Whoops!

This is why I pay people to do my nails:

Welcome to Amman, Katie!

Katie arrived in Amman Tuesday night, with her fellow students.  She requested only that we make her chocolate chip cookies.  Her first night, we picked her up with a bunch of her friends and took them to Taj Mall, where they indulged in some retail therapy (H&M) and then we treated them to Pinkberry.

Her second night, she came back to my place where we presented her with 42 1/2 chocolate chip cookies.  I'm not sure whether she was more excited about the cookies or the fact that she could watch One Direction's newest video (youtube is banned at the BYU Jerusalem Center, due to its large consumption of bandwidth).

Either way, we were glad to have her for a few nights...

J-Town with my Gurrrls...

This weekend, all of my sisters were within a 30 mile radius of each other...in the Middle East, of all places. Rachel, Susan and I drove over to Jerusalem to find Katie and spoil her rotten.  

The weekend involved the purchase of four pounds of gummies, three pairs of shoes, several pairs of harem pants, dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant (Mom - thanks for the Focaccia recommendation!), as well as visits to the Dome of the Rock, Western Wall, Little Western Wall, Mosque of the Ascension and Garden Tomb. There were also some scary Sexy Santa costumes thrown in there.

There was also a photo session at the Orson Hyde Garden fraught with emotions...look carefully and you can see just how Susan felt by the time we rolled around to posing for picture #17.

Feeling Melancholy

On my second night in Jordan, when I couldn't sleep because of jetlag, I looked around my empty apartment and thought: "What have I done?  I am stuck here for two whole years with no early way out short of a medical emergency or a coup..."  

Tonight I am feeling a little sad, realizing that I will be gone before the year is out.  I realize I still have months and months to go (actually 272 days, 9 hours and 14 minutes, according to the handy pie graph a good friend sent to me).

But the combination of a few friends departing this month, a request for me to provide an approximate departure date, and some heightened angst over what to do next made me realize that Grimsby and I will be parting company in a far shorter amount of time than I am comfortable with...

Elections

Jordan had parliamentary elections today and, thankfully, their experiment with introducing the democratic process did not throw the country into chaos.  I will be sad to say goodbye to the campaign posters that have slowly covered every available surface over the last six months.

A Bereft Dog

Susan ran inside for 97 seconds but you would have thought it was the end of the world, by his reaction. What am I, Willy? Chopped liver?

A Trip to the Desert

Susan and I decided to take Willy and check out some of the "Desert Castles" in the eastern desert of Jordan.  These structures were built by the Ummayyid caliphs in 7th and 8th centuries.  It isn't super clear what, exactly, they were used for - possibly as private hunting lodges, the bedouin equivalent of convention centers, hotels, or fortresses.

After a few wrong turns, we were on our way.  Although sorely tempted to keep going to Iraq or Saudi Arabia, we realized we had left our abayas home.  So we stopped at Qasr Haranah which seemed to be on the hotel or convention center end of the spectrum.

The fortress is organized into eight suites, each of which has a large receiving rooms with several private rooms opening off to each side. None of the suites are connected to each other but they all face an inner courtyard. Sadly, not much there but carved graffiti. And dismembered pigeon parts, all of which we found, thanks to Willy's sleuthing.

From there, we continued further into the desert to find...Luke Skywalker's home on Tatooine! 

Except, sadly, it turned out to be Qusayr Amra which is theorized to be a former hunting lodge and bath house attached to a castle complex which has since been destroyed. 

The interior is covered in some pretty wonderful frescoes, mostly depicting hunting men and frolicking, bathing man-ladies (they were supposedly "women" but we found their breasts to be more pec-like and decided they were actually men). Despite the edict forbidding the depiction of humans in Islamic art being issued shortly after the castle was finished, the frescoes were not destroyed, making it worth of declaration as a UNESCO World Heritage sight. 

Look at us, being all cultured.

Cleaning before Cleaning

Sometimes I am terribly fastidious about cleanliness and perfectly prepared for my housekeeper.  Other times this happens:

And then I shut and lock the door to this hallway and leave for the day knowing that at least the rest of the house will be clean when I come home.

Welcome home...

We got back to Amman to find some of the snow had stuck around, just for us! Also, the "swimming hole" next door froze over. I know what we're doing for FHE this week!

In other news, we also got to have a deliriously happy reunion in which, somehow, both dogs ended up in Susan's lap.

Oops! Eihnfarted...

We arrived in Frankfurt this morning with nine hours to kill. After showering in the lounge and stowing our luggage, we ventured out to see the city.

We discovered, quickly, that there is not much to see in Frankfurt. Especially when you have left your guidebook at the airport (because it was very heavy) and are sightseeing based on a few cryptic notes hurriedly typed into your iPod ("museum across the river" - which museum? there are seven across the river!).

Sadly, we missed out on the Ebbelwei Express (adorbs!). But we did see the Römer, Frankfurt Cathedral, St. Paul's Church, the Staedel Museum and Museum of Ancient Sculpture. Also, we ate some delicious bratwurst and found an outdoor market selling every conceivable form of junk imaginable. Including a pile of kitchen sinks.

And of course we took some time to tell some fahrt jokes.

Goodbye Pocatello

My Mom has a flamingo for each one of us kids which she puts out and takes in, depending on how many of us are at home.  The best trips are those when all six are out on the lawn.  As we leave, the numbers gradually dwindle...

No Words Can Describe...

The remaining members of the family were sitting around last night shooting the breeze and playing with the dogs.  Suddenly, my brother's new dog took off running across the rug in a serpentine pattern, peeing as he went.  

Of course we begin yelling, coaxing, ordering, begging him to stop and, in his confusion, he ran over to my brother, who was asleep on the floor, lifted his leg, and peed down his back.

We were laughing so hard, it took us a good minute to actually wake him up.  Then I made him lie there for a minute, so I could get a picture.  He was still groggy from being woken up and didn't realize what had happened until he turned around...his face was priceless, as he realized why his back was feeling a little wet.

Plague

My younger siblings introduced me to Plague, which is totally addictive and fun, even if you feel a morbid sense of disgust with yourself when done, for the zeal with which you have just killed off the entire human race.  

My favorite is watching the last dwindling numbers of the "infected" population as they get killed off and having the game tell me that the last humans are hiding in holes, awaiting their terrible, inevitable fate.  I think I will not be a benevolent god.

Step Up and Judge Me

One of my first stops upon arrival was the Apple Store to drop off my lemon, er, MacBook for it's bi-annual "there-are-lots-of-things-broken-so-please-fix-them-while-I-am-in-the-country" visit.

I didn't realize until we were on the road up to Idaho that I had left my DVD copy of Step Up: Revolution in the computer.  No matter, I thought.  It's in the drive so they'll never know my embarrassing secret...that I love to watch totally awesome movies about kids who just want to dance in the streets already.

Imagine my dismay when I went to pick up my computer to discover they were broadcasting my dirty secret to the world:

Then I had to compound my embarrassment and explain that the reason I knew my battery needed replacing was that I had started to watch Step Up: Revolution (cue look of disdain from my "genius" bar representative) with a fully charged battery but the computer shut itself off in the dramatic and climactic final dance scene which was totally unacceptable as it meant the battery was only lasting approximately 87 minutes.

Fraport!

One consequence of flying over 50,000 miles last year is I have gotten to know the Senator Lounge in the Frankfort Airport's B Concourse, Terminal 1 faaar too well.

I have sat in the lazy-boy-lounge chairs, I have sat at the tables, I have stolen one of the couch configurations...but all of them lacked a vital ingredient.

But, by MacGyvering two chairs together, I think I have hit on the perfect configuration.  Here, I have a safe, enclosed bed, plenty of plugs, easy access to the snack bar and bathrooms and a safe place to keep my important stuffs, like passports and i-Things.

To several thousand more miles this year!

"I believe my eyes are as good as yours."

Most walks, I imagine myself as Dr. Watson to his Sherlock Holmes.  He always seems so terribly focused and driven as he sniffs each inch of every sidewalk, tree, potted plant and pole.  And I just walk along, seeing, without observing, the clues that are so obvious to him.

Happy New Year!

Moms, I banged this pot just for you.