Sorry Holly

Yesterday I felt really bad about cutting short my "chat" with friend Holly on FB. I was sitting in the living room with my laptop catching up a little bit with Holly when I heard a pitiful moaning sound on the other side of the dining room doors. Banu has the habit of calling me back over to her side by crying at the closed door. You might think I shouldn't respond, that by responding I'm reinforcing her crying for me. Exactly! I can't resist her pleas and neither can Saeed. If I don't get up quickly enough he'll call out to her, "She's coming Banu, she's coming!" Fortunately Holly is also an animal lover and was understanding. Here was her answer to me when I wrote to her later (preface: she's been out of town for about a week): "She's so worth it :) I miss my kitties, dog, lovebird, bunny and those silly goats right now!"

Kitties, dog, lovebird, bunny and silly goats? Clearly I need more animals.

The softest most fragile powderpuff in the house, Banu.

A Real Female Spy

I finished "The Tiger Claw" yesterday, a book I mentioned previously with a complaint about the author using French phrases I couldn't understand. Despite the aforementioned minor flaw it is one of the best books I've read in recent history. I won't detail the story because you can click on the book title above to read a better review than I could write, but I would like to express how shocked I was to find out that the main character was a real person who really was a spy in France during WWII.

How do you go about reading a book? Do you read a lot about the story before you actually begin the book for yourself? I don't. Of course I read enough about it to know I want to buy/borrow/mooch it and read the reviews of people who've read it already, but once I lift the book from my shelf I begin reading it as a blank slate. I want to be surprised. I want to read it as if I'm the first person ever to read that book. I want to discover on my own.

Because of this habit I had no idea that the main character wasn't fictional. Imagine my surprise when I went online to find out more about the author's reason for writing this particular story and found out that Noor Inayat Khan was a real woman who was given two awards for her services as a British secret agent. The last few chapters of "The Tiger Claw" elicit great emotion in the reader as the horror of the heroine's outcome is revealed, but imagine my sorrow when I understood that the sacrifices Noor made were genuine. What an incredible story.

My sister gives me all her books when finished knowing that if I don't like one I can always put it on BookMooch to give away. But because she doesn't use BookMooch I only give her books I think she'll like; she'll be getting this one. I also plan to read Khan's biography to get a more accurate account of Khan's life.

Thanks, Shauna Singh Baldwin, for writing yet another fantastic novel.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Who said turkeys aren't beautiful!?! (Ginnifer Goodwin is beautiful too, isn't she?) Make sure you watch the turkeys run, beginning at 35 seconds, and tell me that Calvin doesn't run just like that!! How cute can they be?

The Catnip Effect

I don't remember exactly when this video was taken but my comments reveal that it was during a visit from Cyrus. I had also taken some photographs but they don't do the event justice. A cat under the influence in a still shot looks exactly the way cats always do -- sleepy.

The Deer

I saw you leaping through my yard
Then stop beside a tree.
You’ve never been so close before
How could this even be?

I’ve seen your kind locked up in zoos
And dead upon the road.
To see you standing live and free
My feelings overflowed.

I froze in place afraid to breathe
Worried you would flee.
We looked each other in the eye
Time stopped for you and me.

I saw your fear and nervousness
Tails flicking in your woe.
You turned your heads both left and right
Unsure of where to go.

The tears began to fill my eyes
Emotions filled my heart.
Your habitat no longer there
Since man tore it apart.

The fields you graced now full of homes
Filling the expanse.
We moved right in and took your land
Without a backward glance.

Where would you go my gentle friends?
I couldn’t stay and so
I left for work still crying for
The stag and his sweet doe.

Animal Odd Couples

A heart warming story followed by some amazing pictures. I never get tired of animal stories.

Bella the foxhound and Maggie the fox have become firm friends at an animal sanctuary in Essex.

Little nipper Beldaran, an eight-week-old baby wolf weighing just five pounds, was adopted by Ulrok, an 18-month-old male Rottweiller when she was just four days old at the Kisma Preserve in Mt Desert, Maine, USA.

Paloma the pot-bellied pig lives together with owner Mico and her Jack Russell Terrier Dog Flippo.

A five-week-old boar, named Manni, plays with a Jack Russell terrier called Candy in Ehringhausen, Germany.

...Manni, who was found abandoned in the forest, is being hand-reared.

A young elk rescued from a flooding river by a farmer in Inje, Gangwon Province, South Korea. It was adopted by a female dog that breastfeeds and guards him. This picture is my favorite, I think because of the way their heads are so nuzzley together.

Three lion cubs feed on the milk of a mother dog after their mother abandoned them after birth, at the Safari Park in Hefei, China.

A mother dog nurses two red panda cubs who were abandoned by their mother soon after they were born, at a zoo in Taiyuan, China.

A mother cat is raising and feeding an adopted orphaned puppy whose mother died from postpartum hemorrhage, in east China.

A young fallow deer with a herd of cows in Ellund, Germany. The deer, which has been named Fritz by the farmer's children, has been living among the cows. What a bucolic setting! I'd be willing to live among the cows; maybe you'll see my picture next time.

Tinkabelle the sheep stands with her two dog friends. Tinkabelle apparently believes she is a dog after being lovingly nurtured by a pet labrador.

At Sriracha tiger zoo, Thailand, a proud mother with her babies. A tiger that has been raised on pigs milk looks after piglets as her own. (That concrete floor bothers me though. Since when do tigers live on concrete? Since man began abducting them for their viewing pleasure.)

Anjana, a two-and-a-half year-old chimpanzee, looks after his new best friend, a 21 day old white tiger cub, at T.I.G.E.R.S (The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species), in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

A tiger cub and a pig snooze together, at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo, in Thailand. I don't know why, but for some reason this picture is my second favorite with the animals spooning like a married couple in bed! In the back of my brain I worry about what happens when the tiger is fully grown. Will they keep him full enough to prevent him from seeing Mr. Piggie as pork? (Another damn concrete floor - I guess that's the M.O. for the Sriracha Tiger Zoo.)

Eight-month-old orphan elephant Themba, whose name means 'hope' in Xhosa, who has struck up a friendship with a sheep called Albert at the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa

Bea, a three-year-old giraffe, and Wilma, an ostrich, have become the best of friends at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Florida. Truly an odd couple!

Keep That Clunker!

Dan Shapley wrote an article for "The Daily Green" discussing the results of two studies done by Joshuah Stolaroff about the greenhouse gases formed by the production and discarding of "stuff." Look at this pie chart: Shapley writes, "The reports have the same conclusion: the stuff we buy and the packaging that comes with the stuff we buy represent our biggest contribution to global warming – far more so than the amount of electricity our stuff uses, or the amount of fuel our stuff burns on the highway.

As a nation, the products we buy, and the plastic and paper those products are packaged in, account for 44% of our greenhouse gas emissions – dwarfing all other sources of pollution. It's all about stuff. Good stuff, bad stuff, fuel-efficient stuff, organic stuff: The problem is too much stuff."

"... but Stolaroff's studies suggest that the types of products we buy and how much stuff we buy in the first place matter most. Choosing to buy products made from recycled materials, that can be repaired or recycled -- or choosing to rent what we don't need to buy ... these amount to some of the most important choices we make for the environment."

If you want to read the article for yourself click *here*, but first congratulate us on keeping our old blue car chugging along all these years. It's 22 years old and still carrying Saeed all around town. Stick that in your pie chart and smoke it!

FRONTLINE: "A Death In Tehran" on PBS

I think FRONTLINE is one of the best PBS shows ever. Beginning today, Tuesday November 17th, PBS stations will be showing this episode. Our station will show it Thursday and Sunday, so check the listings in your area.

Funny Newspaper Headlines

It's Monday, and I don't know about you, but I can always use a good laugh on a Monday. Click *here* to see some very funny newspaper headlines.

A Nutritionista's Lament

I find studies and articles on nutrition interesting, both from a scientific point of view and from a "what should I eat" point of view. Nevertheless I think we can all agree that they are all VERY CONFUSING!! My sister has a pretty good solution to this: eat a little bit of everything and somewhere therein lies the truth.

I stumbled across a great article that details the types of food studies and explains which ones are even slightly reliable. She does a great job of revealing all the problems with them not least of which is the honesty of researchers themselves! Remember when it was said that drinking milk helps you lose weight? The research was funded by the dairy industry and the lead researcher swore that wouldn't influence his results, but at the end of the day nobody could replicate his research.

So what's a nutritionista to do? I guess there's no harm in reading the studies as they are published, but take everything with a boulder of salt. Toward the end of the article the author quotes someone as saying, " “Eat less, move more, eat lots of fruits and vegetables.” For those who want more detail, she adds, “Go easy on junk foods.”

Heck, my dad said that 50 years ago.

"Where Was I?" -- An Apology

Where was I?

I was in the drive-through buying a bacon and egg biscuit for breakfast.
I was at the table eating turkey at Thanksgiving, ham at Easter, and hot dogs on the fourth of July.
I was at the county fair watching farmers bid on pigs and cattle.
I was at the circus watching the elephants stand on their hind legs and chimps in clothes riding tricycles.
I was at the shoe store with my mother buying sturdy leather shoes for school.

What was I?
I was a person sleepwalking through my life, as yet unaware.
I was an eater of animal flesh.
I was a wearer of the skins of others.
I was entertained by animals that had been trained by men with whips.
I was a product of my parents’ choices, of my society’s standards.

Who was I?
I was an animal lover, but sheltered from their suffering.
I nurtured an injured pet but was blind to the injuries of factory farm animals.
I cherished wildlife but was ignorant of the agony behind my
mother's fox fur collar.
I went to zoos but was oblivious to the forced confinement of the animals.
Unwittingly, I participated in the subjugation of all these innocent beings.

Where am I now?
Awareness has taken me to a place from which I will never return.
My eyes are open to see the suffering.
My heart is open to choose compassion over killing.
My mouth is open to speak of kindness, compassion, and gentleness.
My body is no longer a vessel for animal suffering.

I no longer choose to take advantage of those who are weaker
simply because I can.

What An Awesome Cat!

Can you imagine any of our kitties putting up with this? Neither can I.

Use English, Or Supply A Glossary

One of my favorite reading genres is foreign fiction. The author may or may not be foreign, but if the story has ethnic elements there are often non-English words. One of my pet peeves is for the author to omit an explanation, definition, or glossary for the mysterious groups of letters that mean nothing to me. Granted, some foreign phrases are well known in English. Is there anyone who doesn't know that "au revoir" means goodbye, or that "bambino" means a male baby or child? Probably not.

I'm currently reading a great book by Shauna Singh Baldwin (she wrote one of my favorite books "What The Body Remembers") called "The Tiger Claw" which takes place in Europe during WWII. She includes many French words, phrases, and even sentences. Some meaning can be gleaned from context or their similarity to English such as "Tres bizzare!" or "Merci, mon oncle". But if you don't speak French how would you know what "Venez faire de jolies grèves avec nous!" means?

Ms. Baldwin should keep writing her wonderful books and I will keep reading them, but she needs to do what Gautam Malkani did for his readers of "Londonstani" and provide a glossary.

Anahita's Visit...

... and Shirin's, Cyrus', Gabriel's, Lisa's, Kelly's, Mehrdad's, Marzieh's, and Lua's! Whenever the girls come home we have all sorts of gatherings. Although it gets crazy and messy it is so worth it. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. Every 10 minutes I saw another photo opportunity but I was either too busy or my camera was in another room.

The reason Anahita chose this week to come for a visit (instead, say, the week of their birthday in October which was our first idea) was Shirin's schedule of a week off from her vet school rotations. We decided to do Thanksgiving dinner while everyone was home. In years past I cooked Thanksgiving dinner pretty much by myself. The process took two days and by the end I was too exhausted to enjoy it. Now that the girls are older and accomplished cooks in their own right the dinner cooked itself! How nice.

Thanksgiving dinner was cooked by the three Modaresi women in just a few hours. We had the usual vegetarian-adjusted traditional American Thanksgiving fare.

Although Shirin and Gabriel look like they just ate a huge turkey dinner, they really just reflect the energy level of a couple whose son is an 18-month old ball of nonstop motion.

Case in point: Gabriel is trying to pull himself away from his family in order to drive back to Athens for the week (poor guy had to work while the rest of us planned to play for the week) but Cyrus has other plans involving a puzzle.

Anahita could not keep her hands off her little nephew. I admit he is irresistible, but she had to make up for time lost since her last visit. At first Cyrus treated her a bit like a stranger and broke her heart, but you'll see how he quickly learned that his Khaleh Tita is a lot of fun and very sweet.

I love this picture

The newest of Cyrus' skills is puzzle completion. Shirin was so excited. His obvious frustration is exactly what I do when I can't get my computer to do what I want :-)


These videos were taken early in his puzzle completing career; he was a pro by the end of the week.

It wasn't long before everyone was dancing to Persian music in the kitchen.

Tita volunteered to give Cyrus his bath. He looks a bit dubious!

Not only did Cyrus come out squeaky clean he came out yawning.

Tita has the diaper-thing down pat. Cyrus loves his blue nighttime blankie. If he only knew that when his Khaleh Tita was little she had a bunny blanket that barely survived her need for it. I still have a shred of it saved in a box in the attic.

Yay! Mommy! Cyrus SO loves his mommy.

Now that Cyrus has seven teeth the brushing is no longer just a game...

... it's a necessity...

... that isn't necessarily appreciated by the owner of those seven teeth! Notice Shirin has a grip on him like she's holding a wild animal at the office.

Cyrus still has a thing for brooms. Looks like he's playing shuffle board.

Anahita (who looks better in her PJs than I do when I dress up) helps Cyrus into her sneakers.

He proceeded to walk around the house with his huge feet.

Tita changed diapers, gave baths, and fed meals to Cyrus. She knows the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Sniffy Joe still smells every flower he passes. Sometimes he even sniffs the tips of branches of bushes. Does he not get disappointed?

The autumn day was beautiful so off to Cherry Park we went.

Cyrus was being attacked by the foot:

The only escape was...

... to get down the slide FAST!

At one point Anahita got a phone call. She strolled down the sidewalk as she spoke, not realizing that Cyrus was following her.

Sitting on a rock with mommy.

We decided to take a walk around the park but we had to take the short route because Cyrus wanted out of his stroller.

Here we are at the Thai House for lunch. Both Shirin and Anahita love #65 on the menu (pad kee mow?) and so the day we went on an errand in Fort Mill the car just sort of turned north on I-77 and we found ourselves driving to the Pineville restaurant. Amazing how that happened.

Although Cyrus ended up loving the Thai food we gave him Shirin wanted to be sure he had something to eat and brought some yummies from home. Here he's eating cantelope and banana nut bread with soynut butter.

When we got home from the Thai House Cyrus needed a diaper change. His shirt under his overalls was a onesie, so Tita unsnapped the crotch and proceeded to take the shirt all the way off instead of just leaving it on. We laughed and laughed as Cyrus was stripped totally naked for a simple diaper change! As an interesting solution Tita put her jacket on him.

This is a very special picture. These four girls have been friends since kindergarten and all live in different states. Lisa on the left, lives and works in New Jersey, and Kelly on the right, lives and works in Florida. Both girls were in town and Anahita and Shirin invited them over for dinner. Tita cooked a delicious meal of zereshk polo, yogurt, salad, and seasoned "chicken" using a faux chicken product. It was so delicious that Lisa took a plate home to her dad who is an adventurous eater, and Saeed and I asked for her recipe.

Lisa brought her niece, Cassidy, to play with Cyrus. Cassidy is more of a Cheese-It eater than a zereshk polo eater, and you can see Lisa slipping her some Cheese-Its on a plate. I'm still finding Cheese-Its in my carpeting.

Kelly brought her four month old son Quinn. That's some hair style!

Kelly has beautiful hair, so Quinn needs to just hang in there.

Cyrus explains to Cassidy the purpose of a cat scratching post.

I caught Cyrus escaping all the women with a few good books in the hall.

The Yousefians came over for Persian breakfast and Saeed's famous Doe Piazeh Aloo (it's primary ingredients are onions, eggs, potatoes, and tomatoes and is everyone's favorite.)

Marzieh took the picture again, this time with me in it.

Since I'm always the photographer it's rare to have picture of Saeed and me together.

Later Cyrus gets a second helping of Doe Piazeh Aloo, lucky boy.

I hate how most of my pictures have ugly things in the background, like open dishwashers. I guess I just need to get over it. As I cook, clean, do laundry, and do the dishes, I get many lovely interruptions to be a lap for someone wanting something. So picture perfect or chaos? I'll stick with the chaos, the ugly backgrounds, and the cute little baby in my lap.

So my week of family has come to an end and I have to go back to work tomorrow. Bummer. I can always go back to this post to relive the fun we had this week.