The gang went camping at Lake Cushman. The weather was perfect-- sunny and warm.

Friday RO and I hiked along the staircase rapids.

Saturday we went clamming. I've never clammed before. It's a lot of work. We were looking for certain types of clams (the tender ones) so we let many go. Mac was a good guide.

Clams are filter feeders so their digest tracts are full of sand. To get the sand out you soak the clams in salt water and corn meal for a day or so. The clams eat the corn meal an expel the sand.

Sunday we want kayaking on Lake Cushman.

In the evening we had clam appetizer and clam luinguini. Yum!

Good work news today. I got a big bonus for my work on a special project. The bonus hit my at the right time-- a week after I bought the new truck.

So I had a rather full weekend.

Friday night I had a surprize birthday party. A few of us were going to go to Siams, but just before we left, all these people showed up. It was fun.

Saturday... Sigh. Saturday I got into an accident. I was t-boned at an intersection. No one was hurt, but my truck will probably be written off.

Saturday evening RO and I went to see the Rat City Roller Girls. We had a blast. The place was packed. They need to work on the timing a little-- the half time was more than an hour long.

Sunday I bought a new truck. I did some research and consumer reports, I test drove an Avalanche, an F-150 and a Tundra. I didn't like the F-150, which is odd condsidering I've been driving one for the past 8 years. I think it didn't feel new. If I'm going to drive a new truck, I'd like it to feel new.

I really liked the Avalanche. It looked nice and was practicle for me.

At the end of the day I tried a Tundra. The only reason I tried Toyota was their great maintenance record. The Tundra I tried was fully loaded. What was odd is that a Fully loaded F-150 is about $50,000.00 while a fully loaded Tundra was $14,000.00 less. The seats were very comfortable, it drove well, and you could see and feel the quality. All the knobs and levers felt solid and moved smooth and precisely.

So I got one. It's silver, king cab, 4x4, leather with heated captain's seats.

I am 35 today. I am officially middle aged. I'm not old yet, but I can't pretend that I'm young either.

I got old gifts. Steven got me a nice new set of dishes. RO got me new sheets for the bed.

RO also got me three guppies to join the beta in the fish tank. RO doesn't really know about mixing fish. One of the guppies is already dead. Another is missing. The beta enjoys hunting them.

Friday night Vic came down from Vancouver Island, Steven, Vic, RO and I had dinner at a new restaurant in old Renton- the Red House. It was a great find. I'll go back again. I'm starting to figure out why old Renton has so many great restaurants. One man, Gino, will open up a new restaurant and manage and be its chef for a few years-- until it develops a name. Then he'll sell the restaurant and do the samething over again. Gino is responsible for three of the five great restaurants in old Renton. The Red House is his latest venture.

Saturday morning we ran errands. Saturday afternoon we went for a short walk on Cougar Mountain. After that we we drove over to Andrew's Bay and spent to spend the night with Mac and Joe on their boat.

It was a good evening. The weather was perfect. RO and I slept on the upper deck under a canvas roof. That was fine for most of the night. It started to rain at about 3 in the morning-- just a gentle shower. Mac came out, pulled out a tarp and threw it over our sleeping bag.

It was very peacful until about six in the morning. Then the wind picked up. The rain started comming in from the side. At about seven I felt a few drops around my feet. I got up to see where the water was coming from. As I sat up RO said "Don't Move!" He got up and carefully gathered the tarp, pulled it over to the side and dumped gallons of rain water off the tarp and back into the lake. He said about 3 gallons of water had pooled on the tarp between us.

We were all up by 8am. We hung around, drank coffee ate a little and the left for land.

Sunday afternoon RO and I helped Jen move a washer and dryer-- at first it sounded like a simple favor. Jen recently seperated from her boyfriend and she needed a washer and dryer for her condo. She bought a used one and needed help moving it. We picked the washer and dryer up and drove to her place down town. It was a little awkward manouvering the washer in her appartment but we managed. Then we tried to hook the washer up-- the washer had a 3 prong plug. Her condo had a 4 prong outlet. Sigh. We headed over to Home Depot to get a new plug. Bad timing; a Mariners game got out at the same time. (Mariners won 5-4 over Boston) The Mariers traffic made our little 2 mile trip take over an hour.

Fortunatly the conversion from 3 prong to 4 prong was easy. Everything was colour coded. The washer/dryer worked fine after we plugged it in.

To return the favor, Jen gave RO and I two tickets to see the Rat City Roller Girls!

Sunday evening was the Survivor Potluck final. Matt, Sandy and Potsy came over. Steven hung around a bit, but he was feeling sick.

About a week ago Steven gave me four tylonol with codeine pill. (Available over the counter in Canada) I used one for a headache I was having, and put the other three on a plate in the center of the dining room table.

About Thursday of last week, someone took one of the pills. Now today, another pill is missing.

I wonder who is going to take the last pill. Or is that like taking the last candy from the bowl? I don't know my pill stealing etiquette.

I'm trying to get tickets to see the Rat City Roller Girls. Jen is on the team.

They have a huge fan base. And tickets go fast. To prevent scalping they are selling the tickets in small batches (about 100 at a go) at venues around the city. On Saturday, they put 100 up for sale at s store in Ballard. RO and I got there an hour after they started-- all the tickets were gone.

They are about to put 100 tickets for sale on line. I'm frequently clicking the refresh button to try and get two.

Sniff. The online ticket site now says "The May bout is now SOLD OUT! The good news is that we're very close to getting into a larger venue, hopefully for the June bout! So keep watching the website for details."

C2 said that it was Tullil was just hazy. no wind. lite dust. He's also been checking up on his possessions. He told is old roommate that if his cat dies, he's supposed to get another cat that looks the same and keep the death a secret.

He said the same to me about the cedar tree he gifted me.

Haze in Tullil 

Haze in Tullil 

Haze in Tullil 

So I...
hmmmm

Steven's eyes will roll when he reads this.

Short story. I flew down to Lousiana to meet Tommy. I ended up feeling so guilty, becuase RO and I have started datating, that, the very next morning, I left Tommy and flew back to Seattle.

Bleah.

Long Story.

I've known Tommy for years. He's a great man and I've always wanted to meet him in person. We seam to click. I like chatting with him. I like talking on the phone with him. I like reading his blog.

Months ago I decided to fly down to Lousiana and meet Tommy. I was looking forward to it. I bought the tickets so that I wouldn't get cold feet. I booked the time off work.

Then, weeks later, I started to date RO.

I didn't want to back out of meeting Tommy so I told RO I was going away on a work trip.

Well, I did fly down and meet Tommy. Tommy is excatly the man I always thought he was. More handsome in person. He has a big barrel chest that feels great when he hugs you. He's intersting and well spoken.

But, I felt guilty. Really, really guilty for lying to RO.

I was amazed how guilty I felt. I slept very badly that night.

In the morning, I came clean with Tommy. I told him I wanted to fly back. It was the only option that made sense. Yeah, I looked stupid, but that was better than hurting/ignoring RO.

Sigh.

I did enjoy my short stay. And, I will return one day for a longer visit.

Sand Storm in Tulil, Iraq 

Sand Strom in Tulil, Iraq. 

C2 is not enjoying himself in Iraq...

Barry, How full is your mail box? I'm trying to send you a 4 MB file and it bounces back. Might you know why?

So I met xxxxx and a few other guys the other day and long story short the other guys don't like me because I'm not attractive. It's not like I was going to fuck them or vice versa (neither were the cat's meow, or the dog's Grrr) but it would have been nice to just know a few guys here. I was having a good day until I got that email and now I'm bummed, just bummed.

I'm off to Louisiana for a few days. I get to meet Tommy Boy. Kewl.

The melencoly joy of power washing.

Today I bought a power washer-- 3000 PSI. It blasts the dirt off of anything. My cemet walks look new. My roof is clean. My old wooden benches look band new.

The washer comes with a "red" washer tip that can blast pieces off of cement and stone.

It's like cleaning with a tornado-- 3000 dirt blasting psi at the end of the hose. All that high pressure water has to go somplace. If you spray near soil or beauty bark then a blast of crap flies all over the place. You need to clean twice. Once at high pressure to chisel the dirt off and once at low pressure to clean the mess left by the first pass.

The other downside is that it does a good job, but slowly. It only cleans a strip about four inches wide so it takes a long time to do a sidewalk or roof. I tried it on a small patch of a bench. The wood went from weathered and grey to brown and new. The difference was so noticeable I had to do the whole bench and the wood chair next to it.

Last night RO and I went to downtown Renton. Steven was going to join us, but he got delayed returning from work.

We had dinner at the Melrose and dessert at Jubilant.

Downtown Renton is a weird mix. It's a city core rebounding from rock bottom. There are a lot of old crappy buildings. Many are now being restored and some great restaurnts are going moving in.

It's weird to walk around crumbling ghost city but then stumble on a packed little bistro.

Steven is at his wits end with his brother. In the last 6 months Steven has given his bro about $20,000 to get him back on his feet. It's not working. Steven is ready to cut the cord and let his brother fend for himself. The decision would be easier if his brother didn't have a son. Steven doesn't want to hurt the son. At the same time Steven's brother needs a very hard kick in the pants.

C2 writing from Iraq...

How are you doing? I very much appreciate your email but you must be saying 'Dang, it's like he emails Every Day!!' Well, I may have some extra time on my hands. The two people that work for me 'dont like me' because I ask too many questions like "what are you doing?" One guy was supposed to be working on an Access project for several days and when I asked to see what he's done, he got all pissy and deleted his work then stormed off. Later he pretty much said he doesn't have anything to so and then left on his R&R for 3 weeks (but first he told me he didn't like me.) Such is life..

Anyway, God Bless them Italians and GirlScouts. The Italians run a pizzaria here on Base that has internet access FREE from all the web Nazi sex filters that Halliburton and the Iraqis put in place. This means I again get to see pics of hot neked guys!! And the GirlScouts sent boxes of their cookies over here for the poor soldiers and I guess I qualify as they sent alot and give out boxes and boxes to everyone here! Cookies and porn, it just keeps getting better and better! If I didn't read the papers I wouldn't even know there's a war going on!


I even got a very good message from the ... ops guy at Baghdad HQ about my plan/proposal for data management here. They are really backward here (as far as efficient data management) and my proposal made me sound like I knew what I was talking about. I see my next job....

Anyway, I should get back to work making people hate me (buy just asking them to do their jobs.)

I've been working a lot. I don't really enjoy it when this happenes.

C2 writing from Iraq...

I suppose having to go to lunch in a flak jacket really says something about ones environment. I have to admit that there have been a couple of times (even on the convoy ride here) that made me think twice. I was talking to my boss the other day about camel spiders and he mentioned a story about a Major here having a spider fall from the tent ceiling and bite him. I didn't have a nightmare but I did think about it and that evening examined my tent area for any creepy crawleys. I got an email that my grandma died the other day as well. I'm not coming home for the memorial and I'm sure some will think of me as a cad for missing the event. I feel bad about it and I feel like I've abandoned you and others to some degree as well. Yes, I think about it.

Anyway on the flip side, It just keeps getting better here. Yesterday I discovered a stash of Holiday packages sent by kids in the US for servicemen. They had more than they knew what to do with and KBR got a bunch and here it is April and there is still some left! I was running out of toothpaste (there is none at the PX) and so I picked up a few packs with toothpaste and other goodies! Now if there were just some medium underwear and socks in some of those packages I'd be set! There is NO medium underware or white socks at the PX here. If you ever go to Iraq, bring plenty of underwear!

So, I'm sending C2 a care package of underwear and socks.

Over the weekend I did some hiking. WOrked around the house.

Matt and Sandy are having marital problems. So I don't hear much of them right now.

C2 in Iraq writes...

I'm glad it's raining there and it even rained a little here (but not much.) ... There's a Great water park in Abu Dabi (I think Vic has been to it) that I think you'd enjoy. The best part is that they use a water slide to take you 'up' as well as down. There was a 'Boston Marathon' here today so I've spent much of my day out taking pics. I also do PR stuff and need to start drafting a weekly newspaper too. Uh, do you have a copy of Publisher? I thought I had one but can't find it.

Yes, I didn't expect things to be all 'peachy-keen' here but frankly, I expected it to be more of a challenge as well. I mean I've not had to deal with one scorpion in my boot or run from any bullets or Anything to that effect! I get all the food that I can eat (free) and we've had lobster at least once a week! I'm almost free from hacking up green stuff, and frankly the worse thing that has happened is that I ran out of socks between laundry and had to go 'sock-less' for one day. Where's the Challenge? So, I'm not complaining (unless you call my last sentence a complaint.) I'm glad you look forward to my emails and I wish I'd hear from Matt/Sandy as well. I do hope they make it.

Well, enjoy the pics. They should be self explanatory. We wear the armoured vest/helmet at least once a week, for practice and for real when they consider things 'hot.' I feel and look like a dork but at least I'm a 'safe dork' (on my way to lunch.)

C2, writing from Iraq...

Work is fine. I have a 'problem' employee that I inherited and she'd 'going away' for a few days to Kuwait. She has problems but don't we all? I missed the body building contest last night as I forgot but there's a power lifting one on this Sunday and I'll try to take some pics. Not much is happening here. Some stuff. Did I send you the pics of the hooches and the decking? They got an award for that deck. Your deck is deserving of such too (when it's finished.) I've got to send some pics to Sandy as well and will do that today. ... I'm still hacking up green stuff and have started to work out again. I'd like to weigh 225 or so by the time I come back in July. Heck, I don't have much else to do here. How's Survivor night going?

Another email...

Living on a military base in a war zone has it's downers. There are your usual explosions and then there are the ones where you say 'that didn't sound right.' They're blowing up stuff all the time around here and usually it's far away, but just this morning was the closest mortar round to date. They (the bad guys) set up a delayed mortar during the night and then it might go off during the night but usually during the day, (which allows the bad guys to get away.) The explosion was BOOM and what did we do? We all ran outside to see it! Then went back to work since it was an attack on the airport/runway. If it caused any damage, they'll have it repaired by noon (it's 10 AM right now.) I should have taken a pic but I forgot the camera but it's your basic mushroom cloud. Anyway, I need to and other boring stuff. I look forward to lunch and dinner as I get to eat and see great haircuts.

Uh, do you have an extra coffee maker that you don't want? One that'll run on 220v? Just thought I'd ask. I need to send you some trinkets too to share with all. What are you doing around July/early August? Want to come to Abu Dahbi? We'll do a layover in Berlin and I'll show you a dungon or two. ... Here's a pic of a scorpion from Vector Control (they handle the creepy crawling things here.)