Summer 2006

Where does the summer go? I'm not sure who has more things going on; me or the rest of the world. I've been chomping at the bit to write about such things as Hezbollah, the War, the upcoming elections, and most recently the ousting of Joe Lieberman. I just have not been able to sit down an put my thoughts to keyoard. You see, my work decided that my 13 years experience with debits and credits, FASB Statements, commercial audits, budget execution, and financial forecasting endowed me with the skillset necessary for planning an organizational event (company picnic) for 400+ Army Civilians and Soldiers. This event was planned for late June and as it turned out, it was held the very first day following a period of 4 days of monsoon-like rain. As if that wasn't enough, the week prior to the picnic I was (un)lucky enough to find myself spending a week in training for Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for Service completely isolated from my computer.

Thankfully, June has come and gone. The picnic is over and thanks to an additional week of intense LSS Training (lodged between a week at the lake and a week at the beach no less) I am now a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Let's see how far that gets me. The one thing regarding the organizational picnic I wanted to mention and that I was most proud of was I invited OIF/OEF (Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom) Medical Hold Soldiers and their families from Walter Reed to attend the picnic. We had 3 wounded soldiers and 6 family members attend. I think the weather leading up to the picnic made many soldiers and family members reluctant to sign up. The ones that did come made the picnic special for everyone and more importantly earned me some accolades with our CG (commanding general) and the COO (Chief Operating Officer). Of course six months from now they won't know my name but who cares.

The organizational move to San Antonio, Texas is still on and slated for sometime in 2010. BRAC Law says we must be in SA by October 2011. I'm not really sure what that means (are they going to arrest somebody or something?) but it kind of reinforces the fact that the organization is moving. Sheri and I have scheduled a trip to San Antonio this November. We feel it would be in our best interest to at least go check the area out that we wouldn't move to when the time comes to make the decision.