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Got back home from visiting my inlaws for a week. Oh, i didn't even tell you guys i was leaving. Well i did and now i'm back. Will share about my trip soon.

Isn't this tree intense?

evil tree close up
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

These are the trees that come out in the spring here and give me serious allergies. Ain't it pretty though? This one was in a park close to our house.

1.Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
"Remember: Get into the habit of knowing where little fingers are before you slide the tray (onto the high chair so that you don't accidentally pinch them)."

2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
easter basket neighbor gave little dude, bagel, coffee, digital camera, bib, stack of recipes to try, homeopathic bug spray, homeopathic baby sunscreen, baby vitamins

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Cooking channel...How to Boil Water

4.Without looking, guess what time it is?
10:15am

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
10:28am

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
cooking show, birds, son hiccuping, fridge humming

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
last night, toy shopping for neice, nephew and little dude

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
Masooma's blog

9. What are you wearing?
none a ya. None of your business. :-)

10. Did you dream last night?
Yes. Very interesting dreams.

11. When did you last laugh?
Last night.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
clock, picture of a pear on a plate

13. Seen anything weird lately?
I live in Atlanta. I see weird things everyday. Like blown up cars for instance. recently we were driving into a parking lot and a car had just exploded setting fire to 5 other cars. All were totalled. It was nuts! I have never seen blown up cars before until moving to Atlanta. I've seen it 3 different times here.

14. What do you think of this quiz?
it's pretty cool

15. What is the last film you saw?
Whatever i didn't finish last night because i was bored. Some brittish flick. Last one i finished? Death in Gaza.

16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
Pay off the house, set a bunch of money aside for little dude, give a ton to all family and travel the world. I don't care much about possessions but would love to experience/see this world.

17. Tell me something about you that I dunno.
You don't know much but anyway. When i was 4 my dad was propositioned by saudi princes to run a pepsi plant in saudi arabia. But he would have had to leave me for 3 months alone so didn't take the job. They were going to pay him quite well. I often wonder what our lives would look like had he done that. Would i have become Muslim or would i have looked at it differently. Would my dad be muslim? Who would i be? Would my dad have four wives? He loves middle eastern women. Hmmm.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Get rid of the shrub.

19. Do you like to dance?
It's okay. There's better things to do though. I do like to dance for my son. It cracks him up.

20. George Bush
hell

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Zahra or Aliyah

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Been there, done that. But the name i wanted was Mikail or Khalil. Compromised on another.

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Absolutely. Would prefer it. Canada sounds nice actually. Is that abroad?

24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
I don't think there will be pearly gates but i hope i don't have to spend a long time in hell and hope i make it to heaven. I hope he'll also say, "Would you like to finally see your sister?"

25. 4 people who must also do this meme in their journal. I'm not gonna force anyone, but i'll request Southern Masala, Zack, Aisha, and Sister Scorp. Just going with the people i know in person.

Which Food Network chef are you?

Oh bother!
Take this quiz!

Death in Gaza

Death in Gaza
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

Good documentary. It's in the same vein as Born into Brothels in that it's about the kids and what will happen to them.

Book Meme (aka Topic Change)

Total number of books owned: God only knows but it's got to be around 400 or so. Gosh, that's a lot. I think i'll get rid of a box today.

Last book bought: A few for the Little Dude and i believe it was Even Angels Ask and Losing my religion by Jeffery Lang for me. But most of my books i get from the library... I just buy what i can't find there or i find a book used i'll do that since i usually have trade credit at some store or another.

Last book read: My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman but that doesn't count because i'm reviewing for "work". And excluding religious books too, Arranged Marriage by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

Five books that mean a lot to you: I'd put the Qur'an down because it's so much more than a book to me and i don't want to triviliaze it. Same goes for the Bible (it led me to where i'm at).

1. The Super Baby Food book (I swear, i've recommended this to everyone i know whether they have a baby or toddler or just for themselves. It's chalk full of tons of tips, ideas, and food information such as nutrition etc. I love love love this book. I carry it around with me a lot to read and reread.

2. The Little Prince / Le Petite Prince

3. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

4. The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God by John Powers

5. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. I'll never know why this one affected me like it did but it did.

Are You a Slacker Mom?

Your quiz results make you a Zen Mom

How do you do it? Even when explosions are all around, you are able to take a deep cleansing breath and chant your mantra "this too shall pass." You are a calming influence on your kids in a hectic world.

Take this free personality test by Clicking Here>> or going to www.areyouaslackermom.com

Speaking of food...does no one like my food blog or what? It's so lonely in there. Sigh. A picture of my most excellent taco salad is up.

Me and the Rabbi

I had the best shopping experience i've ever had in Atlanta. I never have good shopping experiences in Atlanta because i find the service industry here very lacking in customer service but yesterday was absolutely one of my best days in this rude city.

Okay, it started with me going to the halal market over the weekend (well DH really, i was in the car with Little Dude so we wouldn't get the "white girl tax" as Lucky Fatima calls it). Anyway, he asked for extra lean ground beef and the guy gave him (as usual...he does it to me too) ground beef with chunks of white bone/cartilage in it. When my husband asked if he has anything without the chunks of white (hence, lean meat) he said "that's as lean as ground beef can get" - okay, mr dude, i don't think so. American grocery stores don't put the chunky stuff in there, neither does the kosher butcher. I'm not stupid and i gag when eating meat that has chewy gristle in it. That's just disgusting. And the meat was already browning and old soooo, he got the chicken and left the beef.

So yesterday i went to the grocery store (typical Kroger) that is in the Jewish neighborhood not far from our house and Southern Masala (sidebar) had told me how great the deli was at the Publix next door but DH always went and not me so i didn't know how good it was till yesterday. Oh dear me! This store rocks. Not only does it have a whole butcher section for kosher meat, but a rabbi to go with it. And customer service. It was nice shopping around all the Jewish women and older women and boy were they soaking up Little Dude. There was even another Muslim and a Hindu shopping. Also, there's three aisles of food that are just kosher! And a kosher deli! And and and....so much! So i got good lean ground beef (much more expensive but worth it) and a few other things. It's so sad that Muslims have to be such awful thieving butchers. If we stuck in a neighborhood like Jewish people often do maybe it would be better...dunno.

Anyhow, this is the best part of the story - I was looking for the taco salad shells that they sell at my kroger and couldn't find them. I asked someone who in turn went running to the rabbi and asked him where they were. "Rabbi Schwartz, Rabbi Schwartz! Where are the taco salad shells?" The rabbi came out and asked what i meant, i explained. I loved this guy with his big beard hair covered with the hairnet like plastic thingys. Then a nice older Jewish lady straight out of Brooklyn started telling me where, so off i went to look for them and the rabbi too. He made sure i found them. Now how is that for customer service? Can you imagine a Muslim doing that? Ever????

If i didn't believe in every word of the Holy Qur'an i so would have converted to Judaism at that moment! I find Muslims very difficult and almost seedy to work with. I don't think i'll even deal with the halal butcher regarding beef...i'll go straight to the kosher grocery store.

Nanny's

Today i was at the library for the baby program and struck up conversation with a few moms. I was talking to one lady and i asked if this was her first time too since she didn't seem to know the goings on - same as me. She said, "Well sort of. The nanny usually brings her." I immediately had an opinion on the matter and that was "Isn't this something mom's should do with their kids, not a nanny?"

It seems like a lot of people i know have nanny's and sometimes i get jealous. But i only want one for a few hours a week or maybe a day. Just to get housework done, writing done, and a little free time for myself whether it be a manicure or to go shopping alone without worrying about finding a dressing room to feed my kid in. I love my little guy and don't want to miss any of his moments. This is where i find myself - I want to be with him always but i want a few hours to myself a week also. The other thing is i really want to write a book and would love to devote a few hours to it a day to see where it goes but i just can't. I write sometimes when he's napping but more often i find myself doing housework, surfing the net, checking in on blogs of people i enjoy reading but more and more i feel stuck.

I feel stuck because i want to be with my son and i also want to write. When i write when he's around i feel i'm neglecting him because he looks at me and dada's baba's me which i am construing as "please play with me cause i'm booooored." I can only imagine when he starts talking or when there's a number 2.

I do feel a little jealous of the mom's who have nanny's. I sometimes wish we had one because these peoples houses are always spotless and they are always fresh looking and they brag so much about what their kids are doing. How their kids are going to an art class or gym class or music class...all starting at the age of 1 or so.

I've always wondered why parents have kids when they are the sort to ship their kids off to boarding school and basically be hands off parents. I remember meeting this sweet very shy little girl who had internation lawyers as parents and she was lucky to see her parents once a month. I found that so profusely sad.

Even if i did have a nanny, i would be the one taking my kid to storytime. Always and forever. And i will always be the one to kiss his boo boo's and put a cartoonish bandaid on all his ow'ies. I will tuck him in every night. I will be there when he wakes up. I will be the one making his baby food from scratch and feeding it to him. I will know what he likes and what he doesn't like. I will be the one to see his first steps, hear his first word, and get his hugs. I will be his mom and if that's all i do with my life, well that's enough for me.

***This is nothing against the mom's with nannies - as i said before, i am a little jealous at times. I'm just stating my life choice, something i've been developing the last few months.

Speaking of the little guy. He is waking up...we're off to play!

Many of my friends complain about their husbands habits of leaving stuff out, leaving clothes on the floor, etc. So i took a look around my house and guess what, the only things out of place were these items of mine. Oops. I do have a good excuse though. Here was our weekend:

Friday: I had a couple girls over for lunch with their kids. That kept me pretty much busy the afternoon. Afterwards i was exhausted and Little Dude was sleeping so i went on another cleaning rampage (finding much of lunch on the kitchen floor...fish sticks in the carpet, etc).

Saturday: Exhausting shopping - mostly for gifts which is always hard. Also found a cage for little dude, no more rolling into things - oh okay, it's not a cage, it's one of these. He hates it. He yells at a really really loud scream when i lock em up. Evil evil mother. That night we go out to a dinner party thing and don't go to bed until almost midnight (hence the dupatta throwing off in the middle of the room).


dupatta
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

Sunday: After not sleeping most of the night and only getting three hours of sleep, annoying alarm clock summons me up (daylight savings time was no help) and we rush to get out of the house on time over to Zack and Amber's. We get there and call to get buzzed in and hear a sleepy Zack. Ummm, did we have the day wrong? Oop, i bet they forgot to change their clocks. Yup! We wake them up and get going. We drive for two hours and go on a beautiful hike. This is where we went and what we hiked down to:


where we hiked to
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

There's a little water fall in there if you can see it. We had lunch down there and then hiked back up, hung out a bit and then drove back home through the countryside. I have to admit now after talking all kinds of trash about Georgia's mountains, they really do have mountains here and they really are pretty. They are nothing like the Rockies but are beautiful in their own way. I can still say that redneck's scare me...we stopped for gas and oh dear me, we were both shaking in our sneakers - the rednecks going in and out of there! I don't think they see many brown people around there. We did not go inside. No way. I woulda cause a nice cold drink would have been nice but the big-hairy-no-shirt-wearing-beer-drinking-talking-like-a-hick guy opening doors for people kinda made me change my mind. We got home exhausted. Heated up leftovers and crashed. (other picture deleted) I don't know what my excuse is the rest of the days but i know i have an excuse this time around.

George and Laura visit Hyderabad

GeorgenLaura_Indiavisit_06
Originally uploaded by wayfarer.

The new stamp...lol. I cracked up at the t-shirt Bush is wearing. That is such the typical desi t-shirt with the low neck...LOOOOOOLLLLLLLL

Another funny thing: white guy doing bollywood.

I hope to post soon...been busy doing mom stuff.