The view from Al Faw Palace's balcony. The man-made lake that surounds the palace is stocked with hundreds of big, greedy fishies. I think they're some type of carp. Ugly but entertaining. This is a typical eveningin Iraq. Absolutely beautiful.

_____________________________________

I'm sittin' here at my desk, listening to Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson tell stories through song lyrics. The songs are borrowed from SGT Ben, one of the great IT bubbas here.

My team and I have been working on a campaign plan and spinning creative ideas all day, but we took a break a few minutes ago to gaze out at Camp Victory from the Al Faw Palace balcony. It's a beautiful evening, cool and clear, a welcome break from last night's rain.

There are five of us here on what we refer to as the "Long-Range Planning Team", and we have been putting in long days working on a briefing that's due to our general Saturday evening. The long hours and heavy workload have prevented me from working on this blog as much as I'd hoped to. But don't worry--there'll be time here and there when I can work on it.

It's 1830 here, or 6:30 p.m. for you military types. Back home on the East Coast, it's 1034 (that's am, of course). We'll put in a couple more hours and then call it a day. Last night was a fairly late one, so the rest will do us some good this evening.

I'm looking forward to getting back to my hooch and hopping online to chat with my sweetie (a nightly ritual), after which I will turn in for the night to rest up for my morning run. I think tomorrow is going to be another beautiful Baghdad day, and I think we're going to accomplish a lot of good planning. Errr! (That's sort of like "yee-haw!", the Marine Corps way. "Hooah" if you're Army.)

All my best. Take care.