Esalaam, Hello...it's finally Friday! I am sick as dog...cannot sleep... Tried calling the husband but phone lines are down cannot get throu... ufff!
Liking all the new changing to VJ
I hope everyone else is having a good Friday... I am going watch the Smurfs and hopefully fall asleep ...

E-Salam to you too!!!!!!

It's still Thursday by a couple of hours but I think I'm getting a cold like everyone else.

Nighty night everyone!


Zarah

Happy almost Friday everybody!!! Hope everyones days are grrrrrrrrrreat!

I'll let you know how Friday is when I get there. Sheesh Henia you are in a hurry! You must barely be in Friday. It's not even 10 pm here.....you just wanted to be the one to start the post...

Happy Friday everyone, thank goodness it is finally here, this has been one long week, now today I get to go to the office party we have this time of year....what fun (sarcasm) haha...anyway I get out of work!!!!! Hope everyone has a great day!!!!

Well, I should be sleeping, but my husband is snoring sooooo freakin loud I can't sleep! I'm abou to stuff a sock in his mouth!

It is COLD here this morning. I hope the car starts. I'm glad its Friday but I wish they'd get the satellite fixed. It's been a week now without tv, not that that's a bad thing. Its just a nice option to have to unwind mindlessly. Moh called me back before I went to sleep last night and we talked another hour. Then I slept like a baby. Embassy is closed until Sunday now so no reason to worry/wonder/think/stress/pray/sweat/etc. again until then. Hope you all keep warm as you venture out (if its this cold where you are).

TAIF...Well, it's 9 degrees here. Glad I bought a new coat. Have a GREAT Friday!!

Good morning all!

Henia and Sarah, hope you feel better soon!

I've already spilled my coffee twice this morning. I hope this day goes by fast!

happy real friday now! Gotta take a shower and get my butt to the pharmacy in the next 30 minutes...considering I live less than 10 minutes away, that should be no sweat.... work 10 hours today...then 6 hours tomorrow and then.....OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF woo hoooooooooo

Yay, finally Friday! I am so excited. I just hope the weekend doesn't fly by like it usually does.

Amed and I want to go see the new James Bond movie this weekend (which we've been trying to do for ages), we'll probably sleep in on Saturday and do a bit of house cleaning, and on Sunday, we are going to see "The Nutcracker" by the Russian Ballet with my parents. It'll be the first time I've been to the ballet in years!

What is everyone's weekend plans?

No, not really in a hurry... Just could not sleep... all stuffed up! Actually still barely got 3 hours of sleep ... Between blowing my nose, taking my vapor inhalations I am online wasting time... **cough**cough**sniff**sniff**
Sarah, I hope you donnot get too sick and get out of it fast!
Charles and Jenn, thanks for the get well wishes!

running late, busy day, didn't want to wake up - it's cold as chit out there!!! I've booked more massage than I generally like to do in one day - my hands are really aching this week I hope this day goes by quickly

Happy Friday! Finally, FRIDAY!!! Hope you all have a good one!

Jackie

Good morning. Doing some work on-line today. Hope you all have a good day.

So as to not keep the Wed thread going (thinking of you, Jenn ), I'm going to answer Maggie's question here abt when Mardi Gras is.... for 2007, the official Mardi Gras day is Tuesday, Feb. 20 (Mardi Gras translates to Fat Tuesday), so the *big* weekend is Friday-Tuesday (Feb 16-20). NOLA starts celebrating pretty big for abt 2 weeks before that. The huge parades of Bacchus & Endymion are on the Sat. & Sunday nites. Monday is referred to as Lundi Gras. Often I like to be away from New Orleans at this time, but since Said will be here then, we'll probably go "do Mardi Gras".

Henia & Sarah- feel better today!

Jean- It's good to see you posting this morning. You sound a little better. Let us know when you need us!

Everyone else have a great start to the week-end. I LOVE fridays.

I tried yesterday jenn, but no one would pay attention . . . I guess no one reads my posts .

I want to officially thank Charles for his thoughtfullness regarding my not feeling well yesterday. Check entries in the "Thursday" thread, hehe.

My eye infection seems much better today . . . although some of the swelling is in the lymph nodes on that side of my neck, which i think is the true source of the headache/infection/whatever.

Anyway . . . I will once more attempt an on-line training class and hope that I don't fall asleep in the middle of it! But usually these are so boring that it is hard to stay awake anyway . . . . so I need major help to stay awake today .

Hope you are feeling better soon. This sounds like a pesky infection! Take care of yourself!

Well I wanted to tell ya'll that I got my new passport last night, but didn't see it until this morning. Alhumdulilah I have my marriage cert. for our interview in two weeks. Also I just made an appointment to go see a doctor about not having my cycle in almost 3 months now. I will see her on Tuesday morning. I had to go back to her because Everyone else doesn't have any appointments until the end of January of February. So hopefully she will be able to tell me what's going on with my body. My mother is going to be at my house tonight and staying for who knows how long. Hopefully I will make it through the next week without tearing my ears off. Well I guess we'll have to wait and see how it goes. Well I hope you all have a good Friday and a great weekend.

February is a nice time to come to NOLA . . . . but I always hesitate to come to Mardi Gras because of the crowds and reported insanity (not to mention a proliferation of stupid things like "girls gone wild" type activities). Now, if there was a nice safe place to watch the parades from that might be another story, hehe!! Do you have friends living along the parade route??

hmmm, now that I think about it . . . Eid celebrations in Cairo would be just as crowded and I want to go to Cairo for the end of Ramadan some day. Now I have heard about (and seen the blurry videos) of the young males running amok harassing females, I am thinking I know why most of the women stay home and stay out of the Tahrir area!!

I hope everyone recovers quickly from their colds! Take care of yourselves!

In about an hour I have a French spoken exam! I am so nervous. After that I have a piano lesson and a composition project (that I have yet to finish fixing) to turn in. I can't wait till finals are over.

BTW- It is freezing here.

-C

Hey! At least you have a car now and don't have to freeze your bum off waiting for stupid SEPTA! That's what your hubby gets to do now. Yes It's cold here! It was especially cold this morning at 6 when I left for work. Keep warm! And good luck with you french exam. I know you'll do well. You got an ear for languages just like me!

Bonne chance Browneyez!

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Thank you. I appreciate it. Its become minute to minute for me. I'm taking a bit of a mental vacation because I know the Embassy is closed now until Sunday.

ETA: No one has found any evidence of additional checks being requested so I'm taking that as a positive.

I usually don't forward these, but this is legit:

Today, Bristol-Myers Squibb, the pharmaceutical monolith that charges
nearly $1,000 for a 30 day supply of one of its HIV/AIDS medications,
is donating $1 to the National AIDS Fund for each person who simply
visits their website and "virtually lights a candle." The tally is
near 930,579 now.

Please, please take a minute to "light a candle":

www.lighttounite.org

998,264

Jenn I can't do it from work! My stupid work doesn't have any of the newest flash players and it doesn't allow me to download them either. Boooo! But when I get home I will light one.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/lighttounite.asp

Status: WAS true, but the maxium contribution level has been reached

That's too bad. It does say that it is possible that they will raise their cap if they get an overwhelming response. I hope they do. $100,000 seems pretty pitiful.

Happy Fri!

Enjoy!

The twins are sleeping (thank God) so I'm taking a little time out to catch up on some emails and VJ before I take a little nap myself. Looks like I have a lot of catch up on with VJ! New format and the works!

This day is going by soooo slow. I am ready for the weekend! Did anyone get an early start to their weekend? Give me some good stories so I can live vicariously through you!!

Hey crazyinegypt I was just thinking about you and the little ones wondering how things were. When you're stuck at home in bed with a big lumpy baby moving all around head butting you - you have lots of time to think. I'd love to see a picture of the little cuties! How are they doing? I'm sure that they just get bigger and bigger! I can't wait to hold my little guy! We're going to my mom's tonight for dinner - I'm making Roman Chicken and pasta (potatoes to to appease Youssef). I have been doing most of my Christmas shopping online since I can't really get out and when I do I get to annoyed with all the people! I still have to get my mom, sister and dad something and am at a loss. Arghh well have a great rest of the today everyone!

Amera,

What's Roman Chicken? Do you have a good recipe you can share with us?

Well surely:)

This is the basic recipe for this

- 4-6 chicken breasts
- 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4c olive oil
- 1/2-1c prociutto chopped (i don't use this)
- 1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper chopped into strips (or smaller pieces however you like it)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 tblsp thyme
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 c chicken stock
- 1/2 c white wine (or I use apple cider vinegar but a little less)
- some chopped parsley (flat leaf italian is my favorite)
- 2 tsp capers

Season the chicken with salt and pepper while heating up the olive oil in a saute pan and fry chicken on medium just until they are a little brown and remove. If you use the prociutto add this to the same pan with peppers and garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes, herbs, wine/vinegar. Return chicken to the pan and add the chicken stock. Cover and allow to boil then simmer for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked through. When ready to serve top with parsley and capers.

Tonight I'm going to try to alter the sauce to make it more workable with pasta. I know it's good with some roasted potatoes but I'm pasta hungry

well, my last appt had to cancel cuz she's stuck in major traffic.... does that count as an early start to the weekend?

Almost time to go home. No idea what's going on tonight. Got the 5th season of Smallville to watch this weekend. I'll probably stay up until 2 watching it. Well I hope you all had a productive day. Have a good weekend!

Seems like everyone is checking out for the weekend!!! I did take off for the afternoon even though I wasn't feeling so great . . . went to Hobby Lobby to check out their 50% xmas stuff, then went for my manicure-pedicure . . . I switched it from Saturday so I can go tomorrow to have some fun with my new sword (yes, Noura . . . that is the one).

I was going to say "what a quiet bunch today!" . . . but I haven't checked the other threads yet!!

it does seem rather quiet today! i hope your eye is feeling better and that you had a nice mani/pedi. anything good at the Hobby Lobby sale? I sometimes get costume pieces from there!
have fun playing w/ your sword dearie.... be careful!

Hey! some of those 50% xmas decorations reminded me of costumes!!! there were silver and gold things, hehe! I got some fake garlands to hang around my gate outside . . . all plastic stuff basically! Oh, I got a couple of things to hang stockings too . . . they are just narrow enough to sit up on the brick ledge above my fireplace. One of these days I am going to find a mantle piece . . . big crown moulding maybe??

The eye is still puffy but it is starting to become less noticeable and not so itchy . . . hopefully tomorrow it will be less bothersome so I won't drop my sword due to balancing problems, hehe!!

Awww, Rudolph is on!

And I am missing it!!!!! I called my granddaughter to tell her it is on. I think I will buy her the DVD tommorrow.

Jackie