My father is going to Iraq

Just found out today that my biological father is going to be going to Iraq. Robby has been a cop or in a police related field his whole life and has taken a job to go over to Iraq to help train Iraq's new police force as well as help keep order until Iraq is prepared to fully take over.

I have mixed feelings about his going over meaning, that on one hand, I'm extremely proud of him for doing this, but on the other, I worry about his safety. Robby, while getting on up there in age, is extremely fit and is very good at his job. I would match him with just about anyone half his age and wager my bets on him. So I know he will do a good job and I know that the Iraqi police will be better off for having him over there.

Hopefully, he will be smart and stay on the compound, but knowing him like I do, he will more than likely go where ever he is needed and get mixed into something, but know he has the skills and mindset to get himself and his partners out such things safely. Truth of the matter is, this is something he needs to do because he just won't be happy until he has the opportunity to serve his country. He was kept from VietNam due to a vision problem, and I know that he has always regretted that. His brother served, but he was unable, so this is opportunity to make that right with himself.

So good luck and god speed old man. You come back home safely!!!

Welcome the Obviously Absurd

Just wanted to take a second and welcome the Obviously Absurd to the blogshpere. The writers of this blog are close personal friends of mine and I consider them one of the closest things to family I have up here in the great liberal land that is the northwest.

You should go over and check out their site at The Obviously Absurd and give them a read. I eat dinner with them almost weekly and can tell you that they will not only give good insight into today's topics, but will do it with a sense of humor!

Time to help our troops, with Xboxs!!!!

I received an interesting call today from Nadine Gillette who co-founded Operation Support Our Troops with her daughter. She now has three grandsons, I believe, defending our freedom in Iraq and has done countless hours in support of our troops. Anyways, she called to ask me for my help in supplying our boys and girls stationed in Iraq with some Xbox consoles and more importantly, games for the consoles they already have. She has received numerous letters from our soldiers stating that Xbox is one of the ways that our boys pass the time when they aren’t busy defending our nation.

I had the pleasure of meeting Nadine when a group of 35 soldiers wounded in Iraq were invited to tour the Microsoft campus on August 3rd. Nadine is a lovely lady who obviously takes the welfare of our troops to heart and has done great things to support our toops. In the roughly 2 hours I spent with the group, about 30 minutes of that time was spent with my arm around this great lady. Truth be told, she reminded me somewhat of a grandmotherly type, and just being around her made you smile. One of the things that I noticed from this meeting was the overwhelming response of some of the soldiers to Xbox. I heard more stories about their Halo2 adventures than of their real life toils in Iraq, so I can testify that Xbox was seen as a vital pastime to these brave men and women.

So when Nadine asked for my help, I felt obligied to try and rise to her calling. I, along with some of my fellow bloggers, are now in the process of trying to get this started. We haven’t picked out a name yet, but when we do, I will be sure and let all know. The goal is to try and get as many games and consoles as possible into the hands of Operation Support ourTroops as soon as possible. Nadine set a lofty goal of 3000 games and didn’t specify a number of consoles., however, I would like to set that number at 100 consoles to start. Feel free to contact me for more information if you would like to help out with providing our soldiers with a little bit of fun during their stressful times.