Attention Online Shoppers

I am feeling pretty accomplished right now, and it's only 8:45 a.m.! Believe me, it's a much better feeling than I had late last night, when I was overwhelmed and had no idea how I was going to get everything done in such a short time frame. 

Since we woke up at 6:45 a.m. this morning, I've helped get Pidgeon out the door to work, put in my fruit and vegetable order for Yom Tov at Gil's on Derech Beit Lechem, confirmed my online Supermarket order and paid, put in a call to my Dr. at the Medical Center, ordered Pidgeon some stuff off of Amazon and shipped it to my Grandmother in the States, responded to a work e-mail that required a lot of detail and responded to some personal e-mails that were just languishing in my inbox. 

Now I'm ready for my nap :)

Pidgeon spent the better part of last night working on his final project, which will also be on display at the Malha Mall in Jerusalem throughout Succot. I'm very excited about that, the project is extremely impressive and Pidgeon is very talented (I am NOT biased!) We were hoping to go tonight for the opening of the project, but with company coming to us for Yom Tov lunch, a Succah I still need to decorate, a TON of cooking to do, cleaning the apartment, and another load of laundry that needs to get done on top of Dr. appointments Pidgeon and I both have today and tomorrow, it just didn't seem possible. Initially, I needed tonight to go to the Supermarket to buy all the ingredients I need to cook for Chag. We're only two couples, but since it's Yom Tov, I want to do something special.

On the menu for Tuesday lunch is as follows:

First Course

Grilled steak salad with warm shallot dressing

Main Course

Lemon and Garlic chicken (not sure how I'm making this yet but will find a recipe somewhere)

cauliflower kugel

carrot kugel muffins

sweet and sour meatballs with brown rice

sauteed string beans and onions

Dessert

Brownie tart

kiwi and grapes

Pidgeon thinks I'm going overboard, but my philosophy is that if I'm going to cook I'd like to do it once. Make plenty. Have enough leftovers to eat during the week. With the way the holiday falls this year, I feel like I'm constantly in the kitchen cooking! It's getting to be a bit much for me, so I'd rather go overboard now and have plenty to eat during Chol Hamoed.

So, Pidgeon suggested I do online shopping, but I had a very bad experience with the City Direct folks and decided not to use them anymore. I think they need some more experience - and to grow more -before I'm ready to try them again. Last time we ordered, they sent us the wrong things, forgot to send us other things, and then never returned our calls when we tried to touch base about the mix ups. At the end of the month, though, they had no problem charging my credit card for the full amount. I ended up eating the cost and paying the bill - eventhough I still have a huge bottle of Sucrazit I'll never use sitting in my cabinet - and just decided to move on.

Someone on Janglo sent me the online site for SuperSol in Jerusalem, and since I am so pressed for time during the next two days, we decided to try it. Unfortunately, the site is 100% in Hebrew and can only be viewed with Internet Explorer. My Hebrew is not so great and my Mac doesn't have Internet Explorer, so I had to wait for Pidgeon to come home. Fortunately, I was all prepared with my list so it didn't take that long to pull together. Unfortunately, the prices were pretty steep and my chicken and meat order was about 1/3 of the entire bill. And, I didn't even order that much of each! But, since I can't easily walk to the Supermarket and card home all my shopping, and Pidgeon is working a 9 hour day today, this was a good option. They have already called twice to confirm delivery time, so I'm hoping there will be no snafus and everything will work out great.

Weekend Update

We had a very enjoyable Shabbos. We went to Pidgeon's parents for dinner Friday night since his brother and family is in for the Chag from London. We were 14 adults and 7 children. It was a madhouse, but it was really a lot of fun. Now, Pidgeon's sister-in-law's parents and brother, sister-in-law and niece were also at the meal. They are really nice people but speak only Hebrew or French, so my conversations with them are very limited. The niece is about 1 1/2 old and she's already walking around, crawling and speaking halting words here and there. Pidgeon's nephew is about the same age and doing the same thing, although he's not walking as well as his cousin.

My mother-in-law's apartment has 2 sets of stone steps. 6 steps upstairs, 7 stairs downstairs.

Stone. Steps.

And, with all the adults eating at the table, and all the children running around and playing, the two children under the age of 2 were unsupervised on the steps. And, would you believe that I was lucky enough to get seated in the chair that has direct line of sight to the steps? 

Well, I watched as the niece walked up the steps and, as she's really unsteady on her feet, teeter precariously numerous times. Now, I am a VERY nervous person to begin with. I know, recipe for disaster for my own child who will have to learn that getting hurt is part of life, blah, blah, blah.

However, I am a BIG fan of putting a gate in front of steps until I know my child is steady enough on their feet to be able to walk up and down without taking a dangerous tumble.

Did I mention that these are STONE STEPS????!!

Well, I gasped a few times as I watch her almost fall, and Pidgeon's sister and brother looked at me like I was crazy. Pidgeon's brother, who is Dad to 4 + 1 on the way, told me that I need to relax. That it's not healthy for me to be so jumpy. Pidgeon's sister, whose heart was racing with my gasping, glared at me like I was some lunatic who was overreacting. 

And, the parents of this little girl, just continued to sip their wine and enjoy their meal.

So, I turned to Pidgeon and said, I'm just not going to look anymore. Because, if the parents don't care, then why should I?

I went back to my meal, went back to my conversations, but couldn't pull my eyes away from the scene.

Five minutes later, the little girl tumbled down the entire flight of stone steps. Of course, I gasped and screamed that she was falling, and this time her Mother got up off her chair and ran to help her. At that point, she was already on the floor, screaming and crying her head off, a red, nasty bump starting to form over her eye.

Her Father, however, kept saying over and over in Hebrew: Zeh Klum. Lo Karah Klum (translation - it's nothing, nothing happened). 

The kid was hysterical for a bit and the bump over her eye will definitely be there for a few days,  but she avoided the steps for the rest of the evening. 

I felt terrible for this kid, and for her parents for being so lax about her safety. I understand teaching children the right way to navigate steps, but don't we have a responsibility to do it in the right manner? Someone should have been at the bottom of the steps to make sure, if she fell, that she would be caught. 

Am I just being over cautious? Will I mess up our kids because I don't want them tumble down stone steps? I mean, she is LUCKY she didn't crack her head open on my mother-in-law's stone floor.

Well, at least my mother-in-law agreed with me at the end of the evening. So did Pidgeon. I'm just going to have to figure out that middle ground where I allow my children to discover life on their own without doing anything too dangerous.

Anyway, I'm off to get something to eat. My body is still trying to regulate after Yom Kippur and I get starving at random hours of the day and I also experience lack of appetite during other times. Weird.

Yom Tov from Baka!

Bowling Birthday

TGIF!! I am so happy that it's almost Shabbos. I never thought I would ever say that, I used to dread Shabbos while single and living on the Upper West Side. By, ever since we got married and packed our weeks with work and errands and just life in general, I've learnt to appreciate Shabbos. 

It was a very busy and exhausting week. Wednesday, we were still heavily under construction and the apartment was just covered in pulvarized wall and dust. We ran some errands and then, once all the workers finally left, I got into the shower and got dressed to Pidgeon's first cousin's 11th birthday party at the bowling alley in Talpiot.

We were an hour and a half late, so we didn't make it in time to actively bowl, but it was a lot of fun. It reminded me of our birthday parties - back in the day - at Jib Lanes in Queens. Each of us had a party there, and mine was especially fun! We bowled then went to the back room where my parents had pizza and a birthday cake. I got some good presents that year and I still have some pictures of all my friends bowling and having a fun time. I think we took up about 5 lanes too, everyone we invited came! I don't remember what the goody bags were that year,  but knowing my Mom they probably had a lot of chocolate and candies in them.

After the bowling evening, we went to Anise on HaPalmach so I could buy some stuff we needed for the house and our new diet. Also, I bought that Nettle tea leaves and some Raspberry Leaf tea leaves, as recommended by our childbirth education class instructor. We also found Whey protein powder, which is a key ingredient in this non-flour "graham" cracker crust recipe I found online. I saw limes at the fruit and vegetable store on Derech Beit Lechem yesterday so I want to make pidgeon some "key lime" pie that is "kosher" for our diet. We also bought some fake sugar for baking, which I'm sure we will burn through in no time!

We got home late and I started cooking a quick egg scramble for Pidgeon and waited for my friend Slightly Mad to come over. We had a much needed girl's chat, which was great fun for me! Pidgeon enjoyed it too, and tuned us out during the appropriate times.

Yesterday wasn't as busy as Wednesday, and less crowded in the apartment as construction finally winds down. I spent 20 minutes with the contractor telling him where to hang which picture, and the apartment just looks so much nicer with some photos up! Pidgeon was out on errands in the morning, and when he got back we decided to run some errands for me. We went to pick up some fruit and vegetables to get us through the day and then we stopped by 4UGifts to try to finish off our registry. We literally have 129 shekels left and I'm waiting on the rolling pin I ordered about a month ago. We did manage to get two dairy casserole dishes that I needed desperately and this thing called Dish Wish which is incredible! It's basically thicker than a towel and functions as a drying rack for dishes. Since we are VERY limited in counter space, I only have one real drying rack but needed something else for milchig dishes. Enter Dish Wish! We bought another one yesterday since we've been really using the first one and it's getting a bit grundgy. I think I'm going to have to wash it very soon!

I ended up cooking a great dinner for us last night. I made salmon, a broccoli cheese and pizza spice "casserole" and a goat cheese salad with artichokes and endives. It was yummy! I was ready to get to bed much earlier than expected, but we decided to watch Hancock online. I was happy, once the movie was over, that we didn't shell out the dough to see it in the theatre. Now, I'm a big Will Smith fan and have been seeing his July 4th movies pretty regularly since Independence Day hit theaters way back when. But, he needs to sign up for better movies, cause this one was a stinker.

We went to sleep so late last night, that it was no surprise to me when I rolled over and saw it was Noon! After four late night pit-stops to the bathroom (damn that Nettle tea!!) I was pretty wiped. I woke Pidgeon up and decided to make us some whole wheat pancakes for breakfast since it's our Hebrew 1st anniversary. The new recipe I tried was absolutely delicious and we polished off 15 pancakes between us! It was that good. I think I'm going to make another batch early next week and leave them in the fridge. Pidgeon likes to eat them as a quick snack and it's healthy for him, so why not.

Well, I'm off to finish this new mix I'm pulling together for Pidgeon's brother. He's in from London and is a big runner, and when he told me what music was on his iPod, I was pretty shocked. The guy is listening to music for 15 years ago and not because he likes it, but because he doesn't have anything new! So, I'm pulling together a great mix with tunes from The Fratellis, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, Kings of Leon, Damone, The Kaiser Chiefs, etc. I'm hoping he'll enjoy this mix as much as his old one.

Shabbat Shalom from Baka!

Mikvah Mortification

Why do these things always happen to me? I'll explain shortly.

Well, I didn't make it to the Bloggers convention last night for various reasons.

1) I was sporting a serious case of Cankles. For some reason, my feet just ballooned yesterday to the point where my ankles were sore to the touch and I could hardly stand. I just couldn't be seen in that condition, and sitting with my feet down would have been really, really painful.

2) I accidentally left my cell phone off for 24 hours and never got the call from my friend Slightly Mad who was supposed to be my event "wingwoman." I don't know why I didn't reach for the phone to call her myself, I guess I just assumed since I hadn't heard from her that she was blowing off the convention so I figured I could do the same. I finally realized my cell was off around 9:30 p.m. last night and, when I turned it back on, there were two messages from her. I think she's, well, Slightly Mad at me now for not showing and I feel awful that I missed her calls. Hopefully she'll forgive me sooner rather than later.

3) I saw that they added a political speaker to the program and I was not pleased. Not that I couldn't listen to Bibi Netanyahu speak, yet again, but was this really the appropriate forum for him? This blog tends to avoid all Israeli politics - and sometimes the American ones - for a reason. I just think there's a time and a place for political speeches. Seeing him on the program just completely turned me off. I would have much rather they turned to a "high profile" international blogger as a VIP speaker than an Israeli politician.

4) I was exhausted. My Dr. finally got back from vacation this morning and, upon reviewing my blood test results, called at 8:30 a.m. to let me know that my red blood cells are very low. So, she wrote me a prescription for iron pills and told me that I should perk up in no time at all. I'm hoping, cause this constant state of exhaustion is not fun! Anyway, I was just so tired I couldn't rally to get myself together for the conference.

I also haven't heard much feedback yet about the conference, and I really curious to know if people enjoyed it. Hopefully Slightly Mad will get back to me and let me know!

Well, yesterday was pretty busy. I did some more thesis writing, had a great conversation with my business partner about the future of two new business ventures we're pursuing and washed the crap load of dishes that were hanging out in the sink. Once Pidgeon got back home from his work day, we drove over to his Aunt and Uncle's house in Rechavia to go through boxes of books they are trying to give away.

I was not impressed with their literature tastes at all. But, I did manage to find a book by William Faulkner and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I also took all the cookbooks she wanted to get rid of, even though one of them is literally all about pork which is curious since they currently and have always kept kosher. I think that one might have to be tossed into the garbage. Oh, and I managed to save a copy of the Dr. Spock baby book. I always wanted to read that one!

Afterwards, we drove over to the Katamon Shtiebel and Mikvah to toyvel some of the things in the apartment that were in desperate need of toyveling. In particular, I had a new stainless steel set of pots and pans that I haven't been using. In fact, they've been sitting on the floor in the living room just collecting dust. Since Pidgeon's other Aunt lives nearby the Mikvah and they just returned for a month long family vacation, we thought it would be nice to stop by and welcome them home. We had a hard time finding parking arounf the Shtiebel since there is literally a Minyan there every 15 minutes and so lots of cars. But, we finally found a spot and Pidgeon and I walked the stuff over.

Now, in order to get to the area where you toyvel your pots and pans and utensils, you have to walk by the front of the Shtiebel. As we were walking through we saw a man sitting at a table with a cup in front of him. He asked me in Hebrew: 

"Efshar LaAzor?" which translated literally means Can help?

Now, depending on the speakers inflection, that's how you know if he/she is asking you if he can help YOU or if you can help THEM. 

I, of course, misread the inflection and asked him if I could go and use the Mikvah to Toyvel. I didn't realize that he was asking us for money. The man looked at me funny and then said basically, sure, go ahead and use it.

As we walked towards the Mikvah, Gaby laughed and pointed out my mistake. I was a little embarressed and felt really bad, so I told him that I would give the guy money on our way out.

We toyveled everything pretty quickly and I took out 5 shekel for the man and 10 shekel for the Mikvah. We started to head out and there were a ton of men in the courtyard. I think a Minyan was just letting out and one was just starting. We kept walking and Pidgeon spied the Shul's Gabbai. Recently, when we went to visit Pidgeon's teacher from Yeshiva,  he asked us to send his regards to this man if we should ever see him. Since Pidgeon is just such a great guy, he decided to stop the Gabbai and send his regards. While they were speaking, I walked over to the table where the man was sitting and tossed my 5 shekel into his cup. I walked back to Pidgeon and the Gabbai turned to me and said:

What you did was wrong and a bad thing. You should never give someone asking for Tzedakah. You did nothing good right now. Don't ever do it again.

At first, I thought he was kidding. But then, I realized that he was dead freaking serious. 

I was mortified. 

All these men were looking at me, I was just so embarressed.

And then I got pissed.

How DARE he embaress me like that? What is WRONG with that man? Who the hell is he to tell me how I can or cannot spend my money? 

I fought back the tears as we walked to the car and vented the whole way to Pidgeon, while spewing out a slew of curse words at the Gabbai for making me feel so terrible in public.

I tried to think back to my Michlalah days and, for the life of me, I could have sworned I learned once that it's more of a Mitzvah to give a person asking for money than to send a check to an organization. The very reason being that it's shameful to personally ask someone for money - face to face - and that you don't want to cause additional embarressment to the person asking for money.

I also remember learning that age old Jewish adage about public embarressment of an individual is worse than spilling blood.

During our visit with Pidgeon's Aunt, Uncle and family, I felt awful and just fumed. We stayed for a little over an hour and caught up and then we drove back home. I was so upset that I asked Pidgeon to just order in dinner, I had no strength to cook. We called Joy Express and got hamburgers for dinner and then we just vegged out in front of the TV. I was still aggravated when I went to bed that, at 1:30 a.m., I called my parents to talk about the situation. 

My Mom was great, she calmed me down and basically agreed that the Gabbai should have been ashamed of himself for embarressing a pregnant woman in public like that. And, that I should never feel bad about giving Tzedakah - ever. After a few minutes, I was finally ready to get to sleep, and I was able to crawl into bed and sleep the rest of the night.

Today has been busy but also relaxing. I managed to get up with Pidgeon around 8:00 a.m. and, on my own, called in the fruit and vegetable order at Gil's on Derech Beit Lechem. I was so proud of myself! Granted, I called Pidgeon first to ask him for Hebrew names of some of the fruits I didn't know, but I did the whole call in Hebrew and that made me feel pretty impressed with myself. After a quick breakfast, I relaxed in front of the TV and somehow fell back to sleep! I woke up an hour later and decided that I better keep moving otherwise I would fall back to sleep again.

I was dressed and had all the dishes washed by the time Pidgeon got back from his course in Tel Aviv. The fruits and vegee delivery arrived about 30 minutes later and I cooked us up a quick dinner. Now, we're basically just waiting for the HOT technicians to come and then we're off to do our grocery shopping. Tonight, we have a movie date, which means I'm going to have to do all the Shabbos cooking tomorrow. Fortunately, the days are still long so I should be able to get everything done in time. We're going to be laying low this weekend, which will be nice, since we could just use a relaxing weekend together.

Yom Tov from Baka!

Lychee Heaven

They're here!!! Pidgeon picked me up a carton of Lychee yesterday and it was the best fruit I've tasted in a very, very long time.  Our greengrocer on Derech Beit Lechem, meanwhile, is happy too as I've been bugging them week in and week out asking when lychee would finally be available. I think they're just so happy I'm no longer bothering them with my incessant phone calls. 

So, its been a busy and productive week. Fortunately, I finished my first draft of one of my thesis stories. I have some edits to do on Saturday night, but then I'm sending it off to my advisor for his feedback and starting on my next story. Meanwhile, my Philosophy final was finally scheduled for June 26th at 9:00 a.m. and with only 13 days until test time, I better start reviewing my material. Granted, it took my Dad yelling at me to start studying to even think about studying, but I'll just be so happy with a passing grade and the course behind me.

Unfortunately, my cleaning lady quit on me this week. I was not pleased, as my floor was in desperate need of a washing from our Shavuot meal. And, rather than do any tidying up in advance, I just left everything for her to take care of. Big mistake. So, this afternoon, after Pidgeon and I got back from another morning at the Dr.'s office, I asked him to fill a bucket of water and cleaning solution, and I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I absolutely HATE the sponga stick. Really, I find it annoying and clumsy. I'd much rather have either the Swiffer Wet Jet or a nice spongy mop. But, I did manage to do a nice job, and now my salon/kitchen area is just gleaming. It's nice to go into Shabbat with a clean home, and I'll probably end up scrubbing the toilets too. Sigh. Housework, at least it burns calories. I guess it's better than I wield the stick instead of a spoon. Although, the Haagen-Daaz in the freezer is definitely calling my name.

We're eating out both meals for Shabbat, which is a welcomed break for me! And, since we're having sleep over Shabbat guests next weekend, I'm thrilled to take a week off from cooking. Now, I just have to start thinking about food for next Shabbos. Fortunately, our guests offered to make a corned beef and since we're on a budget and we don't eat any meat, I jumped at the kind offer. I love, love, love beef so this will be a very welcomed treat!

Well, I think it's time for me to take a pre-Shabbos nap. My eyes are closing as I try to update this post, so I think I'm going to have to just give in and try to catch some Z's. 

Shabbat Shalom from Baka!