I have been gathering bits and pieces of scrap plywood for about a month or so, and today, having some "down time" (army speak for those few hours they don't have anything for you to do, usually occurring between midnight and 5 a.m.) another soldier, a guy named Upchurch, and I knocked together a sort of wardrobe so I can hang up my uniforms off the floor, with shelves to hold the MRE boxes I use for socks, T-shirts, etc.  It's pretty humble looking, but very nice to have.  The other residents aren't so pleased about it, and think I've taken on airs.  (If the floor is good enough for their skivvies, why not for mine?)  Anyway, it's a huge morale boost to me, having something to put things on and in. Not having to dig through my sea bag for that last clean pair of OD socks I've been saving. Guess I'm just getting too old for roughing it!

It reminded me, while we were knocking it together, of all of Mark Kloberdanz's projects while we were in Desert Storm, where he stole the "Females Only Past This Point" sign to make a card table, (writing side down). Later he made bunk beds out of lumber from bomb crates.   Nothing was ever funnier than the Sgt Major storming into our tent while we were playing cards at the new card table, and telling him most innocently that "no, SGT Major, we don't know who stole that sign"!

 Our mission to _______ for today was scrubbed; it was going to be the first overnight mission for us in some time, so we are a little put out about it.  At any rate, that accounts for the down time and the opportunity to write this longish letter.

I gave the news out that [package] number 33 (a favored number!) contains the mac and cheese, so the guys might try to beat me to mail call!  The food has been improving though.  There is now a female Major in charge of it, named Major Crane.  Her husband is here as well.  Guess what his name is?  NO, not Frasier.  Also Maj Crane.  How strange to have a married couple here?  At any rate she has tucked right into the job, buying two refrigerated trucks that they now use . . . to store perishables, she hired a half dozen locals to scrub and wipe down the tables etc., to free the cooks up to actually do some cooking, and she is buying fresh food from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, since the ban on us buying on the Iraqi economy is still in place.  At any rate, while it ain't home cooking, it is a vast improvement over the MKT.  We had powdered eggs, juice, shelf stable milk, and toast this morning for breakfast, and last night's dinner was lamb (which tasted oddly like goat, I think she got snookered) and some kind of veggie medley, all edible, very nice.  Oh, and rolls!  White bread dinner rolls, nearly fresh, with pats of butter from Germany!!

 Marie asked me, in a wonderful, newsy email, if there were many females here. I think there are four, maybe 5.  Apart from Mrs. Major Crane (as we call her to distinguish her from Major Crane), there are either 3 or 4 Air Force females who I think do Signals, which is communications type stuff, to include keeping the NIPERNET up and running, which is the system I am emailing you on at the moment.  I think they are all officers, but one might be enlisted.
 

We were cut off on the phone yesterday, just as you were going to tell me something about Jack really being ready for me to come home. Of all the cliff-hanging times to be cut off!  Anyway very cool that I now have 800 more minutes [on the recharged phone card] to chat to you, I think I will call you this morning.  Does Mick have more school?  When is Jack's Kenpo-Karate?