Kurt's Pics

Mom sent me almost 400 of Kurt's senior pictures on disc, and I have narrowed it down to my favorite ones and put them in the slideshow. Sorry if you didn't want me to do it Kurt, but I asked, and you didn't say anything, so it's fair game.....Besides, I thought everyone would want to see how cute you are. ;-)

"Outside the Wire"

Yesterday I got to go 'outside the wire' into downtown Djibouti City. Just on the ride into town I saw camels, burros, a pack of dogs and goats (who were just hanging out on a window sill of a building. That was rather odd.). This picture shows you what I found while waiting for them to change the battery on our truck at the Toyota dealership. I have some more pictures, but I am awaiting my technologically gifted cousin Jeff to tell me how to get all of them on the website. I don't have many pictures of the actual city itself...but there was garbage and dirt everywhere. Hardly anything green grows, and it's not hard to see why...it's just too hot. I'll tell you what our translator told me, and you can believe it if you want, but they said he was being serious, "It gets so hot, that birds die mid-air and just fall from the sky." Now that's hot. The whole city shuts down between noon and 4pm because that's when they take their 'khat' breaks. It's some plant that they chew and I guess they all get high from it. Apparently it's so hot you can't do anything else besides get high and pass out. (And before anyone asks, no, I haven't tried it, and no, I probably won't try it).

How to Leave Comments. (A Tutorial)

So, I figured I would post a little tutorial on how to leave comments to Amanda's (or another family member's) blog posts. I see that there have been a few comments left already but I have a feeling that there might be some family / friends (more so family) that might not understand how to leave a comment. And since I do not want a whole mess of emails asking me how to leave them, I thought I could put a post here for all to see!

Here goes. When you read a post there will be a "X Comments" link towards the bottom of that post. See picture:Notice the round, red circle covering the "Comments" link. This is where you click if you would like to leave a comment!

After clicking on that link, you will be brought to a page with all (or none) of the comments on it, as well as a place to post your comments. See picture (This is on the right side of the page, underneath where you would type your comment:Now, you need to identify yourself somehow if you wish to post your comment. If you have a google / gmail account; Fantastic! Google owns blogger.com and has "synced" all Blogger and Google accounts. Google will likely rule the world one day. So just log into Blogger.com using your Google / Gmail account name and password and click "Publish your Comment".

The Open ID is for people who have a Wordpress and other blog related sites usernames and passwords. The Open ID also accepts anyone who has an AIM account. I am guessing that anyone who has one of these accounts does not need to read this post in order to leave a comment, so I will stop discussing this one.

Now the Name/URL will be the one most commonly used, that is why this paragraph is in BOLD.....to catch your attention! If you do not have or want one of the aforementioned accounts, simply use the Name / URL button to post a comment. It's the third one down, and the one that has a red circle around it in the picture up there. See it? Good. Now after you type in your comment in the text box directly above click the Name / URL button and enter your name. First name and Last name, or just First name, maybe a nickname? Be creative, but not crazy. Just a name so Amanda can know who is leaving her a comment! Then, simply click the "Publish your Comment" link and your comment will be posted!

As far as the Annonymous button goes; dont even think about clicking that one. That would be like crossing the streams with the Ghostbuster's Power Packs. Don't do it.

If anyone does run into anymore problems with the site, then you may email me: jparr021@gmail.com

I'm here

Not sure how this exactly works yet, because Jeff set it up for me, but I'll do my best. Just to let you all know, I finally made it to Djibouti. After an 8 hour flight to Atlanta to Fort Benning, then a 2 1/2 hour flight from Atlanta to Bangor Maine, then a 6 1/2 hour flight to Leipzig, Germany, then a 4 hour flight to Kuwait. From Kuwait it was a 2 hour flight to Qatar in a C-130, and then finally a 5 hour flight from Qatar to Djibouti. For those of you keeping track, that's 28 hours in an airplane (with NO frequent flyer miles!!!). And yes, it's hot here. Not as sandy as Kuwait or Qater, but still 'warm'. Apparently there are two options...the wind can come from the east off the ocean and make it 'cooler' (100 degrees), but then it's very humid. Or....the wind can come off the plains from the west to make it 140 degrees (but it's a dry heat). When I landed it was 'cooler' but more humid. Kind of like Hawaii weather on steroids I guess. For those of you that are wondering, my address here is:
CPT Amanda Coenen
PSC 831 ATTN: 354 FxSp
FPO, AE 09363