IT'S RAINING, I'M BORED, READ ON

Today was a landmark day for me.  I went to the front desk of the hotel and extended our stay for the last time!  I am now scheduled to check out of our room on February 25th.  I told the desk clerk that one way or another we were checking out on that day, even if only to move Linda into a smaller room!  One small step for man…

Things are not looking too good in the job arena.  It seems that Linda’s command, which was scheduled to go away in ’08, will now go away in ’06.  By going away, I mean that some of the positions were to be abolished this fiscal year, some in FY’07, some in FY’08, and the remaining would be absorbed into Navy Personnel Command (NPC).  The plan now is that all will be absorbed into NPC in June ’06, and the positions will be rewritten to fit the profiles of people that NPC wants to hire, so those who are occupying the positions now will be let go.  Not a “thank you” or a “you can stay until your position should have gone away because you’re so close to retirement”, just a “goodbye and good luck”.  So much for 20 years of faithful service.  And this on top of being displaced, some of the people losing their homes and are still recovering from that, only to lose their jobs as well.  Thank you, Uncle Sam!

It’s nice to hear that our daughter had such a good time at Alex’s ordination and reception after.  She got to reacquaint herself with many of the Ugandans, both seminarians and some that we had met last summer while visiting Tororo.  It’s especially nice since neither Linda or I was able to attend.  And it gave Alexander Makayi an opportunity to drop strong hints that it would be nice if we all could attend his ordination to the priesthood in 2008.  I hope our passports are still good!

Last evening we went to Houston’s Restaurant for dinner.  We went early to beat the Friday evening crowds and had a great time.  I decided to have a glass of Port with dinner noticing that the wine list offered two choices.  The waiter didn’t bat an eye when I ordered one of each since I was not familiar with either the Taylor Tawny Port or the Fonseca Vat 27.  I think I’m going to miss the dinners out.  Our waiter, Nickolus, must have thought I was quite ill-mannered, though, as I sipped the port throughout dinner, rather than waiting for dessert.  Oh, well.  What can I say?  I know what I like and I like sherry and port, and sherry was not an option. So there.

As we continue to suffer insufferably up here, I guess we’ll go to Red Lobster tonight and try to drown our pain in drawn butter!

You remain in our prayers, and hopefully we, in yours.  God bless!!