Here and There Blog

Duplicity made the weekend cut due to Clive Owen. He’s so fun to watch that I’m willing to see most of his movies even if I’m predisposed to not like them. The downside of Duplicity for me was Julia Roberts but she was okay and that reduced the dislike factor. Forget the cast for a moment and the spy/caper plot of the movie paid off big time. Well written and well directed the story follows the intertwined lives of spies (Owen & Roberts) and their possible alliance/deception/plot/love something. Counter to the spies are the corporate rival executives played by Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti – both fun in their roles. I think they must have had fun filming this movie at least in some scenes. Duplicity moves around in time and starts with 5 years back, then moves forward to present day, then back in time, to present, and so on. Pay attention. Failure to do so will leave you lost. If you pay attention you will like the movie much more than the average viewer’s rating. Every little ...

Your reaction to Monsters vs. Aliens is going to depend if you see it regular or in 3D. I haven’t been up on the 3D bandwagon but after today, it’s the way to go. 3D today is near perfect and not dependant upon gimmicks or scare tactics. With a few minor exceptions, Monsters vs. Aliens use of 3D is so natural and part of the viewing process that the few reminders of 3D are a distraction to what is going on. Why this is important is without the visual impact of 3D and the digital clarity, I would have tuned out of the movie and been thinking of work within the first 15 minutes. The story revolves around Susan, a bride-to-be, who gets hit by a meteor on her wedding day and she turns into a giant. No wedding takes place and the government whisks Susan away to be stowed in a cell with her new monster sidekicks, also created by various accidents, natural or man-made. These monsters are locked away until an alien invasion happens and the monsters are the only thing that stand between earth...

Drinking Stone Cali Beligique

A whole week with nothing exciting going on! I am so antsy that I'm having trouble concentrating. The Flower Fields are starting to bloom, the beach is getting warm, and baseball season is almost here. Must be Spring!

Bummer - lost all blog settings for following and remembering due to clearing out the cache history on the laptop. I knew this would happen but managed to forget how time consuming the process to rebuild everything is. Worse yet, remembering passwords! Today has gone by so fast except for this last 10 minutes when I decided to play with my blog. I've been building chicken materials all day and tomorrow I'm off to roll burritos!

6 weeks on and off the road can mix up any schedule, including mine. I have now had almost 48 glorious hours in the same place, namely home. I stopped at KS on Friday night and filled up the jug with Oatmeal Stout which despite the bartender's dire warnings about the beer not traveling well, has managed to last the entire weekend. Yum. All bills are paid and bank accounts balanced. I'm caught up on the multiple personal email and social networking sites. I finished reading 2 out of my 3 airplane books. I've got recycling and trash ready to go for Thursday. It's my first trash day home in 6 weeks and I've got a full load. The weeds are 3 feet high and ignored. The only way to ruin a perfect weekend is by pulling weeds so the lizards and gophers have their playground for another day. The backyard is a bit out of control and it's starting to resemble Day of the Triffids more and more. I hear rustling against the windows more and more with each gust of wind. I...

I'm ready! Got my hat, my plastic apron, and I'm about to learn how to fry bone-in chicken. I flew 2500 miles to do this so I can train people in China later this year.

I'm on my way to Raleigh. I've made it trouble free to Washington and waiting for the next flight. Have now made it to Raleigh - view from the balcony. A Spring breeze is in the air, it's sunny and surprise! Warm! I guess it is as good of a day as any to be in North Carolina.

Watchmen is one of the few graphic novels I've read and considered a great novel. The story of superheroes and destruction was intense and a read- thru in one session. Still, I had my doubts on how a nearly 3 hour movie could fill in the gaps and create an even better story. I was wrong to doubt. The movie was true to and enhanced the graphic novel. The charcters were lifelike and real, not stilted as other comic/graphic characters are in their film representation. Watchmen gives us the evolution of real people as costumed superheroes and one accident that created a real superhero. The story has it all, human nature & conflict, alternate timeline of the cold war/Nixon years, romance, rejection, redemption. Visuals and music enhance not distract from the story. Having said all this, I recognize that Watchmen will not appeal to everyone. If you're not a fan of graphic novel style of movies, gunshots or rather multiple and excessive gunshots, blood, and superheroes - don...

Not sure about packing up that suitcase again but there's really no choice. Week 5 of road trip work continues as I prepare for Raleigh. Prepare might be too strong of a word as I'm only packing, lightly studying materials, and planning to show up and go with the schedule. My purpose? I'm frying chicken. The post office was first priority on the personal to-do list and I have now retrieved a basket of mail, mostly junk. I did get a hand made quilt from my Aunt and that was a nice surprise along with a St. Patty's Day card! Other than that, junk. I enjoyed Watchmen and will write it up for tomorrow's blog.

Mountains of laundry to clean and bills to sort.

Sitting at STL airport finally returning home

I have time to blog when I work the 12-14 hour days in the mid-east but can't seem to find the time when I work the 11 hour days in St. Louis. Go figure. Nothing much happens here so I'm not inspired. Instead I think about warm So Cal (even if it's not) the beach and life. Nati's, Ho-Dads, and KS all sound so good right now. Last night's dinner at the "nice" restaurant was not so great. I ordered jumbo scallops that came out cold in the center. I'm not about to eat raw scallops and I sent them back. The next order was so over cooked that the sauce was foaming and even less edible. I gave up and nibbled on the carrot muffins they brought me while I was waiting. After the second attempt though, I had no appetite. The manager came out and apologized and told me the chef admitted to taking a short-cut on the cooking. Duh. I'll go back but no scallops next time. I'll stick to salad.

In St. Louis, not home until Saturday. Really want a Guinness. Won't be going out on St. Pat's Day since I'm spending the night in LA before an early flight to Raleigh, NC.

Last day in the region! Upon arrival in Doha, Qatar last night I was whisked away to work. The drive from the airport to the destination was all of 5 minutes and being dark, nothing to see. Being Qatar, nothing to see even if it was daylight. The view from my window is the same dusty construction zone of dirt that was there last year. I return to the US from this trip but not home. My next stop is St. Louis. We all know how thrilled I am not to go there but one thing is for sure, I can get a good beer on tap there and I will. This trip has been short for me - only 10 days. I think that is the ideal time since my patience and tolerance level is just now slipping and if this was the usual 16 days, I would be freaking out right now. But, I also had no Lebanon to look forward to and that makes a difference.

I have nothing new to take a picture of. My view from the window is the same as dozens of photos posted before. The daily routine takes me from the hotel to an office to work, and repeats. I did have a minor excitement yesterday (and I assure you this is minor but when all days are the same, it was a satisfying moment,) I finally got to drive a car in the Middle East. Last year I started whining about this. Most of the countries, no, you can't drive a car because the law is against the foreigner if there is an accident. That's simple, if you are in an accident no matter what, it is your fault. Other countries like Egypt, no signs or names for streets exist and traffic patterns change all the time. Lights? Let the best driver win. But the roads in some places are easy and navigable and having taxis all the time is a hassle because even taxis get lost. So I was unbelievebly happy when during training yesterday, I got to drive the car through the drive-thru, out onto the road, ...

As I look out the window on the Dubai that's never shown on TV but is the reality for most of the country, I wonder where the week has gone. I'm panicking (except I'm blogging) that I still have unread email and work on multiple projects waiting for my next 2 hour downtime. Dubai and the Emirates have the beautiful beaches and resorts that you see and hear about but for most business people and locals, you only get a glimpse of them during the normal course of the day. So now Jordan awaits for a quick stop and then onto Doha.

As promised - Ajman beach photos. This is one of the prettiest coastlines in the Emirates because it is unspoiled by planned resorts and high rise hotels. Nothing but sand and sea for long stretches. This area is where everyone hangs out and walks along the boardwalk.

UAE is my world today but my thoughts are more with Pakistan, the next world. After working all day and with the Pakistan team, we arrive back to the hotel to learn that the Sri Lanka cricket team was attacked in Lahore. Now I'm not a cricket team or traveling there in an envoy but my co-worker was concerned since he will also be there soon. Well, what can you do? Today we are focusing on the drive to work and back, more work and preparing for tomorrow. When people think of Dubai, the image that comes to mind is of the beautiful resorts, hotels, and coastline and the gold Souk. My Dubai is south of that and while I see the ocean and downtown in the distance, I am about 1 hour in traffic from Mall of the Emirates and the Burg. Normally I work in Sharjah, an islamic emirate, one of the 7 along with Dubai that makes up the UAE. Sharjah also has a beautiful coast but it is blocked by all the construction. On this trip, I made it to Ajman, a poorer Sharjah to speak but with an an even b...

5:33 am and I've been awake since 3:06 am. At 5 I gave up and peered outside the room for the paper and started the Nescafe . I'm on cup #2. So what concerns Dubai? The world and far more about it than we ever get to know. Key pages are dedicated to Iraq (not really anti-US at all), Gaza (optimistic about Hillary, not so much on Tony Blair), Hariri tribunal (resigned but glad it's going on, and the military revolt in Bangladesh. The cover photo is of a US soldier talking to a cute Iraqi boy and both are smiling. You'd expect to see this photo in a US paper but it was unexpected here. The currency is fluctuating and dropped while I've been here. If this keeps up, my hotel bill will be considerably less than what it would have been two weeks ago. That helps when Internet is $32 a day but it was close to $40. The gulf water view that I have only exists because the next mega-resort housing/hotel project ran out of money and stopped construction. Even here the banks h...