I guess it's a good time for a weekend entry.  I would have done one Saturday, but I'm lazy.  I finished the class that the Army wanted me to take.  I was supposed to start a new one on Monday, but apparently the S-3 saw no point in me doing these classes.  The point that I saw in the classes was the ability to do the job that they were going to put me in.  I'll get some more answers on Monday.  Meanwhile, Friday was the day of the Brigade ball that I had been part of organizing for the past few weeks.  That day was pretty interesting.  The fun started with some last minute seating cards that needed to be made for the head tables.  Guess who was tasked with doing this.  Then, a bunch of stuff had to be taken up to the restaurant.  My boss tells me to load it in the van and take to be there at around 1715 (5:15 PM for you civilians).  This was probably around 1430.  He hands me a card, which is the key for the vehicle.  It's some French made van, where you stick the card into a console, and then you push a button to start it.  Then he leaves.

I walk outside, loaded the stuff into the van, and get inside, only to discover that it's a stick shift.  Now, I'm a New Yorker.  You don't find too many sticks there.  Also, the only stick that I had really driven was in Afghanistan, but the driver's seat was on the right, and I shifted with my left.  I decide to do a test drive around post to see if I can get used to the damn thing.  After I spent 5 unsuccessful minutes trying to get it into reverse, I got out and decided to ask one of my NCO's that knew about the vehicle how to do it.  Turns out that when you want to put it into reverse, you have to pull up on this little knob below the handle.  That was a lot easier than my trying to force it into position using brute strength.  It seemed like a good idea at the time considering that it normally takes a small amount of extra force to get a manual into reverse.  I just figured that the French were (still) jerks, and made it stupidly hard, which they did, but not like I thought.

During my test drive, I got a call from my boss, telling me that I needed to get one rose and a flask.  WTF.  The rose was easy.  I got lucky on the flask.  There was an AAFES vendor selling them, and I remembered seeing it the day before (which was the vendor's first day).  With all things assembled, I left post and hoped for no traffic.  Things went pretty well, until this kid on a scooter got behind me.  Like any Italian driver, he rode my bumper.  Unlike normal Italians, he refused to pass me when I wend slower.  I was trying to get him to go around, but I can only assume that he was drafting.  It was also very obviously that I wasn't handling this vehicle like a pro, so I figured that I could let him go around.  He chose to stay behind me for 2 miles.  We get to one traffic circle on a hill.  I stop, and forget to put it back in first, so when I tried to go, it stalled.  While restarting the vehicle, it rolls back a good distance (I can only imagine what the kid is thinking), and then I peel out of there loudly.  I don't know what happened to the kid.

I got home, and finished putting my awards on my Blues uniform.  I go to put the jacket on, only to find that it's a bit tight around the arms.  Ok, it's more than a bit tight.  In retrospect, I'm about 18 lbs heavier that I was when I was originally measured for it.  I'm contemplating calling my boss to explain the issue (which has no resolution) but somehow I literally squeeze into it, get it buttoned, and leave.  So you know, it was so tight that when I was driving, I thought that I hadn't put my seat belt on.  In actuality, I just could not feel it. I believe that it stretched out a bit throughout the night.

I get to the restaurant, help set up, and wonder what I'll be doing during the event, since I didn't buy a ticket.  I sat down and enjoyed the event for free.  Saved 32 Euro, and got two mugs out of the deal.  Oh, before I sat down, at some point while I was working, I was pushed into General Abizaid, who was the guest speaker.  I didn't know that it was him until he started asking me how I was doing, and I looked down and saw 4 stars on his sleeve.  I would have loved to chat, but I was busy, so I basically answered his questions quickly and blew him off. 

After the formal part of the event, I had to take the death van back to post and get my car.  Since there was still beer left, and it was paid for, we gave the color guard 2 cases, and I took 5 6-packs of German beer and left.  I basically grabbed a pack every time I went to take something out.  I got back to post, got into my automatic, low to the ground Hyundai Accent and went home.

Saturday was uneventful.  I basically hung out with friends most of the day and then slept.

Sunday, I went to see "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector".  VERY funny movie.  It's just stupid funny.  I mean, it's redneck humor, and you're not expecting much, but it's awesome. 

Black 6, out.

A word of advice.  Never send anything from the states to an overseas APO using the "Parcel post".  I know it's cheap as hell, but it should never be done.  Going the other way is fine.  When it leaves us, it is flown to the states, and then begins it's journey, which takes a few days longer than first class.  The only reason I used it was because I was sending some heavy stuff, like books, and a skillet set, and a large piece of wood (more on my wood another day).

I sent myself 4 packages when I was on leave in the states (2 on April 16 and 2 on April 21st).  They all arrived today, a wonderful 51 days later.  My guess is that they take all the stuff, and float it across the Atlantic tied to a rock.  Once I unpacked the boxes, I realized that I had a big task ahead of me.  My once clean living room now looks like this:
 

My first task when I got home was to use the enclosed DVD binders to sort my movies.  I had 4 new ones, which brings the total up to 13 binders.  I took a break to go over to a buddy's house to help him with his internet connection, and to bring him some grappa.  Unfortunately, he wasn't home, even though this was planned out an hour earlier, and he had given his cell to his fiance, who had no idea where he was.  That became a waste of 17 Euro, since I took a cab there and back, due to the grappa.

Back at the apartment, I had a huge load of books to sort out and categorize them on the shelves, so I can have a group per shelf.  Realizing that my current system was lacking due to section spill-over, I had to redo the categories.  Now, books break down into: Military books (training and FM's), Military books (stories and non training), Ninjutsu and martial arts training, Physical training, Questionable skills, and random subjects.  In an attempt to optimize, I had to remove the books from the shelves, stack them, and measure the stacks to create the new breakdown.  I sill can't figure if On Rope should be in "Physical Training" or "Questionable skills".  The same goes for Quickstart to Tango. 

The section on "Questionable skills" hacking, lock picking, wardriving, shooting, tax lowering, Freemasonry, EKG reading and Phlebotomy (thanks mom), codes and cyphers,  Basically subjects that would make someone look at the shelf and say "WTF?"  I guess it depends on the person.  I'm sure that when you saw Quickstart to Tango, you thought the same thing.

(Hours later)  The big trick is arranging things so that I will never have to bend over to get a book.  I almost made it, too.  I had to put the the manga books (Naruto, Megatokyo) down with the games.  I also left some room for some more books that I recently ordered.  I hope I can reclean by this weekend. 

Black 6, out.

Well, the weekend was rather uneventful.  Friday night, I had to attend a Hail and Farewell.  Most of the LT's avoided the other officers by gathering around the grill.  It wasn't voluntary at first.  A Major put us there.  Anyway, we each attempted to avoid actually doing the cooking by putting our hands in our pockets o the guy with the spatula couldn't pass them off.  I ended up cooking or the last quarter or third or so.  Meanwhile, I was pissed, because I had a going away party that I wanted to go to for someone that I actually gave a damn about.  In the end, I cut out early and went to the better party.  I don't have pictures, however.

Saturday, I took some friends out to a restaurant that I liked called Aeolia.  They have some very good dishes, and some rather unusual ones.  I particularly like this one dish of pasta stuffed with pear and covered with a cream and pieces of ham.  I was also hoping to have the bison steak, but they were out, so I had the reindeer instead.  Other dishes that they have include deer and kangaroo. 

Sunday, I slept in late, then woke up and decided that I wanted to get some homework done.  Then, I went back to sleep.  Seriously, I was heavily tired for some reason.  Lying down did not help at all.  Eventually, I decided to get up and get some stuff to cook for dinner.

Tonight, I made Chicken & Biscuits for the first time:
 

I have a wireless network set up in my apartment, so I bring the computer to the kitchen so I don't have to go back and forth to chat.  On the right is the picture of the view from my kitchen at sunset.

 
I added the biscuits in and then put the skillet straight in the oven.  People, cast iron skillets are wonderful inventions.

The end result was AWESOME.  I ate half of it and had to talk myself out of continuing.  I just keep thinking about it.  Plus, I didn't need to make any side dishes.  Damn it was awesome.  Let me just stop right now.

Black 6, out.

Long post with pics and videos (yes, plural). Grab a sandwich.

This past weekend my group of people and I went down toward Pisa, to Camp Darby, to do some camping. A deciding factor was the fact that two of the wives were on a softball team, and would have to go down there anyway for a tournament. Being single, and in the army, I didn't have the equipment necessary to have real fun, so I ended up shelling out money for things like a tent and such.

The area is a part of a military installation, and is actually quite nice. It's not like camping out in the middle of nowhere, but you don't have the luxuries of home. It's somewhat in between. Since it took me 10 minutes to unpack and set up my stuff (everyone else had at least 2 kids), I somehow became the watcher of children. I'm starting to feel like that uncle that is single, and you hope he finds someone, but as long as he doesn't have a life, "could you do this". The video below is of the one that apparently learned my name sometime over the past week. She now yells it whenever she wants attention or needs something, an then avoids me the rest of the day, until she needs to be tossed in the air. I would normally expect women to not attain the "use men" this skill until they were teenagers, but I guess some learn fast.

There is another video there of her where she needs her shoes. If you listen at the end of the video, you hear her dad yell at her to put her shoes on.

The rest of the kids passed the time with the baseball bat and tennis balls that I brought with me. I would have brought a glove, but the kids didn't have gloves, which removed my ability to throw around a baseball. I mean, what kid doesn't have a glove? It's a necessity of childhood. Meanwhile, the adults were lazy, because the drive took over 4 hours. Here is us being lazy:

At some point, the kids passed out, and it was just us sitting around the fire, telling jokes and ragging on each other:

The guy in the pic on the right hadn't had a drink since we got back from the deployment. Two (light) beers and (maybe) some grappa knocked him over like this. One of the guys brought chem lights. Another had some 550 cord. The result:

Rave. Without techno, drugs, and hot women. Can we party or what. I don't think they believe me when I say I am going to put this stuff on the internet. And yet, here it is.

The next day, was beach day. Only having to take care of myself, I slept in until the noise became unbearable, and this is just due to the adults. I mean, we're on vacation. Why would you wake up at 0600? I want at least 7 hours of sleep, damn it. Anyway, we drove to the beach.

The water is really, REALLY clear. It's awesome.

We all decided to get a bit of sun. Can you guess who didn't get sunburned?

Meanwhile, the kids decided that they liked to roll around in the sand:
 

At some point, actually a couple of points, we decided to mess with one of our fiends who was sleeping while sunning. That's such a bad idea, so we helped by waking her up:

That night was more relaxing, and people not wanting to move due to their sun burns.

Day three was a day to go to the pool:
 

Not many pictures, due to the fact that my camera was not waterproof, at least not to my knowledge. Some of the finer points of the day: The kids wanted me to toss them, and I obliged. Every once in a while, there were breaks for "Adult Swim". This was great, as I spent my time taunting kids from the sidelines. At some point, I was cheered to go up to the slide and come down in a cannonball. According to my lifting buddy's 15 year old son, every man, woman, and child at the pool stopped what they were doing to watch me ascend and perform. Both times. Apparently, I am a pool deity, albeit one who doesn't swim all that well.

One the day was over at the pool, we returned to camp. I ended up carrying one of the children on my back, as he got sunburned on his back. I think he almost fell asleep while we were walking. That night, was another late night, but this time, with marshmallows:
 
 

The next morning, we broke camp and headed back to Vicenza. I should have taken a pic of what I was wearing, because it seemed to scare the hell out of some Italians at a gas station that we stopped at. All I wa swearing was a pain of jeans, a black sleeveless t-shirt, and a bandana. Did I mention that I didn't shave all weekend. I swear that when I walked into the cafe, everything stopped for a second. I got a sandwich and a donut, but I hadn't asked for anything to drink. The woman behind the counter, obviously judging me by my appearance, asks me if I want a beer. It has to be noon or so, and I'm not up for it. The fact that I ordered a latte macchiato seemed to throw her off. The rest of the drive went over without a hitch.

Well, that was the weekend.

Black 6, out.

First off, for those that don't know, my brother is getting ready to deploy soon.  Good luck to him on that.  Second, I now have 3 years in the Army (not counting West Point time) which means that my pay goes up $480 a month, before taxes.

The last couple of days could not truly be defined as "work days", unless you worked on the type of job that allowed to bill the company for the time spent doing things like driving and eating with a client and such.  I went out to Nove again, which is a 35 minute drive,  which turned into a 45 minute drive, because i think the Italians were afraid that it was going to rain and started driving slower in anticipation.  I got to the place I needed to go to, picked up a sample of the mug that we were getting made (I was there 5 minutes tops), and started driving back.  On the way, I decided that it was crap that I ad to do all this driving, and stopped off for gelato, on the Army's time.  Since you can't eat and drive, I went back to my car, grabbed  The Dilbebrt Principle, and sat down on a bench to read.  As soon as I sat down, there was an opening in the clouds, and the sun was shining directly on me.  Once I finished the gelato, I called my boss, let him know that the mug looked good.  Then I drove back to post (45 minutes) got into uniform, and went to lunch.

The first thing that I promised you was my idea for a "Bring your 'Friend' Party".  Everyone has that person that they like, but refuses to date you because you're "such a good friend" or because they "value your friendship and don't want to mess that up," or some other lame excuse, all while dating a long line of jerks, only to tell you what jerks they are.  Well, for this party, everyone is required to bring that friend (or friends, if you have more.  I have at least 2).  Then you just abandon them, and go hit on other people's "Friends".  Hell, if you're such a nice guy, you might just find someone else whom you're not already friends with.  And you ave the comfort of knowing that your friend is being chased by other "nice guys".  Plus, you are almost assured a mix that is 50/50, as long as everyone brings at least one friend.

This idea was something I concocted when I went out to dinner with a bunch of coworkers one night.  I''m not really sure what prompted it, but it was there.  The people were single, except for one, who was married, but his wife was teaching in Japan.  My other single's group consists of 3 other LT's and a Captain.  I'm pretty sure that the discussions that occur in that group should not be printed here.  Actually, one of the LT's is married.  We also make fun of him.  Another just went on leave to get married.  Damn, all my friends are leaving.  Now it's me, the girl, and the Captain, who is a total player.

I'm not saying that my married friends aren't cool, but it's a pain in the butt being the odd man out.  I'm not saying that I don't take the occasional opportunity to remind everyone of my freedom, and the fact that I don't purchase food in bulk to feed a small horde.

Alright, this post has run out of steam.

Black6, out.

This is long.  Grab a chair.  It has pictures.

Ok, so I'm going to post a roll-up for the weekend.  First off, I would like to say that I now have internet in my apartment, and it is blazing fast.  How wonderful.  No, I will also be more inclined to leave comments, knowing that it won't take forever and a day to load the initial page, and then the comment page.

Ok, so let's start with Friday.  My boss was recently promoted to Major, but it was right before everyone went on leave, so there was no time for a party.  Until this Friday.  He had an open bar up to 1000 Euro, which is just short of $1300.  Basically, it means that everyone who comes can drink for free, until the bill hits 1000 Euro.  The bartender taught me a new drink, called "Aquafresh".  It also doubles as a mean trick to play on someone.  It's a shot 3/4sambuca mixed with 1/4 Green Creme de Menthe.  Then he lights it on fire, places his hand over it (the fire goes out, and the glass suctions to his hand).  Now here's the trick.  You tell the person who is doing it that after they do the shot, they need to place their finger over their lips (like they were saying "shhhhh") and suck in.  It feels like your lungs are burning, and it damn near put me under the bar.  Did the same to my friend, on whom I later played the joke. 

The only guidance that my boss really put out before the party was "invite women".  Simple enough.  I invited two, and told them to bring friends (meaning other women).  One couldn't make it, and the other one decided to do SOMETHING other that come when I told her, because she give me a call after the open bar is over (3 hours after it started) to tell me she's coming.  She also told her friends that there was an open bar but was apparently not smart enough to relay ideas of time, and monetary limits to them (she's a blond).  So I tell her to come out anyway, and I'll buy some drinks (I'm a nice guy).  When she get's there, she shows up with 3 joes.  Needless to say, I didn't buy any drinks.  I was pissed, but I was also full of aquafresh, vodka, gin, and tonic, so I let it slide.

Now, I took a jacket with me to the bar.  Reason being because I took a cab there (I never drive after drinking) and would have to take one back.  It's too hot to actually wear a jacket, but there are certain things I need to carry, like the gate opener to my apartment.  Well, I forgot my jacket at the bar, and by the time I noticed it, I didn't care.  However, I did have to climb a fence to get home.  The next morning, when I woke up, I debated how early I should go and see if it was still there, and laid in bed and watched cartoons while my headache went away.  Once the afternoon hit, I came to the realization that the bar was technically a Cafe, and was probably open early in the morning.  Long story short, I went there and got my jacket.

Saturday afternoon/night, I was over at my lifting buddy's house for a barbecue with him and some friends.  Trimming the story to it's funnier parts, there was light beer to start (which I'm not a fan of).  Sice we needed red bull to make more mixed drinks, the guy who wasn't drinking (due to recently having laser eye-surgery), my buddy and I went to the store, where I obtained Sam Adams (because Guinness in a can blows) and Heineken Special Dark.  We also had grappa, which, because it as a strawberry flavored one, went down pretty easily.  Between the jokes, the food, and everything else, we had a good time.  Also, pictures were taken.  Some of the less funny ones that I took, were a little blurry, because I accidentally changed a setting on the camera.  The funny ones, without the non-funny ones, would be entirely out of context.  If I can get more from other people, I'll post them.  Maybe.  I'm pretty sure there are some interesting ones of me.  You know, the ones that I won't show you.  Here's what I will show for now:

Lifting buddy on the left, with a kid flying in from the right.

Their children are someone nearby.

 
The funniest thing about this pic is that the photo that follows it it unbelievably funny.  I can't even explain why it happened, but I was DEFINITELY not supposed to catch  a picture of it.  [I seriously considered posting it, but have decided against it.  Contact me otherwise if you really want to see it].

 
She's holding up the gag-gift that was given to my lifting buddy's son.  It's a G-string, and somewhere out there is a pic of me wearing it over my shorts.

 
The neighbor makes "Jack Daniel's" take on a whole new meaning.  What's even funnier was when my lifting buddy's wife told him to stop and went to take the bottle back.  Perfect camera timing produced this:
 
I had to protect the camera after this, as well as the other pic that I wouldn't show.

Sunday, we went out to Bassano, so that Amy, the only single member of our group (the rest of the group is comprised of 3 couples are married with children), aside from me, could show us where to buy some good flavored grappa.  I bought 4 bottles.  My only fear is that it will end up like my wine.  I need more people to help me drink it, because i it's just me, I'm not drinking.  Hell, it took me over a year to open the wine that I had in my house.  Here are some pictures:
 

This time, I promise that the next entry will be about the difference between going out with single and married groups (from a single guy perspective), and my "Bring your friend" party idea.  Unless something good happens, or I get more pictures.

~Black 6, out.

The other day, the home gym that I purchased at the auction arrived.  A little back story.  $300 gym, purchased for $75, and I realized that it was too big for my car.  I hadn't even thought about where it would go in the apartment.  Anyway, I decide to let AAFES deliver it to me, so that THEY could carry it up three flights of stairs.  The truck arrived on Tuesday and the two guys gety out, and I notify them that I'm on the third floor (not counting the ground floor).  When they get to the first floor, the guy that seems to be in charge asks me why the hell I need this machine.  "You're in shape.  You've got guns and everything.  You don't need it."  I tell him that I still need to maintain what I have.  "You do PT in the morning, don't you?"  I think he was just pissed at teh fact that he was carrying this thing for a guy in good shape, and not some fat slob that was looking to change their life or something.

On the second floor, the other guy, the quiet one, needed a break before tackling the last flight of stairs.  I offered to take his place.  He declined.  When they got to the apartment, I just had them put it in the hallway.  It's been there ever since.  I just need to move some stuff around before I set it up, probably on Sunday.

Speaking of working out, I did some math and realized something.  I am doing some form of exercise every 12 hours from Monday to Friday.  Morning PT is at 0630, and then I end up lifting at 1830.  I made the statement that I was "accidentally dedicated".  By this I mean that, until I did the math, I didn't hit the gym hard core and brag about it.

The schedule looks like this:'

Monday: 2 miles of Wind Sprints / Chest and Back workout
Tuesday: 25 minutes Elliptical Runner / Wrist and Abs workout
Wednesday: 4-6 mile run / Fun day
Thursday: 25 minutes Elliptical Runner, Pullups and Dips / Biceps and triceps
Friday: 4-6 mile run / Legs and Shoulders

The "Fun day" is something that isn't a lift, or it can serve as the make-up day if we miss a lifting day.

Meanwhile, work continues to keep me amused, I guess.  I'm not sure if there's a word for it.  I guess soporific would be fitting.  It's unfortunate, because I'm trying to limit coffee and sodas.  Actually, I'm trying to avoid coffee altogether.

Before I forget, I think the next entry will be about the difference between going out with single and married groups (from a single guy perspective), and my "Bring your friend" party idea.

Black 6, out.

"I just got done playing, and I jot my balls crushed, figuratively and literally.  The ball came off the wall and hit me square in the nuts.  Then I tapped the ball back to the guy, and he served it while I was doubled over."

-CPT F. on his lunchtime racquetball experience.

Yes, people, I'm still here, unfortunately.  The office is still boring as all hell, and yet I keep coming in to work.  On Friday, around 1400, my boss looks over to me, hands me € 1500 (a little over $1900) and tells me to drive out to Nove and "pay the guy".  "The guy" is a ceramics supplier who will be providing mugs for an event.  The money is 50% of the cost.  35 minutes each way.  How wonderful.  Did I mention that this would be my third trip out there in the week?  Oh, how fun.  Directions to this place vary, and it's not like there are signs to there.  First I have to drive to Bassano/Marostico.  Then, when I get close, that slash that you see there is actually due to the fact that the two towns are in directions that are 90 degrees to each other.  Oh, and where I make that crucial decision, there was nothing that said "Nove".  My first time out, I made the right choice.  However, the directions that I was given told me that all I had to do was drive into the town and drive straight, and I would see the shop.  I drove until I saw the sign stating that I was exiting Nove (not even 2 miles from the entrance sign), and back 4 times, thinking that I was going nuts.

Finally, I see an Italian on the street.  So I stop and ask where the place is in really bad Italian.  Apparently there was a crucial right turn that was not told to me at all.  Once I made that, All that I had to deal with was the plant that had grown over the sign.

Ok, so now to the econ class situation.  We're in class, and I believe that we're talking about value.  At some point, the instructor whips a Snickers bar out of a bag and asks what someone was willing to pay for it.  I believe that it went for $3.  He then proceeds to whip out another one, and does the same thing.  This one goes for less.  The idea here is that the first one was originally believed to be the only one, so it went pretty high.  When the second one appeared, we realized that he had more than one.  The only thing that we didn't know was how many he actually had. 

This applies to the auction in that the items that appear early on were going to go for much less than the later item, one, because we could see what was being offered, and how many that there were.  There is less of a frantic nature, because people are can see that there are more items to go on the block.  Until there are less items.  Then the whole idea goes to pot, and people panic, paying close to full price.  Fortunately, by this time, I was watching V for Vendetta.

Black 6, out.

I cuss,
You cuss
We all cuss
For asparagus.

When attempting a new recipe, it is my practice to only attempt one new recipe at a time.  The reason being is that if you attempt 3 recipes all a once, and manage to screw all of them up, you will starve, or worse, have to eat your own horrible experiments.

Today's experiment was Orange glazed Asparagus.  The "backups" were mashed potatoes and teriyaki chicken.
 

And how did it come out, you ask?
 

I had to talk myself into leaving food for left overs.  Oh, and I voted on having wine.

On Thursday, I as sitting in the office, reading the Dilbert Principle, I started to feel bad because I wasn't doing any work.  I mean, prior to that moment, I had done a lot of work over the past 4 days.  Then I looked up, and saw that the Captain was reading Runner's World, and the Major was typing on the computer.  I went back to reading.

In other news, I went to the AAFES Auction on Friday.  What happens is that the PX has things that are overstocked or returned, and I guess that they can't sell them at full price.  They are also getting rid of display models, and slightly damaged items (missing a cable and such).  This was my first experience there.

The pictures above were taken with my new camera, a Fujifilm E550, which at 6.2 megapixels, is double what my old camera was.  It retailed for around $300.  I bought it for $110.  How wonderful.  I also bought a home gym for $75 (retail at $300), only to realize that I wasn't sure where I should put it.  Yes, I got ahead of myself.

My lifting buddy made out better, taking home a digital camera for $95, and a car stereo for $35.  The car stereo can be hooked into an in car display and plays DVD's.  The guy auctioning off the item forgot to mention that.  Some people were pissed.  I also helped him obtain a Gateway computer for $80, since his other one bit the bullet.  I was bidding on it since he was busy.  Also, he gave me a limit of $90.

This is where I utilized my strategy to beat people before the auction started.  It was the first computer, so you know that it's not going to be as heavily pursued as later computers.  We did an interesting experiment on this in Economics class at West Point.  I'll explain it  in another post.  So the first words out of my mouth are "Damn, it's a Gateway".  I'm typing this entry on a gateway laptop, and let's just say that I'm none too happy with this model's setup.  Second, it was a celeron processor.  I made sure to echo that with an insulting tone.  I managed to get it repeated by some other people that now see me as an authority on computers, thanks to my comments, all in the course of 45 seconds.  Bidding started at $30, I won it for $80.  A huge trick is to not be too eager when you bid.  The other people know that you want it.  Staying calm scares them.

If nothing else happens, the next entry will be about driving around Italy, and the thing we did in Econ class.

Black 6 out.

Wow, it's been a whole week since my last post.  So much to update on.

You already know that I have a job.  It keeps me running around a lot.  Especially all of the last minute "ideas" and changes.  Granted, the thing is 3 weeks away.  By "last minute", I mean that there was a change in something that would take 3 weeks to have done.  Talk about cutting it close.

On Friday, one of the officer's threw a party at his place.  It was supposed to be held by a buddy of mine, but his appendix burst on Thursday, so he was in the hospital.  Meanwhile the party was cool, but then the cops came and broke it up, because one of the neighbors complained.  Saturday, I recovered from the party, and got 3 hours of sleep before going to a wood shop safety course.  I had to do it so that I could freely use the facility, and it's only held on the first saturday of every month.

Sunday, I went out to Camisano, which is where they hold a farmer's market each week.  Saw a furniture store that made some pretty awesome furniture.  Good pricing, too.  Before I leave Ialy, I have to remember to plop down 1000 Euro for a table and some chairs.  It's a damn good table.

After teh market, I went to my office so that I could have internet access to do my final online.  FOUR HOURS!!  But now it's over.  It's a great feeling when you complete a test like that.  I got that whole "school is done" feeling.  It felt so good, I'm thinking about taking 2 more classes for the summer semester.

Speaking of internet, I have a land line hooked up in my apartment.  It is also supposed to have ADSL, but it's screwed up somewhere, and the phone company is retarded.  Nonetheless, I was still able to hook up my wireless router, so now my printer is on a wireless home network.

On monday, my old lifting partner from TK and I started working out again.  His son is joining us, too.  I'm breaking them both off, but it will pay off for them in the long run.

Well, that's it for the super update.  Maybe I'll post on a schedule sooner or later.

Black 6, out.