Well I am now here and am running around like a chicken with my head cut off. So much to do to get this project up and running. I have to get housing established in some villages out in the middle of nowhere. Purchase all the gear and equipment. Set up rosters and leaves for all local and expat staff. This to name just a few things.

Right now I am down at the gold mine where we have work as well shadowing another project to see how things are running. I got the chance to go out and scout the line of the project which is a very long 100Km plus new power line we have to clear of all UXO and frag to a depth of 2 meters. Pretty dense in places, open in others. The biggest concern is we are starting in the middle of the rainy season. We will trudge through as best we can. Should be quite the challenge.

I just wish my wife was here with me. I miss her a great deal. She is my rock. And with all the water here right now I need a rock to climb on so as to not get my boots all muddy.

I got a new watch yesterday. I have been looking at it for some time now. I like the features of this watch where if you touch the button on the side and then you touch the face at various points you access the features of the watch such as altimeter, barimetric, compass, chrono, thermo and alarm. Reviews are hit and miss on amazon.com. I decided I just could not find anything else I liked and picked it up. One warning I will have to look at is that folks say not to send it through the metal detector too many times in the airport, which is fine as normally you have to take it off and put it into a bowl that you get on the other side.

My favorite watch is still the Corum my wife bought me for Christmas/birthday.

Given the cash, the next watch would be either a Panerai or another Corum.

Well things are coming along, albeit slowly. All I am waiting for is some paperwork and then I can book my tickets. Only bad thing is that they are gonna cost a pretty penny being so last minute. Give me another week and I will be taking picks in Laos for you all and will post them at the earliest convenience. Also based on when and if I have internet. :-)

Cheers all!!!

This picture is for Mrs. Pants. This is a picture of Radju, the gentleman that works for us around the house. Radju is from Bangladesh. He is such a great help seeing as the house is so big. He helps also keep the cars clean with all the dust we get swirling around here.

Here are two carpets Heather and I have picked up here for our future home in some state or another.

Well folks the time has come to move back home. Back to Laos. I have been given the opportunity and this time we are not passing it up. We have turned down a few times opportunities in Cambodia due to bad timing or due to commitments. This time we have nothing to stop us.

I have accepted a position as a Project Manager and will be based out of Vientiane. I am off in a matter of weeks and Heather will be a few months behind me. We will have a nice house with a spare room. So anyone interested should take full advantage. Actually the houses, cost to size ratio, are incredible.

Heather will be taking the time to finish off her degree and start on a masters. She also will take some time to get involved with a local group or two and do some volunteering.

Well thats all the news thats fit to print. Cheers all and keep in touch.

Our softball team after bowing out of the Middle East Softball Championships in Dubai.

My management Kung Fu is strong. How strong you may ask. Well Green Belt Six Sigma strong. HAHAHAHAHA

I have been working on my certifications on line for the various levels of Six Sigma. Not a bad course. I always say face to face training is better but I had no other alternative. Luckily my wife is very good at the Six Sigma precesses. What I don't get online I get from her. Her management Kung Fu is top notch.

If you too want to check out what six sigma can do for you go to www.sixsigmaonline.com.

The sand is sure blowing around this morning. Visibility is almost nil. The best part of this is that almost no one is on the road making for a calm and easy drive in to the office.



Just a few short months till we meet the in laws for our much needed rest in Europe.

The video attached here is of a demo shot we performed on a couple submunitions. Another day another dinar. Of course the normal saying is another day another dollar but the dinar is so much stranger right now. Exchange rate is currently at 1 Kuwait Dinar (KD) = 3.77 USD.

Ok so I have a bit of a side job right now that has potential. I deal in bombjammers, counter surveillance and surveillance technologies. One of the really cool items we represent is the microdrone UAV. The UAV is small and easily flown with as little as a day of training. It can fly via waypoints or by the guidance of the operator using video goggles. The system is used worldwide right now by videographers and aerial photographers. The police in Germany are using it to fly over brawls after football matches to help identify the hooligans and later bring them to justice. To learn more visit:

www.microdrones.com

www.bombjammer.com

We have gotten almost no rain this year at all. This means the summer will be very very dusty. We are already seeing the difference from last year. This week temps should go to 40 degrees Celsius.

Not a whole lot new going on here. I have my Yellow Belt and am starting on my Green Belt in Six Sigma. Heather is still putting in time working on her degree program as well as writing her book.

To kill time when I get bored I go online and price Porsches for when we move back to the states. I so love driving them.

Just a picture of me at the SOFEX (Special operations Forces Expo) in Amman, Jordan.

Well the softball tourney went well. In that I mean we drank quite a few bottles of wine and cans of beer. I think we came in at 4th out of 8 teams. Not too shaby. Over the course of 3 days we played something like 7 games. Three of which were seeding games the others were tourney games.

For those of you who have not heard of or seen Dubai all I have to say is wholly crap. The whole city is gorgeous. Skyscrapers everywhere and not standard looking ones either. They all are works of art. And now they have the tallest building in the world which is still growing higher and higher in The Burj. They also have lots of islands being built some in the shape of the world and others in the shape of plam trees. Take a look on google and see what they have going on under images. Also they are building the worlds largest theme park supposedly when finished in 5 or so years will be bigger than Disney Land and World combined and have an entire indoor mountain for skiing.

Well I have passed my yellow belt for Six Sigma and am looking to move on forward to green belt here in the next week or so. I did the whole thing online. For those of you not in the know it is a type of TQM or Total Quality Management course. It is the latest and greatest catch phrase in the corporate realms.

Weather here is starting to warm up. Funny hearing the Kuwaitis say that as they should be use to it by now. Alot of them leave for the summer as they are not big fans of the summer heat waves. The roads actually are noticeably less congested and open during the summer. Many ex-pat and Kuwaiti alike leave for the summer. Personally, I do not mind the heat so much.

I am off to the special forces and security conference in Jordan next week. Will post picts upon my return. www.sofexjordan.com Should be a good time. I will report on how it went when I get back home.

A few days after I get back to Kuwait I leave yet again but this time with my lovely wife to go and play in the Dubai softball tourney. http://www.dubaisoftballleague.com/ This site shows the field. What a heck of a good field!!!!! Also there is a bar not more than a hop, skip and stumble away. Actually there is a hotel attached to the field with 3+ bars, 5+ restaraunts and a multiplex movie theatre.

The Incredible Hulk 2008

Ok so Marvel has taken back most all their properties so that they may do the films themselves. They supposedly were not that happy with the Hulk movie from several years ago. They are not redoing the movie but the sequel has a whole new cast starring Edward Norton as the Hulk and Liv Tyler as the love interest.

So here is where the cool trivia comes in.

Also this summer Iron Man comes out with Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Ironman. In the Hulk movie Robert Downie Jr plays, Tony Stark. So it will be cool to see them inter weave things a bit in hopes that they start some cross over with several stars/heroes in one movie down the road.

Also the Screenplay for the Hulk was not written by Stan Lee but by it's star Edward Norton. The Hulk trailer is due out in a few short days rumor has it. Check youtube for more once it is out to view the trailer.

The Box movie

For those of you that know I am a huge Donnie Darko movie fan. The writer/director is one heck of an artist. I just wanted to let you all know that Southland Tales is being released on DVD here in a few days and if you have not seen it you should think about picking it up. It has a star studded cast including Seann William Scott, The Rock, Sara Michelle Gellar and many more.

Also if you have the chance check out imdb.com and type in The Box. This is a new one by writer/director Richard Kelly staring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden. The basis for this one is this, if some one comes to your door and gives you a box and says you have 24 hours to make a decision if you push the button in the box you will get 1 million dollars but some one some where on Earth will die what do you do?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362478/ The Box

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405336/ The Southland Tales

Last night, at one of the camps/bases here in Kuwait, myspace.com sponsored a concert. Supposedly it was live on myspace.com, which if I had known I would have checked it out. The concert consisted of Jessica Simpson with the Pussycat Dolls, Disturbed and Filter to name a few. We did not go as the camp was a long way for us to drive and Heather would have been the only one to get in as I do not have US base access.

I just wanted to say thank you to myspace.com for doing this for the troops. Also a thank you goes out to the performers for taking the time to fly all the way over here as well.

Well the other day we helped some beduin folks move their camels across the divided highway you see above. Made for a nice photo. We had to help block the road so traffic could not disturb the camels as they made their way from one side to the other.

Sorry it has been awhile since posting here folks. We have been super busy with house hunting and what not. Still deciding whether to buy or build. The market the way it is we could get a bigger home on the cheap. But this would not give us exactly what we want. We have seen over 500 homes thus far. I really would like to get this solved by the summer then we can evaluate where we are cash wise to make a plan on when we will be good to move back home.

Keys to the house we want to have are as follows:

• 3+ bedroom
• large open basement for Irish style bar and poker table
• 2+ car garage
• not cookie cutter but something unique
• eco friendly where ever possible: Solar, in floor heating...........
• 5 piece master bath with walk in closet
• library
• gourmet kitchen

Also keeping me busy lately is getting ready to play in the Dubai Softball Tourney here coming up in April. Heather is accompaning me to the UAE to help root us on to victory.

Setting up the monumental and historic trip to Ireland this summer for Heather, I and the In-Laws is a fun and busy task as well. I actually get a kick out of setting up and doing all the logistics and planning for these kind of trips. Looks like heather and I will have a day in Paris as well to go and see the Louvre.

Well we are getting ready to celebrate Liberation day here in Kuwait. This means loads of shaving cream and silly string. Cars driving up town will be on the attack from other vehicles as well as packs of kids. Vehicles battle as they drive and stop at red lights. Some cars have every window and the sun roof occupied by persons armed and firing away. Makes it hard to see sometimes as the stuff covers your windshield.

Other than that Heather and I are just getting ready for our 4 day trip to Dubai in April and our 2 week trip to Ireland and London with the in-laws in July.

Weather is almost perfect these dasy as it is neither hot nor cold right now. Had a wicked dust storm this weekend. I wish I would have had the video camera with us as we drove to a friend of Heather's house this weekend for a birthday party. You could barely make out the cars coming at you at 75 yards. The traffic lights blew all over the place dancing about in the air.

I pass the time these days either swimming and watching sports, looking at house plans and looking for lots to build on or playing the XBOX 360. Softball practice has been delayed until March due to the fact the field is being used until then. Then we have to get ready for the tournament.