President's Day Weekend

I had a pretty good weekend.  At CJTF-HOA weekend and holiday mean 'work less' not 'no work'. Saturday was a half day, Sunday was a rare event of not stepping foot into the office at all, and today, President's Day, I only worked a few hours.  Its gotten pretty busy around here, the new core staff is smaller and they have lots of great ideas: so more work to do with less people.  Even so I still had some fun.  On Friday night there was a wine tasting at the camp cantina.  It drew a big crowd and was a good time, even got rowdy by 11 Degrees North standards (which is still fairly tame).  On Saturday night I played some poker, it had been a long time and I'm reminded that I'm not good at Texas Hold Em.  I missed out on the baby orphanage trip again, sold out, but I've been promised a spot for next week.  On Sunday I went out to 'French Beach'.  We did not have the local expert with us and had to find the place on our own based on memory of one trip and some trial and error.  There aren't any signs and most of it is a dirt road where 4WD is helpful.  On the way there we some some camel eating a very thorny bush, I don't know how they do it, check out the video.  The weather and water were very nice, relaxing.  Its a quiet spot behind a tall ridge.  When you arrive you can pick the little shack of your choice and some plastic chairs are brought out.  This cost us 1000 DJF (~$6) after negotiation down from 1500 DJF, as well as a couple of bottles of water from our cooler.  I drove on the way back and I'm now confident I can find the place again with ease.  Today I did some studying for JPME after a few hours at the office, hit the gym, got dinner, and now I'm writing this.