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. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Murderbot Goes To Prom

Image
 Or, my senior prom is over (it was a lot of fun and I could have danced all night) and I am So Close to graduating!!! (Tomorrow!!!)  And so I have written fanfic about it. And also did fanart about it. This is my beloved high school alternate universe of the murderbot books where they’re theater kids, and these are the photos that would be on their various Instagram accounts.  ID: Arada and Overse standing together in front of two trees. Arada has brown curly hair and medium dark skin, and wears a pink floofy dress with a shimmery skirt; she also has a pink flower crown and a turquoise corsage. Overse has light skin and curly light brown hair, and wears a sleek teal gown that fades to lighter shades on the skirt; she also has a necklace, a pink corsage, glasses, and a turquoise flower crown.  ID: Ratthi and Pin-Lee standing next to each other in front of an old tree. Ratthi has brown skin and brown hair, and wears a blue-gray suit with a white shirt and red tie, corsage, and flower cr
Read more

Things Bardic Is Learning About The East Coast

 A list: - *everything* is green here and there’s so much water and so many trees - everything is named after a person or a place in England. There’s no saints, no “beautiful views” or “snowy mountains,” no religious names at all. - turnpikes are a real thing and not just something that shows up in a history textbook  - ITS SUMMER WHY IS IT WET WHY IS IT RAINING I DONT LIKE IT - low flow toilets are less of a thing here because, according to my father, “water is basically free” - SERIOUSLY WHY SO GREEN WHY SO MUCH WATER - wet season is all year? All roofs are peaked? Everything’s so old????? What is UP with this place????!!! - no earthquakes what the HECK - why is there farmland right outside town??? - I apparently know nothing about water. This has been told to me multiple times. 
Read more

Off to college!

Image
 Here I go off to college, time zone is changing, but as always this blog will be updated… whenever I feel like it which is often never.  [ID: an open plastic box with much yarn in it.] This is the Yarn I Am Taking, parentally limited to one box (a tragedy , I tell you)  The girls (gendered) about to be stored [ID: a Snow White large doll and two American girl dolls, original josefina and beforever kaya, sitting in front of a bed.] The other set of girls (nongendered bc trans/non-binary supremacy) about to be stored [ID: all of the Ever After High dolls I own sitting on boxes.]
Read more

Papagena Shawl — pattern and pictures

Image
I finished this a few weeks ago, and I’m finally sharing both pictures and a free pattern for my new favorite shawl (and, hopefully, I might even be able to figure out ravelry posting)! I love shawls because they go with everything, and this one combines rainbow colors, a feathery border, and beautiful drapeiness. 
Read more