Productive?

Well, mostly, except for the time wasted surfing LJ and playing (a stupid solitaire variation of) Lost Cities.

Last night I got a sampling of all the kinds of dried beans Harvest has to offer. Except for mung beans, that is, since they have no place in ch ili in my house [1]. I got all 8 kinds of beans soaking, divided by color (white, red, black). They look kinda pretty sitting in bowls of water like that. Also started a couple of loads of laundry, desperately needed for me to be presentable at work today. And a batch of challah dough, with some kamut flour in it.

This morning, boiled the beans, and sauteed onions, mushrooms, and many colors of peppers. I still have to finish the chili (tomatoes, hot peppers, and spices), but the work-intensive part of it is done (hopefully the hot peppers won't take too long). I put the challah in the oven on time bake, too.

And I ran a meeting today, foisting off a huge chunk of work onto 4 other people. It took a while to pull the pieces together to give/show them, but the meeting went well. Pleasingly, the head of the department congratulated me on how I ran it.

Still left to do: the rest of the grocery shopping, changing sheets on guest beds, the rest of the cooking, straightening the house. Shabbat starts at 5:51 this week... (so it ends at 6:51, which really will be enough time to get to the performance on time!) [2].

[1] I haven't yet figured out what place mung beans have at my house at all, actually. If anyone has uses for them, I'd be interested to hear.

[2] Shabbat is getting earlier reasonably quickly, and the clocks change at the end of the month. I have to change the rhythm of my Shabbat prep from what I do in the summer, with the long afternoons I can fit all the cooking in, start to finish. More t o start Thursday night (though I do want to get to potluck), or cook while I'm at work, stuff like that. [3]

[3] Of course, it's easier when I'm not having lots of people over for both meals. And when not sick. Though this cold seems to be abating. Hoora y!

Fire!

Just had some of the chili for lunch... even with bread and cheese, my mouth is aflame...

Real estate sticker shock

I just visited my downstairs neighbors, the other ones selling in my building. They realized that with two kids, there just isn't room in their place. Currently, the livingroom is the kid's room, and the second bedroom is a tiny study. They may be crammed in, but they have the place looking really nice, actually.

So I asked how much they're asking. And she said they're asking what the across-the-hall neighbors got... $354K. (This is for an 854 sq. ft. apt, 2 BR, 1 BA, storage in the basement.)

O. M. G.

This is far more than double what I paid 7.5 years ago. Part of me is pleased I have a worthwhile investment (especially since the markets are down so far), but part of me is just in sticker shock. Not that I haven't seen the ads for places, but this makes it far more real how absurdly overpriced things are around here.

(Anyone want to live downstairs?)