Last night Anevay went for a sleepover, so Courtney came to pick me up for dinner... on her new Ducati! 
Unfortunately, I look like an idiot in a helmet.
Green things...
Courtney made a great chimmichurri sauce...
Someone left an art project outside?
Two rescued pups.
I thought this was great.
I really like Lauren's tattoo...
Grrrrr!! Note the pajamas for pajama day at Anevay's school. On the way to the subway this morning we saw these grapes growing right outside our building. Niiice...
Yesterday we took it kinda easy. Anevay had a sleepover the night before, so she took a nap in the morning, and then we went to the theater by Union Square to see the Disney/Pixar film, 'Up'. I have to admit, it was pretty darn cute...
This is the sort of thing you see around NY. Lions and Dinos and Ladys, oh my!
My neighborhood always has something going on... Yesterday was a music on the streets day. This was a band playing a couple blocks from my place.
We hung out with Jonathan and his pup, Ophelia! YAY! 
60 inches, baby.
I'm really excited to start embroidering over this one... I have a mental picture for about eight canvases...
These were my two views while being stuck on the train this morning. As usual, the MTA didn't supply any explanation. Could have been worse... This time it was only 20 minutes!
I'm experimenting...
Issue 1 – 29 Khordad 1388 (June 19, 2009)
Aiming to negate students’ impact on the current developments: University dormitories ordered closed
Iran in a bloodbath
Workers of [car maker] Iran Khodro on Strike
Tens of thousands protesters march from Tupkhaneh Square to Haft Tir
In the provinces, coup-makers practice violent oppression
Media and the streets. A bloody page in Iran’s modern history seems to be turning in the events we are witnessing. In past days and nights, Tehran and many Iranian cities have not stayed calm as peoples’ burning rage has thrown daily life into flux. The people in the streets are playing a game of cat and mouse with violent thugs; youth are in revolt, and the elderly rack their memories for re-learned lessons of the calamitous events of the 1979 revolution to pass on to the young.
Again, after thirty years, people are leaving the doors of their homes open [to give refuge] to courageous youth, and we hear from many how great people are, and how quickly they can change. Over the past days’ witness to events, we were different people, different slogans. During the campaign until election day, the huge crowds of people that had taken to the street with the green wave were spirited, the bliss of unawareness reigning over them. Yet since the results were announced, the situation changed and people became angry, and sought the crest of the wave to propel them beyond the ignorance, repression and hundreds of lies. During recent days and nights, the tide has again turned.
Like Azar of 1953 [CIA-backed anti-Mossadegh coup] and Tir of 1999 [reformist protests and regime crackdown], and – according to many present at the time – even like the protests of the revolutionary years and 1963 [clergy-led anti-shah protests]!!! Yes, we are seeing the naked face of repression. We see the green wave of reformism in its entire expanse, as it brings us into a shared arena with the existing system
Killing us and calls for calm have only made the situation more acute. Now we have more questions; more than just issues with vote counting. We want a different voice. We do not want to be sacrificed to corruption and graft again, for the nth time, so that our interests are ignored. We do not want a slaughterhouse that would set society back thirty years. We do not want a repeat of the fraud of 1979. We do not have any media but the world has gotten smaller so we no longer experience one thing on the streets yet read something different in world media. We do not want the next generation to be ignorant about what happened on the streets of Tehran, Esfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Kermanshah, and the rest of the cities, large and small. We will represent a new voice in this power play: the voice of the people crying out in the streets. The people who have no delusions about colors and who demand change. Khiaban Newspaper
For me, half the fun of school trips is seeing the reaction of people on the subway to a horde of hyper kids.
Anevay and a few other second graders were chosen (because of their high level of responsibility!) to go along with the kindergarteners on a trip to the Central Park Zoo. Here's my group- Anevay and two lovely little friends.
A bird in the tropical section set the kids to omitting excited high-pitched warbling (it didn't end until we returned to the school).
A penguin- up close and personal.
I LOVE NY!
Our ladies lunch.
Ducklings and a turtle.
Some of the boys chased this poor bird and some of his friends...
Really big bunnies.
Trapped?
Alpacas are my favorite animals...
Although this fella is pretty cute, too.
I HATE zoos. I can understand trying to maintain and conserve the planet's biodiversity- really I can- three biodiversity classes at Columbia really slammed this home- but c'mon... Keeping polar bears in NY? In small living quarters? In the summer? These bears looked miserable. It brought tears to my eyes to see them sitting there in the water, not moving, staring down (lethargically) the people. Yes, I HATE zoos. It's one thing to keep animals in their natural habitat, on nature preserves, but in cities? 
Fortunately, the girls were so cute that it almost made up for the horror I felt over seeing the polar bears, snow leopards, etc...
The kids tried to make a new friend, but he wasn't very talkative. He did, however, seem amused by the attention the kids were giving him, even gesturing after a moment for more of the kids to come on over.
The kids were really tired after the trip, with this little one falling asleep on a teacher's shoulder.
Finally, back to school!
Some of the kids were outside for recess, and came running to greet us. (Can't seem to get away from metal bars!)
So close to home, yet so far away...
Anevay and a friend pose by the Lichtenstein sculpture inside the school. Apparently I'm not allowed to take pictures of the sculpture (even though it's public art). I've blogged about this in the past. It pissed me off.
All in all, it was a great, albeit tiring, day!
