Thursday, July 31, 2008

School's Out!


It's a miracle! I can't believe I'm actually done with school. Two years of classes, shlepping to Bar Ilan on the bus, enduring the oppressive Tel Aviv summer swealter - over. Finito!  Granted, I still have a final paper and my thesis to complete, but all coursework is done! I'm just so happy.  

Our last class with Professor Kramer was good, and afterwards I handed in my thesis extension form and Pidgeon took me to my old stomping grounds in Tel Aviv to meet up with our friend Lana. We parked in front of my old apartment on Arlozorov Street and met Lana at Cafe Cafe, the new kosher restaurant on the corner of Ben Yehuda and Arlozorov. I wish they had been around when I lived in Tel Aviv! The restaurant used to be a non-kosher La Cuchina and I always wanted a kosher coffee shop nearby the apartment. Well, Tuesday was our opportunity to enjoy it and we had a great time! It was nice catching up with Lana and, even though the food was pretty bad, it was just nice to be in my old familiar territory. Had the weather been cooler, we might have gone walking around. But, it was just so stinkin hot that we jumped into the car and drove back home.

I was so wiped when we got home, I passed out and when Pidgeon returned from working with his Uncle, decided was too tired to cook. So, we decided to order in dinner from Yoja.

Two things I learned about that experience:

1) I am LITERALLY eating through our savings. Seriously. We are dipping into Pidgeon's savings to pay for ordering out food. Plus, all this eating out is making me pack on the pounds quicker. I gained 4 pounds THIS WEEK! I'm praying it's just water retention from all the salty foods, cause my Dr. is going to have kittens when I get on the scale in September and I've surpassed the 2 pound per-month regiment he wants me to keep. Oy!

2) A pregnant woman should NEVER order in food when starving. Wow, did I order way too much for us. I ordered enough food to feed four people, and I know because that's the amount of cutlery and chopsticks they gave us. Granted, we still have leftovers in the fridge, but it would have been much more economical had I just ordered what we were going to consume.

Wednesday was a pretty relaxing day. I was hoping to sleep in but the doorbell rang and it was a registered letter from our insurance agency. I was declined - once again - from additional medical insurance coverage because of the Clexane shots. That was very disheartening because I had hoped to get some additional medical insurance leading up towards the delivery, but it just wasn't meant to be. I was pretty pissed that my insurance agent decided to send me the decision via registered mail and not let me know by just picking up the freaking phone.  Hmm, come to think about it, they never did call me back when we left a message yesterday. I think I'm going to give them a call and have some words with them ASAP.

I also had a check up appointment with the hematologist yesterday and that wasn't a fun meeting. Turns out, I've been doing the shots wrong. Basically, my stomach is too tight to adequately pinch the skin in order to place the needle. So, I've just been giving myself the shot without pinching. When I mentioned this to the Dr, he freaked out and told me that I MUST pinch a wad of fat otherwise the medication is being injected into the wrong place. Then, he told me that "since I'm such a big girl" there is plenty of fat around my midsection for me to use.  Ok, I said, thanks, I'll just figure it out. And then, to demonstrate, he came over and took hold of one of my ample love handles and squeezed, showing me that I had more than enough rolls of fat for the shot. 

Why does every Dr. I know have to tell me that "I'm a big girl"? I mean, I know I am, but c'mon. Some sensitivity people! 

Unfortunately, that wasn't the worst thing he told me. Basically, if I go into labor within 24 hours of a Clexane shot, I cannot have an epidural (should I choose). That sounds very, very painful and a little scary, and when I mentioned it to my Mother she was not pleased. So, I made an appointment with my primary care physician this morning to discuss my labor options. I might have no choice but to do an elective cesarian section, which is scary but also might be necessary given my situation.

I decided to get all this medical scariness out of my mind by cooking dinner for Pidgeon. I decided to surprised him and make bourekas! I've NEVER made potato bourekas before, but figured how hard could it be? So, I whipped up a batch of amazing mashed potatoes (from scratch, no artificial mixes for us) and defrosted the phylo dough. I didn't realized that there is an correlation between inside and shape and went with the good ol' triangles (see above picture). Sure enough, when they were done, Pidgeon told me they were beautiful but that usually triangles meant cheese filling, square was potato and half moon was hard cheese.

Sigh. I got to get with this whole bourekas etiquette thing. Anyway, he LOVED them, misshapen and all! I made so many though, enough for Shabbos first course, that I've looking for a mushroom sauce to serve with them for Friday night dinner. Hopefully, I'll be able to find one that's non-dairy.

It took me an hour to wash all the cooking and dinner dishes last night, and I was so tired that I slept like a rock last night. When the alarm went off this morning, it was so hard to get out of bed but we had the Dr. appointment so we had to get up.

Well, it looks like Pidgeon is finished watching today's episode of Stargate. I love my Sci-fi lovin' husband, even though he's a bit of a Sci-fi nerd. We're going to hit the gym so I can try to work off some of this excess poundage!

Hope everyone is staying cool on this last day of July!

Yom Tov from Baka!

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