Another Day, Another Diseased Stick

First a shout-out and a clarification:
Thanks to Shana "Silverberg" Mauer for emailing - I love hearing news from other people's lives. Shana and I were in Bais Yaakov together, and she too, can recite nivim at the drop of a hat. ("Tovim hashnayim...") I would also like to clarify our feelings about pharmacists. Shana is a pharmacist, and felt that the profession was getting a bad rap in the blog. Let me explain: We LOVE the intense lady pharmacists. We are amused, and perhaps a little frightened, but they are GOOD at what they do. It's almost magical, seeing them run to the pull-out drawers, finding exactly what you need, making sure you understand every direction VERY CLEARLY, and then sending you off, all in about 35.5 seconds. So we have nothing but respect for pharmacists and pharmacies. In fact, our two favorite pharmacies in the world are MacabiPharm and Neighborcare. Hope this clears things up, especially for the Silverbergs.

This morning we all awoke, after what basically constituted a nap, and not a good one at that. Yaakov decided, at some point during the night, that the bed was waaayy too comfy, he's much more in tune with the monastic life, so he got out of bed and fell to sleep on the floor. However, he then woke up crying at 3:00. Gee, maybe the floor isn't the best place for a good night's sleep. Maybe Mommy and Daddy knew what they were doing when they put you to sleep in the BED? Anyway, Ariella was in our bed all night (and when I say "our" I am just being generous. I mean "my") whacking me in the eye every so often. This morning I dragged her out of bed, got Yaakov dressed, and we took him to gan.

We will pause here for a digression about the weather. So, you see, the season of winter is upon us. You are already aware of the sudden and torrential downpours. A blessing, to be sure. The weather itself is finally cooling down as well. I hear that in the States it is actually chilly on some days. Here, "cooling down" means it's in the seventies. However, that's good enough for people here! As we are driving down the street to gan, everyone is all decked out in their fall finest. Pants, leggings, sweatshirts, even a puffy winter coat! Brrr! When I took Yaakov to gan yesterday, the ganenet told me I should bring long pants and shirt to keep in gan, now that it's winter. Today, I made sure to dress him in pants, because, you know, it may get into the low seventies. (Actually, it is interesting how the weather changes from minute to minute. Today it went from warm, to actually chilly, and then warm again an hour later. Layers, people, layers.)

So Ariella and I did our shopping this morning. As usual, we spent lots of money and there's STILL nothing to eat. After coming home, we did puzzles. So. Many. Puzzles. If I have to look at a "Hello Kitty" puzzle again, I am going to take her (Hello Kitty), mouthless face and all, and shake her hard until she crumbles into 100 pieces (best for ages 5 and up.) At 1:00, my cell phone rang. It was Yaakov's gan - he had fever. AHHHHH!!!!! So we headed over, picked him up, and brought him home to join in our "fun." Let me just say, I have never so badly wanted to be in ulpan. I made an appointment for Yaakov using the "automated system" which actually worked out quite well, in that it worked. But the appointment was not until 7:00 PM. We went to the doctor at 7, got another diseased stick to take to the lab tomorrow, and were sent home with a prescription. Unforunately, Ariella's results were not back yet. The doctor thought both of them probably had something viral and not strep. I concurred, because my children are extremely fond of these viruses which are not able to be treated with drugs. We came home, I convinced Ariella to go to sleep in her bed, and I was able to convince Yaakov that the sofa, at least, is a preferable alternative to the floor.

Now I await Donny's return. He had a late meeting and didn't take a train until 8:00. The upside: If he stays in the office past 6:00, he gets dinner. The downside: The dinner never came. Poor Donny only had breakfast, snack, lunch, and snack today! It must be rough. I, meanwhile, dined on a package of rice cakes, yogurt, and a couple of spoonfuls of Israeli salad. Fine dining indeed!

Some funny Hebrew things:
1. The company that takes care of all of the food needs at Microsoft is called "Corporate Feeding." You can almost see the businessmen lined up at the trough, waiting their turn, then leaning over to take a slurp.
2. When someone is "still at lunch" they are "adayin he ba'ochel" - they are still in food. I guess that's what happens when you lean over too far at the trough.