Due to popular demand … well, one of you asked … a list of 10 ideas/concepts/events I like about living in Abu Dhabi:

(And I also get to do a list, and everyone likes lists.)

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It always has struck me as almost humorous, this concept of flooding in the desert. Shouldn’t they be mutually exclusive concepts? Even after decades in the parched interior of California, the notions of “bone dry” and “raging water” just don’t jibe.

Yet, here I am, in the middle of the night on Abu Dhabi Island, one of the drier spots on the planet … keeping an eye peeled on every nook of the Teeny Apartment to make sure not too much water pours into the interior.

Don’t want to sound cocky, but I don’t think we’re taking on any more water. But it continues to rain, so …

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Well, that was fun. And a little random.

Thirteen people watching hockey from 12:15 a.m. till about 2:30 a.m., in a city where the only ice in town is in someone’s drink.

The gold-medal game of the Vancouver Olympics. Canada against (pronounced “uh-GAINst”) the U.S., starting at 12:15 p.m. PST.

Not something I normally would bother to stay up for. if I had a TV … but the Canadians were so totally, over-the-top into it, all day, that it seemed as if they were inviting every American at the newspaper to come over to one Canadian’s very nice (and big) apartment near the beach … to watch the hockey game! (One of the Britons in the room said, teasing, I think, “Is this match for some sort of championship?” and I thought a Canadian might slug him.)

So, invite over some Americans so you can gloat over them. Well, OK. Sure. You say there might be beer?

Sure, I’ll go over with a couple other Yanks and “represent”. Fill a quota. Provide the loyal opposition. And watch a  bunch of Canadians go a little bit nuts.

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Brad Friedel is probably the best goalkeeper in the Premier League. Which, arguably, makes him the best goalkeeper in the world.

Yet he hasn’t played for the U.S. national team since 2004. He announced his retirement from “international” soccer — that is, the U.S. national team — in February of 2005.

Since then, he hasn’t missed a match in the Premiership, setting a league record in the process (currently at 215 straight), and was named the league’s keeper for the decade by Sky Sports analyst Andy Gray.

So, why is this guy not playing for the U.S. national team?

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After all the Winter Olympics I went to, and chased around American teams that averaged about two medals every three days … and I miss one for the first time since 1988 … and the U.S. is apparently going to win more medals than anyone.

Have you been talking about this, back home? How big a deal this is?

The United States has not finished atop the Winter Olympics medal standings since 1932, the first Lake Placid Games. And it is about to replicate that top-o’-the-medals finish at Vancouver, only 78 years later.

Are you Olymaniacs appreciating this? All it took was the introduction of a half-dozen random sports, a whole lot of money and some really, really strange breakthroughs by your winter Yanks.

And I’m missing it!

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The most common housing unit in Abu Dhabi is something called the “villa.”

Now, if you live in the U.S., you hear “villa” and you’re probably thinking “posh,” maybe “Italianate.”

But in Abu Dhabi, the villa can range from kinda nice to seriously down-market. And it almost always is oddly, almost randomly ornate — ish.

Take a look at these three in my neighborhood.

The first is across the street from where we live. It is almost pink, and this photo, taken from the front just before sunset, shows that all these windows face the pitiless Abu Dhabi sun. And how about the strange ornamentation? Indian, perhaps? Arabian? Noveau fortress style, with the walls around the front?

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I don’t allege to be the ultimate Landon Donovan watcher. I’ve known him since he was 16, but it’s not as if he’s been readily accessible for the past few years.

And this may be more about just reading between the lines than any special insight.

On the Everton Football Club home site, Landon is quoted as saying he would like to go back to Everton. Not now, necessarily. Not this year. Actually there are no definitive statements in here at all. Someday.

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I recognized the cab driver. I had been in his cab before. I was sure of it. First time that has happened since I’ve been here. He picked me up outside the newspaper, so perhaps he lives nearby?

Older. Maybe 50, though a lot of these guys have had a hard life, so maybe he was in his 40s. White beard. Trimmed, not crazy-in-all-directions.

He spoke a bit more English than many, and he seemed interested in using it. Especially when he found out I was American, not English, as he had first assumed.

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Maybe all of you already know about this. The Josh Sacco version of the Herb Brooks speech from before the 1980 U.S. hockey game vs. the Soviet Union? It’s all you’re talking about over there?

It must be a big deal if it’s penetrated into the no-Winter Olympics Zone that is the Arabian Peninsula.

First, the link to the video. I’m not even going to save it for after the break. Play it. It will slay you.

Then come back and we will talk among ourselves.

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I’m going to do the math. I’ve been out of the United States for … hold on … for 128 days now. My longest consecutive stretch, eclipsing the 120 (or thereabouts) I spent in and around Hong Kong in 2008-09.

No, not a significant stretch for veteran expats, or career diplomats or military people based overseas. But a PR (personal record)  is a PR.

And the basis of a list.

The 10 things I miss most* about being away from home in Long Beach/California/USA:

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