Back in the Saddle Again...

Well now I can say I'm fully back in the intelligence world. I've been a little stressed out these last two weeks because I've been working on a briefing for our Commanding General on weapons smuggling, human trafficking, and drug smuggling. I had to recreate a lot of historical information largely because my predecessor did not leave behind any kind of comprehensive product on any of those topics. I finally got us to the point where now I'll just have to make sure it's regularly updated. Then I'll be able to leave that to whoever replaces me next year so his job won't be so hard to do. All in all, it ended up being around 55 slides of information.

I presented the briefing this morning, to an audience of about 40-50 that included the CG, his senior staff officers, and most of the maneuver unit commanders whose soldiers are the guys out there patrolling. It was the first time I've done a briefing of this magnitude since I was in Iraq (over 4 years ago now!) so I was a little nervous. That probably came across a little but it seemed like I kept most people's attention. That was a daunting task itself, because the briefing came in at just over an hour. The CG came up to me afterward and said he was very pleased and that parts of it would go up to the NATO chain of command. Can't get much better praise than that so it's good to know I've still got it. Now I just hope I haven't raised everyone's expectations too high!

Bad News Bears pt II

Well we lost in softball again today. It's almost comical. But it's still fun. I was 2 for 3 with a 2-RBI sac fly and two doubles. The score was somewhere in the range of 23-11. Oh well.

On a more pleasant note, I'm trying to become more creative with the way I prepare the food they serve in the chow hall. Yesterday was grilled chicken day at lunch and the chicken they serve is bland, tasteless, and dry. Usually, they'll only serve us one chicken breast, but I winked and smiled my way to two. She thought I was weird for not wanting a bun (the buns they serve in the line are dry, generic wonderbread-type and taste like sawdust), but I had better plans. One I cut up into smaller pieces and made a grilled chicken salad with. The other I smothered in a sauce I mixed up with mustard, hot sauce, and something called "Buffalo Bob's Anything Sauce" which is supposedly good on anything but tastes horrid by itself. One thing the food service people do right is put out locally-made breads in the salad line. I grabbed one that looks more like the kind of bun you'd find at the Tap Room in San Marcos or maybe Honey-B-Ham in Conroe. Anyway I tore it in half, toasted it, then used that for my bun, and added cheese, lettuce, and onions. I know that's not gonna win me any cooking awards but there's not much to work with. Since I arrived here, I haven't seen one American do anything similar. Maybe they know something about the bread that I don't but as far as I'm concerned, it tastes better and at least makes the meal more interesting.

This week I've been watching the HBO miniseries John Adams, based on the book by David McCullough. It is excellent and provides a lot of insight into a President who is often slighted for the Alien and Sedition acts but arguably articulated the best case for independence from Great Britain.

That's all for now. Off to the gym with me!

Bad News Bears

Another exciting (sarcasm) weekend in Kosovo! It was pretty laid back except our softball team had two games this weekend. Yesterday was a makeup for last Monday which was rained out. We got beat although I was 1 for 2. We lost again this afternoon to a slightly ridiculous score of 21-6. Our team is at a slight disadvantage in that we really don't have any time to practice outside of our games. Me being a civilian contractor, I only work 8 hour days but all the Army guys are on 12-hour shifts so our games are our practices. We're learning to play better as a team but there are still a lot of kinks to work out. We've got another game tomorrow evening so hopefully things will come together.

Other than softball, it was a pretty low-key weekend. Went to the gym on Saturday and got a good little workout in to get loosened up for the softball game. There haven't been any good movies at the theater in the last week so I made some progress through all the DVDs I've bought since I got here. I watched The Kite Runner which was really good and really sad. I still haven't read the book so now I'll have to go buy it. And I watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which I'd recommend to anyone reading this. I read the book for a class back in school and it's a sad but very inspiring story.

That's all that's been going on. The next few weeks should provide a little excitement. I'm working on a briefing for the commanding general so that will keep me busy at work and I'm also in the process of buying a new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. It's on hold for me in Germany and it will be an interesting adventure going to pick it up. It looks like I'll be going over Labor Day weekend (which means nothing in Europe), flying up to Germany and then driving back across Europe over about 3 days. I've tentatively mapped out a route that takes me to Salzburg, Budapest, and Belgrade. I'll probably get lost or abducted by a roving band of gypsies but it should be fun. And yes, a Jeep Wrangler is probably not the most fuel efficient vehicle I could buy for driving around Europe but I'm living in a converted shipping container for free so I'm okay with it.

Hope everyone in Texas is having fun with the heat!