My Trip Home

Although I hate leaving Saeed and the kitties, I love going "home" to visit my mom and sister. I miss my dad being there, but wishing he were still around don't make it so. In some ways I feel like a kid again but the time I spend with my sister as an adult is better than anything. Our age difference was a big deal when I was young, but now we get to be sisters and friends.

After picking me up from the airport Ken and Martha took me past the old homestead. We don't know who lives there but that didn't stop Martha from peeking over the new fence into the backyard! And I always thought of her as the good sister. :-)

 My mother. My dear sweet old mother. Brings tears to my eyes.

She still has some figurines from the old house.

And of course the Lipizzaner statue. When I was a little girl I saw them in Chicago and then oddly enough again when they came to Rock Hill when my girls were young.

M & K used my visit as a good excuse to go to Reza's, a Persian restaurant in Oak Brook.

Yummmm, if only I ate meat.

My veggie platter was really good though.

Though Persian, the restaurant included some Arabic/Middle Eastern foods as well. From 12 clockwise: baba ghanoush, hummus, salad Shirazi, kashke bademjoon, falafel with anar (pomegranate), with baghaleh polo in the center.

With tummies full of good food we went to the musical "Xanadu".

Sometimes my flight back to RH is too early to make one last stop at my mom's. This time it worked out just fine. After giving her lots of hugs and kisses I said my goodbyes and asked her to please stay well till my next visit. These are two of my four favorite ladies in the world.

Communing With Nature, Giving Thanks

It may be November but the days have been quite lovely. We went to the Riverwalk on Thanksgiving. Everyone we passed wished us a Happy Thanksgiving. It was a delightful experience.

Saeed found a nice seat Mother Nature made amongst the roots.

Recommend clicking to enlarge.

The goldenrod is no longer golden, but beautiful still.

Thanksgiving 2012

We celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend. Lisa was in town so it was great that she and her sixteen month old daughter, Josie, joined us. Shirin said Lisa could be the stand-in for Anahita, but Tita was sorely missed. When we got ready to sit down Josie and Kai were napping so we asked Cyrus if he would mind sitting in Kai's seat so Lisa could have the adult chair.

He did mind, so Lisa cooperated by sitting in Kai's high chair. 

Shirin really wanted to make a fire pit and her father gave her permission, so here you see us sitting around her creation. Gabriel used his old Boy Scout skills to build the fire.

I turned off my flash to capture what it really looked like.

We had no hot cocoa so I warmed up some SILK nog and we had lemon cookies.

Puzzle Time! Both kids are great at puzzles. Cyrus and I worked on a Samurai puzzle while Kai and I worked on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Apparently Kai needed an operation so Gabriel, with Cyrus as his assistant, removed several organs successfully while Kai giggled himself to death!

Love Thanksgiving.

Beware Of Moving Bags

Saeed threw this bag on the counter and a short while later it appeared to be alive!

Whoops! I should have known.

Sweet dreams Chappu-joon.

The Last Kitty (I Hope)

Yes it's been a long time since I blogged. Sorry. Will try to catch up. But first I just have to say that we finally trapped the last kitty that I know of. I've already told you about Sherbet, Callie, and Moxie's capture, as well as an unknown kitten (that looked exactly like Sherbet) and an unknown very wild black kitty. So that left...

...Sonny Boy. He looks so much like Lupe. (click to enlarge)

Sonny Boy is about four months old and surely one of Sherbet's other babies. I would watch them come to feed at the same time and once full, play and lounge in the grass in the sunshine. Two weeks ago Monday we trapped wiley 'ole Sherbet. I couldn't believe it. And hanging around near the trap was Sonny.

With Sherbet gone he acted so lost. And then it got really cold at night; one night it reached and stayed at 29 degrees. I was so worried about him but he made it. He stayed under the bushes (seen behind him in the first picture) and must have been warm enough. 

Thursday we finally got him too. As frightened as all these cats are I know they'll be better off. A trip to the vet for testing, vaccines, and neutering, and then off to "The Barn" for stray cats with food and warm places to hang out. 

I was happy to help the lady trap these guys. I was happy to feed them twice a day regardless of it being a weekend day or a day I had to go to the Ballantyne office. But I am not cut out for this work. I'm too soft. And yet going through this might have made me one millimeter tougher. I could do it again if I had to.

I miss all these kitties believe it or not. Even after they were caught I found my eyes searching their old hang outs, half expecting to see them sitting there waiting for me to come feed them. It'll probably be months before I quit looking up on the hill for Sonny.

Football

Saeed and I are again betting on football games, some college but mostly NFL. I choose teams for their locations and/or mascots while he, for the most part, chooses teams in order to win. Maybe that's why I'm behind in the totals right now! Even though my two main teams - Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers - are having a bye week we've placed bets on about six games today. While watching I plan to fold laundry and maybe finally iron my new lab coat which has been laundered but waiting three months for a quick pressing before I wear it for the first time.

Our downstairs companions don't get quite as excited about football as we do but they do seems to enjoy sleeping near us as we hoot and holler.

When she's awake Tippy pulls for the Bengal Tigers even though she thinks their orange stripes are substandard. She claims that black stripes are best.

Chappu tends to pull for the Jaguars. With their record I'd hide my head too.

And a few feet behind us sleeps Frosty Paws, who of course pulls for the Lions. He relates to the offensive linemen the best. Tackle if you can, otherwise just sit on them.

Tippy used to pull for the Panthers of course, so I plan to root for them twice as hard.

New Case For My iPhone

Since a certain little someone broke my other iPhone case I've been doing some research for a replacement. Fully planning to get an Otter box like the rest of my family I bumped into a product called Pong. It's been out for a while actually. The advantage to this case is that in addition to protecting the phone from damage it works to redirect radiation away from your head and body while optimizing reception. Sound too good to be true?

Wired Magazine was one of many to give this technology the thumbs up. It does work to minimize your body's exposure to radiation, but then I guess the next question is, does it matter?

Michael Rundle in the Huffington Post says, "For the feel and strength of the case alone it's among our favourites of the year so far. And if it turns out in 20 years that there really are health issues involved with using a mobile, well, we'll just accept the benefits as a lucky bonus."

I won't get it in time for my trip to IL but I will be excited to snap it on once it gets here. And by the way, it's red. :-)

Early Birthday (cont.)

Some more random pictures from our gathering. You will notice that Gabriel and Cyrus are missing; they had to return home to go to work and school on Monday. Also Hotan left on Sunday for Houston for another visit with family and friends living there. Parvin was still here but somehow there are no more pics of her. :-(

Anahita drew her famous cartoon women. 

Kai colored in some Sesame Street characters.

I caught Haydeh and Shirin in conversation.

Anahita and her dad making up for lost time.

Baba sneaked a kiss from a cute little Kai.

Can't have an October visit without carving pumpkins (or pumptins as Kai says.)

It took Anahita a while to figure out what face she wanted for her pumptin.

The whole time Shirin carved Kai demanded to be read to. Finally!

Even Frosty joined the party.

The final result: mine, Anahita's, and Shirin's. She had Kai draw the face so her pumptin looks like an image out of a Tim Burton movie!

Shirin wanted a family picture so she put Kai on the counter and ...

... proceeded to teach him how to take our picture. Eight pictures later (of our knees, our hips, our bodies without heads) we decided to program my camera for a time delay shot.

I include this shot where I'm trying to see if I have my camera centered properly only so you can see Kai's face (click to enlarge) as he's realized he's been fired as the photographer! Poor bubsy.

The Modaresi Family

Too bad it's missing Gabriel and Cyrus.

As Anahita was leaving for the airport today I made her turn around so I could get a picture of her skirt. She got it for $3 and we all thought it was so pretty. 

Come back soon girl!

Early Birthday Celebration

Quick post to show the special weekend going on here. Three of Saeed's family members are here as well as Anahita and Shirin's family. It's part birthday celebration and part family reunion.

L => R:  Shirin, Anahita, Saeed (sorry your eyes are closed), Gabriel, Hotan, Parvin, and Haydeh. Parvin is Saeed's sister, Haydeh is her daughter, Hotan is Haydeh's sister's son, and you know the others. And where were the boys?

They had their very own table. Note the Persian sofreh (tablecloth) and the two little mouths full of Persian food.

We celebrated a very special birthday to Shirin and Anahita! I never buy a "real" cake (I'm always trying to do something healthy) but I didn't have time to bake. It was really funny when Tita said, "Mommy! You got us a real cake?"

Earlier in the day Cyrus completed (with a little help) his first 100 piece puzzle that Haydeh bought. He is a true puzzle master.

Sorry no more pictures... too busy. Maybe tomorrow!

October Is...

... many things - my daughters' birthday month, breast cancer awareness month, but also Vegetarian Awareness Month. Yesterday was World Vegetarian Awareness Day. I have blogged a lot about this in the past, so let me just remind you that the purpose of establishing this awareness is to promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism (according to the North American Vegetarian Society which founded the day in 1977.)

Why is this important? Because a vegetarian diet --

• reduces of the risk of major killers like heart disease, stroke and cancers while cutting exposure to food-borne pathogens.
• offers a viable answer to feeding the world’s hungry through more efficient use of grains and other crops.
• saves animals from suffering in factory farm conditions and from painful slaughter.
• conserves limited freshwater, fertile topsoil and other precious resources.
• preserves irreplaceable ecosystems, such as rain forests and other wildlife habitats.
• and mitigates the ever-expanding environmental pollution of animal agriculture.

For those still not interested there's not much more to say other than to watch a few movies (like Earthlings and Forks Over Knives) and see if the information doesn't compel you to at least entertain the idea of eating a more plant-based diet. Maybe you could start with every Monday being meat-free, or maybe only one meal a day would include animal products. It's not as hard as you think and the benefits are great.