today was the anniversary of the death of E’s 4-year-old son, after a rough battle with disease, and no support from either her so-called family or the medical profession.  as i’ve mentioned, this is a very difficult time of year for her.  while everyone is partying and celebrating, she’s still grieving a major loss, not to mention all the other emotional and financial blows she has suffered her whole life.  she’s slowly recovering, but she’ll always associate xmas with extreme loss and hatefulness.  thankfully, my family have shown her understanding and acceptance, which really helps.

i don’t generally do selfies (except of E  😉 ) but this is too comical, me trying to get the hang of our implement of torture, so i’m making an exception.  don’t get used to it!  i know i won’t.  i obviously need to, though.

and just for comparison, here’s a smooth operator.

today E is setting up our new Inquisition Torture Machine, a.k.a. elliptical.  it seems to be torture just assembling it, but i wouldn’t know.  just looking at the manual makes my head implode, but she is the manual expert.  she assures me it will all be Fine and Worthwhile.  i’ll let you know.

meanwhile,  it’s erev and hanukkah, so doubly festive.  i.e. the usual. stay tuned for the next [yawn] exciting episode.

all i did today was make a mexican hanukkah meal (does that =sephardic?), repot herbs, and light the candles.  our friend J was kind enough to do all kinds of auto maintenance/repair on my subaru, so we can safely travel to TN this month.  i feel like a lazy freeloader.  i don’t have much soul left to sell or trade.  fortunately they take friendship.

yesterday we went for a long walk at the narrows, along the river.  at the raptor center, there were rescued injured birds of prey, including a turkey vulture, a very large red-tailed hawk, and a tiny screech owl hiding in his house.  see if you can make them out.

in the woods, lots of evergreenery, birds, and fungi on this very mild evening.  it looked spooky, like a walk in some tolkien forest.

then home to light ’em up—4, to be precise.

so, yesterday i made blintzes from scratch, cherry and blackberry.  i had to fake some of the ingredients, but my willing guinea pig approved, so that’s all that matters.

then as per tradition, we checked out the fen, and heard but did not see wildlife splashing around on this mild evening.  the sunset was awesome.  they do have some serious sky around here.

then candle-lighting.  one real menorah, one fake menorah, and a partridge in a hanukkah bush.  well ok, no partridge, but it sounds more legit.

on the first day (second evening) of hanukkah i made sweet potato latkes (indian style, of course), and indian split pea vegetable soup, served with yogurt with fresh chives and parsley, and cranberry sauce.  not bad.

then we went to see if our beaver friend was out at the fen.  a couple of times we saw the deep water ripple, but no sighting.  it was quite mild out, and we lingered, chatting with a couple of nature-loving kids out walking, and taking photos as the sun set.  then it was time to head home to light hanukkah candles.

same photos, edited version.  they needed to sleep on it.  (or i need a tech skills upgrade, but that goes without saying.)

here are the rest of the photos, unedited, because my iPhoto and WP don’t seem to communicate well.

getting festive around here.  happy hanukkah, y’all.

i made indian latkes from scratch with fresh-ground spices,  mediterranean veggies with fresh greek oregano, apples and pears in a sweet cardamom sauce, and yogurt with fresh cilantro and mint.

then we made a quick trip to the fen, but must have just missed our beaver.  still, some nice sunset shots.

then we lit the candles and played dreidel.  note:  no dreidel rules ever make any sense.  so we invented the ultimate dreidel drinking game.  it was fun.  here are the rules, if you dare:

nun= 🙁  no one drinks.

gimel= all drink.

hey= all toast “HEY” and drink.

shin= other person drinks yours, you pass.  in a group: everyone drinks but you.

take it from me–these rules RULE.  try it some time.  sippy-cups are allowed.

i’ll post these photos, and later the others (there’s some kind of lag between editing my iPhotos and getting WP to upload the edits).  stay tuned…