It is another Monday. The sun is streaming into my office and I had to manipulate the blinds to get the glare off of my computer screen this morning. We are in the midst of some of the best weather we've seen in a while with bright blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the sixties. Not bad for February.

Jennifer has called us from Baghdad. She has arrived at Camp Victory in Baghdad. It is on the grounds of one of Sadaam Hussein's former palaces. Jennifer is lucky enough to be housed in a trailer on the grounds, rather than in tents. The trailer will better protect them from the frequent dust storms that blow through the area and coat everything with a thin film of sand and dust. The trailers sleep four to six people, but Jennifer is one of three female soldiers in her unit, so the gals have a trailer built for four and there are only three of them. Oh, the luxuries of the military. Jennifer has frequent phone usage and can call anytime she wants. I spoke to her two nights in a row. The first was on Saturday night (Sunday morning for her) when she called to let us know she made it to Iraq. They flew in a C130 from Camp Doha into Baghdad airport and then hopped in two Ford F150s and a Toyota van and caravaned to the Camp. It was late at night and dark when they arrived. Jennifer said that the main freeway into and out of the airport has three checkpoints that cars have to pass through to get onto or off of the highway. Camp Victory is very secure with complete insulation from the Iraqi people. The palace was built with security in mind, in fact there is a lake that surrounds the palace and only one bridge over the lake into the palace grounds. Jennifer also called last night to give me her address. Again, it was Monday morning Iraq time and she and her unit were leaving on foot patrol to go and tour the palace grounds and get briefed on their mission.

Her unit will be installing fibre optics and phone lines, video conferencing lines and other communications infrastructure in the palace. The palace is now one of the main coalition military headquarters in Iraq and it is being repaired from the heavy bombing that it sustained during the early stages of Operation Iraqi freedom.

Jennifer's address is as follows:

Army Specialist Lyon, Jennifer
ITT-TAC-SWA
Building #7
APO AE 09342

I'll update as I hear more from our soldier.

This weekend was a Guy weekend. I hosted poker on Friday night and made a few bucks, $20 or $30. Saturday and Sunday were both golf days as I played in a two day qualifier for Spyglass. My partner, Don, and I played great golf on the front side shooting 32 and 30, but we fell apart on the back shooting 38 and 37 both days and it cost us the tournament. The qualifing teams shot 64-63 and 64-65. We shot 70 and 67. I enjoyed the golf. The weather was great.

I hope all of you are well. Keep praying and life will fall into place for you.