Did you get rid of the old desk, Hil?

Did you get rid of the old desk, Hil?

Well, right now, it's still in my apartment, but a friend said that he wanted it and will probably pick it up on Friday.

Hey Hil (or anyone else who knows about jewish customs): one of my coworkers is taking friday off to finish thoroughly cleaning everything in her house for Passover. Is that a common thing? What's the idea behind it? Is it the leavened stuff thing?

We were all offering to invite her to clean ours in a bid of, um, solidarity? OK, fine, laziness.

What's the idea behind it? Is it the leavened stuff thing?

that's my understanding from my coworkers & minion.

but also? day off from work to clean? that's pretty darn smart.

You mean next Friday, right? Not this Friday?

The Passover cleaning is because we're supposed to get rid of every crumb of chametz (levened bread and other levened stuff). So that means a bunch of scrubbing and vaccuuming and dusting and making sure that everything that could be a bread crumb is gone. The most work is the kitchen, where everything has to be seriously scrubbed and either turned off or kashered (like, if you want to use your regular oven during Passover, which just about everyone does, you need to kasher it. In the old days, this required fire. Now, putting it through a self-cleaning cycle is good enough -- safer, but not nearly as fun. If you want to use your sink, you've got to pour boiling water over every inch of it.) And, if you're like me and tend to eat while sitting at the desk or on the couch, all that needs to be cleaned too, though not quite as seriously cleaned as the cooking surfaces.

As for taking Friday off, that's probably because Passover starts Saturday night, and you can't do any of the cleaning on Saturday, but if you want to be able to use your kitchen for regular food on Thursday, that leaves Friday as the only day to do the finishing-up cleaning. (I usually eat out the last day or two before Passover, because I just have no patience with leaving a tiny bit of non-Passover kitchen space to cook for a few days.)

Well, right now, it's still in my apartment, but a friend said that he wanted it and will probably pick it up on Friday.

Right on.

for your consideration - shoes: [link]

and - twirly skirt w/stripe-y tights: [link]

No, she's taking this friday off. Maybe pre-emptive. She's also a family caretaker and kind of... the woman is a planner.

I don't know how true it is elsewhere, but my workplace is great in that it's really agreeable to flex schedules for religious observances and family obligations. We know that during the winter, she's going to be gone by 3 on Friday so she can attend to errands before sunset. Another coworker has to leave at 4 because of kids' schedules. That's just what it is. It could be bad (expecting those of us without those obligations to make it up) but it doesn't work that way. If I wanted to work 10-6:30, it'd be fine. Me, as much as I'd like to sleep in, when the place gets dead after 5:30, I tend to not do much work, so I try for 9.

NYC Air Zoo. [link] Anyone ever seen these? They're great.

Why is wearing your jammies in public a fashion now?