So, I've been back in Iraq for awhile now. There really isn't much to say about it.

Guess what?

It's still hot and dusty. Big surprise there. The big difference is how much less violence there is. Some of the things we do now compared to my first time boggle my mind. I guess progress has been made.

In my little cubicle, I can't really say much about it. My job is operations NCO. This seems to mean keep things running smoothly, be it computers or vehicles.

There isn't much job satisfaction in this. I will be picking up mail and working late so my troop could go do a cool story. The 1st Corps Band is playing for the British Queen's birthday today.

Did you know she has a state birthday and her real birthday? That is pretty neat in my book. I need a state birthday with parades and stuff. It would be fun. I wonder if she gets gifts for her second birthday.

Can you imagine if she got a gift from every subject? I bet a lot of it would be cheap useless stuff.

At any rate, time is marching along. I will go on leave soon, which sucks because I've only been here a couple (few) months, but what can you do?

I think I will be taking a day off soon, so that will be nice. That will be my first non-leave/pass day off during a deployment. Insanity!

At any rate, I'll just keep plugging away until this tour is over, too.

Well I think most of you who read this know that I was destined for my third rotation to Iraq. Terrible as that is; there is something much worse. It is the jet lag I feel right now that I'm in Kuwait.

If you have never deployed Kuwait is the staging area prior to entering Iraq. It's kind of like being in purgatory except you still have to eat and sleep. Those two are really important.

I'm not really sure where I am going with this. I blame jet lag and not enough sleep.

I flew out on Monday to Ontario, CA, which to suffice to say is not in Canada. Go figure. I thought I was going to Canada, but I was wrong. I guess that explains how my friend knew about their USO.

Anyway, then we sat in a hot hangar waiting to get on a flight. We get lined up and the plane breaks for a while. We tried again and again. Third time was the charm.

After a layover in Montana (thank you USO volunteers for the McDonalds) and then Shannon Ireland, we made it to Kuwait. Yay!

I do want to specifically thank the Minniapolis, MN, USO volunteers because they went above and beyond to make the us feel a little bit better about leaving home and filling our bellies with goodies.

At any rate, thats the synopsis of the fligth. You'll have to e-mail me or IM me about the details of figuring out where we were suppose to go. I will say that prior planning prevents piss poor performance.

I'll let you wonder if there was prior planning.