Just finished an interesting book, Daughter of Persia, which is an autobiography by Sattareh Farman Farmaian.

She was born in Iran in the 1920s, 15th of 36 children to a man who at one time was very powerful. It's a fascinating story about her and the history of Iran. Her father, very unusually for the time, believed in educating all his children, even the girls, and after completing high school she longed to study abroad like her brothers. However, as much as her father believed in some education, that was going too far. After he died, during World War II, she decided to go to America to study, even though, by traveling alone as a woman, she risked shaming her family.

She studied social work and eventually went back to Iran, where she started a school in Tehran for social work. She tried to stay out of politics and just help people, but in the 1970s, with Khomeni coming to power, her own students tried to arrest her and have her killed. She managed to escape to America and has lived here ever since.

One of those books that makes you realize how good your own life really is and how lucky you are to live in a society with religious and political freedom. Yeah, I complain about separation of church and state, and the Patriot Act, but when you compare living in the United States with living someplace like Iran, it puts it all into perspective. I don't have to worry about my coworkers turning me in to the secret police, or being forced to sign my allegiance to the country's only political party. I 'm grateful to live in this country.

This weekend we watched 28 Days Later, a sort of sci-fi horror film. I'm not much of a horror/zombie movie person, but I'd heard a lot of good things about it and wanted to see it.

I thought it was very good, except I have just one question :


how could the Infected have ever gotten anywhere? They don't seem to be capable of driving a car or flying a plane. You turn Infected yourself within 20 seconds of being in contact with their blood. So they bite all the people in Cambridge....then what? How could they have gotten out of there except by running? And I don't see any way they'd get on a plane, because they'd know before they took off there was an Infected on it, and wouldn't take off. If you have a theory that solves this troubling issue, email me.

When we went to England last fall, we volunteered to be bumped onto a different flight, and were given travel credits. Awesome, right? Yeah. Except there's always a catch.

We're going to a wedding in New York in May, so we thought great, perfect timing. I checked on the United website and found a pretty good fare, so we'd only have to pay a little bit after using the credits. But of course, you can't actually use the credits with the website. And when you call on the phone, you can't get the web fare. The next lowest fare was $200 more. Hello.

We switched our dates around and managed to get a pretty reasonable fare after all, and then it turns out you have to either go to the airport within the next 24 hours, or mail the vouchers in the next 24 hours. You don't even give them the information over the phone. It makes me so mad. Why can't we use the web?

It's totally great we're getting a nearly free trip to New York, don't misunderstand me. It just irritates me that they make it seem like it's a blank check, when really it's not.