Back in the UAE

What a nice 20 day vacation. I had a doctors appointment this morning and he was very pleased that I had lost another pound and my blood pressure was very nice indeed. A little R & R was just what the Doctor ordered. I returned to work today, and was quite pleased that I was missed. From what I was told while I was gone Shams asked about me daily. He is such an affectionate lad.

I left one great friend in the USA, to come back to my devoted pal Shams...Fred and Shams probably will never be together again...more about that next week. Shams was excited to see me this morning.

In my last few hours in the states I got to spend great time with Danny and Laura (married one week), Lee and Cheryl and Wes and his two sons - what a nice time it was. On the day I flew out, Mitch, Donny and John from my fantasy baseball league, treated me to lunch at my all time favorite restaurant Houston's! It was a great way to finish a great vacation. A driving rainstorm in NYC delayed my flight and I was so late that my flight on Emirates Airlines had already closed and I was told by the agent that I had missed my flight. (I was drenched, for some reason at JFK airport you have to walk outside to catch a flight, so I was soaked....I begged the agent, and believe it or not she made a couple of calls and got me on the flight. After flying all night, I was tickled to have my loyal friend Muzzy waiting to pick me up

Ok, only God knows how to rotate a picture with this blog software, (let's pretend I left it sideways to save space...)

All in all it was a great vacation, got to see my parents (Mom and dad's health was very good) my brother sent his greetings to Kelly and Hayley (the said hi back), my time in St. Louis was great, seeing the ball games with Fred, spending time with Danny and meeting his beautiful new bride...Wes and Lee, the baseball gang...just a great vacation.

One Dubai story to close out this weeks blog, before I left 3 weeks ago, I stopped at the mega bookstore in Dubai Mall and was glancing at the International magazines. and I see FHM Great Britain. FHM (For Him Magazine) used to be one of my favorite magazines in the states. It is very similar to MAXIM magazine...a men's magazine but not too racy. Well occasionally there is a model that is tastefully topless (is there such a thing as untasteful toplessness? - sorry mom). Well in this magazine at the mall, I picked up and the first thing I noticed was that some censor authority had gone through the magazine with a black sharpie marker censoring the risque photo's. Too funny, I may have a new job to apply for. lol. Well I am watching the US Open golf on TV, I already enjoyed watching the Reds earlier tonight...what a way to work on my jet lag....just stay up and watch TV. Catch you next week.