A New Pic of a Palace- ooh! aah!

I can't believe I finally got a pic up (and the same day someone said something about it too)!
I took this before the weather turned to crap. This is Al Faw palace. The water surrounding it is a man-made lake created in a couple months. And people say the US blows money on silly projects. Why, I bet a certain politician in Alaska is just dying to have one of these built as a bus stop (with your tax money). ;-P

It actually snowed here in Baghdad for the first time in decades just a couple days ago- unfortunately no pics of that... I have been slogging through mud ever since. Odd that you don't think you'll encounter that in Iraq. Oh well...

I think part of the problem with posting pics is that the internet here is a very temperamental thing. Sometimes you get lucky and the bandwidth genies smile favorably upon you. Other times (most usually), random sites like Blogger, Youtube, or even Yahoo, don't load properly. Trying to get anything to load is like magically being transported back into the 80's- only instead of my machine telling me "please wait" (a few minutes or an hour) it "times out" instead and I have to start the frustrating process all over. Well, that's it in a nutshell. I'm taking my nyquil and zonking out now since I've been sick.

Note: If you ever go somewhere exotic, like Iraq in the winter, and your company, or the Army tells you you don't need to pack a sleeping bag because linens will be provided at your destination, don't pay any attention! The heater in your tent WILL break on the coldest frackin' night, and you will be shivering in your jacket and running to the BX the next day only to learn they are closed for inventory. You will survive, congratulate yourself for not getting sick like everyone else, then promptly get sick a couple days later. Murphy and his stupid law strike again.

PS- WHAT IS UP WITH ALL THE NEWS ABOUT HILLARY AND OBAMA??? GET OUT THERE AND MAKE SOME CONSERVATIVE NOISE! I DO NOT WANT TO COME HOME TO THE UNITED SOCIALIST STATES! GOT IT?