Go Dadz!!! And Likud! And Kadima!

*** I would like to dedicate this post to Dadz, Commentor Extraordinaire. And to Momz, for "behind every great commentor is a woman who helped him figure out how to do it in the first place." ***

When I saw Dadz's (question: do you think it should be Dadz' or Dadz's?) first comment - "HELLO" - it was reminiscent of early-man-using-fire-to-make-shadow-puppets. Fun, but not really accomplishing much. HOWEVER, he then posted again! A second time! With an actual comment! Related to the blog! A full sentence! In all CAPS, but I expect nothing less. I am so proud right now I could weep. How far we have come from the days of Aaron-please-set-my-voicemail-message-for-me. "Hi, you've reached Dadz's, or Bernie's, cell phone. Please leave a message, and he will get back to you as soon as possible." No joke. (No, I do not think that Dadz is actually able to record his own voicemail message yet, but you get the idea.)

Today was my first day post-ulpan and post-illness (bli ayin hara, poo poo poo, throw some salt, pepper, paprika, whatever, the whole darn spice cabinet over your shoulder). I exercised in the morning, for the first time in months. The dust metropolis that has flourished on the elliptical was a trifle testy that I was displacing it, but the inhabitants got over it and went to congregate with their friends behind the dresser. I ran some errands, did laundry and other stuff and before I knew it, it was time to go pick up Ariella. We spent some quality time coloring together. Suddenly I got really tired. You know when that mid-afternoon exhaustion that hits? All of a sudden I couldn't keep my eyes opened. I told Ariella I was going to put some laundry away, then went into my room and collapsed on the bed for a few minutes. I was hoping Ariella would be too engrossed in her coloring to realized I had disappeared for longer than it takes to put away some underwear. (It's not totally unrealistic - if she is either coloring or eating ice cream, she is so entrenched in the zone it can be very hard to get her out.) Unfortunately, she came a-searching. "Why are you sleeping, Mommy?" she demanded. I futiley pretended to be searching for something under my pillow. "I'm not sleeping! Oh, no, not me! I was just looking for something, right here, under the pillow...." Well, she didn't buy it and requested my immediate presence in the living room. Thus chastened, I quickly followed her out.

I must say Israeli elections are a little anti-climactic. In America, the day after the election the newspapers all declare, in supersize fonts reserved especially for this occasion, the NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Well, except for the debacle of 2000 where no one won and that crazy lady with the thick eyebrows picked our next president. In general, though it is very exciting and enthralling. This morning, however, I woke up, and hurriedly checked the websites to see which party had won. And the results are.... No one won! Everyone won! Both Livni and Netanyahu (that's Netan-yahoooo! for all the former BY'ers out there) claimed that, "The people have spoken. And they chose ME!" "No, ME!" "I said, ME!" "Why you little...." "Oh yeah, well YOU are a little...." and so on and so forth. In other words, we don't have a winner, both parties are scrambling (newspapers love to use that word) to make a coalition. First one who gets a working coalition gets to be prime minister! On your mark, get set....Go! It's kind of like gym class, where the captains got to pick their teammates, and the cool kids always get picked first. So Yisrael Beiteinu, they're like the coolest of the cool. Everyone wants them on their team. Poor scrawny Green Party, sitting in the corner, picking his nose, last to be chosen. And then there's Shas, who's kind of popular, so you want him on your team, but he's just going to take your lunch money in the end. And so on. Democracy, as Donny says, is the clear winner.

I actually think there is some conspiracy behind this. See, if the majority party (or parties, in this case) can't build a lasting government, they'll call for new elections....and everyone gets another day off!