Leaving for Iraq

Today's picture of the day is probably going to be a bit more meaningful to me than some of my readers ... but hey, it's my blog so from time to time I get to make a "personal" post.

estepfany.gif



This is my friend TSgt Estepfany Allen who along with my other friend Najimah Jones left this afternoon for 6 months in Iraq, providing weather support for the army. I was over there for most of last year, and as a "fobbit" (someone who never leaves the base) it's really not all that bad.

But even so ...

They are on their way to a war zone.

Good luck girls! ... see you in December.

Aloha,
Todd

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kids Fishing in Copperas Cove Texas

Image
The little pond at Copperas Cove city park is due to be stocked with trout on the Saturday the 17th of February.  Lately my girls have been very interested in the idea of fishing, so this past weekend we stopped by for a little practice.  Unfortunately we didn't catch anything, but I think the girls still had a fun time.  That said, I am quite sure they'd enjoy it more if we catch something next time.  So dad decided to do a little research.

My first stop was at the Texas department of Parks & Wildlife website, where I find a nice little pdf for beginning fishermen (I fished quite a bit as a kid, but am a bit rusty to be a really good teacher to my girls just now).  Here's the link:  https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_k0700_0639d.pdf

That does a pretty good job of covering all the basics. 
The next concern I had was bait, so I checked out this video (also on the website):



That definitely gave me some good ideas.  
Of course, since the pond is goin…
Read more

Zucchini Pasta with Tomato and Onions

Image
So last night I was really tempted to make myself a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.  Not totally bad for me, but I knew that I had some better stuff in the fridge, and since I knew I'd probably write about what I ate, the veggies might be a better choice ... lol, this accountability thing might just work after all.   :-)

This was just a simple "pasta" dish using zucchini squash in place of the pasta, and tomato, onion, spices and olive oil instead of sauce from a jar.  I've cooked this dish before, both for myself and with a friend.  It's been delicious every time.  I suppose I could have just sliced up the zucchini, but a couple of months back I got on Amazon and ordered one of those Veggetti slicers  that you may have seen on TV.  It works pretty much as advertised.  It took me just over a minute to turn a medium sized zucchini into a pile of "pasta" strands.



Here is the entire ingredient list:
1 zucchini squash ... spiral sliced 1/4 red…
Read more

Oklahoma is not All Flat an Early Morning Walk Up Mount Scott

Image
Who would have thought that Oklahoma would have mountains.  Okay, so they are not mountain like they have in Colorado, or even the mountains that I spent the past 2 1/2 years traipsing up and down in Arizona.  But the Wichita Mountain wildlife refuge does contain some significant hills, the tallest of which is Mount Scott at almost 2500' above ground level.


I drove up to the top a couple of weeks ago, took a couple of pictures, then drove back down. 
But this morning it was all about the walk.  It's just a little under 3 miles, but basically all uphill, then all downhill, no real flat spots along the way.  Also, it's a paved road, so you have to be on the lookout for cars going up and down.  That being said, it really wasn't a bad walk at all.  
The views are great.  Especially since we were treated to some very interesting cloud formations this morning. 




In addition, since it just rained last night, even the mountain side of the road provided some nice scenery with qu…
Read more