Sunday, December 17, 2006
Short update weather etc.
Good morning friends and neighbors! Hope this is a nice Sunday morning for al of you. Just thought I'd do a quick update.
It rained off and on all day yesterday and has been raining most of today. This morning when our day started the temperature was 67. Not too bad. I knew our weather was supposed to cool off when the rains stopped, so I was checking on everything. I looked about an hour later and the temperature had dropped. Still raining though. Now this kind of weather is great as far as I am concerned and most people here may be sending me home if I tell them that this weather is great one more time. Our temperature has dropped all day long. It is now 5pm here and the temperature is 50 and with the wind chill it feels like 37. NICE!!! I do have to say it has been a bit chilly in house most of the day. I decided it was time to cook a roast. You know heat up the house a bit. Mike will appreciate that when he gets home for sure. Having no carpet and no heater makes for a bit of chill early mornings and evenings. Back to the temp. Our low tonight was supposed to be 51 as you can see we have already gone below that. We will just have to see what it is like in the morning.
We have had dove and the sparrows eating all day long. They don't like cold weather at all. They think 59 with no breeze is cool. You can tell by looking at them. LOL! The cat we feed off and on wanted in last night. We just fed it and said no. Mike told me here I needed to say "La La" That is no here. Jon would never have made it as a child. Ask Michelle! Anyway, we now have up to 25 or 26 dove at one time. They are going to grow a lot as long as we are here. We probably buy food for them at least twice a week. I need to find a place I can buy bird seed like at Wal-Mart. A nice 25 pound bag would be nice.
I have moved furniture today. I hope Mike likes it. If not he can help me move it back later on this week. We will have to share the couch while watching tv, so that could be a draw back for him.
I got my hair cut for the first time here yesterday. It looks pretty good. The lady who cut it might have been 4 foot tall. To cut the hair on the top of my head she had to pull it up and get the amount she wanted to cut in her fingers just right and then lay it over so she could reach it. Good thing I am not tall! The chairs don't go up and down like ours do in the states. It feels much better. And they spoke great English. Mike thought she did a good job too. He didn't see it till I came out, because men can't go into the beauty shop. They have segregated places for cutting hair and all of the other beauty things you can get done. She didn't wash my hair another lady did and this girl who cut my hair only asked me two things while cutting it. One was did I want it shorter. Interesting question when you are there for a haircut and the other one was over the ear. When she was just about through with blow drying it she asked which side I parted it on and of course, it was the opposite way she did it. She also combed it all toward my face and I always want it out of my face. All I had to do was go to the car and brush it once and it was fine. If I had had a little hairspray it would have looked pretty much like normal. No comments Jon! LOL!
I also kind of hung some pictures of some of our family today. Of course, Preston has the most pictures up, but we have others too. Of course, we also have our calendars up. Mike's has our kids on it for this month and mine has Michelle, Mom, Mike, Chris, and me on it for this month. We took it at the Acadian Village last year I think. I am going to have to go through the pictures again and see if I can get some more of the rest of the family, so if you have taken a good picture of someone in the family send it on. I might print it and hang it!
Well, I better go for now! Hopefully I will have an update a little later on with a couple of pictures we have taken. Have a great day!
Debbie
It rained off and on all day yesterday and has been raining most of today. This morning when our day started the temperature was 67. Not too bad. I knew our weather was supposed to cool off when the rains stopped, so I was checking on everything. I looked about an hour later and the temperature had dropped. Still raining though. Now this kind of weather is great as far as I am concerned and most people here may be sending me home if I tell them that this weather is great one more time. Our temperature has dropped all day long. It is now 5pm here and the temperature is 50 and with the wind chill it feels like 37. NICE!!! I do have to say it has been a bit chilly in house most of the day. I decided it was time to cook a roast. You know heat up the house a bit. Mike will appreciate that when he gets home for sure. Having no carpet and no heater makes for a bit of chill early mornings and evenings. Back to the temp. Our low tonight was supposed to be 51 as you can see we have already gone below that. We will just have to see what it is like in the morning.
We have had dove and the sparrows eating all day long. They don't like cold weather at all. They think 59 with no breeze is cool. You can tell by looking at them. LOL! The cat we feed off and on wanted in last night. We just fed it and said no. Mike told me here I needed to say "La La" That is no here. Jon would never have made it as a child. Ask Michelle! Anyway, we now have up to 25 or 26 dove at one time. They are going to grow a lot as long as we are here. We probably buy food for them at least twice a week. I need to find a place I can buy bird seed like at Wal-Mart. A nice 25 pound bag would be nice.
I have moved furniture today. I hope Mike likes it. If not he can help me move it back later on this week. We will have to share the couch while watching tv, so that could be a draw back for him.
I got my hair cut for the first time here yesterday. It looks pretty good. The lady who cut it might have been 4 foot tall. To cut the hair on the top of my head she had to pull it up and get the amount she wanted to cut in her fingers just right and then lay it over so she could reach it. Good thing I am not tall! The chairs don't go up and down like ours do in the states. It feels much better. And they spoke great English. Mike thought she did a good job too. He didn't see it till I came out, because men can't go into the beauty shop. They have segregated places for cutting hair and all of the other beauty things you can get done. She didn't wash my hair another lady did and this girl who cut my hair only asked me two things while cutting it. One was did I want it shorter. Interesting question when you are there for a haircut and the other one was over the ear. When she was just about through with blow drying it she asked which side I parted it on and of course, it was the opposite way she did it. She also combed it all toward my face and I always want it out of my face. All I had to do was go to the car and brush it once and it was fine. If I had had a little hairspray it would have looked pretty much like normal. No comments Jon! LOL!
I also kind of hung some pictures of some of our family today. Of course, Preston has the most pictures up, but we have others too. Of course, we also have our calendars up. Mike's has our kids on it for this month and mine has Michelle, Mom, Mike, Chris, and me on it for this month. We took it at the Acadian Village last year I think. I am going to have to go through the pictures again and see if I can get some more of the rest of the family, so if you have taken a good picture of someone in the family send it on. I might print it and hang it!
Well, I better go for now! Hopefully I will have an update a little later on with a couple of pictures we have taken. Have a great day!
Debbie
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
General update
Hello everyone! Hope you all have had a good week so far. Our work week is just about over, so I thought I do a little update. As you know we went on our dhow trip and had a good time.
The Asian Games started on the 1st officially. Opening ceremonies were that night. Tickets went for QR500 and QR650. In dollars that is $137.00 and $178.00. Not horrible, but enough. I didn't figure it was worth that much a piece. I could see part of it from the roof. Anyway, I am so glad we didn't go, because it was rainy all day long. I was waiting for the lighting of the torch (our tower) and would just go up to the roof every so often. It was raining or I would have stayed up there. As it got later and later in the night it was getting cooler and the wind was blowing anywhere from 20 to 30 mph. Finally the rain stopped and I stayed for a little while to watch from the roof. They were only on the Ms, so I went back down to watch a little more tv while Mike slept on the couch. He just couldn't stay awake. I went up 30 minutes later and they were up S, so I went back down and did a little figuring and decided it would be a little after 10:00pm when they were through the alphabet of countries to be introduced. They did a few other things and then the fireworks started. Man, it was cold up there in just a long sleeved t-shirt. Anyway, my rooftop neighbors were up there too and we watched. It was a great display, but the smoke stayed so low because of the moisture in the air that we had to wait till the fireworks got above the smoke before we could see it. It was still pretty. They lasted about 20 minutes nonstop.
I finally got a picture of the tower last night. I wanted to get a picture when there was something on the big screen at one of the stadiums to the right, but I never could catch it. The screen is huge and like a huge television screen. You can see it clear as a bell from our roof. On the tower in the lights that go up and down it they also write things on it. I didn't get a picture of that. It is too hard. on the lower part of it you will see a small triangle of light and that is a tv screen. You can see what is on in the stadium when driving by or walking any where near the stadium. It just doesn't show up very well when they is nothing on at the stadium. Anyway, they finally lit the torch. I thought it would be a larger flame according to the way the tower is shaped and everything, but it is still large. Just not in comparison to the tower. Anyway, it all went really well and about 15 minutes after they lit the tower and everyone was leaving it started raining really hard. Thunder, lightening, wind, and rain. All of it. I am so glad I was not in the crowd of people trying to leave and get to their cars. I could not take a picture of the tower that night because it would not have shown up. Apparently the games are going really well. Jason, you have asked and asked me why it is called the Asian Games and is in the Middle East and I think I have you an answer you will like. From the statistics I have seen on the games so far the Asian countries are winning it all! I haven't checked in a few days so that could have changed, but I don't think they could get in the lead ever. I am hoping we get a chance to go this Friday or Saturday. If it is raining I won't plan on going unless it is an inside game.
We had rain most of last week. It was really nice. The cool air has been great. After all of the rain I was able to open the house without having tons of sand coming in. I learned my lesson on that one earlier. Today is the first time I have closed the house up all week. It isn't that hot yet this morning, but it is supposed to get in the high 70s today. I never opened it up this morning so I turned the a/cs on low. So far not much or a breeze to make it feel good. Mike was told the other day that the rainy season should be over. I am hoping not. It sure is nice to see things start to bloom again and the grass (where there is some) turn nice and green. Of course, with that rain came the cooler temperatures and that has been nice. Cool in the house of an evening even with the house closed up. It was 59 degrees three mornings this week. NICE! For two days it was only 68 for the high. Now I know that doesn't begin to compare to the weather all of you in the states have been having, but it was just great here. We do have a 70% chance for rain tomorrow and a little bit during the weekend, so maybe we will have a little bit more rain in this rainy season. LOL! Can you imagine it only raining in the month of December and just for a little bit. I don't think we got over an inch and a half. I am guessing, because I know we got 3/4 of an inch once and almost once again after that. Most of the time we get rain it won't even measure. It is a nice enjoyable time of the year here though.
Seems like everyone in the states is just about ready for Christmas. We aren't doing much here. I have found a Christmas radio station on the computer and it is nice to hear the music. I actually have about 3 of them now. At least I have a choice. LOL! They don't play Christmas songs in the stores. I have figured they only do the commercial part of Christmas here in the stores and stuff. No nativity scenes or anything like that. They do have the toys, Christmas trees, decorations and things like that.
We found a great place to eat here. It is like a little cafe or diner in the states. It is called Ric's Kountry Kitchen. The couple who started it are from Louisiana. They are known for the huge plates of food and especially breakfasts. We have been twice now. They have food that tastes just like home. I really believe they import their beef from the states, because it tastes just like home. Most of the beef we get from here is from New Zealand or Australia. It has a bit of a different taste, but is still good. If you are cooking it at home all you have to do it put a little seasoning on it and it is real good. Especially Hebert's seasoning. Anyone wanting to taste it just look Jon up. He puts it on about everything! They have everything there from nachos, chili cheese fries and other kinds of appetizers to burgers, sandwiches, soups, breakfasts of all kinds, steaks, corned beef, chicken fried steak, and many more things. They have fried okra and it is pretty good. Needs seasoning. Nothing is salted. Some things are peppered. They have hot dogs too and that may sound funny, but they are rare here and the are American wieners, so that is special. I haven't had one but it is nice to know. They have bbq plates, ranch style beans, slaw and things like that. When you really want something from the states and want it to taste just like it that is the place to go. Everywhere else that is an American franchise uses different beef. The chicken always tastes the same. Anyway, this couple who started this in Doha have 6 places now. I know they have one in Bahrain and a few other places. Of course, it costs a little more, but when you want it you can go get it. Someone Mike know and I think used to work with has a friend over here working now and is new. Dad called him and visited for a bit. If we can remember we are going to call tomorrow and see if he would like to go eat at Ric's on Friday. That is his only day off too, so we will get to eat there again. When you are new in town it is nice to know a place like that till you get used to it here.
Well, we are still feeding birds and we have one orange and white cat that comes up for food every now and then. We had salmon patties yesterday and it was here before I even opened the can. It sure did like drinking the juice from it. The birds weren't too happy with it being there though. The cat didn't leave till I gave it the skin, fat and bones from the salmon. It was bulging it was so full. LOL! The birds are glad it isn't here this morning.
Well, that is about all of the info I have for now. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Debbie
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Dhow Fishing Trip
Well, we made the dhow fishing trip. A dhow is a fishing boat. We had a great time. It would have been better if we could have gone out to where the big fish were, but the weather was too bad. I caught 3 little fish and Mike caught one. So we did catch something. I believe most of the fish caught that day could have been used for bait. LOL! This first picture is of Mike and sitting down waiting for everyone else to get on board. It took a while and there weren't that many of us. They were just slow. The next picture is of a boat just like ours. It is a wooden boat with an upper deck that is on the back half of the boat. It has cushions and stuff all around the
sides against the railing. It was really nice. Only the lower deck has a roof. The upper deck is totally open. Really nice the day we went because it was overcast and we had a great breeze. Not the best for fishing, but we had a good time. Not great for the people who got seasick. All but 3 women got sick and one man got sick. A few others didn't feel very well. They didn't get sick though. On this boat they feed you and everything. We had coffee, hot tea and fruit for a snack. We didn't eat lunch till 1:00 pm and we were 
to leave at 10:00am. Everyone enjoyed the snack including the people who got sick later on. They shouldn't have eaten, but most of them never had been on a boat before. As you can see in this next picture there are stairs leading to the upper deck and you can see the tables behind that guy where the food is. (You may need to double click to get a larger picture.) You can also see strollers. We had 2 babies, 2 toddlers, two between about 6 and 11, and a couple in their early teens. They were all great! There is a speaker or two you might be able to see on the beam going across the boat near the stairs. We had great music. We had Christmas music. Bet you never thought we would hear that! 
All of the songs that were Christmas songs and a few others were proclaiming Jesus and either these Arabs who ran the boat weren't Muslim or they didn't know what they were playing. It was very clear though. LOL! They also played some rock off and on. It was all in English. One of the songs was "Go Tell it on the Mountain". Anyway, we thought that was interesting. This picture now is one I took about 3/4 of length of the boat. People are helping themselves to the snacks from the tables and getting drinks. They fixed us bbq for lunch while we were heading out into the gulf. That would be the Persian Gulf. The benches on the sides back by the tables have long cushioned padding on them You can stretch out and lay on them if you want. The rest of the seating on the lower deck is those little chairs you can see on the left of the picture. We had a great time and this next picture is of Mike laying on the cushion that are Arabic style on the upper deck. They are very comfortable. We all had on sunglasses, because 
of the glare not because of the sun. It was really overcast and we did get a little bit of rain a couple of times. We would have stayed up on the top deck most of the day, but we forgot our sunscreen and didn't put any on that morning either so we went back down to the shady lower deck. I got to meet more people of course and most of them spoke English. Some of the women don't speak English, but all of the men do. All of the kids behaved and had a good time. We got back around 4:00pm and we had a nice relaxing day. We got to see lots of tankers and other boats while we were out. The food was good and the sights of the skyline and coast were so pretty. I took more pictures and if you want to see them you will have to wait a few days and I will have them in a web album. Just use the link I have given you before and you will be able to get to them.By the way, this morning here our temp was 59!!!! I was excited. The high was 68 and I had the house open. We had so much rain over the past few days that there is still mud out there so I opened the house. It is pretty cold in my house now that the sun is going down, so I am fixing to go close all of the windows. I know we didn't get much more than an inch of rain, but the dust is about gone because of it. The weather is cool and I am enjoying it all.
Have a great day!
Debbie
