Well, due to a power outage in my apartment recently I was unable to post my latest update which covered my trip into Israel, the Embassy Duty Officer position I held for a week, and a couple of other things. It was quite a long update and I will have to go back and re-create it. In the meantime, I wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and that I haven't forgotten to keep the updates coming. In fact, I'm going to try to start doing at least one update per week so long as I've got something good to throw out there.

So... that backlogged report on Israel is coming. Thanks for the messages you guys have been posting as well. I've taken a cue from you and I'm beginning to grab some photos of activities that I think will help some of you with family-oriented questions see more of what to expect.

I'm very fortunate to be hosting my parents this week, as well as my buddy Tom and his family on their FAO regional travel from Cairo. We are all teaming up to travel around Jordan and I will be taking my folks across the border into Israel as well. Should be exciting, but also a distraction from being at the computer so I'll do the best I can to put at least snippets out there in the coming week.

Here's an appetizer: Me at the Israeli border with Syria in the Golan Heights. In the background you can see small specks of white among the trees. Those are destroyed buildings from the Yom Kippur War. The name of the town is Quneitra. It was never rebuilt by the Syrians after the war.