Boys on The Loose Part 2

So, not to be outdone by any other events Larry and I decided to continue our trouble making boys trip. Part two was a 4 day weekend in Rome. I have said it before, and I will say it again, Rome is my favorite city in the world. It has been several years since my last trip to Rome, but I always compare other travels to it. Several years and more immigration stamps than I care to think of later and Rome still ranks number 1.

We spent a fast and furious couple of days taking in the normal sights and attractions. Most important was the time we spent sitting in random street side cafes eating fantastic food, drinking wine, and people watching.

It was a fast and furious trip, but lots of fun. I am glad that Larry got a chance to see Italy. I think it was a drastic difference from his time spent in the far East. In hind sight it may have been a cruel form of punishment as an end to his 7 months of on the road. Now he is back in Houston, not much for him to look at there....

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Steve's Project makes the news...

In case your interested in what Steve's been up to over here his project (one of many) was in the Gulf Times for the ground breaking ceremony. Click on the link to find out more...

Boy's On The Loose

So while Mariah went on a little shopping spree in the US, I took a couple of quick weekend trips with my buddy Larry. Larry has spent the last 7 months traveling the world, blowing off steam. He was wrapping up his trip here in the Middle East before heading back to Houston. Bad news for Larry was that he showed up during Ramadan. Good news for Larry is you can still buy drinks in Dubai during Ramadan, and I had more than enough frequent flyer miles to get us there.

First stop Mall of The Emirates and the worlds only indoor ski slope. I thought that this would be corny, but it was actually a good time. An hour of indoor runs for 30 buck, no line, all equipment provided. It was actually cold (around 25 deg.).

Next day we took a taxi tour of Dubai construction. I am always amazed at the shear volume, you can't look in any direction without counting at least 20 tower cranes. Here is a photo that we took looking at the Burj Dubai, the worlds tallest building at 2,684 feet.

Color Sunday in Colorado

I had to go to the US for a training class and was able to take advantage of the trip by spending some vacation time in the states. The trip started in North Carolina were I got to spend a week on the beautiful UNC campus in Chapel Hill. From there I meet up with my Mom, sister, and Aunt Bun for a day in DC followed by a few days in my sister's new house in Dover, Delaware. From there my Mom and I visited our relatives near Montreal before finally heading to Colorado. We were just in time to see the fall colors on the Grand Mesa above Palisade and my Dad got a few great shots that I've included below.





While in Colorado I was also able to do some major baby shopping, including the crib, tons of baby clothes, and all those gadgets you had no idea you needed. The company allows for an additional shipment so I got that organized and sent back to Doha. Next big project will be setting up the baby room... and for those wondering Steve couldn't come on the trip but ended up spending a few days in Rome with Larry (which will likely be the next posting).

ITS A BOY!!!

And Dad is excited.

So, we just had our 2nd trimester ultrasound. The Doctor and I had a nice long chat about how they determine the sex. She claims it is very easy: "you see there? Those are the legs, and guess what is in between?" I smiled and then made her show it to me again about 5 times from different angles just to be sure. The doctor was very amused by this, and after I asked for the 6th time "are you sure it is a boy" (not wanting to loose anything in translation of course), she told us that in her professional opinion she is a 1,000% sure. Take a look at the photo below and be your own judge.


The little guy was very active during the ultrasound today. The doctor especially enjoyed the little bit where he was covering his eyes and appeared to be sucking on his hand. As much as he was moving it made me wonder how annoying it must be to be pummelled with high frequency sound waves just so mom and dad can take a sneak peak.

For those who don't know

Well, for those of you who haven't already heard Mariah and I are happy to announce that we are expecting our first child. To a couple of good friends out there (you know who you are) I win - watch out for the "little Connor" comming soon. We are apx. 13 weeks along and everything is going along very smoothly (more so for me than Mariah of course). All in all Mariah has been pretty lucky to date with no morning sickness to speak of, we are hoping that the second trimester goes along as well.

Today we had our second ultrasound screening. The baby is healthy and active, making sure to give the doctor a hard time with her job. Everyone has been asking us about our plans. Yes, we plan to have the baby here in Doha. We are number 8 of 9 first child additions in our little compound and 5 of the previous 6 newborns were all very comfortably delivered here in Doha.

There is definitely either something in the water or in the vodka in our little compound. Out of 20 something young couples there have been 9 pregnancies in the past year or so. Baby number six was just born on July 24th. I have dubbed us "Phase II" as Mariah along with numbers 7 & 9 are all expecting at the begining of February. The good news is that there is a large support group of ladies all trying to cope with a first born in a foreign country.

We will try to keep you posted as we progress.

Vacation in Thailand

I enjoyed Bangkok so much in March that when we decided to take a trip to go meet up with our friend Larry, who has been traveling Asia for the past 5 month, we decided Thailand would be the perfect place. We met in Bangkok and from there headed to Ko Tao or Turtle Island.
One of the adventures we had was renting 4-wheelers for the day and exploring the hidden trails on this small, quaint island.
We soon learned that the trails were a bit more rugged than expected. Larry flipped his 4-wheeler twice. I spent a lot of time walking up trails while Steve attempted to get ours over the rugged part. After relaxing on Ko Tao, snorkeling, and enjoying the great food and nice weather we headed back to Bangkok.
One of the tourist items I had missed on the last trip was a tour of the rivers and waterway of Bangkok. We hired a boat and had a local take us around for a few hours. One of the stops was a hole in the wall zoo that had various attractions including snakes, monkeys, and tigers.

Steve and Larry had a great time holding baby monkeys. My favorite part was seeing the beautiful tigers who couldn't help but eye those monkeys like they might be a good snack.After the river tour we made a quick stop at Wat Pho the temple of the reclining Buddha. You might recognize a few of the images from our previous post but this Buddha is a must see for anyone who visits Bangkok. Our final adventure before heading home was a live kick-boxing show. The athleticism and flexibility of these athletes is very impressive and it was a good way to finish our week in Thailand. If you want to see the rest of the pictures they're on shutterfly.

Trip to Oman

We had our annual trip to Oman for a strategy session and team building trip (aka boondoggle) including spouses (yep Steve got to go too). This year we went to a brand new resort Sixsenses that doesn't officially open for another few months.
It's tucked away in a place called Zighy Bay located in Musandam Oman. The resort was built next to a small 1-family village and it took 8 months to build a road over the steep mountains to get building materials into the area.
Each room is built to look like a small house in a quaint village and each room has it's own private pool. The weather was too hot to spend much time outside so we decided this was a great opportunity to take an Arabic cooking class.
Our chef is originally from Lebanon and has traveled all around the middle east cooking in high-end resorts. He taught us how to make the traditional Arabic Mezze which includes hummus, fattoush and babba ganoush. Yummy!

CC Wedding Extravaganza

So I had another business trip to NY/NJ to work on the final preparation for my upcoming major project. We are hopefully days away from being awarded a very exciting design project....more on that when I win.

Lucky for me we timed the meetings to coincide with Chris Fischer's wedding which was in upstate NY. So after a couple days of very productive meetings I hopped in the car and took a NY Country drive. The weather was fantastic and all of the trees were changing color which was great (we don't get a lot of color other than brown in Doha). Mariah couldn't make it as she was on a business trip to London (previous post).

The weekend started with a round of golf, cigars (fresh Cubans via Doha), and beers. Fun times! The wedding itself was a great event (http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=4744184025649752). Chris really found someone special in Sharon, I couldn't be happier for him.

I had the chance to catch up with old friends that I hadn't seen in years. The Beta Five were all there: Zach, Jay, Eric, Chris, and myself. It had been a long time and definitely made me nostalgic for old times. To my amazement both Zach and Jay have little daughters now and both have another one on the way. In addition I was able to catch up with Matt and Becca, Chip, and Koch. Good times all around.

1st London Show

I've been to London several times but have never made the time to go and actually see one of the many wonderful shows they have to offer. I had a week long workshop this time and decided it was time to experience a new part of London the experience. I saw 2 shows Wicked and Les Miserables. Both were great but Wicked was my favorite! I had read the book and loved the story and the show did a great job of summing up the story into a 3 hour play...bottom line - if you have a chance to see Wicked it's worth it!

Grandpa's 90th Birthday

After Bangkok the next trip was to Florida for my Grandpa's 90th birthday. The entire Forte family made the trip and it was first time we had a complete family reunion in a a long time.
Grandpa looked great and the party was perfect. Lots of good food, fun memories and catching up. After the party we spent the rest of the time hanging out with family, playing lots of poker, and trying to ignore the effects if jet lag. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA - Here's to many more...

Conference in Bangkok

March has been an amazingly busy travel month. Steve was in London the first week, I went to Bangkok the second week, then we both went to Florida the third week. So I'll start with Bangkok . . .

I had a 1 week conference in Bangkok and was able to arrive a few days early since I've never been to this amazing city. I spent the first 2 days touring the palaces and temples, exploring the various street markets and enjoying the extremely friendly people.

The Thai culture is very rich and they love color. It's almost overwheleming how bright and colorful all the palaces, temples, and government buildings are. If a building isn't covered in bright glass then it's covered in leafs of gold.The Thai people are also very open about there religion and let tourists come in to all the temples and loiter while the munks and people are praying.

This is the largest budha in the world it's about 2 stories tall and probably 50 yards long and made out of gold.If you want to see more pictures the rest are on shutterfly.

The Door Prize is . . . . A DOOR

Every year the Texas A&M branch in Doha holds a fundraiser called the Boot Scoot. There aren't many opportunities for the expat community to get together and have a good old fashion western hoedown so it's a very popular event. This year tickets sold out 30 minutes after going on sale. Part of the fundraiser is an auction and a drawing for items donated by local shops - well guess who won the drawing...Steve. We heard his name called, he went up to claim the prize and that's when we realized it was an 8 ft door...it's huge, doesn't fit anywhere in the house but is a really neat (and expensive) collectors piece. We've been brainstorming possible uses - dinning room table, head board, uh door, but nothing seems like quite the right use for it. Any ideas out there, or if you've been in the market for one we'll give you a great price :-)

Bird Dog now the Desert Dog

Steve's work set-up an afternoon at the dunes last weekend which provided us a chance to bring Athena out with us. She was just as crazy as ever and was a blast to watch running through the sand. It's a lot like watching a dog get through deep snow because the sand is so soft that she sank. We brought an artillery of tennis balls and everyone got a kick out of making her run up and down the dunes all afternoon. We had to lock her in the car a few times to get her to take a break. In the picture with Athena is is Steve's boss' lap dog named Trevor. He's a fully equipped male and couldn't resist following Athena everywhere (or at least trying too).

New Years in Australia

Happy New Year from Sydney Australia!!!
What better way to end a year of travel than to spend NYE enjoying the first fireworks show in the world (time zone speaking that is)? Mariah and I joined our friends from Houston, Whitney and Chad, who are currently working in Sydney. We only spent two days in Sydney, but had a great chance to catch up with our friends and see a couple of sights.

Most notably we toured the Sydney Opera House, which architecturally speaking is very impressive.

For the highlight of the trip Chad and Whitney got us tickets on a harbor cruise boat for the big New Years show. We had an open bar all night and front row, unobstructed views of the biggest fireworks show I have ever seen. It was quite a sight, they had six barges lined up the harbor, the downtown high rises in the background, and the Sydney Harbor Bridge all shooting off at the same time. Pretty cool sight.



















In an effort to start the new year off prim and proper, Whitney got us members access to the Sydney Horse Track on Jan 1. Mariah got to get dressed up and wear a hat, but was easily out-classed as she didn't have a single feather or flower tucked in it. These folks really love getting dressed up for this, and they really love the races. We had an awesome time catching up with our friends and enjoying some of the sights Sydney has to offer.

To close out our tour of New Zealand and Australia we took a couple of days to go north and enjoy the Gold Coast. Thanks to a clever bit of planning we met up with some of my college Fraternity brothers (Zach Bennette and Adrian Sikorski). But, in full accordance with Murphy's Law, when spending time on one of the nicest beaches in the world . . . if a cyclone can hit you - it will. Luckily the cyclone was a good bit offshore and only caused major waves and rain the whole time. Luckily for us there were plenty of pubs to be found and some how we managed to entertain ourselves.

In case you haven't seen enough pictures you can see the select 170 (out of the 800 we took) on Shutterfly.