happy anniversary to me

Today is my wedding anniversary. We have been married 16 years on Dec 18th. I know it is hard to believe that a) Liz agreed to marry me and b) she has stayed married to me. What can I say except that we have far outpaced the general population as far as time served in matrimony? Liz has been a wonderful wife and a tremendous mother. I am truly blessed to have found her.

I thought that I would use this opportunity to tell you how I proposed to Liz. I recalled this event because Liz sent me some candy coal with an anniversary gift which brought back this memory.

I decided on the evening of the 23rd of December 1992 that I would propose to Liz after Christmas mass on the 24th. I had found the ring and was frantically running around to get the best deal and to pool all the money I had to pay for this diamond. So I am literally running out the door the morning of the 24th with like an hour to go before the bank is going to close for the holiday and I have maybe another hour after that to get to the jeweler to get the ring for that night. Liz calls and is quite perturbed with me because she thought we were going to go to Costco to get her mom her bread maker for Christmas. I told her to give me a couple of hours and then we could get it. Well that did not sit well and I got an @#$ chewing about how important it was to get the bread maker right then and how I was being selfish. (Now that I think about it, maybe she was seeing me only for my Costco membership). Anyhow, I covered the phone and whispered to my mom ‘if she only knew what I was trying to do right now’.

So I told her that the bread maker would have to wait. Now I was a little disgruntled that I am spending my life savings on a ring for the woman I plan on asking me to marry me in about 8 hours and all I got for my trouble was the silent treatment. I decided right then to play a joke on my love.

After mass we went to open presents at her house. She opened the box that I had wrapped and when she finally got to the contents she pulled out a piece of coal and gave me a look like I was crazy (which many of you have learned over the years to be an accurate assessment). I told her that I had told Santa about her bad behavior and bad children usually will then receive coal. I further explained that there was an upside because with the proper conditions and with lots of love coal can turn into something special. I then got down on my knee and proposed with ring in hand.

I know that this is not the most amazing proposal story, but it is my story and it was good enough to win us a bottle of champagne on our honeymoon cruise!

Happy Anniversary Love!

birthday message for Timothy

Today is Timothy's 8th BDay. He was born December 16th, 2001. I am trying to load this video, but a 30 second video on these computers with this bandwidth takes like 30-60 minutes.

I will tell you a brief story about Timothy's birth. I was a pediatric resident at the time and was on call in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Liz came rolling into the labor deck in the early morning hours. She was stable and I was trying to juggle taking care of the neonates in the NICU and checking on my wife on the labor deck. Well the other resident on the ward called the NICU staff and the staff came in at 0400 to relieve me to be with my wife. He also brought me a coffee to help me stay awake. As anyone knows who has been a resident, you usually get no sleep at night and that coffee just could not hold me. So at mid-morning with Liz stable I sauntered (good descritpive work isn't it?) down to the coffee cart to reload on my caffeine. Right when I was about to get that cup of joe, an overhead page was sent for me to return to the labor deck. Let me tell you, that page was better than any coffee in waking me up. Thankfully, for me, I got back in time for the birth of my third child.

So, I need a volunteer to 'gently' swat Timmy's gluteus maximus eight times to properly indoctrinate him to his new age.

I love you son!. Happy Birthday buddy!

Slamming mat

Our squadron does many tasks to support the Marine air group. One task is to build runways. This entails prepping the land and making sure it is level and compact. The last step is to lay the mats of tarmac down. Kyle would like this task because it involves locking rectangular pieces together as if one was building a massive sheet of Legos. The problem is that these Lego pieces weigh up to 155 lbs each. They call it 'slamming mat'.

Due to necessity and for motivation the staff NCOs and officers have been doing some night shifts laying matting. I recently went out to do my part (and bring my medical bag for the inevitable crushed toe or finger. It is a rather good workout throwing this matting around. Unfortunately, some of the pieces have been used prior and thus they do not always want to fit together easily. During the deployment out squadron will lay 100's of thousands of feet of this matting.





Heave ho, lets go













There are 6 foot and 12 foot sections that are locked together in a pattern.













My partner carrying a 6 foot section of mat














The exciting world of mat laying













Getting ready to 'slam mat'

cranes

Hey, I am back. It has been nearly impossible to blog lately due to extremely slow computers. Can you say 5 minutes to load a page! It still took about 20 minutes to load these pictures tonight and that was while I awaited the swirling Skype sign to try and contact the family back home (it is still trying to connect as we speak).

I am attaching some pictures and hopefully a short clip of these cranes out here that move around these huge containers. They can stack them or set them side by side with incredible precision. They are very wide across and when they travel on the roads it is intimidating (especially if they are traveling with a container in the air. I figured that the kids back home would be impressed.

I am finding that being in charge of a BAS is like running a high school or raising teenagers. Most of my corpsmen are not that far removed from school and they act the part for sure. I am having to see clicks, childish fights, possible romances, temper tantrums.... I guess it will prepare me for my kids one day. I really do not envy chief since it really is his bowl of wax to deal with. Now I know why so many chiefs drink and smoke....to deal with the stress of 'guiding' these young sailors.

I finished a Daniel Silva book ' the Assassin' and a David Baldacci book 'Stone Cold'. I like them both. I am now reading a 5000 year leap (great book so far) and the follow on to Stone Cold. I figure I will give Dean Koontz another try next since someone commented on past blog that I did not give him a fair shake.

Should I be concerned that Obama has a higher popularity rating in Europe than in the United States? I read that his below 50% rating at home is the lowest for any president 10 months into term.






Up up and away

Putting it back

relaxing

I was caught napping last night when I was supposedly studying for my FMF pin (pic below). The flash woke me up (following pic). I have been doing a lot of reading, but not necessarily all medical or military related. There is just so much one can tolerate. I finished a Bill O’ Reily book yesterday ‘fresh bold piece of humanity’ I think the title was. I liked the book overall. It gave insight into his upbringing and life experiences that have molded his opinions and style of work. There were some funny stories. He is definitely an egomaniac, but I kind of knew that going into the book. I am now reading Daniel Silva’s ‘the mark of the assassin’, I will let you know.

I have been playing a lot of card games at night. A favorite is spades with the Marines. They like to trash talk a lot, but you know me, I will handle my own. Last night was a game called phase 10 which was entertaining. It is kind of like a combo of Uno and Gin Rummy. I won. I just felt like I had to tell you that :) The staff NCO’s (senior enlisted) will have PMEs or professional military education sessions at night (wink wink). That’s right, it is just poker. Unfortunately, I have not been able to convince enough officers to engage in this sort of extra-curricular education. Though, I hear that there is a poker game at the British hospital. I may have to set up a ‘symposium’ with them.

I am putting in a picture of a recent Marine injury. It may not be appropriate for minors due to particualr offensive finger gestures. Although, the Marine is not technically able to perform the aforementioned figure gestures (see below)

So, I see that the global warming extremists are on the defensive from the leaked e-mails showing that they were trying to suppress any science to dispel their claims. Now you have the few conservative voices in Hollywood trying to take away Al Gore’s Oscar for his documentary about the planet having a fever. Of course, the White House is trying to defend that there really is a global warming crisis so they can hammer through the cap and trade bill on CO2 emissions (errr big tax hike on the population for more wasteful government spending).

I will tell you one thing. No global warming here in Afghanistan. We don’t have any fevers (maybe chills). Looks like many places around the world are the same way. All I hear about is record snow falls.





Studying?














Waking up to a flash photo.














Which way is up?

Ouch.

quick story

One of my corpsmen had to go to Germany for an evaluation for symptoms he was having. When in Germany he was evaluated by a doctor who asked him who he worked for in Afghanistan. He responded 'I work for the greatest allergist in the Navy'. The doctor than stated 'oh, you work for Dr. Tucker?'

When my corpsman called back to tell me this story I was cracking up. Now, I would never claim to be the greatest allergist in the Navy. However, I am pretty confident that I could be the greatest allergist in Afghanistan! In fact, at the moment I am probably the only allergist in Afghanistan.

Hope all is well back home.

Just the other day my grandmother wrote that I should fire whoever is cutting my hair. I posted my haircut that I received by one of our Master Sergeants previously. I am still staying motivated with my high speed, low drag coif. I am just doing the chore myself these days (sorry grandma). We have a haircut hut that is next to the BAS. Usually what happens is someone goes out there to cut their hair or their friend's hair and next thing you know there is a line of people asking if they can get their haircut as well. I have not yet had the courage to butcher anyone else’s haircut.

I have found a few advantages keeping my hair short. 1) Less gray showing 2) No bed head 3) Spend less on shampoo 4) Can visualize that I still have hair at the acme of my noggin 5) It feels so cool to rub my scalp :)

I just finished another book. This time it is Dan Kootz. The book is called Frankenstein and is the third in a series. It is about Dr. Frankenstein 200+ years later making a 'new race' for a better world order and is bruoght down ultimately by the help of his original monster creation. yeah, not very realistic, but a quick read. Ultimately, I do not recommend.

Most recent movie was 'Righteous Kill' with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Good cop movie with a twist.

Latest series is 'Flight of the Concords' about 2 New Zelanders trying to make it big as a music act in New York. Perfect for Greg and Cissy.







Haircut hut.

Oh the fun we have in Afghanistan.