My Home in Israel

I’ve referenced Franklin here before, but this story

just takes the cake .

Please don’t eat or drink anything while reading this story…you have been warned.

Note: Very personal rant post today.

Today was the hubby’s (b’ezrat haShem) last exam. If all went well, he will be a dually certified public accountant US and Israel. If not, there will be only one more exam to do and no more classes. It has been a very long road with these four exams (which became six because of two failures.) It meant both of us had to put things that we wanted to do on the side. Everything we both did will be worth it if it means that he will be able to continue to work professionally, and advance professionally in Israel, and doesn’t need to think about returning to the US.

Yes, these exams basically amount to whether we are financially able to live in this country or not.

So, you can imagine my anger when the spouse of a friend said to me…those exams are no big deal, I could pass all 16 of them in two years.* Granted this person is a native Hebrew speaker, but really how stupid a thing to say!!!! This was offensive because it made it seem like Hubby who took three and a half years to do four exams was stupid or lazy. It also was compounded by all the times this person has said over the last few years: your hubby should be helping you with X or Y.

Why wasn’t he helping me? Because every spare minute of the last three years has been devoted toward our future. This was an agreement between the two of us as a couple, a team. A future that my hubby isn’t so certain he wants to spend in Israel! A future that will have much more potential (in Israel) with this certification.

So why am I so furious??? It must just be PMS talking. Please ignore me….I’ll get over this shortly.

*Explanation: This person was referring to the 16 exams that would be required for someone without a CPA from abroad.

Dear David,

Why oh why did you have to direct me to Book of Joe? I am now pining for both the measuring cups and the suction cups.

I can’t start ordering these things, but if I lived in the US, I would have.

If anyone wants to buy me a gift, the measuring cups are the first preference.

Robin

Here is the second annual chocolate review. The first annual can be viewed here.

This year I found three new offerings, but haven’t tried them yet. This post will be updated as they are devoured.

First up: Milk Chocolate with Irish Cream Filling, sounds good–just an FYI, since it is milk chocolate, the milk powder used is “Chalav Nochri”. (Although all three are labeled as dairy.)

Second up: Dark Chocolate with Choco-latte cream. My guess is that this is the same as last year, but with different packaging.

Thirdly: Dark Chocolate with Brandy Cream.

The first one has minimum of 30% cocoa, and the dark chocolate both have a minimum of 47%.

They smell delicious, but I’m going to wait a bit before eating them (at least until after lunch!)

Closeup of Socks

Originally uploaded by safranit.

These are the first pair of “daytime socks” as opposed to Slipper socks. They were knitted on handmade needles which I made from Bamboo shishkabob skewers that I sanded to about a size 2.5mm. The yarn is Fortissima Colori 1000 by Schoeller Stahl.

The one suggestion which I should have followed was to do them both at the same time. I became very mixed up on the second heel (partially because I didn’t follow only one pattern for the first one) and they don’t look the same.

I did do the kitchener stitch on the toes…it is intimidating, but the results are worth it.

I’m not so into the colors, but my daughter picked it out. Now I’m trying to decide if I’m going to make mittens with the remaining yarn. It isn’t a very thick yarn, but it is wool, and the weather in Israel doesn’t require super heavy stuff most of the time

I’m a bit of a geeky person…I like trying out new websites and seeing what will work for me. Luckily I use Firefox, which lets me have tabs (yeah, so does the new IE, but I like Firefox) so I can have several of my favorite sites open at once.

Currently there are three Web 2.0 applications which I really enjoy and use regularly. They are Netvibes, Meebo and 30 Boxes.

Netvibes is a portal which lists feeds like news articles, my gmail messages and flickr pictures. (Umm…there are some more web 2.0 sites I’m using). Meebo is a chat program that integrates the other chat programs, so you only need to log in once. 30 Boxes is a calendar program, which I like, but I haven’t gotten a good hang of adding things.

The problem is that the websites work together—you can access Meebo from both 30 boxes and Netvibes. And I’d like to convince the hubby to use a calendar like 30boxes, but that it close to impossible. Also you can link other people’s calendars via 30boxes, but I don’t have any “buddys” that use it.

Anyway, it is worth looking at these site, and if you are using them, please give me some tips to make my usage of them more enjoyable.