Bammers

As we were baking the perfect vanilla bean crème brûlée, Em asked Sam, "Why are you so happy today?" Sam replied, "'Cause nobody's bothering me." His dad then asked, "Who bothers you?" He then points at Max then his dad and then his mom and upstairs at his sleeping brother!(Oct 2008)
WHAT A PUNK!

He has bee exceptionally difficult this last week, screaming and crying at every little thing, even giving Em the worst bite mark I've ever seen! Then yesterday, he was back to the old smiley Sammers we all know and adore.(May 2007)

I hope it lasts! I guess we need to just stop bothering him! =)

I was going to provide you with a little clip of his most recent tantrum where Em gets the gnarly bruise, but as I went to edit it is was much too sad to see him so upset. =(

Carrot Cake from ATK*

This post is dedicated to Sara. Who is Sara, the four of you may ask. She was one of my best friends in High School. We have recently come back into contact with each other this past year along with Jenni, another of my best high school friends. So Sara here is the requested recipe, complements of my wonderful wife who willingly sacrificed time from her blog to type this up.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting*

If you like nuts in your cake, stir 1 1/2 cups toasted chopped pecans or walnuts into the batter along with the carrots. Raisins are also a good addition; 1 cup can be added along with the carrots. If you add both nuts and raisins, the cake will need an additional 10 to 12 minutes in the oven. Philadelphia Cream Cheese is recommended by the “Test Kitchen”.

Carrot Cake

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound carrots (6 to 7 medium), peeled
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed (3 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups safflower, canola, or vegetable oil. (This seemed like a lot of oil. Substitute part of the oil with applesauce if you'd like. Janeen, pretend that we did.)
Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened but still cool
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

• For the cake: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position; heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and spray the parchment.

• Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

• In a food processor fitted with the large shredding disk, shred the carrots (you should have about 3 cups); add the carrots to the bowl with the dry ingredients and set aside. Wipe out the food processor and fit with the metal blade. Process both sugars with the eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With the machine running, add the oil through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process until the mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl Stir in the carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time. Cool the cake to room temperature in the pan on a wire rack, about 2 hours.

• For the frosting: When the cake is cool, process the cream cheese, putter, sour cream and vanilla in a clean food processor until combined, about 5 seconds, scraping down the workbowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the confectioners’ sugar and process until smooth, about 10 seconds.

• Run a pairing knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, peel off the parchment, and invert the cake onto a serving platter. Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting evenly over the surface of the cake. Cut into squares and serve.

*ATK-America's Test Kitchen. I've never cooked a bad recipe from them!

Fun Birthday days!

First off, a thank you all who have wished me a Happy Birthday, especially the many on my wall on Facebook!

Emily did many a nice thing for my birthday, the least of which wasn't putting up with me saying "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!" after each birthday demand. It all began with having the day off from work. Em let me sleep in a little. Then came the Eggs Benedict (Eggs-B: My 2nd favorite breakfast closely behind Eggs-a-la-Goldenrod, which subsequently became the dinner request). Then Boy #1 was sent off to school and the rest went on a trip to Oriase Gorge. This was an approximately 70 km drive through beautiful rice field country, which is turning a beautiful golden color. My main desire was to finally let my camera get out in the open. The only problem, other then taking the wrong fork in the road at one point, was getting to the wooded Gorge and Sam getting sacred of bears and wanting to go home. We found a good place to park 50 yards from a beautiful waterfall. We, mostly Em, distracted Sam from the fear of bears and the subsequent fear of snakes and the subsubsequent fears of his parents falling in the river/stream (Em did fall in with one leg later on=)). "Daddy! Down't Dat's Dane-gerr-ous!"It was a very pretty, yet short walk. I got to do some fun photography and see a little of the beautiful area we call home(ish).

Em continued to put up with some more birthday demands, I went and bought myself a Spiderman football at the BX (base exchange...store) to play catch with Max (Gabe has claimed complete ownership of the ball now), and had my favorite dinner. 31 is great!

But no!!!! My Birthday wasn't over yet! We went out to eat with our friends the next night. Then on Saturday I went on a fun ride with my new friend Merrill and our collective 6 kids, yes all 6! (See picture for how such a thing is possible) Then watching the BYU Utah St football game.

Sunday was the final day my Birthday was honored, strike that, considered as Em made dinner and my favorite America's Test Kitchen Carrot Cake!

Bonsai: A How To Short Course

Why Short? Because I'm Tired!!

I had my second Bonsai class the other day. I already alluded to my new forest, but I want to briefly illuminate on the things I've done so far in the class.

I repotted one of my Bonsai. These pictures take you through the steps.

1-remove from pot
2-remove the dirt (Old dirt is "No Thank you")
3-trim off the roots
4-put large soil on bottom (Thin layer, about 10%)
5-place medium size in a hill (Thick layer, about 75%)
6-arrange tree and fasten it to the bottom with a copper wire
7-poke to get the pieces to settle
8-fill with small soil (For aesthetics, about 15%)
9-water (often)(the soil begins to look dry again when it needs watering)*
Our Sensei refers to this process as open heart surgery. You have to work quick while the roots are exposed.
The next one show how I've begun shaping my juniper tree. It already has some copper wire on the main trunk, but I wanted to shape it further so I've redirected the top and then the side branches. He explained you want to try to get a triangular shape with the branches.(The smallest branch wasn't visible from the front before, now it will grow up with the guidance of the wire.)

I really enjoyed trying to visualize this living thing and apply my own artistic vision.

*The smaller the pot the more skill it takes to keep alive, but the cooler it looks. A small pot makes the tree look larger in scale.

Fear Factor

I think it started on Tuesday when one of the dental techs came around asking for volunteers for Friday's Fear Factor Challenge. I was in the middle of a procedure, most likely with nitrous oxide (as I must not have been thinking clearly), when he asked me and my tech. We both agreed to it and, being a loyal team, joined up as Fear Factor partners.

Fast forward to Friday, we go to one of the base parks for a Dental Squadron picnic. Knowing that gross eating most likely awaited me in the "challenge" I decided to go ahead and eat the picnic food, thinking that I may as well has something that tastes good in my stomach if I was to ralph latter on, (If you know what I mean). So eventually the challenge began...

There were six teams of two and three rounds. The first round I thought would be easy...an egg toss and I've always considered myself a good egg tosser.* But when I found out exactly what it entailed I feared I couldn't do it. My partner, Airman Forster, had to spin around ten times and then run 15 feet to the eggs and throw 3 to me. I then had to crack them into a cup and drink/swallow them. Yeah, did I mention I have an egg thing?** So, it started and I got one egg cracked into the plastic cup but the other two wouldn't crack so I used my forehead. Then started chuggin'. The first two slipped down fairly easily, then I thought "I have an egg thing." The third made it down as well with only a little bit of an urge to vomit. I was pretty proud of myself and I think my muscles got stronger from the raw eggs proteins.

Two teams were eliminated in round one and then it was on to the next round. I thought I was off the hook now since I had done the nasty egg drinking. Nope. Of course it got worse. We live in the land of uncooked food.

The picnic table was set up with about six different plates with medicine cups filled with different delicacies. Each plate had a playing card in front of it. We each, both partners, choose two cards and had to each one item from the corresponding plate. I got to have a cup of gooey salmon eggs and some chopped up fish "stuff." I tried to combine the two but the eggs stuck to the cup and I was left with only only ball of salty, slimy, fishing mass sitting on my tongue, waiting to be swallowed. With many cheers, and jeers, from the rest of the clinic, I tried to swallow "it." It made its way to the back of my throat where the posterior part of the tongue meets pharynx on to be rejected and sent back to the front of my mouth. This went on for about 3 or 4 tries until it successfully teetered down my throat. The same process followed with the slimy eggs. I didn't dare chew them and I think that was a wise decision. It turned out some of the other items were even worse, at least texture wise.

Round three involved three teams. One teammate was blindfolded, me, and after being spun around multiple times (not wise after eating what had been eaten) carry an egg on a plastic spoon in ones mouth until they find the other partner. Once found, partner 2 cracks egg into some nasty concoction of soy milk, Japanese crackers, and I think little minnow type fish. That was bad., and looked absolutely horrible and there was lots! Luckily I only had to carry the egg that time. We almost won until team in last came through with some fast chugging of the nastiness.

Despite the extreme nastiness, I had fun doing it. I also now understand why I was the only officer involved in the event. I think it was mostly the new people who were brave/dumb enough to sign up!

Here are a few other notable contestants. The last two were the winning team, Sgt James, the girl came through in the clutch chugging down the fish milk concoction.

*I won a giant pumpkin in sixth grade for either an egg toss or egg carry.

**My eggs have to be cooked just right or they make me queasy. If my scrambled eggs are too dry on the edges or if something is slightly off with the texture it ruins it for me.

***My bowels may never be the same.

Staying Up With Mom

Boy #3 and #2 have been sick lately and thus not going to bed well.

#3 was wired and #2 finally zonked out What you can't see is that he fell asleep with a pistol in his hand =)

Bonsai!

Yesterday, I had my second Bonsai class. No it isn't martial arts or a Japanese suicide bombing technique, rather it is the art and cultivation of a small tree or shrub: "'bon' meaning a shallow tray or container; and 'sai', a plant or planting." (Harry Tomlinson) It is offered through the Air Forces Arts and Craft center. We have a Japanese Bonsai Sensei who comes twice a month to help teach us how to care for our bonsai. He is nice and helpful and is around 30-40 years old. His English isn't too bad. my favorite expression he uses is "no, thank you." He employs it by says, this weed is "No Thank You." He will talk with pretty clear English words, then after a while I realize I'm not understanding what he is talking about. But I gather enough to try to grow little trees.

It is a fun and relaxing time. He provides all the soils, a few starter plants, tools, and wire for shaping the branches. So far I have repotted two plants and pruned a few. Yesterday I did my first copper wiring of my juniper tree, helping it take on a better form. It's a true art and science. There are basics to it, but a lot of it comes down to the individuals artistic taste and choice. The author of the above quote, from the book "The Complete Book of Bonsai" describes it well: "Unlike other works of art that, once completed, retain a fixed form, bonsai introduces a fourth dimension in that the design naturally alters with the seasons and with age, and is in a state of continual development."

So here are the beginning members of my new forest:

Maple

Juniper

Azalea (I repotted this one last week)

Azalea

tirimen* *he only knew the Japanese name for this one

The Clinic

Ok, so here is an update about what my "job" entails. I've been seeing patients for the last 2 1/2 weeks now. It's been really nice. i feel a bit rusty at times, but have been having a good time. I work out of two DTR's (Dental Treatment Room). In one, one of my two assistants, does all the cleanings for the kids coming in for check-ups, and then I come over and do their exam. The other DTR is for operative patients, i.e. doing fillings etc. At times it is really busy, especially as I try to get used to the new system of charting and writing the treatment notes. Other days patients will miss their appointments and the days will be slow. At least in the AF I can get paid whether or not I have the patients come.

The kids seem fairly well behaved here. I see a lot more young kids then I did in residency. Here we are seeing the kids 9 and younger, whereas in RI we say from 1-18 and it was usually 6-18. I like treating these littler kids. The Air Force is a cross section of America, meaning we see all the same things as in the civilian world, but on a smaller scale. We will be taking some kids to the OR for treatment under general anesthesia, but the list is A LOT shorter then in Rhode Island. I am also going to start doing oral sedation in the clinic. I'm also starting to get some kids coming in on whom I will be doing some small orthodontic work.

One day last week we had an emergency response drill. They, the wing command, took the whole base through an exercise simulating a terrorist attack. The AF has different threat level like Homeland Security has now, but different terms. We practiced through the highest threat level. For the most part I just sat in my office getting caught up on things. Sometimes they have us wear our "MOPP" gear (Mission Oriented Protective Posture) i.e. protective gear like bullet proof vest and/or gas mask, etc.

My assistants are really good. I have one with a lot of experience who is doing the exams and the one assisting me is pretty new and still training. He does a good job, esp. for only being out of tech school for 3 months. One draw back to Air Force assistants, called techs, is that they don't stay in one specialty too long. It hurts their rank advancement to do so. So they get switched around. They are fun to work with.

The clinic has 9 general dentists, one orthodontist, one periodontist, and me. I think that makes 12, and we will be getting an oral surgeon next month.

I even got to do my first "home dental visit" tonight. One of our friends called me after one of the kids they were babysitting hurt his teeth on a trampoline. They brought him over and I got to check him out.* It's nice to be able to help these little kids.

*The kid is fine.

These are from the flop (it got rained out so no stunts were done) of an air show a week or two ago (time has been hard to judge lately).

Max in a Navy rescue helicopter.

One of the F-16's from our base. They are fun to see flying around each day.

EarthQuake

Thank you to all of you who have been so concerned about us after the recent 6.9 Earthquake, i.e. Dave. No we were not hurt. No the 21 cm predicted tsunami did not wash our small children away. No nothing was damaged. No I didn't know there was an earthquake in Northern Japan either until the JAG preparing our will told us. So since Dave was the only one concern for their brother, son, in-law, friend, stranger, he will inherit all that we have! including our children!! (I hope he doesn't have to inherit the debt. But then again who cares I'll be dead.) =)))

Apparently though, Japan gets lots of quakes. We slept through on on like the third day here. We missed a big one in July that rattled the base a bit too.

*If you can't translate the sarcasm, we were not affected nor do I believe anyone but the underwater critters were affected, though that may affect our sushi!** Rice field on the way to Hachinohe.

***By the way the AF does free wills, power of attorneys, taxes and probably other things they haven't informed us about.

100 Yen Sushi!!!!

Yum and Fun!!After a rainy Labor Day pancake breakfast at the base beach this morning we shopped around some Japanese stores and then ended up at the coolest restaurant...yes the 100 Yen Sushi Restaurant!

It was wicked cool. The sushi comes out on little boats next to your booth, but the coolest part was if you had a special order you type it in on the screen and then they send it out on the bullet train (top rail).The boys had a great time. They kept getting excited about the cantaloupe slices and desserts! I even coerced Max into eating a piece of Sashimi (raw seafood sliced thin and placed upon sushi rice), which ended up having some wasabi mixed in with the rice. (He had one without the eyeballs!) He also enjoyed the tempura roll and upon being told he just ate seaweed exclaimed, "I ate seaweed! and I liked it!!?"

They charge you by the plate. 100 yen is akin to $1. But the plates kept piling up! At the end they come total it up and then you pay as you leave. Some of the plates cost more and are color coded accordingly.

Everyone enjoyed the experience and look forward to more 100 Yen Sushi experiences. *

We ended the day with a nice hamburger and hot dog BBQ on our new 1/2 off grill from the BX!
Max kept saying we had a great breakfast and then lunch and now we are having a great dinner!"
(Em is sharing Max's yummy creamy shaved ice with chopsticks)

*The best part may have been the sink in the bathroom though:

The Statue of Liberty

This weekend I made the coolest discovery: The State of Liberty is in Northern Japan!!! Yes it is true...at least the largest Statue of Liberty in Japan is in Shimoda, which is in Northern Japan. See it's true! The statue including the base is a true replica of the New York version. My friend and I took our kids + 1 neighbor kid (who is just like Max at age 3: fast, wild, and curious) to the Statue of Liberty Park. The turned out to be a lot bigger than expected with some pretty ponds and gardens with a few play grounds scattered here and there. After having watched Dora and Diego rescue Baby Jaguar via a zip line the day before and having asked if he could go on one someday, Max was excited to see one at the park. As you can see it has been raining here consistently for the past 2.5 weeks. It was a fun park with another roller slide (see Em's blog) and the Statue was kinda cool to see in that setting.

Japanese Culture for 100 yen ($1)

There are two major religions in Japan: Shinto and Buddhism. Although, I don’t know a lot about them, esp. Shinto, I will try to convey in this and future Blogs some of the things I come across.

On our Misawa tour to the Buddhist temple there were many grave sites.
These are the ones for those with $$. Those who don’t have $$ have them inside in a smaller form.

By Japanese law, or maybe it’s an imperial mandate, all the dead are cremated. The grave sites are for whole families, not individuals. They pay a lot of respect to the dead/ancestors. There was a recent Oban festival right when we PCS’d here. They go to the grave and take there ancestors home to partake in some of the joy’s of life again, i.e. celebrations, food, etc. Then they return them to the temple. They also place large sticks at the grave sight at certain anniversaries of the ancestor’s death, like at year 1, 3, 7 etc. (not too sure about that part).

So there is lesson one, a bit shaky on details but hopefully enough to keep it interesting.*once I get my nice SLR camera back from the slow boat I hope to be renewed in my photography and blogging spheres.

Dentistry in Japan

So…Work. I am the base’s only Pediatric Dentist, so it is weird to walk around the base and church and know that every one of the kids I see is my patient!! It is exciting and overwhelming. I have a lot of expectations to fulfill. A few of the general dentists have been filling in for pedo for the last year and have been very excited to see me. I should start seeing patients at the beginning of September. They have me busy/not busy doing base orientation (called in-processing), hospital orientation, taking CBT’s (computer based tests) like HIPPA, Security, etc. We also HAVE to take a Misawa tour (done) and a tour of Hachinohe (scheduled for Sept) as part of in-processing.

So my days have been real easy/boring/productive, so I’m trying to take the time to get everything in order and look up a million different acronyms: PCS- permanent change of station, used- I’m PCSing to Japan from Rhode Island; not used- Em I'm really PCS'd right now. TDY-temporary duty used- I did a TDY for COT at Maxwell AFB; not used-m Em that is a nice TDY. BX- Base Exchange; like a Walmart. ETC- etcetera. I’m also enjoying being home a bit more.

So I am the pediatric dentist. I will have two DTR’s (dental treatment rooms) and two assistants. Thus we will have one for cleanings and exams, while the other is scheduled for operative patients. I am currently trying to decide how I will want to do sedations. They have an OR facility to use, but I don’t think I’ll have as big a need as we had in RI. That’s good for the kids, but I really enjoy that part of my job. My supervisor is the base's Periodontist and a Lt Colonel. Above him is the dental squadron commander, a “full bird” colonel. Above him is the group commander, who is over the whole medical group, i.e. the hospital. Then there is the wing commander, another colonel. He is the man in charge of the whole base.

My days will be real busy, but quite manageable and probably not as busy as residency. It is nice to come home and be home. We have PT (physical training) 3 times a week. This has become so important that they schedule it into the end of the day during the week and make it mandatory. The idea is to have everyone fit for deployment. I made a goal to do the base’s triathlon next year. My friends just did it yesterday. Janeen won first place for the women’s!!!! So I need to get my swimming game on. I need to find a nice Speedo too!!! j/k (used-just kidding). We also have emergency medical, chem warfare, etc exercises to keep us on our toes. Misawa is a very safe small city (40,000+ people), but we have a lot of interesting neighbors [i.e. China, North Korea, Russia(that's a lot of red!)] who keep it a very important place to keep the 35th Fighter Wing.

I look forward to starting my patient care. I will have a great deal of say in how I do things and am excited to find my style of pediatric dentistry. I have a wonderful job and task ahead of me!!

Cooking With Mamasans

Tonight I took my first Japanese cooking class. It was really fun. It started with a Japanese lady who works for the AF giving us an introduction to the ingredients and recipe that we will be trying. Tonight was cooking Hiyashi chuuka or Japanese cold noodles. Then the cooking began. all of a sudden there we three more older Japanese ladies whirling around the mini "Kitchen Stadium" chopping, pointing, shredding, etc. It lacked a traditional instruction, but once I got into the flow I was able to pick up on what ingredients were going where. What made it more confusing was that instead of cooking the scheduled recipe they made three additional dishes. It was wild.

Here is the cold noodle dish. It was really good, despite having forgotten to put the vinegar sauce on top.This one was my favorite, the hot noodle dish. It's basically a raman dish, but the best I've tasted, including the handful I've tried around Japan already.
The Japanese people are sooo nice. Everything is done with a smile and a bow. They like it when I try to say a phrase in Japanese. I want to be able to speak and read Japanese so bad.

The major victory tonight was getting introduced to a few of the Japanese cooking staples and how to go buy them. One favorite was the Shiso leaf. It had a wonderful aroma. Strong aroma like cilantro, but citrusy. It was placed in a rice dish, a potato/bean salad, and garnished the cold noodle dish. Now I need to brave Univers, the Japanese supermarket for some ingredients!

One of the other guys there summed it up perfectly: "all I've learned is I need three little Japanese ladies to come into my kitchen and cook for me."

Feeling A Bit Bloggier

Sorry for neglecting my 3 faithful readers for so long, well 2 since Em already knows whats going on. As you most likely know we are in Japan, it’s been about 19 days now. Veterans! When we arrived they put us into the Misawa Inn, which is the on base billeting. It had a kitchenette, living room and 1 bedroom and bath. It was also stifling hot and humid for the first 8/10 days. Then it has begun to cool off and rain more. First trip to the housing office told us that there were no four bedrooms available on base. Disappointed we convinced ourselves off-base is better and ended up finding a nice house, but would have to wait a month to move in. Then the next day we got called with news that we got approval to get one of the available 4-bedrooms on-base in the “field grade” area which is right next to the “company grade”. [I as, a captain, am in the company grade officer level. Major, Lt Colonel, and Colonel are the field grade officers and the military is picky about mixing rank levels.] So we decided to take one on base. We are now just completing the process of convincing ourselves that on-base is superior, which it is…I think. Really, there are a lot of pros and cons on both ends, but the convenience of being on base won out.

Our home is a 6:34 minute walk to Max’s school. He started today! It’s fun and crazy that I have a first-grader!! (My brother must be freakin’ out sending his daughter to college this year! Good luck Madi!) It is also only a 3 minute walk from our door to the clinic door. This makes it an easy commute. I can’t blame traffic for being late on my way home anymore. Also, we plan to do a lot of classes and activities so it will be nice not having to come on and off base so much. Max is taking piano and some sort of Japanese Martial Art. Sam is doing gymnastics. (Em gave him the choice between gymnastics and dance. He chose the lesser of the two evils luckily). Em is taking a ceramics course, for which she is wicked excited! I am doing a bonsai class as well as a short survival Japanese language course and a Japanese cooking class. I may also do a little bit of dentistry while I’m here, but that is still up in the air!

Be Patient

I'm not currently feeling too bloggy, but its coming.

Sleepy Boy 2

This is a follow up video to Em's Cheese Roll post: Jet Lag meets Japanese Food.

Graduation Parade

So here are a few pictures from our graduation parade at COT: Commissioned Officer Training.

It was sooo hot. As you may notice we are wearing black shinny shoes. For about 20 of the 24 minutes of the parade we are standing completely still i.e. at attention. The shoes got so hot it truthfully felt like I was about to get a burn on my feet, really.Anyway, I graduated.

This is a picture of most of my flight, the group that I was together with for 24/7/31.

* Em informed me that I looked very mean as I marched. Well, its called extreme concentration as I try not to mess up as I march past the commanders.

Doug Does "Survivor" -- Air Force Style!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

We just returned from our AEF (Air Expiditionary Force) exercise. It is a mock deployment situation. We were bused out to a site where they have a compound of canvas tents set up. Upon arrival they had us line up and dump out our duffle bags and show them that we packed each of the items on “the list.” (There had been no list provided). I had most everything needed. I did get my snack mix confiscated due to an inadequate seal. (I later removed it from the garbage can and along with other squadron members disposed of it orally while awaiting one of the ninety nine briefings we received in the course of 3 days out there. It made me feel better to know they were not wasted. =)

The first evening was cut short by threatening storms so we just got our cots set up and then were confined to the HOT tent. The tents were large canvas tents on cement slabs. The temperature was reported at 102 degrees the first day and the next two days were the same. We had all our stuff set up and were preparing for bed when the rain started coming down hard with “real world lightening within 5 nautical miles.” This is announced over the compounds PA system confining us to our quarters. As the rain continues we begin to see the canvas become saturated and begin leaking on all the seams. I had to position my cot just right so I was between two of the leaking support studs. I was able to stay dry but not everyone was so lucky (We had 10 guys in our tent). I awoke with one boot in a puddle though. The next morning found us temporarily mildly cooled off for the first few hours. I had the joy of trying my first MRE for breakfast. It was “Chicken With Salsa.” It wasn’t too bad, but my rice didn’t heat up too well and my spiced cider had to be drunk luke cold as we were rushed, just like every other meal at COT. I did get some peanut butter M&M’s which I swapped for peanut M&M’s!

We rotated through three different exercises over the next two days as squadrons (About 100+ people in each). We started on the repel tower and ropes course. The tower, about 4 stories high, had one side with a climbing wall. I made it to the top with a bit of a challenge then we came back down and climbed up the stairs to the top and clipped into the safety cable and waited our turn to walk out on a 20ish foot telephone pole sticking out horizontally from the platform. I had seen it from below and thought it would be fun, then upon arrival at the top I saw that it was rather frightening. Two of the guys in my flight didn’t even try it and they are two of the “macho” ones! I did it with a slight tremble in my legs. It was pretty cool to go out on. (There was a safety cable we were clipped into at all times in all of these and the future explanations.) Then we repelled down the tower.

After the tower, I transitioned to the ropes course. This started out climbing a 20 foot cargo net, the doing a ranger crawl on top of a thick rope, then across two ropes a foot apart from each other. Then along a couple other cables walking up higher. The hardest one was a suspension bridge with only a few planks to step on. This was tough to balance on as I stepped about 3 feet between each plank suspended about 40 feet up. At the end of the course was a fun zip line.

We again got confined to a shelter during more “real world lightening” for about an hour and another MRE, this time a nice beef stew which was actually pretty good.

The next exercise was EMEDS. This was a simulated exercise in their field hospital set up in more canvas tents. This is how it is set up at deployed locations, i.e. the sand box, i.e. Iraq. I volunteered to be a patient. So I got painted up as a foreign prisoner with a huge laceration on my head along with bruised face and jaw. I showed up outside the hospital speaking only German and was placed on a field litter (gurney) and wheeled through all the different departments of the hospital as they couldn’t find out what was wrong with me. I eventually got fixed up and discharged. They then repainted me with bloody abrasions and had twenty or so of us all at once as a mass casualty. The medics came out to find us all on the ground screaming and crying after a mortar attack. It was a fun exercise and was to show us a little of how things are set up in deployment for WHEN we get deployed. (Luckily I don’t have too much of a chance of that happening as a pediatric dentist, but I’m not entirely exempt.)

We were once again sent to the tents for the night with, yes, “real world lightening within 5” and lots of rain and a leaky canvas tent. The next day we did a litter obstacle course learning how to carry someone on a litter the proper way and directions while going over walls and such. (You should always carry them feet first unless going downhill or uphill.) (You should also not hit their head on top of the wall as you move them over it, sorry Lt Johnson.)

So to sum up: It was fun, boring, hot and HOT.

*The first night Major Larson showed up at chow time and handed me a stack of envelopes. I took them and then looked at him with amazement upon my face and he said yes. They were the passports!!!! I was so happy. It was the final stressor! I can’t believe we got them back already!! I always believed Heavenly Father would provide for us but I’m still so grateful that He has answered our prayers once more! It is so nice to have the final peace in place! (Well, the second to last piece; we still need a home once we get there, but we will be together again!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Em is wicked Hard Core

I finally made it to a computer that isn't .mil, which means I can access some restricted websites, yes like Gmail and blogger...

I want to give a quick shout out to my wonderful wife. She really helped me through my first week here in Hellabama. Each night I talked to here she sounded so positive and upbeat. I know she must have been having a hard time with all the boys, but was a big strength to me. It was wicked sweet to see her. It was like winning a challenge on survivor, btw we do obstacle courses which are like survivor challenges too. That part is fun.

Thanks Em! You rock!

Captain Dub