Well, first day at the grindstone after a 10 week sabbatical and it fully met and exceeded my expectations.

I have an office with a DOOR! No Les Nesman for me, thank you very much.

I have a window too, but it overlooks the shop floor. Steel is not all that estetically pleasing.

I get home now 2 hours before I was at the old job. The commute rocks!

Seriously, the job is good. The people fun to be around. And it's very interesting and challenging! I arrived early by about 15 minutes (still trying to figure out the commute time). After being briefed by HR, my cell rang and it was Todd.

As much as I love the guy, I find it so frustrating that the dude does NOT read his emails all that well. I had told him not to call me during 5:30pm and 2am his time. He read it as only call between those times. So a slightly embarrassing moment but after explaining to my boss that he was in Iraq, I was pleased to say they were very supportive. The HR lady told me "You tell him to call any time he likes.", which I thought was sweet.

He's back at Arifjan at the moment anyhow, which makes me feel a wee bit calmer than when he was up at Balad. Just not too happy about the idea of him travelling between the two, but not much I can do about it. He had promised to call at least every 48 hours but that hasn't really worked out that well. But I shouldn't complain...at least I do hear often.

So tomorrow I will be getting a tour of the shopyard and the steelworks. I'll be in steel toed boots and a hard hat. Should be an experience!