This has been a pretty busy week. I had meant to get a bunch of dev work done on AspAlliance.com, but that didn't happen. We spent wednesday getting a bunch of stuff out of storage, including all of my army gear. Hopefully I have most of what I'll need. I still have to find my beret and figure out how to wear it, since when I got out the uniform headgear was still the BDU cap.

I did manage to go biking with Michelle and Ilyana yesterday, and I've been trying to work out as often as possible to get in shape for when I get to Missouri, where I'm certain to have to take an Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) within the first week.

I'm looking at buying a Garmin Rino 120 GPS Radio, on the advice of Jeff Palermo. I may even buy his old, but proven, one. They're about $250 new.

I had been thinking of getting LASIKS surgery ever since Michelle (who was blind without her contacts) got it done last December. Last month I scheduled it for myself. Michelle can see 20/20 now and is very happy. My vision wasn't so bad, but it was tough to read road signs at night and I like to wear my glasses for watching movies and for shooting. Since we figured I would probably want to be able to see, without necessarily having glasses on, wherever I end up with this deployment, we went ahead and kept my scheduled appointment despite my imminent deployment. I had the surgery this morning, and although it's a bit scary and somewhat uncomfortable afterward, it was certainly easier than many of the dental/orthodontic procedures I've endured over the years. Heck, just the novacaine injection at the dentist hurts a lot more than any of the LASIKS procedure does. So now it's been about 12 hours since the surgery and I can see pretty well. Not a huge noticeable difference while I'm sitting at the computer, but I can read stuff on the bookshelf across the room, which I couldn't before, and I'm hoping I'll be able to shoot expert rating again, without glasses, next time I qualify (although not having shot in a couple of years, I'm probably dreaming).

I've gotten a lot of support from friends and family and contacts in the past two weeks, and I just want to say that it means a lot to me. Thank you everyone for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers. Hopefully in a bit over a year I'll be writing that I've returned home safe and sound, and perhaps things will be a bit safer and more stable in the world by then.

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• LASIKS

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• iraq