Assalamu Alaikum Wr. Wb.

My car is finally in the shop being repaired after the accident. I made the appointment for Monday, and they arranged for me to have a rental car. I showed up 5 minutes early, and waited around for almost a half hour but no rental car! So I head to work and call them explaining that I need a rental car or I can't drop my car off. They straighten out the rental car company and tell me they will make sure there is a car for me the next day. Tuesday, a guy meets me at the auto body shop at 7:05 and takes me to the rental car place and they give me a 2002 Dodge Neon (the car that smiles at you). Bleh, it is stinky! The people who rented it before me must have smoked like 2 packs a day in the car with the windows rolled up! After about 5 miles driving it my eyes were itchy and watering, and I was getting really congested! So these past two days, I have had the windows down when driving, and when the car is parked at home. It is slowly getting better. I want my old car back!! They estimate 9 business days before it is fixed, so I am counting down days now.

YEA yesterday was Sayang's b'day, and I kept teasing her that she is the product of two consecutive primes years old. This may only happen 4 times in a person's lifetime if they are lucky! Aside from that, we didn't really do anything... We stopped celebrating birthdays after a Friday khutbah a few years ago. It was a fun Friday. Imam talked about how the Prophet (saw) didn't celebrate b'days and why we shouldn't do it now. Then right after prayer, I was talking to a couple of brothers, and some guy asked us to help him hang decorations on the walls. It room was starting to look festive and the buy pulls out this big "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" Sign! My friend and I look at each other and start laughing. We tried to gently tell him that today wasn't a good day to hang that sign up after the rousing sermon we just received. He looked confused, so we had to elaborate on the khutbah that was just given. I guess he wasn't paying too much attention, but he agreed not to hang up the sign.

One week has past!!! My class last Thursday was wonderful! We whizzed through three chapters relating to why managers should know statistics, graphical representations, and elementary probability... It was (hopefully) review for most of the students, as most of them didn't have many questions. Alhumdulillah, I lived through my first day of teaching a graduate level class, and now I am getting excited about it. My free time has disappeared! I spend about an hour a night preparing for the class, reading the material, making notes and working out the homework to make sure that I have a very good understanding of what the question is asking, and how to solve it... I bet I'm doing more work than the students!! By the end of the class, I will have a good understanding of business statistics!!

Well, work is going to get busier tomorrow, as the testing team will be testing 5 applications concurrently! It will be my first trial by fire! Hope everyone has a good day!

Assalamu alaikum

Alhumdulillah, we bought a "new" car last Saturday. It is actually a used car but it is new to us... Now poor sayang will not be stranded at home while I'm at work. She can take the kids out, go shopping, and all that wonderful stuff. Since I am about an hour away, we decided that it is safer for her to have transportation in-case something serious happens, like me having to leave work to pick up a sick kid at school... Ha, now she gets that job :-)

Argh, what have I done to myself. I start teaching tomorrow evening, and am nervous! I haven't taught people older than me before! InshaAllah, all will go well, and I can do a good job. I will be a graduate Business Statistics professor!?! It is still a scary thought...

Tomorrow I get a day off! Take the car in to get repaired after the accident, take care of all the legal stuff in getting a new car such as license, insurance, safety inspections... Bleh, just give money away to get the governments permission to drive, how rude! Then, any extra time will be spent preparing for my lecture tomorrow.

Sob, I got a ticket yesterday for driving too fast... I wasn't really driving too fast, but it is a weird story. I take my kids to school, and there is this short cut through a rich neighborhood that a lot of people take. The speed limit has always been posted as 30mph. To discourage people from using the short-cut, the limit has been reduced to 20mph. I didn't see the new sign, and happily drove my usual 35mph, so I got stopped by a Mr. Police officer who told me the new speed limit, and gave me a speeding ticket. My beautiful perfect, mostly clean record is tarnished again! My last ticket was five years ago, when I was younger and more impulsive. Sigh

Assalamu Alaikum

Argh, I was ran over this morning! I was driving to work during rush hour, and had to come to a complete stop in the highway. Unfortunately, the guy behind me didn't stop fast enough. He hit me, and pushed me into the car in front of me also, so my poor car is damaged in both front and back. Alhamdulillah, no one was hurt, and even more so, that this occurred after I dropped the kids off at school! When I had to stop, I looked in the rear view mirror, and no-one was immediately behind me, so I thought I was safe. I heard screeching tires, and looked in the mirror again to see this white blur coming at me rapidly. I closed my eyes, rested my head against the headrest, and tried to relax before being hit.

At work, there is a large population of Muslims, and we offer congregational prayer for Zuhur and Asr in an exercise room. During Zuhur, I was thinking about the accident. My thoughts right before the accident were "Oh God, this might hurt". I saw the car coming fast, heard the squealing of tires, took a deep breath closed my eyes and relaxed. I keep thinking my thoughts should have been La illaha il Allah and I worry. My faith has weakened while teaching at an Islamic school, the environment was wonderful, and I was always surrounded by Islam so I became complacent. At the same time, I saw the worst side of the community, the petty arguments and feuds, and it was depressing, and I became weaker.Alhamdulillah , everyone is well and though Allah t'ala could have easily called me home, I am still on this world. InshaAllah I can come out of this as a better person, and rekindle the fading passion to learn and grow in deen. I hope this new fear of God is the first step to a long journey.

Assalamu alaikum

It is time for me to update, and re-open this blog... Alas, I am out of teaching, and back into IT. As much as I resisted having to change back, finances were too tight to live on a private school salary. I really miss my students, and "having" to go to prayer at the masjid as part of my scheduled day...

Now, I am a software tester for a big company. I am in "training mode" so my day is pretty dull. My normal day right now is spent reading software manuals, to learn the environment. When testing starts, then I will have to support the testers, make sure their environment is ready and correct any day-to-day problems that come up... It is similar to what I was doing last year, just a different company.

Alhamdulillahit is Friday! I am so looking forward to Friday Prayer! There are about half dozen Muslims on my team, and we usually go to pray together.

MashaAllah, my baby is growing so fast! he is just 8.5 months old and so enjoyable. When he hears me come in the door, he starts crawling toward me as fast as he can go and he has a big smile on his face. When he gets close enough, he holds up his arms waiting for me to scoop him up and hug him. It just melts my heart, and it one of my favorite times of the day!

Off to prayer, Insha Allah, I will become more active in keeping this blog updated...