I don't know much about asara d'tevet. Can you enlighten me?

There's a lot of information here.

It's in remembrance of the Destruction of the First Temple, when Nebuchadnetzer began his seige of Jerusalem.

I totally forgot, which isn't surprising, but so did my husband, and apparently several people over there at weirdjews2. I was able to tell my husband in time. For myself, it's sort of the least of my worries either way, though I did used to keep them. (sorry to admit that) But I was feeling a little sick at the time I saw the post so I did skip this fast.

(I meant sorry to admit here I've gone down in observance... not anything else)

My husband forgot,too. And he'd had his coffee, so. Ooops. :)

I solve this problem by not observing most fast days other than Yom Kippur.

Well, sometimes I observe them, in the sense of "oh, look, a fast day!"

Mind, I DO go to shul early the day before Pesach

I do Tisha B'Av.

Jonathan is also a b'chor and goes to shul *real* early erev Pesach.

For a number of years, he did the siyyum, too.

It's actually been a tradition that I like; I go with my father and one of our oldest family friends (he's known my father forever and signed the ketubah when E and I got married), and then we all go out to breakfast afterwards.

And now, of course, P gets to go with me.

why dont you do minor ones?

Because my doctor isn't happy I do the major ones, either. This is my compromise.

really? can i ask why? if i'm beign too nosy, feel free to tell me to shut up. i haven't done small ones either, mainly b/c i've been pregnant all the time or just too crazy taking care of chillun to fast.

I'm diabetic. Type II. I react really badly to low blood sugar. I spend Tb"a in bed, mostly.

I don't seem to have problems on Y"K, though.

yuck. that's gotta be really hard. i dont do too well on fast days either :( but i'm not diabetic

Do you modify your food consumption for minor fasts (to sort of wave hi to them in passing), or just treat them as normal days?

I eat normally and skip those portions of the services that apply to fast days.

Fasting is not quite all or nothing - it's possible to eat/drink tiny, tiny quantities very slowly - but there's no other means of modifying consumption and there are opinions that doing that is silly - if you have to eat, just *eat*.

So I eat.

Makes sense. I've met some people who are not permitted to fast and who specifically eat "minimal" food -- minimal may be more a matter of luxury than of quantity -- because it helps them remember that it's a fast even if they aren't participating. Other people think this is silly.