Old Balls

The American School of Doha sponsored a softball tournament this weekend.  The school's girls JV and varsity softball teams played as well as the varsity boys baseball team.  That means that we spent our weekend being beat by 9th graders.  Jonathon hit a double and when he got to 2nd base, the 2nd baseman said, "Good hit sir."  Nothing like feeling old for three straight days in a row.

This is big news people.  Doha has been talking about Ikea coming to town since we moved here six months ago.  It just opened and you better believe we found time between softball games to stuff our faces with Swedish meat balls and meat Shawarma.  Amazing.



We might have purchased a few items too.  That store is tricky.  I challenge you to enter Ikea and not spend a cent.  Impossible.  When we have children we will be visiting Ikea daily to drop them off for some free daycare.  Parents of the year right here.

Don't give up on us yet.  We are working on getting more exciting in the coming weeks.

Jokes and Shiny Metal

Last week was a short post because I did some Insanity video workouts with Jonathon and my arms were too sore to type.  That is also why there weren’t any pictures of me.  If my arms were too sore to type, then you better believe I wasn’t brushing my hair.  You should be thankful that you didn’t have to see me in person.

 

 

 

 

Work = Crazy.  Our platform is currently in a planned shutdown.  Facilities need to take shutdowns to complete maintenance, but that means we aren’t making any oil.  We want to complete the maintenance as quickly as possible so we can start producing oil again.  That really means that work is crazy busy.  You can expect more grammatical errors and typos than normal for the next couple of posts.  Sleep is lacking.

 

Before shutdown craziness, we enjoyed some Chris Tucker’s humor. It was interesting to observe what jokes were funny to different nationalities.  Chris did some jokes about dating and being broke that didn’t get many laughs from the Qataris.  (In Qatar, typically your family picks your husband/wife.)  But, apparently cop jokes are universal.

 

Trouble

 

We also visited the immigration department to get our magical e-gate passes.  These passes allow us to bypass the normal immigration process when exiting and entering Qatar.  Now, we just get our fingerprints scanned by a shiny machine instead of speaking to real people.  Three cheers for less time spent in lines.  Getting the passes was interested.  I pretty much got my fingerprints scanned and then was told to sit in the ladies waiting section while Jonathon filled out the paperwork and paid.  I actually got in trouble for waiting in line with Jonathon and was redirected to the ladies waiting section until all business was final.  Trouble maker right here.

 

 

 

 

I got to unwind with a run in the park this weekend, which lead me to discovering some spaceship restrooms.  After you used the bathroom it automatically cleaned itself.  I need one of these at my house.  Jealous.

That's all for now folks.

Office Supply Artwork

No last minute trips to Europe this week, so here is my weak attempt to entertain you.  I know I get excited easily, but I was pretty impressed with the latest artwork at the mall.  It is made from sticky notes.



 

Shake It Up

We didn’t want to be too predictable, so this week we shook it up and even keep ourselves guessing.  I made my first trip offshore and spent the night at our platform.  It took about 25 minutes by helicopter to reach the platform. 

 

 Source: offshore-technology.com    

Around 4pm on Wednesday, Jonathon learned that he was headed to Brussels, Belgium on the 2am flight for work.  He enjoyed the cold weather for a few minutes, but then his fingers froze and he wasn’t as jealous of our friends in all the glorious snow storms.  He endured the cold and went sightseeing so he could provide these amazing photos for your viewing pleasure.

 

  
 
 

 

 He came back with waffles and chocolate.  My husband is a smart man and knows how to keep me happy.  Who knows what next week will hold for us, but we are looking forward to the possibilities.  We hope you have a great week too.      

Abu Dhabi

Happy belated birthday to Jonna!  We celebrated in your honor all week long.  We hope you had a fun filled birthday.

Last Tuesday, Feb 12^th was a holiday in Qatar.  It was Sport’s Day; a day to promote being active (and decrease obesity).  I support any holiday where we get the day off of work.  We celebrated by sleeping in and going to the beach.  In order to at least say we did something active, we played volleyball, Frisbee, and nerf football (American football, the kind we are too often reminder by the Europeans that you actually play with your hands not your feet).

This past weekend we had a grand time in Abu Dhabi.  Abu Dhabi is located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is only a 35 minute plane ride away.  The UAE is a country made up of seven emirates each governed by a different emir.  Think of it as seven different states each having a different governor.  Abu Dhabi and Dubai (where we traveled to in December) are two of the seven emirates.  The two towns are only 80 miles away from Dubai.

(Look who learned to use a photo editor.  This is a real blog now!)  We really enjoyed our time in Abu Dhabi.  We were uber tourists and went on the Big Bus Tour.  It was a great overview of what Abu Dhabi has to offer.

The Emirates Palace Hotel is a seven star hotel and cost about $3 Billion to build.

 

 

 

Chris, these are the building from the article you sent Jonathon. 

We toured the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque main prayer room.  This Grand Mosque is the largest mosque outside of Saudi Arabia.  It can hold 40,000 people.  There is a time block in the morning between prayer times when non-Muslims are able to visit.  We had to remove our shoes and I wore Harry Potter’s invisible cloak.    

 

 

 

 

 

Kelsy Potter

Now that we feel settled, we have the travel bug.  We are looking forward to many grand adventures over the next few years.  We are planning our first large trip to Malaysia in April.

The Honeymoon Stage Is Over

You guys are in for a real treat, because I think I’m particularly funny today.  To escape the endless humor, please select the red X in the upper right hand corner of your screen.  Consider yourself warned.

Lately I’ve been having a lot of 1^st world problems.  If you aren’t familiar with 1^st world problems, they are problems that people living in third world nations would love to have.  Some examples are, “This morning Starbucks was out of soy milk so I had to get skim” or “My fingers are too big for the keyboard on my new I-phone 12.”

I was complaining about one of my 1^st world problems to our board gaming friends (who lived in Oman prior to Qatar).  Here is a dramatization of our conversation: 

Me:  Does your dish washer work well?  Ours never gets the silverware clean. 

Gamer: (full belly laugh) Are you adding salt to the dish washer?

Me: No.  I’m not stupid.

Gamer: (more laughter) You need to add salt.

Me:  (blank stare)

Gamer: Seriously you have to add salt.

The villa showed me up again.  Gamer #1 showed me the secret compartment where you add salt to the dish washer.  I still have no clue why you need to add salt, but I don’t care one little bit because my dishes are oh so sparkly now.

The intent of this post is not to be negative, but the initial moving high has worn off and I am starting to miss simple things that I really used to take for granted.  Things I miss:

1. Obviously all of you
2. Swiffer
• You can only buy mops and buckets here, but the mops stink.  The mops look like the ones the janitors used in your elementary school.  There aren’t any of those fancy mops that fold in half and squeeze out the water.  You have to squeeze out the water but twisting it in your own hands.  Mopping takes ten times longer without my Swiffer friend.  Treasure your Swiffers people, treasure them.
3. Spin and yoga class
• Some times kicking your our butt isn't as good as someone else yelling at you. 
4. Maple syrup
• There actually is maple syrup here, but it costs about $15 per cup.  No maple trees in the desert.
5. Pulled pork sandwiches
• To be fair, I have missed pulled pork sandwiches since moving away from Lawrence, but since pork is forbidden it makes it seems so much better.  I seriously had a dream about Vermont Street BBQ.  It was beautiful.
6. Running being normal
• There are so many things different about running.  People stare at me when I go running.  It is not as common for females to run here, but since sidewalks don't exist I am forced to go run in the most popular park along the ocean.  This park is full of people who like to stare at me.  I can't run in shorts.  On warm days my sweat evaporates automatically and I am just left with a layer of salt clogging my pores. 
7. Sundresses
• I will miss these more in the summer months.  My knees miss sunlight.
8. Seasons
• I'm jealous that I'm not in the monster storm on the East coast. 
9. KU basketball
• Some mornings we wake-up and are able to watch some hoops while eating our cereal.
10. Easy communication

 Last night we embraced the fact that we lived in Texas for three years and did some two steppin' at the Texas A&M Boot Scoot.  There is a branch of A&M in Doha.

 

 

Yes, that is a huge container of salsa between us at the table.  We were very happy.

 

 

I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night, And Party Every Day

Jonathon's birthday was on Sunday and we celebrated in style.  Happy birthday to the greatest hubby ever.

 

 

 

 

We meant business

 

Reminders that we live in Qatar:

Our view at the roundabout

 

Camels hanging out next to a parking lot