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 »

I call him Sushi........

My wife and I have a thing for Amberjack......this is my final sculpture (required anyway) for the semester I shot these before I finished welding the rest of the chain on (5-6 hours today) right now he's covered in salt getting rained on in hope of promoting a patina which I can clear coat. The plan is to add numbers and hang him on the front porch in place of the numbers now there...I'll Go »

I miss the piazza

well after 22 hours in transit I have returned from Sardinia to the land of really bad Capoccino. I spent my birthday (Saturday) sitting in the Piazza in La Maddalena drinking Capoccino...there really isn't any comparision to the wonderful sense of relaxation that I felt there. Go »

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 »

argh

I got a phone call this morning from work (I'm on vacation) wondering if I know that I'm transferring in 2 weeks???? SAY WHAT???? yet again (this is the 3rd time) the Navy is transferring me to another job in the same area. Go »

Irene.....what a b!tch

the storm was past people were starting to move around and then I hear what sounds like a gunshot coming from the south east corner of our house......we walk out side and a tree half a block away crashed into the power lines ripping my transmission line off the house along with a a bunch of siding. Joy. Go »

the toils of being a home owner

just when you think that everything is groovy boom your furnace burps blowing all the seals and well $6000 later you can have heat again. Mind you it was 12degrees yesterday when this happened and at present I can't keep my house any hotter than 55degree's or the house fills with smoke...not to mention that the soonest I can get a new furnace installed is thursday. Go »