So, yeah, I'm averaging once a month or so. Michael and I have been married a little over 7 months now, which is exciting. We had a great Valentine's Day...Michael bought roses for me, which were beautiful, and we went out for Mexican Food. Since we haven't had good Mexican food in a since the day we left the states, it tasted fantastic! Michael also took the morning off from work, so all in all it was a fantastic day. Here, all the stores have "Happy Valentine" in the windows, which kinda makes me laugh, and it cost me $8 to buy two val cards for Michael...funny stuff.

It's gotten warm already and windy, too, but it looks like it might rain tomorrow for the first time since I got here (knock on wood), so that would be really great. It's been so dusty and dry and it would be great to get some rain!!!

I was recently volunteered to chair a committee that will create a cookbook from recipes compiled from everyone in the ExxonMobil community. It's a crazy project that seems to be getting bigger by the minute, but it's pretty fun, too. I feel so Martha Stewart-y, but without the whole jail thing. I even won a taste-testing competition in the dessert category with my sopapilla cheesecake recipe! I was honestly shocked, seeing as though it only takes 5 ingredients and was the quickest thing I could make the morning-of. I do love to cook, though, so it'll be exciting to see what neat recipes will be in this book...especially since most of the ex-pats here have lived abroad on multiple assignments around the world and will have all sorts of great international recipe ideas.

So, on a totally different tangent, the 2006 Asian Games (leading up to the Beijing Games) are supposed to be here this coming December, which has meant tons and tons of construction in Doha...there really isn't a road here that doesn't have cones on it. They've built an entire sports complex as well as housing, office buildings, etc. TONS of money going into this. However, the Olympic committee came to check on the progress and was VERY disappointed in the current state of things, sooo rumor has it that they may take the games away from Qatar and just host them in Beijing. This would be really bad for the local economy, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it actually happened. They are supposedly doubling efforts and trying to salvage things, so we'll see...

Oh, people keep asking me about the Muhammad cartoon protests...no, nothing is going on here, no violence, no protests, nothing crazy...they have pulled most danish products from the shelves at the grocery stores though, which means I can't buy my favorite danish butter until this has all blown over and I have to settle for a crappy Saudi inferior substitute. That's about as serious as it gets here, though. The people here are very nice, and I was even applauded, yes there was actual clapping, for saying "hello" and "goodbye" in Arabic at the gas station to the guy who pumps the gas (I'm not that spoiled, no one pumps their own gas here). At any rate, they are very western-friendly here, especially if you make an effort to smile and be friendly to them.

I think Michael and I are going to make a trip to Dubai and Jordan sometime this Spring! Petra is at the top of our list of places to visit while we're here. You'd probably recognize it as that place where that Indiana Jones movie about the Holy Grail was filmed:

It's really cool with lots of carved out buildings in the rocks and such. It'll be a blast, and we can't wait to go. Many of our friends have been and say it's one of the best places to visit in the Middle East! I'll definitely post pictures from our trip!

That's about all for now. I've got my fingers crossed that it'll rain tomorrow!!!