Majlis/Man Lair/Man Cave/Dog House/Club House/Tobacco Hut.....and see ya soon

Have you looked around lately and not seen your husband???? Well ladies if you live within a 30 km radius of my villa, check with me first before you report him missing....Clifton finally scored his majlis. Clifton has talked for years and years about wanting a man cave...a place for him indoors to smoke, watch tv and hang out with friends. Kind of hard to keep saying no when you live in a country that actually culturally DEPENDS on man caves. A majlis is a arab slang term for their man lairs. See in muslim tradition, a man cannot enter another man's house with his wife home. So every house you see in Qatar is equipped with a man lair of sorts....some are tents, some are elaborate tents with silk walls and chandeliers and some are actual stone buildings with marble tile...and everynight when you drive through Qatari neighborhoods you can see in the man lairs full of guys in their full white thobes, watching tv, smoking sheesha and shooting the shit. See, this allows guys to hang out with each other without actually entering into another man's home and breaking the tradition/law. Well we priced them....they ranged from a couple of grand to ...well as expensive as you want them....ours has turned out to be a work in progress and we are not finished yet...but we are getting there...

So we went with the least expensive tent style that was to be anchored by ropes and stakes (like a circus tent) to the ground.

That lasted maybe a day.....we have a small yard and when you add ropes driven into the ground you create an obstacle course just for Reno to go potty. So then we talked to Sam (the tent man) and he sold us on the idea of taking the tent back down and building a metal frame for the thing. This was fun and became the nightly thing for the neighbors to come watch...because they welded without any sort of protection and the guy you see in the flowy white shirt and sandles in the picture below used the saw in the picture below straddled between his legs while he sat on a flower pot. I had to keep maddie and jacob from looking out the window.

Nothing was more fun than watching them put the tent on the frame....I'm not so sure they didn't know what they were doing.

So Clifton had the guys over for cards and bought a portable air conditioning unit for the tent...then they all decided to make a few suggestions for upgrades.

So he got carpet and a flatpanel HD tv

side note.....Jacob and his best friend Wade think that this is their tent and they wonder where the toys and beds are....

So after a few days like that....then Clifton decided the flap and cloth windows were not working. So Sam had a custom made door and windows put in.

Oh and let uus not forget.....he also had them come wire the tent....so now we have electricity and no more extension cords

Yes that is a lava lamp...thanks Eric

He added a dvd and ipod dock

Clifton neither likes the Giants or Ole Miss....but the middle east does funny things to your brain and since they don't sell nfl jerseys over here...he got excited when he saw football jerseys at the sporting good store and they only had a few....the person he came closest to liking was Eli Manning....so Jacob is wearing his Father's Day gift.

Maddie in her car seat

Maddie showing dad a few things on the computer.

So we leave late late Saturday night for Sweden....we get there at 7 am on Sunday the 5th. We will spend time with Courtney and Blake...we leave out early on the 8th and arrive in College Station late in the afternoon on the 8th. Then Clifton and the kids will remain in College Station until the 15th. I will leave College Station breifly the 10-12 to go to New Orleans with my girlfriends. Then we are off to Hot Springs, to Clifton's fathers. We take a short trip to Mississippi to hang with the cousins the evening of the 18th and then back to Hot Springs till the 21st. Then we go to Dallas to see my folks. we are staying at the Great Wolf Lodge and are going to a Rangers/Red Sox game on the 22nd, the horse races at Lone Star on the 23rd and then we leave from DFW back to Doha on the afternoon of the 25th. Arriving in Doha on the evening of the 26th.

We hope to see you if you are in the states and we will miss our people in Doha....but it is time for a break. Wish us luck on the planes and in the airports with kids. I hope I can post at times....we will see. I love you all....Molly

Well, this has been a month....

Sorry it has been so long...it has been an action packed month to say the least....

I'll start at the good stuff. In May Clifton, Trevor Nathan and I hosted a Contraband BBQ at the Pool. Trevor and Nathan are two of our grad students (read: adopted kids) who have been regulars on our blog and at our house pretty much every weekend since we met them last fall. They are both taking off for the summer-Trevor for the whole summer-(which sucks because he is probably one of the closest and dearest friends I have made here and I didn't really realize it until he left). So, we bought my bosses grill who is leaving Doha for good and they invited some friends and neighbors and we reserved the pool for the day.

I honestly thought I had at least 15/16 years before i had to worry about her, but I think it is best that I start sniffing Maddie's sippy cup.

They trusted me to put the goggles on the twins....this may not have been a wise decision.
Jacob flirtin' with the ladies!!!! That is our dear Robyn, Trevor's friend who has become a staple at our house as well. Jacob is smitten.

Me and Sherry Patrizi... the woman who took our fantastic family shots.

Chillin' with daddy

Donna and one of her gals on her boogie board

Having fun in the pool

Jacob did not let Robyn or Trevor rest

Can't tell you if this is Haley or Natalie but I love this pic.

Maddie having fun

I"M ON A BOAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (pop-culture reference for you old fogies)

Jacob is locked and loaded with his water gun.

Clifton cooking the contraband in his usual style...

Maddie and Eric

Trevor and Robyn doing their olympic best

Cole, Eric, Jessica and Nick

hanging out....

So then we took the furry kids to the vet and I took Reno to the groomers...I asked for a trim. I think something got lost in translation....

Then my hard drive crashed...taking everything with it...damn IBM laptop. The very next day I was hit by a large hauling/moving truck on my way to work. Luckily I was alone. Three Sri Lankan guys were trying to take a left turn from the right lane in the round-about as I was going straight in the left lane. Clearly their fault. But since all things are not fair in Doha and the damage would most likely come from their pay (or lack there of)...they refused to give me their information and started screaming "you fault you fault" Which enraged me and I started screaming at them. So here I am coming to blows with these three men on the side of the street when a very nice local gentlemen stopped and decided to assist us. When you get in an accident in Doha and both vehicles are driveable-you are supposed to drive to the traffic department and report the accident. These guys refused to move their truck and the traffic police who barely speak english were none to happy about coming to the scene. Which of course is near impossible since we don't have intersections and it is hard to describe to the police where you are or even what road you are on. The local man called traffic 4 or 5 times trying to explain in arabic where we were and then he yelled at the men until they gave up their i.d.'s which he secured in his own vehicle. Clifton arrived and the local man stayed with us for nearly two hours until the police showed up since neither Clifton nor I speak fluent arabic. The cop came...took our info and told us to come to the traffic department at 4pm the next day when they opened. Since I had no idea how things were going to go at traffic and rumor is it will take hours, Clifton stayed with the kids and my student Khaled that I took to Oman met me at the traffic department. When he got there, there were several Indian men in line waiting for the doors to open, but when they saw a Qatari in line, they waved Khaled in early. I walked in, paid 20 riyals got my reports (which you have to have to get any body work done in Qatar) and walked out before the office even opened. The company that employees the men is paying for the damage to my car and they took it today to start the process (remeber this took months with Clifton's Tahoe) so keep your fingers crossed. I guess the moral of the story...always carry a Qatari with you wherever you go.

So, I should be in Turkey now...but for eleventy billion reasons...it fell through and my students and I are stuck here in Doha. In a mad dash to get them some credit, Earl and I developed a course overnight where they are learning geology field methods in the classroom during the week and then every saturday, we are taking them to a beach out crop at the top of Qatar about an hour away. Thjis is the only exposed outcrop we can find in Qatar and it is near where the bridge to Baharain is being constructed. SO these kids spend hpours outside in the 115 degree heat mapping this crap outcrop until we can get them to Oman in October.

Pretty jolly bunch (14 of them) for 7am on a Saturday morning. Shubahm stole Maryam's hat...

Jacob's teacher, Hannah, left us this month to pursue a PhD at Pepperdine in California. Jacob is too sad. Her last day they had a Bear Tea Party. Jacob opted to wear a super hero cape and take Kung Fu Panda who wore a bandana cape and felt gloves top match....

Jacob has had what started as shingles for two months now. Finally his pediatrician came back into town who he hasn't seen in 4 months and she put him on a heavy dose of steroids which cleared up his skin in 5 days. At the same time, Maddie started running an extremely high fever....so high they out her in an ice bath at the hospital...turns out she has strep. She is on day 6 of the antibiotic and doing much better.

Can't you feel the brother sister love....

Her new thing is to clear out every cabinet we have several times a day

every cabinet

Finally started a picture wall

Trevor bpought us the painting on the left in Tanzania...the frame is made from a special tree that grows there and is hand carved.

Sandstorms strike again with a vengence

Seriously....look at what the camera flash captured inside the house....our lungs have to be crap by now.

I hope these videos come through. I took these Trevors last official day at TAMUQ when he finished his thesis....sad what we do to occupy our time here. He will be starting a position with Maresk here in Qatar when he returns in September. That's good...he has become our Doha Courtney.