well there goes that weekend!

It's the most pleasant and calm weather, Thursday afternoon and Aric has plans to take Hunter and his friend, his dad and a girlfriend out wakeboarding tomorrow morning. I wish they would stop lying about the weather. Do they think we are stupid? Anyone looking out at the ocean horizon can see it's a beautiful day - now they are censoring the weather?

Dear Boaters,

Please be advised that due to the current weather conditions, Coast Guard is not approving any sailing permits at present (effective since 10:30am). Of course the DMYC team will resend your applications at regular intervals and keep you posted.

Thank you for your understanding,
Wishing you a most enjoyable weekend

It's funny how the bad weather (must be a tsunami or storm brewing off the coast of Iran!) coincides with one of the founding fathers, Saud, a 96-year old Sheikh, dying yesterday and the Emirates being in mourning for 5 days. We are already enduring death music on all radio stations - as usual. Why can't they just say "because of so and so dying, and the nation is mourning, we have cancelled all fun for expats and anyone looking to go on a boat is therefore prevented from such escapades".

I'm strugling with the whole cover-up mentality here and fabrications of how they can "keep the facade" to the world! I'm sure it's a conspiracy to do away with Halloween this weekend.

Luckily Hunter is too big to trick or treat and we are still sneaking out for a dress-up party :)

Taking the obvious for granted

The caption of the picture reads: "Children play with fallen leaves in a Bucharest park yesterday. As autumn sets in, leaves change color and fall to the ground, signalling the end of summer." GULF News is spot on! That's exactly what happens when leaves die and seasons change (has every year since I was born!) Changing seasons are unknown to the local Arabs, so we may very well see another caption next week stating the obvious: "Children build giant snowman in Central park in NYC. As winter sets in, temperatures fall and rain freezes and turns into hard white crystals that can be molded into figures ".

We forget that generations here come from tribes in the desert, mountains and along the coast and that most have never seen four seasons. They rely on the wind, the fog, to signal summer's end.

Two days ago we woke up to dense fog (so dense they had to warn motorists on the highway to slow down - of course noone could see the sign for fog) - that's our signal that summer is ending and that the Shamals (winds) are coming, bringing sand storms and the long awaited rain.

We've already endured in two BBQ's and this coming Friday it's another pool and BBQ gathering at a colleague's house. Boots and cardigans find their way out of the closet, smelling of moth balls; time for jeans shopping again.

Slim is on speed - high speed - with lower temps he gets a new energy boost and practically hauls me around the lake, horizontally. Aric and I have started riding our bikes around the compounds and subdivisions early morning before traffic starts up. It's a great feeling and makes it so worth living here.

Hunter turned 17 last week and really selected a big night out: dinner with mom and dad at Yo! Sushi, followed by a movie that must have missed the red carpet....Scott Pilgrim - a real movie with cartoon "boom pow kabong" inserts! Look out for that one to blow the blockbuster earnings!

Thursday evening he invited 20 friends over for a party in the back yard. Thinking he is the new DJ Tiesto, Hunter Ault, AKA "DJ Virtue" took over the kitchen for some spin and scratch and major mixing...music that is... not drinks. The gathering went off without a major hitch (guess he learned something from the golf course incident after all). I've asked him to focus on school however, as for now all he shakes is the house and not the "DJ world" with his club anthems.

The Curious Incident of the Newspaper in the Night-Time

The past 5-6 months we have found that our Gulf News paper has been missing on certain days. Paying promptly for a 12 month subscription, one would expect the paper to be on the front door step by 6.30am, when we get up to have our coffee. But every week - at least once or twice, no paper! Contacting the delivery guy, he assured me he delivers every day, to the door. This was beginning to smell like a case for Sherlock Holmes. I told him someone must be taking the paper and asked that he place it inside the carport, in front of the cars so if they want to grab it, they have to come all the way up to the carport entry door - a pretty gutsy move (as we sleep tight and Slim somehow hasn't learned to bark at strangers). So the delivery guy has put the paper at the carport door. That helped. We had a few months of error free days. So we relaxed our guard and so did the delivery guy - he started throwing the paper at the front door again (which is closer to the street than the carport door) - I can draw you a diagram but I think that's too anal.

Then, after returning from holidays, the same thing started again....I was considering putting up CCTV or sitting awake all night with a flashlight to catch the sucker. But it remained a consideration - who really sits all night with a flashlight to catch a newspaper thief. Instead, I asked the delivery guy to put the paper at the back again. Last night he rang the door bell. With much pride he told me, "madam, other houses have been missing papers, number 35, 41, 66 and yesterday I saw a guy looking strangely at your paper which was placed by the car, so I followed him quietly and sure enough, at number 66 he took the paper and I stopped him"! Holy cow, I was right, it was a thief in the night - or rather - early hours between guard shifts, exactly at 6.30-6.45 am when nobody is around. Security and police was called and it turns out it's a Filipino man in number 51, helping himself to a year's free subscription of Gulf News!! My delivery guy was so happy, because he no longer has to go to the carport entrance with the paper - shaving off 2.3 seconds at our house means he can finish sooner before the sun comes up and heats up the neighborhood. I may even renew my subscription now!

The past month has been spent assisting Aidan with his college applications. I do not recall it being such a complicated task when I applied to Southern Illinois University, with a paper application and a regular stamp! It's now all on-line and you have to have a Masters Degree in Computer Science to figure out the website manuevering and uploading of documents. Try doing that for eight (8) !! universities. Aidan is going for the shotgun approach to get in to a school with a decent Industrial Design program. His essays and personal statements make me laugh out loud - the kid is brilliant in his very own AD/HD sort of way, with logic only he could think up. When he says he's "a unique and rare individual" (no argument there) I can only imagine what the admissions counselor will think when he/she reads that phrase. On the other hand, I shudder when I look at the admissions info page where "tuition and fees" are listed. It surpasses my 401K plan! Anyway, today is D-Day - all the transcripts and recommendation letters will be couriered from Dubai International Academy to each university in the States. Fingers crossed we will have a positive response from either Arizona State, North Carolina State or Appalachian State - his top 3 choices. Southern Illinois University will no doubt take him due to sheer family history - I mean with two parents who survived Playboy's number one rated party school in the 80's - who wouldn't accept an Ault? But somehow I feel he should go somewhere else....North Carolina is close to Mark and Amy, and to his God-Father Bruce (another SIU graduate who survived with us :) and with us so far away, in Dubai, it's nice to know he is close to someone we like (read: mother who is having separation anxiety!!)

My neighbor Jill (the Canoodian across the street, whose dog Crosby, named after the hockey player, Slim pounces daily) talked me into joining her newly founded book-club. I've heard about these clubs...bunch of desperate housewives sipping wine and gossipping about the neighbors and other mothers in the school! But she assured me this one was different. She lured me with a free book - making the choice an easy one. So I read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon, in two days and loved it. Was I prepared to discuss why I loved it? Well, let's just say I met a group of very nice and fun ladies, from UK, Canada, Sweden and survived! So we're on again next month, with "The Sandfish" - a novel by a local author, set in Dubai.