2007--a look back

January and February we were living in Hoboken. Nikki accepted a job at Travelocity near Dallas so we moved back in the middle of February. Skip kept his job in NYC and now telecommutes, which he loves. We moved to a town called Grapevine, it's in the subuntry (suburban-country). We had lots of fun with scorpions in the apartment. Skip turned out to be great at catching them and releasing them far, far away our place. It was really cool seeing coyotes and bobcats out the window at night. I don't think the cats slept at all, they were always looking out the window. We had to get a car. We hadn't owned a car in the past 4 years in Hoboken and NY because of the subways, so it was interesting getting behind the wheel again. During the spring Zoe started crawling and said her first word, duck.

In April we took at trip to Sedona, Arizona and the Grand Canyon. This was Zoe's first vacation. We had fun taking hikes through the mountains and woods. Skip had a piece of art in a show in Deep Ellum. It was fun but Skip is taking a break this year from art and didn't want to put a lot of time into a new piece so he made a really small one made out of computer parts.

In May Skip's parents got their dog Angel, which they love very much. We met some friends from Hoboken down in Austin in June. Zoe got to hang out with her buddy Emma again, and we got to see Kara and Elliot. We went to the mothership of all Whole Food stores while we were there, it is the Mecca store if you will, that all Whole Foods shoppers must go to at least once and throw tofu pieces at the preservative devil statue located on isle 12.

In July we had our anniversary on the 2nd (7 years) and Zoe's first birthday party! Zoe's Grandpa and Bibi, Bubbie, Mammaw, Pappaw, Uncle Donovan, Sheedeh, Angie, Jeff all showed up to celebrate the big 1. Zoe had chocolate cake for the first time and opened lots of presents. Aunt Laura, Uncle Bob, Jenny and Shawn celebrated a bit later, they where out of town.

In August we visited Skip's grandparents in West Virginia. Nikki and Zoe met Skip's cousins and family for the first time. Skip hadn't seen his cousins in over 15 years. It's always nice to get up to West Virginia for a bit, though Skip was a little disappointed he didn't hear any bears in the woods this time.

Throughout the summer we visited some art museums also, though we really miss the Met in NYC. The heat during the summer was ridiculous, the highest we saw in the car thermometer was 109 degrees.

In September Nikki quit her job at Travelocity because of her boss harassing her and his amazing talent of micro-micro managing, but due to the fact he is an amazing ass french-kisser of upper management there was nothing to be done about it. But it was a blessing in disguise because now Nikki had the chance to be home with Zoe full time. We moved to Plano at the end of September. For those of you not in Dallas, Plano is the archetype of a suburb. One cool thing about our apartments is that most of the people who live here are business professionals from India, and they cook a lot, so we have the constant aroma of curry wafting through the air, which is great since we love curry!

Angie had baby James in September! Jeff and Angie are very proud (and should be). Also we found out our friends Catherine and Eugene (aka CatUge) are pregnant with a little CatUge nugget. Our friend Sheedeh is going to start her own business, so if anyone needs to hire employees for any professional jobs, Sheedeh is the person to contact to find you those employees. Lorna beat her cancer, saying bye to Buffy and Hildegarde and welcoming Vodka and Tonic.

In October Zoe started walking! She dressed up as the strawberry sorceress for Halloween. In December we went on a southern Caribbean cruise, and we all had a great time. Zoe saw the beach for the first time. We snorkeled in a cave and an earthquake woke us up from a nap. For the holidays we had Hanukkah latkes at Bubbie's and Christmas at Mammaws and Pappaws. We found out this year that Zoe loves Christmas lights! Nikki colored her hair all punk rock, which she has been wanting to do for a while. Its partly red now but who know what it will be next?

So this is the last day of the year, tonight we're going to eat spinach quiche and watch Britcoms. Maybe watch all the people in Times Square. You know why all those people in Times Square are so excited when its midnight, acting crazy and screaming? Its because they have been standing in one spot since the early morning, in the cold, not being able to go to the bathroom, and they are delirious and can leave their spot on the street once the ball drops. In 2003 I talked Nikki into doing this, she was a real trooper and stood there with me, from about 10am until midnight, in one spot. And I thank her for that. I don't think Id ever want to do it again though, unless Zoe wants to when she gets older and ask us to go with her.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Her are Zoes top 5 favorite things of 2007
• Christmas Lights
• Strawberries
• Birds
• Dogs
• "the mah" moon

Storytime

Tatiana the Tiger

You may have heard the story about how a Siberian tiger named Tatiana "jumped" out of its enclosure at the San Fransisco zoo and killed a teenager and injured 2 others before being shot by police. All the stories on the news focus on the teenage victims and make it seem as if they were just minding their own business when the tiger jumped out and got them. Only one story reports that these teenagers waited until closing time, then two of them dangled their legs over the railing where the tigers were and proceeded to taunt, yell at and tease the tigers by throwing objects at them. Only then did the tiger attack them (inside the tiger enclosure). She escaped by latching onto their legs and ran after the other teenager who was outside. She caught him and thats when the police shot her. I feel sorry for the parents of the teenager who was killed and for the tiger named Tatiana who was shot because of it.
I don't blame Tatiana the tiger, if I was in a cage my whole life and 3 teenage boys were teasing, taunting and yelling at me, giving me the chance to get them, I would go for it. And I don't blame the teenagers either, teenagers (especially boys) can do incredibly stupid things.

Ear Infection

Zoe woke up Friday morning not feeling well. She threw up and had diarrhea. By the afternoon she really seemed out of it, and she had a temperature of 101. That night she was crying and had a temperature of 103.8. We rushed her to a free standing emergency room here in Plano, they took a look at her and it turns out she has an ear infection. They gave her a shot of an antibiotic just in case it was a bacterial infection.
She is feeling much better today, getting back to her energetic, beautiful self.

political stuff

Everyone who knows us knows that we are what you might call tree-hugging, crunchy, granola eating, progressive, open minded types. You may have heard Skip rant about the current US administration and their foreign policy. We have voted for the green party, independents and Democrats in the past, we bring our own bags to Whole Foods, read Chomsky, we marched with the protest against the Republican Convention in New York City in 2004 (some photos Skip took)...you get the point. So the last thing you would ever dream of seeing on our blog is a video for a republican candidate, right? We like to call things like we see them, regardless of political affiliation, praising views we agree with over simplistic party "loyalty". This guy is definitely worth checking out, he is a...(gasp) republican from...(double gasp and fall over with legs in the air)...Texas. You have to pause the video sometimes to read the text (or at least I did, but it is almost 1AM and I'm tired, so maybe you don't have to), and the music has a cheese factor of 8.2, but if your into politics and current world events, you should definitely check out what Ron Paul has to say on this video.

Merry Christmas

Decorations at Skip's parents house and Zoe checking out Skip's new antlers

Punk Rock Mamma

Nikki's new hairdo!!

Weekend Roundup

Friday night we went over to Angie, James and Jeff's place for pizza. It was good to see them. Saturday we went to the mall and Zoe played on the plastic food playground. After playing for about 30 minutes she walked out of the playground area, so we followed her into a baby clothes store that was near. She walked inside and started looking around at clothes (she was shopping!). We picked out her first pair of big girl shoes, some converse style pink high tops. She is already getting used to walking around in them after only one day (and she looks really cute in them too).
Zoe went the whole day without a nap, we tried a couple of times then finally gave up. Saturday evening we went over to Skip's parents and they watched Zoe so we could go out to dinner, that was really nice. We went to India Palace in North Dallas and both had some good saag paneer.
Sunday morning was a Target run. Then Grandpa, Bibi and Bubbie came over for a visit and we exchanged Hanukkah and Christmas gifts. Zoe went another day today with no nap.
This weekend has been in the 30s and 40s, with Sunday afternoon getting just above 50. A bit brisk.
A great drink we like to have when its cold like this is to warm up some Silk brand soy chai tea, yummy stuff to drink while sitting on the couch and watching some britcoms on a cold night.

Plastic Food Playground

Here is a video of Zoe playing on a plastic food playground at Willow Bend Mall in Plano this afternoon.

smiling tea leaves

On Saturday night we went to Veggie Garden for dinner, I looked in my cup of tea and a smile made of tea leaves was looking back!
This weekend we met Skip's parents and brother at the Raddison in Richardson for a benefit lunch for an organization Skip's parents are involved in. Santa was there (it may have been a fake Santa though, it looked like he was a member of the beard club for men). We also had latkes at Nikki's bubbie's house. Zoe had 4 of them and wanted more. Tonight we are going to wish Skips brother Donovan happy birthday.
We both had a bit of a cold this weekend, not very much of one though. It probably had something to do with the temperature plummeting to the upper 30s, lower 40s these past couple of days.

Book stuff

Just finished The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. It was good, not in my top ten but I'm glad I read it and would recommend it. The last chapter was my favorite, he talks about animals regarding philosophy and society. He states how animals were viewed as having souls just like people up until the 1600's when Descartes (the "I think therefore I am" guy) described them as soul-less machines. The idea took hold and western society still believes Descartes theory today.
The next book on my list is Symposium by Plato. I actually got the idea of reading Symposium from the book I just finished. Kundera talks about a story from Symposium in which humans once had four legs, four arms, two heads, and so on. Some were male, with two sets of male sexual organs; some were females; and some were hermaphrodites, with one set each of male and female sexual organs. We were twice the people we are now, and the gods were jealous, afraid we would overthrow them. Zeus decided to cut us in half to reduce our power, and ever since we have been running all over the earth trying to rejoin with our other half. When we do, we cling to that other half with all our might, and we call this Love. I think that is a cool story!
After Symposium I'm going to check out a book recommended by my friend (thanks Sheedeh!) called , Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. Nikki and I read one of his books a couple of years ago and loved it, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Hopefully this book will have that same sense of surreal/magical realism.
Nikki is currently reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (and probably will be for a while, its a long book but well worth the read!).

Caribbean Cruise

We just got back from a 10 day cruise in the Southern Caribbean. It was Zoe's first big trip out of the country, and she had a great time. The cruise left Miami and visited 5 islands; Dominican Republic, British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbados and St Lucia.
Here are some photos, we will post more details about the trip later.


click on the photo thumbnails to see larger view & read captions

chimp beats college kids in computer game

Here is a great story on how researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won!