Summer flashback–DC

So, I’m sitting here with Pixie draped across my battered arms. Certain animals needed to go see the doctor today and had objections to being put in their crates for the short trip. I swear… I’d give anything to know what it was we did, so many years ago, to teach our old cats Misty and Ramses to get in and out of their crates so easily. It’s not like they did anything fun in them. Ramses was even dumped down the luggage carousel in Atlanta by the Delta baggage handlers once. Those two always got in and out of the crate just easy peasy. These new cats … I could probably bathe them easier than to box them up! Well, we won, and they got their vet visit in fine. Pixie has been snuggly too, so I guess that I am forgiven.

Anyway, here are some photos from our trip to the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia this summer. We only has a short weekend in DC, and we visited with a bunch of good friends too, but didn’t take a lot of photos of anyone! We highly recommend the museum though. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and included an Imax movie of the Hubble Space telescope as part of our tour. Tonight, Honor and I were scanning through photos from the Andromeda Galaxy looking for star clusters and galaxies – part of the Andromeda Project – and her comment? “The Hubble Telescope is COOL!” I love having science loving kids!!

”Star clusters are collections of hundreds to millions of stars that were born at the same time from the same cloud of gas. This shared origin makes star clusters unique tools for understanding how stars form and evolve. Additionally, they are useful for studying the major chapters in the history of galaxies. But before Andromeda's star clusters can unlock these secrets, we need the help of Citizen Scientists to find the clusters. Not just the big bright ones, but the small faint ones as well. This is the goal of the Andromeda Project.

Star clusters vary greatly in terms of mass, size, age, and local environment. As a result, star clusters can appear quite different from one another depending on the properties of the clusters and where they are located in the galaxy. This makes the process of identifying clusters tricky and difficult to automate.”

When we arrived in DC, it was RAINING! Such a relief after hot Kuwaiti summer weather, It’s cooled off here, but still no rain in the desert.

First thing that we found at the museum, was Honor’s wall. She loves to find her name on things!

And we stopped to appreciate the sculpture.

Inside was amazing! You do not have to be knowledgeable about aircraft to be blown away by the history contained in this exhibit.

This is one of Honor’s favorite.

And Brian’s favorite too. Yea… I agree. Totally cool!

Wooden propellers!

The Enola Gay – which of course, led to a discussion about it’s part in WWII. As a total coincidence, we also watched the movie “The Wolverine” over this R&R which included this part of history.

Lufthansa! How cool is this?

There were at least three levels of aircraft displayed here.

The Concorde!

and the Blackbird.

And the main reason why I wanted to visit. I wanted to meet a space shuttle!

Hello Discovery!

Honor wants a jetpack!

My awesome family!

We highly recommend a visit to this museum!

Hopeless, Maine Vol. 2: Inheritance

Book two is on it’s way!! I've talked up this series before, and I’m doing it again! Of course I am! We’ve been looking forward to this book and I have actually been trying to avoid (not very successfully) reading it online because I want to hold the book itself in my hands when I read it as a whole. Volume 1 was available online first, and while I truly enjoyed it in that format, and despite already having seen the art and read the story, we found the ‘real’ book to be an honest treat. I know this one will not disappoint!  

What is this book? Does it look a little dark and scary? It is gothic, and it is a horror story. It’s not your average coming of age story, that’s for sure. Despite the tentacles and teethy bits tough, at the heart of it, it’s a story of a young girl finding her way. I desperately don’t want to give anything away that I shouldn’t give away, so let me share the link to the Archaia Website: http://www.archaia.com/archaia-titles/hopeless-maine/# 

From their synopsis:

”Hopeless is also about who you choose to be. The tale is a protest against apathy, and against the small evils that everyone takes for granted. The worst monsters frequently aren’t the ones with the obvious teeth – who are merely dangerous by nature – but the apparently ordinary people who choose to do hideous things.”

Book 1 - Hopeless Maine, Personal Demons - Made the list of Great Graphic Novels for 2013 and I have high hopes for Book 2 as well!

Who are these people? Tom & Nimue Brown? Well, Nimue has been an online friend of mine for… years?? ages?? I honestly do not know how long! And I was lucky enough to gain Tom when the two of them joined forces creatively and … nicely enough .. were married as well. And no. They are not paying me for a write up. I am simply a honestly pleased consumer of their goods and so I leapt at the chance to be able to promote something I like, that they just happen to be responsible for.

Nimue is the author in this team-up and she blogs at Druid Life. There is a link on her blog where you can find other books by this insightful and lovely lady - http://druidlife.wordpress.com/books/

Tom is responsible for giving her words physical form and the both of them have shared with me, to share with you, the following selections from their newest project, “Hopeless, Maine Vol 2 Inheritance” – which is due out within mere days(!) – available at the Archaia Webstore.

You can find more about Tom at his blog: Moth Festival and you can give yourself the treat of exploring more of his artwork at: Copperage - Deviant Art website (I love the “Great Wave Off Hopeless, Maine”!)  

Frampton Jones – Editor in Chief of the local newsletter


The main character – Salamandra – Harvesting for Founder’s Day Feast

A couple of family portraits – The Frog Family

The Family Jones

And of course, a little something about Miss Salamandra’s family, which she wants absolutely nothing to do with… well, not at first…

Stunning, right? I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy! Although I might have to wrestle the kids for it first…

Good Luck Nimue and Tom! May your new book be very successful!

Summer 2013

So… I haven’t had much to say on my blog lately. It happens! I am not going to try and catch up on everything I’ve missed posting about, but as my blog is for photos as well as random thoughts and recipes, I am going to post some older photos.

I love this photo of Ninja helping Honor with her homework – she’s always so involved in whatever the kids are doing.

…and this is a rare one of all three cats hanging out together doing the same thing. They generally have their own favorite activities, but ‘yelling’ at birds and outside cats on their patio is something that they can all get behind.

Ninja seemed to know that when the last day of school was this year. Honor and Brian’s class schedules had been on the fridge for the whole school year, but the first week of summer vacation starts and Ninja chose to celebrate by eating Honor’s schedule!

One of the reasons that, I believe, I have been so remiss in posting lately is that Kuwait feels very much like ‘home’. Why should I post things that are seem so similar to home? I know… to share, and I should do more. And, yes. It is different here and the culture is different, and the people are different, etc. but we feel at home and there really is so much that is NOT different!
Driving down the roads, unless you look closely at the signs, feels like driving in the US (except perhaps, with more folks here who go faster than they ought to) but still, very similar to desert-y and/or coastal, depending on where we are at, city areas of the US.


There are a number of very lovely malls that are nice to visit. They are designed to be nice to visit and roam about, not just for shopping. We took Honor out for her birthday to the Avenues Mall. There’s a pretty fountain at one entry point.

Above the fountain, the color of the lights in the ceiling gently cycle through various shades. I had to take several shots to try and catch the ‘best’ ones. We like the peacock effect and colors.

We wandered about and after a fun visit to Build-a-Bear (haven’t gone there since Honor was 3 years old!) we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.


Avenues is more than a name, it describes the theme of the mall. It is set up like indoor ‘avenues’. Quite lovely.








We had some lazy summer days… which the cats did not mind.

And a lot of computer playing… which Ninja found boring…

We had some really gross sandy days…

And some very hot days… but Honor and I planted a bunch of plants and made a nice fairy garden.










Eventually, as the temps went up past 110F and pretty much stayed there day and night(!), the garden dried up (melted?!) despite our best efforts to keep it going. We will plant again soon. Perhaps in October.

Here is a random photo of a cat in a drawer. Just proving the concept that if something is opened, a cat MUST get into it.

The kids are still taking karate lessons and enjoying them. Their instructors are very good! 


There was the traditional 4th of July camel ride.

Brian had been a good ‘big brother’ to a friend’s little boy and rode with him as he was too small to go alone. Brian was relieved that we took his buddy down before the camel sat so he could dismount though. Riding a camel is easy… but that bit where the camel rocks way forward and way back in order to stand up? That’s a little crazy!

And what next? Well, R&R of course! By July, we were on a plane and heading to the US for vacation, but those pics will come later.