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A couple of weeks ago, I received a packet of letters from the kids in Gabe’s 2nd grade class at the Stafford Campus of Fredericksburg Christian Schools. It was very uplifting to read the letters they wrote and to look at the pictures they drew. I am encouraged everytime I think of these kids praying for me! Here are the letter and picture from Gabe:

The kid’s asked a lot of different questions. I’m still working on my reply. I really need to ge that finished this week! The most popular question is “What do you eat?” If you remember the DFAC post, I get to eat just about anything I like. In fact, every Sunday night a steak and seafood night. Unfortunately, the steak doesn’t come close to the steak in Dubbo. Another question that caught me off guard was “Do you have a pet?” That got me thinking about Army regulations.

As an individual operating within the Multi-National Corps-Iraq (MNC-I) Area of Responsibility (AOR), I am accountable for the prohibitions found within MNC-I General Order Number 1 (GO-1). The purpose of GO-1 is to:

Identify conduct that is prejudicial to the maintenance of good order and discipline of all forces assigned to the MNC-I or present within the MNC-I AOR.

Some of the activities that are prohibited are gambling, possessing drugs, and consuming alcohol. Among other restrictions, I am also not allowed to adopt any wild or domestic animal as a pet or mascot. So the answer to the question is “No, I don’t have a pet”. While I don’t have a pet (or even a mascot), each evening, a gecko hangs out on my window eating all of the bugs attracted by the light.

The hunting must be good because tonight there are 5 geckos on my window!

Zeke and I walked into the home improvement store this morning to buy the furnace filter. You’ll be happy to know he was fully dressed with shoes on. I had two things on my list: the furnace filter and new numbers for my mail box (post box). I had been looking at the torn numbers on my mailbox for a few weeks and knew that if I didn’t replace them I would hear my father say upon arrival, “How is anybody ever going to find your house when they can’t even read the numbers on the mailbox?” So, I was focused, but suddenly thrown off course when something unexpected hit me. I walked into a winter wonderland. The Christmas displays were out. I lived in Australia the last two years and Hawaii the two years prior to that and Christmas is a bit of a low decoration affair in both places. When you have a barbie (bbq) and go to the beach, Christmas is a bit more laid back. I forgot how over the top Christmas could be. There were trains going around little towns, giant inflatable snowglobes with blowing snow inside, inflatable moving ferris wheels and carousels, a giant santa plane with a moving propeller, an inflatable house with santa and frosty mechanically dancing around a tree, a full size Christmas mailbox that mechanically opens and closes, rows and rows of artificial trees with every lighting option you could want. Everything was enormous. The inflatables looked like the small bouncies(jumping castles) you rent for kids parties. All the hand held snow globes had buttons to press that turned on an interior fan which swirled the snow around and played a Christmas tune. Who needs the simple joy of shaking a snow globe when a button can do it for you? Zeke ran about pressing all the buttons and trying to grab all the moving trains. I have seen the villages that people buy with all the lighted houses, but had no idea that the miniature people actually skate, ride rides, twirl, dance and drive. Most downtowns and shops have terrific Christmas displays to look at, but I hadn’t realized I had the option to buy it all and put it in my front yard. I had to drag Zeke away. October 12th is a little early to live in a winter wonderland.

I had the opportunity this week to take a ride in a Black Hawk. I love helicopters and will jump at every opportunity to fly in one. For some reason, I don’t get motion sickness in a helicopter like I do in a boat. My stomach still gets quesy when I think about the underwater demolitions range mission when we were stationed in Hawaii. That was not a pleasant experience for me. It was quite a humorous spectacle for all of the Army dive soldiers that got to see me lose it on the open water! But let’s not think about that anymore because I’m already starting to get a little seasick just sitting here.

One of our ongoing projects is the building of a water distribution network with wells and pumps for the Sinjar district in western Ninewa province. This project is worth about $17.2 million and includes approximately 116 kilometers of water pipes, 95 wells, and 60 water storage tanks. The geographic extent of the project makes it quite difficult to fully appreciate from the ground. So I have been trying to arrange a fly-over since I’ve been here. When I say that I have been trying to arrange this, I really mean that MSG Curt Kaseman, the Mosul NCOIC, has been trying to arrange this. This was our fourth attempt at the mission. The previous three missions had to be cancelled for various reasons. Although I think I’m important, the flight operations folks don’t regard me as a VIP, so I’ve been bumped a few times!

But on our fourth attempt, we finally got the dedicated flight time. Two Black Hawk (UH-60A) helicopters were tasked with flying 14 personnel from my office over the Sinjar district to get an overview of the project extent. The helicopters picked us up from FOB Marez, and we began our flight out to the Sinjar district. Sinjar is about 120 kilometers west of Mosul.

On our way out to Sinjar, we made a pitstop at FOB Sykes. The Black Hawks for this mission are based out of FOB Sykes. On the original itinerary, we were scheduled to refuel at FOB Sykes after the mission before heading back to Mosul. So I assumed that we were just going to refuel before instead of after.

Here’s a photo taken during our stop at FOB Sykes. Margaret, the USACE Resident Engineer in charge of the Mosul Project Engineers, is standing next to Vic, a security detachment member, while Sarah, the office admin specialist, looks on.

CPT Christian, the pilot, informed us that we were stopping so that she could get the final clearance before heading out. As luck would have it, when she came back, she told us the mission was scrubbed due to deteriorating weather conditions coming in from the west. So we loaded up again and flew back to FOB Marez. I’ll try again next month.

I have known about my parents upcoming visit for a month. My Father didn’t attempt to surprise me by showing up at the door unannounced. I am picking them up at the airport on Saturday. A month ago, I wrote a list of things that I wanted to accomplish prior to my parents arrival. But after the mad rush of painting and unpacking the household goods shipment, I have fallen into a lazy brown mood. I am now a day and a half from their arrival and I realize my inate procrastination has once again caught up to me. There are people who love to clean and tidy their house and keep their yard looking well cared for. I once had a friend ask me, “Don’t you love getting a toothbrush and cleaning the refrigerator seal?” “No, I don’t”, I said. “I really don’t.” When Abby was younger, she saw her cousin vacuuming the floor and asked him why he was vacuuming. He said, “You vacuum the floor when it’s dirty.” Abby replied, “No you don’t, you vacuum the floor when company is coming.” Such is the good example I set. My brother Howie’s roomates in university were shocked when he was found cleaning the bathroom the night before my Mom was to arrive. They told him why bother, when she got there she would clean it for them. She didn’t reclean the bathroom, but she did clean the kitchen sink. I had planned to begin the final push of “prepare for parents arrival” this morning. I was outside the home improvement store ready to go in and buy a furnace filter, but I needed to get Zeke dressed. I have started the bad habit of picking Zeke up from his bed, still in his pajamas, and carrying him to the car to speed up the school drop off routine. I have always found it a bit strange when kids are wandering around stores in their pajamas, but feel it is acceptable for kids to travel in the car in their pajamas. Yet another of my obsurdly drawn lines. The Briens wear pajamas and dressing gowns (bathrobes) everywhere and it never ceases to make me laugh. Anyway, I had brought a change of clothes for Zeke, but realized I had forgotten his shoes. So, I just went back home. I still have one more day to accomplish my list. It is a bit of a tradition to be up until 2 in the morning cleaning the night before my parents arrive. So, I’ll either be very busy cleaning all day tomorrow or I’ll take my Aunt Cita’s more simple advice…”Company’s coming, turn the rugs over.”

This past Sunday we had a day off to observe Columbus Day. In the US, Columbus Day is commemorated on the second Monday in October, but not in all states. I’m not going to get into the issues surrounding this holiday here. Maybe Michael and Howard can have a huge discussion about it in the comments!

Anyway, the CG for GRD has mandated certain holidays that USACE personnel in Iraq must observe. This is really a force protection issue. Since we work 7 days a week here, it’s too easy to never really step away and wind down at all. I’m constantly flat out like a lizard drinking, as Brad taught me to say. So about once a month, we have a day off. At least for one day, we sleep late, watch videos, and just relax.

Sarah and Glenn decided it would be a great idea to play Bingo on our day off. I actually believed them. Mugs will tell you that I’m exhibiting classic symptoms of becoming a Lieutenant Colonel. I now believe that people do enjoy mandatory fun. Fortunately, I didn’t make it mandatory! Unfortunately, we only had 1 more player join us, Jeremy. Two others stopped by for a few games, Alex and Demeril. But they didn’t last long.

In the action packed photo below, I’m presenting Glenn his prize for winning a game of Bingo, a duck-shaped bar of soap!