Computer Difficulties

The culprit is seen below. Sure, she looks innocent enough, but she doesn't mind letting you know what belongs to her. Apparently my computer area is hers. This morning I was trying to check my sister's blog. She's been traveling extensively in Asia, so I check in nearly daily to see if she's still alive (just kidding!) Lupe decided that she had to chase her tail on the table above my keyboard making it impossible to see the monitor. I decided to go take a shower and come back in the hopes that she'd gone elsewhere.
Nope, she was still there, this time watching out the window for birds beginning to fly around in the dawn light. I tried entering in a comment on Shirin and Gabriel's blog but Lupe just added a bunch of [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[s. If you try to stop her from typing she'll just catch your fingers and bite them.

There. A compromise. She gets her spot, I get the keyboard.... for now.

California Family

As I mentioned in my last post Shirin and Gabriel are out in California visiting family. I've been spending my "blog time" looking at her posts and pictures, so enjoying the visit vicariously. For anyone who doesn't already read their blog here are the links:
First day at Nahid's house, meeting Jamil, Masud's house with Tita and Prathap too.
Masud's house with most of his grandbabies.
Last day at Nahid's.

Calvin Helps With The Billing

While Shirin and Gabriel are in California visiting family, and Anahita and Prathap are happily living new lives and jobs in California, and Martha and Ken are enjoying themselves in Asia, Saeed and I (the Hobbits) are living it up in the fine resort of the Modaresi B & B. Actually the majority of my weekend has involved catching up on the billing of Saeed's patients' insurance companies. As you can see I get a lot of help with my work. If someone's not sitting directly on my papers, they're certainly distracting me from my doing my job.

Calvin's figured out a sure way to get some kisses and schmoozles.

Kisses on the tummy are especially nice.

I knew all the folders and notebooks were good for something..
a good ear scratch.

Calvin looks down when he hears Obi below my desk (see him?)

God forbid I should rest my feet under the desk while I work. If I do, they will be attacked.

Ok, so I can't use the top of the desk, I can't rest my feet under the desk... I may as well harrass Frosty who's looking out the screen door.

OOPS sorry! didn't know you were birdwatching.

I get back to the desk. Ack! It's worse than ever!

When Calvin finally gives me a break Tippy arrives for her schmoozling.

She's a very thoughtful kitty though, and decides to move off to the side on a file I don't need.

Sweet girl settles down to keep me company.

Oooh... is Calvin going to leave me alone now too?
His loud purring is shaking the desk; that's a good sign.

And Frosty's asleep too!

And Obi!

And Chappu has taken Frosty's place at the screen door.
Doesn this mean I get to do my work?

Uh oh... here comes Chappu.....

Persian Music

With all the posts about Indian music, festivals, and food, one would think I love Indian stuff the most. Actually Persian music and food are number 1 for me. I love Persian music, almost all types. For those of you who haven't heard traditional classical Persian music I'd like to introduce you to Mohammad Reza Shajarian. Saeed and I saw him in concert at Duke University some years back. Although he was the main billing for the concert he actually was very sick with fever and flu, yet he came on stage and did his best. His son, Homayoun, suprised us all by coming into the song to help his dad out when the voice failed. Homayoun has come a long way since then, recording his own music now. He's also a wonderful tombak player and still takes second seat to his dad in concerts.

Ostad Muhammad Reza Shajarian with son Homayoun Shajarian

Listen to this early recording of Shajarian to marvel at the voice. The famous tar player, Lotfi, accompanies him. Here's another recording from long ago. Now listen to the son. This recording is under less than ideal circumstances. It looks like the talk show host just asks him to start singing in his chair! Here's a sweet little song he sings in concert. And here they are together in a concert to raise funds after the earthquake in Bam.

There are many other very famous classical musicians such as Banan, Iraj, Golpa, Hayedeh, Marzieh, etc... but I'm grateful that there are some contemporary musicians keeping the classical music alive. This doesn't mean I don't like some of the modern music. In a future post I'll show you some of my favorite top 40's!

Field Trip In The Yard

Pardon the second post in succession about the rain, but we had to go out in the yard today to marvel at the plants that have survived a very difficult time. The rain has made everything look fresh and new and alive. I heard a guy on the radio say, "It's just like when there's a snow and you run outside with your kids to look at it, only this time we ran out to see the rain."

You can see the droplets of water inside the rose...

... and on the leaves.

If you look hard you can see two big fat droplets on these thin leaves.

Ivy extending an arm across a bed of wet leaves.

I'm so sorry this didn't focus, but this is a leaf hanging, dangling in the air from a tree branch by a strand from a spider's web. Inside it is a spider the same color as the leaf, hiding in the curl of the leaf waiting for something yummy to cross its path.

Saeed admiring the fruit of his labor.

The first camelia blooming on this bush laden with buds.

A mushroom!

If you look inside at the bottom in the center you can see a small evergreen tree. Saeed purposely planted it in the protection of the elephant ears since the SC weather is too extreme for it. Hopefully this Austrian Pine will survive and grow big.

Gorgeous Dogwood leaves.

A new rose for B.B.'s grave.

It's Raining

It's raining, really raining, as in drops coming down from the sky in a steady pattern for more than two minutes. I've written previous posts about the drought and the situation reminds me of the movie Lagaan. In Lagaan, the village hasn't had rain in a very long time and they've not been able to produce crops for the British colonialists (the fact that they've not been able to produce enough food for their own mouths doesn't bother the Brits of course.) Early in the movie is the following scene: they see approaching rain clouds, begin to dance with joy, and then watch the clouds move away without releasing one drop of rain. It's felt sort of like that around here. As I write, the people of southern California are suffering, so it's hard to rejoice too loudly, but my heart is filled with joy nevertheless.

The approaching clouds.

The first drops on our sidewalk... more beautiful than a Renoir.

Drops linger on the bird feeders and the sidewalk is completely wet.

A happy wet hibiscus plant.

Enough water to bead up and sit on our deck.

It's really really raining.

Queen Of The Bed

Layli has appointed herself queen of our bed. She spends 95% of her time there sleeping, relaxing, thinking, and napping. When Teddie, Lupe or Shahbanu want to jump up there too she may let them stay, or she may chase them off. Fortunately she lets us in at night so we can sleep.

The most active part of her day comes when we want to either pull the bedspread up in the morning or down at bedtime. She suddenly turns into a jungle lion, attacking the bedspread as if she were bringing down her next meal. It's really cute in moving form, but here are some stills.

The Queen at her leisure.

The first tackle..

.. biting it..

.. rabbit-kicking it..

..more kicking..

..sliding inside for the intrigue of it..

..checking for intruders..

.. all done with her job for another 12 hours.

Gyn Humor

It's inevitable that jokes about what what we do for a living circulate through the office .... isn't it? Well, perhaps not, since I never see "university professor" cartoons, but in my office there's usually an average of one per week. Most of them bring up the differences between the sexes and I thought I'd post this one. It's a note left on the refrigerator door written by a man for his wife.

Someone from the gyna colleges called.

They said your Pabst beer was normal.
I didn't even know you liked beer.

Well... it was funny the first time I read it.

Recycling and Relaxing

Although Saturday ended up being a sad day (see yesterday's post) it actually started out very nicely. It involved our usual chores but we ended up at Winthrop Lake with some yummy veggie sandwiches from Substation II. Despite the drought some of the trees have finally become colorful and the lake area was as enjoyable as ever.

One of our weekly drives is the field trip to the recycling center. When we used to live within city limits the city came and picked up both our garbage and our recycling. Now that we're out in the country (ha, ha) we have to take it ourselves or pay heftily to have a private company come pick it up. Needless to say, we carry it (southern expression) ourselves.

Loading up.

Saeed also bringing a box to UPS to Tita. Hope he doesn't accidently drop it off at the recycling center! (Tita - it's on it's way)

Saeed lugging ....

.... and happy it's done for another week.

The reward - lunch amongst the trees.

We always see people at the lake with their dogs. It looks like so much fun that we wish we had a dog. I watch wistfully and then realize how much I miss Cha Cha :-(

Winthrop students studying, supposedly.

One of my favorite pics.

Winthrop's wetlands area. It still does have water, though way low.