Roses in the yard
Spring continues to bloom in our yard – this week the roses came out overnight and now the yard is full of beautiful blooms! It’s really amazing. Everything is so colorful and the fig tree is all covered in leaves again.
I had my first round of car trouble last Sunday afternoon. John was with me and we were at Rana Market to have some photos framed. We got in the car and it was dead – not one peep. We sat there for a few minutes and John looked under the hood. Some nice guy came out of a shop and starting beating the battery with a pair of wire pliers and pouring water over it. And – in a few minutes, he got it started! About that time, our new mechanic Rafiq showed up and tightened up the battery cables and dabbed oil from the dip stick around the connections (“local trick,” he said). Anyway, it seems to be fine now!
This market is a parking lot surrounded by small shops. You can buy brooms made out of sticks (you won’t find a Western broom in this city), fruit, fish (recommended only early in the day before it gets hot), and really good samosas. It didn’t dawn on me until John and I went back on Saturday to pick up the photographs that I was the only woman in the whole place! Granted, women here don’t get out a lot but it was an almost eerie feeling to look around this bustling market and see no other women.
We had several social outings this week. One of our friends in Public Affairs is leaving soon, so we went to a fun BBQ for him on Thursday night. I’ll miss him – he has a great sarcastic sense of humor and is a lot of fun.
Friday night, we celebrated another good friend returning to post from R&R and had a nice Thai dinner at the Marriott (yes, the same one that was bombed in 2008!). Then Saturday we went to Jim and Kellee’s to celebrate Jim’s 40th birthday. Jim is from Wisconsin, and somehow Kellee found someone to bake a birthday cake in the shape of a large wedge of cheese – really cute! We love sitting up on their rooftop at sunset – lovely.
Jim's Cheesehead birthday cake
The weather was perfect this week. You can tell it’s starting to warm up because we now need umbrellas over our lunch table on the patio.
Friday in the office was pleasant – it was a admin day and all of the entry-level officers were in a meeting all day. We worked a lot over the weekend just trying to get our desks cleared off and our annual evaluations written (torturous!).
We watched Les Miz last Sunday night – I didn’t know that John knew all of the words to the songs, but evidently it’s one of his favorites! And we got caught up on “Justified” last night.