Christmas House Prep . . . Done!
No, no, not the CELEBRATION of Christmas . . . That’s just beginning. But the craziness of getting ready for Christmas, after which you can sit back and enjoy some time for reflection.
A lot of the pain is self-inflicted. Before I even went to Seattle, I got out the garland and threaded it up the stairs. Found some glittering stars, and worked it so they would twirl and send twinkles of light throughout the entry. I sighed and puffed up and down the stairs . . . putting on lights is hard work, especially if, like me, you like LOTS of lights, it is hard work . . . but so, so worth it in the end. We had a little Christmas lighting up the house!
Stairway: DONE!
Years and years ago, like thirty years ago, I took a lot of time embroidering this Christmas wreath, so up it goes, every year: DONE
Life was on the fast track when I got back from Seattle, so I did a little bit every day, like “on the first day of Christmas prep, I hung the reindeer . . . ”
Then, it’s counter-intuitive, but I needed to get the outside lights up. Like how can it be Christmas if you don’t share? I’m annoyed that the icicle lights don’t match the tree lights; I’ll have to deal with that . . . next year 🙂
Done!
Now, to drag out all the boxes for the Christmas tree inside, and oh, what an adventure, always, to find forgotten treasures and to remember where we got the ornaments. I find all the pieces of the tree and set it up. I hate using an artificial tree, but the real trees get SO dry, especially when Pensacola experiences an unseasonal warm spell. It’s like you end up with large branches empty of needles, and you find needles strewn on our carpets for months to come.
Tree: done!
We saved a few ornaments for Q to “help” and three was just the right number, four was one too many, LOL!
The camel my friend in Doha made me – a Wise Man’s camel, following the great star, laden with gifts for the new baby:
Brass Christmas ornaments from the Women’s Cooperative in Damascus, along with a manger scene from Germany, and a cross – another cross – from Kuwait. Yes, yes, if you knew where to look, there were Christmas ornaments all over Qatar and Kuwait:
An Italian Creche and a tiny French Santon Creche, jumbled with collected camels and wise men . . . who says there can be only three wise men? I like LOTS of wise men come to greet the new baby Jesus 🙂
A Nurnberg angel from our first year of marriage and a Damascus tablecloth from our last trip to Damascus:
Rosenthal angels; I think I might have had these even before I married AdventureMan:
Have to have a nutcracker – or two, or three . . .
Some antique German glass ornaments, too fragile to be hung on the tree:
A total mishmash of all the places we have been, so much fun. Hard work, yes, pulling it all out every year, but every year we grin when we see our old friends and think of all the good times we have had in so many different countries!
Welcome, Jesus! Welcome, all who celebrate the season of your birth!
Done!
Jesus and the Woman to be Stoned for Adultery
I’ve always loved this passage, along with the woman at the well, and the woman who touched the hem of his garment to be healed from a bleeding disease – Jesus was kind to women, in a time and culture where a pious man would not speak to a woman.
Hilary Mantel captures the stunning experience in Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, where she asks a man at a counter for an item and he looks right past her. She repeats her request and he acts as if she isn’t there. Her husband walks up, asks, and receives an answer. Cultural biases most often do not favor women. In this regard, Jesus – and the prophet Mohammed – changed everything, and treated women as equal people. It’s amazing to me how many of the Jesus anecdotes featuring females survived; it must have been astonishing in his time to treat females – property – with such compassion and humanity.
Footnote to this passage from The Lectionary: The most ancient authorities lack 7.53—8.11; other authorities add the passage here or after 7.36 or after 21.25 or after Luke 21.38, with variations of text; some mark the passage as doubtful.
John 7:53-8:11
53Then each of them went home, 81while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. 3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ 6They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ 8And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.* 9When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ 11She said, ‘No one, sir.’* And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’]]*
Qatar ‘ONE OF US’ Campaign – Nice Touch
Expat women who don’t wear enough clothing has long been a bone of contention for traditional and conservative Qatari women, who find themselves a minority in their own country. I remember well the anguish in the voice of one of my friends talking about how the salesgirl her mother was speaking with was showing “everything” AND she didn’t even speak Arabic, only English. Her mother was wondering whose country Qatar was?
Qatar doesn’t want to go to the extreme lengths of Saudi Arabia, they just want the non-Moslem, non-local women to cover up a little. Oh! Not just the women, the men, too! It’s a cute campaign – If you’re here, you’re one of us. I like it. It has a welcoming sound, but at the same time it politely reminds the expat that we are a guest in their country. This is the expectation, stated politely. Here is one of the visuals
(I found this article on Doha News)
A grassroots modesty campaign started by a group of Qatari women this summer has received the backing of the Qatar Tourism Authority, with the goal of helping visitors and expat residents “avoid embarrassment” and “feel welcome” here, the group has announced.
The “One of Us” drive, which was launched in June, highlights the part of the Qatari penal code that prohibits wearing “indecent” clothing in public, but adds to it by clarifying what exactly is deemed inappropriate – namely, bare shoulders and legs.
QTA will ensure that the dress code campaign guidelines will be displayed on posters in shopping malls and public spaces. They will also be posted on the QTA website and in future guides and brochures that the group publishes.
In June, campaign organizer Najla Al-Mahmoud told Doha News:
I don’t blame foreigners as they come from a different culture and they don’t know that it’s not acceptable… that’s why a group of ladies from different group of age gathered and decided to do something for Qatar…
We don’t want to interfere with anyone’s religion and force them to wear hijab … we only want modest clothing. It’s a matter of etiquette and class. We want to be able to go to public places without a lot of flesh around us.
Despite organizers’ efforts not to raise hackles, the campaign sparked a fierce debate on social media and Doha News about local/expat relations and the definition of decency.
Commenter J wrote:
This is a tricky issue for ex-pat women here as being “modest” is relative. And there are lots of mixed messages. You may see a young Muslim woman wearing a Shayla, a long, loose skirt, and the tightest long-sleeve shirt you’ve ever seen, leaving little to the imagination. And men wear tight t-shirts, tight skinny jeans, and shirts with the first three buttons open showing their chest. I think this campaign should not be aimed at everyone, not just at ex-pat women.
Others said they supported the campaign and expressed appreciation for having concrete guidelines to follow.
Meanwhile, Qatar University rolled out its own dress code in September, to mixed reaction from the student body, who are now prohibited from wearing tight, revealing clothing (including tight abayas) and casual wear like sweatpants and Bermuda shorts.
Much Cooler
“Today is forecast to be much cooler than yesterday”
This morning I woke up to discover I had slept eight hours. This is something wonderful for me; a week ago I had to give up taking Benedryl. I am a light sleeper, and I have allergies, so taking one Benedryl every night helped me with both. My doctor said it was time to give it up, that components of Benedryl are thought to contribute to formation of those plaques that speed Alzheimer’s and dementia. Yikes!
For a week I have struggled. I could go to sleep normally, but would awake around three and spend a couple hours wishing I were asleep. Sometimes I could fall back asleep, sometimes not. Part of the problem is the unseasonal warmness of the temperatures, I toss and turn, looking for a cool place.
Then, if I had not managed to get back to sleep, I would find myself getting cross during the following day, a sure sign, just like a toddler, that I need a nap. My naps would be deep and restoring, but probably not that great if I wanted to sleep well the next night. It was a self-perpetuating and destructive cycle. I wondered if I would ever be able to sleep normally again.
Last night I slept normally, and deeply. I woke at six, rested, happy. It helped that the Qatari Cat found elsewhere to curl up last night; many a night I wake up and he is tangled up in my legs and bedding, snoring with contentment. Most important – last night it was cooler. When the temperatures hit in the seventies outside, it can be around 80°F inside when we go to bed, and it makes me restless. I like colder temperatures, and – last night was colder. I slept great! It gives me hope!
Temperatures are lower today, too, and it gives me energy. The heat saps my drive; the cooler temperatures help me be more productive, a good thing in a season where there is much to do! 🙂
Favorite Things Restaurant Opens on Cervantes
“Have you eaten at Favorite Things yet?” our friend asked us.
“They have a restaurant?” I asked. I knew they had a little coffee shop and gifts, but I hadn’t heard they had a restaurant.
“Just opened,” he replied. “I took folks there for breakfast after church last Sunday. It was GOOD!”
So the next day we had to go, missing entirely the police shooting two burglars in our neighborhood.
I had driven by this place a million times, but I had never been in. It was cute, lots of unique gifts and good ideas, an old fashioned candy store and – a newly opened restaurant. Actually, they had just opened the previous Friday, this was still their soft opening while they work the kinks out of their system.
The dining room is cute, all different tables and chairs, all a country theme.
The menu offers a lot of options, breakfast options, sandwiches, entrees, local specialities. I overheard a manager talking it over with a long time friend; Favorite Things is associated with Jerry’s, next door, but “Jerry’s does all the fried food and we do all the rest!”
We ordered, then roamed through the store, looking at the gift offerings:
Oops! Food arrived while we were ooohing and aaahing over all the goodies.
AdventureMan ordered the soup and sandwich special with their gumbo and a turkey sandwich:
I ordered the Reuben sandwich on whole grain with a cup of the gumbo:
When I put the top on the Reuben, I saw something I really liked – look at all the grains on the top of the roll, and look at the whole grains in the chips:
We went back and tried breakfast, taking little-boy-Q with us, who was good as gold and ate everything with a fork except for the grapes. AdventureMan had a traditional egg special, little-boy-Q had parts of our meal and a fruit bowl, and I had the lachs and bagel breakfast, excellent, and I don’t even usually like bagels. Nice to know there is another good breakfast option near us.
Pensacola Christmas Parade 2012
A perfect evening. Got there minutes before the one mile runners came by, parking at our church and walking to our favorite spot, meeting up with our son, his wife, and the adorable little boy who truly gets everything that is happening. This is his third parade; he always loved the lights and loud noises, but this year, he GETS it, gets the floats and the bands and the BEADS!
“I love this tradition,” my daughter-in-law says, leaning over to kiss me as we meet up to watch the parade and do a little-boy-transfer. He is coming to spend the night with us. He has his own room in our house.
ZOOOOOMMMMM! the motorcycle police accompany the runners, EEERRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW the fire engine, all lights and noise comes by at the beginning of the parade, and then a high school band from New Orleans with a killer beat leads the parade. Wooooo HOOOOOOOO, shouts Intlxpatr, totally into another cultural experience. 🙂
One of the optical shops had running eyeballs, totally hilarious!
“Beads! Beads!”
This float was giving out Chobani yoghurt
“Beads! Beads! More beads!” People taller than I were catching beads – and then passing them on to the little children. So kind, so generous.
My favorite, of course, a pirate ship:
This parade is great fun. Here is a thing I love about Pensacola. About 50,000 people attend. Many walk from nearby neighborhoods, others drive down and park – there is still plenty of parking in Pensacola. People gather peacefully. There is no fighting over great spots; there are a lot of great spots from which you can watch the parade. At the end of the parade, everyone disperses peacefully – no fighting. In fifteen – twenty minutes the crowd is GONE, 50,000 people gone home, peacefully. It is a great community, all walks of life, all having a great time watching this home town Christmas parade.
Early this morning, the morning after, we started a new tradition – we got a long stick with a hook, and went after some of the beads stuck up in the trees. AdventureMan and Q got started while I went to church, meeting up with some experts who gave them tips – and beads. Such is the kindness of strangers, and the brotherhood of bead chasers. 🙂
Two Shot Robbing Houses in Pensacola
Most people claim crime in Pensacola happens in the west end . . . this happened in East Pensacola Heights yesterday; found in the Pensacola News Journal:
Police shoot fleeing burglary suspects
Two burglary suspects were shot Thursday afternoon while trying to run over the Pensacola police officers who were trying to apprehend them in a neighborhood bordering Bayou Texar, authorities said.
Officers Justin Roedel and Patrick Bradley saw the men, whose names have not been released, acting suspiciously in front of a house on the 600 block of Whitney Drive at about 12:45 p.m., Police Chief Chip Simmons said.
The officers were patrolling the area because of a recent uptick in residential burglaries in the area.
The officers approached the men, who ignored them and got into an SUV, police said.
“Instead of listening to the officers, they sped toward the officers,” Simmons said. “The officers pulled their guns and they fired at the vehicle which was coming toward them.”
The officers wounded one man in the shoulder and another in the leg.
The SUV, which had been reported stolen by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, continued moving after the shots were fired. It was later found abandoned at Fox Road and Woodbine Drive.
Moments later, one of the suspects was caught in the backyard of a home on Wedgewood Road and Tanglewood Drive, while the other was nabbed at Dean Road and Gerhardt Drive, Simmons said.
They were taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital. The man with a shoulder injury, who is 18 years old, was taken in critical condition, Escambia County Emergency Medical personnel said. The man who was shot in the leg, whose age is not known, was in stable condition.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shootings, spokesman Keith Kameg said. Roedel and Bradley are on paid administrative leave, as is standard for all officer-related shootings.
By Thursday evening, Simmons said detectives were still interviewing the suspects and putting together reports to file charges for the recent burglaries and Thursday’s incident. They may be filed this morning, Simmons said.
“We want to make sure we have everything in order before we file formal charges,” Simmons said.
Since Nov. 27, there have been 21 residential burglaries reported to Pensacola police. Nine happened near Bayou Boulevard and east of 12th Avenue, police said.
Jon Morris, a Woodbine Drive resident, said he saw police patrolling the area the night before.
“We just know there have been a lot of break-ins around here. The last six months have been bad, so I’ve just been keeping an eye out,” Morris said.
This is the second time Roedel has been in an officer-involved shooting in recent years, though he was cleared of any wrongdoing during the previous incident.
In the last case, Roedel shot Anthony Smith seven times in November 2010 after Roedel approached Smith’s vehicle thinking it might be connected to a drive-by killing that happened 30 minutes earlier. Smith hid behind a tree and pointed a handgun at Roedel, investigators said.
Smith, 24, later received a 12-year prison sentence for his involvement.
News Journal reporters Josh Cooper and Rhema Thompson contributed to this report.
Indian Village Bans Cell Phones – For Women
LOL – what about those cheating, eloping MEN? Ban only women from using cell phones? What about calls from mothers who need you to run an errand? What about calls from the children’s school? Women – and man – who are going to cheat are going to cheat, whether or not you take their cell phone away. Found this on AOL/Huffpost via Reuters:
PATNA, India – (Reuters) – A village council in the eastern Indian state of Bihar has banned the use of mobile phones by women, saying the phones were “debasing the social atmosphere” by leading to elopements – a move that set off outraged protests from activists.
In addition to the ban, the Sunderbari village council in a Muslim-dominated area some 385 kilometers (239 miles) east of Patna, the capital of Bihar, has also imposed a fine of 10,000 rupees ($180) if a girl is caught using a mobile phone on the streets.
Married women would have to pay 2,000 rupees ($36.60).
“It always gives us a lot of embarrassment when someone asks who has eloped this time,” said Manuwar Alam, who heads a newly-formed committee tasked with enforcing the ban, referring to queries from neighboring villages.
He said the number of elopements and extramarital love affairs had risen in the past few months, with at least six girls and women fleeing their homes.
“Even married women were deserting their husbands to elope with lovers. That was shameful for us,” Alam said. “So, we decided to tackle it firmly. Mobile phones are debasing the social atmosphere”.
Local officials have begun investigations, saying that such bans cannot be allowed in a healthy society, while women’s rights activists called it an assault on freedom that could potentially end up harming women by stripping them of one source of protection from trouble, such as unwanted advances by men.
“Girls and women are capable enough to protect themselves,” said activist Suman Lal during a debate on local television. “Technology is meant to be used, not to be banned…The order is nauseating.”
Fellow activist Mohammad Islam said it was “disappointing” that the village council ignored the many advantages of mobile phones before placing a ban on them for one reason.
“I want every girl to be given a mobile phone so that she could call up family members if she has a problem”, he said. ($1 = 54.6400 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by New Delhi newsroom, editing by Elaine Lies)
Rainin Ribs on Lake City Way in Seattle
My best friend from University flew in from Hawaii the day before I was leaving Seattle, so we grabbed time for a visit and early dinner.
“What are you interested in?” she asked.
“Good Chinese or BBQ” I answered.
“I know just the place, close to home!” she crowed.
When we get there, I recognize the place, it used to be Alligator Ribs, or something like that, and it was also VERY good. My Mom and I had eaten there, and it was really, really good. This is looking pretty good, too – there is a long line of customers, both eating in and taking out. You order at the counter, then either wait (taking out) or go sit down until they bring you your dinner in a picnic table kind of area.
My friend ordered the dry ribs and green beans. Both were out-of-this-world:
I am not supposed to eat ribs, but I did eat one of hers, and they were awesome. Not fatty. Very smokey and very tender. Oh, YUmmmmmmmmmm.
I had the Danza sandwich, tri-tips, and it was also very good, with sweet potato fries. No matter how good they were, I did not eat them all. I did eat a few 🙂
Very yummy. Very. And still, the ribs were awesome . . .
They have several sauces, including VooDoo Sauce, which they don’t offer in a squeeze bottle, you tell the waitress you want some and she brings you a little bowl of it. It is good, and it does not blow your brains out.
The best bets in our humble opinion – The ribs. The sandwich was good, but the ribs are to die for. The green beans are superlative. The sweet potato fries are superlative. I’d love to try their Brunswick Stew. I dream of the BBQ at Rainin Ribs, it is that good. Who knew they did BBQ this good in Seattle??
“Do You Think You Would Move To Seattle?”
“If anything happened to me, do you think you would move to Seattle?” AdventureMan asked, knowing the heat and long humid summers in Pensacola are hard on me. What are the clues? Maybe my grumbling and complaining, maybe that I won’t walk in the garden with him because of the heat and humidity, the snakes, the mosquitoes, the red ants, LOL.
I really love Seattle. I love it that women of all ages can wear jeans and look comfortable in their own skin. So many of those stoic Scandinavian women don’t even bother with make-up anymore, so secure are they. They don’t color their hair. They are comfortable to be exactly who they are. They walk. They are like the French; they get their exercise in their daily life by walking and keeping active. They read books and discuss them. They make interesting political choices. Yes, I really like Seattle.
On the other hand . . . this is one of only two times I saw the sun when I was in Seattle:
It rained. Sometimes it rained more lightly, sometimes it drizzled, and now and then it poured. It rained particularly hard and cold one night as I was trying to get my Mom into a restaurant and we had to park far away. And here is the weather forecast for Seattle today from Weather Underground:
Weather Underground Forecast for Tuesday, December 04, 2012. Another strong Pacific storm will slam into the West Coast Tuesday, renewing rain and high elevation snow for areas that were hit hard by three storms in the past week. This storm will be slightly farther north than the previous storms, bringing areas of heavy rain and high elevation snow from Washington through the San Francisco Bay Area. The heaviest precipitation is expected to fall in Washington and Oregon, but heavy rain is possible in the far northern part of California.
Pensacola is truly lovely from October to March . . . yesterday was in the 70’s. It was wonderful to see the sun 🙂
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