Stained Glass

April 13

I almost forgot! I have finished my 1st stained glass project! It of course has some flaws but I am quite proud of it! I designed most of it myself. My art teacher picked out most of the colors and chose the placement. We didn't always see eye to eye on his decisions but since I am the student and he is the master I gave in to his vision 90% of the time even if I didn't agree. :)

It paid off. He is going to display it in the Student Art Exhibition in May!! I'm very excited!
The piece is quite large and looks pretty when the sun shines thru it!

This is my next project. In the end it will be a 4 sided lamp shade that we will make into a lamp. Again, the teacher and I have had some disagreements on design but are working thru them, kind of...
Alright - I'm going to bed!
Tisbah bi-khair

Pok'er - I don't even know 'er...

April 13

It is no secret that Mark and I enjoy a good card game. Let's be honest, we even enjoy the not-so-good games... it's kind of like pizza that way. Any ways, we were terribly sad to leave our beloved chips back in the States when we relocated last fall. (For anyone who may have just crawled out from under a rock: gambling and all paraphernalia is illegal in our current country of residence) Being the law abiding citizens that we are everything that could be construed as 'gambling' was left behind (sadly, I even sold my famous poker table), the only thing that accompanied us was a deck of non-discript playing cards. Not the nice ones from Vegas, just red back playing cards.
After settling in for a few months we really started to miss the game. The social event was definitely a void in our hearts but even just playing between ourselves was missing something, it wasn't the same. When we came home for the holidays Mark thru caution to the wind and bought a small shiny new set of chips to bring back with us. We were elated at the thought of getting a new game together with some of the guys from work. As we were leaving Houston we packed our new chips with smiles on our faces. We had convinced ourselves that our we would slip thru customs without disruption. After all we were harboring no evil intent, we were just trying to bring some people together with a fun little game...
... We were nabbed by customs on our way out the door. The chips were confiscated and supposedly destroyed. :( ppppttttthththhththhhh.... bunch of party poopers

We talked for weeks about what we could use as a replacement and nothing really fit, made sense or was worth the effort. I'm sure a lot of you are wondering why we had to have traditional chips, the cards are the important part... well, your wrong. Its a package deal (ying & yang, etc.).
At last there was a light! One of Mark's co-workers were going back to the states for a visit. After careful consideration and thought Mark had figured out a 'full proof way' to get the chips thru security and roped this sweet kid into giving it a try. To make a long story shorter.... he didn't follow 'the plan' and only half of the chips made it thru. (that is a good story on it's own)
We were again back to square one, no chips, no game, sad and lonely Mark & Jenni. We had given up for the time being and moved on with our daily lives. This weekend we were shopping in a department store much like Sears or JCPenneys when we stumbled across one of those shelving units in the middle of the store with all the goofy gifts for the man who has everything and is a big kid at heart. Because I happen to be shopping with one we stopped to peruse the merchandise and that is when we found them!!!



Yes, here, in the middle east, we found our forbidden toys for sale!! They were just sitting there for anyone to grab! After we rubbed our eyes a bit and pinched each other to make sure we weren't dreaming Mark grabbed two boxes! To make the find even sweeter they only cost us $27 total!!!! Oh happy day! When the clerk asked if he could hold them for us at the counter while we shopped we were frightened by the National dressed in traditional garb also working the counter who looked at the boxes in astonishment and disbelief. We felt a little dirty as we paid the National for our items and I was a little creeped-out that we were possibly part of some kind of sick 'sting operation' and were about to be hauled off to jail or something terrible (p). Alas - all went well, we skipped out of the store grinning ear to ear and we are now the proud owners of 600 taboo pok'er chips!!
We'll be hosting a game soon, who's in?!?!

xoxoxox
Jen

Look what we did yesterday!

April 12

We have been talking about all the things we still want to do in the city while were here, most of the things are outside activities of some fashion. Since our weekends together are usually so short we have been slow to get these things accomplished. Sadly, summer is creeping up on us and there will be certain activities that will either be closed because of the heat or not nearly as enjoyable so we are really trying to start jamming some of these 'must dos' into our schedule.
This weekend, Friday in particular, was almost perfect for the 1st thing on our list: parasailing. We have been watching people do it for months and had decided we had to try it! Unfortunately this time of year as the thermostat rises a haze settles on the city and long distance visibility is pretty low. If we were going to go up in a parachute we wanted to have a decent view. Yesterday when we woke up we realized the conditions were about as good as they were going to get! Shortly after breakfast we headed for the beach...

Mark went first!

They have improved the experience by launching and landing you with the boat. It is a very smooth process.

The city was still a bit hazy so the Burj Dubai is a little hard to see.

Panorama of Mark's flight

Smooth landing!

My turn!!
I was a bit nervous before we boarded the boat but after watching Mark it looked so fun and he had a huge smile on his face the whole time. That helped me keep my cool but make no mistake, I had a death grip on the harness the entire time...

We got some major hight and the views were awesome!

We had so much fun and look forward to doing it again sometime!! We had a great weekend!

All of our photos are in the photo link at the top right of the blog.
Mark took the video camera up with him and took some footage in the air and of me while he was on the boat. I'll try to get that loaded somewhere.

Have a good one!!
xoxox
Jen