Went back to sick call yesterday as I continued to not feel well.  After a strep

test that came back negative and a chest x-ray that showed nothing untoward,

they gave me Afrin and something called "Viscous Lidocaine"- a slimey substance

that just numbs the throat.  That latter did the trick and I might have actually

croaked out a note that wasn't a nightmare last night. 



Another great night of Khanukka, though a smaller group.  So far we've had only one soldier who was able to get here for a couple of days from an outlying FOB- per "the plan."  They are not gonna let us go to FOB Solerno and I'm really curious to see if anyone else will be joining us.  Since this young man WAS in town, I was able to take him out for a cup of coffee and chat, so that was a bonus.



Folks are getting more comfortable with each other- last night was let's compare tatoos night.  One participant had the name of God in Hebrew on his arm, and the guy who had served in the IDF suggested that he NOT walk around in Israel with that tattoo visible.



Our comic relief sergeant was there also- he complained that "this is the most boring war ever."  He's doing his best to liven it up- in the care packages from, of all places, Sun City West, were pieces of Israeli bazooka gum.  Apparently he distributed some to the Afghan kids when he was out on a mission yesterday!  He also loved the kippot in those bags, which had Israeli and American flags- pronounced them "Bravo Alpha"- figure it out.  I'm thinking the war must be exciting enough as he has his blood type in big letters on the outside of his boots.  When he let slip a more than usually off color comment, he looked around the table and then at me, said, "I thought we were all soldiers", and then shrugged. I could care less.  It seemed appropriate when we opened the Khanukka cards from the kids that he received the one that said, "You're cool."  Took a photo of that.



My big panic was discovering that I couldn't find my one bobby pin for my kippa.  Fortunately I rescued it from the pants pocket of my dirty pants before I turned in laundry today.  Who deploys with only one bobby pin?