A Note to Anonymous

Just because you worked hard doesn't mean that the product of your effort meets the standard. If your work is shoddy, it must be re-done, either by you or by someone else. I know that you didn't want to hear that I cannot let our clients see what you produced. Believe me: I didn't want to have to tell you that.

I'm still not going to let you show it to them. Tell your friends that I'm mean and unsympathetic - after you've produced something I'm willing to put my boss's name on.

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.

A Webcomic

I've discovered a webcomic I really like. Check it out.
http://xkcd.com/

Happy Halloween

update for no one?

I think that everyone who ever reads this blog knows that I have now finished OCS and that I am now tremendously enjoying some much needed time at home with my wife. We're packing up to move to Oklahoma, where my school will be. In the meantime, I'm doing hometown recruiting duty in Yuba City with an outstanding group of professionals.

32 Days to Go

We just finished our first of three weeks in the field and are headed out to our second. Fun in the sun, U.S. Army style.

Branch Selection Complete - Field Artillery - King of Battle

• "Ultima ratio regum" English: "The final argument of kings" - Louis XIV's inscription on French artillery
• "Do not forget your dogs of war, your big guns, which are the most-to-be respected arguments of the rights of kings." - Frederick II of Prussia
• "The artillery lends honor to that which would otherwise be a vulgar brawl." - Frederick II of Prussia
• "God is on the side with the best artillery." - Napoléon Bonaparte
• "The first shot is for the Devil, the second for God, and only the third for the King." - Napoléon Bonaparte
• "The best generals are those who have served in the artillery." - Napoléon Bonaparte
• "I do not have to tell you who won the war. You know, the artillery did." - General George S. Patton, Jr.
• "Brother, your best friend ain't your Momma, it's the Field Artillery." - A sign at Fort Benning, US Infantry School
• "The Guns, thank God, the Guns." - Rudyard Kipling
• "Renown awaits the commander who first restores artillery to its prime importance on the battlefield." - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill
• "Artillery is the god of war." Joseph Stalin

An Updated Picture

So, I've just started week 5 of Officer Candidate School. It's tough, but it's going well. I have some studying to do and could probably find any number of things to accomplish, but it's been a long time since my last update, so I thought I'd put in a quick note.

As I said, Officer Candidate School has not been easy so far. It's been difficult in many ways. My whole army enlistment has offered challenges thus far, but it's been rewarding, too. I'm in the best shape of my life and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere again professionally and fiscally.

Now, I'm just impatient to finish my training, get a duty station, and settle in to a home of our own, and hopefully get to enjoy some time with my wife before I get deployed to some foreign land somewhere.

Norway's Fastest-growing Sport

Thank you, Levi, for sharing this.

Star Wars According to a 3 Year Old

Maybe I'm the last one to see this, but I thought it was worth sharing.

Grocery-mobiles

Levi took this picture.

Those are snowmobiles.

The building just behind them is the Albertsons/Save-on near the Mill Creek town center, just half a block from the office.

More Snow

So, after the first snow pictures, my mother suggested that the snow should be cleaned off of the patio cover. I did so, and more snow fell.

I cleaned the snow off again after taking the picture above, but the snow keeps falling, so it's stacked even higher now.

Snow