Laughing in my Sleep

Apparently, I woke Pidgeon up last night because I was laughing in my sleep. It was a cackling laugh too, so I must have been dreaming about something funny yet evil. Too bad I don't remember the dream! Dreams about our baby being half salmon/half human and potentially dinner for a group of friends I remember, funny/evil dreams you can forget about. Oh well! 

We were supposed to go on a double date last night. The plan was to meet up at the bowling alley and I was exhausted. I get pretty wiped from 5-9, then catch my second wind and am wide awake until 2:00 a.m.  So, at 8:00 p.m., I pulled myself together, got dressed, packed a pair of socks into my purse and went into the living room to wait for Pidgeon to finish getting ready. And that's when the phone rang and our date called to tell us that their babysitter cancelled last minute. From the sounds of it, they were really, really upset and angry about the last minute cancellation. They spent 30 minutes calling around and trying desperately to find a replacement babysitter. At 9:00 p.m., they called to tell us that they'd given up. I told them not to be so upset about it and that we would definitely do it another time. I guess I don't understand where they're coming from. They have two children under the age of 3 with one more on the way. I guess they really needed the night out. 

I was pretty hungry at that point and hadn't been out of the house in almost 2 days, so Pidgeon decided to take me to Emek for a quick dinner. Now, I had promised my parents I wouldn't eat out anymore because of the whole puking evening two days ago. But, I figured how bad could an Aroma tuna salad really be? Besides, I had cooked a cauliflower kugel and a meatloaf for Shabbos and just didn't have the strength to make something else for dinner. I'm really going to have to think about buying a freezer and cooking in advance of baby, otherwise Pidgeon is going to be eating a lot of Branflakes and skim milk since I doubt I'll have the strength to make us anything.

Aroma was pretty empty last night and we had a nice time. Then, we went to Super Moshava so I could do my favorite activity - walking up and down the aisles of a Supermarket. I found these packages of MealMart ready-to-eat food, you know the ones I blogged about a while ago that will be given to soldiers as rations in the event of (g-d forbid) another war. I quickly ran to show them to Pidgeon and he wanted to buy one to eat, but it's not on the diet, so I think he was pretty disappointed. I then found genuine Hershey's syrup and was soo tempted to buy the bottle so I can make myself some chocolate milk. But, it was 20 shekel and we're on a budget and a diet, so I left it back on the shelf and was just happy knowing it was there. We ended up picking up some Philadelphia cream cheese, an orange juice, some more cheese sticks for Pidgeon and 2% strawberry frozen yogurt. We had a bowl of the frozen yogurt when we got home and it was really yummy. I didn't get to sleep though until 2:00 a.m. and when Pidgeon's alarm went off this morning at 7:00 I was not pleased.

He left the apartment very quickly because we're having some problems in our new car with the gear shift. Apparently, it's SUPER sensitive mechanism, so we have to be careful when we move down gears. We're really not these heavy handed people so I don't know why it keeps breaking, but we're still under warrantee so they fixed it for free.

Afterward, Pidgeon ran my pre-Shabbos errands and brought back some whole wheat Challot from Pe'er and breakfast from Bagel Bites. We've been to Tal Bagels, Bagel Bites and the new bagel store on Emek (forgetting the name). At the end of the day, Bagel Bites has the best bagels. And, I'm not just saying that because it's closest to our apartment. They're really decent bagels. 

By the time Pidgeon returned, I had the chicken done. I roasted another whole chicken that cost us a bit more than 5 shekel (we bought it at Falcon and not SuperDeal) with balsamic vinegar, red wine, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. It smelled amazing once it was done, and I cooked it one hour covered and one hour uncovered. The skin is now nice, brown and crackly but the meat is still very juicy. I hope it tastes as good as it looks. While it was cooling on the stove top, I made a leek and portobello mushroom soup for first course tonight. We're really going light for dinner, so I felt we needed something else as a starter. I've never made this recipe before but I found it on Epicurious and hope it's tasty!

I then grilled two steaks for tomorrow lunch. First course will be a grilled steak salad with a balsamic dijon mustard dressing. At this point, I'm wiped but have to deal with the chicken and wash all the dishes. So, I took the BEST invention ever and set to work on quartering the chicken.

I cannot stop praising these poultry shears. They are absolutely amazing, you'd think the chicken bones were fabric it just glides right through them. I also never learnt how to properly quarter a whole chicken, but I figured it out pretty well if I do say so myself. Within minutes, I had four pieces of chicken and two wings cut off. I also cooked the neck too, and left that together with the chicken. Hopefully, it will taste as good as it looks!! If you need a pair, and you live in Jerusalem, go to 4UGifts on Derech Hevron and ask Sara for the poultry shears. It will save you tons of money in the end!

Well, I was trolling the blogosphere yesterday and came across this amazing baking site called Bake or Break and the photos literally had me drooling. With Rosh Hashana coming up, I'm thinking about baking something to formally usher in a sweet New Year. Now, all I have to do is figure out which recipe I want to try first as they all look so great!

I'm off to finish tidying up before Shabbos!

Shabbat Shalom from Baka!

Fundamentally Stupid

This headline describes what I did to myself today and no, I'm not being self deprecating. I Pepper Sprayed myself this morning. (Cousin Neil, stop laughing, I can hear you 6,000 miles away!) It was, obviously, a complete accident but I still somehow managed to do it. Here's the order of events:

I woke up at 9:30 a.m. and did some writing in bed until 10:20 a.m. I got out of bed, got dressed, davened and ate breakfast until 11:15 a..m. At 11:20, Pidgeon returned from the office and we went upstairs to get ready to go back to our apartment. I went to pack up my bag and, since I have a hand bag and a school bag, realized that I had some items in my school bag that needed to come with me. I took my school bag out of the closet and rooted around for my keys. I found the keys and then my hand closed around my Pepper Spray (which, Pidgeon bought for me after a friend of mine got mugged two blocks away from our apartment in Baka). I figured, why not, and pulled the pepper spray out of the bag and dropped it into my purse. 

At 11:30 a.m. I decided to put my contact lenses in, without washing my hands. Using the same hand that I used to pull the pepper spray out of my bag, I put in both contacts. Almost immediately, my eyes began to burn and water. I tried to ignore it but, as the seconds ticked by, it just got worse and worse until I couldn't see anything! I went to the bathroom and took out the lenses, put in eye drops, and watched as my eyes kept tearing. It was hard to see through the blurred vision. The redness turned my green eyes blue (I kid you not) and I could barely keep the lids open. Pidgeon decided I should call the eye Dr. ASAP, and I just assumed I was having an allergic reaction to the season. 

We left the house and thankfully Pidgeon drove us to Emek Refaim, where he stopped off to look for a school book for me. He went to pick up some coffees at Aroma while I got my eye Dr.'s office on the phone. I told her I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something and that I needed the Dr. to call me back ASAP. When we hung up, I opened my purse looking for a tissue to blot my eyes, when I noticed my pepper spray. Open. Moist. 

Crap. It was then that I realized that I had gotten the pepper spray on my fingers and then, without washing my hands, accidentally transfered it to the contact lenses that I inserted into my eyes.

So fundamentally stupid! Lesson learned. ALWAYS wash hands before putting in contact lenses! What's ironic is that I'm usually so anal about washing my hands. I walk around with bottles of Purelle everywhere and I'm usually so careful. A harsh lesson in laziness was learnt today, and I really hope it never happens again.

Moving on. My Mother called this morning to alert me to this article in New York Times about proving you're a Jew? It brought back some very miserable memories when I went through the same thing with the Jerusalem Rabbinate. A copy of my parents Ketubah and a letter from my American Orthodox Jewish Rabbi saying that both myself and my Mother are Jewish were not enough. I mean, how could they rely on my American letter when they never heard of my American Orthodox Jewish Rabbi (which is ridiculous, since he's actually in the news a lot and is well known). It wasn't until we got to Beit Din, and I stood there and listed all of the Yeshivot I attended did they finally believe me. B"H I went to Michlalah, as saying the name of Rabbi Cooperman was exactly what I  needed to do to prove I'm a Jew. I was so close to telling them I was a descendent of the Rabbi of Munkatz and listing all the other great Chassidim I'm related to, but fortunately I was spared that extra step. I feel for all the Anglos going through this process and my only advice is to take a deep breath and try to get through it. Once they approve you, it's just another notch in the Israeli bureacratic belt that has to be bored until you can move on.

Since I'm having eye issues, we're spending the day close to home so I can relax. Last night, we hit the gym and had a great workout. I did mostly legs and Pidgeon had to hoist me out of the rowing machine since my leg muscles turned to jello. Oh yeah, and I was on the machine for only 10 minutes. I'm am so out of shape, it's not normal. 

We're expecting some unseasonably warm weather this weekend and we're entertaining! Pidgeon's best friend, his wife and their 1 year old baby will P"G sleeping over this Shabbos. I'm excited and, of course, have been thinking about a menu ever since. I figure Wednesday and Thursday will be my shopping and cooking day, which leaves Friday to just get the house ready. We also invite Pidgeon's cousins and their kids, and I'm really looking forward to this house being full of little ones. I hope I make the right foods for them!

Well, I'm off to rest my eyes and wait for the Dr. to call me back. Hope everyone is having a great day! Tomorrow, I'll write about the situation in Gaza, Sderot and Ashkelon. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the latest situation and hope to have something coherent to write about manyana.

In the meantime, Mazal Tov to Daniel and Daniela on their wedding yesterday! I'm so sad we missed it but look forward to the pictures! May you both enjoy marriage as much as we are loving it!

Flambe'

I set my mother-in-law's kitchen on fire last night. 

More on that in a minute.

Pidgeon and I had the most exhausting day yesterday and it started off with an early morning blood test at Wolfson center. The alarm went off at 7:00 a.m. and I jumped out of bed, got Pidgeon moving, and we were underway a few minutes later. Of course, they had some issues finding my veins (happens all the time) but she was quick so we were able to get in and out of there in no time. Since the workers moved our entire living/dining/kitchen into the spare bedroom, we had no place to go and eat breakfast. We decided to stop off at Aroma and eat a quick sandwhich. We had to be back at the apartment, though, to meet with the AC repair guy about the central heat/AC that went on Wednesday night. I was in pretty good spirits when we drove back, a little tired, but still in good spirits.

And then, when Pidgeon parked the car, I got out and literally stepped full on into a pile of dog shit. Pidgeon tried to warm me - yelling watch out but it was too late. I stepped and I stepped with authority, so the shit was all up in the crevices. Needless to say, I threw a bit of a fit outside the apartment and then walked shoeless upstairs. The workers ALL wanted to chat, but I was still having my fit, until the contractor took my shoe and cleaned it off for me. That made me feel a bit better, although I did spend another 30 minutes with Qtips trying to get all the crap off the shoe. I was in a lousy mood for the rest of the morning.

We left at 3:30 p.m. to get haircuts, since we are both very shaggy and dirty individuals. I haven't had a hair cut in 4 months and it was way overdue. We went to Tzvi Michaeli's on Marcus Street and he did a pretty decent job with the haircut, but with all this dry weather, I had no idea that I was going to be the poster child for Static Cling! I kid you  not, I was like the Bride of Frankenstein doing a kids school experiment. Just without the balloon. We went straight to the SuperSol in Talpiot to pick up food for Shabbos and Pidgeon was having a little too much fun with my staticky hair. If you raised a hand near my hair, the strands would just rise and levitate. It was annoying when my bangs wouldn't get off my face, but we did our shopping and raced home to pack.

We moved into Pidgeon's parents house since they are away for Shabbos, and I immediately got to cooking. Probably NOT the best of ideas since I was super tired at this point, but I wanted to get some stuff going. Pidgeon abandoned me to chill out and relax, but Pidgeon's cousin came over so I had someone to talk to. 

And that's when I set the pan on fire. I still have NO idea how the whole thing happened but one minute, I am sauteing potatoes in the pan and then next it's going all flambe' on me. Fortunately, I was very calm, and just took the pan off the fire. It quickly went out with a few shakes. I mean, I have my mother-in-law issues just like everyone else, but I certainly didn't want to burn her kitchen down. Pidgeon's cousin promised to keep the incident a secret, so that's a relief, and I was able to continue cooking food for Shabbos.

I thought we were going to be a lot more people, so I ended up overcooking today. I'm still in the kitchen, been here since 10:00 a.m., and I am finally almost done. The shnitzel is baking nicely, the roasted vegetables are cooling and the onion soup for tonight is still bubbling. Pidgeon left to do some work, so I'm alone in the house, and it's really weird cooking in my in-laws kitchen. It's just this entirely unfamiliar experience, complete with cooking utensils I'm not used to handling and a gas range as opposed to my great electric unit at home. 

BTW - it looks like this Professor strike is finally over and for the first time in 7 months, I'm going to be back in school this week! Too bad I'm really not looking forward to it, especially since the house is in shambled. 

And, it looks like this cold snap won't be breaking anytime soon and my skin is about to flake off. It's so dry the everything is in need of moisture. I'm just hoping my nose doesn't start bleeding in the middle of the night, we're sleeping on white sheets!

Wishing everyone a very good, and warm, Shabbos!