Busy Week

It has been a very busy week for us. Of course the boys are always busy with school, but there have been lots of end of year activities going on. Ed is his usual busy and I needed extra time this week to get the house back in shape after our TV crew experience. I am still not happy with the walls, but most of the dirt is gone and thankfully our garbage man didn't complain about all the "extra". I will learn to say NO next time. We haven't heard from the TV station either and supposedly, there are some documents we need to sign and some monetary compensation for us??? Anyway, aside from all this, I have been busy at work with new staff and the hospital has been really hopping lately. They have been doing so many surgeries we barely have enough beds. Every morning is a struggle to find space and admissions and discharges happen almost hourly. Yesterday, the CEO ordered an "All Hands On Deck" and we were all on the wards helping out. It was fun though. I miss patient care and had a good time helping out. I also have been doing a lot of teaching.
The biggest news though is Amy and Dave will be here in a few hours. Hopefully, they won't be too tired. They will have been traveling for 17 hours not including the trip down to JFK airport. WE will let them rest tonight though and most of tomorrow but tomorrow evening we are going on Safari - dune bashing.

Life Keeps Getting More Interesting!!!!

We had a very interesting weekend. Out to dinner twice, movies (Indiana Jones) and the Gym. When leaving the gym on Friday afternoon, I was approached by an Arab woman who asked if she could talk with me. Of course you know me, I will always talk. She asked if her company could "borrow" our house for a taping of some scenes from a show. Ed and I were intrigued. She said it would be about 6-7 hours, 2-3 scenes and we would get movie tickets and reimbursed for our time and trouble. We agreed, not just for the movie tickets (we didn't know how much money was involved), but because we were curious. Saturday morning at 9:30 they arrived, two trucks, two cars and about 13 people, makeup artist, drivers, light and sound men, directors. I could not believe it. The actress was an "American" from Sweden. She plays an American in the show. Anyway, they started taping several hours after arrival. I was told not to cook that day, as they would be bringing food in. We thought it would be a fun way to spend the day and they would be gone by 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Wrong assumption. They only left at 10:30, food was around 6 in the evening and it was very good, but we were so tired at that point and really wanting them to finish and leave. The boys and Ed went to bed at 9 and I of course stayed around and watched them finish. I took many pictures and they will be posted shortly. Needless to say, it was interesting, but I don't think I would ever do it again. The house has a few more finger prints on the walls then I would prefer and the garbage generated by our "guests" was amazing. It looked like we had one heck of a party. When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had been run over by a truck. But at least we got to see how TV shows are made and we will be getting a copy of the show when it is finished. It is a serial about an Arab man marrying an American woman and the troubles that they have living in Dubai.
I think when they ask about how we felt during the taping, I am going to ask them to please be more careful of the house they are using. Keep hands off the walls, don't lounge around on the furniture (it's not yours), and take your garbage with you. But otherwise, it wasn't a bad experience. Oh and the Indiana Jones movie was really good.

Previous Gardener won't go away!!!!

Oh my gosh, this morning when I got up, there was a note on our patio table (in our backyard) from our OLD gardener to call him anytime. Now I am starting to freak out because he is going in our yard and he doesn't work for us anymore!! Ed is going to call him and tell him to stay away. This is getting too weird for words.
In other news, it is the start of the weekend for us again. It has been a long week and Ed wants to do something fun tonight. We are probably going to the Mall of the Emirates and see a movie after dinner. Hope I don't fall asleep!! Boys want to see Indiana Jones. Not my pick, but I go with the crowd.
We actually had a reprieve from the heat today, it was only in the high 80s, low 90s and breezy. YEAH!! Tomorrow - to the beach!!!!

Orientation Days At Medcare

This week I have been running new employee orientation at the hospital. I am working with HR and a representative from each department of the hospital. Monday, we had our first day and it went very well. The new employees saw and heard a short "speech" from many of the different areas of the hospital and heard what they do and what their part is in the grand scheme of the hospital. The medical director and the CEO also took part. It turned out to be a very nice day and I don't think anyone was bored. Today, day 2, we had a lecture on drug calculations etc followed by a short quiz. After lunch, it was time for physiotherapy to give a talk and discuss body mechanics and then I gave a talk on pain management. Tomorrow will be the last day with me doing most of the talking regarding nursing documentation, wound assessment, and handling of the narcotics. Another nurse and I will teach IV cannulation as well. All in all it was a good experience for me and for the "newbies". This will be my job along with doing chart audits every month and setting up lectures and training for the nurses wherever it is needed. Daily, my boss comes to me with things she wants to start and I have to remind her that I am only trying to work 4 hours per day. This week so far I have worked 21 1/2 and it has only been 3 days. She is on a mission to get me to work full time! However, she is very good about letting me take the time when I need it if Ed needs our car or the kids have something going on. It is a great job and I do like it a lot.
The weather now is consistently in the 90s and 100s. Humidity has started to build too, it is not pleasant outside anymore. But amazingly enough, this city still manages to have flowers blooming and bushes flowering all over town. They have pulled up all the petunias and re-planted hardier flowers for the heat of the summer. They must spend a fortune on flowers as they are everywhere.

Ongoing Gardener Dramas

A few months ago, ED and I decided that we were not happy with our gardener/landscaper. I feel odd even having a gardener because our yard is so small here compared to what we have in NY and there we DO NOT have any help with the lawn. (Poor David and Amy!). But here, we don't have any tools of the trade so to speak so we pay a small amount of money to have someone rake and care for the lawn. Anyway, the gardener that we fired would keep the area very neat and clean. He would hose off the patio and driveway as the dust is unbelievable, and most days would have the grass looking very nice. But the weeds are overtaking the lawn at spots and he was not doing anything about them. We decided to hire someone else, a company that claimed that they use top of the line fertilizer and pesticides. The old gardener did not take the news well. He almost cried, knocked on our door every day almost begging not to lose his job. Finally, he stopped showing up when I just about closed the door on him. The new people have been here for about a month and unfortunately, we have not seen a big difference in the lawn. They do show up several times a week, but I have not seen the grass show a big improvement (something they promised) and they do get rid of the weeds by sitting in the grass and pulling them????? They also do not clean off the patio and driveway the way our old guy used to. I guess I didn't know when I had it good. We will continue to pursue a greener lawn without weeds. Also, I put lawn bags out for them every day and they continue to use the bags from my garbage can or recycling. They act like they don't understand when I try to talk to them???? The language barrier is a huge problem when the non-English speaking person does not want to understand what you are saying!?!?!?!?!?

I HAVE THE BEST KIDS IN THE WORLD!!!!!!

If you happened to read the previous e-mail and watch the video, you will know what I am talking about. They gave me the best birthday present I could have ever received. Feel free to watch it. It is very cute.
Today was International Nurses Day and we celebrated it at our hospital with a nice little program. I had originally been asked to give a presentation on the history of nursing. Just on Sunday (yesterday) they asked me to be he emcee too?!?!?!!?? I had never done anything like that before. It was kinda fun, but I was very nervous because there were about 60 people there. I had to introduce people and I didn't know how to pronounce their names, but I tried my best and only mispronounced one name (the daughter of the owner of the hospital). I did apologize from the stage and she was very gracious and talked with me afterwards. I think it is safe to say I will not quit my day job. The people at this hospital are really starting to become special to me. They try really hard and are working on improving our deficiencies. We have another inspection with JCI (an international form of JACHO) in August and it is just to make sure our deficiencies have been corrected. I am sure they will be. I am still working on education with the new nurses and things are going very well. Some days, I stay all day by choice. I really do like the work and the people I work with. I have posted pictures on this website from today. Feel free to have a look.
Tonight I ran to the store for a few things and noticed the temperature gauge in my car said 100 degrees at 7:30PM!!! Just an update.

Happy Birthday Wham! :)

So me and Ali tried to send flowers for mom's day and your birthday Mom (and yes, for me its MOM, not Wham! LOL), but that didn't work out. :) SO dad had a good idea. :)

from all of us, happy birthday! :)

Now go see your video by clicking here!!!


Hope you had a great day! :)

--Ya Son, John :)

Oh My Gosh, It is HOT HERE!!!!

Ed and I went to the gym today and decided to sit by the pool after our workout. The water was like bathwater and you could not sit in the sun for too long, it was very hot. 111 degrees was the official high for today. Tonight we went to a house party given by the parents of one of Greg's friends. It was very nice. All Mexican food and frozen marguaritas (non alcoholic). There were many people there with kids going to ASD, Greg and Alex's school. Most of them from the states, many from Texas. It was a lot of fun. We made some new friends and had some great food. Even though the day's temperatures were very warm, the evening was breezy and it was a nice night to be out visiting. I am glad we went.
WE are happy that David got a job that he likes. WE also can't wait to see him and Amy here in Dubai.

Dave got a job!

Kind of a delayed post, since I'm actually sitting at my desk in the middle of my 3rd day of work. And don't even start about how I should be working and not blogging, because I've been freakishly productive all 3 days.

I'm not sure what my "official" title would be, but I'm working at GE (building 2) with a Java Development team on a program called ConcordaDB, which makes it easier to use this other giant program called MAPS, a consulting application for power systems.

Basically, you feed it data about your power plant, and it tells you the most economic way to run it (and whether or not it will work). The problem is, the interface is a DOS prompt, and it looks ugly as sin.

So what do I do? Pretty much what I do for fun on boring days: I write code. Except I get paid for it. It rules.

I'm not really sure what to call my workspace; it's not an office but it's not a cubicle. I have 3 1/5 walls, and two windows, but no door. I think I like it; I've been thinking about how to decorate. They gave me a laptop to use and it docks to my workstation so I can use two monitors at once (one of which is a giant 20"). When I get my SSO (employee ID) #, I can get a VPN connection, meaning I'll be able to work from home when I want to. Which is perfect, because I can still start work at 9, except I won't have to wake up until 8:45.

My team is pretty easygoing, and the environment is basically devoid of stress. This is probably the best job I've ever had. Which is to say, I don't hate it... yet.

Just thought I'd update everyone; I was planning to tell you guys on our next phone call or on AIM but I guess we've all been busy. 21 days left until the trip! HUZZAH!

The Heat is On

Well, I do live in Dubai, what should I expect? It is very hot here right now. 93 in the morning when I am on my way to work and 103 driving home. Only to get worse. Yesterday, surprisingly I heard thunder when I got out of my car at work. It was very cloudy and the forecast said rain around Dubai. So after I went into work, someone came into the office and said it was raining really hard. I was not surprised. But 10 minutes later when I looked outside, the sun was out and the streets were dry. No water around. It had all evaporated quickly. Yes, I live in Dubai.
My day today started with an exciting meeting at work. Apparently one of the nurse managers was upset about the "gift" she received for her birthday. I didn't know this, but there is a fund for birthdays in nursing administration. I was asked to contribute 50 AED which is about $13. Of course, I did and yesterday, when we had a cake, I thought that would be what the money was for. I guess previously, they had been giving the birthday person a nice gift and yesterday, they didn't. We had a nice lunch and cake, but no gift and this woman was very upset. She ranted and raved about everything this morning in a meeting of professionals. I was amazed, I could not believe the way she was behaving. I wanted to send her out of the room, but of course Who Am I??? When I left, she was cleaning out her locker. I think she spoke badly to the wrong person one too many times. People hold nothing back at this hospital and for a brief moment I was ready to walk out just from embarrassment. Hopefully, things will improve. It does prove to me that different cultures have different ways of handling things and when they are all thrown in together, feelings get hurt and sometimes upsetting things happen. I hope the nursing department changes their way of "celebrating" birthdays and makes it common knowledge. I think that would have been the first step to avoiding all this.

Great Start to the Weekend

Thursday night Ed had a dinner meeting at the One and Only Royal Mirage Hotel, the nicest hotel in Dubai. He couldn't stop teasing me about the fact that he was going to have dinner there again and I WASN'T!! But that's OK. I am so happy that he is feeling better and not cranky. Today (Friday) we started with a big breakfast, then went to the beach for some sun and relaxation. After showers and a clothing change, we checked out a new mall for us. I had been there before for lunch with Mona and "gang" several months ago, but Ed and the boys were never there. It was nice and we had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant there. After dinner, we walked around a bit and then headed to a movie complex called Metroplex. We had never been there either. It was kind cute. The theaters themselves were small but good sound and comfy seats. We saw the movie 21. We all liked it and agreed that this movie theater was worth the effort and we will go back. We have another day of weekend, not sure what we will do, but it has been nice so far.
We all commented in the car tonight that we are getting around so much easier. I think Ed and I have the hang of this Dubai driving and can find our way around without too much trouble now. We all laugh when we think about what it was like when we first started driving here. The nashing of teeth, the name calling, the frustration and Greg, Alex and I remaining silent while Ed lost his temper in the car are all in the past. Thank you God!!!!!