Photos

Photos are up on my photo album site from the first few days here. In the middle of loading them onto facebook the power cut, so now facebook is giving me problems. Power cuts are very common here and usually the generators kick in pretty instantly...last night it took the systems about 10 minutes to kick in though. One of the quirks of this place. :)

We've done a lot of recovering from jet lag around home here, but yesterday we did get out to Bsous to the silk factory museum there. It was super interesting and the gardens there were amazing. I'm really glad we went!

As some of you may have gathered, yes, a frickin spider (we think) bit MY EYE. It happened in the middle of the night and was really painful. It is still tender today, but not too bad. Luckily it was my upper eyelid area and, oh yeah, WASN'T POISONOUS. I was pretty traumatized! Everyone polled here claims to never even heard of anyone getting bitten by a spider or even stung by a bee here. How (un)lucky am I?!?!

Today dad A. will fly in to Lebanon from Dubai and we'll all get to be together on one continent finally. Other than that, we're playing it by ear. Like now I'm going to have tea and biscuits outside in the gorgeous weather. Ummmm, it's been gorgeous every day...300 days of sunshine this lovely place has. Enjoy the pictures!

I hate you Jet Lag....

I'm not really sure why, but I didnt' sleep on any of the plane rides to here at all. I napped in Heathrow a teensy bit, but either security alarms or passengers headed to Hong Kong interrupted. 10 hours in Heathrow was a bit much. Our sensibilites wore out in the last 1/2 hour we were there (sooo close!!) and we ended up changing dollars to pounds. Had some great italian sandwiches and beer though...
So far I've noticed Lebanon is much more vibrant in the summer. The last time I was here was November, which, in all honesty, wasn't a bad time to be here either! The grape vines overhead the porch are full of grapes and the flower vines are all in bloom up the trees & fences. Today was great hanging out in Broumanna and around the house as I was not up to much of anything else. Having tea in a lush summer garden is a pretty amazing thing. Momma (Mom A.) fusses enough about that I feel very well taken care of.
Tomorrow morning I am promised my favorite food manousheh jibne for breakfast and we'll go from there. Yalla, I'm headed back to sleep off a groggy head. Just popped in to let you know I'm safe and sound.

ohhhhh I'm a gonna get on a plane today!

Don't all of you bust out into a dance party now....

For laughs...

* There is a great post over at dooce.com which is actually a guest post by 1/2 of sweet juniper. I dont have any kids, but the parenting duo that writes for sweet juniper have some amazing posts that any one can enjoy.

* Along the lines of lolcats is another new favorite "awww" website: Cute Overload.
A favorite from there:

* As always, making fun of celebrities can be soooo incredibly funny. Go Fug Yourself. Included in a recent post was a line I would like to steal: "But if you think that's as wack as it gets, just wait, because at the film's premiere she crashed the Wackmobile straight into Lake Crackpot."

* All along, VH1's Best Week Ever have been blogging hilarious things about Top Chef. How did I miss this? The finale recap was great. And this gem about Lisa was priceless.

* Continuing my French music addiction.... (and it will make you go "awww")



There, that should keep you entertained for at least a little bit. I'll be back in a month to continue this partay....

Jukebox Friday - Love You, I do

Estelle, American Boy


Jennifer Hudson, Love you I do

Now that I've pulled myself together for the day...

Hey, I forgot to mention that it was my parents 20th wedding annivesary yesterday. How fantastic is that?! Their wedding was SO rockin you can't even imagine!


I'm the one on the lower right with the PERMAGRIN. The other little cuties are some of my girl cousins on my mum's side. Those were the exciting days of becoming a 'real' family, getting my ears pierced, being tall (I was always the "tall" girl until I was 12!), having adorable french braided hair, and wearing a cute puffy-sleeved peach dress with a bow on my ass. Also, when I was that age I wanted to be "prom queen or a nurse" when I grew up and constantly wished I was 14. I thought 14 was a magical age or something. Ok, so I was a little naieve and weird.

It is about to rain again. Basically, the rain gods only liked my young-maiden-sacrifice thing for a couple of days here. They're back to being vengeful and mighty. Ugh, the rain means AGAIN there is no sun out today. The thing I'm most worried about on this trip overseas is the sun burning my delicate skin. While we here in WI have enjoyed a nice winter since last September (ok, fine, we're about a week into spring), Lebanon is about 4 months into summer already. I spent the 1/2 day of sunshine we've had outside and already burned my shoulders. The one spot I didn't put sunscreen on and left unprotected for 15 minutes. I am soooooo going to stick out like a pale thumb over there.

bada bing baby!

- People, please focus. We only have 3 days left until I depart. Wait, it's probably just me frakkin out. Pardon.
- I will have internet access in Lebanon, but I'm not sure if I'm really going to blog. I'll be updating twitter (see right hand side of my blog) and skimming through facebook world. You can always go play music over at my music blog. There is a neat feature on blogger where you can write up entries and choose a future date to post them, but I forgot about that feature until yesterday. I don't think I could write up 32 posts today to cover while I am gone.
- We are not bringing pie filling over to Lebanon on this trip, but there has been a time where it was definitely stashed in someone's luggage back to Lebanon. Apparently you just can't find that stuff there. We are, however, trying to pick out a laptop for n's sister and buy it in the next three days to take.
- Why, yes, I am fully packed. Yes, this is very odd for me. I also have all my outfits for the next few days all planned out. *somebody's excited*
- Ugh, I am so sleepy this morning. I can't think of anything else I wanted to mention.....