A couple people have recently written to me alarmed that I haven't been around LJ much. I'm touched that people noticed my absence, but sorry that I don't have anything more interesting to say about my absence other than "I've just been busy." And that's really all there is. My job keeps me very busy and since I can't browse LJ from work, and can only post via email, it keeps me away from LJ most of the day. When I get home, I try to catch up on my friends list, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. But I run out of time at home too, so posts from me have been scarce.

Anyway, everything's fine. Not much interesting going on. Here are some highlights:

• Last shabbos the Seltzers and the Friedmans joined us for dinner and I experimented a little bit with my menu. My menus have gotten kind of boring as of late, and I wanted to spice it up a little. Literally, apparently. I started off by deciding I wanted to make Moroccan Short Ribs from Kosher by Design Entertains. Though we had a bit of a snafu with the butcher and didn't get quite what we asked for, they turned out GREAT! My full menu (as I remember it) was as follows:
  
  • Challah (I realized at 4pm on Friday that I'd forgotten to make challah, but it still miraculously came out fine)
    
  • Moroccan Short Ribs
    
  • Garlic mashed potatoes
    
  • Tomato Salad
    
  • Steamed Asparagus
    
  • Sauteed mushrooms in a "creamy" sauce
    
  • Broccoli Kugel
    
  • Brownies, cherries, strawberries and grapes for dessert
  
  
• It was DELISH.
  
• This Shabbos, Seth will be away, so I'll be single-parenting it. I'm not feeling particularly well, largely the fault of the medications I'm taking, but also due to an ear infection. So though I was planning to have the Felds over, I ended up cancelling, saying I wasn't up to cooking. osewalrus is amazingly sweet and generous and even offered to do all the cooking and bring it to me, or having us join them at their house. I would have loved to accept either offer, but by the end of the day I feel rotten right now, so I thought it best to pass this time. I suspect Julian will go to sleep around 8:30 and I'll be snoozing by 8:45.
  
• I don't love feeling icky. Incredibly, I haven't been sick in a while. I've just been suffering stupid side effects from medications for months, but no actual illnesses (ear infections don't count).
  
• My plans to buy a new sheitel continue to be thwarted. The sheitel I decided I really wanted hasn't materialized as my sheitel machor's distributor for this company has completely flaked on her and isn't returning calls. So she got in some other sheitlach for me to look at, and while I found one that would have been fine, it just wasn't nearly as cute. My problem is that once I've got a look in my mind, I can't get it out of my head and nothing else is quite the same. She's going to try another couple of avenues to get this particular sheitel in my color, but otherwise, I'm going to have to figure out something else.
  
• My coworker still chews REALLY LOUDLY. And he seems to eat potato chips and apples every day.
  
• Julian is terrific. He's suddenly obsessed with carrots and it took me until yesterday to figure out that his obsession with carrots coincided with his newfound obsession with Looney Toons. He's always liked carrots, but lately he's been obsessed. I didn't make the connection until yesterday when he interjected "What's up Doc?" in between every noisy bite. He thinks he's very funny. He's right.

I guess that's really all there is of interest. I keep thinking there's more, but I'm drawing a blank. I hope you're all well!