Happy Birthday to me.....

This is a photo of my office, notice the sheet of orange (color) plastic table cloth on the wall being filled with family cards and letters from home. Soon this area will be filled with autographs and entertainment photos too. Notice the Seattle Sounders scarf on my chair and map of Afghanistan on the wall, and US wall map on the ceiling. What we need is a map of the world, in order for me to better plan my R&R. The desk on the right is my co-worker, Dan's, desk. He is on R&R.

Looking from my bed toward the door, blue in the reflection of the mirror is my bed. Black cloth is for draping in front of door to keep the light out. Badge ready to go, hanging on the lightswitch.AFN on TV, lap top on my lap, wall locker and wooden locker, two small plastic drawer chests, more than enough storage which includes tons of space under my bed (where the wheeled trunks are). Notice the Uncle Sam Joker hat! Past entertainers autographed photos come with the room.

Happy Birthday today, me sitting on my new bed, I need to use the trunk to step on to get up here. Pink shirt was a gift from Tracy & Caitlin. Thank you!! Notice a/c above me! That is what brings the smiles in such a dreadful environment.

I thought it would be appropriate today to better explain myself through the most recent reading provided by Birthdayalarm.com ......and if you didn't think you knew me very well, you will now.

This is perfectly stated, I couldn't have said it better myself. I know those who know me will be shaking their heads and laughing about it's truth.

How you approach life and how you appear to others....

You are always questioning and learning, and you seem young and alive no matter what your chronological age, for your mind is always alert, curious, flexible, and open to new experiences. You have a childlike enthusiasm for anything new and you learn easily, but you also get bored rather quickly. You can be something of a scatter brain, for you tend to have so many ideas and irons in the fire that it is hard to keep track of them all. You need and crave variety, change, mental stimulation and an active social life.

The Inner You...Your Real Motivation....

You are, in many ways, an eternal child. Your mind is bright, alert, curious, flexible, playful,, and always eager for new experiences and your attention span is often quite brief. You grasp ideas quickly and once your initial curiousity has been satisfied, you want to go on to something else. You crave frequent change, variety, meeting new situations and people.

What do you think? totally me, huh?

Well, today my boss did throw me a curve, I was evicted. My new cell block (as you saw in photos above) is ready for my habitation. I will now reside between two people, and have a third person at my feet. All separated by one piece of plywood. I am thankful for the privacy of the single room, and the amenities, but most especially for the storage space under my bed.

Although at dinner I was advised to put my mattress on the floor and put my storage above me, along with my kevlar vest. That was a creepy bit of advice, especially since there are bugs on my floor. If the rockets red glare, I might have to be comfortably not on the floor, sorry. But there is plenty of room to get down and under there, if necessary. Not going to happen daily.

Thank you Skip for the gift box full of bug getters for ants and scorpions; bug traps for roaches; and sticky tape for flies; I placed them all over the room. I also sprayed the exterior with RAID.

Most of all thank you for my new camera. I got a new Fujifilm XP camera that will take better photos in dust and even under water, cool! Can't wait to get under water! Thanks to for all of the snacks and goodies to eat and share with staff. Will be tough to share the smoked salmon.

I am just as close to work, and a bit closer to the latrine and showers, so no real complaints.

My birthday was memorable, and you'll all be happy to know I treated myself to ice cream at lunch! :)

Thank you for all of your birthday wishes and cards and packages. Much appreciated!!

Cheers and smiles!