Monday, January 31, 2011

BIG DAY!!!

These are the things Aliza, Norah and I did yesterday:

1. Smiled with our eyes closed.



2. Made some chalk art.



3. And drove to the hospital.



Aliza was taking a picture with me right before she found out something very very important....

THAT SHE AND NORAH ARE BIG SISTERS TO A BABY BROTHER!!!!
Judson David





There was a Gorilla at the zoo...

But you probably can't tell which one is the Gorilla:


Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sweet Lisa!

I got to have a skype date with Lisa Jacob and it was so wonderful to catch up with after so long!


Love you Lisa!!!!

A Giraffe Series

My mum loves giraffes, they are her favorite animal.  I know this for sure because there are giraffes all over Baba and Gig's house in Connecticut.  Growing up, I was mislead into thinking that everyone has to have their own favorite animal.  I couldn't love elephants because Kim loved them and I couldn't love giraffes because Baba loved them.  But after the last few years I've come to a conclusion....  I love giraffes. I hope we can share mum.

This giraffe series starts with a piece of art that Aliza created two weeks ago and then continues with pictures of the giraffes that live in Al Ain zoo, a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, which I got to visit with some friends last weekend.

Here is Aliza's interpretation of a giraffe.....


You will notice that this giraffe has something very special about it.
Four very special things...
WINGS!

And then we continue with the giraffes of Al Ain:



A Mum and her Baby



Drinking water

My two favorite giraffes were pretty cute.
They were good at posing for a round of pictures.





And the Al Ain giraffes have it made...
They get to stand in front of the Omani mountains, making it all picture perfect.



Beautiful!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Storm Troopers

We endured a sandstorm yesterday!!!  My first sandstorm in the desert... it'll go down in history.  For me, at least.

I know you want to see it!!!






That's our neighborhood from the road, usually this view is crystal clear!

Friday, January 28, 2011

It's funny....

to think about the things that we do when we think no one is looking...




Like stand on an adapter box to touch a beautiful guitar...

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Home Renovations

Some people call it renovating and some call it remodeling, but no matter what you call it.... It's important to look for ways to reinvent your living space.  As a child, I loved to do this.  I loved making forts wherever I could and later when I was a teenager, I loved rearranging my room- reinventing it every time.

We did some home renovations in the girls room recently.  The First Renovation looked like this:



It was nice and reminded me a bit of the television program Big Comfy Couch (which could be a good thing or a bad thing).
It wasn't very stable though.

So we tried for a different approach:
The Second Home Renovation


While the roof was a little saggy, it had a spacious living area and two bedrooms.
It was a winner!

See...



Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Technopoly...

is not another "chic" version of the game Monopoly.

It's the name of a book that I read in college by Neil Postman.  It was required reading so that I could lead a book discussion for a group of high school students.  It was an interesting read and it fostered discussion on how technology is taking over the world- sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way.  The subtitle reads, "The Surrender of Culture to Technology."

I have seen growing evidence of this all my life, but it wasn't until this weekend that I found the final piece of evidence.  The piece that shows that everything is going downhill, we have surrendered ourselves to technology in a way that we would never be able to go back if it all failed...

Here is that evidence:



Baba has an iphone...
Need I say more?

Monday, January 24, 2011

Duning

That's right, I went duning with some friends recently.  And thankfully it didn't end the way my quad bike experience ended that one time.... maybe that's because I wasn't driving, I was just enjoying!

We went out to the desert to dine and dune for the evening:




This is where all the world trekkers trek in movies, at the very top of the dunes.
I tried it, but I wasn't very good at not destroying that perfect ridge.



The actual duning.


Saturday, January 22, 2011

I Needed This Today....

... and maybe you do too!

I stumbled upon an article today that blew me away and I can't help but share it.  If you ever need reassurance that you are single for a reason and a purpose (like me), than this message will give you a lot to chew on.  Enjoy.

A name better than sons and daughters
(Piper)

Camera Time

Look what I found on my camera as I was uploading my pictures:


I can't


imagine


who


this


is....