This past Sunday, Beth and I made a one-day, round-trip visit to Baltimore; and no, the Cubs weren't playing the Orioles. Instead, we made the trip to visit Beth's brother, Matt, before he deploys to Baghdad for the better part of a year. This is an elective deployment for Matt where he has committed to help train the Iraqi military — just one more step in the long-term effort to extricate our own forces from the country. For his own part, he will educate Iraqi pilots in the nuances of flying the versatile, US made C-130. In exchange for this commitment, he will have his choice of any airbase in the world that hosts a C-130 squadron as his next station. Not bad — 1 year in the desert for 3 years in Italy courtesy of the US Air Force (not to say that Matt will pick Italy but, if he did, we would certainly pay him a visit).

Joined by their uncle Jim, who took the train down from Boston, we would have only one afternoon with Matt as he was flaying out the next morning. A quiet lunch in a hotel lobby, a couple of hours driving around Baltimore looking for a parking spot, and coffee in the train station before Jim headed back to Boston seemed to go by all too quickly. But, still, it was time well spent. We'll see you in a year, Matt.