LA to SF

Adam and Mr. Gardner relaxing by the fire with some beers after a great hike up Baldy. Fantastic evening.

The four of us before dinner - bbq'ed marinated meats galour, peach and blueberry salad, mashed potatoes with rosemary, and beers all around.

Jasa and Hopper. He's six now and twice the size he was when Carla and I babysitted him at Pomona. Just a great little kid, and so much fun. I was so happy to have a chance to see them both and catch up on life.

The credit for this photo goes to Mr. Froman who took it on the way back from a pee break early Wed morning. One of the nicest shops of the Bay Bridge I've seen.

The start of my time State-side... Brooklyn to SoCal

Molly and I in her fabulous apartment in Brooklyn. Quite possibly the cosiest one I've been to so far...

Me, Matt, Kim, Little Nicky, Pano, and Adam in our 'before' photo getting ready to hike Mt. Baldy.

Adam, Matt, Pano and I at the top. Yes, we lost a couple on the way up...

Back at the bottom, craving water.

Heading on vaca in the States

I'm heading to the US in a couple of hours for some rest and relaxation (and processing of crazy emotions), so while I apologize for the lack of any commentary for my last Libya post, I am hoping to keep a running tally of where I am in the States, starting with NYC for 24 hours. It'll then be off to LA to meet Froman and Pano and a nice, brown VW Westfalia (complete with pop-top) for a roadtrip up the West Coast to Vancouver (gotta see mommy). It's gonna be a good one!

Tripoli, Libya

Al Gore in our China office

Straight as a ramrod, he is...


Yes, that really is Al Gore in our China office. We just need to get him to Dubai now...

Birdies!

Souheil and I were in Kuwait City last week to meet with the national oil companies (KPC, KOC, KNPC, all these K's that after a couple days you feel dyslexic). Anyway, KPC (the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation) has a fantastic tower just outside the city that affords a great view of downtown. You can just see the Liberation Tower in the very back, poking its spire into the (dingy) air. Haven't had a chance to get down to it yet, but hopefully I'll be able to get some better shots of it soon. We're working with a sheihk in Kuwait, and he's been intrumental in opening doors to these companies for us. While he's good for business, I'm hoping that he can use his influence to get me into the Kuwait mosque, as I've heard it's supposed to be marvelous. Haven't made it into a mosque yet, but hoping to one of these days. Apparently there are select days when you can get a tour of the Jumeirah Mosque (also very beautiful, will have to post a shot of that one sometime), so just need to set aside some time.

This one is a shot of these Lebanese-style birds that you eat. It doesn't look like much in the picture, and in all honestly doesn't look much better in real life either. But, they're marinate in something tasty, which justified me trying them for once. A bit on the crunchy side - you eat them whole (minus their feet) - but not too bad. I probably won't ever have them again though, as it just plain old feels weird to eat a whole bird in one bite like that, like it's an insect or something. Plus the crunchiness would take some getting used for us Western eaters...

Since I haven't Posted in a While...

Since, I haven't posted anything in a while thought it might be nice to post some random photos that I've taken over the last few months. All of these were taken with my phone, so the quality isn't quite up there with previous posts, but hey, the point if for you to see them, not for you to hang on your wall.

The above is a shot of the Bahrain World Trade Center, which is still in the midst of being built (obviously). The amazing thing, as I'm sure you can figure out on your own, is that there are three 20 meter wind turbines suspended between the two towers. They were originally estimated to produce approx. 10-15% of the two building power requirements, but nowa re projected to produce even more. No one has ever put turbines that big so high up (they usually have to stand by themselves). That little fact, combined with the realization that the two towers serve a huge funnels, channeling air into the turbines, means that they think they can pump out 40% of the required power. Super cool if you ask me.

A nice view out the window of the room I stayed in at Louis and Steve's flat on the Palm Jumeirah. Life sure is rough sometimes...

Mark driving Souheil and I to a meeting... we think we're lost.

A quick shot of a fire I saw last Thursday on the way out of the office. Things are being built so quickly here that there are corners being cut left and right, leaving the potential for accidents like this. I think this is something like the 5th or 6th fire in the last year or so...

Hmmm...

I'm pretty sure this topic has been well covered somewhere else, but I still think it's crazy to see Muslim women shooting guns. They can't even take off their veil, but they can shoot guns? What gives? It says something about the whole premise of the belief system that I'm not even going to bother stating publicly.

Now, in terms of me shooting guns, I also think it's quite crazy. I never really did it much before - a couple of times maybe. But out here, you can get a box of 50 9mm bullets for about $17 and go crazy with the targets. No forms, no waivers, no silly insurance/litigation/sign-your-soul-away papers. Just good ole fashioned shooting. In all honesty, it feels good to know that I know how to shoot a gun, but even better to know that I don't ever have to shoot one again if I don't want to. They should just get rid of those damned things.

The desert pics you see below (and from the previous post) are from a desert trip that I recently took. It's not all that bad based on the pics, but I guarantee you that you do not want to have to spend a whole day out there - it's bloody desolate.

Desert...

Just some randoms...

The only purpose of this photo is to highlight the awesome shirt that I got Eppo for Christmas. It's called "Nice Boobies." You gotta love it.

Momma and me on the steps of the old apartment in Brooklyn that I shared with Carla and Molly.

Carla and I in front of a large Mamma Mia sign, a bit after exiting the show. Who knew that Abba could be so fun?

One more with momma while we were up in Pittsfield this spring. A nice one I think.

Istanbul, Dubai, and me Jeep

So, in Istanbul you have all these guys that line the bridges and fish for these little tiny fishies, no bigger than your middle finger. I still haven't figured out what they do with them, but my money's on a little deep frying...

I know this ain't the prettiest picture, especially when you realize that you're looking at five smokestacks from Dubai's power plants, but for some reason I really like it. You have all this construction in the foreground, powered by the plants you see in the back, with the blazin' red sun in back looking down on everything. I like it because everything is powered by oil and gas here, while all you need to do is invest in a little solar power and you could take care of everything. But nooo... gas is so cheap that everything is ridiculously inefficient here. That's a discourse for another time.

And last, but certainly not least, here's a shot of my new, used 2005 Jeep Wrangler Sport. I went out to the mountains yesterday to break her in and damned am I happy customer. What a great ride! She took everything like a champ and begged for more. Maybe next weekend then...