Desert living

     The desert is hot and dry and tan, right? Not so much. Most people think that the desert is nothing but a hot arid place where nothing but cacti grow.  I'm here to tell you, it's a lie.  It rained here in Iraq a few days ago. There is grass growing around my living quarters, actually it's weeds, but it's still green. We have flowers on the deck of the office I work in and they are actually blooming. The desert actually yeilds life in so many ways. I've not seen too much of animals, though I saw a dog in Kuwait. There are tons of birds here, mostly sparrows and pigeons and a few morning doves.

     Work is going pretty good. I'm learning all I can before my counterparts go back home. I'm already doing the updates and briefings without too many promptings. We had issues with computers the night before last, but it didn't last too long and we were back up and running things. What I'm really looking forward to is something I'm curently planning. My trip to Italy.

     My plan is to bring Carrie to Italy and go on a 3 city tour of the country. I'll have right around 2 weeks to do it too. I plan on us seeing the canals of Venice, the ancient buildings and museums of Florence and all the history we can absorb in Rome. It's going to be a blast. I can't wait to see her face when we hop onto a gondola and ride up one of the canals of Venice. If anybody has any recomendations of what we should see or do while we're there, I'm all ears. I do have a Europe guidebook but nothing beats the experiences of friends too.