I'm fine

The news may (or may not) have a story about a bad thing happening today in Kuwait. I was not very close to the bad thing and am fine.
update: this was the "bad thing." It was neat to watch...
it was reported in the Kuwait Times today that

An explosion yesterday rocked a munitions warehouse containing ordnance left over by the Iraqi army during the 1991 Gulf War. The warehouse is located close to the Julai'a Marine Base near Nuwaiseeb. It is not known what caused the blast

Shower

Shower
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

This picture of Cyndi, Randy, Rick, and Cali was taken at one of Cyndi's baby showers back while Davia was still safely tucked inside. I wish I could have been at the shower. Sorry I missed it, guys.

A Boy and His Dog

Photo 233
Originally uploaded by GrandDad.

Here is another picture that my Dad took while visiting last weekend. Hunter is standing on his own with a little help from Ranger. As Sarema describes it, he basically crawls up Ranger, grabbing handholds of fur. Once he's up, he can mostly stand on his own.
Ranger's been really patient with Hunter and I couldn't be prouder of my dog.

Davia Hoover

Davia Hoover
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

Randy's a dad!
Congratulations, bro!
This past Sunday @ 9:40pm, Davia (pronounced "DAY-vee-ah", with the accent on the first syllable) Lauren Hoover was born
at Mercy Southwest hospital in Bakersfield CA. She weighed 7lbs 8 oz and was 19.5" long.
I hope that Cyndi and Davia are doing fine and that Randy enjoys being a dad as much as I have enjoyed it. Randy says her name is a female variant of "David." I think she has a cool-sounding name.
I can't wait to meet her.

You Flickr, I Flickr, We all Flickr

Picture 270A
Originally uploaded by GrandDad.

Dad has decided to join Kim and me by getting his own Flickr account. He's also posted lots of pictures from my parents' trip to see Sarema and Hunter last weekend.
I particularly like this picture of Hunter with his grandparents on the beach near our house.

Standing up by himself

Picture 138
Originally uploaded by GrandDad.

This is a neat picture of Hunter. It may have been snapped in a second, right before he fell down, but at least he appears to be standing on his own here. This is a lot of progress... the last time I saw him, he couldn't reliably roll over on his own and couldn't stand without significant help.

Countdown continues

Only eighteen days until I meet up with Sarema and Hunter in Venice, Italy. I can't wait to see them for the first time in five months and spend two weeks together. Also, I'm very excited to finally visit the places that I have been reading and hearing about all my life like Venice, Athens, Istanbul, Naples, Rome, Florence, Marseille, Barcelona.

For those who are interested, here's our planned itinerary. Each location is preceeded by the date(s) in May:
15 Meet up in Frankfurt and travel to Venice
16 Venice, Italy
17 Depart Venice
18 At Sea, no port call
19 Athens (Piraeus), Greece
20 Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey
21 Istanbul, Turkey
22 Mykonos, Greece
23 At Sea, no port call
24 Naples/Capri, Italy
25 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
26 Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy
27 Marseille (Provence), France
28-30 Barcelona, Spain

Ready for the Cruise

Cool Kid
Originally uploaded by Kim1998.

Looks like someone else is ready to soak up some sun on the cruise in three weeks. Kim bought Hunter some shades and a swimsuit so that he could fit in and enjoy the cruise, too.

Beach Cottage

My parents are down in Morro Bay this weekend visiting Sarema and Hunter and enjoying time in the "beach cottage." When my parents come to visit, they usually borrow our RV, drive two blocks down to the campgound, and set up their own little beach cottage. This way, they get to enjoy being really close to the beach. I'm glad they came down to visit. Hunter was running low on grandparent spoiling... :-)
I'm here at the internet cafe downloading some OS patches and Battlestar Galactica episodes from iTunes. Hopefully the bandwidth will pick up (we're slogging at 11.5 KB/s) and I can get a decent connection for an iChat session with the four of them.

Triple digit heat

It reached 100 degrees today. It's not too bad, though... I can still remember what 138 degrees feels like from last summer.
100 is downright comfy compared to 138.

It's Official

We've been here 8 months as of today. Funny thing about time, there's never the right amount. Everything either feels like it takes too long, or like it was cut short.
Eight months feels like forever, but we got a reprieve today. We won't have to spend four more months here like originally planned, it'll only be three. The date we're going to leave this Allah-forsaken desert just got officially moved up one month. That means I should be sipping that cold Sierra Nevada on my own porch sometime in the first week in August.
I get an extra 30 days to spend with my wife, son, and friends. Thank God.

Great Picture

Hunter Bathing
Originally uploaded by Kim Wooldridge.

...of Hunter Reading in the tub.
I know I'm going to get my butt kicked by a 16-year old Hunter for posting photos of him in the bathtub when he was young, but these are just so priceless. This is one of my favorites from the pictures that Kim took and posted on her flickr account.

Speaking of Double Double

Double Double
Originally uploaded by Kim Wooldridge.

My sister, Kim, got herself a flickr account and posted some pictures from her trip to Morro Bay this past weekend. She flew down to the Bay Area, got a rental car, and drove to SLO to see Sarema and Hunter for the weekend. Along the way, she stopped at an In N Out for one of my favorite foods. My mouth is still watering from looking at this picture.
She has a couple more good pictures I'll link to later... or you can check out her photostream for yourself.

Double Digit Midget

It's looking more and more like we're going to be able to come home a month earlier than planned. (When it's official, I'll post here and change the counter on the right side of the blog).
If the new date turns out to be true, that would mean I have less than 100 days left in this desert. The affectionate term for someone with 99 days or less around here is "double digit midget."
When I was in Ranger School long about 11 years ago, I made a little list on the back of a 3x5 card of what I was going to do when I finally finished. I still have the list in a scrapbook back home. The things on the list were about half food-related seeing as how I'd already lost 45 pounds by the time i was writing the it. Things like: "drink a milkshake," "Listen to music," and "walk barefoot on green grass" were all things I couldn't do in Ranger School and were looking forward to doing when I was a regular person again.
Things aren't as hard here as they are up in Iraq, but this is not home and things here are not as good as back home.
So, here's another list of all the things I can wait to get back to. WhenI get back to the states, here's some of the things I'm looking forward to...
- Getting to know my son because I've missed 90% of his life.
- Getting re-aquainted with my patient and understanding wife, who has spent over 30% of our marriage waiting for her husband to come back from doing Army stuff.
- Seeing Rick & Cali, Randy & Cyndi (& Penelope Davia), Terry and Jocie, and my dad, mom, and sister.
- Cooking a big, juicy steak on my own BBQ.
- Drinking a tall, cool Sierra Nevada sitting on my porch and looking at the Rock.
- Indoor plumbing.
- Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with my wife and friends.
- Camping in our RV.
- Moosetracks
- Putting on a wetsuit in my living room and walking two blocks down to surf.
- Farmer's Market
- Two words. Well, one word twice, actually: "Double Double"
- Our queen-sized bed.
- SLO Brew, Firestone's, Spikes, Dorn's, Sakura, and Taco Temple.
- a regular two-day weekend.
- Walking barefoot on the green grass in my front yard with my son.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. No egg hunts here in the desert, but luckily it is a pretty lazy Sunday. Hope everyone enjoys the day.

One month left until R&R

It's less than one month left until I meet Sarema and Hunter in Venice for two weeks of Rest and Relaxation. Can't wait.

Back in Business

The military network administrators have finally stopped blocking access to my Flickr site. Now I can see pictures on my blog again when I check it from work.
It's a wonderful thing.

Lee Greenwood

Lee Greenwood
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

Here's Mr. Greenwood himself, decked out in the new Army Combat Uniform, or ACU. This is what all soldiers will be wearing within the next year.
He sang "Have you Forgotten," "American Soldier," and "God Bless the USA".... the trifecta of patriotic songs these days.
Since Sarema mostly listens to country music back home, hearing country reminds me a lot of her. That makes it difficult sometimes.
As with all of these concerts, though, it's really nice to see people taking time out of their lives to come all the way over here and entertain the troops. It means a lot to us.

Cheerleaders

Cheerleaders
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

The four New England Patriot Cheerleaders were obviously a big hit with the mostly male crowd.

Sunday Concert

Lee Greenwood dropped by and performed in concert on Sunday. He brought a country band named Restless Heart, a comedian, the Air Force Reserve pop band, and four New England Patriot cheerleaders with him. It was very much in the tradition of Bob Hope and the USO shows of Vietnam. Of course, when he sang "God Bless the USA," there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
I'll post some pictures shortly.

Staying Occupied

Been trying to stay occupied to make the time go faster. We're down to a little over a month before the R&R cruise.
Dave and I just polished off Season 3 of 24. I had watched most of the episodes with Sarema two years ago, but it was cool to see all of them in order over a week's time.
I finished 24 just in time because my good buddy Ron squared me away with the lastest XboX 360 game, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. I just got it today and have played enough to know that it is tough but fun. Thanks, Ron.
I have some "mandatory fun" I have to run off to, so this post will be short.

Macanudo part 2

Rick and Cali gave me two Macanudo cigars when I left for the middle east. I smoked one at New Year's and saved the other for Hunter's birthday last week. I forgot to mention it in my post about his birthday, but it was nice to sit outside and smoke a fine cigar in celebration of my son's birthday.
Thanks Rick and Cali.

Weekend

The weekend here is really only one day: Sunday. We work the other six days of the week, so I try to relax as much as possible on my one day off.
I decided to go retro on my old XBoX and played some 1980's video games that Kim sent me for Xmas. I played 1985's Gauntlet ("Blue Valkyrie needs food badly"), 1982's Joust, 1986's Rampart, and 1985's Rampage (this one I used to play down at the Straw Hat pizza during lunch my freshman year in high school). Much nostalgia and fun.
I got the Easter package that Mom and Dad sent. The camouflage Easter basket and camouflage Easter eggs were a nice touch, but I'm looking forward to digging into the giant chocolate egg they sent. And no, I didn't open the cards, yet. I'm waiting for Easter.
I read a little and played some Madden football on XboX with Dave. Other than that, it was a very boring day filled with various chores.
Sarema tells me that Hunter's birthday went well on Thursday. They had 10-ish babies (with their parents) over for cake and then went out to a birthday dinner. Hunter was even in a good mood all day, so that's always a plus. She says she'll post pictures on Hunter's website soon. Speaking of the website, go there and check out the fourth entry from the top. Check out Hunter playing with the toilet paper... the look on his face is a riot.