maybe that I do hate defenseless mexican food and am secretly unknowingly prejudice against it and she sees to my core, sees me better than I do my own self and... or maybe I just told her what I thought and moved on...

I am reading Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs that I got free from Project Gutenberg on line you can get audio or printed copies of all these 6000 books including, Ben Hur, all the Leather stocking tales, Wuthering Heights .. all the Bronte things...I feel like a slug...she is hard charging at her college on line and I am reading about a FICTIONAL ape man chimpster idealized and heroized but for the last several days it has made for some interesting conversations..."WWTD?"...what would tarzan do? is always on my mind sometimes I even say it outloud.

Anyway, it is family time at the WooLleY place goodnight, adieu, adios, via con Dios...

Surprise olympics...

Have you ever been in a hot and heavy competition and not know that you were competing for something? Well I have. I call it the "surprise olympics"...This is how I found out, I picked up some water bottles on my way out the door on our way to evening chow/dinner and as I stand up with the trash in my hand to go put it in the dumpster Rachel is standing at the door and says in an excited out of breath voice ,"I'm done, I win!"I was a little puzzled but I didn't know what to say so I was like,"cool, let's go" so as we are walking up the trail to chow she goes' "I am the first one on the side walk, I win!", I caught on right then, see about TWO MONTHS AGO she and I were competing as to who could get ready for chow first (and we both knew it was a competition), well I won and forgot about it, Rachel hadn't. SO here I am in this situation where I never know if I'm competing or not so to play it safe from time to time I occasionally dom something really fast and say, "I win" She is like, "no, I was XYZ123 first" whatever it was...I like this, it is sort of like Calvin ball in the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip... whatever goes as they play they make up the rules...



To get me to use the backspace instead of delete she leaves the number lock on, (she just denied it though)...



Rachel is OCD about soap, that is probably the wrong term or mis-diagnosis but I think its fitting because she does seem to have a quiet, desparate obsession and compulsion to and about all things soapesque. She is saying things about lanolin and oatmeal and glycerin that make me hungry sometimes. I think it is some internal psychological trauma induced by doing 3 weeks worth of calculus without a graphing calculator...Right now her favorite soap is Palomolive and Yardley oatmeal....right now I am digging this bar of Neutrogena and a bar of Bulovi that I found in the shower trailer. I think we are on our way to being soap zealots...you know the ones who corner you in the soap aisle and scare the crap out of you with VITAL soap emollients information and chemical facts. It happened to me at this food co-op just before we left in the nut aisle, this guy was raging about invasive nut species ground nuts versus tree nuts and monounsaturated oil content...sea salt or iodized table salt..man, I just grabbed what I needed and got out of there.... I somehow felt like I had disapponted him with my selection...



Anyway right now, I am supicious that I am in a competition to go to chow...again... she has this mischievious thing going on...



ta

Math and the Crud

Well, it's been a little bit since I've posted. I got the crud. It's been going around the platoon, and after spending all of Saturday in the platoon office working on end of tour awards I got my dose of the Itis or the "crud." One of those wonderful gifts that's a combination of being in the military in such tight quarters enhanced by the germy, dusty nastiness of Iraqistan.

Good news, I finished my first math test today and got a 100%. I also did the four discussion questions that is part of the math class that are about math in the "real world." I got 100s on all of those too. So right now I have a sterling grade in my class. Tomorrow starts module 2, and all of the fun times attached to it.

With my cold. My fever is almost broken. Right now I've been alternating tylenol with ibprofen and then taking mucinex and amoxicillin on top of that, and I've begun to feel worlds better. Sunday was the worst. I pretty much slept all day while battling congestion and the fever and a cough. I sound worse...probably a bit of bronchitis, but feel a whole lot better. Yesterday Michael did this amazing thing with water bottles. The plastic bottles bake in the sun until you take them inside to get them to a nice cool temperature. So to help with my chills and aches he brought in a case of water bottles that were all nice and warm from the sun, wiped off the dust, and then put them all around me in bed so I could have all that warmth around my achy, feverish self. Man, it put me right to sleep, and I woke up feeling all toasty and slightly better. Michael does get some pretty cool ideas.

I'm happy because I got all of the platoon's end of tour awards finished with. Finally! That was a huge project and burden there for about a week, but now it's done, they're all printed out, and now I get some breathing room until the next project is placed on my shoulders. My nail has been growing out more. There's this significant section to it now. Plus, it's kind of funky looking, but at least there's a bit more nail to protect the bed.

I'm also writing a couple of essays for some various projects. One is for Women's Equality Day. It's some competition they're doing here on victory. The other is for a magazine. It's about the everyday life of a woman or something. Kind of a theme going on here. I thought it would be interesting to start doing some writing for some outside sources. We shall see. I guess I'm just on this kick to do something productive outside of work. Something a bit more creative. So I'll let you all know how that goes. That's all for now. TTFN.

~R.

Plague

Rachel is sick with whatever plague the rest of the unit has. I think that it is the same thing the flightcrew that I work with has. Upper respitory congestion, headache, bodyaches, fever,chills...I can't wait to get my dose.

I hope she gets well soon, she just got her thumb near 100% now this.

Long Drive

We have been talking about seeing people and places when we get back ...We would both like to drive in a big circle around the states. We are having a hard time deciding to go clockwise or counterclockwise or to do a big figure 8.

Umiak

An umiak is the Eskimo boat that ends in K....along with a kayak...

Clarification of Rachel's clarification...

Listen folks, the real deal, first person account, eye witness of the aftermath and CARNAGE...This was an avulsion/partial amputation to be sure. It was dangling by the padded callous on the front of the right thumb, the bone and tissue was sheared through and stopped only because she was wearing a leather palmed glove, that is the part that didn't shear through, the part the leather thumb-pad covers. I think we have some good pics around here somewhere. Anyway, I imagine she is down playing this because she doesn't want you all worried...so don't worry she really is doing way better than guys I know that have had minor splinters, and scratched cornea, you'd think they were on fire or shattered some. I was surprised when I saw her thumb after her mild and understated description...besides the speed and completeness of her healing I am also amazed at how resilient her attitude is about it all. I see these other soldiers trying every way they can to amplify a scratch to get out of work and here Rachel is rushing to get back at it. for 2 weeks or so, I didn't tell her this by the way, you get it 1st, I thought that the bone didn't take and that the tissue had died distal to the wound because the skin had this gray waxy pallor, just like frostbitten or necrotic tissue gets. I had her soak it in peroxide several nights and finally this full thickness 1/8 deep flap of tissue, the whole thumb pad, peeled off to reveal the healthy baby skin underneath, (prints intact).
So there you go, just a scratch.

I am going to get us some chow right now...

Shams is arabic for Sun.

Clarification

It's come to my knowledge that there's some confusion in concerns to my thumb and its injury. So this is just a paragraph to let everyone know the exact injury. What happened was some equipment on one of the vehicles fell on the tip of my thumb, and sliced through the bone but not completely through the thumb. Some of the pad of my thumb was still attached so the doc just sutured it back together so that the bone was back in alignment. The nail completely popped off so I'm in the process of growing a new one. It takes awhile so I'm told. So my thumb wasn't completely amputated and the injury occured above the joint so my joint isn't messed up either. I hope this relieves any confusion.

Michael and I have been doing well. We've been watching movies while I steadily work through my math course. We're happy in our box. It's really nice just having each other for a year while we live in this desert.

I've been progressing through my platoon's end of tour awards. It's an interesting task. One that I like doing just because I feel like I'm contributing. I also get time to work on my math class so that when I get home I don't have to do anything but relax and spend time with Michael.

Right now it's incredibly hot. Today it reached 120 I believe. Dry or humid, 120 is just plain hot. The sandstorms are almost an everyday occurance. When you walk outside and the atmosphere is pure orange, it's kind of like being on Mars. It's especially fun when you can't see across the street the air is so pure with dust. And it's not like it's coarse sand, it's this blasted moon dust. It's very fine and incredibly annoying. The air starts to whip around and it gets in your eyes and eyelashes to the point where you try to rub your eyes due to the dust blowing in it, but wind up grinding more dust into your eyes because of the dust caked in your eyelashes. Very frustrating.

Anyway, not much to update here. It was my turn to write, so I am. I'm excited for my psychology course. It starts in about 10 days. I'll have my first math test this weekend. I really hope I do well. I'm going to spend some time doing review questions this week, and then spend a day this weekend working through the test. We'll see how it goes. So I think that's all. TTFN.

R.

Sunday

Rachel read to me this morning then watched all these charmed shows then she starting singing and doing absolute values on her new Texas Instrument graphing calculator...I looked up Medic E-6 promotion points for this month. According to my math I made cut off so that is good news, if its true...I'll have "Rache"nhiemer check it out with her new spiffy TI-83+ to be certain...

I want to get out along the drive from the coast up to the snowline picking berries all along the way...Salal, Salmon, Huckle, Black, Rasp, Blue maybe some Oregon Grape for a tart little zip.....then get up there and get some good clean snow and put it all in this Vortex hand-crank blender that I have been coveting for a while and make her the nicest fresh berry slushie...I have read mixed reviews on the crank blender..I guess I could just put them all in a gallon ziplock and squish it all together...I have some time to decide and try the bag trick first...

It has got to be 117 degrees outside right now, that is what my watch said.....I just got back from a chow run, no clouds or sand in the air so it's just Shams blasting down...sizzle.

Fishing anyone?

Michael exaggerates. I'm not up all night doing Calculus. We actually stay up late watching the latest movie we've either borrowed or bought from the local shop of pirated DVDs. Yes, my Calculus can be a very real nightmare. It's necessary, though. I need it to get to where I'm trying to go. So even though I might speak in tongues while working on my homework, telling myself the benefits of the Pythagorean Theorem, or 'a' is tangent to the x-axis, or the wonders of the coordinate plane, or the equation of a slope and which numbers are the y-intercept, x-intercept...blah blah blah...makes someone go a little crazy after awhile.

My calculator finally arrived. Just in time too. I was getting to the sections in my math class involving the calculator. So now a brand new used TI-83 Plus graphing calculator is now among our possessions. Yeehaaw.

Thumb is doing good. It's just the fine detail healing in progress right now. Michael and I are getting ready to watch "Lucky Number Slevin." I have a psychology course starting in about two weeks. My goal is to get five online classes finished while I'm in this Mesopotamian paradise.

One down...three and a half more to go...

There's this chart up on the wall that I made that tracks all of my assignments, and I "X" out ones I've completed. It makes me really happy when there's a whole bunch of "X's" up there. Very motivating.

Not much is really happening. Right now I'm a "desk manager" or "administrative assistant" or "PAC clerk" or however you want to put it. That's my light duty until I'm fully mission capable. It's alright. I don't mind paperwork, but it does get kind of boring. The schedule is very ideal, though. Michael and I are getting a lot of time together right now, which is really good for us. It's almost like having a normal, civilian work schedule...almost.

Anyway, I told Michael I'd blog today, so I am. There's really not too much going on. We're getting overrun by ants, which Michael thinks is cool. I sent several scores of them to their deaths earlier today with some toilet paper...I wonder if ants have medics?

The insects here are so scrappy, they come back from the dead sometimes. I smashed an ant one time while cleaning the floors in here, and watched it for several minutes while it straightened out its limbs and got back to normal doing its ant business. Kind of stunned me. Shouldn't suprise me, though, since the flies never die. You smash them and they're back to attacking you with newly resolved vigor.

The fish in the lake here are called Mangar...look them up. The carp here eat baby ducks, and there's videos out there to prove it. There's these spots by the lake where they accumulate and swim all over each other, and it kind of looks like a swarm of snakes...very freaky looking. I like watching their mouths separate from their faces like prehensal trunks when they're eating the bread that people throw out to them...that is, when they're not eating baby ducks. They're certainly not the beautiful fish that people get tattoos of when you see them in their natural state.

Anyway, Michael and I are going to watch our movie now. It's chow time soon. I'll probably do my vaseline treatment tonight on my hands...and Calculus. So...TTFN. Ta Ta For Now.

R.