Spring Blossoms

The trees in our parking lot at work put on a beautiful display every spring; I begin to look for them in late February. By late March the blossoms are snowing down their petals which collect along the curbs like little snow piles. Driving under the blossoms as they fall is a surreal experience. Next year I'll try to remember to capture that on video.

Compatants

No, I didn't misspell that title. Combatant + Companion = Compatant. Saeed called me into the living room the other day to observe a near miracle. Tippy, though a miracle in her own right, was not what I was brought in to see - it was the three tan boys on the couch:

Obi, on the left, is the smallest male and the oldest. Thinking himself the alpha male, he has to make up for his size with a lot of noise and aggressive posturing to the younger but larger Frosty (middle) and Calvin (right). Typically Frosty just ignores his antics with distain but Obi can really freak out Calvin. One squawk from Obi and Calvin goes running for cover. Fortunately nothing physical ever happens; it's a lot of "bark and no bite" animal communication.

Now, a true miracle would be if there was any touching of tails, but we'll enjoy this arrangement in our own version of the peaceful Garden of Eden.

Addendum to "The New Office"

On March 12 I put up a post about the new office I'm working in. I had neglected to take a picture of the front of the building because I never go in that way. Here's the front:

To go to this office I drive directly east into the rising sun. It's a wonder I'm not blind by the time I get to work.

And, yup, you guessed it - on the way home I'm driving west directly into the setting sun. Well, was... the sun sets later now so it won't bother me again till next fall.

Please Eat The Minestrone Instead

I don't know if any of you love turtles like I do, but I just read an article that said that terrapins have nearly disappeared in China due to the Chinese's love of turtle soup. Why should that matter to us? Because the U.S. is exporting terrapins to China from our southern states.

Terrapins are turtles that inhabit the brackish, slightly salty waters of marsh areas. They were almost hunted into extinction in the 1930's. Terrapins have a very slow reproductive rate so removing even a few adults has a devastating impact on their population. These unregulated "harvests" could bring our terrapin population to the point of extinction.

So, if you have the chance to order turtle soup - don't. And if you live in Texas, Georgia or Florida, please write your state representative and ask that they end commercial turtle gathering.

Messing Around In The Kitchen

Today was a good day to cook up some items in the refrigerator that would otherwise go bad in a few days. I enjoy the challenge of creating something nutritious, satisfying, and hopefully delicious out of whatever I've got handy. For lunch I made lentil and rice stuffed tomatoes with lots of onion, garlic, mushrooms and mint. I also made my old standby, hummus, with cilantro thrown in for some pretty green flecks of flavor. For dinner I made tofu steaks with quinoa, salad, and fruit salad.

I'm not sure these stuffed tomatoes look very pretty...

... but they were delicious (if I say so myself.)

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is relatively new to me but it's supposed to be super nutritious. At the end of this post I have inserted a video that reveals many interesting facts about quinoa for your viewing pleasure. :-)

To the left of the box of quinoa is some fresh rosemary out of a friend's garden. The fruit salad was simple: cantelope (probably from California), kiwi fruit (from Italy), and organic strawberries (from Mexico.) Though delicious that fruit salad cost me a lot in terms of my carbon footprint... I'll have to do better. On the bottom right is a mixture with which I coated my tofu steaks: whole wheat flour, nutritional yeast, onion powder and garlic powder. After dipping each steak in tamari sauce I dipped it in this coating and then baked in the oven. Yum.

After cooking up the quinoa I sauteed it with the fresh rosemary, onions, and then added some zereshk, a Persian berry not unlike cranberries. I think the English word for zereshk is barberry.

This closeup of the quinoa mixture shows the cool way the germ of the seed curls off the seed to show that it's done. It looks kind of like a white tail or sprout.

In reviewing the food above I happily notice that everything was vegan. Happy, happy, happy. I'm learning that even when one doesn't use animal products in their cooking, animals still die as the fields are harvested and as the grains go through production, but the amount of animal suffering has been reduced about as low as I can get it.

Here are the basics about quinoa:

The Last Five Videos

Yes five, because Cyrus was so cute walking around in the kitchen I had to keep taping. I really like video number three because he almost catches Obi and gets a handful of Chappu. And I love how he goes from person to person for affection. Also notice that he has mastered getting up from the floor in order to walk rather than having to pull up on something. Enjoy the little walking bubsie.

More Videos

I seem to remember two little twin girls that liked to do this too:


Then he decided that HE wanted to be in charge of the basket:


You can lead a child to basket, but you cannot make him ride:


Just hangin' (I want to kiss those little footsies):


Believe it or not Saeed's computer still works.


That's it for now; there are a few more processing in the YT queue for tomorrow.

The First Two Videos

Cyrus' Khaleh Anahita is always demanding videos of her nephew so I took quite a few this weekend. Poor YouTube is struggling to upload them all but here are two short ones that are ready.

I love this one. It shows Cyrus, the independent being, walking around with his balloon while the adults talk at the table.


Splish splash:


More videos later.

Happy Spring/NoRooz/Birthday!

The gang (minus Anahita) was home this weekend for NoRooz (Persian New Year) which falls on the first day of spring. In honor of NoRooz Saeed spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking up delectable delicacies which we were all too happy to sample.

Shirin is feeding Cyrus a dish Saeed invented and then named after him: Siroos Khan. "Siroos" is the Persian way to pronounce Cyrus and sounds like See-Roos. Khan means chief. There are other dishes that are named after people in this manner such as Baba Ghanouj and Mirza Qasemi.

Chief Cyrus thought Siroos Khan was mighty delicious.

A bit later I nearly burned the house down (jk!) in my attempt to blow out all the candles on my birthday cake. How many were there? None of your business! But I got them all out with one breath, so there couldn't have been too many, right?

Cyrus was more interested in my laptop than my candles or my balloons. As you'll see later he is already in love with computers. He doesn't even know what they can do but he knows they're super cool.

After eating Siroos Khan, homemade lentil soup and birthday cake we headed off to Earth Fare to stock up on baby diapers and organic baby foods. Shirin can't help but be attracted to the marinated tofu items since they're so easy to throw into dishes for some added delicious protein.

It looks like so many choices of baby food, but many have meat or broth in them which limits the selection some. Cyrus is such a good little eater and seems to prefer "real" food anyway, but jarred foods are a nice convenience.

While sitting in the Earth Fare cafe we notice that Cyrus has perfectly smooth baby skin. Gabriel can't find even one hair or one pore.

He then looks down at his own mammalian arm covered in fur. It's hard to imagine Cyrus growing hair on his arms, but I guess at some point in his adult life he'd better not be as smooth as a baby's butt!

On the way out Shirin and Gabriel met an old Winthop friend and her son. Cyrus and Felix eyed each other knowingly.

The weather was beautiful so we headed to Winthrop Lake for a walk.

Can you believe it? He's walking so well and looking mighty proud about it too.

How cute.

This was Cyrus' first real, up close and personal, introduction to grass.

I forget sometimes just how amazing all these new things must be to someone experiencing them for the first time.

Maybe one day we'll go back with some duck food.

This family portrait was taken not too far from the spot where Shirin and Gabriel got married.
(remember that they said their marriage vows in a sweet little ceremony right here in the grass at Winthrop Lake)

My dad used to carry me around like this - I loved it. I probably held onto his ears too.

What a great day. A tired, yawning little bubsie gets ready for bed.

With the baby asleep the adults began a game of "Settlers of Catan." We played it once before but needed Shirin's reminder of the rules.

It's a bit complicated but loads of fun. It's sort of a combination of Monopoly and Risk. You see Saeed studying the board very intently. Shirin won.

This is the next morning. Boy is Cyrus a morning person!

See? Do you see him any happier than when he's at the computer?

He's probably pounding on the keyboard - yikes!

I have a video of this computer session. It's not uploaded yet, but when I post it you will see an uncharacteristically lenient Saeed as Cyrus beats the keyboard to a pulp with the mouse. Only grandparenthood could turn someone into such mush!

Please check back in a day or two for the videos I took this weekend.

Cows v.s. Cars

I want to pass along an article Saeed forwarded me that I found informative and very bittersweet. Sweet, because it affirms my lifestyle choices (who doesn't want to be validated!?!) and bitter because it's so frustrating that the message isn't getting out there...


The article is called, "Are Cows Worse Than Cars?" and I wish I'd had it for you when I did my "Going Green For St. Patick's Day" post on the 15th. As a present to me please read it. It's quite amazing what information is being withheld from the American people.