JBR and a surprise

May 6

The yellow buildings you see is a HUGE living complex called Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR). The complex stretches almost the entire length of the Marina. This was the first place we looked at to live; once fully completed the master planned community is designed to be a city within a city with a huge courtyard tucked in the center stretching the length of the complex with trees, grassy areas and fountains all lined with multiple retailers, coffee shops and restaurants. They just recently began opening up some of the stores and food chains, the grass has taken root and most of the fountains are going. The place is beautiful! I walked thru the other night with my camera and took some pictures. I didn't have my tripod so some of them are a bit blurry but you get the idea.

Ruby Tuesdays!!!
This was a beautiful addition to the city and we were excited to see the doors open. It was, however, bittersweet.

Okay, we need to talk. You may want to sit down for this...

In February Mark and I made a decision to become vegetarians. Mark came home one weekend after reading yet another story about a beef recall and had finally had enough. Of course we've always known that meat production of any kind wasn't a pretty business but they finally got caught sinking to a new low (**disturbing footage). It's no secret that I've been on the fence for years and after this particular story Mark was ready to make a change. We are not so much against eating meat as we are personally against the way in which it is raised and slaughtered. It has developed into a practice that (in our opinion) goes far beyond 'inhumane'; the whole process is done in such a ridiculously poor manner that not only is the animal's general health and wellbeing not of any consideration or concern but this goes on down the line to affect the immediate health of the consumers...

As with most of our beliefs we do not following any particular manual or align ourselves with any one specific group of thought. We are developing our rules for this life change as we go and letting our conscience guide us. We have had multiple discussions on how to explain this to our friends and family and what would be the best way to sum it up for those who ask... We have decided to call ourselves 'free range vegetarian'. (This should make our hunting friends happy) For the time being we are steering clear of commercially processed meat products until we see a suitable change in the methods in which they are raised and processed. This leaves the door open for 'free range' animals that can typically only be taken down by those with the proper licenses (This does not do me much good since I've never been a fan of red meat) or the ones grown on nice traditional farms... For the moment we are eating fish upon occasion (Mark hasn't fully taken to tofu yet :) ) and are still unsure how Thanksgiving will be handled. I don't think tofu-rkey is going to cut it for either of us, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Surprise!

Well, now that I have that off my chest I'm going to bed. Have a good one!

xoxox