We're having a baby!

My wife found out that she is pregnant this August. The baby is due in May 2006. We are not sure if we will want to know if it is a boy or girl yet.

First identity theft incident

My wife isn't all that swift with junk e-mail and so-called phishing. We think because of that, we had our first bout of identity theft. This afternoon we got a message on our answering machine from a nice gentleman (very nice all things considered). He had sent a number of online messages about our auction for the watch. I called back the number he left and told that we didn't have a watch for sale on our auction account on eBay. I immediately when online to the website and there was a watch with 33 bids with the highest at $8,100.00.

We tried to change the passwords, but whoever had hijacked my wife's account had already reset the password system. I got into online chat with eBay's support staff and they reset the account and cancelled the illegal auction. My wife thinks that she might have gotten one of the phishing e-mails that ask for her eBay account info. Now we are going to look at her credit report, just to be safe.

Reshte Posht-e Paw

Today, my wife (and I helped a little) made ash-e reshte, a traditional noodle and chick-pea soup. It is cooked on the second day of a significate journey of a loved one; this ritual is called reshte posht-e paw (noodle for behind of feet (walking away)). Two days ago, my mother-in-law went on her first pilgrimage to Mecca, hadj. My wife's sister made enough soup in Iran for 100 families today, but we only made some for ourselves and some of our local friends. We are not even supposed to be making it, but my wife and I both felt it was good to do so. We'll be having it for lunch soon and I can hardly wait.

My mother-in-law's hajd

This evening, my mother-in-law in Iran will be starting her first pilgrimage to Mecca, or hadj, in Saudi Arabia. This pilgrimage is one of the five "pillars" of the Muslim faith and a goal to obtain in the religion, of possible. The trip was a norooz (new year) present from her sons. She has been extremely excited about this. She had been to Karballa four years ago and that was the first time she had ever left her country. And going to Mecca and Medina will be the furthest away she has ever been in her 70 some old years.

She will be flying to Medina tonight. Four of her sons and one daughter, out of nine, and their families will be with her at the airport to see her off. This is a common tradition in Iran. Two days from now, my sister-in-law will make a very large batch of a traditional noodle and chick-pea soup called Ash-e Reshte (literally soup of noodle). The soup will be given out to the families and friends of my mother-in-law. This is done whenever someone leaves for a significant place for the first time.

In one week, my mother-in-law will go to the neighboring city of Mecca from Medina where her real pilgrimage will start. Unfortunately, her hadj is in June and she does not do well in heat, but that might be good for her faith.

After one week in Mecca, she returns home to Tehran and there will be a big party. A common tradition is that one or a number of goats are procured to be ritually killed. The meat is then divided and distributed to the families and friends of the returning pilgrim.

Safar khosh, maman jan!
(pleasant journey, dear mother)

International calling card problems

About two weeks ago, my wife bought a great calling card online for her to talk with her family in Tehran. We've had a lot of trouble finding low rate cards lately because most have been raising their rates above 10-12 cents per minute. This one card my wife found promised 1.3 cents per minute. Even if the rate was four times that, it was a very nice card for us.

From the first they started charging more than they said. I called and asked for a listing of the charges to the card and the operator politely told me each call and charge. Then I did a little math, factored in the taxes and found that the company took about three dollars from our $20.00 card. I called and said that this was the case and they corrected the error. My wife and I were very happy.

Later that week, they were taking more money. This time, my wife had been logging each of her calls. I called their customer support again to get the run-down of the charges to do the math and get the real charges. This time, the customer support operator said that she was not allowed to give that information and I was supposed to log into the website to get it. I went to the website and the only accounts available are for distributors. I figured that I wouldn't win that battle.

The next time we lost actual money on the card after not using it for a few days, and it wasn't the weekly maintanence cycle. I called up and asked them to correct that. They did, and immediately after that my wife called her mother in Iran for a two minute call, and afterward 20 minutes were taken from the card.

I called customer support again to talk with a manager but the operators would not even let me wait for a manager in a phone queue.

Right now, I have put in a call with the corporate offices to see about resolving the case. Then I move go to the attorney general's office of that state.

Some cards may be wonderful, but be careful of greedy companies and their customer support departments.

High risk ob/gyn

My wife and I will be visiting a high-risk ob/gyn this afternoon. My wife has diabetes, so a pregnancy qualifies as high-risk. She is also very anxious about having a child after the age of 35; she is 34 right now. So she thinks this is the only time in her life to have a baby. We are ready for a child in our lives. We have issues with our marriage, but those will get ironed out and I, for one, know that a child won't solve those issues.

My wife does have a little trouble controlling her blood sugar, though. And that does worry me about an impending pregnancy. It also worries me that I haven't found a computer job yet. I hope soon.

How little is enough Farsi?

/
Right now, I know enough to have a conversation with my in-laws for very few minutes. I’d like to be able to construct my own sentences. I know that I need to know a lot more vocabulary first, but I did learn quite a bit while I was in Iran for a month meeting my wife’s family.

Morning migraine

I woke up this morning with a migraine. This hasn't happened often since the beginning of my illness when I would wake up with a severe migraine because I had been dreaming about writing computer code in my sleep. I usually don't remember dreaming, so it is not surprising that I don't remember if I had a dream last night/this morning. But whatever it was, my wife woke me nicely and I was rewarded with a migraine.

Programming challenges

It has been just a little while since I've been out of the programming loop. I know that my mind has atrophied. I've started working on the web-published "Python Challenges." I've usually been inventive, but I've had a lot of difficulties with it. I'm not sure if it is because I'm not fully motivated or if I have atrophied. I'm hoping the former.

Myself