Me: “Hey Mister, pick three numbers between 1 and 9.”
Mister: “3, 7 and 4”
Congrats Camille, Donna & My Life Unfolded!
Camille and My Life Unfolded, I have your email addresses and will send you your codes for your 25 free shutterfly cards shortly. Donna, what a head start you’ll have on your Valentines Day cards! Can you email me so I can get your code to you? My email address is linked on my blogger profile.
Thanks for playing!!
Mister: “I brought home another million, just in case.”
Since there are so few dining out options here, I’ve been spending lots of time in my kitchen. Sometimes there are flops, like the café rio style pork salad (actually the pork wasn’t so bad, but the rice, beans and homemade tortillas? Meh), and butter chicken. But for every one of those not so great meals, I’ve made something so so good. Like the beef enchiladas using the recipe on the back of the enchilada sauce can (Old El Paso if you’re curious), and tonight’s meal, CPK-ish BBQ chicken pizza. I used Pioneer Woman’s recipe. I followed her dough recipe exactly, but tweaked a few things on the actual pizza. I used half smoked gouda (imported all the way from Wisconsin) and half mozzarella (probably imported from France), chives instead of red onions, and of course skipped the cilantro. It was so delicious and I ate half the pan. You should try it sometime.
As for dessert, I’ve decided that if I could only eat one for the rest of my life, it would be almond torte with raspberry sorbet. I made it on Sunday and it totally hit the spot! Thank you Leader Price and your 10 dollar bag of frozen raspberries for making this dessert possible.
I cannot believe we’re already on the back end of October. Every single day I’m surprised that it’s fall. Everywhere but here that is. Halloween is just minutes away, which means we’re a month away from Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. Seriously, where has the time gone?!
A few years ago, I remember visiting a friend of mine and being awed by the sheer volume* of greeting cards that overtook every inch of cupboard space in her kitchen. I had so much fun looking at all of the pictures. I don’t know why, but I love little glimpses into the lives of strangers. The last few years I’ve done my part to contribute to the Christmas card collections proudly displayed on the walls and refrigerators of my family and friends. My favorite was the one I sent out the year I completed my first marathon. I am such a braggart, and I loved sharing my accomplishments with everyone. Last years was equally as awesome, but mostly because of the handsome face that was next to mine (even if he was wearing a cowboy hat at the time).
I’ve used Shutterfly every year and I kind of love them. They have so many great options, the quality was good, and the turnaround is quite fast! Which is why I’m happy to give them a little shout out on my blog (yes…in exchange for some free cards…but yay, they are also letting me give some to a few of you too). They have so many different options, from photo paper cards, which are super affordable, starting at 40 cents a pop…(um hi, it’s cheaper than the stamp you’ll use to mail it). I’m digging the simple cards this year:
…to stationary cards, which I is what I ordered last year. I thought they were gorgeous and the paper was a great quality. There are hundreds of cards to choose from.
If you celebrate Hanukkah, they have cards for you. If you’re a procrastinator, there are even cards to help ring in the new year. They sure do have all their bases covered.
Shutterfly doesn’t just sell greeting cards. If you want to give someone a special, personalized gift, check out their photo books.
As I mentioned before, Shutterfly gave me three codes good for 25 free holiday cards to give to my readers. Would you like one? Leave a comment on this post, and pretty please, check Shutterfly out, and I’ll pick three winners** on Sunday. Make sure I have a way to send you your code if you win. And since I typically get about that many comments on any given post, your odds are pretty good that you will.
*After the holidays had ended, she told me that it took her hours to take them all down. She’s very popular.
**Can I say that I feel like a poser right now? I don’t have a million readers and I certainly don’t have companies knocking down my door giving me free stuff to review. But I am happy that Shutterfly is allowing my humble little blog to help spread the word. Thanks Shutterfly!
Mail day is a big deal here. Because there is very little you can buy on the local market, packages are a HUGE deal. We are both frequent spenders at Amazon, but because our prime account is under Mister's name, it is a very rare occasion that I receive mail addressed to me. So, imagine my glee when the mail guys handed me my very own package with my name on it! I was so excited to get something, especially so unexpectedly. I ripped that sucker open so fast, only to find a vice grip. wah wah. I only know that's what it was because it was imprinted on the tool. Clearly this is not something I would be excited to receive, let alone order in the first place. Apparently Mister ordered it while logged into my amazon account by mistake. What a let down.
while driving home from work:
Me: Is that a monkey???
(yes, yes it was…on a leash no less)
*Mister’s birthday was last Monday. He grew up in Texas in a house with a pool in the backyard. His brother, whose birthday is just 11 days before, always had a pool party, but by the time Mister’s rolled around the weather had turned just cool enough that a pool party was no longer an option. His whole life he has been aching for a pool party. Thank you Africa, for your year round tropical climate (and for a pool in our back yard). Because of you, a little boy’s dream came true this year.
*The other day I saw a man carrying a three foot tall bundle of empty water bottles bound into the shape of a hexagon on his head. I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me.
*The power here is very unstable and unpredictable. It goes out at least once a day, but usually only for a minute or two before the generator kicks in. Well Friday, when I had rolls in the oven and shows to watch (The Office and Parks and Rec…Thanks AFN) the power went off and stayed off, with the obnoxious beeping of the UPS (uninterruptable power supply, which in reality is not uninterruptable when your power is out for more than 10 minutes) to remind me that despite many western conveniences I am able to enjoy inside the gate of my compound, I don’t live in America anymore.
*But! The power outage, which lasted for a few hours, allowed us to have a lovely candlelight dinner of meat and apple pies (not to be confused with a meat and apple pie) with our awesome neighbors. It turned out to be a great night!
*I’ve started to call the area leading up to our gate “Gold’s Gym Conakry.” Word has spread that it’s the hottest gym in town, and there are always tons of people there doing sit-ups, sprints, and fancy footwork up and down the driveway. Even though it makes coming and going a little more difficult (sometimes they don’t see/hear us coming), I kind of love it.
*The temperature never gets below 80 or so here, so I have to continuously remind myself that it’s the middle of October. While Mister is loving the ability to float in the pool every day, I miss fall.
*I’ve decided to eat my feelings (you know, the sadness that comes with the absence of cooler temperatures and changing leaves), with a pan of pumpkin spice bars. Nothing screams fall to me more than pumpkin, cloves and cinnamon.
*Last weekend I had myself a Dexter marathon, which has resulted in multiple dreams starring murderers. Sometimes I’m the killer, sometimes I’m the one getting killed. Maybe combining Mefloquine and a TV show about serial killers wasn’t such a good idea.
…my blog needs one. Actually, I was halfway through changing things around before I pulled a Mister and decided I wasn’t quite comfortable with it. So I sincerely hope you are looking at my blog through some sort of RSS feed, because the real deal is horrendous, and because I know literally nothing about html code (i.e. deleting old code and widening margins etc), it will probably remain this way for pretty much ever. Sorry!!
A few weeks ago, we went on a little day trip to Dubreka Falls, this really great waterfall/restaurant combo about 2 hours outside of Conakry. As always, I had my camera with me. There are a ton of great pictures I could show you, but I’m going to stick with a theme today. I wonder what our President would think of his endorsement of pretty much everything here in Guinea.
A few examples:
Sorry for the delay in posting these pictures. I’ve been dealing with what the doctor called “viral crud” and have not felt pretty enough to take pictures of myself. Anyways, here you go:
Here’s the shapeless mass before:
My thinly veiled shock/tears during:
And a week after, finally smiling:
So this is how it all went down. Mister spent about 20 minutes trimming the very bottom inch of my hair before he freaked out and declared that he didn’t feel comfortable doing it anymore. Too bad for me he was only semi-finished. So I haphazardly cut the hair around my ears, and let Mister loose with the thinning shears. So basically, I look pretty much the exact same as I did before we started, except now I can’t put the bottom portion of my hair in a ponytail. I consider that a success.
I’m pretty sure that was the first and also the last time Mister cuts my hair. Good thing we have R&R coming up in a few months! I’ll likely be driving straight from the airport to the salon.
*Can someone tell me why blogger insists on rotating my pictures unnecessarily? It’s driving me crazy!
I have very short hair. Hair that really should be trimmed every 4 weeks. The last time scissors have been in contact with it was the middle of July, and (no) thanks to a communication barrier between me and my (fabulous) stylist, it was cut just a little too conservatively for someone who didn’t know when/where she might be able find a professional to fix it up real nice again. The only viable option here is a local barber who comes to my workplace once a month, but when I watched him use scissors one step above those of the safety variety people let their preschoolers use, I opted against getting my hair cut that day. Now it’s almost three months later, and I can pull a good portion of my hair into a ponytail. And when your hairstyle started out as a pixie, that isn’t necessarily a good thing. So tonight, I give my dear husband* the pair of cutting shears I bought at Sally Beauty Supply for 10 dollars the day before we got on a plane, and cross my fingers it turns out half way decent. Wish me luck.
*he who was the go-to barber when he was in the army, helping his fellow soldiers escape the wrath of the drill sergeants by giving “high and tights” before monday morning formations.
