Eat your heart out, Macedonia!

Can nothing be simple? After I get my cat here, I will have accomplished a logistical feat worthy of Alexander the Great. Picric is still on Kwaj with her step mommy and daddy, Tony and Darcy. The ridiculously overworked and fabulously lovely Jenny (yes, I’m trying to butter her up) the vet tech on Kwaj is doing her best to help me time everything to get her here. So check it out, this is the process:

1. Kitty has to get a checkup and boosters for all her stuff.
2. My friend Tony must get the records from vet tech Jenny and scan them to send them to me.
3. PAWS Kuwait can then begin to get paperwork started to get her an entry permit into the country (to the tune of about $100). This paperwork is only good for one month, which expires on the 16th of next month.
4. I then must get the health certificate from Jenny which is only good for 10 days.
5. I must scan that, my passport and about 20 other documents as well as the records and the above-mentioned Kuwait form to a lady in Newark New Jersey who will coordinate picking her up from Continental from Kwajalein, keeping her overnight in a kennel for some much needed rest and then putting her on a KLM flight to Kuwait the next day.
6. This lady in Newark then has to book the NJ to Kuwait portion of the flight at which point I can book the Kwaj to NJ portion of the flight.
7. Then I have to go wait all day at the airport for her to come in because for security reasons they can’t tell me what time the flight will be in and I must have copies of all of the aforementioned paperwork with me to pick her up. Now I know Picric can be a handful, but a security threat? Well, maybe.

If any of these steps goes wrong or takes too long, it will cost me another $100 to get the Kuwaiti paperwork issued for another month. Lather, rinse repeat. Now keep in mind that each of these steps has averaged about 5 days apiece and you can see why I’m a little ragged around the edges about it. I have every expectation that some portion of it will fail and I’ll have to do this all over again next month. Anyone want to take me up on that bet? You could help me pay to have the paperwork re-issued again next month…

Tytn-ic love

I think I'm in love. Again. As is so often the case, Tom was responsible for uniting me with this new flame. The HTC Tytn is about the coolest thing going in geekery and I'm not ashamed at all to tell you that I kiss it good night before tucking it in at the end of each day, securely plugged into it's little charging station.

Who wouldn't love this thing? It's got Windows Mobile on it, a QWERTY keyboard that slides out when you want it (incidentally, the screen changes orientation when you pull it out so you can turn the device on it's side and type comfortably with the screen facing the right way), a 2 mega pixel camera, another video camera just for video calls, and a plethora of other goodness. It's solidly built and there are whole developer sites out there dedicated to paying homage and creating new fun toys to put on there.

Someday my Tytn and I shall make free long-distance calls via Skype. We will download podcasts that shall keep my brain abuzz with the latest from Technet. My soul shall sing with the playlists that I can easily change with 2 GB microSD chips. My task lists and calendars shall beckon me forward toward new hights of productivity. Time itself shall bend as a 2 hour wait at the gate feels like minutes with the gaming goodness that will surely be mine.

Tom bought me this convergence-marvel for my birthday and it made me remember feelings I had thought I had forgotten. I bought my first PDA in the late 90's. I think it was an iPaq or an earlier version of one. I remember thinking, "Good God! I may never be late for anything again in my life!" For the nerd-impared, the sort of painful dependance created in owners of a truly disruptive technology can only be compared to meeting someone that you immediately know will be a friend for the rest of your life. There is an "Aha!" moment and your inner geek just squirms with delight.

Thus it has been for me with my Tytn. Now if only I could get the G3 internet connection working, I will have reached a level of nerd-zen that has been previously unknown to me.

Desert sunsets

Tom and I drove into the desert this weekend and took a few peeeektures (as my friend Booth is fond of saying). So without further ado...

Wouldn't you know it?

The second I drove my car off the lot, I apparently took a rock to the windshield. The crack was under the windshield and tiny so it didn't even show up for a day or two. You need a parking sticker on your car where I work and they won't give it to me on a cracked windshield so here I am less than a month into owning my own brand new car and I'm replacing the windshield today. Story of my life. :)

I'm back at work after a 2 week SQL class. It was really good and is already paying dividends, but being back on the 12 hour days is rough. I'd forgotten just how much so. I'm using weekends to pay the ol' sleep piper though. I've also swapped my lunch hour 3 times a week to go to the gym. It's not much because it takes me 15 minutes to get there and get ready and another 15 minutes to get showered, changed and back to work, but it's better than nothing I figure. Tom and I are planning on getting a treadmill and we did ship our weight set out so that should get here soon and I can then move some of the working out to the weekends. I am not entirely sure how the locals would take to a white woman running the streets of Kuwait by herself, so I'm not going to tempt fate there.

In the mean time, my bank account and waistline continue to grow at a nearly equal pace...

Kuwait is going through what is their spring really. The days are pleasant and just a light jacket is required at night. It's been raining a lot and the desert is in full bloom. It's strange to see the Bedouins grazing their goats and sheep among the tent cities that have sprung up all along the main highway here on my way to work. Yesterday, Tom and a friend and I went to breakfast at a little resort south of the city and we passed through a lot of these tent cities. I saw a young man on a chocolate brown Arabian horse (at least half) at a full gallop through the desert. Now that is something worth seeing. I'll try to get some pictures of the local breed and post them. Kuwait had some of the finest stables on the planet before Saddam came through. I was told that during his occupation, many horses were stolen, killed for no good reason or left in their stalls to starve to death. Some were hidden by the locals however and have been saved. Quite on accident the other day while I was on one of my fact-finding missions (which is what I like to call it when I get hopelessly lost) I ran across the Ministry of Equestria. Seriously, Kuwait seemingly has a ministry for everything. Anyway, the logo had the silhouette of two Arabian horses rearing, facing each other. Looked kind of like two stallions duking it out. I am going to see if this is where the famed stables are and see if I can manage to get in to see some of these creatures. I can't wait!