Suburban Entwife

But the convenient thing about heat waves in late August is that by now the stores have decided that summer is over and we’re now in back-to-school season.  This means that cute little oscillating desk fans are half-off. :-)  And I’m waiting for the ice pop molds I got on Amazon to arrive.  I don’t handle heat quite as well as I thought I did.  Maybe my metabolism’s shifted after all, either from the not-having-a-thyroid or from moving to New England or both.  But now I’m much more prepared…I may also get some of those freezer gel headband thingies, especially since they double as microwave gel thingies for winter.

And we got a cantaloup in our CSA share yesterday.  Mmm…cantaloup.  I was nice and saved Ben a piece for when he gets back from PiCon tonight.  Since there were no services this week, once I got back from the farm I really had no reason to do anything yesterday other than sit under the ceiling fan eating chilled cantaloup and reading things that do not require brain.  I hope things cool off in two weeks when my classes start.

I’m thinking of crocheting a lace cotton tallit for summer.  The silk one is translucent, but is still silk, which is deceptively warm.  This is actually resulting in me not praying in the morning because it would require putting on more clothing than absolutely necessary.  Sigh.

Highs in the 90s today and tomorrow…stormy and only slightly cooler for the rest of the week.  Blech.  These temperatures should not exist without copious quantities of foliage sheltering me from the blazing sun.  Preferably foliage involving mangos.  It required a substantial effort of will to go to work this morning instead of sitting under the ceiling fan all day eating popsicles.  Also, we’re out of popsicles.  I really need to get a popsicle mold…even just ice with a little lemon juice in it with a convenient handle would be fine; I don’t need all that sugar.  And then I could make frozen coconut milk with honey and cardamom.  Mmmm…

There will be much socializing this week, which should force me out of the apartment.  Rosh Chodesh tomorrow, gaming on Wednesday, and probably Science Museum either Thursday or Friday.

I’ve been making a *lot* of yarn.  I’m going to crochet a baby blanket for “afghans for Afghans“.  It’s one of the few warm-fuzzies-for-charity places I’ve found that actually wants wool (machine-washability is a bit less of an issue there).  I found a great pattern for using small bits of a lot of colors, and I’ve ordered some black alpaca at a really good discount to use as the background color.

I vacuumed most of the apartment and swept the kitchen.  And I put the purple fleece blanket over the couch, because its scuzziness was starting to bug me.  Our couch is a giant block of upholstered foam, that folds out to be a surprisingly comfy couch-bed.  Its invertebrateness is convenient because it means it’s very light, but it was already second-hand from Ben’s previous roommate, so it’s getting kind of past its use-by-date.  But with the purple fleece thing, it magically becomes a pretty purple couch!

I also made some delicious body scrub stuff with salt, sugar, oil, and honey (yum!).  I used olive oil, because that’s what we had.  It makes my skin unpleasantly oily for about two hours, and then it stays soft for *days*.

We have a new coworker who is quite awesome.  But my other coworker and our supervisor were both on vacation last week, so it was kind of weird.  I didn’t get much done; I was feeling really drained last week.  My classes don’t start until September 8 — yay!  I’m taking two Thursday classes, then working Sundays to make up for it.  But then I also now have to work Wednesday evenings and two Saturdays this semester.  Blech.  I do not want to work on Shabbat.  And I really don’t think I’ll be much use working until 9pm…at least I don’t have to start until 2.  I ended up not applying for the Eric Carle Museum job.  I updated my resume and wrote a cover letter, which was a useful exercise, but after the initial excitement died down, I realized that no really, I can’t move to Amherst on 2 weeks notice, couldn’t really live there without a driver’s license anyway, and can’t commute that far while still living here.

I am back from camp!  Institute was excellent :-)  Some highlights:

– I took a class on signing liturgy and one called “Dancing with the Tree of Life” which took Kabbalistic concepts and applied them to movement and other physical meditations.  Evidently I need to work with Netzach more.  Where by “netzach” I mean “spending less time resembling a doormat”.  Given current American color symbolism, I remain amused that netzach is represented by pink.  The sign class was also amazing…there are a couple songs that I want to teach at our synagogue’s kid-oriented Shabbat evening service, since they translate really well into sign in a way that involves a lot of big fun movements that would be easy for kids to learn.  Kaddish, however, comes out looking a bit peculiar since ASL really only has two words for “praise”.  Hebrew has…several.  ”Law” is similarly inconvenient.

– I got to help proofread a Torah scroll!  It was thoroughly awesome.  My partner and I (you work in pairs) proofread the first paragraph of Genesis.  This is part of the “community Torah project” in which a softeret (scribe) is getting as many people as possible involved in the Torah she’s writing…it’s being written on parchment made from deerskin donated by Adirondak hunters, a previous institute workshop helped make some of the parchment, feathers, bamboo, and papyrus for quills have been donated by a wide variety of people (papyrus grows in Florida.  Who knew?).

– I taught people to spin!  They enjoyed it, and I think I ran the workshop more smoothly than the one I did at our synagogue’s retreat.  The “students” at my workshop included the teachers in two of the previously-described classes/workshops, which was a marvelous demonstration of the “everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student” philosophy.

– I have two new hats.  One is a bright orange batik Bukharan (pillbox-hat)-style kippah, and the other is a crocheted one out of wire, white lace, and pearly beads.

– I met plenty of nifty people, including some whom I’d met last year.  Some of them are even in this area, so we might hang out sometime.

– There was an impressive amount of marvelous chanting and singing.  Sacred roundsinging and chanting in large groups with good acoustics is exactly the kind of singing I want to do more of.

• Made pickles: 1/2 gallon plus 1/2 quart standard garlicky cucumber pickles, 1/2 quart sweet cinnamon carrot pickles, 1 quart kimchi-style pickled chard stems
• Paid rent
• Paid electric bill
• Set up recurring payments for electric bill so that I remember to pay it
• Finished reading log for class
• Finished lesson plans for class
• Really wished I was a teacher so that I could actually use the lesson plan based on Digger
• Froze onion tops and chard leaves
• Used up last of bread for sandwich
• Did laundry
• Packed Giant Box o’ Fuzz for workshop
• Made squash-coconut milk-curry bisque with the summer squash that I cooked a few days ago and never got around to eating.  It can be dinner, or it can go in the freezer.
• Made some nice 3-ply yarn out of the incredibly-lofty free undyed wool that was thrown in with my mill ends order. (the Sheep Shed Studio sells leftover roving from a yarn company at an amazing discount if you don’t mind getting a box of random stuff.  I ordered some for the workshop)

While I completely agree with Kiva’s goal of partnering with organizations that focus on loans to women, this does tend to mean that men on Kiva get no love at all, especially the ubiquitous Central Asian Man With Grocery Store, a close cousin of the Central Asian Man With Cow.  So here are a few deserving y-chromosome folks:

Tofiq Mardanov in Azerbaijan -- only a few days left to fund!

Tofiq Mardanov has always been a hard-working man. He made sure from a young age that his family never went without their daily bread. He is married with four sons. Tofiq has a store where he sells different kinds of goods, such as cosmetics and home products. Thanks to his perseverance and dedication, Tofiq began his enterprise 8 years ago, with a starting capital of 100 USD. His salary as a accountant wasn’t enough to cover basic needs of his family. Since then he has expanded his business and it has become a family affair, with his whole family helping. Tofiq needs to buy more goods to increase the range of his inventory, so he is requesting a loan of 2000 USD. He is ready to work even harder, make sacrifices and push to achieve his goals and become a successful entrepreneur.

Juan Carlos in Bolivia

Juan Carlos is 35 years old, is married, has 2 children, and lives in a rental. Juan Carlos has been a salaried worker in sugar production for 4 years. He is the assistant to a welder. He also has income from motorcycle rentals. This loan will be used for refinancing and to pay the remaining balance on a rockola, a modern-day jukebox.

Edwing Antonio Campos Gutierrez in Nicaragua

Edwin Campos, 36, lives in the Villa Reconciliación neighborhood in the capital city of Managua. He and his wife have three children; they are 6, 17, and 19 years old. The children go to school. His wife works as an elementary school teacher to help the household.

Edwin has a taxi. He uses it every day to travel the streets of Managua in order to support his family, even though he gets very tired from his travels looking for customers. He has worked as a driver for four years. Before that he worked for a private business. But, they cut back on personal, and with the liquidation he bought the taxi.

He will use the loan to invest in replacement parts and maintenance for his taxi to be able to give his customers good service.

[I am curious as to his choice of hood design...does that mean something else in Nicaragua?]

Khadim Diouf in Senegal

Khadim Diouf is 29 years old. He is a Koranic teacher in the Médine district of the city of Mbour. He is requesting a loan for acquiring sound equipment for the religious singing he leads. This equipment will be rented out and is going to generate funds as revenues for him.

Jethro Hongayo in the Phillippines

Jethro Hongayo is from the municipality of Lopez Jaena, Misamis Occidental. He is 33 years old. Jethro is married and has 1 infant child. To make a living, Jethro owns and operates a sari-sari store (a general store). The main source of income for the business comes from selling rice retail in the local community. Jethro has been engaged in his business for over 1 year and earns approximately 9,000 PHP a month for these activities.

Ali in Lebanon

Ali is a 42-year-old man who lives in Nabatieh, Southern Lebanon, with his wife and their three children. He has been working as a blacksmith for 20 years. Ali requested a loan of $2000 US from Al Majmoua in order to purchase tools and iron for his work. This is the first time that he has requested a loan.

Ali is has a reputation for his good work. His clients are people from his region. When he first started his business, he had difficulty building a network. Ali decided on this business because he wanted to improve his financial situation. In the future, he plans on expanding his business.

On Monday I will be going to camp…I’ll be away from internet all that week, with the exception of Wednesday night, when I will be signing on briefly to go to class.  Grrrgrumblegrumble.  But otherwise yay!  Institute was amazing last year, so I’m really looking forward to it.  I’ll be taking, among other things, a class on signing liturgy in ASL :-D  I’m also teaching a tzitzit spinning workshop.  Ravelry has been a startlingly-useful font of information on that project.

Dinner tonight will be fried green tomatoes…these will be the only tomatoes we will get from the farm.  Whatever we don’t fry up, I’ll stick in the freezer to make salsa out of later.  There hasn’t been an awful lot of food preservation going on this year because of the dismal weather and thus kind of puny harvest.  The things that have done best are greens which are best fresh.  We have gotten *delicious* carrots, though :-)  I may attempt kugel with the new potatoes and onions.