"I will be home and showered and probably three beers in by the time Carmichael makes it in."

My "distraction of the moment" is following Armstrong at the Leadville 100. Yes, I know he's degenerated into a womanizing tabloid figure (what was up with the whole Olsen twin thing?), and I have been reminded that I should be following the Olympics, but I'm curious to see how much of a bad-ass Lance still is on the bike-- and a mountain bike no less. The race is Aug 9, by the way--- www.leadville100.com

Pushed to predict his finish time for Saturday's race, Armstrong said he thinks he'll come in in the neighborhood of eight hours, or about an hour behind the winner — which at Leadville equates to about fifth place...

"I fully expect to get beat up," he said.

He did, however, engage in a little trash talk with coach Chris Carmichael, a Leadville veteran who will compete again this year.

"I know I can beat Carmichael. I will be home and showered and probably three beers in by the time Carmichael makes it in."

Photographs and Afghan Naan

I haven't taken photos lately but I should probably start again, post them for everyone to see.

I saw a HUGE spider in the gym the other day when I was doing sit-ups and I wished I had my camera then. It was as big and hairy as a small tarantula but it was light brown.

I'll get a photo of the sewage truck-- the tank is hand painted in blues and reds and yellows and it's quite pretty. They love to decorate their trucks here and the Soldiers call them "jingle trucks" because they have bells and chains and all kinds of decorations hanging off the sides, jingling as the trucks rock their way over the pot-holed roads.

I'm still trying to photograph that FOB dog-- she's a little grey and black mutt, about 40 pounds, with a curled tail and pointy ears. She gets into the FOB by climbing up the Hesco barriers and sandbags and squirming her way through the barbs of the concertina wire. I guess she eats garbage on the FOB. Americans have the best garbage in all of Asia, every Afghan dog knows that. People ignore her and she keeps her distance, always on the move. She's scared the crap out of me at night when she streaks through the beam of my flashlight.

I haven't seen her for a few days. I also haven't seen cats for a few weeks. There used to be a lot of cats that lived inside one of the qalats-- I thought it would be good to have cats around-- keep the rodent population in check. I heard that the commander put a contract on the cats and the Afghan laborers took care of them.

Which reminds me, the medics here provide aid for local national workers on the FOBs, mostly "terps" but also laborers and the guys who pull security on our walls (picture bearded guys with AK47s in dark green camo and white sneakers-- actually there is interesting story about those guys but I'll get to that later...) Anyway, the Afghans will bring food for the medics as a gift for services rendered.

They usually bring garlic naan and kabob wrapped in old Afghan newsprint. It looks and smells great, and the guys who bring it are smiling and expressing genuine respect and thanks. I find it vaguely sad-- impoverished people offering gifts of food to Americans. The food is usually dumped. Diarrhea, otherwise known as a "leaky o-ring", is prolific here, and eating local food may contribute to this? Most of the meat is supposedly lamb but the only livestock I have seen has been thousands of goats, some camels, and a few skinny cows. I haven't seen any sheep. Lots of dogs though.

I admit to some amount of paranoia. I have yet to eat local food and my guts have nevertheless been populated by some southwest Asian organism (I also have yet to go to the local bazaar due to my vaguely irrational notions about the stereotypical suicide bombers' affinity for markets and bazaars). To go to the market you have to be armed, but body armor is optional!

There's a bakery on the FOB-- the guy makes cinnamon and garlic naan. I gotta go check it out. Take a photo of that too...