A Slow Day (thank the good Lord) so I will use this time to talk about dust

Today, as the title indicates, was a slow day. Thank God! I love slow days! All my days should be slow and boring! In the morning, I got to "see" Australian Leezy, thanks to the miracle of Skype, and even got to see my blurry niece and nephew. I don't believe they are blurry in real life, although I can't be totally sure since I've never actually seen them. Skype is truly a wonderful thing. We got to see Aunt Deborah this week as well, and I'm working on Dadz to get Skype at his office. First he has to find the "on" button on his computer, but I am confident that once he does, it'll be a hop, skip and a jump....and a few more hops....another jump...just one more skip....and we'll be ready to find the "in-ter-net." He can even decide whether to use Firefox or Explorer; what's the difference, it's all Google anyway to Dadz. (This refers to an actual quotation from Dadz: "What do you mean, Google is creating their own browser? Don't they have that now? When I open the internet, Google is right there!")

So dust. There is a lot of it here. I refer here to the famous chazal: There were 10 kabins of dust given to the world. 9/10 of those kabins were given to Israel. And 9/10 of THOSE kabins were given to Gila & Donny's apartment. Dirt and dust enters my apartment by the truckload, or should I say Croc-load. Then, it mixes with drips of water - you know, when you do the dishes, the water from your hands drips on the floor, or when kids have wet feet after the bath? That water - and creates what scientists call "mud." The floors fluctuate between "dirty" and "filthy" despite my efforts to sweep and mop ("sponga" in Hebrew). And the brooms are just not aggressive enough against the grains of dirt and dust. I'm starting to think they're actually in cahoots with the dust motes. I mean, you sweep, and the brooms sort of lovingly caress each bit of dust and hold onto them for dear life, so they all stick to the broom and then end up...back on the floor. And Arica "Factor" Saltzman tells me, "You think it's bad now? Just wait till it starts raining! Then it's REALLY bad!" Well, I sure am looking forward to that! It sounds like some kind of fun! However, I do get a great deal of satisfaction from scrubbing the floors before Shabbat, safe in the knowledge that for 3 whole minutes - right after I've mopped, while the kids' feet are safely tucked away in the bath, and Donny's in the corner "fixing" the Vonage ("Can you [crackle crackle crackle] beeeeeeeeeeep....") - my floors will be sparkling clean. Ahhh....breathe in that chemical-based floor cleaner and exhale slowly. It's a beautiful sight.

Shabbat and other random thoughts

We had a lovely Shabbat in Kiryat Shmuel, which I found out is NOT the same as Kiryat Motzkin. I guess using them interchangeably is sort of like being one of those New Yorkers who think Baltimore and Silver Spring is the same place. Anyway, our hosts, the Hershtals, have a very cute house in Kiryat Shmuel. Donny and I slept in the guest room downstairs, and they planned on the kids sleeping on a futon mattress in their kids' room (they have a 5 year old boy, a 3 year old boy, and an 8-month old girl, who did not get to be part of the fun.) I wasn't sure if the whole concept was going to work, but by the time 8:00 rolled around, the four big kids were all BFFs and happily tramped upstairs for their first ever sleepover. Ariella and Yaakov were pretty cute together on the mattress; of course, Yaakov was the last one asleep and fell asleep on, you guessed it, the floor, wedged between the mattress and a bookcase. (We moved him, not to worry.)
One of the big plusses to Kiryat Shmuel is the playground that we visited on Shabbat morning. On the ground, to cushion the inevitable falls, was that fancy rubberized stuff - NO SAND! Score one for Kiryat Shmuel! Shabbat afternoon, the Hershtals invited many of other Anglos over so we could meet more people. (KS is the kind of place where when we asked how many English-speakers there were, the Hershtals responded by listing every one of their names - i.e. not a lot.) The people were incredibly nice and friendly. The downside to KS is that it's very far away - it's on the train line to Donny's office, but it was a solid 2 hours from Modi'in, because it's north of Haifa. The housing market is also kind of small, especially for the kind of American-sized mansion we are looking for. So there is a lot of potential, but the verdict is still out.

On Sunday, we received a call from our favorite Australian sister, Leezy! Even though with the time difference I think it is, in fact, already 2009 there, she was able to find a few moments to call us. I even got to hear Dov "Dahv" Bensky in the background. For those of you keeping track, it has been 4.5 years since we last saw Leezy. There also currently exist a nephew and niece which we have never laid eyes on, except in Facebook pictures. This is sad. We miss you Leezy!!!!!

Some funny Ariella stories. Yesterday, for the first time, she wrote the entire aleph-bet! I was so proud of her, because in September, she recognized only a few of the letters, and couldn't write them at all. However, her "hitkadmut" in Hebrew comes along with a little backsliding in English - after writing the aleph-bet, she decided to write her ABCs. She has known how to write the alphabet for at least a year and a half, and even started to read a little over the summer. However, when she wrote the alphabet it was...backward. Not only were the letters going from right to left, but some of them were actually mirror images. Oy! I need to start a little English chug with her before things get too bad. Speaking of chugim, she started attending an Ivrit chug last Wednesday. The chug is especially for new olim in gan chova. She LOVED it, because now she has ulpan like Mommy, and it is even in my ulpan classroom.
Another funny story: On our Pesach tape (it is ALWAYS Chodesh Nissan in our car), they include the song, "Go Down Moses" with an introduction about how it is also a song about slavery. Ariella started asking me about the slaves, and I explained to her how the black people were slaves, and they sang this song because they wanted to be freed just like the Jews had been freed. Silence. Then, "So first the Jews were slaves to Pharaoh in Mitzrayim and then the black people?" No, the black people were slaves in America, many many many years later. Silence. Then, "So how did Pharaoh get to America?" Oy vey. Historical context is lost on the very young. (And on many third graders, I might add. "So, is King John still alive today?" one child asks. "Yeah, he's about 80," responds another.)

Many of you in America have probably been inundated with Christmas advertising since about mid-August. Well, it seems we have a similar problem here. The week Sukkot ended, I was in Supersol. Guess what they had out? Sufganiot! I thought it was just a one-time thing, but they've had them out every time that I've been there. I guess people all over the world just want to look forward to the next party.

In another Supersol episode: Last week, I wanted to buy ground meat. There was a sign at the meat counter which said if you want ground meat, "ana panu laktzav." I puzzled over that. Ok, ana = please. Panu = turn. Katzav was stumping me. I remembered the word "katzav" from the back of our Kokoman cereal. We looked it up one Shabbos - it meant "dance" in a hip-hoppy, rhythmy sort of way. Clearly, there was only one thing to do: Turn around in the aisles, dancing rhythmically, preferably flapping my arms and singing (I made up that last part, but I figured it couldn't hurt) and then they will give you ground meat. Luckily, I tested my luck and just asked the butcher for ground meat instead. It worked, and he didn't even give me a dirty look when I didn't break into a dance. When I went home later, I re-looked up "katzav." It turns out that "ketzev" means rhythm. "Katzav" means...butcher. Logical, but much less fun.

Today in ulpan, I was able to show off a little of my "Israel at 60" knowledge. Thank you, SAR! We were reading a text ("text" in Hebrew) about Theodore Herzl ("Hair-tzel" in Hebrew). I would just like to publicly thank whoever was involved in the "Personalities" group of the "Israel at 60" project at SAR (Full disclosure: I was one of them) because I sure knew my stuff! That "Personalities" group did some comprehensive research, and here I am referring to the four facts that I put on the back of Jeopardy game cards. In addition, in the book today, there was a picture of Herzl, and I was correctly able to label the picture as "Herzl" and not "Chana Senesh" "Nechama Leibovich" or "Rav Kook."

Two Posts in One Day!

I thought I was done blogging for the day, because all that was left was picking up Ariella, going to Supersol, getting Yaakov, and then the regular evening routine of dinner, bath, and bedtime/wander around the apartment and fall asleep on the floor. Regular stuff. I figured I would post next after our Shabbat experience. HOWEVER, I had a very harrowing plant-buying experience that I would like to share.


First, in response to Leezy's question: Yes, they did do projects out of recyclable materials at SAR. I think what I was trying to say was that here, it's out of necessity. At SAR, they had the means to buy the newest, state-of-the-art art equipment, in addition to using boxes and paper towel rolls, etc. Here, they really have to make do with what they can get for free or donated. (There was a looooong list sent home at the beginning of school asking for all kinds of supplies and services to be donated to the gan.)

**** Public Service Announcement ****

Jonathan, if you are still reading, Leezy would like to know how to use citric acid to clean her urn. She asked this question in the "Comments" section but since you don't even check your own voicemail, you probably aren't checking the comments on this blog. So if you are reading this, please get in touch with your sister and help her with her urn.

**** End of Announcement ****

Also, 30 million poofahs are hereby awarded to Saba, for noting the use of citric acid in stuffed cabbage. This is an authentic recipe, in that his mother made actual stuffed cabbage and used actual citric acid in it. Correct me if I'm wrong, Momz and Jonathan, but I don't believe you have ever actually made "lollipops" or "paneer." So Saba gets an extra 5 poofahs.

One more item to take care of before we can move on:

Leezy asked a number of questions in the Comments section. Normally, I would answer these personal questions in an email to Leezy. However, since she posted the question in a public forum, I will answer them here, plus you all know so much about my personal life anyway, boundary lines are disappearing like crazy. So here we go:

1. We took care of your citric acid question above.

2. We do have skype! And a webcam! Look us up - I am gila.rose. Original, no?

3. No, I can't tell you any more about Shabbat! I've told you all I know! We are staying at a very nice (at least I hope) family and once we've gone, I will surely have more information to share. For now, it's just Kiryat Motzkin. Shabbat. Roses.

4. Donny and ulpan: Donny is doing ulpan "on the job" which means he's not really doing ulpan since everyone at Microsoft speaks excellent English, and furthermore, they all want to practice their English with him. However, there are many situations during which he is called on to speak Hebrew; we called these moments "ulpan by accident." For example, the people at work who deal with the car leasing program and the cellphones spoke only Hebrew, plus a few people at work have taken it upon themselves to be Donny's ulpan teachers. So his ulpan by accident seems to be working so far. The aliyah people have discussed opening up a night ulpan, but come on, who is going to come home after a long day of work and voluntarily spend more hours sitting in a classroom practicing their hifil and hufal?

Now to the planting.

On Sunday Ariella came home from gan with a very wordy notice and a business card from a nursery (plants, not children), offering 10% off for Gan Shoham families. I said to myself, "Gee, I should really read this note and see what it's all about," at which point I put it on the table, promptly forgot about it, and ate a Milky. Also on Sunday, there was a note taped to the gan door also having to do with planting a garden and a meeting that was happening on Friday.

On Monday or Tuesday, I said to myself, I really should read this note now. Maybe there's something I have to do. But the gan method for letting parents know about important upcoming events is to plaster a sticky note to the children's shirt, with a message scrawled on it. For example, before Yom Kippur, there was a sticky note that said make sure to bring in coins the next day for kapparot. So I figured if there was something I needed to do, buy, bring, or boil (you never know) I would be apprised of it via the very effective Sticky Note Method. I skimmed the sheet and saw it was something about planting, a nursery, the environment. It seemed very flowery (pun intended) and not too important. I surmised: They're starting a planting project in school, there's an optional meeting about it on Friday, and they're giving us a gift of 10% off at a nursery if we want to do planting with the children at home. B'seder, I thought, then promptly forgot about it and ate a Milky.

Now we come to Thursday. Ariella comes out of gan with a scrap of paper with something scribbled on it. Uh-oh, I start to think, a small scrap of paper - that means something important. This whole planting thing is probably not what I thought it was. Meanwhile, Morah Maya (who I swear has the fastest Hebrew this side of Kvish Shesh. It's not only my pathetic Hebrew - when I talk to Yaakov's ganenet, she has much clearer Hebrew and I never have trouble understanding her. With Maya I feel like I'm running a race and always losing) runs after me. "Did you buy her plants?" Huh? "Didn't you read the note we sent home this week?" she says, aghast. And now I had to admit that I only read part of it. "Ahhh," she said, her eyes alight with understanding, "you didn't understand it." I couldn't explain that I figured it was one of those random notices, like kids get by the pound at SAR. ("The PTC is sponsoring a speaker!" "Buy flowers to support Israel!" "Be part of the chocolate sale!" You know, the notices that the very good and involved parents read and act upon, but I just throw out?) So Maya starts to explain inveryrapidHebrew that the children and parents are going to be part of a planting project ("pro-yekt") tomorrow and chaval if Ariella can't be part of it. I needed to go to this random nursery in Shilat (a shopping center a few minutes away) and buy the necessary items, and then a parent (I hereby nominate Donny!) needs to come in on Friday and do the planting with the child.

Yonah Wolf, father of Aiden, Ariella's best buddy in school, was also there. I looked at him and said, "So, wanna ride to Shilat?" We then got the kids in the car, ran back home to get the business card with the 10% off on it (a gift - yeah, right), and then headed out to Shilat. Shilat is a very strangely set up shopping center. There is a main area, and then there are tiny little dirt roads shooting off in every direction, with little random shops down each one. Imagine the parking lot of 7 Mile on a Thursday night, with twice as many cars and half the space, and dirt instead of pavement. So of course our nursery is not in the main, easy-to-access area, but down a dirt road, filled with tiny, narrow, two-way streets complete with trucks bearing down on you from the opposite direction and honking at you to get out of the way, but where can you go because there are cars driving behind you and cars parked on both sides of the road and you have to drive backwards up a windy hill all the while using one hand to talk to Lisa so she can tell you where the heck this nursery is, and eventually you find it.

We went in, found the things we needed to buy (4 potted plants, 3 bulbs, 2 of which need to be soaked overnight before planting. Being a parent in Israel is definitely a full-time job) and left without incident. Of course when I got home and looked more closely at the note, I saw that I was supposed to take Ariella on a tour of the nursery and:

1. Ask Ariella questions about the kinds of plants, how they are grown, note the similarities and differences, and then write a 10-page term paper complete with a bibliography and fancy cover.

2. Take a picture of Ariella at the nursery.

3. I did neither #1 nor #2.

First, I would like to suggest to Nefesh B' Nefesh that instead of finding me an adoptive family, find me a fellow Gan Shoham parent who speaks some English and can help me navigate the ins and outs of this school. I think that would be far more helpful than finding people to invite us for lunch on Shabbat. For example, an adoptive gan mother would have said on Sunday, "By the way, make sure to read that note carefully because there is a planting project on Friday - if you have any questions, call me." They could also help parents acclimate to the culture and expectations of the child's particular gan. Like, "Don't send noodles for aruchat eser." So now Nefesh B'Nefesh has my two-cents, or approximately 9 agurot.

There are a couple things about this whole incident that are jarring to someone who is used to American Jewish day schools. There is a level of involvement that I am not used to. In SAR, maybe the parents would have been asked for a few dollars to help offset the cost of a project, but probably nothing would have been expected of parents except to show up and help plant. Obviously, this is because tuition at SAR is many jillions of dollars more than at Gan Shoham; I understand why the gans need to do what they do, it's just that I'm not used to it. Also, there is this strange phenomenom in Israel of Fridays, where parents are home and kids are in school. So any parent activity is naturally going to be on a Friday, which to parents working full workweeks is akin to asking them to come in to school on a Sunday. Of course we want to participate in the projects and parties, but I can foresee that it can get annoying when you keep spending your one errand-and-taking-care-of-stuff day at your child's school. When Donny mentioned to someone at work how he likes the whole kids in school on Friday thing, the response was, "Just wait until the Friday activities start." Ahhh, now we are enlightened Israeli parents.

Presents, recycling, weather, and exciting upcoming events

Donny has safely returned from Turkey. We are glad to have him home. He had an excellent three days of living in a hotel, going to meetings and eating tuna from a can. Modern-day Turkey is not known as being a bastion of kosher food or other Jewishness. In fact, their slogan is, "There's nothing we love more than American Jews! Especially American Jews living in Israel!" He came back with presents for everyone: A motorcycle for Yaakov (more Ben Gurion-ish than Turkish) and a beautiful scarf for Ariella, which she brought to gan today and I am sure will quickly become snagged or torn or damaged in some way, because beautiful scarves are not meant to be dragged down the slide or buried in sand ("Maybe we can grow more scarves!"), and I am even more sure when such damage occurs there will be great heartache in the House of Rose. Next time, I told Donny, just get her a chocolate bar. As for me, I received a beautiful new router, so that Donny can continue to "fix" our Vonage. ("Can you [crackle crackle] [static static] now?")

Recycling: As many of you know, Israel is woefully behind on some sort of national recycling program. They do have large wire contraptions outside of apartment buildings and supermarkets where you can place empty water bottles. I'm not sure what is actually done with the water bottles. I think someone way high up in the government is saving them up to build a HUGE representation of the Taj Mahal. Or maybe Dimri Towers. In any case, that's about the only recycling that happens here...or so I thought. The other form of recycling takes place at gans all around the country, or at least in Ariella's gan here in Modi'in. (Remember, I frequently make sweeping generalizations based on my own personal experiences.) Ariella comes home with projects and pictures made out of recyclable materials. I don't think they are doing this in order to teach a unit on the environment, I think the schools are just strapped for cash and use every resource available. For example, a lovely rendering of all the numbers 0 - 100 (which Ariella actually did one day this week in gan - her teachers were very impressed, and Ariella asked me, "What does 'kol hakavod' mean?") will be done on the back of a memo. Other more involved projects are done using cereal boxes. We have started bringing in our empty cereal boxes, since we go through approximately 3 hijillion a week, to gan for use in their projects. I heartily applaud this movement. Why throw out the cereal box, when you can bring it to gan, use it for a project, ooh and aaah over said project, and then, three weeks later, throw it out? Might as well get as much use out of old notices and boxes as you can.

Weather: Last week (in case you forgot, it was the week of sick children and failed driving tests), it turned cold and rainy. I figured, ok, it's fall/winter now, and we switched all the children's clothes, a very exciting afternoon activity. This week, however, the weather returned to the low eighties. Can you believe that? So while you all are freezing and wearing sweaters and winter coats and tights (tights - ugh, although now that it's November it's allowed), we, occasionally, might wear a long-sleeve shirts instead of short-sleeved ones. And maybe we'll put a sweatshirt in our backpack, just in case. The truth is, it's been very windy, and in the morning and evening it gets chilly, but our whole perspective on "fall" and "winter" has changed. Ariella keeps asking me when the leaves are going to turn different colors and when it's going to finally be winter. The Israeli mentality has already turned to winter, though, and even during these warm days, all the kids are going to gan in long sleeves, pants, and sweatshirts.

Today I ditched ulpan. Bad, I know, but we had a substitute the past 2 days, and she just wasn't up to snuff. Plus, no one in ulpan wanted to do anything fun, like switch names or drop all our books at exactly 9:20. So what's the point of having a sub? I instead elected to stay home, clean, bathrooms, do laundry, and blog. I think it's been time well spent.

Upcoming Events:
So some of you have been asking about our future plans. And I am not referring to whether or not we will be wearing a sweatshirt tomorrow. I am talking about where we are going to live. Since Donny is enjoying his job in Haifa, we are looking to make a move up north so we can be closer to the office. He does like the daily train ride (read: nap), but it is quite long and makes it harder for him to get stuff done. Please don't ask me what kind of "stuff" - it's been over eight years and I still haven't really figured it out, other than "go to meetings all day." Anyway, being near Haifa would hopefully be a good move, because then Donny can, in theory, come home for dinner on occasion and see his children more than once a week. So we are in the process of researching northern communities. This Shabbat, we travel to Kiryat Motzkin aka Kiryat Shmuel (not sure why it has two names - figuring that out is one of our goals this Shabbat.) Kiryat Motzkin aka Kiryat Shmuel is very close to Haifa, so much so that it in fact is IN Haifa. It is a dati community within the city of Haifa. We will report back on our findings at the beginning of next week.

For discussion:
If the apartment becomes dirty approximately five minutes after I've finished cleaning it, do you think it will become clean five minutes after I make it dirty?

Citric Acid - A Hot Topic

First, a few updates:

Husband: Still in Turkey

Son: Asleep in his bed, I believe, although I don't want to check and find out I'm wrong

Driving Test: Still failed

Poofahs:
I would like to award 30 million poofahs to the following people, who found recipes using citric acid: Jonathan "500 Words or Less" Rose, and Momz "What I REALLY Do All Day is Comment on the Blog and Make Funny Faces Into My Computer Camera At My Grandchildren" Leibtag. (Yes, she has a very hard time fitting that onto nametags.) Anyway, you are all invited to come over next week when we dehydrate fruit and make lollipops with Uncle Jonathan! The following week, don't miss our Paneer Party! (BYOSS - bring your own stone slab.) To the other comments re citric acid: I would like to award Yael, Leezy, and Cheryl with some consolation poofahs - 25,000 for commenting, although "Cleaning Urns and Washing Machines" does NOT constitute a recipe.

I would like to note here that I am enjoying the more interactive nature of the blog, with all of the fun and helpful comments from loyal readers such as yourself. In addition to being fun to read, they also provide fodder for my next entry, since I can make fun of - I mean integrate - the comments into the post. So keep commenting, and don't forget to keep track of your poofahs! I am glad to also be doing my part for tikkun olam, as I am bringing together people who haven't spoken in years. Witness the heartfelt conversation between Leezy "Alisa" Bensky and Jonathan Rose. (See: Comments) Reconnecting a long-lost brother with his sister! It's like one of those after-school specials! And I would like to mention here my good friends, former classmates, and loyal readers Shana and Sbad, who I haven't been in touch with since the late '90s, (the years of nivim, coat sales, and jumping out of the window during Spanish class.) It's nice to know you're still out there!

Anyway, in other news....
We had a very exciting dinner with the Balsams last night, minus the fathers, because, as Ariella said, "Nafi's at work and Daddy's at Turkey." The children entertained themselves by dressing up and Yaakov gallantly played Prince Charming to Michali's Cinderella when he helped her put on her high-heeled shoe after it fell off. Lisa and I also learned an important parenting lesson, which will surely be included in my book: If you want your children to eat dinner, don't cook it yourself. Dinner, even if it's pease porridge in the pot nine days old, is always better when served by someone else.

Tipat chalav actually called me back today, and scheduled Yaakov's second Hep A shot for December 9th. I was able to conduct the entire conversation in Hebrew (ok, basically, she just wanted our Teudat Zehut numbers, but still...). The woman was very friendly and helpful.

We met friendly people in Dimri! Sort of! So there is this Communal Aliyah Program in Modi'in, which gives new olim money and and other helpful things, though not as helpful as money. One of the helpful things they are supposed to do is connect you with a "big brother" kind of family that will take care of you. Well, we never got our "family" in the beginning. It turns out, you just need to wait two months! Today, I got a call from a very nice lady who lives in the next building who was calling to check in and see if we needed anything. (She actually thought we had just made aliyah this week, because she only got our name and number on Sunday. It's the thought that counts, people!) Anyway, she seemed nice and she has a son in the adjacent gan next to Ariella's. So maybe we'll have a friend!

The success of the Poofah Program has given me pause (what the HECK does that mean?) and made me think that I should perhaps write a book on teaching techniques as well. I am accepting comments for the title of my book. Some ideas so far:
1. "Get A Clue" (Which works well because it can refer to students, parents, or administrators)
2. "The Holes Go On the LEFT!"
3. "Why Does He Keep Pouring Soup? And Other Musings"
4. " I JUST Answered That"
5. [Your idea here.]

Driving test, baking soda, husband, mosquito bites, and poofah update

Driving Test: Still failed

Baking soda: Still missing at Shufersal; luckily Lisa came to save the day and brought me lots and lots of baking soda. It would be enough to fill a sandbox, if it wasn't already filled with vanilla sugar ("with cinnamon!") Sbad, I did look in the spice aisle, and I saw a promising container with white stuff in it, but it turned out to be "citric acid." I am hereby awarding 30 million poofahs to anyone who can come up with an actual recipe that calls for "citric acid."

Husband: In Turkey. I neglected to mention this previously. Donny left for Turkey on Sunday, for a business trip. Definitely more exotic than Seattle, where his previous business trips took him. I mean, in Turkey, you can get all kinds of cool stuff! Like......um ....hmmmm, wait, I'm sure I'll think of something... Delight? Rugs? Coffee? I'm personally hoping for a nice burka. Anyway, Donny is having a lovely time in Turkey, although there isn't much to eat other than the sad little tuna cans he brought, but we know he will make up for the lack of eating when he returns to the Land of Milk and Honey. (Here I am referring to the Microsoft office in Haifa.) He returns to us on Wednesday.

Mosquito bites: There are mosquito colonies (do mosquitos live in colonies? Flocks? Villages? Townships?) that are dedicated to torturing Ariella and me. For some reason, the men (and here I am including Yaakov as well, despite his penchant for clomping around in his sister's dress-up heels) do not seem to be as attractive to the pesky little buggers. (I had a burning desire to use stronger language than "pesky" but this is a family-friendly blog and so I will keep the strong language to a minimum, but because I am on a computer, I can say this: &%$^#$%%##%% mosquitos!) The mosquito bites actually wake me up in the middle of the night because they are so horribly itchy. Some days, every brain cell is consumed with the bites. Gotta scratch. Stop scratching them! Gotta scratch. Stop scratching! And so on. Today I noticed that I had three on my face. I put some anti-itch stuff on my face, and when I went to use the bathroom during the break in ulpan, I looked in the mirror and noticed the cream had dried and was flaking all over my face. I sure was a pretty picture! Why am I telling you this? Because Momz bugs me until I blog and I didn't really have anything to say tonight, and as I was typing I was scratching my face off (Stop scratching!) so now you know all about it.

Poofahs: Hereby awarded to "Sbad," Lisa, Momz, Yael, and Sharon "Anonymous" Sturm. To answer Laurie's question, no, there is no reward for poofahs. The reward is in simply collecting the poofahs and watching your collection grow.

Update on driving test: Still failed

In case you were wondering, no, I did not magically pass my driving test over the weekend. the failure from Thursday still remains. This is very sad, not to mention nerve-wracking and panic-inducing. The reason for such intense feelings is that if one fails the Israeli driving test a second time, one must take 28, that's TWENTY-EIGHT, two tens plus eight ones, driving lessons (at 120 NIS a pop), a WRITTEN exam, in HEBREW, plus ANOTHER driving exam. I am using a lot of CAPITALS to emphasize the IMPORTANCE of NOT FAILING again. Hence the panic. In the meantime, I need to wait two weeks, for that is the law of the land. "Those who fail must wait in penance for two weeks, contemplating their failurehood, until allowed to retake the test." (For those of you who want all the harrowing and gory details of my test, you may email me privately and I may or may not decide to share them with you. Let's just say it was not my finest hour. Or, rather, my finest three minutes, because that's all of the test I completed.)

Anyway, the good news is that both kiddies went to gan today! One whole day of gan! The one good thing about Ariella being home basically all week is that she was VERY ready to go back to gan and told me what a good day she had. On Friday, she still wasn't feeling 100% but she was desperate to go to gan because she didn't want to miss the Shabbos party, and she had already missed the Rosh Chodesh party the day before. She was not happy when we told her she should stay home and get better. So today she was relieved to not have to stay home with "mean and boring Mommy." (It's my official title; I'm thinking of having it put on a t-shirt.)

Tomorrow we return to Supersol, aka Shufersal. We continue the hunt for baking soda. This hunt began a few weeks ago, when I realized, that, in fact, I needed baking soda. There was none to be found in Supersol or any of the other stores I checked. This strikes me as odd. Baking soda is not the kind of thing that can be "out of season," can it? Are there baking soda bushes out there in the Galil that are sensitive to climate change? I am down to my last few teaspoons of the precious substance. In the baking aisle, there is plenty of baking powder, and enough "vanilla sugar" to fill a sandbox. I'm not sure what the Israeli obsession with vanilla sugar is. There are always large quantities for sale, and they come in varieties, such as "vanilla sugar with cinnamon." Also in abundance are cornstarch, ground coconut, and poppy seeds. I would like to know how Israelis can use these exotic ingredients in their cooking if they CAN'T BUY BAKING SODA.

I will keep you updated in our baking soda search, which may very well end in Lisa's pantry.

Poofah update:
I would like to hereby award 23,500 poofahs to: Momz, Donny, Laurie, and Shira, who left comments on the previous post. Keep up the good work! If anyone else is feeling jealous and would like to earn themselves some good, old-fashioned poofahs, feel free to comment! I am now offering 20,839 poofahs for the next 5 commentors.

Now, I must go on my nightly Yaakov search, to see which floor of the apartment he has chosen to fall asleep on, then pick him up and transfer him to his bed. Every night is a surprise!