Every Journey Starts - The Airport Departure

McCarron has new gates in the D area with food stations, newstands, Starbucks and a classic Vegas mural. Nice and airy, laptop stations (free wifi!!) and, of course, slot machines/video poker.

The flight to Dulles was overbooked when I went online to get my seat assignment.

What's this button "upgrade"?

How much do I have on my MileagePlus account?

Only 8000 to upgrade?

CLICK.

First Class.

Nice!

Fighter Pilot for a Day

Since coming to Las Vegas I have attend many JDRF Galas. It's an annual fund raiser that features silent auction items (we got our Double Diamond slot machine the first year). In 2008 while Ray was in Afghanistan I bid/won a ride for him at Air Combat USA.



This weekend he finally got up to North Las Vegas airport to take his ride. I went with as the designated driver (in case he got sick). Due to his opponent being a no-show, I was offered the other seat at half-price. Can't pass up that opportunity!



Our instructors were seated next to us, watching all the dials and ready to take the yoke should someone start to spin (Ray) or get sick (me, twice). Five dogfights, final score 3-2 (me).



Flying back over North Las Vegas

Malcom Grow Medical Center, Andrews AFB

This is where I'll be in a week from tomorrow.

Maj Brewer Goes to Washington

I'm getting ready to perform another manning assist. This time I'll be at Andrews AFB in Washington DC.

As before, lots of pictures and impressions to follow.

Enjoyed the Fall with a Hike at Mt Charleston

Our friend Jill, Ray & Me at the start of the hike.

More pictures are on Ray's Flickr and mine.

Fall TV Schedule

While in Balad I missed out on the Spring TV season. Fortunately I have some great friends who recorded many of my favorite shows and sent them to me so I could get caught up. Then I found the rest on Hulu.com or the network sites.

So I thought seeing the fall TV season schedule would be exciting. New shows! New season of my favorites. What is going to be appointment TV?



Looking pretty bleak on the regular networks. Leaves room for the cable stations for sure (and fortunately our DVR can do two shows at the same time when we need it).

Nutrition Tool Box for the Deployed Dietitian

This past week I was at Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio, TX) attending a postgraduate course given by the Army for deploying dietitians. Over the three days we talked about sports nutrition, burns, trauma, critical care, humanitarian aide, and detainee nutrition care. For me it was a mix of validation of information I had figured out on my own (or with a few emails back and forth with one of the Army dietitians in Iraq), and some new information that I wish I had known before my deployment.



I hope I have the opportunity to share the knowledge from this program with other dietitians before they deploy. And with civilian dietitians working in trauma and burn units. The sports nutrition (we consider military folks to be athletes) will also come in handy in civilian private practice.

One of the other great things about this past week was meeting up with the Air Force dietitians in attendence - and that I actually knew them (since I haven't been around conferences or USAF dietitian symposiums I can't put faces to names when I look at the roster, because I just haven't had the opportunity to meet many folks in our career field). But I knew everyone else there. Some from working at Nellis AFB and some from Travis AFB.