83 days down...., about 100 left (give or take 20...Haha).

I'm still pilot #37....

Nine new pilots got here this week so I'm expecting my number to go down withing the next two to three weeks by at least nine.  My commander is really good about keeping the minimum number of dudes here as possible so as soon as we get more than our quota then he finds older dudes rides home.

OK, let me start this blog off with a "hit" on me (A "hit" is what we call it during a debrief if you point out what you messed up on/ your own mistakes during the previous flight...., I usually have a couple of hits per flight).  My mom sent me a package two weeks ago and I never said anything about it.  It was a good one.  Some more drink mixes, a t-shirt and a few kiddie games.  The kiddie games are fun.  You can usually find these said games just sitting around the squadron after people are done playing with them.  Us aircrew over here are such kids.  There are bouncy bally all over the place, etch-a-sketch pads, and coloring books just to give a few examples of some of the "fun" things we do while at work.  She also sent a pair of plastic deodorant ball thingys.  You put them in your shoes when you take them off and they absorb the smell.  I didn't know that my room smelled so bad, but now that I'm using them my room smells better...thanks mom.

This week I got e few packages.  I got one from my dad.  He sent me a 100oz. mug filled with water flavoring and then the rest of the box filled with water flavoring!  It was awesome!  I have so much water flavoring!!!  I wanted to count it but I don't think I can count that high.  Haha.

And Kristen sent me three boxes this week.  A few weeks ago I made a comment on facebook about wanting some Mexican food....., and Kristen delivered.  She sent a few bags of chips and salsa, cheese and been dip!  I haven't eaten any of it yet, because I'm waiting for the perfect time in the next few weeks to crack them all open.  She also sent me Family Guy trivia cards (to play during boring moments here).  And she sent me a lego plane!  Haha.  That was funny.

One of the dudes in my tent got sent home early this week for medical reasons.  That sucks in a way for him but I'm also happy anytime someone gets to go home so I'm happy for him!  He was only gone for four days and they sent some new dude in his place.  So we got a newbie in our tent.  You may have heard about the "forming, storming, norming, performing" theory.  If not, the Air Force teaches it heavily.... it's basically the different stages a group makes when a group gets together.  And every time that a new person enters the group the process starts over.  Well, our group just got started over and we were already at the performing phase!!!  Aggghhhhh. We'll have to break him in right.

My buddy Joab spilled a bottle of water on his Macbook Pro a few weeks ago..., the whole bottle.  Don't ask me how.  I was sitting right next to him and I still don't know how it happened.  But I asked Kristen to send me a spill proof sippee cup that i decorated when I got here.  I gave it to him a few days ago.... funny stuff.

I've been flying sooooo much this week.  I flew for eight days straight.  It's my longest streak so far. The longest they let you fly is nine in a row anyway so that eight in a row was great! I broke 200 hours of combat time this week which changed my code over here from in experienced to experienced which makes me feel good.  I have 51 sorties over here now so two air medals and over half way to my third one!  Some people are medal chasers during their military career, and some people never try to get any at all.  I want to be somewhere in between those two kinds of people and just happen to get medals.  But, I want to have a chest FULL of medals for my sisters wedding next May!  So, for that reason.....I'll be a medal chaser for the next year (I won't try to get a purple hart....I promise).

Oh, and since we got those nine new pilot type here..., they have to be trained up on our plane.  And that takes 20 rides, which means about 20-30 days with all nine of those dudes flying and us co-pilots not getting to much "stick" time.  So I'm getting up for that in the upcoming 3-4 weeks time frame....Aggghhhh!

And one more for the road...... I have athlete's foot!!!  And I'm not even an athlete!  I'm a pilot!  So I'm renaming it to pilot's foot for my sake.  I mean, tomorrow I'm going to go to a flight doctor to treat my pilots foot not a regular doctor so I must have pilots foot.  A secretary can't go see a flight doctor, just pilots so from this point on..., the fungus on my feet will be renamed to pilots foot.  Thank you.

At the end of this month I'll have been here for 90 days which is SUPPOSED to be my halfway point.....we'll see.  That's about all I got this week.  I just scrolled back to the top of this blog entry and wow.....I didn't do to well with pictures.  I'll take that hit on me and do better next week.  Till next time.....

I miss you Kristen!  I love you Kristen!