With all the change going on in our lives right now, I have found it hard to find time to post to the blog as often as I would like. It’s Saturday and I’m going to squeeze in some time today.

As you might have seen from the previous posts, Migle’s friend Greta came and spent two months with us. I could go on for a long time about this but I’ll sum it up with the statement that her visit was GREAT. I know she enjoyed it but I’m talking more about having another person to help take care of a 3 month old. Greta was tremendously helpful. She took a huge burden off Migle. And Migle really enjoyed having her best friend around to not just help with Kostas but to talk to. She also helped a lot around the house. I wish I could talk her end to coming back for a while. Greta being there was like a drug – when she left, we had painful withdrawal symptoms. Her Finance (now husband but more on that later) came for a weekend while she was there. We had, as they say, a grand time. We ate, drank, and celebrated way too much. It was a good visit. We are trying to talk them both plus another couple into coming to visit in early December.

OK, now the story about Kosta’s passport and Greta’s wedding (and it’s a long convoluted story) …

Greta and Donastas got married last Saturday – September 2nd. For the month and a half before the wedding, we were not going to be able to go – a huge disappointment for us, especially Migle not being able to attend her best friend’s wedding. The reason being was that we didn’t have Kostas’ U.S. passport. We applied for it in early July and it originally was going to be back late July (based on assurances from the passport office in Stuttgart). But they called us later and said that the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt (the one that services us) was so back-logged that it was going to take 3 or 4 months to get his passport. We called the Consulate and told them we needed to go to a wedding and asked what they advise. They said they could draft a letter but some airlines and countries don’t accept anything less than the passport. We called the Lithuanian Embassy in Berlin and they said that Lithuania will not let him in without a passport – even though he is only 4 months old. So Migle was crushed. She was very upset and disappointed she could not attend the wedding. Also, I had 10 days of travel I needed to do in the States. I had planned to go to Lithuania, spend a few days there, then fly to the States – leaving Migle and Kostas with her parents. But, without the passport, we couldn’t do that. So, Migle was able to talk her parents into coming to visit Esslingen (our town outside Stuttgart). After her parents arrived, I went to Charleston for my cousin’s wedding and to visit with family and friends. And to check in on the bar my Brother and I own. I then went to a conference in Ft. Lauderdale and ran into a bunch of people I used to be in the Army Reserves with (more on that later) and then I went to Virginia to meet the people I will be working for and with in my new job (more on that later also). But, the day before I left for the States, I got an email that said Kostas’ passport had arrived. Hooray! So I went and picked it up – because I had to see it with my own eyes. This was going to make Migle and Greta very happy. I thought to myself, what a great opportunity to surprise Migle. So I bought plan tickets for us on the same flight with her parents to Vilnius Lithuanian and wrapped up the passport and tickets in a box and told Migle to open it sometime during the middle of my trip to the States. We ended up picking August 23rd because that was Kostas’ 4 month birthday. So that morning (European time) she opened it up. She was so happy and screaming and crying and her parents were running around the house and all was good! She, of course, has to call me and (jokingly) tell me she was going to kill me for not telling her right away. But she really loved the surprise and was crying. By the way, it was around 02:30 in the morning (my time) in the US. But that was OK. So, once I got back from the States, we drove with her parents to Munich and flew Airbaltic to Lithuanian. Quite an adventure with a four month old. Over all, it was fine. When we first got on the plane, we could not get him to stop crying. We thought to ourselves … this is going to be painful and we’ll never do it again. People around us were asking to be moved away from the crying baby, etc. But, after a few minutes, he settled down and, other than a few outbursts, he was pretty good. I had to hold him in my lap the whole 3 hour flight but that was ok to make it all work. We were able to go to Greta and Donatas’ wedding and it was wonderful. It was a Traditional Lithuanian wedding. There was a short church service in Vilnius and then we drove to Donatas home town for the reception. Waiting at the reception was a musician (dressed like a doctor) who made Greta and Donatas perform certain marital tasks before they could enter the reception hall. Donatas had to chop a log in half with an axe. Greta had to put a diaper on a baby (doll) and Donatas had to carry Greta over a board sat on top of a log (see-saw style) with a ceramic plate under the far end – and without breaking the plate. He made it over fine but the plate broke into a bunch of pieces (one person said they are supposed to have as many children as broken pieces). Once inside, they found a newlywed couple already in their seats drinking and partying (this is a Lithuania tradition – Donatas’ sister dress in a guy’s costume and some male cousin dressed in female clothes). They have to bribe them with candy and alcohol to get them to leave. It was quite funny. Much singing and drinking involved. After they left we sat down, ate a hot meal, toasted (A LOT) and spent the evening eating, drinking, and dancing. Until the wee hours of the night. A good time was had by all. As is also tradition, they had a building next to the reception hall with beds and a shower. All the out of town guests slept there. In the morning, we were served more hot food and the beer drinking started again. Later the second day we drove back to Vilnius (well, Alvaidas drove because the rest of us were drinking beer). Two day and sometime three day wedding receptions are the norm in Lithuanian.

We had a small wedding in Denmark but plan to have a large wedding celebration in Vilnius and in Charleston. We’re starting the planning for both now. Maybe in the spring.

Well, I have long since broken my blog record for length of post with this one. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I had a lot to get out.

Backing up a little and while Greta and Donatas were visiting us, I had my 43rd Birthday Party. My friends living in Germany and my brother Tom were there and we had a great evening. Again, a good time was had by all. You can see pictures under a previous post.

By the way, I’m sorry I’m not giving my cousin Craig and his new wife Sarah equal billing related to their wedding. It was also wonderful and it was a really good time to catch up with the whole Condon family. I’m really glad I was able to go.

At the conference in Florida, I ran into Brigadier General Stu Dyer, Brigadier General Geoff Freeman, Colonel James Blackmon, and COL (P) Jeff Smith. I used to work with or for them when I was in the Army Reserves in the States. It was really good to see them all and they all looked great - Especially the Stars on their shoulders. I was a Major working for BG Dyer and BG Freeman when they were Lieutenant Colonel’s. They are now one-star generals. Assuming I didn’t screw up, I hope that I would have maybe made Colonel by now and maybe could have eventually gotten a star also. Probably not – but maybe! I am so busy with family and work that I don’t think often about what I gave up when I made the tough (very tough) decision to retire from the Reserves. But when I say those guys (and the stars) I certainly felt some pain and regret. But, there are times in life where you can’t have everything and you have to make choices between different things and I made a choice to retire after 21 years and I can’t look back. BG Dyer is in Kuwait right now and my old friend Lieutenant Colonel Ed Drose is in Iraq and they were able to get together and jointly bad-mouth me and my past performance 

One of my last work trips with SPAWAR, I went to Africa Endeavor in Pretoria, South Africa. It is a EUCOM-sponsored military communications and interoperability exercise. It was very well run and quite interesting. I went down for the Distinguished Visitors track. I flew in, went to the hotel, participated in the events at the hotel, saw the exercise, the closing ceremony, the closing party, and flew back out again. I enjoyed it all but really didn’t get to see any of South Africa. I will have to come back (maybe to Capetown) with Migle and Kostas on vacation sometime to see more of the country.

Now on to what is happening in my professional life. After 20 years with the Space and Naval Warfare Command (I even interned with them back in 1982 and 83), I retired from SPAWAR. That was also a tough decision. Overseas Government tours are limited by regulation to 5 years. I had already been given several exception-to-the-rule extensions and was over 6.5 years when I was told by SPAWAR to quit having fun in Europe and come back to the headquarters in Charleston. But I have lived 37 years in Charleston and a little less than 7 in Europe. I know I will eventually move back to Charleston. I love that city! In retirement, we plan to spend the summers in Vilnius and the winters in Charleston. So I decided to start looking to see if there were any other Government or Private sector jobs that would allow me to stay in Europe. Migle also wanted to stay in Europe. She is super close to her parents and they are in their 70’s and she didn’t want to be a transatlantic flight way from them. I found a Government job at DISA Europe and a private sector job with DRS Technologies. I have spent 20 years with the Government – with the exact same agency, in fact, and felt, to continue to grow professionally, the private sector job would be best for me and my family. So I took it. In general it is more hours but more pay also. But the big thing is that I will be doing the thing that I love – growing an organization from scratch to something large and reputable. This is the same thing I did with SPAWAR Europe but with DRS there are less constraints and more flexibility – the type of business and growth oriented environment that I thrive in. My title is Director – European and African Operations. Basically I’m the head DRS Technical Services guy in Europe but since I have no employees, that means I’m in charge of myself . My job is to find work, hire people to do the work, manage the work, and find more work – and grow DRS Europe as big and profitable as I can make it. Wish me luck!

This is now the monster of all posts for me and I’m still not done yet …

When I first heard that my tour was ending, I started the process of getting an immigration visa for Migle. The U.S. doesn’t let people from many countries of the world just travel to the U.S. because they want to. She either has to get a tourist visa (good for up to 90 days) or an immigration visa (to live there). Since we were potentially going to move there, I started the long and painful process. Once we decided to stay in Europe, I wasn’t sure whether I should keep going with the immigration process or put it on hold and try to get a tourist visa. I do want to take her and Kostas to Charleston sometime this fall. The final step in the process is to do an immigration interview. Currently that is scheduled for this Tuesday. You have to put together tons of paperwork and get a lot of things done prior to the interview. One of the many things is a medical exam with a German doctor in Frankfurt (because that is where the consulate is). And we have to show the doctor (among other things) her shot records. Migle doesn’t have here childhood shot records so we had several blood tests done to test to see if she had all the right immunities. Long story short .. she has all she need except her level of immunity from measles is at a level that in Germany used to be ok but now they have raised the level and she doesn’t have enough. We only found this out last week. And she can’t get the shot while breast-feeding. And we plan to breast-feed for 2 or 3 more months. The Frankfurt Consulate is not taking calls only emails. I have asked them about this but haven’t gotten a response. Yesterday we decided to ask to reschedule the interview until early December. That way she can finish breast-feeding, get the Measles shot, get through the doctor’s exam, and do the interview. If it is not too hard, we might try to get a tourist’s visa for the fall trip. We’ll have to see.

My Mother and her Husband (Pete) are coming to visit us (and Tom, Stephanie, and Skylar) in a few weeks. I have flown my Mother over each year I have been here but this is the first trip for Pete. In trying to decide what to do and see while Pete is here, my Mom said he has trouble walking too much and really loves Beer. We thought … we know the perfect time of the year and perfect event … the Stuttgart Oktoberfest. Very little walking and lots of beer-drinking  They also loves beautiful outdoor scenery so we are going to spend the first weekend in a very small rural village in the Swiss Alps. The views there are so breath-taking that you, honestly, stop in awe each time you step outside of a building and see the mountains. Pete is staying 2 weeks and my Mom 3, so I might take my Mom to Prague after Pete flies back. She has been to most of the major cities around Europe but she hasn’t seen Prague yet and it’s a beautiful walking-around town. They will also be spending half their time with my Brother, Sister-in-law, and nephew (who also live in Stuttgart).

And, finally (thank goodness), we come to the end of my post with a few words about the most important topic … Kostas! Overall he is doing very well. He’s growing right like the growth charts say he is supposed to. He is alert and seems to be developmentally on-track (although really too early to know for sure). But he has two problems that are stressing his Mother. He has bad skin (typical in my family). He has rashes on the legs, chest, and scalp. We have been told that this is common. But they itch, he scratches them, which makes him walkup when he’s sleeping and makes him cry when he’s awake. This could be normal hormonal stuff or an allergy. We’re trying to figure it out. He’s only getting breast-milk and good German pre formula. We’ll keep trying to figure it out. We’re putting a cream on it given to us by his Pediatrician. And he also seems to us (but what do we know – we’re first time parents) to be crying too much, not sleeping enough, and no where near on a schedule. The schedule part is mostly our fault and we’re going to put more work into that starting next week  But, I think, most of the crying and crazy schedule are things that come along with an infant. We’ll just have to keep buckling down and managing.

Thanks so much for actually reading this way-too-long-winded post. I’ll try to be more brief in the future.

Take care, Jim