I love peanut butter!
This was actually on Saturday, but why not keep celebrating it? Even though I love it, a little can go a long way. I especially like the crunchy kind. Feels more 'real' if I can crunch down on a peanut bit. The smooth stuff, to me, might only be good in baked goods. 
My Italy calendar features Tuscany this month. We're back up a bit towards the north. There's some info on the region and its history. The main pic's of a church called San Biagio just outside the city of Montepulciano. Looks pretty cool.
My Jewish calendar features 3 megillot (plural for megillah, lit. 'scroll') or Esther scrolls. The main one has an anonymous maker, made out of parchment and wood, from the Netherlands; 1700-1750. It's rather interesting looking. There are some illustrations where they look like they may be acting out some of the parts in the story. And, there are weird looking animals encircling the text. Another one had an anonymous maker, made out of silver and parchment; 1700-1750. (They don't mention where it was from. Maybe it's from the Netherlands, too?) It looks kind of like a mini fancy Torah. (Not all of them look like that.) The last megillah was also made anonymously, made out of parchment, ivory, and silk; 1800-1850. (The place isn't listed for this one, so maybe it's also from the Netherlands?) It's really tiny looking, has only one 'roller', and has very tiny print. Kind of cool looking ones. And, really old. That makes them even more interesting.
We read the megillah on Purim. It's the story of Esther. We're told to recite it every Purim. Only since it's supposed to be a fun holiday, people act it out, do things when certain names are mentioned, if just read they might do it in a certain accent, etc. It's very interactive. That itself can be a lot of fun. Purim is on the 16th, and Shushan Purim is the next day. In cities that were walled at the time of Joshua, Purim is celebrated the day after. (Some interpret it loosely to mean all walled cities.) Shushan (the city in the story) was a walled city, and according to the megillah, deliverance from the massacre wasn't complete until the next day. People living in Jerusalem celebrate it then. (They're one of the few we know for sure was a walled city back then.) I decided that I might want to go to the 'Anatevka' or Fiddler on the Roof-themed one. It sounds like it'd be fun! They're going to recite it in Russian accents, have a Russian 'peasant' lunch, they've asked people to dress up according to the theme, there's an art show, and more. I'm not sure what I'll wear, though...
Today is the first day of the 2nd month of Adar or Adar II. (There are 2 months of Adar during a leap year.) Pesach or Passover is a month after Purim. Crazy that it's coming up so quickly!
The month-long holidays are: National Celery Month, National Noodle Month, National Peanut Month, National Frozen Food Month, Bell Peppers and Broccoli Month, Berries and Cherries Month, Irish-American Heritage Month, National Craft Month. Some are important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Lots of awesome food ones! Cool, I'm Irish-American! Good to connect with people's heritages. Crafts can be fun. I'm not too into them, but once in a while they can be fun to do.
Couldn't sleep very well last night.
So, I got up even earlier than I'd like to. I think I was wide awake at 4:30, and tried to make myself go back to sleep. I couldn't, and just decided to get up. Funny, because I ended up going to bed slightly later than I'd like. But, that was mainly because my grandpa called, and we hadn't talked for a long time. Plus, it was 3 hours later over there, but he decided to call us anyways. So, I would have felt guilty if I hadn't talked to him.
Tried a new restaurant called Elmer's last night. It replaced a not so great or so-so one (Taprock). And, before that there was another restaurant that everyone seemed to like. (Mitzel's.) And, I have some pretty fond memories of it.
(It looked different back then.) There was a huge fire that basically destroyed everything, and after it was remodeled, the so-so restaurant went in. This place was much better. They used the same layout, the seats were the same, and the menu's design looked similar. But, they had some much more exciting sounding stuff. They had German pancakes, omelets, crepes, cinnamon bun French toast, lots of burgers, fish and chips, steaks, etc. I had their ranch house burger. It had a pretty thick patty, cheddar, an onion ring, BBQ sauce, lettuce, their 'special' burger sauce mixed in with the lettuce, and a crispy bun. It was very good.
There was a really big pickle and some fries on the side. The fries actually had flavor, and were a decent cut. Very good all around. I decided to sign into Plenty of Fish and Jewcier a few days ago. I hadn't been on either for a long time. Its been the longest time since I've signed in to Jewcier. Had to actually reactivate it.
I mainly wanted to check out the revamped version of it. Anyways, as soon as I signed into both, I had a ton of guys saying they wanted to meet me or were messaging me. (There's a button on POF that says Meet Me under a person's pic. If someone clicks it, you get an automated message saying someone wants to meet you.) It was weird, because the last time I signed in, I barely had anyone message/want to meet me. I'm not really used to it. I wonder what changed...
Although, I kind of understand Jewcier being different since they've changed their system a bit. It still surprised me. Also, there were some decent looking guys who messaged me this time. Most of those messages were through Jewcier, so they're Jewish too. Yay!
One said on his profile that he's trying to come up with as many recipes for banana bread as he can, and that maybe someone could taste-test it for him. He'll cook other things for them too. Yay, someone who likes to cook, too! That'd be awesome!
But, I might gain weight...Anyways, should be interesting to look into these. Did more of that oc writing meme. I feel like I'm really getting into them. Funny that one of the questions was about a zombie apocalypse. There aren't that many zombies in their world, but they exist. And the question was aimed at just a few of the demons. They don't really care. So to them it was kind of a boring question. It's fun for me though to write about these 'situtations'.
The dinner party one was interesting, too. I think I'm close to finishing this meme. Studied more kanji through JapaneseClass' site. Did pretty well this time. Had some pretty long combos. (The more questions you get correct in a row, the higher the combo.) Made it to the front page. If you gain enough points in one day, you're added to the top ranked scorers for the day.
On Saturday, I had my own little afternoon Shabbat service. I hadn't done that in a long time. It felt kind of nice.
Also, read the portion or parsha. It's the last one for Exodus. Later, I also had my own Havdalah service. I haven't done Havdalah at home since Mom did it occasionally. And, that was years ago.
It's the concluding service or ceremony for Shabbat. A lot of people just do it at home. It's a little dangerous if you're by yourself, because of how big the candle's flame can get. It's a special braided candle. Usually pretty colorful. I used the one I got from Tzfat or Safed. It was from a candle shop where they actually make some of the stuff in front of their customers. I got a rather large one from them. I also used a spice box Mom made a long time ago. Still smelled awesome! We didn't have regular grape juice, so I used some sparkling grape/raspberry juice. (It's like a fancy French spritzer we got from Costco a while ago.) Havdalah is one of my fave services/ceremonies. It's beautiful, when with others it brings them closer together, and it feels cozy or homey too. It's supposed to be bittersweet, because it's the end of Shabbat, but the beginning of another possibly joy-filled or good week.
It's a short ceremony, too. I installed the newest version of Spybot Search & Destroy. Thought I'd see how my system was doing. I had over 48,000 temp files, and over 500 'threats'.
Got rid of them, and things are running much smoother. My computer isn't 'thinking' so hard. Also, decided to install the newest version of Panda Cloud. It's a great antivirus thing, where most of it is stored in the cloud. It monitors computers from all over the world at once. When a new virus is found, it updates itself and takes care of it right away. It's pretty awesome. It has things Spybot S&D doesn't have, and vice versa. So, it's good to have both. It's running even smoother now. I checked, and apparently it freed up 3 more gb. Crazy! That's about the same amount I cleared out a few months ago. So, all together I've freed up around 6 gb. That's a lot.
deviantART fave: Pizza Cake I did not make this! An awesome looking cake made to look like a pizza. The toppings are made out of chocolate, fruit jelly, and icing. It looks amazing. I love those sweets that look like actual dishes. They're cool and very creative, especially when done right.
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