Alhamdulilah (my washer is running again!!!)

So after being prompted by DH and the prospect of shelling out $150 for the pump on my washer, I searched the internet and found a no cost solution. It seems that these Whirlpool Duet HE washers have a filter under the front kick plate right before the pump that you can just turn (there's a little handle) and pull out. People on repair sites were saying that this could clog up and cause the same error as the pump being bad... So I popped off the kick plate (after moving Mt. Laundry from in front of the washer) and pulled it out. I found nasty gray rotting things clogging the filter to the point where they took the shape of the opening including, but not limited to... A baby sock, costume jewelry, popsicle sticks, ball pint pens, paperclips and slime. I dumped the stuff, cleaned the filter and popped it all back in. I am on my second load with no error... Which, insha'Allah, is a sign that I won't be hauling butt to the laundry-mat this week. Alhamdulilah.

It has occurred to me...

So I am seeing the fact that I haven't been a properly social blogger these days, and I want to say I'm sorry. I am just busy and I don't mean to offend. So, if i haven't answered a comment, made one on your blog, or replied to a tag. I know it, and it's nothing personal... I am trying to work out a time when I can be on the computer and do more than just blurk, so I'll be back... In the mean time, don't hate me cause I'm anti-social!!! You all know I love you, right?

Random thoughts on a random day...

I am running around trying to get things cleaned up while DH has the kids out for the day and I always have these random thoughts that aren't really posts, more like post seedlings. So I thought today I would share the torturous labyrinth of profundity that is my mind when I should be thinking about the task at hand!LOL

here they are in bullets not numbers, since numbers would feel like I'm ordering them by some criteria in my mind.

**DH should study the deen and open a question and answer session like they have at Azhar... The only problem would be that sometimes he would have to like follow you for the day and get to know you before he would answer. Seriously, I would call it "Fiqh you can use", "Fiqh for this century" or "Fiqh for the rest of us". Really, that guy is the master of analyzing situations and people. Except me, but that's another story:P

**I think that I am going to have to tear my book that I have been working on apart and re-vamp the entire thing rather than re-writing it. The storyline came to me while I was polishing the stainless steel kitchen sink the other day. (don't think I'm a clean freak, 'cause I'm a mess... I'm using a program called flylady where the first step is to shine your kitchen sink.)

**I really want to see that new movie "Coraline" I'm dying to know what the whole button eyes thing is about.

**I can't find the book for my book club on tape. Which means that I can't listen and then read it to let it absorb properly. This strangely bums me out.

**People sometimes get upset that "foreigners" are "stealing" people away from marrying people from the same country. Trust me, if you marry a foreigner (assuming you are happy) there was no way you were going to get along with a spouse from your culture. Something about you was always a little outside the norm, for you different fits.

**Trash seems to breed in my house. I think there were more cans on the tables than I remember seeing anyone drink since yesterday.

**I get obsessive when using Lysol. We are on the second week of a stomach flu and my only good idea so far is that the boys are somehow re-infecting themselves... So I got out the Lysol to do their room. Before I knew it I had stripped every bed in the house and sprayed it liberally. And the door handles. And the light switches. Needless to say I had to arrange proper ventilation shortly after.

**Audiobooks are my friends.

**I need to start planning my menus again, and when I do I will start posting to my yahoo group for menu planning again. Insha'Allah.

**We just changed insurance and I am going crazy wondering if I made the right choice!!! It changes on the 15th and I keep hedging on it. In theory ours now is better, but they have all these exclusions and find a way not to pay anything.

**After sitting through the movie of "The Yacoubian Building" and being able to tell who was who and what they were saying before DH could translate it (they stuck pretty close to the book) DH is pressing my to get my masters in Lit. Something I may actually do.

**Like I said, I am following a program called Flylady and one of the things you do is get up and dressed and ready for your day before the family. That means showered, dressed, face fixed and ready to go out the door. Usually I don't get dressed until after dropping the kids off. Since I started doing this, DH is convinced I'm trying to impress someone at the kid's school:P

OK, OK... Enough randomness. You get the idea. These are the things that roll around in my head while I clean... What about you?

women and friendship

One of the things I have been thinking about a lot lately is the fact that I don't have friends here in WY. This leads to the general subject of women and our generally social nature. Yes, even those of us who feign disdain of society and such in general.

Women are not like men in their need for friends. You will never see a man complaining that his BFF broke up with him. No. Men seem blissfully unaware of the status of their friendships and can pick up and leave off with other male friends without a thought. Unless a friend really crosses some line (and even then sometimes) men don't stop being friends. And it seems that men don't obsess about things like not having a social life outside of work. They go with the flow. They are fine as a lone hunter.

Women, on the other hand are more symbiotic. They NEED friends. Having friends keeps them going. Having friends is the reason that they care about their wardrobe and their home decor. Think about it for a minute? Does your DH notice your new bag (before he sees the bank statement)? Are you impressing him with your new shoes? No. Women are constantly working within the female half of our social structure.

So, being left out of it for any significant period leaves us floundering. And I am so there right now. I need a friend to go places with. To have tea with. To swap hijabs with. **sigh** But I just don't fit in with women here in WY. I could blame the bias they have against Muslims... But it goes deeper than that. I'm just different fundamentally. I don't fit in here. WY is a very closed social structure, and I know that other people not from here must experience it too.

I guess I just I'm just saying think about it. I hope you are all grateful for the friends you have, because being cut off is a struggle.