New York Nomads: April 2008

I almost forgot we had a blog until I received several emails asking about our whereabouts. Those 5 people that actually read our blog really do care. There just isn't much going on around here these days. I drive the kids to school and chase Drew around while Nick goes to work. That's about it. I'll do a quick one month recap of a few things.

Secret Dubai

So, I guess the reason that blogspot was blocked a while back was one certain offender. That offender is secretdubai.blogspot.com. It was easier for the local ISP to block all blogspots at first until they figured out exactly who the perpetrator was. I have no idea what was on this blog, all I know is that if I go to that site now, a page from the local utility pops up and says that "the page you are trying to access may contain content that is not consistent with the moral, cultural and social values of the UAE." So, I better be careful about what I write from now on.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was on my way to pick up Cole from school, I noticed a car coming up behind me at a very fast speed. This happens all too often and since I'm in the middle lane, I'm not worried about getting brighted or honked at to get out of the way. I just roll along at my relatively slow pace of about 80mph. I glance in my rear view mirror to see if I can catch a glimpse of the license plate#, because I'm weird like that. I think I see #1. I wait for him to pass me, and yep, it's #1. If you've been reading our blog you should be familiar with how crazy people are about the license plate #s here. I think to myself that I have to catch up and try to take a picture so I can prove to Nick that I saw #1. We have this joke about who can find the lowest plate. There is no one else on the road and I see a red light coming up so I think great, I'll just pull up next to him and somehow take a picture without being noticed too much. I get my camera ready as I come up to the light. But, duh, I forgot one thing - like this guy was going to stop for a red light! He drove right through it. I'm not going to say that I couldn't believe it because I can SO believe it. What was I thinking. In case you are wondering what kind of car he was driving it was a Mercedes G500, I think. The really boxy SUV. This actually surprised me, because with the quantity of luxury cars around here, I would've expected something a little more showy to be driving around sporting the #1.

Messy House

This is just kind of funny and shows what people, and kids, are like here. Bret had a friend come over last week, and the first thing out of this kid's mouth when he walked in my house was "Whoa, this house is messy!" I just had to laugh because my house really wasn't too bad that day. This kid has 2 maids at home. There are 2 kids in his family, so I guess that's one maid per child. I'll just have to get 3 maids.

Ski Lessons

With baseball over, we thought we would sign the kids up for ski lessons. This seems a bit backwards, doesn't it - baseball in winter and skiing in the summer? Well, this is Dubai after all and we thought we would take advantage of the man made ski slope. They go every Saturday for a couple of hours and are liking it so far.