Its Getting Hotter

So its definitely starting to heat up out here. Its been around 100 the last few days and its going to only get hotter. When we go from the A/C to outside its like opening an oven. Ive been taking some more pictures so eventually ill get some more up. Easter was a big event at the chow hall, it was all decorated and they had a lot of excellent food. I had shrimp and turkey and a couple of desserts. There was even a 6 foot tall sculpture of Jesus. This was no ordinary sculpture though, it was made entirely of butter. I dont know who makes butter sculptures but it was impressive. I just wish id had my camera that would have been an awesome picture.

Just to Clarify

The iraqi kid giving me the finger isnt doing it because he hates us, he could, but i dont think they know what it means. They just pick up bad habits from all the Marines that they see.

Some Great New Pictures

Put up some new photos. Enjoy!

A Few Random Pics

Some of the houses in Iraq are surprisigly big
I call this one "Sunrise On The Banks Of The Euphrates"

Puente playing video games
Messing around with smoke grenades in an old rusted out car.

One Sexy Devil-Dog (Marine)

Me in the Humvee
Holding the M-23, a 6 shot grenade launcher. We don't really ever use it but it looks cool.
Another one in the humvee, Doc taking a nap behind me

Iraqi Kids

Iraqi Puppies

Thursday Already

Wow things actually go pretty fast out here, its Thursday already. I cant believe my last post was on Sunday. We haven't been working as much as we were before. Our squad is the best in the company so far. Our commanding officer called us "The best squad by far." I guess a lot of the other squads screw around or fight with each other. Our squad pretty much gets along with each other though. I don't have to be the only one to post on this blog (hint, hint) it would be nice to hear about stuff going on back home. I'm taking some pictures so once i feel like i have enough ill put them up. I'll try to get some pictures of the area so everyone can see what its like around here. Its actually not as dry as I had imagined. We are right by the Euphrates river so theres alot of palm trees and vegetation. Most of the people in the are farmers so theres an intricate irrigation system.

Sunday Morning

Its Sunday morning, Im in the internet center. I just had an awesome breakfast at the chow hall. Some scrambled eggs with bacon, cheese and ham, french toast, and cereal. The chow hall is really good out here we get plenty to eat, maybe even too much. We have some time off this morning which is really nice. Im definitely going to take advantage of it and catch up on my sleep. I've been really busy doing radio stuff since my squad leader gave me the billet(job) of communications nco for our squad. This means I actually get to use what I learned in school over a year ago. Its a good thing because I get some responsibility and i can brush up on my radio knowlege. Its also a bad thing because whenever a radio goes down I get blamed for it and I have to get it working again. Its starting to heat up out here, its in the mid-seventies during the day which really is pretty nice but everyone knows thats not going to last very long. In a couple months it will be into the 100s. We do have air conditioning in the humvees and in our rooms so it should be bearable.

It Worked! I Put Some Pictures Up.

So i was able to get some pictures on the blog, I wasnt really sure if it would work or not. Im going to have to get some more pictures of myself up there. We've had a little bit of a break recently, we haven't been working as hard as before. I've actually had some down time which is nice. Im going to get going, I'll take some more pictures and put them up as soon as possible.

Some More Pictures! These are from the trip to big bear and the cliffs on Valentines Day

Vanessa Snowboarding, shes on track to win some gold medals at the Winter X-Games

Some Pictures

Heres some pictures ive taken so far, theres more but the site only lets me upload 5 at a time. The layout might be a little wierd so bear with me.

Hey still pretty hectic out here there working us like rented mules. Not much new though i dont have much time to write a lot. Its starting to warm up, and its only going to get warmer. Im going to try to post again soon and put up some pictures. Check back soon and there should be a new post