31May2010 Goodbyes Stink!

"I hate 'Goodbye!'" J. said exactly what we were all thinking.  His nine-year-old mind sliced through all the things we say to ourselves and to one another to salve the wounds of impending separation. 

Seems like our kids have had to say the "g" word too much recently.  Months ago they said it to home, school, friends and basically everything they'd ever known, except immediate family.  On Saturday the "g" word came up again, this time to all their school pals for summer break.  Last night it was to two buddies, Matt and Ryan from New Mexico, that were traveling home after a brief, albeit very encouraging visit.  And then this morning we dropped off our dear friends, the A's, at the airport.  Goodbyes stink!

We're looking forward to the day when the "g" word is no longer in our vocabulary.

Not saying goodbye!

12bf

PS  To all our NC friends:  Please take very good care of...no, make that SPOIL, the A's this summer.  They deserve it!

28May2010 Quickshot: Blur

Most of the malls here are equipped with large and sometimes very elaborate play areas for the kids.  This particular one had many activities including bumper cars, a roller coaster and the swing pictured here, which was a BIG hit with M and A.  We were a bit worried about putting the little fella on it but they both smiled and laughed the entire time and when the ride stopped neither wanted to get off.  

26May2010 Quickshot: Survey

Neat shot of a bedouin herdsman surveying his surroundings. 

22May 2010 Fair Fun

To our surprise, and the delight of the little feet, a school in our neighborhood had a fair/carnival yesterday. Below are some pictures of the festivities.
12bf

19May2010 Quickshot: Harvest

It's harvest time here and all the work, cutting, gathering, binding, loading onto trucks, is done by hand.  This young man, maybe thirteen years-old, was hard at work on a sunny, hot afternoon.

16May2010 Malls may be the Death of me!

What do you do when it's 97 degrees outside?  Why you go to the air conditioned mall of course.  I am not much for malls, I'd rather be kicked in the shin as a matter of fact, but the kids and their mama wanted to go and it was a chance to meet our friends, the A.s, for lunch.
We had a great time, especially at the arcade where S & Z rode a roller coaster and bumper cars and M and A rode the carousel and giant swing, and were on our way out the door when it happened.  The mall, which I've always thought would be the death of me, tried to kill me.  The elevator was too slow so we decided to use the escalators.  S, Z and M got to the bottom and as I was stepping off the blasted thing tried to eat my foot.  The right foot of my favorite, Clark flip flops was sucked into the bottom of that infernal death trap but before my foot, baby-toe first, could be mangled the escalator came to a screeching halt.
It took a crew of workmen just ten minutes to remove my shoe from that sorry contraption but I got it back along with a heartfelt apology from the staff,
I'm pretty sure the whole thing was a conspiracy put together by the shoe stores in the mall.
12bf

11May2010 Quickshot: From Hanging to Sizzling

This is one of our new favorite restaurants.  Fresh meat hangs less than 10 feet from where it's grilled over a charcoal fire.  Delicious!

7May2010 Quick Shot: We feel safe here Part II

A couple weeks ago we posted a picture of a security guard who was napping on the job.  Yesterday we went to the same restaurant and spotted Sergeant Sleepyhead at it again.  Priceless!

4May2010 Quick Shot: For the Birds

Yep, this van was as small as it looks but the interesting part was that it was apparently powered by the 6 canaries whose cages were mounted on the roof.  Bet it gets good gas mileage!