26 November 2008,
24 days and a wake up. Even better, I'm waiting at the Tucson Airport right now for a flight back to Oklahoma. Yep, the family has to put up with me for 4 whole days. This will actually be an opportunity for them to realize how quiet the house has been without me around making messes and starting new projects. Yes, that's right, in 25 days, I'm demolishing the kitchen. Hope Angela is ready. She's been patient about the new stove being in the garage and I figure it's time to bring in the house. The lighting isn't real good in the garage and so it's hard to tell when the meal is done.
We took three tests over yesterday and today. Let's just say I can recognize what language they are using, but not much further than that. It seems like I'm going backwards with this training, partially my fault, and more partially the instructors, but there's no point in going there. I've got a long ways to go but I'm still further in Arabic now, than I have every been with Spanish, so it works, it just needs some modifications.
Well, I really wanted to get on here to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, whether you celebrate it or not. I'll try to post at least once while I'm home and maybe add some pictures of the family too.
Be safe and have a great day.

17 Nov 2008,

Well, I finally made it to Tombstone this weekend. I didn't stay long enough to watch the gunfight at the OK corral but I was able to watch 5 re-enactments at the Six Gun City Saloon. The actors were funny. I walked around and looked in most of the stores. I will have to go back and buy a CD I have been wanting for a while, Frankie Lane, Gunslinger Ballads. I first owned the album back when I was around 10. I remember most of the songs, Rawhide and Ghost Riders in the Sky being two of my favorites.

Here are some pictures to share with you.

Be safe and have a great day.

14 November 2008,
Yeah, it's Friday! Odat's doing her Happy Friday Dance, and I am too. Yes, I know, I only had 3 days of school this week, but seriously, it was two more longer than it should have been. Just think, my other option would have been a year and a half away from the family. I'm glad this ride is almost over.
Yes, Angela aka Mrs. Dub has a list for me, and I'm ready to get started. I keep looking around this apartment and thinking, I should paint, I should take out that wall, etc.
Wouldn't the landlord be surprised when it was time to check out.
Hey! Remodeling party at my house in OK when I get back! Yep, I'm hoping we can tackle the kitchen to some degree. For some reason, Mrs. Dub thinks the double oven should go in the kitchen and not the garage. I think she's probably right.
I got a text from my brother this week. He is on his first set of days on riding solo. Yeah! I'll have to remember to give him a call this week on his days off and see how things are going. He sent me an email a couple of weeks ago and it included a newspaper article mentioning a call he had gotten, it didn't mention him so he's in the clear. I hate getting mentioned in the news, it's never very good.
Well, time to start my day, be safe and have a great Friday!

November 12, 2008

Well, I 'm finally back to the normal routine of school back in Sierra Vista. I had some firsts this weekend. I headed up to Phoenix last Friday night to spend time with brother in law Billy and his wife Christine and many of their friends at the Phoenix International Raceway watching NASCAR. I got out to the camp site, they and some friends set up their RV's and stay the entire weekend. We watched the race on Saturday and and hung out at the SPEED Catina that night before heading back to the campsite. Sunday we made it in for the big race and I was ready for Earnhardt to win it all, as you know, he didn't, but he did come in 6th. Here's the bulk of the group on Saturday.

Before heading back to Sierra Vista I managed a wonderful detour by meeting Desert Ice and her kids. I had to call her three times to get my directions correct, and had to remind her once why they call me Wrong Way. We ate the the Chino Bandido Restaurant. Desert Ice and I have been working at finding the time to meet since I came up to AZ for my school, and I was happy to finally meet her.

There aren't too many ways to make this time better, unless you threw in my family. Well, gonna go for now, be safe and have a great day.

Nov 11, 2008

In remembrance of the veterans that have come before me, and for those that come after me, I can only write the words from Lee Greenwood's song:

If tomorrow all the things were gone, I'd worked for all my life,

And I had to start again, With just my children and my wife,

I'd thank my lucky stars, To be living here today.

From the lakes of MinnesotaTo the hills of Tennessee,

Across the plains of Texas, From sea to shining sea,

From Detroit down to Houston, And New York to L.A.,

Where there's pride in every American heart, And it's time we stand and say:

That I'm proud to be an American, Where at least I know I'm free,

And I won't forget the men who died, Who gave that right to me,

And I gladly stand up next to you, And defend her still today,

'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land, God Bless the U.S.A.

And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free

And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me

And I'd gladly stand up next to you, And defend her still today

'Cause there aint' no doubt I love this land (love this land), God Bless the U.S.A.

4 Nov 2008
Well, there is no doubt that today is a very important day. Yes, that's right, Shelby (aka Miss Dub) turned 15 today. Yikes! I woke up and my first thought was (I must be old). Yes, I managed to give her a call and wish her happy birthday in 3 different languages. I should have researched French before calling since she is learning that language in school. In 364 days, she will be driving unsupervised. Enjoy it while you can. I'm ready to get home and work with her on her driving skills.
In other news, I hear something is happening across the country, but I doubt it lives up to the hype of Miss Dub's birthday! Ok, so there's an election going on, remember this folks, if you don't vote, you can't complain. It's just like keeping the receipt to a purchase.
Not much else to report at the moment. Be safe and have a great day.

3 Nov 2008,
Twas the night before elections and all through the land,
Not a person knew what would happen, especially CNN,
With McCain and Obama heading the ticket,
And both of them claiming they know how to fix it,
But alas, there are many who don't have a clue,
why they are voting, is one of them you,
At least I can say that if you read from my website
That you are above average intelligence.

Hey, it was on the fly.
So Mrs. Dub wanted me to tell you what movie I saw yesterday, fine I can do that.

أنا شهبت السينيما اسما حيح مدريسا موسكل

There, I hope that makes her happy, because I'm here to make her happy. She thinks it sounds strange that I went to see High School Musical 3. Ok, first, I'm without a doubt, a guy, but I do like musicals, as long as it's not Barbara Streisand. We both love Grease, Moulin Rouge and the first High School Musical. Two of which Mrs. Dub and I sing together from the soundtrack. As we seem to be in full disclosure, I will tell you know that I plan on seeing Madagascar 2 also. To balance these type of shows, I have seen Body of Lies, Appaloosa, and will see the new James Bond movie. What can we derive from all this.....I like movies and being in my apartment 16 hours of every day is boring. I'm also going to NASCAR this weekend, soo.......

NOt much else to report, be safe and have a great day.

2 Nov 2008,
I have to say, I didn't mind Daylight Savings Time in Arizona at all, they don't follow the time change and I didn't loose any sleep. Ahhhh, and now I'm only an hour behind Oklahoma and my family.
We spent the day in Tucson yesterday visiting with Iraqi shop owners. We had intended to eat dinner at Ali-Baba's which is an Iranian restaurant but were invited to eat at the home of one of the people we met. He and his family came here from Iraq in 2004. THIS IS THE PART YOU NEED TO HEAR, because the media has taken its focus off of the war because it doesn't sit well with their agenda of taking our country. When you are sat down by an Iraqi man and he says, "I don't know what your political affiliation is, but President Bush was right to come into Iraq and remove Saddam." Maybe I have been affected by our own media to a degree, but I still seemed shocked when I see new American citizens coming from the Middle East saying they are registered Republicans, that President Bush was right, that terrorism is wrong and they can debate any American political point you want to talk about with them. We should love our country as much as they love it. I do, do you?
Well, I need to go for now, be safe and have a great day?

1 November 2008,

49 days and a wake up! But I try not to focus on that, right..........!

A relaxing Saturday, of sorts. I'm going to do some housework and then another guy from the class and I have made the decision to head to Tucson with one of our instructors. We will be going to several Arab owned shops and talking with the people there. I've done this once before with the entire class at the local mall here in SV. With just two of us, this could be overwhelming. Thursday and Friday were good days for me as I spent much of the class time learning on my own.

Mrs Dub went to her office Halloween party this week dressed as Gov. Sarah Palin, darn she looked good! Miss Dub went to school dressed as one of her cartoon characters she draws, which was a cross between goth and something else. Now, she'll probably correct me on that since I'm just an old fart.

Also today, I'm not sweating Oklahoma State's football game against Iowa State as much as I was last week's game against Texas. However, things are getting interesting in the Big 12 as Texas plays Texas Tech today and we play Texas Tech next week.

25 October 2008,
What a day! I picked up a couple of the guys from class and we went to watch the Oklahoma State - Texas game at one of the sports grills. I was nervous before the game and would have probably preferred playing golf and finding out the score later. However, I stuck it out and what a game. I can say I was certainly proud of the game OSU put up and the game was certainly close enough. Now, if only Texas would get impartial refs....... Alas, we came up just short of doing what needed to be done, but I feel they are still certainly capable of finishing up this session very strong.
After the game we went and saw the movie Max Payne. I needed a pick me up movie so I just pretended everyone Max killed was a Texas Longhorn, not really. Actually I root for most of the Texas teams on a regular basis. Having been born in the Great State of Texas, it's my God given right. I'm just a big O State Cowboys fan.
Miss Dub just sent me a text message. She's at a youth lock-in at the church. Her message was, "I love you and what's your blood type?" Yeah, gotta love those kinds of texts. Hmmm. should I call back home? I just got off the phone with Mrs. Dub and she didn't mention anything requiring blood type so I'll relax for now.
Yes, I do plan on meeting a certain blogger and hopefully her family around Nov 10 or 11 if they are in town. One day, when I when the big lottery, I'm gonna throw a big blogger party and invite all those who have looked in on me from time to time. So stay current, hehe.

Be safe and have a great day.

23 October 2008,
58 days and a wake up, or really close to that. I'm usually a more upbeat as you all know, so me moaning and complaining is really out of character, unless you really know me, and then I just do it to annoy people, hehe.
So let's look at some of the good things coming up, like November 4th. Ms. Dub will turn 15 years old, Yikes!
November 9th, NASCAR hits Phoenix, and my brother in law, his wife, and some of their friends have secured a spot on the infield and I was invited, Yeehaw!
I have my plane ticket for Thanksgiving to head back to Oklahoma. Yippee!
And finally, I get to be home before Christmas and spend some well deserved time with my family. Yeah!
So, what do you have to look forward too, today, tomorrow?
Be safe and have a great day!

21 October 2008
Well, I should be blogging more, but really, I'm being drained of all living substances. There are two of us that have taken 1 to 2 hours a day during class to work on areas we know we need to work on and avoiding some of the more unproductive time of class. The instructors are seeing the results but are also pressured to keeping us in class. They gave us our scores from the OPI test and I received a 0+. This is acceptable and I've already made huge improvements in both my listening and speaking skills.
There's not really much to report from Sierra Vista, not a lot happens here. I've got my ticket to fly home for Thanksgiving and I'm ready to see the family again. Just think, after Thanksgiving, I'll only have a month left, that's great news.

انا ايىد ان ادهب الى مدينة موستانغ

Welcome to my first sentence typed in Arabic. I have been working on my writing and it's a lot easier since I don't have to search for the letters. What did I say? "I want to go to Mustang City." Of course, that's where the family is. Be safe and have a great day.

12 October 2008
Sunday morning. I'm not doing much today. Last this last week it was decided that since the Active Duty personnel get Federal holidays off, that we should have them too. We have are speculation as to why, but hey, I'm a 14 hour drive from home so having Monday off really doesn't do anything for me other than let me spend an extra 8 hours sitting in my apartment, wheee. We did get Thanksgiving worked out and I'm ready to make plans to head back home for that time with my family.
Last night was the Benson Butterfield Stage Days Rodeo. I mentioned this to the class and had 5 people decide to head down there to watch, two of them had never seen a rodeo before and were amazed. Our two instructors were supposed to go with us but at the last moment backed out.
I enjoyed getting back and seeing a good rodeo, the beginning was an hour and half of kids events, including muttin bustin, dummy calf roping, boot scramble and more. A fellow classmate made the comment that fans of rodeos and Nascar seem to be more patriotic and God fearing than any other culture. This was solidified when the announcer mentioned that rodeo world would never allow God or our flag to be removed from the sport.
When I was asked what was so great about rodeo I had to explain. Anybody can go head to head with another person in a competition, I mean they are usually of equal size, but when you put a 180-200 lb man against a 1200 lb horse or a 2000 pound bull, that's a challenge.
Well, I better get back to doing nothing, be safe and have a great day.

02 October 2008,
Tonight was the Vice Presidential Debate, if I heard right, this was only the 7th one ever as the VP usually doesn't bring much to a Presidential ticket. However, this may be the most important VP running in our history. Regardless to who wins, we will have a historic election. I haven't been impressed with Obama since he announced he was running for President even before he took his oath as a Senator. At least the Governor from Alaska can say she has been working for the last two years.
We also have the baseball playoffs, and my team is in the running, having beat Chicago yesterday and leading them 9-1. Go Dodgers!!
We all took our tests this last Tuesday and it will be another week or so before we know how we did. I ended up taking it second to last so I got to sit, pace, practice and wait all day before my time came. I don't want to speculate at all about how I did, but there's no doubt I'm a 0+ and might have made it to 1. I'll let you know when I find out.
Well, be safe and have a great day!

28 September 08
This month and this weekend have gone by fast. We have class Saturday morning from 7 to 11. One of the instructors went to Tucson on Friday taking the car the instructors share so since I live close to them I said I could pick up the other one on Saturday morning at 6:40 am. I am awaken by my phone at 5:50 with the question, "Where are you, are you coming to get me?" I asked him what time he had, assuming it was possible my clock was wrong and I was sleeping so may not have read it right anyway. He comes back with, "Oh my goodness!, I could have slept another hour!" Yes, you could have. I went ahead and got dressed and picked him up as he was wanting to work with me for the upcoming test. Yes, I'm taking my first Oral Proficiency Interview on Tuesday and will have the results in a couple of weeks. The scale ranges from 0 to 5. From 3 to 5 you are able to converse on just about any topic with 4 and 5 speaking at almost near native dialect. The goal for the end of the school for me is a 3 across the board. So as I am half way through this now, I'm hoping for a solid 1.
Anyway, after class several of us decided to hang out together as we all go back to our individual apartments and sit by ourselves. We had a pretty good day just relaxing and talking about anything but Arabic.
I spent today mulling around the house getting housework done. Well, better go for now, be safe and have a great day.

23 September 08
Well, there just isn't much to report. I went to school, still can't listen but can talk, can write, can read, just can't listen. Don't 3 out of 4 count?
I'm attempting to work on my Arabic back at my apartment, but really, how much of this can you take in one day. I traveled up to Phoenix for the weekend and enjoyed a relaxing time. I wish I had more to report for today, but unfortunately, I don't. Be safe and have a great day.

17 September 08.

Arabic, Okie style. I'm working on my own rendition of what Arabic would sound like with a southern accent. Here's an example...

Kafa Halik? which translated is, "How are you?"

The same phrase down south would be, "Kafa Halik-yawl?" which is, "How are y'all?"

I finally put my finger on where I'm having my problem with syncing this language. Ask me a question in English and I can answer you in Arabic, ask me a question in Arabic and I have very little clue what you are talking about. Yeah, it's an issue. I'm getting better and trying to listen to various different media formats to develop my ear in order to understand what's being said, but it's all Greek to me....
Not really much else to say tonight, I'm hoping I sleep better than last night. I went to bed at 11, thought I would fall asleep to Jabra saying words in Arabic, an hour and a half later, I was still awake and Jabra was still talking on the Ipod. That didn't work. I tossed and turned for another half hour, figured I might as well get up. I did an hour of Rosetta Stone, again working on my Arabic, played some spider solitaire and finally by 3 a.m. I fell asleep. 630 comes awful early when that happens. I didn't have any problems staying awake during class, which was surprising, and now it's almost 11 tonight and I'm about to try and go to bed again. I think my problem was getting 9 hours of sleep the night before. I'm accustomed to getting an average of 6 hours a night, with a great day being when I can sleep in and get maybe 7-8, so 9 was probably too much. I liked it, but then again I like Mexican food too...
Well, be safe and have a great day.

14 Sept 08

It's Sunday afternoon, I finished my house work a little while ago and have been downloading Arabic news stories and shows. I'm watching and listening to them so I can work on my listening skills. Obviously, this is a skill Mrs. Dub might appreciate....me listening. We have started having 4 hours of class on Saturdays and will continue that process for the remainder of the school. I think they have worked one Saturday out of each month for us to just be off. I know, it's hard to say I have it hard at all. Certainly, this is better than any math class I have ever had to take, and it has less homework than my ethics class last spring. As one of my classmates said, I know we are learning stuff, but it's hard to consider it as work.

Mrs. Dub reported the weather in Oklahoma has finally turned nice and she's glad she's able to open the house up with the windows. At the rate that time is passing, I will be home before I know it and I'm ready. I just want to make sure I've gotten everything out of the school as I can.

10 Sept 08,
Ah, Wednesday, the week is half way done. I saw this picture at The Pioneer Woman's site and had to add it here. Have you ever had one of those days. Today wasn't it for me, but I couldn't wait with this one. Pioneer Woman has an amazing ability to capture remarkable shots with her cameras, as well as a great ability to tell stories. If you haven't seen her site before, go check it out.

Mrs. Dub said she's ready to have me back home and I couldn't agree more. I'm enjoying the training but I do miss my family and home. (I also have way too many chores at home that need attention).
About 90% of the time, Arabic has been fun, in fact, as an extra assignment, two of us went to the movies last night and saw Traitor. A good portion of it is in Arabic and picking up on what was being said was fun and new. I stopped at the store today and heard a woman tell her son to come to her in Arabic and I had to smile. I'm trying to use several different tools at home to help with my learning while at my apartment.
Miss Dub is enjoying school and despite her agony during the first two days of French, now loves it. She into reading stories in French and is 'wanting' to learn at this point. Like I said, I hope to pick back up on my French when I get home.
I know all this sounds boring, but there's not much else going on for me here. Be safe and have a great day.

02 Sept 08

Here are some pictures from home.

Celebrating with a dinner out.

The In-laws, Mr. and Mrs. C with Miss Dub.

Miss Dub getting to go to the range on my trip back home in July.

This is her target, be careful.

I hope to make the rounds soon and see what everyone is up to. Be safe and have a great day.