As the year comes to a close, so do things around here

1) I finally finished the Bible outline. 32 pages single-spaced, size 10 font. As much as it pains it me to say it though, it was a really good assignment. I have a much better grasp on Biblical exegesis than I ever did before.

2) We have an official closing date for the house! We'll be getting the keys on Thursday, January 24th. Unfortunately I'm at my pulpit that weekend, so moving in will commence on February 1st-3rd.

3) Holiday letters are all sent out. I feel so adult. Did you know that on average only 5% of post office mail is personal? I bet it doubles during the holidays.

4) I paid bills and cleared off my desk... when I get stressed the desk organization is the first thing to go. I think I'm too Type A, I feel much more settled now.

5) We've been cat-sitting this week for Pumpkin, Roosevelt, and Whiskers (they belong to two separate houses). 'Tis the season for all cat parents to go visit their families. As cute as they are, I admit it will be nice to return to doing only own litterbox.

6) As a Hanukkah gift I bought Jonathan "Carnivorous Creations," a kit that comes with a pot, soil, and seeds of 10 types of carnivorous plants. It's been a week. There are no sprouts. I'm very impatient. How long does it take these things to grow?!

7) We're now officially addicted to Amish bread. Each batch yields four starters, and we keep keeping one for ourselves. Jonathan's enjoying the baking, and I'm enjoying the eating. But I told him this is the last one, our waistlines can't handle any more.

8) Things have been slower at Jonathan's work since the year's coming to a close. He came home today at 3pm! To celebrate we went to Taco Bell and had Fiesta Burritos. Oh, the exciting life we lead.

And... I can't think of anything to say for numbers 9 and 10. Any suggestions?

A Jewish December 25th

We went to see a movie, then we went out for Indian food.

I can hear the gasps - what, no Chinese?! - but we decided to shake things up. Three cheers for curry!

Random things

- In the past two days we've gotten three separate holiday update letters in the mail from friends and family. It's shamed us into writing one. So if you want a letter in a week or two but aren't sure if we have your snail mail address, email me. (I don't like posting emails/addresses on the internet - all of you who know us well enough to get a letter should have one of our emails, I'm guessing)

- Definition of irony: Holly, Becca, and Glenna are all in CA right now and I'm in the midwest. I miss you guys. *waves madly *

- My father has offered to finance our guest bedroom furnishings. It's so exciting, we can get a real bed! Perhaps it will be more exciting for anyone who comes to visit and no longer has to stay on our couch. :)

- I had a brainstorm yesterday and realized we don't need to go to the supermarkets to get packing boxes. I know many people at - gasp - a school, where boxes abound. I came home yesterday with about ten, and will now do regular box collections in the copy room, the bookstore, maintenance, and the front desk.

- I'm a big fan of Jhumpa Lahiri, and anyone who hasn't read her book of short stories Interpreter of Maladies should do so right now. Last week we rented the movie version of her novel The Namesake, and I was pleasantly surprised. Usually I pooh-pooh movies made from books, but this one was beautifully done and presented the tension of immigrants and their first-generation children in a manner that was extremely touching.

- Also on the subject of movies, I'm such a geek. I watched our new copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with my Sorting Hat atop my head and my Time-Turner around my neck. You may laugh, but it really did make it more fun!

Off to bed... I'm going to glory in the fact that I can sleep in tomorrow and not teach Sunday school. Yay vacation!

Almost over....

Yeah, so I decided to get an extension on the outline. I finished all other papers and tests, and am through Genesis. Only four more books of the Torah to go.

Regularly scheduled blog updates will resume next week. :)

Busy busy busy

- I've lost count of the amount of hours I've spent writing papers. I have two tests tomorrow and three more papers to write. The last day of finals is Friday, and unless I decide to get an extension on my Bible outline, I'll be DONE.

- Jonathan drove me to my pulpit this weekend because of the snow. We rented a Jeep even with a four-wheel drive. Only two people showed up to Adult Ed on Saturday due to the bad weather, and six more inches of snow fell after we left. Sunday school today was even cancelled in Cincinnati.

- Work has been killer for Jonathan lately. He had an all-night call on Friday, and then an emergency call today the whole time I was at a study group. Osher at least approves, because he gets to sit on his lap the whole time.

- In a study/work break we made the Amish Friendship Bread given to us by Carl and Anne. It was delicious! It's full of cinnamon and raisins and lots of other good stuff, and kind of tastes like coffee cake. It's been a wondrous respite... studying is fine as long as we have cake!


- Most importantly, we have a tentative move-in date for our house! We close the third week in January, and will most likely move in on Monday the 21st, Martin Luther King Day (when Jonathan gets off work and I off school). Hooray!

Hanukkah pics

Hanukkah is after all the Festival of Lights, and someone asked how we could light things up without making it look Christmas-y. Here's what we did.

Electric menorah


Archway with blue and white lights and silver/blue Star of David.


This one didn't come out at night - this side of the room has white lights only.

Our lions wear kippot and are covered with gold glittery stars.

Hanukkah is a fabulous holiday. You can pretend you're a kid and decorate cookies!

Suuuuuch a good cookie.

Hanukkah!

It's been an amazing Hanukkah so far. We have blue and white twinkly lights all over the living room, our electric menorah lights up the window, and we've never felt so loved.

Winter is definitely covered between silk underwear from Aunt Lois and thermal socks from Tante Edna and Uncle John. Reading is covered between books from Jan and Jonathan. Dessert is covered between a chocolate maker and bamboo cooking utensils from Gwen. And we've gotten cards from everybody, and haven't even opened everything yet!

The big news for me - JONATHAN GOT ME A TREADMILL! I've been wanting one forever. It was stored at Jeffery's, and when we went over there tonight for dinner they shocked me out of my skin. Jonathan also nailed me by getting me Scene It: Harry Potter, a fabulous board/DVD game based on all things HP.

I, in turn, got him a geekalicious solar-powered watch which has an altimeter, barometer, compass, world times, atomic clock, and more. Here is he is modeling the watch as well as his t-shirt which displays the strength of a wi-fi signal wherever he is.



The pictures below have nothing to do with Hanukkah, but they're fun anyway.

Snuggly cats.

Icicles outside.

Simcha deciding that I really shouldn't do my homework, I should pet him instead.

Simcha tries to determinedly remove the button from Jonathan's shirt.

You notice that Osher is missing from these pictures. He's too busy looking out the window.

Snow

As many of you already know, it snowed yesterday in Cincinnati. Of course, we had all the warnings, for the weather people kept warning us about the dreaded “S” word is coming. Everyone spoke of the first snow in hushed tones of contempt. They were all native people of the Midwest, and for them it was that "Annoying Thing that Happens in the Winter." For me, a 3^rd generation Californian who has very little experience with snow, it was magical.

My alarm kicked off at its normal morning twilight time and the weather report began. The weather person started the report with “It’s 15 degrees and snowing this morning, it’s expected to….” and I don’t remember anything she said after that. My eyes snapped wide open and leaped to the bedroom window to look out. There before me was the surreal image of a white-painted world seen through a gray fuzzy lens. White fluffs were drifting carelessly down like bits of cloud falling to earth. I woke up my wife, who was equally awed by the scenery, though she had to shake more of her sleep off before she realized what was going on.

I’m luckier than many because I get to work remotely from home on such days. I got to take some hot soup breaks that allowed me to look out the window. The addition of some warm felines snuggled up to me added to the “comfyness” of being home in this cold weather. (I 've noticed that our cats' affection level rises in inverse proportion to the temperature.)

When at last I did leave the comfort of my home, I found my car completely incased in ice. Fortunately my locks work by remote, so an iced lock wasn’t a concern. I went for the door and found it frozen shut. I had to pull it free as ice shards flew everywhere. I couldn’t help but feel that it was very cool. Michal couldn’t get her door open so I opened it from inside the car, knocking all the ice loose.

The next day I drove to work and Michal walked to school bundled up like a snow bunny. I was informed by my co-workers that I will need to get a snow shovel with my house in January. Something about your car being “iced in” if you don’t shovel the snow before it “refreezes.” Right now I’m just enjoying the novelty of it, but this is all new vocabulary to this California boy in the land of ice and snow.

I love Maura. She gives me rides to school.

Right now for Cincinnati, OH

Cloudy

30°F

And tomorrow they're predicting 3 to 5 inches of snow. Sarah has promised to take us both sledding/skiing this winter... neither Jonathan nor I have gone, so it looks to be fun. Just cold. Yes, I still have thin California blood.

OMG

We did it! Our house offer was accepted! Pending inspection and all that good stuff, we should close at the end of January. We're SO excited. I'm literally jumping up and down.

We actually got the news tonight when we were at Carl and Anne's, decorating Hanukkah cookies with their girls. Frosting is obviously a good luck charm. :)

In other news, Christmas in Ohio is insane. The normal soft rock radio station plays Christmas music 24/7, every store in existence has a tree and decorations, and the whole atmosphere is permeated with Christmas themes. It's like Christmas in California times ten. We made Hanukkah cookies out of protest.

Jonathan is still busy at work, I'm still busy with school, there's frost on the car windshield every morning, and the cats are happily exploring and destroying everything they can. This week's casualty was a pillow stuffed with tiny white styrofoam balls. It took us two hours to clean them all up, and we're still convinced we'll find white balls til the day we move out.

I shall end with our new prayer: Baruch atah adonai, elohanu melech haolam, who has granted us a fabulous housing market!

A conversation from yesterday

Him: So, did we get any interesting mail today?
Me: Nah, not really. Two bills, fast-food ads, the next Netflix DVD, and a catalog.
Him: What was the catalog?
Me: I dunno, it was boring. I recycled it.
Him: You don't even remember?
Me: No. I wasn't going to buy anything from it anyway. Go look in the recycling if you really want to see.
He looks in recycling bin. He pulls out catalog. He laughs.
Me: What's so funny?
Him: (holds out fine jewelry catalog, depicting woman dripping with diamonds.) You're a freak of nature for a woman, you know.

What can I say? The Arby's coupons were more interesting! They have beef-and-cheddar on sale and everything... :)

No wonder we're always cold...

Simcha bogarts the heating vents!

Picture post!

Simcha, when he dreams, thinks he's Super-Kitty.

Sandra and David sent us cooking oils. Now we have a whole collection.

Our pretty new winter candle.

Osher lends his expert advice to Jonathan's Excel spreadsheet.




This is the video of the cats exploring their cat castle


For a slideshow of the making and discovery of the cat castle, click here.

What a week

The big news is, we've been looking at houses! Jonathan and I have spent all free time this weekend and last week talking to loan officers, real estate agents, and looking at houses. Sarah, who's from back east but has lived here awhile, has come along with us and been able to ask questions about basements, drywall vs plaster vs brick, and other things that Jonathan and I don't think about. We have another open house today at 3pm, then a few more next weekend.

We've decided to move out of our current neighborhood, because it's only so-so. People here either rent their houses, or inherit their homes and can't afford to maintain them very well. Some streets are really nice, but then other neighboring streets not so much... we've thus decided to live in another area, equally affordable, with much nicer neighborhoods. This new area is 10 minutes away (8 miles) from school, so we're thinking of getting me a scooter for the summer months, and then another car next winter.

Our current lease is up June 30th, but we hope to be able to pick a house by the holidays. It's a perfect buyer's market here, especially before Christmas, and the resale value is good, so when we move out in four or five years we'll be able to get our money back. We like the place we live in now, but we're having problems with our neighbors on the top floor. We can't move out quickly enough!

Lesser news is the fact that since we're getting a "big people" house, we bought an early Hanukkah present for the cats... a cat house/playground. They LOVE it. Pictures will follow shortly. Other news - Thanksgiving was wonderful. We went to Lisa and Tony's, and felt like part of their family. We're now all pumpkin-pied out! School is kicking into finals mode, with all the big projects being assigned. Jonathan's work is in stepping into high gear, he now gets 200-300 work emails daily and it's only going to get worse before it gets better. It's been a steady 40 degrees here. I went to my first brit milah (circumcision ceremony), and thought it was quite beautiful. And we watched Spiderman 3, and it sucked.

The end.

How are all of you?

Ode to (upcoming) winter

You know how in LA there are like ten freeways, all with eight lanes each way with lots of accidents, and it's sunny all the time? Here, not so much. On both counts. The weather report on the radio this morning was longer than the traffic report. I giggled.

I must say, I have been cold lately. This does not bode well for future months. So for the very first time in my life, I went inside a Dick's Sporting Goods store and a Kohl's. I now own fuzzy gloves with "Thinsulate insulation," a snowboarder's hat with a "pull-down face and neck warmer" and a thick North Face jacket. None of these names meant anything to me two days ago, but people at HUC nodded sagely and seemed to know the brands well.

Also in honor of winter, I got motorcycle chaps! They were almost 50% off, and I feel SO much warmer than before. That combined with the beautifully effective $10 silk liners for my gloves, and I'm all set! We took pictures of each of us in our gear... notice my fancy new helmet, which some of you may not have seen before.

Other motorcycle gear pics can be found here.

In non-weather-related news, I feel like we're finally building a real community. Maura and I spent nine hours together today, and we weren't sick of each other (study group gone bad). And last night Jonathan and I hung out with Sarah and Chris, and time flew with them, too - before we knew it it was already midnight, and we still had more to say. Hooray for friends!

Finding religion in Ohio

We were assigned a semester-long project to outline the Torah, and write section summaries. I'm halfway through Genesis. Yay! What a milestone. My goal is to be mostly done by the end of Thanksgiving, so that I don't have to worry about it over finals week.

Thursday night Jonathan and I went over to Carl and Anne's. Anne made this fabulous stew and homemade cake, and we talked about religion for hours on end. Hebrew Bible, Christian scriptures, what makes the canon, C.S. Lewis, Eliade and the sacred and the profane, historiography of Genesis.... I hadn't had a religious conversation that good since I was back in college waxing rhaposdic with Antonio over fuzzy navels. I love intelligent people who aren't afraid to disagree or step outside their paradigm. Jonathan and I were saying in the car on the way home that as much as we like to talk to each *other* about this stuff, we know the other's arguments so well already, it just isn't nearly as much fun.

Yesterday I tried out the breadmaker to see if my last challah was a fluke - and it wasn't! Hooray. You all may be laughing, but hey, a breadmaker still counts as "cooking." My family's never let me forget the time that I helped Gwen make potato kugel when I was a girl... who knew that tablespoons of salt versus teaspoons made such a big difference?!

Let's see... on a whim, Jonathan put kippot and hats on all the lion stuffed animals in our living room. It adds a whole new flavor. The cats were so curious, they jumped up to the top of the bookshelves to see. We actually "lost" Osher for a couple of hours there - he had fallen asleep next to one of the larger lions and blended in!

The cold, by the way, is here. With a vengeance. There was frost on the car this morning, it dropped 20 degrees from last week, and ALL the trees here are beautiful. Why must the cold mean they change color? I'd much rather they just be pretty in spring! I suppose if I have to deal with the close-to-freezing weather, though, at least the scenery is nice.

Now it's off to the motorcycle store. We're going to buy me chaps so my lower half doesn't fall off on the bike. My jacket is plenty warm, but as we discovered on the last trip, plain jeans just don't quite cut it.

Oh! And one last thing. A bunch of HUC students went to the Creation museum I talked about before. From what they said, I'm SO glad I didn't go. I would have been very pissed off at the willful ignorance of the American masses. (Like, there was an exhibit of the Garden of Eden, with a T-Rex sitting by Adam and Eve calmly eating a pineapple. What?!). So by staying home, I've decided, I've saved my faith in humanity.

Dove commercial

Normally I don't put links here, unless they relate to something in my post - but this was too good not to pass on. Everyone watch it NOW. It's less than two minutes.

Campaign for real beauty

Edit: Sigh. I knew Dove's message was too good to be true. Here's a link saying that Dove's parent company also makes Axe, which has really sexist commercials. Figures.

More tidbits, since apparently I can't be bothered to write in paragraphs

- We went to Mongolian BBQ for dinner tonight. The decor exemplified Cincinnati to a tee: a hint of Asian for ethnicity, a bunch of white folks eating... and then two televisions, one showing local sports and the other Nickelodeon.

- Sunday school was David and Goliath. I drew a big face on the board, blindfolded the kids, spun them around, and then had them put a "stone" of blue sticky tac on Goliath's forehead ("Pin the slingshot on Goliath?") It got crazy, but it was fun. The only bad part was when the educator walked in when they were at their most hyper, and told them all to listen to me and give me respect. The educator thought I had lost control (clearly), but I thought everything was fine. Where is the happy medium? A good question to ponder...

- Saturday Jonathan, Carmit and I went over to Carri's. Her baby is adorable. But he, like every other baby in the universe, spits up, pees on things, and gets peas and carrots in his hair. How do human beings survive this messy helpless stage and get to be adults? And how do parents survive the stage of constant dependency?

- National holidays ruin all plans. We were both looking forward to getting our next Netflix in the mail. It took us until 5pm to realize the Post Office was closed for Veteran's Day! You'd think we'd notice these things off the bat.

Now onto pictures:

Osher loves to sleep next to Jonathan's computer when he's working. So we got him a new cat bed. It's perfectly Osher-sized.

But of course he likes to hang out with me too. When he's on the top of my desk he can hear the printer whirr and sleep on nice comfy pillows provided by Savta.

And last but not least..

Jonathan the oh-so-scary Grim Reaper on Halloween!

Metaphor for our lives

Jonathan is 6'1. I'm 5'4. Whenever one of us drives the car after the other, we always have to take a few minutes to adjust the seat and the rearview and side mirrors. When Jonathan gets in the car after me, he has to move the mirrors up. When I get in the car, I have to move them down.

We realized that that describes our relationship, and why we work so well. From my perspective, I think he's always looking at the sky. He thinks I'm always looking at the ground. So we adjust and meet in the middle. :)

Fun things

- Jonathan bought a new motorcycle jacket. He looks hot in it. It's also much safer than the old one, so I'm happy.

- Yesterday I had lunch with an Israeli-born rabbinical student named Carmit. We both cracked up when she ordered her food as Hannah, and I ordered mine as Kate. It triggered immediate bonding over bad mispronunciations of our names.

- I finished Sarah, about... the Biblical Sarah. It was okay, not fantastic. But then again, it was less than $6 at the used bookstore, so I don't feel too badly.

- We got a Scat Mat and put it on the kitchen counter. It gives Osher a teensy tiny shock when he jumps up. His ears are flattened and he keeps hissing at it. Poor kitty. But hopefully he'll learn his lesson; he gets really into drinking from the faucet and we disapprove.

- Gwen still knows me, even though it's been awhile. She sent me a newspaper article that I've saved in a file because I like it so much, and she included an ad for a book that I've already pre-ordered (found here).

- We bought plane tickets for Joe and Nicole's wedding! Yay. Now Jonathan just needs to get fitted for a tux. I'm so envious of men's clothing; they have a tape-measured fitting and they're done. And how long does it take for a woman to buy a dress that looks good and fits her nicely? Waaaaay longer.

Off to school. Sigh. I like my Biblical Grammar teacher, but still... it's Biblical Grammar. At 8am. Four days a week. The registrar is just not nice.

Serious thought of the day

Warning: this is a very rabbinical-student-geek-type entry. Feel free to skip. I don't mean to offend anyone, I'm just thinking out loud.

I believe that we grant "sacredness" and "authenticity" to texts, that they are not intrinsic to them (e.g. I don't believe that sacredness is inherent to the Koran or Christian Testament, though billions of others around the world disagree). I believe that the Torah is sacred because we make it so. But I also attribute its sacredness to its being a whole text that shapes the boundaries of ancient and modern Jewish identity. In fact, I believe that historically, the Bible was formed in order to create a national identity for those returning from the Babylonian exile. When we deconstruct the Bible, we find that different authors incorporate their own ideological elements into different sections. Authorial intent varies practically by chapter and verse. The text loses unity.

So why exactly do Reform Jews consider the Bible sacred?

If it's the traditions that arise from the Torah that make it sacred, the actual halacha and symbols and rituals, then does tearing apart the reasons for those rituals lessen its holiness? In class we learned that putting blood on the doorposts of a house wasn't done solely for Passover, but was in fact an ancient protection rite done every New Year. The Priestly writers appropriated it for their own purposes. It's like Christmas and Hannukah, people appropriating the pagan ritual of a Festival of Lights at the darkest time of the year; they took an already existing ritual and gave it new meaning. Does knowing that make the things in the Bible less holy?

The quality of the sacred can't be attributed to the age of the documents themselves. Many Biblical poems and writings are over 2000 years old, but I don't venerate Egyptian or Sumerian texts that are of equatable age.

It can't be the history that flows from the text either. No matter how much of Tanach is historically accurate, people's belief in the books have inspired actions and created the flow of history. But I don't hold the American Constitution or the Code of Hammurabi sacred, and those have inspired political and historical changes as well.

It can't be the content of the Bible. To be honest, most of the Pentateuch (Gen, Ex, Lev, Num, Deut) after Genesis is really boring, and aside from anthropological curiosity I don't care about sacrifices in the Temple or the sociocultural aspects of life in the 10th or 7th century BCE. In the grand scheme of things Israel was a little backwater. I find Roman, Grecian, and Asian history much more exciting, with their dynasties and life and death and epic gods and goddesses. BUT - even saying all that - ancient Israeli, aka ancient Jewish history, still feels sacred to me.

And maybe that's the key. The Bible tells the story of a people that I consider to be my people, the Jews. Perhaps that assumed identity makes it sacred, no matter the relation of the text to a historical truth. If I believe the evidence of my History and Bible classes, the 12 tribes may not have descended from the same origins, and the story of the matriarchs and patriarchs may have been a historical fiction so that disjointed nomads in one geographical location could feel connected. The Bible can then be considered a collection of disparate texts, redacted for the purpose of nationalist near-propaganda.

Does this mean that the sacred nature of the Bible is torn to shreds, and I am left bereft, with no rock on which to stand? Or can the Torah be sacred because it is unified under an ideology of creating an enduring nationality of Judaism? I want to believe that non-historicity and a meticulous redaction of the Bible with a specific purpose in mind can be amalgamated with a sense of the holy. For if I don't, and the sacred nature of Torah falls, then the sacred nature of Torah-based Mishnah falls. And then the sacred nature of Mishnah-based Talmud. And then the sacred nature of Judaism as I know it today. And then teaching Torah and the concept of klal Yisrael (worldwide Jewish community) falls too. And my love for Judaism becomes very, very convoluted.

Opinions? What do other people think?

Highlights of the week

- Becca taking a Photoshop class, and using pictures of Jonathan and I as test subjects.


- My Wednesday Torah trope study group with Maura and Karen. We sang so badly it became funny.

- Holding Simcha upside down and carrying him to the bathroom to be brushed, with him still trying to bat at his toy along the way.

- Giving out candy to our one lone trick-or-treater, then offering the rest of it to everyone else we know.

- Leading my first morning services at school and not messing up too badly.

- Taking an online "what superhero are you" test, and being told that I'm half- Princess Leia, half-Wonder Woman. Hee.

- Last Sunday's 3rd grade lesson on Ruth and Naomi. For one part of it I covered a sheet with all the crayons in the Sunday school and labeled it "Boaz's field." Then the kids "reaped" the field, leaving the edges for the poor. They really got into it.

- Jonathan's work starting a "Giving Campaign," where they match people's contributions to charity 100%. We're donating part of each paycheck to a no-kill animal shelter.

- Being told that our Rabbinics midterms would be handed back by appointment only, because the learning was what important, not the grade, and the professor wants everybody to have a chance to explain what they got out of the questions.

- Glenna writing a really powerful article for her newspaper, and feeling like "I knew her when."

- Catching my sister online and having a good one-hour webcam session. We usually never get it together enough to webcam, because she's on the army base or the times don't work out.

- Pumpkin pie ice cream and UDF having a "$6 for 2 half-gallons" ice cream sale (United Dairy Farmers, think Thrifty's).

- Fall leaves on trees in Indiana. The leaves on the maple trees turn a Crayola sunshine yellow. It's gorgeous.

- Having it be past our self-imposed limit of November 1st, so tonight for the first time turning on our heat.

- Last but not least, going to my pulpit this weekend and having a congregant tell me that if I was a stock or bond, he'd invest in me. One of the oddest, but coolest, compliments I've ever received.

Yom Huledet Sameach

Happy birthday to Morris (Mo) Lichtenstein, born October 26th at 10:18am. My congrats to Jamie and Brad in Boston!

And I have a question for you all - the day a baby is born is literally the "birth day," but is there a name for it? October 26, 2008 will technically be his first birthday, so is this his zero birthday? I never know what to call the year 0 either, since 1-999 is the first century...

EDIT: I agree with Holly, simplicity is best. The day you were born shall henceforth be known as "the day you were born," and the year 0 shall be known as "the year 0." Brilliance!

Another Friday already

How did it get to be Friday?! I realized I never even wrote about last Shabbat - Carl and Anne came over with their two young children, and we had a traditional dinner (no, not made by me), played with the cats, and got "baby" practice.

This week we're going with Jeffery to Olive Garden, one of my favorite restaurants. We were going to go there specifically because they had an $8 all-you-can-eat-pasta deal, but SIGH the sale ended... though since I had gotten my taste buds in a tither, we decided to go there anyway.

What else.... Jonathan took the day off today, sick. He went to the allergy doctor yesterday and found out that he's allergic to all midwestern flora and fauna (like ragweed, and certain pollens that they don't have in CA). So that explains all the sneezing. Anyway, they gave him three medications all at once yesterday, and it kind of did him in. But since I'm off of school on Fridays, at least I've been home to make him hot tea.

Oh! And speaking of Jonathan, he just got great news. Joe (as in Joe and Nicole, our upstairs neighbors last year) asked him to be a groomsman at their wedding! He's going to be Joe's ketubah witness as well. (The ketubah is the Jewish wedding contract which has to be signed by two Jews unrelated to the bride and groom.) Both are huge honors, and Jonathan's excited. Now I just need to get with Nicole and figure out how many days early we should arrive in Virginia for the wedding.

Other than that... I really don't want to write my Bible midterm or my next sermon. As a fan of productive procrastination, I've now done five loads of laundry, brushed the cats, vacuumed, reorganized my bookshelves, came up with an extra lesson plan for Sunday school, and moved all the summer clothes out of my closet (oh yes, and now I'm blogging). Unfortunately, my school to-do list remains untouched.

Alright. I can do this. Midterms, ahoy!

"You emptied your backpack?" said Simcha. "Perfect! Now there's room for me!"

Osher comes by to inspect the new arrangements.

Everyone I know, stay indoors

"Because of strong Santa Ana winds moving toward the coast, some of the worst smoke is accumulating many miles from fires, including in Long Beach, Simi Valley and the Riverside area." - from LA Times article

I'm doing fine here... just working hard on midterms. Sigh.

Fires

Even though home is nowhere near the burn area, my mom said she could smell the fires from our house. I know too many people who live in San Diego, Poway, Rancho.... good luck.

Good things and bad things

Good thing: Renaissance Faire! Or Festival, as they call it here. Men in kilts, turkey legs to eat, lots of things to see and tons of shops. The prices were exceedingly reasonable, and everyone was so nice. I even treated myself to a bellydancer's outfit (no, there is no picture) Jonathan and I had a mango smoothie to die for, and the layout was a simple circle, so even though it was a full 30 acres we didn't get lost once. Our favorite place was the candlemaker's shop, where the owner made beautiful candles to order while we watched. She said that it was the way a pyromaniac makes a living. :)

Bad thing: It just wasn't like home. The Faire here is more of a shopping extravaganza. There are no guilds, no people who work the booths wandering around in garb. It's very kid- and family-focused, so lots of carnival games and mazes but no risque shows (no risque period... one woman was wearing a shirt that said Abortion is Murder).

Ohio Festival has more shops than Southern CA Faire (and more than Northern Faires too, according to Jonathan), but not as much to do (e.g. no fencing booth, no man sandpainting, etc). Because of more lenient Ohio laws, and the culture here, there were three times as many weapons booths as at home. And the historicity was a bit loose; 16th-century garb was sold next to Gypsy outfits and pirate hats. I was also disappointed by the lack of Scottishness: no one spoke in brogue, and they had camel rides. (I'm still trying to figure out what camels had to do with Great Britain.)

String lady. She's alive, not a statue, and has adorned herself with more favors than God.

Renaissance dog.

Bad thing: There's been a drought in Ohio, so everyone keeps saying that fall is so boring this year, and that nothing changes color.

Good thing: I haven't noticed. I was reared in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, two deserts. I think it's gorgeous, and can only imagine next year.

Driving to Faire.

Such pretty countryside.

See the horses? This is a half-hour out of downtown Cincinnati.

Good thing: Today at the end of Sunday school, one boisterous 3rd-grader said, "Aww, is it time to go already?" Another one invited me to the football game to see her cheer this afternoon.

Bad thing: A second boy was completely bored throughout class, no matter what we were doing. He's also been absent twice (out of 5 sessions) due to football. Guess I can't win them all.


Good thing: Package from Savta! Halloween candy from Jan!

Bad thing: Halloween candy is fattening.

Loot from Savta. One of the things she sent was a new toy for the cats. Simcha's on the chair, Osher's in the box. Savta's waving at everyone from the webcam on the laptop. Hi, Savta! (How I love technology.)

Good thing: I'm now completely caught up in my reading for every class. And Maura came over and we actually had fun studying for a quiz.

Bad thing: Said quiz is tomorrow at 8am. Sigh. And so the week begins...

House-cleaning, Peru, and Torah trope. Not necessarily in that order.

My goodness, almost a week since our last post?! Where does the time go.

Well, it's been an eventful week. I got through my Biblical Grammar midterm (let's just not talk about it), caught up on almost all of my readings, wrote some mini-papers for Hebrew Literature class, am learning Torah cantillation/trope, got paired with a third-year student mentor to answer my school questions, and today I brushed the cats so thoroughly that I took a kitten's worth of fur off of each of them.

In my education class we did this cool exercise on learning styles. Founded by Kolb, the Learning-Style Inventory classifies people as more than just visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. It tells you how you learn. For example, I'm an Assimilator, which means I learn best from reflective observation and abstract conceptualization. (In my eyes, it also means that I'm a Borg, but that's neither here nor there.) I highly recommend taking the test, if just for fun.

In non-school news, Maura and I went out for dinner two days ago, and voila, I have a new friend! We've sat by each other in classes for a year and a quarter now, in Israel and here, and we've only ever talked about school things. It was great to break out of the HUC mold, and transcend that friendship boundary into the personal. She's now my Torah cantillation partner, and we're going to work with each other on learning the daily nusach, the daily service melodies, as well (as opposed to the Shabbat or High Holiday or Purim melodies... sigh).

Maura also told me of a wondrous, fabulous, amazing, stupendous thing called the Fall Sale at Old Navy. Jonathan and I went last night and got 14 articles of clothing for $100! That includes a jean skirt and a nice skirt to wear on the bima ($1.97 each), 2 shirts ($3.97 each), and a jacket for Jonathan ($6). What bumped up the price dramatically was the thermal underwear and winter gear. (And just because I'm already complaining about the weather, do you know that yesterday the sun only came out for an hour and a half, and that it's still pitch black at 7am?? I'm having serious sun issues.)

The school bookstore is offering major discounts on lots of Jewish books, through a deal with a publisher. I'm trying not to go too crazy, because I don't need the books... and I probably won't be reading them anytime soon anyway. Actually, whatever I do read for fun lately is about as far away from Judaism as I can get. E.g. I'm halfway through Isabel Allende's Ines of My Soul, about conquistadors in 16th-century Peru and Chile. Allende also wrote The House of the Spirits and Daughter of Fortune, but this one is historical fiction, not magical realism, so I like it better.

And now I should be off. We're having an HUC grad student and his wife and kids over for dinner tonight - they're the ones who lived in our house last year, and who we first met at Tel Dan in Israel. I really do love having company over, but it does necessitate this pesky thing called vacuuming...

Man Shabbat

A couple of weeks ago, my darling wife was in Mattoon, Illinois leading Shabbat services. That left me alone to fend for myself that Shabbat. I called Jeffery as his fiance is out of town as well and collaborated with him in doing a "Man Shabbat."

So here's Shabbat, man style: I pulled out a couple of giant flares I got at the fireworks store in Indiana, a 2-liter jug of "Newman's Own" grape juice, and a pair of twisted garlic cheese sticks. We went out to the back driveway behind my house, lit the flares and sang the blessing. In the multi-colored sparkling glow, Jeffery popped open the jug and we sang the blessing over the "wine." We then pulled out the garlic cheese sticks and sang the motze. This was then all followed up by Jeffery and I lighting a bunch of questionably legal fireworks in my backyard. It was glorious.

To polish off the night we watched the movie "Transformers" on my DVD player. Which I later found out hasn't been released to DVD yet. I've decided not to pursue how Jeffery got a hold of a copy.

Oh... and we drank beer too.

So, all you females reading this are probably thinking that this is not unlike a Shabbat that a 14 year-old boy would plan, and you are probably right. Most things men think are cool are very similar to what 14 year-old boys would think are cool, except men involve more beer in their arrangements. I like to think that men figure out what is important at an earlier age than women.

The Reform movement is totally befuddled why there are so few men participating in the Jewish communities. If you want men involved, the answer is simple: just involve more incendiaries.

Yo, Shabbat Shalom.

Shabbat candles

Scary Shabbat

Last night I joined Jonathan and about ten of his coworkers and their spouses at Kings Island, a 30-acre themepark. His boss had arranged for a free ticket for everyone under her jurisdiction as a "team building" exercise. It was great fun - we all went out to dinner at about 5:30, then showed up at the park at about 8pm for their "Halloween Haunt," in which nobody under 12 years old was admitted. Think Knott's Scary Farm, with fog machines and monsters wandering around and mazes with scary surprises hidden within. I definitely screamed a few times, but so did other people, so it was okay.

It's funny, on Thursday I'd been walking to the local coffee shop with a couple of HUC classmates, and I was saying how my social group was split in two: HUC people and Jonathan's work people. And it's so true; the conversations last night were so completely divergent from any HUC conversation that it was almost surreal. At HUC talk usually revolves around intricacies of Torah, Talmud, prayer, dealing with teachers, renting apartments, our childhoods and parents and siblings. With Jonathan's coworkers the conversations are on *raising* children, football and sports, dealing with bosses, mortgages, the medical industry, business mergers, politics and movies.

At HUC I feel older than many students, and among Jonathan's work group I feel younger and much less experienced in life (which I am, chronologically, since most of his work peers are in their 40s). Nobody's said anything about my youth directly, but it's easily apparent in conversations like "Yeah, I worked at King's Island in high school, in the 80's" (*looks at me and smiles*). I really do think it's good though, that we split our time between both social circles - it helps me branch out and not be "rabbinic" all the time, adds diversity to both of our lives, and exposes us to Cincinnati culture in a way that isn't apparent through HUC.

When we got home at 1:30am, the cats were *very* happy to see us. They came to the door to say hello, then, when we didn't do anything interesting, decided to go back to sleep. I think they take "cute" lessons at night when we're not here. How else can you explain it?


By the way, this is "off" position. When they're not sleeping they're jumping on bookshelves, wrestling, playing with cat toys, or running around the house playing tag. According to Kelly, the wife of one of Jonathan's coworkers, this greatly resembles her 5 and 7 year old, who are either asleep or making havoc. Apparently there's no gray area. So I guess the kitties really are good kid practice! In this picture Osher's on top, Simcha's on the bottom.

P.S. Did I mention that it was 41 degrees last night? That's nine degrees above freezing. I was bundled up in my warmest clothing and was still cold. Just shoot me come winter.

P.P.S. Shout-out to Elisa - so glad you're here! :)

Weird weather

It was in the high 80's yesterday. It was in the 60s today. One day difference. One day.

I don't get it.

The weekend and my annoyance at sports

My weekends seem longer than my weeks sometimes. Last Friday I drove the 4 1/2 hours to my pulpit, then had dinner with a congregant and led Simchat Torah services. It was quite fun, with lots of dancing to celebrate another cycle of finishing the Torah (you finish Deuteronomy and then start again with Genesis).

Saturday I teach adult education, and this week we took a field trip to the CANDLES Holocaust museum, founded by a woman who survived Auschwitz as a Mengele twin. It was heavy, and very powerful. Lunch before the museum was fun though: someone actually asked me, "Can I have shrimp around the rabbi?" And I realized that the rabbi was me! I quickly assured her that she could order anything she wanted and I wouldn't be offended.

Then there was the drive home, so I got back around 8pm. And taught Sunday school in the morning. And came home to do homework. Then it all began again on Monday. While I love going to Mattoon, I feel so drained of energy afterward. I think it's the driving more so than the services, but I need a weekend from my weekend nonetheless.

In other news, school is going well. The only thing I'm unhappy with is that our Bible, History, and Hebrew Lit classes (not to mention Hebrew Grammar) take a structuralist approach to everything. And I'm a post-modernist. (Not that this matters to many people, but I thought I'd put it out there.)

And last but not least, I hadn't realized how much Midwestern culture is defined by sports. People mention sports here all the time. At Sunday school a little boy seemed extra happy. Why, I asked? Because the Bengals (local football team) won. In my education class the prof talked about not telling a student they've gotten an answer "wrong," because then they'll feel badly and won't raise their hand again - the metaphor she used was that when a sports coach pulls a player out of the game, s/he put the player back in the game and not on the bench. In Mishnah class the prof was saying the common people followed some of the rules of the institution (of the rabbis) but not all... just like the Bengals follow the rules of the football, but badly.

The Cincinnati Bengals have now come up at Hebrew school, in four entirely separate classes (yes, I'm keeping count), and in many, many conversations. I don't care. Really. I don't. And in CA, it never seemed to matter. Yeah, the Dodgers and Angels existed, but most people couldn't tell you offhand who they played against last. I was talking to my cousin from Chicago and he says that this obsession with sports is common in the entire Midwest, because there isn't much else to do, so people fixate on the local competitions. I guess that makes sense.

And it should be noted, my cousin now lives in Boston.

The problem with smart cats

Our cats have little to no fear. They like to be with us at all times, sitting on our laps or meowing to play or to be petted. Nothing we’ve done so far has been able to stop them.

I got these popping rocks recently. They have a light coating of a mild form of gunpowder on them, and when you smack them together they make a noise like a toy cap gun. I thought I could use them when I was working from home to get them to stop pestering me without directly punishing them. But instead of being fearful of the noise, they come running from any corner of the house when they hear it. They think it's very cool and are mesmerized by the noise and sparks it emits.

It makes me feel both proud and frustrated. Even the vacuum only makes them slightly uncomfortable! I wonder if playing all those Star Trek episodes in my deep bass-emitting surround sound desensitized them to scary sounds and lights. I think we’ve raised geek cats.

They also love to jump places they shouldn't. To combat this, Michal and I did some research on the internet and found that one of the better recommended solutions is to use aluminum foil. The idea is that the sound the foil makes when you touch it will scare the kitties, or at least annoy them enough to make them want to get off of it. Michal and I put in place an intense program of covering the kitchen counter with foil, from end to end.

The result:

Osher began to entertain himself by jumping on the foil and pawing at it to make it make noise. It was as if he had aspirations to be a percussionist. Every time our backs were turned we would hear this "tappity tap tap tappity" sound. The foil seemed to actually
ENCOURAGE him to jump on the counter, rather than discourage it. The foil only worked in one way - it served as notice that he was on the counter. Thus, we ended the program.

Michal and I have been in discussion about getting “scat mats,” mats that give the cats a tiny shock when they jump onto them, but the expense is a bit high at this point. We decided we’ll have to be more irritated with them before we spend the $100 on it. I also can imagine the little boogers putting metal spoons on them to short out the batteries.

The score as of now: Cats 2, Humans 0.

Recent joys in my life

Highlights of the past few days:

1) Jonathan made apple crisp! Yum.

2) I loved the book Rashi's Daughters: Joheved, and its sequel. After I finished the second one last week, I found the author's website online, and wrote her an email asking her a bunch of detailed questions. She wrote back, and gave me her cell phone number! I called her yesterday. We had an amazing conversation about Talmud, women in history, and studying rabbinics. It felt surreal to be reading a book one day, and chatting casually with the woman who wrote it two days later!

3) Our rabbinics professor hosted a "dessert in the sukkah" get-together tonight. Jonathan and I arrived on the motorcycle, per a classmate's request. I hadn't realized how many people at HUC had no idea we (well, Jonathan) had the bike! Maura went for a ride, and she had a whole little crowd gathered around as she put on the helmet and got on. It was like Mara and Mark all over again, only in a different state with more people watching.

4) We switched internet providers, and our connection almost doubled in speed. This is good for things like watching YouTube videos, uploading pictures, and having better webcam quality.

5) Eating the apple crisp. It deserves a second mention. It was so gooood.......

Challah!

We made it ourselves last night, in our breadmaker. And it actually came out pretty well! Jonathan worked from home yesterday, so he was with me to prep Shabbat.

Other than that... lesson plans for Sunday school, catching up on school reading, and prepping for next week's service/sermon/Torah portion in Mattoon. There's no rest for the wicked.

P stands for Personal in PDA (confessions of a computer geek)

PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant. This is the descriptor for those wonderful hand-held gadgets that keep track of all your appointment and contacts (and their detailed contact info), allow you to access email remotely, and some even can let you call people (cell-phone integrated). What they really are are little computers that are hand-sized. They used to be only for rich business people, but now most middle class people are getting them with their phone. They will eventually be as common as IPods. What is surprising is how PERSONAL they become.


I have one. It looks just like the one in the picture, except, being the geek that I am, I have modified the software that runs it (to an extreme measure). I got it about 5 years ago because I suffer from a severe case of CRS and am ADD. This means I need something to yell at me 10 minutes before I need to do it or it never gets done. Some people marry for that feature, but I thought people may look at me funny if I took my wife with me into meetings.

So, after a few years I have really become dependent on it. It's like my little friend. The only problem is that after a number of years a little part broke inside it and it would lose all its information every so often. Not a good thing, but what was I to do?

One of my very cool coworkers had one he wasn't using and very generously let me use it for a while to see if I would want it. In trying it I realized how in love I was with my own PDA. My PDA seemed to do everything better. Even though my coworker's PDA was a newer version with more features, mine just seemed better to me. I finally had to give his back; I just couldn't give up my own.

This left me no option but to fix my PDA. Now for some people this wouldn't be an option, but as an UBERgeek I knew that if it could be fixed, I could fix it. My first stab at the problem was to call Dell (who made my PDA) to see if I could get the part. They were not very nice. They told me that the part wasn't fixable and I had to replace the whole thing. After arguing with them for an hour I hung up the phone and yelled a defiant "PASHAW!!!" very loudly at it.

So I called on my SUPER ubergeek buddy Jeffery, who will attempt to fix anything with wires, no matter how foolish the attempt may be. I like him in part because he never thinks he can't do it. I knew that if anyone would have an idea, he would.

Can you believe that resourceful bastard found the exact part I needed on E-Bay? I don't know how he pulls this stuff off, but he sent me a link to the holy grail of my PDA dilemma. I had the part ordered in no time.

The next problem was installing it. It was very technical, and I can see that Dell really didn't want me to work on this PDA myself as they went to great lengths to hide all the screws. It was very complicated, and a little scary. I was operating on my little friend after all. It was like doing heart surgery on your best buddy!!!

So, after digging deep into the bowls of my PDA I pulled out the defective part and inserted the new one. I sewed it all up and, in a moment of truth, turned it on. My heart quickened as I waited to see if that beautiful "today" screen would ever appear again on its shiny screen.

It did! It worked! I then spent all night restoring its memory and testing it. Indeed, it seemed as good as new. It was only then, while cleaning up all my tools and readying myself for bed, that I found a screw. Yes, a screw. And it clearly belonged somewhere in the recesses of my PDA. I looked at my PDA, then back at the screw again. I went back and forth for like 10 minutes.

The PDA worked wonderfully without it, and I knew that to put it back in I would have to take it all apart again. Taking it apart the first time had been risky, and I would likely just do more damage than I would fix if I put that screw back in. So I did nothing. But I hated that I had erred in this manner, and the extra screw kept bothering me until I talked to Jeffery again.

He has a great philosophy that made me feel so much better: If there's a piece missing when you reassemble something, but the device still works, then don't worry. You just made it more efficient! So now I think, my PDA works better than it ever did and is now one screw lighter. Go ME!!!

A more personal picture post

Me on the bima.

Us in white. Would you believe I had on heels too?



Simcha and the new toy we got for them to play with while we were away.

Jonathan and Osher relaxing at home.

More pictures of the drive, Mattoon, and the kitties can be found here.

To and from Mattoon

All right, so I lied. There won't be a longer post about the HHD later this week. The HHD were great, but I really don't think most people care about the specifics. If you're interested in my sermons or anything, ask and I'll email you. Instead, I'll share more about our trip. It's slowly sinking in that CA and the midwest aren't apples and oranges. They're more like apples and guavas.

- The freeways (highways?) criss-crossing Indiana and Illinois look very much the same. The part we saw was either very lush with trees and creeks, or was this:

Did you know that most of the corn grown here isn't for human consumption, but is either cattle feed or made into seemingly random things, like pantyhose or explosives?

- Not five minutes past the Ohio/Indiana state border was a huge billboard proclaiming that "Abortion stops a heartbeat." At least there was no picture of a fetus, only a flat EKG diagram. Then again, it's not Indiana but Ohio that has the 62-foot "touchdown Jesus." It's visible right off the freeway when you come to Cincinnati from Dayton. No lies.

Also known as "drowning Jesus," it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is in front of a megachurch. I won't comment on what Jesus might think of his statue in lieu of using the money to feed starving children...

- Another five minutes past the border is the biggest fireworks warehouse that I've ever seen. Though admittedly I haven't seen many, seeing as I come from a state where they're mostly illegal. Every Friday and Saturday night here I can see some through my window, the college frat houses the next block over go crazy.



- The motel in Mattoon, IL has both a Gideon Bible *and* a Book of Mormon in its nightstand tables. I was impressed.

- When we stopped at a gas station on Sunday night after break-the-fast before going back to the motel, some random guy stopped us at the door and asked, "do you know if they sell beer here?" I said no, I didn't know. As Jonathan and I walked away, the guy's friend noticed our all-white clothes and said "dude, I think they just got back from church!" I wonder what he thought of our kippot.

- I want to visit Amish country. There are Amish-style restaurants everywhere off the freeway, and I saw lots of ads for Amish furniture stores. I think we'll visit when Becca comes next month.

- I have never seen so many red barns in my life. Or so many tractors. Or so many horses. I also learned something new about the post office. When I asked a congregant what "R.R. 82" meant in her address, she replied, "rural road 82." Then she looked surprised that I hadn't heard of it. Sigh. I should really just start to guess these things.

- And last but not least, on the way back home I saw the big signs for the Creation museum in Kentucky. You think I can convince HUC to take us there as a field trip? :)

Thunderstorms

The house just literally shook from lightning. It was probably less than a mile away. I've never seen a cat cower before! I picked up Simcha, since Osher is plastered to the window, and I started singing "Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on Simchas." It may not have done anything for him, but Jonathan at least laughed. :)

THEY'RE OVER!

The High Holidays are behind us. Jonathan came down with me to Mattoon on Friday night, and with him beaming at me from the front row, I led Kol Nidre on Friday night and morning and Yizkor/Neilah (mourner's/closing) services on Saturday. I got good feedback on the sermons and the music, and think it was successful overall. One woman said that she got goosebumps when I read a certain section! I have much more to say, and lots of pictures to post, but I'm actually really behind on schoolwork. Watch for a longer post later this week.

Mornings

It's now 7:30am, and I've been up for over an hour. I'm online, reading blogs, checking email, but I still feel too sleepy to do real work. Do other people have this problem? I'm in bed by 10:30pm every night, up at 6:30am... and I still can't seem to do anything productive, even laundry or school reading, until 9 or 10. It's frustrating, I feel like I should be able to get so much done in the mornings, and it just never happens. People always joke about being a "morning person" or a "night person," but I wonder, is it really physiological? Hmm. Well, at least this gives me something to Google til I wake up properly.

Oh, and as a request, and at risk of sounding old... may I ask that no one call us past 9pm (meaning 6pm PST). On the other hand, you can call in the morning practically at the crack of dawn PST... do you know that when we get up in the morning here it's still dark?!

Rosh Hashanah

I have now officially led Rosh Hashanah services! It went really well, I think - or at least people seemed happy. When I arrived on Tuesday I checked into the motel, had dinner with the president of the congregation and his wife, and then we went over to the Center. It's a house, a little run-down on the outside but absolutely beautiful on the inside, with Judaica everywhere, chairs set up in the living room and the ark in an adjoining room. There are two classrooms, a bathroom, and kitchen, very homey overall.

I had done a lot of prep for what to actually read from the prayerbook, but as the both services wore on I found that I was a bit short in time, so I improvised some extra readings to make the services last until they were supposed to (about an hour for Erev RH, an hour and a half for RH day). I still have lots of bugs to work out, like the Torah service choreography, and I forgot to tell people to sit down a couple of times (oops!). But everyone was very nice, completely welcoming, and as non-intimidating as you could get. There were about 20 people there at night, and 10 people exactly in the day, and for Tashlich at the lake.

Rolling the Torah by myself was hard, as it was in Deuteronomy and I needed it to be in Genesis - but I managed. My sermons went over well, and my shofar-blowing was actually a little better than I had expected. I was especially happy with my new suit, bought last week, for a grand total of $22! I love consignment stores.

As far as getting there and back, the drive was beautiful. Four and a half hours on a 4-lane highway through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. I only got lost at the end, amongst the cornfields, and at one point I even had to stop on the gravel road, lest I run over the family of deer in my way! I wish I had brought my camera. Jonathan's going to come with me for Yom Kippur, and we'll take pictures of the scenery then.

When I got home we celebrated in style, with Haagen Daaz. Yesterday, for Shabbat, we had four people over and watched this awful, historically inaccurate, gory movie (300, about the battle of Thermopylae – you can tell it was Jonathan’s turn to pick!). But the conversation afterwards about what makes “democracy” was highly stimulating, and one can never go wrong with good desserts. The only bad thing was that Jonathan had to be part of a conference call at work at 11pm, for a computer update thing that they do in low volume times. He was up til 4am, I passed out at about 3.

Now it’s off to clean up a little and start thinking about Yom Kippur!

Me in front of the ark. I read from the yellow Torah (it was smaller and I could lift it better). I wore Zadie's tallit from Romania (Zadie is Yiddish for grandfather, my father's father), Jonathan's tallit clip, and a beaded kippah that a friend made, courtesy of my mother. So everyone from all sides of my family was with me in spirit. :)