two unrelated things

Wednesday would have been my dad's 66th birthday. Last year I mentioned that I would have chocolate cake with chocolate frosting every February 23rd, and so I did on Wednesday. I wish I had my photos of him with me so I could work on his website and do more Friday Pop posts, but I just did not want to risk losing them in the move. Maybe when I visit home this summer I can work on it a bit.

On a completely unrelated topic, last night I had the probably once-in-a-lifetime and somewhat strange opportunity to play Pictionary with some Saudis. A really interesting cultural difference came up when a Saudi in my group drew this:

totally a reproduction

Can you guess what it is??

The word he was drawing was pilgrim. It's a perfect drawing of a Muslim pilgrim, performing the Hajj and walking around the Ka'aba! I mean, DUH! But we missed it, because when we think of pilgrims, we think of this:

although I am pretty sure lady pilgrims did not wear spike heels

Words. Funny things.


One year ago: used to be
Two years ago: the hold music at the hospital is really nice

houston, we have a problem

So, last night I was sitting there staring intently at my laptop, getting ready for a client meeting that I had to lead. You know how sometimes, when you're thinking hard or trying to remember something, you look upwards as if expecting the ceiling to offer an epiphany? Well, I did that, and I did not receive an epiphany. I received a headache is what I received.


There was a huge swarm of ants crawling along the top of the door frame, upwards toward the ceiling. I am not sure why they would do that. We don't leave crumbs up there as far as I know.

So, Bear vacuumed them (we both felt pretty guilty about this) and then we looked on the internet for natural ways to repel ants. We found that they don't like cayenne pepper, which we happen to have, so we sprinkled it along the top of the door frame.

We thought we were clever.

Just now, I looked over, and there they were again. Not as many this time, but there they are. I guess we might have to get some real chemicals. :(



One year ago: i know how you feel, Moppetsauce

I call this one "Evil Glare, With Cow"

"How dare you interrupt my nap" (say in doctor claw voice, like this)

One year ago: my first raccoon

ready for guests!

The guest room is done! Anyone wanna come visit?

before

after

And here's how it looks when facing away from the bed:



One year ago: a weekend away

the edge of the world

On Saturday, we went with a group of people out to "The Edge of the World", which is where the elevation of the desert suddenly drops a level.

It's an interesting drive, which includes maybe an hour in a wadi, with trees and thorny (really thorny) bushes dotting the lighter colored soil.


Eventually, you get a to place, which seems a bit arbitrary at first glance, but then when you walk up the hill to look over the edge, you know you're there.



We hiked around, up and down the big cliffs, and had a picnic. These people know how to marinate some meat, I'll tellyouwhut.

something to look at

I don't have very much to say today except: after shattering my teapot yesterday, Mowgli got out today and climbed the tree in the backyard, and then jumped over the wall into the neighbor's yard, which has a dog and no escape route. Bear had to scale the wall and rescue him. Two traumatic mornings in a row.

Anyway, here are some photos from this week.

We made 2 types of pasta in my cooking class. The one on the left is beet risotto with bacon (we made it with beef bacon in class, but I recreated it with regular bacon at home) and fresh parsley. The one on the right is fusilli with green pea sauce and goat cheese. It's garnished with bacon (beef) and parsley. I have not made this one at home yet, but I bought all the ingredients! They were both delicious.



Here is a picture of one of my rose bushes, taken this morning:



And here is my first official tomato! This is on the plant in the front yard, which is a volunteer:

teapot

I'm a little teapot, short and stout

When I get all steamed up, then I shout
Tip me over and dump me onto the marble floor in thousands of pieces

*This little ditty brought to you by Mowgli, chaser of flies, tipper of teapots.

One year ago: innocent slumber

cozy

Somebody decided he's too cool for his bed now that he's all grown up, so I put it outside in case our outside kitty wanted a little coziness on these chilly winter nights.

She likes it!

a lesson in falconry

A couple of weeks ago, Bear and I had the opportunity to watch a falcon hunt. Unfortunately, there are many photos and videos that I can't post because they show our host, who believes that if "They" knew about his fraternization with Westerners, he would be in trouble. I don't blame him at all, but I do wish you could see my videos!

Falconry has a long history in the Arab world. I wish the Wikipedia article had more info on Arab falconry, but it only has a few snippets of info amounting to "Arabs have been hunting with falcons for a very long time, and they still do, and they like it, and it's expensive". So.

We followed our hosts out to the desert - a flat, pebbly area with no real features of any kind. We parked, and our hosts went about setting up their blankets, building a fire, and unpacking the birds from their various SUVs.

tea

There must have been 10 falcons or so. Most were hybrids of a Saker (for size and strength) and a Peregrine (for speed), bred in captivity to conserve wild falcons. Which is nice. There was one Saker that they caught in the wild - he explained that they do still have to capture some wild birds for breeding purposes, as their captive-bred falcons are often sterile. All of the birds they had were female. Our host explained that females are larger, stronger, and "braver". I am not sure I believe a male falcon would be afraid of its prey, but they do prefer female hunters for some reason.

This was my favorite falcon. She was the oldest they had, at 8 years. He demonstrated for us that if you take her hood off and then put it back on her without letting her hunt, she gets very upset and "cries and cries and cries and cries". She is the only one of their falcons that does this, and she only does it when she hasn't been allowed to hunt.

Our host told us that, while the birds live for quite awhile, he only likes to keep them for about 6 years (I was afraid to ask what he does with them after that - and what he does with all the male hatchlings). In order for them to be successful hunters, he keeps them hungry for a few days before they go out. The hunts are all for sport and entertainment. The falconers don't eat what the falcons catch, or use it in any way. The Saudis primarily use falcons to hunt a bird called a Houbara Bustard, which they also breed in captivity because it is a vulnerable species. They brought one of their young ones to show us, and I felt so sorry for the thing, wandering around like a sitting duck.

The young Bustard

So creepy. Our host told us she was confident walking around like that because she knew the falcons could not see her. He said when the Bustards know the falcons see them, they crouch low to the ground and freeze. They rarely fly, but when they do, they are extremely fast, hence the necessity of cross-breeding the falcons with Peregrines.

Our hosts brought several lures for the falcons, to show off their skills. They had a lure made of Bustard feathers, and kites with meat tied to the tails. Unfortunately, most of the falcons were not really interested in these.

The Bustard feather lure

The meat-on-a-kite lure

Their owners suspected this might happen, and so they also brought live pigeons. I didn't like this part. So I won't dwell on it. I will just say, there were pigeons and now there aren't.

Putting the hood back on after a successful hunt

It was really interesting to learn about the practice of falconry and to see these beautiful birds in action. But, I have decided I don't like it. I don't like purposefully keeping animals hungry for one's entertainment, and I don't like the practice of bringing a prey animal into the mix, exhausting it (keeping it tied to a string while it flies with all its might to get away) and then releasing it in a weakened state to almost inevitably die (one of them did get away though). I don't like death and killing as "sport". I am thankful to our hosts for sharing their pastime with us, and I am glad I went. But I am also glad I can cross that off the list and not do it again.

Camels coming over to see what's up

busy

I wanted to title this post "busy being illegal" but I thought maybe that was going a bit too far into the realm of pushing my luck. Hmm.

Happy Valentine's Day! I don't really like Valentine's Day much, and I usually don't celebrate it. But it's illegal here, and that makes me want to celebrate it. So I went to a Valentine's-themed party, where we played a not-so-newlywed version of the Newlywed Game, which was hilarious. For the occasion, I made cupcakes with liners decorated with little hearts, and served them on red paper plates that said "Happy Valentine's Day" on them. (I got all this stuff at the commissary, where Valentine's Day is not illegal). And I wore a red sweater. It would have been better if Bear was with me, but as luck would have it, he is in the States. And I am still here.

So, I've been keeping myself busy and not taking pictures. I went to two bazaars two days in a row. I bought a nice table runner and a pillow case from India, two abayas (one with skinny sleeves that won't drag in my food and one with a hood for ease-of-hair-covering for the next time the muttawah fusses at me - did I mention the muttawah fussed at me?), some gifts to send home, a magnet, and Christmas ornaments (gasp! shameful!)

I went to a baby shower where I learned that people who aren't from the U.S. don't really do baby showers, and if they do, they consider it bad luck to do it before the baby is born. They certainly don't play games.

Today I am going to another cooking class at Kingdom Compound. Tomorrow, I am going to lunch at the Globe, which is hosting famous guest chefs over the next several days [PDF 2.37MB] (my favorite part of this brochure is the very first page, with all those ladies not wearing abayas - and those shocking bare arms in front!), and charging large amounts of money for people who would like to eat their food. My lunch will be by French chef Julien Bompard, and I am curious to see how he copes with the lack of wine. I am also curious to see if lunch sans-wine can really be worth $80. Really, if anything should be illegal, it is that. And yet, I am attending. Shrug.

When Bear gets back tonight, he will be scandalized to see that I got him a Valentine's Day card and a heart-shaped cookie with red icing. Diabolical!

a midsummer night's dream

I haven't done a post about Pop in awhile, but I keep coming across this photo and I thought I'd share it. I found it just before I moved to Saudi Arabia, and I scanned it so I could keep looking at it even though I left it in the States for safe keeping.


It's a bad photo, but it evokes such strong memories and feelings for me. It was taken in July 1981 (according to the date printed on the back of the photo), so maybe this was Big Sis' 4th birthday. I would have been about 2 months shy of 3 years old. My favorite time of day - dusk. That's my dad standing there, and me and Big Sis at the table. We had so many dinners outside at that picnic table. That's probably a blue tarp covering it - Pop was fond of tarps. There's a big half watermelon there - we ate more than our fair share of watermelons back then. The tire swing with the well-used patch of dirt underneath. The yard, somewhere in Vienna, VA. That old, old car up there in somebody's driveway.

Safe. Happy.

One year ago: if you have an hour to kill...

very dignified, everyone

These two are a class act.

One year ago: gigantic news
Two years ago: signs of spring

the worst yet

I'm skeptical that I will ever find a more hilarious example of English than this in the entire rest of my life.


In case it's hard to see, I shall tell you what it says:

Invtees you to world of Pasta buffenlunch and dinner with alive flam way Apurely Italian cuisine with moods of sauces combained with your taste to the pasta of your kindand sauces created for you by our master chef.

All You can eat offer now on fridays for just

how much is that monster in the window?

rawr!