Meaty things are afoot here at the Haven…

What do we have here? Is it some strange other-planetary landscape?



Or could it be a Bar-B-Que rub?

And what is this here?



A pig’s shoulder perhaps?

Well, we should probably remove the most of the skin.



Here at the Haven, we’ve got a hankerin’ for a little smoked pig skin, so I left a little bit on. The rest, however, will be frozen for other festivities, that will occur at a later date, and will remain nameless for now.

The rub is applied to the shoulder, it is triple-wrapped, and it will be refrigerated overnight.



Stay tuned for the further adventures of this pig's shoulder, and even more porcine goodness ...

But it’s a dry heat (Part II) …

The siren that warns of incoming mortars only went off once the entire time we were there. And even then it was the one on the other side of the base. Thus I never saw a mortar attack, or even heard bullets whistling overhead. I miss out on everything.

After a week at JBB, we were planning to travel by helicopter up to COB Speicher, but we ended up doing a ground move.

There were five of us going, and we loaded into two armored Ford Excursions. The lead and follow vehicles were Armored Toyota Land Cruisers. Each of the Excursions had a driver and team leader who was also a medic.



We convoyed up the road to Speicher at a pretty good pace. The Iraqi civilians pull over when a convoy is coming through. If things up ahead were moving too slow, we drove on the other side of a divided highway, into oncoming traffic which was all pulled over. We did this because these convoys do not stop.

It was a pretty exciting ride, and we got to see a little of the country side. Of course it was desert for the most part, but there is still a good amount of agriculture. This shouldn’t have been surprising to me (but it was), because we were in the Fertile Crescent, and pretty close to the Tigris River.

Speicher is a larger base than Balad, so things are spread out a little more. It is also pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so they don’t get the attacks they used to get at JBB. Everything at Speicher was relatively quiet. After about four days there we were supposed to go back to Balad by helicopter. However, a dust storm kicked up and nothing was flying. The next day we were going to try to get out by fixed wing, but the dust storm continued and nobody got out that night either. We ended up going back to Balad by convoy again the next day.

The dust storm was not a really bad one, but it was still pretty nasty. You can actually taste the clay in the air, and you end up with a nose full of dirt. You really end up with pretty much everything full of dirt. Everything there essentially has a layer of dirt on it.

The temperature there never got much above 120, but I don’t think it got any cooler than 90 or so. There is no need to turn on the hot water in the bathroom, because the only water that is cool (relatively speaking) is the water that is in the pipes within the air conditioned building. You turn on the cold faucet and get tepid water for a few seconds before it heats up again.

It WAS a dry heat, and would have been miserable if it was humid. It was hot like the inside of an oven, and when the wind blew it was like the inside of a convection oven.

I was warned not to use one of the Port-O-Lets during the afternoon. It just gets too hot and smelly in them. Also in the event that one would use them during the heat of the day, they definitely run the risk of backsplash with near scalding water (and whatever else is in there). The thought of having blue-green welts on my ass from the splash, just did not appeal to me.

We stayed in Containerized Housing Units (CHUs – pronounce choose), which are mostly remodeled shipping containers. We stayed two to a room and each room had it’s own bath. These are known as Wet CHUs. If you come here for a lengthier visit, you may get a single Wet CHU.

The Army gave us safety goggles (sunglasses) before we left. Since I wear glasses anyway I needed to get prescription inserts. They gave me an eye exam and my distance vision had not changed. However, old age is apparently catching up to me, so they prescribed bi-focals. Not being used to wearing bi-focals, when I did put them on I ended up staggering around like I had too much to drink. Which I didn’t, because there is no alcohol allowed there. That means that I spent two weeks without beer (just in case you're counting).

We came back via a military flight into Kuwait, and then flew on to Frankfurt commercial.

All in all, it was not a bad experience, and I would definitely consider doing a tour over there if the job and the situation were right. Now that they are talking about pulling all the troops out, most of the projects were worked on will probably never even come to fruition.

But it’s a dry heat…

31 July 2008

0730 drive to Ramstein Airbase. Wait all day for a space available (Space A) flight that never happens. The four of us spend the night at a nearby hotel.

01 August 2008

0730 flight scheduled. We actually made it onto the bus and it took us right up to the plane, before being turned around. There were two flights planned that day, neither one of them happened. We spent the night in the same hotel as last night.

02 August 2008

1040 check in for a flight at 1130. While we are waiting upstairs a message comes across the intercom that there will be no flights to our layover destination for 72 hours. We wait at the terminal for another flight that is due out tonight. It’s taking us to another layover destination, but at this point I am willing to be carried by swallows (“It could grip it by the husk!”). When this flight is cancelled, there are two more (direct) flights scheduled for tomorrow.

It’s hot here. Very few buildings in Germany are air conditioned, so it’s also hot inside the terminal. Hot and sticky, so I’m sitting on a bench outside where at least there is a breeze. We had lunch at the Chili’s on base two days in a row. It was not very good on either day, but I was out voted when the time to eat came around. Sitting outside reading and it’s looking like it is going to rain. It looks as if this small bit of comfort I am getting from the breeze will be gone soon as well. At least I have the new P.J. O’Rourke book to keep me company.

At 1930 we board the plane. As it turns out, it is making one stop to pick up some folks, and then continue on to our final destination. We may be able to take this plane straight through...

It’s a C-17 Med Evac plane. We stop at Ali Al Salem airfield in Kuwait, pick up a couple of wounded soldiers and head over to Joint Base Balad (JBB).

That’s in Iraq, approximately 68kms north of Bagdad. We got off of the plane and went into a large theater-like room, where we watched a video in-brief about what to do during a mortar attack. The video basically consisted of “get down, find cover, and come out when told”. Pretty basic stuff really. JBB used to be called Anaconda, and was known as “Mortar-ita-ville”, because of the numbers of mortar attacks they had. I was told that about two months ago they caught the crew who was doing most of the shelling. They have only had three attacks in the last two months ... I miss out on everything!

After the video we loaded our stuff into the back of a pickup truck and were taken to our home for the next week or so...

I'm back in Germany now, and will be posting more on this trip soon.

Back to Alsace…

Sorry for the posting delay, but I could not upload any photos for a week or so.

On the July 4th weekend a friend and I decided to take a trip to the Alsace region of France. I had been to the northern part of Alsace last year, but this year we went a little further south. On Thursday evening we took off after work and drove south to Freiburg, Germany. Friday we woke up and toured around Freiburg for a bit.



Freiburg is located on the edge of the Black Forest, and used to be a completely walled city. I’m not sure if the wall is complete anymore; however, even if it is complete it is not the original. Freiburg took some heavy bombing during WWII and was substantially rebuilt. It has a pretty little downtown area.



We walked around a bit in the AM, and then headed for the border.

We had lunch in the town of Rouffach, and then headed up the road to Eguisheim where we set up at a campground right outside of town.



We walked into the town and took some pictures, had a little wine, took some more pictures, had a great dinner of choucroute garni with an appetizer of foie gras. Eguisheim is a neat little town of half-timbered buildings, which were very well kept. I was taking pictures of buildings when I saw a couple of window boxes with flowers. As we walked around various towns in Alsace there were just so many windows with fresh flowers that I was fascinated by it.



I think it might be a law in Alsace that you must have flowers in your windows.



The next day we drove to Colmar, parked the truck at the train station, and hoofed it into the city. In Colmar we checked out Le musée d’Unterlinden. I know it sounds like an underwear museum, but it is actually quite a nice museum with paintings and everything. It is in a refurbished gothic church, and it houses a quite famous painting of Christ on the cross which is quite vivid in it’s portrayal of the cuts from the lashings. The painting is part of an old and very ornate altarpiece.

After eating lunch in Colmar we headed for a campsite in Ribeauvillé. After setting up camp we headed into town and took pictures of window boxes with flowers. I took pictures of more than that, but the window boxes were my thing this weekend.



I tried some snails after dinner (and wine). They are supposed to be an appetizer, but I was kind of dared to do it, so this day they were dessert. Maybe it was the wine, but the snails were actually quite good, and not at all disgusting. They tasted like garlic and butter, and they came in a sauce of butter and garlic. I was really expecting them to be one of those foods that just keep getting bigger the more you chew, but the texture was good and they were not at all slimy. I may even collect a few this summer, and fatten them up for dinner sometime.

Another thing they are big on in Alsace is Cranes. The feathered kind. They build these huge nests on the top of buildings, I first saw them on top of churches and thought it was pretty neat. Then I started seeing them on other buildings, including houses. The problem with having a big crane nest on your roof is the color and amount that these things crap.



The next day we went up to Château du Haut-Koenigsburg, a pretty impressive castle. It was just starting to rain as we were leaving, so we headed back to Germany.



All in all a pretty good weekend.

Last Ireland Post and some Gratuitous Pictures of Food…

We got to Dublin and checked into our hotel. We had to stay at a hotel near the airport, because for some reason there were no rooms available inside of Dublin. We took a bus into town and bought a two day pass for a double-decker sightseeing bus. You can hop on and off as you wish for two days, and the buses run about every 20 minutes. We could also catch a local bus from near our hotel into the city with the same pass.





We went on the Guinness tour, which while not actually being a tour – was still fun. There is some law in Ireland against people touring actual breweries. So if they let you in at all, so they usually just show you a video. But the Guinness Experience is a self paced multimedia exhibition. It’s got multiple floors, with a bar on top and a tremendous gift shop at the bottom. There is the bar where you can have your “free” sample, and another one where you can try the different beers that Guinness brews (you have to buy these though). I’m sure that everyone at the Haven is familiar with Guinness Draft, and many are familiar with The Guinness Extra Stout that comes in bottles. If you want a real treat, and you can get your hands on it, the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is the stuff. It has a tremendous amount of flavor, almost coffee like – but a very strong coffee. It is also high in alcohol, and very bitter so it’s probably not a real summertime refresher.



While we were waiting for the bus outside the Guinness tour, we were talking to this woman from New Jersey. Previously, we had found out that Bruce Springsteen was playing a couple of shows in Dublin while we were there, and I asked the Jersey Girl if she was stalking Bruce. Well, she denied it, but we both started laughing when she told us that she had already seen him in London and was going to Paris to see him too. Not really a stalker, but only a serious fan would follow him throughout Western Europe.

We didn’t get to see Bruce.

We wondered around for about 2 days, seeing the sites, stopping for a pint now and again. Dublin is really a nice city, and I think that if I ever get back to Ireland (and I would like to see the Western part of it) Dublin would be well worth another trip. Everyone was very nice to us, we had some great food, and the stouts were better than good.



The Guinness Foreign Extra Stout was good, but the two best that I had were at the Porterhouse Brew Pub. They have an Oyster Stout that is very good (they actually throw a couple of raw oysters into the conditioning tank while it’s brewing) and they also have a stout called Wrasslers XXXX Stout, which was exceptional.

Check out my flickr page, because I’ll be uploading a bunch more pictures from Dublin later.


Gratuitous Food Pictures…

Here is a sandwich I made a couple of weeks ago. I started out with this olive roll, sliced it and laid down a bed of cucumber slices…



Placed some tomatoes on top of that…



Added a fried egg and some Creole seasoning…



Some Tsatziki sauce on top…



A little lettuce…



Voila!



About two weekends ago I decided to have some friends over and smoke some meat.



The pork shoulder was a little dry, but the chicken was very good.



And I think Gib would be proud of my work on these ribs.




Everything was enjoyed by all present, and I even had enough smoked chicken left over to make a hellacious smoked chicken salad the next day. Of course that was after I finished off the ribs ... for breakfast.


If everything works out I may be heading to Amsterdam this weekend.

Change is in the Air…

No, I’m not talking about Obama.

This being my 100th posting, I thought it was time for a re-design of this thing. I did this to be able to show the photos larger on the main page. Since I don’t think anyone reading this is still using a dial-up modem, the increase in picture size shouldn’t slow things down too much. There will continue to be more photos on the flickr page. Please feel free to let me know how you like the new layout (or if you don’t), if the color scheme works, and whether it is easier or more difficult to read than the old layout. Truth is I’m not really sold on it myself yet.

Ireland (continued)

We left Cork in the rain, on a bus to Kilkenny. The trip was nice, and the weather came around on the ride. The bus took us through some very pretty rolling hills and lots of open spaces. The fields were incredibly green and had small hedgerows and overgrown stone walls dividing them. It seemed like they mostly grow grass here. However, in the spring time, from a moving bus, it would be difficult for me to pick out the differences between grass, oats, barley, or wheat.

We arrived in Killkenny and had to walk about a mile to our Bed & Breakfast, where we dropped off our bags and proceeded to walk the mile back into town. We wandered around town, took pictures, had a few pints, explored a bit more, pissed in an alley behind St. Mary’s Cathedral, had dinner, a few more pints, and watched some local rock band at Matt the Millers for a while before heading back to the B&B.







Kilkenny (Chill Chainnigh was one of the Gaelic spellings I saw) is a pretty little town that seems to be based mainly upon tourism. Inside of the town most of the homes are very small row-homes, some of which are painted some pretty wild colors. Outside of the city it resembles the U.S. a little more, with individual homes on decent sized lots with lawns. In fact I saw a landscaper’s truck there, and I think it was the first one I’ve seen in Europe.



The next morning we had a nice breakfast at the B&B, checked out, and walked the mile to the train station and hopped on the train to Dublin.

Call off the dogs…

OK, OK, I’m back. You may ask, “Where have you been?” Well, it’s a long sordid tale, involving a giant Philippino, too much coffee, festering open wounds, and a Croatian midget stripper with no legs. I can’t really talk about it until the charges go away.

Personally, I don’t think that midget will stand up in court.

Actually, after I got back from the trip to Scotland & Ireland I wasn’t feeling like myself. Of course I didn’t go to see anyone (or anyone with a rudimentary medical training) about this, because I just felt it was midsummer malaise. But then things started to get strange. I was nodding off at work, and couldn’t seem to get to sleep at night. I stopped drinking coffee, but it didn’t help. I stopped drinking beer, and that didn’t help either (thank God). I was restless yet didn’t have the energy to do anything. Then my boss came to me with a corrected version of something I had written, and it was full of misspellings. My boss said he was full of misgivings. I was starting to have headaches, and it became even more difficlut to concentrate. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a hospital bed two weeks later. The doctors told me I was in a comma for two weeks.

The last paragraph was an inside joke. If you didn’t get it, sorry but you must be outside.

So here’s the deal. We lost an engineer here at work. His workload became my workload, and my own workload was not “how you say” small. So I had been working quite a bit of overtime. That was for the month at the beginning of this little sabbatical. Then I just got a little writer’s block. That on top of being lazy, and here we are…

So Ireland, you ask?



Well after waving goodbye to the haggis, we flew into Cork City in the rain. We took a taxi to our hostel and checked in. It was mid afternoon by this point, so we headed into town in search of a pint of stout. And it was just our luck (some might even say it was the Luck of the Irish) we found an establishment that had some. The pub was called the Raven, and the barmaid gave us each a pint of Murphy’s. With apologies to my sister, I found the Murphy’s to be quite good. The barkeep reminded me of a friend’s wife, only she was younger, had many more piercings, and larger “Howyadoin’s”. I won’t mention who she looked like, because I was beginning to have impure thoughts.







We ended up at Clancy’s Bar and had a few more stouts. I had a bowl of soup and some Cork fish pie. Cork Fish Pie is fish in a cream sauce, with a mashed potato topping. Sort of a shepherds pie … without the shep. It was one of those dishes that sounded like it would be good, theoretically; however, empirically, it was not up to snuff.

We sat at Clancy’s among the Faire Colleens and watched the Manchester United vs. Chelsea soccer game. It was quite a game, and a much livelier crowd than I would have expected in Ireland for two English teams. After the game we walked back to the hostel in the rain and retired for the evening.

The next morning I took a cold shower. It was invigorating, but far from pleasant. It was still raining, but only lightly now. We walked into town for a bit, and things looked a bit dreary. We didn’t go on the Beamish tour, because it’s just a video presentation and you have to pay for it. “No thanks, I’ll waste my money in a proper pub, thank you very much”. We did go to the English Market though. This place is basically an indoor farmers market and is pretty cool, but we didn’t buy anything.



We decided to grab lunch then catch a bus to the Blarney Castle. The weather came around for us on the ride, and the sun even came out for us. We toured the castle and kissed that stupid rock. This thing is supposed to bring eloquence to those who kiss it … and I haven’t been able to put two sentences together since then. Who knew?





We did a little shopping at the gift shop, and caught a bus back to Cork. When we got back I asked the hippy at the desk about the hot water (or lack thereof). He went into this long description of how it doesn’t always work on every floor, but it’s never out on all floors at the same time, and how I should just go to another floor if the water is not hot on my floor. He said that the pipes are old and he doesn’t understand the system (which was apparent to me, but I was tired and just let it go). There was no hot water the next morning either, but at least it was tepid.