You will now laugh uproariously at my folly

As this blog has practically petrified from disuse, I am bemused to announce that I have signed on to be a regular (ha!) contributing author on a soon-to-launch website. Every Wednesday I’ll write a column on teaching culture to kids. Yeah, me right? Must be because of my mad blog updating skillz.

Fortunately for me, I get to re-use some of my previous entries.

Said entries were the bait that I used to lure the site owner into letting me join the party. This is what we in the business call a “portfolio”. You may bask in my awesome.

Except not really, because I never post.

Moving on.

MA and the future heirs to my copyrights will be back in town this weekend. I am so excited for them to be back, I can hardly stand it. There are going to flowers and candy and bubblegum and giant hello kitty balloons and other such manly things awaiting them at the airport. In preparation for their arrival, I’m washing sheets, clothes, floors etc. to get our vast estate in suitable shape. Ultimately, this is much harder on the washing machine than it is on me. Plus, it gives me something useful to do to wile away the hours.

Fun fact, I washed my bedsheets last night and to dry them, I put the fitted sheet outside on the drying rack – set to Beirut August Extra Hot, and the flat sheet over the couch – set to Can’t That Air Conditioner Work Any Harder? Shock of all days, the one inside dried out in about an hour, and the one outside was still wet. I thought the heat/ocean breeze would overcome the humidity and dry it out. Strangely, this is not so. Consider yourselves warned.

Not quite single

Given the summer vacation plans for my kids (spending boodles of time in the US).  I end up hanging around in Beirut all by myself.  This has caused some contemplation of whether or not this actually counts as 'single guy time'.  Ultimately, I am inclined to conclude that it really isn't, because I haven't really switched my life over to how I would spend my time single.  Instead, it's more like an emptier version of married life. 

Hence, this comic seems oddly relevant:

I don't get to see it (yet)!

Speaking of books, I was profiled for a book last year, and the printing process has at last compelted!  The author has been kind enough to send me a courtesy copy, but as it is in the US, and I am not, I haven't seen it yet.  MA says it turned quite well.  I look forward to seeing it.

This is the short story

For the few people who are still hanging on to this blog by RSS, I've got a few updates for you to explain my disappearance.  Following the immutable law that blog activity is inversely proportional to interesting life activities, I was having a lot of fun this last month.

First up in my catch-up posts is a project I'm very excited about.  I've been trying to find books, games, and other resources that depict the type of gender roles I want to promote (death to the Wynx!).  There really aren't very many, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I've teamed up with a very talented artist (who is also a good friend) to create a packaged set of images of female characters.  This will eventually take the form of a a memory game (for young kids), a card game (for 8-10s) and a companion book that explains the backstory to all the figures.

The project is coming along very well!  I'm just getting the first sample images back from the warriors/queens/goddesses series, and I've decided to link to them here:

http://cedarseed.blogspot.com/2010/06/sketches-for-card-game-on-theme-of.html

The first set will be back from the printers close to the end of July, and the expansion pack (featuring the Muses and counterbalancing figures) will follow in August.

Plus, the bonus is that we are even including each family member in the pack!  Each one of us will represent a different element from the 'Avatar: Last Airbender' series.  How cool is that?

I can't wait for the final versions!

For those of you who might be curious, here is the complete list of the characters who will be in the pack:

Basic Set:

Queens:  Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Queen Victoria, Wu Zetian,

Scientists: Margret Mead, Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie,  Wangari Maathai

Warriors: Joan of Arc, Tomyris, Chand Bibi,  Unniyarcha

Gods:  Athena, Isis, Durga, Oya

Family:  4 of us…

Expansion:

Muses: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, Urania

Demons:  Succubus, Medusa, Vampire, Furies

Evil:  Lamia, Baba Yaga, Yuki-Onna, Lilith

It hurt

In preparation for running a 5 mile race up the side of Grandfather Mountain (the Bear), I have been trying to include more running in my exercise.  Unfortunately, nearly everything about my present location is different than the Bear.  Not really any hills, the elevation is totally different, etc.  Normally, I run about 3 miles.  Today, I decided to go for 5 and see what happened.  Finding 5 miles that can be safely run in Beirut is a bit of a challenge, so I did laps on my usual circuit (hence the big spikes when I was turning around).

Clearly, I slowed down at the 3 mile mark, but I was able to keep a decent average pace.  I only have about 3 weeks left, so I think I should focus on intervals in the meantime.  I'm guessing that my pace is probably good enough here.  If I can do this under these conditions, I can probably do 8-10 min pace under the race day conditions. 

What do those of you who know more about running think?

You know you are a parent when...

You keep the food coloring next to the bathtub.

Perhaps immodest

I’ve had a bit of writers block lately. My key problem is that as I think of what to write about, my mind is drawn to how incredibly awesome my life is. I don’t want to blog about that because when I write it in my head, it just sounds boastful and silly. Since I haven’t been able to figure out a way to avoid that, I’ll just go for it and you can all roll your eyes if you want =)

Reasons my life is awesome:

1. Family: My wife and kids are great. Wonderful people, and we are happy together. I’m happy to go home to them and I’m so glad my life is all wrapped up with such amazing people.
2. This country: Lebanon is a wonderful place to be. It’s beautiful, full of life and an elegant churning chaos that can smack you one minute and bring a smile the next. It has flaws to be sure, but what a place!
3. Time: I get personal language tutoring, a talented cello teacher, a nice gym, more fascinating things than I know what to do with. What’s not to love?
4. Setting: The Mediterranean Sea is 200 meters from my living room. I love that!
5. My Job: My job is wonderful. I have a chance to make a difference for the world and financial security for me. That is rare and valuable.

 Anyway, I’ll cut my enthusiasm off here.

I have an awesome life and I am very grateful for it!