I guess its been a while since I've written. I've been having fun finding grade-school classmates on Facebook. This was a long weekend, but unlike the one in January when I went to Prague (I still need to finish uploading the photos) I stayed home and got a couple things done, plus reading for my class next week on the Middle East.
I am rather delighted I finally got a wardrobe (or schrunk as they call it in Germany) for the closet. It is weird that I even happen to have a closet, but it is just an empty room. I had been using my old laundry hamper to hang clothes, but it wasn't the most stable thing. Friday, a co-worker helped me get the wardrobes from Ikea, I worked on assembling them in the evening, but as I set to the second one, I realized that it was missing most of its hardware. This required a return trip to Ikea. Too late Friday, and Saturday is miserable at Ikea, since it (and most everything else) is closed on Sunday. I managed to go pretty late in the day Saturday to get the parts and some extra shelves.
The other major accomplishment was taking a framing class on Saturday. It lasted 4 hours, but I have to say that it was pretty interesting to learn how to frame my own stuff. The amazing thing is cost. All my supplies totaled $46, and I have some left over matting and glass should I happen to have a real small project. This is something that if I had taken it to Michael's or JoAnn's it would have cost around $100 and that would be with a 40 or 50% off coupon. Now I just have to remember everything for the next project, which will be a second water color picture from Prague.
I keep forgetting about this, but since a couple folks have asked what my job is here, here's my attempt. Africa Command is the newest idea that was dreamed up only about two years ago. Responsibility for Africa from the U.S. military stand-point was divided between European Command, Central Command and Pacific Command. Africa Command consolidates all of U.S. interests under one umbrella. I work in the Intelligence directorate, which one might think of as spook type stuff, but I look at more just information gathering, organizing and analysis. My job is to work Reserve Affairs, which right now is mostly about finding military reservists (mostly Army and Navy) to come fill manning short falls in our staff. Most we bring for 6 months. The second task that is emerging is the construction of the manning document that will have the positions and structure of our supporting reserve unit(s). This second task is a real pain. There is a fixed number of people in the military, so to give us people, other commands have to give them up. There are conflicts between (a) what we want, (b) what the Joint Staff at the Pentagon thinks we should have, and (c) what the other commands are willing to give up. Once we get the manning document built then we will have to fill it, and eventually run the program of one weekend a month and two weeks a year, coordinating the people coming and going, etc.
Finally, I'll mention that the picture is of me, in Carlsbad, Czech Republic, drinking hot spring water. It's supposed to be good for you, it was funny tasting. But I did buy the souvenir mug, that you fill then drink from the straw/handle. That's about it for now, take care.
