Letter to Erin 20150804

 In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

It's Monday evening.  Mama cat Floofy and ---- are in heat right now.  I need to be as candid as possible about an issue which is a topic of hot contention on both sides of the world.  I usually don't care much about what people babble about, but this is a legal issue which involves my wife.  It's the "3 wives" issue.

I will say right now that I like pretty blondes.  Call it chauvinistic or weakness or whatever, but I prefer blondes.  If I don't marry a blonde, I probably won't marry at all, but there has to be a good Muslim blonde out there somewhere.  So when 3 pretty blonde wives are presented to me, it is most certainly a temptation.  I'll have to submit that it is also an ingenious global marketing plan worth billions of dollars, but people seem to forget an important detail: at this moment I can't even afford one wife, let alone three.  Plus I am an old man, and have used up most of my libido.  The Islamic community wants me to give each wife her own house.  Besides the mountainous cost of that, logistics demand that I would aggressively have to protect my wives, and I wouldn't care much about what the people think of my actions in that matter.

My decision is to focus on Erin and her happiness right now.  The best time for her career is right before she marries, and when she is done with her career, I will make sure that she is securely happy and settled inshaAllah.  By then, if I am able to marry more and Erin grants her permission, then inshaAllah it will be so.  A message to my wife: I am concerned about your Islam.  I hate fake friends, and I certainly don't want a fake wife.  You don't have to be an extremist, just do the best you can with the situation that Allah has given you.  Erin, I love you, and I need you.
 
I've posted 2 photos of papaya trees that grow in my garden.  Papaya trees grow as male and female trees.  The male tree is the one with the white flowers, and the female tree is the one with the 3 heads, each bearing fruit.  No, papaya trees don't usually have 3 heads.  In the background is my parents' house, and the vine growing on the female tree is called "sirih", which my maternal grandmother was fond of chewing like gum.

Letter to Erin 20150803

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Yay!  My first eggplant and tomatoes are ready for harvest!  Alhamdulillah!  I grew those big, round type of eggplants, and I picked the first one today for dinner.  And dinner tonight is eggplant and potato hash, with ground beef, garlic, onions, Thai peppers, cilantro seed, and salt and pepper.  To be served with 2 nice and soft tortillas, one for you, and one for me.  OK, I'll eat them both since you're not here.  I grew the Thai peppers in my garden, too.  I also have chives, mint, cilantro, and basil.  Hmm, I should have put some of that in the hash.  My first tomatoes are sooooo pretty.  Nice and cute and red and ripe.  You know how tomatoes grow in bunches like grapes, and my first bunch of tomatoes was a bunch of three.  But one of them is still green.  Why is that?  What does it mean??!!

I guess I need to take the old weed whacker in for service.  You know, I don't really like all this physical labor.  But if I don't cut the grass then nobody would do it, and it would make me irresponsible, especially when your house inshaAllah is concerned.  I would rather lie around all day and play video games.  If I were pretty, I would rather shave my legs.  But I'm not pretty, and I'm the only one tending the yard, so I have to cut the grass.

Are you feeling blue again, my dearest Erin?  Please be optimistic, and pray.  OK?  Realists try to propound a very harsh and cynical world, but if you want to create a reality, then you would want to create a great one, right?  So please be optimistic, and pray.  Please know that I love you, and I need you.  It's time for the sunset prayer now, and after that I'm going to enjoy some eggplant and potato hash.  Would you like to join me for dinner?

Letter to Erin 20150802

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello Erin, my love!  How are you feeling today?  Well, I miss you too.  I wish we were together.  InshaAllah, we will.  Can't rush God, you know.  Plus there are still many things for you and I to do, and a house to build.  So please be patient and pray.  I love you, and I need you.

I'm not all that particularly busy today.  Of course I had stuff to do, but for some reason I don't feel busy.  I went downtown this morning to get gasoline, and deal with my cell phone account.  I don't use my cell phone much for talking.  It has Internet but only 3G, and I have to travel to find a WiFi hotspot.  I use my phone mostly to play games, watch movies, and read pdf files.  Skype is out of the question, but my phone Internet crawls.  It's going to take money to update my console system for Skype, plus I need to have a ring ready for pickup.

I didn't do any cooking today either.  I had flat bread with curry for lunch at one of the restaurants I frequently patronize, and my Dad bought me shrimp croquettes with fried tofu and cucumbers with peanut sauce for dinner.  You're welcome to share my food anyway.  I was in the middle of cutting grass when my Dad gave me the food.  So I put the food in my motorcycle basket, then continued to cut grass.  I had planned to cut all the grass by the side of the road.  But I was only able to cut the grass at the side of the road by your house inshaAllah, when my weed whacker cut out and I couldn't get it started again.  What does it mean??!!!

Letter to Erin 20150801

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

I'll have to say that it's handy to know how to make dough.  Fresh bread is filling, tastes great, good for you, and goes with pretty much anything.  Ya Allah, thank You for the knowledge and the bounty You have provided for me.  I can't make sliced bread like the machines do, but making dough comes easily for me.  It's because I had to make batches from 50 pound sacks of flour 2 to 7 times a day everyday at one point in my life.  My dough is as basic as it gets: flour, yeast, water, salt, and oil.  You should try to make dough too.  Just remember, you have to make dough everyday to become good at it.  Well maybe not everyday, but very very often.  Today for dinner, I rolled out a couple of doughs to about 8 inches, then stuffed with steak, black mushrooms and onions sauteed in butter, and cheese, then cooked them on the flat pan I use to cook tortillas, flipping them over a couple of times.  So yummy, and dripping with butter.  Yeah, perhaps I used too much butter, but it was great.  Oh, I ate yours!  I'm sorry, but you weren't here.  But as you know, you're welcome anytime for dinner, because I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150731

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin!  How are you, Sweetie?  Prepping for football season already?  Go team!  I'm sorry I'm not much of a sports fan.  I guess I need to find out who won the 2015 Ladies Figure Skating Championships.  The only sport I like, and I don't keep up with it.  I'm a big fan of you, though!  Go team!

It's just another everyday day for me here.  I went downtown to pay my phone and Internet bill in the morning.  I wanted to eat at one of my usual spots but it was closed, so I went home and cooked up some beef and potatoes.  In the evening, I cut grass over at your house inshaAllah.  Nothing too special for dinner tonight, just fried calamari.  Squid, flour, eggs, salt and pepper.  But oh so addictive.  I had a lot of cuttlefish, and today I only fried up just the heads and I'm stuffed.  Yeah, I ate your portion.  If you may say that.  Your portion is my portion.  Married people.  One plus one is one.  I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150730

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Aha!  I caught Bat Cat I eating the cat food!  So much for his pride and independence.  This is the first time in years I caught him eat my food.  Of course he ran away at top speed when he heard me.  But I guess It's somewhat gratifying that he relies on me a little.  But this batch of cat food has some worms in it.  Both ------- and ---- laid some fresh stools last night and I inspected them when I saw some white specks, and they were worms.  Now of course one can't expect purity in cat food.  Do you think that the humans would use fresh red snapper and bluefin tuna for processed cat food pellets?  Of course not.  Even the top brands like Friskies. Meow Mix and Iams get their bulk fish from slave boats, probably days or perhaps weeks old by the time they get it.  So this morning while I was waiting for my Dad to see the eye specialist, I swung by the vet to pick up some anti worm medicine.  By the way, the vet was packed and so was the eye specialist.  Anyway, they had run out of anti worm pills, so I went to the pet shop in the evening after it stopped raining to get the medicine.  When I got back, little ------- was crouching at the cat food, then went to lay a fresh stool.  No worms!  Where did the worms go?  I wasted RM22 on worm syrup?  I didn't want to give the cats drugs they don't need, so I put off the medicine for now.

I don't have a standard recipe for mole sauce.  The batch I made for dinner was made out of my failed attempt at making a palatable chocolate bar out of cooking chocolate.  As you know, I can't find cocoa butter anywhere around here, so I have to use cooking chocolate.  My chocolate bar attempt tasted good, but it had turned into Nutella (could it be that Nutella is actually a hazelnut bar failure?)  Actually, it tasted like mole sauce before I even added the hot chilli puree in.  Maybe the spoon wasn't properly washed.  The hot chilli puree had onions and Thai peppers in it, so my mole sauce today had some kick.  I slow cooked a chicken breast in the sauce, so the sauce also has chicken broth in it.  Then I made chicken mole burritos with lettuce, tomatoes, and black mushrooms sauteed in butter.  I made one for you, but I ate it since you didn't show up for dinner.

If you're trying your hand at cooking (and you should, but please have fun at it OK?) then please make sure that you put your stomach before your taste buds.  What I mean is make sure that what you cook doesn't hurt your stomach, regardless of the taste.  The flavor will follow naturally inshaAllah.  Also just use no bigger than medium heat until you have total confidence.  But I don't want to compete with you in cooking.  I have to eat whatever you serve me without complaint, because I love you and I need you.  But my stomach is very sensitive, so please have mercy on me.

Letter to Erin 20150729

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi there, my dearest Erin. How are you feeling today, my beloved?  Are you excited?  Well, don't be.  It's all the same old day, you know.  Then will come Judgement Day.  At least when we are married inshaAllah, we will share the day together.  Today I took it slowly, did all my chores slowly, and tried to get as much rest as I could.  There's always something to do around here.  I went downtown for dinner, and had some fried noodles for takeout.  Quite a big helping too, so now I'm stuffed and watching TV.  It's a James Bond movie, "The Living Daylights".  I'm going to set my bed now, rather it's a sheet covering a carpet on the floor.  Don't fret, I like sleeping on the floor.  I may never give that up, no matter how wealthy I may become.  Remember that the goal is to stay put, settle down, and raise a family.  Doesn't that sound better than throwing the illusion of a party to give the illusion of having fun to give the illusion of prosperity?  Would you care to join me on my bed?  Well, we have to be married first.  I love you, and I need you.

Erin. please give a donation of a minimum of one US dollar to a worthwhile charity.