Over Half Way!!!

Well, we just passed the half way point of the entire deployment. I'm supposed to go on leave for 2 weeks in less than 2 months! I could really use a break from this place. Seems like as soon as our days start to slow down, yeah, you guessed it - they pick right back up! We've put in a few 14+ hour days here lately. Right now, I'm taking over for my boss while he goes on leave, it's a lot of extra work, but a good change from the monotony.

THE POST-IT:
I never knew that you could yell at someone thru a post-it note until I un-intentionally did just that. I left a post-it note on a set of floor plans saying please review and let me know if you would like to change something. We ARE AWARE of the page numbering mistakes and ARE fixing them. Well, I guess I "raised my voice" to the wrong person. Anyway - I explained that I wasn't and was told not to use capital letters with me ever again. so now i type like this.

THE PAD LOCK:
Oh, something else funny has happened. As you all know, when it rains here it gets pretty muddy. Well, when you're in an uparmored humvee, you just 'hit' the puddles :) When you do that, the headlights and windshield sometimes get muddy... We were told at 10am to ensure that headlights and windshields are clean before we drive them. Within the hour, all 3 of our vehicles were clean. Later that night, the last guy to leave went to the vehicle and noticed that there was a second pad lock on it. He checked around with everyone still there and no one knew anything, so he cut the lock and drove home. About 45 minutes later we were leaving for dinner and it was locked again! We all piled into one vehicle and ate dinner and talked about why or who would do that. We figured it was a prank (because we like to pull those on each other), we then thought maybe it was the big boss that told us to wash the windows... but nah, he's too busy to track down a vehicle that quickly plus our windows were clean! So, we cut the lock right after dinner. I then walked into my room and noticed that I had missed a few calls on my cell phone... all of them were my boss. I didn't have any minutes left, so I walked over to his room - he asked me if someone cut the lock. Uhhh... yeah, I uttered... well, don't cut the new lock because the big boss put that on... Uhhh... too late, as this sinking feeling came over me...

Now, the questioning began - Why? Who? Why? etc.. The best answer I could come up with was "because it was locked and we didn't have a key" (sounded good to me!) Well, it wasn't good. We were supposed to KNOW (i'm not yelling) that the big boss did it, and report to him to get it off. Well, we didn't need it off anymore, but we all had to report to him anyway and explain WHY and WHO? So, after that was done - we think he'll leave a post-it note next time, probably in all CAPS.

THE POOL:
Sunday, we (me and another guy) got to go to the pool. It was very relaxing and sunny and not too crowded. The pool is kinda like an island with a walk way too it. It's in the middle of a lake. A lake that was poisoned by Saddam - some guy actually fell into the lake and had to have 8 shots to keep him from getting sick! We were throwing a football and of course it almost went into the lake. Good thing it didn't - or I would've been buying a new football. But a couple of other guys weren't so fortunate - right into the lake! Luckily (I think) the wind blew it close enough to fish out... then they keep throwing it. (did anyone remember that the water is poisonous? Geez!)

Fun with Photoshop:
Well, after my last post, and the picture I shared with all of you, one of my guys had to show me up. Click here to see what I'm talking about - PLEASE leave a comment, or a job offer for this guy! He's got quite an imagination! Oh, and it's not my spandex! (Caution - this may offend some of you)

Well, that's about it - nothing really "new" so I figured I'd entertain you or bore you!
Take care!
Jason