Bits and pieces

Farmer's market highlights: honey crisp apples, dug-yesterday parsnips, gorgeous eggplants in white and purple, amaranth leaves (I'd always thought of amaranth as a grain/grass).

Last night the downstairs neighbor came up with her elder daughter, asking if the daughter could use the bathroom, since they're redoing their bathroom and have no toilet just now. Fine with me, but what are the parents using? (And who planned this renovation so well?)

So many people posted thoughtful commemorations yesterday, far more cogent than I could manage. I was saddened that the focus seemed so exclusively on NY, with the occasional mention of the Pentagon; there was nothing on NPR about the valiant people on the flight that crashed in PA, who managed to avert greater horror.
I also hate how this horrible day was twisted to justify so many things that should not have been consequences at all. Does anyone ever think of Osama bin Laden any more? Whether or not Saddam Hussein was a dictator who deserved to be ousted was not enough related to the terrorist acts perpetrated on us to justify this war as revenge for those acts.

RIP Warren Zevon, Johnny Cash, John Ritter.

I wish I were sleeping better. Everything would seem less flat.

Turkey or pizza for Shabbat? Can't figure out what I want.

Newness

Today I started the new year: I bought a new calendar. It's a 16-month Jewish calendar, with a week showing at a time, just what I like in a calendar I carry around. Now I can start planning past December. It also makes the holidays seem even closer, since they're at the beginning of the calendar, rather than the end. I need to get my act together...

Going along with the autumn newness theme, I also switched banks today. Thanks to Hauntmeister, who pointed out that Cambridge Savings puts balance paid off on one's mortgage towards the required amounts for avoiding fees, getting extras, etc. I haven't closed out the old accounts just yet, so I can do all the switching of automatic payments and all in a more leisurely fashion, but I've finally started the process, months after I'd intended to.

Walking back from the Square, I noticed calls for common casting at Harvard; someone's doing a production of Noises Off this semester!

And for those who were helpful in my decision about dinner, the final result: a tray of onions and purple potatoes with sage is roasting next to a tray of turkey thighs with minced onion, dried cranberries, cranberry-peach jam, diced fresh peach, diced crystallized ginger, and a couple of sliced up hot peppers. I thought about walnuts, but thought they'd burn. Greens are washed for salad, too.