chili

it's december, it should be chili weather, darn it.
i don't care, so i made chili anyway. vegan chili, 6 different kinds of beans (almost all the kinds in the coop, except mung beans, which just don't go in chili), for potluck tonight. but i ended up going so late that all i could bring was a dessert (lemon sorbet, must get more), so i have a huge vat of chili, much more than i will need for shabbat (just as well i didn't bring it to potluck; apparently i was in tune with the 4 other people who made chili...). hmmm, can i freeze it? (if so, can i find a freezer with space?)

a good day, all in all, with much boggle & time with friends, even without any greater accomplishments. (i even managed to use 2 new kitchen items, a flame tamer and a mortar & pestle (ok, so maybe that's 3 items), gotten at the closeout sale at lechter's last week. i can't believe i ran out of ground cumin....).

life

is so interesting, and work is a bit less than fascinating.

roofers

a new roof was put on my building around 6 or 7 years ago. now that someone in the building is selling, someone looked at it, and determined that the roofers need to get some nails that are protruding not to, and check the edges around the skylight. no problem, right?

first they have an answering system that doesn't let you leave a message.

then i get hold of them, set up a 7am appointment (they offered, i took it.). to which they never showed. i called twice that day, no response until the next day, when they apologized- there had been a death in the family. i can understand that (though why no one in the company could spend 5 minutes to call that day's appointments, i don't quite understand.).

so the next appointment was over a week later, again at 7 am. yesterday i'm sitting around (well, getting things done in the kitchen, actually) waiting for them. i call at 7.30, and they say, basically, it's hard getting up in the morning now that the clocks have changed (well, why did you _offer_ an appointment that early unless you can keep it?), can i be there a while longer? well, no. i have to get to work.

so he agrees to come today, at 2 pm. and, amazingly, no one was here at 2. i kept cooking for shabbat (things are running a bit late today :-(, just now have the bread in the oven....) until 15 minutes ago, when i finally called. and the woman said he'd just left, it was a 3 pm appointment. which i know is not what _i_ wrote down. i'm unlikely to make a 3 pm appt on a friday when shabbat starts before 4....!

so now i have to finish the cooking, straighten the house, set up for shabbat, shower, get to shul by 4.... and deal with the roofers. argh!

roofer, redux

and after all that, the guy comes, we talk for a few minutes, & he goes away again (to return tomorrow with long ladders to get on the roof). i told them when i made the appointment what i ended up telling him. what a waste of time...

menu

shabbat lunch is almost vegan.... didn't have egg substitute to put in the corn bread...

challah and wine, followed by honeydew melon with a touch of lime and some mango.
then chili baked under the cornbread, a salad, winter squash with maple syrup. then a(n experimental) apple cranberry crumble.