Who is our biggest fan?

Well, it seems that the race for #1 aliyahbyaccident fan is on! Will it be AHAVA, who regularly comments, consistently flatters, and went so far as to post a link to the blog on her Facebook status? (For those of you living under a rock for the past three years, with earmuffs tight around your ears, blankets pulled over your head, and eyes squeezed shut, let me explain: A link, a shout-out, a kappyim, a what have you, on Facebook is the modern equivalent of a town crier trudging from town to town - obviously; otherwise he'd just be a crier - and promoting your wares to everyone he sees. Just that you can do it in your pjs.)

Or, will it be SHARON, who penned the comment to end all comments on yesterday's post - coming up with her top ten favorite blog posts from aliyahbyaccident? She wowed even the most fervent of readers with her memory and her devotion. (I, for one, am still blushing.)

Or perhaps RISA, no slouch in the commenting department herself, who continued to persevere to become a Loyal Reader even when Blogger was out to get her?

Or will it be MOMZ, because, as she so subtly pointed out in yesterday's comment section, she posted TWO TIMES in one day? Also, she's my mother and she'll kill me if I don't nominate her, even though her incessant nagging to write more blog entries often drives me to drink, until I remind her that even God Himself rested on the seventh, at which point she says, "Yeah, but Saturday night He went straight back to work."

Who will it be? Do you think YOU should be nominated for the aliyahbyaccident Hall of Fame? If so, leave a comment for us below. Winners will receive a pita, with "aliyahbyaccident" etched in chummus!

Well, folks, summer is nearly upon us. And as I've mentioned before, it is toasty in this country come summer time. Summer is also very expensive. So, let's summarize:
Summer in Israel is:
a. Hot
b. Expensive
c. A fiery furnace
d. Unbearable
e. How much did you say that pool membership is?
f. You want what for one night in your run-down vacation home featuring an outhouse and beds that make sleeping on the floor seem desirable, even if you're not Yaakov?
g. Really, really hot
h. a&b
i. c&f
j. all of the above

After paying nothing for Ariella's education this year - well, aside from the air conditioning fee and some other random fees that I don't quite know what they are because they just take the money out willy-nilly from my bank account - we are hit with summer and all its expenses:
Kaytanah (aka summer camp) for 3 weeks. Another kaytanah (still summer camp) for two weeks. Pool membership for the summer. Vacation, which you take at the end of August because you've run out of kaytanot (sum- oh, you know already), but of course the prices for vacation homes skyrocket during the end of August because everyone is in the same proverbial boat (on the Kinneret of course), rowing like hell to get the good "tzimmer" before they're all taken.
(Language digression: "Tzimmer" has nothing to do with sweet potatoes. It is the catch-all word for any sort of lodging you might pay for. Vacation home, bed & breakfast, hostel, patch of floor in your friend's apartment.... But tread carefully, because, in a way, tzimmers are like sweet potatoes. Some are big, some are small; some are pretty on the outside, but mushy and rotten inside; some are lumpy, some are smooth; some have those weird hair things coming out of them....)

Anyway, I will keep you posted as we continue to deposit our (well, Donny's) paycheck directly into Summer's account....