Green Plastic Watering Can

Who else's mom cuts a couple inches off the lota to increase water flow? Sucks going to someone's house with an unmodified lota which you end up overcompensating for the lower flow rate with a higher tilt causing spillage out of the top all over yourself.

Secondly, momz has instituted a leave the lota full policy which doesn't carry over to others' homes thus often leaving me with an empty green plastic watering can.

Thank God for fake plastic trees.

Paint it blech

We're painting our bedroom Costa Rica Blue. The previous owners of the home left the master bedroom a dark shade of green. You know, the shade of green popular on Jeep Grand Cherokees back in 97. So any way, we were cleaning the walls, wondering if the dried boogers on the one wall were ours or theirs. What is the most accurate way to determine this? Carbon dating or a DNA test?

Googs

I submit that Tom Gugliotta is a Menendez brother.

82 cents

Just another reason Target kicks Walmart's ais. Totino's cheese pizza is now just 82 cents and fully stocked at Target. We got our usual 6 boxes. Before the Target's of Virginia recently opened their grocery sections, we used to hit up Walmart for our bulk supply of Totino's cheese pizza. But the cheap desis who shop at Walmart would clean out the freezer leaving a tall stack of pepperonis and three meat pizzas. 99 cents at Walmart seemed like a great deal for some kick ais pizza ready in 9 minutes flat at 450 degrees, oven pre-heated, sans tray. But a couple months ago Target opened up its grocery section to my delight and we now haven't been to Walmart since. Since desis prefer Walmart over Target, the cheese Totino's are plentiful, and cheaper!

Well, dinner's ready!

What's under there?

Mustachioed.

Yes. I spelled it correct. Will they make a comeback? Upon my visit to the motherland, my mamoos and chachas were still very much mustachioed. My mamoo's children had stylish coiffes as they were raised in the city. My taiyyas' children and grandchildren from the pindh were all rocking staches and poofy punjabi hair, the kind that frizzes in humidity. One day, inshaAllah, my father will install Sabro air conditioning units in the mud huts. That will make our next one night stay in the gown bearable.

The big three oh!

The big one!

Only users lose drugs.

Target or Wal-Mart?

RIP Ray. I never saw this coming. Neither did you.

Yesterday on my drive home from work, I saw this dude driving his pickup truck with a prosthetic arm hanging out the driver-side window. I didn't get a good look at his "hand" but when he passed by, I noticed his license plate: CPT HOOK! Aaaahahahahaha!

Anybody else hate the colleague in the corner cube with the monitor facing the back of his cube? How did he manage to do this? Not only does he have the least frequented cubicle, but his monitor is set up perfect. When I moved to my cube, I tried in vain to have my monitor facing the back. I ended up placing my desktop next to the monitor but that's only a partial block. So now I sit at an awkward angle just to get my www on.

Anybody in my predicament have a left pinky strain? One can only ALT-TAB so much.

Speaking of ALT-TAB, don't you hate when it flips over to a pop-up ad? These ads tend to contain images of scantily clad women trying to sell me miniature cameras. Thats a blog unto itself. So then you get caught up in an ALT-TABbing frenzy, hoping to land on a SQL*Net window.

Does anyone ALT-TAB when their phone rings? What explains this phenomenom? Cubicles leave me on edge I guess.

Speaking of edges, does anyone have a manager taller than their cubicle edge? I ALT-TAB upon hearing footsteps.

ALT-TABs used in completing this post: 8

I took over putting Nuriya to sleep about four nights ago. Never done it before. It is awesome though, despite it taking 20 minutes. Basically I take her upstairs at 9:30 and make sure all the lights are out. She cries and tries to walk up my chest to get out of my grip. Meanwhile downstairs mom is fighting the urge to have me bring her down while listening to her cries on the baby monitor. They don't last long though. Mariam gets upset that I liken this to "breaking her spirit" as Nuriya's cries slow to a whimper, and then finally she falls asleep at my shoulder. As I lean over the crib, sleeping beauty clings to me as I lay her gently. The hardest part is attempting to remove my arm from beneath her without disturbing her. Its flattering to feel that she grips on to it, her security blanket. SubhanAllah.

If I'm lucky, I make it downstairs in time for the beginning of CSI.

I am purchasing a legal copy of The Last Samurai today on its release date. Unfortunately, it was not available in Pakistan a month ago.

A major tragedy occurred this past week in the ADAMS community. A group of friends met up after classes and decided to enjoy the perfect spring weather by driving out to Great Falls park on the Potomac River. Tragically, one of the bros slipped into the strong currents of the Potomac and another went into help, only to be swept away himself. 20 and 24 years old respectively.

I did not know either personally, but my family is acquainted with one of theirs. We paid our respects at the grief-stricken parents' home the following day. Alhamdulillah, I have been relatively spared from experiencing such a tragedy in my immediate circles. I have yet to experience the pain that these fine young mens' parents are experiencing. I can only ask that Allah give them sabr knowing that their sons are Shaheeds, inshaAllah.

My friend and former colleague, Andrew, perished a couple of months ago while I was away in Pakistan. I didn't hear of it until I returned a couple weeks after his and his fiancee's ferry capsized in the Baltimore Harbor.

Three promising lives snatched from us in their prime.

These are all reminders that our time is written and there will come a time when we have to own up to the way we have lived. Thankfully, Allah spares us in our cozy homes out in America from such tragedy. But on the same token, are we in need of constant reminders that we all face an end in this dunya? There is no doubt that we pray humbly in the immediate aftermath of such tragedies but it always seems to wane away. When at the masjid, you always hear "Pray as if this is your last prayer." Let's live each minute as if its our last minute...with Allah's name sweetening the tips of our tongues.

May Allah grant our two brothers who perished in the Potomac a home in Jannah near the river Rajab. Ameen.

So today I heard Bittersweet Symphony on the FM on the way home. This is one song I have to sing along with. Slow and enunciated. Wait...aren't they british? Odd. I digress. So a couple years ago I was just riding along and there was this Dave Mathews tune on the FM and I came up to a red light and it was a song of theirs where theres a part Dave sings real fast and I looked in my rear view mirror and the dude behind me was lipping the fast part but I know for sure he had no idea what Dave was saying. Speaking of sing-along songs, I heard Come Undone on the FM on the way to lunch today. Now I was listening carefully and I could not tell what the hell Simon was saying. (<- Woah, Simon says, ha!). I need to look those lyrics up.

Finally, I am here watching TV while surfing the web and I finally loaded Musicmatch Jukebox for the first time and some how it ended up playing Bittersweet Symphony. Second time today. I hadn't heard this song in maybe a year. Whatever happened to the Verve anyway? Where are they now? Calling VH1.

Nuriya parrotted us saying "Allah" last night, mashaAllah se. This, a few hours after mimicking mama's "Laa la, la LA laa" (Milkshake, Kelis). Aoodoobillah. Of course dada dadi immediately got into full shahada swing. Baby steps...coming soon.

Jay-Z. Head & Shoulders. This needs to happen.

Who's dad wears safari suits?