Tattoos redux

Someone just forwarded this to me from a Chabad (ultra-Orthodox) site:

Why Does Judaism Forbid Tattoos?

VERY different reasoning from the Reform movement, no?

Fruit tart 2.0

Today is Jonathan's birthday! And what a fun day it was. For me, at least. He actually had kind of a bad time at work. In a way I think I was clairvoyant, because I had arranged for balloons and a stuffed bear to be delivered to his office; at lunch he called me very stressed out, and then an hour later, he got the bear and said it made his day! So that was nice.

I only worked a half-day because I'm still recovering from being sick, and that was much needed; I came home and crashed, HARD, for two hours. At 5:30 I went to pick up the cake I had ordered (to anyone who's interested, Whole Foods has a great bakery and will make custom things). Well, I get there, the cake (fruit tart really) was beautiful, I approved mightily, the woman put it in a box, lifted it up to show a coworker.... and dropped it. Upside down. All the pretty peach slices and berries falling falling falling. The people behind the counter were mortified. "We'll make you another one!!" the woman cried out at once. So I wandered around the store for a half hour while they remade it. (As penance at the end when I paid for it, they gave me free cannoli.)

So I arrived home quite a bit later than I had planned - after Jonathan in fact - and Sarah arrived a few minutes later. Her husband Chris had a last-minute meeting and couldn't come, but the three of us trekked over to Lemongrass, a great Thai restaurant, and ate til we rolled out the door. After getting home Sarah showed us the great presents in her trunk; she has a set of china dinnerware that she doesn't need, and she wanted to know if we could use it. Yay! It's a set of 24, which will work out beautifully for all future Pesachs.

Following dinner, we were going to have dessert with Dave and Elbie. But then they called us - Dave had a bike accident and broke BOTH of his arms!! That poor man. We went across the street to visit and to bring them slices of fruit tart. I can't imagine being immobilized with both hands, he can't even turn his wrists. And they were going to leave on a road trip tomorrow... oy. Thank goodness he has a sense of humor about it.

After leaving their house we came back to have more cake and to open presents. Jonathan is agog over Sandra and my mom's gifts (a very cool spice rack and two lion mugs from the MGM Grand, respectively). At the moment I'm lounging on the couch, watching Simcha and Osher be fascinated by the balloons on the ceiling, and listening to Jonathan play Overlord, a PS3 fantasy game where you get to have goblin minions and a fancy sword. (Antonio, you'd love it.)

All in all, it ended up being a very good day. Good food, good friends, and most importantly (after work at least), a lot of relaxation.

Baby registry

Thank you to everyone who has sent items or asked what we would like to get for the baby. To make things a bit easier, Jonathan and I have put together a gift registry. It's at

www.myregistry.com

Just type in one of our names in the "Find Registry" section on the left and it should appear. I’m still adding to it, so check back for updates.

The link is also at the side of this blog for convenience.

Kitty cats and a belly. Like usual.

I've been sick and Jonathan has been working late, so there's not much blog-worthy to report. Here are a few fun pictures though.

A moth was flying around the house and settled on the light fixture in our front hallway. We were all captivated.

The moth was too high for Simcha to reach, so Jonathan was a good daddy and lifted him up high so he could try and bat at it. This is the moment where he caught it. What a hunter!

Belly self-portrait from a few days ago. I'm at 31 weeks, which means only 9 weeks left. We're counting down now to my due date, instead of counting up for the weeks of gestation. I bet these next two months will go by fast!

A rather eventful weekend, for once

We did things! And it occurred to me, I should share.

Friday we went to services. And met people. And noshed. And while services were great (truly a Classical Reform service, complete with lots of English, very little kippot, and the rabbi wore a robe)... no one will ever be able to one-up Temple Israel on noshing. I miss their onegs!

Saturday we were up early (well, early for me on a Saturday) to help Jessica and Michael move. Read: Jonathan moved boxes for three hours, I refilled people's water glasses. At 1pm Jonathan had to go take the Mini in for a check-up - the car Bluetooth wasn't working right - but I was still feeling social so I stayed til about 4, moving very very light things. They saved the boxes that were marked "fragile" for me. :)

When I got home, I gasped, because there was a BMW in our driveway. Why, you ask? Because the Bluetooth problem costs $1000 to fix, so the Mini people wanted to keep the car for a couple days to get approval for the cost and do the repair. The BMW is our loaner car. It costs WAAAYY more than our Mini. I told Jonathan, "umm... yeah.. I love our Mini, but I'm not feeling in a rush to get it back!"

Saturday night we went out for Indian with Dave and Elbie, and then made an impromptu stop at Carl and Anne's to say hell0 - our neighbors know my classmates because they all went to college together! Wild. So that was fun, and felt very college-like as we showed up at their door. Then the four of us came back to our place, ate ice cream, and watched more Firefly.

Sunday was relaxful, peaceful, and hilarious: we started out the day with three flies in the house. Two hours later we had two very happy cats licking their chops and a fly-free household. It was pure entertainment to watch them. Then Jonathan played video games and I indulged in Star Trek. We finished the day by watching the last few episodes of Season 2 of Lost, which I am now wholly addicted to.

And then today it was back to work! I hate that. Sunday evenings are always so sad. The end of a (weekend) era...

The Tattooed Jew

The New York Times published an article today that says that the idea that Jews can't be tattooed is an urban myth.

I was fascinated, and after reading the first paragraph wanted to call up a professor or two at school as well as my friend Marshal, who's writing his rabbinical thesis on Jews and tattooing. Then I continued reading the article, and realized that Marshal is quoted in it! As is the HUC Talmud professor who I most likely would have asked.

As I said, the article concludes that there is no official law against tattooing. But it's not quite a myth either - here is a link to a Reform responsum on the issue, an essay written as an answer to a modern Jewish question.

CCAR Responsa: Tattooing, Body Piercing, and Jewish Tradition

Basically the laws are fuzzy, but Reform Judaism (as well as all other Jewish denominations) still is against it. My personal opinion is obviously different - as is the opinion of many other Jews of my generation - but I do think it's fascinating to be able to track the sources of these various laws and "urban myths."

80's movies

Jonathan has recently discovered the true extent of my lack of knowledge regarding 80's pop culture. This came up when he made a reference to Flashdance and I thought he meant the movie where Kevin Bacon was young and cute.

Suffice it to say, two nights ago we watched Footloose (Sarah Jessica Parker was in it! Who knew?!). And Flashdance has just arrived from Netflix.

What are other 80's movies should I see to get over this apparently terrible cultural deficit? We just added Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles to our Netflix queue. I've already seen The Breakfast Club and Weird Science. And I have this vague recollection of John Cusack holding a radio over his head in Say Anything. Are we missing anything else?

Ho-hum

Not much has been happening this week. Jonathan and I go to work, we come home, we take off our shoes and we don't leave the house again. It's been brilliant.

We've been hanging out with our neighbors Dave and Elbie across the street, and have introduced them to the show Firefly. They're coming over on Saturday night to have dinner and watch more episodes. I like being friends with neighbors - they're our age, not in remotely religious fields (Dave's a medical resident, Elbie a pulmonary-something) which makes for new and stimulating conversation, they're close by to hang out on short notice, and now we have someone to wave to on our block.

Book-wise, I re-read Tova Mirvis' second novel, The Outside World. Again, loved it. She's my new favorite author. And Dan the librarian has been coming into my office at work to show me various cool things, like a 16th century Hebrew manuscript from a community in China.

The cats have definitely been treating me differently nowadays. Simcha is much more clingy, and even Osher will cuddle with me when before he was obviously more enamored of Jonathan. I wonder - mama cats abandon their first set of kittens and leave them on their own when they have a new litter, yes? Maybe our cats sense that something's going on and don't want to be left behind? It's the only theory I have going.

I've also been having lots of fun doing research on strollers, child care seats, bottles, and other baby stuff. It's amazing how much there is to buy for one tiny little person!

Go Mini!

We're at an average of 35 MPG! :)

Happy anniversary to us.... so to speak

Today is exactly one year since Jonathan and I moved to Cincinnati. I started to think about what's happened in the past year, and came up with more than I realized. We have

- moved from Israel to California to Ohio apartment to Ohio house
- new job for Jonathan
- new school, student pulpit, and teaching job for Michal
- bought and furnished aforementioned house
- formed new community
- bought new car
- gotten pregnant

You know, when you live your life day to day, it all flows naturally. But when I add it up like that, it seems like a lot. No wonder we've felt a little overwhelmed at times!

Other things in life.... poor Simcha-le didn't have his surgery yesterday, because pre-surgery the vet found a problem with his heart and didn't feel comfortable putting him under anaesthesia. So we're going to get a cat ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis next week. Depending on what they find, we'll go from there. Right now he's not acting sick in any way.

I still say that wheatgrass is atrocious. But I have to admit, it's working. I feel much much better. I may even start recommending it. (If only Simcha could take it.)

Jonathan's still at work. At 7pm on Friday. He should be coming home soon. I had the day off today so spent it... cleaning the house. Like, actually cleaning with Windex and things. I must be in my pregnancy nesting phase. Either that or be feverish! I called him to tell him about my cleaning spree and he said that 1) he should work late more often and 2) who was I and what had I done with his wife?

Tiredness

Well, the third trimester has hit with a vengeance. I'm back to first-semester tiredness, and apparently my liver is having some issues, so my midwife put me on wheatgrass powder and flax supplements. I haven't noticed any changes yet, but then again, it's only been a day, so I'm hopeful.

I belong to a couple different yahoogroups on natural birth and nutrition, and on one of them, a woman posted that she had a whole bunch of maternity clothes that she was giving away. So I trekked over the 40 minutes to her house last night, and voila! I now have a ton of new T-shirts and stuff to wear around the house. I'd been hoping for more work or snazzy casual clothes, but most of them weren't quite my style. She was really nice though, it was definitely worth going.

Tomorrow will be a somewhat stressful day... we take Simcha in for surgery. He has bad gingivitis and needs to get a tooth pulled. The vet said that there was no specific reason his teeth were bad - we feed him the exact same thing we feed Osher, who's fine - it's just his body chemistry. Poor kitty. We've been giving him antibiotics the past week to get rid of the infection, and he hates taking pills. I have a feeling he won't like surgery any better. But at least he won't be in pain any longer. And he may be in more of a mood to snuggle when we get him home. That will work well with my increased need to lounge on the couch!

Our baby has been delivered prematurely

Fresh from Oxford England, our British baby was still wet behind the ears from its trans-Atlantic voyage to us. Though our new MINI has only been in the States for a week, he has adjusted well and has been tempting Dad with lots of dashes through traffic.

Here are the long awaited pictures of the shiny new member of the Loving household.

Me getting the keys. YIPPIE!!

Jay, the way cool guy who sold me the MINI.
He's called a "MINI Adviser."
BMW just cracks me up.

My lovely wife doing her Vanna White impression.
She looks so good next to the MINI.

Our new MINI arrives home.

The "S" means Super Fast!

Our MINI's behind.
A view most cars will see.

Michal tells me she feels rich with two cars in the garage.
They do look cute together.

I have to say, as good as it looks in the pictures, it's even better looking in the flesh. I have spent the past week learning all the bells and whistles, and it's interesting how the features you thought you could easily live without become the ones you just love. Like, the MINI comes with this Bluetooth connection for your cell phone that allows you to turn the inside of your MINI into a speaker phone. When I saw it on the feature list when I went to order it, I thought I'd never really use it. Let me tell you, I LOVE IT! It's probably my favorite feature. My phone directory shows up on the car dash, and I can pick the number with my steering wheel buttons and dial someone. I never have to reach for my cell phone again! It even turns off your radio while you're talking and turns it back on again after you hang up. Talk about handy!

Even some of my coworkers who didn't see why in the world I would get a MINI changed their mind when they went for a ride in mine. One of them is seriously is looking to see if she can get one.

I've even hacked into the GPS to change the car icon to a picture of our MINI. Go geek skillz!

Anyway, I find myself making excuses to go run errands. This weekend we went on a drive on Kentucky back roads for two hours (plus pee and food breaks for Michal). MINI = FUN!

Now go build your own HERE.

Expansion

I'm at 28 weeks, measuring at 30.

Fourth of July

The day was great. I spent the day doing nothing and I read Tova Mirvis' The Ladies' Auxilary, which is by far one of the best books I've read all year (much better than the last five or six, at least). It's about an Orthodox Jewish community in Memphis that gets completely shook up when a young widow and her daughter move into town. It addresses issues of tradition versus change, finding meaning in law versus observance for observance's sake, small town versus large city, belonging versus being an outsider, and more. I think the main reason I liked it so much (besides that the topic was interesting) was that the book is written in third person plural. The narrator is "we, the women of the Memphis community" and so the very structure itself leads to a new way to explore communal expectations and norms. I thought it was very original.

But aside from my book review - the 4th here is celebrated with pomp and grandeur! People are more patriotic in the Midwest than in CA by far. We went over to our neighbor's for dinner and a BBQ. Dave and Elbie (they're about our age) had all the burger fixings, and we brought corn on the cob and dessert. But it rained! Almost ALL day. I still don't understand this state. So we huddled next to the grill, then as soon as everything was done we raced upstairs to eat. It stopped raining and turned nice at about 9pm, so we moved into our backyard and then set off what had to be half the fireworks sold in Ohio. (Jonathan had bought a whole box, and Dave and Elbie's downstairs neighbor Steve came over too with even more.) We freaked the cats out, I could hear them meowing from inside. But it was really fun! There were smoke ones, ones with color, ones that made loud popping noises... you name it, Kroger sells it. We had all been thinking of going to see the fireworks in the local park (and Jessica and Michael would maybe have joined us) but we pooped out. Instead we just sat around talking the rest of the night.

As far as pregnancy goes... it's definitely getting harder to bend down. Sleeping is also more difficult as Wiggly has apparently decided that whenever I'm nice and relaxed is a fabulous time to kick and do somersaults. He wakes me up sometimes! The best was when he woke up Jonathan: I was spooning behind him, the baby gave a hard kick, and Jonathan muttered half-asleep, "I felt THAT!"

We decided not to take a childbirth class (like Lamaze or Bradley) because our midwife is giving us so much good information, and I'm doing most of the research on my own anyway. I just started a book from Holly, A Holistic Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth by Deepak Chopra, which I find fascinating, and I'm also partway through Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method, about releasing fear and pain through self-hypnosis. Ida May's Guide to Natural Childbirth is on its way from amazon.com and should get here next week.

Jonathan is greatly enjoying every errand that involves driving. He even completely cleaned out the garage so two cars now fit. Oh, and other big news! My sister may come to live with us in spring. She's out of the army now and wants to move to New York, but realizes she's a bit short on cash to go straight there. So if it works out, she may stay with us for a few months from February on. I'll keep you updated.

Ravenwood castle pictures

This is the preview picture. For all others, go here: Ravenwood Castle

All in all, it was a great vacation. Just what we needed - secluded, relaxing, with great food. We stayed in the room pictured for one night, but it was a little noisy, so we actually upgraded to one of the Cottages. It had a mini-kitchen and double whirlpool tub.

Pictures and description of the Mini will follow in a separate post... that will most likely be written by Jonathan.

Fun Wiggly developments

After dinner last night I felt the oddest sensation in my belly. It was like rhythmic kicks, but not quite as powerful - more like the whole area was contracting, not just one spot being kicked. I looked down, and my belly was actually jumping. It lasted about a minute and a half. It took me a second, then I realized - I think the baby had the hiccups!

(And yes, pictures of me and the burgeoning belly, Ravenwood, and the Mini will be posted soon. The camera's sitting on the coffee table. It's just been a busy week.)