There is nothing like a hot cup of freshly brewed tea on a cold winter day. We'd gone up to Seattle to see my daughter Laurel and her husband Mehran on the weekend, and we took Taraz and Rahmat along. George was lamenting here, explaining to Mehran that he jimmied up his iPod somehow, and now must reprogram all the songs he spent countless hours preparing for it. That means going to the library, finding the CD's and reprograming his iPod. Mehran had a few suggestions how to speed up the process. I was sure glad, cause since last May I've become an iPod Widow, a new term that must be put into the dictionary, to indicate the absense of the husband from normal evening pursuits. He's up in his study, programing his iPod. Once that was done, he was able to present many musical selections at family gatherings and at Baha'i festivities. With his little white 'dock', it meant carrying around a small speaker and the iPod. What a change from lugging around 4 huge speakers, his amplifier and sound systems, and all the CD's. The iPod simplified his life.

Rahmat brought out his Wii, and all of us took turns bowling. I never got a strike, but I did get a spare. Frankly, I like real bowling alleys, with the bowling teams all around, and the sounds of people shouting. However, I haven't been to one of these in decades. (We used to have Saturday morning breakfasts at the local bowling alley on Saturday mornings. George and I enjoyed getting a cheap breakfast there before we'd head out canoeing.)
Laurel prepared some late lunch for herself and the boys. She is the most knowledgable of my kids when it comes to good nutrition, living 'green', and shopping wisely. She has filtered water, all organic food, and even knows the 'good plastic from the bad', namely, the lower the recycle number on the bottom of the container the safer it is. She doesn't use her microwave, and won't store food in any plastic containers. She uses glass.

This organic coffee was a gift from Laurel to me - she says to go only organic, as coffee is one of those food products that can contain too many chemicals, sprayed on the crop. (Our friend Cornelia, a naturapathic doctor, says the same. Too many pesticides, fungicides, herbacides, ect.)

Taraz, Laurel and Rahmat.

Taraz and Buddy, Laurel's lab.
I should have taken the time to ask Mehran what this Arabic writing meant. His family lives in Iran. He went to boarding school in India when he was around 14, just as the Ayatollah came into power. Many of the Baha'is left the country due to religious persecution. Once here they all do extremely well, excelling in the professions that are of greatest benefit to humanity. This persecution is still happening today. Haleh Rouhi Jahromi, Raha Sabet Sarvestani and Sasan Taqva, all Baha’is, have been detained by the Ministry of Intelligence in Shiraz since 19 November 2007. It is not clear why they are held. They may be prisoners of conscience, detained solely because of their religious beliefs, or their peaceful activities teaching underprivileged children.

( I've posted more family photos of our visit in our Flickr Account.)

And, how did we end the visit? Looking at THIS!, courtesy of TheTrailerTrash. My caption: "They never told us THAT in premarital counseling!