Congratulations Zach!

This is our cute as a button nephew, Zach, and the judge in his custody case granted the majority of his custody to his dad's side of the family. It all worked out great because his dad's side of the family loves and cares a lot for him, and he knows it.

So, congratulations kid! With luck, we'll be back to Texas to see you soon!

Mr. Hakim Al Jaburi

He was our Arabic translator when we were in Iraq. He was not only kind but he was a funny and generous man as well. His trailer was next to mine and a whole bunch of us spent many evenings in his trailer drinking chai and talking about each other's families. He let us borrow his wool blankets when the coldness in the desert evenings became too much to bear, and before we left Iraq, he was going to apply to be a Rhodes Scholar and come to study in the U.S., and I thought that it was only going to be a matter of time before we all meet again.

It was not to be, however. After a week of getting back to the states, we got word that Hakim was assinated when he was driving back from the U.S. base to his family after he had collected his wages for the week.

His death was not the only death that I've encountered during my tour in Iraq, but his passing was especially sad because we've gotten to be friends over the time that I had spent in Iraq.

I think heaven, or whatever that'll come after life, will be a very interesting place, at least for me. Let's see, my grandmothers will be there, so will many of their friends that I used to know, and I know that Hakim will be there too. Now if I can just figure out how to be at least half as nice and generous and some of these people....

The black and white collection

And here are our kitty cats!

Silly's on the left and Little Man is on the right, this picture was taken while we lived in Kansas City.

Pho

Oh how I miss you!

Our Ramen!

This is our dog, Ramen, and he has been the best birthday gift ever! The GF gave him to me as my 30th. birthday gift. I had the choice of either a palm pilot or a dog, and had I picked the palm pilot, it would be sitting in some box in the garage somewhere instead of being utilized.

I hope he'll be with us for many more years and x number of more moves to come!

Welcome to the world, Brandon William Lowe!

This week....

The GF had a chance to meet my remotely located boss while on a business trip to DC, she (the GF) had quit her job the day before and since she's a lot better at this direction thing than I am, so we asked our landlor to take care of the dog for a day while we ventured down to DC.

Without revealing the details of the business meeting, it was a sort of "sales" effort by my remote boss to try to secure a business contract. I was basically told not really to say much of anything and just watch my boss "do her thing". Unfortunately, I think what these people were looking for were not things that we could offer. It was kind of funny and sad at the same time as my boss kept trying to tell them about the company's capabilities while the clients were either looking away or shaking their heads.

That brings me to my boss. She's this lady who has brought in the company a lot of contracts because of her previous business associations. She used to work for a state university as their library science specialist. Which means that she's good at researching things but not neccessarily intepreting them. Over the years, she has established a team of other library science folks for her team, and this other guy and I were hired at analysts to try to make sense of the data that they've gathered in order to crank out these reports. I think she'd rather have gotten more library science specialists than people like me and the other guy.

So come to find out that she has a habit of pissing people off and being a control freak over those who work for her. There were approximately 14 analysts who took the high road because of her. My fellow analyst and I have already encountered various examples of her idiosyncracies....only to have our suspecions confirmed later on by her team of librarians.

We're stuck, I'm stuck. Work has become irritating and burdensome. Yet I know that for now I must grin and bear it, and if I can, try to make the best of this situation....if I only knew how...

The poor GF is frustrated over how horrible the job situation is around here. I am sure that I've not been much of a source of comfort to her either. The pets are cold and I felt at fault for bringing them to such a cold place to live at. I only hope that by next year, this time, we'll be at a warmer place and griping about how hot January has been.

Looks like I was close.....

Sociology 92% Anthropology 83% Psychology 83% Philosophy 75% English 75% Biology 67% Journalism 67% Engineering 67% Dance 58% Mathematics 58% Linguistics 58% Art 50% Chemistry 50% Theater 50% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

*This is about what major should I take in college...I was an anthropology major, so I was close!

High School Never Ends

Four years you think for sure
That’s all you've got to endure
All the total weenies
All the stuck up chickies
So superficial, so immature
Then when you graduate
You take a look around and you say HEY WAIT!
This is the same as where I just came from
I thought it was over
Aw that’s just great

The whole dang world is just as obsessed
With who‘s the best dressed and who‘s having...
Who‘s got the money, who gets the hunnie's
Who‘s kinda cute and who‘s just a mess
And you still don’t have the right look
And you don’t have the right friends
Nothing changes but the faces, the names, and the trends
High school never ends

Check out the popular kids
You’ll never guess what Jessica did
How did Mary Kate lose all that weight
And Katie had a baby so I guess Tom’s straight
And the only thing that matters
Is climbing up that social ladder
Still care about your hair and the car you drive
Doesn’t matter if you’re sixteen or thirty-five

Reese Witherspoon,
She’s the prom queen
Bill Gates,
Captain of the chess team
Jack Black, the clown
Brad Pitt, the quarterback
Seen it all before
I want my money back!!

The whole dang world is just as obsessed
With who’s the best dressed and who’s having...
Who’s in the club and who’s on the drugs
Who’s throwing up before they digest
And you still don’t have the right look
And you don’t have the right friends
And you still listen to the same poop you did back then
High school never ends

High school never ends

The whole dang world is just as obsessed
With who‘s the best dressed and who‘s having...
Who‘s got the money, who gets the hunnie's
Who‘s kinda cute and who‘s just a mess
And I still don’t have the right look
And I still have the same three friends
And I’m pretty much the same as I was back then
High school never ends

High school never ends

High school never ends

Here we go again




....and I'd go bowling for soup!

And the search still goes on......

For a better place to work and live, that is.

The GF will start her first day of work tomorrow, it wasn't really what she wanted. Even though it's in her line of work (phlebotomy), but it's a temp job and she has some ways to commute and that is a bit of a concern because we don't know what the weather would be like from this point on. So far, we've had "unseasonably" warm weather, but we don't know if this is going to last.

I'm still at this job, and it's okay but I'm beginning to feel that this is really not the place for me to stay at. I'm stuck working for a very type A boss who is not really into product integrity, and on top of that, not only am I required to work my job duties, but I'm also supposed to market the company and bring in more workers like myself. It really wasn't what was told to me when I initially interviewed with them. I'm not a marketer, I don't know the first thing about it. In a normal business scheme of things, there should be money allocated for us to perform tasks like that. For now, I'm going to try to grin and bear it, but I'm thinking this is just not me and I am trying to see if I can get us out of here by the end of the year. My sister said that maybe I'm just not cut out for a regular permenant job, and maybe she's right, but what is the point of staying around this feeling of distaste?

It has been a fairly quiet weekend, and even though it's kind of boring but at least it's predicatable, and there's a degree of comfort in that.

Better Days....

I think this should be the anthem for the new year....

And you asked me what I want this year
and I'll try to make this kind and clear
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
'cause I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
and designer love and empty things
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

So take these words and sing out loud
'cause everyone's forgiven now
'cause tonight's the night the world begins again

I need some place simple where we could live
and something only you could give
and that's faith and trust and peace while we're alive
and the one poor child who saved this world
and there's ten million more who probably could
if we all just stopped and said a prayer for them

So take these words and sing out loud
'cause everyone's forgiven now
'cause tonight's the night the world begins again

I wish everyone was loved tonight
and somehow stop this endless fight
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

So take these words and sing out loud
'cause everyone's forgiven now
'cause tonight's the night the world begins again

'cause tonight's the night the world begins again


By the Goo Goo Dolls

Happy new year, may all the bad things of this past year finally pass, and all the good things make their ways in for this new year! May we all be blessed with good health, wealth, peace, and happiness!