Day 3

Day 2 was okay. Nathan and I tried to go to breakfast at McDonalds. Who knew they stopped serving breakfast at 10:30? So over our brunch, Nathan again brought up the 'we-should-win-a-million-dollars' thing. This time, instead of saying we could call Eric's boss and have him sent home, he said we could make Eric's dreams come true by buying a beach house. (Eric says if we ever win the lottery he wants to buy a beach house). So, for all the smack talk Nathan does to Eric, the kid does pay attention.

Trip to Walmart for supplies. *sigh* I gotta cook now. :(

Nathan got a new video game, so that pretty much kept him occupied for most of the day. The 'meh' factor kicked in for me. I just had no interest or drive to do anything. Goodness knows, I have plenty of piles of stuff to tackle.

Got my first emails from Eric last night (this morning) about 1:00 a.m. The new phone worked like a dream. I could read the emails and respond without getting out of bed. Thumbs up for the new smart phone!

No telling how long he'll be where he's at. Could be a day, maybe a week. He emailed from a kiosk, and then called me later from a payphone. Unfortunately, his brand-new laptop now has a cracked screen. He'll either try to get an external monitor or buy a new one once he hits his duty station, so we can still do skype. It's new enough, it's probably still under warranty, but getting that handled from the middle east? Probably simpler to just drop the cash at the local PX.

The phone call sounded clear as a bell. No lag time between what he said and what I said. Soooooo much different than OIF 1. Plane ride sucked. They're staying in a huge tent with cots, so there's no privacy. Takes standing in line 1-2 hours to use the phone. The high temp yesterday was 90, but zero humidity, so he was a relatively happy camper.

Said he's been eating at the chowhall and the food's pretty good. Yes, there are KFCs and Subways and Baskin Robbins, but he has absolutely no desire to eat at any of them. These are like walk up shanties.

Nathan and I both have the day off today. I'm debating whether to cancel the bear den meeting tomorrow. It would probably be good to go ahead and do it so we're busy and in a routine. But since I'm the den leader, I'm not focused enough right not to actually plan the darn meeting. That might be asking a bit much at this moment.