The sewing/embroidering/crochetting kit
The kit is pretty nice, it has several “projects”, most of which involve sewing. I can sew. Not very well, nor in a straight line, and I definitely cannot hem, but I can attach a piece of cloth to another with thread. In may be little, but it does prove useful. Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I acquired rudimentary skills on machine sewing. I’ve definitely have forgotten those.
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“To Roxana Saberi, Iranian with an American passeport”
If I kept quiet until now, it was for her sake. If today I speak, it is for her sake.
She is my friend, my fiancée, and my companion. An intelligent and talented young woman, whom I have always admired.
It was the 31st of January. The day of my birthday. That morning, she called to say she would pick me up so we would go out together. She never came. I called on her mobile, but it was off, and for two-three days I had no idea what had happened to her. I went to her apartment, and since we had each other’s keys, I went in, but she wasn’t there. Two days later, she called and said: “Forgive me my dear, I had to go to Zahedan.” I got angry: why hadn’t she said anything to me? I told her I didn’t believe her, and again she said: “Forgive me my dear, I had to go.” And the line was cut. I waited for her to call back. But she didn’t call back. She didn’t call back.
I left for Zahedan. I looked for her in every hotel, but nobody had ever heard her name. For ten days, thousands of wild thoughts came to my mind. Until I learned, through her father, she had been arrested. I thought it was a joke.
I thought it was a misunderstanding and that she would be released after two or three days. But days went by and I had no news from her. I started to worry and knocked on every door for help, until I understood what had happened.
It is with tears in my eyes that I say she is innocent and guiltless. It is me, who has known her for years, and shared every moment with her, who declares it. She was always busy reading and doing her research. Nothing else. During all these years I’ve known her, she wouldn’t go anywhere without letting me know, nor would do anything without asking my advice. To her friends, her family, everyone that surrounded her, she had given no signs of unreasonable behavior. How come someone who would spend days without going out of her apartment, except to see me; someone who, like a Japanese lady, would carefully spend her money, and had sometimes trouble making a living; someone who was looking for a sponsor to get in contact with a local publisher so her book would be printed here (in Iran); could now be charged with a spying accusation?! We all know – no, we have all seen in movies – that spies are malicious and sneaky, that they peep around for information, and that they are very well paid.
If you are in the non-profit world, chances are you’ve gotten a letter from the World Youth Organization for Human Welfare inviting you to a conference in California and another location. Due to their generous donor, all your costs will be paid – they say. Except for the hotel costs – that is. And here is where the scam lies. They make you pay in advance for conference hotels – money they pocket, as there is no conference.
Today I got another one of these letters, now purportedly from the Callums Foundation, that probably amounts to the same thing. If you do a search for “Callums Foundation”, you’ll find nothing, and the letter is written in that forced English that characterizes scams. There also doesn’t seem to be a Center for Human Rights Research and Development in Mozambique. I don’t know if this scam works exactly like the other one, but you can be sure that you’ll have to pay for something in advance and there will be no conference.
I’ve gotten a few other versions of this scam: “INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CHILD LABOUR, ABUSE AND NEGLECT” , “INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN AND CHILD ABUSE” and others I haven’t saved.
The moral is, if you don’t know who is inviting you and they’re offering you something for free, research them before you do anything else.
Mika first wanted a puppy. I said no – puppies do not come potty trained, and I am /not/ dealing with a non-potty trained animal in my house. Then she wanted a kitty. We already have one, Syria (her brother, Jordan, passed away last summer), but I wouldn’t mind another one. Kitties are cute and playful, and if they are anything like our other cats, incredibly nice. Of course, chances are we could get a psycho-cat instead. In any case, I wasn’t against it, it was just a matter of having the time to go get it.
But before we could get it, Michaela got into her mind the idea that she wanted to have a mouse instead. Well, she started asking for a hamster – just like every other kid in the world – but I suggested that hamsters were not very nice, and perhaps she could get a mouse instead. Of course – mice are smaller and therefore cuter than hamsters, so she was all over that idea. She’s been saving her money, since I started selling all sorts of baby & toddler stuff we no longer need and giving her the proceeds. So a mouse it was.
We went to buy it yesterday morning. I had been thinking of getting her a feeder mouse, but apparently they don’t sell those at Petsmart, so she ended up getting a very cute, gray “fancy” mouse. Apparently “fancy” mice are handled more, which is a good thing, as she has pretty much held it since she got it yesterday morning. The mouse was $6 or $7, more than I’d think a mouse would be worth, but they do keep them alone, in their own little habitat, so at least it doesn’t come from a particularly stressed environment.
But then came the “stuff” to get for the mouse. A simple cage/habitat was $25 ($28 for the same one in pink, but it’s a boy mouse, so Mika was OK with the colorful cage) with food & bedding (and mouse), the whole thing came up to about $45. Yes, for a mouse. I’m happy it’s not officially my money 😉
Of course, the kids are not satisfied, and now they would love to get the mouse its own carriage
The kids have been in fifth (or it sixth? seventh?) heaven since they got the mouse. They’ve hugged us and thanked us countless times. They’ve played with it, given him toys (a My littlest petshop carrier became a little house for the mouse – I wish I’d had the camera, it was that cute) and just held him. I’m hoping this will last longer than the fish they’d had before (who never made it past two days).
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