That was quick.

And just like that, the workweek is over!  A whole two days.  Yay for Eid, that was a nice break.  And now it's back to the grindstone, or weekend, what have you.  Today (Thursday) was good, Emy came this morning and I went to my Arabic class then had lunch with Thomas at the embassy.  It's always nice to get out of the house a little, see other adults and feel like I've got somewhat of a life.  

This afternoon Benjamin was fussy again, which I attribute to teething.  He didn't take a good afternoon nap, and was a pill most of the day.  I gave him a little plane present (I'd wrapped a bunch of little things for him to open on the plane, and we're gradually getting through them) of a divided plastic box with erasers.  He enjoyed them, but then decided to put one of the stars in his mouth.  I'd been unsure as to how age-appropriate it was; not quite.  So we'll save it for a little while from now, or when his teething has calmed down a bit.  Here are a couple pics before I had to take it away.

This afternoon was also exciting because our water pressure dropped dramatically.  I called Thomas to ask his advice since the Boab was nowhere to be found.  This had happened last weekend, and Thomas saw what he did to fix it.  I went downstairs to the basement parking area and flipped a switch that had a red glowing light.  That fixed the problem, but later in the afternoon the Boab came by to say that the water was "finished" (out) and we needed to call the embassy for water delivery.  This is at 5pm on a Thursday afternoon.  Obviously everyone leaves at 4:30 to start the weekend.  So it had to be sent to the emergency water delivery people.  Argh.  We need to figure out how to communicate to the Boab that the water needs to be checked on Wednesday, so we can do a work order on Thursday morning if it's low. 

It worked out fine, they sent a guy around 6:30 and we've got water.  We had it all along, but Benjamin's bath water was slightly yellow, I guess from sitting in the tank.  There's a walkthrough that you can request from the maintenance department, we need to have them come over and show us where all the stuff is, like how to check the water tank and set up the alarm, etc.  We've just been too lazy to do it so far. 

The other day when I was waiting for Thomas to come to lunch, I hung out in the CLO (Community Liason Office) and picked up a copy of "Emma".  I hadn't read any Austen for a while and just got sucked in.  I love the familiar, I like to watch movies and read books multiple times.  Anyone else do that?  Thomas isn't a big fan, he doesn't like to rewatch many things.  "The Wire", some "Arrested Development", maybe the recent Batman movies.  I still have my nonfiction book from the little library that I started.  And I read the first chapter or so of "The Magicians", a more adult take on Narnia and Harry Potter.  I love both of those so much that I'm not sure I'll be able to really enjoy the anticipated snark of the "sophisticated" version.  Which is why I'm now reading "Emma" for the umpteenth time.  There's a recent-ish TV version out, with Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller.  That's another one I really need to own.  I checked it out of the Arlingon Library a lot, it's fantastic.  Much better than the Gwyneth Paltrow version.  *Shudder*  Any favorite Austen novels or movie adaptations?  I'm pretty sure no one else ran out of water today.

-Rachel