A New Addition to Our Family

(you thought it was gonna be a baby, huh?!)

We finally relented (actually, it was husband who was the limiting factor) and decided to get a dog. Meet Cooper, our new 4-legged 2-yr-old. As you can tell from the pictures, he suffers severe neglect here - nobody in our house likes him (u-huh.) He is the sweetest, smartest little boy ! He's got excellent manners both inside and outside of the house, and he's very obedient. I'm hoping he'll be an example in this way for the people kids in the house:).

Gardening Triumphant!

We dug up half of our front yard this spring and put in a HUGE vegetable garden. Because it's in the front yard and we're on a corner lot, it's been quite the neighborhood attraction. I have secretly been feeling a little pressure to make things grow because my failure to do so would be witnessed by everyone who walks by or pauses at the stop sign at the intersection. Thankfully, earlier in the week I woke up to see my sweet lettuce and spinach plants peeking their little heads out from underneath the compost and Zoo Doo. I'm now officially a successful gardener, at least in my own head! Here they are in all their glory (the garden actually extends way beyond the picture in an L-shape. It's HUGE!):The lettuceMy uneven rows

"Your Retarded!" (and other petty foibles)

I have a confession to make: I'm a little bit of a grammar snob. Well, more like a word usage snob (admittedly, my use of punctuation is far from perfect). Not that I don't make my share of mistakes, because I most certainly do (there will probably be one or two in this very post). There are a few that tend to make me crazy when I see them, though, and they all involve the misuse of homophones. For example, "there" is different from "their," which is different from "they're." There is also "your" and "you're" (please note title of post - that's on a T-shirt!). And of course, "two" vs. "too" vs. "to." I don't think it's a big deal to commit these errors in your own personal writing. After all, most of us don't employ an editor who's paid a hefty sum to look over our shoulders and make corrections. I do find it inexcusable, however, when they pop up in widely circulated publications like newspapers, or on signs.

Enter Jeff Deck and his Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). Finally, someone has made it his purpose in life "to stamp out as many typos as we can find, in public signage and other venues where innocent eyes may be befouled by vile stains on the delicate fabric of our language." Check out his blog to see how your fair city fared (or is it "fare city faired?" ;)), and find out how English is misused throughout the States.

Where did I go wrong?

Zoya, the daughter of a biology student and an anatomy and physiology teacher, asked the other night, "Mommy, when will our kitty lay her eggs?" And last summer when she fell on a stick and hurt her personal parts, she ran inside holding herself, screaming, "My Nuts! My Nuts!" Guess we'll have to have that talk a little earlier than I thought.

Chahar Shanbeh Suri

This is the first year we have participated in celebrating Iranian New Year, or NoRouz (or Nowrooz or NoRooz or Nowruz, take your pick). One of the celebrations, called Chahar Shanbeh Suri, occurs on the last Tuesday evening of the year, and is kind of the kick-off for the 13 days of NoRooz celebration that follow. Chahar Shanbeh Suri is a cleansing/purification ritual that is based on Zoroastrian tradition, and involves jumping over fire to rid yourself of illness and misfortunes experienced in the previous year. Every year a friend of ours hosts this event at Alki Beach, and Iranians from all over the region come to participate. Like I said, this is the first year we've participated, and I'm ashamed that we haven't done it before now. It was so much fun - the kids are already counting down the days until next year's ceremony. So here are pictures of our first fire-jumping:

The kids helping Ali set up

The fires

Saying "SO LONG" to illness and misfortune

I couldn't resist this last picture - it doesn't have anything to do with NoRooz, but it's the sunset over Alki. I LOVE the Pacific NW!

NoRooz Mobarak! (Happy New Year) Sad Saal be in Saal-ha! (Wishing you 100 more Happy New Years)

Our Damn Cat

She's nothing if not persistent. She's allowed inside, but only on her pillow (husband's allergic). Whenever we're in the house and she's not, she becomes very demanding and makes it crystal clear that she's being excluded. If you turn up the volume on the video, you can hear her whining. If we don't respond, she climbs the window (see pictures). Please notice the awning and roof to her custom-made, lovingly crafted personal cat home in the background. Zoya and I spent the better part of a Saturday making that for her, and all she uses it for is as a springboard to climb the window, and nothing else;[.

I think I'll go wash my grimy windows. They really don't look this nasty in person (or maybe I'm just used to them).

Identity Crisis

Over the weekend I went from this (I'm the one on the right - ha ha!)...

...to this...

...before finally settling on this...

Here is the opinion poll from home: Zoya and I LOVE it, husband likes the red better, but thinks he can grow to accept this one, and Dylan, who has never been able to adjust immediately to ANY kind of change, HATES it! Who knew that something as trivial as hair could elicit such varied and passionate responses?!