Sickish student Sunday

Although I felt oh-so-yuk today and J tried on his lying hat for size, we'd scheduled a sitter weeks ago and so I found myself with four hours towards the end of our day. This was a gift for many reasons but not least because I had a great deal of homework to do, and it was blissful to get to immerse myself in it, largely uninterrupted. I watched most of the lectures from week 1 of The Science of Gastronomy (my second Coursera course), spent a lovely 90 minutes on my writing group's bimonthly conference call and snuck some time on my newest puzzle. What is up with my current obsession with puzzles?! Last night I spent a brief while researching how and why jigsaw puzzles are good for your brain simply to justify the amount of time I've recently devoted to them.

In any case, I just love my writing group and feel so fortunate to have met these women several months back- when was that, ladies? And the professor for the Sci Gast class is infinitely more interesting and engaging than were the profs from Intro to the US Food System, so yay for that too.

I plucked a bunch of lilies from my garden -they are fragrant as all get-out- and we grilled a pizza and finished that point of obsession in my basement. Two 1,000 piecers done in a week! A lovely night, and now I've a date with my hubs and the newspaper. Buona sera all.

Chicken and plums galore!

Ooh, I have been waiting for this day for about a month now: the folks at Eco-Friendly Foods spent the past few days slaughtering (as humanely as possible) spring chickens which grew up pecking through grass and dirt, living life the way they should. This morning  at Dupont, I picked up six, never-frozen beautiful whole chickens (some for foodie friend C) and feel grateful to have these little birds.

The market also felt like a proxy plum festival, and I found one quart of Shiros (the beautiful yellow ones), the first of the season. AAAH! You know what this means?! Shiro plum and basil jam pronto. Next week there will be many more, and I intend to buy a flat. Here too are Methley plums, aka sugar plums. Gorgeous.

It seems I picked up whatever has plagued the boys since the 4th, and I feel dreadful. I'm staying inside and taking it easy for the rest of the day!

Stuff

1) The Gatekeepers is a very interesting documentary, and I highly suggest you watch it. It's about the Shin Bet, an Israeli intelligence/security operation (distinct from but in communication with (I believe) the Mossad and the Knesset), and the belief in the two-state solution. 2) Tom just stubbed his toe, to the point of bleeding, whilst stretching. I needn't say more, right? Jesus h.

3) Jack had an enormous meltdown today when, after telling him not to do something five times, I caught him in the act of doing just that. He lost dessert for two days, not least because he actually disobeyed and then lied about doing so, and then accused me of being horribly unfair. I was laughing my face off because the entire situation was so ludicrous and said to him, "Jack, this is absolutely riDONKulous." He then got even angrier and proclaimed, "that is NOT EVEN A WORD." I'm still laughing.