Addicted

I';m complete;y addicted to this blogging thing. I check it three or four time s aday, and im disaapointed when there isnt anything new on it.

Anyway things here are OK..except Margot told Nat that a sexual predator has moved in across the street from us, so she's a little freaked out. but she should be OK..the guy hasnt committed a crtime that we know of since '98. No one is happy with him living here, but there isnt much we can do. Gershon thinks we shoul;d should scare him out of town, and his assumes the police will be "busyt" at that time, but Margot nixed the idea. Last night me and Gershgon went to Maariv, and the mesivta told us that if we see a mexican witha red hat and a ponyttail, we should call the police cause they are looking for him. Natalie asked me what happened to thE nice queit town, where nobody locks their doors that i told her about.


happy birthday Jake we will hopefully call you tonight

Birthday times

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!!
Since we are still seven hours apart for another few hours, I figured there is no way I'll be awake when you guys get home. So I am following your fine example and blogging you a happy birthday. Maybe your next birthday you want to spend in Israel??!!

A Day in the Life

This morning I woke up at 7 AM so my beloved could go to Minyan at YIOP. After chatting on the horn with Golda for many minutes and my cousins in Raanana for many more, I packed out the boys at 8, and then proceeded to pop Nava in the bath for a much-needed cleansing. I called my cousin Sari to tell her our good news (no, I'm not), and was on the phone in my bedroom while Nava had bathy playtime. All of a sudden, I heard Nava screaming bloody murder! I told Sari I had to go, ran into the bathroom, and saw Baby Nava standing there pointing at the bathtub with saucer-like eyes. Shrieking and crying, she screamed, "There's stinky in the bath!!!!" over and over again. With one swift motion, I swept my shaking baby out of the water and plopped her onto the toilet; she was really crying. I cleaned out the bath while gagging, of course, and finally had it done. By this time, Nava and I were both complete wrecks. I dressed her and myself and went on with our day.

After school I took the kids rollerbalding to 7-11 for Slurpees and the boys for haircuts at Jeff's. On the way home, it was pretty windy. Ephraim piped up with, "I think March is coming in again, 'cause I can really hear the roar!"

At home, Daniel walked around singing, "L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim, B'od Shana Va'Chetzi, Ha'Benuyah" So I think he's onboard.

Yes, I eventually bathed Nava tonight in a well-scrubbed bath. And no, I could NOT wash my hands enough today!

dad without mom

You would think that after a number of posts dad would have been able to figure out how to blog. Even if there was a problem, Botch should have been able to help. But somehow it took dad 4 posts to say the exact same thing to everyone. It's not like email and you need a different copy of the blog post for each person to read.

When mom was home, dad had never sent the same blog post even twice, as soon as mom leaves it goes out 4 times. Is dad trying to send us a message? Is he still drunk from Purim? That might be the most logical explanation, especially as when he synced his patients yesterday he said that he got a double list. That never happened when mom was home.

I feel that for the sake of sanity, next time mom decides to come to Israel, daddy is better off coming with her. Or at least he should hire a computer guy while mom is gone.

Working Man

This has been a big step for me to join the work force. Until now, work consisted of waitering around once every other week. Now I work every night. Its a lot of responsibility. The weight of 3 doctors seeing their patients, and hundreds of old people's vision rests in my hands. I have noticed a few interesting things:
Almost all African Americans, male and female, end off their sentences with "uh huh". Its not just said, its kinda sung. I'll be home then, uh huh", "Bless you, I do need my eyes checked, uh huh".
Spanishy people speak better English then Chinese people.
Thats all I can think of now. Its hard to be responsible with Mom here. I had to turn down an invitation to dinner cuz of work. It was hard but I did it. myShany is happy I'm working, but not happy I'm working on the computer all night. Hope you all have a blessed day, uh huh.

Bath time

I think last night may have been a defining moment for me as a father. Natalie was at Wal-Mart getting things for the house and what not. I had the pleasureof putting Jonah to bed. But bath time comes first. In our Detroit home we have a small bath tub for Jonah, a few feet long, and it sits on the counter in the bathroom, at the Pittsburgh home, we have to use the big person bathtub. This scared Jonsie a little bit, when i placed him in the water he wanted to jump out and have me hold him. Thinking quickly, i stripped down, and hopped in the bath with him, and we both took a bath. This is something that I never would have dreamed I would end up doing, but a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do. In the end Jonah had a fun time in the bath, and I immdeiatly took a shower when he got out, cuz who knows what he did in that water.

The Eagless has landed

Mom arrived on time, and I was amazingly there to see her walk out into the "blue ring of welcome" at Ben Gurion's airport - I know Ben is not his first name. Then we got into a shairut and came home to Katamon. Unpacking mixed with repacking we came up with a suitcase of things for David & Myshany - almost all their stuff fit into a small suitcase. We then hung out here, Mom met one of my roommates, and shmoozed over Mrs. Posy's mishloach manot until we decided it was dinner time. Shany finished work at 8, so around 8 we left my apartment and walked to town. David & I decided to treat Mom to a Dairy place - shocked? - really nice called The Ticho House. {Treating in this case meant we would arrange for her to take us out to a dairy place that she would enjoy :)}

Mr Mom

Mom is having a great time in the Holy Land. Visiting all the kids- shlepping nachus- going to weddings- eating out. Do I care- Do I mind that I am here in Detroit- cooking- cleaning-chaufering- bonding with a 14 yr old going on 20 hormonal daughter DO I CARE- washing- ironing- working 12 hrs a day- DO I CARE- NO -Im kind of enjoying it
The only minor mishap we have had is that I made the coffee maker milchig- It wasn't my fault- I just stopped thinking for a few minutes and WHAM it was milchig.
New techno improvement in Detroit- Starting Thursday we can watch Rabbi FRand LIVE satelite hookup and also Rabbi Reisman on Sat night-
Love MR MOM

LONG TIME NO POST...

hey all...havent posted in a LONG time...

purim was fun...cuz purim's always fun...but this year it was even MORE interesting b/c dad, uncle mike, and dr. g all got drunk! if anyone wants really good advice about guys and dating and men in general...they give great advice when theyre a lil tipsy...so basically all the old ppl were enjoying themselves singing loudly and off tune and me, eli, bay, shuie, and shuies friend were making fun of them...good times...then rivka crashed...of course...jumpin party! not as cool as it used to be...theres no yaakov puking all over the hochheiser porch...theres no david and yossi getting TOTALLY stoned...no dancing...but it was still cool. even tho ALL of u deserted me...except shauli, nat, r, and v...whatever....im over it...

so mom's in israel. hmm...another country....interesting....me and dad are havin bonding time...we've only eaten out 3 meals...oh wait! theres only been 3 meals!!! no really...it hasnt been that bad...

the weirdest thing happened today. so a couple days ago, mom and dad told me i have to study or i fail everything. so i said- oh! rivka can help me!! (uhuuuuuu) so i go over to rivkas...and we read all the notes...and we read them over and over and over and over again...and then we go outside and talk for a long time. it was fun!! then... next day...take the test- and heres where the weird thing happens. so i was looking at the questions on the test, and i remembered the answers cuz i had read them the night before, and i remembered them!!! rabbi eisenberger tried to tell me that i studied or s/t...but i told him i dont study...so he looked kinda confused and just said okaay...rabbi rothbart was a bit more understanding when i tried to explain what happened to him...he laughed at me and said- grow up shevy! i dont understand rabbi's...whatever.

im so excited!!! spring is here!!! mom- im gonna call will 2morrow 2 open the pool, k? just lettin u kno...i kno u like to kno when i do that so he doesnt surprise you....i went rollerblading yesterday for more then 4 hours...and then 2day for about 45 minutes...and rivka's building her basketball net!!! finally!!!! thank the good lord...i went over there one night, and her and her cousin were downstairs building hte net...i tried to help but u kno me...i dropped the pole onto her cousin by mistake...and it has a HUGE dent in it...so im just gonna wait 2 play w/ it when its finished...ya kno....

ok...i think thats all the excitin things goin on...o yeah- sarra? peace love and mickey mouse? am i missing something? am i out of the loop?!?!? :(

o well...

love u!!!
peace out!
shev

*the one you left at home that all the people that still live in michigan are deserting*

Mr MOM

OK - Mom is in the holy land having a great time. Visiting everyone- shleping nachus-going to weddings Am I jealous/?- Do I care that I am here in Detroit cooking- cleaning - chaufering-working- and interacting with a 14 yr old going on 20 huge hormonal daughter- HELL NO There - I said it!
So far the only exciting thing which has happened here is that i made the coffee pot milchigs- but it wasn't my fault. I just stopped thinking for a few minutes and WHAM- it became milchigs.
I am very excited about a new technological advance which has come to Detroit- Live satalite hook-ups to hear rabbi Frand every thursday night and Rabbi Reisman every Sat night. WOW.Thats all folks

Mr MOM

OK - Mom is in the holy land having a great time. Visiting everyone- shleping nachus-going to weddings Am I jealous/?- Do I care that I am here in Detroit cooking- cleaning - chaufering-working- and interacting with a 14 yr old going on 20 huge hormonal daughter- HELL NO There - I said it!
So far the only exciting thing which has happened here is that i made the coffee pot milchigs- but it wasn't my fault. I just stopped thinking for a few minutes and WHAM- it became milchigs.
I am very excited about a new technological advance which has come to Detroit- Live satalite hook-ups to hear rabbi Frand every thursday night and Rabbi Reisman every Sat night. WOW.Thats all folks

Mr MOM

OK - Mom is in the holy land having a great time. Visiting everyone- shleping nachus-going to weddings Am I jealous/?- Do I care that I am here in Detroit cooking- cleaning - chaufering-working- and interacting with a 14 yr old going on 20 huge hormonal daughter- HELL NO There - I said it!
So far the only exciting thing which has happened here is that i made the coffee pot milchigs- but it wasn't my fault. I just stopped thinking for a few minutes and WHAM- it became milchigs.
I am very excited about a new technological advance which has come to Detroit- Live satalite hook-ups to hear rabbi Frand every thursday night and Rabbi Reisman every Sat night. WOW.Thats all folks

purim weekend

purim was fun!
we had tons of people - including a few we didnt know
all of the men got drunk - just dancing and that deepfelt drunk kinda talk
the food was good
i had shabbos food all ready so i didnt have to care when extra drunk people stopped by
one guy came over with his kids and was sick in the bathroom for about an hour - i had his wife come and pick him and his kids up - they felt so bad that on shabbos after bnos they took yael and shira for a while - that was fun
yaakov was sick in the sink (why he didnt aim for the toilet is beyond me) but our sink is still not draining properly - although he did try to clean up after himsef - but he flooded the bathroom while trying
shabbos was nice - yaakov claims that it was just a typical shabbos but someone just came and told me that her husband loved when yaakov got up and started dancing during davening friday night - yaakov claims that it is not true and the guy was just drunk but i am not sure
sat night we went to sleep at my bubby and zaidy on our way to scranton for meir's kids upsherin (yaakov bulman) - he looks so cute he went from a big afro boy to a little kid with curly payos
during the short while that i was driving (on the way home) we first got on the highway in the wrong direction we were tipped off by signs to scranton and we decided that they dont usually tellyou how far you have gotten away from a place (even a place like scranton)
then as i am driving on the dark curvy roads of PA we hear about A and V - after that i couldnt drive without my face in the windshield at a max of 50 miles an hour - yaakov made me stop
so now that the shock, abandonment etc has worn off a bit i can say that we will miss you!
love devorah

a boston pop

POP is the sound of the cap guns that were going on throughout my house during our seudah, however most of us wer too drunk to even notice. but shira kept finding rings to put on her finger with all these circles around them. there was also lots of silly string on the front walk. we had a great time. we had the coriats(moshe the israeli) and the formans, and the cowboys ( a guy in shul who wears a cowboy hat) and two other guests who just needed a place. my alcoholic beverages consisted starting out with 3 shots, 1 each of glenlivet, jhonnie walker green label and crown royal, after that i moved on to my traditional few bottles of wine. i got sick. the last time i got sick was a friday purim too. i guess friday and purim dont mix well in my stomach. maybe it was the mac and cheese the night before, probably. well we ended up with 3 queens in the house devorah and shira were esther and yael was vashti. chanalana wore a hawwaaiin outfit that mom got for yael a few years ago and i was in the traditional green garb. a great time was had by all. so in a city of BT's, if they say to you, " in a million years i wouldnt have guessed you guys were FFB's" am i suppposed tobe complemented or should i start doing some inner thinking and figure out what we're doing wrong? or maybe whats wrong with all of the other FFB's!
for shabbos we hada guest emily hollenberg from the other side of southfield whos in law school here, and jaime. it was a nice friday night sseudah, kiddush on grape juice ... and then motzei shabbos we went to scranton for the upsherin of yaakov bulman. WHAT A PARTY! talk about purim meshulash!
well the kids were great in the car except for the 20 minutes f everyone crying as loud as they could at about 10:30pm for a few minutes. thats always fun. also we now know why those Mobil gas stops havea mobil on the runs, or is that on the run? oh well they were good sandwiches.
we have a new record we gave out all 20 shaloch manos that we made! woohoo.

Back to 'burgh

Nat, Jonah and I have returned to White Oak, this time we should be here for two weeks before our next trip back to Detroit. The drive was long, because Jonah felt the need to stop at every rest once we past cleveland. The last hour of teh drive Jonah was in my car (me and Nat drove seprately) he rarely stopped screaming, it was hell. Other than that the dive was OK, I istened to teh MSU vs. UK basketball game for a while, much like my last trip as the game ended, the radio signal was fading. Unfortanatly, teh end of teh game was crazy and I couldnt hear what was going on, but Steve called me with updates.
Anyway Nat saw our new (temp) house. We agreed its not home, but it'll do for the time being. When I was here last week, I thought i would be nice, and put the dishes away. I had teh Milk on the left and meat on the right. When i came int teh kitchen this morning, i saw nat switching the meat and milk. She explained that in her mind, milk should be on the right and meat on the left (OCD???) This teaches us a valuable lesson...Dont help without asking, or all your efforts willbe wasted:)

purim+ all done

I don't think hectic is the appropriate word to describe the last couple of weeks. I haven't written in a while for a couple reasons, mostly mom's sage advice.
1) If you have nothing nice to say say nothing. And believe me, I had nothing nice to say.
2) Other people may read this, so think before you write. I didn't want those other people to know what I had to say.

But now the party is over, purim is done, everyone is healthy and... our washing machine broke.
The stupid maytag machine that I didn't want in the first place but was told the day before we moved to take it or nothing because the one I wanted was not available. So now it is broken and our warranty ran out. Maytags aren't supposed to break within 2 years, but ours did. So we called the service company and they said it would take a week to come out. We called some friends and they gave us the name of another service guy who lived closer and he came out that day. He said it sounded like the transmission was blown and would cost a fortune to fix it. (about the cost of a new machine back home) We should try to talk with the people we bought it from to see if they'll fix it for free because its not supposed to break. So I talked to the people we bought it from and they said that they have to know exactly what's wrong with it so we brought our guy back who took it apart and said he couldn't turn a nut so he would have to wait until he got the manual so it could tell him how to turn the nut. As a side point he mentioned there was a lot of lime buildup in the machine. Which was odd. because we bought a filter from the company that installed it to make sure there was no lime build up. The guy even told us that if we didn't buy the filter the machine would probably break in a year or so. hmmm. so the filter didn't work and the machine broke. coincidence, i think not. so i called the company back and told them I believed it was their fault and the warranty issue was irrelevant. Now they are willing to come out and look at our machine in about 10 days. so golda's doing the laundry at the neighbors. what a pain in the neck.

To end on a good note. The kids had a great time on purim. Naomi and avigail were ballerinas at night and fairies during the day and yehuda was spiderman and naftali was superman. I wore the traditional cowboy hat and golda wore a wig from the kids dressup corner. Our big seuda plans were cancelled because of my quarantined house so we ended up with just my inlaws, which was nice but quiet. At the last minute I invited my neighbors to eat at our seuda before they drove a couple hours to another seuda and they accepted so we ended up with a slightly noisier seuda.

Its not over yet!

Happy Purim everyone!! We are getting ready for day 3 of our Purim Bash. Day one we went to Herzliya to a Bar Ilan party. We both dressed as Hawaiian girls, a lot fo guys hit on me, it was kinda weird....Friday we went to Abuelas and ate a little there. Then Shabbat we had a bar mitzva in bet Shemesh for our twin cousins. I was really expecting to have a horrible time and to kiss way too many people. I did kiss way too many people, twice for each person, but there was more alcohol there then Ive ever seen. There must have been like $500 just of Absolut. I got wonderfully drunk while eating with my in-laws, which I think is admirable. And apparently the whole extended family loved me. I make such good impressions drunk. Dont worry mom, i was singing a lot drunk and smiling at people I didnt know, not the sick kind. Last night, I gave up partying to work. I am now Dads new appointment maker. Also, sephardim give Purim gelt, not Chanuka gelt, so that was fun. Even the grandparents we dont know give purim gelt. Although they call it Dmai Purim, but its the same thing. We're sorry to have missed Dad being drunk, that must have been fun. We saw naked pics of Baby Jonah (thanks Nat!) Is he a redhead???
Today we are going to our Seudot. I'm a Tiger fan and Shan is a gypsy. Its not as elaborate as being Hawaiian girls, but we dont like being seen twice inthe same thing. Happy Shushan Purim to all!!!

PURIM ?

I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ENJOY READING MY PURIM POEM THAT WE SENT OUT WITH THE SHALACH MANOS- I MADE IT UP AS I BABY SAT AT ARYE AND VEES

6 HOURS TO LICHT BENCHING
AND IM SKUNK AS A DRUNK
5 HOURS TO GO
AND IM FEELING A LITTLE FUNK
4 HOURS TO LICHT BENCHING
AND MY NOSE FEELS LIKE A TRUNK
3 HOURS TO GO
I THINK INTO A CESSPOOL I SUNK
2 HOURS TO LICHT BENCHING
WHAT HAD A THUNK
1 HOUR TO GO
MY LIFE JUST WENT PLUNK
AS THE CANDLES ARE LIT- MY AURA SPLITS
AND I'M FEELING VERY PUNK
ITS SHABBOS

THE ORIGINAL ZACKS' HAPPY PURIM

Loopy

If all goes well, we are planning to make Aliyah, via Nefesh B'Nefesh, in Summer '06.

PURIM!

Purim Samayach from the land of 3 day Purim...That's right...we thought there were no more 3 day holidays now that we're living here...how silly of us! Gd rewarded the pioneers and gave them 3 days of PURIM! whee!

No, no, I'm not drunk. Not for lack of trying. Between Thursday night parties, Friday night's oneg, an over five hour lunch, and a "shalshashudos" all with plenty of alchohol - I managed to make it to Saturday night without being drunk :) Purim here so far has been a lot of fun. Everyone is getting together and the party inviting is wonderfully out of hand.
Tomorrow I have 2 seudas I get to jump back and forth to... one is a co-worker's and one is being made by 3 really cute guys who live around the corner...oh, it's the tough decisions that keep hitting me...

Vee & Arye... before you go and start shooting our hopes up to stars, are you guys serious, or just talking for conversation? I don't want to go on convincing your son he wants to live here, when he won't get the chance to live out that newfound conviction until he's old enough to live on his own... ;) Also, I think we should all know for personal loop reasons!

I want to hear all about the seuda at home! From everyone!
And the one in Boston too!

I'll tell you all about mine...after I go to them! :)

Peace Love & Mickey Mouse!!

Daniel Wants to Know

Recently, Arye and I have been discussing the possibility of making Aliya in a general sense. So we thought we should pose the question to the kids, to feel them out first. When I told Daniel the idea we have been throwing around, he said, "Why would we want to do that? What's wrong with Detroit?"

So I ask you, Dear Family, what is wrong with living in Detroit? Why do people make Aliya? More than the obvious "homeland" thing, I mean.

Something on an eight-year-old level please...

THE NEW CAR

THIS ANNOUCEMENT IS BEING MADE JUST TO KEEP EVERYBODY IN THE LOOP. i ORDERED A NEW CAR TODAY- IT IS A TOYOTA PRIUS- IT IS A HYBRID AND GETS 60 MILES/GAL IN THE CITY . NO YOU DON'T HAVE TO PLUG IT IN BUT IT DOES USE A LOT OF AA BATTERIES. COLOR RED ( IWANTED WHITE- MOM WANTED BLUE BUT BATCH WANTED RED) It should come in about 2 months.
TORAH THOUGHT- yom kiPURIM is like Purim- We always compare the lesser to the greater- so we are saying that Purim is greater than yom kippur- How ? In that there is a greater possibility of devakus to Hashem. So I asked Rabbi Avi Cohen when are we supposed to experience this closness to Hashem. He answered when we are drunk at the suedah- Then we can loose our inhibitions and allow our neshamas to soar towards Hashem- La' chaim

Purim Torah

The Netivot Shalom has an interesting explanation of drinking on Purim. He says the Chayav Inish Levisume BPuria (You have to get drunk on Purim) really means you have to get drunk ON Purim, not drunk from alcohol, but drunk from the beauty of Purim. But then what about how it says you shouldnt know the difference between baruch mordechai and arur haman? So he explains that there are 3 aspects of life that are brought out on Purim, our connection to G-d, our friends, and ourselves. In each aspect there are both baruch m. and arur h. For example, in friends, some people are tzaddikim, and some are wicked. But on Purim we are supposed to give Misloach Manot to everyone, and "not know the difference between B. Mordechai and A. Haman", and give to everyone and let G-d decide about who's good or bad. also with Gd and with ourselves, there are aspects that we would split between good and bad, but on Purim we realize all is good. So, according to him, you dont have to get drunk, just "drink" the joys of purim and realize that all is good.

Purim and drinking

Thi is according to R doniel Nuestadt (or however he spells his name) in his weekly torah paper he sends out.
If your father tells you you cant drink on Purim, do you listen to him.
Ans- NO since ad de'lo yada is a mitzvah, you dont have to listen to your father when he tells you not to do a mitzvah. Steve (and dad) had a problem with this. Listening to your father is in the Torah while drinking isnt...but hey thats what he says...He does bring down r S.Z. Auerbach who disagrees with him.
On shabbos we ate at the yosef and rachal seligsons for Lunch, and yosef brough this up, and opened a sefer, but i cant remember whose it was. Anyway the rabbi in the book said that the only time you can use sleep to get around ad de'lo yada, is when your slep is alcohol induced, in other words you must pass out then your sleep is good. Again some rabbis disagreed with him as well.
thats that for now

happy birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOLDA
love us,
stuck in boston

Scening It

I've decided to scene it for Purim. I'm staying in, davvening at my shul, and eating with other random katomoners. Friday night we're making here, and Shabbat I'm spending with some South Africans...and then again on Sunday seuda with different South Africans... Where were these funny speaking people when I was growing up in Detroit... right, right.... owning slaves and living in fortresses in South Africa...
There are a number of Shabbat/Purim things going on... Starting with pre-tefillah l'chayim stops, Friday night onegs, Shabbat afternoon get togethers, and a Sat night purim party... This neighborhood is so religious and zealous when it comes to chagim...like purim :)

Home sweet home

yay!! i'm Home. And feeling great. I love being home.
I received 4 bags of IV in total and they wanted to give me a CT today, but I refused, instead i settled for a chest xray and an ekg, because those are both routine and evryone gets them. Who knows, all I care about is that I am out!! hooray.
Sorry to scare you Mom. I'm fine now. I thought that by drinking water i was hydrating myself, but i guess it doesn't count if none of it stays in.
Purim is soon, Yipee. Everyone is excited and I think we scared away half our guests, so it'll be a little less work.
Next wekk we get the company of the zacks side, and I promise, If G-d sees fit to agree, to try not to get sick for then too.
Love you all. Enjoy Purim, Dance a happy purim dance for us and send me picture of all the cute costumed folk.
Love Golda

You take the high road

Dr Last and I were walking to mincha and the sidewalk was under water, so we went onto the soogy grass and I sang " You take the high road and Ill take the low road and Ill be in Dublin before you" He said it wasnt Dublin- It was Scotland- How wrong can a guy be!- In shul we asked everyone what the correct word was - 3 said Dublin 6 said Scotland and 1 said California- At the Turgow bar mitzvah that night- I continued my search for the truth. Mom agreed with me that it was Dublin- We even asked both Rabbi and Mrs Irons- ( known experts in trivia) and they both said they couldn't remember. Finally we went to GOOGLE and it found the song for us and resolved this burning question- ANSWER IS SCOTLAND. I tell you this story just to point out that no matter how sure you are of something- you may be wrong.

Purim Question- Given that Haman was Amalek and that we have a mitzvah to destroy Amalek- How is that the G'mera says that his grandchildren learned Torah in Bnei Brak- Why didnt we kill them- Aren't they also Amalek- Please answer in 25 words or less

Power of Prayer

Lots of things have been going on here. Firstly, we went to people we didnt like for Shabbat. It wasnt so much fun. Then we went to an engagement party in Rechovot. We wanted to be there around 830, we got there around 10. Mainly cuz our Shabbat host decided he knew how to get there, and he didnt. We got home around 1. I had a final this morning at 830. So I had to get up around 630. I raced around, davening and getting ready and what not, then ran to the 7 oclock bus. Usually the bus takes 45 minutes, but in the morning at takes over an hour. So I get to the bus stop exactly at 7 and watch as the bus pulls away. There are usually five moniot sherut hitting their horns begging people to come with them, but of course, today there were none. So I had to wait for the next bus at 720. Of course, there were no seats, so I sat on the floor. I tried studying, but my tush hurt sitting on the floor, so i had to stand. At 830, while I was still sitting on the bus, I called the school and told them my problem. that I was stil on the bus and we were sitting in traffic, etc. They told me that I'd have to talk to my professor and get the test at another time, probably next year. At that point i prayed to G-d to please ge tme to the test on time. Right then this old guy told me overheard my conversation, that I'm allowed to come a half hour late. We got to school at 850, and he went with me to the office, apperently he worked there, and got me a note to excuse my lateness and for extra time at the end. I ran and took my test. Unfortunately, I was only thinking of getting the test on time, I didnt pray for me to do well. So I dont know if I passed.....Later when I was tremping home, I prayed for a tremp to pick me up. After an hour I gave up and went and watched a movie with Mendy. Then I went back to the tremping spot and got a tremp within a minute of getting there. I think that G-d wanted me to watch a movie and then get a tremp, thats why he didnt get me one right away. It was a good movie......

New Dilemma

What time do I leave for Pittsburgh on Sunday...here are the issues
1. From 1-4 we have an engagement party for friends
2. the Pistons are playing at 3:30
my basic options are I can leave at around 1:30 get to Pittsburgh by 6:00 and catch the end of the game, which will be nationally televised on ABC
OR
I can leave at 4:00 and hear the whole game on the radio , the signal reaches cleveland, the downside to this is I get in at around 9:00. and then have to get into my new house. Also its possible that i drive faster then expected, and the signal dies early and then I miss the end, and have no idea what happened, and I'm left with the feeling of not knowing.

Teacher's Pet

It seems that my English teacher, Mrs. Bea Bailey, has singled me out as her favorite student this semester. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of learning from the German septegenarian at O.C.C., she is brilliant, funny, and VERY sarcastic. Not to mention that she's a fantastic teacher who cares for each of her students as if he or she were the only one in the class.

How do I know I am her favorite? For one, at breaks, she always comes to sit and talk to me about religion, family, and the combination of the two. For another, she recognized that I have more skills in grammar than the average O.C.C. student, having come from a private high school. So when she teaches something new, she looks at me and says, "You'll be bored with this," or "You probably know this already." Lastly, Mrs. Bailey LOVES my papers and always writes comments like "Very, very good" as she is grading me with an "A." On every quiz I have received the highest grade on which she writes "Perfect, Best in class."

OK, OK, I realize what I'm talking about here. It's Community College, I'm taking one class at a time. But for those of you who are not well-versed in Aviva History, I was the worst student! I was probably the lowest-ranked in my entire grade of 57 girls. My cumulative average for the four years was a 76%. So this is new territory for me.

And being on the Dean's List and Phi Theta Kappa is really something!

We're moving..........................again

I kinda feel like a soldier, ready to be called up at any minute for battle.
Brian from Pittsburgh just called and said "pack your bags, you're starting on Monday."
So i Told Brain the pizza guy that im leaving..some tears were shed, but in the end we agreed that its best i leave JP.
So sunday afternoon I'm driving to Pittsburgh, to see my new TEMPORARY home. Nat will stay in town cuz we have stuff that needs to be taken care and we dont hav time to do it by Sunday afternoon. I will return home for Purim and pick because I will desperately miss my wife and child, and then the following Sunday My whole family will join me in White Oak. The question is what do we do about our car situation...Ideally we'd like both cars, especially since While Oak is in the middle of nowhere. So we have some options, I can take a bus home from Pittsburgh for Purim, or possibly find a ride into cleveland, and get home there. OR i can drive home and me and nat will drive back to the 'burgh in seperate cars...sharing Jonah of course as we stop along the road.

Fun Day At School!

Finally, school got interesting! It started off the regular annoying way, with accounting at 10. Then at 1 was statistics. Usually, statistics is a low point of my week. The teacher has a horrible Russian accent, the first 8 rows are already taken before I get there, so I sit in the back and cant see the board, and I have no one to talk to. Today, I found an empty seat in the third row. So I told the guy next to me that this will be the first class I will be able to see the board. Then as soon as the teacher walked in, the whole third year class (seniors, cuz there are only 3 years) ran in and started yelling at us. They decided that since 80% of them failed their tests, there was a problem with the tests, not them, and they were going on strike. We were supposed to join them on strike since we havent been offered summer classes either, and everyone who failed econ or 2nd year stuff is going to have to waste a semester next year learning it. I knew about the strike, but I saw that everyone went to accoutning anyway, so i figured maybe it was off. Anyways, the third year came in yelling, half our class was cheering them on, the other half was yelling back, then someone turned off the lights and the air conditioning (the class is in a stuffy basement). It was crazy bedlam. i turned to the guy next to me and told him, it figured this would happen the one day i get a good seat. I was really enjoying all the yelling, but it got very stuffy so I left and joined the strikers. They had 3 big signs put on the side of the economics building. my favorite one said "Want to learn Economics? Dont do it here!!" everyone was just kind of hanging around there. So I sat down and studied for my test coming up in calculus. Then I went and learned Torah. I dont know if the strike accomplished anything, but at least I didnt have to learn statistics. To add to this already wonderful day, myShany made cheesecake last night so I came home and had wonderful cheesecake.
QuickTorah: Sarra brought up a very interesting point about Purim this year. Ive asked a few Rabbis and no one was sure. Since I will be in Yerushalayim on Friday, in Bet Shemesh fo rShabbat (Shany relative bar mitzva) and back in Yeru on Sunday, does my Purim stop when I leave and continue when I come back? Or since I know I'm coming back it flows anyway? Do I say Al HaNissim on Shabbat like yerushalmis do? Or do I have to have a Seudah on Friday in Yeru cuz once I leave the city Purim is over and then Sunday isnt Purim anymore? Shanys Rabbi said to have a seuda on friday and sunday. that works for me.

my spring break

at first thought your thinking, spring break...he's typing from daytona beach? yup. devo let me go finally this year to hang out with all the spring breakers. or maybe i'm skiing up in the white mountains of the great northeast. Killington, Sugarloaf, Wachussete, Loon mountain. all fine powder snow waiting for spring breakers to make fresh tracks in our never ending winter wonderland. i might be up there with a couple of buddies. or maybe....I'm staying home this spring break to spend quality time with my family. .......i choose number 2. unfortunately i have neither the means to get there or the people to go with so i stayed home with choice number 3. so how am i keeping busy you ask. well i started off the break by installing oak front doors in the shul with moish moskovitz (the rabbis son) and now we've moved on to building a new mechitzah. so in the morning i spend quality time with the family and then at about 11am i go build with power tools and saws and stuff. we have a reciprocating saw a circular saw a jigsaw, and drill and much more!
i received a scholarship from the school for $1200 towards my tuition for excellence in general and ocular pharmocology( and for being poor) their is a ceremony and lunch that i will be attending iy'h on taanis esther. is that like a seudas mitzvah? can i eat? batsheva thought scholarships were only for poor black kids so i assured her they were for poor white kids too.

i went to a bris this morning for the grandson of someone who is sitting shiva. so i went to his place for shachris and then we wen to shul. the avel wqent too, and he was the sandik,
whats up with the really yeshivish chevrah who take the longest time to say the bracha for bris milah for their kid?its like hurry up the kids in pain!
anyway spring break is half way over and i'll let you know how it ends

Big Advice

So, after unsuccessfully trying to stalk Burg for the past few months I find out that he is in Israel. Arrived Monday and leaving Thursday. I find his phone number, call him, and I kid you not - he answered his phone! We made plans to meet tonight to discuss my program. Don't get too weirded out, he did not give me his full attention, or even pretend to focus on the program. He did however say that he liked the program, and that he'd help me anyway he could, and pass on info to NCSY regional staff. His big advice, get 20 kids, then worry about advice.

A Whole Lot of Nothing

So, I feel like posting but don't have anything in particular to say. Bear with me.
Jonah had a doctor's appointment today. Nothing too exciting. He's normal - yay!! 17.9 lbs. and 27.5 inches long. In the 50th percentile for everything. Doing all the stuff that he should be doing - with a few bonus things. So that was nice to know. I wish he would sit still a little more but he doesn't seem interested in sitting. He wants to stand, walk, run. He doesn't understand that he is supposed to learn to CRAWL first. Simmy, apparently he is taking after you (although thank G-d he wasn't crawling at 4 months - that's a little insane). So he is an active little child. When can he start playing sports and getting some of that energy out?
I joined Curves yesterday. They had a promotion that if you bring a bag of food, then they don't charge you the $150 joining fee. So I joined and had my first workout today. It was fun and not boring and I am pretty excited about it. They claim if you go three times a week, you'll see results within a month. It's only a half hour workout each time so that fits right into my schedule. Let's see what happens................... do you think I have to diet also?? I'm not very good at that.
So Purim is coming up. But I'm not excited about it. I don't know why. Usually I am already getting Shaloch Manot together and thinking about costumes and yada yada. But not this year. I am looking forward to the Seudah at Mom and Dad's though. Those big meals are always fun. And our friends the Thompson's are joining us. I know this may be getting "personal" and "sensitive" so beware Zacks's - I think I am not excited because usually my dad's yahrzeit is around this time. This year it wasn't because there were 2 Adars and he passed away in Adar 1. But I wasn't "feeling it" last month. I think it's hitting me a month late. Boo.
Well, those are my random thoughts for now. I feel like they really belong on a "personal" blog but I don't have one so they went on the Zacks Loop. Hope ya don't mind. Now you know what's going on with me.
Happy Day everyone!!! Love, Nat

Purim Torah

Michael H.brought me back a new sefer from Israel on Purim by Rabbi Pinkus OBM- I thought this was neat- Why was Achasveros' capitol in Shushan- All of his predecessors were in Bavel- The true answer is because that is where Mordechai was living and instead of making Mordechai move- Hashem has Achasveros move his entire capitol to him- How did Hashem manage . Achasveros wanted to sit on the throne of Solomon but there were wild animals that prevented him from ascending the throne. He sent craftsman to make a copy of throne of Solomon but after they made it - it was too big to move- so Achasveros moved his entire palace to where the throne was- Shushan- the home of Mordechai- And that is the rest of the story.

Mom is leaving tomorrow with Batch to Chicago. I will be all alone. Just me and Dunkin Donuts- BKC- JERUSALEM PIZZA- SUB STATION- OH THE DECISIONS I WILL HAVE TO MAKE-SO MANY RESTAURANTS- SO LITTLE TIME- DO Y'ALL HAVE ANY SUGGESTION

Nothing doing

Things here have calmed down a bit..it appears we arent going to move to Pittsburgh. But I should start working the end of this month or teh beginning of the next one. I wish I had a specific day that I know I'll start, but I guess thats to much to hope for.

I think I'm finally done being sick. I had a cold and pink eye, which wasnt fun. My eye was tearing for a 4 straight days, people who sawme that i became a very emotional person...luckily thats all done with.

In Torah news I finally recieved a chavrusa for Tuesday night learning. i asked Rabbi Cohen about two months ago if he could hook me up, and he just did. I bet if I wasnt shomer shabbos he would have found me someone quickly, oh well i guess thats just how it goes.
Of course the week he finds me a guy, is the one week I had plans Tuesday night that didnt involve Partners. Justin is in tonw, and we are eating dinner at moms and then we were gonna catch a movie, but i cancelled on teh movie part so I could meet my new chavrusa.

BREAKING NEWS : we just a got a renewal letter from Sports Illustarted, and I told Nat not to renew, cause I dont read it, I just look at the pictures....I guess thats all for now

Happy/Sad

Today was a day of mixed emotions. Firstly, it was sad that we were not at brunch. But we hope everyone else had a good time. Secondly, it was sad because we paid a shiva call. Now we did hear this thing about not going to a shiva houses in the first year and all that, but its not brought down in halacha, so its really more of a suggestion. And the shiva-er is Uncle Avis (who made awesome Sheva Brachot at his house,) fiance. She is also the one who taught me math (although I did fail anyway-i didnt bring that up). So we went and it was a depressing Shiva house. Not like the kind our family make, this was the kind where people sit on the floor and cry, and everyone is quiet. there were a few hundred people there, it was crazy. But on the way to the shiva house we got a call that our friends were making a BBQ. So after being depressed for a while, we went to a good BBQ in Yemin Moshe. So the day was saved. We had hamburgers chicken wings kabobs and hot dogs. Shanys Spanishy friends made the party so i didnt follow most of the conversation, but a guy was playing guitar the whole time and sang "knocking on heavens door" in russian. he made it up but it sounded good anyway. So that was our day. Tomorrow is a school day :-(
IMPORTANT QUESTION: Does everyone say that Ribono shel Olam thing dad says after shalom aleichem? For the second time I made kiddush since marriage (this time at my in kaws house-they werent there, we were babysitting the kids) and I wasnt sure if i should say it. So I followed the rule; When in doubt do without.
One final thing, Shany's third shidduch has just gotten engaged so my wifey is going to heaven!!!

What Can I Do?

Rabbi Riskin gave a shiur friday night that I went to with my roommate (who I brought to Efrat). The topic was women's positions in tefillah b'tzibor. He started with the statement that halacha is absolute, and there is no way to paskin against halacha. Someone may only be yotzie someone else if they have the exact same level of mechuyavness to do the mitzvah. As only an older then bar mitzvah male is mechuyav to davven with a minyan, only another older then bar mitzvah male may A shaliach tzibor's job is to davven for those who can not davven by themselves. (They are supposed to davven for Willie). Therefore a lady may not davven as the Sha"tz b/c she can not be yotzei a man. However, there are parts of davvening that no one is mechuyav to say, and in many only men davvening places children will be asked to say these parts. Those parts a lady may say, halachikly - however, she may not come up to bima to say it, as we have a mechitza for a reason. It would not be michubad for only the teffilot that a lady is saying to not be said at the bima. If all the shilichei tzibor davvened for the amud at their seats, as in a real sephardi minayn, then a lady may davven for the tzibor what she can say from her side of the mechitza by her seat. Also, this can not be done at random, but must follow the minhagim of the shul. Shul's can not change their davvening week by week, they must have a set order to their davvening. Therefore, for a bat mitzvah, or something special they can not have just that week ladies participating in the tefillah.

Don't worry, i'm not about to start davvening for the amud, I just thought I shouldn't be the only one who had to hear all that just b/c I needed to send dash cham to the Rabbi.

Dad, Rabbi Riskin says hi.

happy banniversiday

another shabbos comes and goes and with it we got SNOW! (we have gotten 80 inches this year so far, thats more than some kids can even count to) yippee . and we had an anniversary. so thats 2 things that happened and we had a guest that came in from allentown pennsylvania. (there are Jews in Allentown? not this week he was here) Avidan milevsky came in for a conference and we had a great time, he had to leave his lovely wife and 2.5 children at home with his inlaws in town to come in to boston. i know avidan from yeshivah in Miami. so we got about another 5 inches of snow and npow we are on record to be the 5th snowiest winter EVA'! we if get another .1 inches we move up to number 4th snowiest. i told devorah not to hold her breath but i really think we can do it. namely because more snow is on its way for the end of the week. we got a new digital camera, (thanks mom and dad) for our anniversary so you may be seeing pictures of us everywhere once we figure out how to use it. so friday afternoon devorah is making a cake and says well nobody made me a cake for my birthday ( i was out of the house that day from 7am-9pm) and noone will make a cake for our anniversary so I (she) will. so then i frosted and wrote in icing HAPPY BANNIVERSDAY. then we cut the cake but not the letters i figured its like cleaning up the scrabble board. also batch said it was ok
well today is the pre purim carnival and my elder 2 daughters are both at a ballet lesson. so we have to go make food for the pre purim carnival. they put your name next to the food you make and then sell it, so if you dont trust the kashrus of certain people then you know who made what. thats boston for ya.

Tachposet= mask

So Simmy joined you all for brunch, I believe he got a shoko. I was teaching at brunch time. I decided to do a mask in english in the end. It worked very nicely. The girls had fun and they probably will remember eyes, ears, mouth and nose. They all love 'head and shoulders'.
We had alovely quiet shabbat. Everyone took a nap, which never happens and one of the kids friends came by in the afternoon. Some of you might have been snowed in again, but our skies are blue today and I'm hoping it means it'll stay warmer.
Good day to one and all. Enjoy the brunch.

Little Jumping Rabbi...

Shabbat Shalom everyone...I'm back off to Efrat to find Dad's rabbi. That's right, I'm not simply going to Efrat almost every week because I happen to love being there. I have a mission. I have been asked to send R' Riskin Dad's regards (Dash Cham), and as of yet I have failed. He does not seem to hang out in the same circle as me. What to do. So, as a good daughter, I am once again off to Efrat to send the regards.

chazak chazak

Friday is my day to learn with my 2 gan children as they have learn parsha with your child programs. Today took extra long because they made a siyum on finishing chumash shmot (which is the same thing as shmos in english). So I had to sit there and eat horrible cake and listen to a too long dvar torah. But then all the kids got up and said chazak chazak vinitchazaik and that was pretty cool.

Speaking of dvar toras I found a problem learning daf yomi with the English translation. When you learn with the Hebrew you can come up with your own understanding of what it says. So when The gemara said that women were given breasts instead of understanding, I thought it was a pretty funny statement and explained to my friend on the train that this is why his daughter shouldn't learn gemara because when she got to that part she would just ignore it ands say they didn't know what they were talking about. If that was the case then why would she bother learning it. However the English note on the bottom says that the word במקום which I translated as instead of really means in the place of and it was saying that the heart is the place of understanding and that women feed their children from the place of understanding. It gives it a totally different meaning. It's a good thing I only have the English for the first 34 pages of brachos. In another 23 days I'll be finished with the English for another 7 + years and I'll be able to use my own understanding again.

This upcoming couple weeks are busy ones for us. Goldas brother is getting married next week and the family is in. We first thought it would be a replay of David and Shanys wedding, but it seems like everyone is going off and doing their own thing, so I only took off a couple days from work.

This shabbos we have no guests which is like the calm before the stor m. Next week we have sheva brachos for Corey at our house with about 20 people. We are using the same caterer we for David's party. If he continues to do a good job, he may become our permanent caterer for all those events that we have.

Have a good shabbos.

The real story

1st of all, Daddy was in the basement listening to messages on the machine when I heard noises in the family room. I screamed as I saw something come out of the side of the fireplace. Remember a few years back we had a squirrel in there. Well daddy hadn't finished listening to the messages so he ignored me and kept listening. finally he came upstairs and went over to look, in the fireplace was a bird.
It kept trying to get out thru the side (between the wall of the fireplace and the glass doors covering it. 1st there was a wing coming thru and then he actually got part of his head out,but I yelled at him to go back inside the fireplace, so he did. Daddy was very non plussed and said "well its time I go to learn, have a nice day".
I called Mrs Rabinowitz and she came over and together we got it to go out from the fireplace to the backyard. Mrs. Rabinowitz said I was the 3rd call this week with birds in houses!!!!!

Family Time

Hey, how come we never have brunches or barbeques anymore? Just cuz we have this family blog doesn't mean we have to stop talking to each other in person!!!!
Missing you (even the Detroiters), Natalie

IM IN THE DOG HOUSE

The day didn't start out very well- I was minding my own business eating a healthy breakfast ( cherriios and waffles - no syrup) when my blessed wife of many years whom I love dearly and would give half my kingdom for -began screaming - "There is an animal in the fireplace-Well immediately after finishing my coffee and last bite of waffle I ran to the fire place and low and behold - there was a large black bird inside the fireplace- and no way for it to get out- So I decided that there was nothing I could do about the situation- Just leave the bird there and eventual it will die and than I will remove it- So I told Mom good bye and went to learn at the kollel like every good Jewish husband- I didnt realize that I had moved into the dog-house until Mom called me later and informed me that Mrs Rabinowitz- the all knowing 1/16 indian- able to indentify all the edible parts of our lawn - had come over and removed the bird using magic or kisuf or something like that and that I had abondoned her in her time of need- So here I sit in the dog house where it is quiet cold trying to fiqure out what else I should have done ? What would y'all have done
Perplexed in bird land

Here or There

Hi All. It's the Nat part of Shu or Nat. I've just spent the last half hour trying to catch up on all these Blogs. So now I am caught up and in the loop......more or less.
As for our story...things are a little crazy. Over a weekend we went from Shauli getting a new job to us temporarily moving to Pittsburgh (or White Oak to be exact - with no eruv AHHHHH!!!!). So I went into my work and told them I needed to take a leave of absence because of my husband's job (ooh, it's fun to say that!). I told them it was effective ASAP so they said I would have to follow whatever schedule was out and then they could take me off. Turns out, they were able to take me off the schedule for next week. So we were good to go.
Then it all changed. Shauli still has the job but we aren't going to Pittsburgh. For now. So I went back to work and told them but there was nothing they could do about my schedule for next week. So now I have a week off. So that's kinda exciting. Like a little break. An unpaid break however which makes it less exciting.
It should be interesting. I've already got plenty to do. Take Jonah to the doctor. Take Jonah to get shots. Take Jonah to get Portraits at WalMart (we got a coupon for a bunch of free ones!!!). Take Jonah to PlayGroup with my Lubavitch Girls Night Out friends who I haven't seen in ages. Hmmm....I feel like my week is revolving around a certain little person in my life. But that's cool. I'm definatly looking forward to some bonding time with my baby. I feel like I've been working a lot and when I am not working I am trying to get things done. We need more quality time together. And since he has gotten into the "Clingy" stage, it shouldn't be a problem.
So, anywhoo I feel like our life is somewhat on hold and I don't really know where we stand. Because we could get a call anyday to pack up and move. So I don't know where we will be living next week or next month. ARGH!! Oh well, it's all in the name of the job. So that's that.
Love you all - Natalie

Dad

I just want you all to know that for the first time daddy is interested in computing other than for work. He loves reading and writing to the blog. I don't . Yesterday is a perfect example. I wrote this very long piece for the blog, hit send, and found out my connection was off. there went all my efforts and a lot of time. Well I'm trying it again, and if it doesn't work, I'll just read your posts and make occasional comments.
I'm very excited about coming to visit you all, though I don't know where I'm staying yet. Mrs. Posy will be in the states, and although Sarra offered me her room, Goldie Abrin is staying there, dont forget. So I may call Mrs. Grossbard and stay there.
The Purim project is in full swing here as you can imagine, and I've been coming home very late the last few nights. I'll try and bring Sim and Golda's with me.
Its 5:30 am and I walk in another 10 minutes. Its still freezing (16) so we walk indoors, and we expect snow today and tomorrow. I'm ready for spring.
Have a great day everyone, I love you all

New trick

Naftali has a new trick. He puffs up his cheeks, slaps his face with both hands and all the air rushes out. I love teaching my kids new things.
O.K., what should i teach first grade in English is fun this sun. 1) I could right up a list of purim words in hebrew and bring in a few costumes and have them act out a Hasaga with the english words. But i don't want to bring lice home (which is always a possibility). And i don't know if they would remember the words. 2) maybe they could make a mask in english...I don't know if that would work either, or 3) I can just go on with the next three letters??!!! opinions please!

Purim is Comming

Haman told achasverosh that there is a people who is scattered among your nation. It was because there was no achdus in klal yisrael- we were a scattered people- that the bad decree could come about- to counteract this we give the gifts to increase rayus(friendship) as a tikon so that we should become united- Its best to give to people who are not your best friends.

Im trying to decide if I should go to Rabbi Lauer's daughter's wedding in Monsey. On the one hand I would go because it is kavod to Rabbi Lauer- On the other hand- If I wasn't there- I wouldn't be missed. We are hosting sheva brachos and I could be the punim chodosh . Mom is going to be in Israel then- Dr Last thinks Im justing trying to find reasons not to go- How do you vote- Should i go?

devorah wrote this

hey its me
yup that is the problem you all dont really know who this is cuz it is from boston zacks and one might assume that that is yaakov
nope its me (Devorah) and after talking to Aviva and realizing that the last two things i wrote on here she attributed to yaakov i now realize that i have to come up with a name
well while i think about what to call myself let me update you on the kids
Shira is convinced that i am having a baby any day (no i am not pregnant) it is really not good for the ego when someone looks at your stomach and then tells me that she thinks that if my baby is a boy we should name it Ephraim cuz she really loves ephraim - yeah its hard appreciating a cute comment when you are busy thinking.. is my dieting really doing that badly
Chanalana eats cheerios and knows how to feed them to herself. She also learned how to clap. We think that she might even do it on demand and when we sing "if your happy and we know it clap your hands" she claps. The only thing is that we usually only think to sing that when she is already clapping and so does it count if she has already been clapping for the past fifteen minutes?
i now feel bad cuz yael really is cute and does and says cute things all the time but i cant think of anything to write and this of course will be a prime example for her when she tells me that i am not fair to her

My Little Boy's First Game

Every Wednesday I have been going to a cooking demonstration at the JCC by Chef Tim of Weight Watchers. (I ate whitefish and red snapper for the first time tonight, interesting...) Upon my arrival at home tonight, I saw my beloved sitting on the couch, wearing his mustard-yellow, Jerusalem Pizza jersey. After my laughter subsided, I asked him how long he had been wearing his "uni." Mockingly, I joked, "Two hours?" His reply, "No, Dear. An hour and a half."

I couldn't see what he was watching on TV, so I ventured a guess: Miracle, the story of the first winning USA Olympics Ice Hockey Team? "No, basketball," he answered. "But I did download Al Michaels' call - Do you believe in miracles? - among other sound-bytes onto a CD."

"Really?" I asked. "But how will your team-members benefit from these inspiring words? You gonna steal the kids' CD player, and play it up there in the locker room?"

"I don't need to," replied Arye. "I am driving some of the guys up there. We'll listen to it in the car."

Well, Arye. I hope that you used every minute of your hour and a half head start up I-75, I hope you yell a lot at the other team, I hope you play your hardest, and I hope that, for you, winning isn't optional.

Major Dilemma

School is finally getting better. I got old tests to study from for my final next week (the second chance on math) and I understood statistics today. Thats harder then it seems cuz the teacher is Russian and has worse Hebrew then I do. Anyways, heres the dilemma. We have bunches of weddins coming up and engagement parties. First we have Hillel Kates engagement party out somewhere up north I think. Then Shanys friend is getting married also somewhere far away, then 2 of the guys from the army are getting married (not too each other!!) 3 days apart, then anther friends wedding. Somewhere in the middle of that all, Nissim is getting married. All in the space of two weeks, and after those two weeks are finals. So when are we supposed to study? I already decided not to go to one of the army guys weddings, but the other ones we cant get out of. Which brings up the real dilemma (what is up with the word dilemma? I thought it was dilemna, but I checked on dictionary and it said its dilemma. I think dilemna looks more normal) The real dilemma is that Shanys friend is getting married Sunday of Purim. To most of you that wouldnt matter but for those of us Yerushalmim, Sunday is our real Purim. So I'm supposed ot get drunk, have a whole seudah and then go running to a wedding? Does that make sense. So Shany said she'll go without me if I dont want to go. But who's going to help me find my apartment and put me in bed if she goes away? And I know even if she says shell go alone, she really wont like it. So should I go to the wedding drunk and in costume? I dont even know who these people are. Why are people so inconsiderate to make weddings on my Purim!?!?! I just dont understand.

Frustration

I know that when you start a new job with a new company, things are going to go exactly as planned, but that doesnt make it any less frustrating.
We were going to White Oak based on teh assumption that my company signed a contract with a school district. Our contact on the school board told us that they were going to sign it on Monday. Sadly he incorrect. Fow whatever reason, thgey delayed, we still believe that they will sign, they are just going over it again, and revoting and who knows what else.
Nat had already told her job that she leaving, and she worked it all out with them so that she can keep her job when we got back..well know she has to go to them and let them know that shes staying for a little longer, and we're not sure what the deal is. Tommorow they could always sign teh contract, and tehn Ill go in, but I dont know. I guess in time everything will work itself out, it's just annoying
Veev, I hope we're still invited for friday night even though it appears we arent leaving just yet:)

efsher some food or maybe just money

gemara last night was discussing mishloach manos and matanos le'evyonim. so why do we give money to the poor? it says you should give mishloach manos ish lreayhu ushtay matanos lshtai aniyim. or something very similar to that. so rashi says manos is delicacies, and then the gemara continues witha story of r ushiya receiving a gift of a cow and barrel of wine from i beleive his son, and he says now you have been mekayim the mitzvah of shaloch manos. well whats the chidush? so the ritvah says the story rerally was first he sent a leg of a cow and a barrel of wine and it was sent back to him and then he sent the whole cow. but rashi didnt learn that girsah. so according to ritvah you have to send something that is befitting the person you are sending to. so if your sending to the rav or to any adult for that matter dont send 7 raisins and 6 popcorns. your not yotze the mitzva. the next piece of gemara discusses that rava sent to mari through abaye some sweet kernels and something else, so abaye says when you're a simple villager thats ok to send but now your the rav of pumpidisa you have to send something nicer, so now we se that you also have to send something thats is befitting to yourself. so the real question is why send shaloch manos, is it to be friendly or is it to help someone with their meal? so now to the gift to the poor. if its to make friends then send him a some food and if its for a meal send better food. but we dont send better food to a poor person because it says matanos not manos. a poor person just wants a piece of bread not a duck a lamode. he wouldnt know what to do with all the feathers so to the poor person you give a small thing that he can eat to the rich person you send manos , a nice basket with nice things in it. so the question is still money or food to the poor? we couldnt find a reason why all of the sudden in the shulchan aruch he went from food to money. we couldnt see why we dont give food to the poor but everyone gives money. if a guy is starving and he needs to eat a seudah and you give him 20 bucks can he eat it. no hes still hungry. if anyone has a good explanation please let me know. the gemara also says the mari sent back to rava through abaye pepper and ginger, since when can you give spices for shaloch manos? another unanswered question.
efsher someone can give some terutzim lechora.

too late for moms

Are kids allowed out of bed when they can't sleep? I'm in favour of her just lying in bed staring at the ceiling, but her dad thinks she's allowed out of bed.
So tuesdays is the kids early day out of school. Therefore I allow them to invite friends over. Yehuda had a friend over and so did Avigail. Yehuda had alot of fun, they kicked around his soccer ball, did a puzzle, tortured his little brother a little, good times. Avigail also had fun. I think the best part was colouring the cookies I put out for them and stuffing as many as they can in their mouth.
So a funny story about the body found in the wadi the other night. My friend went to work the next day and asked another nurse she works with if she heard about the body. The other nurse replied that her son found it. It was full of worms, yuck! But now we know what all the helicopter activity was in the evening. Although what her son was doing down in the wadi at 8:30 is interesting to contemplate.
I'm off the hook for cooking for the poor this rosh chodesh, but i still get to deliver. My friends convinced me I could let other people do the cooking for this one. Lucky I have good friends.
G'night.

Amusing story

The Bricklayer 1998 Urban Legend

Accident Report
This one needs an introduction, so you won't be lost at the beginning. This man was in an accident at work, so he filled out an insurance claim. The insurance company contacted him and asked for more information. This was his response:
"I am writing in response to your request for additional information, for block number 3 of the accident reporting form. I put 'poor planning' as the cause of my accident. You said in your letter that I should explain more fully and I trust the following detail will be sufficient. I am an amateur radio operator and on the day of the accident, I was working alone on the top section of my new 80-foot tower. When I had completed my work, I discovered that I had, over the course of several trips up the tower, brought up about 300 pounds of tools and spare hardware. Rather than carry the now unneeded tools and material down by hand, I decided to lower the items down in a small barrel by using the pulley attached to the gin pole at the top of the tower. Securing the rope at ground level, I went to the top of the tower and loaded the tools and material into the barrel. Then I went back to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to ensure a slow decent of the 300 pounds of tools."
"You will note in block number 11 of the accident reporting form that I weigh only 155 pounds. Due to my surprise of being jerked off the
ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded at a rather rapid rate of speed up the side of the tower. In the vicinity of the 40-foot level, I met the barrel coming down. This explains my fractured skull and broken collarbone. Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley. Fortunately, by this time, I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold onto the rope in spite of my pain. At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of tools hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel."
"Devoid of the weight of the tools, the barrel now weighed approximately 20 pounds. I refer you again to my weight in block number 11. As you might imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the tower. In the vicinity of the 40-foot level, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two fractured ankles, and the lacerations of my legs and lower body. The encounter with the barrel slowed me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell onto the pile of tools and, fortunately, only three vertebrae were cracked. I am sorry to report, however, that as I lay there on the tools, in pain, unable to stand and watching the empty barrel 80 feet above me, I again lost my presence of mind. I let go of the rope..."

the israel rush

This week has been hectic.

Golda's family is all coming next week. We had a time sharing arrangment with goldas cousin yoili for her grandmother. She'll be here for 2 weeks, they get her for a week and we get her for a week. But then, but then yoilis fatherinlaw died. Now they are all sitting shiva when bubby gets here. So we suggested sending bubby to goldas brother, but they only have one available room because the baby just learned how to sleep in her own room and they don't want to unlearn her for a week.
So I said well then I'll go down and pick her up and we won't do any timesharing. Except that golda had already called her mother who called bubby who called the other aunt (yoilis mom) who's going to be here at the same time who called goldas mom and suddenly there are issues.
Its a funny soap because people are getting all hung up about a non-issue.
I proposed 3 options.
1) Yoilis parents can do with her what they will, they'll be here a couple days before and its really their turn. So I felt that was fair.
2) If they couldn't handle it because of the death and all, we would still try and be fair and give her to benji, but then she might have to stay in a hotel for 2 nights. We didn't know if that would work or not.
3) If none of the other options worked, I'd drive down pick her up from the airport, do a shiva visit, a visit to the wailing wall and then hop on over to maalot.

Such is the current Zacks soap opera.

artistic license?

Yael aspires to be an artist
the issue of the day is how far we let her take her artistic license before we censor her
Today Yael was decorating her lunch bag for tomorrow (yup we color pictures on our kids brown bags to pretend like they have lunch boxes - crayons are the poor man's answer to everything and duct tape of course)
She colored a picture of queen esther - tis the season
her picture included a belly button and nipples
Yaakov had her color a dress on top but unfortunately it seems to be a sheer green dress.
We wonder why we have not been fully accepted into this kollel community and i am wondering if they just dont see things like us (a nude esther)
This also made us wonder why a story as good as the megilah has never been made into a movie
The ten commandments is now a classic and i think that this story has enough love, death, hatred etc. that you dont even have to add in any extra love angles like they had to do in the ten commandments
I would watch it
we'll see how many others around here would appreciate the idea - we are first gonna test the waters with our paper bag drawing

Learning Torah is a guten zach

Question ? Why do we give tzedakah to someone going to Israel
Answer Because we make him a sliach mitzvah guy and they are protected from harm !
Then ponder-- Isnt he a sliach mitzvah guy all by himself with out my tzedakah ? He is going to Israel- that is a MItzvah. Ah you may say it is different if he is doing the mitzvah himself or is being a sliach for someone else- But I saw the source for the protection is from the fact that a person going to Yerusalyim on Regalim doesnt have to be afraid that something bad may happen to his property in his absence since he is away on a mitzvah and this was brought as the source of a sliach mitzvah is protected from harm. Im confused. The navi Shumuel was told by Hashem to go to David and annoit him king- He says he is afraid of King Saul and Hashem has to create a trick that Shumel is really only going to David for sacrifices- Shumeul is a sliach mitzvah guy of Hashem and he is afraid of harm!- This was answered by the fact that the protection from harm is only when it is not in a place that is common for harm and crossing King Saul wouldnt commonly cause harm

Phone Phixed

Hey! Excellent news. Our American phone is fixed. Not that I think David & Shani are crazy for posting their phone number on the internet, but I will not. Most of you have the number, I believe, and those who do not ask Mom & Dad for it.
The problem was the internet company here lied to us. They've been charging us for 1.5 while giving us 750. Also it was configured to the wrong ISP #. What all that means is very technical and Sim can explain if he cares to. Not that we used him to help...I figured it out on my own...
Now, let's talk about this for a second. In the States if this were to happen the company would feel aweful, you'd threaten to switch providers, they'd beg you to stay, and offer you a free month or two. Not in Israel. They are just annoyed that we called them to have it fixed. Gotta love this country...anyway :)

Hakol Tost

QuickTorah: A.Gemara: If you go to a seudat chattan (i.e. a wedding) and you dont make simcha, you have sinned. The Berdichever says: We dont really know exactly how to be misamaech these days so thats why the girl pays for the wedding, so its not really a seudat chattan. B. The gemara says If someone says Shalom to you and you dont reply, your a thief. The Rabbi who does the daf on the internet says: if someone doesnt have their head covered you shouldnt say Shalom to him because then hell reply, and Shalom is G-ds name, and then he'll be saying G-ds name in vain. I think if you wish someone shalom, it is friendly and increases ahavat yisrael, and for things like shalom bayit G-d allows his name to erased (like by the Sota). So I think you should still say hi to people whos heads arent covered, jus dont say shalom, say "allo" or "ma nishma."
I am not taking Hebrew this semester. I told the lady at the office that I dont want to take it cuz there are too many girls. She told me that that is a reason to take it. Then I told her I was married so she agreed with me. I do feel bad though cuz now there is only one married guy and 15 girls. Shany has convinced me not to switch my major. I agreed, but mainly cuz I dont know what else to do. Meanwhile I have my make up(not like lipstick, like try again) test in 2 weeks and I still dont know it. On a positive note, on Thursday I have an appt with the Absorption Ministry, hopefully they will start paying me for making aliyah. I learned a new phrase this week. Hakol Tost. It means everything chilled out. Also, my Shany got an 80 on a test, but since so many girls failed they gave everyone an extra 10 points, so now she has a 90. Shavua Tov from Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh.

Relocation

We are back from a succesful Pittsburgh trip, I learned a lot about my future job and what I'll be responsible for in my new job.
When people would ask me why I was in Pitts, I said i was working for Brian Ungar, This led to the next most obvious question, are you moving here? Which i responded with an emphatic, NO, I'm going to run the Michigan branch. Little did I know that I wasn't entirely correct.
As me and Nat were walking out the door, car all packed ready to o home and start a new job, Margot came over to our car and asked what we thought about TEMPORARILY moving to White Oak, for 6-8 weeks. Our company just signed our first contract, and we want to get as many people working on Ads as possible. For me its a great oppurtunity, I will be able to learn the business much better working with Brian then I would doing it at home alone. teh question was what about Nat. We toyed with the idea of her staying in Detroit, and me coming home every now and then, but thats not a great plan. We decided to discuss it, when we got hom, Margot called and offered Nat a job doing secrecterial work while we are in town, so that she will stay busy and make money at the same time. They offered us a fully furnished house while we are there. So we are going back to Pittsburgh for a few months, I'm not suer when we are leaving. depends on Nat's story with her job, how soon she can get out of it. If she can be doen by teh end of teh week, We will be leaving Wednesday morning, I belive.
This whole thing is kinda sureal, Ill be done with teh Pizza shop meetiung with business execs, selling ads, meeting with school districts, life has gotten crazy.
Im afraid my XBOX may get jealous that im not spending so much time with her, im hoping she can make the trip in. Anyway thats all for now...

LETS INJECT SOME KEDUSHA

Greetings from Detroit
I thought that it would be nice to have a place to give over some interesting torah tidbits that you may have heard during the week . I invite anyone ,including ladies ,who heard a good vort or drusha to add their comments to my blog .
I have always wandered why every g'mera begins with the minute details of a topic instead of beginning with overall general information. The first topic of the g'mera is krias shema- I would have begun with the importance of saying shema- the proper kavena- what happens in heaven when we say shema etc- instead the g'mera begins with the exact time one can start saying it and the exact time its too late- Why? Because the oral torah is only writing down what might be forgotten- the details- but the big picture- The rebbi was still able to give over to the student orally so it wasn't necessary to write it down- OH! I look forward to reading your torah
Love DAD

purim problems

Purim is coming up and our thoughts are on the celebration
Shira wanted to be queen Esther and Yael told her that that was stupid cuz everyone is queen Esther. After a while of realizing that she couldn't convince shira with the whole "be your own dog" argument she stated that she will be haman so she can "get" all of the stupid queen esthers.
Well shira is now scared that if she is esther - haman will want to kill her... and yael has been banned from being haman....so the whole family is planning to dress up like vashty
Our next thought is on our seuda situation. As shauli and nat can attest it has not always worked out like we have wanted it to here. we now have friends but lots of them are friends with older marrieds that have invited them already (i know - with me already being 28 you can just imagin how old the older married people must be). So we are thinking that we had fun last year at a seuda with 2 fun families who have been switching off for a few years. BUT since they have been switching off for a while have we not gotten the invite cuz they are waiting for us to suggest it be at our house or have they just not invited us this year.
So here is the question of the day .... Should we take the initiative and invite them?
Okay so here is the hesitation - should we really be assuming that there is a yet in the "oh they haven't invited us to join in their seuda yet"
the next issue is pure lazyness - do you all know that this whole shebang is on a friday - yup we have to cook for shabbos and i would have to cook for 2 other large families with kids that really eat!
HELP!

Tzig Nichpin Shpatz

I have done it. Finally crossed over and became a daf yomi guy. Sorta. I first tried on Thursday night, but the shul I went to was two mesachtas behind. Then I went on Shabbat, to the right page. Then tonight i went to one shul but no one was there, passed another shul that was having their siyum hashas tonight, and went to a third shul were we did 4 daf in one hour. Does that mean I get to take the week off? I am reminded of the country yossi song-just learn a one daf a day song. I think I'm going to drop Ivrit, I dont like being in a classroom of all girls. I dont like being in a classroom. I like being in bed. I have my makeup test for math coming up soon. Hopefully that will go better then the last one. I think maybe I should learn something less math based. Ideas? Shavua Tov to all.

be your own dog

yael's teacher told us that she was asking all the girls what they wanted to dress up like for purim, queen esther ...queen esther...queen esther...cowboy...queen esther...queen esther... guess who broke the trend? not everyone is a follower. peer pressure. hah!
this shabbos we had a shul lunch in honor of the siyum hashas. it was seperate seating but not like different sides of the table. the women, and some kids, were on their own tables. i thought the food was pretty good but it was sad that i didnt get to sit with my family for a shabbos meal. i guess we made up for it the night before. this was the first week in a long time that we didnt have any guests. (jaime doesnt come the week before midterms and finals) it's also getting late enough that the kids eat before shabbos. WOOHOO soon its gonna be kiddush and bed. oh good times are a comin'. i have midterms this week monday tuesday and thursday, then a week off. any ideas? devorah is still teaching and the kids are in school. that leaves me hanging out with angela and making everyone crazy. good luck to them.

information overflow

OK I just spent an hour catching up on the llop and now I know what is going on. So Shauli didn't go to the siyum hashas and Batch is learnign what its like to be part of the family. Those blank looks are really looks of respect.
It's saturday night in the galilee. I just spoke to David. He survived another shabbos with the in-laws. We invited them for Pesach seder and they are accepted. I explained that shani's parents saw them every day and we were the zacks family home in Israel, so they acquiesed and we are very excited about it.
Purim is coming fast I have to decide what I'm going to dress as. Wait.. a thought just came to me.. I'll be a ~cowboy~! I have a straw cowboy hat from my wedding and blue jeans. DONE.

Work is treating me well, it is still looking good for the long term. I just got my bonus,m so now we should be able to afford Pesach. YAY.
No company for shabbos the past 2 weeks. We're holding a low profile because the folks from my other side (the ones out of the loop) are coming for a hoedown. Corey is getting married to Reesa in Tiverya. Family politics is so funny.

Have a good night.

2 blogs...really complicated!

hey. this is getting complicated! 2 blogs...oh well. what am i supposed to talk about here? im posting everything on the family blog- i agree with yaakov. one blog is better. but hey- what can u do? theres realy not much going on right now- i almost got suspended again. this suspension threat thing just KEEPS happening! so this time, i got almost suspended cuz i had my tznius button unbuttoned but- get this- i couldnt get suspended because i already had detention that day, so i couldnt leave. how cool is that? i think its funny....my friends think its pathetic...oh well.
i just heard an awesome quote. it went like this: "a good friend will come and bail you out of jail. a best friend will be sitting next to you saying That was awesome!"
another one is : "a good friend will pick you up when you fall down. a best friend will put out her foot and trip you."
once im saying my favorite quotes, here we go.
"Dont walk in my footsteps- i walk into walls."
"Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and the world laughs at you."
ok- i gotta go stop writing random things...and im gonna go help i guess....ya kno. it comes with being left at home all alone....hasta lavista! ciao....and PEACE OUT!

luv ya guys!
shev

ps- im just gonna post this on both blogs...
i kno i just posted on the loop.....oh well.

this is what u get for being a zacks :)

hey. im not tryin 2 b accusatory, or anything- but i'd just like to mention the strange looks i've gotten because of this family. so first, in rabbi rothbarts navi class, for some reason we were talking about flashbacks. so i said oh! my brothers get flashbacks back to the 'nam! well....lets just say that didnt go over so well. then, we were in computers and we were singing the lenero family lives in spain song. well, we got up to the lalalalalalalala part, and what do i do? i sing-very loudly- sweet pickles... and then they all yelled @ me for messing up the effect. oh well....what am i supposed to do? so i explained the family traditions to the class, and i got a lot of blank stares- and when i was telling them some family stories (to show them why im so strange sometimes) i got some comments like....ohhhhh thats the brother that went to the army, right? or...thats jonah's dad! the best was- oh- thats the one i saw @ one stop 4 years ago, right? (i had been talking about simmy....) but oh well. some people will just never understand. oh- speaking of weird family members and funny stories..... i just thought i'd share this with you.
ME: guess what rivka? i just found out that Gay Cousin Howard's first name is NOT Gay Cousin!
RIVKA: ooooh- i was trying to figure out why everyone in your family had the same name!
lol...i gueess you had to be there but it was funny ;) dont worry- we still love rivka! ok...being that it's friday, im guessing eli is gonna come soon so im gonna go....seyanora, hasta lavista, ciao, and PEACE OUT!

luv ya

shev

not happy

School has jsut hit an ultimate low for me. I failed the economics test the second time around. I am in good company, another 300 or so people also failed, but its still depressing. I cant take second year classes without it so I dont know what will be. I refuse to follow the trend of Americans that come to Bar Ilan and get an English major. I still have to take the math test I failed again. School is jsut no longer my thing. And its not like I dont study. I spent weeks studying for these tests. But at least I'm going to get money from the government for making aliyah and from nefesh bnefesh. So if school doesnt work out I'll see how welfare does for me.
At least Shany is passing her tests. Anyways, we're off to her parents for Shabbat. Shabbat Shalom to all!

Random Thoughts

I sit here in front of the computer thoroughly enjoying reading about the lives and thoughts of my children (both born to me and acquired at post teenage).
Golda, I'll bring you DVD's when I come, you sound so sad with the availability there. I'm glad that Yehuda is becoming his own person and not believing his father as to who he is!!
Daddy and I went to the siyum hashas here in Detroit with close to 900 other people. We watched and listened and heard wonderful divre torah and got loads of chizuk. It was long, 4 1/2 hours to be exact, but other than the few Yiddish speeches it was very inspiring.

Life here at home has many challenges, the least of which are what kind of window treatments do we get in the dining room. Living with a bonefide teenager who has "come of age" is not always easy. there are many times when the silence here is deafening, but then other times when we talk about lots of things. One never knows what the day will bring, thats the fun of it and also a challenge.

We had a Bar Mitzvah today for Levi Klein haLevi - David and Sherry's youngest son. Sherry kept remarking that this was her last bar mitzvah, and seemed to be very happy about that fact. I got home from breakfast at shul at 11 and then was going to go to a lunch and learn, Arye offered to go to lunch if I didn't learn, so he won out!!

Everyone keep posting, its fun to read and know everyone's thoughts.

We wish Naomi luck with all her loose teeth.

Just like home

Hello Zack's. I wanted you to all know, that sitting here reading all the blogs is like being surrounded by all the family and its great!! Ah, so where to start or which topic to focuss on, I guess I'll just start from now and go forward. Last night Simmy was at the siyum Hashas in Yerushalaim, therefore no Simmy at home; how sad. SO I borrowed a couple of DVD's, but apparently my taste is so different than those of the people I borrowed the movies from that i never seem to get a good movie. The first movie I watched 20 min. or so and decided watching all the female main characters kill themselves is not something I want to watch, especially being alone all night. Movie number 2. Holy moly, this movie contained everything you can have a nightmare about. A man floating in the water headless, ghosts haunting a house, a car crash with replays.... I mean it went on and on. So as I climbed into bed I kindly asked G-d to not let me have nightmares and Thankfully I didn't. Today I read an article in Mishpacha magazine that said you can ask G-d for small favours too and if your prayer is heartfelt He might answer, G-d is great!!

Since I mentioned Mishpacha magazine, I must add that i read an article that very strongly split the sides between chareidi and dati leumi. It could be that what the article said might have some truth to it, but the feeling of sinut chinum I picked up from reading that was horrendous. Why is there so much anamosity between these groups. It really bothers me.

I have taught Naftali Grovers 'wamba, wamba, wamba, wamba' song and he sings it very well. Yehuda now insists that he is 'Yehuda who is four' and not 'Yehuda Hamacabi', because Yehuda Hamacabi is bigger than Daddy and strong up to the sky. Avigail has just started getting school lunches and is thrilled her and her sister can talk about what they got for lunch from school. And Naomi had a hair cut on tuesday, she has short hair again. And there are many more teeth loose in her mouth. I guess once one goes it's like a tidal wave or tsunami.

Love hearing form all of you, keep up the amusing comments.

Jobs

Some thought it would never happen, but it did, I have a job. The job is with a company called InSight media. The comaopny generates revenue for school districts (and me)by placing ads in school buses. I actaully have a lot of responsibility wih this job, because im running the detroit branch. (It's based in Pittsburgh) while I'm sad that i will be leavuing the pizza shop, and all my free dinners , but i think its a good decision.

my siyum hashas experience

it all started a day before the great siyum when i asked Mrs. Plotnik to bring me home a ticket to the great event from the bookstore where she works that her brother owns. i told her i didnt have to pay for the ticket because i'm a student and its free for students. she didnt think i was the type of student they were referring to on the poster and i assured her i was, but that i will check into the matter myself and if i have to pay i will. so i went to the Morse Auditoriumat Boston University, and as luck would have it, i got a seat right away with lots of empty seats around me. i wasnt sad that i didnt have any close friends there or someone to sit next to, i wasnt sad that i drove myself to the siyum hashas and sat all by myself...because i had lots of room to strrrrrreeeeeetch out. anyway we had our own siyum that we did before the NY one and then we had a haschalah and divrei bracha before we went live to NY. the first speaker we heard was the bostoner rebbe but it was alittle fuzzy in the sound department. i listened to the next one too and then walked out in search of someone to sit next to. or at least to talk to. while outside i was approached by an upstanding memeber of the community to daven maariv. so i did with many other people in the basement of the auditorium and when we were done they were finishing upo the kaddish on the big screen. so then i watched the dancing all over the world and i even went around the circle once in boston. thats when i found out from the agudah guy that I AM the student they were referring to and i didnt have to pay for my ticket. once i found that out i didnt feel obliged to stick around, its not like i was paying for it. sdo i left also cause i was not understanding a lot of the yiddish that was spoken and i was a little bored. but kudos to all those that stuck around.

From the Oleh Chadash

Following my trend of bandwaggoning, I have joined the Zacks in Israel and became Israeli today. Although since I was the first one to actually move here and the only to go to the army, I dont think I'm really following anyone, I just never had a reason to actually Aliyah til now. I also went to the Siyum HaShas with Sim. I already wrote about that in detail on my blog. i just want to discuss one point I discussed with Sim. Whether we relate more to the American Charaidi crowd that was there or the Dati Leumi crowd we associate with more. I think that although I grew up American Charaidi, I have outgrown it. From joining the army to making Aliyah, my lifes path has taken me in a completely different direction then all the people I've grown up with and known. I saw old friends of mine at the Siyum tonight, one that I was very close to and even came to our house and got drunk with me one Purim, and I had nothing to say. Nothing. They dont go to college, they dont understand why someone would go to the army, they would never make aliyah even if they would live here forever, they dont care to "waste their time" learning Hebrew or being part of the country they live in. Even though there are many things I disagree with about the Dati Leumi theology, there are many more ways I relate to them. One of my army friends was in the Misrad Hapnim waiting to change his address to a Gush Katif address so that after they stop allowing visitors in, he can still go and protest. Even if I dont agree with his politics (I'm still not clear on that issue) I still understand why he feels that why and I can still talk to him. That is why I align myself more with Dati Leumi and not Charaidi.

It's me

hey! shalom from the one that everyone left at home! vee- i reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally wanted 2 come over but ive failed so many tests lately i figured maybe i shud study for one and see what happens....the result of this experiment will come tomorrow hopefully when i find out what i get. I'll let u guys kno if it was succesful.... aright- i have nothin else to say and the father figure needs the computer....so PEACE OUT!!!

luv ya!!

Shev

Toxic Envelope Glue

Is envelope glue still made from dead horses????

Last night, while helping Arye's Shul committee with a mailing, I decided to be chivalrous. I gave away my moistener to someone else who was sealing envelopes. (For anyone who doesn't know what that is: a little bottle filled with water, with a sponge top, that is used to rub against envelope glue in order to seal it.)

I must have sealed over a hundred envelopes with my tounge. I did run and get some water to keep my mouth moist. But guess what happens when you drink water in between licking envelopes? You swallow a lot of glue. Oops. This morning I woke up with a VERY sore throat, and no voice. (Yaakov can attest to this fact because when he called me tonight, I whispered "Hello?" and he whispered back to me. By the way, I hate when people do that....But I digress.) I spent all day whispering and feeling really crummy to boot.

As most of you know, tonight was the Siyum HaShas, so Arye had been unavailable since about 5:20. No help. Mom and Dad drove him there. No help. Batch had Friendship Circle tonight, and is even studying. Wanted to, but no help.

Shauli and Nat to the rescue! On their way out Detroit to Pittsburgh (see Nat's blog for details) Shu and Nat stopped at Pizza to buy dinner for themselves and amazingly, for us, too! It's not DiGiorno, it's delivery (or is it Deliverance?)

After I bathed everybody and put them to bed, I went online to check and see if I was going to die from some horrible toxin. I found that many people are allergic to envelope glue as they may contain latex or corn or wheat. And many people develop asthma from licking it. Yeah......great to know.

Anyway, mad props to the Man Upstairs, without whom there could be no fluids with which to get rid of my (new) affliction.

Smoke Signals

Ok, that's it I give up on the signal reading. My friend called White Knight who has fallen off his horse and can't get up to, to "set us up" and his response was that he didn't see it working out. Ok, so now I am to just assume his walking me home was because he is against any girls walking home by themselves, his calling me was out of guilt that I did walk home by myself, his teasing me was strictly friendly and his asking me today if I was upset about something on shobbos was b/c we're just friends. I give up. Not that I've ever gotten it right before, why should now be different.

White Knights Falling Down

But still being white knights...for those who were out of the loop, i have a crush...mainly because he walked me home one night from a party, and then called the next time (when he didn't walk me home because he claimed to be too tired) he knew i was walking home alone, and then I interviewed him for a position (which I'm not hiring him for, don't worry, i told him) in my school, however Mr. Perfectformewhyaren'twemarried crashed and burned when I went to his place for Shabbos lunch (with 15 other people). So, he has smicha, but doesn't really know halacha, he teased me like any brother of mine would do, he quit a game because I was killing him, he put a 2 minute time limit on someone's d'var torah - while a rant gets up to 15 minutes... but then, he called me tonight to ask if everything was ok, cuz i seemed a little upset about something on Shabbos...hmmm. maybe i will let my friend set us up.
What is up with that. Why can't I just assume that if he wants to go out with me he'll ask me ask. Why do I have to assume he'll never ask me out, but if someone brings it up he'll go for it? Grrrr, i hate dating life.
So, i'm thinking (and rethinking) if I should post this here or on my blog. I'm thinking what is the difference. I want to keep my blog for random thoughts and this for family update thoughts...I could put somethings in both blogs. I think the only person who reads that that does not read this is Yael (my old roommate).
Program Update:
The program is going excellent. I graphic designer (not me) has all the text now, and is now findind and taking pictures. The cost is going to be about 12,000 per kid - higher then I wanted, i'm going to try and bring that down a bit...like 3,000 down. It will be in Modiin (although we have not spoken to the mayor yet). I have 6 interested kids, including two from Detroit.
It's a good day!