My Home in Israel

I’ve been procrastinating (and still am) preparing for Passover. Sure, the dishes have been brought upstairs, and we (read the hubby) has done the main shopping trip, and cleaned out a few cabinets, but the bulk of cleaning has been waiting for me to go into my pre-Passover Panic (PPP).

I had hoped that on Friday with the Hubby home I could do some cleaning while he watched the kids (we were going to do Shabbat take-out food). Well, you know the phrase man plans and God Laughs? Yup…at about 4 AM Friday morning, I hear the little one coughing (or so I thought). After giving up hope of the Hubby hearing and going in there (shh…don’t tell him my trick), I went in there to find her sitting up in bed, covered in vomit. (Did I mention that both girls just had worms, so the sheets had just been changed the day before?) I changed her, offered her some water , got a bucket, and stuck her in bed with me. Between 4-8 she kept up throwing up (might I add that she didn’t cry or seem upset.)

So, I stopped giving her anything to drink, made an appointment with the doctor. (Only because it was a Friday, I would have let it go if she had been doing this mid-week.) Bottom line…1 tsp of water every 10 minutes for half a day, then I added some juice for a few more hours, and she was fine by the next morning.

Ok, now that she gave me another day worth of procrastinating, how am I going to get this place completely in shape by tomorrow night? (No the seder is Monday night, but Monday is reserved for cooking).

Hubby is at work Sunday, this is Israel you know, so I need to find a way to entertain a 6 year old and a 3 year old and still get work done. Hopefully I can convince them to help. I think our next three meals will be pizza from next door…

11AM Lest the Keepers of the Books Wreak a Terrible Vengeance

Homeless guy #1: Damn! I just got kicked out of the library! Damn!
Homeless guy #2: What did you do, man?
Homeless guy #1: I don’t know. I don’t know.
Homeless guy #2: Aren’t you drunk?
Homeless guy #1: Well, yeah. Also, I might have been looking at dirty pictures on the computer.
Homeless guy #2: Aw, that’s not so bad.
Homeless guy #1: And they said that I was being disrespectful to the librarians.
Homeless guy #2, freaking out: No way, man! You can never, never disrespect the librarians! Always respect librarians! What were you thinking? Are you an idiot?

Outside Boulder Public Library
Boulder, Colorado

Overheard by: Librarian on break

I’ve got to start my knitting for a special friend who is going to have her babies before I even start knitting…..I need some help. I originally was going to knit in cotton (doubled) and use the pattern for the “Moderne Log Cabin Baby Blanket” from Mason Dixon Knitting. Now I’m not so sure.

I’ve purchased my colors…4 shades–one set in bright primaries, and one in antique shades (did I mention she is having twins?). And now I think that I’d rather not do all the picking up that is required. I saw a really fun scarf pattern with a nice wave to it, and I thought that would be a good blanket. Since it is striped, I could use the four colors, and stripe them. There is a stripe generator program that could help me decide on the widths and color changes.

Any thoughts? These blankets are going to be heirloom quality (do not ask me how much I spent on my yarn….) and I am afraid to start because I want to do it right!

Advice from non-knitters also welcome (of course).

As for completed projects, I just finished Craft Magazine’s Knitted Bicycle Ear Warmers for my dad. They look great, I just need to drop them in the mail.

Sorry I disappointed my readership with my mafia story. I guess you just had to be there…

I’m updating my list of geeky websites that I use and would like to see who I know who uses them. Here is the list…if there is anything that you are on which you think we should connect, let me know in an e-mail or a comment. If there is anything I haven’t listed, but I should try out, please let me know as well.

Note…this isn’t necessarily an endorsement of the sites below, I just am trying some of them to see if they are worth my while.

facebook.com
ning.com
twitter.com (and twittermap.com)
meebo.com
linkedin.com
myspace.com (ick….)
gmail.com (google reader, google docs, etc…)

Thats all for now…have a good evening.

UPDATE:
goodreads.com
netvibes.com
30boxes.com

And although none of them were soundly in support, I’m going to make this a hard post to search for.

A few weeks ago on a Friday, after picking up the Big Girl, we went to the mini-market by our house to pick up challah and newspapers for Shabbat. Big Girl looks at the local paper and says. “Eema, that is O’s Abba, and that is S’s Abba”. I found that interesting, so I bought that paper. (instead of the other local one which I normally buy.)

So on Shabbat, I sat down with the paper and read some snippets of the article “20 years behind bars…..” and “13 years behind bars….” My jaw dropped….apparently these children in Big Girl’s school are the children of some local maf*a figures.

As I talked to a few parents, they were surprised I didn’t know….”haven’t you seen the bodyguard that comes with the father when he picks up the girls?” Ummm…I guess I missed that.

We had a school trip about a month ago, and for all trips in Israel they require a “milaveh neshek” (basically someone with a gun. It is such a standard thing that I didn’t think much of it….until my friend said—didn’t you notice that the guards were provided by O and S’s fathers free of charge? I guess since they normally guard these children when they are outside of school, might as well send them on the trip with us.

Sigh…

But the article did end with an upside….they are now involved with an aboveboard business and are done with their life of crime.

I’m so relieved.

Should I be afraid to blog about the Mafia in the city in which I live, or should I assume they can’t read English? I need at least 3 comments to make it worth my while….

This morning my commute was going quite well. The 7 bus came quickly, and I made it to the bus stop for the second half of my trip by 7:50. Usually I try to be there by 8. At 8 a tour bus came by, and all of the students heading for the University (where I work) were getting on the bus. There wasn’t any information on the bus stating where it was going or to whom it was connected.

I asked the driver if he was going to Hebrew University, and he said yes. I got on the bus and sat down. He didn’t ask for any money, bus passes or identification. I looked around, and everything seemed okay, so I just went with the flow.

As we approached the university, I asked the woman next to me what this bus was. She said that it went from Rechavia through the center of town and to the University. I said, but whose bus is it? The guy in front said it was from the “Agudah” (the Student Union). Then he said “נותנים תקח” –they give, then take. Amen