Throughout my life I have had friends, like my brother Rob and Space, who are the life of the party. Yet, when I lived in Australia, I met two people who are not only the life of the party, they are the party. Jed and Liz Brien bring the party with them wherever they go. While in Australia, Dale and I attended one of their 30th birthday parties. The first one was held the last night of Jed’s 20s (They celebrate their birthdays together because Liz was born on Christmas). It was a wild and crazy event. The second was held the next day when they were 30 and must now behave like old people. It was a Lawn Bowling party. Lawn Bowling is something the elderly play in Australia. Dale and I attended the Lawn Bowling party since we were on our way to becoming aged. As with all their parties, it was a blast. A month ago, Liz emailed me that she and the kids might be able to swing by on their around the world visits before they all moved to Mexico to teach in a Christian school. I told her that if she came, I would be at the airport with balloons and an obnoxious sign. When I went to the party shop to choose balloons for the kids, I saw one that said, “The Party is Here!” I knew I had to buy it for Liz. The kids had a terrific time swimming, playing pool, and carrying around Patches. The Briens always arrive ready for a party, so conveniently Zeke turned 4. For Zeke’s party, we played the Brien version of Pass the Parcel, complete with forfeits. We also played musical chairs, musical statues, and musical bobs. The kids found glow in the dark bracelets, shot off party poppers, and blew noise makers that made no noise. I heard all the Aussie news and saw all the Aussie pictures. (Trudy, I’d go with the dark green or dark brown choice) and enjoyed so very much the 2 days that they were here. Please pray for them. On August 7th they start teaching at the Lincoln School in Guadalajara, Mexico. Pray that they will learn Spanish quickly and settle easily. The party will soon be in Guadalajara, Mexico. I hope the Mexicans are ready.
The Party's Here!
Abby the Welcome Wagon.
American Girls.
Birthday Party for Zeke.
Pass the Parcel.
Musical Chairs.
I went down to COB Speicher in Tikrit this week to see the GRN Change of Command. COL Michael Pfenning completed his 1 year command of GRN and was replaced by COL Margaret Burcham on 18 Jul 08. I was scheduled to fly down on Wednesday with Liz, 16 Jul, but the flight was cancelled due to dust storms in Tikrit. So instead, we went down with a SET the next morning. It was a nice, quiet ride without any incidents along the way.
Since we arrived the day before the ceremony, I had some time to kill. This gave me the opportunity to hang out with the two other OICs in GRN. LTC Mario Trevino is the OIC for the Kirkuk Area Office, and Lt Col Pat Kelly is the OIC for the Balad Area Office. Pat is Air Force, hence the different abbreviation for Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col vs LTC). Basically we sat around and griped to each other. Officers are just like privates; you get two or more of us together, and we gripe. I also had a chance to see Glenn. He’s filling in at the Tikrit Resident Office this month. Next month, he moves to the Baqubah Resident Office permanently.
The Change of Command ceremony on Friday was hosted by BG Dorko, the GRD Commanding General. MG Hertling, the MNF-I Commanding General also attended. The heart of the ceremony is the passing of the colors. The unit’s CSM (the senior enlisted member) hands the colors (unit flag) to the outgoing commander. The outgoing commander passes the colors to the commander of the higher unit. This symbolizes the outgoing commander relinquishing command. The higher commander then passes the colors to the ingoing commander, signifying the assumption of command. The incoming commander then returns the colors to the CSM for safe keeping. In the picture below, COL Burcham is receiving the colors from BG Dorko, while CSM Seitner observes.
COL Pfenning’s new assignment is the Executive Officer for the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. His office will be in the Pentagon, so I may run into him while I’m assigned there making coffee for all of the Colonels and Generals!
As a reward for their excellent report cards, each of the kids chose a movie to attend. I used to love going to the movies. I can still recall the line down the sidewalk for the one cinema in town, the sound of my brother Rob cheering in the back of the theater for Luke or Indiana Jones or Rocky, the excitement when a new theater was built that gave us four choices. Over the years, going to the movies lost its appeal as a result of the cost and the sheer number of movies that are pure rubbish. I used to rent DVDs, but now I just wait until Josiah can DVR it on the TV. I’d much rather read a book. Dale loves movies, so he decided the kids could see a show. Josiah chose first. I reluctantly went with him to see Ironman, a movie based on a character from a comic book. My expectations were quite low. I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there were all the mandatory fight scenes and things blowing up. However, it did have a plot and the majority of the movie was Ironman building his suit. They made it clever and interesting. It was also anti war, which just so happens to be my current mood. Gabe chose next. I went with him to see Wall-E. In the past, I had admired the Pixar writers for their cleverness. I thought Monsters Inc was brilliant. Over the years, however, I worried they had become Disneyfied and forgot that the story is really more important than the animation. Disney’s focus of churning out the same story with different characters over and over and over again, is really quite dull. Wall-E was so clever, I once again give a cheer for Pixar. I would, however, caution those sensitive about their weight to be prepared. Pixar so cleverly lampoons the excess and wastefulness of Americans, myself included, that I couldn’t help but laugh at their nerve. To make fun of the people paying to see your movie takes some guts. However, truth, when revealed even at my own expense is well worth contemplating. Abby chose last. I went with her to see Kit Kittredge. It was a nice “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”, “make the best of what you have” old fashioned movie mystery. I found it a welcome relief from the vapid teen girl shows on tv whose plots consist entirely of trying to get a boyfriend and treating others meanly. I have been trying to talk to my kids about humor being clever or slapstick and why a lot of the popular shows fail miserably in that regard. Anyway, my summer at the movies turned out to be a success. I will soon return to reading a book when I can find a way to sift through all the rubbish that’s published now and find a clever book actually worth reading.
Mike Miller and I went to Aski Mosul yesterday to visit an ongoing project to repair a drinking water drinking plant. Aski Mosul is a small town northwest of Mosul on the Tigris River. Yesterday’s trip took two hours to get to the site. We spent about 15 minutes on the site. Then we took about 1 1/2 hours to get back to FOB Marez. Trips like that can be very frustrating especially when you see that the contractor hasn’t made any progress since the last visit.
This project started in November 2005 and was supposed to last 6 months. Almost 3 years later, we expect the contractor to finish sometime early next month. I’m sure you’re wondering why it has taken so long. So am I! Throughout the life of this contract, there has been a lot of interference by the provincial government. Representatives from the water department have directed the contractor to change pieces of work without getting the proper approvals from our contracting office. So every time that happened, we had to stop all work and get the proper approved modifications in place. I’ll be glad when this one is done. I hope we can finish it before I leave, so I don’t leave the mess for my replacement to fix! In the tradition of the Army, for the first 60 days after he replaces me, he can blame all of the bad stuff on me. After that, he owns it.
The Party's Here!
Abby the Welcome Wagon.
American Girls.
Birthday Party for Zeke.
Pass the Parcel.
Musical Chairs.
