Or the first night of Passover. (5772 is the Jewish calendar year.) I can't believe that tonight's the first night!
Turns out there's a high possibility we will be going to the catered seder tonight. Yay!
I was beginning to worry that I, for the first time, wouldn't be going to/having a seder this year. I'm still not sure what I'll make for dinner during the week.
Kind of hard under the restrictions. Since I'm Ashkenazic, the main things I can't have are bread (well all Jews can't have bread during it...), barley, spelt, wheat, oats, rye, rice, millet, corn, and legumes. (Ashkenazic Jews have eastern European ancestry. Sephardic Jews have Mediterranean, North African, and Middle Eastern ancestry.) The Sephardic Jews don't have quite as many restrictions. Makes it a bit difficult to plan for meals. But, there are options.
It'll be interesting to see what the Pesach couscous is like, for one. Still haven't boiled some eggs, made charoset (a fruit/nut/wine mix. There's many different takes on it. Ours is a traditional and simple apple/walnut/wine mix. Symbolizes the mortar for the bricks the Israelites made for the Egyptians), and popovers. We eat a lot of eggs for lunches during it. The popovers are interesting, and they feel like actual dinner rolls.
Made out of matzah meal. (Ground up matzah.) 
It's another Gaia online based wallpaper. It has the watermeat aquarium fish, and a ghost from zOMG. The fish is supposed to be super expensive (apparently everyone wants one), and I don't remember seeing the ghost on zOMG. I haven't played that game in a long time. Things have probably changed.
Anyways, it's a cute one. Found a couple more Gaia-themed wallpapers, so look forward to those.
My Jewish calendar has an oil painting titled 'Burning of the chametz the day before Passover', by Martin Monnickendam from Amsterdam in 1940. The smaller pics are of seder plates. One that's porcelain, from around 1850, and they don't know where it originated from. The other one is pottery and glaze, from Delft, Netherlands. From around 1750-1800. Kind of cool to see the really old stuff.
The painting's kind of interesting. Traditionally, Jews gather up all the 'chametz' or leavened bread from their houses, and burn it the day before Passover starts. Not everybody does it though. The problem with cleaning out our 'chametz' from the house, is Dad isn't Jewish and doesn't follow the dietary laws. So, it makes it difficult to follow. We just try to keep the Pesach (or Passover) stuff separate. My regular calendar, has an Easter theme. For an 'herb' calendar there aren't very many herbs in the pic.
It mostly just has rosemary. The rest of it has some roasted hens in the shape of a rooster and a chicken, eggs, and some flowers. Kind of feels like a weird theme to me. Although, it is very spring-ish.Here's the month-long holidays: Brussels Sprouts and Cabbage Month, Celebrate Diversity Month, Cranberries and Gooseberries Month, Frog Month, International Guitar Month, Jazz Appreciation Month, National Decorating Month, National Garden Month, National Kite Month, National Pecan Month, National Poetry Month, Tomatillo and Asian Pear Month, National Soft Pretzel Month, National Garlic Month. Some are important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. A lot of great causes and foods being celebrated this month. Jazz and diversity are definitely something to celebrate. I love garlic!
I think the people who were reviewing my scan forgot about me.
Mom called them, and they were surprised by how long it had been. They said they didn't see anything wrong in the bone scan. So, the next step might be doing an MRI, since it might be soft tissue related instead of bone. But, I first have to talk to my new orthopedist about it. Mom was so anemic, that on Tuesday she had to have a blood transfusion. (We were at the clinic for 6 hours!
) It makes it feel more 'real' or 'raw' for me now that this has come up. Plus, I can't do much for her, because of my shoulder. I think she has a CT scan coming up to see what's going on. One of the nurses said they may have to drain some of the liquid in her abdomen, thinking maybe it just needs to 'pop'. But, Mom feels it's just the tumor getting so big it's messing with her organs. Ooooh...Just great.
Watched the Kill Me Baby finale. It was ok. Better than most of the series has been. They could have done so much more with it.
Managed to design a few more characters out through tektek. They're turning out better as I go. I have such a clear image of most of my characters, except the main and Junko. I might think more about their design/look. If I can't convey them well to myself, I don't think I could for potential fans.
Watched the finale for Daily Lives of High School Boys. Really hilarious, and I'm really hoping they do another season. I'll miss it. They hinted at the end that they may come back someday. Kind of similar to the way Gintama 'ended'...So, we'll see.
Got back into playing my clarinet. Good way to relieve stress. Sounded pretty good.
Watched the Phi Brain season finale. It was a good ending, but honestly, I don't think I'll watch the next season.
It kind of dragged, a couple of characters annoyed me, the art was a bit odd at times, too much angst during some episodes, etc. But, it had a good story, funny at times, a couple of characters I really liked (Ana, for example), and the puzzles were interesting. So, it was mixed for me. Not good enough to keep me for another season.
In Fairy Tail, Lucy found out that her father died while she had disappeared for 7 years. They were finally starting to reconnect. Natsu and Happy's safe is missing, so they don't have any money for food. Makarov 'talked' the loan sharks into backing down. Macao will apparently stay as the 4th Guild Master.
Naruto Shippuden was basically pointless. About Sasuke and Naruto meeting each other when they were kids. That was back in the previous 'series', why do they need to rehash that? If they needed a 'filler' make it interesting and new. I heard they won't go back to the main story until May. Kind of frustrating. The new opening's better than the last one, but not great. The ending's not bad.
I'm thinking of watching the rest of Pandora Hearts today and Saturday. Sunday, I hope to start another 'old' series, that I haven't seen before. I'll look at Code Geass first. Then, it'll be some new shows starting next Monday. Some have already aired recently, and some are coming up. I'll probably try Naruto SD, Acchi Kocchi, Shirokuma (Polar Bear) Cafe, and Nyarko-san: Crawling Chaos first. Interesting mix.
Found and translated a Japanese recipe for cold tomato soup. Sounded pretty tasty, and somewhat easy. Couldn't find any more Pesach recipes.
deviantART fave: The Capybara and the Guineapig April Fool's nom nom nom I did not make these! First, an interesting comparison between a guinea pig and a capybara. Second, a cute and dark drawing from an artist I watch. Third, a cool drawing, related somewhat to the theme dA did for April Fool's.
Youtube:
Funny collection of clips showing Gray's (from Fairy Tail) habit of unconsciously stripping. I didn't realize Cana, most of the time, is the first to notice when it happens:
One of the funniest clips from Gintama, of Sougo counting corpses instead of sheep:
Another hilarious clip from Gintama:
