"The Juicer"

Sorry. I did not take any pictures today. I thought I would, but we were walking back and forth from meeting to meeting then to the DFAC (dining facility) and I just never got the right time. It was beautiful in Baghdad today. The skies were bright blue. I think the temperature was in the 50s. The Al Faw Palace looked really beautiful on the lake. Once it turned dark the sky was covered in stars. I think I remember writing last February about my amazement at how beautiful the night skies were in Iraq. I think I still feel the same way.
As I mentioned, we spent most of our time indoors, but I was lucky to see some Blackhawks in the sky at one point during the day. I actually really like the sound of helicopters for some reason. I can hear them overhead right now as I am typing this on my cot. Even at work back in Atlanta my cube is by the window so I get to see the traffic-copters whoosh by over the interstate. I always look up at them. They are not nearly as cool as Blackhawks.

I did not end up really sleeping well last night. I tossed and turned and in the end got about 2 to 3 hours of sleep. The good thing is you don't feel jetlag as much because you're too tired to feel it. (That's the "cup is half full" interpretation.) The culprit to this crime of disruption is a large generator about 50 feet away from my tent and it sounds like someone is revving an 8 cylinder SUV too big to drive anywhere other than the mountains, and certainly not the city or suburbs. I thought after a while it would turn into white noise, but it never did. I would try to re-adjust to get comfortable, but I would just end up scrambling up my sleeping bag and when I would try to straighten it up I would just slip and slide in it. You know the kind of sleeping bag I'm talking about, the kind where the material is so slick that it kind of reminds you of the plastic bags they use at the grocery store. It's a great sleeping bag, and especially good if you stay still at night.

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday...it's also my good friend Melissa's birthday...and it's also my coworker and cohort over here on this trip, Chris', birthday. It's crazy how I know three people with the same birthday. Maybe it's part of a grand scheme for me to keep those memory cells vacant for something else or for remembering someone else's birth date. hmm. Anyway, I declared tomorrow a calorie free day so I can induldge from the dessert bar in honor of these three birthdays. Maybe I'll be wild and crazy and have three desserts. I'll survive, I'm sure it's been done before. To add to the cheer Chris said, "near beer for everyone and all other drinks are on me." They have cans of near beer or non-alcoholic beer in the DFACs here and, of course, no drinks, so Chris' offer was a generous one. I remember spending my birthday in Iraq last year...waking up on a cot with what I thought was appendicitis. It wasn't the greatest birthday by far, but I'll never forget it.

We worked inside a building today that is referred to as "the juicer" because it has a spiral staircase in the foyer to get to the second level. I suppose the spiral shape makes it look like an orange juicer to some people. This isn't just any old spiral staircase, either. The ceilings are very high ceilings covered in intricate cast plaster reliefs that are painted and then dotted with numerous sizes of chandeliers. The walls and floors are white marble slab. The actual stair treads are made out of about 7-foot long planks of inlaid wood. They are quite nice, but not as impressive after you read a sign at the bottom of the stairs that says "385 lbs maximum per tread." I found myself doing some quick math to ensure the stair would hold as we walked up. Like every man I've ever met, and much to my dismay, my coworker decided to stand on one and lightly jump up and down to "see how well it holds." I don't understand why guys need to challenge everything...."Oh yeah, let's see how thick the ice is on this frozen lake...let's see how much of this 32 oz steak I can eat...let's see how long I can wear my jeans before they look dirty to me." Back to the stairs....the stairs led to a circular balcony around the staircase. Apparently the building used to be a villa or small palace to one of Saddam's cronies. Now it has cubicles in every nook and crannie so it just functions as an office space. Needless to say, the cubicle panel walls don't match the ornate brass faucets on the porcelain sinks. What a clash of worlds.

One of the highlights for the day was on my way back to the tent this evening. I was given a tip that there may be some toilet trailers behind the 10-foot tall concrete t-walls near the tent. Sure enough, the tip was reliable and I found a trailer full of women's bathroom stalls. This means I get to go to the bathroom without having to use my flashlight and it's even in a heated trailer. WOO HOO. There are many simple pleasures around here...I'll take them when I can!

Other than that, there wasn't too much to report today. Maybe it's just that this is my third time here so stuff does not stand out as much as it initially did, or maybe it's just that I was tired. We'll see what tomorrow brings; hopefully it will be be birthday celebration dessert for breakfast lunch and dinner. I heard it's calorie free.

I wonder what Iraq will be like in 2008

Well, here I am back in Baghdad almost exactly one year after the first time I was here. My first night here I remember hearing alarms in the middle of the night. Let’s hope tonight isn’t a repeat of that. I’m in a 12-person tent like last year...not the same tent as last year, but pretty much. It’s in the same tent city. The plywood floor tent contains the expected dusty mattresses on top of the cots. I can hear the loud roaring of the generator sitting right next to the tent. It’s not that bad. At least we have heating and air conditioning units inside. We have electricity. We have mattresses on the cots...cots are not that comfortable to sleep on without the mattress. There is wireless connectivity. Think about that one...there is a wireless box hanging from a zip tie at the top of the ceiling of the tent and you are reading this because I wrote it from my cot in my tent. Technology is crazy and apparently cheaper than porcelain thrones...read more below.
The bathrooms are in a different location, though. I went and checked out the shower trailer and it looked pretty nice. It actually looked kind of new, which I figured from the gleaming stainless steel sinks and the bright white shower curtains on the stalls. The rules of engagement (3-5 minute military showers to conserve water) still apply. The toilets...well, that situation is also the same as last year. We have port-a-potties or port-a-johns or port-a-lets. Whatever nomenclature you prefer, that’s what we have sitting in a row right in front of the shower trailers. I decided I couldn’t avoid it so I went ahead and tried it out. It was just like I remember: open the plastic door, close the latch, fumble through the pitch black to turn on the flashlight, don’t dare touch anything with bare skin, complete, exit, then pump the hand sanitizer dispenser a good 3 pumps to completely kill anything that may have come in contact with your hands.
I have just one roommate in the tent. This is her first time here and she is a bit surprised at how much she will have to “rough it” while here. I kind of felt bad because I get to leave in a few days and she will be here for at least a few weeks. I’ve been giving her advice and pointers all evening. This kind of environment encourages you to share all your lessons learned, your recommendations and tips to make it easier to get through. For instance, I made sure to tell her not to shower without flip flops; to use a blow dryer instead of letting hair air dry to avoid dusty, crunchy hair; to wear boots instead of sneakers, to wear your clothes as much as you can without washing so you don't have to wait for the 3-day laundry turnaround, etc. Now that I read that last bit back about the clothes wearing I realize I must turn into a different being over here because I would never do that back home. Strange, I know, but some of you reading know what I mean.
We went to midnight chow and sampled the variety of foods they serve at that hour of the night. They don’t have the full hot line or the stir fry, but they did have hamburgers, ravioli, mac and cheese, collards, along with the full salad bar, breakfast foods, and dessert bar. It's actually a really weird combination of food. This is clearly evidenced by the chocolate pudding sitting about 1 inch away from the nacho cheese sauce in the salad bar. It’s so easy to gain weight here: it’s all you can eat for 4 meal periods per day. For some reason, the fact that you’re in Iraq somehow makes it almost like you deserve to have dessert every day...even for more than one meal...simple pleasures and comforts of home, I guess.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I know it brings only 4.75 hours of sleep if I fall asleep in the next 2 minutes. Hopefully tomorrow will also bring a large double latte from the Green Bean here. (For those of you who are not familiar...the Green Bean can provide sanity and happiness over here. In it's liquid form, sanity and happiness are called lattes, I think.)

Early October Adventures

In early October I got to go to Washington D.C and to Virginia. I LOOOVE D.C. There is an incredible energy there and I just love the fact that everyone looks so important. Here's me in front of the State Department...maybe I'll work here one day!

My boss, my coworker and I took an afternoon to tour around Williamsburg.

1 Sept. D-daddy's 90th birthday

We had a great party at Aunt Amy's and Uncle James' house.

We took Mima to the Atlanta Aquarium. She loved it! That's her looking up at the tank.

Everyone gets a treat

My parents have 4 dogs plus 1. They have adopted 4 dogs and most recently, a little 6 week old puppy adopted them when he showed up outside the gate to their property. So, the fifth dog is called "Roger Dodger." He is now 9 weeks and so smart. He's pretty wrinkly and gets even more pliable when he's tired. I think he hasn't grown into his skin yet.


Michael and I took our two rugrats to go visit my parents a couple of weekends ago and all the pups had a great time running around wrestling, sniffing all the trees, having "who can pee last on the same spot" competitions, and chasing my dad on his tractor lawnmower. Bodhi (our boy dog), Conaan (parents 2-year-old boy), and the baby (Roger) all went swimming in the pool.


Here's a picture of Roger as a very tired puppy. I wanted to take him home, but Michael said we had enough dog at home with our two hyperactive canines.


Here's a picture of me giving treats to 5 of the 7 dogs. You can't see Roger or Boo-Boo in the picture. Boo-Boo is my parents' girl dog who is sooo shy. She ended up coming up to the line a few seconds later. Roger was behind all the other dogs so he wouldn't get squashed since he's the smallest by a lot. I made sure he got a treat also. The two on the right are ours (Bodhi and Harley).

Girls are cute

This past Saturday, Michael and I had brunch with our good friend, Anne, and her 1 1/2 year-old daughter, Penny. I chased Penny with a camera capturing her every move as if I had never seen a child before. Of course I have, it's just that my photo subjects are typically just my dogs and my parents' dogs so this was a nice change. Penny's dad, our great pal James, is in Afghanistan right now. We can't wait to have him back home.

McGinleys in Chicago, 20-22 July 2007

Michael surprised me with a trip to Chicago for the weekend. When I was in architecture school a few years back, some of my friends went on a trip to view the architectural marvels the city had to offer. Due to work, school, and lack of money, I was unable to go until now. I think it may have been worth the wait to see it with more mature eyes....well, mature, I don't know about, but it was definitely worth it to see the city with Michael.







Here's us in MARTA (Atlanta's not so convenient rapid transit system) on our way to the airport.


We got in about lunch time on Friday and took the Chicago Transit into the city...it was fantastic not to even have to rent a car. Here's Michael as we stepped out into our first view of the city from the underground subway. He's standing in front of Rock Bottom Brewery....and a Chicago garbage can...not the best set up of a photo that I've ever done.







We walked to the hotel and got some world famous stuffed pizza at Giordano's based on a friend's recommendation. We ordered the small pizza and both of us couldn't even eat half of it. Here I am taking a big, vulgar bite. (I didn't get a picture of Michael eating pizza...but there's a vulgar food snapshot of him further down...keep reading!)

Later on we took a stroll to the Navy Pier and saw a Blues Brothers cover band. Here are a couple of pics of us at the pier. We went on a ferris wheel (something neither of us had donw since childhood) and on a twisting-swing ride that I coined the "gut buster." We got a pic on the ferris wheel ride, but not while on the gut buster ride....the only thing I was doing with my hands was hanging on until my knuckles turned white. Here's a pic of Michael leaving the "gut buster."




That evening, we found a real Chicago Jazz club to go to called "Andy's." There was actually Blues playing and the guy was an older man who was flirting with all the ladies in the audience. He sang a song called "I'm a Hoochie-Man".....if that doesn't help describe him then I don't know what will. Michael got called up on stage with 2 other unsuspecting males and helped make the entertainment even better.

That evening, we unexpectedly saw a sign for another one of Chicago's cultural attractions....as Borat would say....."NOOOOT." It was a sign for the Jerry Springer show...Michael is pointing it out in this picture.












The next day we went on a riverboat architectural tour given by the Chicago Historic Society. Our tour guide was fiesty older lady with a straw hat that had birds on it. She provided some very funny ad-lib commentary along with her architectural narrative. Here's a picture of her...you can kind of see her fiesty-ness in her face...I just wish I had sound bytes.

Later we saw Millenium Park which has an awesome Frank Gehry pavillion (see pic on left) and a big reflective lima-bean like sculpture...you'd just have to see it.

We had lunch in the park...Michael had a big ol'

Chicago hotdog. This is gross, but he's burping in this picture. We continued the afternoon with a quick tour of the Chicago Institute of Art...fabulous.

On a much less sophisticated note, we also saw a mailbox that looked like R2D2 from Star Wars. We don't have those in Atlanta so we felt compelled to take a picture.

This picture of an Armenian restaurant is in honor of our friend James Partamian.




Later that night we went to an awesome Italian restaurant that was bursting with people. I swore to Michael that I could tell this is was where Italian gangsters came to eat. We had oysters, homemade pasta, a bottle of wine, dessert and cappuccino. Here's a pic of Michael's opinion of the dinner and the cannoli...and here's me with a thumbs up to my favorite drink...cappuccino.

We had a fantastic time and we've already decided we'd move there if the opportunity ever came up. If you have never been to Chicago...do it!