Monica

Purim was this past weekend. We continued the tradition started last year of having "Esther's banquet" after the evening megillah reading and Purimspiel -- adults-only, food, alcohol, study/discussion. This year we had about 50 people, I think, up from last year, which is good to see. Last year I had brought some homebrew along. I hadn't planned to repeat that this year because there hadn't been a lot of takers -- but then one of the rabbis, in announcing the event to the morning minyan, said "and Monica's going to bring her homebrew, right?", so I shrugged and did. I brought 12-year-old horilka (made with spiced brandy) and some mead, and both were very popular. (They polished off most of a liter of horilka! Last year they drank maybe a cup.) I haven't actually been making stuff for the last decade or so; I guess I should queue up some more horilka in the fall when cider is in season again. (The ingredients in horilka are unprocessed cider, honey, brandy or vodka, spices, and time. Thanks, hlinspjalda!)

I talked with the vet today. The test of Baldur's liver function came back normal. As we were discussing next steps (the ones that could produce answers are dangerous), she asked me just what he eats. There's dry food out all the time and its rate of consumption hasn't markedly changed in recent months, but of course I don't know who eats how much. Baldur has ready access, though. He gets tiny amounts of tuna and canned food; basically he gets to lick the spoon when I feed such to Erik. Baldur wolfed down half a can of food in about 15 minutes at the vet's on Thursday, so my vet suggested giving him real amounts of canned food. I've generally avoided that because it's unhealthy, but y'know, he's 17 years old now -- am I really worried about him picking up bad dietary habits at this point? So I'll give that a try; he enthusiastically ate most of a can of food today (between morning and evening), so we're off and running.

I see that the post office wants to cut a day of mail delivery to save costs. I don't mind the cut, but I think it would be much better for us customers/taxpayers if they chose a day in the middle of the week, say, Thursday, instead of choosing a schedule that sometimes means four days between mail deliveries. I assume that giving up all their Monday holidays isn't on the table. (There actually is a segue from the previous item to this one: this morning I refilled a mail-order prescription for Baldur.)

Dani recently ordered some Israeli CDs, and the MP3 tagging has been strange. Two or three different two-disc sets tagged one disc in English (transliteration) and one in Hebrew, for instance. Sometimes song titles will be one way and performers the other. In one case we got gibberish, presumably a unicode failure or something, and Dani typed stuff in by hand. Any one of those cases wouldn't have surprised me, but mixing it up on the same recording is bizarre.

Shabbat was also the last day of Pesach (a holiday), so our informal minyan didn't meet in favor of a holiday service at the later time. After the service another regular pointed out to me that while all our other services have gradually changed over the last few years to include more Hebrew, less repetition (in English), and more-accessible music, our holiday service has stayed pretty much the same all along. She's right, but for something that only happens a few times a year I'm not sure how much I want to worry about it. Because this service has Yizkor (memorial prayers), this service particularly attracts a demographic that doesn't show up often otherwise. They're older and more inclined toward "classical reform"; for a few days a year I can just wait for this portion of the congregation to gradually fade away.

There are special torah readings for the holidays (that is, we break the weekly cycle). The last day of Pesach gets the end of the exodus story, with the scene at the sea of reeds. It struck me during the reading that this passage is a pretty good argument for human authorship of the torah. Think about it: God persuades Paro to pursue, interferes with their ability to do so, performs a miracle, and when the Egyptians try to give up and flee, recognizing God's obvious superior might, God picks them up and flings them into the sea, wiping out every last one of them. That sounds pretty vengeful (contrary to the famous midrash about God reprimanding the angels for rejoicing), and it sounds like just the sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy an underdog would write. Mind, I am not actually making this argument (I have different non-orthodox beliefs about that), but it struck me pretty hard during the reading. How odd -- it's not like I haven't heard/read this passage many times before.

Saturday afternoon/evening we had an exciting D&D game. There's some stuff in the game journal about it. I'm way behind on my own entries there; must catch up soon. What made the game especially fun was the good role-playing and scene-painting from everyone there. It's neat when things click.

I don't keep extra days of holidays so Pesach ended for me last night. This morning I had french toast. Mmm. :-) (Random food aside: does brisket, already cooked and in sauce, freeze well?)

This afternoon we visited with my parents. For our anniversary they bought us a Pomerantz Wine Pro cork remover that is a joy to behold (and to use). They found a nice bottle of kosher wine to go with it too; I didn't know that stores in their area carried anything but Manischevitz. I test-drove it tonight with a bottle of Lindeman's (lambic ale, capped and corked and a real struggle for me in the past), and the cork came right out with no effort on my part. Woot! (I did have to use a cutting board to raise the short lambic bottle to a suitable height, but that's fine.)

Ok, I admit it: I'm growing old and (slightly) feeble. I need a new approach to cork removal. I sometimes buy wine with screw caps just to avoid this problem. Something's gotta change.

I've never been any good with the traditional corkscrew, the ones that bore a hole through the middle of the cork. I go off-center, or shed little bits of cork into the bottle, or otherwise damage the pristine state of the target liquid. I currently (try to) use a device I've heard called a "dishonest butler". It has two prongs that slide down the sides of the cork, and then you wiggle/twist the cork out using the handle. But apparently I don't have sufficient wrist strength for this any more. And I'm tired of having to ask Dani to open my bottles of lambic ale, darnit. I don't drink often, but when I do I want the ability to do it without outside assistance. I mean geez, it feels like I should just ask him to pass the Geritol while he's at it. Not good.

I think Consumer Reports did a survey of cork-removing devices a few years ago, but I don't still have the article. I have this vague recollection that it's possible to spend what seemed an outrageous figure (like $50 or so) for high-tech low-effort gadgets designed so that even your grandmother can open ornery bottles of wine. That's not necessarily outrageous, particularly when relatives come fishing for gift ideas.

Does anyone reading this have any recommendations -- what to look for or where to look? (I'm not really after recommendations for alternative beverages.)

( Thanksgiving )

( aside: buying beer in PA )

Friday we (I rode with Robert) headed out to Darkover Grand Council, a science-fiction convention in Timmonium MD (near Baltimore). The name is a bit misleading; while the con has its origins as an MZB con, the amount of Darkover content has dwindled over the years. I'm not a fan of the series, but I can still find reasons to go to this con. It has the strongest music track I know outside of cons dedicated entirely to music. So I go to perform, and I go to listen. And I go to visit with friends.

( people )

( Clam Chowder )

( On the Mark )

( so *that's* where they keep the cushy rooms!, and hotel misc )

We had a new "interim" CD at this convention. Some of its contents will eventually go onto a "real" live CD, but that will be a couple years away and we wanted to have something for people now. So we did this one on the cheap (allowing us to sell it for $10), but had enough decent material to fill up a CD. It was fun, and it includs a bunch of stuff that we haven't previously recorded.

( Shabbat challenge: probably boring to most readers )

On the way to the con on Friday, the biggest challenge was the dense fog in the mountains. (I couldn't see the car in front of us, and we were following pretty close. Fortunately, I was not driving. Had I been, I would have had to wait it out, and then hope I could get to the con before sundown.) On the way home, however, traffic was worse than usual. It was still much worse going in the other direction; we counted a ten-mile stoppage at one point on the turnpike. I'm not really sure what caused our erratically-slow traffic; we saw two accidents and one near-accident, but there were also just some standing waves in the traffic. (Near-accident: note to driver: if your wheels are going up onto the jersey barrier, you are not centered in your lane.)

All in all, it was a fun weekend!

Addendum: extra bonus -- two nights completely free of the usual snoring soundtrack!