Friends,

Andra returned briefly from Qatar to attend a Special Operations Forces conference in Tampa, Florida (the headquarters for Special Ops stuff). I flew down to Tampa for a few days to join her. It was awesome. It rained EVERY day (but the first day) forcing us to spend most of our time in the hotel. Thank you, God, for such fortuitous weather.

Andra will spend most of the rest of her tour in Pakistan at an undisclosed location doing undisclosed things which I hope she will disclose to me upon her return this August.

Below are two photos of my bride from this week.

Above is a photo of my bride at Charley's Steak House. The restaurant was rated as one of the 10 best Steak restaurants in the US and is a Wine Spectator award winner. They had bottles of wine that cost over $2000.oo! I drank beer. The food and service was amazing . . . it was the best steak I think I've ever tried to digest. "Tried" being a key word.

Above is a picture of my bride sitting bayside at a restaurant during one of the few hours in which it did not rain on us.

Andra says she enjoyed seeing green plants and blue water, two things she does not get the chance to see while in the desert. She also mentioned she liked the cool 85 degree weather -- almost chilly compared to the 105+ degrees she lives in while at Qatar.

This picture (above) of Andra is obviously not of her deployment in Qatar. It is included because it was taken exactly 8 years ago from today (May 22, 2001) on the balcony of our home on the island of Terceira, Portugal. The first day we moved in we saw dolphins and whales swimming just off shore from our balcony. That sold us on the home. And, that was the last and only time we saw dolphins and whales from our balcony. :)

Andra has about 90 more days to go. I'm glad. She must hurry home, for man can not live on beer and Spam alone. Hurry home, my love.

jim