It's 3:15 in the morning...let me sleep!

So, I've heard from fairly credible sources that for every hour you gain or lose in transit from one time zone to another it will take that many days to be completely over your jetlag. I'm beginning to think those guys were right! For the past six days I have woke up between 3:13 a.m. and 3:17 a.m. This would be normal had I gone to bed at 8:00 p.m., but I'm not even going to bed until midnight...enough is enough. I don't have to be at work until 9:00 a.m., but these days I am wide awake at 6:00 a.m. so why just lay there?

The Team is down to 44 days on the 'Circle of Freedom' that we are maintaining. In case I haven't mentioned it, the Circle is an Excel spreadsheet that keeps up with the exact amount of days/months/hours/minutes/meals/etc. that have passed and those that we must still suffer through. Most of the guys have personalized our own countdown with a picture of our kids or spouse and I must say that it is finally not depressing to open the spreadsheet and see how much time is left. We currently sit at 13.7% left on the countdown...not too bad if I may say so.

The three of us that went on R&R during Christmas have finally gotten back into some semblance of a routine. It's sad to say this, but my motivation in on the floor. Needless to say, it is very hard to get right back to work after spending two weeks at home with family and friends. I'm a little jealous of all the snow my friends back home are getting; being snowed in sounds like fun right now. There is plenty of snow on the mountains surrounding us and it has finally reached our base as I can hear the snow/sleet hitting the tin roof.

Since the last time I wrote it seems the Auburn Tigers have won the national championship. As an alumni of The University of Alabama I proudly cheered for the Oregon Ducks; if any Auburn fan is upset or thinks 'how dare you' then I'll gladly remind you all of the "Hook 'em Horns" and burnt orange Texas shirts that you all proudly adorned last year when the Tide brought home #13 to the trophy cabinet. Congrats to AU on the win, but just remember 13 > 2 !!! Also, Daniel and I have decided that we can not deploy again in the future...it seems that Auburn is undefeated while we are deployed, 27-0 (13-0 in 2004, 14-0 in 2010). I'd almost volunteer if that were the case for Alabama, but during those same two seasons it seems that the Tide is a mere 16-9 and 0-2 against Alabama Polytechnic (Auburn). Oh well, we now go into the 8 month drough with NCAA football...at least there are spring games in April!