Fun Snaps

Goodbye Bear Hugs

Breaking the Rules

My Bad Boys

Ready to fly..again

They can think of Acronymns for EVERYTHING else...why did they need to spell this one out?!?
Just, plain, morbid.

Following the Tigris home


Ta-Ta for now... See ya'll soon...

Wonderful Homemade Breakfast.

Samoon & Fresh, made-this-morning Cream

Thank you Joe.

Your sweet holiday gift made my day.

Everything I need?!?

Really?!?

I asked if they'd show Twilight...yeah...no

Another space

Big Desk, little chair

Nicest Desk EVER

Wish I had time to do my hair

My latte makes life better

My private tent

Empty bunks

My body is spent

No need for rent

Turkish Coffee and other Ramblings

Since my time in the IZ, I've had an obsession with Turkish Tar, I mean coffee.

The way it's made, the variety, and the conversation

that comes with fellow coffee lovers..

Priceless.

Bonus: who can resist the delicate cups it's served in!

The coffee is boiled with sugar until the grounds disolve. Creating this blissful, thick tar.

Coupled with fresh bread, cheese and Iraqi sweets..makes for a Blissful & Buzzed afternoon!

Now. To jump subjects (I'm known for this):

I took this photo of a team member's ring on our travels:

Cool ring huh?

Although, we forgot the name of the stone.

SO, as a result, here is part of the email my buddy wrote searching for the name of this ring:

So, I asked my faithful teammate, “What is the name of the stone on Ben’s ring?”

She says, “I don’t know.”

I asked, “Didn’t you put the name of it on the picture?”

She replied, “No, I just put ‘special ring.’”

I'm so tired...

I don't know why that made me laugh.

Thought I'd share...

Kinda sad.

FYI: the ring is called Sulaymani. It's said to have mystical powers.

Jeez :)

Waiting

Leaving!

On to the next assignment.

Ok.

Let me pack real quick.

Really?

Cancelled?

Again?

Tomorrow?

Argh. Unpack.

Again.

Repeat

Funny thing

So, Iraq is at war.

Yup. Suprise.

There are certain things you get used to, other things you should never get used to. Always listening, always alert, always using that extra-something that lets you know when it's not safe.

However, there are certain times you let those defenses down. The shower being one.

So funny story:

Last night I was taking a shower (a hot shower!! YAY!!) when"BA-BOOOM"... with an equal disturbing shake to the shower trailer.

I stand there for a second, running through memories... if it sounded like incoming, listening for running...nothin. Then my mind goes to a possible cruel irony: if I have to run..I'm well...jeez. I only travel with a quick-dry shammy the size of a wash cloth..and that doesn't cover much! When you know it's real, you can't grab that one thing you want to keep safe, you can't think about where you left your ID, you can't change your clothes...you just duck and run for the bunkers. And in my case, right then, I was a little underdressed.

Luckily, it was outgoing. Really, some bad a*% sounding outgoing, for about 30 minutes!

"BA-BOOM"

CHU shakes

Silence

"BA-BOOOOOM"

Shaking

Silence

We have some pretty awesome power!

Well, long story short, I went and bought a towel today.

The biggest one they had...just in case

*A quiet space this morning...nothing to do with the post!*