Miscellany
Apr. 11th, 2004 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidWhy is even my brown hair getting wavier as I age?
Why are some of my toenails thicker than others?
Why are some days as boring as cardboard - even wanting to write, there's nothing to say - while other days are vivid with details, mini-stories, play of some sort or another? Is it all mood/hormones, or something else as well?
Spring has sprung. There are not only crocuses (croci just looks too much like the name for an obscure piece of an Eastern Orthodox priest's vestments, somehow, too much so to play faux Latin suffixes with), but some forsythia, and early magnolias (the white fluttery ones more than the waxy pink ones), and buds on the daffodils, while the willows are turning yellow-green, preparing to leaf. It seems a far cry from the snow flurries Monday, even knowing they were likely the last snow we'd have this winter. And despite all the greenery, we're still at least a week behind where DC was a couple of weeks ago.
It's nice hearing all the birds in the morning, too.
Shabbat Chol HaMoed dinner menu
I keep having ideas for foods to make for the last days, and I don't have time to make them all. I could melt bittersweet chocolate and make walnut or pecan bark. I could make spiced pecans with cayenne and black pepper, plus a little sugar. I could bake potatoes, mix them with a bit of egg, make a crust, then use that for a Quiche-Like Object. I could make matza meal pancakes with caramelized onions and sauteed scallions. I could roast (mostly covered) broccoli and red pepper with onion and salt and olive oil. I could make turkey meatloaf. Or matza pizza, using either the slightly-too-sweet tomato sauce with mushrooms, or the rest of the spicy red pepper and eggplant spread. And I haven't made any matza brie yet. And there are still leftovers from Shabbat.... there's just not enough time this yom tov to make it all.
Oh, and I kept thinking during the seder how nice a loaf of bread would be with a swirl of chunky charoset through it.
I took a longish walk yesterday; it was fascinating to feel how the muscles felt different after a number of miles. It was also interesting that there weren't noticeable effects until after three or four miles, at least. And I like how today I can feel those muscles as I walk, aching just a little from yesterday's exertion.
I'd forgotten how many dogs get walked at Fresh Pond. The highlight there was definitely when a cute toddler, walking along with her parents, decided to wave and smile at me, a random stranger. Who can resist the smile of a toddler, freely given?
Today's walk's highlight was finding an Easter egg. It was orange and purple plastic, balanced on the joint of some discarded piece of furniture on the curb. I was curious, so I opened it, and saw a handful of jelly beans and a mini Twix. If only it weren't chametz...
I was surprised that the library is open today. I asked the librarian, mentioning I'd assumed they'd be closed, since they're closed for Patriot's Day, and he said that Patriot's Day is a state holiday, while Easter isn't. If Easter weren't always on Sunday, whaddya wanna bet it would end up a state and/or federal holiday?
The supermarkets, on the other hand, all seem to be closed. So much for extra veggie acquisition.
1750 addenda
It's odd having the clocks change right before Pesach; I didn't have to get up for work until five days after the change, and that felt odd, disconcerting (though considering how often I've been in concerts, I suppose I must be disconcerting much of the time).
It's been eerily quiet this Easter Sunday. Maybe it's equivalently quiet on Xmas, but since people tend to be more inside then, it's less obvious. Or something. Still, it seems like there's almost no sound other than passing cars, and they don't even have their radios on.
Why are some of my toenails thicker than others?
Why are some days as boring as cardboard - even wanting to write, there's nothing to say - while other days are vivid with details, mini-stories, play of some sort or another? Is it all mood/hormones, or something else as well?
Spring has sprung. There are not only crocuses (croci just looks too much like the name for an obscure piece of an Eastern Orthodox priest's vestments, somehow, too much so to play faux Latin suffixes with), but some forsythia, and early magnolias (the white fluttery ones more than the waxy pink ones), and buds on the daffodils, while the willows are turning yellow-green, preparing to leaf. It seems a far cry from the snow flurries Monday, even knowing they were likely the last snow we'd have this winter. And despite all the greenery, we're still at least a week behind where DC was a couple of weeks ago.
It's nice hearing all the birds in the morning, too.
Shabbat Chol HaMoed dinner menu
- grape juice and matza
- gefilte fish baked with spicy red pepper and eggplant spread
- eggplant 'liver'
- roasted cauliflower
- roasted potatoes
- roasted carrots and sweet potatoes with ginger and cayenne
- green salad
- chicken (and turkey thighs) baked with matza, garlic chips, onion chips, mushrooms, and hickory sauce
- fruit 'slices' (the gel things), nuts, dried peaches, and charoset for dessert
I keep having ideas for foods to make for the last days, and I don't have time to make them all. I could melt bittersweet chocolate and make walnut or pecan bark. I could make spiced pecans with cayenne and black pepper, plus a little sugar. I could bake potatoes, mix them with a bit of egg, make a crust, then use that for a Quiche-Like Object. I could make matza meal pancakes with caramelized onions and sauteed scallions. I could roast (mostly covered) broccoli and red pepper with onion and salt and olive oil. I could make turkey meatloaf. Or matza pizza, using either the slightly-too-sweet tomato sauce with mushrooms, or the rest of the spicy red pepper and eggplant spread. And I haven't made any matza brie yet. And there are still leftovers from Shabbat.... there's just not enough time this yom tov to make it all.
Oh, and I kept thinking during the seder how nice a loaf of bread would be with a swirl of chunky charoset through it.
I took a longish walk yesterday; it was fascinating to feel how the muscles felt different after a number of miles. It was also interesting that there weren't noticeable effects until after three or four miles, at least. And I like how today I can feel those muscles as I walk, aching just a little from yesterday's exertion.
I'd forgotten how many dogs get walked at Fresh Pond. The highlight there was definitely when a cute toddler, walking along with her parents, decided to wave and smile at me, a random stranger. Who can resist the smile of a toddler, freely given?
Today's walk's highlight was finding an Easter egg. It was orange and purple plastic, balanced on the joint of some discarded piece of furniture on the curb. I was curious, so I opened it, and saw a handful of jelly beans and a mini Twix. If only it weren't chametz...
I was surprised that the library is open today. I asked the librarian, mentioning I'd assumed they'd be closed, since they're closed for Patriot's Day, and he said that Patriot's Day is a state holiday, while Easter isn't. If Easter weren't always on Sunday, whaddya wanna bet it would end up a state and/or federal holiday?
The supermarkets, on the other hand, all seem to be closed. So much for extra veggie acquisition.
1750 addenda
It's odd having the clocks change right before Pesach; I didn't have to get up for work until five days after the change, and that felt odd, disconcerting (though considering how often I've been in concerts, I suppose I must be disconcerting much of the time).
It's been eerily quiet this Easter Sunday. Maybe it's equivalently quiet on Xmas, but since people tend to be more inside then, it's less obvious. Or something. Still, it seems like there's almost no sound other than passing cars, and they don't even have their radios on.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-11 02:26 pm (UTC)I know it's kind of tight for time, but our local Stop & Shop (Harvard St. in Brookline; I think it's 155 Harvard St. or some such) is open today until 9 PM. They were doing quite the hopping business when we were there earlier this afternoon.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-11 02:46 pm (UTC)It's been fascinating to see which stores are open and which aren't. Inman Square is mostly closed, except for the 1369 coffee place and the new used bookstore, Lorem Ipsum. And the library was open, too. It's all about books and coffee, I guess :-).
no subject
Date: 2004-04-12 04:40 am (UTC)That was just sad. I mean, really. Did you have to go there? Did you? *sigh* I guess it's just the disease taking over...
no subject
Date: 2004-04-12 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-12 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 05:38 pm (UTC)(No large business would like to have to give off all those days, definitely not for all religions!)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 07:08 pm (UTC)If it's any consolation -- which I know it isn't, my co-worker and I always have to take a vacation day for Good Friday. And I have to take a little bit of time off to attend services on Ash Wednesday and -- if I choose to go -- on Epiphany.
I get the impression -- and please correct me if I am wrong -- that there are two major Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. (It's my understanding that Chanukkah is not a major holiday but that it is played up so that it can be a counterpart to Christmas.) There are, likewise, two major Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter, and our Church calendar revolves around these two poles.
Easter will always fall on a Sunday, which I suppose is convenient, except that I don't get a day off of work for it. But Easter is really more than one day. Celebrations begin on Palm Sunday with Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem and really get going on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. I would love to have Thursday and Friday off to spend it in observance of the season.
Despite its Christian roots, Christmas has become an overcommercialized holiday, and most people celebrate it for Santa Claus and gift giving rather than for the birth of Christ. It is hypocritical of our supposed "secular" government to make Christmas a holiday and not one of the major Jewish or Islamic holidays.
That said, there are several Holy Days of Obligation throughout the Church Calendar that Catholics and other Orthodox Christians would like to have off but we don't get. I admit complete ignorance over the 12 weekday holiday you alluded to, but they probably balance out with the major feast days (holidays, Days of Obligation, whatever you want to call them) that also usually fall during the week for Christians.
I hope you don't mind the lengthy response. I enjoy talking religion with people of other faiths, to better learn about and understand one another's culture/faith/religion. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-14 04:25 am (UTC)It's not that I get flak at work for taking the days (as I did at another job), it's just that some years, between religious obligations and friends'/relatives' life-cycle events, I won't get much of a vacation this year, beyond a couple of long weekends. It's frustrating, especially when there are things I'd like to go to, places I'd like to see...