Well, it is finally almost over. The month of January that is. It is bordering on the longest month in my life. It will be a great day on the first of February, for quite a few reasons, not the least of which will be the end of the mud rain. That is one of the more endearing qualities of this place, it quite literally rains mud. The water just mixes with the dirt in the air, on the buildings, and everywhere else. Just adds to the ambience. It also means that I am less than one year form coming home. We can actually count the days on a single calendar now.

Not all that much has been happening here. Things have continued to be a much more 'reasonable' pace in the CSH. As I am sure most of you have heard, most of the fighting has shifted to the northern reaches of the country. The other 'piece' of our hospital, which is up in Mosul, has been getting busier from their usual slow pace. As it stands now, I am scheduled to head up and relieve the sole ER doctor up there in a few months so he can go home on R&R.

On the fun side, we did get some 'range time'. We spend some time in the ER training Special Forces medics and keeping them fresh on Emergency Medicine kinds of stuff. (Don't read this part Mom and Dad) In return, they 'teach' us some things and give us, well unique experiences (you can contact me seperately if you want details). It was a lot of fun and a nice diversion from the usual daily grind. Other than that, the best entertainment is the daily 'chicken dance' by the ER nurses.

Things on the home front have been a bit more exciting. Naomi had her first birthday, followed shortly by her first teeth. The girls have been giving Amy a run for her money as you might expect. Though they've been having some fun - going to the PA State Farm Show, and of course getting tooled around in the new Cohen minivan.

I guess in the side of interesting cases - we did have one soldier who had some abdominal pain - and after finding a strange looking object in his bladder on CT scan - went to surgery and found that he had a full size McDonalds straw inside his bladder. The kid denied knowing how it got there - you can leave that part to your imagination. He did say that there were a couple of nights of heavy drinking that he didn't remember what happened. A great lesson to teach our kids about not drinking too much...

Other than that, not much new and exciting on this end. Other than the great letters and care packages. All of us in the ER appreciate the extra pounds we are putting on thanks to everyone back home. They are awesome and very appreciated.

I miss all of you guys and hope you are doing well. 11 months to go...