(no subject)

My Shabbat.

Not a huge amount to say. Jonathan came home just after candle-lighting, which he does. Fortunately, there's that 18 minute cushion. He went to shul and then we had chili chicken (I put a paste of chili powder, lime juice, lime zest, a little water and some oil under the skin of a chicken cut into eight pieces.) and rice and frozen mixed veggies.

Next day - well, I got caught up in a political book - Big Lies by Eric Conason, so I missed shul in the morning. I did daaven on time, so that's a plus. I made one of my Shabbat salads for lunch - this time it was diced leftover chicken, avocado, red peppers, red onions and sunflower seeds (and European mix bag o'salad) in a lime juice vinaigrette.

Then we napped and read until Jonathan had his Daf Yomi shiur. At about 5:45, I finally left to go to my weekly women's group. I passed Jonathan on his way back from shiur,where he was talking to a friend of ours. The group itself went well, with the discussion centering around vows, cities of refuge and reincarnation. No, I didn't lead it.

And as I reached my house, I passed my husband on his way to another friend's house. I'm afraid we got rather snuggly at that point, to the amusement of our neighbors sitting on their porch. At least, they gave me huge smiles. And I read fanfic until the end of Shabbat. Nice and peaceful and quiet. Pretty much perfect.

Woohoo!

I just got back from my 8th (out of a possible 16) Grey Belt improvement class.

And I was just awarded two blue stripes!

I think this will reduce the number of classes I will have to take to get my blue belt.

*Dances*

(no subject)

My husband is currently being wonderful.

He's standing in line at a local takeout place to buy dinner. We have to eat dinner before - well, before 9PM, anyway. Because tonight is Rosh Chodesh Av - the beginning of the Nine Days (which is the end of the Three Weeks.) Mourning for the Temple goes into high gear - no meat, no clean clothes (we adapt), no swimming and for those who can handle it, no bathing and no shaving. Haircuts have been out for a couple week already. So have weddings.

So, like the rest of Flatbush, my husband is out buying a fleishig meal because it'll be our last one until Friday night (all mourning stops on the Sabbath.) You think that's bad? The dairy restaurants next Sunday are going to be *packed* - not only do a lot of people go out for dinner on Sundays anyway, but the normal Sunday night dinner in many households is Shabbat leftovers. Which tend to be meat. Which would not be permitted. We've waited on line for hours to get seated.

Better is to go to a meat restaurant and have something from a pareve Nine Days menu. The one my husband is now does it very well - things they don't serve the rest of the year, such as fish because there are some stringencies about fish and meat that it's easier to avoid in a place like that. Or a Chinese or Japanese place, which can do pareve with no retooling at all. And, of course. It's only nine days, one of which is Shabbat and one of which is a fast day anyway, although it's forbidden to eat meat until the next afternoon.