pesach

passover is coming up, and we're hosting the first seder again. when I was in college, I used to go to my brother in law's aunt's house, where she had made her own haggadah with their favorite readings and relevant pictures from their family, etc. I thought it was really special, and last year had considered doing it myself, but had short notice and didn't expect it to become a yearly thing. now, I am doing it, despite the short notice. I realize that I really enjoy the seder service much more than I ever realized and that I look for specific parts of it every year. as I flip through the haggadah we used all my life, I can hear bob leventhal's voice in all the parts labelled "leader".

after much deliberation, I have decided to serve lamb with sonoma mustard sauce (from the girl and the fig's cookbook) alongside my uncle's infamous potatoes and fresh roasted asparagus (originally I wanted to make baked greenbeans and onions with garlic slivers drizzled with balsamic, but I thought it'd interfere when I settled on the mustard sauce). I haven't decided on dessert... I'd like to make the lemon-lime tart, but I am afraid of the substitutions needed in the crust. and naturally there will be LOTS of chicken soup with homemade matzahballs (my mom will make those; I usually use a mix because I can't be bothered, though the soup will be all mine). I looked at a couple of gefilte fish recipes, but chose not to go to the effort; if anyone wants some, they can make it themselves.
the cooking seems a little daunting (including the not aforementioned charoset and eggs), especially considering I am working the day of, but I plan to get stuff together next sunday and be well organized. I had thought about taking the day off, but unfortunately one of the other cake decorators is in the middle of a family crisis, so I haven't bothered asking.

I suppose it's time for my every few months spurt of updates...

henry is enrolled in school, and is not doing so hot. he's really good at the commands, but he doesn't want to show them at school that he can do them... I think he doesn't want to show up the other dogs. he then proceeds to bark and bark and bark- usually another dog instigates him, but then he goes nuts. today I took him to daycare in hopes of wearing him out a bit, but no such luck. they informed us that he is "iffy" to graduate, though they assured us that he'd still get a "valiant effort" certificate. I like to compare henry to einstein- he's so bored in class that he'll flunk out.

my art class at sinclair is going well. I am disappointed that most of the people in my class are art students and not design, because I've managed to find a few that I really like and can talk to, but I'm going to have to start all over next term.

sock wars... I got a kill, so that's something at least. sadly, my assassin knit a pair of socks in A DAY AND A HALF. I have no idea how. I'm still in awe of my own 5-day pair. at least I am back to my sweater(s) and working on reducing my stash so ryan can stop complaining and I can resume yarn buying-- good thing we found a work-around to chris' new year's resolution!

looking around

walked into acura for car service this morning, and fox news is on. not a shock when you stereotype their clientele. but I put my bag down, and, looking in, realized that I am a birkenstock-wearing, mac-using, newsweek-reading liberal. of course I knew these things, but I had to laugh. makes me miss ann arbor.

found

I found this in my knitting bag...

chris, kamille, ginny, and lisa, I'm looking at you. they're a size 8, I'm guessing to be 32" long. anyone want to claim them? (and no, you can't just take them because you happen to need 8s...)

uh, yeah...

from the pizza hut commercial:
"now you can order america's favorite pizza from your iphone!"

... I thought using a phone to get your food was the whole concept behind delivery...

fly

we had a fly enter our house a few days ago, and he's a bit too stealthy for me to get, so he keeps flying around. here's the odd part though... he's very social. no matter what room I walk into, a few minutes later, he's flying around it. it has nothing to do with where the light is coming in or if there's food somewhere.
I keep talking to him (okay, yelling), asking him to leave me alone. I would be much more tolerant if he would just stop bothering me, but he must be lonely, because he doesn't care. unfortunately, I think henry believes me to be nuts, and acts all sad when I yell; his vision is so bad, he probably isn't even aware of the fly's presence.

last week we saw some people that used to be our friends. I have been trying to build up the courage to speak to one of them to try to fix things between us, and now I have finally asked to meet up, though the nerves are about 100 times worse now.

here's hoping for the best.