so big

gus grows so fast.  she rolled over on dec. 26 (a little late, maybe, but it was from tummy to back which i've heard is harder)

 

 she is little miss awesome and we have so much fun with her that we've both forgotten to blog like we meant to.  ah, busy-ness.

in other fun news, my back is not functional after a hellish being stuck on the FDR monday night.  i demand chocolate. 

how could i forget?

 and i got a new pi'hoenay:

enough with the holiday spirit

out shopping today (gus needed a new car seat, other stuff, Avraham needed things as well).  all of New Jersey was closed.  explain?

 anyhow, in yonkers/scarsdale (can't tell the difference) someone in the best buy parking lot backed into our car.  avraham had just parked and gone in, i stayed with gus to hang out and let her eat.  once i knew she was ok, i jumped out and checked our car (heart pounding still from that wonderful feeling of 'oh, shit, my car's hitting the car in front of me and i know it's not on').  the car was fine, just a mark from the other car's paint.  point?  the other driver didn't even come over to check if we were okay!  he freaking BACKED into my CAR with my BABY inside of it!  schmuck - i hope your tree burns down and takes out all your gifts with it.  and you know that s/he is just the kind of person who would read this and shake his or her head and murmur "that's just not right, who would back into a car with a baby inside it and walk away?"  YOU, SCHMUCKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Avraham suggested we take the air out of the guy's tires -  i was going to leave a note explaining the proper ettiquette (you know, stop, ask if we're okay, apologize for scaring the kid), but as i wasn't 100% on which car it was (otherwise there'd be a license plate number posted here), i let it go.  i mean, if i left it on the wrong car, could you imagine reading that you hit a aprked car with a baby inside it?  how awful would you feel if you thought you had hit someone and NOT noticed?  so, the potentially bad were let off the hook for the good of the normal people.

happy fucking holidays, yeh?

we won the lottery!

it was only a matter of time -

a whole $2.00!  We just have to do it 500,000 more times, and we can retire!

pictures for the common good

Gus gives the one finger salute 

Defeated by a mix of carrots and oatmeal 

Hanging out with Nurse J 

my genius daughter

she's too awesome.  she took a botle 3 times today, ate a TON of oatmeal and carrots, and tasted green beans for the first time (and very kindly swallowed everything i put in her mouth).  then she put herself to sleep.

and she's sleeping like an angel in her new crib - the mattress does wonders for her.  i want one in my size...

also, does anyone out there want to come over and fix my back?  anyone?  anyone at all?  how about nurse my baby for me so she can keep having breastmilk while i take meds so i can walk?  no takers? damn it all to hell.  child smells like formula and all she wants is the booby.  poor mushers.

the wonder of it all

lucky me, lucky, lucky me

i was at my parents' for 5 days, and the bed was not so happy for my back.  then i came home, slept in my bed, and was happy.  this weekend we were in the hamptons and i slept in a very hard bed, and as of this morning, i'm back to fully disfunctional back.  can't sit, stand, or lie down without pain, it's hard to walk...  i did a bunch of exercises and ended up taking some codeine (i'm nervous to have vicodin in my system at all of i'm nursing gus-ness).

and speaking of gus, she brilliantly learned to take a bottle today. my good girl!

and random quesiton of the day - what would you do if you found out a co-worker was lying to you about something?

anyhow, i'm kinda watching the history channel's mayflower special, and trying not to move my back.  so that's it for today.  night, all.

worst mother ever?

gus was happily eating breakfast today - she finished off her oatmeal and was plowing through her carrots.  there were about 5 or 6 spoonfuls left, and she was spacing out, i was getting tired, and the spoon took her by surprise.  she gagged, then puked up EVERYthing she had eaten, in two lovely gushes.  she cried, i teared up, and avraham laughed at me (whatever, he was less than happy when he gagged her with a medicine dropper when she had fever).

 i literaly gagged her with a spoon.  I'm an 80s cliche

spam

why would i open an email an emailed with " Not mackerel it fiancee" in the subject line?

snots everywhere

poor gus with her little cough and teensy stuffed nose.  she's so cute, even when she wipes her snot all over me while nursing, or pulls my hair out.  she just laughs and laughs.  except when she's screaming, which is also cute, cause she sure cries pretty.  lucky girl.

back to the real world

Salah Choudhury, a Bangladeshi journalist, is going on trial for his life today in Dhaka, Bandgladesh. His crime is "praising Jews and Christians, " , "spying for Israel" and ""being an agent of the Mossad." He committed these crimes by writing articles favorable towards Jews and Christians and supporting relations between Bangladesh and Israel.

Contact Eliot Engle our Congressman at:2161 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515-3217,Phone: (202) 225-2464 or send an e-mail to:www.house. gov/writerep.

or our Senators:Clinton, Hillary Rodham- (D - NY) Class I
476 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4451
Web Form: clinton.senate. gov/contact

Schumer, Charles E.- (D - NY) Class III
313 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6542
Web Form: schumer.senate. gov/SchumerWebsi te/contact/ webform.cfm

 

You can read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salah_Choudhury 

Booba gets bigger

Chewing on Pooh Bear 

Gus wants YOU  to drink (from funny miniature beer mugs.)

Also, lets make it clear that Gus is by far the cutest baby in our family.  And that she likes to watch television, even though we try to discourage it, and she likes to beat up her toys, and HATES being put on her tummy.  Smart baby.  And she's been holding her head up FOREVER.  We love her cleverness, and have decided to keep her. 

it's official

gus-ness is my favorite baby thus far

her furniture came todya and it's starting to feel like she's a real person, and not just a cute little thing we carry around and kiss and try to make feel better when it's crying.

 It's so cool how quickly they grow

sometimes she wtaches the door for Avraham.  she's so little and so smart.  i think we'll keep her.

mushy goodness.

and nursing is getting to be not bad, even fun sometimes, now that she smiles and flirts and coos and laughs (sometimes).

and in other good news, Games magazine finally came today so I get to tease my brain for the next little while.  relief washed over avraham's face - maybe now he'll fear my losing my mind a little less?

big girl!

Gus chillin' on a Boppy 

Gus and Uncle Fish-face 

ah, schedules

poor sweet baby is being scheduled and she doesn't like it.  she wants to sleep when i want her to be up, both when i wake her up from a nap and when i won't let her fall back asleep (cause otherwise she'll sleep away the morning).  the funyn thing is that when i smile at her, she misles back, so she'll be screaming and in hysterics and totally crying, then i smile at her, and then she's crying with a big smile on her face.  wackjob.

i haven't been blogging.  or returning emails.  or phone calls.  i'm not sure why.  i think the little cocoon of me, gus, and avs (when he's not at work) that's evolved, and i don't want to start having my days be full of other people yet.  maybe i'm just selfish and trying to keep gus all to myself.  unclear.

although i do make a point of having an adult-ish dinner with friends once a week, and theoretically i get together with my friend during the day, although i haven't done it since before yom kippur.  woah, now that i say that, that's a really long time.  although i haven't really been home for the last month.

ok, i have a headache.  see ya, blog people.  i'll hopefully be around a bit more often. 

why am i awake?

gus-ness woke up at 1:30; her swaddling had come undone, and she's startled herself awake.  i put her in my bed, shished her, re-swaddled her, and realized i coudln't fall back asleep.  so she and avraham are sleeping in our room.

 on other news, her crib is supposed to be coming this week, along with my glider.  i realized belatedly that for the mount we spent on the glider at the baby store, we could have gotten a nice leather chair elsewhere.  oh, well.

my brain doesn't work like it used to.  more sluggish, my sense of humor is off.  i make jokes and cringe at how dumb they are.  i pack for chag and forget to pack diapers (yeah, i remembered before chag began, so avs ran out and bought some).  little things, you know?

 anyhow, i'm going to go watch ugly betty cause i'm up and i'm bored and i love me my mindless entertainment.

Booba

so, it's morning

and today, what you should know is that

1. my shirt says "kiss and tel aviv" and
2. all of my excess pregnancy hair is finally succumbing to that postpartum hormone drop.  while some women may hate this, i like it because
            a. i have a ton of hair normally, and this has really been too much, and
            b. it's kinda fun to pull your hair out.

and for all those keeping score at home, my baby starting laughing over Chag, and can get her thumb in her mouth.  though not for very long, as she still flails, so it tends to come out before she's ready to lose it.  what a Booba.

it's 11:27

my baby's in bed, my husband's sitting across from me working on the crossword, and i'm happy.

cool

just to let you know

AMERICANS SHOCKED TO LEARN THAT
ONE-THIRD OF UJC EMERGENCY DOLLARS DESIGNATED FOR ARABS
By: Helen Freedman
 
          So you thought your money was going to the Jewish children and their parents who spent the past summer in bomb shelters. Or you believed that your donation was going to rebuild homes in the north of Israel that had been destroyed by Hezbollah rockets. Or perhaps you were thinking of the elderly, or school and camp programs. Whatever your thoughts might have been, did you think that a huge part of your donation would be given to the very Arabs who supported Hezbollah and danced on their rooftops in celebration whenever word came of Jewish soldiers or civilians killed? Probably not. Therefore, the following information should be of interest to you.
 
          I contacted United Jewish Communities through email and requested a breakdown of the millions of dollars raised in the Emergency Campaign. I received a copy, with three pages of detailed programs, activities, beneficiaries, allocations and monies paid so far. The very first item is: Activities for non-Jew sector in confrontation area. The organization designated for this concern is JAFI – the Jewish Agency for Israel. The “activity” is: Support to non-Jewish children in community centers. The allocation is $3,300,000.  
          Community Center – Emergency Outreach Programs is the next item – The organization in charge is the Joint Distribution Committee/JDC. The money allocated is $3,000,000 and 25,299 Arab children are the beneficiaries.
          The School Readiness Day Camp Program, solely for non-Jewish children, received $2,640,000 and the Summer camp for kids, including 10,000 non-Jews, received $17,300,000. The list goes on and on, but it is clear that Arabs are benefiting substantially from the generosity of Jews.
 
          What’s to be done about this? There are those who will take the high road, declaring that Israel is a “democracy” and must treat all its citizens the same; therefore funds for restoring the north should be handed out in a “democratic” fashion. That is undoubtedly the argument you would get from the UJC. Indeed, on their website: www.ujc.org , they write the following:

Is there a fundraising goal?
A half billion dollars or more may be required and we are currently assessing the needs.

Do donations go only to Jews?
No: we are helping all vulnerable populations, including Israeli Arabs, Druze and Jews.

               So there you are folks. One question and a one-line answer, where Jews, Druze and Arabs are all in the same category of “vulnerable populations.”

          When examining errors of commission, there are also errors of omission. NO WHERE, in the projected expenditures of the UJC is there any recognition of the 10,000 Jewish refugees from Gush Katif/Gaza, who were forcibly expelled from their homes by the Israeli government in August, 2005. More than one year later, NONE of them have received their full compensation for their destroyed homes and businesses, ALL of them are still in temporary homes, FEW of them have found employment, ALL of the youngsters have been shifted from one school to another, often expected to adjust to six or seven different schools in this one year period, ALL of them are desperately in need of money to try to do for themselves what the government has failed to do. If the United Jewish Communities doesn’t respond from their projected half-billion dollar fund-raising campaign, who will?

          AND – to rub further salt into the wounds- a Y-net report tells us that the Israeli government is now promising a third of their aid to the north to the Arabs.  The Y-Net report by Sharon Roffe-Ofir tells us that an additional $343.3 million will be added by donations raised by the JDC and the Jewish Agency. That’s your money, folks – and please note that the government money takes no note of the needs of the Gush Katif refugees who don’t even have homes and businesses to be rebuilt. Their communities were totally destroyed and must be re-created, in new locations, from scratch. That includes schools, synagogues, shops, farms, hothouses, and homes.

          How can the Israeli government, and the Joint, and the Jewish Agency, and the Federations that make up the United Jewish Communities turn their backs on needy Jews while they placate Arabs who are part of the plot to destroy Israel? It makes no sense. PLEASE make your voice heard in loud protest to such actions.  
            Write to Howard Rieger, President and Chief Executive Officer of UJC: info@ujc.org , or call him at: 212-284-6500. Insist that money donated by Jews to help the Jews of Israel be used for that purpose. At the very least, there must be full disclosure, up front, that donations to the Emergency Campaign go to Arabs and Druze as well as Jews. At least then, Jews can determine whether to continue donating their money to UJC, or to give it more specifically to individual Jewish causes where the money goes directly to help Jewish needs. Information about direct giving to needy Jews can be secured by contacting Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI, 212-828-2424; afsi@rcn.com ; www.afsi.org.

i'm lifting verbatim

from http://journals.democraticunderground.com/top10/261

 Rick Santorum

But our Rick isn't just releasing false and hypocritical attack ads - he's got plenty of other dirty tricks up his sleeve. For example, it was announced last week that he will enjoy a series of debates across Pennsylvania with Green party candidate Carl Romanelli. That would be Green party candidate Carl Romanelli who is entirely funded by Rick Santorum supporters, as noted in Idiots 254.

How convenient! That should certainly raise the profile of Romanelli - nowhere near close enough for him to win the election, of course, but certainly enough to siphon support away from Bob Casey. No wonder Santorum's supporters are donating to Romanelli in droves.

Bob Casey is quite rightly refusing to take part in this farce - his campaign spokesman Larry Smar said, "We have a rule that each campaign can only have one representative on stage for debate at the same time. As far as we're concerned, (Romanelli) is a representative of the Santorum campaign."

And Casey's refusal to participate has given Santorum's campaign another strawman to rail against - they're calling Casey weak because he won't play in Santorum's sandbox.

"Pennsylvania voters are fortunate to have two candidates for U.S. Senate - Rick Santorum and Carl Romanelli - who are not afraid to debate and stand up for their beliefs," wrote Virginia Davis, Santorum's press secretary, in an e-mail response. "It is unfortunate that the third candidate in this race, Bob Casey, either does not have beliefs or is afraid to stand up for them."

Which is a rather odd thing to say, because Santorum and Casey will be debating three more times before the election at official events which have already been arranged. So I guess the Santorum campaign is just making stuff up. Again.

 UPDATE:

In googling, I found out that "On Monday, a state judge said Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli would be removed from the ballot because the party did not have enough valid signatures in its nominating petitions - a move pundits said would help Casey"

Love Bug

I'd write something, but...

@^1

happy birthday Avraham!

it sucks

to be exiled from things because i'm nursing, but nursing i am, and the gusmeister is unwanted at certain events.  so i am home with her strapped into her baby bjorn cause she wouldn't sleep unless she was against me, and this way my hands are free.  good baby.  she had a great day:

gusgusgusgusgusgusgusgusgusgus

she's just too cute.  as much as i don't sleep or eat or shower like i used to, i am loving this whole parent thing.

booba is in the 40th percentile for weight and 80th for height.  hello weiss genes - long and thin (ok, some of us have gotten fat, but we used to be long and thin...).

shmushy cuteness.

it's amazing that i can say that when she was up from about 2:30 until 9:30 this morning.  nursing and playing and flirting and blowing bubbles.  my my how delicious.

Mazal Tov!

look at the new Israelis, fresh off the plane!

the little one is clearly looking at his father instead of the camera.  hee

the middle one told me before they left that i should tell gus, when she gets bigger, that he hopes she grows up well.  i cried and told him he'd get to tell her himself, because we're still going to see each other a lot.

Make Up Your Own Words

sometimes when i'm trying to calm Gus down, i sing brahm's lullaby to her, but i don't kno the real words.  so it usually goes something like
lullaby and good night, go to sleep little baby...

so i got the real words:

Lullaby and good night, with roses bedight
With lilies o'er spread is baby's wee bed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed


Lullaby and good night, thy mother's delight
Bright angels beside my darling abide
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast

creepy?  the original german (what a harsh sounding language!)

Guten Abend, gute Nacht, Mit Rosen bedacht,
Mit Naeglein besteckt, schlupf unter die Deck'
Morgen frueh, wenn Gott will, wirst du wieder geweckt
Morgen frueh, wenn Gott will, wirst du wieder geweckt

Guten Abend, gute Nacht, Von Englein bewacht
Die zeigen im Traum, dir Christkindleins Baum
Schlaf nun selig und suess, Schau im Traum's Paradies
Schlaf nun selig und suess, Schau im Traum's Paradies

i think it translates as "go to sleep before we chop off your fingers.  and if you have nightmares and cry, we will beat you"

omfg

she's lying next to me on the couch, one litle fist curled up on her cheek, and at this angle she looks just like my baby pictures.  i must remember to take pictures of her little baby toes before they get bigger.  she's about to hit a growth spurt, and i have to say - when clothes stop fitting her in the enxt few days, i may cry a little bit.  or be very excited.  i haven't decided yet.

explain to me how people see a baby dressed in pink (with bows and ribbons) and ask if it's a boy.  "yes, it is!  we're trying to scar him terrribly by dressing him like this now, taking pictures, and then showing them to all prospective dates in the future..."

i love this child so much it's scary.  i even yelled at avraham this morning when he shushed her when she was crying.  um, yeah.  not so nice of me.  but then, i'm the one who'd been up since 12:30 last night with her, so when he was woken up by her crying for two seconds cause she was hungry, i was a little annoyed that she got shushed.  note to self - must not bite husband.

Refael Meir Chaim ben Leah Devora

Meir, who grew up with Avraham, was in a serious accident on Friday.  The news as we've heard it is that his leg was amputated and there is what appears to be an infection spreading to his heart.

Please daven for him and his family - he's our age and is the father of a little girl.

for the last time

i did not get an epidural.  i did not have any medication until many hours after gus was born when orly bought me motrin for the nursing contraction things.  i also do not think i'm better than anyone out there, so can we all agree that i;m not judging you and you won't judge me?   the discussion of why this was any of your business will wait until i'm not spending half my day with my nipples in someone else's mouth.

AVS!

i miss you!

this being away thing sucks.  everyone who says that going to your mother after you have a baby is a mechaya is mamash retarded.

i want to be home with my husband!  this SUCKS!

and my sister's making aliya in 2.5 weeks and i want to cry.  instead, i will take a nap.

peep

i've turned into a milk producing vampire.  poor squish was so thrown off schedule by all the travel (and the people!  they love to touch her!) taht we were up intermitently nursing last night from half an hour after i got into bed until it was light outside.  because i don't have a clock in my room, this is now how we measure time.

i want to bite the people who reach into her carriage without asking.

on friday night, someone we know (who thinks she's much closer with us than she actually is) was around and while i was adjusting gus' blanket, reached into the carriage and tucked the other end under her.  which would be sweet if we were friends, or relatives, or even people who have spoken more than twice by choice.  but we're not.  so it was invasive and rude and BY THE WAY my 4 day old?   not so much immune to whatever crap is on your hands, so back the fuck away, ask before touching, and WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!

and then this same girl on shabbat afternoon, while hanging out near me, overheard me asking a friend if i could bite people who touch gus without asking and she goes "oh, totally!".  consider your neck to be gaping and spurting, then.

of course, none as funny as the moron who leaned over (placing her hand on gus - why would you lean on a 5 day old?) and commented on her 'beautiful tan'.  that's jaundice.  you can get the look yourself - keep whoring yourself  out and you'll get hep B.  or you can use cheap self-tanner and achieve the same result.

so i'm with my parents and family for a little while and avraham is not here and i've cried about that a fwe times already.  i'm also tired and dehydrated, and more inclined to cry because i just gave birth.  so long as we're all aware.  it's funny - i'll start crying, but i'm still calm, and i'm apologizing "please ignore the tears, they have a mind of their own".

i walked outside 10 minutes ago and the sun hurt my eyes.  my baby is so cute, i can't really complain.

awake and loving it

i'm up with squish, who has been nursing on and off all night.  she's so cute, and so good.

watching bbc world news covering the israel/lebanon issue, and i have to say that daniel taub is doing a great job of fending questions.

i'm HUNGRY.

i'd like to point out that my darling daughter (hee) was born at 7 lbs 2 oz, and she was a full 3 weeks early.  one slim day away from being a preemie.  imagine if she'd gone to 40 weeks!  i don't know how i would have done it.

we're in the living room at the moment.  she's wearing a sleep sack over her sleeper, arms thrown up next to her head like she's just ben surprised, and she's SO CUTE!

she's also a little weird - i've been putting a hat on her to keep her warm (for all the birth weight, she's actually very little).  every time i put her in the pram, she scooches down until the hat slips over her eyes, then goes to sleep.  at one point when she didn't have the hat on, avraham reported that her arm was flung over her face, covering her eyes.  just like her uncle hadar.  : )

Gus Face

excuse me for thinking she's cuter than your kids  : )

Gus

24

wide awake.  avraham's sleeping as soundly as one can expect for a man whose wife is up at 4 am on a laptop in the bedroom.

i'm terrible, really.

school ends on sunday, and i've even finished most of my work.  i have 4 film clips, a summary, and 2 multi-part written assignments left, which i should be able to mostly knock off tomorrow.

i can't say that i'm even tired right now.  i've been napping during the day, and it seems to be working out well.

i have nothing of interest to share at this juncture.  thought you should know.

6 mitzvot, 1 aveira

i learned very many years ago that every time you kill a spider you get 6 mitzvot (one for each incident in which a spider worked against the people of Israel, like bringing coals to the burning of the beit hamikdash) and 1 aveira, for the time that a spider saved Dovid hamelech's life (king david, to you non-hebrew ones).

i also learned very many years ago that i'm a descendent of dovid (i was going to say direct descendent, but in thinking about it, what's a non-direct descendent?  either you're from someone's offspring or you're not).

so whenever i have to kill a spider, the aveira bit weighs even more heavily on me beause i feel like i'm repaying an entire species who technically saved my life by killing them.

we have had a spider infestation in our bathroom.  avraham killed them.  but there was this one mega spider in our living room taht avs saw and couldn't reach.  i saw it the other day and was not okay with killing it.  but today, the spider was on the couch, next to some very important things, and some instinct took over me - i grabbed a shoe, and beat that spider down.

i'm sorry, i'm so so sorry.  it's not that i don't appreciate what you did for me, it's that you don't belong in my house.  and seeing as i can't converse with you and ask you to leave and not come back, i had to dispose of you.  please come back as something non-threatening - a puppy!  and i'll adopt you.

31

we got back from sheva brachot last night to find a family of baby spiders hatching out of our bathroom ceiling.

barf

i ran out of the room and riped off all my clothes and found one crawling on my arm.

avs sprayed raid and closed the door, then went back in to check if they were dead.  he assures me that they were.

i kinda want to go home now.

33

i am smack in the middle of being tired and overwhelmed and even a little antsy.  avraham's sleeping on the couch, has been for about 2 hours, which is nice, but i'm all bored and energized and feel the need to do something, although i'm not quite sure what, short of more bad internet games like mah jong and flip words and other such shit that is slowly making me dumber

i do'nt even have th energy to call people back because that involves conversation.  i just want to be able to call people and have them entertain me while i sit silently by.

my fingers on the keyboard are so loud that i woke avraham up.

poor tired baby...

34

there was much driving this weekend, and then a sudden thunderstorm.  which for the first time in a very long time set off a bad headache which i'm still feeling.  hmph.

we got back at 6:30 and i went to sleep while avs went to shul.  i was supposed to get up at 7:30, but apparently i was very tired because i only got up 15 minutes ago, so we're just making dinner now.

we also got a lot accomplished yesterday, so that felt good, but my god am i wiped.

must eat, drink water, and sleep more.

new take on an old story

40

and so immature.  i came up with a nickname for avraham a few years back that was just for my use, and a few friends who heard it adopted it.  that occassionally bothered me, but mostly i let it slide.  then a friend started using the same nickname for her boyfriend.  and quite honestly, it's annoying.  mostly because it's my own sweet nickname for my husband, but partly because when the four of us are together and she's calling someone else by his name (by choice!) it's no longer special.  i feel a little robbed.  i didn't think it would bother me because i rarely see them, but it really does.  part of that, most likely, is that the boyfriend didn't know that i had come up with the nickname and thought i was weird when i said somehting about her stealing it.

this is what happens when i don't sleep.  i lie in bed and think about stupid things.  if i were writing a book or a movie, by the way, this would be the point at which the crazy friend (me) decides that the easiest solution is to lose the friendship, and therefore maintain the illusion that the name is special again.

ok, but really, she should have asked me before she co-opted it.  everyone else who calls avraham by it asked first.  is that what bothers me?  i don't know.  too hard to tell.

anyhow, an exterminator came by yesterday and fumigated our place (our summer place, that is, no one has yet had need to spray anything in our real apartment thank GOD).  we slept on the other side of the house last night becase A and Y were in manhattan and graciously offered us their guest room.  the weird thing about this whole summer setup is how to share these spaces (because each is so small, and we're constantly in and out of each other's homes) while still respecting one another's space.  i.e. i don't want to get overly familiar with their home because it is after all theirs and they should always feel that they have their own area.  i keep thinking about how one could construst a pass-through from one side of the house to the other.  i actually was designing one in my mind last night til i remembered that i'd need to see blueprints or layout plans to see where the wires are, and then realized that there probably are no official plans for the wall they threw up in the middle of the house.  so, i'm not going to take a hammer or saw to the wall, but i'm now very curious to see if i could research enough to find out how to do it.

ok, i have to get moving and put on clean clothes and make phone calls and start my day!  it's only 11 am, after all.

41

Riverdale has never looked better.  We have earwigs and ants.  The earwigs seem to have originated from a couch we took from someone, and the ants - well, maybe they and the earwigs are in cahoots?  Hoping that today we'll get screens up, a screen door installed, and the sink fixed so it won't leak all over my floor as i wash out dishes and glasses.  Which, of course, makes the ant situation even more fun - we had a melava malka, and then couldn't wash the glasses out because of the sink, and then the ants descended.  YUCK.

The exterminator is coming back today (yes, back - the external spray last week only worked for a day) to fumigate the place.  We're sleeping elsewhere for the night.

and i think i have an ant bite on my hand.  grrrrr

43

so, i know you can be overwhelmed.  and i know you can be underwhelmed. but can you ever just be whelmed?

... i think you can in europe

48

i managed today for only the second time to successfully give myself a manicure.

now if i could only manage to shower, get dressed, and do some work for school...

49

first off, i want to state that I am aware of my own negativity.  let that just be out therebefore i start talking about theissue in general.

i find that more and more the women i talk to are very negative about things.  it seems to be an unconscious response, but generally i find that when a topic is brought up, it immediately veers into negativity waters.

i say women because that is where i have experienced the problem.  i'm not claiming that men do not suffer from it, simply that i haven't personally experienced it as regularly with them.

this bothers me on two levels - one, it is extremely unhealthy to have one's got reaction to things be negative.  two, it is extremely unpleasant for those around you who must either respond or ignore what has just come out of a friend's mouth.  responding most certaintly will lead to a conversation about the topic, and validate the negative opinion to some extent - if we are to converse, than your negative gut reaction is not just an unhealthy reading of what's going on around you, but now is simply a side to take in a disagreement.  ignoring it frustrates the second person, if not the one expressing the opinion, and doesn't deal with the fact that the reaction is often either unwarranted or over the top.

i am keenly aware of my own tendency to be negative.  i try to watch it, and i try to be funny instead of outright dismissive or depressing.  but maybe it would help us all to step back a bit in conversation and recognize that some side comments (such as "oh, she's so sweet") do not need a response, and that surely the proper response is not a rebuttal ("you think so?  i just don't see it.").

rant over, novacaine has worn off from mouth, and i am now off to eat food seeing as i can taste it finally.  : )

55

Let us eat cake

for today, we celebrate two years of wedded life.

TWO YEARS!

does not feel like it at all.  just like it's been a long while of fun and living with my best friend.

i love you, avs.  : )

56

i feel like i had things to say at some point, but they've left my head.

i am not a fan of norton anti-virus.

and the MO conference starts tomorrow and i can't go.

i got a great manicure for 5 bucks

and i need to return shoes to aerosole.

i'm listing things here because otherwise i'll forget.

sarah's home (not that with an 'h' is avraham's sister, without is mine).  so good to see her.  we stopped by for shifra's bridal shower.  caught the tail end.  which is good, cause i couldn't have been there for the whole thing - i'm too damn impatient.  i barely made it through my own.

i have to go find paper to apply my sequins and glue to.  don't tell avraham, but i'm making him an anniversary card (tomorrow's two years).

doesn't quite feel like that long...

60

it was a lovely hour spent at target.  explain to me why anyone registers for 18/0 flatware...  if you're asking people to buy you stuff, why not buy stuff that wll survive the first year of marriage?  i mean, 'stainless steel' doesn't come crappier than that.

does anybody but me research stuff before they register for it?

on a happy note, we bought Apples to Apples for Shabbat, because my previous set of the game was taken over (hostilely, of course) by my family at their summer home.  if youve' never played it, try it.  if you don't think it's fun, drink some vodka and try again.

i shoudlo be eating lunch, but i can't make myself get out of this uncomfortable chair to do it.  and i should do it soon, seeing as i have an appointment in under an hour.  lalalalalala

weather reports - rumors of the rain stopping and some sunshine peaking through.  Shallow Dani wants to have a nice tan for the weddings, so just in case, i bought one of those jergen's facial mousterizer/tanner things.  i hope i don't turn orange.  if i do, i know enough lawyers.  what?

and this afternnon i'm finally dragging my sorry self to go look at hats at the riverdale mikvah.  navy or pink, navy or pink?  if the dress is navy with some irridescent navy/hot pink action going on, and i wear open toe espadrilles with a rocking hot pink manicure, what color hat is more appropriate?  and do i go for the more or the less appropriate one?  so many questions.

also, how the hell am i getting to Char's wedding without collapsing?  HELP!  i have to get from the hamptons to teaneck to philly by 11:30 am or so, and then reverse to riverdale.  avraham probably can'tget off of work, so it's just me.  ra.  am so tired.

it amazes how after about 2.5 hours of movement i need to rest.  anyone want to hire me a personal chaffeur?  did i spell that wrong?  i can't remember...

61

singing:
listen to your heart when he's calling for you.
listen to your heart - there's nothing else you can do.
i don't know where you're going, and i don't know why -
Listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye.

da da da da da da da da

d d d d d d d

I want to go to a concert!!!

although, the David Broza concert was AWESOME - long version or short version?

ok, long version:

we met hadar and marisa at makor for dinner, where the concert was going to be.  as hadar came down the stairs (we were all looking at the legs coming down the stairs, and all the rest of the legs we'd seen were too short),  david broza went up them.  hadar walks over to the table and we're all like "that was him!"  and he says "i know.  be right back"

and hadar jogs back up the stairs.  comes back down a minute later with david broza in tow.  they head over to our table, we all say hi.  hadar points me out as his sister Daniela who LOVES his song Daniela.  he smiles.  they sit down, and we start to talk about his music.  marisa and hadar tell him they love one of his realy old songs, and ask if he can perform it.  he says that it's so old, he forgot the lyrics.  so hadar pulls out his ipod and hands it over so DB can write down the lyrics.  which he does, and the moment was just too cool - eating dinner with David Broza at the table, he's listening to hadar's ipod, and i'm in complete heaven.

the rumor is (and this is unsubstantiated) that he winked at me while performing Daniela.  he is too cool.

god, i just love concerts.

good old scranton initiative

from my Ima (Mother):

Dear Friends,

I want to share with you something that our little Bais Yaakov in Scranton is doing tomorrow that should be emulated and copied in every Day School and High School, and done in some form in every yeshiva ( I mean boys,too, in a different form).

The girls of BY are hosting a bridal shower for one of the kallahs from the former Gush Katif, a young lady formerly from Netzer Chazani who is getting married later this month and will, IY"H, move with her husband to a caravan. 

The girls printed up and mailed out invitations (their own computer design and printing) in which, they explained what the shower is for, put a suggested gift list on the back of the card, and clearly stated that weight is a consideration and that a check or cash would be most welcome instead. The suggested gift list was actually titled "bridal registry", and the invitation asked that whoever purchases an item please call the school so that it could be crossed off the list. They pre-arranged with several people who plan to go over to Israel soon to take the gifts and added a note about the 220 electric current.  They have been very organized, and  have also prepared a light lunch (with RSVP) so it will be like a real shower. 

An article appeared in our Federation Reporter, and you should know that people are coming and contributing who would not normally respond to a request for money.

The idea was their principal's,  Mrs. Esther Elefant, an incredible woman, and I think the biggest compliment she could get would be that the same idea, or variations on it, be done in every possible community.

Please pass this on to as many people as possible. Anyone needing a source to turn to for individual brides ( or whatever idea they conceive of) can write to me, and I will then give them the contact person's e-mail.

Thanks,  with much love,

Tova

62

off for a dress fitting today - weddings are in 3.5 weeks, and this is my first fitting.  I'm also going to take the "I'm in midtow" opportunity to go LIBS and get my hair cut, my eyebrows waxed, and maybe even a pedicure and manicure.  keep in mind, people, thisis the place where i got a 3 hour hair-do for my cousin's wedding, and it cost me a grand total of $25.  so if all this extravagance today costs more than that, i'll be completely shocked.  i really just have a whole afternoon between the dress fitting and a class at 6:30 to do whatever i want.  ooh, i should get shoeseseseses for the wedding today too.  yay!

girly shopping day!

63

i'm so tired.  i have about 6 weeks of school left, which means 2 more papers for cinema, an essay for education, and 3 decent research papers for ed as well.  i should get cracking on all of this, of course, but I'm way too tired to do anything but sit and space out.

the double wedding day is in 3.5 weeks, and i'm going for my first dress fitting tomorrow.  no reason to be nervous, but feeling unprepared for stuff is not a way i like to run my life.

the past 2 weekends in the hamptons have been fun - we need to start calling people and inviting them out, but i seriously have no energy to even remember who i like to hang out with.  sad.  marti - let me knwo when you guys can come; i'll try to call.

i've been looking for scissors all morning and can't find anything - think this means i have avraham put them away in some ingenious hiding spot which i promptly forgot about.

whil we're at the rambling thing, mazal tov to nomi, kivi, and big brother ami on the birth and naming of eliora rut!    cute little bugger.

and i just dropped the phone.  not out of shock or anything good, just clumsiness.

hee

From the Onion:

Israeli Prime Minister: 'One More Suicide Bombing And I'll Give Them Whatever They Want'

well

i graduated from Drisha last night (beit midrash program)

it was nice, if a little sad.

so many people are moving on for real, across the country and up the coast.  feels like i didn't have enough time with them.

it' funny - i've only known most of them for about 7/8 months, but i really like them and will miss them.

4:20

i'm up and i'm sick and i do'nt know if i'm going to school tomorrow - not only is it my second to last day, i have a class presentation that i've been working my butt off for, and i'm a little annoyed about that.

college is going well although i have a ridiculous amount of work to do by sunday.

thank god there's blind date to keep me occupied in the middle of the night...

The Cute

My nephew turned 3 on Sunday

When he was at our apartment the week before, his grandparents gave him a gift and a card, and we prompted him to say thank you

He ignored us, so we prompted him again

He wandered off and around the room, then said (to himself) "This is SO NICE!"

All the adults collapsed laughing

Dark Red Sentra from Connecticut

If you were the woman who was driving that dark red car, I have this to say to you -

the road does not belong to you.  When there is a stopped vehicle in front of the people in the right lane and they move to switch to the left lane to get around it, you should keep driving at the same speed you were beforehand.  Speeding up to block them off at the last second, thereby ensuring that they will have to come to a very hard stop 2 feet from the back of the non-moving bus (assuming evereyone's brakes are as good as ours, otherwise the car would have stopped *in* the bus) is not just an asshole move, but ridiculously dangerous.  And not just for the people who you cut off - when the choice is between the non-moving very big bus in front  of us and your little car, where do you think we'd rather take the impact?  Slamming on yoru brakes at the last second and honking at us as if you had the intention to let us in all along does not change the fact that you almost killed us.

So thank you for letting us know that some people would rather speed down a city street to cut us off when we're way ahead of you than just let traffic move.  Thank you for almost killing us this morning, and thank you for acting like we did something wrong.  I hope you hit a tree.

And on a serious note, thank GOD Avraham is a good driver.

7 weeks

until the weddings.  met with a dressmaker on weds, bought fabric on friday, am dropping off fabric on monday and getting measured, and hope to have the dress in 3-4 weeks.

which is about when charlotte is getting married and i have nothing to wear.

yay.

anyone want to finance a shopping spree for me?  : )

the laptop is dead. long live the laptop

my wonderful little buddy has finally kicked the bucket.  in that way where the AC adapter socket has melted and will not charge anymore - 3rd time it's happened.  we're going to see if there's anything that can be done for it, but in the meantime -

we'd like to welcome to the family our new wonderful and mighty desktop.  hello, love!  we couldn't afford you, but we couldn't afford not to get you. shmushy cute - cheeky monkey.

3 more weeks til drisha's over, and about 8 weeks til ESC is over.  yay for goodness and school eventually being over.  well, the semester at least.  OVERWORKED!  but loving it.

i mut finish my paper for American Cinema  - writing about Jmmy Stewart.  love the man, love his movies.

Yom ha'Atzmaut

For anyone looking for programming tomorrow night, my grandmother - who was born in Me'a She'arim and joined Lechi at the age of 14 - will be speaking at OZ (the following was subtly lifted off of their website):

 

118-24 West 95th Street
Tuesday, May 02, 2006 (8:30 PM)
Yom Ha'atzmaut Chagiga at OZ
Join other Young Professional as we Celebrate Israel's 58th Anniversary with Israeli Cuisine:
Shwarma, Drinks, Falafel, Live music, as well as a Special Guest Speaker.
$20 at the door

the life

we went to a lovely brit this morning.  wow, that sounds weird.  i mean, the cutting and crying baby - not so lovely.  but the families and speeches were.

anyhow, i decided i was very hungry and ate a lot of food.  and then came home and was so overwhelmed by all of my food consumption that i had to go to sleep.

so now i'm up, finishing work for my american cinema class that's due today, and pondering going back to bed.

not good.

must
not
sleep

in other news

In my inbox today:

Schedule for Modern Orthodoxy Conference In Scranton PA - June 13-15, 2006

June 13th 2006 Tuesday 10 AM Opening – Greetings
Alan Brill – Greetings and Vision of conference

10:30- 12:00
Religion of the post-War era
David Watt – Orthodox Jews in Protestant America: Modernity and Supersessionism
Kurt Anders Richardson - 'Beyond Modernism: Realist Orientations in the Neo-Orthodox Theologies of 20th Century Protestantism and Judaism'

Early lunch and check in

2:00- 2:55
Alan Brill – Varieties of Modern Orthodoxy
Marc Shapiro- response to Brill

3:00 – 4:30 Modern Orthodoxy and Philosophy
Avinoam Rosenak – Halahah and Meta-Halakhah in the writing of R. Eliezer Berkovits.
Hanoch ben Pazi-  The Internalization of Psychoanalytic Theory in Orthodox Thought

Coffee 4:30-4:45

Daniel Statman- "The Status of Morality in Modern Orthodox Thought."
Zach Braiterman-Berkovits' critique of Philosophy and Liberal Judaism

6:30-7:30 Supper

7:45 – 9:00 Popular Modern Orthodoxy and the study of history
Kimmy Caplan- "From a Bird's-eye View": Importing Rabbi Dr. Auerbach's (Oyerbakh)Orthodox Historiography to America.
Steven Fine – Modern Orthodoxy and the study of Classical Jewish History

------------------------------------------------------

June 14th Wednesday
9:30- 11:15
Jonathan Sarna- The break between Conservative and Orthodox in America
Two respondents: - Marc Shapiro and Benny Brown

11:30 – 2:00 pm
Religious Zionism in America
Yehudah Mirsky- The world of S. K. Mirsky, Religious Zionist
Moshe Sokolow- The educational Philosophy of Hirschenson and religious Zionism
Shai Held – The Modernity of Shimon Federbush
Larry Kaplan- What is Judaism? The introductions of Eliezer Berkovits, Isadore Epstein, and Aron Barth


Lunch

3:45 pm – 6:00 pm
Modern Orthodoxy in Israel

Benjamin Brown- "Three 20th Century Jewish Political Theologies: Torah State, Halakhic Democracy and Da'at Torah".
Arye Edrei- The Halakhic thought of R. Shlomo Goren
Ariel Pickard "Rabbi Ovadya Yosef, from Jerusalem to Cairo and back - Sociology and Halakhic policy."

6:15- 8pm Supper

---------------------------------------

June 15th Thursday

9:15- 10:45
Miri Freud-Kandel- Anglo-Jewish Orthodoxy in Transition: 1960-1970
Alan Yuter- The halakhic approach of Rabbi Emmanuel Rackman
Respondent – David Singer

11:00- 1:00
David Landes- The Birth of the Modern Orthodox Clinic: Modernity and Medicine
Adam Ferziger- "Modern Orthodoxy and the Soviet Jewry Movement"
Josh Teplitsky –Modern Orthodoxy and the Vietnam War

1:00-2:00
Panel and Roundtable
wrap up and prospectus for the future work.

2:15 pm lunch

----------------------------------------------

and then on the JCC website:

A Conference on the Emergence of Modern Orthodoxy, 1935–1975 Some of the most important scholars of modern Jewish history will be gathering for a three day conference (June 13–15) at the University of Scranton to explore the major influences on the emergence of Modern Orthodoxy. Edah and the JCC are pleased to present a half day sampler of the Scranton Conference. A plenary session on “The Struggle over a Jewish State in the Land of Israel” will feature Dr. Adam Ferziger, Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Brown and Rabbi Dr. Yehudah Mirsky; and one on “The Attitude Towards Rabbinic Authority” will include Dr. Chaim Waxman, Dr. Marc Shapiro and Dr. Avinoam Rozenack. Leading breakout sessions will be Dr. Alan Brill, Rabbi Dr. Adam Ferziger, and Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Brown. For further information, check out www.edah.org.
Sun, Jun 18 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM	$20.00 - Member $25.00 - Non-Member JLECON00S6
Location: The JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. (Program room assignments will be available at the JCC Customer Service Desk, in the lobby of the Samuel Priest Rose Building.)
For more information, or to register, please call 646-505-5708.

This closed down the Bronx

so tired!

I am so tired -

tired from not sleeping
tired of not sleeping
tired of waiting
tired of being bored
tired being kicked
tired of not being kicked

let's pretend that Pesach will be vacation time

iraq

i have a friend shipping off in a week -

things to think about

chag hasmicha

MAZAL TOV AVRAHAM!!!

a question for miss manners

Here's a theoretical situation to ponder:

Say there's a married couple.  The wife (who will now be called Wilma) has a very close cousin who gets engaged.  Cousin will hereby be called Claudia.  Claudia's engagement ocurred in early 2005.  A date was set for the summer of 2006, and the whole extended family rejoiced (some may even say there were pregnancies planned around the date).

Fast forward about a year.  The husband, Harold, has a sister (Sarina) who gets engaged.  She schedules her engagement party for the day that Wilma's brother, Benedict, takes his girlfriend, Gail, to meet the family.  Wilma is saddened, but goes to the engagement party and misses out on the family affair.

Sarina and her fiance (Fontleroy) begin to talk about wedding dates.  Wilma and Harold let them know that there is one Sunday for which they are absolutely *not* available.  Harold's mother thanks them for letting her know.

A week later, Harold calls his mother, and learns that Sarina and Fontleroy have actually set their wedding day for the very day that they were already booked.  Harold expresses his dismay to his mother, and Wilma may have gotten somewhat upset.

So, the question is, what does Wilma do?  Does she go to her cousin's wedding?  Does she go to Sarina's wedding?

Should this be in any way influenced by how the families individually react the situation?

Wilma's options seem to be the following:
 - go to Sarina's wedding and miss her cousin's wedding (which has been scheduled for a year)
 - go to Claudia's wedding and risk the wrath of Harold's family (which has already been expressed in very definite form by some members of the family)
 - try to attend both on the same day - this will entail being at Sarina's wedding for photos and the ceremony, then being driven for 3 hours to Claudia's wedding

Does any of this change if Wilma will be 8 months pregnant at the time and travel will be difficult for her?

...

i've been too tired to think about blogging  some of the stuff i would have blogged about would have gotten me in trouble with family, some of it is too much to think about in my private space.

i'm exhausted.

home sick today, scared to eat anything...

may just crawl back to bed and stay there til i can function.

TOO MUCH!

i have too much to do and you all know now, so think about it and let me kno if you want to write a paper for me!  ha!  i've lost my mind!  do you care about kennedy and kruschev?  no?  how about comparing their modes of leadership?

ARGH!

and lucky me got to eat tuna that went bad last night.  ew ew ew ew

am completely cracked out.  someone, reintegrate me into society one day

IM

is it weird that i have a section in my list titled 'ppl i hate'?

note - if you say it is, i will put you on it
note note - i'm hungry
note note note - these note things don't quite work like a ps
note note note note - i'm a bit bored

good to know

apparently the last four days of dizziness were not just me being crazy, but real and true vertigo.  and my pulse is crazy fast, who knew?

here's my version of what the doctor said and hence what vertigo is:
inside your ear there's this area, which he represented by making a rounded triangle kinda shape over his fist.  in it is thick liquid, i think, and maybe some thinner liquid?  anyhow, somewhere in there is some calcium, too.  the liquid is what tells your brain where you are in space.  if the calcium things are in the wrong place, the liquid bit can't tell where you are, and you feel motion sickness effects any time you move your head.

now i'm going to look up vertigo online and tell you what really is going on, and we can see how well i pay attention.
"Vertigo is a symptom, not a disease. The term vertigo refers to the sensation of spinning or whirling that occurs as a result of a disturbance in balance (equilibrium). It also may be used to describe feelings of dizziness, lightheadedness, faintness, and unsteadiness. The sensation of movement is called subjective vertigo and the perception of movement in surrounding objects is called objective vertigo.

Vertigo usually occurs as a result of a disorder in the vestibular system (i.e., structures of the inner ear, the vestibular nerve, brainstem, and cerebellum). The vestibular system is responsible for integrating sensory stimuli and movement and for keeping objects in visual focus as the body moves.

When the head moves, signals are transmitted to the labyrinth, which is an apparatus in the inner ear that is made up of three semicircular canals surrounded by fluid. The labyrinth then transmits movement information to the vestibular nerve and the vestibular nerve carries the information to the brainstem and cerebellum (areas of the brain that control coordination, balance, movement, blood pressure, and consciousness)."

ok, not bad for not so fully listening...  my ears are still bugging me, but at least now i can FUNCTION!

well

goodbye to the olympics!  thanks for the entertainment.

hello to regular programming returning!

and a big old happy to having yummy cider and my best friend with me right now  : )

unaware much?

while i've never been a big fan of julianne moore (something about her looks annoying), she has actually taken a step into the realm of sheer stupidity.

she's in a new movie called freedomland in which she plays a single mom.  to make the point of how pathetically alone the character is, she said in an interview that you could see this woman shopping at wal mart ...

darling ms. moore.  where do you think most of your fans shop when they need something cheap?  are you kidding?  wal mart shopping is now a sign of being poor, alone, and disenfranchised?

hang your head in shame.

XX

having not had TV this past week i uncharacteritically have not seen a lot of the Olympics.  So here I am at 7 am, watching hockey - germany and switzerland, two countries i care little about.  but it's sports, on ice, in italy, so it's on.  hopefully curling in 20 minutes will be more entertaining.  : )

i want more luge!

from my momsie

It's been awhile since I've had a really juicy credit card scam to 
warn you about, so I suppose it was inevitable that one would show up. 
This particular scenario is so sophisticated that I can see how a 
person might think it just has to be legitimate. But don't believe it. 
Here's how it goes.

The person calling says, "This is (name), and I'm calling from the 
Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge number is 12460. Your 
card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling 
to verify. This would be on your VISA card, which was issued by (name 
of bank). Did you purchase an anti-telemarketing device for $497.99 
from a marketing company based in Arizona?"

When you say "No," the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing 
a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and 
the charges range from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase 
pattern that flags most cards."

It goes on. "Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to 
(gives you your address), is that correct?" You say "Yes." The caller 
continues, "I will be starting a fraud investigation. If you have any 
questions, you should call the 800 number listed on the back of your 
card and ask for security. You will need to refer to this control 
number." The caller then gives you a six-digit number. "Do you need me 
to read it again?"

Here's the important part of how the scam works. The caller says, "I 
need to verify you are in possession of your card." He'll ask you to 
turn your card over and look for some numbers. There are seven numbers; 
the first four are part of your card number, the next three are the 
security numbers that verify you are in possession of the card. These 
are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove 
you have the card.

The caller will ask you to read the three numbers to him. After you 
tell the caller the three numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I just 
needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that 
you still have your card." "Do you have any other questions?" After you 
say "No," the caller then thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to 
call back if you do," and hangs up.

You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the 
card number. What the scammers want is the three-digit security code on 
the back of the card. Don't give it to them.

Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or MasterCard directly for 
verification of their conversation. VISA will never ask you for 
anything on the card, as they already know the information, since they 
issued the card.

If you give the scammers your three-digit PIN, you think you're 
receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement, you'll 
see charges for purchases you didn't make, and by then it's almost too 
late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report." (End of 
report)

thank you cable guy!

quick update before i light -

my uncle's surgery was successful; he's in ICU being watched.

 

thanks to everyone who got in touch - i'll update again when there's more news.

shabbat shalom

Still no internet at home, but

ever wonder why. at 5 am, when all you want to do is go back to sleep, instead you have crappy jingles playing in your head?  such as: The PEN-syl-VA-nia LOT-ter-RY!!!!!! (you'd know it if you heard it)

Sorry, but this isn't a fun post

Hey.  As some of you may have heard today, my uncle had a heart attack yesterday and is in pretty serious condition.

 

He's having an operation tomorrow where they're going to attempt to put a new stint in his heart - it's pretty scary and really serious, especially as he has a history of heart problems.

 

If you're so inclined, it would be very sweet if you could dedicate your learning to him or pray for him - whatever floats your boat - while he's going through it.  His name is Amichai David ben Liba Ahuva.

 

Thanks.

 

I'll be blogging again when we get teh internets hooked up to our new (!) apt

I am, I am

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

What Donut Are You?

so

ever have to deal with immensely self-centered people?  how do you handle it?  especially when you love them (or at least one of them)?

when a good friend asks too much of you and never steps back to appreciate it or say thank you, when that person continues to be wrapped up in their own lives - do you at a certain point just step back and remove yourself from the damage network?  if not, how do you stand there without it killing the friendship?

stuff and things to think about

Amalah linked to this great article about food for kids, whic is apparently being rethought.  which is cool, cause i always kinda hoped that at about 6 months, i could cuisinart whatever we were eating and feed it to Baby.  that way Baby gets to eat the kind of food it will have later, and Baby gets to really be part of our meals.

Anyhow, i recommend reading it: Experts seek to debunk baby food myths

!!!

bad pictures just came my way from israel.  really scary, bloody, and violent.

as always, what reaction is this supposed to illicit?  sadness?  anger?  a call to action?  all i see are comments left in the email forwards that only serve to further drive israeli society apart.

i'm not saying that the pictures shouldn't be sent, just that i don't know that it's generating anything positive.

good day!!!!!!!!!!!

i got an A in my ed class

we may be moving

and i saw alan alda!  what a sweet looking guy!

we were across the street from each other and i was looking at him and thinking "why do i have father figure associations with this man's face?"  then i placed him, and i squinted at him, and he squinted at me, and when we passed each other, i grinned, and he looked down at the ground as if to ensure that i wouldn't out him

CUTE

conclusion of the morning

is that avraham is an idiot and i am a stupid person, but we will probably have brilliant children

provided someone else raises them

i'm sorry to complain again

but the guy upstairs is jumping and shaking our apartment, and every so often he yells FUCK! so loud you'd think he was in the room next to us, and avraham is on the phone with the building manager talking about moving

i hate the people upstairs.  i hate that they suck, that they're crazy, and that we're now scared of them and unwilling to go tell them to act normal.  of course, they're unable to act normal, as evidenced by their completely insane behavior and reactions.

poor building manager having to deal with the crazy people...

i hope the really insane one hurts himself jumping and has to move out.  oh, god, i'm a bad person.

hello all

have been tired.  to tired to actually accomplish anything.  school, school, travel, tryin to sleep... all leaves me with very little energy for actually blogging about what's going on, which is a bit sad.

 

cause there's so much going on, but you're not gonna find out about it here.

 

so

yeah.

i could swear

that i posted something recently, but i don't see it now.

LOVE project runway - sorry, emmet, knew you were going - least creative of the bunch, and between you and santino, no choice.  but i loved you!!  i wish zulema would GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:-/

my computer semi-died last night - the only lasting problem i've found so far is that all of my history is gone from firefix (haven't bothered to check explorer)

Rest In Peace

Dr. King - you are still missed

fingers crossed. or magen-davided if you prefer

hoping against hope that the steelers make it to the superbowl.  the last quarter today was outrageous (i woke up from a nap just in time to watch the excitement).  my father dared to root for the colts - some meshugas about going to school in baltimore when they played there, and he just fell in love, yadda yadda...  how about some pennsylvania pride?!

plan is to have another superbowl game party - last year we watched the eagles piss away a potential win, and the year before, well, avraham and i got engaged rather unexpectedly after the booby flash.  although i maintain that the two incidents are unrelated.

also, if booby flash were to inspire us, it definitelty wouldn't be old and saggy booby flash.  where's jessica alba when you need her?  oh, right, acting in craptastic movies like the fantastic four - which actually looks bad enough that i won't sit through it, not even for the beautiful miss alba.

side note - no matter how mad you are, don't take your helmet off on the field.  idiot

life in Drive

i've taught avraham to drive, and he's gotten really good.  so good, in fact, that he does almost all of the driving everywhere we go.  it was so stressful at first, but now i feel confident enough to fall asleep.  although i can't do that yet, cause he only has a permit.

it's cool how we navigated something as potentially sensitive as that without any real blow-ups.  it gives me some hope for future difficulties.

and now - off to make yummy canned vegetarian vegetable soup, childhood favorite!

please

please explain to me how it is that i drink enough water to force me to wake upmultiple times in the night to pee, yet i still wake up in the morning dehydrated?!?

also, i love mad about you

beyond belief.