I went to bed really early last night.  I’ve been having an issue with headaches lately so I haven’t been very social anyway.  I went to sleep around 10 pm last night.  My roommate, Jessica, wasn’t even home from work yet.  I went to sleep and I actually slept through the night, which in itself is a feat!  It was a good sleep too!  I got very confused when my alarm went off this morning at 5:45.  Even more confused (and a little upset) when my second alarm went off.  I didn’t even set that before I went to sleep.  It was like magic. 

I usually don’t have to be at work until 9 but I decided to come in early.  For no other reason than the fact that once I’m up, I’m up and there’s no going back to sleep.  I learned alot of things when I woke 2 hours earlier then I normally do.

1.  My new neighbors are fun.  They like to play games.  From the sound of it this morning they were either playing dodgeball OR horseshoes IN THEIR ROOM while my poor roommate was still trying to sleep. 

2.  Geese grow up very quickly.  When I first got here there was a Mommy and Daddy.  Those two liked to chase people and peck the hands that feed them.  Then, the Mommy and Daddy had babies of which there were 5 babies.  I saw all 7 of them on my way into work this morning and they’re all fully grown.  I can’t tell which ones are the babies anymore.  They still like to chase people too.  Actually, they were chasing everything that got within about a 20 foot radius of them, to include other birds. 

3.  No matter what time you get to the DFAC, on what day or what week, the panckaes never taste good.  I always have hope that they will get better and I’m more and more disappointed everytime.  I also tried to go as far as make Pigs in a Blanket this morning (because what food doesn’t taste better when wrapped around sausage) and even that didn’t work. 

4.  One of the SGT’s I work with is pretty gullible but at least now I know he cares.  I sneezed this morning while sitting at my desk and he came running over and said, “You better learn to sneeze on your own time.  You’re on the Army’s time now!!!”  To which I responded with a fake cry and a pitiful, “I’m sorry SGT!  It’ll never happen again.”  I guess I kept it up just one second too long because he actually sat in the chair next to me and asked if everything was ok.  I started laughing *with* him but I was also really touched because he was genuinely concerned. 

5.  My boss’ nuggets of joy are few and far between.  She did have a gem this morning though:

6.  Last but not least.  I come into work everyday and look at the pictures either on my wall or in my e-mail.  One thing always remains the same.  I’ve got to cutest niece in the world!  No matter what she does, where ever she goes, what ever is hanging out of her nose (heh, that ryhmed) she is the cutest booger that ever was!!!

So they issue us individual body armor and a kevlar helmet but when you put it on because you have heard 10 explosions in less than 5 minutes, everyone laughs at you.

We had an interesting development come up recently.  Anja found a frog (who they named Kermit), and B let her keep it and even went so far as to make it a little jar-based habitat with rocks, water, and grass.  He instructed her to leave the lid on and not mess around with the frog unless he was there.

Cookie (Kermit had his name changed to Hopper and then Cookie) mysteriously went missing a few days ago.  Along with Anja’s ability to discuss anything related to the frog.  What did turn up, however, was Cookie’s habitat, flooded to the brim with water. 

So I called home this morning and talked to the little squirt with the hopes that I could glean some information on the whereabouts Cookie McFrog.  I apparently caught Anja at a very good time where she was feeling very chatty and was more than willing to discuss things with me.

“Hi Anja.  I heard your frog is missing.”

“Yep.”

“Well, what’s up?  What happened?  Let’s talk about this.” 

“He’s dead.” 

(This is more information than B had gotten – he had no idea where the frog was at all) 

I asked her where he is now.  She said, “He’s gone.” 

“Did you flush him down the toilet?” 

“Yup.” 

“Why would you flush him down the toilet?”

“Because he was dead.”  “How do you know he was dead?” 

“Because I held him in my hand and he wasn’t alive.” 

“Why was he dead?” 

“Because he got out of his jar because I forgot to put the lid on top.” 

“Why was the jar full of water, Anja?” 

“Because he died because he didn’t have any water, so I wanted to give him some water.” 

“And then you flushed him down the toilet?” 

“Yup.”

Funny how I can get a full confession from as far away as I am, but I know if I was home the mystery would remain.  I’ll have to revise my parenting strategies when I get home so I can continue to elicit these sorts of confessions - at least I’m still one up on them on something.

Tonight we had a good night.  We went over to Jim-Ba-Ba’s place or, as we like to call it “Cafe Jimbaba.”  he has turned his trailer into a really nice place to hang out.  He built booths to sit in, benches, tables, hung stuff on the wall and put up mirrors and pictures.  He’s really made this place something special.  A place where he can gather his friends, we can hang out and have a good time.  A place where we can forget that we’re in Baghdad for a little while and just relax. For someone that wasn’t good enough. Last night someone decided that they weren’t happy with his set up and took it upon themselves to do some redecorating.  They cut the cords to the lights, stole his umbrellas, bent the poles over, and broke some other things.  

I don’t know what would posses someone to do this to another person.  It wasn’t his neighbors because everytime Jimmy has people over they’re invited, and after about 10 everyone lowers their voice so as not to disturb.  The people who did it got caught and they will be dealt with (in the legal sense, not the mobster way.)  That’s not my point.  The point is, why does someone have to go and try to ruin someone elses fun?  We’re not an exclusive bunch of people.  We may not seek out new people directly but if you come up to us and try to have a conversation, we’ll talk to you until we’re all blue in the face.  

I just don’t understand the human race sometimes. With all that being said, I’m happy to let you know that Jimmy (as well as the rest of us) won’t let some stupid, immature weiner keep us from having our fun.  New umbrellas were bought, light strands were fixed and the people came in droves (and we’ve got photographic evidence.)  It was good times.

This is all (well, most) of us together.  That’s Jimmy to the right in the white shirt.

Karyn likes to do my hair.  I love it when Karyn does my hair!!!

Well, that’s all for today.  My glog should be up soon!  As soon as it is I will let everyone know!

 Love,

 - Walter

p.s.  I just bought the new JohnMayer Album and when I listened to it I realized that I want to have JohnMayer’s babies.  Thank you and Good night!

Hi it is me, guess poster K-niki (stateside)
OK SO, I get the Diary of an Unremarkable Vanilla  RSS feed.  Don’t you all too?

I was just reading the latest and horrifying installment by guest editor Walter Bean.

“Who Does That (by Walter Bean) ”

I click on the teeny tiny pictures so I can fully appreciate “Cafe Jimbaba”  and they don’t click bigger. So, I click myself to the mother Vanilla sight to see if they will possibly get bigger there.  NOPE

They don’t exhist.

The post doesn’t exhist.

Does Walter Bean exhist?

Was it a ghost?

Am I recieving future posts that haven’t been posted, or past posts that weren’t to be?

I am starting a campaing… Bring back, oh,  bring back  “Who Does That? (by Walter Bean)”
and make the pictures a wee bit bigger.

BTW…I hope the “Cafe Jimbaba”  per-po-taitor got an umbrella planted firmly up the  *&#^%^@

The weather is finally starting to cool off.  In fact, it’s been downright pleasant here lately.  Yesterday was a little uncomfortable and it seems that today might be as well, but for the most part the temperatures have been on a fairly steady decline. 

Now instead of a high of 120°, it only gets up to 100°.

I’m still trying to figure out what’s wrong with me that I think that there’s something pleasant about it being 100° outside.  Regardless, it’s a lot easier to deal with than what it was before.  When I wake up in the morning, it’s been as cool as 68°. 

The fish seem to be as excited about the decline in temperature as I am - when we sit out on the lake, you will hear splashes here and there from the fish throwing themselves out of the water, my guess is in celebration of it not being so damn hot. 

Time continues to move along, albeit slowly.  I am past my halfway point for my time here in Iraq and have only 65 days until I leave here.  There’s no knowing how long until I actually get home, but I am pretty sure I can make it through just 65 more days. 

I have gotten some new pictures of the kids lately so I thought I’d share a few new ones…geez I have got some cute kiddos!!!  I’m missing them like crazy.  B sends me homework and letters from school and has been absolutely great about keeping me at least somewhat involved.  It makes it a tiny bit easier, but still all I think about is how much I’m missing with them.  Ah well.  Only 65 days to go.

 
At home…
Isak was lazing around before school;
Anja, who has apparently turned into a girly-girl that wears nothing to school except skirts, had an out-of-character day and wanted to wear the Italy soccer uniform…with pink high top Cons!

 
Both kids were sick last week.  Poor babies!

 
Isak doing his school project for the TAG (talented and gifted) program - ongoing observing a square yard of grass across from the school; Anja shreds her lunch bag before lunch.  What a surprise!

 
The kiddos at lunch. Anja commandeered B’s piece of cake.
What sweetie pies!!!

Family lunch at school.  A classic Siglet picture.