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I am working on coming home sometime relatively soon. I do not yet know myself any dates, and wouldn't be able to share them if I did. But if you were planning on mailing anything to me, I would hold off on that for now. If you happened to have mailed something recently, I should receieve it before I leave. I have to check out and return gear when I get back to the States before coming home, so I will let everyone know on here as soon as I make it Stateside.

In other news, Steph went for an ultrasound this week, and we are having a healthy baby boy. He's a little bigger than he should be, and I think it's more likely that we're due a little earlier than we previously thought than he's really going to be that big. Our due date is February 16, but it's possible we're actually due as early as January.

I've been looking to make a career change out of intelligence analysis for a few years now, into something that will allow me to live anywhere, something that has all the challenge and career advancement I have in this line of work, and something I find genuinely interesting. I just couldn't figure that what that was. Ramu pointed me in the direction of some computer training recently, and I said Duh! Why didn't I think of that?

But instead of the 2-night-a-week-for-6-months training (which would be really really fun with a 3-year old and a 3-month old in the house, I'm sure), I started looking into "boot camps" that give the same training in just a few concentrated weeks. Right now, I'm leaning towards going to India, where I can stay on a resort on one of four locations with one-on-one personalized instruction for about half the cost as in the States (check out www.koenig-solutions.com). The training is for Microsoft and other internationally recognized certifications, so it doesn't matter where you get the training.

So I will probably be home for at least a month or two, out of which I may spend a few weeks either in the States or in India in training. I will probably come back to Iraq after that for 3 months on another contract, one that pays the same but for fewer hours and with better accomodations. After that, I'll come home for 1 or 2 months during which time I will likely take more computer training. Right now, I see myself repeating that process until I land a job in Lancaster that pays the bills.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, we need to pick out a name. Preferably before the due date. Whenever that is.