Wilkommen aus Deutschland!!

He's back "home!" On IM with him right now. They got into Germany about 7 hours ago. Flight out of Baghdad, 18 hours in Kuwait, and a plane ride home.

From my other computer when I got home (obviously before we chatted):
Daniel says:
I guess you are already gone, so I will just say, we are back in Germany. Internet is hooked up, but I have to get a router tomorrow. I probobly won't be on tonight, but tomorrow, I should have a full connection.
I'm happily, and safely home from a 15 month endangerment to life. Glad it's done; learned alot from it and hope never to do it again.
Talk to you later

How I met your mother

Apparently their workload is going down. Daniel said he had a lot of time in the past few days and had watched several episodes of "How I Met Your Mother." I think they are all just hoping that they'll line up and get on a plane any day now, but tempering that with the reality of Army Wait Training (no, it's not misspelled).

So off to Netflix I go to check out the series in order to have something to talk with my son about. :)

Daniel hates politics

I haven't heard from him in a couple of days, so in retribution for his silence, I'm posting political stuff on his blog :)

Mr. Chucklebritches

I caught Daniel online today. What a treat. He was apparently also on with Cap because Daniel would inject snippets of Cap's IM's into mine. Not sure what sort of bunking arrangements they have on the FOB, but possibly Daniel and Cap are in different buildings.

Anyway, between the 3 of us, they seemed in really good spirits, joking (sometimes inappropriately) and in general much more lighthearted than he's been for some time. He said they have been busy cleaning anything and everything, but I think the realization that in a little over a month they will not have sand between their toes is making the busy work tolerable.

It'll be a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas

I was looking at the weather indicator and realized when they finally leave, they will take a 40-50 degree F drop in temperature between Iraq and Germany. They are going to be soldier-sicles!

I am robot

I talked to Daniel this morning for a bit on his squad leader's cell phone. A good deal of the conversation sounded like metallic robot talk and was hard to decipher, but he said they're working hard, dressing, undressing, knitting exciting underwear. Oh wait, that was Monty Python's Holy Grail. I always get that and Army life mixed up.

Whistle while you work

Their replacements have arrived. Daniel et al have been doing "transition" work, which means they are washing walls, fixing mechanicals, laundering bedding and in general getting the place tidied up for the new guys. Daniel says they will be moving back to the FOB soon, but still do not have a departure from Iraq date. He's ready to go - the horse wants to get back to the barn, even if the barn is in Bavaria.

15 months is a long time. I'm glad for all the soldiers and families that they have changed it to no more than a year at a time.