The Weekend Update

Hello everyone,

After a brief stint back up in Baghdad last week we have been back to business here with our usual routine. Sleep has really been a hard commodity to come by lately, even when I have the time it's a failed attempt. This may have to do with the fact that I haven't had any set hours and so my body can't seem to fall into any rhythm; work when I have to and sleep when I can.

I woke up this morning to my alarm buzzing and not knowing where I was. Have you ever had this happen to you? I had been dreaming about home and apparently I didn't want to be here because it took me at least ten minutes for me to grasp that I was still sitting in Iraq. As you might guess, it left me in a sour mood for the beginning of my day.

The Vikings lost again yesterday, I don't want to talk about it but it may explain my foul mood yesterday while out on mission. On a good note however, the Twins have secured the AL Central Division and have home-field advantage against the Athletics with the first playoff game tonight. Good luck to them.

I bought some books yesterday from Barnes and Noble, finally cashing in on some gift certificates from the years past. They include:

Nonfiction-

• How to Seduce Pleasure and Titillate in Classical Latin
• Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
• Iraqi Phrasebook: The Complete Language Guide for Contemporary Iraq
• The Sound of Paper: Starting from Scratch
• Darwin and the Barnacle: The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough
• A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
• Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty

Fiction-

• Winter Range

I thought I had ordered more than one novel but it seems that I will be doing a lot more reading to learn than entertain. On top of that, I am taking a Latin refresher course online via the Rosetta Stone method and also a class on Orbital Mechanics (Satellites) to try and keep my brain active.

Have a wonderful week everyone,

Nick