Monday, March 17, 2008

Shattered Glass


I should be writing a press release for work right now, but I'm too tired from the marathon of Wii bowling that took place in our living room yesterday. I figured I would just update the blog since its been a while. Last week was pretty uneventful. I spent Wednesday baking these beautiful chocolate cakes for Mishloach Manot. I am using the smallest loaf pans I can find and, since we're trying to save on some money, I thought I could eek out 8 loafs per chocolate cake batter. I now have 3 cakes that are too stingy to give to anyone; Pidgeon isn't complaining. He ate an entire tin after they sufficiently cooled down. 

Thursday is a blur of activities which included an early morning eye exam out in Modiin and then afternoon cleaning before we hit the gym. I passed out early Thursday night and we got a welcomed early morning phone call from Pidgeon's brother who is in this week from London. Since we were eating at the shul dinner on Friday night, I had a few quick items to cook for Shabbos lunch. 



Friday night, we joined Pidgeon's family at their shul's dinner in Jerusalem. I am not saying the name of the shul because anyone who is reading this, who was there, will know immediately who I am. We were the youngest table in the place and, while I thought the dinner was very night as a gathering, we did feel a bit out of place. The interesting part of the night was when the waiters were putting out the main meal. The glass plate came with a slab of mystery meat (it was nasty) and a roasted pargit (the chicken thigh off the bone), a spoonful of tzimmis, a spoonful of broccoli and a wedge of potato kugel. My plate was pretty stingy and I was absolutely starving as I always forget to eat on Fridays when I'm cooking. I passed on the gfilta fish first course and they made me up a nice salad plate with no dressing, and I gave Pidgeon all of the noodles from my soup so all I had left was a bit of broth, so you can imagine how unhappy I was with no meat on my plate. Well, after I tasted a bite of the mystery beef, I stopped complaining. Meanwhile, we were on the opposite side of the table from Pidgeon's brother, so we decided to delay digging into our plates of food and went around the table to catch up with him. My sister-in-law was helping my 2 1/2 year old niece with her plate, when suddenly the entire plate just shattered. It literally splintered into a million pieces - all still on the table - and right underneath their hands. My niece started to reach for a piece of food when we grabbed her hands and my sister-in-law jumped out. She started to cry (my sister-in-law, not my niece) and we calmed her down and the waitstaff came and quickly cleaned everything up and gave them a new plate. I thought it was ironic, in a room where the average age was 75, the 2 1/2 year old's plate would burst. B"H, no one was hurt. I ate the icing off of Pidgeon's dessert chocolate cake and we walked home a few hours later. The dinner was nice but exhausting, and I had an early morning wake up call the next day so I was happy to get some much needed sleep.

Shabbos was uneventful. We went to shul so I could hear Zachor, and then we came home, ate lunch and slept the rest of Shabbos away. We had a huge list of Purim errands to run though, so we spent the night at the extremely crowded Malcha Mall. Next time there's a Beitar game though, I'm not going anywhere near that place. The mall was a complete zoo! I am very anti-crowds, so I was not happy to be in such a claustrophobic place. Fortunately, we were able to do our errands quickly. We also decided to go see the 10:00 p.m. showing of The Kite Runner, which wasn't as disturbing as the book. I managed to pick up a short red head wig, thinking I would wear it with my Purim costume, and then vetoing it once I tried it on with the outfit. We also picked up some cute presents for Pesach for the kids, and I still need to get something else for my nephew. I hope we don't forget to bring him back something! 

The movie let out late and the entire mall was closed. We walked practically in the dark towards our car and I was not pleased with the eeriness of it all. I was very happy once we got home. Yesterday, we slept in and then spent the entire day with Pidgeon's 9 year old niece. Since she's also in from London, we wanted to make sure she had a great time, and we designed this whole day in her honor. First, we introduced her to our new Wii ( a great babysitter where the children get exercise, so it's better than TV!) and after a few quick games, we took her to the candy store in Talpiot. We handed her two bags and told her she could fill them up for Mishloach Manot (one for her, and one for her family). Well, now I understand the kid in a candy store saying, as she filled her bag to the brim with goodies! She also wanted an ice cream, so we gave her one, and I wasn't surprised when she complained about a stomach ache a few hours later. After dropping 75 shekel on their Mishloach Manot alone, we stopped into this great cookware store in Talpiot, drove back home, an went out for lunch on Emek. We love Marvad so we went there, and my niece picked at her plate while Pidgeon and I devoured our food. We stopped off to get the new Cinderella 2 DVD, a scoop of parve ice cream, and then came back. At that point, I was ready for a nap but his niece was raring to go. She watched the DVD and then insisted on playing against me Wii bowling. I am aching so much today, it's comical. I finally managed to beg her to watching some TV and stop with the Wii bowling, which she did until her Father came to pick her up. It's exhausting watching a 9 year old all day! I wonder how people do it with no activity planned!

Today, because of the Wii bowling extravaganza, I tried to sleep on. Somehow, Pidgeon's alarms kept ringing at 2 minute intervals - for an entire hour - that I begrudgingly got out of bed. We got dressed and davened and then went to the gym. I'm glad we went as my workout was difficult but much needed. We got back a few minutes ago and, after some brunch and a hot shower, I'm trying desperately to keep my eyes open. I can't believe it's already 3:15 p.m., where has to day gone! Fortunately, tomorrow is school and that means a very early morning wake up call for me. Hopefully, I'll get out of bed in time. There's 4 weeks of classes to go until Pesach and I can't wait!

New York City - here we come!











No comments: