Well I'm finally home after 2 1/2 weeks of wandering the earth...Diego Garcia is the definition of tropical paradise...granted the only things to do are exercise or drink and I'm not a drinker...long walks on the flour soft white beaches in the morning and evening. I found a turtle nest one evening, watched a bunch of sunsets and sunrises, snorkled almost daily in the lagoon and hiked some great jungle trails. An hour or two of work a day just to say that we accomplished something...it truely made up for the week spent in Bahrain which is about the furthest thing from paradise that one can get. I did my best impression of either a mad dog or and Englishman as I walked to a local mall under the noonday sun...I think it was 100degrees (or more) of as they say "dry heat" sorta like hell...I lost 7lbs in 2 hours...not one of my smartest actions that's for sure. I now understand why the locals don't do anything in the middle of the day...night time was a much better time to explore the markets (called souqs)...I bought a bunch of saffron for my whole family (xmas shopping early) and a couple of rugs...Rug shopping is very fun...I had a budget and a particular country of origin (Pakistan) of the rugs I wanted. Pakistani rugs are simpler, bigger patterned, and of lower quality than say Persian/Iranian rugs but of better quality than say Indian...I would love to buy an Iranian rug but they are waaaaaay beyond my budget (like 5-10 times what i want to spend) and in truth too fine a rug for my household (cats and dogs) but handling them while shopping sure is nice. I think I looked at 70-80 rugs narrowing it down to about 6-7 before walking on the rugs to figure out which one I wanted...then came the bargining...a good half hour of bargining from about $400 down to to what I actualtly paid which was $220...it was definatly worth it though and the carpet looks great in our bedroom. I also added to my collecting of prayer rugs. Sadly my trip home all 27 hours of it was not fun at all, topped off by KLM/Northwest losing our luggage (all 11 pieces) someplace between Bahrain and Detroit...Made going through Customs easy though. Oh yes and once I got home I realized that I left my cell phone in the room in Diego Garcia...thankfully they found it but it'll be two weeks before I have it again. Never thought I would be jonesing for my cellphone


vagabond-punk

The musings of Tony Peters, a perpetual child, no matter where I am I will find a way to climb something or go skateboarding Read more »

Under water and leeching

yesterdays rains have lead to a flooded power station, 24 hours of no power, a river that looks like class 6 rapids and me sitting in the parking lot of my local Midas drinking DnD coffee and leeching Wifi trying to find out if I've got school this afternoon.....I hope we have power by tonight I would really like to cook diner instead of take out again. Go »

Music....my life got a bit easier

I have a music fetish....I collect it and organize it and listen to it all day long....I am likely addicted to my shuffle, the New Itunes 8 just made my life so easy....Genius Go »

A good day in the studio

In general this week was horrible I got Gastro and lost a half my remaining class days to finish the pair of sculptures I'm working on.......however today was good I got about 3 hours of alone time in the studio, just my my tools (a pair of angle grinders with wood cutting/shaping disks) a block of wood and a dust collector......... I put about 5 inches of chips in the dust collector and got a good start on the last piece. Go »

happy home maker

Ok before my furnace blew up I had been investing in food items for longterm storage and use. I got a deal on 1pound of vanila beans around new years as well as 2 gallons of peeled garlic last week. Anyway with water turned off in my house all day yesterday (furnace being replaced) I decided that it was a good time to do something about all the garlic and while I was at it make some xmas presents for next year (added bonus time spent in front of the stove means warmth). Go »

retirement

I should spend more time working on things like this during my time off. I find I am playing more though. These were shot over memorial day weekend, Muji and I went to the beach Go »

Grommet

The latest addition to my family...his name is Grommet...my GSP loves him in a strange interspecies way, however my other two cats seem offended/insulted about his existence. Go »