hanging out at Lee's place tonight. we played a card/quarter game called "screw your neighbor". lots of fun. also went bowling for like 5 hours...didnt too too hot, but it was fun.
i love bowling.

washed the truck earlier this afternoon. inside and out. nice and shinny and smells good too.


on the news, Saddam was executed today by hanging. sweeeeeeeet! bout time that rat bastard...

anyway, the weekend continues. and im again off to bed during the wee hours of the morning...

well made it back to VA. a long and boring trip it was...18 hours!
traffic everywhere. some nasty accidents too.

so no work tomarrow or monday...four day weekend!
going to spend most of it...i have duty sunday....at Lee's place. some drinking and games and fun are at hand.

leased a storage unit today. finally got all my junk out of the truck....and i mean ALL my junk, i brought EVERYTHING i own from home with me down here. its crazy. so now its in storage. good.

saw Black Christmas with the guys...it was okay. korny...

and now its bed time.

in less than an hour i will begin my trip back to Norfolk.

it was fun here at home. im glad i was able to be here.

tonight is the night. thats when i leave, and Operation: Go-Time will be over.

i had a blast! it was fun to finally come home for some quality family and friend time. had a great Christmas too.


but now its off to Norfolk again, and back to work...

oh, and we saw our segment on the 6pm news yesterday! it was short, not even but a couple minutes, but we're famous!

ill be signing autographs later this afternoon....

oh, and

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

well the CBS news crew came and went!

they came around noon, did some interviewing with me and kyle and mother, then took some shots of pictures me and dad have taken, and got some footage as a background camera while we stood around the christmas cookies and talked!!

it was freakin awesome.

the reporter said it will air either on the 5pm or 6pm evening news! so look out!!

well Operation: Go-Time is coming along quite nicely.

didnt do too much last night, or all day. visited Molly for a couple hours. sat at home most the day. me and kyle went to visit a military museum nearby, but it wasclosed for the holidays, so we went to an animal fair instead. it was pretty cool, they had alot of cool bugs, rodents, reptiles; all sorts of stuff. fun times.

today we are going to visit moms side of the family and open presents and such.

so,

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

well. that article the reporter wrote up was in the Kane County Chronicle today, front page!

it was really cool.

AND channel 2 news (CBS) wants to do a little segment on me and kyle Christmas morning!!

im gettin' famous. ha.

oh yea, also this afternoon a reporter came over from the Kane County Chronicle and interviewed me and kyle for a story that will appear hopefully this weekend. a photographer came by too and took pics.

sweet!

so Marissa came over today.

we watched Dane Cook's new comedy DVD, oh man was it funny as hell!!

she also gave me something for Christmas:
a book about ICP
and a shirt SIGNED by Shaggy 2 Dope!!

its freakin bad ass. im going to cherish it forever...

wow. last night was...well, a blast!

partied at joes. at first all this shit went down between everyone; i even peeled out of the parking lot at one point it so rediculous.

but eventually all was well, and we had koolaid until the wee-early morning. it was a lot of fun.


this afternoon me and kyle are dressing out and going to steven's class to visit and read to him. he'll like it, the whole school knows about us ha.


tonight i might hang out with mike. got to give him a call to see whats up...

thus i continue my "operations".

tonight is hopefully the big party day.

suppossed to go to joes for a little "get together"

mucho fun i can tell it will be...

OPERATION: GO-TIME is is full effect!

got home about two hours ago. i stayed the night in a motel in PA...sleep finally got to me.

it was nice though to catch something before the longer drive here. weather wasnt too bad. windy. traffic in IL was the same...horrendous.

today is hanging at home day. tomarrow i visit the 'Stad for their Christmas party thing, and to see Julio and Noe before they leave for Mexico for the holidays. should be fun.

partying will commence shortly after all that....

TODAY is the DAY.

OPERATION: GO-TIME will go into effect at noon.

we have a change of command in a couple hours too. getting a new captian! he seems pretty cool. we shall see how much he likes homeport time or out at sea time.... hopefully the first one...

well the first couple days of being back in Norfolk are over.

picked up my truck from long-term parking, did some shopping, drove people around...relaxed.

monday i have duty, and thats it until im back from leave!


4 days until Operation: Go-Time !!

and Norfolk it was!


we just moored up to the pier, so Cruise 6-6-06 is officially OVAR!!

and in a couple hours ill be picking up my truck and getting it all checked out and flushed and like new again.

then ill treat myself to food and entertainmant all night long.....or at least until tomarrow....i have duty....but the rest of this week is a no work week! not bad.

today is the day!

Norfolk. this afternoon will conclude our six months of strenuous work. its chillaxing time, and im going to live it up.

after we are all tied off to the pier, im going straight to the long-term parking lot and picking up my truck. bring it in and get the oil changed, tires rotated, everything checked out and such. then probably off to entertain myself with movies, real American food, and once again experience the Virginia winter weather and traffic.

itll be a blast...

one week until Operation: Go-Time. rejoice.

AMERICA!!

actually Moorhead City, NC to be exact. dropping off the Marines.

and two days till Norfolk!

well the exam resaults came back the other day...

and i passed!

im now a Petty Officer Third Class!!


pretty sweet. the advancment ceremony is tomarrow afternoon. thats when i can officially wear the insignia. more responability, more respect......more money!

also, only FOUR m0re days until Norfolk!!

the seas have lightened up too. not rough like they have been the past week now. thats nice, i can finally sleep at night...

one more week until Norfolk!!!!


the seas are still rough as hell....12-18 degree rolls...thats alot for a flat bottomed ship to experience...today we were also pitching back and forth a few degrees....felt like being on a rollercoaster....side to side, back and forth......

BUT i still havent gotton sea sick! and thats what counts.

UPDATE!

so now we dont know how long it will be until we get the part. and it looks like we will be stuck in Rota for a few more days longer than expected.

which in turn might mean we wont be home like it was planned back in June.


but leave shouldnt be affected, so thats okay.


more details to emerge im sure....

okay. so the deal is this:

we need a certain part for some engineering thing. and we cant get underway without it.
yet, we dont actually have it.

so we have to wait until it arrives, then the engineers can install it, test it, and then and only then can we get underway and beat the storm.

but no one knows how long it will take for the part to get here, or how long it will take to install and test.

so its "standby" until then.

meanwhile the this storm is comin' in, and it looks real mean. its already drizzling outside...


but either way its about TWO weeks till Norfolk!!

interesting news.

the captain got word today a big storm is brewing up north from us. and in a day or so its suppossed to hit Rota. and its going to be BIG.

so the skipper wants us to get underway tomarrow morning instead of wednesday. now everyone is running around trying to get ready and tying stuff off so nothing goes flying around into people.

he says he expects us to hit 25-30 foot swells!! thats almost hurricane size!

this sounds like fun....

well. stuck in Rota!

why? the weather is too rough to set sail.

so we were forced to cancel our next port, and are now staying in Rota for a few more days.

sucks in a way, but at least after this we will be on our voyage home!!


i dont know.....it seems pretty nice outside today....

ahhh Rota, Spain.

the second-to-last of two ports left before Norfolk, then Home.


finally able to accomplish some online stuff i couldt do while on the ship. nice to get that out of the way.

weather here is nice, for it being the winter months. thats a first. better than the scorching heat of Iraq.

less than 22 days to go. Operation:Go-Time will be in full effect.

sweet.

finally made it through the Suez Canal.

just a couple more days until Rota, Spain...



and relaxation for a few days...

exciting news lately.

first off, the verdict is in: Suddam Hussein has been convicted of war crimes against humanity. hes sentenced to death by hanging. him and two other people; one of them is his half brother.
bout time.

more news: various politicians are coming out of the closet. and so close to the mid term elections. better now than never i guess...

also, ONE MONTH IN CRUISE '06!!!!!!!

very exciting news indeed.

and now the real countdown begins!

we have started our transit home. all courses and stops lead west, towards the mighty USA.

then a week after returning to home port its back to home town i go! for fun, food, thrills and...girls. and parties. and such....


not to mentoin today its the best holiday ever. so...


HAPPY FREAKIN' HALLOWEEN!!!!

DING!

two years in the Navy now! just three more to go...


anyway, been in the Persian Gulf now for some days...patrolling as usual. gaurding a couple Iraqi oil terminals. good stuff. tons of shipping. lots of querying...

...less than 50 days to go and counting!

well. Jebal Ali was fun.

went with a couple buds to a waterpark they have. it was small, but there was plenty to keep me there all day. theres this waterslide that hurls you at 80 kph....that was sick.
weather was hot as hell too...

went to one of the malls as well. very nice. huge. they have this big indoor ski park. that looked like fun.

email is down once again, like it was at the beginning of the cruise. not surprised though.

got all new washers and dryers in laundry. it officially re-opened today, so services are now back in action. which is great, no more waiting hours and hours for a washer or dryer.

otherwise less than 60 days to go!

STATUS: in port!

even after a one day delay (some pump in engineering crapped out), its good to be on land. or near it, in my case; duty today.

but its four days of fun in the sun. and hot weather. and low humidity. and a hot breeze...

thats Jabal Ali for ya.

took my E-4 exam yesterday.

think i did pretty good. there were some stuff i didnt know, but i knew most of it.

now that thats done, its three months of mind games until the final resaults come out. hopefully i made third class! the OS3 position is pretty open though, so all i had to do was pretty much show up and write my name on the test and turn it in, and id still make it...

getting ready to pull into port (finally). 45 days straight of sea. yea its time to see land.

good to know this cruise is almost over and ill soon be home!

the 5th anniversary of 9/11.

i havent anything to say, so i leave with this:

"YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN."

CRUISE UPDATE:

less than 90 days to go. now its a countdown...



also, 18 weeks until im 21. a countdown as well.....

THIS IS CRAZY:

Steve Irwing, the "Crodile Hunter", died today.

how?

a sting ray barb to the chest!!

killed by a freakin sting ray! after all the gators and tigers and aggressive animals he dealt with, a mere soft bellied sea creature gets him.

yea if thats not ironic, i dont know what is...

18 more days until i take my third class exam!

ill finally have some rank and authority in the Navy...


other news: we got rid of our detainees!
we transported them to the USS Cole.

its their problem now ha.

all right.

the berthing is all cleaned up, repainted, and everyone has moved back in.

we are still washing the curtains and some sheets and blankets. but the berthing is habitable now. still a hint of a smoky smell, but its tolerable.

the investigation as to what happened is still going on...no idea if they have gotten anywhere.

still moving along with the cruise as planned. so far so good.

got a couple packages today, so im gunna go enjoy them....

I just wanted to share my “war” story.

Its 1246 a.m. on Wednesday the 24th. A report is made of white smoke near the ships laundry room. Soon I am woken up, after I just laid down, and am told to evacuate. I get out of my rack, and immediately smell burning plastic. At this time im thinking oh crap…something’s on fire. We go to the messdecks, and a fire drill is called away. A little bit later, the messdecks have a haze of smoke seeping in, and my first real life General Quarters is called away. I go to my station in CIC. Standing there im hearing the fire reports over a radio, and its getting bad. Then one of the firemarshal officers comes running in and says we need some spare bodies to help fight this fire, its starting to get out of control. I volunteer and rush down to the messdecks. I get into a fire suit, strap my oxygen tank and mask on, and gather up my other supplies. Then a group of us walk out to the focsal (front of the ship), and am told to stand-by. Smoke is pouring out of the hatches and doors. I wait there for hours. In the end, (about 6am) they get the fire under control and put it out; unfortunately I never got to go in and fight the fire. I did sweat a waterfall…those suits are heavy! Around noon they let us back into our berthing, and everything was covered in soot. We had to strip every single rack, air out the mattresses, and now we are sleeping in some marine spaces (they went on land for some training). We got a lot cleaned up, but there’s a ton more to do…that soot doesn’t wipe off very easily.
Okay, so I take a look at the damage.
In our berthing, the bulkhead closest to the laundry room has all the paint peeling off.
Not TOO bad.
The laundry room, however, is completely destroyed. All the dryers, washers, press machines; everything inside the room is ruined. Platics melted, paint charred, and even metal is warped. Its unbelievable! I took some pictures.
so basically this means we have NO laundry service what-so-ever. We took all the sheets and blankets to the Iwo Jima (the accompaning ship with us) by helicopter to be washed, so at least we have clean linens now. But all uniforms or other clothing that was in the laundry room is now gone. The navy will reimburse anyone who lost clothes though. But that’s almost half the crew. Many now only have one or two uniforms left.
We are still investigating how the fire started, and what to do about the damage and how to clean our laundry. So for now, everything smells of burnt plastic and soot is still lingering in the air. But all we can do is suck it up for now.

Its unfortunate, but now i have a cool to story to tell!

CRUISE UPDATE:

nothing new. still working on ESWS. started working out too. its been over a year since i last lifted, so im pretty sore now. but its good. working a lot too. i only get about 5 hours of sleep a day now because of work. it sucks but...im used to it.
got a letter from Kyle the other day! said boot camp is hard, but he likes it. its in the 100's almost everyday he mentioned. also said its fast paced, a lot of training, and a lot of stuff to learn. but he will do good. he has four months (at Fort Benning, GA). hopefully he can come home for Christmas that would be really cool.

WORLD UPDATE:

at 8am Monday, a cease-fire was set between Irael and Lebanon. so far its holding up. but no one is sure witch side "won"...easch side has their say, and each side is saying THEY won.
who knows where that'll go....

...thats the big news, otherwise nothing much but usual chaos!

UPDATE UPDATE:

finally started working on getting my Enlisted Surface Warefare Specialist (ESWS) pin. theres two books worth of signatures i have to get. it involves knowing stuff from every department on the ship...and theres a ton of stuff to learn! when i get both books completly signed, i take a small written test, then i go to the 1st class "murder board".....basically an oral test. they ask questions and i have to answer. its a lot of work, but its worth it in the end. it adds points to advancment tests, helps with quals and looks good in your records. im trying to get it done before i take my third class test in september, and hopefully put the pin on before i actually make third class. that would be nice. im about 20% done...

otherwise i went on my first helicopter ride a couple days ago! that was really cool. got some good pics. they flew around the ship and around a couple other navy ships in the area. really neato.

anyway we just pulled into Limassol, Cyprus; making our third port visit of the cruise....or our first in over a month. not sure if im going out in town though...might just catch up on sleep instead. but that may change...

Cruise Update:

first off i dont think ineed to say where i (still) am. so. the biggest thing is we have a couple detainees onboard. as the story goes, one of the ships who is accompaning us, the USS Gonzales, had their VBSS team out in a boat in the water doing some boat operations and training. from what i heard, a small boat came towards the team at a high speed, and started opening gun fire at the them. the team acted immedietly, returned fire, disabled the craft, boarded it, and arrested two guys that were onboard. not sure what ethnicy they are, but one can guess. anyway, the ship didnt have a brig to put them in, but we did. so they asked if we could hold them, and we agreed. so now there are two convicts onboard; they converted one of the officers staterooms to a "jail cell", and thats where they are now. its very well gaurded with locked and loaded weapons, they got sheets covering the hallways as not to spark curiosity and such. its a little uneasy, but pretty cool we actually caught someone. not sure who we are going to hand them off too though.

anyway, other than that, the Middle East Crisis is still pretty bad. the other day a bunch of protesters in Bierut stormed the UN Embassy. they were breaking windows, climbed the fences, burned UN and American flags and were yelling and ranting. it was crazy.
today Israel launched a massive ground assault on the town of Baalbeck, which is known have many Hezbollah fighters; they use it for their training and re-supplying and stockhousing of weapons. i havent heard how that turned out, but last i saw it was getting very fierce. Israel is still launching massive airstrikes, and Hezbollah is still launching rocket after rocket into the heartland of Israel.

back in the states its getting crazy too. lets see, the weather has been hitting the triple digits all over the country. power grids are getting overloaded, people dieing from heat strokes; panic in some places too. what else...Mel Gibson is charged with DUI...not a big deal for a star....but hes getting blown up for making anti-semedic remarks while being arrested. so thats a big story, it looks like his career and his reputation might not be a good one from here on out. he has apologized and is going to rehab.
more to follow im sure.
Lindsay Lohan is in the light too, for "partying too much and neglecting her work" as James G. Robinson, CEO of Morgan Creek Productions said last week. Lohan is currently filming a movie, and Robinson said in a letter she has been frequently late for filming and has been "discourteous, irresponsible and unprofessional." he went on saying "If Lohan does not honor her commitments, the studio will pursue "full monetary damages.""
more to follow im sure.

thats about all i got to say. theres always someone or something going on in the world of today that seems to catch us all off gaurd.

well back to criusing around in the Med...

UPDATE: still near Lebanon. its getting quite boring now...

bought a replecment cord for my electric razor today. the powercord for my laptop was delivered to the house and should be on its way, whenever mother sends it out...

got a VERTREP in a couple hours. rumors have it theres 30 or so pallets coming, mostly food and tons of mail. thats good. i could use some mail. outgoing mail will go today too.

the fighting in Isreal/Lebanon is more fierce then ever. each side is threating to demolish everything the other side stands for. rockets and bullet rounds flying everywhere. and it looks as if more countries will soon be involved...
crazy stuff in the states too. protests and riots all over. angry people and hurt people and people who dont really care. businesses scheming and scams being carried out. hot triple digit weather and pollution "contributing" to the earth. scary stuff really.

the judgicial system tried a lady who pleaded she was insane when she drowned each of her 5 kids one by one in the bath tub. her first trial they found her guilty of murder. now for her second trial the jury found her not guilty for reason of temporary insanity.
wow.
so she was sent to a mental rehab for life. and the thing that gets me is the husband and her mother and father acted like it wasnt that big of a deal. they said "it was what they had wished for".

sick mo fos out there.

what has this world come to.

well the 23rd marked the last day of evacuating. we took 529 Americans out of Lebanon to Cyprus. they were all very, very thankful for what we did.
the ship has gotten a lot of press time, though it has died down a little bit. but it was really cool to be on the news. it was not only good for us, but for America and its military as well.

now we are off the coast of southern Lebanon on standby in case any more evacuating needs to be done. it doesnt look like we will be needed, but you never know.

day TWO of evacuating.

yesterday we transited back to Lebanon, and took on 1156 more people. it was chaos through-out the ship. every little open space was occupied with a sleeping person. our berthing was one of the lucky ones that wasnt converted to a civilian berthing, but we still let six or so people come and sleep in our tiny lounge area, where there is a couch and a couple mattresses we supplied. it may not have been much, but to those six people it was everything they ever wanted.

right now we are back in Cyprus, and offloading all the baggage and civilians we took on. in a few hours we will set sail again, and back to Lebanon to rescue more Americans.

even though i have gotten a total of maybe 10 hours of sleep these past two days, and have been working three times as hard i normally do, i am still filled with pride and feel like i have done something to change the world. i dont know any of the people we bring aboard, but it really means a lot to me to be helping them out. even if its just showing someone where the head is, i feel good about what we are doing as a command, and i am proud to say i am in the US Navy serving onboard USS Nashville.

well well.


again i have the chance to tell stories.

almost two months in and we've done a lot. to start where i left off from last time...
after Greece we went to Jorden and dropped the Marines off so they could do their stuff. then we transited down to the Red Sea, patrolled around and queried merchant ships. our main goal was to weed out the smugglers and pirates. we didnt come across any, so thats good.

a week or so into it, we got the news about Isreal attacking Lebanon, and about all the Americans that were in the war zone.

then just a couple days ago, we got the message to transit up to Beyruit, Lebanon to help in the evacution of Americans from the area. we turned around, picked up the Marines, headed north, and thursday morning we pulled up to the coast of Beyruit. we launched our LCU, and all day she went back and forth from the beach and our well deck, filled with civilians. at the end of the day, we had evacuated 1052 people.
we then transited up to Cypress, and here i am now. at this moment we are working to get the evacuees off the ship and onto shore to saftey. after all this is done we plan to stock up on some food and supplies, and head back out to Lebanon for more evacuating.

this whole thing is a lot of work, but its really cool. i feel like i am actually doing something that really matters. theres a ton of media coverage of the ship and crew, since we are the firt US ship to aid in the evacuating. CNN sent some reporters to stay on the ship through the whole ordeal, for interviews and in-depth coverage. its very bad ass. we are definetly making history!

i can rest easy tonight...

here i am, here i be.
i was in Souda Bay, Crete (Greece). we pulled in wednesday.

its really nice there.

friday i did a COMREL project. we painted a few rooms at a nursing home. that was pretty cool; after the work was done the cooks made us all lunch, damn was it good greek food.

that was the only time i went out in town though. mainly relaxed on the ship otherwise. we had a "beer on the pier" event each day we were there. im not much for beer so i didnt drink, but i went to the gathering anyway. fun times.

we had some liberty incidents unfortunetly, causing the captain to change the liberty hours. that sucked. hopfully people will have more common sense at later ports.

while transitting to the Suez Canal one of the ships was doing flight operations with their Harrier jets, and one went down over the water near the ship. so that caused the whole strike group to stop all operations and hover around for any emergency help that may be needed. well, the ship managed to get the pilots out and safe and was able to salvage the jet.
we started our Suez Canal transit on the 4th of July. 18 hours of hot, slow, narrow transitting...oh what fun. it was cool to see the difference in terrain between Egypt and Saudi Arbia. very interesting.

so now we are transitting along to our next operating area. its sure to be hot, so ill be inside the skin of the ship most the time.

good old AC....

wooow. continuation....went on the tour to Rome.
amazing.

Vistited and toured the Coliseum. its mind blowing that it was built so long ago, and is still standing. theres a ton of history behind it too. good stuff.

also toured St. Peter's Basilica, a part of the Vatican. that was awesome too. its overwhelming all the gold and jewls and paintings and statues that are in there. got some good pics and a couple movie clips.
i really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, but me and my liberty bud ran out of time so i didnt get to see it. but other fellow OS's saw it and got some great pics, so i might have to steal some.

toured the Roman city and ate some really good ravioli, italian style.

also visited the naval base in Naples. its real small. went to the NEX and got some supplies for myself. walked around a bit too. pretty cool.

all in all the Naples/Rome port visit was freakin awesome. hope we come back sometime soon.


so right now we are on our way to Souda Bay, Crete, an island off the coast of Greece. that should be really cool. we stopped there last year, but only for food and gas. this time we will have the opportunity to explore the island a little bit.
cant wait!

okay. yesterday i went to Rome. it was in-freakin-credible!

got to visit the Coliseum...ita amazing how long ago it was built, and is still standing! it was huge too.
also went to the Vatican...also very amazing. the paintings and carvings are magnificent.
went sightseeing around town and ate some awesome italian food...sweet.

afterwards me and some OS's went to a local bar in Naples, and got a little drunk of course...we had to walk back to the liberty boats, which took twice as long than it should have! ha good times.
all in all, it was a day very well spent.
Today i went to the naval base just outside of Naples; went to the NEX and got some stuff, walked around a little bit too.

Tomarrow i have duty, then monday we leave. kindda sucks, but at least i spent the other days having fun. definetly impressed with Italy!

these six months might just be a good six months...

wow.....how long has it been?
too long.
so today was the first day of our first port visit. where? Naples, Italy.

its freakin awesome.

but ill tell about that later.

to begin....the drive back to Norfolk was LONG. but i made it. that weekend i got a real bad sore throat....hurt a lot to swallow and stuff....and i felt like crap the whole weekend. i think i might have had strep. but i got over it, monday i dropped my truck off at long term parking....tuesday we left for Cruise 6-6-6.

that day was my last day of FSA duties....no more serving food! back to the OS life....crazy as usual. not even two days out shit hits the fan. people crackin. cheif wigging out. four days into the transit the email crashes; it doesnt get fixed until a week and a half later. i now have a collateral duty...charts. me and another OS are now in charge of all the chart corrections, updates, drawing tracks, courses.....the whole sheebang. its very exhausting, but it'll help my evals. lets see...i got major sea sick about a week out...that sucked. throwing up so bad i couldnt even keep water down for a minute there. so yea, but things are good now. i catagorized all my music on my computer....sweetness. cool stuff: saw some whales on the way to italy. that was cool. only all i saw was the tops of their blowholes....but still cool. something "one-in-a-million"...my boss brought a thing of peanuts on watch one day...and i happen to be on watch at the exact same moment...and while i was bored i happen to read the label on this can of peanuts....and the distributer was Aldi from Batavia, IL......i was like "holy shit no freakin way." i literally had to read it three times to be sure. what are the odds?!?!? i thought that was cool enough to share.

anyway, Naples.

me and two other buds went out into town today. we were walking around...looking at the sights...got lost of course....the uaual. it was cool. the president of Italy drove right past us, not more that 10 feet away that was pretty neat....people here drive like maniacs....streets are narrow and people walking is of abundance...we stopped for some ice cream, and damn is it sweet! very very good...so all in all a very kick ass place. i signed up for a tour of Rome for friday. looking forward to that. basically this port is going to be top notch. cant wait to get out in town again and check out the bar scene haha...

thats about all i got now.
tired and ready for sleep.......until next time..................

back again. good old VA.

the drive was a long one. started at 10am thursday and got to the ship at 530am friday. wow was i tired.

all in all my time at home was bad ass! it was one of the coolest 10 days ever spent. cant wait to return in december.

now im just getting little things i need for the deployment. monday i turn my truck over to long term parking, get my phone "suspended", pay any last bills, and talk to anyone before we head out tuesday.

i think it will be a fun rest of the year.

well the day has come.
the end is in sight.

today is the day i head back to VA.
all in all my leave here at home was a complete blast. i saw pretty much everyone i wanted to see. i did just about everything i wanted to do.
and now i will return to the ship, and in a few short days i will be underway for Cruise '06.

whats to be taken from this? what memories are made? how many smiles did i put on people?

these questions and more need not to be answered, because the point is i had tons of fun and it was well worth the pain, sweat, and blood i shed while home.

and so in a few short hours i say goodbye to my family, goodbye the my house, and goodbye to the life i once had as a civilian; one that i shared these past 10 days of greatness, until December when once again i will indulge in the good life.

went to the Mechina concert last night. freakin awesome. saw dave and joe, who i havent seen in two years or so. marissa was there too. after the show we all wnet to taco bell and chilled for a couple hours. later i left and went to Cat's. started to watched a movie, but i fell asleep.

so today i am suppossed to hang out with Molly. might call mike later tonight. we shall see.

last week of Operation: Homeward Freedom...

sweeeeet! so far so good being at home. yesterday at about 2:00am, me and Cat decided to go offroading. she has a friend whoes dad owns a huge feild he is developing. so we travel an hour from batavia to this place, and lemme say its freakin sweet. mud, puddles, hills, dirt....everything you could want.
so i start tearing the trails up, and about 3:00 i see a huge pond of muddy water. and me already psyched, i drive right into it.......little did i know it wasnt mud but slushy clay...and it was quite deep.

so to the point, i get stuck. i try to maneuver the truck out, but with no luck. we call my buddy Joe, and he comes out with some scraps of wood. we try again to het unstuck, but with no luck.

finally at 5am i call a tow truck. he comes out there, looks at how far my truck is from the street, looks how slushy the mud is, and says he will be right back, he needs more chain.

half hour later he comes back, pulls the chains all the way to my truck and latches it up. he pulls me about half the way; when im on solid ground and i drive the rest of the way to the street.

i was glad about getting out. but i wasnt happy about the bill; $700!

ha but it was so worth it, my truck is caked in mud, and so was me and Joe. excellent time.

so thasts about the jist of things. otherwise just visiting people and hanging around the house relaxing. tomarrow evening im suppossed to see a Mechina concert.

and now its booze time...

Operation: Homeward Freedom is now in full....operation!

had some problems with the command...guess i did have to check out of the barracks before i could leave....running around locating the appropriate people to take care of it.
not too mention we couldnt leave until 1pm. however, i fianlly got on the road at 5pm.

while driving, hit all the summer construction and accompanying traffic.

but i got home at 830am today, brought all my luggage in and hit the couch and slept for a good five hours...

mom had surgery today. something to do with the removal of the reproductive system...didnt want to really know the specifics. so me and the family visited her today at the hospital. she'll be there until thursday.

hung out with the 69 Customs crew. later went to Christina's parents house with John and Chia and chilled there.



now its 230am and im off to bed.....tomarrow will hold a day of more fun!

well everything is packed and ready to go.

i think i will check out of the room after my leave. dont got time to sit around and wait for someone to check everything and do the whole check-out process. got to be on the road in the morning....hopefully work will understand too!

cant wait. its going to be awesome.

well, im all packed up and ready to go. just got the nessesities out.

was hoping to hit the road early, but i have to check out of the barracks. who knows how long that will be. if anything i can check into a room for the night.

either way, i know Operation Homeward Freedom will be a success.

muahaha

again, i have reached the number of 666 songs!!



im goin to hell...

well im back again. it didnt feel as long as the past two times we went out. which is good.
did some training with the SEAL teams. pretty cool stuff.

i have off this weekend. excellent!

and theres 4 days until Operation: Homeward Freedom. double excellent!


time to eat some real food now...

thy cold is finally almost beaten. which is very good. i hate colds.

tomarrow we go out for three days of ocean water training with the SEALs team that will be joining us on our deployment. fun times lie ahead.........

sure thing.


then its the weekend, then monday comes and Operation: Homeward Freedom commences!!

freakin cant wait to be home once again. a jolly 'ol time it will be...

......okay feeding time.

well, its that season again.

got a full blown cold goin. thats how i know the seasons are changing. it sucks. colds suck.
head all congested. sore throat. stuffy nose. mad headaches.....

hopefully it will pass soon. and before i go on leave.

otherwise, 347 songs stored. little bit more than halfway there from what i originaly had.
gettin there...

good day today.

downloaded 265 songs today. gunna connect to arnolds computer and snag some songs from him. he's got quite a collection...over 2500! sweet.

and when tim gets back im gunna snag some songs from him too. another with quite a collection going.


im going to be a music god.

im back!
its nice to be so. it was another long, long, long underway. tons of exercises and drills and whatnot.
training hardcore.

but, i come back to a fixed laptop!! runs like new...and i payed nothing for it! the harddrive was replaced and WindowsXP re-loaded and now ive got my badass computer up and running.
sweet.

about a week in norfolk, then its Operation: Homeward Freedom in full effect.

damn i cant wait.

the COMREL project went fairly nice. didnt rain at all either. me and a couple guys fixed the fencing around the tennis courts. easy but fun. the command picnic was afterwards, but i didnt feel like going, so me and the OS gang went to Chilis and saw the movie "Sentinal". it was pretty good. a lot of action.
so tomarrow we sail off for 14 days of fun and thrills. which translates to exhaution and tons of work. but when we get back the first leave period is in effect, then 10 days later
Operation: Homeward Freedom will be on full blast.
cant wait.

and now to pack.

COMREL today. helping out at the park again. actually its a different park this time. bigger. should be fun, although this morning it was chilly and cloudy; wouldnt doubt if it rains this afternoon. after the project theres a command picnic at the park, i also signed up for that.

free food, how could i resist?

yesterday rob and i took my laptop to CompUSA to see if they could fix it. they told me they couldnt, but would be able to ship it out to the Gateway company and have them fix it. i said lets do it! i gave them the laptop, filled out paper work, and was told it would take 1-2 weeks. sweet! and it is covered under the factory warrenty so all i have to pay is a small service charge and shipping/handeling fee!
now thats service. just in time for the deployment.

later rob and i saw "Silent Hill". it wasnt too bad. of course it helped that we both have played the game, so the movie was easier to understand. i liked it.

afterwards we went to lee's place and chilled. played some beer pong. later played a card game called Asshole. that was fun, i dont know any card games, except War, so i finally know another one! only 9,999 more games to know....

today me and a bunch of us OS's are planning to hit the beach. its been really nice out these past few days. gotta take advantage of it.

today is the deglam day so no work for me! pretty nice.

so yesterdays "family cruise" was....long.
about 200 family members came onboard and we had to make food for all of them.
not to mention keep them occuppied for the whole trip.

it was tiring, but but i got through it. came home and slept like a rock.

today me and brandon ae going to some "import tuner" show. im not really into those kind of cars, but i figured what else was i going to do. might be interesting.

got the weekend off. very nice.
monday is a deglam day. im going to see if i can get that day off as well.

exactly one month from today i will begin Operation: Homeward Freedom.

so far, so good.

one of our first classes re-enlisted today. at a cool restaurant called Smokey Bones. it was pretty cool. afterwards me and a bunch of OS's went bowling. i did pretty bad. oh well.
we had the PFA today too. ouch. not too bad on the sit-ups and push-ups, but i added 30 seconds onto my run. that sucks. i need to work out. in time.

sooo now its bed time. i hurt...

wow.
its been awhile. the reason: my laptop it completely screwed. hard drive is fucked. and brandon took his laptop back so i have no computer access in the room anymore. and im too lazy to drive two blocks to the internet resource center on base.
but not "too much" has really happened.
we completed the longest cruise before our deployment this past two weeks. that was long and tiring. we ran 142 exercises. exhausting yes.
and when we got back friday, rob and phil and 5 other peoples room were broken into and all their stuff stolen. rob and phil got hit the worst; everything they left there (laptops, TVs, movies, cds, game systems...) were gone. NCIS got involved and are launching an investigation. they dusted all the rooms, took evidence and pictures...freakin CSI stuff. its pretty crazy, not to mention no one is thrilled about what happened. the CO was notified and hes pretty pee-oed about it. we'll see what happens.
another fatal accident happened last weekend. one of our crew members was killed in a car crash. dont have any details. i knew him though, went out with him a few times during our surge last year. he was pretty cool, horrible his life had to end so short. theres going to be a memorial service for him sometime this week.
truck is still doing good. havent upgraded anything yet. broke as a mo fo. will do soon.
very soon.
lets see; still planning Operation: Homeward Freedom for May 22- June 1. hell yea. gunna be fun.

sooo otherwise its easter and im going to call the fam and send them my Happy Easter Greetings from Norfolk.

el cap-i-ton wasnt here today. easiest day ever. cleaned a little bit, then sat around and napped till 1pm. it was great. the luncheon that was suppossed to be yesterday is really NEXT monday. nice.
finally sent Steve's package today. im sure he'll enjoy it. i included pictures of my truck, to make him jealous of course ha. all in good spirit.

we got some uniform inspection friday. bought a whole brand spanking new uniform yesterday. gotta sew some patches on and iron it and its ready to go.

yea im good.

wow. so my weekend was eventful.

i went to that CS's house to help him with drywalling his basement. hes finishing it off, making it a 'hang-out' room with a bedroom and bathroom. so i helped with that; quite a learning experience. i met his family too; crazy people. but very nice. we drank beers of course, joked, worked, and chilled.
it was pretty cool. nice to get off the base for a weekend.

so tomarrow is work and theres some luncheon. gunna be a long day thats for sure.

oh well.

big day tomarrow. i am helping one of the cooks i work with on some drywall in the basement at his house. we were talking and i mentioned i liked construction and had experience in it, and he asked if i could help him out, since he was clueless. i figured since tomarrow is a deglam day and i dont have work anyways, why not spend a day doing something i enjoy??
sounds like a deal for me.
plus hes paying me, paying for my gas, and probably going to bust out a few coronas. sweet.

now i got to figure what to do the rest of the weekend...sleep is the likely option ill choose...

i got "promoted" again! now i work in the CAPTAIN'S GALLEY!!! basically the same thing as working in the officers wardroom, but for the Captain himself! its pretty cool. im at the top of the top in the FSA world. because i rock.

busy.
drove around...took josh to pick up his truck from the VW dealership...he bought an '05 VW GTI. real nice lookin. came back, bought a few things, washed my truck, took it to the beach side on base and took a bunch of pictures. fun times!

sooo yea during that comrail event i dropped my camera and its busted now. luckly rob had a real nice one he was selling, so i bought that. kindda sucks because it uses different connections and cards, so i cant use anything from my camera. and the cords and such for the one i bought off him are back at his parents house in New York. but he left today for there for some recruiting duty so he said he would bring everything for the camera back. thing is, he doesnt come back to Norfolk for two weeks. DAMN! and im not a patient person....

interesting day today.

first off, the highlight: freakin Steve called me today! and i finally picked up this time! hell yes. hes doing good; says its boring in Afgan. very boring. he deals with helicopters and explosives now. sweeeeet. it was excellent to hear from him.

so me and rob tryed trouble-shooting my computer. ended up rebooting the entire Windows system. got the virus scan i bought to semi load onto the computer...i ran a general sweep and it found a virus and a worm. i tryed to fix it, but the infection found the program first...locked it out and wouldnt let it load. damn i so close...sooo now im at a dead end. again. not sure what im going to do....very tempted to throw it under my truck and run over it a few times....

anyway, saw The Hills Have Eyes....different. not so much scary, but very suspense packed. i thought it was good, despite getting bad reviews. oh well.

so now its texting my girlfriend and being bored online.

ah yes good old weekends off of work.

today was mine and James' traditional bowling night. oh man i was horrible! out of six games i only broke 100 once. my lowest score was a freakin 76.
ouch.

better luck next time i guess. but its all about fun. and i had fun.

today was the ships Comrail event. i signed up to work at a local park. it was pretty cool. me and the OS gang helped fix the fences around the tennis court. it was nice to finally do some hands on work, not to mention it was nice as hell outside! for once.
Nashville is sure to be recognized for this, just like all the times before when they've done it.

so work today was long. some retired captain of the ship came on for a visit and they had lunch in the wardroom. so we had to set it up in a formal look. yea there was a lot of stuff. wasnt too fun. but it was over in about and hour and a half.

good old work

so today is not a good day.

first i had to come into work early. and didnt even serve. stayed till noon and didnt even serve. wow.

then my laptop has something on it, and i tryed installing a couple programs to fix it, and they wont install. so now i have a screwed up computer i cant fix. i just bought the damn thing not more than two months ago...wtf.

not to mention its cold outside, i have no food to eat, im bored and tired and broke and want to be home right now.

yes today has not been a good day.

back again. yesterday actually. and wow, yorktown (the port we visited for the ammo onload) was boring as all hell. literally.
nothing to do...woods surrounding the base...wild animals running around everywhere...it was crazy.

now we are in port for three weeks or so. nice.

sooo my computer isnt working properly today. wont connect to the internet. along with other problems...i think it has a trojan or a virus or something. dammit. some how got to figure out how to im going to fix it....more work....

good to be back either way.

wow.
went to a party last night.
wow.
had some fun. didnt know anyone there except the guys i came with, but i was pretty social by then end of the night.

got home around 4am. had to be up for work at 6am. good times.

today we have to be at the ship at 10pm. leave tomarrow morning for the ammo onload. and back the 2nd. then its thursday and friday off; or so ive heard.

so thats the rest of my week.

hahaha got to 666 songs right at this moment.



im going to hell.

oh boy. had to redo my taxes again. it seems my vacation hours i got back from the Holmstad has to be accounted for on my taxes.

that was frustrating. but i still dont owe anything for state....actually getting a refund. nice!

so my list of stuff to do is almost complete. gunna buy some cd cases for the cds i burned. then chill.

monday we got up to Yorktown for an ammo onload. back the 2nd. nice though because while we are up there we get two days liberty. hell yes.
thats my kind of cruise.

first day off in almost three weeks. wow. caught up on sleep, nice.

went bowling. didnt do too bad; won 4 out of 6 games. averaged about a 98. so close. its a celebration if i break 100.

planning on going to Fulmer's wedding party tonight. tryed calling him for directions but my call wont go through for some reason. damn. just have to wait.

added my truck to my CarDomain account. sweet.

http://www.cardomain.com/id/wevegota415e

gunna see a movie later tonight. bored.

wow. im so bored now, i reached a record number of songs on my computer. an amazing 600.

oh yea, i washed my truck today. that was the highlight of my day.

tomarrow needs to come now.

saw Final Destination 3 last night. wow. korny like the first two. but everyone finally dies. yes!

drove around today in the truck. still rockin out.

figuring out when i can travel back home for a visit. soon i hope. i need another vacation.

that is all.

well Operation: Visit Freedom was a success. BIG success.
on one major part.


i bought a truck!!
woot

2003 Toyota Tacoma (PreRunner). silver. 4x4. off road package. the works!
its freakin bad ass! love it. cant wait to pimp it out.

got for a good price too. 18 grand. and the payments and insurance aint too bad either.

exciting.

so that was the big thing. just hung around with The Fam. and the 69 Customs crew. and The Mob. it was fun.

back to sleep....!

finished Lauras cd.

and Lianns.

its freakin late. i will have to work on Kyles when im home TOMARROW!!

went bowling with james and josh, my roommate. didnt do too bad. we bowled 6 games...my average was 113.5
its a tradition all three of us do...we bowl just before we go out to sea, and we bowl just after we return. fun times.

made a cd for Laura. she likes my musical taste, so i told her id mix a cd for her. and i did. its awesome.

now my sister wants one. so im doing that too.

and im going to make a mix cd of metal for kyle, since he has none. and he needs some.

back to work..

back again. a long week and half that was.

i was "promoted" a couple days ago. went from working the deep sink washing pots and pans to now working in the officers kitchen preparing meals.
hell yes. my hard work payed off finally.

this friday and saturday i have off. going to fly home thursday after work and visit the family. should be fun. gunna try and get my truck then too.

so yup. thats the plan.

oh boy, Steelers win. 21-10.

another long day at work. mainly because of the superbowl.

tomarrow marks the start of our week cruise. to the ocean. its great.

and now its rest and relaxation.

first full day of cranking. and it went by pretty easy. but it is the weekend, and theyre always slow. it was a good day either way.

gotta come in tomarrow too. so there goes my weekend.

monday we get underway for a week.

went bowling with james today. we were bored. it killed some time. nice.

thats all.

holy cow.

so today was the start of my cranking duties.

got to the ship around 2pm and checked in. put me to work even BEFORE i was fully checked in! awesome.
but it wasnt too bad. your basic restaurant upkeep is what its like. and since i worked at the Holmstad for three years, and two of those years in the dishroom, i dont think itll be a problem. might actually be fun. no more duty days. no more OS division. no more cheif!

sweet. the only thing is its a long work day, and i have to work on weekends. that sucks. but i get to go home EVERY night!
thats a plus.

boat contol school is DONE! last day was today.

also today marks the beginning of four months of long days, coming in on the weekends, screwed up scheduals, and rediculous work.
today marks the beginning of non job related nonsense.
today marks the beginning of me, the cranker.

i have to check in sometime today. and im trying to stall as long as possible...its working so far!

yea. found out my brother kyle leaves for army boot camp july 11!
haha Fort Benning, GA.

kuddos to him

dang. check this out. craaazy.

http://cbs4boston.com/topstories/local_story_011133721.html

duty yesterday. fast and easy day though, since i was at boat control school most of the day. had a watch though, peir sentry. four hours of coldness.

Steve officially left for Afgan yesterday, the 1st. its weird to think i will hardly hear from him for a whole freakin year. kindda worried about what could happen. but hes a good kid, he'll do just fine. best of luck to him!

so yea, tomarrow is the last day for school. bout time. but then i get to come back to the ship and start cranking. four months of working for the CS's. wow. i can not wait.
sense the enthusiasm?

new day.

school was longer. had to review for the test tomarrow. fun.

bought some SHOES today! been so long since ive worn shoes; ive always worn boots for the past three years now. comfy shoes they are...man ive missed out!

duty tomarrow. should be a short one, due to this school. we'll see.

i start "cranking" friday; working for the CS's. thatll be a fun 4 months...not really. but i got to do it.

monday we head out for a week. doing b.s. drills and such. great. schedualed to pull back in on valentines day. wow thats nice. figures they do something like that. oh well.

music time.

hahaaa. Cathrine and i totally just planned a trip to SWITZERLAND!!

we're planning to go to Zurich. they got a ton of outdoors stuff and city stuff to do. i looked online today and compared airline prices. about $700 round-trip for a 1.5 week stay, and i found a hotel in the country side for $90 a night for a room. sweeeeeet. not sure how long we'll be staying, so it might end up being cheaper. in May, when im on leave, is our schedualed OUTTA-COUNTRY-DATE!!

anyway, tomarrow im going to try and find out the exact dates for my leave so i can scheduale appropriatly. then its off to SWITZ!!

this will be awesome!

well boat control school started again today. boring last time, boring this time.
but it gets me off of working on the ship. nice.

no plans for today. probably chill with friends.

kyles birthday is today. 18 he is. cool stuff. almost 21 ha.

bought another Bloodhound Gang cd today. good stuff.

worked on brandons car audio. his system keeps cutting in and out. theres loose wires somewhere in the car, just have to find where. didnt succeed at that though. oh well.

boat control school starts again tomarrow. oh boy. fun.

rob told me a sad event that happened the other night.
a couple crew members were on their way back to base,and were on some contry road when the driver fell asleep at the wheel. the car started to drift. the passenger noticed it and tryed to correct it, but ended up over compensating. the details rob got arent clear, but it sounds like the car lost control, spun around and flew into a small ditch, which flipped the car and ejected it into the air where it hit a couple trees and crashed onto the ground upside down. needless to say whatever happened, the driver was ejected out the car and died instantly. the passenger walked away from it all.

they think alcohol was involved, but when we talked to the MA on our ship, he said alcohol was not. a freak accident of a sort.

pretty screwed up though, one day your talking to these two guys on the ship, and before you know it one is dead and the other in critical condition.

makes you appreciate life a whole lot more.


well, back to music.

had to reboot WindowsXP on my computer the other day. some glitches were annoying me.
so today was spent ripping and downloading all the music i had on it. 500 some songs. painfully long. but its done.

played counterstrike against steve. won a few times. still getting the hang of it.

thats about all. saw Underworld:Evolution yesterday with rob and phil. that was pretty good,i recommend it. might see another movie tonight.
if i decide to get off my ass.

i need some motivation.......like not having anything to eat in my room.

good enough for me..

.RocK.

duty yesterday. pretty easy. 12pm-4pm rover watch. thing that sucked was the fact that it was cold as hell. windy too.

deglam day today. no work; three day weekend. sweet.

steve called me yesterday. said he finally made Specialist. bout time! thats cool though.
he leaves very soon for afganistan. be there for a year. so good luck to him, i know he will come back safe.

sooo now im bored. and tired. nap time sounds good...

.RocK.

headache.

just finished doing my taxes. god i hate them. with a passion.
so many numbers, so confusing instructions, so precise and stressfull.

thanks to TurboTax, though, it was easier.

still not fun. no state taxes though. thanks military!

AND i get a quadruple diget refund from the feds!
niiice.

and now all that mental work has made me quite hungry. starving really...


.RocK.

holy cow.
if this wasnt done by boredom himself, i must be insane.


wait, i DID make it.

'CRUDE' : the mini


.RocK.

found this cool website thats hosts videos for free.
figure id try it out.

enjoy.



From my port visit in Bulgaria.


From john and chia's basement while on leave for new years.


.RocK.

just played Counterstrike for the very first time.

HOLY SHIET! it kicks. its sick. it knocks your grandmas panties off!

okay back to gaming..

.RocK.

another day.

duty yesterday. had two barracks watches. in the morning and in the evening. fun.

today im updating my Counterstrike game. gunna battle with some fellow OS's later on. should be fun cant wait.

mom told me they got 6 inches of snow. dammit. i have nothing here but rain. dammit.


.RocK.

another day ended.

work was long. ran some drills. and training. it was pretty boring.

got back to the room, continued customizing my laptop.
downloaded and ripped some songs onto it. got quite a massive collection.
its great.

tomarrow (er, technically today) is a duty day.
i think i only have one watch; pier sentry 4am-8am.
also the duty driver. yippee.


.RocK.

so i bought some stuff for the laptop today.

a list:

-wireless mouse
-blank cds
-Counterstrike: Source

yes yes im moving up in the world.


.RocK.

wow. that was crazy.

to start off. Saturday was my duty day. it was easy. a barracks watch in the morning, and duty driver the rest of the day. no big deal. what made it freakin awesome was it SNOWED that night! and just a little powder flurry, a freakin horizontal white out snow storm!! it kicked ass!!
so i finally saw snow. i was happy.

so sunday we were suppossed to go out eraly that morning. well the seas were real rough, so our time got pushed back not once, but three times. finally around dinner we sailed away, seas still rough, but a little calmer.

monday was a day in the history books for my ship, the mighty USS Nashville. the navy is buying these unmanned aircrafts called UAV's. there're still in testing, and up until monday were NEVER tested on a ship underway. but that all changed, because that day we successfully landed this UAV (this particular prototype was a helocpter, about the size of a vw) onboard our flight deck while moving. it was really cool! there were news cameras everywhere and photographers. it was neat to be the VERY FIRST SHIP in history to have a UAV land on it while underwy. im famous now!

anyway, tuesday was more testing, and we were suppossed to stay out until friday. but the seas were getting worse, and so bad that one of the big deck amphibious ships had some damage done to her. a couple communication antennas broke, some hull damage, and a major radar module broke off from its mount. some serious, not to mention expensive damage. so the commadore recalled all the ships that were in the area affected by this storm, and one of those ships was us. so we got to pull back into port three days early! hell i didnt complain one bit!

so here i am happy and telling the story. and now its done.
time to enjoy my new laptop more.


.RocK.

we finally pull in yesterday morning from a week and a half out at sea.
intersting i guess.

did a ton of drills, a ton of amphibious operations, and a ton of crap.
pretty eventless off the coaust of south carolina. warm weather though.

anyway yesterday friday the 13th was my 20th birthday. finally. no more teen junk. the big two zero. spent the day out with some friends,went to a bar and grill, then off to see Hostel. it was a good movie. could have been better, but still good.

so i bought myself a birthday present for...me. a Gateway notebook! pretty pimp too, and for under a grand it was worth it. setting it up as we speak. customizing as you will.

one less thing i have to lust over. because now i have it.


off to customize.

.RocK.

today was slow.

did a "mock underway" on the ship today. general quarters, abandon ship, sea and anchor drills...sucked.
finally got off of work, then me and brandon went to visit an old OS from the ship at the naval air base. talked with him. pretty cool. came back, listened to my new classical cds, now im bored.

got to get up early tomarrow. beginning of the 2 week cruise. got to be at work at 6am. dont come back until the 13th. on my birthday of course. fun stuff.

bed time.



.RocK.

leave came and went by fast. left yesterday around 4pm, later than anticipated.
got back to the ship at 7:30am; half hour late for work. oops. they didnt care though.

so now im relaxing from a very uneventful trip through rain, snow, fog, and more rain.
and it sucks to be back. we head out to sea for two weeks strating the 6th. crud.

but i did have fun at home, enjoyed it well, got some neat presents, and looking
forward to the next time i have leave.

now: movie time.

.RocK.

well the paintball game didnt go as planned. so we all hung out at my house. watched a movie. good movie it was. i bought a new phone the other day too. a nextel. cool phone, much better than the other one i had.

so today is the day i return. this afternoon josh is coming up to pick me up and were will head down south to "home". and be ready for work the next day. awesome.

now its time to pack.

.RocK.

so its the second to last day.

events that have happened:
steve and i went car shopping for all of about an hour. no luck. i decied i will wait until after our six month deployment to buy a car. more money, newer cars; better.
came back to my house and chillaxed.

plans for the rest of the day:
paintball this evening with the mob and laura and kelly.
partying later tonight.


.RocK.

new years eve was freakin awesome! there was music. there was tv. there was dancing there was singing there was ruckus and of course there was alcohol. my and kyle spent the time with the mob. good times. too much to discuss. lets just say it was well worth the sleep lost.

today me and kyle went driving around everywhere to find a certain jacket. a couple hours later we got it. then we spent time with the mob. now im home and going to watch a movie. kick ass.

popcorn time...

.RocK.