Has anyone seen my roommate?

As I mentioned in a previous posting, I got a roommate (unexpectedly) a couple of weeks ago. Typically, I will drop off or pick up my laundry on the way to work in the afternoons. And when Mike and Clarence come home, they will take the laundry bags and hang them on my door. When I get home at midnight, they are both asleep so I try to come in quietly and without having to turn on any lights. Anyway, one night my laundry was hanging on the doorknob to my room and as I unlocked my door, I felt something fall and land on the top of my shoe. As I reached in and turned on the light, I saw a small lizard scurrying into the room. I quickly lost sight of him (yes, I know it was a him because this is not a co-ed room!). I searched for him for a few minutes, but he got under the rug and I just wasn't that interested in trying to find him. Before going to bed, however, I did check to make sure he had not crawled into my bed. (A roommate is fine, but I had this bed first!). I didn't see him and figured that eventually he would find his way out of the room.

About a week later, I was getting ready to go to FOB Dagger (some of you who were with me in 2005 might remember I visited that FOB before) and I came into the room to get my IBA and kevlar for my helicopter flight. When I moved my IBA, he was hiding behind the duffel bag sitting on the floor. He seemed a tad shy... I said "Hey there! I thought you had moved out..." but he quickly went to hide underneath my wall locker. I haven't seen him since...

Anyway, I have added another link to my blog. If you look on the left side of my blog page, you will see 3 links. The first link is the official link of the unit I am here supporting. 1AD (1st Armored Division) out of Wiesbaden, Germany. I have enjoyed working with the unit and leadership and have committed to stay with them until they leave theater in November. I will write more about them in a future post. But if you are curious to know more about them, check out their webpage.

The next link down is our military newspaper link, The Stars and Stripes. It is a blend of stories from home as well as around the world. We get the Middle East (Iraq & Afghanistan) editions here. You can read them online, but you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to do so. (If you don't know what that is, chances are you already have it installed. It is free and allows you to read .PDF files. If you attempt to download and read one of the editions and cannot, you can go to www.Adobe.com and download the reader for free).

The last link is to my Photobucket.Com website where I have placed various photos of me and things around COB Speicher. I am frequently updating those pictures, so be sure to check back from time to time. In the next few days, I will be putting up pictures of the DFAC (Dining Facility), Laundry, Gym and PX shopping area.

That's all for now... Yacco will be here any minute to pick me up for work. Have a great day everyone!

Photo's Added

I have finally added some photo's to my photo site (see link above). I have added a few pictures of me, and more importantly some pictures of things around COB Speicher. There are pictures of my co-workers (
http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/AHixson/OIF%20Friends%20and%20Co-workers/), pictures of the Division Main (the building I work in -
http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/AHixson/COB%20Speicher/The%20Office/), the "Crackhouse" and neighborhood where we live (
http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/AHixson/COB%20Speicher/Da%20Hood/) and last (but not least) some of the recent sandstorms we have had (
http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm201/AHixson/COB%20Speicher/Sandstorms/). Be sure to notice the difference between the view of the neighborhood on a clear day and on a windy sandstorm day!

Several of you have asked if there is anything I want or need. The truth is, not really. I am missing my 2 favorite TV shows (Lost and The Office) but the Herwig's (a couple I worked with during my last deployment to Fallujah) is burning Lost onto a DVD to send me so I'm good there. I'll get caught up on The Office when I return.

However, if any of you feel the urgent need to send things here, I will give you the address below. There is a "Free Wall" in the Division Main building where things get put for anyone who wants them, typically the soldiers. The wall usually contains everything from Girl Scout cookies (a crowd favorite) to books & magazines, tooth brushes, trinkets, etc. There is truly nothing that you can send that won't be appreciated by someone. The address is:

Allen Hixson
AMC LSE - MND-N
COB Speicher
APO AE 09393

I will post more in the coming days. Here are a few "teasers" of things to look forward to:

• My new roommate
• Poker night with the boys
• Reuniting with old friends
• The DFAC (hopefully with pictures)

Until then, I hope everyone has a good Friday. And for all you mothers out there, I hope your Mother's Day is as special as you all are!

News & Notes...

Welcome, everyone, to my official blog! I am hoping that this will make it easier on me (and everyone else) to keep in contact and be able to add comments for everyone to see. I have been wanting to put a blog up for a while and did some research and I think I found a good spot for my blog. I hope that you will enjoy this and find it easy to use and navigate! My overall intent is to have my blogs be shorter and more frequent, which will allow me to give you a better idea of what is going on more regularly than once a month (which is about as frequent as I write my journal now!).

My "journal" blogs can be found on the BLOG ARCHIVE links on the left. And I am working on adding photo's and slide shows to my blog as well. It is still a work in progress, but I hope you like it! I will be adding several posts over the next few days that talk about some different things that have gone on since I have been here. You can check back regularly, vote on my polls of interest, link to pictures I have taken and add comments or questions about things you find interesting (or not so interesting). And the best thing is, you do not have to be a member of Blogspot to add comments! So poke around!