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A day of odds and ends

Today I smelled one of the oddest odor combinations. On the corner of Columbus and 97th there was a coffee pushcart that was selling warmed up baked goods, so you could smell those sweet  toasty baked aromas. The lawn in front of the apartment complex there had just been mowed. Of course, there was that usual New York smell of car exhaust. None of those is particularly unpleasant on their own, but in combination it was just plain weird. Just in case you wanted to know.

Today has mostly been a day of laundry. Not only am I doing all of my daughter's laundry, our own hampers were pretty backed up. Actually, more correctly this has been a day of doings the beginnings of things with not a whole lot to show for myself at the moment. I did get my serger humming again. There are times when my serger behaves like a balky child. I cajoled it into good behavior.

I am filling in a Ketuba/marriage contract for a friend so spent part of the day trying to get all of the the things I have to fill in figured out.  The calligraphy will wait until tomorrow because by then the dining room table will be cleared of my daughter's stuff. Then I will have a nice clean surface for doing calligraphy.

This image from wirednewyork.com
You might be lucky enough to smell that weird olfactory mix the next time you walk here
I did some more work on the red tallit, stuff that is hugely boring yet essential...lots of thread pulling and cutting , but now, the edges are tidy.

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