Blog to Basics,

Sorry I vanished. Vacation was incredible but the moment I got back it fell quickly into the distance. I am trying to get a photo of me doing the worm, which I did about 30 times in Bali. I was great being their and seeing some old friends. Staci, it was awesome to see you and be a part of your wedding anniversary. We danced and partied till about four or five every night, had brunch the next day, went to the beach, the spa and back dancing. I got my first ever avacado hair bath, manicure and pedicure (I am now sporting my second manicure and pedicure). The last half of my vacation I was joined by my magnificently sexy French girl. We had been dating for exactly 10 days before the trip but once you go Zach, well, it's hard to shake. She flew-out on the Jan 1, just in time to spend one night out with Staci and Kyle before they left for the romantic gettaway part of their trip. We went out and danced all night, I brought my camera but the pictures...not so great, enjoy.

Right now I am incredibly busy. I am working on a few new stories--at least one good one (and one a lot more bland but necessary). More excitingly, I am traveling a lot to prepare for the largest single vacination campaing in the history of Indonesia. My organization, along with our partners, are vacinating 13 million children in Java for Measles and Polio (we are also giving them Vitamin A shots). The week long campaign starts Feb 20. I will probably go to Java next week for some media workshops and then to Jakarta for a few more planning meetings. I doubt I will spend much time in Aceh during February. During the campaign I will probably be doing a "visual journey" web blog for my orgs website. I will keep you posted.

I am going to be better at blogging, this is my new goal. I will spend less time crafting and more time just writting. When paticularly exciting things need to be artfully told I will do so, otherwise I will just talk.

Frenchy and I have hit a milestone, on Friday we will have been together for 7 weeks and I still haven't found a million things I dislike about her. She is an amazing cook, the French can turn an avacado into a three course meal, I can't remember ever eating as well as I do when she is in the kitchen. She is also amazingly patient with how insane I am. Her contract is up in April and she will not be renewing so we will probably get into a fight over nothing, blow-it way out of proportion and break-up around mid-March'ish--that is the standard approach we have both agreed upon.

I am training for a marathon, unfortunately I don't have the cushion of four to six months of training, the next closest run is in Kuala Lumpur March 18th, that looks like it will be the one (I wanted to do the Bali Marathon but it has been canceled indefinitely because of ongoing fears of a terrorist attack). I did my first long run on Sat, just over 11 miles, I have to try for 13.1 on Sunday. My goal is just to finish not match any of my previous times...we will see.

Okay, lastly, my job has sort-of changed in recent weeks and it now looks like I am assuming the role of regional communication delegate. I will be covering, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and the tsunami affected parts of Africa. Sometime between March and May I will spend about a month in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, I will also be taking a trip back to the states for a formal debrief, a trip to thailand shortly after that--I am unsure when and if I will be taking a trip to Africa, it really depends on the status of our program in Somalia.

The position change is more of a title change with a bit more travel. Over the next six months I will probably be spending about 50% of my time in Aceh the other 50% will be determinded by events around the region. The title change is the part that is the most exciting for me--it will open a lot of new doors and allow me to expand on some of my long term communication goals. The next eight months will be a very exiting and busy time.

Okay, Love you all and will be better at updating (I promise Autumn., just in case keep a 40 of Colt 45 cold for me--better yet, make it two deuce deuces...am I too old to say that now?).

Kyle and I mocking the endless slew of "cute" photos that we took. It's sad but in retrospect not only does this look so, well, stupid, we also look like we are both dressing alike and working on matching hair styles. We are not, let me say again, we are not. And my hair is not David Hasselhoff'ish, it is just wet and curly in the humidity so it looks more cropped than it is. Grrr, I am man hear me roar!!!

I hate it when some jerk takes a nice camera and assumes that it makes him a photographer...look at my artsy photograph though...

It's a shame my head looks so friggin big and pale in this picture. She looks cute though--hot little audurve.

Frenchy, Staci and Kyle. It is clear that my hot baguette is wondering what Kyle is trying to do with his hair and exactly how many v-necks can one man own? Do worry my dear, we all wonder the same thing.