Birthday Party Weekend

Tomorrow is Jonathon's birthday so we started the party early by going to the Qatar Masters tournament which is on the European golf tour.

The weather was really nice and we got to watch some riveting golf.  My favorite part was when a ball was hit into the crowd.  There were bleachers set up at the 18th hole, or you could walk the course and follow around a specific golfer.  We aren't true groupies so we just watches various golfers.

 

Since we had to be so quiet during the golfing, we were given adequate time to be loud at an after party.  FYI, Natasha Bedingfield is not washed out.  She is rocking out at Masters golf tournaments in Doha.  It reminded me of dancing around the apartment with Meghan.

 

 

My knee made a full recovery, so this morning I did a little of this:

 



 



Okay, that picture was misleading.  It was just a half, but I PRed!  If you want to PR you should run this race, because it is the flattest race ever.

 

 

Jonathon was at the finish line to capture my sweaty glory.  In my head I looked a lot more enthusiastic than that.  Now we are off to partake in more birthday celebrating.

Payback

It is payback time.  While we were in Houston I got to travel internationally with work and now the tables have turned.  This morning Jonathon hopped on a plane headed to London and left me in the dust.  I know it is a work trip, but I am still jealous.  He will be back in time though to celebrate his birthday on Sunday (hint, hint).

This post is short and sweet (because there is a picture of chocolate).  We were busy this weekend, which wasn’t a bad thing.  We had our routine game night and softball game, but added a few new social events.  Being popular is exhausting.

I was shocked myself, but it was actually pretty chilly here the beginning of last week.  It was 54 deg F.  Don't trust the date the car says.

 

 

 

Friday we met some friends at a brunch.  Brunches are very popular here.  All the hotels have a Friday brunch that is all you can eat (and drink) for three hours.  Some people were warriors and really made every minute count.  We were newbies and still need to tweak our strategies.  I ate way too much. 

 

 

We went to the Hyatt and the brunch was served a short walk from the beach. 

 

 

 

 

 

I was extra impressed that they had a milk chocolate AND white chocolate fountain.  I should have spent the entire time at these beauties.  Jonathon was too busy getting a sugar high to look at the camera.

 

Saturday we attended a cooking demonstration and then got to eat the meal we just learned to cook.  We learned to make sweet and sour pawns and caramelized duck.  We wear fancy pants now.

Happy belated birthday to Grandpa Lyle!  We thought about you lots and hope you had a great day.  Happy early birthday Mike!  Badger where?

Dull Days

I have had a lot of time on my hands this weekend (I will explain in a moment) so I have been cruising the internet.  I accept full responsibility this time, because I didn't establish any rules before I left the States, but next time I will not be so understanding.  When something like this happens, I want you to drop everything and notify me via email, Skype, and/or smoke signals. 
 

I'm not fancy enough to link the video, so just hit he replay video under the countdown.

http://countdown.justintimberlake.com/

Summary:  I will be busting a move to new JT soon.  Joy, pure joy.
 

This weekend hasn't been as adventurous as usual.  I took my duty of making a dent in the couch very serious.  Let me start from the beginning.
 

The razors here are just different than in the States.  The quality is just lower, so my fuzzy legs and I were ecstatic when I found Nair at the store.  For those that doesn't know, Nair is a cream that you put on your skin which then proceeds to burn away hair.  (At this point you should be questioning why I wanted to use this product.)  This Nair was different than anything I've used before.  This Nair was in an aerosol can and the directions were all in Arabic, but Nair is Nair right?  I stuck my legs into the bathtub and started spraying them with Nair, but the aerosol can was crazy and foam was flying everywhere.  The next thing I know, I slipped on slimy Nair and hit my knee hard on the bottom of the tub.  I spent the rest of the weekend icing my knee and watching Breaking Bad with Jonathon.  Hence the boring post.
 

During the white elephant gift exchange at the Christmas celebration, I won some tabloid magazines that you find in the grocery store checkout line.  I continued my quest to do nothing productive this weekend by looking through the magazines.  I was extremely thankful to see that they had already been censored with black Sharpe.  I wonder if guys line up to be hired to look through all the magazines and censor them.
 

I wanted to celebrate national pizza week, but wanted it to be healthy to attempted to balance my lack of movement.  I found a recipe for pizza with cauliflower crush.  Surprisingly to nobody, Jonathon decided to make his pizza on a pita instead of the cauliflower crust.  I found it rather tasty.

Cauliflower Crust

 My knee is getting better, which is great news because I need to start practicing my dance moves for the new Justin Timberlake music.

Playing in the Sand

Happy early birthday Mandy!  You are amazing and I hope you never forget it.  Thank you for making me a better person.

 

This week I had a meeting in another company's office building.  These camel bones were in someone's office there.  They were pretty massive.  The bone owner offered to take my photo without me asking.  I think I have a new blogger friend! 

 

 

And yes, this is what I wear to the office.  I don't like to show too much shape, so I no longer tuck in my shirts.  I call it sloppy chic.  It is pretty amazing because I haven't worn a belt in months. 

 

Last night I went with a friend to see Les Miserables while Jonathon played cards with the men.  I spent two and a half hours wanting to punch Russell Crowe and extremely jealous of Amanda Seyfried's angel voice.  I still don't understand how Anne Hathaway can look so beautiful with a buzzed head and covered in dirt.  Wow, that was a really random paragraph, but I am too tired to do anything about it.

 

This morning we piled into the car to head to the Inland Sea.  We drove an hour south (to point B on the map) and then another hour of off-roading.

 

 

We finally found sand dunes.  Although, the sand got the better of us and we spend an hour digging one of the vehicles out of the sand.  Don't worry, we were smart and had two vehicles, shovels, and a tow strap.   

After all that digging we gave up on getting to the Inland Sea and just headed to the beach (point C on the map).

 

In the background of this photo you can see a hill in Saudi Arabia.

 

We did some shell collecting at the beach.  Engineers collect their shells in baggies and then document it.  I couldn't risk taking my treasures out of the bag even for the picture. 

 

Wishing You Health and Happiness in 2013

Happy New Year!  I hope you are having a wonderful beginning to 2013.  We must be playing nicely with others, because we are making lots of new friends.  (No need to worry long term friends reading, none of these new friends are better than any of you guys.)  This past week we were Mr. and Mrs. Popular.

Trans Europa Board Game

Thursday night some friends in the compound had us over for game night.  We played two new-to-us games, Wits & Wages and Trans Europa, and we played the beloved Cribbage.  I hope game night will be a reoccurring event.  I'm a nerd and have no shame in admitting that game night was a blast.

Friday morning (holy day in Qatar) we went to church for the first time since we got here.  The church was nondenominational and very low key.  A villa has been turned into a sanctuary and there is not an official pastor, so members of the congregation lead the service.  It feels more like a bible study, but the fact that services are held is impressive to me.  There are many countries that are primarily Muslim where other religions are not allowed to meet for worship.

On Friday evening the men played cards while the ladies gathered in another villa and chatted the night away. Then on Saturday we went boating with a co-worker and actually swam in the gulf in December.  It was definitely chilly, but we are enjoying the sunshine and lack of snow.

Last night we rung in the new year at a friend's party.  Doha doesn't celebrate New Year's Eve like the United States.  There weren't any fireworks, countdowns, or disco balls being dropped.  Most companies did not give their employees the day off today, but it was a holiday for us.  Today we enjoyed our vacation by sleeping in, cleaning (yes, I'm expecting you to be impressed because I cleaned 5 toilets), and then watching some matches at the Qatar Tennis Open.

   

We are looking forward to even more adventures in 2013.  We hope 2013 finds you in good health and is filled with happiness.  Happy belated birthday Jay.  Thanks for letting me watch 100+ hours of Sopranos with you so I can be paranoid for life.