She Did Everything Right
When I was a little girl growing up in Alaska, we had neighbors who lived just across the creek. Our neighbors had a daughter 6 years older than me; she was my first babysitter. Growing up, those six years made all the difference – we didn’t know one another as friends, the gap was too great. Our families were very close, however, and when my parents would go to parties at her parents house, they would take us and put us to bed in her bed.
I saw her now and then through the years, but our lives were in different places. When I was just getting married, she had big boys, by the time my son was a teenager, hers were getting married and going to college. We reconnected in Florida, of all places, where we both ended up at the same time due to our husband’s jobs.
Having our Alaska childhood in common, having grown up together and knowing each other’s family through all the years created a strong bond. We saw each other often; she was like a big sister to me.
She always had it all together. She had a group that bicycled together every morning, and then had outings later in the day. She was a fitness buff, and ran in the mornings before she bicycled. She kept herself thin, and she loved to cook, but she could eat what she wanted because she exercised it all off.
She was a reader, and would pass along the really good books to me. She and her husband were also news buffs, so when we would get together with our husbands, there was never a dull moment at the dinner table.
She and her husband were sent to Egypt, and to Rumallah, and to China, and they made the most of every minute. They loved traveling, they loved their sailing boat, they loved their family. They would come to visit us in our places of the world, and we would have great reunions. They were so alive.
She could be annoying. She would chide me about not exercising enough. She would comment on how much food people ate. She always knew the latest in medical research to back herself up. She kept her mind active, and she kept her weight down. She exercised, she travelled, she took care of her parents, she did good works for others. She did everything right.
A couple years ago, we joined her and her husband for dinner. She hadn’t combed her hair. She weighed about 20 lbs more, and didn’t seem to notice. She couldn’t remember the last book she had read, and she couldn’t remember her recent trip to Mexico, or an earlier one to Spain.
It’s been downhill since then. Her loving husband is strong and able to care for her, this once-beautiful, sprite-like, spirited woman. I think she still knew me, when I saw her last summer, but she can no longer really express what she is thinking. She is restless, up and down from the table, and not able to participate in the conversation.
I am haunted. I am so much like her; I tried to live up to all that she has taught me. A part of me wants to scream at God “This isn’t fair! She did everything right!”
Perhaps doing everything right gave her a few extra years, and I am just not seeing things from the right perspective. Meanwhile, I get no answers, and my heart breaks when I think of her.
Hokey Pokey Cat
My latest giggle from I Can Has Cheezburger? I know it looks like the Qatari Cat, but it is not.
moarfunny pictures
Time for a new Mac
Last night, as I checked this blog, all of a sudden everything froze. Now and then that might happen. I turned it off, and rebooted. Nothing.
You know that feeling of sheer panic when you think you might be cut off?
I let it rest – sometimes when you walk away, it fixes itself. And sure enough it came back on, and I could log on and even picked up some e-mail. Maybe four minutes in, it froze again.
I bought this Mac in April of 2004 – I know, because I was back in the US for Sporty Diamond’s wedding, and I uploaded my first photos into iPhoto. I was IN LOVE. iPhoto lets me manage all my photos so easily, lets me organize, helps me in so many ways.
I have never had a moment’s problem with this computer. I’ve upgraded the operating system a couple times, tweaked things here and there, and never had a problem.
When the new Macs came out recently with the new operating system, I was feeling envious, but honestly, my current Mac is running so well . . .
Now, however, Adventure Man says “hey, this sounds like a great time for a new computer!”
He he he he he – I think so, too!
I hate to leave my current Mac behind – he has worked so hard, we’ve been partners, we’ve had so much fun together! Seems like he’s had enough, though, and it’s time to move on.
Wind Up Lights for African Homes
My husband gave me a wind-up flashlight (British English = torch) and I love it. In movies like The Blair Witch Project or crime movies, the flickering and dying of a flashlight always foretells something really really bad is about to hapen. I love it that I have a flashlight I can keep winding up.
In our national legends, we have Abraham Lincoln doing his schoolwork on the back of a shovel, next to a flickering fire. That must have taken real dedication. Imagine what your own life would be like if we had no light after sundown. . .
From BBC News AFRICA:
The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa.
The Freeplay Foundation is developing prototypes of a charging station for house lights it hopes will improve the quality of life for many Africans.
The Foundation said the lights would replace the expensive, polluting and unhealthy alternatives many Africans currently use to light their homes.
Field testing of the prototypes will start in Kenya in the next few months.
Light and life
Kristine Pearson, director of the Freeplay Foundation, said few Africans in the continents most vulnerable areas had access to electricity to light homes.
“Their life stops or is very narrowed when the sun goes down,” she said. “Two extra hours of light would make a big difference to their life.”
You can read the rest of this article about developing this technology for Africa HERE
Eat Your Onions!
(And carry breath mints!)
From today’s BBC Health News comes proof that those helpings of vegetables and fruits cut the risk of early heart disease.
Onions ‘cut heart disease risk’
Eating a meal rich in compounds called flavonoids reduces some early signs of heart disease, research shows.
An Institute of Food Research team focused on one of the compounds, quercetin, which is found in tea, onions, apples and red wine.
The Atherosclerosis study examined the effect of the compounds produced after quercetin is broken down by the body.
They were shown to help prevent the chronic inflammation which can lead to thickening of the arteries.
You can read the rest of the article HERE.
Qatari Cat Loves the Market
The Qatari Cat loves it when I go to the market. Did you ever think about what it must be like to be a cat, to be able to smell the tiniest scent? Do you ever watch a cat lift its’ nose in interest, even open its’ mouth to be able to take in all the nuances of a scent?
I have seen cats bee-line to a person who has been walking on a beach. The Qatari Cat LOVES Adventure Man’s shoes when he gets home from a trip. I try to imagine what it must be like for him, but I imagine when it comes to scent that we are like blind people in the land of the sighted – cats have it all over us.
He spent hours with this sack full of baskets. I think it was like reading a particularly good book for him!
One Thing Too Many
I was tempted to volunteer for something yesterday, something I KNEW was wrong for me, but I just wanted to help so badly. Volunteer work can do that – how can you say no? You WANT to help. I have to remind myself that I want to do the things I must do WELL, that taking on commitments and making promises I end up not able to keep is not helpful. It doesn’t help the person I promised to help, and it makes me feel terrible about myself.
I already have a full plate. I really cannot take on more.
Sometimes we get a sign. If we are very lucky, if we have the eyes to see, we recognize it.
Some tomatoes had become overly ripe and I needed to toss them. I could easily hold four, but wanting to do it all in one swoop, I picked up all five, and one fell. When I saw the splat pattern on the floor, my first thought was that it had some artistic merit, and my second thought was that I needed to photograph it as a reminder of what happens in life when we take on one thing too many.
Science Exam Answers
When my son was in school and we would talk about school and grades and tests, I told him “tell the teachers what you know, even if you don’t know the answer to the question, sometimes you get partial points. Don’t leave a question blank, especially on written exams.” Rarely are you penalized for guessing, or for wrong answers.
Here are some delightful answers children came up with on science exams. (Thank you, KitKat, for passing these along to me.)
Subject: Science Exam Answers
If you need a laugh, read through these
Children’s Science Exam Answers.
These are real answers given by children.
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which
water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink
because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand,
dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes
them perspire.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and
the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon,
because there is no water on the moon, and nature
hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this
fight.
Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on
the stairs.
Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you
get intercontinental.
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches
puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks
forward to his adultery.
Q: Name a major disease associated with
cigarettes.
A: Premature death.
Q: How are the main parts of the body
categorized? (e.g., abdomen).
A: The body is consisted into three parts –
the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity.
The brainium contains the brain; the borax contains
the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity
contains the five bowels, A, E, I, O, and U.
Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.
Q: What does “varicose” mean?
A: Nearby. (I do love this one…)
Q: Give the meaning of the term “Caesarean
Section”
A: The Caesarean Section is a district in
Rome.
Q: What does the word “benign” mean?’
A: Benign is what you will be after you be
eight.
Old Fashioned Gingerbread
Sure, you can buy a packaged mix, and your gingerbread is just OK and has all those processed ingredients and preservatives. Or, you can make it yourself – it is easy, a lot of fun, and the results are SO much better than packaged. Gingerbread is especially good with French vanilla ice cream on top, or Creme Chantilly. Original gingerbread recipe came from Africa!
Old Fashioned Gingerbread
This is fun to make with children, because of the chemical reaction when you add the molasses, water and soda. It also tastes delicious!
3 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed in tight
1 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9 x 13 pan.
Sift together flour, cinnamon and cloves, add ginger and mix all together.
Cream butter and brown sugar in a separate bowl.
Stir molasses and boiling water in a large bowl, add in baking soda (this is the fun part, and the mixture gets all fizzy!)
Add flour and molasses mixture to butter mixture, mixing until all is smooth, then add eggs, and continue beating.
Pour batter into pan and cook 55 – 65 minutes – the smell will drive you crazy, it smells so good when it starts cooking.
Cool on a rack 10 minutes, then cut gingerbread while still soft.
Serve with whipped cream and a glass of milk. Yummmm.
Rape in Dubai
I saw this in ChillNight’s blog yesterday with a link to the Herald Trib, which wouldn’t work for me. Today, my niece,Little Diamond, sent me the same article with a link to the New York Times which did work. This is the third most e-mailed article this week; it is attracting a lot of attention world wide. About time.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 31 — Alexandre Robert, a French 15-year-old, was having a fine summer in this tourist paradise on the Persian Gulf. It was Bastille Day and he and a classmate had escaped the July heat at the beach for an air-conditioned arcade.
Just after sunset, Alex says he was rushing to meet his father for dinner when he bumped into an acquaintance, a 17-year-old native-born student at the American school, who said he and his cousin could drop Alex off at home.
There were, in fact, three Emirati men in the car, including a pair of former convicts ages 35 and 18, according to Alex. He says they drove him past his house and into a dark patch of desert, between a row of new villas and a power plant, took away his cellphone, threatened him with a knife and a club, and told him they would kill his family if he ever reported them.
Then they stripped off his pants and one by one sodomized him in the back seat of the car. They dumped Alex across from one of Dubai’s luxury hotel towers.
Alex and his family were about to learn that despite Dubai’s status as the Arab world’s paragon of modernity and wealth, and its well-earned reputation for protecting foreign investors, its criminal legal system remains a perilous gantlet when it comes to homosexuality and protection of foreigners.
You can read the rest of the article at The New York Times.
Of course, I am sick for the victim, sick for his parents, and sick for a nation that can’t and won’t prosecute the rapists, even with evidence, and warns the victim to leave the country because he is about to be accused of the crime of homosexuality.
Rape is an invisible crime. You can’t look at someone and see they have been raped. Many, many rape victims never report the crime. This 15 year old kid has the courage to go public with probably one of the most humiliating crimes that can happen to a person and HE is threatened with prison?
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