Connected to the World Again

Hey All,

I hope all is well. I am finally connected to the world again! I got myself internet in my room today. It's a pretty exciting day. I never thought I would pay so much for such slow internet. Wow! It's like dial up on downers. But hey- it's better than nothing! I imagine this email should be sent to you within 5 minutes of clicking send. Yeah.
 
So I've never been so happy to see the weather forcast call for a five degree lower high- to 105! Yes, I'm actually excited about that. That's like a cold front around here. Who knows, maybe hell will freeze over and start the next ice age. 
 
I am slowly becoming more involved at work as I take more responsibility from the guy I am taking over for. He is trying to get out of here as soon as he can, but he can't until I'm ready. hehe, sucker. He's a good guy and I am making great progress (big surprise, right). I think it's safe to say that I wowed the crowd today as I gave my situation update brief. I have a hunch they will want more... probably every day for the next few months- I was that good!
 
In the event that you're not like Angie and you've been able to restrain yourself, please feel free to send letters or boodle. By the time it gets here our mail shop should be up and running. I think Angie mentioned to me that she posted an article on the blog, but if you want a good laugh, google Kandahar Airfield Poo Pond. It gives me this feeling that cleaning a baby's diaper really can't be that bad. And the only thing better than the smell of the poo pond is really the poo pond combined with eating blowing sand and sweating your butt off because it's 95 degrees by 0800 and until 2100. 
 
This brings me to an interesting point. I was talking with some friends the other day and we said to ourselves: I wonder what it was like in the place before people reached Afghanistan. Because they must have been walking acrosss long deserts and up huge mountains, it must have been really hot, and I'm not sure if the poo pond was still there, but it probably smelled badly. At any rate, they got here and stopped. They stopped and said, you know, I don't think it's gona get any better than this if I keep walking. I'm going to stay right here. I guess it's just hard to imagine a place that bad. I mean it's no US, but this place is awesome.
 
That's about all I've got. I really enjoyed writing this. It made me smile and I hope you did once or twice too. Speaking of which, was I the only one who laughed when I realized that Brian (Mark's younger brother) had just completed his first day of Beast (worst day in the history of West Point- day 1)? All I could think was, ha, sucker. Glad it's him and not me. Yeah, it was about 0900 this morning, just about midnight his time. That is really the only day I can think of where I woudl rather be deployed for one day than relive that day. Ugh. I hope you all are praying for him and writing him letters too. You can send his boodle to me. Ha, sucker.
 
Alright that's all I have. I'm off to bed here. I hope you all have a wonderful day. I will check in again soon.
 
Much love, Mark