Hey family'o'mine,

I hope that you're all well and wonderful. Thanks for the bday wishes, packages, and so forth. Just wanted to let you know that I'm back in Bdad after a few nice days in Jordan. I'll send photos and a fuller trip report later, but really the key thing was that for five days I was in a place where nothing was going boom, where I could take a taxi or a bus wherever I wanted, and where I hardly saw a gun.

And then I come back to the Palace, which was, yes, hit by a rocket last week, and the first thing that happens is that it bursts into flames. There was a fire in the main computer room (apparently caused by poor electrician-ship rather than by anything sinister) about 6:30, so they told us via Giant Voice not to come into the Palace till 10. And then the computers didn't work for most of the day.

So now I've got some catching up to do. More when I can.

love,
r