(no subject)

My course proposals are all sorted and Buffy's nearly over for the night and I'm going to sleep. I have just definitively proven to myself that I'm a bad, bad influence and that it's just as well I didn't put in a proposal to teach Old French because I would be teaching people bad, bad language. See this listing for proof of how evil my past is.

(no subject)

A combination of Passover preparations with PMT with someone seriously wanting me to convert to Catholicism before Passover begins so I can use the festival to persuade all Jews to become Catholic and move to Israel makes for a very grouchy Gillian.

What I normally do when I get grouchy, is write fiction. This is the place those snarky short stories come from. I come out of it feeling very balanced and with the world turned right. I can't do that today because it's the last of the Jewish culture course tonight and I'm also teaching tomorrow. Class preparation calls. Also, I have more kitchen to sort.

I've resorted to very old-fashioned cheer. My bowl of things to diminish for Passover is significantly smaller. It now consists of some paprika (which needs to be given away - it's in the bowl because I had too much, not because it needs finishing), some spaghetti, a tiny bit of chocolate and some mini pappadums. Also the makings of much nori maki. If I throw out the pasta in the fridge (from 2 days ago) everything looks achievable, and I have one less excuse to grump. If I eat the pasta in the fridge I will be more grumpy because of the PMT and the inevitable body image issues - I will leave it till tomorrow and make an executive decision then.

How did I diminish the bowl so quickly? Yesterday I ate much of an invented dish which used up beans *and* polenta *and* all but one of my onions and turned out remarkably delicious. Today I've invented two dishes. Or adapted two dishes. I'm not sure of the proper definition when you take stray ingredients and turn them into oddities.

My students tonight and tomorrow get macadamia-almond-apricot biscuits. I had some macadamias left and some sugar left and they've been turned into sugared macadamia nuts. I only had plain flour, so I used up all the eggs to leaven the biscuits and I emptied the sugar bowl into the dish, so my nuts, flour, stray sugar and eggs are *all* finished. The biscuits will go to class tonight and tomorrow and the nuts will be for anyone who drops in until Sunday. And I have tested them all and they are *yummy*.

Feeding people cheers me up so much more than eating leftover pasta. I could still do with writing a snarky story, but at least I won't grouch at my students now.

(no subject)

Before I sleep and start a brand-new grouch-free day, you need to know my latest thought on those aliens who converted to Judaism. No matter what their *actual* gender status, their decision about whether they are male or female in their practise of Judaism is crucial. I spoke to my mother and certain male members of my family today. My mother was in bed with a sore back because she is doing what I'm doing and we both want Monday here, now. The male members haven't even registered that all this is happening.

Wouldn't it be cool if the aliens were not female, but identified as female? Wouldn't that lead to some lovely questions about why humans divide things in the way we do and what we regard as reasonable and sensible and necessary?