Here is my 12 of 12 for April 12th. It's coming in a bit late because I didn't expect to be stranded in Chicago another day. The cool thing about this 12 of 12 is some 'scrawlers got involved. Here's some of the 12 of 12s from Nightscrawlers:
IdsunkiNachtElwingWith more to come!
8:30am ~ I am at my parents' house just outside of Chicago. This is what it looks like. It's a very different house than my shack.
8:32am ~ My dad keeps telling me stories about coyotes in the neighborhood and I've been like "uh huh, yeah, coyotes, sounds serious...." Because I didn't really believe him, but this morning there was this half a rabbit on our neighbor's lawn. Our neighbors have a dog, but it's smaller than the rabbit. The butt end of a rabbit is a good meal for a predator like a coyote though... hmmm.
9:00am ~ Breakfast at Walker Brothers. Walker Brothers is local Chicago breakfast place that makes the best breakfast ever! I'm having a Dutch Pancake which is eaten with lemon and powered sugar. It's baked and it rises in the pan so when they bring it to the table it's like a big bowl that slowly goes floppy. It's getting towards floppiness in the picture. Yummy!
10:05am ~ My parents' dog Kodiak (Kody for short) snuggles on his favorite rug with his favorite stuffed blue dog.
10:30am ~ I had a date with my friend Chris, one of the other Nightscrawlers admins to do some role playing for the board's experimental new role playing game. Here we are trying to figure out how awkward teenage mutants with shape shifting powers express their affections for each other. Awkwardly it turns out. It's good to be a Nerd.
1:00pm ~ Kody at the dog park. It seems that Kody's first order of business is to get as dirty as possible when going to the dog part. Here he's found a decent mud wallow and appears to be enjoying himself.
1:35pm ~ Satisfied that he has achieved an appropriate level of filth, Kody finds a friend in the bushes.
6:00pm ~ It's the first night of Passover so my father and I go to a Seder at his friends Sue and Sherwin's house. The table is all set with a Haggadot at each place, the traditional seder platter of symbolic foods, and flowers. It's a huge gathering with multiple generations of families and friends.
6:00pm ~ A closeup of the Seder plate. Everything has a meaning. The egg (Baytzah) is a symbol of the traditional temple sacrifices that were offered during passover. The Parsley (Karpas) represents a vegetable and is eaten during the ceremony dipped in the Salt Water that represents tears. The brownish stuff is "Charoset" and it symbolizes the mortar Jewish slaves used in their building for the Egyptians. (It's delicious - made from apples, nuts, wine, and spices) The lamb shank bone (Zeroa) if a reminder both of the slaughtered paschal lamb as well as the "mighty arm of God". Bitter herbs (Maror), usually horshradish, is used to represent the bitter life of the Jews in their time of enslavement. And finally, celery is used as a bitter vetetable (Chazeret).
Each of these foods is used or eaten during the course of the passover ceremony which takes place during the meal.
7:00pm ~ After the service is concluded, chicken with matzoh ball soup is served. Yum.
7:20pm ~ The stereotype about Jewish mothers making too much food has to come from somewhere. Passover dinner laid out moments before everyone digs in. One person cooked all this!
7:40pm ~ I tried to get a large candid phot of everyone just hanging out, having dinner, chatting, and having a nice time. It was a good Pesach.
