Celebrating 50 !

Today Tim turns 50 years old! He says he doesn't feel it. Some people say he doesn't look it. Lisa says he doesn't act it.

He celebrated all weekend long!  First, a gathering of friends for cake on Thursday evening.

 Then an overnight getaway to a local beach resort, compliments of a very generous couple.

And a family birthday BBQ tonight with a special gift from Max and Simon. They gave Tim a set of Bose 25 headphones. The rest of us have good headphones and the boys thought it was time that Tim enjoyed noise canceling comfort when he travels.

Swim Meet 2014

We spent this past weekend at the pool. As always it was a thrill to watch Max and Simon swim for the Qatar Academy Falcons. This international competition was hosted here in Doha with teams attending from Kuwait, UAE, and Jordan. We hosted three swimmers from Dubai and had a wonderful weekend -- although feeding five teenage boys does keep Mom busy.

In the end Simon brought home 7 medals, including a GOLD in the 50m back stroke. And Max brought home 7 medals, including a SILVER in 100m Free (losing to his teammate who also swims on the Qatar National Swim Team).

The pool uses the electronic Colorado Timing System and human backup timers. Some races were very close -- Max won the SILVER in 50m Fly by 6/100th of a second!

And it was no wonder that Max's Freestyle Relay team won the GOLD medal; earlier in the day they made a clean sweep of medals in the 100m Free.

Talent Show

Max has been casually playing in a band from school. Just a group of guys that love music getting together a couple of times a week to play together. They call themselves "Doorhandle". They write their music and try a variety of  techniques just for fun. Rarely do they play in public. So it was a surprise when they decided to enter the school talent show last week.

Their performance was an original composition, lively, fun, and well done. They won First Place in the Talent Show and received a 1000 QR prize!