Ur

No not the stutter ur . . .
The place Ur.
Twice in recent reading I've come across authors using UR as an adjective for a ' defining moment. I realize ur was that experience for abraham, i just never thought of it as a mataphor. But it is a great one, and illustrative of the power of rich language.

Ur was the home of Abraham, The land of his father's - his origin. His defining moments.
4 Therefore I left the land of ^aUr, of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; 

As to ur - when you check the dictionary you find

An example of ur used as a prefix is ur-civilization, the beginning of a civilization.

An example of ur used as a prefix is in the word urlanguage, meaning the original language

defining moment

 

noun

a point at which the essential nature or character of a person,group, etc., is revealed or identified.

So this leads to the question - what was/are your UR moments- what defines you?

Enough about me.  What about you?  Defining moments can apply to anything …go on a mission,  a huge career change.  The decision to get married.  To have kids.   To mend a fence.  To go back to school.  To move to Illinois.  I’d love to hear about your defining moment.  Don’t leave me hanging.

Best tv for the weekend

 

Spirit Airlines

So there is good reason Spirit Airlines can sell the airfare so low priced
Their planes are so cheap.

Yes, it was dirty
Yes, it was packed full
Yes, my knees went two inches into the seat in front of me - if not for sitting on the aisle i can never could have survived the flight. As it was more than an hour would've killed me. But yeah, the price was great.

Sing, Sing, Sing

A song that's sung
tells more than a story
a song that's sung
is sung from the heart

Mom still loves to sing
I wish I could have captured a more exciting ditty
or perhaps a more meaningful song
but this is what popped up and what I was able to record

its great to hear mom sing
crank up your volume!

 

Visiting Minnesota

The air fare was wayyyy cheap
Rindy was wayyy on top of it
and I wasa able to run up to Minnesota quickly for a weekend visit to Mom.

She was as she is - a delight to visit - a bit slow out of the blocks, a bit limited in her mobility, warms up during the day, then funny and engaged as the day goes by. We were able to out a couple of times to dinner, to take  a stroll



















and to visit Dad's cemetery plot.

I enjoyed extensive visit with Sally and Dale and Mari-Lynn.

usually, I am able to sneak in one non-family, yet essential visit, and this time I was able to visit the Henstroms

and go for a walk in French Park

literally hundreds if not thousands of coots

All in all a delightful visit to Minnesota.

You Can Dance If You Want To

Little girls were born to dance...
And Eden is  a little girl:

Visiting Watertown

Church in the morning and then a quick drive up north for dinner and a birthday.  Doesn't get much better than a wisconsin party.
Its greal living close enough that we can run up and join an activity without much hazzle. A late posting of pictures from the most recent three-year old party.

A Feast befitting a 3-yr old

Eden the dancer

Eden and June

June

Two Cuties

Sur La Table

Downtown Naperville has almost everything you need in terms of stores, restaurants, and entertainment. Tonight it added something it hasn't had before - a local expert on kitchen housewares.

We were thrilled and delighted to arrive home from Mackey's volleyball game to find O playing the piano. We took a walk downtown to get some food, came home to eat it. Oliver then went to the cousins to visit while we were home taught. Then he cam home and chatted - scheduled to leave in the morning.

It doesn't get much better!

chatting up the product selection

Happy Birthday Dean

Where in the dictionary do find:
Exuberance?
Bursting with Joy?
Quivering with Excitement?
Sweet?

All are found with our favorite 3year old - under the name of Dean

American dervish

Coming of age books can be dicey. This was no different. I enjoyed the insights into Muslims, Pakistani and the first generation immigrant experience. I have a good friend at work who is Pakistani and described the book as close narrative of that first generation, and Muslim experience. And my conservative self could live without the coming of age sexually. Set in Milwaukee it exposes the tensions between Muslim - Jews -Muslims / Christians and even takes time to take a misinformed inaccurate shot at Mormons.

A review in the NYTimes encapsulates a quick insight that reaches far into the book - "But what distinguishes Mr. Akhtar’s novel is its generosity and its willingness to embrace the contradictions of its memorably idiosyncratic characters and the society they inhabit. .. Mr. Akhtar is particularly adept at depicting the tensions between Jews and Muslims in pre-Sept. 11 America, and he does not shy away from mocking the misogynistic or anti-Semitic beliefs among the more radical Muslim"

'It's not so much a book about being Muslim in America as it is a story about growing up and what it means to believe in God, understand the afterlife and also what it means to follow the practices of the faith into which you are born, either by following or rejecting the teaching(s) of your parents and one boy's journey through that.' At the end of the day a good , not a great book. A book worth reading late at night when you cant sleep; but not worth staying up late at night to read.