Just another average day

 

Hi Natty!  How are you, Honey?  I hope you're doing fabulous over there.  It's just another average day here for me.  I swept the house in the morning, watered the plants, collected water, then went out to buy gasoline.  The Eid is on Thursday, so I want to make sure I have everything I need to get through next weekend because everyone will be closed.  It's the holiday season over here!  I have to work everyday, so I don't have much attachment to public holidays.  But on the Eid I get to drink coffee in the afternoon, and for that I am very happy!  Alhamdulillah!

After Mary's session, I cut the grass by the side of the road again.  Then I made my dinner.  I have to use up all the fish I bought, so I'm having noodles in fish broth again.  I love ramen!  I'm quite pleased with how my soup has been turning out, so I thought I would show you the soup bubbling on the stove top.  I haven't put the noodle brick and the egg in yet.  I do that after the sunset prayer, bring the mix back to a boil then put the noodles in.  What you see up there is fish meat, tofu, seaweed, cilantro, pickled soybeans, garlic, red hot chilli pepper and a couple of big ol' squid balls boiling in fish broth.  Yeah, I've acquired the habit of putting a couple of big ol' squid balls in my soup everytime I make ramen, no matter what the flavor.  I don't know what it tastes like, because I'm still fasting.  I'm following a routine though, so inshaAllah it will be successful.  Want some?

What is a manly man?

 

Hi Natty!  How are you?  I hope you and your loved ones are fine and healthy.  It's been a busy day.  It's almost sunset, so I have to post and run.  Adolf Kitler is doing well alhamdulillah.  Apparently my diagnosis and treatment were correct.  Today is Friday, but before the prayer I had to drop off my mother's spit sample to the hospital lab.  After Mary's session I cut the grass in front of my mother's house, then I had to cook my dinner.  I'm not on any team, Honey.  I'm on my own.  I survived because Allah allowed me to survive.  Anyway, gotta go.  I love you!

Oops, I forgot to turn on ALM!  I wonder if anybody noticed...

The fallen tree

 

Hi Natty!  Oh, a geetar!  And vinyl!  Do you rock out on that guitar?  Such pretty potted plants as well.  That's a baby's breath, right?  The one at the bottom left of the photo, my mother has that plant, I don't know what it's called.  I don't have any indoor plants, I guess I should huh?  What's going on outside consumes my time so much I don't even think about growing stuff inside.  Right now, ginger seems to be growing like mad for me, so I'm going to ride that and grow lots of ginger.  I just potted a fresh shoot with some raw fish guts at the bottom of the soil.  Let's see what happens.  As you can see above, a huge tree fell down next to my grandfather's old house, right along the west side.  It happened a couple of nights ago.  It should have made a loud noise being how big it is, but I didn't hear anything.  It was a blessing though because not only is that tree a weed, but it fell parallel to the house and the neighbor's yard.  Also a blessing was that I happened to cut the grass on the day the tree fell, which gives me roughly a whole month to dismantle it before I have to cut the grass again.  I don't have a chainsaw anymore, so I'm going to dismantle the crown first and when I can afford a new chainsaw inshaAllah, I will take apart the trunk.  I can cut the grass around the trunk meanwhile.

On the menu tonight is fish!  I have another scad so I steamed it in banana leaves like before.  Except today, I bought some butter.  Butter makes a HUGE difference with seafood, I'm sure you know that.  If you did it right then any seafood can taste like crab, even a fish as unsophisticated as scad.  I stuffed the fish with tofu after salting it.  I like scad though, and the bigger the fish the better it is for my taste.  The liver and the belly meat are the best parts.  The head is unremarkable, but the meat between the eyes is still awesome like most fish heads.  I don't know what today's meal tastes like though.  I'm still fasting.  Want some?

Qur'an 20210506

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

91.  When it is said to them, "Believe in what Allah has sent down," they say, "We believe in what was sent down to us," yet they reject all besides, even if it be Truth confirming what is with them.  Say, "Why then have you slain the prophets of Allah in times gone by, if you did indeed believe?"

92.  There came to you Moses with clarity, yet you worshiped the calf after that, and you did behave wrongfully.

93.  And remember We took your Covenant and We raised above you of the Mountain: hold firmly to what We have given you, and hearken.  They said, "We hear and we disobey," and they had to drink into their hearts of the calf because of their faithlessness.  Say, "Vile indeed are the behests of your faith, if you have any faith!"

94.  Say, "If the last home with Allah be for you specially and not for anyone else, then seek you for death, if you are sincere."

95.  But they will never seek for death, on account of that which their hands have sent on before them.  And Allah is Well-Acquainted with the wrongdoers.

96.  You will find them of all people, most greedy of life even more than the idolaters.  Each one of them wishes he could be given a life of a thousand years, but the grant of such life will not save him from punishment, for Allah Sees Well all that they do.

97.  Say, "Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel, for he brings down that to your heart by Allah's will, a confirmation of what went before, and guidance and glad tidings for those who believe..."

98.  Whoever is an enemy to Allah and God's angels and prophets, to Gabriel and Michael- Lo! Allah is an enemy to those who reject faith.

(The Heifer 1:91-98)

Fish and rice

 

Hi Natty!  How are you today, my love?  I hope all is well with you and life is easy going.  I had to take my mother to the hospital today.  It was time consuming, but I spent all that time just listening to music.  Allah hammered on my cats this year.  First God took Floofy, then Lily, now Adolf Kitler has a tummy ache.  He was puking up spit and getting the runs, and crying miserably all the while.  It looks like food poisoning to me.  All I feed him is steamed fish and rice with no salt.  Maybe the fish was getting too old, but I have fresh fish.  I gave him some diarrhea syrup, and now he's sleeping the sickness off.  I don't think he will be able to eat anything until tomorrow, if he survived.  I think he will inshaAllah, he's stopped drinking and staring at the water.  At first I thought if I cleaned up the fish more and fried it, it would be OK for him.  But no, I'm just going to have to feed him cat food pellets that are made for male cats.  The best I can afford for Der Kitty Fuhrer.  I fried up some mackerel for him too, but he didn't want it.  I very rarely eat fried mackerel, even though it's very common around here, so I didn't do it properly.  Good enough to pick off the meat for my fried rice dinner.  Yeah, I steamed some rice for him too but I guess I will be eating that.  I gave 3 fried fish heads to Lookie, and she loved them.  She ate them while moaning in ecstasy.

So it looks like I will be eating a lot of fish in the near future.  I made fried rice with the mackerel.  I also bought some hardtail scad which was intended for the cat, but I will be eating that instead.  I steamed one up this evening in banana leaves and seasoned in my lemongrass and chilli sauce.  I wish I could have grilled the fish on charcoal but I couldn't be bothered, what with the limitation on time and energy during fasting.  I don't know if my steamed fish and fried rice taste good or not.  I'm still fasting.  Want some?

What, no girlie pictures?  Mary had the day off!

ANNOUNCEMENT! Mary Unknown7 is taking the day off tomorrow

 Natty, you're so pretty!  You can sure cheer up a dismal city street.  Do you have a car?  Is it that shiny white car?  Please drive carefully, and take sweet loving care of yourself because I love you so much.  I don't have a car.  When the money comes to me and I am able to marry inshaAllah, the first things to pay for is to secure this land so I can build a house.  If I failed to secure this land then that means I have to move out of this village in order to get married.  Canada sure sounds good.  No more tropical swelter.  After that, I get the ring.  Then maybe after the ring, I can get a car.  I can't get the car before the ring.  My girl will hate me.

I have an announcement to make, folks!  I gave Mary Unknown7 the day off tomorrow.  I have to take my mother to the hospital.  InshaAllah, she will be back to sing for you on Wednesday night 11 pm PST.  And here is that entire Mr. Bean episode for you folks who haven't seen it yet.  Now don't go reading spiritual innuendos into it, it's just a comedy skit.  I don't even have a car.

Qur'an 20210504

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

78.  And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book but desires, and they do nothing but conjecture.

79.  Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say, "This is from Allah," to traffic with it for a miserable price.  Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.

80.  And they say, "The Fire shall not touch us but for a few numbered days."  Say, "Have you taken a promise with Allah, for God never breaks the Promise of Allah?  Or is it that you say of Allah what you do not know?"

(The Heifer 1:78-80)