18 years

It doesn't usually occur to me until days or weeks after the event, if at all, but I realized a few minutes ago that today is the 18th anniversary of the shooting at Lindhurst High School.

Duh!

Imagine this:
You're standing in the office supply store awaiting your turn to get to the mechanical pencils.
Access is blocked by the teenage girl there with her parents.
You hear the following:

Daughter: "Dad, I need more mechanical pencils."
Dad: "I just bought you a whole bunch. What did you do with them?"
Daughter: "I used them up."

Dad explains the concept of refillability as it pertains to mechanical pencils and you realize that you've discovered a new depth of ignorance.

Tell Everyone You Know!

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
I like this alot.

Taxes

Yesterday, we got in to H&R Block before they closed and we got our taxes knocked out. They were helpful and efficient and we got an $800 credit that we might not have gotten if we had been forced to do our taxes ourselves.

That said, we both miss Judy Baldonado. I asked her if she could do our taxes this year, even thought we're out of state, but she never got back to me.

Recipe

1 part Nutella
1 part mascarpone

blend completely and use as imagination inspires. (e.g. on Nilla wafers)

Another Webcomic

Another awesome webcomic: check out The Doghouse Diaries - right now.
(You have to click on the image to really be able to read the comic [unless you have really outstanding vision {which I don't}])

BOLC B

Basic Officer Leadership Course II has been done away with. I was scheduled to take that January-February of this year.

Basic Officer Leadership Course III has been replaced with/renamed BOLC B.

I start BOLC B February 16th, and should finish sometime in June. By then, I'll have orders and we'll know where we're headed next.

Since we arrived at Ft. Sill in October, I've been on what is known as "casual duty," mostly serving as the Executive Officer of a Holdover Battery for the Warrior Transition Course. Prior service sometimes attend WTC instead of Basic Combat Training. When, in the course of WTC, these soldiers are hurt or when they prove to be unable to complete the physical fitness test, they come to us to heal and train.

I've been working with an outstanding group, dedicated to their work and to the soldiers they train, and though I'm glad to be getting on with my training, I'll miss being at Fox 1/79.

Peace through victory.

A Cool Site

Shel's dad, Vernon, introduced me to a website I really like. It's called FamilyLink. It's a genealogy site associated with Facebook. I've managed to put together a decent little family tree just from what Shel and I could remember off hand and what I could copy of Vernon's work.

I've always thought that genealogy was fun, but it can be a tremendous lot of work - not just to create, but to peruse and enjoy even. This is pretty simple and intuitive, so I'm sold.