Thank You for the Music

I got the "Mamma Mia!" soundtrack on iTunes this weekend for fun. The movie is so cute and the soundtrack is great. The last track, "Thank You for the Music" is sweet. It all reminds me of 2008, right after Neil and I were married and were living in Arlington, VA, I saw the movie in a nearly-empty theater one night with some girl friends, a very fun and memorable occasion. Around the same time I read a delightful book, "My Family and Other Animals", which, like "Mamma Mia!" is set in Greece. A couple months after that I started my int'l job and was convinced I would go to Greece if given the chance! We'll see if that happens, or if I even would want to go there nowadays.

I have decided to get an iPod and a speaker dock to put in our kitchen. We spend a lot of time there and we don't have a radio or stereo system in the house, so it would be fun to have music. Espeically because any time a car goes by with music blaring, Nile starts bopping, so I would love to see her if we can have music on of our choosing. But I need to research which would be the best choice; I have not had an iPod since the one I got in 2004 that sadly died years ago. I am thinking just the Nano would be fine, I only want music on it. Neil and I both enjoy music and listen to it on the computer in our room, but it's time to have it elsewhere in the house, too.

We are not allowed to ship/receive lithium ion batteries in our pouch mail. Bummer. Cell phones, iPods, laptops, etc. have lithium ion batteries. Luckily my co-worker's wife is in the States now and can bring the items back with her in her luggage. So I am going to have the iPod, and the battery to my old smartphone my mom already mailed me, mailed to my co-worker's wife to bring here. Exciting, I know.

In other, edge-of-your seat, news:

Let's see, this weekend was pretty uneventful. It's nice to have time just to hang out together, but it is also a huge change of pace from Buenos Aires.

I still can't get used to 1/2 day Fridays every week! Very nice. Friday evening we had some friends over for dinner. Neil planned the menu and got everything ready for it and we cooked together, a very American meal: steak, potatoes, green salad, green beans.

He made a new dessert in his repetoire, pears sliced in half and baked with butter and brown sugar. As a topping, I handmade whipped cream for the first time in my life! I had to go online to look up how to do it, sad I know! But as you probably know, it was easy and so delish.

Saturday we thought about going to the first rounds of a cultural dance competition, but we slept in, got a late start and pretty much stayed around the house.


In addition to my iTunes music purchase, I did some online grocery shopping -- I got Craisins, pine nuts, chocolate chips, brown sugar from Amazon. Expat delights! I also got a couple recipe books and "The Lemon Tree." One of my very good friends is in Israel and has the book, too. We plan to read it together. I'll let you know how that goes.


Saturday night was dinner at another friend's house. Ironically, they served chicken, potatoes, green salad, green beans. Homemade brownies and homemade vanilla custard ice cream for dessert though! Super-delish!!!

Today was more of the same, time around the house, lots of sunshine and hanging on the patio, then the weekly volleyball/families get-together at the Rec Center.

If you can't tell from the above and from the last post, get-togethers here center more around dinners at home than going out, as anything in your kitchen is probably better than what you will find out.

Am I bummed about that? A bit. I like to eat! There is a pizza place here, called Debonair's, that has pretty good pizza. It has very thin crust and one of their specialties is a triple-decker pizza. It is incredible. It has chicken, sweet chili sauce, cheese, I don't even know what else. Yum-o-rama. You can choose to have it triple-layered with cheese and toppings. We ordered three of these pizzas at work one time, triple-decker and triple-layered. I wondered what the order dispatcher thought, the Americans ordering gluttonous amounts of food ... typical?