Bowling

Late last spring, when it was really starting to get hot and we were really starting to get bored, we discovered the Dhahran Bowling Alley. 

The bowling alley is great!  It is the most beautiful, most immaculately kept bowling alley I have ever seen.   It is spotlessly clean since there is no smoking or food or drink allowed inside.  It's all computerized, and they have giant flat screen TVs up above your lane to show you how you did on your turn.  The bumpers go up and down automatically according to who is bowling.  It's not terribly expensive.  The shoes are not terribly gross.  And they have this fabulous dragon ball slide for kids.  We love the bowling alley!

 

Lawrence's ball was going so slowly that he walked along beside it.  

 





Trying it all by himself. 


We went two or three times in May and early June, and then Everett decided he wanted his birthday party there.  Perfect!  So more pictures of the bowling alley to come. 

My Recyclers

Here are my recyclers!

They love to help me sort the recycling...and they even know which bin to put which item in.  I think yellow is aluminum and blue is paper and green is plastic, but I'm not really sure.  Ask Everett.  He knows.

 Unfortunately, though, like everything else around here, this is all just for show.  Turns out that Saudi Arabia does not have a single recycling plant.  We dutifully sort our recyclables from the rubbish (I'm trying to sound sophisticated like my Welsh neighbors - can you tell?).  We put out our recycling, which is picked up by the recycling truck (unlike rubbish, which is picked up by the garbage truck), and promptly taken to THE VERY SAME LANDFILL as the regular rubbish.  ???  What?!?  Why bother?  Oh, Company, what a sham you are running.  

I did see some information once that stated that some recycling from Saudi is loaded onto boats and shipped to India, where it is recycled.  Who knows.  Maybe that's true, and maybe it's not.  You have to wonder, though, is it really energy efficient to recycle when you have to transport all that stuff so far away?

Anyway, the landfill they use here is pretty close to camp.  Some mornings, we go outside and there is a funny smell; rumor is that that funny smell is the landfill smell.  Also, some mornings there is thick, black smoke rising over the western part of camp, which is when they are burning trash at the landfill.  Hooray. 

But the kids don't know any of that.  They just know that they are good helpers.  And they are!!  Thanks, boys!

Getting Cooler...

I know I've lived here too long when it's 85 degrees and I need a sweatshirt.  AND I put the baby in long pants. 

We had our second day of less than 100 today!  I walked out of the garage into a balmy 79 degrees this morning (the garage was hotter than outside, too!  It's very weird that the outside is cooler than the inside)  and I think we only got up into the low 90s today.  It was windy and shamaly and generally nasty, but the temperature was so nice.  By the late afternoon, we were back down into the low 80s, and it actually felt cool (as in, chilly) at the big park when we were there with the kids. 

Apparently, it's easy to develop thin blood. 

Tee Ball

Spring Season Tee Ball ended in June.  (Fall Tee Ball is currently underway.)  Mike and another dad from up the street are the coaches for Everett's team.

The players get to chose the name for their team.  The first season he played (last fall), they were the Camels.  Last spring, they were the Dinosaurs.  This season they are the Desert Foxes.  Mike was disappointed because he really wanted them to pick the "Fighting Imams."  I wanted "The Mutawas."  Ha!

Lawrence really REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to play all season, so we usually gave him a jersey and let him be the bat boy.  

 

Before the game, we have to get the boys to the field.  This is usually harder than it sounds.   Here, they are sitting on the end of our driveway, finishing their snacks before the game. 

 








During this game, we were very shorthanded due to a mix-up about which field we were on.  Which turned out to be good for Lawrence, because they actually let him play this time!

And here are some pictures from the last game:

Warming up and getting the batting order.  


Then I had to chase Catherine the entire game, so I didn't get any pictures of the game.  Ha!

 

Lining up to say Good Game.

 

 



"G'game, g'game, g'game, g'game,"



A few weeks later, there was a carnival and awards ceremony for tee ball and baseball.  Mike got to give out the medals for our team.  Lawrence got a medal, too! 

And they had a bounce house (which Lawrence was too scared to go on) (that is Everett coming down on the left):

   

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

Here are the official pictures:

As Seen At Tamimi,

As seen at Tamimi, which is the grocery store off camp (the Safeway):

So, will you be having the bone in, or boneless? 

(I am too chicken to try it (no pun intended).  

Especially after the MERS virus is thought to come from camel meat.)

Brown Widow Spiders

UGH!!!  YUCK!!

I do not like spiders.  AT ALL.  One of the really positive things about being here is that there are few bugs.  We have ants and flies (a lot of flies - actually, that is not so positive) and I have heard of people who have encountered scorpions (both the poisonous and non-poisonous kind), but there are no other insects or arachnids to speak of.  It's great!

Except when people bring in bugs from other parts of the world.

Last fall, our neighbors next door, the Welsh ones, you know, they had a small infestation of brown widow spiders.  I had never heard of brown widow spiders.  I knew black widows, but I had to go look up brown widows on google.  Apparently they are just like black widows, but they are brown with an orange hourglass, rather than black with a red hourglass.  They also have very distinctive egg sacs, which are large, round, and have spikes all over them.

AAAAAHHH  YUCK EWWWW  I can barely even look at those two spider pictures.  NOT MY THING.  This sort of thing is definitely not my bag, baby.  


Our neighbors had several of these spiders outside and then 3 inside, so they called Pest Control and had them come out to spray their house.  That seemed to take care of it.

Then our other friends, who do not live near enough so that a spider could walk that far, came back from a vacation and discovered that their ENTIRE backyard was COMPLETELY INFESTED with brown widow spiders.  She posted it on facebook, and the next thing you know, everyone else on camp is saying, oh yeah, I have those too.  Agh!

They are not native here, of course.  They come in with people's shipments.  Please notice that neither Charlotte nor Knoxville is in the range, so don't look at us! 

  


Still, I didn't worry about it too much.  I had not seen any in our house or garage or outside.

Then late this spring, I started seeing them in our backyard.  I guess I knew they would eventually be there...so I wasn't too upset.  I sprayed them with Windex until they died (no bug spray available here) and moved on.  Sometimes I got Mike to squash them for me.  We didn't want to call Pest Control because God Only Knows what they are spraying with, and I've got three kids and an elderly cat - we just weren't willing to take the risk on some questionable chemical all over the house.

Instead, I went out during morning nap time and did my daily inspection of the back porch.  At first it was one, then three, then five a day.  Then I noticed that some didn't actually die when submerged in Windex.  Then it was 10, then 14, then 25 a day.  Then I found one inside.  UGH.  On the day I found about 20 outside, I texted Mike, "I am about done with this."  Then I found another inside.  After a few more days, I found more than 100 outside on one single day, and also a third one inside.  Then I googled "brown widow spider bite."  Enough.

(I dare you to do that google search, by the way.  Imagine that on your 14 month old baby and you will see why the dangerous chemicals did not seem so bad anymore.)  

Mike called the head guy in charge of pest control to see if he could get some info on the chemicals they use.  Luckily, HE IS AMERICAN!!!   WOW!!!  He gave us the scoop:  the chemical they use for this is, in fact, banned in the States.  Great.  But it was used up until the 70s or 80s and was only banned for overuse, not for the harm it caused people.  It is not carcinogenic, and it breaks down by itself in 48 hours, and faster in the sun.  SOLD.  I can keep my kids out of the yard for 48 hours if it will make the spider nightmare end.

So we called and they sprayed.  It worked great.  We didn't see any more brown widows until September (this was in May).  Unfortunately, it also killed our local geckos, which was very sad for the kids, and all of us really, so now that we are currently seeing a few more spiders and egg sacs, we are again hesitant to call right away.  We'll wait until it gets bad again.

So I am back out on patrol every day again...just one more hat I get to wear.  Mama:  chef, chauffeur (well, around camp, anyway),  laundress, maid, policeman, seamstress, doctor, personal assistant, personal stylist, diaper changer, and SPIDER HUNTER.  Dunh, Dunh, Dunh.  Watch out, spiders.  I don't like you.  If I see you, you are DEAD.  (Unless you are in an awkward place, in which case you will be temporarily incarcerated under an upside down glass, where you will be inspected with fascination by three small children before you are squooshed by their father when he comes home from work.  Enjoy!)

Just in case

Just in case it really turns out this way, I decided to take a picture.