My main task this week is transcribing, verbatim, a 14 hour court proceeding.

There were 8 tapes total, each tape containing almost 2 hours of the trial. It’s been estimated that it takes an hour to transcribe 10 minutes of court time. I’m trying to finish this as soon as possible to get it out of the way so I can focus on other things I need to get done before I leave as well as to have more time to spend with my family down the road.

I was halfway through my third tape, 153 pages into the transcript, when THE POWER WENT OUT. Fortunately, I save every few pages, but I ended up losing about 3 pages of transcription - the autosave feature had kicked in and saved a couple more since the last time I’d saved.

I had just booted my computer up again, logged on, opened Word, and was trying to figure out where in the document I was, and where on the tape I was, when THE POWER WENT OUT AGAIN. This meant that those 3 pages that were autosaved were now gone, so now I have an extra 6 pages to type all over again.

And just so you all know, there was a significant amount of time I just spent trying to do mathematical equations to figure out how much time this will take and how much time is lost and how much time this just set me back, but, well, if you want to know, figure it out yourself.

“Mamma, are there girl presidents?”

“In some countries.”

“In America?”

“No, honey, not in America. Not yet.”

“Well, I’m going to be a girl president.”

“Of which country?”

“Of China.”

Good luck, sweetie. Send me a postcard and let me know how it goes for you.

Top 5 countries my visitors are from:

1. The U.S.A.
2. Saudi Arabia
3. United Kingdom
4. Spain
5. Canada

Over the last month, I’ve averaged about 370 unique visitors per day! (hi!  I expect 370 comments to this post so I know who you all are!)

And my favorite -some interesting key phrases used in finding my website:

• biggest loser garlic shrimp

• sweeping of the membranes to start labor

• diaper hand

• frank zappa poop shoot

• david beckham diary

• horse fart

And my personal favorite,

• bald guy sex

For the first 3 months I worked here in Spain, very very very little happened.

Why is it that when there’s nothing to do, there is REALLY NOTHING TO DO, but then one thing comes along and suddenly you have 47 more things to do that are all due RIGHT NOW?

We recently had an inspection at work, which is a very thorough, time consuming event. We spent the week prior getting everything in perfect order, and wouldn’t it figure that when they finally came to our office, they didn’t really look at any of it??

While we were preparing for the inspection, we were also preparing for the court-martial, which wasn’t too much preparation from the LNs (legalmen, my job) but more for the attorney with us just doing little research projects here and there.

Then the court-martial comes along, and you’re there late the night before and early the day of, and then staying late for the trial. My usual working hours are 8-5, absolutely nothing to complain about there, but the day before it was 8-7, then the day of it was 6:45-6, and then the next day it was 5:45(!!)-7!

In between were visits and briefs, some literally in the middle of the trial, that we had to rush over to attend; tons of paperwork before, during and after (I took 81 pages of notes over the course of the 14 hour trial), and then of course those meaningless, redundant tasks that you now have absolutely no time for and are now piling up.

Add to that that I’m now transcribing the tapes verbatim, which statistically takes 1 hour for every 10 minutes of talking (so that’s, what, 840 hours???), and there’s another trial coming up very soon that we are having to do logistics for…and add to THAT that I’ve got appointments for a physical, OB/GYN, vaccinations, optometry, audiology, area briefs, personnel information, etc etc etc., that I have to fit in as well!

This makes my deployment look like a piece of cake.

I woke up today at 8:00 to the front screen door slamming - we had a sleepover last night and I knew it had to be our guest leaving, so I jumped up and ran out to watch her to make sure she got home OK. That’s one way to wake up and get moving in the morning!

I knew right then, at 8:00, that this was going to be a very warm day. Sure enough, my thermometer climbed and climbed, all the way up to 80° (in the shade!) (27°C). I started a turkey breast in the crock pot, took Isak to the grocery store to do some shopping, and then came home and made the kids bag lunches for them to take outside for a picnic. Our yard sure has improved since we moved in! B regularly seeds, fertilizes, waters and mows it, and it’s finally soft enough to walk on a good part of it barefoot (there’s still a large part that is all crabgrass - when we moved in, it was about 95% crabgrass over the entire yard!)

Here’s what it was before:

Here’s the kids’ picnic today:

You can see behind them how it’s got some brown areas, that’s the crabgrass that B hasn’t gotten to yet. He’s been mostly just doing the area right behind the house where the kids play. It’s so much nicer now.

Mr. Sensitivity…to the sun…

What kind of look is this?!

As it continued to get warmer and nicer, I decided we really ought to take advantage and go to the beach. After a couple stops along the way (THEY DON’T SELL FLIP FLOPS FOR KIDS ON BASE!) we made it to the beach. The sand was soooo soft, and the weather was perfect.
The kids went straight for the water even though the water is still pretty cold, and Anja made friend with an 8 year old little girl who didn’t know a word about what Anja was saying - but that didn’t slow Anja down!

Here are a few pictures:

Anja creating a sculpture:

Isak’s head fell off and I found it in the sand:

A few things that haven’t been spotted in a long time:

- Me in shorts
- Me wearing a two piece bathing suit - so what if it’s only a tankini
- Me using my iPod for its intended purpose of MOBILE MUSIC instead of permadocked in my office or my kitchen

Good times.

I had to think of a category name for all the posts relating to Iraq. My favorite title that I’ve seen came from a messageboard I’m on, a couple of years ago when someone’s friend would send out emails with the subject line, “Between Iraq and a Hard Place” - this one is still my favorite.

I finally came up with a title and didn’t even realize exactly how perfect it was until I researched it a bit:

Iraq the Casbah.

Cas·bah also Kas·bah
n.
1. A castle or palace in northern Africa.
2. often casbah The older section of a city in northern Africa or the Middle East.

and then the explanation from Wikipedia.com:

“Rock the Casbah”, one of the most popular songs by The Clash, was released on their 1982 album Combat Rock. It is one of their few songs to become a Top 10 hit in the United States, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini. The song gives a fictitious account of the ban being defied by the population who proceed to “rock the casbah”, causing the King to order jet fighters to bomb the revellers. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. The song does not mention Iran, nor does it give the specifics of any Islamic nation, and in fact it uses Arabic terms instead of Persian, mentioning casbah, sharif, bedouin, and sheikh. It is one of the more light-hearted songs by the Clash, particularly as they were well-established as a political band. Political undertones are often read into the song.

..

It has been reported that “Rock the Casbah” was an unofficial anthem for the American army during the first Gulf War (the line about dropping “bombs between the minarets” being particularly relevant). This has been seen as highly ironic, if not downright insulting, by many Clash fans, given the band’s well established left-wing politics and anti-war stance, yet as appropriate by some, as the song is an attack on hypocritical Arab leaders who ban Western influences for their subjects, but are happy to reap the benefits of such influences for themselves.

It’s funny how I always seem to write the most when there’s really nothing to write about, and when there is stuff to write about, I can’t seem to find the words to write about it. Such would be the case this week. It’s hard to find the line of what is appropriate to post and what isn’t; when is the right time to post and when isn’t; what is OK for everyone on the entire internets to read and what isn’t.

In this particular post, the links are very helpful for those of you not in or involved with the military.

This week has been a very busy, very roller-coaster-y week. On Wednesday and Thursday, I court reported a general court-martial - the worst one I’ve seen. It was a domestic violence case, and resulted in confinement for 9 years and a dishonorable discharge. It was very hard to sit in court and remain neutral through the trial - I wanted to cry on many occasions, and wanted to get up and scream at the accused on others. Horrible, haunting, chilling stuff that no one should ever have to live through. At least some justice was served, though his confinement will be cut short due to a plea deal. I hope this woman and her son can someday feel safe again, and that her family - as well as his family - can find peace again. It was so sad for everybody involved.

The roller coaster continued on an upswing as the deputy judge advocate general of the Navy came and talked to us about the future of our community, and at the end I was awarded a personal achievement medal from my last command - what a person to receive the award from!

But the biggest roller coaster of all happened while all this stuff flew by.

On Tuesday, everyone in my community in Europe received an email saying there was an Individual Augmentee (IA) billet that has remained unfilled, and that if someone didn’t volunteer, someone would be “voluntold” (one of my favorite unofficial Navy terms).

I spoke with B about it and together we decided that this would probably be a better time than any other time possible, and so I put my name in the hat. I was told on Thursday that my name was selected and that I would be filling the next billlet in Iraq.

I have waited to post anything about this until after we told our families, and that was as hard, if not harder, than I expected. I knew it’d be difficult but when the words “We have to talk to both of you at once,” came out, I suddenly realized that our families would make the instant assumption that we were expecting. What a shock for them to go from expecting that news to hearing, “I’m going to Iraq.”

We told our kids first and fortunately, they both are taking it pretty well. Anja has told me she’s sad, and I told her that’s OK and I am too, but she seemed comforted by the fact that we’ll be able to send messages back and forth with email. Isak - who I was more concerned with - smiled and said, “So this means I get to sleep in your bed again, right?” When I was away on the Lincoln, one way that B helped the kids feel good when I was gone was to let them sleep in our bed, on my side. Isak, in particular, really liked that and even when I got back, had a hard time adjusting back to sleeping in his own bed and it’s been an ongoing issue to have him NOT sleep in our bed.

I don’t have any details at this point as far as when and where I’ll be going, just a general timeframe and a list of places I might go. I do know that I’ll be back in the states before I go for some training, so I am anticipating at this point taking a week of leave beforehand to fly out and see my family before I go.

The good news is that a., this will knock out my deployment and hopefully I won’t have to worry about this ever again; b., tax free pay!; c., Niki will get sand she probably never even considered.

I am concerned - obviously among other things - about how I will deal with the heat. I will be there for the hottest part of the year, and after 3 years in the relatively cool Pacific Northwest, preceded by 5 years in Iceland, the mere thought of the 130°’s (that’s 55-60°C for my non-American readers) makes me want to take a cold shower.

But it’s a drryyyyy heat.