Lent in Pittsburgh
I just had the lovely experience of writing an entire blog wherein I asked all the knitters for help with a project, but then figured out on my own how to fix it, in the process of articulating just what the problem was. So, thanks, all y'all! That was great! No need to inflict my idiocy on you now. Let's just say that my advice for the day is: when in doubt, read the directions.
I'm starting Reynold's "Swirl Lace Pullover," in indigo "Mandalay" -- I know that there's going to be a problem with the directions after I finish the front swirl, but I'm hoping to be far enough along on it when the corrections get here -- should they ever indeed arrive -- that I can wear it this spring. So there's that, and also, Mary, don't worry, I'm blocking the "Cul-De-sac" vest, and I'll give you a picture of it, really I will. It was wrong of me to say I wouldn't, and I repent me of that.
It's Lent, so I'm practicing repenting all sorts of things -- if you've got any suggestions, just send them along in the email (Yo! "The Real Jim"! Keep 'em out of the comments! Incur not the wrath of the Elder Sister!) -- and also we're having all the Lenten Feasts. Let me explain.
At our house, we still look like one of those pre-Vatican II houses, at dinner time on Fridays, at least, cause we keep the Friday abstinence. Sam and the child aren't bound by the rules, and I know very well that I can eat meat on Fridays if I perform an act of charity -- and I do that when I need to -- but we like non-meat dinners anyway, and I like anything that helps me be conscious, since I'm pretty much not very, so usually on Fridays you can find us eating fish, or macaroni and cheese, or Boca burgers, or whatever.
However. On Lenten Fridays, we're supposed to be performing acts of charity AND not eating meat, and in order to help the Roman Catholics of Pittsburgh manage this, parishes all over the diocese stage Friday fish frys. There are so many of them that they take up about four pages of the "Pittsburgh Catholic" on the Sunday before Lent starts. We ourselves go over to a neighboring parish, St. Thomas a' Becket. (Our parish doesn't hold a fish fry -- we put all our Extravaganza energy into the annual Spring-a-Rama, at which there will be doughnuts and a Ferris Wheel. More on this later.)
What happens at a fish fry is that you get a LOT of food. We seldom eat fried fish, as it's less healthy than the broiled stuff I'm making tonight, so that's exciting right there. (Look! Oil!) And then there are the side dishes -- the french fries, for instance (Look! Oil!), and, because we are in Pittsburgh, haluski (Look! Butter!).
I was surprised to learn, when I got here, that it had occurred to anybody in the world that one could put pasta and cabbage together -- I'm still stumped on why somebody even tried it in the first place -- and even more surprised to discover that It Works. But I can't make it. I don't think I have the correct genes to create haluski, or pierogies. I do ok on borscht, I think, but really, my family doesn't know much about borscht, so we could all be fooled. I always expect, when I'm serving borscht, that the Eastern European Food Police are about to show up and explain to me that what I'm serving isn't borscht at all, but some kind of Irish stew with beets in it.
Anyway. It's Lent in Pittsburgh, so instead of our usual simple Friday fare, we get to go over to St. Thomas a' Becket's and eat enormous amounts of rich food we don't usually get.
We find this very amusing. And there's precedent, doncha know -- we're reminded of the giant feast of various fish with fancy sauces that Gawain gets served when he shows up at Bercilak's castle in the middle of the Advent fast. So we're in good company.
And just look at what happened to Gawain! He learned a lot about the limitations of courtly love!
Always a good thing to be conscious of. Bring on the fried fish!
I'm starting Reynold's "Swirl Lace Pullover," in indigo "Mandalay" -- I know that there's going to be a problem with the directions after I finish the front swirl, but I'm hoping to be far enough along on it when the corrections get here -- should they ever indeed arrive -- that I can wear it this spring. So there's that, and also, Mary, don't worry, I'm blocking the "Cul-De-sac" vest, and I'll give you a picture of it, really I will. It was wrong of me to say I wouldn't, and I repent me of that.
It's Lent, so I'm practicing repenting all sorts of things -- if you've got any suggestions, just send them along in the email (Yo! "The Real Jim"! Keep 'em out of the comments! Incur not the wrath of the Elder Sister!) -- and also we're having all the Lenten Feasts. Let me explain.
At our house, we still look like one of those pre-Vatican II houses, at dinner time on Fridays, at least, cause we keep the Friday abstinence. Sam and the child aren't bound by the rules, and I know very well that I can eat meat on Fridays if I perform an act of charity -- and I do that when I need to -- but we like non-meat dinners anyway, and I like anything that helps me be conscious, since I'm pretty much not very, so usually on Fridays you can find us eating fish, or macaroni and cheese, or Boca burgers, or whatever.
However. On Lenten Fridays, we're supposed to be performing acts of charity AND not eating meat, and in order to help the Roman Catholics of Pittsburgh manage this, parishes all over the diocese stage Friday fish frys. There are so many of them that they take up about four pages of the "Pittsburgh Catholic" on the Sunday before Lent starts. We ourselves go over to a neighboring parish, St. Thomas a' Becket. (Our parish doesn't hold a fish fry -- we put all our Extravaganza energy into the annual Spring-a-Rama, at which there will be doughnuts and a Ferris Wheel. More on this later.)
What happens at a fish fry is that you get a LOT of food. We seldom eat fried fish, as it's less healthy than the broiled stuff I'm making tonight, so that's exciting right there. (Look! Oil!) And then there are the side dishes -- the french fries, for instance (Look! Oil!), and, because we are in Pittsburgh, haluski (Look! Butter!).
I was surprised to learn, when I got here, that it had occurred to anybody in the world that one could put pasta and cabbage together -- I'm still stumped on why somebody even tried it in the first place -- and even more surprised to discover that It Works. But I can't make it. I don't think I have the correct genes to create haluski, or pierogies. I do ok on borscht, I think, but really, my family doesn't know much about borscht, so we could all be fooled. I always expect, when I'm serving borscht, that the Eastern European Food Police are about to show up and explain to me that what I'm serving isn't borscht at all, but some kind of Irish stew with beets in it.
Anyway. It's Lent in Pittsburgh, so instead of our usual simple Friday fare, we get to go over to St. Thomas a' Becket's and eat enormous amounts of rich food we don't usually get.
We find this very amusing. And there's precedent, doncha know -- we're reminded of the giant feast of various fish with fancy sauces that Gawain gets served when he shows up at Bercilak's castle in the middle of the Advent fast. So we're in good company.
And just look at what happened to Gawain! He learned a lot about the limitations of courtly love!
Always a good thing to be conscious of. Bring on the fried fish!
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