IT'S FINALLY PURIM!!!!

The moment you've all been waiting for - Purim is here! I have to say, though, it was almost a bit of a letdown getting into costumes and going to hear megillah tonight, because this was now Outing Number Three in the costumes. Yaakov didn't even bother bringing the helmet, and Ariella's costume is literally hanging by a thread. But, we had a very exciting night, megillah-wise. Donny was layning at the Dimri minyan, and I figured maybe the kids were old enough to make it through layning. The "shul" is in a room in the lobby of one of the buildings, so the kids could theoretically hang out in the lobby while I, maybe, could hear megillah. It's been a while since I've heard Donny in production. Usually I just make him read for me in the comfort of our home. It is not infrequent for Donny to layn megillah four times on a given Purim. So we headed over, Fairy, Pajama Soldier Boy, and their parents. We brought a tik-full of snacks, books, cars, and cucumbers. And sippy cups. And a Magna-Doodle. I was PREPARED, man. Maariv was 6:10 and megillah was 6:20. We got there around 6:12. Maariv hadn't started yet. The kids settled themselves in the lobby. I was very nervous to be spending so much of my Good Behavior Capital before megillah even started. By Shema, they were halfway through their candy bags. I was willing the baal tefillah to HURRY IT UP! Finally, we started. Quick digression: A cute little Israeli boy was standing next to me in the back. (Quick digression to my digression: The "shul" such as it was was PACKED! There was no room, it was soooo loud and people were very careful not to say "hi" or "Purim sameach" to anyone who wasn't already their very good friend.) Anyway, Donny starts layning and this little boy says to his mother, very distraught, "אני לא מבין! איזה שפה הוא מדבר?" It was very amusing. Also, aren't you impressed with my Hebrew typing?????

Anyway, I was ticking off the perakim one by one. For the first half, the kids were basically out in the lobby, happily giving themselves cavities. They wandered in a few times to stand next to Donny and the look of shock on Ariella's face when they did the first Haman was priceless. She practically jumped into Donny's arms when the whistling and noise-making began. Things started to get a little hairy towards the end, but Ariella actually enjoyed looking in the tanach with me, making me regret I didn't bring one of those nice megillot with the pictures. Yaakov put his head down on my lap and sucked his thumb, and when things got REALLY hairy, I-want-to-go-home-NOW hairy, I was able to fend off total meltdown mode by picking him up and holding him. Luckily there was only one page left at that point because Pajama Soldier Boy is a hefty package. Must be the muscles he's building during basic training. But, the important thing is, we made it through! Kappayim to Ariella and Yaakov! Kappayim to all of us!

After the VERY SUCCESSFUL megillah reading, we headed over to our "regular" shul in Shimshoni for a Purim carnival. Now, let me preface this by saying the email about the carnival came out last night. It wasn't an email advertising the carnival - it was a request for help putting it together. The Shimshoni people like to be spontaneous like that. So we're talking about something on the level of the corner lemonade stand organized by the twelve-year old down the block. And, in fact, the carnival was reminiscent of the carnivals put on by the eighth grade at SAR every year, with the main difference being the eighth grade carnival is WAY more sophisticated. Here, we had booths like throw the "ring" onto the "king's finger" (aka bowling pin,) face painting, basketball hoops, find the hidden candy (which was placed into a large box, and then the contents of someone's shredder were dumped on top of it), etc. etc. Food consisted of boiled hot dogs and that gross purple drink. Each booth was advertised by means of a large piece of oaktag with the name of the booth written in marker. And then very carefully colored in. You could buy tickets which allowed you a certain number of booths. The way they marked on your ticket that you had done a certain booth was by the technologically advanced method of Poking a Toothpick Through the Ticket. But, you gotta love the Samsonites - they do everything with such joy and exuberance. So we stayed long enough for Yaakov to drink some orange "juice" and Ariella to find a gum lolly buried beneath someone's bank statements. Then we left, had an impromptu dance party at home (hey, we can be spontaneous too!) and put the kids to bed.

For those of you who are wondering why this blog lists Donny as a contributor, but he doesn't do much in the way of contributing - wonder no more! He may not contribute often to this blog, but he does have a different, no less interesting blog for which he currently writes! That's right! The title for the blog will leave you breathless, yearning to find out more: "The Forefront TMG (ISA Server) Product Team Blog!" Tell me more! Tell me more! Here are some scintillating quotes just to whet your appetite:
"When TMG detects such a suspicious behavior it communicates its findings to other security technologies using the assessment sharing channel. "
Whoo! I bet you're on the edge of your seat now! Here's another one, if you can stand it:
"During a testing session in our lab, the honey pot detector was triggered. When this happened, the Stirling console in the lab showed an assessment was generated against the machine that initiated the traffic to the honey pot."
Oh no! Not the honey pot detector! Please, Donny, don't leave us hanging! TELL US WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!

Breaking news: I just found out that there IS no next. That's it. That's the end of the story. If you have a honey pot detector, or you would like to know more about one, or you would just like to make fun of Donny, you can post a comment here.