To everyone who is reading this. Thank you for checking my blog on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas and if I don't hear from you till then. Happy New Year as well.

CHE LIVES ON!!!

What a day!!!

Today I wore my new shirt from my lil sis. Just in case you don't know the fierce face on my shirt it is the socialist revolutionary (sometimes referred to as Communist) guerilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara. I wore this shirt on purpose and plotted all day to get a picture with the 4 star General Schoomaker, Chief of Staff of the Army.

I honestly don't think that he had a clue who I was even though I introduced myself as, Saul Betancourt, with my normal Spanish pronunciation. He looked at my shirt and I think I caught a look of surprise in his eyes when I jumped in front of him to take this picture. I hardly had a chance to pose for the camera but my full intentions were to give my signature "hang loose" sign while taking the photo. However the personal security detachment was rushing the General off to his make his way out.

Enjoy the picture. I know I did.

General Schoomaker and El Comandante Guevara.

New Book...#1

Starting to do some reading out here. I figure I lost many things in my life by not reading the books that some might encounter in the college atmosphere because I was in the military. I never searched for books. Now on the governments dime I am going to do some reading and see if I can understand what every other person that went to Berkeley (except my sis. just jokingQQQ) understands.

Starting off with Desolation Angels by jack Kerouac. I have heard people talk about him and I have read some things that refer to his writtings and lifestyle so I said, Why not? Lets read this.

Hopefully I will stick to this plan and as long as Amazon delivers to APO address I hope to be able to read some good quality books. I will keep you updated with things I read and possibly even my thoughts on it. When I am done with one book I will be taking suggestions. Although, I already have two more on my list.

So anyway, I guess I am writting about this so that I can sorta push myself along in the reading. I have always been lazy when it came to reading. Just ask my mom. When she had me reading her books as a child I would skip pages and try to get out of it. See mom, just have patience. I am reading now.

Talk to you all later...

"He was never even born"
- J.K.

Apollo Idol Prudence

This is a great picture. My buddy Apollo sent it to me using this application called Hello from picasa. It is a nifty tool. Much thanks Apollo.

Go check out his website people. Great writtings and he even included me in them. Not that I knew about it till I went there. So be prepared to do some reading.

Hey everyone. I have 6 GMail account to give away. If any of my readers want one please post a comment with an email address. First come first serve.

Get a load of this notebook. Dennis of the mortars platoon owns this bad bear. It came with a polishing pad and carpet carrying case. Yes that is a Ferrari logo cause it is a ferrari notebook. i have never seen one so I was impressed. Powerbook users, till you can hang with this notebook I don't want to hear you talk about good looking notebooks.

The kids playing with new toys.

Rob making a pit stop at our house...

The kids in front of the tree palying with thier toys.

The finished tree. Nevermind that blob of "peach" colored stuff next to it. Just enjoy the wonderful tree.

Me again caught in the act.

This is me decorating our Holiday Tree. I would call it a Christmas Tree but apparently my California Gover-na-tor was being chasitised for saying Christmas Tree. WAIT a second, since when do I care about that crap. This is me decorating our Christmas Tree.

This poor fella lives in this tent. The question you should ask yourself is if we helped them put their tent back together? Mmmmmm, what a good question...

From the inside of our porch.

Tent once again.

This is not my tent. Thanks for that goes to Tom Mak. However the wind was crazy today.

This was one of our other local purchases out here. He tasted good also. Who would have known that coming out here for a year you would learn how to skin a chicken and gut a goat. Not me. Believe that.

Mr. Mak enjoying his down time out here. This is one guy that knows how to deal with the circumstances out here. We are lucky to have him on our team.

Un and myself about to enjoy some ribs.

Un Phanechone, the master chef. At home I have a good friend that is Vietnamese and can cook his ass off. Here he is Laotian. Un did a spectacular job on the goat considering where we are and what we have to deal with.

I am not sure what they are making that face for. They enjoyed eating the goat also.

Most of the goat being grilled.

Part of the goat being marinated.

Me and the Goat. Really it's a lamb but we called it a goat. Don't ask why. That is just what we did. We thought it was funny to call it a goat.

BUT, before we cook this little guy we had to have some photo oppotunities.. He was a natural for the camera.

We bought this little guy from the local market out here. We started to get tired of eating the same canned cold cuts and rice. We took the meals into our own hands.

I know this is a horrible picture but let me point something out to you. That bright orange looking things is a two foot flame shooting out of the generator that is maintained by a certain company out here. Not my company. This is exactly why I am glad that Tom is out here and ensures our generators are running tip top. This picture is the reason why we loose power to our living space at least once a day/night.

Normally you can see mountains and mountains out this way. This is how is has been this winter. Cold as heck with strong winds. Sometimes it snows at night but then at sunrise it melts and then the cycle starts all over again.

Another crap day in the life of anyone living in Qalat.

The two dudes that made this great dinner. I will update this post and give their names. I only remember Merrit's which is the guy with the Aloha shirt on. One tip I have for anyone that is going to go back in the military or work with them. Get to know the cooks!!!!

Where the turkey dinner was made.

This is Tuan "I want to go back to high school!" Bui taking a bite out of his lamb leg.

That is dinner. A HUGE difference from our normal meals at the dinning facility.

The guys coming through the line at dinner time.

Adam serving up some food for the troops.

Proof that they did go to the dinner dressed like that. Oh yeah, the face paint was permanent marker because they ran out of dry erase markers.

This was the tribe for the night. On the bottom right corner is the only REAL Native American. However he knows nothing of the cultural. He had to call his wife for information on war paint and stuff like that. That is me in the back, I am the token Pilgrim. That is why I have a funky buckle on my hat.

Left to right: Adam Butt-ler, Mike "Should I get naked?" Lowery, and Uncle Jay Serrano. None of which are Native American.

If you don't recall the motar platoon has a couple of Native Americans in it. The rest of the platoon thought it would be a good time to dress up like "indians" and go to the Turkey dinner like that. All the war paint and artifacts were approved by Nate Poyer the resident Native American.

I really don't know what my hand is doing on the pig but this is my best impression of a leprechaun. Actually this shirt was given to me by my kiddos before I left and it was my best shirt out here so I wore it on Turkey day. Thank you Kiddos.

They brought a pig in from Pakistan and cooked him up well.

This is our "good" meals out here. Following this picture you will see what we did for Turkey Day. I know that they are late but better late than never.

The hair can use some work, I know. But this is me at my finest. In my "office"/bed. The place looks completely different now.

Thats me working. It is a rare sight but that is why we take pictures.