Not Unlike Having Hard Drugs in the House

All the Halloween candy is causing some new behavior problems. Like sneaking around. Lying. Total denial in the face of an accusation. The kind of behavior you expect from, I don't know, AN ADDICT?

On Friday, I told her she could not have any more candy before school, and mere minutes later, I found her closing the pantry drawer. She spun around with her hands in the air and this look of forced innocence. When asked WHAT she was doing, she said, "Nothing," which was not easy given that she had two pieces of candy in her mouth. I made her spit them out, then said, "You disobeyed me, so now you're going to get a what?" She wailed, "A CONSEQUENCE." Her consequence: no more candy for the rest of the day. She flailed around the house telling me she did not love me or like me and I was not her friend. Which I am not.

The Doctor Is In


I settled the Princess vs. Doctor debate by ordering, er...I mean...sewing, myself, by hand, a doctor costume. Lucy wore it proudly on Halloween. She raked in lots of candy trick-or-treating and had a great time at the Websters' Lamer Tamer Halloween party (tame, but definitely not lame).

Who was lame? Me. No costume this year, breaking a streak of office costume party wins and near-wins. To echo my lameness, my boss dressed up as ME. Strange and funny.

See more Halloween pics here.

Home

We traveled for 20-some hours yesterday. It's a necessary evil with international travel, but it puts this unfortunate pall over one's memory of an otherwise perfect trip. I will have to remind myself, when asked about my vacation, not to rant about the Keystone Customs guys who LOST someone, causing a shut-down of the whole international terminal in Houston. Or the 42 metal detectors we went through. Or the weird, but well-intentioned, Dutch airplane food. That was just the very end, the price of coming and going. When I asked, I will talk about:

The Turkish people. They're the most welcoming bunch of folks you could want to meet. Even the ones that are rough around the edges. They have immense national pride and it's well-deserved. We liked Turkey better than Spain and almost as well as Italy (yes, you heard me — someone call the EU Chamber of Commerce!). No evidence of the current Turkey-U.S. spat.
The East. There's magic in being somewhere that is not quite Western. It's Western enough, mind you — that's why we felt comfortable going. But the combination of Islamic elements (call to prayer, covered heads) and Asian elements (architecture, geography) was eye-opening.
The food. Consistently very good. Grilled meats and vegetables. Rich yogurt sauces. Eggplant prepared a thousand different ways. Not as weird or mysterious as you'd think: just earnest and delicious.
The big scenery. The hot-air balloon ride was the perfect climax to two weeks of eye-candy. Three different seas, lush hillsides dotted with grapevines, the moonscape of Cappadocia, architecture that is a religious experience (as it was intended).
The small scenery. Six little old ladies in their best headscarves carrying wrapped presents on a bus. The calf in someone's house. Shop windows filled with fezes and other wonders of felt. Grapes piled high on the roadside. Our breakfast table.

Our trip will not be tarnished by the many long hours home, or our sadness at its ending. We had something good to go home to: Lu. She was very cuddly last night, and kept saying, "I missed you guys. I'm so glad you're home."

The Moon

Cappodoccia defies description. I say this as a way out of describing it well. The rocks aren't quite earthly -- their formation from above is evident in their formation. They look like the combined creation of JRR Tolkien and George Lucas. When I think about telling Lu about them, I get as far as "rock palaces where fairies live." The photos are better than my troglodyte words (thanks, Jo).

Because Lu's Who You Really Care About

Gentle readers, I know that reading about our Turkish adventures is probably boring you. A quick Lucy update: she is in El Paso with Baga and Opa. When I talked to her this afternoon (for the 30 seconds she deigned to speak to me), she was on her way to get a manicure. Seriously. She spent a week with Nini having all kinds of fun, and now she is very busy between visitations and viewings by her adoring El Paso public. Aren't we so mean for not taking her with us?