Allies Life

workout: 10K in 58 minutes!

i slept in till 4:30 am. late for me! our turkey trot was scheduled for 6:00 so i had some time to call the husband and scavenge for breakfast.

this is our giveaway area:

I finished off those thin mints and a big cup of honey with some black tea. nothing like sugar to fuel a run!

(nevermind my chippy nailpolish…) the weather ended up being a little chilly but good for a run. i’m just glad it’s under 100*!

after the run we had a little breakfast:

chocolate with sprinkles for me! x2!

then we headed into town to pick up some after dinner treats.

the mall has an ice skating rink and a canal with real gondolas. (warning: blurry iphone pics starting)

i dragged my companions around before we started picking up food stuff. i fell in love with these vibrams:

but after doing the conversion i figured out they were $150, 50% more than US! plus i stopped running in five-fingers because they were irritating between my toes.

i also found some amazing smelly stuff:

and stocked up on some wild mint and english lavender scents for my room.

i wanted this chair:

i thought it said 775 riyals, which is only about $200, so i started making plans to get it home. then i saw that it was 5,775 riyals

i also loved these little spoons:

maybe i need to start carrying my own utensils to the dfac…

anyways, i had to grab a chicken quiche from starbucks to level out all the sugar from the morning.

then we started picking out sweets for after dinner…

chocolate ganache with jasmine mmmm….

and i picked up fresh flowers for my room.

dinner:

it was pretty good (compared to our normal dfac food), but i was already full of chocolates by the time we started!

after dinner we headed to our little party for coffee, dessert, and drinks.

i played cards until i couldn’t hold my eyes open anymore and then crashed!

workout: 3:00am 4 mi jog + 1 mi 100m sprints + 100m walking lunges (from hell)

this is it:

these are my neighbors:

somewhere in neverland i have a fabulous apartment, in case you read my house hunting posts, and this is my view (for realz):

that’s a dolphin park down there by the water, where you swim with dolphins.

anyways, this is my room now:

but my lights aren’t working right now so you don’t get the full effect. and the window is blacked out cause i sleep during the day like a vampire.

but i had a genius moment yesterday that i’ll share. see, i’m still online shopping like crazy cause that’s what deployments are for, right? so i order a lot of food from amazon now, like these pumpkin pie spice coffee creamers (totally necessary).

the box was pretty much soaked when i got it and i’m surprised any of them made it through the journey, but i started wiping them off individually with clorox wipes, all 190+ of them.

and then i saw my laundry bag…

and into the shower they went! they came out clean (enough) and i shared them with all my coworkers who are also missing pumpkin lattes and other holiday routines

um yeah, it sucks more every time. i successfully console myself with online shopping though!

between lululemon and amazon, i hope my husband never plans on retiring. these were totally necessary:

and the biggest issue in my life right now is what item in the color “currant” i will be buying…

decisions decisions…

i woke up yesterday ready to tackle the world, or at least my treadmill and my very dusty blog. i did write a blog yesterday, but apparently it wasn’t working properly, so i redid it today. the treadmill was working though! as part of a new marathon training plan that’s still in the works, i ran one sub-9 minute mile. i’m trying to work on distance and pace at the same time so we’ll see how this goes.

then i whipped up a chocolately banana spinach protein smoothie (delicious)…

and we got ready for adventures

started out with brunch, it was a good one. grilled lobster, filet, and shrimps…

beverages: strawberry mojitos, mimosas, water (necessary after drinking the night before)…

desserts

i couldn’t get enough of those little strawberry tarts, they were so good!

there was some healthy stuff in there too…

mmmm, strawberry tarts…

there was karaoke and dancing and balloon hats…

and lots of beer…

we closed the place down and headed to the next spot for cocktails and tapas.

so yummy!

we then proceeded to board a bachelorette party bus …

and headed to the next bar, where their feather dusters were collected at the door

but we had fun anyways…

i won’t waste time rehashing the past few months for right now, so here’s a little taste of how life has been…

i used cody’s muscles to move my treadmill to a more favorable location so when i came home from work thursday (my friday) i hopped on for some [very] quick intervals.

while i was working out, cody was working on dinner…

ground turkey tacos with my favorite spicy red rice, so good!

then we headed out to the souq to pick up cody’s new suits!

and to look at shiny things…

then we rushed home to get ready for the bars

fun times! and fish and chips for a midnight snack…

sweet chili sauce FTW!

here’s cody ready to dig in…

and then there was more bar hopping…

First we went to a building I’ve been in before, but we saw some different flats. This building has individual owners as opposed to some rich guy owning the whole highrise, so all of the flats are different.

It was a three bedroom with a pool table in the third bedroom. Then they said they had a completely unfurnished one on the 14th floor. That’s pretty much the penthouse.

Views:

Bedrooms:

And a completely unfurnished kitchen, so they would be buying all new appliances:

I liked it because it was so high. The light wasn’t being blocked by all the other highrises. Plus it was brand new so that would be nice.

Next we went to see a villa.

Garage:

Half bath:

They almost always have a weird little sink outside the half bath. Maybe in case everybody needs to wash their hands or something. I dunno.

Anyways, upstairs:

Up the stairs again…

And there was a pool shared with two other houses.

Then we went to see another apartment in a 12-flat building, so it wasn’t really a highrise.

Check out the ocean views!

I like the floor in the foyer

Rooftop pool over looking the water:

I got to see a real house!

All of the houses have gated entries like this, and that’s a garage/carport on the left (it has a door and is covered but it’s open in the back).

Helloooo fabulous staircase, right?

Swimming pool the size of a postage stamp…

There was also a third floor with roof access and a maid’s room.

The next place was a 3-flat. That’s where there’s three apartments in one building, and that’s it. It had a garage for each tenant.

And it was brand new, hence all the dust.

Large oven, I can cook a turkey, she told me.

Jacuzzi tub!

That’s the spare bedroom with the window looking into the garage She’s checking on a higher floor flat for me, I said I can’t have a room with zero natural light.

Here’s the other bathroom.

And the nice swimming pool

And I liked the front doors.

The next place was a slightly older, more traditional Arab home.

Swimming pool…

And I forgot to take a picture but there were two front doors. The main one, giant double doors in the middle of the front stoop, and then to the left there was a single door, for the women, leading into a separate living room (also for the women).

Ugly kitchen, I asked if they would rip it out and she said only the appliances That’s all I needed to see.

Then another 3-flat with a pool and a garage.

What is that thing?

More highrises!

Here’s one I don’t remember what the outside looked like, but I do remember we saw a [dead] roach in there!

It had a neat front door though…

The next place was brand new and I saw three different flats…

One.

Two.

And the third one was the same, but with a better view…

The water and the big bridge, probably beautiful at night all lit up.

Then we went to another place with a really wonky elevator…

Giant gas/electric stove and oven.

That was a no.

The next building had a lovely lobby.

And nice apartments.

Up a few floors higher (same floorplan)…

And this one had a really nice sundeck. Most of the pools are completely shaded to keep them from getting too hot and too dirty.

The first place…

Kitchen:

I love the fridge!!

The great room:

I should’ve opened the blinds to see more light, but I like all the windows.

Hallway/random sink leading to half bath (I decided this would be a good area for hair and makeup stuff)…

American washer and dryer!!

Bedroom, bedroom, bedroom…

Bathroom (there were two full baths but I only took pics of one)…

And there was a little pool (Just about every place has a pool but I don’t waste my time looking at them unless I like the apartments.)

I saw a few more flats today, but this one’s my favorite, so the other ones can wait. I have homework to do!

We headed out to a beachy island area per my request.

The first place…

Right away no covered parking, just assigned parking in front.

My neighbors…

Looks like they have about 15 kids in a two bedroom apartment, no thanks.

I did like the view though…

And the galley kitchen was nice…

But the bedrooms were teeny tiny

Moving on…

Looks nice when you walk in…

And then you notice that lovely black paint on the walls. And then the purple wall next to you.

Hmmm…The view is nice…

That big white tent is a shopping mall, could be trouble.

Bedroom/bathroom…

Each bathroom had a tub next to the shower, I just cut those out of the pictures, here’s another:

Not too excited about that one The purple wall killed it.

Next up…same building…much better…

It was pretty much the same except the furniture was nicer.

The view was not nicer.

The closet was also nicer (walk-in in the master)…

Here’s the last one because I didn’t think it was necessary before:

I dunno which is better, the built ins or the closet organizer? Oh well, I wasn’t impressed with either of them.

On to the next one…

Larger (blurry) kitchen…

No furniture (which is good because I have my own)…

Oh yeah, and off the kitchen there was a weird 3/4 bathroom through what I believe was the laundry room but may have been servant’s quarters…

Bedroom, bedroom, bedroom…

And my favorite bedroom…

Next place…

I don’t like the table in the kitchen or the white cabinets.

The bathrooms were a little different on this one (toilet to the right).

But it had this awesome curved wall of windows in one of the bedrooms.

Two of the bedrooms.

And then the master.

Next up: across the street.

Kitchen:

(It was the same as the other two bedrooms).

Except it had a view of Micheal Jackson’s house…

(The one with the dome, duh.)

Next place! I wasn’t impressed with the outside, but the inside looked like a hotel…

And the elevator was all glass

The apartment was lame

Oh, there were two apartments there…

Oh wait, another one…

I have an actual table so that pool table would have to go!

Moving on, last apartment of the day…

I liked all the white furniture but it was not comfortable, at all.