Hiatus.

Sorry about my brief hiatus. Your emails sounded worried, but no, I didn’t get blown up in Yemen, nor were we in Pakistan at the Marriot this weekend. Anyone else a little worried about the continuing violence that now literally surrounds us? Not to mention I read that Ahmedenijad (sp?) said that no one best mess with their nuclear stuff or they’ll get in DEEP trouble. Now I’m not quoting, mind you, but it was something to that effect.

This past weekend Stu had his fight as you all know. He lost but he looked so much better this time around. Starting out he was on the attack and he looked so confident out there. He did great throughout the fight, but the other guy eventually got the edge. Here are some highlights from the fight:

Focused, warming up for his fight.

The coaches hanging out with some Emirati Generals.

Under 74 kilos fighters.

Sid and Marcelo having a good time.

Getting some last-minute tips from Marcelo before the fight.

On the attack.

We did our border run with much more ease than we anticipated. When we got back here from visiting the States we had 30-day visa stamps and were told by Stu’s job that from now on we’d only be able to get 30-day stamps. This sucks because while it’s only an hour and a half drive, going through both borders, filling out paperwork at each, and just driving makes it a whole-day affair. But, we went through the border at Hili, which we were told we wouldn’t be able to go through, so that was nice. There were ZERO people as it was a Friday (holy day) during Ramadan (holy month). It was also still early, so there really weren’t many people to deal with.

Now that I have filled out the forms several times I know them well so they are quick now. We went into Oman (where I swear I saw plenty of Osama-sized holes in the rocks… though they assure us there are no Al Qaida training camps there) did the run and came back unharmed.
Since it is Ramadan and we can’t eat during daylight, I packed us a lunch of wraps (holy yum!) and chips and pops and we ate on the road, saving time.

Then, to avoid eye scans again, and hoping for a 60-day stamp, which the guy at Hili told us they no longer had, we opted for the Al Birhami crossing where we went through without getting out of the car, without an eye scan, without opening the trunk, and with a 60-day stamp. Woot woot! So we will be going there again. Though I should probably delete that whole paragraph so I don’t give out our secret to others hoping for similar results.

Overall it was a painless border run and now we’re good for another 60 days. Hopefully in the meantime they don’t get new stamps!

My little driver!

Kaden was helping Mommy in the kitchen this weekend too… look at my little chef in the making!