meme

Since I'm going to be away (offline, that is) again for Yom Tov tonight/tomorrow, I'll leave this to accumulate replies for my return. :-)

From (most recently) browngirl: I have this nifty batch of folks on my friends list. Please pick one and tell me something nice about that person that you think I may not know as yet.

miscellany

Shabbat was good, though the first Shabbat after the spring time change is always a systemic shock to me. ("It's almost 8PM! How can it still be Shabbat?! Last week this time we were well into dinner!") The really long days, come June, are a real challenge for me. I have trouble reading all afternoon/evening (eye strain), but usually don't have people to spend the time with, and I didn't receive an electricity-is-ok tradition so using the TV/computer feels wrong to me. (I know there are Conservative arguments that permit this. I don't disagree intellectually -- but the gut feeling remains.) Walks in the park and naps help, but I have a lot to learn. I think this summer I will try to have guests for Shabbat lunch more often, especially as Dani agreed in principle to my goal of recreating some of the feal of that Shabbat dinner we had a few weeks ago (the one with what turned out to be Chabad folks). If I aim for lunch rather than dinner, I get to have a fun gathering and occupy some of the long stretch while doing so.

Shabbat dinner worked well for me. I've sometimes had trouble with cooked chicken getting too dry in the oven (while being held for potentially a few hours). The answer seems to be that sealing in foil does much better than putting in a covered casserole; the foil was a Pesach change (don't have Pesach casseroles yet), but I may have to keep doing that. So we had chicken in orange sauce, which was really easy: oil pan, place chicken breasts in it, brush tops with orange marmalade, bake on high heat uncovered for a while (this was 45 minutes at 375), then cover (seal) and hold at lower temperature (this was 180 for about 2.5 hours). Oh, I added more marmalade before the second cooking.

Lunch was cold foods because the crock pot isn't kosher for Pesach and I wasn't sure about the status of the hot plate. Since cooking on Yom Tov is permitted (for food to be consumed that day only), I'll have hot meals for both tonight and tomorrow's lunch. Tomorrow will probably be just me; if I get an invitation at morning services I'll take it, and if not I'll come home and make something.

For those who care, an interesting discussion about kashrut has sprung up in a previous entry.

Pesach changes the diet pretty fundamentally (though it doesn't seem like it should be that big a deal), and according to the nutrition-tracker I've been using, I haven't been doing so well this week on assorted vitamins. Not having that morning can of liquid nutrition (not kosher for Pesach) makes a bigger difference than I thought. Fortunately, it's only a week. Unfortunately, perhaps scheduling myself for a physical (which includes routine blood stuff) for a week after Pesach wasn't smart. Will cholesterol and sugars and stuff be back to their normal levels by next week, I wonder?

We finished the taxes this afternoon. We've owed significant but non-crippling amounts of money the last two years, so I think we finally got the W4s right. (This is the outcome we want.) Of course, this might have more to do with the economy than with any precognitive skills on our part.

While we were in Toronto Dani's sister and mother were asking me various questions about religious practice, and at one point one of them asked me if I wear a talit. I do, and I specifically wear the talit that used to belong to Dani's maternal grandfather. I never take it to Toronto and have never mentioned it, because I didn't know how they would feel about somebody other than Dani (or some other direct relative) having it. Dani offered it to me openly, but that doesn't mean he correctly read his family on this, after all. So anyway, someone asked, and Dani started to laugh, which prompted them to ask why, and he spilled the beans. Not only does his mother not mind, but she's pleased -- and she wants a picture of me wearing it. Ok...

(At some point, possibly this summer when I'm at HUC, I may get myself a larger one as well. The one I have is the smaller "scarf" variety, and sometimes, like on Yom Kippur, I would like to have the option to really wrap myself in it. Nothing wrong with having two -- besides, it makes trips to the dry-cleaner easier.)

the mighty hunter

Earlier this afternoon, Dani came up from the laundry room and told me there was a dead cat toy. We have assorted cat toys all over the place (you know, ones made out of cloth and stuffing and the like), and every now and then one will be so chewed/ripped up that it's time to toss it, so I figured that's what he meant.

Not so.

That was the largest mouse I have ever seen -- which means it probably wasn't a mouse, but I am steadfastly refusing to consider that option. (I mean, our house is clean, we live in a good neighborhood, we take the trash out... what have we done to earn critters?) It was all self-contained -- no insides on the outside and so on -- which is some comfort. But... ew. I've cleaned up mouse-sized mice before and only been a little squeamish, but this was different.

So at least one of my cats is still a hunter, though I don't know which one(s). Fortunately, whoever it was enjoys the hunt more than the idea of dining on the results. Thanks for small miracles.

I just hope this was a singleton.