Building is fun, Maintenance less so...

So in the big picture, boredom and a slow pace are generally a good thing in a war zone. It's just that boredom can be, well, boring. It's not that we aren't doing anything, it just that a lot of it is quieter as we step back more and more.

This is good. This is very good.

It's just slow.

So I'll bang out my Professional Military Education class for Captains, order some Patent Bar prep materials, and work out. Need to direct my spare energy somewhere healthy and productive.

I'm looking at the Pat Bar program, the Longacre program or the Kayton program. The Kayton program has the reputation going for it, but also more than twice as expensive. The Pat Bar program is cheapest, but relies on CDs like the Kayton program. This is problematic because my CD drive has died.

The Longacre program is intriguing because it offers everything on an iPod. So don't need a CD drive, can listen to lectures while I PT, and there are a lot of on-line resources to go with it. Tempting.

So if anyone has knowledge or experience, I'm open to suggestion. Keep in mind though at twice the price, the Kayton program better not only guarantee passage of the exam but make me smarter, faster, and better looking.

Lest you worry though, I did accomplish a few key things at work today. At the urging of my neighbors, I put a sheet of plexiglass over my desk. We did it. Team effort. Now my maps and charts are under the plexiglass and out of the way. Great.

In order to make our optical mouse/mouses/mice/mices/meese work on the plexiglass, you need a mousepad. So we improvise.

Duct Tape.

It works great. A few strips next to each other, not overlapping, and pressed real flat by rolling a pen over them.

Is there anything duct tape can't do?

To be safe, I marked one mousepad "SIPR" for the mouse that goes to my SIPR (the classified network) computer. The other mousepad is labeled "NIPR" for the unclassified computer's mouse.

I still periodically grab the wrong one.

I also traced a mouse on the mousepad and drew eyes, whiskers, and a tail on it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The whiskers were my neighbor's idea.

Give credit where credit is due.

Also, at tonight's brief when I got to the part of mention where we are in the lunar cycle I told the commander that the moon has been disappearing. I assured him that our best people were working on it and that it is expected to return as bright as ever in about two weeks.

No response.

But on his way out the commander stopped by my desk and asked if I was sure about the moon. I promised it would come back.

Then he asked for the day's high. 108. He just shook his head because it is only May.

I still maintain that it is a dry heat and that the lack of humidity makes a huge difference. But it is still really really hot.