sarah in nyc

Because of Covid.  I started to feel sick a week ago.  What's it like to get Covid when you are double vaxxed and have a booster? Like having a bad cold with an extra dose of awful. My brain has shrunk from normal size into a tiny dried-up lentil. Our larders were empty when I got the results of the PCR test. I immediately put in a food order at Riverdale Kosher and thought about an expression of my mother's, "This is why God invented money." We have food in the fridge and freezer. When my brain allows me to work, I work and when it doesn't, I don't. You really don't want to get Covid. Mask up. Get Vaxxed. Get a booster. Stay safe even though it means giving up lots of good stuff that you really want to do. This is not a fun sick. I am not even that sick (think bad cold) and I still feel my body's willingness to give up and die. I look forward to seeing the faces of my loved ones tonight on Zoom.

 All of us are currently living with an elephant in our living rooms. But like the proverbial elephant in the room, I am going to avoid speaking about it until a little further into this post. I was about to make some gifts for some people. I decided to go shopping in my stash. I am glad I did. I found a length ( about three yards and change ) of a beautiful wool boucle with a windowpane plaid. I had purchased the yardage at my local thrift. I think that the contents of the home of a serious sewer were donated to the thrift.  There were several lengths of wonderful wool. The black boucle and a heavy white wool coating that may one day become high Holiday Totan mantles came home with me. I left behind a wonderful magenta and green boucle. I found the price tag on the wool. It cost me less than two subway rides but retail would cost anywhere from $35-$150 per yard. I cut just over two yards of the fabric and then cut the long length in half. Probably thirty years ago a nice sale...

I would like to start this post with a short list of things that are currently making me cranky. Businesses who comment on this blog but their comments are a list of links to businesses that are not only of zero interest to me but also are of zero interest to any of my readers. Today I woke up to comment with the header "Breaking News" which was a series of links to businesses in Chennai, India. Men that I don't know, and are not connected to anyone in my extended social circle who want to be my friend on Facebook or Instagram. Those requests usually are accompanied by a smarmy pick-up line or several of them. Ick! and even if I were not married, still ICK! The folks who call me every day about my car insurance renewal or my car warranty renewal. I don't own a car. I don't drive. I don't have a driver's license. And by the way, I was actually in the middle of doing something when you called me. The telemarketers who also call me daily who can't be both...

  I am making progress on Liat's tallit. Each dyed strip needs to be edged with the dark teal ribbon before being attached to the body of the tallit. I am really happy with the progress although I have had to do a fair amount of un-stitching along the way. Either I have gotten better at the less than pleasant job of undoing rows of machine embroidery or have achieved a new state of Zen but I haven't cursed once when I have had to undo dense machine embroidery. Yesterday we took the train to have lunch with my husband's friend since second grade. Aside from the lovely time we had and the excellent lunch we ate I also got to take these photos of the fabulous light fixtures at  Grand Central Terminal.  Today I opened my front door and found a bag attached to the doorknob.  Inside was a treasure trove, from my friend Pearl. Pearl's adventurous mother had traveled the world before she decided to get married. Pearl's mother was an accomplished needlewoman ( she knit the b...

 Tonight's dinner is the following: Chicken cooked with the dregs of the gochujang container, molasses and some yellow hot sauce from Barbados. I am also serving vegetables that looked like this a few minutes ago. The vegetables are now cooking in the oven at 375 with Meyer lemon, olive oil, and black pepper. the magic ingredient actually in both the chicken and the vegetables is evaporation. Slightly charred each is elevated to wonderful. Last week I baked a batch of challah. Taking ( and burning ) the little bit of dough is one area where it is the husband's mitzvah to be annoying. According to a book my husband bought me last year about the mitzvah of taking challah it is the job of the wife to take the challah and the job of the husband to remind his wife. So each time I now bake challah I bug my husband to bug me. I think if we were actually serious about this it would be a moment of actual annoyance.  It has evolved into one of the many nonsense riffs we as a couple have...