Caleb doesn’t get much time off with his current schedule but he enjoys baking cinnamon rolls and Irish soda bread, cooking pasta and veggies, playing his daily sudoku, and finding weird cartoons to intersperse with our latest documentary series when we’re not out shopping for food, taking a walk amongst the cars in the dust, or curled up on the couch — him reading from Kindle and me from the over 50 books I’ve amassed from the library’s free offerings.

I’ve been keeping an eye on activities we can do on base — smoke-free, cheap, and close — for when Caleb isn’t on duty. We were going to play bingo last time we lived here but I thought it was an outrageous cost (how else will you fund the $7,000 jackpot that has to be won by the first 50 numbers) but since Caleb has had a few raises and two advancements since then and me a job we had enough to spend the $25 per gamepad for an hour and a half of entertainment and possible winnings for each game.

I’m not saying that we couldn’t afford to play last time we were here but I prefer to spend our money on fancy popcorn in Dubai or scuba diving in Hawaii instead of movie theater kernels and cheap beer… hence why opposites attract, but we agreed on the Mongolian BBQ (by the pound, not the plate) after the game and both eyed the cast iron wok that we’d enjoy cooking with. We’d gotten haircuts earlier (my last being three months ago and his being three weeks ago) and the cost, time, and massage option will have me coming back soon.