Trying to “take it easy” seems to be the prerogative of men and children only.
Despite injuring my left calf two weeks ago, I have been the one who has had to clear, clean, and kasher the kitchen for Passover, organizing food, cookware, and utensils into bins, climbing ladders, lifting bins and heavy boxes, twisting and reaching in all directions to clean grease-and-dust-encrusted surfaces before trusting my precious kitchen equipment to them. Cleaning the oven. Cleaning the stove from inside and out. Scrubbing walls and floors. Unpacking and washing Passover dishes. Shopping. Cleaning the refrigerator. And so on.
Between bouts of climbing and scrubbing, kneeling and scrubbing, packing and unpacking, I took some time to revisit an old project idea, creating a diabetes Medical-Alert-type cellphone wallpaper for my cellphone.
“Let’s make it available on our domain,” the Other Half suggests.
“Why not?” I’ve been getting more involved in the communities here, and if I can contribute something useful, so much the better.
Now to search for the resolutions in which my prototype designs would need to be created… Time away from cleaning… but also, time off my feet. A basic matrix is formed.
“I need you to make it a priority to provide these designs in this file size,” the Other Half tells me. “I need to be able to use them as thumbnails.”
More file generation. More cleaning. More file generation.
Saturday morning. Still cleaning. I should have had everything good-to-go by mid-day Friday. More files generated. We are now looking at sixteen distinct designs (because The Other Half figured I needed to make all verbiages available in all configurations), each in ten resolutions. One hundred and sixty image files. Got another handful done. Then back to cleaning. Then to unpack at least some of the Passover dishes…
Finally got the chicken soup started about 16:45 in the crockpot. Generated another few image files while waiting enough time to start the knaidlach (matzoh balls). Got the knaidlach mixture done and let set in the refrigerator. Made the charoset (a mixture of apples, raisins, walnuts, sweet wine, and ground cinnamon used during the seder). Cleaned and stowed the blender. Molded and boiled the knaidlach. Removeed the meat from the chicken bones; reserved the leg bones for the ritual; replaced the meat in the crockpot. Placed the knaidlach in the crockpot. Boiled the egg and potato needed for the ritual part of the seder.
By now, we’re approaching 20:30, when we should actually be starting the seder.
Washed and checked the romaine lettuce. Cleaned and peeled horseradish. Realized I don’t have an appropriate grater for the horseradish. Wondered why. Slice the horseradish very thinly instead. Quenched the hard-boiled eggs. Raised the heat under the potato. Washed and checked the parsley.
Broke the seals on the box of shmurah matzah (handmade). Wondered why there were only three oat matzot (plural of “matzah”) in a box that is supposed to have a pound of them. Removed three matzot for the ritual. Searched for a wine glass for Elijah’s cup. Found that I don’t have a spare, even though I thought I did. Used a teacup instead. Prepared salt water. Set the table.
We finally started seder at 21:30.
New haggadah, slightly different translation. Interesting. Apparently shorter than usual. Finished with everything at the stroke of midnight. Interesting.
Sunday morning: made coffee, made breakfast, generated more image files – all interspersed with each other. Finally finished the last cellphone wallpaper file around 14:00. Hallelujah!
Can I relax now?
Sorry, no. Other Half wants to run out to Home Despot to score some “reusable shopping bags they’re giving out for Earth Day”. We arrive at Home Despot long after the bags – if they ever had any at that location, are gone.
Since we’re out anyway, we go into Bed Bath & Beyond next door to pick up the grater, a new drain cover for the sink, and a much-needed set of mixing bowls for Passover use.
Can I relax now?
No, now I have to make some sponge cake and prepare for the second seder. Put said cake in oven, cleaned up the mixing bowls and such.
Can I relax now?
Sorry, no. Need to check e-mail and social networks to see if we’ve missed any needed resolution or specialty placement for diabetes cellphone wallpaper.
Removed sponge cake from oven, started getting ready for the second seder. I expect dinner should take about an hour in the oven. After everything is prepped, I put the food in the oven, and we finally start seder around 21:00.
We are ready for the main dish around 21:50; however, the food does not appear to have even begun cooking. I raise the temperature, wait a half-hour, and check again. Repeat. Several times.
Dinner is finally ready at 23:50. (Yes, it took almost three hours to roast two chicken breasts and some assorted veggies.)
Many haggadot state that one should finish the seder by midnight. Not going to happen. We finally finish at 01:00. Then clean-up. Finally turn into bed around 02:45.
It’s an (expletive deleted) holiday – when am I going to be able to relax?!?!?!