The best laid plans of mice and Scorpinox

Well, I'm back in Iraq. Again.

This is my fourth trip here, however this is the best job I've had by far. I'll be training various units in how to use a couple of different computer programs. We have some cutting-edge technology we're trying to deliver to as many units as we can. So far, the one thing holding everyone back from being to use them is the lack of training. Right now, I am the only one in country teaching these tools, so it's a real opportunity to excel.

I spent the last two weeks in Qatar, so though it's hot right now here in Baghdad, I have to remember it could be worse. Imagine for a moment there's place on earth that's not 93,000,000 miles from the sun, but perhaps 100 miles, give or take a few orders of magnitude. Now imagine going to that place in the summer. That's Qatar. Remember the scene in Transformers where Scorpinox is fighting the special ops team and makes it out alive? That was totally unrealistic. In reality, Scorpinox would have melted.

I had one new experience on the way here. The day before I left Qatar, I came back to my room and found a mouse running around next to my bag. I'm going to go ahead and call him Speedy Gonzalez, and though I know I'm quite a ways from his home, I'm pretty sure he could run between Mexico and Qatar anytime he felt like it. When I went to get something out of my bag, I noticed something that looked like mouse droppings, along with some crumbs and raisins. Farther down my bag I found a lot more, plus a shredded piece of (thankfully unimportant) paper, and all three of my Odwalla protein bars opened and eaten. That's right, Speedy, a mouse the size of my thumb, had eaten 3 protein bars and turned the foil wrappers into confetti. I then proceeded to empty my bag and clean out the debris, during which time Speedy came back three times to finish his meal. I chased him off with my flashlight in one hand and a shoe in the other, which was when I decided to name him Speedy. That little bugger was fast.