Back in the MASR

Dear readers
I have been gone for ten days for some much needed rest and relaxation. The last few months have been completely exhilarating, and also completely exhausting. I spent some time in the US, tending to my garden, sipping on mint juleps, and enjoying time with my husband.
Back here in Egypt, the weather is perfect, 75 degrees farenheit, sunny and perfectly dry. The grass is green, and I awoke to birdsong. The sky is not quite blue, it has a tinge of grey in it, and the clouds are not distinct, but wispily intermingled in the background.
The weather has an edge to it, as if the sky is saying "enjoy this bout of spring, it won't last long." The coming months will be fiercely hot.
In my neighborhood I noticed for the first time that some of the palm trees in El Rehab are fake. Large metal contraptions with artificial palm fronds, topped by radio transmitters of some sort. I wonder what their function is?
Things are fairly quiet in Egypt politically, compared to weeks gone by. There is discussion of transferring Mubarak to a military hospital. The Libyan civil war rages on, with heavy fighting in Misurata and Libya's western mountains. Muslim Brotherhood members believe they are under attack by Islamophobes.  Mohammed Hassan argues that "He said the media is spiralling out of control, adding that there should be a kind of media freedom that respects the teachings of Islam." A 3400 year old statue of Amenhotep of King Amenhotep III has been discovered  in Luxor, as well as a black granite statue of the goddess Sekmet. Popular committees from around Egypt met in a demonstration in Tahrir Square on Friday afternoon in an attempt to inaugurate a prolonged coordinated effort.
While I was in the US, my husband remarked that I was spending money like there was no tomorrow. Perhaps because in the past few months, it has often felt that way. WMB