Purim, mid-chag update

I went to the 8.30 ("late") megillah reading, along with a lovely masked woman. With her encouragement, I donned a costume involving a top hat, tails, and a silvery rainbow tank top. We arrived with time to spare, so I did machatzit ha-shekel and matanot l'evyonim before megillah reading (well, technically, they're not yet done, since the money won't be handed out until tomorrow, but...), and got to see the rabbi in his wife's tichel, and his wife in his pants and hat (two strands of her hair down as uncurled payes). Oh, and one woman had a perfect sheer white Mennonite cap. Then it was on to the megillah reading, done by a friend with a lovely tenor voice. It's not the first time I've heard him read, but every year he seems to get better. Since it wasn't the "main" reading, there were fewer sound effects, but I did have my chance to boo taxes (Purim is always during tax season, too). And then a lovely walk in the chill of a clear night. I stopped at one point, to look at the moon, and got almost dizzy at how fast it was zooming through the sky, until my perspective shifted to realize that it was fast-moving clouds being blown along instead.

And now to start the bread dough* to bake in the morning; my few mishloach manot are going to be bread and plum-rhubarb jam.

Thoughts for a morning costume: either the military jacket, or salwar kameez, or just bring the stuffed turkey and a koosh ("...ha-molech mayHodu v'ad Koosh...."). Decisions, decisions.

[3/07/04 1000 addendum]
I ended up making a plain white dough but sweetening it with a lot of molasses; not only do I have a lot of it, but it seemed fitting for Purim: sweetness and iron. The dough turned tan from it, and the rolls are a golden brown throughout.
(It still seems odd to be using flour from a 5-lb bag; I haven't had one in years. But it's just too close to Pesach to make a 50-lb bag worthwhile.)