Happy Birthday to My Niece

Sending out a happy birthday wish to my special little niece back home. Well, maybe not so little anymore. Getting to be all growed up and she's a very smart cookie!

So Happy Birthday Karli! Wishing you a great day and sending you lots of love.

Excerpt From the Weather Network Website

Yesterday, as I was driving home from the mall after work, I had the sunroof open and I said to myself, "Self, winter is here and plus twenty is just a bit too chilly to have the roof open." Guess I shouldn't complain about the weather to any of you back home ...

WINTER STORM WARNING: City of Calgary
Issued at 4:28 AM MST FRIDAY 12 DECEMBER 2008

10 TO 15 CM OF SNOW WITH BLOWING SNOW TODAY AND TONIGHT. THIS IS A WARNING THAT DANGEROUS WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS...LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.

AN INTENSE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER SOUTHERN BC THIS MORNING WILL MOVE SOUTHEASTWARD THROUGH MONTANA TONIGHT ... 10 TO 15 CM OF SNOW IS FORECAST ACROSS THE REGIONS ... UP TO 20 CM OVER HIGHER ELEVATIONS... STRONG NORTHERLY WINDS OF 40 TO 60 KM/H ... DAYTIME HIGHS INTO THE MINUS TWENTIES FOR THE WEEKEND ... STRONG WINDS ... POOR VISIBILITIES IN BLOWING SNOW ... WINDS GUSTING TO 80 KM/H MAY REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES. AS THE TEMPERATURE PLUMETS AND WINDS PERSIST ON SATURDAY, WIND CHILL VALUES OF -35 TO -40 CAN BE EXPECTED.

Time to get out the balaclavas and the long johns!

Hong Kong for a few days

K, well, remember what I said about updating my blog this weekend??? Gonna have to reneg on that (sorry!) I got a better offer :-)

One of the Engineers that I work with called and is going to Hong Kong for 3 days since we have an extra long weekend here for the second Eid. He was looking for a travel buddy. Since I was sitting around doing basically nothing and kinda bored and there was one seat left on the plane, I decided to go too.

So the blog will have to wait a few more days.

My plane leaves in a few hours so I need to go pack now ... and go stick that needle in my eye :-(

Some Random Photos from the last few months

My Mom visited Dubai in October. When she wasn't busy hemming my pants or cleaning my apartment or shopping for gifts for the kids or scouring the city for a drain plug that fit my kitchen sink, we went to see some of the sights of Dubai.

Mom at the new Atlantis Resort Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah.

Mom and I went "dune bashing" on a Desert Safari. Don't worry, they provide the drivers!

Mom's henna tattoo.

Mom and I having brunch at Mercato Mall.

Mom at Jumeirah Beach in Dubai.

Flat Stanley at Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. Sadly, when you are a paper-and-jiffy-marker man, big waves from the sea are not your friend :-(

Shortly after my Mom went home, my Sweetie arrived for a 3 week visit. For the first week he was here (my birthday week!), we went to Jordan.

This is one of my favorites. Our first glimpse of the Dead Sea. Later, we went for a little dip in the sea ... or rather a "float".

Warning signs along the Dead Sea highway.

Sweetie and I at Mount Nebo in Jordan.

Petra was one of the highlights of Sweetie's visit. There he is ... lower right-hand corner, checking out the rocks.

One day while I was at work, Sweetie went to check out the Dubai Zoo. Yup, them turtles are doing exactly what it looks like ... haha!

My Sweetie is a silly silly shutterbug :-)

Return From my Hiatus

Hiatus

hi-a-tus [hahy-ey-tuhs]

–noun, plural -tus-es, -tus.

1. a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.
2. a missing part; gap or lacuna: Scholars attempted to account for the hiatus in the medieval manuscript.
3. any gap or opening.
4. Grammar, Prosody. the coming together, with or without break or slight pause, and without contraction, of two vowels in successive words or syllables, as in see easily.
5. Anatomy. a natural fissure, cleft, or foramen in a bone or other structure.
6. a Belgian crustcore band
7. A euphemism for unemployment

I know, it has been a VERY long time since I wrote anything meaningful here and I apologize. Rest assured that all is well and I was NOT abducted by aliens.

Unfortunately today is not the day that I will catch up on all the latest BUT next week I have 3 days off work for the second Eid and I PROMISE (cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye) I will catch up on everything that's been happening ... and there's a lot to report.

My Mom visited Dubai.

My Sweetie visited Dubai.

My Sweetie and I went to Jordan for 6 days.

I had a birthday ... hey, 40 is the new 20 ... at least that's what I'm telling myself!

I went to Canada.

I went to court for my Dumb-ass ex-boyfriend's charges.

I saw my family and friends.

I came back to Dubai.

The economy crashed and burned (hoping I am not about to use "hiatus" as per definition #7 above!)

Today's post is partly to test out my new toy. I bought a video camera before our trip to Jordan and have finally figgered out how to get the data off the camera and into some sort of usable format and onto blogger. Here's a trailer ... a short clip from our day at Petra:




Update: Grrrrr! It took two and half hours to upload this 34 second clip and seems there is no sound ... grrrr! There must be an easier way.

The gist of the video is this: we had very limited time at Petra; Sweetie decided a horse ride to the top would save some time. While I was trying to negotiate a less ridiculous price, Sweetie (bless his heart) forked over the cash.

Sweetie was given a lovely Bay mare which followed the guide leading it with calm, relaxed complacency. But I swear those scoundrels decided to get back at me by giving me the crankiest, most discontented creature they had! After groaning, grunting, fussing and complaining all they way up the mountain (and the horse was not very happy either!), the guide dumped us off seemingly in the middle of no-where and high-tailed it back down the mountain with horses in tow (presumably to gouge the next batch of unsuspecting tourists). I noticed that even the guide wasn't riding the horse that he gave to me ... @$$hole!

This clip is the beginning of the ride when I started to see that my horse was not going to be very cooperative. If there was sound, you would hear the panic setting in.