Shedding Wars

Wow! It's been a long time...sorry for no posts for Tinjblog's 2 1/2 loyal readers. I'll have to get some updates on things that I've missed, such as: taking a 'tour of California' with Tally's parents, Tally and John running a half-marathon in wine country, going to Kauai, going to the MLB opening day game at Angels' Stadium vs. the Twins, the Temecula Wine and Weiner Dog Festival, Las Vegas (again), and probably a bunch of other stuff.

Anyway, this post is short and ridiculous. This morning, it became readily apparent to me that the dogs have entered "shedding season" since the weather has warmed up, as all kinds of little hairs were showing up in my hands when I was petting them. So, I decided to see who would win by producing the amount of hair that would make the bigger pile. The verdict?

You be the judge. Whose pile is the biggest? The first correct answer gets a 1/2 off "Tinjblog" temporary tattoo (the kind little kids get at fairs or in 25-cent machines at the grocery store).

Don Sutton

We were eating at a restaurant in Palm Springs this past weekend and happened to randomly be introduced to Don Sutton (Baseball HOF, 324 wins, 7th in strikeouts, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Sutton) by our waiter. He was a little before my time as a player, but I did remember that he was in the Hall of Fame. I remembered him even more clearly, though, as one of the Atlanta Braves broadcasters for many years, as we had TBS as one of our cable channels He's a super-nice guy and took time out of his dinner with his family to talk to Tally and I about military things, as our waiter had introduced me to him as a military doctor.

One more good recipe to try...

I wanted to try a different kind of ribs recipe. This requires a little effort and waiting (allowing time to cook), but it was totally worth it:

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Make sure that the ribs are at least 4 inches long and 1 inch thick. If boneless ribs are unavailable, substitute 7 pounds of bone-in beef short ribs at least 4 inches long with 1 inch of meat above the bone. We recommend a bold red wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon. Serve with egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or roasted potatoes. Serves 6

3 1/2 pounds boneless short ribs , trimmed of excess fat (see note and technique below)

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 large onions , peeled and sliced thin from pole to pole (about 4 cups)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

6 medium garlic cloves , peeled

2 cups red wine (see note)

1 cup beef broth

4 large carrots , peeled and cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup cold water

1/2 teaspoon unflavored powdered gelatin

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Pat beef dry with paper towels and season with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium-high heat until smoking. Add half of beef and cook, without moving, until well browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Turn beef and continue to cook on second side until well browned, 4 to 6 minutes longer, reducing heat if fat begins to smoke. Transfer beef to medium bowl. Repeat with remaining tablespoon oil and meat.

2. Reduce heat to medium, add onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. (If onions begin to darken too quickly, add 1 to 2 tablespoons water to pan.) Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until it browns on sides and bottom of pan, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Increase heat to medium-high, add wine and simmer, scraping bottom of pan with wooden spoon to loosen browned bits, until reduced by half, 8 to 10 minutes. Add broth, carrots, thyme, and bay leaf. Add beef and any accumulated juices to pot; cover and bring to simmer. Transfer pot to oven and cook, using tongs to turn meat twice during cooking, until fork slips easily in and out of meat, 2 to 2½ hours.

3. Place water in small bowl and sprinkle gelatin on top; let stand at least 5 minutes. Using tongs, transfer meat and carrots to serving platter and tent with foil. Strain cooking liquid through fine-mesh strainer into fat separator or bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids. Allow liquid to settle about 5 minutes and strain off fat. Return cooking liquid to Dutch oven and cook over medium heat until reduced to 1 cup, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin mixture; season with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over meat and serve.

Crepes

Delicious. I've never tried them before, but they were actually not that hard. I like Alton Brown, so I went with this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/crepes-recipe/index.html

Update...

OK, so a little behind. After the Vikings fiasco that (unfortunately) may carry into the playoffs against the Cowboys this week, Tally did a "sprint" triathlon in Hemet, CA the next weekend and I did just the 5K part because I'm a terrible swimmer (working on it, though). She did very, very well even though she didn't have some fancy bike with a ridiculous aerodynamic helmet. I finally squeaked out a 5K in under 20 minutes (19:59), so we were both happy.

We then headed home for Christmas, which was great, but got very, very cold near the end (low in Fargo was -33 F on New Year's Day). It was nice to fly back into Vegas!

Life is getting a little better for me now that we finally got another Medical Officer in my battalion. I'm actually getting home at a decent time (usually) and getting to exercise more.

On the cooking front, risotto is a new favorite for us. The combination possibilities are endless. The only trouble is that it is quite a bit of work, but it's delicious! One other thing I'll recommend are sweet potatoes. I was never really a big fan, based off of the old sweet potatoes and marshmallows that are often served at Thanksgiving. It was always just too sweet for me. You can simply bake them though (just like a regular potato), but we had mashed last night. Again, just boil them like potatoes, then add some milk, butter, and a little maple syrup (you could probably get away without this, but we tried it; we had some actual maple syrup lying around--not sure if the imitation kind would be as good: I'm really enjoying misusing punctuation and continuing this ridiculous excuse for a sentence) and salt and pepper. You should try it.

Coming up: three-day weekend for MLK day. Going to LA/Santa Monica--hopefully, I'll be able to meet up with Quinn and cheer on the Vikings to victory, not a 47-point loss (holding out hope that the old reverse jinx is on my side there).

There's the Brett Favre from December 2009 we've been waiting for...

Last year, I noticed the Vikings were scheduled to come down and play at Arizona in December. I really wanted to go, but couldn't because we were completing our training exercise in the desert. So, when I was in Iraq this year, I noticed that the Vikes were AGAIN supposed to venture out to Arizona. I told Tally that would be my Christmas present and bought two tickets.

It was a crazy day. We were scrambling to get there because of one reason after another. But, we finally got there, and had a very good time, at least at the beginning. There were a lot of Vikings fans there, especially in our section. Of course, most of those in our section were pretty plastered and ridiculous, but it made for good comedy. See--look how much fun Tally was having:

Of course, then Brett Favre decided to become....well, Brett Favre. And, it didn't help that we couldn't block anyone or put any pressure on Kurt Warner. It was pretty ugly. I give the stadium there high marks. The food was good for a professional sporting venue, too.

On our way back to our car, we noticed two Vikings fans dressed in purple T-shirts with gold letters on the front. One had an "E", and one had an "R". Tally guessed that they must have been there with three others to spell out "FAVRE". We decided that they didn't pick the best night for that, but, oh well. I told her that maybe they were actually there with 10 other friends and were spelling out "INTERCEPTION". In that case, they would have been much more accurate with their cheerleading.

(Sigh.) Ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 Minnesota Vikings.

Coming up, a triathlon in December, and maybe some other stuff before Christmas.

SNOB ALERT!!!

As a public service to all loyal Tinjblog readers, I do have to mention that there are a lot of snobs in Napa Valley and the surrounding environs. Of course, there are tons of great people, but there are those who choose to be wine snobs, and those wineries where you have to (and, no, I'm not kidding) wait to be seated, at a formal table by a concierge in order to simply taste some wine. I'm going to start a winery in Napa Valley, require that much ridiculousness, then serve these folks some Boone's Farm wine. Ha!

Finally, there is the family who earned the memorial "Made Me Want to Drop My Dinner Plate on My Head Until I Lost Consciousness" Award at one of the restaurants we ate at. Luckily, they were behind me, so I didn' t have to look at them, like Tally did. UNluckily, they were RIGHT behind me, so I could hear every word they were saying. Of course, I could have been in a different zip code and still heard every annoying word and all the bragging. We got up to leave right after them, and we noticed that their table cloth was covered with different splotches of wine stains. It wasn't one big stain, but several, indicating that more than one of them probably got sauced all day at the vineyards, then sauntered on down to the local restaurant to finish off the evening by being loud, rude, and spilling wine all over. You stay classy, Napa. (from "Anchorman")

Napa Valley and San Francisco

We have wanted to make it up to Napa Valley and San Francisco since we have been in California, but just haven't been able to pull it off yet. Sooo, since we both had four days off for Thanksgiving, we decided to have our Thanksgiving meal the Sunday before (it was delicious) and travel over the four-day weekend.

It was a great trip! It is extremely beautiful in that area. Visiting in the fall was great--I think that would be the best time to go, if you're ever planning on it. Of course, I dispense that advice without having any authority or expertise to do so whatsoever. But, all of the leaves on the vines turned fall colors, along with all of the other trees. And, it was a great change for us because, even when we get out of the desert, the terrain in Southern California is very dry/brown. It was nice to see all that green for a change.

Without getting into really long explanations, these pictures are of Tally standing in the Vineyard, the two of us at a tasting room at a vineyard, and Tally outside of a cupcake store in Napa (the store did very good work)

We ate at two different restaurants for dinner, both of which were great. I won't go into it, but if you ever go, I would seriously consider Celadon in Napa and Tra Vigne in St. Helena. The food was really, really good.

On the way down to Carmel on Saturday, we swung through San Francisco. It was fun to say we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove over the the presidio and down to the beach, where we were able to get some pictures with the bridge in the background:

(I think I look the best when squinting.)

And, we then stopped in downtown San Francisco a little bit to shop and eat. It was very interesting, but pretty crowded. Of course, there were a ton of weirdos, who I enjoyed watching immensely. Too many to get into here, but, if you want to people watch, go to San Francisco.

SNOB ALERT!!!

OK, so to briefly opine about the Wynn. As I mentioned, we got a good deal there, so we decided to stay. It's a beautiful place, the service and rooms and food (and everything!) are great, and it actually smells good for a casino, but it's just so ridiculous, we've decided.

Vegas can be very expensive (especially ANY of the huge casinos). But, the Wynn takes the cake. It costs $14/day to use the wireless internet in your room and $30/day if you were to use the fitness center (I ran around the strip for exercise, thank you very much.). The food, drinks, everything is too expensive. Now, this does keep a lot of the riff-raff away, which can be a good thing at times, I think. However, it certainly does attract that very famous species, the snob.

Now, don't get me wrong--there are many very nice people there. However, there are a ton of straight-up, rude snobs. No discrimination here--they are American, European, Asian, and everything in between. They can often be heard loudly complaining about little things, wearing ridiculous clothes, complaining about the (already amazing) service, aimlessly wandering right in front of you and inconsiderately stopping right in your way, not opening the door for you, and giving you disdainful looks (I think, because it's the cool thing to do).

Anyways, this led to high entertainment for Tally and myself. When we were getting ready to check out, we noticed the door and the end of our hallway was open. Inside this door was an extension of our hallway, but the carpet wasn't gaudy (see earlier post), the walls were painted a different color, and this hallway had its own elevators. We were shocked and curious. So, we did what anyone in our position would do: we decided to go over there and take there elevator down to see where it led to.

The whole thing was hilarious. We stuff ourselves into the elevator, overloaded with our cheap luggage. The other people we picked up on the way down included two Asian guys, dressed very expensively, a European guy who was very busy looking cool listening to music on his iPhone and couldn't be bothered, and a couple who got on at the spa floor, looking like they had just been pampered to death. We quietly rode down and got off. Well, this set of room had its own separate lobby with secret rooms and EXTRA-snobby people sitting all around. We coolly kept walking through, until we found the casino and made our way to the parking ramp. I'm sure they knew we were outsiders, since I don't think anyone in that group would be caught dead carrying their own luggage. It was hilarious and fascinating.

Next post: Napa Vally and San Francisco

Vegas (again)!

So, we headed back to Las Vegas for 1/7's Birthday Ball. The Marines always celebrate their "birthday" on the anniversary of their formation (which happened on November 10, 1775). Ours happened to be on the 19th, since all the different groups of Marines on any given base need to somewhat stagger theirs or no one would be around on the 10th. Since we're in the middle of nowhere at Twentynine Palms, my battalion generally goes to Las Vegas.

We decided to stay at the Wynn. Now, that place could be a whole other post on its own. Anyhoo, it all started last year when we used Hotwire! to get a hotel. We happened to land at the Wynn after we reserved a "mystery" hotel for a good price (those of you who use Hotwire! know all about how it works). Anyway, once we were guests there one time, we apparently got on their mailing list, so we got a good offer on a room rate this time, too. I don't think it hurt that we stayed there in the middle of the week, when rates are lower.

Notice this ridiculous carpet. This is in the hallway up on the 58th floor, where our room was. Now, I understand why the casino owners put hideous carpet in the casinos themselves--it is said that it's because they don't want your eyes on the floor, but up, looking around, so you'll notice all of the gambling options and spend more money. That may or may not be true. However, I don't know why you would need to put hideous carpet that looks like little mitochondria way up in the hallways where the rooms are. Furthermore, where do they buy this stuff? I told Tally there must be a "Casino Carpet Warehouse" or catalog separate from what any of us would ever get to peruse. Really, who designs this stuff?

Here's a picture of me risking my life savings on one of the high-limit slot machines. Oh, who am I kidding? We were playing nickel or penny slots or something, hoping to make $5 last as long as we could and get a free drink or something. No jackpot here.

Also, it was Tally's birthday (I won't say which one, except that it rhymes with "shirty") on the 18th, so we tried to celebrate a little. We both like Bobby Flay (from the Food Network), so we went to his restaurant, Mesa Grill, on Tuesday night, and had appetizers (which we delicious, by the way). Here is Tally modeling them for us:

Then, as we decided the two of us didn't need to split a whole cake of some type, here she is with her birthday cupcake (she had already chomped a piece out of the "Happy Birthday" chocolate disc):

Here are two pictures from the Ball itself, one of the two of us, and one of Tally with one of the centerpieces from the table. (No idea why she grabbed that to get a picture, but it is kind of funny.)

...I'm way behind

Sorry for taking so long to put more up here. The weekend before Veteran's Day, we decided to drive up Highway 395, which runs along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevadas (mostly, in a beautiful series of valleys) in California and Nevada. There is a job opening at the Mountain Training Center for the Marines north of Bridgeport, CA (just north of Yosemite), so we went up to check the area out.

It's extremely beautiful up there and very different. We stayed in South Lake Tahoe, and we both thought that was beautiful. It's a very "outdoors" type area, with hiking, rock climbing, skiing, fly fishing, etc. We'll see what happens, but we both agreed we would enjoy it up there. Stay tuned and sorry I don't have many good pictures.

Soup! There it is!

OK, so it was soup time last night. It's getting a little cooler here (even for the desert), which means it was time to pull the trigger on a bowl of goodness. We decided to try Potato and Leek soup, which turned out pretty good.

Ingredients

1 pound leeks, cleaned and dark green sections removed, approximately 4 to 5 medium
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Heavy pinch kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
14 ounces, approximately 3 small, Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced small
1 quart vegetable broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon snipped chives

Directions

Chop the leeks into small pieces. In a 6-quart saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the leeks and a heavy pinch of salt and sweat for 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook until the leeks are tender, approximately 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the potatoes and the vegetable broth, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and gently simmer until the potatoes are soft, approximately 45 minutes.

Turn off the heat and puree the mixture with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream, buttermilk, and white pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired. Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately, or chill and serve cold.

This was very good, but we changed a couple of things:

1) Cook down some bacon in the pot at the beginning, and use that fat to cook the leeks, instead of butter (you can still use some extra butter if there isn't enough bacon fat). Then, crumble up the baconand save it at the end to put on top of the soup.

2) Instead of using 1 cup cream and 1 cup buttermilk, we reduced the cream and buttermilk to 1/2 cup each and used 1 cup 2% milk to make up the balance. You could use all milk, if you wanted. It just depends on how thick/rich you want the soup to be.

3) Since we don't have an immersion blender, I had to just blend up the soup in two batches, then return it to the pan. After you do this, you'll have to re-heat the soup, even though it doesn't say so in the recipe.

Other random things...

So, sorry, we don't have a lot of pictures from our recent travails. We haven't done anything too crazy, though. I went home on leave from October 4th to October 16th. Right before that, Tally and I took a trip up to the central coast and unexpectedly found this cool little winery called "Talley Vineyards", as "Talley" is the surname of the family that owns it. So, of course, we had to stop there.

No, that's not a dead animal in front of her feet. That's some big cat that came waddling over while I was trying to take the picture.

Also, on our way back home, we passed by another winery area north of Santa Barbara. Tally always watches that ridiculous "Bachelor" show, and, for you other fans out there, you'll remember there was some tool named Andrew Firestone on the show several years ago. I believe his family is heirs to the Firestone Tire business, but they also own a couple of wineries. During the show, some time was spent there, and it was very scenic. So, we stopped there so Tally could say she had been there. It was an "amazing" "journey". (Anyone else who thinks the Bachelor is ridiculous will know what I'm talking about there.)

Then, the weekend after I returned, we headed over to Phoenix for a night, then up to Sedona. This was fun, as we had been to both places before and were looking forward to it. We stayed at bed-and-breakfasts both nights, which were wonderful. They were small, the breakfasts were wonderful, and the owners were very tolerant towards the ridiculous weiner dogs.

Iraq...

OK, sorry for not putting anything on here for so long. I figure that, since I'm going gain an hour of tonight, this is a perfect time to get around to this.

I don't have too many good pictures of Iraq, but I'll put a couple of them up here.

We had quite a few instances of sandstorms, of course. However, from what people told me about previous deployments, ours didn't seem as bad as some in the past (of course, people love to exaggerate their old experiences). So, most weren't too bad, although a couple (including the one in the picture) caused you to get sand everywhere (in your room, in your ears, in your teeth--you get the idea).

Here's me wearing all of my crap (except my kevlar [helmet]) and attempting to look tough after coming back from some sort of trip off base.

When we did go off base, we rode in these things, called MRAPs (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected; you can read about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAP_(armored_vehicle))

I have some other random pictures, but nothing too great. We were at this base called Camp Baharia, which was just southeast of Fallujah, and there are now no American forces left there (all Iraqis). It apparently used to be some kind of "resort" back in the day where the Hussein boys used to hang out. Sadly, it seems, from many stories I've heard, that they commonly committed many atrocities there consistent with what they were famous for. This is a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG61C8swnGI) showing what it looked like before the war. The little buildings were still there (we used them), but there was no grass, the tent were not there, and some of the buildings (such as the "disco" [not making this up]) were bombed in the invasion.

The most important advice ever when in Las Vegas!

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T FEED THE BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vegas!

So, decided to head to Las Vegas for a quick weekend getaway, since I will be going on post-deployment leave soon, and Tally won't be able to go with me, since she will be working.

We don't gamble much, but we still managed to have fun. We went to a show called "Le Reve" at the Wynn hotel (the picture of Tally and I above is at the Wynn), which was pretty neat. It's similar to the Cirque de Soleil (French for "The Orange Monkey") shows in that there were lots of cool acrobatics. Also, since it was set in a pool, the swimming and diving mixed in with the story was pretty neat. Tickets for these shows are pretty expensive, but good ol' Tally found out that there is a 1/2 off military discount, so it was great to get that.

Tally thought the fall decorations at the Bellagio were beautiful, as you can see by her wistful gaze upwards.

Also, we decided to have a once-in-a-lifetime meal at a really nice restaurant to celebrate my getting back from Iraq. We decided to go to a place called Carnevino, which is an Italian Steakhouse. It was wonderful. Very expensive, but a lot of fun, and we were able to try some dishes we will never be able to try again. However, they served us our wine in five-gallon buckets, as you can see by the picture of me.

Updates...

OK, so Tally and I have spent the last couple of weeks making several small trips, since she will be working and won't be able to go on leave with me. We went to Los Angeles last weekend, which was nice. Quinn and I took in a Dodgers/Giants game, which was fun.

However, the price of major-league sporting events is (I think) just getting completely ridiculous, and it wasn't event that bad for us (baseball is one of the cheaper live sports to go see). Quinn got us pretty good seats for $12.50 apiece, which was a good start. However, the rest of things went like this. Tickets: $12.50, Parking: $15, Dodger Dog, one beer, caramel corn: $22.50, arriving in the second inning and leaving in the sixth to beat traffic: priceless. OK, maybe not, but you get the idea.

Sorry, no pictures. Maybe next time.....

I'm back!!!

So, the last part of our Battalion (including me) got back early Monday morning. It is great to be home. Sorry for not doing much blogging while I was gone. However, I am deeply disappointed in any (formerly) loyal Tinjblog readers who have switched to other more "cool" blogs since I've been gone.

Tally and I have just been hanging out this week. I have to work the next two weeks, then I'll have two weeks off, during which I'll head back to ND.

I don't have the greatest pictures from Iraq. It all looks similar and, thankfully, it wasn't too crazy for us. I'll try to get some stuff up here eventually. Also, stay tuned for: LA Dodgers game with Quinn, Las Vegas, cycling, triathlon for Tally, weird classes at the gym, and quinoa.

Book club

OK, so I'm not Oprah, but because I'm bored, I'll put up my appraisals of the non-medical books (not that I've read much in that department) that I've read on deployment thusfar:

1) Generation Kill, by Evan Wright. The story of a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with the 1st Marine Reconnaissance Battalion during the initial invasion of Iraq. Pretty ridiculous. Don't read it if you can't handle some serious Marine-type language ("I want the language"..."You can't handle the language"...get it?) and some fairly gruesome actual war stories. Interesting, though, and, even with my limited knowledge, it seems to be very accurate. Thinking about the big, well-protected vehicles we ride around in now, it's remarkable that these guys were basically in humvees that didn't even have windows. Grade: B+

2) The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert Caro. This is a remarkable book by a remarkable author. I never thought I would get into something like this. My father initially read the trilogy by Moses about Lyndon Johnson. I eventually read those, which I think (almost impossibly) are even better than this book. The amount of research he did is staggering. It is 1100+ pages, but I believe I read somewhere that he edited it down from 3000+! Now, just a word of forewarning: you need to be a nerd to enjoy this book. You can be a cool, attractive, fun nerd like myself, but you need to be a nerd nonetheless. Also, reading this will take a lot of time (something my bank account is full of right now). I highly recommend any books by Moses, though. Grade: A

3) Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions, by Daniel Wallace. The book that the 2003 Tim Burton movie was based on. A short, light read, with kind of a neat concept. Short stories based on what seem to be tall tales told by the narrator's father during his childhood, interspersed with the reality of his present-day father, who is sickly and nearing death. Grade: C+

4) One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A crazy story of a Mexican family as it progresses through years and generations. It remarkably tells this story while reminding us (I think) of how certain things tend to stay the same, even though most everything else changes. Most astounding to me was the sheer descriptiveness. To think that Marquez could just pull all of this out of his mind is amazing. It goes on a little long for me, but is still a very good book. Grade: A-

5) How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else, by Michael Gate Gill. A story of how an elderly man who lost his job and is down on his luck in many ways starts working at a Starbucks in New York City. His coworkers are pretty much polar opposites of himself, yet he finds enjoyment in working with them and in serving others that he though he'd never have. He had pretty much had everything handed to him his whole life, but by losing it all, he found this job that gave him more fulfillment than he ever imagined. (That was pretty good, if I do say so myself. I think that should be the synopsis on the back of the book.) It's simply written, but the story is definitely what pulls it through. Grade: B-

6) The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink. The book that the 2008 movie (for which Kate Winslet won an Oscar for Best Actress and which was included in a humorous story on a recent "Tinjblog" post about old people in Palm Springs) was based on. It's an interesting concept for a story that is nicely developed. The most striking thing about it, I believe, is it's philosophical nature. The main character's father is a philosopher in the story, and the author gives a lot of space for the main character to explore his feelings, but, more importantly, WHY he might be feeling that way. It is simple in many ways, complex in others, elegant, and well thought out. I haven't seen the movie yet, but will definitely have to watch it now. Grade: A-

Greetings

Well, I see the old wifers hasn't bothered to put any new posts up here, so I guess it's up to me. Things are (thankfully) going fine here. Fairly monotonous and repetitive, but that's fine. I have been out briefly a few times into some of the local communities, so that has been interesting.

I have taken some pictures of where I am at, but I think I'll have to save those until after the deployment is over. However, I will have to work on putting some other pictures up here. Like, for example, of the sodas that they have over here with Arabic writing. Interesting, and not too bad (at least, the Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi aren't). However, I implore you, never, ever drink diet Sprite out of an Arabic can, should you ever find yourself in this part of the world. That's all I ask. You'll thank me.

It hasn't gotten too hot yet (but buckle up, I'm told). I guess you really get to hate your life in the summer over here. We'll see. Blowing sand hasn't been too big of a deal yet, either, but I've also been forewarned that this will get much worse. The food hasn't been bad, there's a gym here, and a nice area to run, so I can't complain and have gotten a lot of exercise, which is good to pass the time. I think that's about it for now, but will try to periodically put up some more posts.