Talon Turns Two

"If you don't like my fire, then don't come around
cause I'm gonna burn one down" - Ben Harper

The day has come. Talon is officially "terrible."  To be honest, he has been practicing for a while now and pretty much only needed the birthday for us to use it as an excuse ;)

His sisters are older and more experienced.  They were anticipating and getting excited for his birthday more than he was.  They know that a birthday means presents and cake and the limelight.  He really didn't, but you've never seen a kid that knows how to manipulate his sisters more.  He is the one pushing the buttons and in charge.

Anyway, the birthday celebration was simple and small, but the kids had a blast.  The cake was a classic because the girls "helped" to make it and they all loved it.  The only problem was getting the candles blown out without getting burned... so they could start eating (see video).

Without further ado, here are the photos and video that most of you came to see:

Note:  I know what the song above is about.... the nice thing about music is that you can create your own meanings and it can symbolize whatever you want.  Talon's candle blowing/burning abilities are interestingly related to how he lives his life.  A sweet melody and a pretty smile with a slow burn - dangerously close to the eyes... and you better watch out or the whole house might erupt in chaos.  Plus, try thinking of a song with burn/fire in it that doesn't.... have a symbolic meaning.

Creepy Weather

"Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'alls neighborhood" - Michael Jackson

As we get closer to Halloween, we've had some very festive weather.  As the temperatures change here in the UAE from Super Hot to just Hot... on the way to warm, we get some crazy fog in the mornings.  The last 3 mornings it has been so foggy outside that it has been hard to see the road on the way to work.  We were aware that this happens from our experiences last year at this time, but it is still a surprise. 

This isn't just a little fog... it is so thick get drops of moisture beading on the windows.  When you walk outside, you can feel it like a blanket, and a large inhale of breath almost results in coughing like a drink of water went down the wrong pipe.  It is HUMID and sticky.  In fact, at one point two mornings ago, the humidity was at one hundred percent.  100%!  I don't know really know how that is possible without it raining, or being in a swimming pool, but apparently it is.... and no, it hasn't rained here for months.  

I guess it is just a sign of the times that Halloween is coming

Christmas Lights Anyone?

"White light, strange city, mad music all around,
Midnight street magic, crazy people, crazy sound" - Def Leppard

Our neighbors down the street and around the corner have added a few lights to their house.  It now looks like this:

I'll remind our readers that this is a Muslim country so these are NOT Christmas lights. Most likely these are simple decorations because there is a wedding in the family.  They will probably be there for a week or so.  We periodically see this type of lighting randomly at different houses around different neighborhoods.  Lets just say they don't go half-way for their weddings.

Clark Griswold, eat your heart out

Sweet Ride

"Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags goes up,
Churning and burning, they yern for the cup." - Cake

When you live in a place where the average local citizen is a millionaire and summers are so HOT that you can't really go outside, shopping is practically a national pastime.  Because of this, there are all kinds of ways that stores try and encourage you to shop more often or for longer than you normally would.

One of the local grocery stores has these cool carts for the kids.  They like it so much it almost makes shopping with kids enjoyable.... notice I said almost.

Little Mer-people

"And what if there were two, Side by side in orbit" - R.E.M.

The weather is finally starting to cool down a bit.  By cool down, I mean we've had a few days with highs near 100 degrees instead of 110.  Needless to say, we've been having a lot of fun in the pool lately.  The water is as warm as a bathtub, but it is still refreshing.

The fun part is watching the kids get more comfortable and independent in the water.  We haven't really pushed them to start swimming without arm-floaties yet, but they love to think they are swimming professionals.  Even Talon demands to be allowed to cruise around unassisted... because he can "do it by myself."  One of these days well take those yellow things off his arms and he'll realize he what the phrase "by myself" means ;)

Here a few pics and videos of the fun times:

New Views

"You give us those nice bright colors, You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!" - Simon & Garfunkel

Blogger has just introduced a bunch of new views.  They can be a fun way to visualize all the posts in a blog.  You can also use the new views to just look at all the photos on a blog.  This can be handy if a blogger writes too much and all you want to do is look at the pics.  So, if you just want to see the photos from this blog, you can check out the new view by clicking the photo below.

http://arabianandersons.blogspot.com/view/snapshot

You can see that there are several other views available.  Feel free to experiment and choose a view that you like.

Note:  You can view any blogger/blogspot blog using these views by simply adding "/view" to the end of the blog URL. It can be helpful if you are trying to find information on a blog, but are not sure of the date/title/etc of the post.  Currently, it will only work with public blogs.  I'm pretty sure they are just using the RSS feed of the blog to create the dynamic views.  Private blogs do not have an RSS feed, therefore, the views are not available.