Posted by Michelle on Aug 23, 2003 in Michelle
Well, having FRONT row seats certainly has its benefits – one of which was a ton of good photos from the game on UNC Saturday.
Playing was Jamison, Stackhouse, Walter Davis, Capel, Forte, Haywood, McInnis, Cota, Swikker, Shammond, Larry Davis, JR Reid, Sam Perkins, Derrick Phelps, Brian Reese, Donald Williams and Terence Newby.
Tons of guys were back who didn’t play – Kenny Smith was the master of ceremonies. You had Phil Ford, Rick Fox, Joe Wolf, Al Wood, Randy Wiel and Charlie Scott on the bench. The present 2003 guys hung out all over the place. And you had alums like Warren Martin, Ndaiye, Montross, Charlie McNairy and others scattered all over the place. I’m sure I’m missing some people.
And they even tossed in some women’s players – including my all-time fav Pam Leake.
And the opponents had Anthony Grundy, Dauntay Jones, Chucky Brown, Delaney Rudd, Rusty Larue, Steve Blake, Chris Wilcox and others.
It got hot down the stretch and it turned into a real game too
LINK: 2003 UNC Alumni Basketball Game photos
(You click an image and it will show it to you bigger. There are arrows up top to scroll through them forward or back, or hit the up one to go back to the main page)
Tags: photos, sports, unc
Posted by Michelle on Aug 12, 2003 in Michelle
The latest from Robert in Iraq:
Some of you may not know that my base is in the dead center of one of
the most important archeological sites in the middle east.
Within our wire, we have the Ziggurat of Ur. Ur is known in the Bible as Ur of
the Chaldees. Ur is known as the ancient city of the Sumerian civilization and the home of Abraham. It was the capital of a small wealthy empire during the third millennium B.C.
Most of the Ziggurat of Ur is still standing. I thought I would send out some pictures of the place. It is pretty cool.
Burial Chamber.jpg
Ziggurat-View with Soldier
Ruins with picture of staircase
Ruins at Ur
View of Ruins at Ur
Ziggurat front view
Ziggurat long view
Ziggurat top view
Ziggurat Side View
Tags: photos, robert
Posted by Michelle on Aug 2, 2003 in Michelle
The following are a few pictures from Qatar. Some of you might remember
T.J. from his appearance in Rocky IV.
David and T.J.
High Stakes Spades
The boys from Tallil
View from the Plane
View from the Plane
Tags: photos, robert
Posted by Michelle on Jul 23, 2003 in Michelle
Latest from Robert in Iraq:
One of Stacy’s friends [Stacy is Rob’s wife] sent me a bunch of questions about the place. I thought you might find the answers interesting.
How do you spend your off time? Do you have games or go to camel races
or something? And what do you eat over there? Just curious. Are their
bathrooms/toilets etc. the same as here or are they a big whole in a
sand dune? And do you get to go to movies? Cable TV? What about money – do
you have to convert your American money to their stuff? Are you a coffee
drinker – I am – and no matter how hot it is – I will drink coffee – no joke
– do you do the same? Air-conditioning? Trees? What are the sunsets
like? (my favorite time of day) Sunrises? Do the women still cover themselves?
Are the people of Iraq nice to their animals – like their dogs? I hope so
because it would break my heart if they are not better not tell me if
they are not so nice. Sandstorms? Where do you take cover? Has it rained?
Take your time in answering –
Most of the time, you spend working. I work, now that I am the Command
Judge Advocate, on average of 12-13 hours a day. This is actually very
nice, makes the time go by fast. At night, I sit on the porch, smoke a
cigar, and listen to some music. People come out and we talk. I like
talking to people who talk politics, their lives at home, sports,
anything but about going home. I hate the ‘I wonder when we are going
home.’ We’ve got no clue, so it just ruins the day to talk about it.
We just got a mess hall. It opened three days ago and it is like
heaven. They had some kind of hamburger steak last night and white
rice. Ask Stacy if she thinks I liked that. It was like heaven. For
the 3 1/2 months before that, we had UGR, T-Rats, and MREs. MREs are
‘Meals Ready to Eat’ and it is the lowest form of food you can eat. A
UGR is a big, heated up MRE that the MKT (Mobile Kitchen Tent) served.
T-Rat are a little better than UGR, but not much. There are A-Rats and
B-Rats, but we never saw them. The DFAC (Dining Facility) is like
heaven.
For bathrooms, we had burnout field latrines. That is exactly what it
sounds like. Enlisted soldiers had to burn waste everyday and the whole
camp smelled like diesel and shit. We had those for about 3 months.
For the last month, we have had port-a-johns. They are better, but to
hot to use during the day. You either use them early in the morning or
late at night. If you use it during the day, you will sweat to death.
Like Cool Hand Luke in the sweatbox. For males, there are pipes for
urinating. Long pipes that stick out and buried deep into the ground.
They have to be closed every so often when the ground is saturated.
There are movies in the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and recreation) tent, but
I don’t go to then much. It is a big 36″ TV with a DVD player. There
is a satellite we have just gotten up and they have a TV in the battle
call. Only one channel, Armed Forces TV. Back home I watched TV all
the time. I have not sat down and watch a program since I have gotten
here.
We don’t convert money here. The Iraqis want the American Dollar in
trade. Most trade are for souvenirs. The money is hard to come by, but
some people have better connections than others.
I do drink coffee, but it dehydrates you. I have to be careful with it
out here. On a hot day, it will put you down quick. Among the Iraqis,
tea is a big tradition, and if you have ever been offered the change to
go to tea, it is a real insult not to go. We were at the Ziggurat of Ur
the other day and the Curator asked us to go to his house for tea. We
went and it was pretty cool. The first thing you do is get a single
glass of water and share it among the group. Pass it around to show
friendship. He then brought out the tea set and served hot tea in
glasses about the size of a shot glass. He put two little spoons of
sugar in it and we drank it. It was so hot it burned my tongue but it
was very good. He is a nice guy and speaks good English.
In the Middle East, you never use your left hand for most social
interaction. Shaking hands, waving, touching. You also do not give the
OK sign or a thumbs up. They are obscene. Men also hold hand when
walking around. That threw me the first time I saw that.
Few trees here. The whole south is desert. Saadam damned the place up
in 91′ when the Shiites revolted. It is a real wasteland where I am.
Lots of trees and grass up north. But also a lot of bad guys. It is a
tradeoff.
We have just gotten a/c. We hope to have them hooked up soon.
The sunsets are beautiful. I have attached a picture from about two
months ago of tent row (where I live) at sunset.
Some women cover themselves, maybe 50 percent. The country is very
secular. Not like what you hear.
I have not seen much with Iraqis and animals. They keep pets, so I
guess care for them.
The sandstorms have abated for the last few days. Use to get them
almost every day. It is OK during the day. It is the ones at night
which are hell. We, thank God, have not had one at night in about 3
months. You really do think the world is falling down around you then.
And you will not sleep that night.
It rain a little in April. It has since then at all. They say it will
rain again in the winter.
Tags: robert
Posted by Michelle on Jul 23, 2003 in Michelle
More from Robert in Iraq:
I just back from Arifjan. That place is something else. I was suppose
to fly last Monday, but my paperwork got all screwed up. I ended up
flying on a C-130 at 0210 Tuesday morning. It was actually a good
flight. The flight landed at Kuwaiti International and all the guys on
the plane passed their cameras around for pictures. The one I have
attached to this email is from the plane.
From the airport I was transported to beautiful Camp Wolf. If you are a
soldier, Camp Wolf is the first place you go to when you enter the
country. Needless to say, lots of bad memories there. Kuwait is one
hour behind Iraq, so when I came in, it was still 0210 at night. The
bus for Arifjan was not leaving until 0700, so I went and found some
tent, plopped down, and went to sleep on my ruck sack, with my flack
vest as a pillow. I was awaken at 0430 by a mass of people moving. The
tent I was sleeping in was full of 101st Abn soldiers, who had to leave
at 0500. After that I just walked around until I got my bus to Arifjan.
For a soldier in Iraq, going to Arifjan is like going to heaven.
Everything you want is there. PX, mess halls, air conditioning, et. al.
Real nice. I had to go there to handle some military justice matters.
I got to sleep in a/c the whole time. It was great.
Two interesting things happened while I was there. On the second day, I
get a message that my Command Judge Advocate is coming down for medical
tests. Well, 24 hours later he is on a plane to Germany and the doctor
told me he will not be returning. I am not really sure what is wrong
with him and the Army is giving him some test in Germany. Hopefully he
will be all-right. So now, I am the Acting Command Judge Advocate. I
am also the senior Army JAG in Southern Iraq. This sounds nice, but
actually I am the only JAG in Southern Iraq.
The second interesting thing is I meet an old friend. I was leaving the
Zone I mess area and reentering Zone II when I saw someone who looked
familiar. I stopped and went back and noticed the guy was wearing a
National Guard shirt. I said “James?” It turned out to be James
Kearney. He is the husband of Tonya Kearney, who works in the DAs
Office with me. He is an MP and has been stationed in Arifjan. He
seemed to be doing well.
On Monday, my fun ended and I caught a ride back to Tallil with a
trucking convoy.
-Robert
P.S. Humpy was right outside the tent I was staying in, so I had to take
a picture of him and his sayings
Tags: photos, robert
Posted by Michelle on Jul 1, 2003 in Michelle
Photos from Robert in Iraq
tent row at sunset
tent row in a sandstorm
Chaplain’s office
JAG office where Rob works
Saadam picture outside the building
Tags: photos, robert
Posted by Michelle on Jun 26, 2003 in Michelle
Congratulations on being admitted to the Certificate in Technology and
Communication Program at the University of North Carolina.
You will be getting a formal letter regarding your admission and next
steps, but I wanted to be the first to let you know. I am certain you
will do well in the program, and I think you also can give us feedback
to help us improve what we are doing.
Tags: cool, school
Posted by Michelle on Jun 23, 2003 in Michelle
Pea Island Wildlife preserve
View of the ocean from under some old stairs that no longer touch beach
Bodie Island lighthouse
Cape Hatteras lighthouse (the one they moved)
Tags: beach, photos, travel
Posted by Michelle on Jun 22, 2003 in Jeff, Michelle, pups & other pets
No cute photo this year of the three pups – they were half wet, dirty and grumpy on the beach.
Very cool mosaic at this artist coop, the horses are all over the Outer Banks and the location they are at gets to decorate them accordingly:
Another cool horse
I’m driving along and at a red light, I see some complete dumbass who ended up hang gliding over a Holiday Inn – seriously, he was way far from the hand gliding area at Jockey’s Ridge:
The house had these sun light windows that drove us crazy but the dogs loved to sleep in the warmth of them:
Jeff out front of Cape Hatteras
Another shot from Pea Island preserve (most insect infested place ever)
Two cute kids sitting in the surf:
Tags: beach, photos, travel
Posted by Michelle on Jun 22, 2003 in Michelle
The latest from Robert:
We had the USO show today. It was suppose to start at 1200 so we got
there about 45 minutes early to stake out a good seat. We were on the
side left side of the stage, pretty close to the front. The show was
delayed about an hour and a half, so they brought in fire trucks to hose
everyone down and keep them cool. The show was really good. I am
sending some pictures. Guess which one is my favorite. Entertainment
Tonight was out there, so you might see us on TV.
Tags: photos
