Man, am I *dead* this morning. Why? Um, ...taxes. For some reason, given a three day weekend, I wait until late Sunday night to start them. (Well, I had started them previously... US federal had already been submitted, state I just had to make a good copy, and then there was my federal and provincial for Canada.) And *then*, when I finally finished the taxes up, I "discovered" all of the unfolded laundry on my bed. (I had left it in a laundry basket Saturday night, and then dumped it on my bed in the morning so I could put dirty laundry in the basket, and force myself to fold the clean laundry.)
By the time I had everything done, it was after 2 am.
*Then* I was so over-tired I was wired, and it took me over an hour to fall asleep.
I may have book-smarts, but my living-smarts could use some work. :P
Passover question: (Sara, maybe you have an answer.) I was watching the news at some point this weekend, and they mentioned that it was also Passover, and that Jews abstained from "bread and pasta" because of that whole exodus-no-time-for-bread-to-rise thing. Bread I understand... but pasta? There's no yeast in pasta! Were these reporters confused, or is there some truth to the no-pasta thing?
And if you're curious what I was doing most of this weekend rather than my taxes... I was reading "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley. I normally don't go for the vampire thing, but I quite enjoyed Sunshine! (Thanks H!)
5 comments:
Yeah, I'm pretty creeped out by dead things, normally. But "Sunshine" was good! I'm glad you liked it, too.
H
*anything* made from wheat, oats, barley, spelt or rye. Eight days. Others also abstain from anything made from corn/corn syrup/rice/legumes.....
Is that because items containing those can be contaminated by yeast in the air? Or is it just the symbolism of the grains?
Thanks! :)
Not an expert, but my dissertation advisor explained to me last year that some Jews even (temporarily) sell their pets to non-Jewish friends during Passover, since most pet food isn't kosher for Passover and you therefore can't feed it to your pet(although it must be OK to feed a pet that's technically someone else's non-kosher-for-passover food.)
I think I'm remembering correctly. I was sort of in an interviewing, dissertation-writing haze this time last year. :-)
I can't recall if my advisor and her husband sold their pets for Passoever or if they decided that since she's not Jewish, if she feeds them it's close enough for government work.
Bethany: oooo... weird. Sounds like one of those cases where religious rules are being a bit silly.
Here's a response I got from sara: "actually, it isn't yeast that is the problem. In Exodus, the command is given that leaven should be removed from our homes. Those five grains, and anything made from them is considered "leaven." Of course, Matzah is made from wheat so really it is some rabbinic rule about how long the wheat comes in contact with water that determines the state of "leavening" for Matzah. Apparently ancient Rabbis had a lot of time on their hands, so the rules are a dream for those OCD types. :-)"
My response to her response: From my understanding, "leaven" is the stuff that makes bread rise. From dictionary.com: "An agent, such as yeast, that causes batter or dough to rise, especially by fermentation."
The reason that moisture is a problem is that there is wild yeast in the air (that's how you get sourdough), and moisture allows the yeast to grow in the flour.
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