Everyone has a favorite season.  I always liked the spring with its storms and promise of warm weather.

Here in Ankara, autumn came in a heart beat.  There was only a two week defining period of change from summer to autumn.  A few weeks ago, we were enjoying weather in the upper nineties and lightly touching a 100.  Within two weeks, the weather went from the heat to the 60-70’s, and stayed there.

Below are pictures I took from our apartment during that short period. Last Friday was the start of a Turkish holiday.  The Embassy will not open back up until Wednesday.  Terese and I will not be there though, as we have a reservation for a boat ride down by Bodrum on the Mediterranean coast.  I will take my little camera with me and hopefully get some phenomenal images.

Until then, keep kicking.    D.

Yesterday was my lovely wife’s birthday, and it just happen to coincide with the Oktoberfest celebration at the German Embassy.  So, it was an easy gift to her from me.

I’m not a social dancer, so I just enjoyed sitting and watching others and spending time outside under the smoker’s tent with the rain coming down.  I will always meet interesting people while there.  Below, the people are starting to fill in.

Then comes the best part.  The food. Below is a friend of ours enjoying the feast.And here is a couple of pictures of a beer fest lady.  One, with one of the beer girls who stood for several hours doing nothing but pour beer. Below is a good friend of ours who works in the health unit at the Embassy.  I gave her one of mom’s books a few months ago.  As the night progressed, the music became louder, the beer kept flowing and people kept dancing.And below is a picture of a perfectly contented lady on her perfect birthday.Drink beer and eat well.   … and keep kicking butt.      D.

… have been at full tilt.  Time to shut down and cut loose.  And just in time for Oktoberfest at the German Embassy tomorrow night.  I’ll sneak some pictures and post them in the next few days.  I hope they turn out okay, in spite of the beer.

Continuing with the thoughts of Medjugorje, I have created another page with the thoughts I wrote about, back in 2001.  You can click here to view it.  I edited it a bit and added some images.

This has been a long week and I’m glad it’s over.  We had a high level visit here in Ankara and spent all day Friday getting things ready in the hotel where he will stay for one night.  I will forever be amazed at the expenses that are thrown out for visits like this.  Still, it wasn’t as bad at a presidential visit while we were in Moscow back in 2009.

What can I say?  Your tax dollars are paying me extra to help maintain the security of these visits, but I cannot fully grasp the reasoning in the resources used for something like this.  Diplomacy is what it is.  Whatever it is.

Kick butt.  D.

In 2001, the Good Lord made it possible for me to go on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje.  This is a small town in Bosnia/Herzegovina where the Mother of Jesus appeared to several young children.  It itself is an amazing story, and I suggest taking time to research it.  Better yet, click here to take you to my Mother’s website that tells it far better than I can.  A lot to read but very worth it.

Then click here to read what I wrote about it on my return.