Touagin aux Amandes

I've finally seen all of my season finales for this year, and all of them were good. FlashForward was intense, but alas, they have canceled the show. I don't know about the acting or writing or whatever, but the idea just sucked me in. I wish I could see it to the end. V was also good, but I hope that Joshua's still a good guy. Grey's Anatomy... what can I say? Even Nidhal got into it. And speaking of Nidhal, he took me to see Sex in the City 2 last night. We both enjoyed it, but we did NOT enjoy the idiot who sat in front of us even though the entire theater was empty. Stupid people.

This evening, I tried to make touagin aux amandes, which is a Tunisian sweet/cookie/thing. I tried. The dough didn't really turn into dough, though, so I couldn't form it into little logs. But I was able to slap it down on a baking sheet and cook it, and then I cut it into little squares. It still tastes great... it just doesn't look like it's supposed to. We bought another Tunisian cookbook yesterday and I plan to make a ton of stuff from it. The only problem is that in buying the ingredients for said food, we had few enough to go through the express lane but the bill was above $50. Ouch.

In other news, I feel sick. All kinds of sick. My ears have been causing me problems for days. I have a partial sore throat. And I'm having stomach issues. Lovely.

I hate EMU.

I hate Eastern Michigan University. With a flaming passion. Stupid idiots. I don't know if I've gone into the details, but Nidhal is having severe issues with the admissions office. And I am thoroughly sick of the TESOL department. It's just ridiculous.

When I'm done with my Master's, I want to go to the United Arab Emirates for a few years and teach English. Nidhal and I figure we could go there for up to five years and save up some money. But it's only one of our possibilities.

I made cookies tonight, but I didn't have any brown sugar... so they're kind of weird.

My sister and her kids were in town today. Anna and Davin are quite cute. Anna's a fun little girl and Davin is an adorable baby.

Congratulations!

First of all, Congratulations, Lyne!

The apartment is slowly emptying out. So far, 2+ car loads of stuff have been taken out. Most of the DVDs and books are gone, a bunch of clothes and blankets, and some kitchen appliances. The parents were driving through Ann Arbor and offered to take some stuff for us. They also took us out to dinner, which was nice. And the food was excellent, too.

STUPID people living above us. Loud, stupid people.

Nidhal's supposed to be taking me out on a date today, but he hasn't told me what it is. He gave me flowers a couple days ago for no apparent reason. I think he's a pretty great husband.

And now breakfast time.

The Process of Moving

Well, we're moving out of the apartment at the end of our lease as we're planning to be out of the country for two months. I'm now in the process of packing up stuff. We already sent some boxes of books and clothes home, and about a third of the living room floor is now covered with more boxes of non-necessities. Nidhal always was annoyed that I saved the boxes from everything, but I bet now he's changed his tune a little. They are coming in quite handy. I moved into this apartment with almost nothing. I think I had a beanbag chair, a computer chair, some plates, and plastic set of drawers when I first moved in. Now we have so much stuff that we want a bigger apartment. I first bought the couch and the mattress and then later the large bookshelf. I think all the other furniture in the apartment was free, which is pretty impressive... desk, entertainment center, four end tables, bookshelves, two tables, six chairs, dresser, and a nightstand... all either generous donations or old stuff from my parents' house. ANYWAY, all the stuff on the floor now is either hardly or not ever used or seasonal. And we've only made a small dent in our collection of possessions.

Happy Spring!

With the coming of spring also came my desire to cook. I never was much of a cook before I went to Germany. In fact, I don't know if I so much as made a box of macaroni and cheese. After being exposed to so many good cooks in Germany (Jos, Beki, etc.), I finally acquired some food preparation ability. And now coming to the point, on Friday I made pan-fried catfish with green beans and yesterday I made venison pepper steak and baked potatoes. Nidhal enjoyed them both, and he is certainly picky so it really means something if he approves. And I even liked the catfish, which is amazing since I don't usually like fish. So these were my cooking triumphs of the week.

Obama was at U of M yesterday giving a speech for graduation. I would've liked to go... because how many chances do you get to see the president... but it was early and we didn't want to wait for hours for tickets. We saw it on TV, but it was definitely not as cool as being there.

In other news, it is really humid here. 80-something percent humidity the last time I checked. It's only in the 70's but it feels so much warmer.

I need to get Nidhal to watch Star Wars before we go to Tunisia.

And as my one-week vacation comes to a close, I just have to push myself forward by reminding myself that I am halfway along the path to getting my master's degree. Almost there, almost there.

And happy birthday, Lyne!