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We gave Abby a digital camera for her birthday this week. So Mugs can now include pictures in her posts. Almost. She sent me the pictures so I can include them. I guess I’ll need to put together a set of instructions for uploading pictures to the blog. Anyway, here’s the first photo of Blaze on the blog.

I’ll post more later when I have some time.

We had a lovely morning in DC. I only made a few wrong turns. The trees were in peak bloom and stunning. We parked on Hains Point and walked up to the Tidal Basin. We arrived at 0930 and thankfully, the crowds had not yet descended. The festival officially kicks off tomorrow, so today wasn’t absolute madness. I am really glad we went. It is stunningly beautiful. I took 60 pictures and am hoping that there is at least one good one in the lot. Yes, my camera has film in it. It is not digital. I’m like my father and his polaroid. We visited the Jefferson memorial where the security guard lectured me for being two feet away from my stroller. My favorite bit of that memorial is the quote etched at the top about taking an oath on the altar of God. We then walked around the Tidal Basin, stopping every few inches so I could take another picture and make the kids pose under, next to, or behind some tree. We then came upon the FDR memorial which I had never seen before. I liked the waterfalls and the kids liked the bronze statues of his dog and the men in the soup line. It was unique and well done and I liked it. We then continued on toward Lincoln and passed a photo shoot where the mothers had brought a white table and chairs set up as a tea party under the cherry trees and dressed their toddlers in coordinating pastels. I commented to the kids that I wasn’t that bad. To which Abby pointed out that I had made them all dress alike in white shirts and jeans and, “At least those kids got cupcakes.” She had a point. I was only able to get away with it because Dale wasn’t there to defy me. I appear to be on a “all pictures in DC must be color coordinated” kick. The 4th of July photo is evidence. We arrived at Lincoln and as I walked up those marble steps to see him, I was reminded once again why he is my favorite monument in DC. When my 2 year old nephew Jadon went to see Lincoln, he told his Dad that he was bringing him a present. Howie asked him what kind of present and he replied, “a blue one.” When he arrived at Lincoln, he held out his hand and gave Lincoln his imaginary blue present. Jadon and I are both very fond of Lincoln. After Lincoln, we looked out over the reflecting pool, the mall, the Washington monument and I declared, “Look! There’s the Capitol!” After that, we did the most difficult walk in DC. The kids and I walked along the Vietnam Veterans memorial. That black wall of names never fails to fill me with overwhelming grief at the loss of life brought about by war. We then had lunch and started the walk back. During the ride home, Josiah read us the entire Declaration of Independence from the copy scroll he had bought in DC. It was a lovely day, but I must admit that the cherry blossoms I am most fond of are blooming in my front yard.

Mugs commented on the surprising decor of the house I visited for lunch while in Amadiyah. It was definitely very Brady-esque. For a while now, I’ve been meaning to set up an image gallery on the blog. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get the image gallery running so that you can see some more photos of the house in Amadiyah. If you look closely at the flower rug, you might be able to see some muddy boot prints. Can you guess who tracked mud on the rug?

Let me know if you have any problems with the image gallery.

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Muhsan is a 77-year old Kurdish gentlemen who lives in Amadiyah, Dahuk Province, Iraq. Amadiyah, also called Amadi, is approximately 10 miles south of Turkey. Muhsan is the most influential person in Amadiyah; he is also highly regarded and respected throughout the entire province of Dahuk. He spent most of his life as a Freedom Fighter fighting for the Kurdish people. At one point in his life, he was a Member of Parliament for Kurdistan. I had the privilege of meeting Muhsan during my recent visit to Dahuk. Gee was able to arrange the meeting because of his family ties. Muhsan is the uncle of Ravina, Gee’s wife. I visited with Muhsan at the KDP Headquarters building in Amadiyah where his son, Muhammad, works as the KDP leader for the region. It turned into quite an event. After spending a couple of hours in discussions, we had lunch at Muhammad’s house with his father and some of his brothers. In the photo, seated on the orange couch are Muhammad and Glenn. Kneeling in the front is Saleh, Muhsan’s son who is running their farm and tending the livestock. Kneeling in the back is Muhsan’s son Hakar. He is the head of the Special Forces group that provides security at PM Barzani’s ranch. Standing is Ahmad, the son of Muhsan’s daughter. Ahmad’s father was killed by Saddam’s forces in the early 80s. Next is Gee. After Gee is Hashe, Muhsan’s youngest son and personal driver. Hashe’s daughter is in the picture, but I didn’t get her name. The last one standing is Rebin, Hakar’s son. I am seated on the couch next to Muhsan, the patriarch.

After lunch, Muhsan took us into the mountains to see the snow. He is very proud of a road construction project that will provide access for some of the isolated mountain villages and wanted us to see it. We drove along the finished portion of the road and parked at the end. Then we began walking further into the mountains on the unfinished portion. He is extremely fit for a 77-year old man. As he said, he spent most of his life living and fighting in the same mountains. At the crest of one hill, we spotted a Kurdistan flag flying. It had been left by the construction crew when they stopped work for the winter.

Soldiers tend to have an odd sense of humor. Sometimes they’re amused by seemingly insignificant things. Since all of my security personnel have been in the military prior to becoming contractors, they act just like soldiers most of the time. On our vehicles, we have signs warning civilians to stay back. I noticed this “unauthorized” patch on one of the team member’s uniforms.

I guess the custom patches attracted a little too much attention. Within a couple of hours after returning from the mission where I took that photo, then team leaders were reminding everyone that only official patches are authorized on their uniforms.

If you click on the photo above, you’ll notice that I’ve added an image popup tool to load a fullsize version of the image.

In an email today, I was reminded by the Editor that I haven’t posted in the last few days. I’ve started and deleted about 4 different posts today. This was the best I could come up with today.

I did get a new mattress today. Maybe I’ll blog about that tomorrow!