dorood

Off to España!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Only two flights and two cab rides away from a cold beer and jamon in the balcony looking out over the beach!

So tired

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:29:00 +0000

Leyli missed her mom last night. She'd make little noises until I went to her crib, and would bust out crying when she saw me. I think she wants Sandee back from Ottawa ASAP.

Hmmm... This keyboard looks comfortable enough as a temporary pillow kdjhf lwigifbdbaff ;weih fjL a hakjh lkjh kjh lakj iuaph

Ouch!

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Roro gets her ears pierced for her sixth birthday...

Never Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:52:00 +0000

Sandee and I Dick Clark-ed it on New Year's Eve while Darya and Shiva had to choose from multiple parties to attend. Lame.

This may call for a New Year's bash in twelve months just to re-establish our claim to the night. Before you know it, they'll be asking us to babysit for them while they hit the festivities.

Uggggh. This stings.

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:57:00 +0000

GW 53 - Coppin State 59

This after losses to Vermont and a poor Hawaii team Coppin State was 1-10 before this game.

Much soul-searching and calls for Coach Hobbs' head among the Colonial faithful . I personally don't think it's time to pull the plug on the coach, but he definitely needs some help to try to reconnect with the players. Hopefully it's not back to Square One (or at best Square Three) for the program. The best bet is that they pull it together and make a nice run through the A-10 schedule, but it's hard to see how Hobbs will regain the team's attention now.

Thanksgiving in DC

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 23:40:00 +0000

It was, in some ways, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner... then again.

Copious amounts of tapas, multiple bottles of champaign ('cause that's how the aid workers do it in Afghanistan), a running live guitar soundtrack for the events courtesy of Ryan , home-made pizza, many pomegranate martinis and a whole bunch of Iranians trying to make the holiday their own added a lot of spice to the weekend.

Some pix in the album below from the many hundreds taken.

Thanksgiving 2008 in DC

We shall name her...

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:43:00 +0000

...Zeitoon (Olive)!!

At least until she's born and we can come up with a proper name. Meanwhile, the name (in booth languages) seems very fitting and I'm almost bummed we can't keep it. There's something to be said for hippie kid names.

As always, the latest and best of the sonograms are in this Picasa album .

Roya Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Sandee) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:10:00 +0000

So I was putting Roya to bed as positive results on the elections were pouring in. Got a bit sentimental:

Me: "When you wake up tomorrow Roro, we'll be living in a better place".

Roya: "Aaaah! When we come back, will there be someone living in our house?"

Congrats to everyone. Now the hard work begins.

Vote!

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:11:00 +0000

We're taking the afternoon off to go vote and taking the big girls out so they can always say they were involved with this election. I was so jacked up on adrenalin that I couldn't sleep last night and I guess I wasn't alone. The Post says there was a 400 person line in Westover... at 5:45am!

We have a few bottles of nice champagne on ice for the election watch party tonight ;)

Again: VOTE!

Latest on the baby

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:03:00 +0000

It's a girl! That's number four if you're counting. The sonograms weren't as satisfying as the first set, but here are the two best pictures:

She's channeling her inner Deadhead in that second one.

Up 22%, down 8%, up 9%, down 19%, up 12%, down 17%

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:00:00 +0000

That’s the actual fluctuations of a stock in our portfolio in a over the last two weeks. Absolutely crazy. It seems like every five-six years or so we end up with one of these massive market dislocations that knock you on your butt. Last week it took all the way until 10am on Monday until my back muscles were in a tight knot. Having gone through a few of these obviously helps with keeping a level head, but every time is unique is some way or another, rendering most of the past experience useless. Part of me knows that this is something I’ll look back at with the same embellishment that is reserved for recounting old war stories, but it sure feels like crap when you’re actually going through it.

BTW, if you’re counting, the net move of the stock mentioned in the title of the post from the beginning to the end of the two weeks was down 7%.

Iranian? Live in DC

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:12:00 +0000

Be there...

Children of Persia Walk 4 Children
Sunday, October 5, 2008, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Downtown Bethesda, Maryland

I guess I officially live in a swing state

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:22:00 +0000

We got a copy of a hate DVD in the local paper today. I'm not going to give it any additional press by writing the name (follow the link to a HuffPost article about it). I shook my head and we chuckeld at the blatent propaganda, but I guess a lot of people will slip it into their DVD players out of curiousity. Sigh...

Day out on the shooting range

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:26:00 +0000

With Maziar and I stag for the weekend and Dana and Richard on a day pass, we headed out to a shooting range behind the NASA Goddard Center in Maryland for a day of testosterone enhancement. I hadn't shot a gun in 30 years, but Dana (very) patiently showed us the ropes ("don't load the gun until right before you shoot...")("Damn'it! What did I just tell you?!").

Turned out to be a great few hours with our time split between the traps and the sporting range. After shooting about a hundred shells each, we headed off to the Tune Inn with sore shoulders to down a few beers and get an early start on exaggerating our day.

Day out on the shooting range

Number four says "hi" (or "dorood"?)

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:19:00 +0000

A few weeks ago we went to one of Sandee's many doctors to get the final word on the slew of tests that she had gone through to make sure the baby is nice and healthy. The side benefit was a lengthy session with the wonderful sonogram machine and a doctor in a great mood. We looked at the kid from all different angles and he/she/it obliged us with a few poses (see all the pix in the album).

By the way, Sandee and the baby passed all the tests with flying colors.

See all the sonograms here:

Number Four

dorood (again)

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:17:00 +0000

After a four and a half year hiatus, I'm reviving dorood.com. The main impetus is the upcoming birth of our fourth child early next year. I'll post sonograms, pix and updates here leading up to the big day. Whether I continue with the blog after that depends on how well he/she sleeps (although I doubt that we'll do anything blog-able those first few months) and the time suck this becomes.

You can find the old dorood here if you're in a nostalgic mood.

[Edit: I decided to "back date" some posts so I can add a few albums, comments, videos etc. in the correct chronological order. I'm retentive that way]

Sailing on the Chesapeake

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:14:00 +0000

We spent the whole day sailing on the Chesapeake on "Jeronimo", Erin & Johan's beautiful boat. The gods cooperated with a gorgeous day (puffy white clouds included) and the hosts kept at least one of our hands full with a beverage the whole time.

Sailing with Erin & Johan

Disney World (or how I learned to relax and embrace the cheese)

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:04:00 +0000

After much debate about our summer vacation spot this year we finally settled on a full-on Disney vacation including staying at a Disney resort and a seven-day pass to all the various parks. The news of our destination was greeted by laughter about our impending fate and multiple warnings from our adult friends. Maybe it was because of the lowered expectations, but I have to say that we ended up having a fantastic time. The place is set up perfectly to appeal to all ages and the smaller than normal crowds (high gas prices) made for relatively short lines.

Highlights: Sandee & I: Dinner at Paul & Sandra's; Roya: Lunch with the Princesses; Darya: Picture with Jasmine ;) ; Shiva: Hanging at the pool.

Favorite ride: Star Wars simulator in the Hollywood Studios park. I want one for my den.

Disney World 2008

Roya sings "Hi. My name is Joe"

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:02:00 +0000

This impromptu performance by Roro caught us by surprise.

Mellowest Fourth of July in a long while

noreply@blogger.com (Babak) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:34:00 +0000

Want to get away from the DC tourists on Fourth of July weekend? Befriend Shannan and Tom and maybe they'll invite you to their cabin in West Virginia for the weekend (or you can just pay up and rent the place). The kids had a blast and we mostly fished, floated around, cooked and ate. We even had an extended fireworks show from the folks at the public campground nearby. Obviously some ex-military people with explosives experience from the size of their setup (visible in one of the album pix).

Revelations: Fishing is really fun when you actually catch a lot of fish; Bud Lite Lime is a good summer beer.

Fourth of July Weekend at the Moore Cabin