Awwws Kitty

Algebra has had a hard couple of days as evidenced by the photo above.  She went to the vet on Tuesday for surgery and within a few hours of picking her up yesterday she'd pulled out almost all of her sutures.  So we picked up this awesome collar from the vet and she's had it on for most of the day yesterday and today.  It also messes with her balance and along with the pain killers from the vet, she's one pathetic little kitty.  She's back at the vet today getting the sutures redone and an antibiotic shot to help prevent infection.

Poor kitty has also had to do an unusual amount of riding in cars these last few days.  Since she wasn't doing well with the sutures and collar yesterday, we had to take her with us when we helped Allie move in to school. She actually does remarkably well in the car and doesn't really fuss or cry; she just spent the time sitting on my lap trying not to randomly fall off because of her less than stellar balance.

Between getting ready for college move in day and cleaning up the house a bit it's been insanely busy the last few days, but it's so refreshing to be able to be busy and active, especially outside, without the hot desert sun beating down on us.  We've actually been cold during the nights when it's gotten down into the low 60s and high 50s (that's 15-17 C for all you international readers).  It's been months since we've seen temperatures that cold.

In other news, Steve has successfully gotten a job! Super yay!  We'll be moving to Michigan, starting apartment hunting, and browsing for furniture for said apartment over the next week or so.  I still haven't had much luck, but hopefully that will improve soon.

The News We've all Been Waiting For

Almost six weeks ago we started the process to get our flight home scheduled.  The flight is taken care of by the university so naturally buying the tickets gets outsourced to a consulting agency.  Time ticked by and yesterday we were finally heard back from the consulting agency with our reservation.

We're leaving here early in the morning on August 4th and get back to Detroit by the afternoon of the 4th.  We're flying Lufthansa because they have the best pet program of the airlines that fly from Jeddah.  I flew Lufthansa when I first visited Saudi back in 2009 and I remember them being nicer than most airlines.

We also got Algebra registered with the airline, and it ended up being hilarious to listen to Steve talk with their representative on the phone.  The first call involved spelling out our names using the Alpha/Bravo military technique.  The second call was even funnier because the representative thought we wanted to take a baby on the flight.  So when Steve said that we already had a carrier and were going to put her under the seat, I think the representative thought we were crazy!  I of course didn't hear all of this, and just got the quotation "This is an animal, not a baby!"

We're just getting started on all of the things we need to do before we leave.  Aside from the typical packing, discarding junk, and cleaning, the administrative side to leaving is impressive.   We need 7 signatures from departments across the university, exit visas, a housing inspection, 6 cards turned in, a mailbox to close, and a bank account to close.  All of that is going to result in a lot of needless running around in the next month or so!  I'm impressed that they managed to condense all of that running around into a single one page form, but I was less impressed when they tried to tell me it was prohibited to fold it because it would need to be filed.  Needless to say, that paper got folded.

So, we're coming home, and so far (almost) nothing has been screwed up! Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it stays this way!

Chores

Every now and then, Algie likes to pitch in and help around the house.

She's pretty good at checking the washing machine.

She's great at folding laundry, and by folding I mostly mean laying on it.

She can even help load and unload the dishwasher!

After a hard day of work like this, it's not surprising to find her conked out taking a nap.

The Photo Series: Homework Helper

Sometimes Algebra just wants to nap while I'm doing homework, and sometimes she just wants to nap on my homework.

Kitty got a Present

Whenever we need to take Algebra out to visit the vet, she had to ride along in a modified cardboard box kitty carrier.  It did serve the purpose, but it was kind of embarrassing to take her out in a duct taped box.  While I was at the dentist, Steve went to Al-Ballad (Old Jeddah) and did a bit of shopping.  One thing he got was a proper kitty carrier.

This is the carrier Steve found in Al-Balad.  It's adorable.

Here's kitty checking out her new carrier. Umm, Algie, your body is supposed to go inside with your head poking out.

We also needed to have one so that we can take her on the plane when we come home.  We're a bit concerned about her traveling on an 11-13 hour flight so we're trying to be as prepared as possible.  Now that we've gotten this carrier, we aren't sure that it was the right kind.  The airlines are very strict apparently about how animals can fly, and we need to make sure that we know what is the right way.  Despite being strict, it hasn't been easy to find much information from their websites, and we don't even know which airlines we would have to deal with coming home.

I'm sure kitty will figure it out eventually, right?

Has anyone traveled with cats before and have advice to share with us?

Kitty on a Walk & Kitty Air Freshener

With all the terrible driving and feral cats around, we were very reluctant to let Algebra (our cat) outside at all. But we thought it might be good for her to stretch her legs, smell some new smells, chase some grasshoppers: experience the outdoors in general.

At first, we would just carry her outside and hold her the whole time. We were forced to do this two or three times due to fire alarms (false alarms). This was fun, but Algie really wanted to be on the ground, roaming and sniffing.

Abby wanted to train her to walk on a leash, which I thought was a bit silly. So we slowly introduced her to a new, tighter collar and a nice matching leash. She has picked it up pretty well, but she still refuses to be lead; she has to do the leading.

After her most recent foray into the wilderness, she started acting strangely, and we were worried that she might have picked up fleas. So I picked up some squeeze on flea and tick repellent for about $12 for four months worth. The only brand available was Sergeant's Green brand, which is all natural. It has peppermint oil, lemongrass oil, and clove oil and boy does it smell strongly. It is as pungent as those aroma oils that you are supposed to use with reed diffusers. Forget motion activated, fan powered, plug in air fresheners: we have an air freshener that follows us from room to room!

Now for some adorable pictures:

A little bit worried peaking around the corner of our apartment building.

Walking a kitten: very manly.

Kitty must sniff EVERYTHING!

Playing in the gardens outside the back porch.

She was very hesitant to walk out into the street.

Hopefully, she either doesn't have fleas or this new medicine will knock them right out so she can get back out into the wild!

English or Um Sort Of

We've had a really interesting time handling some of the language barriers that appear when dealing with non native English speakers, and we thought we'd share some of our more funny experiences with you guys.

When we were in Cairo, we saw a couple of laughable English translation errors at the military museum.

 Apparently they have trouble spelling trebuchet too, but since it's from French, that might have something to do with it.

Poor Jimmy Carter had to meet with the Prim Minister, I bet he was just a buzz kill.  I think I've heard of that place Israil, isn't that the one with all of the great trains?  And I bet Obama didn't realize that he was living in the Light House.  Or maybe it was renamed sometime since Jimmy Carter was president?  There are several other errors here too, but these were just three of the six or so problems with that sign.

This photo showed up in our Cairo recap, but since it has an important message, we'll highlight it again.

Remember, "The Safaty Fitst" always!

We got a cryptic text message a few weeks ago from the vet clinic that services campus.  See if you can translate the "text" speak into real sentences:

"gud a.m. this fr. happy pet vet clnc, sori 2 inform u that d vaccines 4 cats are not yet available. tnx"

That clinic can text like a champ.  In case you couldn't figure it out, they were trying to say "Good morning.  This is from the Happy Vet Clinic.  Sorry to inform you that the vaccines for cats are not yet available. Thanks."

And finally, Steve found a great vibrating reindeer toy for ages 3+ advertising "Provides infinite pleasure."  Enough said.

Make It, Bake It, Do It

Ever since we got back from Cairo, my school schedule has been absolutely crazy.  Studying for finals, writing research papers, and preparing presentations has been a significant portion of my life for the last few weeks, and now that I'm almost done with this semester, I was trying to come up with something to get me back into my flow.

I haven't been cooking much lately; I've got a bunch of Christmas crafts I want to do, and there are so many things to do on campus that we haven't explored.  So starting on December 12th (my last two finals are on the 11th) I'm declaring five days of Make It, Bake It, Do It.  Every day I want to make some Christmas craft, bake something, and do something on campus, and then I'll come back here and show you all the fun we're having getting ready for Christmas!  It is really starting to look festive around here!

To kick things off, here are some Christmas cookies Steve made that we decorated.  We used Alton Brown's Sugar Cookie recipe and really when does Alton ever lead you wrong?

We also made Apple Turnovers from Mine for the Making tonight.  So delicious.  And using puff pastry isn't too challenging.  It was even surprisingly plentiful at the grocery store.

And here are a few more pictures of Algebra! She has been a pretty good kitten, but she does have her crazy moments. Every night around 10 she just goes bonkers, sprinting around, jumping up on the tables (which we are trying to teach her not to do) and trying to chew and claw everything. Eventually she wears herself out, and comes to snuggle between our pillows for the night.

A Few Changes

Life since we got back from Cairo has been crazy.  Completely crazy.  I'm trying to wrap up the end of my semester, only 11 days left, but in that 11 days I've got one homework assignment, two group research papers due, two group presentations, one individual presentation, and three more finals before I'm done.  So please pardon the lack of Cairo stories here lately, I promise we'll tell you all about it, but photo editing and writing are somewhere down around sleeping and showering on the list of things to do. (Totally kidding about the shower)

But we've got one big change around the apartment we couldn't wait to show everyone:

We just adopted the most adorable, loving, and friendly kitty!  So internet, meet Algebra, which seems fitting since algebra has long dating roots to the Middle East.

I also got my hair cut.  It was getting way too long and I wasn't doing anything with it, so I decided to check out the salon on campus.  They were pretty good, and I practically walked in without an appointment, which was convenient. 

Algebra, or Algie for short has taken a liking to my computer's mouse.  She's already quite fond of sitting right on my computer or lecture notes just to get a little attention.

Watch for some Cairo updates here shortly!