Chris has been enjoying his time off, getting together with his friends. I have to say he has come back solid, in the best shape of his life. He went in weighing 130 lbs. but lost 10 in the first week there. When he graduated he weighed 145. And it's all muscle, some transition in 14 weeks. Lou Schuler has to write a book with their workouts in it. He tosses his little brother Scott around like he's a piece of paper. He told me he took out a $400K life insurance policy and named both his brothers as benificiaries. I told him I don't want them to collect on it.

Joe Pierce came home from Iraq until 11/1. He's only been there for 2 months so he has a long time to go until he gets out but he looks good. He's digging his time with his family. That has to be tough, to be away for so long. Tough on everybody. He got together with Chris for a few minutes, and they started talking Army and I didn't understand a word they said. They speak in acronyms.

Getting chilly here in New York. Morning temps are in the low 40's (that's around 6 for our Canadian readers). I'm wondering how that will feel when I'm heading out to the gym tomorrow.

That's right, heading back to the gym tomorrow. With a new plan. I'm going for fat loss for the next month. I'll be doing the New Rules of Lifting fat loss workout coupled with the Velocity Diet from over on T-Nation. 4 weeks of nothing but protein shakes. This should prove interesting.

Back in NYC

Got back to NYC last night, not without a hassle. The first flight from Chicago to LaGuardia was cancelled, but they were able to get me on a later flight. I arrived back here about 10:30 pm.

All in all it was a fun trip. Chris looks good and he's happy. He made it through the toughest time he's had in his life and from what I heard from his drill sargeants he did very well. He received a special commendation from his sargeant major for building a wooden castle (the symbol of the engineers) along with three other recruits. They built it to replace the one outside their barracks, but the Lt. Colonel and sargeant major told them they will only use it at special ceremonies for their platoon. It was on stage during their graduation.

At the family orientation we were warned by the first sargeant not to get in their way when we took them to dinner, as for 14 weeks they have been only given 20 minutes to eat their meals (as they were told "eat it now, taste it later"). I think he ate his steak dinner in about 10 minutes. And it was funny seeing all the other recruits who happened to be at the same restaurant scarfing down their meals as well.

(Chris shaking the hand of the first sargeant after receiving his engineer's pin). After the graduation the platoon assembled outside in formation waiting for the parents and guests to line up. When the drill sargeant saw all were out he called them to take two step pacing position. You heard a collective groan out of the platoon. That command was followed by "half right face" and "forward leaning rest position". Yes, he made them drop and give him 20 one last time (but he got down and did it with them). After this they were dismissed and he couldn't wait to get off the post and into civvies.

After we left he went to stay with some of his platoon that were staying through until Saturday. So, what did they all do? Of course, got a tattoo. They will be stationed together in Germany when Chris goes back on the 29th. The only negative I feel about that is that he's been told to only expect to be in Germany for 3-4 weeks. After that he should expect to be sent to Iraq. I'm not looking forward to that time but I do know that he's received the best possible training for that job. I'll still worry.

It was nice to get out of the city and into a country area. This part of Missouri was very nice, quiet and peaceful, clean air. I was able to meet some very nice people there (including one in particular ;-) ) who made it feel like home. And while it was very comfortable being there it's still good to be back home. It felt great to wake up this morning in my own bed. But I just noticed no one has made up the room yet. I'll miss that.

On the Road Again

Heading off to Missouri for a few days. Chris is graduating from Boot Camp on Friday. Yes, he made it, he called me to confirm that he is graduating. He sounded good and excited about what he has accomplished. Shaved a minute and a half off his 2 mile run since the beginning of BC. It will be interesting to see if he has filled out any. When he left he was 5'6" and under 150 lbs. His recruiter told him the army would try to fatten him up a bit. I don't know how, this kid used to eat everything in sight and never gained anything. I wish I had his metabolism.

I don't know if he'll be coming home after the graduation. He applied to go in for K-9 training with bomb sniffing dogs. If he gets accepted he will have to be in Texas the week of the 23rd, so he said he may just head there. The training will be about 6 months and after that he would be stationed out of Missouri. If he doesn't get it he'll be heading to Germany after his leave. Either way I'm looking forward to seeing him. I haven't seen him since June 14th.

A little ironic I'll be in Missouri from Wednesday into Saturday. The Mets start the championship series against the Cardinals on Wednesday. I'll have to watch the first 2 games from Cardinal country. I'm guessing I should leave my Met jacket at home.