Will Geo do a cartwheel on stage!

Geo takes a big step today, yep, after all these years (well, four actually) he will strut across the stage in Spragins Hall and graduate! UAH will miss him a bunch (just like they did the other members of the fam)!
Good going Geo, dude, SON!

Egyptian Court Rules Against Religious Freedom

In a closely watched case that has become the focus of a national debate on religious freedom, Egypt's SupremeAdministrative Court has ruled against the right of Baha'is to be properly identified on government documents.
The decision upholds current government policy, a policy which forces theBaha'is either to lie about their religious beliefs or give up their state identification cards. The policy effectively deprives Egyptian Baha'is ofaccess to most rights of citizenship, including education, financial services, and even medical care.
For more details about the ruling, please visit The Baha'i World News Service @ http://www.bwns.org

The Daily Star Reports on the (Egyptian Baha'i) ID Card Crisis

In Egypt, you're better off Jewish than Baha'i , an article By Abdel-Rahman Hussein in the Daily Star. Read this and other latest developments on the bahai-egypt blogspot link on the right.

Perky giraffe is star in Ethiopia

Enjoy reading about a Baha'i Couple in Ethopia that are teaching children virtues on TV.:-)

Iranian Surveillance of Baha'is

In an ominous move, Iran's Ministry of Interior has ordered officials throughout the country to step up the surveillance of Iranian Baha'is focusing in particular on their community activities.
The full text of the letter giving the order and more on the story, visit the Baha'i World News Service.

Back to the Keyboard.....

Good evening from B&N....after three weeks helping Danesh with a largese house in the NE with one of the best views of downtown huntsville I have ever seen, it is time to hit the keyboard and do some serious writing.
So you may have some idea of the kind of view I was referring to, here is a sunset from the general location...


We also had the joyous surprise of a visit from Katrina, Nafeh, and Jameh. They dropped by Saturday and took R and Geo and I out to dinner at a fab bar-be-que place where I ate way too many ribs (Brian had gone to B'ham for a visit with a chum). Sunday we all went to Devotions, and then went to Nothin' But Noodles where we ate too much as well.
Tonight, the Fananana Brigade is back in Nashville ... Brian and Rachel are tutoring the LSA on Book 2 and thus R and Geo are there and I am at B&N chilln'.
So, ah, beginning in the morning it is write, write, write.
:-)

OK...Heeeeeesssss Backkkkkkkk

Howdy, you all. I am fix'n to write a new entry, just wanted to let you know. I have not been able to get into my blog since, well, about more than a month. Stay tuned!

Smooth Sailing

Every morning at dawn I gaze out from my 10th floor balcony at the normally placid scene of the lights from the shrimp boats dotting the horizon about 10 miles south in the Mississippi Sound. It isn't always smooth sailing however. This lightning storm hit about 4:20 this morning. Quite a show!

Just a little, hummmmmmmmmmmm, Goofy

I took the challenge from my betters to determine who my Disney alter ego is, and to my surprise, or not, the vaunted personage is (tada!)...

Your alter ego is Goofy! You are fun and great to be around, and you are always willing to help others. You aren't worried about embarrassing yourself, so you are one who is more willing to try new things.
Goofy 100%
Peter Pan 94%
The Beast 88%
Ariel 75%
Donald Duck 63%
Cinderella 50%
Cruella De Ville 44%
Pinocchio 44%
Snow White 44%
Sleeping Beauty 31%

To find out who you tuly are, go to: http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=3049

Another Day...Another, ah, Day

I awoke this morning, early, to find that old Ernesto had apparently chosen to go to Florida and leave the Gulf Coast alone....so I decided to just chill, sit on my balcony, read, drink some Green Tea, relax...ponder employment possibilities...relax...read my birthday presents from the girlies in Haifa in my birthday shirt from my girlie, husbandie, and Jameh in Nashville...relax...:-)

Another year?

Yup, I had a birthday in July...and my sweet Rosana came by the Coast to help me celebrate as did my dearest Alicia, general nice guy Brian, Mary Alica and Jose, and the Cooks. No, the cake did NOT set off the smoke alarm.















And then Rosana and I went strolling along the Coast and visited the re-built small craft harbor at Long Beach...













Can you believe she just had surgery just a few months ago!!!!!

Can He Be THAT Busy????

Oh, OK, so my life is busy (yawn)...or is he just lazy (hummmmm). I am surprised as well that I have not posted for a long, long time. But, nevertheless... I woke up this morning early to learn that my newest friend, Ernesto, may be coming for a visit...


The storm will likely be a Category 3 hurricane by mid-week because the conditions are so favorable...the water in the Gulf of Mexico is very warm, 85 degrees plus, and good fuel for a hurricane...

One of the things that has kept young Ernesto from growing up is his center of circulation, the Eye of the Storm, well, he's looking at us now!

So Wednesday could be the deciding day for me as to whether I stay in Biloxi, or be sent home. Stay Tuned, and check with this website every once in a while!

World Cup Final

What a surprise, and what an exercise. Who would have guessed when we all sat around the table in Huntsville that science would prevail! At the end of the World Cup, I guess section A, Geoffrey pulled out all the stops and picked the right teams to win, with the right scores. He scored 96 points, edging dada by one point. Next came Brian Tyson and Alicia and Brian tied at 83 and I had a notion that the leaders were in trouble. Poor sweetheart Rosana was last with 71. We had all decided that we would give points for picking the teams that advanced from that first meeting, to aswage the defeats in choosing winners as the tournament progressed. So, I gave 2 points for picking a team to the Round of 16, 4 points for the quarterfinals, 6 points for the semi-finals, 8 points for the third place match, and 10 points for the finals. Who would have thunk that Brian Tyson and Alicia and Brian would end up with having picked the most advancing teams (certainly not I)...we they tied with 153 points each...but the Grand Winner is .... Alicia and Brian Green due to the fact that they are the only ones who picked Italy to win it all! Congrats (lucky duo). The rest of the field went this way: dada 149; Geoffrey 138; Rosana 107. It was a lot of fun...just wait until, ah, 2010!

Catching Up

Well, it has been a busy week, or so, at Beach Woebegone...or woeisyoufornotbeinghere! And a lot has happened.
First, most of the fam came down for a visit for the 4th of July...

It seems we eat a lot when we are all here...but we also toured the devasted areas, like Pass Christian at ground zero for Hurricane Katrina...

And we visited Annie's Restaurant where we had eaten a big Sunday meal with the Coast Families back in July in Henderson Point across Bay St. Louis from, well, Bay St. Louis...

We also took Jameh to the pool at my new digs for his first swim, and boy did he get a charge out of it...we all did too.....

And, speaking of my new digs, on the 10th floor of the Legacy Towers (wahoooo), I can see beyond Ship Island 12 miles out....

I will do more on my new place later today (I kinda promise).:-)

Ok, tata for now.

Sunday Dinner

Last Sunday, Jose and Mary Alice invited me over for dinner at their place in Gulfport. They had minor damage from Katrina, and are adding a slate roof right now. Well, Maria came too, as did Jose's mother (Tom was at a church meeting). Jose is an architect, but he should have been a chef, he is that much of a Cook (inside joke). Anyway, we had Alaskan Crab Legs...really, really, goood, followed with huge shrimp that were more on the order of scampi. Then we watched the World Cup game...a great afternoon, indeed!

French Fries

Wellllll, look at what Geoffrey and the French did! The French "fried" Brazil just as Geoffrey predicted, moving the Geoff into a tie with the "old coach" at 91 points in the Tyson World Cup Challenge. Geoffrey staged his amazing comeback by accurately calling the winner and winning score in Italy over Australia, Brazil over Ghana, and France over Brazil while the rest of us kinda stood on the sidelines. OK, it is on to the semi-finals. Here are the current standings:
Dada 91 points
Geoffrey 91 points
Brian 71 points
AB 68 Points
Rosana 65 Points

My Current Biloxi Digs

I came to the Coast with the understanding that I would be staying in a Condo on a Golf Course in Ocean Springs...which turned into a two bedroom flat at a golf course north of Gautier 35 minutes away from work in Biloxi. Then I was moved to a "two room villa off the beach." Here is the living room of my "villa" ...

And the spacious delux kitchen...

The bedroom is the same size, different furniture. I do have a wide view of the Gulf, since everything else was claimed by the hurricane...

Came back from time-to-time as I move around. :-)

Round of 16 is on the Pitch

It looks like the dada would have to go to sleep to fall behind in the Tyson Family World Cup challenge...and it will be a challenge for the prognosticators at 12012 and Auburn to catch up. Good luck (hehehehehehe)! Here are the current standings going into todays matches:
Tim 72
Brian 61
Rosana 53
AB 52
Geoffrey 51

Today is the BIG match!

So, going into today's big match for OUR side, there are patterns developing for the Tyson family world cup standings. The chief pattern, DADDY IS WAYYYYYYY AHEAD, hahahahahahaha!
Tim 64 Points
Brian 52 Points
AB 49 Points
Rosana 42 Points
Geoffrey 36 Points
Good luck "fam", catch me if you can!

Closing In On The Round of 16

... Wellllllll, what a day. Rosana and the dada, ironically the ONLY former coaches in the poll...really gained yesterday. Brian picked up some important points, too. But, here are the current "unverified" standings:
Tim: 56 points
Brian: 47 points
AB: 41 points
Rosana: 41 points
Geoffrey: 30 points.

Latest on the World Cup

OK, family and friends, here are the latest results from the pitch! As of Saturday (the score personage took the day off for Father's Day), here are the current standings with the dada taking his rightful place at the top based on three correct final scores:
Tim 37 Points
AB 29 Points
Geoffrey: 27 Points
Brian: 26 Points
Rosana: 16 Points

Biloxi Blues

This is the end of week one in Biloxi on FEMA duty. I finally got out to the beach about 5:40 this morning. Sticky, already too warm for this time of year, and a lenghtly drought. But hopefully the old sailors saying might hold true...red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.

A few steps further and I had wandered into a nesting area for the Least Tern...so after a few minutes of being dive-bombed....

... I returned to the relative safety of my little abode...it was, indeed, the Least I could do.:-)

World (Tyson) Cup Update

Well, it has been a busy, and disappointing week for me at the polls. I will update the standings during today's games. (I promise) :-)
Here are the current standings:
Family Standings:
Geoffrey: 14 points
Brian: 9 point
Alicia & Brian Green: 8 points
Rosana: 3 point
Tim: 3 point

1 pt. for picking the winner
3 pts. for closest score
5 pts. for exact score
Max. 6 pts. per match.

For all you breathless soccer fans, here are the projections for Sunday:
June 11
Match 6 PROJECTIONS
Serbia & Montenegro vs. Netherlands
Geoffrey: Netherlands, 3-1
AB: Serbia & Montenegro, 1-0
Brian: Netherlands, 1-0
Rosana: Netherlands: 2-1
Tim: Netherlands, 3-0

Match 7 PROJECTIONS
Mexico vs. Iran
Geoffrey: Mexico, 3-0
AB: Mexico, 2-0
Brian: Mexico 4-1
Rosana: Mexico 4-2
Tim: Mexico 2-1

Match 8 PROJECTIONS
Angola vs. Portugal
Geoffrey: Portugal 4-0
AB: Angola 1-0
Brian: Portugal 3-0
Rosana: Portugal 3-0
Tim: Portugal 3-0

World (Tyson) Cup

Well, con gratulations to Geoffrey for finding some modicum of success that he only slightly lorded over everyone when Argentina got robbed of a goal in the first half and were called errantly off-sides on a goal in the second held against Ivory Coast. Argentina only won 2-1, thus Geoffrey gets more points!

Here are the current standings:
Family Standings:
Geoffrey: 14 points
Brian: 9 point
Alicia & Brian Green: 8 points
Rosana: 3 point
Tim: 3 point

1 pt. for picking the winner
3 pts. for closest score
5 pts. for exact score
Max. 6 pts. per match.

Match 1
Germany 4 Costa Rica 2
Alicia & Brian(hereafter referred to as "AB): Germany 4-1
Brian: Germany 2-1
Tim: Germany 3-0
Rosana: Germany 1-0
Geoffrey: Costa Rica 1-0 (hahahahaha)

Match 2 (Friday)
Equador 2 Poland 0
AB: Equador 1-0
Geoffrey: Equador 1-0
Rosana: Poland 2-1
Brian: Poland 1-0
Tim: Poland 2-0

Match 3 (Saturday)
England vs Paraquay
Geoffrey: England 1-0
Brian: England 1-0
Rosana: England 2-0
Tim: England 2-0
AB: Paraguay 1-0

Match 4 (Saturday)
Trinidan & Tobago vs Sweden 0-0 (no points given)
Brian: Sweden 3-0
AB: Sweden 2-0
Tim: Sweden 2-0
Geoffrey: Sweden 2-1
Rosana: Sweden 1-0

Match 5 (Saturday) Argentina 2-1
Argentina vs Ivory Coast
Geoffrey: Argentina 2-0
Tim: Argentina 3-0
Rosana: Argentina 1-0
Brian: Ivory Coast 2-0
AB: Ivory Coast 2-1

Biloxi Fever

It is the time of the season (yedda yedda, yedda). FEMA has called me to duty, and thus I will be experiencing the joys of assisting the fine folks of the Mississippi Gulf Coast through service with the disaster agency. I will be going to Biloxi June 11 for a while to help with public information. The blogs should get more interesting, perhaps. You can still find me electronically anyplace I go. Let's all pray that the Gulf Coast is allowed to recover from 2005! There wasn't any room for me in Biloxi or Gulfport, so I'll have to stay in Ocean Springs. They found a nice place with a view.....

More later .....

Da Vinci Code

Well, it happened, I finally allowed myself to be subjected to the "Code". Diana and Danesh treated R and I to the movies last night at the Rave. I didn't have an issue with Tom H. as the lead as some did...I kinda like actors my own age. :-) But, then again, I haven't read the book (although my Catholic background and parochial school, and study of other religions as a Baha'i, already gave me a lot of history of the Catholic demonination). I was not spellbound by the movie. I thought there should have been more detail of the "Code" and less emphasis on the killing. I know it was not supposed to be a movie about spirituality, but it could have been a lot more. I think the producers cut down on some of the movie to do more in the studio and less on location. Too bad. It was a one-shot wonder for me. In regard to the Rave, I have had more comfortable airliner seats in Business and First ... sorry movie goers! Thanks D & D for the movie...I had a good time, really. Next time, my treat.:-) P.S.A. (Post Script All) Remind me to tell you about my trip to the Da Vinci museum in Milan some time.

Welcome

Greetings! Finally, after all this time, I have entered the world of letting everyone on the planet know what is going on (publicly) in my life...thus, "Itsatimslife" blog. Welcome, I hope you don't get bored...I frankly find that what all is going on with Tim (and the extended Tyson family), Rosana (and the extended Cook family), Alicia (& Brian Green and the extended Green family), Katrina (Nafeh & Jameh and the extended Fananapazir family), Amelia, Lucia, Geoffrey, and Brian, provides a never-ending source of stories. And then there are the Foroughi's, the Mocks, and a whole raft of characters who will either fall victim to my notorious humor or get their own blog. :-)