Sunday, January 11, 2009

Shabbat and Parsha

Well, folks, it was a close race, but there is a clear winner in the polls - the next poll will be about what we should discuss on this blog. It was close for a while, with "Blog" running neck and neck with "Encoded message to Jonathan" but then "Blog" pulled ahead with 50% of the vote. Thanks to all those who voted; your "I Heart Wasting Time on Aliyahbyaccident" t-shirt will be coming in the mail any day now.

We had a lovely Shabbat with Yael, Yossie, and Hanani who came all the way from Jerusalem and didn't get lost once. They brought with them some excellent Jerusalem bakery desserts, so we gave them pillows as well as blankets to sleep on. Ha ha! I'm just kidding! Of course we don't demand ransom from our guests in the form of baked goods in order for them to receive pillows, or blankets, or lunch. At least, I think I'm kidding. Hmmmm. It's not a bad idea, though....
So Shabbat was very pleasant and there was even a big kiddush at shul, yay for yerushalmi kugel, and then for lunch we had the New New People in Dimri. You will recall that a few weeks ago New People moved in, and we decided that we could go against the Dimri grain and actually invite them for a meal on Shabbat. It worked out so well, we decided to go for it again when someone else moved in! We have appointed ourselves the Official Dimri Welcoming Committee. We are the president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and Foreign Minister (because sometimes the new people come from Canada.) Anyway, our Shabbat guests are the New New People, being that they are newer than the Old New People. So they came for lunch with their kids and we had a nice time, and of course we played Jewish geography and it turns out that the wife and I were at Stern at the same time, and the husband is a fellow nerd like Donny but worked for IBM so he and Donny got to dueling with their motherboards. But overall everyone had fun although if more new people move in I think we'll have to give them code names, because it's going to get really complicated once we have New New New People.

What else, what else....Last night Donny went into J-lem for an engagement party for his cousin. (His cousin lives in America, but the fiance's family is from Israel, so they came here to get engaged.) Apparently, in Jerusalem, it is winter. One can actually see one's breath. This explains why the Blochs came for Shabbat armed with their winter coats, which would only have been necessary if they hadn't brought baked goods and we confiscated their blankets.

Tonight Ariella did her parsha sheet with Zaidy. It's not actually a parsha sheet; I mean, the questions are from a parsha, but not necessarily the one we're currently reading in shul. I am under the impression that my daughter is learning Chumash in gan, but I can't be totally sure. In any case, she and Zaidy have a standing "parsha"-date every Sunday. Usually Zaidy is at work on Sunday, because it is ALWAYS "almost the fifteenth" so they just do it over the phone. Today, however, due to Leezy's visit to America (you'll have to read her blog, rakshniya.blogspot.com, to get the details, if, ahem, she ever UPDATES it), Zaidy made the unprecedented decision to stay home on a Sunday morning. So Ariella was able to Skype with Zaidy and see as well as hear him. I believe this was more fun for Zaidy than for Ariella, because he spent a good third of their time together making funny faces and sticking out his tongue into the camera. My five year old was rolling her eyes and wondering when they could get back to work, but the important thing is Zaidy was having fun. It must have been like when Early Man discovered fire and just played with this new toy all day long, until Early Woman whacked him upside the head and told him to do something useful with this new technology instead of just making shadow puppets.

Anyway, I am really scraping the bottom of the blog barrel here, seeing as I have nothing really new to report so I'm just writing random things, but at least, Cheryl, Sharon, and Shoshana, it has given you something to do besides work.

3 comments:

Yael said...

Not just pillows and blankets, but you have amazing sheets too!!

We had a great time! Thank you again!

I think Hanani is still recovering from all the excitement!

Lisa said...

Ther is no need to mail me my "I Heart Wasting Time on Aliyahbyaccident" t shirt. I can just pick it up next time I see you :)-I'm sure you must have box of them in your machsan, right?

Anonymous said...

Okay, so based on the outcome of your most recent poll, I'll be the first to actually suggest a topic about which you can write. (Not that you need any suggestions, since it seems that Ariella and Yaakov inevitably provide you with ongoing topics about which to blog, but you must adhere to the poll results.) It appears that if you are short of topics, you have begun to integrate into Israeli society and the things that shocked or annoyed you when you first arrived no longer aggravate you (or perhaps it's passive resistance). So, your next topic/title could be: I we now more American or Israeli?