Bringin' Da Rain, Bringin' Da Dust

My facebook feed has been blowing up all day with fearful posts from people's safe rooms thanks to the heinous line of storms that made its way through Tennessee last night. Thankfully all of my friends and family are safe. They didn't want all those trees in their yards anyway.

Tennessee's not the only place that's had some crazy weather this week. Yesterday morning the Mister and I were greeted with a chilly morning shower on our commute to work. A cold front must have moved in over night and brought a little "cloud vomit," as one of my sweet angels put it.

As it is wont to do in Kuwait, the rain quickly subsided. But then the sky turned red.

Literally.

Photos shamelessly stolen from Charles and Tom, respectively. Thanks, guy!

Photographs just don't do these dust storms justice. In Saudi, the dust was actually kind of white and just looked like gritty fog. But more times than not, the dust in Kuwait is literally red. Like terra cotta red. And just like in Saudi, it. gets. everywhere.

So there you have it. North America has tornadoes. Kuwait starts the day with rain and works its way to flying dirt.

Vicariously yours,

Welp. That was fast.

It might be a little early to call it, but I think we're through the worst of winter here in Kuwait. Here is this week's forecast, side-by-side with the forecast back home.

Suckas.

Vicariously yours,

My resolutions need a rolling start

This week, I've put the Mister and I on a self-developed menu to restrict our calories. I've also started getting up at 4:30 in the morning to exercise.

It's that time of year again!

There are a few things that make this resolution awesome. First of all, as TONS of health magazine articles will tell you, I have a lot more energy during the work day. Granted, I hit the wall BIG time by around 8:30pm, but I've been very productive at work so far this week. Secondly, I'm discovering some great new recipes to keep our interest in staying on this menu.

Hopefully it'll keep our interest long enough to actually make some real change in our lifestyle.

In other news, winter as arrived in Kuwait and DANG it's cold! It's a very dry kind of cold, and it has really blustered its way into town. Sadly, our apartment has some drafty windows and we have no central heating. We're making do just fine with our little portable radiator the school gave us, but it certainly doesn't make waking up and stepping out onto that tile floor any easier.

However, the cold, dry weather is working WONDERS on my hair!

See?!

Love it!

For those who are wondering, here's a side-by-side comparison of the weather conditions in my two homes as of this morning when I got up to work out. I realize 45F really isn't all THAT cold...but...oh fine feel free to mock my thinned blood!

Vicariously yours,

Featured Photo: You could say it's a little dusty today

This is a shot from our living room balcony. But seriously, y'all, this isn't even as dusty as it's going to get. Today's dust was a bit of a morning surprise, and unlike what we commonly saw in Saudi Arabia, it stuck around all day long. But boy was it a gross, lung-clogging day!

Just so you have a frame of reference, here's the same shot but from a lovely, clear day.

Yuck.

Vicariously yours,

Low Key New Year's in Prague

Despite all the illness and pink eye we've suffered this break, it has been kind of relaxing. The most expensive relaxing vacation ever. We basically paid for airfare and lodging so we could go get sick in Europe.

But yesterday we tried to make up for lost time. We got all dressed up and went to a fancy dinner at a fancy restaurant. We had heard all about the fireworks over Prague on New Year's Eve, so we picked a restaurant that overlooked the whole city with a clear view of the river so we wouldn't miss a minute of the show.

It was a very fancy restaurant. They had a pianist and violinist.

The dinner was very very good! We had several courses. It was so fancy that when we looked at the menu I had to look at the Mister and ask, "Do we get to eat all of this, or do we only choose one thing?"

We got to eat all of it.

Including the "poachet pikeperch" with caviar and red beet carpaccio. I wasn't even sure what red beet carpaccio was!

At first the dinner was very awkward because we were one of maybe 3 English-speaking couples in the whole room. We were seated really close to everyone around us, but not close enough to non-awkwardly strike up a conversation with any of them. Eventually we were able to entertain ourselves between courses.

They gave us some cool pseudo costumes to keep ourselves occupied.

Finally it was time for the big fireworks we'd heard so much about! Anyone who has spent a 4th of July with me can attest to my unhealthy love for fireworks shows. So we got our half bottle of Czech sparkling wine and headed outside for the big display.

Turns out, the big fireworks display organized by the city of Prague happens on the night of New Years Day...because the city of Prague doesn't want to compete with this.

It's not an actual fireworks display so much as all the people in Prague (tourists, immigrants, and Czechs alike) just setting off the most elaborate fireworks I have ever seen set off by private citizens! Seriously! I have had MANY a 4th of July in my day and I have NEVER seen people legally setting off fireworks this nice, loud, and dangerous! WHERE ARE THEY GETTING THESE FIREWORKS!?

It was pretty darn cool, though. We could see for miles across the city and into the outskirts of town and it was fireworks as far as the eye could see. It was like little tiny, not-scary volcanoes going off every 400 feet for miles and miles.

Here's a blurry photo of what it looked like. I'm a dedicated blogger.

It was a pretty awesome way to ring in the new year.

We woke up today feeling energized, refreshed and ready to start the new year tackling ALL our resolutions.

I'm just kidding! haha! We literally haven't left the apartment all day. And it's been awesome. Around 5:30 I asked the Mister if we should get dressed and try to find a good place to watch tonight's real fireworks show. We both responded with a resounding, "meh."

Luckily we could see the fireworks from our awesome apartment!

Video can be seen here.

Happy New Year, y'all!

Vicariously yours,