HAPPY BIRTHDAY DONUTS

Wedding plans

In case you haven't heard yet, we are planning on Binyanei HaUma on Tuesday, the 26th of Cheshvan. Should be finalized tomorrow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAT!!!

Shmuel's party pics

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47764&l=3a065&id=818315482

Bad Back

I finally hauled my tuchas off this couch for a couple of hours yesterday to go grocery shopping. I must have pulled a muscle carrying heavy items because by the time I went to bed my back was hurting. It hurts between two ribs on my left side. Good thing I came home with 1500 ibuprofen.

Dippin Dots

Every time we go to the zoo, we wonder if Dippin Dots are kosher. S and I have both heard that they are kosher in Pittsburgh and we always say we'll have to check it out when we get home. But we never do.
Tonight I was online catching up on e-mails and I have no idea what made me think of it but I went to the Dippin Dots website to check the kosher status. I saw the following paragraph in the FAQ section.
Are Dippin' Dots Kosher?

In addition to our plant being FDA and USDA approved, Dippin' Dots are certified Kosher. The certification is Kosher-Dairy for year-round use (excluding Passover) by the Vaad Hoeir of St.Louis, MO. The symbol for the Vaad Hoeir is a circled V.

I thought that was so interesting. I don't know if it was interesting that they are Kosher and no one knows it or it was interesting that it's the Vaad of St.Louis that certifies it. Anywhoo, I wanted to confirm so I went to the Vaad of St.Louis website but didn't find a list of places that they certify. So I e-mailed them and we'll see what I hear back!

And soon - perhaps we will be eating Dippin Dots. But it better be really soon because our Zoo membership expires at the end of August. And I don't know where else they sell them.

I'll keep you posted!

MORE lchaim pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=207&l=8c823&id=1665990009

enjoy...

More engagement pics

http://family.webshots.com/album/560437247ozmioT

Jonah the Hero

Jonah and I went to the T's to drop off cookies, our thanks to them for feeding us. Jonah was comfortable in his seat and asked if he could just stay in the car. I had no problem with it since I wasn't even going in the house, just a quick dropoff. I left the car on so the air would be on, and he wouldn't get hot.

When I returned the car I discovered that I somehow locked my door. All the doors auto lock when the car is on, but the drivers door unlocks when the door opens. I must have hit it with elbow when I got out of The car. ST tried a hanger, he saw it in the movies, and it worked pretty easily. But in real life, you need more than a hanger.

Our best hope was for Jonah to reach the lock and open it. But he couldn't reach it. We tried to have him unlock his car seat, but he couldn't. Then my genius son slipped his shoulders under the straps and reached out and was able to unlock the door.

This whole ordeal took a few minutes and while he was in the car he was laughing, thought it was the funniest thing. Once the door was open, and he could breathe the hot muggy air, he realized what happened, and freaked out. After an ice pop from JT, he finally calmed down and went back in the car.

L'chayim Pics

It as if I was there, but since I had the camera you never see me:)

All by myself

N and S ran off to B-more for Shabbos leaving me (sh) and J to fend for ourselves.
Also out of town this week are M* and D*, Y and D, and our next door neighbors, where Jonah's likes to hang out with his buddy A.

Luckily we have other friends, and they are taking care of this Shabbos

*Do M and D need code names since we use a pretty generic term when we speak of them ?

NY,NY

we got to say goodbye to v,d,f,and navush,
gas was 2.45 in NJ today , and now i have listed all the highlights of our trip thus far. tune n for more highlights later
UPDATE:
today we drove to see devorahs bubbie and zayde in new haven and we also got to drop our kids off at a play area for free and leave them while we went to look around IKEA. that was fun.
my mom in law is here while i read this so we also saw rena and auntie evei and uncle jay and cousin miriam and her baby tsipporah. this list is not in order of people seen. (i also saw the rabbi going on to the subway)we went to pizza in riverdale and that was good till we found the fried fly in our french fries. in a chinese restaraunt they call it flied lice.
have fun at the milchig l'chaim

we're here

yay we're in israel!
so here are the interesting things that have happened so far:
1. spiderman 3 was NOT a good movie
2. the yeshiva guy sitting next to me was not very exciting and after 9 hours, all i got was what yeshiva he's going to. i don't even remember what it was.
3. the israeli guy at the car rental figured out a way to shove all of our tons of luggage into the car, leaving a tiny space for...me.
4. in the boys room at Air and Veev's house, the bottom bunk is the more comfortable one.

i think we're going to leave now to meet sarra and shlomo. now we'll see if he really exists.

i'll let ya know.

Party to take place at the Yakar shul, Thursday at 1930. See you there...
(The address is הל"ה 10, entrance is from כובשי קטמון).
:-)

We finally got Sammy's passport, so Sarra and Shlomo now you can safely pick a wedding date.

The water heater

As I was taking M, D and Sh to the airport, N called and informed me that we had no hot water in our house. I thought this was odd since I took a hot shower last night. Dad told me that everything works fine the minute before it breaks.

We figured the first thing we had to do was check the water heater, once we figured out where it was and which big thing in the basement it was, we discovered that the pilot light was off.

This evening, I wanted to take a shower, but I remembered we had no hot water, so it was time to take matters in my own hand. I went downstairs with a lighter, and had visions of the whole place exploding, I think I watch to many movies, but I followed the directions and lit the thing. Soon I will be able to shower and see if it worked.

Still not sure why it turned off.

A New Name

You know how it is. First the kids call their female parent Mommy, then Mom, then Ma, and in some cases, at some points, Aviva. Now they have a new name for her, and I start laughing every time they call out for Momster.

Jealous of Jonah

I am jealous of my almost three year old boy.
He went to the Tiger game with Nat today and when it was done he ran the bases. I have never ran the bases or been on the field at Tiger stadium or Comerica Park.

Happy Birthday mom

Happy Birthday Mom. I thought about calling and leaving you a message, but the wife thought that might be a bit inappropriate.

It's prety much all over....

....I think.

We went outside to check out the hive and there wasn't much going on, Just a the charred bodies of our enemies, and a bunch of flies looking for a some Cajun bee snacks.

All that's left now is getting rid of the hive. Our friend is supposed to come by and help toss it out, tho I don't where it will get tossed. I assume before we get close to it again, we will toss something at the hive, to make sure that we aren't walking into a trap. If whatever we toss hits the hive and nothing happens then we will remove the hive. Put back the step, add some sealant around the bottom to prevent future attacks and go into Shabbos relaxed and able to once again play on the porch.

Attack

It was time to stop being cowards, it was time to be Macabees!

I had slipped out of the house to go to work, and a friend came and emptied a canister and a half of ammo onto the bees. They weren't thrilled with his plan, but they opted not to sting him. Instead they flew around the house for a while not letting anyone else come and go.

Somehow, one of the bees managed to get past our security and entered our house, Nat was quick to trap it under the cup. This confused the bee who didn't think it was Succos time yet. He was a POW for an hour or so.

On the way home from the office I stopped at the hardware store and bought more poison to waste on these guys. I waited for the bees to calm down and allowed Nat to take the kids and escape for a while. Then I stood in my house, put the ammo through the screen door and emptied another cannister on these guys.

Sadly, the angle I had was awful, our friend stood outside right over the nest and shot, they were mad by now so I stayed inside. After I emptied the canister I noticed that I missed the nest, got all around it, but from my angle it was an impossible shot. I did see that some bees were dead in the foam.

I will continue to update as things progress. Our friend is planning on coming back later in the day and get rid of the nest for us. I''ll be interested in how that plays out. Hopefully this issue will be resolved before Shabbos

Mission Failed!!!

I was lying in bed last night around 1:30 trying to figure out my next step, when it hit me I should use my car. I got dressed, snuck out the side of the house and ran to the car. I drove into the step, and backed into it a couple of times, with the hopes of knocking it off the wooden stoop it sits, so I can get a better view of their home base. I noticed a cat leaving their home, I wasn't sure who side he was one, was he going to eat the bees or collaborate with them.

After the attack I ran back into the house so I can see my handiwork. I was successful in knocking the step of the stoop, but I still couldn't see where the nest was. Part B of the plan had me getting up at 5 a.m. checking the situation out from the side and finishing the job. At 6:30 Nat woke me up, informed that I slept right through the alarm and my window was shut, the bees were getting up around then also. So I went back to bed, content allow Nat to bring in the pros.

I got another hour or so of sleep, in which I had a dream that one Bee was coming right for me, but I opened fire, and killed it before it could sting me.

After I got dressed, I used the side door so I could finally see this hive, thanks to my handi-work it was exposed, and it was huge. My guess is about the size of a nerf football, but instead of nerf it was filled with bees.

We put up a sign warning innocents, like our mail man, to stay away or use the side door, or risk being attacked by these guys. I will update you on upcoming developments and post photos.

Under Siege

The siege has been raging for slightly over 2 hours now, we are unable to go in or out of the house or risk facing the wrath of the swarming bees.

Some background

A few weeks ago some squatters built their little home under the front step of my home. They haven't really bothered us, although they did attack my sisters friend who came to babysit - but I assume she started up with them, they just came and went as they pleased. I started thinking of them pets who you can't pet - like fish. But the edict came down from the big bosses that they are to terminated. We called on the professionals, and the quoted prices of over 100 bucks. This seemed like a lot of money to knock of a bees nest , so We decided to man-up and do the job ourselves.

Nat went out and got the poison, my bro Air is in town from Israel, the plan was simple - take off the step and start firing our weapons. That plan was based on the assumption that the yellow jackets built their nest under the step, not in it, and we would have time. Unfortunately, our intelligence was off and the bees were in the step above ground. Once we got the step off the wood block it sat on, the bees woke up and me and Air went inside.

The bees swarmed the front door, daring us to open it and try and rid get rid of them. I wanted to sneak around the side of the house and fire, the cannister says its deadly on contact with a range of 20 feet. But that idea was shot down. Our intelligence officer said that if I can wait a while, make sure the bees are back in their nest and knock the step all the way over so I can locate the nest and then wake up at first light and shoot the poison right into their home. If I fail at my mission the professional hit man will be called just after first light and they will do the job for me.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Veev

Happy Birthday Veev (WEBDINGS I'm bilingual also:) )

My Glasses Are Totaled

We just went to Black and White, the glasses store, and the lady said it's 39$ to put in the new lenses in my old frames and 39$ to get completely new glasses. By the way, the Tigers are winning 9-6 in the 9th

TEETH

Aura may be walking but Ahron has 2 teeth!!!

Breaking New II

Yaakov's car is contagious!!! This afternoon Nat was driving our car when she stopped she couldn't take the keys out of the ignition. She proclaimed if anyone can take the Keys out of teh car she would be forever indebted. Many people tried but they couldn't pull it out. Finally I majestically stood up to the plate, and the key slid out like a hot knife through butter.

Or did it?

No it did not, the darn thing was stuck, dad recommended taking it to the dealership, which I did, but they were of no help. They said I would have to leave the car there, but since I went alone, I had no way top get home and shabbos was coming soon.


Gabi. said he couldn't hook me up with a loaner car over the weekend, but if I came in Monday he would get me one for the day, So the car sits on driveway with a key stuck in the ignition.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

MY CAR DOESNT START! the key doesnt turn, and yes, i jiggled the wheel AND it's in Park!! so i had it towed to sol's hopefully my warranty thru the guy i bought the car from will work, (it usually does) what to do ...what to do... have a good shabbos

To my Oldest

I would like to officially welcome you the Loop.

Sar, can he be invited to post, too?

Yesterday

Part one of move is over... meaning my 5 room apartment is now packed into a room in my friend's Yael's apartment waiting for the 15th when we can move into our new place :) When I woke up yesterday I thought that the storage room was going to be the back room in my apartment - but when I left my apartment I found a note from my crazy landlady that killed that plan... aparently there was a bit of miscommunication going on. So, I finished packing (yes, of course I was still packing the day of my move) and set out to find a place to stash all of my stuff... Thank Gd for great friends - Yael and her roommates agreed to let me impose on them. Next step was to find movers - I was told it would be impossible to find movers for the same day (by one of the movers I called). I came up with a brilliant plan to rent a van! But the car rental places told us we couldn't rent one that day. Hmmm. Then Shlomo came and saved the day! He helped us find movers (who didn't come until after midnight - so the other mover guy was right - it was pretty impossible), but we needed to be out of the apartment by midnight... so at 11:30ish I started calling friends to help carry down our stuff, with the crazy landlady taking pictures of the whole thing... without going into too many details... the police with the lollypop told our landlady we were doing our best, and told us to give her some water. My friends are great, and my finace is amazing, patient, calming, and I don't know what I would've done without him.

Shlomo, now you can add whatever comments you want ;)

So, what did you do yesterday?