I thought that I would take time to fill you all in on what both Jackie and I are up to since we don’t get to talk to many of you on a regular basis. So here we go.

Jackie is currently working for her National Guard unit based in Johnstown, PA. She is on ADSW orders (Active Duty Special Work) as the S1. She works in an office and deals with personnel issues. Since the state has had to make cutbacks she is currently doing the work of 3 people. She was also told not to plan on having a job at the start of the new year because the state has run out of money to pay people on ADSW orders. So, with that in mind she has been interviewing with a couple pharmaceutical companies. She has had 3 interviews with Pfizer and a ride-a-long coming this week. She has also interviewed with Sanofi-Aventis.

I also work at the National Guard unit in Johnstown but I work with LSI. We are a contractor that is hired by the National Guard to fill in while the soldiers are deployed to Kosovo. I work as a Production Control clerk which means I monitor what is being done on the aircraft, which can fly or not, and what aircraft will be flown when needed. For someone that has as little training as I do this is a great job. I have really learned a lot about maintenance of AH-64s (Apaches), OH-58s, and UH-1s (Hueys) (all shown below in order). I am also substitute teaching in the Hempfield school district with hopes of getting a full-time job there next year.

When we aren’t working Jackie and I are working on our new house that we bought in August. We have “redone” the dining room and the living room already and I will work on getting pictures up for you. The big project right now is the guest bathroom. I have found that the demo part is easy but now we have to lay tile, paint the walls, and install a new vanity. Hopefully we will have it done by Christmas so we can have guests.

Well I think that is about it. If we talk to you on a regular basis you just wasted about 5 minutes reading this because it is nothing new! In the mean time, I will work on those pictures.

1st of the 104th

Shout it from the roof tops from here to the ocean blue, Randy Kluj will be coming to western PA for Thanksgiving. He will depart Ft. Hood, TX, on Wednesday in the early evening and arriving at Pittsburgh International at roughly 11:00 pm. Upon slaughtering the fatted calf, er, wrong story.

Randy has decided to forgo going home to Maine to spend the holiday with his parents to spend it in a more southern and warmer location, da ‘Burgh. (For those of you who are a little slow, or spend most of your time nit picking spelling mistakes he is coming from TEXAS!) Not that this should make a difference to you, Randy, but we are supposed to get snow while you are here. Now, I understand you are from Maine where you have like 12 feet of snow in a month and there is snow on the ground 10 out of 12 months of the year.

For those of you who don’t know Randy let me give you a quick bio (I have known him for a little over a year so this will be brief). Jackie and I met Randy while he and Jackie were in flight school at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. He hails from Milo, Maine (I think, again not an expert. But I do recall Randy and Brian Cabreira discussing the pronunciation of Milo as compared to Hilo, Hawaii. The outcome was My-low and He-low for those keeping track at home.) After Jackie left me in Alabama to move back to PA, I moved in with Randy.

Randy Kluj facts: He is an AH-64D pilot. He is currently a WO1 but should be getting promoted here in not too long. He can’t drink too many strawberry margaritas before spending the whole night on the floor in the bathroom. And finally, he has inferior whiffle-ball skills. Oh, and he also enjoys a good Wild Turkey and Baileys on the rocks…yeah, you read that right.

So let it be known and let it be written down…Randy Kluj is coming!