Last week was a crazy week. I live-blogged it in my head but didn’t write down. Then my computer had issues; first I couldn’t get on the internet, then Outlook refused to cooperate at all and had to be reinstalled, and then Word went out completely. Never a dull moment. Now I’ve forgotten all the catchy phrases I came up with to describe things, so you’ll have to put up with a basic recounting of the facts.

We spent the weekend trying to shop (Saturday; it was a feast day and the medina and the funky mall in L’Ocean were both closed) and actually shopping (Sunday) for the twins.

Monday started with a bang. The twins were 13 at long last! “What time was I born?” Abel asked, but when I pointed out he was born in Oregon and would have to add 8 hours to that, he quickly just went with the day being close enough.

We gave them their presents and ate homemade cinnamon rolls and bacon and eggs (real bacon!) and I had a lot of coffee and then let them join facebook. They already have about 200 friends each, and I basically never get to see my computer anymore. They are having a blast. They can tell you what colour they are, what superhero they are, what Lord of the Rings character they are, and what flower they are. They were even bickering in status updates until I put a stop to that.

Monday was also the day to finally get the mold off the ceiling. I mixed a solution of bleach and water and sent Abel up the ladder in his underwear, so that he wouldn’t ruin any of his clothes. I have some very funny pictures of him that I won’t post. We’d had to borrow a ladder and then I’d been putting it off, but no more—guests were arriving to stay in the boys’ room that very night.

I’m teaching a class on Mondays from 5-7:15, and our guests were arriving by train at 5. I got home at 7:45 and we didn’t actually eat supper till 9:30, which was okay by me since I wasn’t hungry thanks to the extra cups of coffee I drank during class, but I suspect it was a bit late for the other Americans. Ilsa, drooping, was pleased to inform me that this was their first birthday EVER that I hadn’t made Welsh cakes for. She’s right, but I didn’t need the reminder.

Tuesday was the wee-est bit insane. Abel wanted to have his party while his friend Erik was visiting, which meant that I got up and went shopping (hadn’t had time to before) and made and decorated a cake while Khadija chopped lamb and onions for a tagine for 12 people.

One of the adventures of life overseas is that stores can at any time run out of some random item you need. On Tuesday it was icing sugar. No one had icing sugar. I had to make my own by putting regular granulated sugar (also not always available) in the blender. It mostly worked.

The party started at one. We were still eating, but Abel took his friends off to his room to play. Donn took the kids and several assorted adults off to Mega Mall for ice-skating. I made some more coffee and did lesson prep for my 4 p.m. class. I’d just found out that it was going to be observed by my supervisor! You can’t make this stuff up!

No worries; I got through it all by resurrecting a past self. Much like Mr. and Mrs. Incredible at the start of the movie, I’d gotten used to hiding my alter ego. But she came in handy this week. Caffeine Girl, in her spunky boots with a black cardigan slung over her shoulders, is able to leap from metaphor to metaphor while speed-talking so rapidly that mere mortals get left hopelessly behind, stuck several subjects back. She enabled me to teach that class with ease and get a very positive review (my supervisor: It’s obvious you have a background in business. Me: Uh, no, literature actually). Next day, with Caffeine Girl in action, we whizzed with ease through morning shopping, afternoon teaching teens, evening cooking and having new friends over to meet the old.

So all in all, it was a fun week. It’s good to see old friends.

And yes, this was all LAST week. See above. I’ll hopefully get back into the swing of things soon. Upcoming attraction: Abel’s account of his trip to the desert!