Cookies!!!

I got another surprise package today, this time from my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. Inside were home made cookies, granola bars, and another few thousand calories of M&Ms.

The cookies are great. Everyone here loves when someone gets cookies. We share.

As for the M&Ms, I will share those too. It will hurt but I will share most of them. I have put on weight here, but it has been the good kind. I'd like to keep it that way. M&Ms are an addictive and delicious threat to that progress.

Speaking of which, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but little grip strength gadgets have become a bit of a craze in the JOC. They are like the normal grip strength things you can get at any sporting goods strore with two handles on a spring that you squeeze together with one hand, but on a much stiffer spring. One of the old SF guys has been working his way through the different levels and my neighbor has been taking the hand me downs. Then I kind of leech of those.

So our SEAL buddy came over and tried it. Didn't fair too well. I told him he needs to make the two ends click together, and proceeded to demonstrate a few times. I also told him he shouldn't let the weather guy show him up. In all fairness, I've been playing with the grip thingy for a bit and he hasn't. I'm sure he could catch up, since we're starting from about the same place.

He's a better swimmer. And a fully trained SEAL. I'm still a partly quailifed Special Tactics guy.

We both have a mouse as our primary weapon right now.

Work here continues. I'm making progress on my PME class. I'll probably finish the computerized portion in the next week or two. Then it will just be a matter of scheduling and taking the tests here. Not a big deal. I'm a weather forecaster so I should be able to tell a few days out when I'll be able to escape for a little bit.

I also have my super Patent Bar iPod in hand. This course really does seem to have been a good purchase. Unfortunatey it was followed by a terrible purchase.

The armband/iPod case I picked up the PX was horrible. But it was the only one that fit the iPod classic that they had. I had to put some thin foam in the case to keep the iPod from bouncing around inside the ill-fitting hard plastic. I also had to cut some thin plastic wrap I found to create a hillbilly click-wheel protector. Technically, it stayed on my arm while running, but it was very uncomfortable and I'm not sure I trust it.

So now, throwing good money after bad, I hit up my friendly neighborhood internet retailer and ordered a new armband and a silicone case.

I also ordered a Pelican i1010 iPod case for storage and protection during travel.

Meanwhile, in South America, my wife is hopefully too relaxed to cause herself permanent damage when she reads about the (inevitable) iPod gear and rolls her eyes. We will soon find out how effectively I can call international cell phones through Skype... found out it works. Sweet.

In other local news, I saw yet another sight that can only be seen and appreciated on a large FOB in Iraq. While driving my NTV (non-tactical vehicle... an old beat up 5-speed SUV from back when they really were SUV's and not glorified station wagons) to the PX to make the terrible terrible purchase described above, I saw a soldier on a single speed bicycle with his slung rifle almost dragging behind him. He was wearing a helmet, a bike helmet (I should specify), but not any type of reflective belt or vest. I guarantee that if anyone were to stop him and correct him, it would be for the lack of reflective outerwear and not the very loosely slung weapon.