More Qatar

In a moment, I shall update you on the goings on in Qatar. But first, the goings on around here.
Jonathan and I are having a good time. I cleaned the floors today, and he was very fascinated. He thought the vacuum was pretty cool. I made it grab my shirt a couple of times, and teased him like I was gonna do it to him, too. He squealed and laughed. After I got his pajamas a couple of times, he grabbed the vacuum and got my mouth. Just kidding. Just checking to see if you were reading. No, he got my shirt, too. You moms out there are probably shaking your heads. "There goes Paul, teaching his 2-year old to touch people with dirty vacuum attachments." Don't worry. It won't be long before he's playing with woopie cushions, too. He thinks farting is pretty funny.
Speaking of funny, this kid has such a funny sense of humor. I should talk, I'm the weird one. But his favorite part of Wall-E? When this "female" robot suddenly blurts out the word "Directive" in some other language. The suddeneness of it just tickles his funny bone. Nevermind the actual jokes in the show. He doesn't get those yet.
Clerie sent home a cut-out story she made of "The Little Engine that Could." Jonathan showed me each piece after watching mommy tell the story a couple of times, and he told me what each train engine did or did not do. He likes it a lot.
So, Clerie. She's still in Qatar. Their trips to Qatar are supposed to be 4 days. 4 days, and as soon as they can get you back, they do. How long has Clerie been there? I...don't know. But it's been longer than four days. In fact, her friends Burnam and Cooper arrived a couple of days in, and they're going back before she does. She still doesn't know when they'll get her back out of there.
She's at the USO center in Qatar. I've described things a bit, but these centers have phone, internet, tours, movie theater rooms with popcorn that you can just go chill in, books you can take, tasty food, milk (Clerie's been in heaven with the milk), drinks, restaurants, pool tables & dart boards, etc. And you can wear civilian clothes.
So Clerie got to go play out on the water on one tour. House boat, speed boat, jet skis, tubes, catered lunch on a beach. Clerie got sunburned despite reapplying sunblock every fifteen minutes or so. I told her it was because she's the fairest in the land.
The drove through sand dunes to a small inland sea on another tour. They drive to the sand dunes, drop the tire pressure, and go crazy driving through the dunes. Clerie said it was quite a ride.
On another tour, the went to the Islamic Museum of Art. They're friends weren't impressed with the ancient pottery. "It's a bowl," they said. At one point, after exclaiming how many bowls there were, they walked into a room dedicated to just pottery. Clerie laughed at them. She thought it was all pretty cool.
And she got another day out on the water today. She didn't burn so bad this time. Probably because she has a protective layer of dead, pealing skin. Okay, maybe that's not it, but she's peeling pretty bad.
Now everyone's hanging out before her friends have to go back.