Yay me

This will surprise no one - the person who sent me so much love yesterday that I cried - literally - was tookie. No surprise, everyone who knows tookie knows that she is one of the most loving people in the world. 

Today Kwtracey sent me a picture that was inspired by a snarky comment I made. There was a woman who denounced liberal democracy and “our homo-empire.” I said I needed a t-shirt with homo empire so Kwtracey made a fabulous, absolutely fabulous design. It was so awesome that I shared it with the LGBTQ group of former USAID employees. They LOVED it!

Hysterical. Joy. 

Today I wrote a draft proposal. Someone I used to work for in Mozambique sent me an RFP (request for proposals) last Wednesday and asked if we could do this. I said yes, if he had a gender expert. He said he’d find one. He did. Today I wrote a draft proposal. We have an MBA (me), an engineer (him), and a gender expert. I don’t think we’ll win, but I think I created the beginning of something pretty fine. 

French bombs are hurting Russia. Ukraine used a recon drone and spotted a concentration of Russian soldiers. When they realized they were seen they hid. Ukraine used MiG-29s equipped with AASM Hammer bombs. This is the third time Ukraine has used these jets and the French supplied bombs. Ukraine wrote on Telegram that they destroyed communications equipment including signal amplifiers and satellite communication equipment. Again, I would like to complain about those boring names. MiG-29s? AASM Hammer bombs? At least “hammer” is interesting. Hammer stands for Highly Agile Modular Munition Extended Range. (No way, someone wanted to call them “hammer” and made up the words to fit the acronym.) Better is that the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade is nicknamed “Ghost of Kyiv” brigade. At least two of these strikes were done by them. The AASM Hammer is a modernization kit that turns older, unguided bombs into precision-guided bombs with longer range. France started using them in 2007 and has given Ukraine hundreds. 

There is a Ukrainian sniper getting some praise. A sniper of the Materyk battalion shot down two Russian drones with two shots which is particularly impressive given how fast the things move. 

Russia is having such severe soldier shortages that they are using troops who should be overseeing their nuclear arsenal on the FRONTLINE, as assault infantry. They are already missing some of them.