Terrific Tuesday

Hark- what is that in the sky? That blindingly bright light? What are those wisps of white blowing across a blue palette? Dare I say it's the sun set against a blue sky studded with clouds? Good lord, people, it's stunning! The reports seem to suggest that the temp will rise steadily through tomorrow and then plummet us back into a wintry lull by the weekend, but it is still January, and I am simply grateful for a beautiful day, once again pleased by all the windows our home has. Deep and happy exhale. The kids are at school, and I'm on hour four of blissful, productive solitude. I made more blood orange Prosecco jelly as well as a cheesecake for a test run I'm doing. I've crossed four things off my list of six- egads- one of which was to watch the first lecture for an online course I'm auditing on The U.S. Food System. I know, I know, I have added another major To-Do to my life, but I simply couldn't pass up this opportunity. Have you heard of Coursera? I don't have the slightest idea how it'll make money, but in the meantime, three cheers. Hundreds of courses offered FOR FREE by a huge range of colleges and universities. Mine's taught by two incredibly accomplished professors at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Liveable Future, and so far I've really enjoyed the readings and lecture.

Oh, and I posted the chili recipe from last night because it was so darn good: Cinnamon-Spiked Red Chili, in Soups.

Moon

Today was a major showing of parental tag-teaming, and as such, I don't have much to report on other fronts. The kids were busy and happy and have been fast asleep for a couple hours now. I'm not long for this world but while on the couch with T watching 60 Minutes and then Real Time from Friday, I became increasingly distracted by the incredible moon-and-cloud show rolling by just outside my window. I made T pause the show and grab our tripod while I took the camera out the front door and started metering. The moon is so intensely bright, the sky behind the clouds (before they, disappointingly, blew away) so inky black, that capturing both in a way that did them justice was beyond the scope of our abilities. Nonetheless, I'm struck by this image of la luna. You can just see a bit of the top rounding backwards towards that which is hidden from view, and the craters give us a sense of their various depths in the degrees of shadow caught on film. (How quaint, the word film. Alas that is not accurate but it sounds more romantically lovely than memory chip or the like). a full moon shining over DC in late January

Off to bed but what do you think of Jon Tester? I like him. And I still groove on Howard Dean's complete willingness to just say what he's thinking and what he feels. Amen brother!