Acts of quitting, paying mortgage, and valor

Today, I had an "exit strategy meeting" at work.  R and F will write me letters of recommendation.  F had some suggestions for employment for me in Germany which I honestly had not considered before.  F even offered further aid if needed.  I've known F to be very generous when the chips are down, so I took the offer to be very of-the-heart.

I spent the day writing up a general outline for showing my replacement the ropes.  Going through the paperwork again, it's funny how I actually have all the necessary documentation in place for almost everything, it's just that a large part of it has not been approved for use.  There is just too much to go through it all in a short amount of time.

After work, I finally paid off the 2nd mortgage at TCF.  I've dealt with some of their loan officers, but this particular one did not want to be there for that last half hour before leaving for the weekend.  I feel like she did not appreciate me being there and was certainly not excited to see me pay off the loan.  I was quite irritated with how she never offered to really do anything for me at all.  Maybe she was annoyed that she had nothing to sell me.

Compare that TCF experience with my AffinityPlus experience where they go so far as to agree that USAA is a fantastic credit union and did not disuade me from using them at all.  I absolutely love AffinityPlus's customer service!  They are one thing I will miss about Minnesota.  I'll compare their credit card offer against USAA's.  I would hate to let them go.

I have increased the walk distance route for Etsy.  She was so squirrelly the past two days that I figured she needed the extra walk.  It has worked.  She was not nearly as crazy today, although she did not contain herself well at Lake Phalen when she walked past a black dog that did not look too terribly different from herself.  I also noticed a few other bad habits she picked up while I was away this past week.  I'll work them back out.  It's just funny how quickly she can lose that discipline.  She does pick it back up almost as quickly, though.

Finally, I saw the movie Act of Valor.  Not my first pick, but I think it was the best choice given the other options available.  The scripting and acting was just like those training movies I hear my wife had watched in class!  The combat scenes were pretty good and informative.  I want to spill the beans on this, but if you do decide to see the movie, I don't want to spoil it.  They did get their jobs done quickly with high kill ratios and minimal collateral damage and in the end that's what matters.  I also liked how they demonstrated the sacrifices the soldiers and their families make to do what they do but have it be an integral part of their service to the country...an accepted part of the job.  Another thing I liked was how calm, quiet, and collected they all were when executing their objectives.  Whenever a man went down, they didn't freak out.  When something went wrong, they didn't freak out.  The only bummer about the way the movie was shot was that they really glossed over all of the prep everyone does before executing a mission.  They all had trained extensively in all of the combat they did, they all had to study and read up on the terrain and the multiple extract points and possible opposition they would encounter, and they all had to learn from substantial intelligence surveillance on the people involved before going in.  I think it was a good movie for me to see.  If you do see the movie, I would have to say that I like their first mission the best.

On the Georgia front, my wife passed her land nav today!  I'm so proud!  I think she is a lot tougher than she  probably ever realized.  She has done so much in such a short time.