Hamantaschen and fish

 Chag Sameach Purim! Happy Purim! I’ve had a very busy and exciting week, and I have plenty of hamantaschen as well. And some cool photos from a trip to Monterey.

Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates that the evil Persian vizier Haman, adviser to Xerxes I (aka Ahasuerus), didn’t kill all the Jews because of the brave actions of the clever Jewish Queen Esther. We celebrate by dressing up and bringing food to others, among other things. So my family made A Whole Lot of Hamantaschen, the traditional cookie. It’s a butter cookie shaped like a triangle and filled with jam, chocolate, poppy seeds, etc. 

Plenty of hamantaschen

Ours are regular butter dough, filled with strawberry or apricot jam; chocolate dough, filled with chocolate chips; cheesecake filling in regular dough, drizzled with chocolate; and regular dough, filled with Nutella or chocolate chips and drizzled with chocolate. We made … probably too many, so I’m bringing them around today to all my friends. (Sorry, Russian spambot, if you’re reading this; you’re not getting any cause you’re not my friend. So there.)

Hamantaschen are just the best kind of cookies this time of year and I love them. My favorites are the apricot, but surprisingly the chocolate are more popular with my friends (followed by strawberry). This is really weird because the apricot are the nicest looking and the best tasting to me. 

We made some over the weekend and some yesterday, because Monday and Tuesday I was on a trip to Monterey, CA (site of Cannery Row, the Monterey Bay aquarium, and some nice beach), with a brief stop at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA (less than a mile from the house I grew up in). It was a really fun trip, and I learned a surprising amount for a trip where we weren’t required to learn anything. I reread Cannery Row, started a shawl (very minimal progress made, alas), took pictures, and nearly finished a book on embroidery I got for Christmas (it’s called The Subversive Stitch, and it’s fascinating) while sitting on the beach. Also, I told ALL the ghost stories I know about the Winchester mystery house. I know a lot of them. 

Inside Sara Winchester’s bedroom

Winchester house from the window of one of the rooms

Outside of the WMH

First picture of the shawl, with lace weight yarn and a 2.75mm hook

The shawl as it was at dinner (pizza). Not much bigger, but as I said. Laceweight yarn. Slow going. 

(This is the thrilling conclusion to the new play Bird-eo and Juli-bird, complete with two birds flying away together.)

All of the above are the beach on Tuesday morning. It was very cool. There were birds! (Not pictured: sixteen near identical photos of Bird-eo and Juli-bird on the seawall). 

At the aquarium:

The kelp forest

In the sandy sea floor section, I think 

Cuttlefish in the Tentacles exhibit

Colorful deep reef (?) fish

Penguin!!!

The sea from one of the balcony/overlook bits. Taken while one of my best friends pestered one of the docents about migrating seabirds for like 15 minutes.

I like this quote. 

Deep sea, just in time for the feeding

Schooling sardines (which stuck together way more than anyone from my school did).

A quote from the Lorax!!

Seabirds! Taken while the same friend pestered all the docents in the bird area too. 

Bird outside!

Just a cool bit of coral and anemones. 

I took a lot of pictures with friends, but I’m not sharing those.