in the airport

yup you guessed it, I'm sitting in the Augusta airport for the first time waiting on my flight to leave for Charlotte so I can catch the connector flight to LA for my weekend trip.  I'm off to see one of my good friends that I was in the AF with and we have all kinds of plans.  She has us traveling all day tomorrow, then off to a BBQ, then to the Laugh Factory on Sunset for some laughs and Sunday we are still debating on.  We were going to go to a Lakers game but the tickets were more than I wanted to pay for a NBA game I'd only pay prices like that for college basketball.

two weeks of down time

Well the end of the exodus has come and I am sure Monday will bring many things.  It was nice having time to catch up on everything at work, even though I still didn't get nearly half of the things I planned on doing done.  This  is the first time I have actually been in the office for Christmas, before I was either in Germany or working TDY for President Ford's funeral.  It was nice but I think I preferred being on vacation for the two weeks but it's such a short time to go to Germany, besides it's still expensive to fly over there but we'll see :)

I am excited that I managed to grill a perfect Filet Mignon on my new grill that I bought myself for my birthday/christmas ( or whatever holiday was appropriate).  I haven't done it before so I wasn't sure if I should risk it as that is not a cheap meat, lol.  But hey how do you  know unless you try.  Good thing I had use it 2 other times before to get a feel for how is works, because the first time it didn't really get hot enough (not enough coals) and the second time it was WAY too hot (of course too many coals).

I have so lapsed so here goes

So of course Thanksgiving was hectic with all the events we had going on and that quickly led into December and next thing you know it's after Christmas already and New Year's is right around the corner. It has been nice to get some days off here and there and of course it has been quiet since all the troops are on exodus. It's given me some time to catch up and clean my office just a little, next week will help hopefully. There is so much to organize and get straight.

Oh yeas let's go back to before Christmas for a second. On post we had trees for troops which was really cool and the trees were actually very nice, I haven't seen this before but I'm sure it's happened other places. After all the troops had the opportunity to get the trees, the rest were left for people on post to grab, hence I got a free tree. We didn't decorate it right away as the next day we set off to go to Chapel Hill, NC so K could meet the basketball team.

The drive there was longer than I expected, good thing I got a free hotel room with all the points I got from staying in the hotel here for 30 days. We got there and of course I went christmas shopping what I mean but that is I stocked up on UNC ornaments, wreath ect... and a few things for the house of course. The next day was the day for the team so we had plenty of time. We even managed to go eat at Carrabba's and hit a movie, Bolt (not bad).

So the next day is cold as hell of course as we have to stand in line to get into this event. We waited for about an hour before they let us in and then we watched the team play for a bit and finally it was time for all the kids to make a mad dash onto the court to see if they could get the signatures they want. K was very disappointed he didn't get Hansbrough's signature but the line was long within seconds so he tried his best to get some of the other's signatures. He was so disappointed though and you could see some of the other kids cutting the line but no one was doing anything. Parent's weren't allowed down there so things were a little out of control.

Anyway we finally finished there, they only give the kids 30 minutes (way to short) to get the signatures but at least we were able to get on the road. I am getting old, all the driving wiped me out for a few days.

Halloween and the best costume goes to...

US of course or why else would i bring it up.  See pictures below.  We went to this spot called Monkey Joe's which has all kinds of inflatables.

That was just a quick up-date. Got to go.

I was worried

But I received my voter's registration card just in time.  Some things take forever here in GA.  I ordered my personalized plates (of course) way back in the middle of September and to this day I still haven't received them.  

Off topic, I need to vent about work.  As a Public Affairs Specialist, no where in the regulations does it say we are responsible for the quarterly awards ceremony and annual awards ceremony and that's what I have been stuck with for about the last 3 or 4 weeks.  But it gets better, the people involved like to take their time and then everything has to be done in the last week.  When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING.  I mean I have to track the awards for soldiers and civilian, contact all the contributors, track if they are coming and what they are "donating" to the winners, run by jag the gifts, arrange everything for the ceremony place, equipment, speaker, narrator, band and protocol, then write the winners bios, then the script for the ceremony, then make sure the ceremony is properly announced on post through all the means we have and also make sure all the contributors have the info they need for their contributions. OH yeah and make sure all the info is right on certificates, pick-up contributions for the people not attending, oh did i mention make sure the star notes are done and of course do the civilian certificate.  I'm sure i've left out a lot of things but i'll know tomorrow exactly what once the ceremony is done with.

That's it for now because Veterans' Day is right around the corner and that has a bunch of things going with it that I am tracking or working on still even though all requests are suppose to be 45 days out.

Canada

Went to the comedy club last night and had a pretty good time. The comedians were Barry Kennedy, Cal Post and Daniel Tirado. I am hoping to hit it again before I leave Saturday morning. I also got to see some other comedians on Thursday night that were pretty funny. Over all the trip wasn't bad. I sold my first thing on Craigslist, my old winter tires from the Honda for like $260. They were Michelin and had only been used for 5 months. That money was my trip to the Spa money and that was good too. The drive there and back was ok but the distance now is almost double but still better than being in Albuquerque, NM.

The job

OK So now I have been settled in the job for a few weeks and it has been a busy few weeks.  I am glad my position is community relations as that is what I wanted to do but I never realized how busy that position can be especially when you ‘re in a community as supportive of its troops as Augusta, GA.  Of course that’s a two-sided sword, it means they also ask a lot of you, which is where I come in.  With Veteran’s day coming up, I have had at least 10 requests for things such a speakers, color guard, firing detail team and of course the Band.  It takes a lot of coordination and you can’t always support everyone, which isn’t fun, then I also get the wonderful job of telling those we can’t support.

That is not the only thing I do, I also deal with all volunteer requests, which come in often as well.  This does give the soldiers the opportunity to give back to the community they are currently a part of. 

Another thing I am working on is feeding the troops for Thanksgiving.  Several churches have invited troops to join them in a Thanksgiving meal and trying to coordinate that is not as easy as I thought.  

Off to Canada we go

Well the first half of the drive wasn't bad at all besides the fact that we had to wait to leave until after K was released from school at 1530hrs.  Made it to MD by midnight 8hrs and 15 min drive.

Did I mention K's stupid school wouldn't let him have excused absences for the 3 days next week because they don't see Canadian Thanksgiving as a special circumstance and denied my request.  For crying out loud, it's kindergarten.  That's why even though I had a training holiday Friday we couldn't  leave nice and early or  else may have had a conniption fit at the school.  Anyway we're getting ready for the second half of the trip hopefully this part goes well and I get to Ottawa in time to hit the comedy club tonight.

quick

I know it has been a while and there is a lot to talk about but as luck would have it (ok so it was planned) We're off to Canada for a week, YEAH finally a real vacation (well after the grueling 18 hour drive).

Maybe I will have time to catch everything up there.

Work has been busy, I can definitely say Community Relations is not a job where you occasionally work, it's one where you occasionally don't get a call or email every few minutes but being busy makes the time fly by.

PS Did I mention it's my birthday tomorrow, YEAH me (we  wont go into how old I am)

Before and in progress pictures

Ok YEAH me I closed on my house on friday and the painters got started asap which is good as my household goods are being delivered on thursday.  I have been busy as hell so I haven't been able to write nearly as much as I have wanted but such is life sometimes.  Now i'm going to try to add a bunch of house pictures.

Above is the prior owners version of K's room
Above is a work in progress for K's room

And this is the finished product of K's room