Monsoon Monday

[blessedw2]

old dogs are panting - it's not hot outside as much humid.
a/c is on but it is still humid.

time for either exercise or french or boating manual. I have to leave at 2 for d mom's appointment

weeded out the old cilantro out front
tried to work on the pool - cleaner on bottom is not work??? brand new

[LadyMaverick]

as a Christian I'm called to practice hospitality

Just color me clueless. I don't understand why religion preferences for food being discussed for a community event. I honestly don't know what every religion requires for their belief. But I wonder why discussing the Muslim food preference is singled out? Is food kosher for those who eat that way? etc etc etc. Is it just a religious food discussion or are plans being made and discussed for diabetics food requirements? Refer to my 1st sentence. I am soooo clueless.

Homeschool went well today. DS8 finished 22 lessons today which is a new record for his 4th grade.

Lunch is a hot dog picnic for DS8 and homemade beef & vegetable soup for me. DH ate breakfast late so he isn't hungry

[Harmony]

Hello. Looks like rain here later today too. We've been dancing through rain storms almost every day. But no flooding. It takes more rain than this to gather, except for a few roads. Sandy soil makes for excellent drainage.

So.... yesterday I tackled the garage, the smaller part that is supposed to be for our car and personal stuff. However, it also holds a lot of overflow from the shop. I moved stuff around and swept whole thing out. DH usually goes in there with the blower, but that means he doesn't have to move anything from the floor. I moved it all, got it more organized and neat and put several things back into the shop where it belongs. It is very full but certainly looks better.

I counted, we have 30 shelves (on shelving units) and 5 double cabinets on the walls. The cabinets are ok but the shelves need straightened and organized. On one shelf was a reel of screening spline and it was spilling over in big knots everywhere. Renter had it to fix his mess on the lanai over there and left it out in the rain and the cardboard reel ends rotted and the spline fell off in a heap. I spent most of the afternoon straightening all that out, putting most of it on another reel and another 1/3 around 2 containers. Renter certainly never had any consideration for others' property.

Annoyed with a lady at church. I guess she was talking with DH who was complaining about me making him retire. She came up with another business model he could do and he came home telling it to me, all gleeful. I am furious with her. She does not know DH needs his knee and 1 hip replaced and his walking is unsteady, his 2 shoulders do not work and he cannot lift his arms, and he falls many times, even from ladders, etc. This other way of working would not work for him, it's the type of work he does many times and he calls me to help. Oh, he says he'd get temp help. Where's the profit with that? Nowhere! I woke up dreaming about all this; debating calling this woman to explain the situation.

Sometimes people need to keep their noses out of other's business.

[DeeClutter]

True, Harmony, but probably won't ever happen. See it here all the time.

[blessedw2]

hi d harmony!
well done on your work!

did french for 1 hour and 15 minutes I thought it was longer but checked my timer and that is that
time to get dressed for d mom's doctor appointment

[Nancy]

Sheets are clean & back on the bed, store run done to the close by market. Journaling done. I have refilled water bottle, I need to refill ice trays and check on the laundry. It is almost time to release the hens. Did a rock drop at the trading post.

More laundry going last load in.

[blessedw2]

is it a community event of different faiths - a pot luck? If that is the case then it is respectful to serve food that everyone can have no matter ones faith.

I had an classmate, of Asian indian decent, who shared with me how they bring food to the temple as an offering - really neat - I wouldn't serve pork products either depending on certain faiths. We have community dinners here that I haven't gone to one yet but would like to eventually. I am afraid it would just be christian - I love learning from others about their faiths and traditions - so much fun.

I am sure d kathryn, d twins and d helia may have some ideas as they entertain international guests quite a bit

yay d nancy on your work too

[helia]

Ha! You got me out of lurk mode. Life is good, just busy. We're getting ready to leave town Thursday to head up to the Porcupine Mts. in the far west corner of the Upper Peninsula, about a 10 hour drive from here. Yes, it is possible to drive for 10 hours and still be in the state of Michigan! Especially since speed limits in the UP are notoriously low. . . .

I'm not following the whole discussion re: foods and different ethnic and religious backgrounds, and I don't have time to go properly cuops. From a "this is what it looks like for us in real life" point of view, I'll just say that we do our best to accommodate different food traditions/beliefs/health restrictions to the best of our knowledge, which is not always perfect. So, for example, when dh invites his lab over, we typically cater a main that is vegetarian and one that is not since some of his grad students are vegetarians and some LOVE meat. If a Muslim guest is coming to our home -- and dh has had Muslim grad students before and there's an Iranian grad student in his dept. (not his own student) that he's loosely in contact with who has joined us for dinner before -- we make sure there is food he/she can eat. So, we don't serve pork, which is a pretty rigidly restricted food item for devout Muslims. Or if it is a larger gathering, like dh's lab, and there will be more than one main, we make sure one is without pork. We just do our best, and guests have always been grateful for what we can do, and if we make a mistake, they graciously eat what they're able -- and usually there's so much food that it's not an issue! We don't worry about halal meat; that seems beyond our scope, but that hasn't seemed an issue yet. The Iranian student has eaten non-halal meat in our house before no problem. He's probably fairly secular.

In terms of health restrictions, again, we do our best to accommodate needs to the best of our knowledge. And again, our knowledge may not be perfect. Thinking. . .hmmm...... I don't know anyone here firsthand who has diabetes -- I mean none of our friends do . . . Hmmm......However, if a diabetic were visiting us for dinner AND if we knew of their diabetes, we would do our darned best to make a meal they could enjoy without worrying about consequences to their health. My mom does have dietary restrictions and my brother should follow restrictions and, of course, dd21 has celiac. So, when my parents visit or I cook at their place, I'm conscious of the sodium and fat content of foods I'm making.

Dd21 asks the questions she needs to re: celiac and isn't afraid to say "no" to food if she's not convinced it's not contaminated. However, she's pleasant and gracious, eats what she can, and doesn't blame the host if she can't eat everything.

So, our guiding principle is to do our best to accommodate food preferences for whomever we're hosting to the best of our knowledge. And we don't worry about the knowledge we don't have.

I'm sure Twins and others might have other insights.

On to another topic, I completed a 10 mile run on Sunday!! I was pretty slow, but I could do it. I limited myself to 3 drinking breaks, just long enough to open a bottle and take 4 - 6 sips of water. I did that at mile 4, 6, and 8. That is encouraging!!

I'm off to run errands now:
- remote rabbit care with dd21 who is going to be doing this for me while we're up north
- mailbox to finally put grad cards in the mail
- pet food store: I think dfriend didn't leave us enough food for her rabbits
- groc. store
- vet to pick up a vial with a scooper to collect a sample of you-know-what from Maia. yay.

[CathyS]

It's pouring rain here now.

All of my dishes are done! Now to put away the pile of t shirts that dcat used for her bed earlier. I moved them when she got up. She can be so predictable. She sleeps most of the morning, gets up for less than an hour and then goes back to sleep until supper time. After that she stays up until at least 10, when she yells at me to go to bed.

Laundry is almost done. There is a basket full near the dryer that needs to be put away, along with some things on top of the dryer. For the first time in a very long time, the dresser is clear.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

LadyM: the guy is an Islamaphobic, bigot and because we chose a food truck that he and Muslims can enjoy, we are obviously brainwashed and have given up Canadian Values. After all we wouldn't support a business whose profits indirectly support Christian Churches! (That's what he wrote me!)

What's interesting is the guy who did the bbq for years is Lebanese immigrant and so is the proposed person this year. Both Arab but one is Arab Christian (so yes, we've been supporting a Christian church indirectly since Mo donates a lot to his church) and Fasi is Arab Muslim (and since to be halal one pays for certification and some of that money makes it way to a Mosque using this guy will in a very indirect way support a Mosque.)

Mo is a great guy and he's hired NFD to work at his restaurant so has given him his first Canadian job experience. BUT Mo shows up late every year, his food is so-so and he damaged the patio last year so we were looking for a change.

What this bigot wants is for there to be fewer foreigners and people not like him living in these buildings and by being hospitable to 'the other' we are turning our back on Canadian values and catering to the needs of people who should give up their traditions when they give up everything else and try to start a new life elsewhere.

I didn't learn to like pizza until I was 27. My parents were quite upset with the influx of Italians after WWII to this city and so they avoided them as much as possible. Given they had both lived through WWII and lost many friends in the conflict, that is understandable, except we had some German items on our menu frequently because the area of Nova Scotia my father was from was settled by Germans in the 1800s and to my Irish heritage grandfather, the German stuff was local food.

Now pizza and pasta is not considered foreign food. Chinese is no longer considered foreign food. Shawarma is popular enough here that the dozens of shops stayed open in the daytime through Ramadan because Ottawans grab shawarma more often then they grab pasta as a take-out food and as often as they grab Chinese. So it is pretty mainstream even if it is something I've only had once.

Mom eventually got over her xenophobia to the point that she taught ESL to the Vietnamese refugees so people can change.

But at this point, this guy is still a radical hater and it annoys me that he got his way in this. I'm sure he feels God sent the rain to stop this from happening. In the meantime, we can't get Fasi back for a rain day because his food truck is booked through to mid September.

I'm so upset about all this because it seems so unfair. If we decided to serve Canadian food and served venison and bannock the guy would complain we were cowtowing to the Natives so we can't win unless we serve whatever food he was raised on and nothing else.