Will the real Alice please stand up?

My in-laws used to joke around and say that I was Melissa in wonderland.  Sometimes I don't disagree.

It's about 5 p.m. right now.  It's 94 degrees outside with wind and blowing sand.  Sounds like everyone's perception of the desert right?  Hubby still isn't sure how it snows where my folks live, since they're in the desert, so I guess it's a pretty universal idea that desert equals hot and sandy.

:::

I fried some apple slices the other night.  I decided since the apple fritters lost all the apple taste that I would try to find a recipe for something that really let the apple taste come through.  Well, easy enough.  Sliced the granny smith apples thinly and stuck them in a pan with some melted butter.  Waited a bit and put some brown sugar and cinnamon in and then let them cook until they were tender.

I didn't have any but hubby really really loved them.  I love how easy it was and that no oven was required.  I can see how using the oven in the summer is going to be a bit of a bear unless we keep a nice fan in the kitchen.

:::

I have to say I have been a bit bored as of late.  The novelty of being able to do my own dishes and laundry and baking has worn off a bit after having not been able to do anything while living at the in-laws for 9 months.  I wish we lived in another area where there were more ex-pats or more things to do.  As it is, we live close to hubby's work which is good, and close to the in-laws which is fine.  It's just far from a lot of other stuff.

I don't think hubby feels comfortable letting me wander out and about on my own, I really think he's afraid something will happen to me.  Which is possible, but not exceedingly likely.  I think the most I would get is some unwanted male attention, but it's not likely that I would be aggressively assaulted or anything.

But, I get to feeling cooped up when I am in the house all day and every day and we just don't really go out.
I try to find interesting things to do online, things to read, new ideas to explore, etc. etc., but sometimes I really feel like I'm living in a cocoon.  I could be living anywhere, in any part of the world, for all that I know of what is going on outside the apartment. 

Sometimes I feel really excited to be living in a place with so much history and I know I should learn some more about Egypt and its past.  But I'd really like to get out and explore Egypt in it's present.

:::

I had these for a while but didn't get around to posting them.  One of my hubby's cousins from Kuwait sent over some gifts for my in-laws and also something for me, with another cousin who was visiting.  There were written names on everything so we would know who got what.  The names, of course, were written in Arabic.

First is hubby's name

And then we have my name.

Since they don't use vowels in the Arabic language, they use symbols below and above the letters to denote the sound of what would be vowels.