This is exactly the kind of crazy shit that I was scared about while living in Dubai.

A British woman over there was told repeatedly that the tumors found in her breasts were benign, but guess what? They weren't.

She's now suing, apparently for $10 million (why the dollar value if she's British and they're in Dubai? Crazy Gulf News.)

Bet she won't get a dime, though.

No, I'm not commenting on the Labor Day Weekend traffic in my touristic hometown, I'm talking traffic on the old the internet tubes. Twenty-five minutes ago Newlywed in Dubai Year 2 had its 30,000th individual page view since September 3, 2007!! Can you believe it?

And not to be outdone, at about 5 am this morning Newlywed in Dubai Year 1 had its 48,100th individual page view since January 23, 2007.

That's so much traffic!

So hey, my brother and I saw that Clone Wars movie last night.

It's a little weird to me, now that I know some New Zealanders, that all of the clone troopers have a New Zealand accent. Of course, when I saw the last few movies that had Kiwi Temuera Morrison playing the clones I didn't know anyone from there.

New Zealanders are cool, and thus so are the clones.

The movie itself isn't great by any means. But we knew that going in, with all of the bad reviews out there. I did like the painterly quality to the characters and especially the backgrounds. Some of the stylization of the characters was cool, too.

For the most part, however, the story was just not-engaging and at points downright confusing (the only people in the theater, I kept asking my brother "wait, whose ship is that?"). Ooh Senators and Galactic Councils and ... yawn.

But I guess that's about par for the last few movies. The dialogue was stilted, too, and the action sequences were less-than-tense - two more hallmarks of a George Lucas production.

Luckily the new characters don't all suck. The preteen girl Padawan Jedi trainee, Ahsoka Tano, isn't nearly as lame as Jar-Jar.

And we learn that Jabba the Hutt had a gay uncle (but really, who doesn't these days?).

We also learn that there's a fine line between "Padawan training" and "child endangerment".

It'll be interesting to see where the TV series goes from here. I mean, it can't be as bad as Jar-Jar.

Can it?

Before she left Dubai, Liz bought the August issue of National Geographic which is all about Iran.

Sadly it'll be the closest she (or most of us) will ever get to seeing that historic but slightly screwed up country.

Anyway, elsewhere in the magazine I saw a neat little sidebar - the peace symbol is fifty years old this year - it was invented in 1958 by a British artist named Gerald Holtom.

Originally it was meant to be a logo for Nuclear Disarmament - the design combines the letters 'N' and 'D' in semaphore.

They say that you learn something new every day, so we got that one out of the way early today ...

Have you seen that Major League Baseball is starting instant replay on Thursday?

It's only for home runs and some foul balls, but it's a big step for the sport.

Sadly, the umpires are upset because the replay equipment is being installed off of the field. Their union is all up in arms. Plus I read something about their having to call umpire supervisors in New York before reversing a call.

On the other hand, the league is also trying to make games shorter this season.

Hmm, how will this all play out?

Do the words "friggin' disaster" mean anything to you?

Here's a good quote I read from Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona on the Boston Globe website:

"I know they don't care what I think, but I just think if you had another umpire on the crew, and you put him in the press box, with a little monitor, he could say, 'Hey, you missed that call,' and it would take 10 seconds.They have the ability to watch a replay, just like everybody in the clubhouse does and it would be over, and it would be a great teaching tool for younger umpires who come into the league."

I know I'm totally biased, but that's genius.

As I'm having a somewhat slow start to my day here, I didn't check my calendar until a few minutes ago.

That's when I saw today's reminder "Etisalat phone expires".

Etisalat, of course, is the state-owned cell phone provider in Dubai.

Wow, it was two years ago today that I got a phone in Dubai (see Phone fun).

As I didn't renew it, I officially don't have a phone number in Dubai anymore.

I do, however, have a flashy new RAZR V3xx here in the States. Email me for the number if I didn't send it to you. We'll talk.

Wow, this is insane. Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California just announced a special party for Hannah Montana star Miley Cirus' 16th birthday.

I don't care one iota about Cirus, Hannah Montana, or the party. What interests me is that on Sunday, October 5 they're closing the entire theme park at 5 pm.

But get this - it's not a private party, oh no. 5,000 "fans" can buy tickets for the 6 pm to 11 pm party. The price? A cheap $250.

Gah! That's fifty bones an hour!

But this isn't Disney overtly ripping off Hannah Montana fans. Nope. This is a much needed public service. Because somehow this is supposed to help drive awareness of the need for youth volunteerism.

What?

Specifically Youth Service America.

"In keeping with Miley’s passion for youth volunteerism, Disney Parks will make a significant contribution to Youth Service America."

So let me see, 5000 people at $250 a pop, that's ... $1.25 million dollars.

Jeesh! That'd better big a significant contribution there, Disney.

Honestly though, I don't care if Disney is ripping off some boenheads who'd pay way-too-much to see some teen pop star who'll be a reality show staple in about 2018. Nope. I own a few shares of Disney stock, that'll only drive the price up for me.

What I do care about is that family who has traveled all of the way to Disneyland for the weekend and find out the park closes before sundown. That's not cool.

Yesterday Liz had a funny idea for a title of the website. It's a little negative sounding, though, and I've already gone to all of the trouble of naming the site after myself, so I don't think we'll adopt it.

But still, "The Honeymoon is Over" is kind of amusing ...

Yesterday Liz and I spent the whole day driving around Portland and South Portland, alternating between seeing friends and family, getting coffee, and shopping.

Well that's not entirely true, a few times we met friends over coffee, and once I actually got coffee while Liz shopped. But you get the idea.

All said, I think we drank about Guatemala's yearly export of coffee ... in the eleven hours between nine and eight.

So on the plus side Liz was awake until sometime around ten last night. Jetlag be damned, she's got caffeine on her side!

The negative? She got up really early this morning.

Jetlag's brutal revenge.

So right now Liz is enjoying a little nap.

Don't worry, I'll get some coffee (or tea, or Red Bull) into her soon.

So my interns in Krasnodar, Iulia and Natasha, tell me that the RSS feed for the new site is now up and running.

I think all you have to do is click here or something:

Subscribe to joshedwards.com

Hope it works ...

In the South Portland Target right now trying out the whole "e-mail to blog" thing.

Check out the rad Lando toy I just saw.

Welcome to the new site!

We still have a few loose ends from Newlywed in Dubai to clean up (for example I anticipate a few fiery diatribes about our Dubai shipping company and the 30 boxes of our stuff that's been languishing in the port of Boston for about a week and a half now), but for the most part it'll center on setting up our new life in Maine.

It should be fun, just not in a "building-the-world's-tallest-structure" or "building-islands-shaped-like-palm-trees-in-the-open-gulf" kind of way.

If that doesn't sound like your particular brand of vodka, help yourself to as much food as you like and safe journey. No hard feelings.

Otherwise, come with me.