Happy birthday to me

I've had a few birthdays in my time, but none have been sweeter nor more special than his one.  It's partially the reason for my recent absence from the blog.  The celebration started the night that the family arrived at the Dammam airport.  I along with David and Reddi (our house boy) orchestrated a welcoming committee at the international pick up point (see pics) and made a paparazzi type scene.  It truly was a great time and boy were they a sight for sore (lonely) eyes.

Our cargo truck (arranged by Reddi) was a bit small and trying to fit their 23 bags of luggage in the back of a Toyota compact truck was like trying to fit 50lbs of potatoes in a 25 lb bag.  But Reddi and the driver wove some Indian magic with the ball of twine they brought and we made it home without much incident aside from some tired bodies.

I now know what it must have felt like for the early century coast lined towns when a cargo ship docked at their commissary.  I kid you not, I once again felt the magic of Christmas as we unpacked the plethora of gifts and items brought from half way around the world.  And what made it sweeter was the fact that it was my famil/y who had made the special delivery.

Since then it has been a whirl wind of adventure for all.  We ventured to our Neighboring town of Rahima and then got really brave and visited Dhahran.  Friday's have been spent with the branch to renew our connection with the almighty and develop meaningful relationships with others.

Alex just came back from her first full day of interning with SAco and she was really excited about her role.  She participated in some high level meetings and offered her input at strategic times.

We are closing in on the month of Ramadan and look forward to experiencing this sacred month first hand.  It means even more change on top of what we are already trying to adjust to, but I thinks it's just another amazing experience for us to see.

Well it's now time for some cake and a couple of quick calls then off to counting camels to drift off to sleep

Staying distracted

As the days and hours shorten until the arrival of my family, I've found I need to keep myself occupied to prevent self-imposed hysteria.  So my strategies lately have included a new wrinkle to my exercise routine - swimming.  I've never been known to stand out as a swimmer, in fact a calendar instead of a stop watch would be more useful when timing me, however I find that I really love it.  It gives me a needed respite from the unearthly heat and humidity as well as some great alone time. More by circumstances than choice an impromptu men's association has been formed.  Membership requires that you are currently a bachelor and/or without family.  There are quite a few of us now from church and work that fit into this category. A typical gathering includes dinner at the golf club (killer chicken burritos), bowling, a run to Rhahima for needed groceries, and finally a major jam session without instruments. Well knowing that my time is short with the boys club, I decided to make hay at the alley.  So my team (posmo = Peter and me) took on team Neg-stag (David and Randy).  After finding my favorite ball "goldie" and lacing up my brand new bowling shoes I proceeded to enter the zone / flow.  All the stars aligned and the spirits of past bowling greats shined down on me as I proceeded to roll a 176 followed up with a 154.  The ironic thing is that my new found bowling prowess was all the doing of my competitor David - he taught me the now famous left handed spin shot. After words, we went to get some bread and dahl at our favorite place, and you can see that I actually got to retrieve the bread from the jaws of the oven with special Afgani skewers (see pic).  It was a pretty fun night that helped all of us forget how lonesome we are. As I write this the time remaining for their touchdown is 82 hours and 26 mins - but hey, who's counting???

Round two in the barber's chair

It's been three weeks since I sat in the barber's chair and my hair was growing out a little bit funky.  The sides of my head were taking on the look of a cheap clown wig so I figured it was time to take action. 

8:30 am sharp I walked in to the barber shop and the friendly Pakistani with the hair trigger finger went to work on me.  As he was sculpting another follicle master piece I glanced at his menu of services and came across something called "Threading". 

Unfortunately I made the cardinal sin of asking him what threading is - because around here what you say and what they hear are two different things.  Before I knew it, Rufi had strung him self up with 3 lengths of bright read 30 weight stren and proceeded to inflict the most painful assault on my ears since Barry Manilow's copa cabana fiasco in the early 80's. 

The idea is that through gyrations and manipulations of the strings (which are placed on the fleshy regions of the ear) all those harmless, docile and fussy strands of hair are RIPPED away unmercifully.
All I could think about was what happened to the current laws prohibiting advanced interrogation techniques???

As the tears rolled down my cheeks, I was reminded of my early years as my dad bulldogged me into Brad's barber shop kicking and screaming the whole way.  At least back then I got a sucker, all I got today was an $8 fee and two ears that felt like they been slapped by the neighborhood bully.

They rest of my Thursday went fine. I bought/built a work station for the front room, went shopping and bought some more Dahl, round bread, Lebanese takeout, grapes from the produce shop and imported spaghetti for dinner tonight.

Only 10 more days before the gang shows up - they can't get here soon enough.  Looks like Makena and Alex will be on the same plane too.

Church is sparse, now mainly just MP showing up due to many wives and kids leaving for summer vacation. 

All is well here, thanks for checking in and I wish you the best!