Our Last Day In Texas

A Girl And Her Dog

It's 7:45 and three of us are up, Rami, Marisa and me.  She is taking a section of the SAT this morning at 8:00, Math 1, an hour-long test.  She has already taken the ACT, done well, and wants to take it again so she can beat her brothers' scores which were in the '30s like hers.  I bet she does.

Yesterday was shopping day and for Beth, a welcome day off from classes.  We had a leisurely morning, in no hurry, except for me.  I took Kaia for a good long walk waiting for the girls to shower and get dressed and ready to go.  We left for a Middle Eastern food market we found last time we were here, a recommendation from one of Beth's ESL students.

Shopping Middle Eastern Foods

It's called World Food Warehouse and is about a 20-minute drive, set back in a business park.  I have to admit my main reason for going was the gyros or doner kebab in Turkish.  They are authentic, with lamb or chicken on a vertical spit with freshly made pita bread.  We shopped every aisle, picking out some Turkish spices we cannot get anywhere else as well as other goodies.  It was busy with many women in their hijabs.  The highlight, however, was tailgating while we ate our gyros, wind gusting, tzatziki sauce dripping down our hands, the best.

Waiting For Our Gyros

We then drove back to University Park, did some retail shopping, then did some major shopping at Tom Thumb, the local grocery store.  We were home later than anticipated, at 2:30 and I was ready to read and nap.  While Beth got in some work on her paper, Evie made her world-famous sticky buns,  She started the dough in the morning, let it rise during our shopping and put the sticky buns together and baked them when we returned home.  She also made a huge pot of chili for our dinner, so while I napped, she worked, the usual.

Beth picked up Marisa at 3:30 and she was excited to get home, to have the first warm sticky bun, just out of the overn  I disciplined myself by taking Kaia for a walk before indulging and I have to say, they were as good if not better than ever.  It's too bad the rest of the grandchildren are not here to enjoy them as well.  Rami arrived home around 5:00, after spending 24 hours in Miami for work.

Marisa And Friend, Katy

Around 6:00, Marisa and her good friend, Katy, drove off to the local theater to see Frozen 2.  After a couple of glasses of wine, we sat down to a chili dinner, with a great chopped veggie salad with a ginger dressing, a Beth specialty.  We watched the first episode of The Morning Show on Apple TVplus.  It has not received great reviews but it was fun to watch.  At 7:30, however, the dog trainer arrived and for the next hour we watched her teach Kaia as well as us on how to train a dog to do what you want, using treats of course.  It was fun to watch her get Kaia to sit, lie down, go to her crate, and allow herself to be groomed.  The key, however, is for the family to work with her during the week on the same commands, be consistent, and she will eventually get it. Both Beth and Rami tried the training while she was there and they did well, too.  All three were good students.

By 9:00, we were back on our couches, Kaia sprawled out on the floor, exhausted from her class.  We watched a mediocre documentary on Kelly Slater, supposedly the best surfer in the world, one I never heard of.  It was too talky, not enough surfing but it was filmed in Hawaii, so it was fun to see the beautiful beaches, the breaks, a couple I surfed in the late 1960s.  By 10:00, all of us were tired and ready for bed.

Below I have attached a photograph a friend posted on Facebook of Arnavutkoy, the village we lived next to when we lived in Istanbul, Turkey from 1970-1977.  Evie would walk down to the village three or four times a week to do her shopping.  It's upscale now, with all the waterfront yalis (villas) renovated but has not lost its charm.

Arnavutkoy, A Village On The Bosphorus, a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey