Well I'm finally home after 2 1/2 weeks of wandering the earth...Diego Garcia is the definition of tropical paradise...granted the only things to do are exercise or drink and I'm not a drinker...long walks on the flour soft white beaches in the morning and evening. I found a turtle nest one evening, watched a bunch of sunsets and sunrises, snorkled almost daily in the lagoon and hiked some great jungle trails. An hour or two of work a day just to say that we accomplished something...it truely made up for the week spent in Bahrain which is about the furthest thing from paradise that one can get. I did my best impression of either a mad dog or and Englishman as I walked to a local mall under the noonday sun...I think it was 100degrees (or more) of as they say "dry heat" sorta like hell...I lost 7lbs in 2 hours...not one of my smartest actions that's for sure. I now understand why the locals don't do anything in the middle of the day...night time was a much better time to explore the markets (called souqs)...I bought a bunch of saffron for my whole family (xmas shopping early) and a couple of rugs...Rug shopping is very fun...I had a budget and a particular country of origin (Pakistan) of the rugs I wanted. Pakistani rugs are simpler, bigger patterned, and of lower quality than say Persian/Iranian rugs but of better quality than say Indian...I would love to buy an Iranian rug but they are waaaaaay beyond my budget (like 5-10 times what i want to spend) and in truth too fine a rug for my household (cats and dogs) but handling them while shopping sure is nice. I think I looked at 70-80 rugs narrowing it down to about 6-7 before walking on the rugs to figure out which one I wanted...then came the bargining...a good half hour of bargining from about $400 down to to what I actualtly paid which was $220...it was definatly worth it though and the carpet looks great in our bedroom. I also added to my collecting of prayer rugs. Sadly my trip home all 27 hours of it was not fun at all, topped off by KLM/Northwest losing our luggage (all 11 pieces) someplace between Bahrain and Detroit...Made going through Customs easy though. Oh yes and once I got home I realized that I left my cell phone in the room in Diego Garcia...thankfully they found it but it'll be two weeks before I have it again. Never thought I would be jonesing for my cellphone


vagabond-punk

The musings of Tony Peters, a perpetual child, no matter where I am I will find a way to climb something or go skateboarding Read more »

hot metal

Today the the University of Rhode Island had it's first Bronze pour....it was pretty cool to watch. next year one of those guys will likely be me Go »

thursdays are my life

at least for the next 6 weeks I get to visit the doc every Thursday...today was awesome the PA at my Orthopedist is a genius at casting..the cast/splint I received at the hospital was comfortable for all of two days and then after the swelling dropped it was all angles and uncomfortable...getting Go »

Grommet

The latest addition to my family...his name is Grommet...my GSP loves him in a strange interspecies way, however my other two cats seem offended/insulted about his existence. Go »

Over Programed

True to my nature I only ever seem to be happy when I have too much on my plate...I'm reading 2 books and working on an online Photoshop CS3 class (I really want my Adobe Certified Expert before I retire). However the biggest impact on my life has been my wife and I starting P90X...we Go »

I call him Sushi........

My wife and I have a thing for Amberjack......this is my final sculpture (required anyway) for the semester I shot these before I finished welding the rest of the chain on (5-6 hours today) right now he's covered in salt getting rained on in hope of promoting a patina which I can clear coat. The plan is to add numbers and hang him on the front porch in place of the numbers now there...I'll Go »

holiday ruined

My Greek Holiday has been ruined...by an Italian holiday instead. I'm going to Sardinia today instead of Crete on Friday...walked Go »