Fun Saturday

I know Shirin is having fun at LEAF but she's missing a lot of fun here. Clayton and his fiance Olga, David and his nephew Seth came to play "Vampire".

Here everyone is discussing the details of the game, what could make it better, etc.

Notice Gabriel's shirt which says, "Not ashamed to be related to a monkey."

Seth and Cyrus negotiate the terms of the ball game.

When I play with Cyrus using puzzle pieces it usually involves some form of putting the pieces back into the puzzle, or perhaps dumping them all out of the puzzle. When Cyrus' Grandpa plays with the puzzle pieces somehow it's an altogether different game....

Cyrus finds safety from the attacking puzzle pieces in the laundry room.

Another way to escape attack is to push the puzzle around like a car, vroom vroom!

Invasion of my pantry begins almost immediately.

Cyrus: "Humm, it looks too neat in here."

A trip outdoors on a gray fall day reveals more red balls but these were not edible.

I thought Cyrus would like to help me get the mail but I was wrong about that.
He was more interested in...

...walking up the steep driveway all by himself.

He almost made it all the way to the top but got distracted by more red berries.

I watched carefully as he trotted back down. Just a few months ago this likely would have been the start of a trip to the E.R. but he is so much more in control.

One way to get away from Grandpa is to become REALLY interested in a toy:


No matter how unhappy he sometimes gets being attacked, he always comes back for more. No worries at the end there; he tumbled but got right back up.


Shirin taught him to crouch down so cats feel less threatened, but Chappu (he calls her Bappu) walks right by him... fickle cats.


All day Cyrus had been trying to hide in the closet but our shelves don't leave any space for someone even as thin as he. Finally he realized he could push all the floor items out of the way to find a nice cubby.


Macho dancing means shouting really loudly while you're dancing.


All weekend he's been hiding his water and then asking where it is with the 'palms up' sign saying 'wah?'


The two little things in his hands were little tiny birdies.


I never knew an answering machine could be so much fun.

Bubbles And Balls

Shirin is at LEAF this weekend so Gabriel and Cyrus have come for a visit. As everyone knows, one of Cyrus' favorite words is "ball." On the deck today he found some small red balls on my tomato plant. After checking with his grandma to make sure it was allowed, he pulled those red balls off the plant.

He looks like he still can't believe he was allowed to pull them off the plant.

Better yet he was allowed to eat them!

Yum, goin' back for the last grape tomato of the year.

Helping to load the dishwasher. Every spoon, fork and knife was a "poo" (spoon.)

Cyrus ran straight for his Dad - boom!

Cyrus' schmoozling is so delicious. Fortunately he still likes to schmoozle.

Cyrus looks to his Grandpa for guidance as he shows Cyrus how to use a new toy. This one does animal sounds and sings "The Farmer in the Dell," but you have to pull the lever just right.

More schmoozling.

This series of pictures is pretty self explanatory.

Cyrus' new word is 'bubble'.

Conducting the Bubble Symphony.

Amazingly enough some bubbles didn't burst on the rug; he just stood there watching, expecting them to pop.

Cyrus decides it's his turn to blow bubbles.

Gabriel shows Cyrus the art of blowing into the wand just right.

Cyrus holds the soapy wand up just like Daddy and...

... blows air just like Daddy but he didn't quite understand that the air you blow has to be aimed at the circular hole in the wand. Funny how the bubble soap drips down your arm when you do it that way.

"Jeopardy" Answer: Bigger Than A Microwave Oven

Question: How big is your cat?

(sweet "little" Calvin)

Cool Time Lapse Video Of Ice Loss

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas; I've blogged about it once before. TED started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conferences in Long Beach and Oxford bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. More than 450 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week.

Their mission? "We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you're an important part of it. Have an idea? We want to hear from you."

It's very likely that I'll post other videos from TED in the future, but I wanted to pass this one on because I just viewed it. The cool time lapse video clips begin about halfway through (at 8 min 30 sec) but he has some beautiful still shots at the beginning along with a nice intro.

The Strawberry Incident

I generally do not buy strawberries unless they're organic because they're on the "Dirty Dozen" list, and it is unusual for organic strawberries to be affordable to the average person, and I may not be normal but I am average. So it was with much delight that I found organic strawberries on sale the other day at Earth Fare. Imagine my surprise when I found them...

...on the floor! Who did that?! {:-(

Obi clearly found the smell intoxicating... was he the culprit?

He started rubbing himself on the plastic container... hmmm.

Then Frosty had to smell it...

... and began licking the plastic container. Hmmm...

Now Chappu...

... what is going on with that plastic lid?

I never did figure out what was so alluring to all the feline noses. Perhaps my organic berries weren't so organic after all??? A dirty two dozen? Well, to let you know who knocked them off the counter in the first place I will now go to the first picture I took when I first walked into the kitchen...
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The criminal responsible for the strawberry incident was Obi.
I found him peering down at the consequences of his action.
Bad, bad, Obis Obis.

A good scrubbing and those strawberries were as delicious as ever.

Déjà Vu

Having just been to my childhood home for a visit, I had the weirdest reaction to this (30 second) video. It starts out like the old-time movies we used to watch in school, so I had a real déjà vu experience. After watching it I began to remember myself as being similar to that little blond girl, sitting at the table with a piece of bacon on my fork (my mom wouldn't have let me hold it in my hand) with a glass of milk and two sunny-side-up eggs, wearing a puffy short-sleeved blouse under my jumper... Would my reaction have been the same as hers?



I'm not sure I was capable of thinking for myself at that age, back then. Times have changed. Kids challenge authority much easier than a generation ago, for better or for worse. In this case it was for the worse... I spent 39 years eating animals when I didn't have to. I find that really painful. It's no one's fault, not mine, not my parents', but a shame nonetheless.

I'm Connected Again

While I was visiting my Illinois family dear Saeed was working hard to restore the connectivity of our home's wireless connections. Happily he was successful and yesterday I was finally able to upload the video of Cyrus eating breakfast at our house Saturday before last. Enjoy:

My Visit Home

I've just returned from a lovely visit to my mother, sister, and her husband.

I've flown to Chicago many times now, but I've never approached fully over Lake Michigan. Usually the plane approaches from the south with land on the left and water on the right. This time we must have approached from the southeast and were completely over the water. I'm glad I listened to the flight attendant describe the way to use my seat as a flotation device.

Lake Michigan or Atlantic Ocean?

Ah... there's Chicago.

When I see this plane next to us I begin to wonder if we will accidentally be sharing the runway?!? Fortunately it stayed parallel to us and landed on the other side of the control tower.

The weather is normally really gorgeous in Illinois this time of year. During my days there, however, it was in the 40's and 50's and raining - November weather. Because I wanted to buy a Chicago Bears T-shirt we went shopping, and ended up at a mall to go "mall walking." While Ken listened to his ipod Martha and I talked and walked.

The benefit of walking at the mall is lunch at Panera.

One of the other ways we avoided couch potato status while it rained was to play Wii sports. Here you can see the screen Ken has set up in their basement with the virtual bowling alley set up. See the little scoreboard in the upper right corner? The little guy on top was Ken, the cute brunette (red square) was Martha, and the dumb blond bimbo on the bottom was me. Bimbo or not, my virtual bowling skills are better than my real bowling skills, but that's not saying much.

Ken watches as Martha begins her swing.

Judging by Martha's expression she must have done well.
Judging by Ken's expression, she must have done well.

We had to laugh a lot at Ken since many of his throws were performed while he was still sitting on the stool, but here he's actually bowling on his feet. With Wii bowling it doesn't matter much!

Here you see me and my blond bimbo Wii person (she's the one in the blue dress) golfing. On one particularly hard hole (par 5) I had a score of 6... yes, it took me 11 swings to get the ball in the cup. Sigh..... We also played tennis and boxing (sorry Martha, I didn't mean to knock you out.)

Each afternoon I went to visit my mother and talk her ear off. Here you see me trying to take our picture, but a nice staff member walked by and took pity on me and offered...

... to take our picture.

I've told her many times before, but I was able to tell my mom again how much I appreciate the way she raised me and everything she did for me and how I have benefited in my life from all her efforts. I cried when I said goodbye... I always do.

Back at Martha's I told her how I always cry when I leave my parents, but she gave me a big sister hug and made me feel better. Here we are ready to leave for a night on the town: dinner at Reza's and then "Cabaret" at Drury Lane Theater.

Reza's Restaurant in Oakbrook has Persian, Middle Eastern and Meditarranean foods. Here you see Ken enjoying his salmon dish.

Martha liked her koubideh combo (one skewer of seasoned ground chicken, one of seasoned ground beef) with baghaleh polo (dill rice) and grilled vegetables.

I loved my vegetarian sampler which had hummus, tabbouli, shami (cutlets of minced vegetables and chickpeas in a pomegranate sauce with walnuts), babba ghanouj, baghaleh polo, salad shirazi, and kashk-e bademjoon. For dessert we had Persian tea and bamieh. Happily it was too much food and I took the rest home and had it for breakfast the next day!

With our tummies full of yummy food we went to see Cabaret. For anyone who hasn't seen this movie/play I have included the director's notes below. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks M & K, I had a great time.

Director's Notes

Willkommen im Kabarett. Welcome to Cabaret. Berlin, New Year's Eve 1929. The "The Golden Twenties" are plateauing. Post World War I inflation comes to a head just six years earlier when one United States dollar is worth 160 million German marks. Money is hauled around in wheelbarrows and wash baskets. Implementation of currency reform and Germany's gradual economic ascent brings about the public's taste for glitter, glamour and light entertainment; variety reviews with kick lines of topless dancing girls. The intellectual depth of the earlier cabarets, sophisticated vaudevilles devised for the aristocracy and art lovers is gone. The increasing economic necessity of appealing to the widest audience possible leads to political punches being pulled. Satire, parody and irony become suspect of an omnipresent censor. The nation's psychic escape from the politically turbulent Weimer Republic and the bloody conflicts that followed are inevitable. The escapism, the voluptuous panic of a generation of youth fueled by an insatiable appetite for drugs, alcohol and sex, sets a nervous, speed driven pace for the city. The velocity is blinding, unthinking and cruel but not without it's charms. A young writer arrives by train to the Berlin station at Friedrichstrasse and entranced, has the time of his life. His "writer's block" cured.