Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

From the Man in the Yellow Hat & Curious George!





Saturday, October 25, 2008

I know one thing for sure:

The angels are rejoicing today.
The kindest, sweetest and most gentle man just joined their choir.







Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Real Fall.

Here are a few photos of our trip to WA, just a glimpse from our trip to the pumpkin patch. This is the real deal fall, crisp air, hay rides, hot spiced cider, corn mazes, leaves changing colors and slowly making their way to the soft grass. We LOVED every minute of it and didn't want to leave. Hey, maybe we'll move into may parents basement, they might cut us a sweet deal on rent! :)





Thursday, October 16, 2008

Random thoughts...


Today I realized that I don't like to use the grocery store divider to segregate my groceries from the persons in front of me unless I absolutely have to because, I think for some crazy reason it is rude. Like, "you're groceries might touch mine and I don't want your weird selection of hot dogs and anti-fungal foot ointment to taint my food." I figure if someone starts scanning my $20 diapers in with someone's $2 generic brand of dried prunes, one of us is going to say something.

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Monday, October 6, 2008

Staycation all I ever wanted.....staycation all I ever needed...

Staycation had to stay at home.....

A couple of months ago we heard this nit wit news caster talking about the new "in" thing, a staycation, "due to rising gas prices and the craptacular economy....blah blah, people are choosing to cancel their vacation and opt for a staycation." This is where, one just stays at home and enjoys the things their local area has to offer. We thought that sounded like a real lame time. But, friends we, the Hanna trio, took a staycation of our own this weekend. And ya know what? It actually was fun, and not nearly as lame as you would think!

Now, I know, a staycation tends to be a little more vacation-like when you live in a tropical destination, but to the Hanna trio, we say poo-poo to tropical, we long for the pitter-patter of rain on roof tops, watching fat snowflakes pile up on tree branches dragging them closer and closer to the ground, the sound of moon boots crunching on freshly fallen snow. We opted to pass on all the things that one would do on a typical south Florida staycation, skipping the beach and the tiki bars.

No, we took advantage of this rainy weekend and pretended we were somewhere else. We suited up in our rain jackets, sipped coffee(which we do everyday, really), lunched out at new and different cafes and went to the toy store and took a long walk in the rain. For a moment, just a split second, we felt like it was fall, the real fall, not the fall where people sprinkle fake silk leaves around their yard, the one with rain and leaves and slowing cooling air, we felt like we weren't here among the growing numbers of car carriers dropping off cranky old folks who can barely see above the steering wheel. People who would never dream of a staycation, they wouldn't have to.

By all means, take your regular vacation, too, seriously you can't stay home forever, but when you have to stay at home, make it a staycation. Not because you have to, but because it is a state of mind, relaxed, unscheduled, spontaneous, with napping and good food. :)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Sam's 1st Shishtawook

When we were young boys, my brothers and I were forced to go to the Lebanese-Syrian Club on Sunday afternoons. The "club" occupied a bunker-like building off of Forest Hill hidden by towering stands of Australian pines. Behind the building, lamb cooked on giant outdoor grills. There were cement picnic tables on a large concrete foundation, and we ate shish-kebob, kibbie pies and grape leaves off paper plates with plastic utensils. One young bearded man plucked a sitar while another beat on a pair of bongos as though he were attempting to resuscitate them as a circle of older men (some with scarves around their heads) chanted Arabic ululations into the air.

Sittie and Jidou were there, along with hundreds of Arabs we were probably related to. Auntie Rumsah would pinch our cheeks painfully hard and cackle "Dukalika! Dukalika! Dukalika!" into our ears. I have no idea what 'dukalika' means and I remember little else about Auntie Rumsah except this painful torture. We were made to play with distant, distant cousins we neither knew nor particularly cared for. The entire afternoon was miserable.

And yet, it is an intrinsic part of my heritage and a part of who I am, just as it is now an intrinsic part of Sam's heritage and part of who Sam is.

I dukalika his cheeks, though without the brutal force applied by my Auntie Rumsah. I don't know if there still is a Syrian-Lebanese Club. If there were, I would happily subject Sam to the same misery my brothers and I had to experience. Until I know for sure, Elise (who is also of Mediterranean decent) and I will take Sam to lunch at the new Pita Grille in Juno.