Julien and I hosted a fabulous dinner party for another couple who are friends of ours. They had us over months and months ago and we've been owing them for ages. They were very lucky -- Julien slaved all day so that everything would be just perfect (including some pretty dramatic cleaning ( Read more... )

This week was a hectic mania of work, panicking about the non-work things that got thrust by the wayside, and drinking caffeinated beverages to maintain the frenzy. Well it all come to a head on Saturday. Usually on weekends I don't drink caffeine at all, and by 2 pm the crunching, crushing, disastrous withdrawal headache that had begun to set in ( Read more... )

Our goal in going to Arat Kilo was to see the national museum. The collection was quite comprehensive, ranging from contemporary Ethiopian art to historical and archeological pieces. The highlight of the visit for us both was the hominid exhibit, culminating with a display of Lucy ( Read more... )

Overall it felt like a pretty low-key weekend. We started off early (relatively) Friday morning by going back to dive at Caesaria, this time for a tour. I really didn't want to get up, but after we got there, I was happy about it. The weather got worse, so even though it was "pretty good" when we first called, the visibility had worsened ( Read more... )

Julien and I had a fun weekend together. He brought back some curry pastes from Thailand, so we tried cooking a Thai meal on Friday. We made two curry dishes, and they came out deliciously; however, they were quite spicy. This was okay as I managed to get through them in about an hour and with two liters of water... and Julien is French so he ( Read more... )

There is actually an advantage to being moody, in that sometimes the mood is an exuberant one. Today is just such a morning. I ended up reading late last night, much later than I had intended. In fact, I felt it was so late that I resolved not to look at the clock. Sometimes knowing how little sleep I got makes me feel more tired ( Read more... )

My first week in Israel has been a real pleasure, despite some minor ( Read more... )