Oh, that's a sad waste of vodka and cake. I'm going to pretend it was given to gentile neighbors. Well, the cake, anyway. The vodka could easily be stored for a week...

Once we invited some cousins (Jewish, but not terribly religious) for Passover, and they brought some non-pesadik brownies. They'd just figured that, since we don't keep strictly kosher during the year, we wouldn't be keeping Passover.

This was the year that my mother and I edited the Haggadah, because we were having some conflicts between the people who wanted a traditional seder and the people who wanted to be done at a reasonable hour. We compromised on cutting out all the parts that my father refers to as "rabbis doing arithmetic." (For those of you not familiar, it's stuff like:

In Egypt it says of them, "The magicians said to Pharaoh `This is the finger of G-d.' At the sea it says, "Israel saw the great hand that the L-rd laid against Egypt; and the people feared the L-rd, and they believed in the L-rd and in His servant Moses."

Now, how often were they smitten by `the finger'? Ten plagues!

Thus you must conclude that in Egypt they were smitten by ten plagues, at the sea they were smitten by fifty plagues!

And it goes on for pages and pages with various explanations and possibilities and different numbers of possible plagues that smote the Egyptians at the sea.)

Heh, that's DH's favorite part. Though he prefers to expound upon it while we are not waiting to eat.

I kind of miss the traditional seders we'd have with H's mom and the pocket sized haggadah's she'd had for 30 years. This year it'll be first night with just me and H and we might not really do the whole meal and everything because we'll get thet 2nd night (and also because we'll be in Yosemite all this weekend, so prep time will be minimal). But that 2nd night seder is decidedly different from the Sieff family seders, not least because half the people there are Irish. It's fun and in some ways very satisfying, but it's not what I'm used to. It's different to be a guest than to be part of the family, I guess.

ION, I've had Fay's picture open in another tab all day and I keep clicking over to it. So beautiful! Not only is Fay gorgeous, the picture is wonderfully composed and appealing in a way that suits her look.

ND, those people are damned fools. I'm sorry they acted the part.

Hey, do we have a thread where people talk about House?

Sorry, ND! You will find something even better, and they will gnash their teeth over letting you get away.

Fay is very beautiful.

Tom, it's your birthday, and you can do whatever you want. Happy birthday!

So beautiful! Not only is Fay gorgeous, the picture is wonderfully composed and appealing in a way that suits her look.

This is what I forgot to post about in my early skimminess! OMG, Fay, the picture is gorgeous. The hair is lovely, but in a way that makes one say, "Wow, Fay is gorgeous" rather than in a way that makes one say, "Wow, Fay has gorgeous hair."

I kept having to remind myself that this is a picture of a teacher, not that teachers shouldn't or wouldn't be gorgeous. And then I thought about how lucky Fay's students are, not so much because she's gorgeous, but because she's clearly a wonderful, fun, humorous teacher who cares. Then, I kind of wished I was back in whichever early grade Fay teaches, and in Thailand. Then, I thought about how hot it must be there, and that moderated my desires an eensy bit. Yes, when it comes to weather, I'm truly an Alaskan.

Tom, I'm going to posit that doing whatever the hell *you* want to do on *your* birthday is a move in the direction of mental health.

No, really.

Shake your fist in your mom's general direction, and then continue enjoying your birthday excursion, because I plan to live vicariously through you.

I originally read it as Plaque. must be the font.

On the other hand, maybe it is indeed plaques. The Egyptians all being struck down by GINGIVITIS.

Teppy said it perfectly, Tom, so I'll just point and exclaim, "What Tep Said!"

ND, I'm sorry about the job.

Yup, sure enough. t strokes Tivo