Obligatory update

As usual, there's really nothing much to report on. Still in Al Asad. There's been some scuttlebutt about the possibility of us four Hotel detachments ending up doing range control with Sgt. Miranda, which would be good for the people we'd be working with (Jensen, Sgt. Miranda, SSgt. Thomas), but it would probably be terribly boring. We wouldn't likely see much of any action. Also, I ran into a bunch of my Al Quaim brethren yesterday and they said they just got audited and it was determined Al Quaim RDF needs three more Marines per squad, so they're in need of nine Marines. I don't know if any of this will end up affecting where I go, but we'll see.

A bunch of the lance corporals decided we wanted to grow out the lance corporal stache. Though everybody started a day or two before I decided to get in on it, I've got the resident king mustache. It's something to be proud of. Furthermore, I actually think it looks decent this time, if you can believe that. The last time I had a mustache, I only kept it for two days because it looked so asinine.

Nothing else is new. Just been hanging out, doing my thing. If I'm here much longer I'll get into the rotation of duty driver. Basically they asked who all can drive a stick, because there's a big nasty Iraqi mini-bus thing that we have to tote people around on.

Our whole platoon last night sat outside in our little camp chairs smoking cigars and pipes. It was outstanding, like something I'd probably be doing at home, just a really relaxed smokin' and jokin' session with some friends. Sgt. Miranda and SSgt. Thomas and the docs got in on it, too. It was a good time. Now I need to get Mom to send me my nice pipe, if I can remember where I put it and ever get a solid mailing address.