Sorry folks, gonna be a shortish blog tonight. Monday morning in the Al Asad Troop Medical Clinic was pretty busy today. Stomach pains, hematemesis hematochezia (a.k.a. BRBPR), sprained ankles, cellulitis, two new foreign nationals with rashes, back pain, ingrown toenails, boils, all in a day’s work here in the Brown Zone. We had some more (temporary) personnel stuff this weekend, with one of my friends 1LT Coleman being shipped out to another post to help cover another soldier’s leave. Additionally, SGM Dennis came to visit, and to take part in promotion boards for a number of our soldiers. Although I have previously confessed my lack of enthusiasm for travel within a combat zone, there is a part of me which envies soldiers like the SGM, who has been to nearly every military post in theater. It would be interesting to have seen each base out here. They are all a little different: we have the sandstorms, Baghdad has the mortars, Balad has the continually-burning trash pile. Balad also has a Taco Bell (sounds pretty good right about now), and Speicher has an actual Cinnabon. We have a Subway, but I am two-for-two in getting sick when I go there, so right now, I’m sticking with the DFAC, and my two home-”cooked” staples: Simply Asian bowls, and Hormel chicken salad cracker kits. I love both of those, and in spite of eating the chicken salad stuff about half of my days here thus far, I’m still not sick of it. …and I am literally falling asleep as I write this, so will sign off for now, with my apologies for the lame entry; I’ll get a better one up tomorrow. –Erik