Work, work, work

I'm probably breaking child labor laws here by having Veeka push the vacuum around but she does insist on being Little Miss Cleaning Lady. We both have been struggling with colds for the past week and today was the first day in quite awhile that we both were operating anywhere near normal. Today was going to be catch-up day at work - or so I thought - until I was told I had to go to the mosque where the Ft. Hood shooter once hung out. So I drove to the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring and easily found the place because of the TV trucks parked in front. Those poor people; have dozens of TV and radio reporters show up for their Friday prayer time and getting buttonholed by all those nasty reporters. Of course I *was* one of those nasty reporters - dressed in a long skirt with a scarf around my hair - interviewing whoever I could find. You can read about it here.
It's been quite a week with Islamic stuff today and the leader of world Orthodoxy - known as the Ecumenical Patriarch - in town and who I followed around this past week (here was the advance piece) along with doing articles on Joel Osteen (see here) and a group of humanistic Jews. I dragged Veeka (who was borderline sick) to their meeting in Northwest DC on a rainy Sunday morning. After 45 minutes of Israeli folkdancing, we attended a class taught by a rabbi who identified himself as a bi-sexual atheist. Fortunately, Veeka had no idea what was going on.
Meanwhile, Veeka has discovered "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" so she wants the video played continually because she wants to see the lion, as she says. She was sick on Halloween but when she saw the heavy bags of candy kids were carrying, she decided to recover long enough for us to walk around the block in the rain gathering goodies for her. Because we were on the late side, people were emptying loads of candy into her little bag.
And, as we've been switching into winter clothes, I discovered Veeka had a growth spurt this summer and a lot of things are now too small. She lost about half her clothes to the fact that she is now bigger...