A lovely chat

Dear family and friends,

A lovely chat with our dear French friends the Willemses was a highlight of the day: I think we spoke for over an hour, via iChat, after an initial failure of our server. We heard a lot about the conference where she read my paper for me. The affair, with its superb coordination by Sarah and Nathalie, sounded wonderfully congenial.

The Interlibrary Loan librarian, David, phoned me to get some information about books I had ordered. In the process, he led me through the NCC library's Internet system, which has more riches than I would have thought possible for a community college. Since retiring 10 years ago, I have not kept up with the advances they have introduced. They have JSTOR for example, which provides whole journal articles on the web. I found one I needed, did a screen capture of the pages I wanted to quote, then printed them. Neat. Merwin urged me t write down immediately all the steps involved in accessing databases, but of course by the time I got to it I was good with step 1 and 3 but didn't know how to do step 2. I'll confer with the librarian later today to fill in the gap.

Speaking of David, our David came over and replaced light bulbs and in general answered technical questions here and there. He is going to change my email program as soon as he can figure out how to transfer everything without pain.

I made potato latkes as planned: First I grated 2 apples mixing in juice of a half lemon, and cooked this until it was good applesauce consistency. Without cleaning out the Cuisinart, I grated 2 red-skinned potatoes (not as good as Yukon Gold) with a tiny bit of an onion, and a little squeeze of lemon juice, because these potatoes can darken, plus 2 eggs. I fried in canola oil and served with the apple sauce (cooled by placing he bowl in the freezer) and sour cream. Yum. Merwin ate very little because he had had his big meal at mid-day, and he can eat only one big meal a day. Me, I can eat big meals at all three, and in between as well. I am still gaining weight. I would like to believe that prednisone is giving me this appetite and weight gain, but only time will tell. I refuse to worry about it. I have spent too much of my life dealing with weight.

The Passover rolls came out even better than the first time. They toast into delicious freshness. Do I seem fixated on food?

Toby came over bearing goodies, leftovers from her Seder in Boston. It's fun having visitors. I am hoping to have more as the days go on.

Vivian dropped over with the bombshell news that our neighbor Bud had died of a sudden heart attack the afternoon before. Just an hour or so later we got in the mail a card signed by Ann and Bud, written by Ann of course, wishing us a happy holiday and me a speedy recovery.

Not a bad ending for a life: close to 90, a heart attack. Though always sad for those who are left behind.

Off to make a batch of gefrüschte matzo! When in doubt, EAT!

Love to all,
Bernice