86 Minutes

So, I've been sitting on the new Leopard software for my MacBook Pro since Pesach. When we were in the States, I picked up the software and had every intention of upgrading my system, but just forgot about it. Well, in yesterday's cleaning rampage, I found the box still shrink wrapped and decided it was time to bite the bullet. Last night, I spent 2 hours upgrading my system. At first, everything seemed fantastic. I had some cool new features like Photo Booth and Expose, but something funky was going on with my Mac mail. See, I use Mac Mail to filter all of my e-mail accounts. Yet, for some reason, I wasn't able to delete anything out of my inbox. And, my inboxes tend to fill up with crap and spam pretty quickly.

At first, I got in touch with an IT friend over on Facebook but he wasn't able to pinpoint my problem. Then, I went to the Apple website and looked around for some troubleshooting information about mail. There appears to be a lot of Mail issue with Leopard, but nothing I tried seemed to work. Finally, with Pidgeon's coaxing, I picked up the call and spoke to a Mac technician.

86 minutes people!

It took 86 minutes for him to basically tell me that I needed to input all of my outbox and inbox information from scratch. Fortunately, my mailboxes are all set up and working. Phew. My ears were sweating and my ass was stuck to the kitchen table chair by the time I was finished. Here's hoping there isn't anything else wrong with Leopard! I am really liking the new look and feel of Safari though, it's great.

So, the BIG news of the day is that Bar Ilan posted my grade from Professor Harvey's Philosophy class. I'm THRILLED to say that I got an 83 in the course! Woohoo! That means that I not only passed the final exam, but I will P"G never have to take another test again in my entire life. I feel such a tremendous weight lifted off of my shoulders, and all I want to do is toss my Philosophy papers and notes. I'll probably hang on to them for a little bit longer, in case I meet someone taking Professor Harvey's class who could use my notes. 

Today was really busy. In addition to my Mac issues, I had a huge fight with the folks over at FTD.com. My Grandmother, B"H, turned 85 on Friday! Sadly, all of her Grandchildren live out of States or Country. So, I spoke with my siblings, and we decided to send her a beautiful FTD bouquet for Shabbos and her birthday. Now, I placed the online order on Wednesday, received immediate confirmation that it would be delivered on Friday, and then didn't do anything like make a follow up call because I thought it was taken care of.

Ha! That will teach me NOT to follow up with an online order!

When I spoke to my Grandmother on Sunday, she told me nothing was delivered and I felt terrible. The woman LOVES flowers and I knew she would be so happy to receive the gift from us, so I felt terrible that they never delivered anything. I called FTD yesterday but the florist was closed and they couldn't tell me what happened. Then, I called again this morning and they told me the florist tried to deliver all weekend but no one was home.

Ummm, my Grandmother is practically homebound and she has an aid. How the hell is that even true?

So, I composed myself and didn't rip them a new one. Instead, I calmly explained the situation and told them I expected the bouquet to be delivered ASAP. By the time we got home tonight after a celebratory dinner at the new Italian restaurant on Emek, I was happy to hear from my Grandmother that she got the flowers. And they were gorgeous. And she was happy.

But I will never order from FTD again.

Well, I'm off to finish watching tonight's episode of Kochav Nolad! What can I say, I'm hooked to this Israeli rip off of American Idol, it's my guilty pleasure!

Layla Tov from Baka!

Lazy Sundays

Happy Sunday! It's 10:30 a.m. and I'm still in bed. I will never get used to this whole working on Sunday thing that Israel has got going. It annoys me. I like my lazy Sundays, when I can sleep in and hang out in bed reading the paper or surfing the net. I enjoy my Sunday brunch, which usually includes some form of french toast or eggs with grilled cheese and a croissant if I'm really not in the mood to stick to a diet. I like my Sunday afternoon football, and since we're 7 hours ahead that means Sunday evening football (and I don't have a choice of game, sadly). And I like walking around the house in sweats all day, thinking about doing the little tasks like laundry or paying the bills, and then curling up on the couch with some hot chocolate and the remote. 

I feel sad for the Israeli people who don't know from Sunday, I truly do. I already warned pidgeon that there will be a Sunday in this house, even though he is a born and bred Sabra and is pretty used to not having the extra day off. And so, when he popped out of bed this morning at 7:30 a.m. and raced out of the house to get his busy day going, I just gave him a big hug and a sleepy kiss and tried to go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, it seems like my body had other plans for me, and so I couldn't get back to sleep. No matter though, there is plenty for me to do from here! Although, my growling stomach is definitely going to send me to the kitchen in no time. I've got a hankering for some Challah roll french toast and a diet hot cocoa. I really do need to get my day going though, I have to call the electrician and have him come to the apartment to do some much needed work. I just hate having to give up my Sundays! Maybe I can procrastinate a bit and push the electrician off until tomorrow!

Oh goodie! Pidgeon just called to say that he was on his way home and I asked him to pick us up some Chai's. I absolutely LOVE Coffee Shop's Chai; they make it with 1% milk and it's DELICIOUS!

We had a lovely Shabbat. I spent almost all Friday on my feet supervising workers, our cleaning lady and cooking for Friday night dinner. I was in a such a foul mood that I ended up baking some butterscotch bars, hoping it would help, but it did little to pull me out of my funk. When pidgeon came home, I was pretty much exhausted and we had words, but then we made up and that was a lot of fun! Friday night, pidgeon went to shul and I waited for him under three layers or covers. We are trying to save money, which means we are trying not to heat the house unless it's absolutely necessary, and so it's freezing all the time! I spend most of my days walking around in the thickest clothing I own, and I snuggle under blankets and quilts. I hope this will help us lower us electric bill next month!

I decided to try to make a new dish for us for Friday night and so I cooked up a bag of Full. It's basically a kind of bean that is prevalent in Sephardic cooking. Pidgeon is a big fan of Full, so I tried it for him. Turns out, though, I'm allergic to Full as I had a nasty reaction afterwards. I broke out in hives and turned a bit red. I guess my Ashkenazi stomach just can't take the unique cuisine. Fortunately, pidgeon loved it and was very, very happy with dinner. I managed to pass out around 9:00 p.m., and so of course I was wide awake at 4:30 a.m. I tried to get pidgeon to keep me company, but no dice, he wasn't having any of it. He rolled over a couple of times and told me to go back to sleep, but for the most part, I spent 2 hours trying to count sheep.

We missed shul on Shabbos morning, primarily because we didn't hear the alarm and since I was up in the wee hours of the day. We quickly scrambled when we did get up to get to our host's house for lunch. We were only a few minutes late, and I had the chocolate mousse and butterscotch bars in tow. Lunch was a lot of fun! We love our host and their friends were really nice people. Pidgeon and I floated home happy and, since Shabbos was soon out, just spent the afternoon relaxing. 

I am proud to say that we didn't do anything exciting last night, and I do not feel like a loser! I ironed the wash from Friday, which came out really nice if I do say so myself. Pidgeon helped me put Shabbos away and then I spent some time working online while pidgeon did some home work. We gathered around the TV for some late night CSI: Las Vegas and then were asleep by 1:00 a.m.

So, that's the roundup. Here's what I really want to write about today.

What is with strangers trying to befriend me on Facebook? Especially, strangers who appear to be single men. I don't get it! I didn't realize, until this morning, that my settings on Facebook was such that anyone in my network could look at my profile. That meant that anyone who was in the "Israel" network was reading almost everything that's written on my page, and looking through my photos, etc. I was really freaked out this morning by a friend request from some gentleman who I've never even met. So, I decided to e-mail and ask him WTF? His response was that "my profile was cool" and "I belong to really interesting groups on Facebook" and "it's for networking purposes". Well, since this isn't the first person to do the whole friend request thing who I've never met, I decided it was time to do something about. I went to my privacy settings and completely changed them so that only my friends can view my profile. And then, I went to pidgeon's facebook page and did the same thing for him. The whole world shouldn't have access to a page that I treat like my online diary, and includes personal photos and posts and information about me. For anyone new to Facebook, make sure you go to your privacy settings and select the ones you're comfortable with. At the very least, for your own knowledge base, make sure that you're fully aware of what information is available and out there for both your friends - and compelete strangers - to see.

Well, I'm going to snuggle back into my pillows and wait for my fantastic and amazing pidgeon, and my yummy Chai. Till tomorrow!