I've recently finished up a visit from my parents. I adore them and enjoyed having them around, but... there's a reason that grown men don't still live with their mothers and fathers. I'm very glad they drove down (1500 miles one way), especially so they could see their only grandkids. I'm just a little relieved they're gone, I guess. They packed a lot of boxes for me, stuff left at their place from high school and college years. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing with most of ...

I forget what it was that I was searching for when I found this blog site. Maybe it was a search for information about the remaining two captured soldiers. I found a bit of that information on the blog (without much commentary or opinion associated with that post), but I also found some other tidbits. I especially liked the article title "Jewish Nazi Terrorist Advocates The Murder of Millions of Innocents." A more recent post explains to the American military members: "If your a stin...

I knew I was going to this almost three months ago, since I insisted after the last one (that I was thrown out of) that I wanted to go back. (They're quarterly, so that's about three months.) But I slacked, so while I'm better prepared than last time (primary goal: don't get thrown out; secondary goal: have the CSM call me by my actual name), I'm not as prepared as I'd like. We got a memorandum for the board just over a month ago and then got a new memo at the end of last month that change...

I get all the email from the Air Force at work, so I was able to follow along with this. Several days ago, a local (National Guard?) soldier's house burnt down. His family was safe, but his belongings were almost entirely destroyed. There was a call for clothing and emergency household items (they had put his family in base housing on short notice), and I got to hear about the Army side of it as my battalion chipped in to make sure they were clothed. Early today, an email went out as a ...

I guess it just hits me this time of year, or maybe it's because the boys are around. They remind me of their mother and how I don't have someone any more. I guess there's probably more to it than that, but I can't fight through the haze I always seem to be in lately. I'm a high stress guy anyway, and it seems like I'm piling it on myself lately. Color Guard NCOIC, both for the Joint Service and for my Battalion. At least I'm not in charge for the Army Ball, although I volunteered to g...

Today, myself and three other volunteer NonCommissioned Officers of my Battalion headed out early to Menard, TX to participate in the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the San Saba de Santa Cruz mission. This historic site has had its location recently confirmed and archaeologists and Texas historians will be doing further research into the dig. We were to serve as a color guard for a parade in its honor. We arrived on time, more or less (more if we had to be there at 0730, less ...

While official reports seem to be overall favorable towards the idea (and of course it's very "hip" to conserve water now, isn't it?), I can only speak to my personal experiences in this matter. No flush urinals stink. I'm certainly not the only one that thinks so: reference Link to see what some at the University of Iowa had to say. "Unusual," "they smell," "an unappealing nuisance," the custodians absolutely hate cleaning these toilets." And, again, while water conservation is o...

So, I'm still not observing strict dietary science right now. My PT has suffered... and it's due to my own slackening willpower and lack of planning. Blaming my kids' visit is convenient but not entirely honest. Having said that, I'm still trying to keep my calories under control (without logging anything, which is really just guess work). I'm trying to be more inventive with PT (occasional light sets with the dumbbells that I have in my living room, taking the boys to the pool). And, ...

The older boy is fixated upon Scooby Doo. I mean, the younger one is as well, but not to the extent that the older one has honed in on it. Both of them have SD underpants, we have two Scooby Doo video games and they enjoy my Scooby impressions. He also wants a puppy. Every time he mentions how much he wants one, he immediately amends it with, "But we can't, because we live in an apartment." This isn't entirely true, but it's something I told him when I moved in. See, we had a dog (w...

In a sadly unsurprising twist, the Islamic State of Iraq has posted a video on one of its websites that claims that they had held the two missing US soldiers (SPC Alex R. Jimenez, 25, and PVT Byron W. Fouty, 19) held prisoner and decided to execute them. The video posted reportedly contained images of the soldiers' military identification cards. While some feel that the insurgents are hoping "to deny closure to the families of the missing soldiers" by drawing out the timeline of finalizin...

We've gotten a lot of playing time out of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. It is so far superior to the first LSW that we were able to rent LSW1 and play through all the story bits in one weekend. But LSW2 is much more robust. In an advertisement for LSW2, the narrator spoke of playing your favorite characters from the OT: "Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth... 3-PO ?!?" The boys have used the "design a character" feature and are now both running around Dagobah as ...

Late start today. I need to go to bed right after the boys... and I need to get them down earlier. They're already mad at me for putting them in bed while the sun still shines (just before 9) and getting them up "at night" (before sunrise). We'll see how they deal with an even earlier, brighter bedtime. ------------------------- I was 216 this morning, and if that's the high point of the week, which it usually is, I'm not doing too bad. I shouldn't keep skipping PT, though. -----------...

JoeUser is a bit schizophrenic in its layout. The default posting of articles is both on a personal blog and in the JU public forums (and sometimes other possibly reltated forums, to the consternation of those forums' regulars). While this gets the information a wider audience (I have, what, 4 regular readers?), it seems to have some drawbacks as well. I believe others have noted this, but the "Blacklist" function seems to block only comments on the "blog" side of JU. Blacklisted users ...

I get the impression... From the way the daycare workers go out of their way and give me and my boys special treatment... Because my unit doesn't have a unified policy to handle my situation... Is a military father being involved in the lives of his children after divorce this rare? I can't imagine not having the relationship with my sons that I now have, and I wouldn't give it up unless I was forced, I became convinced it wasn't good for them, or they became old enough to choose ot...

I'm not being very good about what I eat this week, although Wednesday I basically hit my previous goals for calories. I was 213 Thursday morning but missed PT and ate a lot of bad carbs. I was 215 this morning... and missed PT again! We may go swimming this evening to make up for it, but will probably be crunched for time due to a Color Guard practice. Swimming over the weekend is not only likely but nearly obligatory. Tonight we're going to have tortilla pizzas (I'll toss some chicke...