Bearshorty's musings

Happy New Year!

It feels quite appropriate that at this point of our Dante project (I just finished Canto 27 of Purgatory this week) we just said goodbye to Virgil and Dante is about to enter the Earthly Paradise. Feels auspicious.

This week I've been doing a lot of cross stitching in the evenings. I'm done with cross stitches, almost done with half-stitches and will just have back stitch and french knots left. And once Janna's baby is born, I will add the personalized details. I love seeing the picture grow.

I've been watching 'Friends' episodes in the background as I cross stitch. It's perfect since I mostly listen and don't have to look at the screen as much. I miss that show. I rewatched Monica and Chandler proposal and Phoebe's wedding. I can't believe how long ago it ended.

2015 overall was an even keel year for me. I was mostly either at home with Tanya or at work two days a week during the semesters. I didn't really have vacations but I did spend a week at my in-laws and Bear and I had 3 dates - Hedwig on Broadway, Jeremy and Fran's wedding and our recent hike and Star Wars date. I also went to Yeva's birthday party at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan.

Other than the whole business with the apartment, nothing really upset the status quo.

I read fun books and saw some good TV. I finally watched "Spartacus", which clicked for me this year and I loved "Sense8" and "Jessica Jones". I only saw "Star Wars" at the movie theater this year but it was fun.

The best thing about the year for me was meeting new LJ friends and making my LJ flist much more alive and fun. And getting more book recommendations that I can ever read! And finally reading the eight Tomek book to resolve a 20 year cliffhanger. And my flist led me to the Hamilton biography, which then fed into my interest in Hamilton the Musical - I'm listening to the soundtrack on repeat.

And, of course, watching Tanya grow and learn to walk and talk has really been amazing. At 17 months she is a different person from her 5 months self (with the same core personality though -she's my little hooligan).

I don't make resolutions but I do hope to write more and to master pies in the new year.

Mostly a quiet day. I made Tanya's soup in the morning and chicken for us. Got a chance to read too while Bear took her out for playground and nap. I finally finished a current issue of National Geographic. Now I just have to catch up on July and June.

I also read my Dante chapters for the week in the afternoon: we are up to Inferno, Canto 21-22. I read this book twice before but it was so long ago that I don't remember the details. How I forgot demons who make 'trumpet sound out of an ass' I really don't know. I'm definitely having fun with this project. I think after this year of reading Dante is over next June, I'll tackle 'Paradise Lost' this way - I read 2/3 of it before stopping aND wold lIke to finish at some point.

At 4:30, we went over to Yeva's since her Mom wanted to show me the plants I will need to water while they are all on vacation in a few weeks. (I'm a terrible choice since I'm not great at keeping plants alive but Yeva doesn't trust many people to do it). We hung out there with Yeva, her Mom and brother for a few hours. Yeva's Mom also put together a lovely dinner. Tanya had some bread and had an Israeli yogurt with a spoon. She ate by herself, clumsily, with a lot over her hands and face but she ate most of it sitting on my lap. It was great to be more social again. We also checked out Yeva's Mom's new apartment renovations (Yeva bought an apartment two doors down from her parents in the same apartment building. Her Dad, who died last year, wanted her settled in before he died.) It was really well done renovations. Great floors, especially.

Yeva got us thinking about buying our own place. We wanted to wait a few more years, to get better jobs perhaps. But with the price of rents lately, as I read just today, it might be cheaper to buy sooner. And we do have some money saved for downpayment. We'll see. We do need to think about it and crunch the numbers for sure.

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

Dante Project
Inferno. Canto 4

Dante enters the first circle of hell - Limbo for those born before Christ or unbaptized.

I read it last Tuesday but didn't have a chance to jot down thoughts. Let's see. Limbo is such an unfair concept, especially for babies. All those people could not make choices. I guess this level of hell is just similar to the Greek afterlife. It doesn't sound very bad. You hang out with pretty interesting and famous people. Dante, of course, fan boy that he is, hangs out with famous poets and just puts himself among their group.

I don't remember the castle at all - I'm paying attention to the background more. I've read this book twice before but only now I finally got that the rings of hell are actual rings, with abyss in the middle. For some reason I pictured them as whole circles before. The hole is the middle didn't occur to me.

When Dante woke after passing out, he was all refreshed. That was not my experience. My head was woozy for like a week.

I didn't need to use footnotes to understand Greek and Roman references this time. That was pretty fun to realize. He didn't mention Aristotle by name but I knew who he meant. Yay, education and learning Latin.

Yesterday was my grandfather's 88th birthday. My parents came over in the morning, and while my Mom walked with Tanya, my Dad and I drove to my grandparents' apartment. They live maybe 15 minutes away by car. We stopped by the russian store to pick up some bread that my grandfather asked us to get, and I got ice-cream for my grandmother and a cheesecake snack (syrok) for me. My grandfather is diabetic so he can't have any desert. He was planning on a birthday cognac, We got my grandfather two books (he is a avid reader as is my father - and I -, but he does prefer memoirs and biographies while we lean toward science fiction a little more). I also brought him a few recent printed photographs.

After our visit, we caught up with my Mom on her walk. My parents stayed until lunch and then went back home. They brought lots and lots of food from Trader Joe's and lots of fruit.

In the afternoon, Tanya and I went to the playground as we started doing lately to go on baby swings. But the weather turned colder and darker and the storm was obviously approaching. Lately, the weather was super warm in the morning but cooler and windier in the afternoon. Last night we had a storm with thunder and lightning and flooding. Bear finally finished his work meetings last night and came home, but his commute back took two and a half hours instead of just an hour. At least he will now be on the regular work day schedule for the summer.

And the weather turned cool and rainy today. It's around 65F today instead of 78-85F we've been having. The rain, though, has been annoying. Mostly it means Tanya naps at home instead of going for a nice walk, so no walk for me. (I put a pedometer on my phone and on Saturday I walked for 6 miles, yay). And also it means that we won't go to the aquarium tomorrow for my birthday like we planned but will postpone the trip for two weeks and go on Bear's birthday instead. I hope not all my birthday plans will be dashed. My throat has been scratchy a bit and I don't want to get sick because I'm planning a birthday gathering on Sunday, and with all the kids attending I can't be sick for it. At least Bear will be home tomorrow and my parents are coming over, so hopefully it will still be nice, despite the rain and being stuck at home.

I did make it out of the house today, during the rain interlude, to go to the post office and the bank (birthday money from grandparents), and to the store. I've decided to finally tackle making a cheesecake, which has been on my resolutions list for this year. I got graham crackers, cream cheese, heavy cream and wax paper. (and stopped by the Chinese bakery for a pork bun for Bear - he loves those). My mother-in-law gave me a Cheesecake recipe book called "Cheesecake Madness" a year or so back,which belonged to her mother, when I first expressed interest. So I make the very first recipe in it, finally, - plain traditional cheesecake.

The cheesecake making did not start auspiciously. I rolled a jar over the crackers pretty easily and was mushing the butter and sugar in the bowl with the crackers to make the crust. But as I went to put the crust mix into a pan to make the crust, the bowl slipped and the whole mixture fell on the floor. Argh. I had to start again. At least it was just the crust part and that wasn't a waste of too many ingredients. The rest of the process went smoother. The cheesecake is in the fridge right now, and tomorrow I will add powdered sugar on top and maybe some fruit (I have blueberries and strawberries) and we will try it. I don't know if it's any good yet. Bear thought it was a bit sad that I'm making a cake for my own birthday. But I did that for a reason - I finally tackled something on my list. So I'm excited about it I do like baking - but I want to venture out with it and be more adventurous in baking. Usually I make banana bread or muffins or muffin bread. Occasionally a cake. Nothing too fancy. My parents are still going to bring a small cake from the Russian store - just in case. If this works, I can tackle other cheesecakes in this book; there is a lot of variety.

Dante Project
Inferno. Canto 1 and 2.
We are reading a verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum.

I thought only the first canto was preparing for the journey but it was really the first two. In the first Canto, Dante finds himself in a dark wood (at the age of 35!) and the way up the mountain is blocked by three beasts. Virgil appears to offer to guide him a long way around through Hell and Purgatory. In the second canto, Dante has second thoughts, but Virgil talks him through it by mentioning that his guidance is motivated by a request by Beatrice, Dante's love.

Dante is such a fanboy. He not only stares at Virgil when the latter introduces himself but quotes Virgil's own poem and examples to him when expressing his doubt about continuing. It's pretty fun. (I remembered, as Bear and I were reading this last night, that in high school when we read Inferno and had to do a creative paper on it, I used Isaac Asimov as a guide, since I was adoring his autobiographies at the time. I want to try to find that paper now. I wonder who I would pick as a guide now.) I have also read Aeneid in English and in Latin since I read the Inferno, so I get the references to the Aeneid more easily now.

I do like the message of the second canto. How often we want to do something but then second thoughts and over thinking derail our plans. Virgil tells Dante to stop being a coward and take action. And, of course, three saintly ladies provide support here. When I read this book before I never thought about the role of women in the story - now I automatically pay attention. I also notice the narration within narration. Dante hears Virgil's recap of conversation with Beatrice which includes a recap of conversation with Lucia which includes a recap of conversation with Mary.

In Canto II, Dante also asks Virgil if "the force in me is strong enough". I pictured Virgil as Yoda for a second there.