The Gas Lantern

Sadly our favorite Restaurant has closed. The Gas Lantern was a great find in Downtown Clarksville. It was kind of a fluke that we discovered it since it didn’t advertise very well. This contributed in large amounts to its closing I suspect. We didn’t have any solid plans to celebrate New Years Eve so when we discovered it was their last day in operation we hurriedly called to make reservations. Luckily they had one spot for two left that night.

The food was so good. So good to rival even Dave’s shrimp and stuffed mushrooms. Which is a feat of grand proportions. People rave about, will travel a goodly distance and constantly inquire about when it will be made next.

Just as with Dave’s shrimp every bite of dessert is a piece of the celestial kingdom. With the limited holiday menu we ended up ordering close to everything on it.



A few good things that will come about by The Gas Lantern closing:
We will cease to spend funds there.
It will not add to our waist lines.
The rich (yummy) food will not shorten our life span.

The building was built by a local oil tycoon early last century. It was used as nurses’ quarters when a hospital was in operation next to it. The hospital is now a bank. The home had some more neat history but the web site is now down and I can’t remember it. It is still a beautiful building.
Now that we are one month into 2008, farewell to 2007 and The Gas Lantern. You were both great!

Reading Rainbow

Reading to each another is a favorite pass time of ours. Combined with the fact that we don’t have TV and went on a fair number of road trips this year we got a respectable number of books read. Caution: Dave was laughing so hard he couldn’t see while we were reading Cheaper by the Dozen. He was driving at the time. This required us to put the story down temporarily to keep us from flattening some poor lady crossing the street with a stroller or other like vulnerable pedestrians, duck crossings, city lawn maintenance men and such.


Lemony Snicket 4-13 (Read the first 3 during Christmas last year. We were captivated.)
Sea Wolf
New Moon
Twilight
Eclipse
Cheaper by the Dozen (Highly recommended. And where we got the inspiration for root beer)
Belles on their toes
Harry Potter 7
Wicked
A Walk in the woods
The life and times of the Thunderbolt kid - (Dave shared most of it with me through bursts of laughter)
Swiss Family Robinson (Not really what we were expecting.)
The Lonely Moose (Thank you Stephanie)
Panda Cake (From Dave’s childhood. He just had to find it.)
The Once and Future King
Kite Runner (started)
The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass
The Prince and the Pauper


These are in no particular order and do not include the books we read on our own. Most of these were fun to share together. And if I forgot any hopefully Dave will add to it.

Now Broadcasting From...

Beautiful, sunny Bagram Air Field!
Or BAF, as it is commonly known as. I like the sound of that- like a punch in the face from Bat-Man. "BAF! SOC! POW!"

Anyway.
I've been here for a few days and am getting to know my way around. There is only one road here named Disney Ave that makes a circle around the airfield. We got DQ, Pizza Hut, Burger King and a Columbia outlet. No joke. And there is a few little junk stores that we ignorant westerners call hadji-shops, where I bought a $20 broken watch the other day.

I'm living in a very nice hangar with a very colorful history. I think it was built by the Russians, because I doubt the Afghans had the money. But at some point the Taliban invaded the base, lined up all the enlisted dudes in the street and mass executed them all, then hung the officers from the rafters of our hangar and set them on fire. Scorch marks on the ceiling repudiate this. Supposedly there are even some photos lurking around here somewhere but I haven't seen them yet.

The place is probably haunted.

But I love it. We have so many nice things that most army guys here don't. Like on-site phones, hot showers, flushing toilets, individual rooms, gym, and soon we will even have a rock climbing wall. Its way better accommodations than my trip to Iraq. I am so thankful to not be living in a ditch or a cave or in the back of a tank like my fore-fathers.

Tennessee Winter

The snows have come to Tennessee.



I don't think I'll be digging out my snowshoes just yet.

Tongue tied

Last Sunday while enjoying church Dave leaned in very quietly and whispered, “I just realized something.”
“What is that?” I whisper back as reverently as possible so as not to encourage the surrounding children to increase their ongoing screaming.
“I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Me at a loss for words.


Google Earth has some nice images of Bagram airbase and the surrounding mountains such as this one. 


Wikipedia has an interesting map as well.

Over the Rainbow

While visiting family on our vacation Dave was introduced to color coded bookshelves. Within hours of our first day back from the trip I discovered Dave had all of our books in piles around our home sorted by color. Here is the result:



The other evening a few friends pointed out that with the chromatic change James Talmage “Jesus the Christ” was located next to Dan Brown “Angels & Demons.”




Dave went so far as to differentiate between bookshelves. One dedicated to manuals and textbooks vs. Novels and everything else. Thus we have two rainbow effects in our living room.




The only thing spared this pigment classification was our Lemony Snicket series. It was afforded this privilege due to the display box created for them back in April shortly after we finished reading them to each other (our favorite pastime).



It even has the Lemony Snicket logo on each side. Thanks to the Army’s generous handouts of camo face paint. Go Army! Or something.