I use a blog too (see below), although it isn't exclusively about books, and I'm not into all the book stuff that some book blogs do. It's just a way to keep track of my reading and what I thought about it. It doesn't feel like work at all. I do use Librarything and Goodreads too, but I find a blog to be the easiest system for me to consistently use.

I sprout, but not very consistently. I usually do mung beans and stir-fry them, or add them to various East and Southeast Asian dishes. I made an interesting and tasty flatbread once that used sprouted wheat and dried apricots. But I never have enough good dried apricots around to make it very often.

Congratulations! I remember getting my first passport before going to the Middle East and getting the boys' before we went to Kyrgyzstan. It's so exciting!

If you want it to be Guyanese, then I'd make a Guyana-style curry or dal to go with the roti. There are lots of recipes on the internet. Or you could do dal puri and have the roti and dal all together.

Malaysia doesn't block very many sites; at least, it hasn't in the past. And the sorts of sites that are generally blocked in any country (except in extreme examples, like in China) are usually political and specific to the country. The government is the one controlling the blocking. Technical issues are a totally different story though and that will vary from country to country and within the country. I wouldn't worry about not being able to access the sites you want in Malaysia unless you have a bad internet connection.

Well, we tried it once. I love yogurt, but the frozen yogurt was not good. I was using a recipe that should have been reliable, but it was pretty sour and that didn't mix well with the chocolate we tried. It was easy though, and relatively healthy, and the texture was good. It was just the flavor that was off, so that should be easy to fix. But I don't think I'd get anyone in my house to try homemade frozen yogurt again.

We're going to Pike Place this afternoon and I'd love some suggestions of good places to eat. We can't do anything too expensive and we like a huge variety of food.

I love children's books read by Graeme Malcolm. A Single Shard and especially A Tale of Despereaux are completely different books with him as a narrator.

Bill, we've been celebrating Nooruz for years and love it. Except we do a more Turkic-style celebration, since we don't know very many Persians and we know lots of Kyrgyz and Uzbeks who celebrate Nooruz. We're in the US right now, in a city with lots of Asians but few Central Asians, so we did our own thing this year. Nooruz in Kyrgyzstan was lots of fun, especially since it was the only time I got to see my favorite bone games played on a large scale.

Thanks for your ideas and I'm always happy for more!

What do you do for Holy Week that is traditional and home- and family-based? I'm hoping I explain this question correctly so you know what I'm trying to learn here about Easter. I'm looking for simple, family-based Easter traditions from a variety of Christian denominations. I'm in a Christian sect that doesn't follow any sort of liturgical calendar or have any observance of Holy Week. However, I like to celebrate Holy Week, but since I don't have any background in celebrating it except from limited contact with Orthodox Christians in the Middle East, we don't do much for Holy Week with our family. I can obviously think of things that our family could do for Holy Week that would tie in with each day, but I'd also like to incorporate some older traditions. I need things that can be done at home since it's not likely that my church will start observing Holy Week anytime soon. I've had trouble finding good ideas because Holy Week is so church-based and many traditional observances really can't be done at home very easily. Thanks for any suggestions you can give me.

We use Skype all the time, with friends and relatives in Singapore, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. All of our family uses Skype, so we're able to talk to them online for free no matter where they are in the world, and we use webcams if both ends have high-speed internet access. We also use Skype to call friends who don't have internet access using their computer-to-phone option and it works great. We've never tried using Skype for phone-to-phone calls though, so I don't know how that works. But Skype has been great when someone is overseas, so much cheaper than anything else we've tried. Skype is easy to set up and the website is helpful and explains what you need to know.

A friend of mine when I was younger had a similar thing happen. She loved ice cream and had no other reaction to it besides the coughing. And it only happened with ice cream. Anyway, it's probably no more than an annoyance. And ice cream is probably worth it.

I figure if it's important to my family, then we'll study it. We spend more time on Denmark because half of our ancestors are from there, and we spend significantly more time learning about Central Asia than your average homeschooling family because we lived there. Still, our focus is on traditional world history.

I do a tackle box too. It's perfect and portable.

We don't eat much meat, and it's almost never the main feature in a meal, but if it is, this is what I make: Afghan Kebabs 1 cup plain yogurt 1 T minced garlic 1/2 tsp turmeric 1/4 tsp cayenne 1 tsp salt 1/2 c mint leaves, minced 2 pounds chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces Combine everything, adding the chicken last, and refrigerate at least 3 hours. Thread onto skewers and cook in whatever manner is handy for you. I broil them on high, about 5 inches from the broiler element, for 7-10 minutes since we don't have grill. This is from Flatbreads and Flavors.

I agree with Kate. When we've lived overseas, we've always found it easier not to deal with electronics from the US, except our dual-voltage laptop. Anything else we brought turned out to be more of a hassle than it was worth.

An easy way to do it is to use a biscuit topping. You can roll the dough out and lay it on top, or just sort of drop the dough on.

I agree this is a great book. A friend of mine who grew up in Syria was the first to tell me about it. One thing I particularly like about this book is that it isn't geared toward one type of family. It applies to the business kids and the missionary kids and the military kids and the diplomat kids and the kids like mine that aren't any of those things. So many of the books that I read before we went overseas were more specific.

My husband and I have lived in various parts of Asia, before marriage and with children. We would love to go back to Central Asia and plan to within a year. I really like living in a place for a year and then going somewhere else. There are so many places I want to see, but short-term traveling isn't good enough for me. I want to live there instead, even though a year isn't really very long. But it's better than a week. There probably isn't any country that I wouldn't want to live in, as long as it was safe for our family to go. And I probably define "safe" more loosely than a lot of Americans.

I'm not a huge fan of biographies, but here are a few I've enjoyed (if you define biography a little loosely): Longitude by Dava Sobel Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford West With the Night by Beryl Markham The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar by Emily Ruete

I hope it lasts! I was always grateful for electricity when we were in Central Asia. Kazakhstan is now blaming Tajikistan for using too much power. I can't imagine you'd agree with that. We have friends in Kyrgyzstan who are in the same boat you've been in this winter. Someday Central Asia might come up with a way to produce and share power reasonably. There should be more than enough for all. Enjoy!

A basketball and dh's missing Islamic law book. The 14-month-old likes to stash things there. We still don't know where he found the book though.

I've used silica gel lots of times with roses and it's very easy. They are more fragile than air-drying though. I've also dried them in the microwave with silica gel because it's very quick.

We have 5 people in a little over 1000 sq ft. We recently moved from a place that was a little less than 1000 sq ft, but this place feels much bigger, mostly because our old place had two large bathrooms, a large kitchen, two small closets (for the whole apartment) and no back door. Our apartment now has storage space under the stairs and a back door and three bedrooms. I'll trade an extra bathroom and a big kitchen for all that any day. My best suggestion is to get rid of more stuff, including furniture. We have never owned couches, for example (we've never missed them, either). Renting a storage unit might be worth the sanity it saves if you don't have much storage space in the house. A trip to IKEA might be useful for lots of storage ideas, although I often feel like a house with lots of creative storage feels crowded, even if it's neat. Getting rid of stuff is the only thing that really helps me.