IN LIMBO

My Dad AH(may he rest in peace) always said that Jews were made to suffer. I guess that's why they invented pessach...passover. What a job!!!

Now, don't get me wrong. I love pessach. Actually it's my favourite holiday and even before the days when my house was kosher, I changed everything around for pessach.

For my readers who don't know what a Jewish housewife has to go through in order to get ready for pessach, let me give you the condensed version... the traditional version and not the keeper's of the sabbath one where they make me look like a gentile. :)

Every part of the house has to be thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom to be sure that there is no food or crumbs anywhere. And while you're at it you can wash the drapes and clean the carpets too.

While doing that you get to attack the closets and drawers. That gives you a great chance to throw out bags of stuff that no one wears/no one uses/it will never fit me even if I diet for the next five years...you know, the stuff that has all your closets and drawers overflowing.

Personally, I leave the kitchen for last. All the cupboards are emptied and cleaned. The fridge and stove are scoured and not one little crumb of food is allowed to survive.

Then, and only then can you change over your dishes and begin cooking for the seder.

Ok, so here's where I am. The rooms are cleaned. The kitchen cubboards are cleaned. The fridge and stove have had their first once-over.

So where does that leave me? In limbo. The kosher for pessach stuff is in boxes. The matzot, the new spices, the coffee/tea/turkish coffee/sugar is waiting. Strawberry jam and rice (my husband is from Kurdistan, Iraq and we get to eat rice...yahooooo) are waiting.

But pessach doesn't start until Monday evening. Thank goodness in Israel we only have one seder and not two, but until then my house is half and half. Haven't put away the non pessach stuff and don't want to make too much of a mess in my kitchen which will force me to scrub up everything all over again.

And, between us, I don't know what to cook. For the past couple of weeks I've been emptying out the freezer; using up all the meat and chicken so I'll have room to put the pessach order in on Sunday.

Today's menu is chicken livers and onions and spagetti with a non-dairy parveh cream sauce. Tomorrow, I'll use up the last of the chicken and then we go full steam ahead into the holiday.

Yahoooo.

In the meantime, I spent all day Monday...seven hours...putting all the changes that I'd made on my book Emma Shelby is No More into a file online. Then Tuesday I took the little key thingee to a printing place and had four copies made and bound with a spiral. One of my dear friends is a scientific editor and said she would edit it for me technically. Thank you, thank you. Another of my dear friends is an editor and said she would edit it for me content-wise. Thank you, thank you. One copy I mailed back to my self special delivery as proof of copywrite. And the final copy I am simply looking at and saying WOWOWOW. 487 pages and two years later Emma is written. Then when those changes are in, off Emma goes to my brother in Boulder and my brother-in-love in California. And then, everyone, keep your fingers crossed, spit three times and hop on one foot. Thank you, thank you.

Maybe during pessach I will have some time off and will sit and try to read it like I would read any book.

Ok, off I go back to the kitchen. Once the dishes and counters have been changed over from regular days to passover ones, it will all fall into place and I can start preparing my traditional pessach dishes. Yahoooooooooo.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

WADJA SAY???

It all started off by a five minute medical report on Fox News. Big mistake! I told you I never watch the news. But as I was flipping the channel there I was just in time to watch a story about a man who had cancer of the nose and died!!!!!!!!!! CANCER OF THE NOSE?

And when did I see this, you may well ask. As I was suffering, yet once again, from a head cold that went into sinus problems and irritated the polyps in my nose.

Don't ask how I made my friends crazy. So crazy that I went to my doctor. Now, my good doctor loves it when I show up in his clinic. No, not because I am sick, but because I think I'm his only comic relief of the day.

He did try not to smile when I told him my sad tale of the poor man and his nose. He did. And sent me to my ear nose and throat guy. He too tried not to smile and sent me for a cat scan 'Not because I think you have cancer of the nose, tfu tfu tfu, but I know that you won't sleep until you see that you are all right.'

Smart man. Of course, we will not talk about the two weeks I had to wait...oh they had earlier appointments, but I needed a day and date that was right for me...don't go there. Then I had to wait a week for the results. Then my doctor was on vacation for three weeks...of course he was.
So, I went back to my G.P. and he said that I have chronic sinusitis and me and my nose will just have to grow old together.

After three weeks, I went back to the ear nose and throat guy and while I was there I said that I think my hearing isn't so hotsy totsy. He said, 'Of course not. You have chronic sinusitis in five places and polyps, but go do a hearing test."

OK. Today was the hearing test. Picture this. There we all were in the out patient clinic of Bikur Cholim Hospital. A hearing test. Remember? So where is this test being held? Right off the main reception room of the clinic. All morning long people were coming in and walking out shouting to the lady behind the desk.

I was sixth in line. There was a nice lady with a little girl. They had a running conversation going so that the little girl wouldn't be too bored. An elderly couple who made me look young. A lady about my age with a diamond ring we would all love to own. An arab couple with their three children, one of which kept running out the door and screaming.

A hearing test, remember.

Every once in a long while, the tester would come out and call out the name of the next person. Now you would think that since we were all suffering some form of hearing loss that she would be in the quietest part of the clinic and not in the middle of Grand Central Station, right? Wrong! And, you would think she would have a nice little microphone so that all the hearing impared could hear their name being called, right? Wrong again.

Whispering a name, we all turned to one another and said, "Wadshesay?" Sigh.

Finally, I moved right next to the door. When she called my name I was right there. Yahooooo, I can hear! I thought and smiled at my neighbours.

Well, dear ones. I am happy to tell you that my hearing is great. Nu, not as great as when I was twenty-three, but for my age it is wonderful. No, I don't need a hearing aid. No, I am not losing my hearing. It is simply just a little less than it was. Yahooooooooooooo.

The moral of this story is...never listen to the news, it can get you into terrible trouble.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

SUNDAY MORNING

Shavuah tov ( a good week) to you all. This post is going to have to be rather short as I am up to here, yes up to here, in cleaning kitchen cupboards.

Pessach is just around the corner and the house is undergoing it's spring 'you don't use that, so throw it away' mode.

I don't know why I keep all that stuff. You know the stuff. Maybe next year it will fit me...maybe one of the kids will need it...you CAN'T throw away a book! That stuff.

This year I am being ruthless. And brave. I have already thrown out three bags of stuff from my own room. Feel ten pounds lighter. And that left me facing the kitchen cupboards this morning.

The good news is, it's done. The sad news is that because there are only my hubby and Joe College, my law student and myself living in the house, there wasn't that much stuff that needed cleaning, fixing, moving, dusting, and throwing out. Sigh.

Tomorrow the fridge and stove and oven. And my part of the cleaning is done. That just leaves me cooking for shabbat and then for chag (yontiff/holiday). That part is easy. Well, once I figure out how to make interesting meals that are different on the weekend and then on the holiday. Just so much you can do with a chicken lol.

The Jerusalem Post, posted a poem over the weekend that touched Bubbie Channah...she buys the weekend paper. And after she read it to me, it touched me too. Here it is.

The Blissful Couple

They laugh together.
Read together.
Dance together.
Paint together.
Listen to music together.
Walk, holding hands together.

They love exchanging
Warm
Wet
Mushy
Kisses.
He rushes to greet her,
His arms outstretched,
Joyfully calling her name,
When he sees her arrive.

Who, you are wondering,
Is this blissful couple?
She is his grandma.
He is almost five.
-Judith Viorst

Have a sweet shavuah tov.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

JUST A USUAL FRIDAY MORNING

Every Friday morning, my friend Rena and I go for brunch. Sometimes it's to the mall or Angel's in Nayot. Doesn't matter where we go...we always eat the same thing and spend hours talking and laughing.

After checking out the menus, we always settle for two scrambled eggs and salad...coffee and I get a diet Coke.

When we're in the mall (Malcha Mall down the road from my place) we usually end up in the Supermarket. Now you would think that two grown women would have better places to go to have fun, but not us. We look, we comparative shop, we walk up and down the aisles and keep a running conversation as we fill up the shopping cart.

Today I needed some 5% salad dressing and she needed some of that stuff you put into the toilet to make nice. You know what I mean. That blue stuff that seeps out of the container when you flush. (Is this too much information for you?)

Here is our conversation:
M: Here it is.
R: I don't want stuff that stinks. How will I know what it smells like?
M: I don't know. My kid gets this blue one in the three pack. Twenty-one shekels for three of them.
R: What's this? (She asked holding up a different kind of toilet thingee.)
M: I don't know. They all look the same to me.
R: But how do you work this?
M: Says that you push something into something and then pull something out.
R: What do you pull out?
M: Beats me. Looks like this white thingee under the bottle.
R: But how do you get it out?
M: I think you shlep this thing. Listen to us. Two college graduates and we can't figure out how to put in a toilet thing.
AT THIS POINT WE NOTICED A MAN STANDING NEXT TO US.
R: I don't know. Maybe I should get the three pack.
M: That's what we use.
R: But how do I know what it smells like? I don't want stinky stuff.
M: I have no idea. I told you we get this blue one.
R: Wait. It tells what scent it has. This one is peach. I don't want peach.
M: Then don't get it. Look, there's apple, and peach and the blue stuff and one that says Classic.
R: I don't know which to get.
M: Listen. Pick one. They're not diamonds! If you don't like it throw them in the garbage! They only cost twenty-one shekels.

She laughed, took the blue three pack and we walked to find the salad dressing. About five seconds later I turned around to tell her something when I noticed the man walking behind me and grinning from ear to ear.

Shrugging my shoulders, I smiled at him and burst out laughing. I can just imagine what he was thinking. First of all he knew we weren't big on the cleaning department as any of THOSE women would have known what to buy. Second, he knew that any man who had those toilet thingees on their list would have grabbed the first one he found and walked away...if he would have had that on his list at all. Third, he must have thought what stupid broads. But finally, he had to know that we were bright, funny women who were picking out toilet stuff like someone else goes shopping for a Picasso.

And, he had a great sense of humour and appreciated ours too. We laughed for twenty minutes in the supermarket as we thought of all the things he must have been thinking. But, he didn't walk away. He stayed till the bitter end wondering how we would solve the problem of the stinky toilet stuff.

Yahooooo. Good to laugh.

A sweet shabbat shalom. ( a peaceful weekend)

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

THOUGHTS

So how come with twenty-four hours in a day, I still don't have enough time to get everything done? I taught my students...I cooked...I edited four chapters of Emma...and I still have four more left to go.

Now you may have noticed, and were just too kind to point it out, that no place in that list did I mention that I cleaned for Pessach. Sigh. Pessach sorta just snuck up on me this year. I need a few more weeks. My house is clean...honest...I promise.

Next week is the kitchen. Everyone else is going to have to take care of their own rooms. Usually I tear apart the house but this year I don't have the time or energy. I have to get Emma edited and printed up and off to the people who need to have her in their hands by Sunday. Ok...Monday.

I do have a choice. I can clean, thumbs down...or write, thumbs UP. Which door did you pick?

I guess I'm just getting old. When the kids were young and all living at home it was wonderful making all the changes needed to get ready for Pessach. It still is my most favourite holiday of them all. But this year I just don't have the oomph. I know what needs to be done will be done and when the table is set with the Pessach dishes and tablecloth and the candles are lit and everyone is sitting around the table, I will be so happy.

Right now I just wish that the Good Fairy would come and sprinkle a little fairy dust and get all the grunchy stuff done.

I tried contacting her but her answering machine said that she was in Florida for the winter. Sigh. Nobody said that the Good Fairy was a fool.

OK. Off I go. Hope you are all having a very productive day.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

MAZAL TOV!!!

Sunday my cousin Frummie married Chanan. Mazal tov! And what a wonderful evening we all had. Bubbie Channah and I got all gussied up in long skirts and matching tops and hats.

Yes, it was a religious wedding. The groom's family originally came from Persia/Iran but have been in Israel for I don't know how many generations. They are educators and teachers and what a lovely, lovely family.

The bride's family come from the States and moved here to Jerusalem 12-15 years ago. My first family in Israel. What a huge joy that was...having relatives in the city after being alone here for so long.

It wasn't exactly a shiddach (a match made by a matchmaker) but the groom's mother knew someone who knew the bride's grandmother and thought the children should meet. They did. They fell in love. And today they are an old married couple of a day and a half.

I love religious weddings. I love them. They are the happiest, most joyous events I have ever been to. The children take over the wedding. Let me tell you how it goes.

Men and women are separated after the ceremony by a mehitzah...folding accordion like doors. As soon as the music starts all the friends of the bride and groom get up and start dancing and all I know is that it is so infectious that us old guys can't resist joining in.

A little stop for food and then back dancing! Woo-hoo!

I saw two new things at this wedding. All our wedding ceremonies are held under a chuppah...a canopy. But here they opened up a tallis and covered the rabbis and the bride and goom as well as standing under the origional chuppah. Nice.

Then at one point we snuck a look at the men's side. It's ok. We were the old timers and I don't think we distracted them at all at all. Sigh. Now, in the good old days...but where was I?

I never saw men dance like that. At that point the bride was brought into the men's side and was sitting with her groom and the men danced for the couple. It was amazing. Then two men took off their coats and in their shirt sleeves they began swinging fire! Little cups held by chains, one in each hand. The two men swung them and danced and weaved with the fire swirling. It was awsome.

One of the ladies standing next to me whispered that her own son knows how to swirl fire and does that at weddings too. Wow!

By a quarter to twelve, I decided Bubbie Channah and I had had enough excitement for one night.

I forgot to tell you. I fell in love. The bride's sister's new baby is now four months old. Tfu tfu tfu! One look and you have to love him, kiss him, and hug him and and and...

So, I think I'm going to go back to knitting. I told you that when my son was stationed in Shchem...Nablus during the last intifada I started to crazy knit. I got Bubbie Channah and we made 150 baby sweaters!!! Since then I haven't been able to pick up a pair of needles. But this little baby has my fingers itching to make him beautiful stuff.

Love! Funny how it makes you smile.

Mazal tov to the new couple. May they have a lifetime of joy together. And their families should only know simchas. As for the little baby...he's set cuz there isn't a person in the universe who won't love him...tfu tfu tfu.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

THE TRUTH

Bubbie Channah always told me that if I didn't have anything good to say that it was better not to say anything at all. So, what do you do when your opinion is required and you don't have something nice to say?

I think I would rather know the truth. Especially if it comes from someone I trust and I know who loves me. There are enough miseries out there who only knock you down so that they can stand taller. But the good guys who really care are ones we should listen to. Don't you think?

I belong to a creative writing group. Now this is how it works. A week before our bi-monthly meeting we have to hand in by email our next chapter. There are four women and three men, one of whom is our mentor and guide.

We always hope that the group will ooooo and ahhhhh and stroke our egos and tell us that we are the best thing since sliced bread. But, I have discovered along the way that my best growth has come when the group told me my stuff stinks. Well, they never said that. Not in those words anyway.

And with their gentle prodding and advice, which I sometimes accepted and other times rejected, I have gotten better. And better. I have always been a storyteller but now I am a story writer!!! Woohoo!!! Sounds great doesn't it? Actually, it sounds amazing.

I am about to hand over my baby to strangers. The friends who wish to read and edit it and then off to my brother in Colorado and finally to my other brother in California. I say other brother because we grew up together and although we are not blood relations we couldn't be closer if we were siblings.

Anyhow, letting 'Emma' fly off to foreign shores all by herself feels kinda like standing naked at the corner of King George and Jaffa Roads. OY. Know what I mean?

But hey I've got to take the chance. I've got to write. And I trust the experts to help me be a better writer.

So, thanks for your love you guys and thanks for your help you guys and thanks for caring enough to tell me the truth.

See you at the Oscars!

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

THE SECRET

I don't know how many of you have heard about The Secret. It is basically all about using the power of positive thinking...what you put out to the universe is what you get back in return.

I first heard about this last year and thought, 'Hey, makes sense to me!' Well, of course it did, I'm the person who believes that 'if you build it they will come', remember?

So, I have been really trying to put away my fears. You know the ones that either wake you up in the middle of the night or else the ones that greet you first thing in the morning, and replace them with my new mantra...ALL IS WELL.

At first, I thought, 'No, I can't say that!' What about the ayn hora/ein ha rah/evil eye? TFU, TFU, TFU. But then I thought, it made sense. And now I'm putting...ok, ok, ok, I'm trying to put all my negative 'what if' thoughts away and replace them with ALL IS WELL.

It's like if you say 'I'll never find a parking place at this hour' then of course you won't. What you send out is what comes back at you. So, I'm sending out positive stuff.

Wanna know my own selfish one? Of course you do. So, after praying that the kids are all well, and successful, and everyone is healthy, and Israel is safe...mundane things like that, I am putting out that I'm going to earn my living as a writer. ALL IS WELL.

Ok, that's mine. Let me know what you think. Try it...you'll like it.

A sweet shavuah tov to you all.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

GUESS WHAT?!?

It's snowing in Jerusalem! Yahoooooo. If rain is good, snow is better! I love the snow. I love the magic of it. I remember walking to school when I was a kid and having to step into other people's footprints as the snow was up to my knees. I remember when the milkman (I know, I know...I'm that old) would come and deliver our milk order to the side window becuase we couldn't open the door.

I love Jerusalem. I love Jerusalem with a love that is difficult and maybe impossible to explain. From the moment my little tootsies got off the plane that day so long ago I felt that I was home.

But! That doesn't mean that I don't miss some of the good stuff from North America. Nope. I miss a lot of the good stuff. Snow...the leaves turning their rainbow colours in the fall...a list of food that is too long to mention here. I always gain weight whenever I go back...sigh.

Well, yesterday I made a barley/lentil/pea soup that came out gorgous. So today I think I'm going to make chicken burgers. My youngest doesn't want to eat beef so I am busy inventing stuff from chicken and turkey. Actually it is better and healthier and I don't mind. What's a Mama for, if not to pamper her babies?

OK. Off I go to look out the window and go AHHHHHHHH. Jerusalem doesn't really know what to do when it snows and everthing stops...no school...yahooooooooo for the kiddies, and people think twice about going out. Not that they are afraid of the snow, but sometimes the busses stop running also and it gets difficult getting back home.

No problem for me. Today I am teaching this morning and working from home. Some days just make you smile and this is one of them.

I wish you all a happy sweet day.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

YAHOOOOOOOO...IT'S RAINING

I love the winter. I never really realized just how much I loved the winter until I left Canada and moved to Jerusalem.

Hot. Lots of hot. What's a person like me doing in a place like this, I often wondered. Oh, not the city. Not the country. Just the weather.

When I moved to Jerusalem thirty-seven (wow) years ago we had different weather. Hot in the daytime and cool at night. Now in the summer we have hot and hotter and we seem to have more months of it. Sigh.

But this winter we are having a wonderful time with cold and rain and even a little snow this year.

Two days ago it was 23 degrees. Oy. That's it, I wondered. The whole winter is over? Then I remembered that it always rains after Pessach so we have time yet.

Yesterday it went from happy spring to back to winter as the temperatures fell and it began to drizzle. The drizzle turned to real rain and all night the wind blew and the trees swayed and the windows rattled and the rain pounded on the glass and I snuggled deeper under my down comforter and smiled.

Ahhhhhh. Warm and toasty under the covers and wild and wintery outside. A perfect combination for staying home and not feeling guilty at all, at all.

So, what am I going to do today? My early morning student is busy this morning so I have some time for myself. I'm 3/4 through re-reading Emma Shelby is No More, the 485 page novel I wrote. It's not easy re-reading...I've read it so many times in the past twenty months. First writing it. Then taking it chapter by chapter to my writing group. Then as my writing improved rewriting it. But now it's done. Once it is edited...everyone should have friends like I have...I will check it again and then send it off to California where my dearest darling other brother is waiting for it.

When it rains I always think that it's G-d talking to me. OK, godda go. I think this is definitely soup weather. Wanna come for soup?

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

NO NEWS IS...

I don't know about you but I have been waging a love/hate battle with the news for over a year now. See, first it started out by my watching the news every chance I got and in between listing to the radio. I also learned how to access the news online. And if that wasn't good enough, then I could get constant updates on my cell phone...sigh.

Then, about a year ago I realized that all the news did was aggravate me and make my blood pressure go up. When did the news become a reality show rather than a program that informed people about what is going on in the world? When did the newscasters start having an 'agenda'?

When I was growing up we had the news every evening on TV at 6:00 and had at least one newspaper delivered to our doorstep daily. That was it. And still, people managed to get through their day.

A long time ago I realized that the newscasters were rooting for their own team and not simply broadcasting information. I'm not that naive. And I also realized that they gave their team a hell of a lot more coverage then the other guys.

But something in the lack of fairness pushed just one too many buttons in my heart and about a year ago I simply stopped watching and listening. Maybe I'm like that old ostrich, but know what? I don't care. I think our government is so corrupt that I'm ashamed. I think other governements are running a close second. So, how come nobody cares? How come it has become acceptable behaviour? How are we going to teach our children right from wrong if the leaders of the world are sleezy guys and gals?

And now for the ladies. Just before she died, Naomi Shemer announced on her deathbed that ooops she didn't write the music for Jerusalem of Gold! Hello! Now you tell me? A whole brilliant career thrown down the toilet? Are, I mean were you nuts? So you didn't write the music, so what! We would have understood. We didn't care.

Then a week or so ago, my friend Rena asked what I thought about the Noami Ragen scandal? 'What scandal?' I asked. 'You don't read the news?' she asked? 'I don't read it, I don't listen to it, I don't watch it.' 'So how do you know what's going on?'
'Don't worry,' I answered. 'Someone is always ready to tell me. And besides I always have Bubbie Channah who listens to Foxx News 24/7. Isn't is always Bubbie Channah who calls me and tells me everything? Good to have a Mom.

Nu, so what's going on with Naomi Ragen you ask? She is being sued by two people who claim that she plagerized/copied their books. Did she? Didn't she? I sure hope not. I like her books. I've read all her books.

So what do I watch, you ask? I watch reruns of Survivor...Guatemala is on now. And of course American Idol. And now we just got Heroes and The Ghost Whisperers. And Desperate Housewives are back with Gray's Anatomy. And when all fails, I have the Animal Planet channel where I watch my monkeys from Monkey World. Oh, and I still watch Crocodile Hunter and miss Steve Irwin AH.

Well, if you think I'm missing anything and should be informed, just drop me a line and I'll be glad to listen.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

GETTING OLD ISN'T FOR SISSIES

I don't feel old. I don't think I look old. But sometimes my body says 'whoa girl' and places I didn't even know existed begin to hurt.

Take my hip for instance. A little over a year ago, I was working in the kitchen when I was done in by a drop of water. A little water on the kitchen floor and in a second I became a world famous ice skater doing the splits. Don't laugh.

And if that isn't bad enough a week later I must have decided I liked the idea because in the very same place I did it again!

Since then every time the weather changes my left hip goes 'krich, krich'(ch like in loch lomen) Sigh.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, maybe you need to know what the weather is doing outside and don't have a tv or radio handy. Just call me. I'll dance around for a few minutes and in a flash I'll be able to give you an honest and true report.

No! Don't thank me. What are friends for?

Hope you have a sweet shavuah tov.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

SHABBAT SHALOM

Shabbat shalom. I have a half hour to get this post out before shabbat comes in. Nu, so today I made two different kinds of chicken and gondi. What's gondi? Ahhhhhhhhh.

I got this recipe from a Persian friend of mine. Here it is:
-one half kilo of chopped meat (today I used chopped turkey)
-one cup of raw rice
-one chopped onion
-one can of chick peas
-condiments to taste: chicken soup powder/freshly ground pepper/hawayez/tumeric/paprika

-chop the onion fine and add it and the rice to the chopped meat
-add the condiments
-mix well
-fill a pot half full of water and add the same condiments that you added to the meat
-bring to a boil
-add the chick peas
-make ping-pong size balls and drop them gently into the 'soup'
-cook for at least a half hour
-great over rice
B'tayavon (bon apetite)

The weather is beginning to get warm and soon my friend Rena and I will go back to our favourite breakfast place next to the gas station in Nayot. A branch of Angel's bakery. You know the breakfast. Two scrambled eggs/salad/coffee. Now if I was back in Canada I would go out with the Guv and have pancakes and French toast and stuff...sigh.

The best part of going to that place for breakfast is that the 'Parliament' meet there every Friday morning. I don't know who these guys are, but there are about fifteen of them who meet and eat and celebrate birthdays together.

In the beginning they sat far away from us. Then slowly they moved their tables next to us when they realized that we could overhear them and laughed at their jokes. Nu, we couldn't help it. They are the most interesting group of men. We think that they must have been in the army together because there isn't much that they seem to have in common. Some are Israeli, some are South African, some are...well I don't know much more about them except that they are really smart and really up on what is going on here in the country. The big guy is a journalist, I think.

The last time we were there for breakfast was before the winter set in. See everyone sits outside and it's kinda really nice. Well, if you forget that you are in a gas station. I don't want any of you to think I'm talking about the Hilton or anything. Sigh.

I miss the Parliament. A group of very smart men eating outrageously fattening breakfasts. See, their wives aren't there to nudge them about their weight or sugar intake. During the last intifada they ate comfort food. These big guys were drinking hot cocoa and ordering entire cakes which they shared.

When one of them has a birthday it's even more fun. Candles and songs and everyone applauds.

Nice, no?

Soon it will be warm again to sit outside and listen to the Parliament solve all the problems of this country. I would elect the big guy to be Prime Minister. Yup, he would have my vote. He reminds me of Abba Evan...that is who he reminds me of...and look how smart HE was.

Ok, godda go get ready to light candles.

A sweet shabbat shalom to you all.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU'RE BUSY MAKING PLANS

I don't know about you, but this week was one of the most stressful I've had in a very long time. Wasn't even home much to sit and email or blog. But thank goodness all is well and here I am back again fat and sassy.

My friend Chava sent me this and I'm taking the lazy lady way out today. Tomorrow I hope to be back in full swing telling my stories and listening to yours.


4 Things about me you may not have known...........
A) Four jobs I have had in my life
1. teller in a bank
2. jewelry salesperson
3. co-founder and director of a learning center for L.D.kids
4. wrote and published seven astrology books

B) Four places I have lived:
1. Windsor, Ontario, Canada
2. Detroit, Michigan
3. Tel Aviv, Israel…one hot, sultry summer
4. Jerusalem, Israel

C) Four TV shows I like:
1. Survivor
2. American Idol
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Gray’s Anatomy

D) Four places I've been on vacation:
1. London, England
2. Paris, France
3. Boulder, Colorado
4. Greece

E ) Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chinese
2. Italian
3. Middle Eastern
4. anything that is not sushi or basil

F) Four places I would like to be right now:
1. at my brother’s place
2. at Maeshey’s place
3. at the guv’s place
4. at the Sheraton, Dead Sea


Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

STARCATCHER

By now you know me by many names: marallyn...imma...bubbie chanah's daughter...the baby's bubbie...so today I thought it time you meet Starcatcher, the hat I wear when I'm the astrology lady.

For the past two weeks Mercury has been in retrograde or 'retro' where the planet looks like it is going backwards. We all know that that is impossible, but because of the eliptical path the planets take around the sun, it just looks that way. Mercury goes retro for about three weeks every few months. This one is from February 15th-March 8th. Who cares, you may ask. Well mercury retro causes a breakdown in communication. All forms of communication... conversations...meetings...mail going out and packages coming in. It is when you find you can't live without that paisley couch and then when they deliver it, after the retro is over, you can't believe you were hoodwinked into buying that eyesore.

During these three weeks, I reccomend that you do not begin anything new. You do not make any major purchases. You try to avoid at all costs signing any important papers such as contracts or loans in the bank.

Avoid that confrontation you are itching to have with your spouse/sibling/neighbour/that lousy salesperson who is so stupid you can't believe that anyone would hire him/her. And listen more than you speak.

Added to all the above are two lunar eclipses. The first, the Full Moon Eclipse on March 3, 2007 will be visible in the United Kingdom as well as in Europe. When the Full Moon slips into the dark shaddow (umbra) of the Earth and disappears from view for about an hour it is a sight to be seen, and the second being the New Moon Eclipse on March 18, 2007 .

Between Mercury retro and these Lunar eclipses everyone will feel a bit off kilter, and extremely sensitive. I like to call it 'my fragile' time where I feel vulnerable and breakable. Where intellect takes a back seat to sensitivity and one's usual peppy spirit becomes bogged down under a blanket of doubt.

Personally, I do believe that all this action in the skies will be bringing more floods and earthquates in about nine months from now...but let's not go into 'doom and gloom' mode. Not just yet. For now, try not to spend too much money...avoid telling your mother-in-law just what she looks like in that dress and above all, remember...everything will be going back to normal around the second week of this month.

I love astrology. I don't trust all astrologers, but I love astrology.

Happy Purim...shabbat shalom.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

PURIM

Next week is Purim. Every kid's favourite holiday. Mine too. Well, actually my favourite holiday is Pessach (Passover) but I love watching the little kids all dressed up walking to their nursery schools or classes.

Purim is a big deal here in Israel. Every holiday is. You know the old joke : How do you describe every Jewish holiday in ten words or less? They tried to kill us...we won...let's eat!

So on Purim we all forget our diets and eat hamantashen or ozney haman in Hebrew. They are triangular cookies filled with dates or chocolate or poppy seeds, and are yummy.

Did you ever have a favourite costume? I had two. When I was really little, I remember I had a cowgirl outfit made out of real sued with fringes and everything. I loved that. I thought I looked like Dale Evens. Don't ask...either you are old enough to remember or the name won't mean anything to you.

Then when I got older I made a great clown costume. I loved that. As a storyteller and spinner of tales, I can tell you that the saddest person in the circus is the clown.

But of allllllllllll the costumes, my most impressive was the one I made twenty years ago for my youngest when he was four. He was and still is the sweetest person and my daughter came up with the idea. 'Imma let's make him the sweetest boy in Yerushalayim.'

And I did. I started off with a kova tembel, the Israeli cap that you always see in the movies, and sewed layers of string candy to look like hair. Then I took his navy blue jogging suit and covered it from neck to feet with candy...chocolates...suckers...toffee...you name it he had it. The same was on the back but where he had to sit down I simply put the candy wrappers.

Everyone stopped their cars as we walked to nursery school. He was a hit! And like the Gingerbread House, the kids all picked off the candy and ate whatever they wanted. I had to make that costume three times, but it was sure worth it.

Did you ever have a favourite costume that you liked? If you do and want to share, I'd love to hear your stories. I'll wish you all a sweet and Happy Purim next week. For now I'm leaving the costume making to my daughter in law. If you promise to keep it a secret, I'll tell you that sweetsie tootsie is going to be Bob the Builder and sweetsie girl is going to be a Princess...of course, you are not surprised. :)

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.