It’s time for this month’s installment of 12 of 12.  12 of 12 was invented by Chad Darnell, who is still very much alive.  Chad, that was not funny, man… not at all.

7:29 AM: Too damned dark.

This is a long exposure, which lightened up the office considerably.  It doesn’t quite capture the gloom and doom that’s been greeting me since we went on summer time this weekend.

 

10:01 AM: Garbage Dreams

This is a flier for Garbage Dreams, a documentary about the zabballen, a subclass within the lowest strata of Cairo’s poorest people.  It’s premiering at the South by Southwest music festival next week, and they did a screening on campus today that I meant to attend.  I didn’t actually make the screening, unfortunately — I’ll wind up owning it when it comes out on DVD anyway

 

10:51 AM: Editing video

Working on editing video from yesterday’s lecture.  Turns out I can’t edit it ‘cos it’s an MPEG-2 and I’m running a Mac and they don’t play nice.  Oh, well.

 

3:31 PM: Hoda Barakat

The past couple of days, we’ve had our highest profile event of the year: a visit by Lebanese author Hoda Barakat.  Yesterday, she waxed poetic at her keynote lecture, “This is the first time ever that I’ve been invited to deliver a lecture in Arabic outside the Arab world.”  And she went on, and on, and on in praise of our program … and, yeah, we’ve got it on videotape.  She’s a very lovely woman.  She also made me realize that I kind of need to brush up on my Arabic (although she’s Lebanese, and the dialect is a bit different from the Egyptian that I’m used to … not that that’s really the reason why I need to brush up).

 

6:01 PM: Jumping for Joy

It got cold and rainy and Mocha’s been pent up in the house for a couple of days.  She’s a big ball of energy.

 

6:02 PM: Eh, it’s cute.

Ray decides to try to take our photo together.  The lens isn’t wide-angle enough, but, eh…

 

6:10 PM: Still admiring …

We’re trying to refinance the house, and as part of the process they needed to come do an appraisal.  So, we had to clean …  a lot.  This is the “after” shot of our pantry/utility room.  There is no “before” shot.  I couldn’t fit in there with the camera.

 

6:15 PM: Martinis. 

Apple this time.

 

6:40 PM: Pay. Attention. To. Me.

 

6:44 PM: Editing

Editing photos from the day’s events in Lightroom.

 

7:11 PM: Fugly Betsy

Ugly Betty on the DVR over martinis.  It’s a Thursday.

 

7:30 PM: Hope Springs Eternal

Ray decides to make cookies.  Mocha decides to wait for him to let her lick the bowl.  Hopefully before he starts rolling out the cookies.

Watching TV.  Martinis.  Pizza.  Cookies.  It’s a mellow Thursday evening. 

And how was YOUR day?

Tags: 12 of 12, apple, art, bla, blog, cairo, class, cookies, egypt, energy, fes, fun, funny, garbage, ice, khowaga, love, me, men, Mocha, Music, Photos, rain, Ray, SHE, summer, video, weekend, work