I guess we had a 4.3 magnitude earthquake the other night and Heather and I did not even notice it. Probably cause it was after midnight and we were fast asleep. The newspaper says people went into the streets in case there was a second larger one so they were not in the house when and if it happened.

Weather is the exact same here almost every day for the past 2 months. Not a drop of rain. Sunny and hot. The only difference is the amount of wind we have blowing.

Soon the roads will be packed as all the Kuwaitis off on vacation for the summer come back home. The roads will almost double in the number of cars on them. The schools start back on the 8th of September and then a few weeks later is the start of Ramadan.

During Ramadan there is no eating, drinking or smoking in public. All restaurants, even fast food, are closed till dusk. Work hours are shortened as well. Each night the roads are busy with people going to family gatherings for dinner and feasting throughout the night. Once the sun starts to rise they again begin the fasting throughout the day until the evening. At work we have a Ramadan free room set up where the Westerners can sit drink coffee and eat out of the eyes of the locals.

Well Heather will be starting her job in the next few weeks and we need to use her vacation days so we are going to go on vacatiuon in the next couple weeks for 5 days to Cyprus. We were looking at Rome but last minute to there is too hard to get set-up and too expensive. Cyprus is a quick cheap flight for us from here. Looking forward to enjoying a beer at the pool bar and seeing some ruins. There looks to be alot to see and do there. Some say wine was first made on the island. Lots of Greek history and mythology is based from Cyprus. Should be pretty cool. We will post some pictures as soo as we get back.

Well today is Ascension day so I am off work. Three days in a row. Gotta love it. Today is the day the prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven.

Just surfing the net and working on a myspace account. More to follow on that. Still trying to figure the whole thing out. I have tried a million times to change it from Port Charlotte, Flevoland to Kuwait. Not sure where they got the Flevoland from. I have contacted them to see if they can fix this for me.

Oh and anyone winning the lottery I would like a new Maserati GT. Go to the website and build your own. She is so damn hot looking.

Official government weekends are changing here in Kuwait. Currently we have Thursdays and fridays off. Come the 1st of September we go to Friday and Saturday off. All other Islamic countries have already changed to this schedule other than Saudi Arabis from what I am being told.

Other than that it is fairly hot here but I seem to be getting use to it as I really do not notice it anymore. Temps average during the day at 130 F.

Here is a picture of me in my dishdasha that I wore at a coworkers wedding party. Weddings here are totally seperate and this was the all guys reception. The woman have a seperate hall and reception with no guys. As soon as you walk in they have staff with large jugs of perfume and everyone gets some on their wrists on the way in and out. Once inside you work your way to the groom and his father to give your congratulations and get a picture with them. After that people mill about saying hello to one another and take advantage of a very large buffet of food. Staff with tea and sweets move around the room and if you need anything you just wave them over. It was a very nice evening.

The first ever EOD movie is starting to film in Jordan and will make it's way over here to Kuwait for a little bit of filming as well. The movie I hope does not turn out to be a disappointment. The cast has changed and now stars the following:

Jeremy Renner, from 28 Days Later, SWAT and North Country plays the EOD team leader.

Ralph Fiennes, cameo, from English Patient, Schindlers List and Quiz Show plays a mercenary.

Brian Geraghty, from We Are Marshall, Bobby and Jarhead plays one of the team members.

Anthony Mackie, from We Are Marshall, Million Dollar Baby and Manchurian Candidate plays another team member.

Guy Pearce, cameo, from Time Machine, Memento and LA Confidential doesnt have anything listed I can find.

The writer Mark Boal was the embedded reporter that did a story for Playboy magazine on EOD.

The director, Kathryn Bigelow, also has directed Point Break, Strange Days and K-19: Widowmaker.

Well thats everything I have for now on the flick. Again I hope it does not suck!

Weather is about 115 degrees each day here now. Actually it is not that bad as it is a dry heat. the biggest pain in the but is if you go shopping you go straight home. If you park anywhere that is not covered for any length of time the car gets so hot inside I do not want to touch the steering wheel until the AC has time to cool things off. So food needs to be driven straight home. It is a good thing we had covered parking installed above our two parking stalls. I also have covered at work as well. Just when we are out and about that it is a big deal.

Not much new other than that. We may be looking at going to Rome, Italy for 4-5 days in September for a weekend break. Ramadan is in Spetember as well this year. Not a bad time to leave for a few days. During Ramadan all restaurants are closed during light time hours and there is no eating drinking (even water) or smoking in public or even at work. You have to be hidden in your home for any of those things.

Next summer we take Heathers folks to Ireland for a couple weeks. Should be a good time as they are pretty cool to hang out with and a good time.

Well thats about it for now. Sorry nothing to exciting but all we do here is work, rest and save money so we can buy a house. :-)

Take care everyone and keep in touch,

Well we have just dropped our friends Tera and Bill at the airport so they can head back home to sunny Afghanistan. It was nice having them by for a visit and glad we could help them out as staying on post means a cot and a tent.

Went and saw the movie Transformers yesterday and I just have to say WOW! One heck of a good movie. I was worried they were going to make a kiddy flick or the CG would be crummy but this was actually really well done. I will definitely see it again while on the big screen.

Heather and I are doing well and so is the cat. Just working and saving cash these days. Also have been planning a big trip with the in-laws to Ireland next summer for about 2 weeks. Should be a heck of a good time.

Well take care all. Drop me a line if I have not heard from you in awhile. Stay safe.

Well all is well here in the great big hot sandbox. Very dusty today outside.

We have 2 house guests from Afghanistan right now, both of which are friends from Kwaj, Bill Weaver and Tera Noel. They are hear for classes with ITT. Had dinner with them and Jim Davis just the other night.

Last night I went to a wedding for a friend whom I work with here in Kuwait. When I get the photos off my cell I will post some of me in my dishdasha.

Had dinner the other night with Jim Davis at Wasabi restaurant. He is in town for a little while for work. Next week we will have two more guests from Kwaj coming over from Afghanistan. It is nice to see old faces and chat about what's going on as well as stories of the past.

Weather lately has become a bit dusty. The winds have been picking up but they say that they should die back down here in the next few days or so. Not too hot yet but that is on it's way.

Heather and I had a great time on vacation. Got the chance to see the folks. I had the opportunity to play some cards at Foxwoods. I did fair. Nothing special. Cash games I pretty much broke even as I was bored and started drinking. The tourney I finshed just out of the money. The pay out would have been pretty good as over 150 had entered at $340 each. I just couldn't buy rent or lease cards and had to make everything work just right. Caught busted on the river. Oh well thems the breaks. One odd thing though was they would not let me talk to anyone or the pther players left in the hand. I like to chat and see if I can get a reaction and they said that you cannot do that. Kinda odd as I see them all the time on TV do this. I have done this in Vegas before too. Oh well.

Not a whole lot else to say right now. Take care all and keep in touch.

Congrats to Travis and Grace on their new addition!!!!!!!!!!!

DETROIT -vs- TAMPA BAY, 29 May 2007

We will be at this game I think 5 or 10 rows behind the Tigers dugout if I read everything right. So if any of you are watching the game on TV keep an eye out for us. I sure wish I could take in a Pistons ball game but this will work. With the way things are going it looks like Detroit could win the championships in the MLB, NBA and NHL this year. Yes I do not expect much from my Lions.

HOLY MACKERAL! the weather over the past 3 days was absolutley crazy. The dust storm came in and we could not see across the street. Driving was the true adventure as no one likes to put there lights on here and you could not see more than 60 yards out in front of you. It was like living up north in Michigan and having a near white out of swirling sand instead of snow.

Soon we will be back in the states. Boy am I ready for the break. I have been busy as heck as of late.

Due to something having come up I will not be going to Vegas but instead will be headed to Boston. Anyone in the Boston area that would like to meet up for a beer drop me a line. I still will be visiting the folks with Heather for a week first.

Not a whole lot else to say. The weather is slowly warming up. Soon all that is green will be brown or dust. They say we are poised for one of the hottest summers in a long while. The hottest month should be August.

Due to something having come up I will not be going to Vegas but instead will be headed to Boston. Anyone in the Boston area that would like to meet up for a beer drop me a line. I still will be visiting the folks with Heather for a week first.

Not a whole lot else to say. The weather is slowly warming up. Soon all that is green will be brown or dust. They say we are poised for one of the hottest summers in a long while. The hottest month should be August.

The Dubai softball fields. There were two of them with some of the best groomed grass I have ever played on. The fields were adjacent to several bars that you could seriously fall into from the stands. Great venue. Great tourney.

And now for a bit of trivia.

One band that I have been listening to as of late is 30 Seconds to Mars. The music is really cool and the videos are even cooler. They spent some serious time and money on them and they are really worth downloading to watch. Especially the newest one.

Now for the trivia part. When Heather and I were watching the videos we thought the lead singer looked familiar so we looked the band up. It seems that the lead singer is none other than Jared Leto from the TV show My So Called Life. He also was in many movies to include Alexander. See www.imdb.com to find out more about what he has been in. His brother is also the drummer.

Anyways really good band check them out if you have not already.

Injuries to myself, and at least three others, had us limp to a win and end up over all in 4th place. After sliding into 2nd, and being safe, I ended up with a sore as heck thigh. We had no subs so I was to stay in this game and the next one. I ended up batting quite well though. Got a triple and the rest were all singles. Batted about a 650. Took a bit getting used to sliding once again. The tournament was a total blast though. We were in C and had 8 teams. There was an A and B as well as one womens bracket making for about 30 teams in Dubai. Teams came from Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi, Qatar and Bahrain. We also had one team from Europ and the USS Stennis.

VEGAS once again. I will be heading to Vegas to play some poker and maybe enter in the 1st tourney of the World Championship of Poker. Going to try and play my way in as the entry fee is $5000. A bit to high to drop for a tourney. So I will try a satellite tourney that morning to try and get in last minute.

Sounds like I will get one night though to see some old friends while I am there which is pretty cool.

Well the internet is up now at the old casa del Heather, Tom and Picric.

Tonight and for the next few weeks we have a house guest from Kwaj staying with us while he is in country doing a computer course, named John Tompkins. Heather is in the same course with him as well.

Several days from now I head on out to Dubai for the softball tourney.

Weather is starting to rise. We were up to 34 degrees Celsius today. I spent most the day out in the desert for work. Had a good time. Better than being in the office. Although I do have months of work to do writing classes for this falls class I will be teaching.

Still no internet at the house. Hopefully this week. We live in a brand new city/region here in Kuwait. Cross your fingers that we have it by the weekend.

I will be heading to Dubai soon and hope to have some picts up of that trip once I get back. I am heading there for the Dubai International softball tourney. Should be a good time. If you are like my mom and super into stamps then drop me an e-mail to ensure you get a postcard sent to you.

Weather here has been pretty crazy of late. We have had varying temperatures. It even hailed the other day while we were heading home from Kuwait City. It was so heavy that we had to, like all the other cars, pull under an overpass and wait it out. Also it was so dusty the other day that when it rained it rained mud. It is one crazy thing to see if you have never experienced it before. Today it is sunny once again and the temps are just right for running around. Soon it will get extremely warm. Like around 120’s, Fahrenheit, each day or hotter.

Hope to know more on our trip back stateside in the next week or so.

Right now we are just opening all the boxes of the household items we shipped to ourselves. We got them this weekend. We shipped them a bit late from the west coast.

The cat is adjusting well and seems quite happy. She has a much bigger house to run around in and explore.

Well I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Take care all and keep in touch.

Well my apologies for having not posted lately. I am doing this at the office real quick since we do not have internet at the new villa yet.

We are doing well and have moved to our new home. Since this one was unfurnished it cost a few bucks to outfit as we needed everything to include all appliances. It has even more room than the last place though. One thing we do need to get done fairly fast is to get a bed into the guestroom so when folks come through they have a place to stay.

Weather seems to be warming up lately but not too much. It is very comfortable outside right now during the day. It has been about 29 degrees Celsius lately during the day.

On the softball front we had a scrimmage against some guys from the US Embassy. Was a fun time. We need to get some work done prior to going to Dubai this month for the tourney.

Well I guess thats all the news thats fit to print for today. Once we get the internet at the house I will get some more pictures onto the site for you all. Cheers. Stay safe!!!!!