The Ponderosa

Last weekend, we were in our normal predicament: hungry, with nothing that sounded good in the house, and tired of being trapped indoors.  So rather than turning once again to noodles, homemade pizza, or PB&J sandwiches, we went out on adventure.  Ramadan is still in full-swing here, meaning that (1) nothing opens until 7 PM and (2) about 15 minutes after opening, everything is full.  Therefore, (1) we wait until after the kids should have eaten (they usually eat around 6 PM) and (2) the traffic is insane and (3) good restaurants are busy.

Now, let's take a little side tangent to discuss the concept of "good restaurants" and how the definition of such varies based on your age and interests.  "Good" to me and John would currently include Lebanese or Vegetarian Indian. "Good" to Hank means noodles or fried chicken.  But here I also have to praise the kids for being excellent sports--they are trying news things with no complaint, and some of those new things are very foreign looking and smelling as well as rather spicy.  The kids have exceeded all my expectations in terms of culinary adventure.

However, this does nothing to simplify an answer to this simple question:
Where should we go eat?

Add in the fact that we are all starving and that this city is FULL of restaurants, and we have a significant decision-making impairment.

So here is where we ended up.  Yes, the Ponderosa Steak House.  Here, I would like you to picture all the mediocre chain "steak houses" lining the main streets of all larger Texas towns.  Bonanza.  The Sizzler.  Denny's.  The Kettle.  Don't think of places like Outback or Texas Roadhouse, because those are upscale in comparison.  The first thing I thought of was the Golden Corral.

To give you any further indication, the one in Doha is located at "Cholesterol Intersection,"  a major city intersection crowded with such American favorites as Arby's and DQ and Pizza Hut.  These and MTV and E-TV are our "cultural ambassadors" in the Middle East--they are the businesses and faces that represent America to these folks.  Is it any wonder that we have an image problem?  It's like gastrointestinal terrorism.

Speaking of gastrointestinal...I had to find some bridge to cross...One thing you cannot find here is good broccoli.  The broccoli in the grocery stores is frozen and relatively expensive.  Since good fresh broccoli is common year-round in the US, this is something I miss.  I could always go to Sam's and get a big ol' bag (3 pounds?) of fresh broccoli crown pieces for something like $5.  Often, I would just steam or roast the whole bag.  Like a good apple (which are plentiful here), good broccoli can improve any dinner.

The Ponderosa did not have broccoli.  Or green beans.  Or spinach.  Or anything freshly steamed for that matter.

But it did have fried cauliflower. Yes, the primary way you see cauliflower here is deep fried.  It's actually quite tasty, but can't you just see that sheen of grease on the photo?

Along with the fried cauliflower, which Festus and Doc assure me is NOT a staple at old-west ponderosas in Dodge City, we had veggie samosa, which you can see on the left.  Again, these were tasty but...well...to be consumed only in small quantity.

The dinner was as you would imagine in a smaller-scale Golden Corral in the Middle East.  Some small spotting of vegetables (see the cucumbers on Hannah's plate) along with copious amounts of cafeteria-style spaghetti, lasagna, mac and cheese, chicken wings, chicken nuggets, and other rather horrifying things.  I wanted to take a picture of the buffet but couldn't because any pictures in public are a little risky in terms of offending someone.

And they had a soft-serve ice cream machine, which swirled together chocolate and vanilla. It, of course, was a big hit.  On a good note, the place was bustling, full of families from many different cultures.  There were lots of precious little kiddos, with wide, open faces and smiles.  An odd juxtaposition of the world's people gathered around the grease trough.

I'm still on the lookout for good fresh steamed broccoli.

Walking with Ravi

Lately, I have been going on walks with our family's friend, Ravi. We have been walking in a big area of dessert, and a gated-in area (which is where we are walking in the picture). Ravi is also known as Thibideaux. His dog's name is Negrita (also in the picture). We started walking a couple weeks ago, when Ravi came to our door and asked if I'd like to go with him, so I said yes. He said he walks Negrita every day (because it is pretty much the highlight of Negrita's day). Negrita is sick, so she has no teeth or pads on her feet. I really enjoy walking with Ravi and Negrita because Ravi and I love to talk a lot about many things.

A Garangao present from Umm Khalid

Garangao occurs on the 14th (middle) day of Ramadan, and is a little like Halloween. It's specific to the Khalij (gulf region) and is a celebration for children. The kids go around their neighborhoods, door to door, with pretty bags around their shoulders to collect sweets and trinquets. Here's a link with a brief description from 2005:

http://www.qatarliving.com/node/6

Our friend Khalid's mother (Umm Khalid - Nancy wrote about Umm and Bu), who we've not yet met, has been very lovely to us, and this is her latest thoughtfulness.

Hannah, of course, loves a present anytime.

The 2 Month Ordeal, or, It's Finlly Here!

This, my friends, is my new 9' Velzy longboard. It's a beautiful thing, especially because it made it through shipping and customs, and etc with no damage after 2 full months of sitting in a series of shipping offices in Florida, Texas, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. I don't really want to discuss what the grease for the various palms cost. I haven't added it up, actually. I don't intend to.

But it's here, in all it's glory. Nancy paused in her eye rolling long enough to acknowledge that it is, indeed, beautiful.

Dale Velzy, one of the iconic/classic California shapers, is second only to Renny Yater in my heart of hearts.

Picture, Just Because

I was flipping through our photo collection and saw this. She's probably around 3 years old.  I just had to share it, just because it is what it is.

And Then a Hello.

Well, now here I am still crying over Shady but I want to show you what showed up in our garage a couple of nights ago.  I have promised that this friend must stay outside.  No name yet, for fear of getting attached.  This guy just comes around and yowls loudly for his dinner around sundown each evening.  He's in good shape, so he most likely has a route and has just added us (a new family of suckers who promptly dropped everything to run to a neighborhood grocery and buy the only bag of cat food they had) as a nightly stop.  I've put the food and water in my kitchen window, over my sink.

Another Goodbye.

So we may have read that we found homes for the dog, the bird, and two of the cats.  John's amazingly wonderful parents consented to keep the one remaining cat, because they have huge hearts and because they could tell that it was just too much for me to say goodbye to all of them.

We got Shadow (we called her Shady) from a shelter in Carrollton, Texas about six years ago.  Shortly after adopting the first cat, I decided the first one needed a friend.  I wanted a Siamese-looking cat but one with a round head, not all pointy and over-bred looking.  So I lurked around Petfinder.com for several weeks and finally found one in a rescue shelter about 4 hours from our house.  Did I mention how much I love John, who will--without gripe or guilt--indulge my need to drive hundreds of miles in order to adopt a cat?

Shadow earned her name by being very elusive--she came from a home where I think some human abuse was going on, and she was known for hiding under beds.  She was sick with a cold when we got her, but they let us bring her home with us as long as we kept her separated until her antibiotics took effect.

Shady was a sweet wonderful cat, who would talk in little mews and beeps and who would come out after the kids had gone to bed to rub on my legs and play.  I could call her by saying "meewwwm" and she would answer. She had huge, gorgeous blue eyes and really thick fur--more like a seal skin.  She was hard to get in a photo, so I only have maybe 4 or 5 shots of her.

When we transferred her to her new home, she had seemed fine...her normal chubby, fluffy self.  She stuck close to us as we spent our last Texas nights in Pat and Bob's guest room.  Then over the course of the last couple of weeks, Pat noticed that Shady was not looking well.  She hadn't seemed to have been eating or drinking much, and Pat had been in consultation with our vet, thinking maybe she was still mourning the big life change.  Earlier this week, the cat went in for an official check, and her kidneys had totally shut down.  She was in such a state of renal failure that this must have been coming on for quite a while--months--but because she was so quiet and private, we did not notice.  The only choice was to prevent her from further suffering.

I can't tell you how much I love and appreciate what Pat and Bob have done for me by agreeing to hang on to Shady and then going through this with her.  Shady left behind some great memories and quite a few tears.

Shady exuded cattitude and frequently hissed at the dog. 
That plus big blue eyes and soft soft fur equals high rating on my kitty love scale.

What's Behind the Green Door?

This is the Green Door. No, I have not cropped the picture to hide any signs or other indication that something interesting might be contained here. Just a green door.

To find the Green Door, you pretty much have to get instructions from someone "in the know." A wonderful couple who had been here for seven years told us about it. I wish they were still here, because they were so wonderful and because they knew about this kind of cool stuff, but they are now back in Texas enjoying their grand kids and the blue sky and the occasional rain storm.

This is the street in front of the Green Door. That wet looking stuff in the middle? That's raw sewage. It's not supposed to be trickling down the street, but the last two times we've been in the area, the sewage has been leaking out from around a manhole cover.

Expat workers from places like India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka live in multi-story apartment buildings in this area. About 95% of them are men, but we did see a few kiddos coming to the small car across the street as we arrived. Just a taste of one of the many "non-Western" (read non-shiny, non-new, non-fancy, non-functioning, non-clean, etc.) parts of town. All workers are not treated equally...and no one with any power wants to talk about it. The workers are ignored (as long at they do their jobs and stay out of trouble...).

When you walk beyond the green door, here is what you see. It's all furniture and decorations, mostly from India. This stuff arrives by container, so sometimes the outside area (shown here) is empty and sometimes it's very full (like now). The stuff ranges from dark stained to decorated with brass-colored metal work to painted. It is really beautiful!

From what we've been told, nothing "antique" in Qatar can be sold or exported. You can take an old "thing" (gate, door, chair) and make it into something new (turn a door into a table, for example) by adding it to something else or taking it apart. But this stuff, all being from India, is not an issue. Inside, the building is crammed full of the coolest stuff ever. We've bought a few pieces, like bar stools to use at our kitchen counter instead of having a kitchen table, a book shelf, and a small table.

And all of these treasures are guarded by a clan of fantastic cats. Notice the "long" face on the one above under the red table--most cats here look that way, like Egyptian tomb cats that have stowed away on a camel caravan to the Gulf.

RPH: Sponge Bob Pencil Sharpener

Thank you, Qatar Airways, for the kiddie entertainment pack containing the Sponge Bob Square Pants pencil sharpener.  Without it life would be dull.  HAR HAR.

Habib, Meet Steve Jobs

After three outgoing, friendly days, Habib had been shy again--I'd had the cage door open like a bridge to his stand all morning, and he had been talking and moving around and even coming out to the bridge but was not interested in the perch.

His cage is next to the kitchen as I work. So I thought I would play with him for a while, and he and I started with a good "fight" with his "keys" (it's actually pieces of flat plastic fruit shapes--a teething toy like the key ring things). He goes crazy when I dangle it around, giving great chase and chewing on it like it has seriously done him wrong. Then he came out right next to the stand, and we played "fetch," where I roll the tennis ball to him, he throws it on the floor, repeat X 10.

When that idea was worn out, I grabbed my iPad and turned on Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham," a book application for pre-schoolers that reads the words aloud. Habib was *fascinated*! In fact, he was desperate to touch it, to the point of climbing down onto the floor and running over to it. He gave the iPad several nudges with his beak but did not try to bite it or my fingers as I swiped to turn the pages. He has never climbed to the floor to be with me (we're still getting used to one another). It was awesome.

Jack sneaked in and took this picture (attached) at the end, after Habib had climbed back up and was back to just watching. His interest didn't last through the whole book (it's pretty long) but we will be trying this again.

Later that same day, I got to give Habib a head scratch through the cage bars (first time he's let me do that)!

Shootin' the Bird

This is the view out of my office window.  Yes, a WINDOW!  Hello answered prayers for natural light!  It looks out onto a covered patio area, and the window actually opens.  Hello?  I'm on the third floor...reading freshman comp papers risks making me want to jump...  I'll grade from home.

So a very sweet colleague bought me some bird seed, which I put on the sill.  This is one big chicken, and he's spotted black and white. Luckily, he posed for a photo before flying off.

SCORE!

Plenty of Baskin Robins outlets are found around Doha, but until this lucky day, I had never spotted by most favorite bucket of sinful, calorie and fat laden, luscious delicious: PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE.  Happy happy happy happy Mama!

Doha Beer Barn

Alcohol is forbidden in Islam, but Qatar makes one allowance for expats: an unmarked liquor store, located right next door to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.  Isn't that sort of like putting the beer barn next to the Baptist preacher's house?

John procured a license to visit the beer barn, but it closes for Ramadan...so of course in the few days right before the holy month starts, every expat in the country runs makes a booze run.  People come out of this place with Sam's Club sized carts stacked with cases of beer, wine, and boxes of hard liquor. 

We needed one box of cheap white vat, two bottles of bubbly, and a bottle of more respectable red for John.  These are some photos I took while waiting in the car (I can't go in because the license isn't mine). Inside those gates is, indeed, a rather large parking lot, but it was full...so expat booze hounds were spilling out onto the street.

By the way...when you leave with your purchase, you have to drive straight home with it hidden in the trunk or in the back of your car.  If you are caught with it, you can be fined or jailed...yes, even if you have the license.

The Cooking Mystery Concludes... with Success

Presenting two chocolate frosted sheet cakes, a main staple of my grandmother Mamaw.  These were so popular around her small town that she made them almost once a week for weddings, showers, funerals, fire hall meetings, church functions, etc.  I think she got really tired of it by the time she was no longer able.

But you know what?  Labneh instead of milk works just fine.  Lack of measuring spoons, dry measuring cups, or appropriate mixing bowls didn't stop me either...although chocolate did get splattered all over everything.  Yea for success!

I know Mamaw is looking down, proud of me.  And today would be her 98th birthday, so good timing on the post. :)

hello

Hi people! I just wanted to say that I will be doing posts from here on out. You should know me by now. See y'all later.

Respectful but Friendly Parent Names in Qatar

A wonderful thing we learned recently...the friendly but still respectful names for other adults is built on the given name of the eldest son.  You then add "Umm" as a prefix for the Mom and "Bu" as a prefix for the Dad.  Of course, then I have to add my own touch to it.

Which makes us...

Umm Hanky and Bu Hanky.

The original Hanky.

Yes, I know this is problematic in terms of how girls and boys are viewed here...but that's a whole other big can of worms better left closed on the blog.

The Khaliji Host (Generous) & the Texus Girls (Goofballs)

I am not a morning person.

When we don't have anywhere to go, then we have "laundry conservation days."

This means no one gets out of his or her pajamas all day.

This is the least we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.

And all of this is dandy except when you live in a compound where Gurus and Samuels and construction workers and house painters and other random gentlemen suddenly appear in your window at unexpected moments.  Even with my long flannel britches and large t-shirts, I am too old and have had too many children to be spotted in my p.j.s.

So I asked our wonderful Qatari friend, the one who will patiently help me with all the crazy and obnoxious questions I have about living here, what "grown ladies" do here when drinking their morning coffee or tea.  Since modesty is such a huge deal, I might like to adopt local Qatari pajama and morning cover-up tradition.  So he explained that his Mom wears what is called a "jalabiya."  I think this is a generic term for "robe," but I'm not sure.  It's a silk or silk-blend house-robe that can be worn over pajamas.  It's embroidered with fancy threads and even beading.

So I thanked our friend for explaining and thought to myself, "Hmmm...maybe one of these will be on my Christmas list..."  What a nice guy to be willing to explain something so potentially awkward...yes, I basically asked him about a Mid-Eastern mou-mou, and he replied with grace and patience.

And then the next time I saw him, his Mom sent me one (!!!).  This is a prime example of the Qatari hospitality.  As I asked another sweet Qatari friend, this time a young woman, "how do I thank his Mom for her generosity?!?," she replied that no thanks is really needed--his Mom just wants you to enjoy the gift.  Of course, a note is always welcome, but I was advised that home-baked goodies might be liked as well...that leads to the post below...

But first, here's the house robe in action.

Hannah wants a matching one.  I think we're going to have to send John to the fabric store and to the tailor...but this morning, she made due with her Christmas dress from last year...

Hey, a girl has GOT to have her morning tea and the latest Facebook on the iPad before even thinking about being productive.

Cooking Visions and Revisions

What is all this stuff, and what will it be when mixing and heat are applied?

So from the post above, you'll see that I need to do something really nice for Umm Khalid.  I can't think of anything nicer than making her something from my own kitchen.  Of course, getting the supplies to even make the thank-you nom-noms is an adventure unto itself.

A common household activity here is shopping at not one (HEB) or two (HEB + Super Walmart) or even the dreaded trifecta (HEB, Walmart, Target) of stores.  No, women...and I say women because that's who tell me these tales...it may be men, too...visit four or five GROCERY stores as they try to stock their pantries and iceboxes.  The big four are Carrefour, Giant, Family Food, and Mega-Mart.  That is not counting (1) multiple locations for each store or (2) the hundreds of smaller "local" markets scattered all over the place.  My favorite place to shop is about the size of Franklin Market...they have green Tabasco, milk, chicken, fruit/veg, and about 85 tons of chocolate and cookies and other junk food.  But that's a whole other blog post.

So one of my own personal goals is NOT to have to drive all over hell and half o' Doha looking for the right kind of Fruit Loops or Pepperidge Farm Gold Fish.  I figure my habits will form in my first months here, and so far, I've been reasonably successful.

But then I had a vision of cooking for Umm Khalid.  And it took me three different grocery store trips just to gather the stuff you see in the picture above.  That's not counting the butter or eggs. Now, this very day that I'm writing this post, I don't have a bowl to mix it in.  But I have a large square "tupperware" type storage box that may work.  Multi-tasking kitchen items.  I haz 'em.

So now, before I actually try to perform this cooking feat, I'll give you a sample of what I'm up against...
XXX

For the recipe I needed buttermilk.
It doesn't exist in Doha as far as I can tell. 
That stuff on the left is actually "Labneh." 
Sort of read about it here...this is about its strained form and what I'm using looks like thick milk.

XXX

For the recipe, I needed unflavored Crisco.
I have "regular shortening" from Mazola.  Should be the same.

XXX

For the recipe, I needed baking soda.
After hitting my head against a wall for sleeping through CHEM 101 (I was a freshman, and 3-3:50 PM is my nap time!), I bought "sodium bicarbonate," came home and checked Wikipedia to make sure it wasn't rat poison.

XXX

For my recipe, I needed powdered sugar.
I got "sugar powder."  I'm assuming it's the same thing, but once you've looked all over the place for American "powdered garlic" only to find something that looks like flour but tastes like garlic but doesn't function like American powdered garlic, you get a little skeptical that anything is going to work the way you planned it.

XXX

The pecans...oh, the pecans. 
I must publicly thank the Griffins for the precious pecans.
I also must thank the Griffins for the mixer, which was a central requirement.
These can only be purchased here at great expense and (from what I've heard) only around Christmas time.  I pondered substituting walnuts or pistachios or even a mixture of chopped nuts for the pecans, but then I figured, "If Umm Khalid isn't worth going all out, then who is?!?"  Pecans it is.
XXX

I needed American measurements.
But I have European (metric) measurements. 
More self-flagellation for pre-Facebook, pre-texting activities like doodling and passing notes during the 5th grade lesson on metrics!  Also missing from my kitchen: measuring spoons and cups.  I do have a 5-cup pyrex thingy. That's going to have to be the beaker.
 XXX
 Fahrenheit.  I need Fahrenheit.
I have Celcius AND a convection oven.  Sigh.
$10 USD says it's going to be burned...

XXX
I'm sure I'll get used to all of this, but for now, the adventures continue...

Bird Watching

I am so thankful we have Habib--he is a "person" we can all talk about and talk to and laugh over...because sometimes I think we are getting a little tired of just looking at each other...

We had a couple of "blah" days with Habib last week.  He seemed out of sorts, which was especially disappointing since I spent quite a while one day scrubbing his cage and changing his toys.  Our main struggle had been getting Habib to and from his stand/perch (outside of his cage).  He wants to sit on top of his cage instead, which is a position of territorial dominance.  In addition to trying to get him to his perch, I had been wanting to work on hand training him.  He would step up on his previous owner's hand and hadn't bitten her in quite a while, and I want him to have a good quality life.  I feel sort of pressured for him to have all the sorts of interactions he was used to before.  Of course, he's in a new place and I'm not the sweet lady he bonded to.

So we had some nipping and grumpiness last week...both from him and me.  Then I read online that changing their toys (even with toys that may already be familiar) is a big source of stress for Greys. I got some great advice from other Grey owners online, put his toys back except for one change out, and backed off of pushing him so much at once.

We're working on only getting to the stand/perch out of his cage without difficulty, and he's had three great days in a row of doing that with no fussing or drama.  He's happy to sit and watch the chaos, and he'll even let me carry the perch into the living room (which considering that must feel unstable, I think that's a good sign of trust).  Yesterday, he sat on his perch and watched a cartoon with the kids, and then he watched me and Hannah put together a 200-piece puzzle.  I caught him with his foot pulled up and his eyes closed (napping) a couple of times...a great sign of contentment.

One thing he really loves is sitting in the window watching his feathered cousins fly free outside.  He flaps along with them a lot.  I imagine that he misses his own freedom, but at least he's not struggling through the August heat right now.  Instead, he's playing "psst psst psst...peekaboo!" with me through his maroon cage cover.

We've started feeding the birds in the back yard.  John fashioned me a bird bath, from a plant stand and a large terra cotta pot bottom. We bought pigeon feed at the souq, and I've been hanging on to stale bread (drying it so it will crumble easily).

John is my bird man, so I can't tell you what types these are other than something sparrow-like, something with a tuft, and some sort of pigeon.  Notice how wild and woolly the flowers have gotten in the background.  That, along with our backyard oasis of green grass and bougainvillea, makes me smile every day.  I'll try to get a picture of Guru, the Nepalese man who uses his talent to make John's excellent visions come true.

Can Yuh Traslate That to Redneck?

Every morning, I wake up to one of these text messages on my phone.  For all I know, it could say "pay your bill or we're coming on camelback for your oldest son!"  Every morning, I delete it.  And hope that any *important* messages will be sent in Arabic and in English...