Stars and Stripes forever...

Bethy said today, "Mom, I feel sorry for the Americans who aren't home for the 4th of July. The fireworks are so pretty!"

She is my all-American girl.

Though she turned her nose up at SeaTac, "Why is this airport so old, Mom?" she says, whenever anyone asks, that she doesn't like Dubai because it is too hot there. She was distressed to learn we're heading back there while it's still summer, having been under the mistaken impression that we were going to do the women-and-kids thing that's quite popular: to go on vacation to friendlier climes until just before school starts.


Thomas, on the other hand, was awed by the trees upon trees going by as we drive along the roads here, but by the end of our first week he was already asking to "go home to-a Gecko House!" He begs every day to go get on the plane.

When I asked Thomas to say "hi" to our checker at Target he cheerfully responded "Salaam aleekum!" Yet at another store when I told him to say thank you in Arabic he said "Thank you in Arabic!"

We had Yakisoba chicken for dinner and Thomas insisted, innocently and to our great amusement, upon calling it "Yukky Chicken Soba."

Oh, that kid.

I couldn't have been more pleased to be there when my sister, Julia, ran her first race. Every fourth of July, in the small country town of Carnation, Washington, they hold the Race for the Pies 5K. As in the name, the first three in each age category win a pie from nearby Remlingers Farm. I bought my sister and I each a pie in good celebratory fashion, in liu of placing. I didn't mind; it was fantastic to run a 5 kilometer race. In Dubai the shortest one is 10K. Even the Predictor weekly-semi-sort-of-race I do is 6.8K. I guess they figure if you're nuts enough to run in the Middle East you have to earn your pain. It seemed like this race was over before it began: in 24:12 I was done. That was nice.

Can you see the Ace hardware/liquor store behind me? And the horse?

There were cowboy hats and BBQ and the stars and stripes flown as flags and rosettes everywhere. My sis and I were enamoured by this tractor from the 50s and the darling older man in his bib overalls to whom it belonged. He charmed us silly, calling us his "calendar girls" and snapped our photos for us.

That's us. Ms July.

It's twice as hot in Dubai as it is here right now, a sprinkling of rain and under 60 degrees. Boy, is that nice. Not bad being Ms July in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by trees and family...