in praise of grandmas

Earlier today, the Granny Peace Brigade was acquitted of breaking the law while protesting in front of a NYC recuriting station.

These ladies, mostly in their 70s and 80s, actually rejected a plea bargain and risked 15 days in jail in order to make their cause more public.

Wow. I hope that I age so well.

i dare say...

I think that ol' John would be proud...

I'm The Decider (requires speakers)

Thanks to my dad for the link :)

one year old!

So, yesterday was the big day and we had a little belated thingy tonight. And I've been blogging for over a year now (!) so those who want to see photos of the then-brand-new Eleanor need only click 'April 2005' in the sidebar.

the day before...

My kids have decided that they both love green beans. This is a total surprise to me; I never make plain green beans (generally only add them in to casseroles, stir fries, etc), but my grandmother made some for them when we were over last week. Both the kids absolutely inhaled them. They had them again for lunch today and loved them. What a nice surprise.

We've been having a lot of rain lately. The grass in our back yard is some kind of super grass that grows like crazy and needs to be mowed more often than once a week, but our front yard grows very slowly. There's a random blackberry (?!) patch in our backyard, as well and a nice amount of poison ivy, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to get out the herbicide. I don't want to, but I don't see any other options...

And our rats have gotten way too clever. They discovered that their shelves were hung using zip ties and have taken to chewing them off, making all the shelves crash to the cage floor. I'm going to have to go hunting for a metal alternative, or keep rehanging shelves each week. Yay.

Countdown to the big day...a year ago about this time, I had pretty much figured out that something was going on, lol. I'm kind of sad; Eleanor's my last baby (*sob*) and she's nearly a toddler. She's pulling up every chance she gets and will be walking soon. She's just growing up too fast!

sunday

Kind of seems like a whirlwind week here. Jon was out of town for a few days, which wasn't so fun. Yesterday, we went to a bbq put on by our Pakistani friends and had a great time. Afterwards, we went over to my parents', though we didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked. Jon went to his Halaqa (study circle) this morning, I went to an Arabic lesson and Halaqa noon-ish, and then we met our friends for dinner. Whew.

This is what I've been working on for the Islamic Center's outreach program, with the input of much of the community: Muslims of Little Rock. Woot.

Eleanor turns one on Wednesday. I can't believe it's gone so fast!

already a foodie

life imitates art imitates life

Did anyone see Desperate Housewives on Sunday?

Felicia was majorly harrassing Paul, who she knows killed her sister but who is trying to act normal, upright, and non-criminal, and trying to provoke him into attacking her, presumably so that the neighborhood would turn against him.

I've been thinking about that...and it occured to me...Felicia is so Dubya.

Seriously---could you run things so ineptly without it being intentional? Yesterday, a newborn baby was badly hurt in Afghanistan, her mother and other relatives shot---because they refused to heed written warnings not to overtake a convoy, even though it's well known that many in that area are illiterate. He and his administration have completely botched everything they've touched and we---Americans and Arabs alike---are paying the price.

So, he provokes another attack and then---gasp! Those horrible terrorists! Yes, we have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in the Middle East, but...they are terrorists! They must hate freedom!

Then everything else he's already set up comes into full-bloom. Of course it's OK if he illegally wiretaps his own citizens without warrants---he's looking out for our best interests! And then, naturally, he needs to throw those terrorists or potential terrorists in prison camps without a trial; they are threats to society! And since all of the dissidents and free thinkers - at least the louder ones - are taken care of and he has already amended the Bill of Rights to this extent, why not throw in a little martial law for good measure? And that pesky term limits thing needs to go too, of course.

We already know that he had planned to provoke an attack from Iraq in order to justify an invasion, if the whole weapons of mass destruction sharade didn't pan out. It's no stretch at all to think he'd do that with Iran.

On the one hand, yes, this smacks of a conspiracy theory. On the other, the thing about dictatorship is that once you're there, you can't very well point that fact out. The only question is how to get out before all the shit hits the fan.

sunday

Since I have been terribly behind with photos, here's one of the almost-1 year old :)



And list o' the weekend: Five things I have been grateful for this weekend...

1. Jon, who understands a trip to a Chinese buffet is a perfect pick-me-up
2. My grandmother helped me solve a sewing machine problem and saved me a trip to the shop
   
3. Ellie let go and stood on her own for about a half a second
4. Having a hubby who doesn't work on Sundays, freeing me to go to a study circle at the Islamic Center sans kiddos
   
5. Fans. It's hot!

Have a faboo week, everyone :)

meme

Tagged by Jaime...

Six Weird Qualities or Habits I Have:
1. In the morning, I don't feel awake until I've showered.
2. I can't sleep with socks on, or with pajamas off.
3. I prefer peeling off my finger nails to clipping them.
4. I like the way my daughter's ears smell.
5. I love fast food, even though I know what's in it.
6. I obsessively check my blog stats and know the IP addresses of each and every one of you (*insert maniacal laughter*)

Weird?...eh. That was pretty lame, but I actually had a really hard time coming up with it.

I tag:
Sarah
Roxi
Twilight Monkey

C'mon, y'all, you know you love memes :)

bollocks

In the filing, Fitzgerald wrote that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, told a grand jury that Bush authorized him, through Cheney, to leak information from a classified document that detailed intelligence agencies' conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

A lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Saturday that Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized it to be publicly disclosed to rebut Iraq war critics. But the lawyer said Bush did not specifically direct Libby to disseminate information about prewar intelligence to reporters. (source)

So, Bush declassified the info and "publicly disclosed" it. If it was all very up front and legal, then why the heck did he go so far to hide it?

If the administration takes a year to come up with a lie, they ought to do better than this.

girly girl

Ellie is almost a year old! Wow. She's been getting more communicative. She says: hi, bye, mama, cat, brother, and dada. She signs: more, give me some!, hungry, thirsty, and tired. And after doing this funky scooting/pulling herself along thing since December, she's actually started genuinely crawling on her knees.

And she's getting far too clever. Last night, she figured out how to unfasten her diaper cover---something I never had to deal with with her brother. She undid one side several times (with me quickly refastening it, of course) before she thought to undo both sides simultaneously. She ripped off the cover, threw it, and then crawled away laughing. She was free! We let her crawl around bare-bottomed the rest of the night. Guess we need to up the elimination communication efforts.

I just came across a nice essay regarding hijab that can be read here. Supportive of my belief that hijab is (among other things, of course) the ultimate expression of the sentiments expressed by this shirt, popular back in the day among my women's college friends.

Have a great week!

thursday

Mostly just cleaning and organizing this week...we got one of the spiffy Target microwave carts that finally went on sale this week (I've been watching for two months, lol) and it really makes our kitchen much more usable.

Great deal of the week: Dollar Tree stores have Boost with Benefiber 6-packs in chocolate, orange cream, and vanilla---regular price on these is $6-7 per pack! They expire in July, but I have my breakfasts until then set, yay! Deal boards confirm that this is a chain-wide deal.

Hope everyone is enjoying the increasingly Spring-y weather :)

'd' is for

dictatorship.

But last month, Washington threw all that old-fashioned civics stuff into a tizzy, when President Bush signed into law a bill that actually never passed the House. Bill -- in this case, a major budget-cutting measure that will affect millions of Americans -- became a law because it was "certified" by the leaders of the House and Senate.

Washington Post article
USA Today article

ladies' day out

That's what my mom calls it at least. She and I spent the day bumming around, doing things that we wouldn't normally do. We had fun :). I got my hair cut super short---nice and cool, even under the hijab---then we went to a town a little ways away and checked out a discount furniture store. Whoo, found some nice stuff...when we get rich, I guess :).

We also stopped at a surplus/discount/salvage/junky type store and I did get a really good deal on some Corelle dishes. I'd been looking for some for a while due to their kid-friendliness (nearly unbreakable and very lightweight). With a little bargaining, I was able to get a brand new set of Winter White Corelle with service for eight (8 dinner plates/8 salad plates/8 bowls with cool extra lids for storage/8 mugs/platter and serving bowl) for $20. The 'service for 4' sets go for $27 at Amazon, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

Afterwards, we watched the new Zorro flick, or at least watched it as well as we could with a somewhat fussy Ellie. After dinner at a Chinese buffet with Mom, I came home to a message that apparently Jon and Tristan are coming home tonight. Whee! Though that'll mean a crazy tired hubby tomorrow.

And don't forget about the time change! Bugger.