devarim

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There's been a Columbine-style threat at my sister's high school for tomorrow, November 1. There is, supposedly, a list of names (i.e., targets) floating around, and a rumor of gang involvement from elsewhere on the Island. My sister, her friends, a whole bunch of other students, and an even larger bunch of parents are (understandably) freaked out, but the school and the district - while taking appropriate steps to protect themselves and students - are playing things down.

I can't help but wonder whether the whole thing is a hoax blown out of proportion, a practical joke or a dare intended to freak out a few other students that went a step too far. My gut tells me that's all it is, and there's no need to worry. Still, I'll be holding my breath every time I check the news tomorrow.

-=-

Okay, so that wasn't a splash of a post, given my month-long silence. I want to blog again, really I do, but the right topics never hit me at the right times. So maybe I need to just make a twice-a-week commitment and stick with it, even if I have nothign to say but, "My, aren't the leaves beautiful today!" (And, really, if you're in the greater Boston area, check out your local leaves, because we're already past the peak for most trees and in a few short weeks all we'll have is scraggly branches with a few dried-up hangers-on. Perfect for decorating with little white lights, huh?)

I think I need another blog redesign. Maybe having a flashy title bar (and nesting code that actually works properly) will energize me to write again. It's also probably high time I overhaul my sidebar to highlight different posts and include a more up-to-date list of blogs I actually read. Or, at least, to purge the ones that don't really exist anymore. And then maybe I could redo the categories, because pretty much nobody ever got the joke there, and even I'm not sure what goes into what category anymore. And then...

...well, first I have to run to the store for some milk.

What did I discover tonight, after four years of marriage and another four years of dating prior to that? That my husband doesn't like stew. The foodstuff, I mean: the liquidy dish with meat and potatoes and vegetables. Not to be confused with any persons by the name of "Stewart," who, in my experience, at least, tend to be nice guys with whom Julian gets along just fine. No, I mean the food. Which happened to be dinner tonight.

He was gracious enough to compliment the seasoning in general, and said that it was a good stew, as stews go, just...not his thing. This is a problem, because I have three more blocks of pre-cut stew meat in the freezer, each weighing in at about five pounds. The intent was to defrost one every few weeks, use about half for a cholent that Shabbat, and use the remainder for dinner several days later. And the general expectation is that it would be in stew form, because what else do you use such meat for? I suppose I could still make the stew anyway, and have it only for myself for lunches, but that seems a little excessive. You can't really freeze stew, because it has potatoes in it, and you aren't supposed to refreeze raw meat that's been frozen and defrosted once already. So, I need suggestions. Anyone?