Name trivia time! So my mom's first name, Najwa, means "essence of love." Her maiden name, Ghanaim, means "treasures." But not just any treasure, interestingly, but specifically treasure gained as a result of conflict. Which, on a facetious level, could be an approximation of "booty" or "isorla" for anyone who gets the obscure sci-fi reference of the latter, and on a not-so-facetious level might be a statement of fact about some ancestor of ours, especially if we're descended from nomads as some of our relatives claim. Now, to jump over to my mom's name-by-marriage, Harris, in reading a recent National Geographic article on Celtic culture in modern times I found a mention of "the northern-most island of the Outer Hebrides" being named Harris. So, in light of that I'm curious as to whether we have an ancestor from there, and what the word 'Harris' might actually mean (I'm hoping it's not 'hedgehog' as my dad claims, based on what's supposedly on the family crest).

Also, in light of ancestor-talk, two women at the barbecue the other day realized that one of their ancestors probably killed the other girl's ancestor. That is, one gal was descended from Billy the Kid, and the other was descended from a man who had the same name as someone Billy had killed...and the last record of him was in the particular city said killing occurred. Whoa. The women got along just fine, however.

In light of barbecue talk, there was some awesome stuff food-wise. For one, the host made hummus and tabbouleh, which already being awesome in and of themselves, were further done up in gorgeous colored ceramic bowls with color-coordinated garnishes of tomatoes and cucumbers (interesting how she's also quite a talented painter). Along with that were the requisite veggies, chips, and salsa, and some obscure beers and cheap wine that was actually pretty good. For dinner there were chicken/artichoke sausages with fancy mustard, skirt steak rolled with blue cheese, even a nice big steak for Cassie the beautiful husky-mix with the multi-colored eyes, and grilled portobello mushrooms and veggies. And dessert! The host made her own birthday cake, decorated with crushed M&Ms, with a layer in the middle of frosting and the same crushed candy. Original, and tasty! (sorry if that was boring, I'm running on the assumption there are other people besides me out there who love reading about food)

I couldn't help but snort when I read this - and not just because it's by Ben Franklin