Safra-Knit

Yes that is right, after 6 years and 2 weeks of a car-free life, we are going to be car owners again! I have not been looking forward to this. Somewhere between licensing, taxes, Israeli drivers and Jerusalem roads, I’ve been reasonably happy taking buses. Even taking taxis every day would be cheaper than owning a car, but convenience, that is another story.

Starting on Monday, I have three children in three different locations. I can’t get from place to place by foot without major stress, and major whines.

Today we went to the Eldan used car dealership and “negotiated” for a car. I got the price down about 4,500 shekels. I don’t know if that is good or bad, but we haven’t even seen the car. It is at another dealership, and will be brought here sometime next week. The basic specs: White 2007 Ford Focus (made in Europe) with 55,000 KM (34,000 miles) on it. Please don’t ask the price. I think we have a car that will last a while before we have to put any money into it.

11AM In the Meantime, Play Fetch with the Virtual Dog
Office lady on phone to son: I don't know, I think we have it on tape… on tape. Video tape. No, not DVD, video tape. It's black and rectangular, and you put it in the VCR to watch movies. The VCR?… It's… look, just wait till I get home, okay?

Picktown, Ohio

Overheard by: trying not to laugh
via Overheard in the Office, Aug 15, 2008

Thank you again Overheard in the Office. By the way, I work with even odder tapes… U-Matics, BetaMax and S-VHS.

I’d like to share with you one of my greatest accomplishments. No, this isn’t about my kids, or about my husband, or about my job…but my hobby.

I’ve been knitting for a bit over ten years. My mom gave me some needles and some icky acrylic (not that all acrylic is icky) yarn, and I knit a rectangle. I wasn’t so impressed with it, but I moved on to some scarves for me and the hubby, then one for the mother-in-law. (Let’s not even ask if she ever wore it.) I’ve knit: blankets for my two older girls, a baby sweater, numerous hats, pair of socks, a few bunnies, and a bunch of other stuff. I’ve helped people knit things I would never ever knit.

But my pride and joy is the Jerusalem Knit N’ Nosh. I started this group about 3 1/2 years ago…right after Passover. I had been attending a different knitting group the previous summer, and it had ended due to a variety of reasons.

I posted a message to Janglo, and I think two people turned up. They have become two of my most reliable members! (One even helped to found a breakaway group…which, of course, has my blessing.) The numbers have ebbed and flowed, and we have changed locations a few times. We started out at a special cafe, then to a hotel lobby, then to another cafe, and now I think we are really home at Cafe Joe on the corner of Keren Hayesod in Jerusalem. We have an awesome manager, Erez, who says he wants to learn to knit….and maybe getting a few gifts from us knitters this Hanukkah. (shh don’t tell…) Our group is up to about 7 regulars, and another 2-5 that rotate through. We meet bi-monthly (twice a month, not once every two months) and just knit, chat etc.

This group is very special to me because we are a varied group—ages, skills, experiences. The only thing missing for me is that it is a very English speaking group. Since our size is actually very good, I’m leery of trying to grow the group, and I don’t know how it would be for non-English speakers. Not all our members are comfortable in Hebrew, and I wouldn’t want to make it awkward.

This group has helped me through knitting traumas (ripping out a large portion of a sweater), personal traumas and has also been there for the simchas of a new baby (with gifts….) and moving apartments.

I’m very glad that I created this group, and I hope we can just grow in size and strength.

• On the needles: Sock #2: Tidal Wave

If you have bothered to look at the URL of my blog, you will see that it is blogsome and not blogspot. I don’t use blogger for my blog. I’m not sure exactly why I switched, but I’ve been very happy with blogsome. I’ll admit, I don’t have the fanciest template, and it seems as though adding categories is a bit of a hassle, but it is good for me. Take a look!

• On the needles: Sock #2 for me Tidal Wave

On my lovely 45 minute ride to work the other day, there was a problem with the bus. For some reason it had a nasty beep beep beep that continued from the time I got on until the time I got off the bus about 30 minutes later. It would stop only when the driver would open the doors or when we would turn a corner. Unfortunately, it is a very straight ride to town. After a minute of the beep beep, there would be a bzzzzzzz that would come as well, making all of us riders a bit insane.

A middle age woman sat down and started complaining that the high-school student across the aisle is using the seat next to him for his backpack (which was massive). The older couple sitting across from him say oh, he’ll move it when someone comes. The woman wasn’t satisfied with that answer and made a few more complaints. The boy, smartly remained silent.

The older couple started chatting about how in America they have lockers in schools, so the kids don’t have to take home all their books, only the ones that they need for the coming day. The other person said that the schools here in Israel are so crowded there is barely enough room for the students and teachers.

I love overhearing other people on the bus….

I’ve decided to clean up my drafts, so I’m going to be posting some very old, out of order posts, just to catch up. Bear with me, the posts are probably worth it…

With school starting in only 11 days, (but who is counting?) this may sound like a weird topic, but the middle one missed the last day of her childcare because of a fever. I went to pick up her art work, and the teacher said to me some weird statements:

“All the children who are out today (6 had a virus) are very sensitive children (רגיש) that have difficulties with endings, that is why they are sick” Uh huh

“I haven’t liked a child like yours in a very long time…you will have many evaluations (ivchunim) with her, but just remember she is a very special child” Ummm…should we have been discussing this during the year? Exactly what problems does she have?

I can’t say I’ve particularly liked this teacher. She had a horrible tendency to tell the children if they did X then they would get a treat…but the treats never came. Her lack of follow through was horrible for these 4/5 year-olds.

She also said that she didn’t believe in “time-out,” but on more than one occasion I saw a child sitting away from the group for a period of time…what do you call that?

Anyway, we are done with her, and this coming year is with a very experienced pre-k (trom chova) teacher, about whom we have heard very good things. I just hope it is a good group of children.

(Benji says you need a catchy title to draw people to your posts)

Well, last night was the First(?) International Jewish Blogger Conference. They had a meat buffet, Bibi Netanyahu spoke, and a good time was had by most.

Some interesting points:

• I met some people that I really wanted to meet, and visit (however briefly) with others who I haven’t seen in a while.
• I agree wholeheartedly with Gil who said that Jewish bloggers aren’t a “community” but “people who share the same hobby”….although there are people in every community that you want nothing to do with, and the Jewish bloggers have those types as well.
• The speaker from the Foreign Ministry spoke too long, and only got to an interesting point in the last three minutes. I wish she had known her audience better.
• Bibi Netanyahu is a wonderful speaker, I’d love to see him as Foreign Minister or Finance Minister. (Notice, I didn’t say Prime Minister.)
• I was happy that Carl gave a shout out (well, really just a mention) to Tachlis. It was there way before NbN existed.
• Nefesh B’Nefesh has a new website for asking questions and answers are voted on. If they don’t hyper-moderate, and they allow honest but not pro-aliyah answers, this could be a good thing.
• I’m kicking myself for not talking to The Big Felafel. She has done such a great job in such a short period of time. (Plus she is a crafter…what more can you ask for?)
• You can accomplish quite a bit of sock knitting while listening to bloggers speak.

Please see some other blogs for a more detailed summary.

In conclusion, I enjoyed myself, and I hope this will inspire me to spend more time blogging.

Yeah, I’ll be there tonight…I’m very cynical about it, but not in the way that was publicized in Haaretz. I’m just a big cynic regarding one of the sponsors. You can check Sarah’s blog to see what I think of them.

For work I had to scan images from a film that we have in our collection. I fell in love with the film…the colors were beautiful, the girls in the film were human sized (and not toothpick models), and their dresses are coming back in style.

Go see for yourself how Three Girls filmed in 1958 feels to you. The three girls in the film are now 66 years old. I’d love to meet them. (I’d also love to be transported back to that time period in Israel.)