A tale of 2 locations -- please donate to help flood victims

As many of you know, I'm originally from the Midwestern United States (Iowa, to be exact) and my in-laws are in south Asia (Pakistan, to be exact). 

If you've been following the news lately (or have seen pretty much ANY news in the last few weeks), then you probably already know that Pakistan's monsoon season has wreaked havoc on the country since late July. What you might not know (because it doesn't seem to be getting as much national news coverage) is that Iowa is also getting hit with some flooding in Ames and its surrounding areas.

Here we go again...Ramadan mubarak!

It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since we last celebrated Ramadan.  (This blog post is brought to you by the phrase "time flies.")  As I've mentioned before, Ramadan follows the lunar calendar, and as such, it shifts backwards about a week or two every year. (As I recall, it started on August 22nd last year.)  In our area, there are two main groups who "declare" the start of Ramadan, and they have differing opinions.  One group follows the calendar, and the other group relies on the actual moon sighting. Because of that, some years (like this one) there is a difference of opinion on which day the fasting should start.  Depending upon which group you follow, it started on a different day this year: Wed, Aug 11 for the first group; Thurs, Aug 12 for the second group.  (By following the calendar, instead of the true lunar cycle, sometimes you end up fasting an extra day or more.)