Double Dumas on You!

For those of you who are Star Trek geeks, as I am, you will get the double entendre in my title. Rachel pointed out to me, yesterday, that I was reading two books with the author's last name being Dumas.

I finished reading Funny in Farsi this afternoon. I loved the story of the different family members. It is as endearing as the story from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The father is my favorite character in both of these stories. Firoozeh's dad and his inability to fix things well, almost winning in Black Jack, saying "Yes, yes" and smiling when he doesn't have a clue what you are saying is so funny. Our family shares with her family the stopping at Denny's restaurants. We only go to Denny's on vacation and the kids make a game of finding the next one for the next meal. I appreciate the fact that her father has such a deep love and appreciation for America without losing his Iranian identity. I remember the anger and hatred that flowed during the taking of the hostages. We had Atollah toilet paper and a poster that did not have a nice message. Firoozeh likens the situation to the kid who spits a spitball in the class and the entire class gets detention. Group mentality is hard to deal with, especially when it comes to mob mentality. The story is mostly a light tone and has such a sweet story of a neighbor who bakes her a bundt cake to thank her repeatedly for "saving" her during an earthquake.
This book was a quick and fun read. Michael came up to ask me why I was laughing so hard. The part where the author goes to get blood work drawn and the receptionist mispronounces Firoozeh Dumas made me howl. My mother gets her name mispronounced all the time, so it was especially funny. Give this book a read if you like stories such as the one from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I am really hungry after reading this book due to all of the wonderful foods she mentioned. I am a fan of stuffed grape leaves.

Warning: Spoilers!
Now, I have to say my brother-in-law, Marcus, warned me that the movie and the book of The Count of Monte Cristo were very different. I think Dumas is a masterful writer and really enjoyed the first 3/4ths of the book. My problem is my inability to reconcile the level of revenge that was maintained through the end of the book. Dantes did extremely kind things for those he felt were good to his father, but even within that he made "good" people suffer to prove themselves. I really abhorred what he did with Valentine and Morrel. I wanted to give Dantes more sympathy, but I felt it being wrung out of me with each chapter. I am also a romantic (I should probably wear a Jane Austen sticker on my forehead). I really liked how the servant in the film reminded Dantes to be better and rise above the hatred. I also liked that the son, in the movie, was his. I felt that far too much of the good Dantes could have done in the world was wasted in machinations and that he gets the cute young girl at the end was trite. Oh well, it was still well written.

I saw more bluebirds, so yeah.

Interesting article about the cost of red light traffic cameras being too costly appeared in the paper today. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2009/03/13/red_light_camera_cost.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

The use of the lights for citations will be suspended in many cities due to lack of revenue, man power it takes to go through the photos, postage, and the cost of the service to an outside company. I think they can make people make some bad decisions when coming in to an intersection.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::Order of the Arrow:::::::::

Aaron was tapped out for Order of the Arrow on Monday. I will put some photos up this week. He is not in the Order, which is Boy Scouts of America service fraternity, yet. He has to pass a weekend long test where he does a service project in silence. Silence is none of our strong suits, so I hope it goes well.

The bus is coming down the street with 3 Taylor kids, so later gators!