I made it in late last night by some grace of the cosmos. Only appearing in the B-lo area for a few days with a tight schedule and lots to do - but if you'd actually like to see me, give me a shout and I'll see if we can't work something out.

I've got to do phone interviews almost every day with folks back in Doha and a lot of name changing stuff, but there should be some free time here and there.

Ya'll probably hate it, but I'm LOVING the rain right now. Gray skies actually feel so nice once in a while.

More photos from the trip to Atlantis in Dubai.


Dubai skyline


massive viewing tank in the hotel...i mean MASSIVE. it's 3 stories tall and holds some 11 million liters of water.


all the tanks are meant to look like the lost ruins of Atlantis, very cool


and an entourage of rays in flight


the tank is so huge and I was shocked they actually have a young whale shark in it! i learned more about this unusual sighting:



the aquarium, or 'lost chambers', carried the Atlantis theme with all kind of artifacts and machinery


Rory is um...testing the environment suits for leaks?


that's a biiiiiiiig grouper


sunrise over The Palm


Burge Dubai, the tallest building in the world


at the water park we went on this slide ride where you end up gliding through this shark tank


and cute rays greeted you with a smile, it was pretty impressive


for (e:matthew)

I always know that deep down inside my worries have subsided when I start to hum or sing. I am humming and singing today.

It makes me feel so happy and slightly tingly inside. I love being happy!

Rory and I went to Atlantis in Dubai this weekend for what we have now nicknamed our 3rd honeymoon. It was freaking awesome! I always wanted to go to Atlantis since they opened the original in the Bahamas but could never afford to actually GO.

We got to play in the water park all day the first day which was great fun, minus the huge purple bruise on my rear end from one of the rides. At some point on one of the rides we actually managed to fall out of our two person inner tube, which kind of hurt - but the best part was when the next set of folks came rushing down the slide after us. I got whopped in the head by some feet just before their tube hit, which knocked Rory clean off his feet and into the tube as we shot down the remaining portion of the ride. We couldn't stop laughing.

The best part of that day was playing with Piphali!! We participated in a deep water interaction with a dolphin and it ROCKED! She kissed us, danced with us, we gave her hugs, she spun us in circles, and my favorite part - she gave us a ride on her belly! I couldn't believe how soft and warm she was. I just expected something a little tougher and colder, but now I know!

That night we went through The Lost Chambers, which is the coolest aquarium I've ever been in. I loved the imagination they used in creating ruins of an ancient advanced civilization (photos on that tomorrow). It was also the largest tank in the world, which had a WHALE SHARK in it! Granted I think it was a very young one, but huge nonetheless.

The next day we rode the new metro system they just opened up. It's not entirely finished, but some of the major stops are running, such as Mall of the Emirates, which is ridiculously huge. We stopped at Dubai Mall as well because it was right next to Burj Khalifa, which is now the world's tallest building. We wanted to go up to the observation deck but seems they are experiencing technical issues with their elevators and weren't allowing people up. We'll have to do it next time.

Now, meet Piphali!


twirlies!


dancing!


belly ride!


kisses!

I used this program to take my blog and randomly create this image. It's pretty cool looking at some of the words and thinking, "When did I write about bread?", etc.

Timika is not in the top 1000 female names for any year of birth in the last 40 years.

Why am I not surprised by this?

I had the most amazing dream last night, I wish I could have it again and again!

In my dream we had already mastered trips to space for common folk. Naturally, (e:theecarey) and myself were on board one of these flights. We were taking a 'cruise ship' to the 'Asteroid Islands'. Yeah, clever.

The ship looked just like a space shuttle, except is was about 20 times bigger, maybe more. It launched vertically with some type of blue flame that burned entirely clean. Humankind had created a way to eliminate g-force on the internal compartments of the ship, so passengers felt nothing at all. In fact, Carey and I were involved in a game of Wizard Chess before we realized we had taken off.

There were only a few observation decks but they were closed for the journey to the first island. A creepy robotic voice announced our arrival; the sweet British accent makes me nervous. I momentarily wonder if she'll try to kill us all in some act of AI rebellion. Then the observation deck windows opened. Slowly, very slowly, the dark gray walls lowered and I caught my first glimpse of bright blue as Earth came into view. Then, browns and greens....and I screamed with excitement, "Carey come look, that's AAAFFFRIICAAA"! The massive continent came into full view as the grinding metal came to a halt. It was so real. So real. I was standing on board a ship looking at Africa from 20,000 miles away. A shroud of tranquility fell over everyone in that room. I could hear my own heart beating.

We were interrupted by the voice announcing not our doom, but our freedom to access the first island - which looked remarkably like one out of Mario Galaxy. Imagine a jagged lump of gray rock floating in space with a perfect layer of bright fluffy green grass on the top side. This island of course doesn't rotate, it remains idle save for it's orbit around Earth.

We descended to the surface via ladder. Humankind had also figured out a way to create force fields allowing for prime environmental conditions. It was perfect. No air tanks, no eye wear, just a sexy white jumpsuit was all that separated my skin from the vast universe.

I'm stealing this line from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs".....

Carpe the Diem!

I just got notification that I've been accepted to NAFSA Academy! I really wanted to do this so I am STOKED. It's a 9 month training program for young professionals in the field of international education. Since I'll only be in Qatar one more academic year, I wanted to find ways to broaden my international experience and boost my resume. This is my golden ticket! So, so, so happy I got accepted! Woohoo!

Which means, brief visit to B-lo in March! The spring training session is in Atlanta, but I need to get to B-lo to do some important name change stuff that I must do in person. Hopefully I can see a few peeps while I'm whirl winding my way through!

For Christmas this year I tried a new way of cooking the turkey. I enlisted Rory's help because it was grossing me out, but hey, got a 13 pound turkey cooked in an hour and ten minutes! Got the idea from our favorite cooking criminal, Martha Stewart.

They made it look so easy in the magazine I thought it would take about 15 minutes to mutilate, but ended up taking an hour! Maybe the turkey wasn't 1oo% thawed, maybe my kitchen sheers need sharpening, or maybe it's just plain harder than it looks in a picture.

STEP 1- remove all the innards, rinse, and pat the bird dry with paper towel. This is important because the bird WILL slide all over the place if it's damp. Our poor Blinky got her head covered in pink turkey juice as it spilled over the counter. I scrubbed her fur and got the pink out but she smelled like turkey all day.




STEP 2 - Flip the bird over on it's belly and stick your sheers up it's butt hole. Cut the spine out by cutting along both sides. I think our bird had scoliosis....








STEP 3 - Flip the bird over so it's breast side up, and break the breast bones. Essentially, set yourself up like you're going to give CPR, except you WANT to hear the bones break.




STEP 4 - Pin the wings under, baste with a mixture of olive oil and pepper, and roast for approximately 70 minutes, basting in between.




STEP 5 - Carve and enjoy.