Shin-ippets

Just a few quick notes before the weekend officially ends. I mean, it’s really about time I posted. A while back I promised pictures from Purim and I haven’t paid up.  Don’t worry; I’ll leave those to the very end.

* Purim went quite well. Our synagogue had a new tradition this year — in which the Megillah reading (the chanting of the entire Book of Esther in Herbew with a specific cantillation) was done using specific character roles.  So, for example, the person who played Queeen Esther would chant all of the lines that Queen Esther uttered in the scroll. And so on.  I was one of the participants; you’ll see pictures at the end.  We all had a good time.

* Pussy Party: It’s now been a week and change since the new cat, Lexi, joined our family.  For the first week she slept in my office so there would be a sense of ownership for her. And so the two cats wouldn’t kill each other while we slept.  I think things have been working well with them — with perhaps only one episode of screaming/howling/hissing per day. But they’ve learned to co-exist — even within the same room. Of course, there was the one incident involving one of the cats “spraying” the other one to mark her territory. But I suppose it’s something to be expected. I remember fondly when my brother and I were in our mid-teens and enjoyed our occassional urine fights. Good times…

* Flats. As it was revealed on the weekly radio show hosted by Avitable and Miss Britt, I have deemed Nazis with maxipads as my own personal kryptonite. That is — when you take two specific items which make me shudder (one understandable and one ridiculously) and put them together, I’m made to feel quite uncomfortable.  A close second could possibly be when my vast ignorance about all things vehicular becomes apparent.

Which is why I’m quite proud of being able to change my flat tire on Friday on my way to work.  On the side of a busy highway. (Fortunately it was on the right side.) I’ve changed many tires before, but this was the first time that the whole experience went extremely smoothly — i.e. the car didn’t fall off the jack; I loosened the lug nuts while the tire was still on the ground; I got just the right about of grease on my hands, arms, elbows, pants and forehead.  I’m still a bit annoyed that the price of tires is steep — especially for a car which is pushing thirteen years old.

* I still think that the “Shazam” app for the iPhone is pretty frickin’ neat. It’s a free application which you can use to wow certain people who get amused easily.  The idea is this: A song is playing at the hip, trendy establishment that iPhone owners like you choose to hang out at.  You whip out your phone and allow it to “listen” to the song — and after fifteen seconds, it identifies it for you! And, of course, provides a link to the iTunes store in case you decide you want to buy it sometime. I’ve used it quite a bit since I got my phone, and I occasionally test it out — kind of like a spot check — to see if I can stump it.

Today I stumped the iPhone app.  It didn’t recognize “Show Me” by the Cover Girls when it was playing on the local radio station’s “All 80s weekend.”  Which means that (a) the app isn’t as good as I am at identifying songs; or (b) the app isn’t as much of a loser as I am.

* I’ve noticed. I stumbled upon a random episode of “Burn Notice” today. I was impressed. So much so that I found the episode online to watch from the beginning. I may also get the first season on DVD to catch up.  Truly a quality show.

Which is fine — because I’ve cleared out a bit of my TV watching schedule anyway. I’ve officially broken up with Chuck, Heroes and My Name Is Earl this season. With Leverage done for the season, it gives me more space to watch Burn Notice and Breaking Bad. (Oh — and the Israeli version of The Amazing Race — which, I’ve determined, is like the American version on steroids.  There’s a “pit stop” every two episodes — and the past two weeks have aired two hour-long episodes per week!)

* Shamrock? Sham-WOW! Last year around this time I devoted some blogspace to my obsession with McDonalds’ Shamrock Shake — the minty shake which rears its head once a year around this time.  I wanted to let you all know that this year I got it out of my system the week of Valentine’s Day. My beloved Shamrock Shake was waiting for me at a McDonalds in Broadlands, VA.   For those of you looking for this green manna from heaven, check out http://www.shamrockshake.com.

* Big Dance: My alma mater (Maryland) is a 10 seed in the NCAA basketball tourney. Which makes me happy. But not super-excited; it’s not as if they’re not there almost every year lately.  The local team I’m watching? The American University. It makes me proud to see a team with such a small, cute basketball team making it big. Kudos to you all, American. And I’m not just saying that because I hooked up with three women in Letts Hall during my undergraduate days…

* Purim was a drag. Pictures! First of all, Avi was Perry the Platypus / Agent P from Phineas and Ferb. SocKs did a great job with this – she even wrote up a piece about exactly how she made the costume.  And here he is:

As for me?  Well — my transformation took a bit longer.  I have to admit — I was a bit shaggy over the past month or so. Here’s a picture of me from Sunday evening:

So — yes. I shaved the beard. A requirement to pass as the Biblical character whose lines I was reciting on Monday night.

It took a while — but Monday evening had me putting on a tiara and becoming a literal old queen:

The dress was a recycled bridesmaid dress socKs hadn’t worn more than once, The cape, wig, tiara and false eyelashes came from a costume store which was going out of business.  The purple disco ball earings, I believe, came from Ross.

I was amazed that I could fit into socKs’s pink crocs.

Thank God we don’t have any dress-up holidays for a long time…