The grass is growing!

About two weeks ago Miran finally found the strength to till the other patch of dead grass in front of our house and get some seed planted. We didn't have any nice compost to put on top since our friend's pick-up is still broken, but it seems to have come in nicely and very quickly. He put a little straw down that our neighbor gave us and it seems to hav kept the birds away just long enough.  He just has one litte area left to do - and then to mow all the new grass which is getting quite long, especially on the right side. This new grass looks so good - now the rest of the lawn looks bad. Miran wasn't happy when I mentioned that!

Perfect Timing !

Yesterday on NPR I heard a story that really made us feel good. We knew we had bought our house at a good time, when housing prices were down, but apparently we timed things absolutely perfectly.

House prices in Charlotte have risen for the past three months ... meaning we literally bought at the bottom and are making money! Ok, so prices only rose by .6% in July, so its not much money - but at least its moving in the right direction. Of course, prices in Charlotte are still down 9% from last year - but that isn't our problem!

Bajram Serif Mubarek Olsun !

That means happy Bajram!

Today is the first day of the 3-day holiday of Bajram (you may know it by its Arabic name of Eid, but in Bosnia they use the Turkish word Bajram). Its a huge holiday in Bosnia involving lots of food, family and gifts. We weren't paying attention and just figured out two days ago that it started today. Since Islamic Holidays are linked to a lunar calendar, they move, so its not like Christmas which has a set date, or Thanksgiving which is always the last Thursday in November; instead Bajram moves all over the calendar.

Anyway, we didn't have time to do much, not to mention its hard to make a big deal out of holidays here since we don't have any family to visit and no one else around us is celebrating this holiday. But I did make some Baklava for Miran, since that is the traditional desert served in Bosnia on Bajram. I just made a small pan since its so sweet we eat it very slowly.

honors seminar

To demonstrate that we actually do other stuff than play with our house, I thought I'd post about other things going on. I'm teaching an honors seminar this semester that involves participating in cultural activities around Charlotte. Here is a picture of my students and a colleague of mine on a public art walking tour of downtown that we took last week-end.




Friday night we went to the ballet and saw three short pieces. One was Tyla Tharp's "9 Sinatra Songs" that included a series of ballet duets inspired by ballroom dancing and set to the music of Frank Sinatra (with costumes by Oscar de la Renta). The middle piece was a more normative modern ballet piece called MAP. The third piece was the best - it was called "Shindig" and was accompanied by live bluegrass music. It was so much fun and full of energy. I had arranged for the choreographer of that piece, who is the director of the North Carolina Dance Theatre to come talk to the students during the intermission. So that was neat. Here is a video from youtube of a minute of that ballet:

clean stairs

Today I also got a coat of polyurethane on the stairs, that Dad had sanded last week when he was here since he pulled the carpet off for me. Luckily it was finished under the carpet and we just needed to sand a little where the nails and staples had been. I like the look much better now. Notice also the handrail I painted black.