Bk 2: Sandstorms, and Lightnging, & Petrus Romanus Oh My!!!

Just some things I missed on in my latest post...

It was steak night tonight, every week I tell the guy who cooks the steak medium medium and it is always well done, someone today told me that I need to tell him "Pink".  I told him "pink pink" and got the rarest steak of my life, it wasn't much more that seared flesh.  Next week I'll tell him "little pink."

There have been lots of sandstorms at site lately, I'm bringing back a "Buff" from America to keep the dust out of my lungs, but for now am mostly just trying to hang out inside mostly.

Huge lightning storm tonight, and slow internet as a result, that picture took about 5 minutes to upload.

There is a new pope.  I'd like to thank the Catholic Church for making itself so easy to walk away from. I didn't want anything crazy like gay marriages in St. Peter's Basilica, but I wanted leadership, someone who inspired, someone who might bring the energy that Benedict lacked.  In the past 10 years the church, considered by many aging and out of touch, has elected two popes of over 75 years age and instituted hitting yourself in church in admission of your "most grievous faults." I don't believe religion should ever cave to appeasement, but I do think it should grow in both knowledge and ideas.  I've been disappointed by my adult having only, granted a great, but aging Pope, and the two oldest Popes elected in 300 years.

Bk 2: Let The Countdown Begin

The title is a bit dishonest. Amanda and I have been counting the days for quite a while but now yall can join in with my HTML gadget on the side.

The reading list is back!!! Check out the link above.

I'm listening to the Avett Brother's I and Love and You in anticipation of the concert Amanda and I will be attending on my R&R.  Really like the song The Perfect Space.  I had an Avett Brothers album on my computer all through Peace Corps but never got into it, really enjoying them now.

Not a whole lot going on, work is steady.  It rained a bit this week, first legitimate rain I've seen since I got here.

I finished Homeland Season 1 today, interesting show, worth checking out, not the most addictive thing.

I plan to spend the rest of the day reading The Stand, which I intend to finish before returning home, also plan to do some more for mine and Amanda's trip to Scotland/Ireland.  That sentence really shook me up, you aren't supposed to use the first person pronouns prior to a third person entity but does Amanda's and mine trip to Scotland sound right? Certainly not Amanda and mine's or Amanda and I's.  Let me know if you know the correct usage.

Amanda asked me to add some more pictures, there really isnt a whole lot to show.  I can't put pictures of the project up.  I'll take some pictures of my food later and post them up, until then...

So here's the AC unit outside my room.

This is the hallway of my building, there are 6 doors.

Heres my front door, theres some rocks outside.

Heres more buildings like mine.

I think this is a power plant they are building next door to power our mill.

Basketball courts.

Lots of white trucks, thats how construction companies do it.

Satelites that provide the best in Arabic TV, and also some other decent channels. 

Bk 2: Goals

Goals for the next 5 years:

• In the next year earn my Planning and Scheduling Professional Certification.
• In 2014 earn my Professional Engineer License
• In 2015 earn my Project Management Professional Certification
• Serve as a Controls Team Leader at Fluor
• Work an International Assignment with Amanda 
• Pay down 30% of my mortgage and refinance for 30 years (before interest rates go up), making my condo a potentially profitable leasing opportunity after Amanda and I move out.
• Tell Amanda I love her at least 1826 times.
• Run a marathon.
• Set retirement goals and meet with a financial planner.
• Bring my 4 season ticket seats together in the lower deck.
• Complete the quest for the dark tower before leaving Saudi Arabia.
• Enhance skill-set by learning some basic (but not BASIC) programming language.

Bk 2: Annoyances

The great annoyances of my life... in no particular order...

Songs with police sirens in them.

'No right turn on red' signs, with no green arrow, when the intersecting lane to my right has a left turn green arrow.

TurboTax does not own TurboTax.com

People who think that the reports I make are auto generated and don't take hours of scrubbing and analysis to get to look right.

How sweatshirts loose their softness and pill up on the inside.

My lingering knee pain.

Democrats.

Child leashes.

Republicans. see what I did there... :)

... and believe it or not I had a pretty good day.  When I came back to my room and tried to check for my tax refund and something set me off.

Bk 2: Life in the Kingdom

Just a few unstructured tid-bits from my life in the Kingdom...

Most mornings I eat french toast for breakfast, which isnt great but their sausage is horrible and their eggs are unimpressive.  Pork is illegal in the country.

I haven't seen a woman in 4 weeks, with the exception of my fiancee on skype in ultra low definition... sometimes only half the new pixels come through and Amanda will move her head slightly and it will show her with a 3rd eye in the middle of her head until the computer realizes it needs to refresh.  I think she'd make a beautiful cyclops.

I finished my first book in a year recently, and will soon be re-launching the reading list.  Amanda and I are reading  'Anthem' together right now, (she's actually finished) and soon will be reading Stephen King's 'The Stand'.  I was reading 'The Stand' when I left Uganda, as an accompaniment to the 'Dark Tower' series.  With resuming it I will resume the quest for the elusive dark tower.

I'm very much looking forward to my upcoming R&R.  I'll be meeting Amanda in NYC where we will hang out with Nick & Wan, Annie & Eric, and perhaps my favorite couple... Nick & Drew.  The agenda includes a quick trip down to Atlantic City and seeing 'The Book of Mormon' on Broadway.  Also while home Amanda and I will be going to an Avett Brother's Concert and a craft beer festival.

But the next R&R is the one I'm most excited about... Amanda and Ryan's Crazy Celtic Adventure!!!

View Amanda & Ryan's Crazy Celtic Adventure in a larger map

Bk 2: 88 Hours

So exhausted.

I've got 88 hours on my time card this week, including 32 at time and a half.

But tonight I get my reward, I get to see the beautiful but somehow pixelated faced of my wonderful fiancee on skype tonight!