Day 104 - 115

Jan 14 - 25. Hello to all. Hard to believe January is almost over. Things have been a little more busy here in the valley. We have a lot of “things” going on at work and unfortunately the Blog has taken a back seat; (as did Barrett-Jackson and many other activities). I did run in the P. F. Chang Rock 'n Roll Marathon. I just did the Half-Marathon versus the full last time. Just another small concession to the onward march of time. I had a good time, me and 22,000 of my closest friends.

Beanie & I have been chatting on a regular basis. She’s now more that two-thirds thru her tour. We’re actually looking at when to start shipping stuff back. Cool! Jon (QA) left in early January and Brian will be leaving in late Feb-early March (~3 weeks before Kathy). Both Kathy and Brian have replacements identified. This is a good thing as they may even have some overlap time which can go a long way to transitioning the responsibilities. It’s not quite like having the Office of the Contractor Administrator Elect position, but it’s a start.

Beanie’s highlight has been another official kitty sighting. I don’t know if this is the same kitty that I have written off as lizard bait, but she said he looks very healthy; which Beanie describs as about 15lbs - or the same size as Max but with a normal size head!! Crack me up! Yep, Max is a bit of a pinhead. She said he is not completely paranoid – that is he will tolerate her being in proximity as long as she’s not too close or noisy. She got a couple of pictures, but the opportunities to actually email them home are sporadic.

The work part of the Beanie equation seems to be coming together pretty nicely. With the exception of a couple small interpretive issues, I think she’s got everything pretty much under control. I’m back on the road next month. North Carolina for a week or so and then Boston for a couple of days. I’m going to try and sneak a few day off and get up to Maine for a short visit. It all depends how the scheduling works out.

That's about it for now. Won't be too long before we can shut this thing down. Probably a good and bad thing. Take care and keep those cards and letters coming. Cheers.

Days 95 - 103

Jan 5 - 13. Yeah!! Check it out!! Triple Digits!!! Well it’s very hard to believe that I haven’t “blogged" in eight days, but in the famous words of Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles, "it’s twu, it’s twu!” In looking back I don’t really have an excuse except it seems like I’ve been really busy! LOL.

Back to the business of blogging. As some of you know, Beanie’s been doing really well. I think her computer-based countdown program has her somewhere around 57% complete. We are looking at a projected return date of on or about 1 April. Beanie thinks maybe a bit earlier and I thinking probably not. It has nothing to do with the fact I am playing in a Member-Guest golf tournament (I would be the Guest) with my boss the last week of March.

First of all let me assure all of you that Beanie is doing great. She once again was "invited" to have lunch at the Special Operations chow hall. Oddly enough, it was once again lobster day. She had her "usual" (yep, it's become the usual!!!) three lobster tails. Brian, which I'm sure was a gentleman's effort to ensure she did not feel self conscious, also had three lobster tails this time. Beanie thinks he did it to see if she would eat a fourth one, you know, to retain the title. To no surprise, Beanie thought about it, but her better judgement won out. Though Brian did concede that Beanie retains the title based on her body weight to lobster consumed ratio. My money says next time Brian is going down - HARD!!

When we last left our DCMA superhero she had visited a nearby school and captured the hearts of all she met (well . . ., maybe). During that same visit the DCMA team completed an inspection of the Afghan Security Guards contractors for an Army organization called the Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT). The PRT is an interesting organization. They are formed from active duty, National Guard and Reserve forces from around the continental U.S., Hawaii and Europe. They are Air Force and Army and the Airmen and Soldiers teamed together at Fort Bragg, N.C. where they undergo training in field conditions for three months. It appears they have done a bunch of wonderful thing in Afghanistan. Their charter is to assess community needs and build schools, government centers, roads, medical capability, communications facilities and basic infrastructure throughout Nangarhar. They maximize the use of local construction contractors which is a great idea as it provides employment opportunities, build business and personal relationships and really advocates and demonstrates what America represents. They are also chartered to mentor Afghan government officials and security forces to provide the people with the state representation and security they need. Quite a significant mission. I can’t say it officially, but my gut tells me that without these kinds of efforts, those great pictures Beanie took of smiling boys and girls attending public school probably would not be possible. Big time Kudos to the PRT.

During Beanie’s visit she clicked a few nice photos which are posted below along with my witty and uncompromising commentary – no really!!

To Kathy's right is Ahmad Shaw, the Guard Leader for the contract for this camp , along with several of the Afghanistan Security Guard.

Here is a picture of Brian, Beanie's ACO, with the Afghan security team.

These next two pictures are the actual PRT site. The PRT is based at an old Soviet Union R&R base. Beanie said that even though the grounds are now run down, you could still see where it was once quite beautiful. Also of interest on the camp was the Chai House (Tea House). This is the last place that Osama Bin Laden was seen in public. He loved to visit Jalalabad, probably because of the mild weather and beauty of this area. He gave a lot of money to the town and today there are many people in Jalalabad that don't believe he had anything to do with 9/ll - that it was the Taliban. My position, what's the difference!

This is an airborne view of Jalalabad as they were leaving.

This is a pic of the Afghan National Army base next door to the PRT. On a side note, the side of the building is where the Soviets would line up Afghan prisoners and shoot them - you could see the bullet holes in the wall. No wonder they hated the Russians.

You may find this shocking, but this was Beanie's kitty fix so far. Don't be misled by her delusional claims that she has been feeding a stray cat living under her container. The reality is she's been feeding the Bengal Monitor Lizard that ate the cat that "used" to live under her container. Big difference, especially if you're the cat (was the cat?).

And we'll end this blog entry with the goofiest picture award. I LMAO when I saw this cause it was so Beanie. Here is the highly coveted shoe shot (Brian, Jon, & Beanie)

Days 90 - 94

Dec 30 – Jan 4. Well Happy Happy New Year to everyone. Hope everyone had a good time and the head is pounding too badly. Me and the kitties has talk out Chinese and rented a couple of DVDs, Dark Knight (pretty good) and No Country for Old Men (very dark and a bit bizarre – did want to make me read the book though!!!). That took me almost to midnight, but I fell asleep. The fireworks woke me, so I called Beanie and had a New Years Eve - she sounded pretty good. I think New Years Eve was a little anticlimactic after the great job they did making Christmas so Christmasy. They had a nice little campfire, but it appears some “other people” on the base liked the idea of a bon fire and decided they wanted to have one also. Kinda minimized the “specialness” of being the only ones with a fire. Sorry for any typos but Max keeps walking across the keyboard. Guess he wants to get a few words in – Lord knows he’s Beanie’s cat!!!

Being that this is the first day of the year and Beanie should be home on about the 90th day of the year (30 March) I am officially starting my countdown calendar. Yes, I know I’ve been cramming “days to go” figures in previous postings, but now I’m serious!!!
I had mentioned earlier that Beanie had the opportunity to visit a school near FOB Fenty. She had a great time and sent me some fabulous pictures which I will make yet another feeble attempt to share with you. Okay, here we go!!

Clearly this is a team of professionals. I mean if you disregard Beanie not wearing a hat and the fact that she’s winging Brian!

The first set of pics is from just outside the base. I think Beanie captured some of the prettiest pictures I’ve seen of Afghanistan. The first one is a local vineyard just outside the gate. You need to look closely, but there are two men and donkey are easy to see, but if you look behind the pillar on the right there is a woman. First women I think I’ve seen in a picture. On the full size photo you can see her a bit clearer.

Here’s a picture of three young Afghan men – I’ll call them the Three Amigos. Two neat things to note is how green the fields behind them are and the other is they are all giving some variation of a thumbs up sign (yep, I’m sure it’s a thumbs up as opposed to the Hawaiian good luck sign)

Fresh cauliflower being sold on the road side. They all know their picture is being taken and they’re all smiling. Pretty cool.

Here’s their ride to the school. It’s a French (AKA CESM pronounced chez’ um) chopper called a PUMA. The Blackwater folks fly them so it’s probably the first time it’s ever seen combat (yeah! I know, cheap shot!!!)

This picture is from their trip to the school and is my absolute favorite picture of the Bean doing her best Top Gun pose. What makes it so funny is she doesn’t have a clue that she is!

This is the actual school. It’s about as basic as you can get. No desks or chairs, just rug and a blackboard. Below one of the girl’s classes is in session.

Here’s Beanie yucking it up with the kids. By the expression of the kid in the front row center, I don’t think he is really buying into this whole thing, but is holding out in case something good comes out of it.

The way it is set up is the boys attend one session (morning I think) and the girls attend the other session.

Girls at school. I think this is a great picture. The lighting of the headscarves and the glow of their faces just seems to capture an aura of childhood innocence. They sit on the floor, no chairs or desks. Man, talk about concentration!!

Here’s the faculty. I'm pretty sure I've seen at least one of theese dudes at a Greatful Dead concert. Got to give them their due as I’m sure there are those in the country that do not agree they should be teaching girls.

Hard to get much cuter than these two pics!!

The entire DCMA team all hunkered down for the flight. Can’t be too safe