Ahhhh... Monday

So school is finally over for the day. Today we spent all day covering Budgeting. We learned about the different stages and appropriation of funds. We learned where we fall in the whole process and about the different "pots" of money that we get funded through. Due to my high level of awesomeness I knew pieces of this already so this basically connected the dots.

I'm about to do the review questions for today and do another practice spend plan or two. I just wanted to share some observations from today.

First, Lt Bojangles is staying in my hotel. I saw him this morning and saluted him as I walked to my rental. I must say that I looked stunning in my blues while he looked like crap. His jaw dropped when he finally realized who I was.

Next, when the Army isn't getting into bar fights, grunting HooAHH, or kicking in doors, they are standing around. I think that 90% of the Army augments the BX/Clothing Sales & Burger King. I'm not kidding... much. Seriously though. Every time I go into one of these places there are 500 soldiers blocking the entrance, smoking with their hands in their pockets. All the while they are engaging in a loudness contest and searching to see who can string the most swear words together into an intelligible sentence. They give hope to stoners everywhere. I have a foul mouth but these freaks put me to shame.

When I drive to and from school there are typically 50 soldiers standing by every bus stop. Most bus stops are close enough together that you can see the next. I had to follow a base shuttle bus today and watched someone get on the bus at the BX and he got off a half mile later. It's ridiculous. Maybe I'm being too harsh, he probably had a cramp... or his foot was still asleep from standing for too long in the same spot.

There has to be something better for them to do. At least in the AF we know better than to congregate in large groups. We know that if the wrong person sees it that very soon someone will be cleaning grass out the the cracks in the pavement or making something look pretty. If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean.

That about sums up what's on my mind right now. I keep biting the inside of my bottom lip, it's pissing me off. Just when it seems to be healed I do it again and get the salty taste of blood. I'm going to get my homework done and at least stretch and do some push ups and sit ups to counteract the ever growing ball of flesh where my abs used to be.

OK bye.

My First Week In NJ

I'm up at Ft. Dix, NJ (yes, that's really the name). I've been here since last Sunday for the Management of Aerial Port Operations Course. It's a really good class and I've learned a lot more about why things are done the way they are in not only my career field but in the Air Force and DoD Transportation System. Now I have answers to questions that I asked as an Airman. It's sad that no one would (or maybe they couldn't) explain it to me. Anyway, I've been spending a lot of time studying. I've been out of my career field for a while, so this is helping me to gain more knowledge and acclimate faster. I'm not on track for distinguished graduate, but that's OK because even people senior to me scored less than I did.

OK, so at the conclusion of my first week things weren't going so well. I don't want to go to NYC, I've been there and it didn't impress me much. I could go to Philly, but I feel guilty seeing new things without Erin and Ian. So, I resigned myself to hanging around Bordentown, NJ and studying for my next stripe.

Last night (Friday) I planned on getting some good food, having a few beers and studying. I got a really good veal parmesan with penne pasta and a disgusting soup with chicken and cabbage. This veal parm is the real deal! OK, so I ate, had a beer and put the CD in the laptop. Then I hear a muffled boom, boom, boom. GREAT! Techno music! It sounded like spaceships were invading. I looked out my window and expected to see green men in silver suits with laser guns. Instead I see greasy hair and tight pants. Yes. Guidos. They were here for a party in the banquet room.

So, I try to study, but I cant concentrate over the techno music and the sound of 200 people chomping their gum. I swear I heard Fran Drescher's laugh more than once. I almost went to get an autograph... and punch her in the ear. I gave up on studying and watched some TV. I eventually drifted... OK, I didn't drift off to sleep, I passed out from exhaustion at 2 am when the "music" stopped and everyone spit their gum out. I can still hear the laugh in my head though. It's burned into my brain like a brand in the ass of the veal that I ate.

So, Erin calls and wakes me up this morning. She wasn't expecting me to be sleeping but I dont have any plans and I had to try to erase the laugh from my head. I finally showered and got dressed around 11 and came over to Dunkin' Donuts around noon. I love this place. Chocolate glazed donuts are the best thing since... veal. Maybe they should feed chocolate glazed donuts to the veal calves?

Here I sit, with a few Arab guys that seem to own the place. This area has a lot of Arabs. I'm not trying to be insensitive. I don't know where they come from so I'm generalizing. There was a large family here when I got here. They're the typical loud Jersey family. They were doing NOTHING to break down the stereotype. Anyway, one of them is a 1st LT in the Army. He looks to be a few years younger than I am. He's talking about his upcoming deployment and I glean from their not so quiet shouting match that others are coming from out of town to meet him. I assume he's leaving soon. He's in his ACU's and is feeding his adoring family snippets of info that aren't particularly important. Remember, there are Arabs sitting 12-15 feet behind him. If I can hear it, so can they.

So he's talking about the training that their medics get and how they train on pigs. It's a necessary evil. Nothing too shocking. BUT, he decides to look important and says "don't repeat this, it's kinda classified". No it's not. It's no secret. He just wanted to do some chest beating. He kept saying things like "with my rank, I can..." and "my soldiers know that they cant..."

So I'm sitting here trying to mind my business and enjoy my small piece of chocolate glazed heaven. He started another story with "don't repeat this either, it's classified." I cleared my throat loudly. By loudly, it sounded like a grizzly bear was choking on a rabbit. They all looked at me and I gave a stern look and shook my head. The conversation got quiet and I heard "who the hell is he?" I took out my ID card and held it up. Lt Moron just kept quiet and looked defeated.

We all get briefed about Communications/Operations Security. We're not allowed to talk about things with people that don't need to know. Hell, Erin still doesn't know some of the places I've been or things that I've done. I don't really like it, but it's the way it is. She's accepted it and understands. There are some things we cant talk about and then there are things that we just don't want to talk about.

In hindsight, I realize that this guy HAS to be the stupidest officer in the Army. It's well known that Lt's don't know anything. But I have a pretty short haircut and they saw me pull up in my rental "car". There are TONS of military people staying here because lodging on base is full. They all left, and me and Lt Assclown had a little stare down. He lost.

So now I'm almost finished with my extra large coffee, and I'm sucking the remnants of the donuts from my teeth. I'm going to drive down to a local outdoors store because I saw a big banner advertising a sale.

I may go have lunch at Red Robin. My good friend the Lt mentioned that they are all going there for lunch.

Delicious Monkey Bread Recipe!

Here is the delicious Monkey Bread recipe that my family had for our Christmas breakfast. Everyone loved this!
We ended up only using 3 cans of biscuits and it was plenty for 5 adults and 2 children.

4 cans refrigerator biscuits (about 40)
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup pecans, raisins and/or coconut, if desired

Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces. Pour sugar and cinnamon into a plastic bag and mix.

Add biscuit pieces, several at a time; shake to coat well.

Place pieces in a Bundt pan until all are used.

Sprinkle layers with nuts, raisins or coconut.

Bring brown sugar and butter to a boil in saucepan. Cool 10 minutes, then pour over top of biscuits.

Bake at 350F for 45 minutes. Allow to cool 15 minutes before removing from pan. Turn upside down to serve.

Submitted by: Belle

Mr. Gingerbread Killed, 2 Suspects and No Motive

Mr. Gingerbread was killed while he was at work, hanging on his tree making the Lemke household smell all cinnamony! There are 2 suspects in this horrific death, but no real motive. Mr. Gingerbread was a well liked man, especially by all the little BOYS and girls. Finger(paw) prints are being taken and hopefully we'll have someone put away for this!
Here is what was found at the scene.


And this is what Mr. Gingerbread looked like.


If you have any leads as to who did this, please call 1-800-Stop-Crime

Venison Stew

I think Erin has abandoned the blog to devote time to saving the planet... one bottle at a time. It's been a while since it's been updated so I figured I'd step up to appease the throngs of devoted followers that live to read about or ultra-exciting lives.

I made venison stew yesterday and it was so good I thought I'd brag and post the recipe. If you don't have venison you could use beef.

You'll need the following:
Carrots
Celery
Mushrooms
Red Potatoes (they don't break down after cooking all day)
Black Pepper
Salt
Thyme
Paprika
Rosemary
Olive Oil
Flour
Meat
1 can of each of these soups, Beef Broth, Beef Consomme, Beefy Mushroom

First, I don't use recipes. I didn't measure or pay attention to how much I used. Use what suits you. Cut your meat into chunks. Heat a large skillet or stock pot. Coat the meat with flour. cover the bottom of the pan with olive oil and toss the meat in to sear it. Once all of the meat is browned and the oil and flour have thickened a bit, toss in all of your chopped veggies. When the celery and mushrooms soften pour your three cans of soup in and top off with two cans of water. Simmer for a while to deglaze the pan and transfer to a crock pot on low and cook for 4-6 hours. The flour and oil should have made a roux and along with the starch from the potatoes it should thicken the broth over time. If it seems too thin you can let the crock pot vent. This also doubles as an air freshener.

While it cooks enjoy the compliments of how good it smells. Revel in your awesomeness, or if you're not awesome like me then you can just enjoy breathing.

Erin the Crusader

In Texas it was cheaper to put trash in a landfill than to recycle. We didnt recycle because it was a pain in the ass. This is just to let everyone know that Erin has gone green. She's a one woman crusader to save the planet. She's singlehandedly going to reduce our "carbon footprint". I'm not complaining, I'm all for doing my part but it's quite comical at times. I told her today that I forgot to recycle a can and you should have seen the look she gave... She wanted me to dig under the old coffee grounds and bananna peels to get it. No way!

Feel free to make fun. She even recycled the plastic wrapping on the case of water that she just bought. While absurd, it's a good thing. We used to fill our can to the top twice a week in TX but here we didnt even fill the can once and we only have one trash pick up a week.

Maybe it's her destiny... Erin=Ireland=Green

The Jimmy Is SOLD... Almost

I had some people put a $240 deposit down on the Jimmy tonight. WOO-freakin'-HOO! They talked me down $200. HA! I was going to take less than they offered anyway. It's good to be free from it... almost. I'll believe it when the title is signed.

I failed to mention that I'm selling my beloved 1993 GMC Jimmy after over 4 years of ownership. I bought a 1997( HUGE upgrade in years) Expedition. It's WAY too damn big and I feel like a tank. I guess I need it to overcome my shortcomings... at least that's what all the jealous people will say.

You know what they say about guys with big...

I had to edit this to say that tomorrow is my FIRST official day at work here. I'm excited... pause... NOT!