From flood to light

The White House Hanukkah Ceremony Menorah: A Reminder of Tragedy and a Source of Inspiration

The gorgeous menorah (or perhaps more properly, the hanukiyah) used in the White House ceremony was one of the few things to survive from Congregation Beth Israel in New Orleans after they were hit by Hurricane Katrina. It was found, caked in dirt and mould, but like the synagogue, continues. They just broke ground for a new building.

Check out the picture on the White House blog post. It's nice, large, and must have been a pain to clean with all those flourishes, but well worth it.

It's 4 am. Guess who just got home?

I went over and made latkes for friends tonight in celebration of Hanukkah. The presentation wasn't what I'd like (not my best flipping; the cheese ones tended to crumble), but everything tasted wonderful and we had fun. I helped with a few things there and visited, and finally got a cab home a few minutes ago. I am ready for bed.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I found that I didn't have much work to do today in the evening. I did what I could, but I left at about 4:30 pm today. It was so strange to be out in the daylight after work. Tomorrow should be doubly busy though.

The book fair at work has been moved from Thursday to tomorrow, yay. Not that I have much of anything to spend, but hey.

Alright, I can barely keep my eyes open. Even though I'm finally hungry (latkes were at 8 pm) I'm going to head on to bed. Good night.

Today was nice

Not only was it game day--and the game was quite good--but I got a wonderful Hanukkah present: Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau. The only bad thing was I missed an excellent opportunity because I had not checked one of my e-mail accounts. But, oh, well, that's water under the bridge now.

So now I'm home. We didn't play too late because Brenda lives out in the boonies and with the snow she wanted to make sure she got there in one piece. It's supposed to be really cold tonight, so where some of the snow had melted there will be ice. I've scrambled some eggs and eaten them. Now I want to go on to bed, even though it's only 9:30 (but in my defence I've been up almost 16 hours). I know the game master will probably call asking how I liked the game, though, as soon as I go to bed. Actually, there's probably a law somewhere that states that no matter how long I wait, I'll get a phone call as soon as I actually lie down, so I might as well head to bed.

I'm going over to a friend's tomorrow to make him latkes and finish some stuff up I need to do. Money's a little tight but I may be able to swing a cab if needed, especially as I'll have to stop by the store and get the things for latkes. I particularly like the cheese ones more than the potatoes, the ones you eat with applesauce, although I usually make both.

Okay, I guess I'll head on to bed. Good night.

At first

I thought my eyes were just bleary. But no, we have major fog. It happens rarely here, but I live near a reservoir, so it's one of the places susceptible to fog.

I'm not quite awake. I'm drinking a little soda to help remedy that.

Today should be a light day at work. There's a smaller clinic. We're having our holiday meal for lunch (people bring dessert; the cafeteria provides the normal meat and trimmings for free, plus this year they're providing fish or chicken for those who don't eat red meat. I gather they're not having turkey because they figure everyone's sick of that from last week.) Plus, at 2 we're having a talent show, which is usually fun to watch.

My department (how weird, I'm used to being a department of one, now I belong to a second department with several people) is having a meeting/holiday potluck on the 16th. I was going to ask off for that Thursday and Friday because of a lecture series where there is no clinic or surgery and therefore not much for me to do in the evening. What I think I'll do instead is come in for a couple of hours on the 16th, then go out and do some holiday errands. That will leave Friday and Saturday to finish errands or just have some time in the house or spending it with friends.

We're off for Christmas Eve since Christmas is on a Saturday this year. I'll probably go to Danville and spend the night with my grandmother again.

I'm in a holiday mood, which is odd for me this early. Yesterday I was in Walgreens and I bought some little bells for the tree at work and a couple of Hanukkah cards, one for YKWIA and one for a co-worker. I was looking for bags of gelt but they didn't have any. What they did have was a giant chocolate coin the size of my hand, practically. So I got one and slid it into my co-worker's envelope. I'll see about getting a little bag of gelt before Sunday for YKWIA. I also bought a box of Peanuts cards (hey, they were the most reasonably priced. I am not spending nearly $20 for 12 cards or such). Besides, I like Snoopy and the gang. For the first time in years, I bought some with Christmas greetings. Really, most of the people I know are Christian. There were 6 designs of 4 cards each, and two of the designs are generic holiday cards I can send to non-Christians (so I got 24 cards for $5. Much better.) :)

It looks like the sun is starting to burn off the fog. I should go get ready. I'm trying to decide if I want to go get my rent stuff together today or wait until tomorrow morning. I think I'll wait and check when the rental office is open tomorrow. The bank's only open until noon, so I'm sure I can get back here in time to get a proper receipt. I have until the 5th to actually pay it, but I like to take care of it as soon as possible.

Okay, have a great day.

PS It's jeans day at work. Yay! I'm going to wear my Starkweather-Moore Antarctic Expedition T-shirt. :) [It's a game thing. If you've been reading you know that a couple of years of my life, it seemed, were devoted to weekly forays into Chaosium's Beyond the Mountains of Madness campaign. I thought it would never end. But I saved the world. :)]

Happy Hanukkah!