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no apparent demographic effect
Saturday, April 19 2008
Being married to Jewish woman, and this being the first night of Passover, it was encumbent upon me to go to whatever Passover Seders Gretchen intended to attend. Fortunately (for me), tonight's seder was to be little more than a regular meal at Penny and David's place, though there would be matza and Maxwell House haggadot for anyone itching to read them.
Gretchen spent much of the day in the kitchen sautéing onions, grinding nuts, and searing mushrooms. She was making nut loafs, gravy, and also eggless matza balls, her vegan contributions to the evening.
Meanwhile I was out tearing apart the hatchback for the third day, focusing mostly on the dashboard. The midges that come out at this time of year were doing what they could to make the experience miserable. Unlike the midges of Scotland, these seem to do a lot more hovering than biting, but every now and then one will settle down on your arm and, after some dawdling, leave an itching welt. Unlike mosquitos and other biting flies, members of this species aren't particularly good at evasive measures once they land, though there are so many that even determined swatting results in no apparent demographic effect.
There was a bit of a wind by the time we went over to Penny and David's place, so the midges had mostly dispersed. This was the first time I'd seen the new wood on the outside of P&D's house in the daylight, and it looked absolutely stunning. The forest behind it was still mostly hibernating, though along the little creek that runs down a steep grade behind the house, dozens of rich green skunk cabbages had burst from the ground.
This was actually something of a family Passover gathering, with David's parents, as well as his brother, sister-in-law, dog-in-law, niece, and nephew. We were also joined by Eli, David's first-cousin-once removed, the guy whose house we were at when we first met Penny and David.
David cooked marinaded lake trout on toasting maple planks on the barbecue, the smoke keeping away the few midges still flying about.
At some point during the meal, talk turned to politics and Eli thundered that he would never vote for a man named Barack Hussein Obama. Wow, things were getting interesting! Usually in our social circles it's hard to even find someone willing to stick up for Hillary, but I got the distinct impression that Eli either wouldn't vote at all or would vote for McMoreOfTheSame. Eli's wife was horrified that the subject had turned to politics, quickly telling me that she would cancel out any damage Eli might do in a polling booth. And then she retreated to the kitchen to help cleanup.
Later there was a momentary dust up between two of the David's relatives, though it was nothing compared to the craziness of Thanksgiving, 2002.
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