Wednesday Morning First Day Rosh Chodesh Adar Alef Rambly Bits

[gnomi]

-- Chodesh tov, everyone! In 14 days, let's all give tiny-tiny packages of food to one another, read one chapter of Megillat Esther, get vaguely tipsy, and give minimal amounts of tzedakah to people. :-)

-- Welcome to all the new folks around here. Any questions, feel free to ask. Things are odd around here on most days, filled with random ramblings about knitting, language, food, or all of the above.

-- OK, so, after being convinced by multiple folks, I have a Ravelry account. Now what do I do with it?

-- Because of a conversation with eireangus in madknits' comments, I've been thinking a lot about my frumkeit and my religious lifestyle. There may be some thinky posts coming up on that and related subjects.

-- Anyone out there who sews: Is there any (relatively straightforward) way to replace the little plastic doohicky that holds the two parts of a bra strap together (other than, say, a safety pin)? Every way I can think of requires more effort than I'm thinking this is worth.

-- I did the first half of my Shabbat cooking yesterday. I think this is the earliest in the week I've ever started Shabbat cooking. On Thursday night, I'll do the rest of it.

Comments

[madknits.livejournal.com]

Whee! I started something!

I have a ravelry account (I'm "bearknit" over there, if you want to add me to your friends' list), and so far I'm just using it to note what books I have and pictures of my yarn stash. However, the account can be used to network with other knitters, to get patterns, and to ask about knitting conundrums. I'm not doing as much with it as I would like, but in time, in time.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've now added you to my friends list there. :-)

You, indeed, were one of the folks who encouraged me. I'm thinking that, for now, I can use it to keep track of my WIPs (which are myriad), hopefully thus keeping track of where my needles are.

[introverte.livejournal.com]

>OK, so, after being convinced by multiple folks, I have a Ravelry account.

I friended you. Now you spend oodles of time putting up pictures and info on your projects, so that others may ogle, and you spend more time than you really have ogling other people's projects. We are knitters of Borg, resistance is futile!

[madknits.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I spent an evening photographing half my yarn stash, and then loading the pictures up onto ravelry. And I was excited to be doing it! I think I need therapy.

;-)

[introverte.livejournal.com]

Actually, I felt like taking all those pictures was a form of therapy in itself. Whenever I'm feeling down on myself now, I take out this picture and just ponder my pile of accomplishment. Then I think about how much I've done since then, and bang, I'm feeling better. :-)

[madknits.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

The second baby sweater in the pile (unde the blue and white one) looks like the one I'm working on now (and had to tink back two rows because of a yarn over I did by mistake). But it will be wonderful when it's done, and my god-daughter isn't due until July.

[introverte.livejournal.com]

It's a baby surprise sweater (Elizabeth Zimmermann), and the yarn is Artyarns Supermerino. I love making those.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

And I have now friended you there, too.

[gem225.livejournal.com]

I'm on ravelry, and I don't know what to do with it either. I've added you as a friend, though, and it's nice to have you there. :-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've added you to my friends list there; I'll figure out what to do eventually.

For now, I put up a shot of the penguin blanket.

[madknits.livejournal.com]

Where did you get the pattern for the penguin blanket? I'd like to try it sometime.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

It came free with a purchase of Ultra yarn from Patternworks. I don't remember what the other free-pattern option was at the time (right now it's an octopus blanket), but I couldn't resist the penguin.

And then I made it out of not-Ultra. :-)

[byrne.livejournal.com]

add me add me add me!!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Who are you over there?

[byrne.livejournal.com]

byrne :D

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Never mind; I think I found you. :-)

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to the posts about frumkeit and the religious lifestyle.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

It's been percolating for a while, and then after the conversation I was having yesterday, it's coming more to the fore. It's still not at the top of the stack, but it's working its way there. :-)

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

I'm really looking forward to any posts about frumkeit and the religious lifestyle.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad there's interest; mostly, I have to organize my thoughts first, or resign myself to doing at least the preliminary post in handy-dandy bulletpoint form.

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

I want to be more observant, and I'd be grateful for guidance. I'm so new to everything, I am not sure where to start and what is correct and what isn't. My shul is very relaxed about everything (most of the ladies wear slacks to services and no head coverings, for example), so I'm not pulling many cues from the other congregants and sometimes it seems like all the things I read contradict each other in some fashion.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

You aren't going to go frum on us, are you?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I'm presuming this is a joke.

I have no intention of changing my current level of observance; I am merely going to ponder it more in public than I usually do.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was a joke. Looking forward to the discussion.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is a holiday I do no know....also what is " tzedakah " and "frumkeit?"

And well, there's often bra-making supplies at JoAnn Fabrics and such. But I am assuming that both sides of the bra strap are still properly attached and the doohickey itself is what broke, so the answer is no, because the dohickeys come all in one piece. Your other option is one of those plastic strapping things that they use for handcuffs sometimes zip-cuffs? because they are plastic, thin and very strong and you can make it a small enough loop to work, and then trim the excess. I think you can get them at gardening stores? Or something like it? The trouble is, the flat part might end up being perpendicular to your back, so it might be chafe-ish.

That's all I got.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

tzedakah - charity
frumkeit - religious strictness of observance. Can have negative connotations or positive depending on the speaker, but rarely is neutral.

The holiday of Purim is always celebrated in the Hebrew month of Adar. During Jewish leap years, such as this one, a 13th month is added to the calendar. This month is also called Adar. The regular month, for reasons I don't know, is called Adar 2 (Adar Bet, Adar Sheni). Adar 1 (Adar Aleph, Adar Rishon) is consided the leap month. Thus the holiday of Purim occurs in Adar 2 during leap years. This is an extremely minor holiday called Purim Katan (Small purim) on the day in Adar 1 that would be Purim if it weren't a leap year. What gnomi suggested was to do very tiny versions of the normal Purim customs on Purim Katan.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Gotcha! Thank you!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Today is Rosh Chodesh (well, the first day of it, as there are two days this month), which translates as "beginning of the month" and is the beginning of the lunar month according to the Jewish calendar. The thing is, this is a Jewish leap year, so we have two instances of the month of Adar instead of the standard one. Adar is the month that contains the holiday of Purim, and when we have two instances of Adar, we celebrate Purim in the second one and observe "Purim Katan," "Little Purim," in the first one. So what I listed were the mitzvot associated with Purim, just in small form. :-)

Tzedakah is charity, in this specific case the giving of money to the poor.

Frumkeit is the Yiddish word for religious observance. One who is observant is said to be "frum," and "frumkeit" is the state of being frum.

I was thinking safety pin as a stopgap because, yeah, the plastic piece is solid, except for where it's broken on one edge. It's on the shoulder, at the front part where the strap is adjustable (but not the adjustable end of it, if that makes any sense). But those plastic tie-thingies might just work; I'll have to see if our local hardware store has them. Thanks for the suggestion!

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

what do you mean, things are odd around here most days?

i wonder if i can find a recipe for mini hamentaschen.... or if i could just use a recipe for regular size ones and calculate the shrinkage myself. hm. (if you make hamentaschen that are kosher - or pareve, i guess - in and of themselves, but you make them in a non-kosher kitchen, does that make them non-kosher? can you still serve them to kosher friends/family?)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

OK, things are odd around here *every* day. :-)

I think one can make smaller hamentaschen using any standard recipe. Just cut the dough smaller (in the case of my mom's recipe, I'd just use a smaller-mouthed glass to cut out the rounds) and use a proportionate amount of filling.

As for kosherosity, most people who keep kosher won't eat from a non-kosher oven even if the items were made from kosher ingredients. You might want to ask the friends-and-relations in question, but I'd err on the safe side and say that they wouldn't eat it.

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

I said "kosherosity" out loud with a giggle, and G asked if that was the study of treifons. *g*

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

mabfan says kosherosity is the study of kosherons. :-)

[eireangus.livejournal.com]

I look forward to reading more! Sorry I did not e-mail you last night, I was SO crazily busy!!! :-)

Chodesh tov :)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

S'okay. I was cooking for Shabbat (yeah, on Tuesday, go figure) and didn't read my e-mail at all. :-)

Hope it was good-crazy-busy, not annoying-crazy-busy.

[eireangus.livejournal.com]

It was good-crazy-busy filled with chores and studying!

Cooking for Shabbat on Tuesday is an AMAZING idea! :-)

I need to tidy up my desk at work, it looks like I had an explosion of papers!!! Hahaha! You work from home, right?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

::snerk:: Actually, my desks both at home and at work are not the neatest on the planet (this is an understatement. Photographic proof is here (http://pics.livejournal.com/gnomi/pic/0001dwa2/g16) (my work desk in May of 2007; it's much less messy now but still not pristene) and here (http://pics.livejournal.com/gnomi/pic/0001qtpa/g2) (my desk at home in May of 2007; it's still just as messy), but I know where everything is in the jumble. I don't work from home, except when my boss lets me do so occasionally (though I freelance from home... from the T... from whereever I happen to be with the manuscript I'm currently editing).

I'm glad it was the good-crazy-busy type.

And cooking for Shabbat on Tuesday was the result of that being when I got my fish. Also, fish chowder is, in my opinion, better on the second and subsequent days, after the flavors have had a chance to blend.

[eireangus.livejournal.com]

I guess I need to take a picture of my desk at home and work because it's messy, but according to my standards. I am EXTREMELY OCD when it comes to cleaning. I vacuum, dust, tidy up, wash, etc. about 3-5 times a week at least. I can work from home sometimes, but most days I come into the office because of meetings. At the end of the day I always tidy my desk and organize everything because I am a huge dork! :-)

You want to hear something funny? I don't often make fish because I don't like it much. I like tuna and some flaky white boneless fish, but most other kinds I don't like at all. Fish chowder can be OK if it's not too fishy or strong. I am pretty close to being a vegetarian, but cook meat sometimes or eat it at a glatt place.

And, from your picture of your home desk, I can see you also like Macs :-) I just got a new MacBook a couple weeks ago and an iMac in December.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've tried many, many times to organize my desk, but it always re-clutters while I'm in the middle of a project. When a project ends, I clean it all up and it remains spotless for a bit, but then it re-clutters. But not dirt, just clutter. So I give in to the clutter, as long as I know where everything is.

mabfan and I are almost 100% milchig/pareve at home. This started when mabfan took a year to write a novel and we were living off my salary alone. Kosher meat is so expensive that it was just easier to cut it out of our budget altogether. This leads to us doing fish or milchig Shabbat almost all the time (for special occasions I'll do fleishig, but I find that milchigs/pareves go further in terms of how many meals I get out of one session of cooking).

I've been a Mac girl since I got my first one in 1990. Before that, I was part of an Apple household (my parents' first computer was an Apple IIE purchased in 1982 or 1983). I use a PC clone at work, but I much prefer the Mac.

You should use your new machines in good health! :-)

[eireangus.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I know there is definitely a difference between clutter and dirt!

I am the same way regarding food at home, almost 100% dairy or pareve. I am just not into meat too much, but I like chicken sometimes. Although, there is a glatt place in San Francisco where the chicken is all dark meat and nasty! I know Brookline has a lot of kosher places, but I've only been to one Chinese one once and it was nice. I miss NYC - so many options! :-D

I have a work laptop which is a PC. Our Development department uses mostly PC because of software and server issues, but our research is all Mac. Our CEO is on the board of directors at Apple. At home I've always used a PC, but I am enjoying the new Mac!

Thanks for the kind words! :)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

There may be one or two people here in my office who use Macs (dpolicar may still have one), but we're mostly a PC shop.

I really want a kosher Indian place here in the Boston area, and a good sushi place (or, heck, *any* sushi place). Brookline has some kosher stuff, but the selection has expanded and contracted many times over the last 15 or so years. Right now, we've got a handful of places, but we make do. And I do a lot of my own cooking.

[eireangus.livejournal.com]

I absolutely ADORE vegetarian sushi... I love cucumber avocado rolls, they are my favorite!!! Whole Foods here sells pre-packaged ones that are Pareve and so amazing. You want to know my favorite snacky foods: chips and salsa and pita chips and hummus - YUMMY!!! :-D

There are only a few kosher places in the bay area as there is not a large Orthodox population. Beside Chabad, Orthodox folks tend to be more Conservadox in nature. I don't belong to a shul yet, but so far happy with the tiny Chabad center / shul they have a couple towns away.

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

what on earth are you doing cooking for shabbat so early? You make the rest of us look bad :) Aren't you at a convention this shabbat?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

We're in town this Shabbat and at a convention next Shabbat. We're out for lunch (but pot-lucking, so I still have cooking to do) and in for dinner. And, as I mentioned above, I cooked yesterday because that's when Efraim brought my fish, and that way the fish chowder can mingle flavors the way I want it to.