Amazing New Surgery

Sorry, still no time to do baby pics, but saw this today and wanted to share:

Home For A Bit

I arrived home from the excitement in Athens Wednesday afternoon to spend a few days here before going back this weekend for more grandson schmoozling. :-) The plan was to do some 'vacation' type activities with Saeed and we have gone out to our favorite restaurant one time, but I had 2 1/2 weeks worth of laundry and a filthy house staring me in the face. Saeed also has a few reports to write so needless to say we have been doing what we always do: work. BUT we have done so in a much more relaxed manner! We watch the World Cup when we can and don't feel the pressure of having to go to work the next day.

I have a zillion pictures of the events in Athens, not just Kai's birth but my time with Cyrus and his life with a new little brother, but haven't organized them yet. I uploaded them this morning (if you're dying for them, sorry) and while doing so had the Brazil vs Portugal game playing on my lap top. Lupe has been my constant companion and even brought me the toy lizard as a gift. She walked from the bedroom to the computer area with it in her mouth which was cute as hell but of course not on video. She did bring it a bit closer to me which is what you'll see below.

So although you would expect this post to be about the spectacular birth of Kai I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little bit; all I can handle today is a five minute post. I have 3300 sq. ft. of house to vacuum and I'm still working on restoring the house after the painters left. The latter project will take weeks because Saeed and I want to pick out new window treatments and reevaluate which pictures will go back up on the walls. We also have to fix a lot of the mistakes the painters made, repaint one wall, and maybe paint the living room ourselves. Long story about the living room. Tomorrow morning we leave for Athens again and Monday I go back to work so I'm not sure when my "Kai" post will go up... maybe little by little.

Lupe almost always keeps me company at the computer. Top right you can see the soccer game playing on my lap top. To my surprise Brazil vs Portugal turned out to be a lack luster game. I miss Ronaldinho.

To keep the house cool I have the shade by my computer rolled down so the beginning of the video is dark. Eventually I realize this and lift it to allow the sun to shine on my cute little Lupe.



Banu can hear that something is going on and comes halfway up the stairs to check it out.

Saba's Graduation Party

Last night we went to the Yousefian's to help celebrate Saba's graduation from medical school. She still has to pass her boards but I'm sure she will. Here are a few pics.

Helen, Andisheh, and Sharareh laugh at something Saeed said. He was full of stories last night. I've heard them before but they're still funny.

Elizabeth, now 84, drove herself 60 miles to come for this gathering. She's a pistol! Next to her are Lua, Saba, and Kamran. (Lua' making silly eyes - rolling them up)

In fact Lua was pretty silly all evening! I guess that's what you do when you're five. Saba wasn't really sure what Lua was doing back there.

Marzieh and Mehrdad pose with silly Lua. Marzieh cooked the most amazingly delicious food... she always does.

"Take my picture Aunt Ingrid"  OK Lua.

Neda filled us in on her first year in graduate school at UC Davis. She said she'll be visiting Anahita in SF at the end of June.

Sharareh gave Saba a graduation present that must have been a bracelet. Knowing 20-somethings as we do, we gave cold hard cash.

Congratulations Saba!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

Lovin' this World Cup soccer. This is where it's at right now:

England and USA tied with 1 point each
Slovenia beat Algeria 1 to 0
Ghana just beat Serbia 1 to 0

Germany will be playing Australia in a couple of hours. I supported USA, Algeria, and Ghana and will be supporting Germany. It's obvious why I'd pull for Germany and the US but the other games I just have to go with my gut. Sometimes I'm motivated by my ever present desire to support the underdog, sometimes it's because of  a particular player I know, sometimes it's because I love their food (too bad India, Vietnam, Iran and Ethiopa aren't playing) and sometimes it's because I saw some great movies made in that country (Algeria.)  Hey -- it's as good a reason as any! I feel a bit guilty not routing for Serbia since my great-grandmother came from what was then called Serbo-Croatia which became part of Yugoslavia and is now just Serbia and Croatia, but Ghana has such heart, were missing two of their best players, and are from the host continent. Sometimes I even go against these philosophies. I should have pulled for Slovenia because they are such underdogs -- the entire population of Slovenia is just over 2 million! When they won I was actually pretty happy.

I may have to take my lap top to work all week if the games times match my lunch breaks.

Sorry For The Absence

Got too much going on with the house right now to blog. I work hard all week at the office, and then I have two days to work on restoring some order to the chaos. This involves more than merely moving everything back to where it was. Hopefully I am accomplishing some improvements and deep cleaning in my too short weekends.

Life isn't all bad though. My highlight of the week was saving a box turtle that was slowly walking across the road. And I plan to stop everything to watch the USA v.s. England World Cup game today. You gotta take the good where you can get it.

Another New UN Report...

... how can the world continue to ignore this information? A June 2, 2010 article in the Telegraph by Louise Gray is reproduced below.

Eat Less Meat to Save the Planet - UN
The World Needs to Change to a More Vegetarian Diet To Stand a Chance of Tackling Climate Change, According to a Major New United Nations Report.

The group of international scientists said the greatest cause of greenhouse gas emissions is food production and the use of fossil fuels. 

But while the use of coal and oil could be gradually replaced by renewable energy sources like wind and solar, the world will always need to eat.

As the world population increases it is feared that the production of food will become the main cause of climate change and environmental degradation.

The International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management pointed out that agricultural production accounts for 70 per cent of global freshwater production, 38 per cent of land use and 19 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

The report, that will be presented to world governments, said the only way to feed the world while reducing climate change is to switch to more a more vegetarian diet.

"A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change," it read.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, said ordinary consumers can help fight climate change by eating less meat.


"The Panel have reviewed all the available science and conclude that two broad areas are currently having a disproportionately high impact on people and the planet's life support systems—these are energy in the form of fossil fuels and agriculture, especially the raising of livestock for meat and dairy products," he said.

Mr Steiner said governments could encourage people to eat less meat by reforming the system of taxes and subsidies so vegetarian food is cheaper.


"Smart market mechanisms, more intelligent fiscal policies and creative policy-making are among the options for internalising the costs of unsustainable patterns. Some tough choices are signalled in this report, but it may prove even more challenging for everyone if the current paths continue into the coming decades," he added.

Lord Stern of Brentford, the author of the influential Stern Review that first argued for economic measures to fight climate change, also believes the world needs to eat less meat.

He has already warned that the price of meat and other "carbon intensive" goods will need to go up to fight climate change.

A Moment

Life can change in the blink of an eye. One of our patients, a young woman of 23 with an 18-month old child, was in a terrible car accident. All I know at this point is that she has a closed head injury and possible severed spinal cord. I don't know if she will live or die or live with disabilities. I can't stop thinking about it, worrying about her.

In Buddhism it is often said that the span of our lives is like a dew drop on a leaf — beautiful, precious, and extremely short-lived. Life is remarkably unpredictable. None of us knows what life will bring. In any moment everything we take for granted can change. It is easy to become paralyzed with fear and to be honest I do struggle with this at times.

Obviously the better way is to keep our impermanence in back of our minds and live each day well. I am amazed at how much time I waste in this context, how easily I become focused on the mundane tasks that get me from yesterday to today to tomorrow. These chores need to be done in order for my life to function well, but the trick is to not let them become my reason for getting up in the morning like an automaton.

Is this some sort of an epiphany? No, I already know these things. Chelsey's accident just makes me think about it all over again.

Scooping Litter In Candlelight

We had some strong storms come through the area yesterday leading to a very romantic episode of scooping litter. How do the Amish do it???

Owl Box

Bumped into this streaming video of an owl box containing four nearly adult chicks. I wish I had time to just sit here and watch it. After finishing Wesley The Owl I am more in love with owls than I was before. The box belongs to a family in California, who put the box up two years ago but didn't have residents till this year. The owls are totally unaware of the camera. Right now they are just sleeping so all I can see is the feathers of two of them moving with their breathing, but it's like meditation. Beautiful.

The Next Josh Groban

Three people have sent me this video to post. He is a British youngster of Irish and Scottish descent named Declan Galbraith with a lot of musical talent. This video shows him at age 12 singing his own composition. The auditory quality of the first video leaves a lot to be desired but you need this version to understand the lyrics of the chorus at the end, the message of which is dear to my heart. Below it is a copy that sounds better but without the lyrics.

Version with lyrics:


Better musical quality, no lyrics provided: