Whew, that's over!

Sorry for the long delay. Besides visiting family over the last holiday break, I got involved in one other thing, and I didn't realize what a time commitment it would be. I started reading the first Harry Potter book. I knew it was popular, and since I hate waiting for the next book in a series, I waited until they were all available, and bought the full set of 7 books. I figured I'd read one or two, then later on pick up another one, etc. No dice. I read the first two books in 4 days. I didn't have the rest of the books with me while on vacation, so had to wait until I got home before I could start on the third. But then this pesky thing known as "Work" got in my way, and it took longer to read books. Oh, and I also needed to do the basics... you know, eat, play with the kids, sleep, etc. But I finally finished the last book. Whew! What a ride! And it ended differently from the way I heard through the grapevine. Maybe a false rumor was put out or something. Anyway, now that that monkey is off my back, hopefully I can get back to writing more!

The following Sally Forth comic pretty much summed things up for me.

Sharing Leisure...

My parents have been going to the same resort hotel in Massachusetts for almost 30 years. When I was growing up with them, I would go annually too. We went with several other families. Just about all the fathers (and some of the mothers) were teachers, so it was during the holiday break. One thing I remember is at some point, I'd always grab a book and go sit in the lobby, near the big fireplace which always had a nice fire going, and just read for a while. Now that we live so far away, I rarely get to join my parents anymore. However, this year we loaded up the kids and made the trek to visit and relax.

Somewhere around the middle of the day, I told the girls I was going to sit by the fireplace and read. Ahava jumped up and grabbed a book to join me. Tikvah ran after us after we started off. After we all settled by the fire, the girls opened up their books and looked at the pictures, and I started to read. It was only about 5 minutes later when Tikvah piped up with "I'm ready to go back now." I told her that she'd have to give us another 5 minutes (I wanted to finish the chapter I was in) then we'd head back. I was a little disappointed as I wanted to read more. About halfway back to the room, we ran into my mother. She was heading toward our room, and offered to take Tikvah back. I asked Ahava if she wanted to go back with grandma, or back to the fireplace with me. She didn't answer, just gripped her book (Sesame Street Dictionary) and turned right around and headed back to the fireplace.

We sat down and enjoyed the fire for a good half hour before heading back. It felt so nice to share an activity like that with her. Laya sometimes thinks that I favor one child over the other. I really don't think I do. Tikvah is older, and is at the point where she should be expanding her horizons and trying new things. Some things, Ahava just isn't ready to try out yet. But this was something she could do, and when I stole a few glances at her, I could see she was really enjoying the book. While she can't read yet (that I know of anyway!) she was pointing at all the pictures and talking to herself about them. And I had a chance to catch up with a few more chapters of Harry Potter. If Ahava did catch the reading bug from me, she has a lot of books ahead of her to read.

The WII is not for MEE!!!

Today we had our office holiday party. (Hmmm, my holiday ended the day before...)

To try to make it interesting and boost morale (etc. etc.) they set up a mini golf course around the cubicles. Then as a tie breaker, the boss brought in his WII, and hooked it up to the office 42" plasma TV. Well, all productivity went straight down the drain! (and there wasn't even a tie!) :-)

Now, back in the days when I was growing up, I used a ColecoVision, an Atari 2600, and even the original, PONG!! So I figured I'd give this "WII" thing a try and see what modern technology is up to.

YIKES!!! Major overhaul. The picture is certainly much better, but instead of just pressing buttons and moving the joystick around, you really get into it. You swing your arms for baseball, bowling, tennis, etc. Over the day I played several. I did pretty good in bowling (194, better than I do in real life), and in tennis my team won! Whoo Hoo! Then we tried boxing. Ouch!! And golf, forget it, I was always several shots above par.

But man, after playing a few games (and this is spread out over the full day, not all at once) I've worked out a good sweat! My bowling arm is SORE!! I think I'll just stick with card games on my computer! :-)

Update: (14 Dec...) My dad emailed me with: "If you ever do get one be careful. The first Wii had no wrist strap on the contollers, many tv screens felt the result!!"

I completely forgot to mention this part. One of my co-workers, let's call him "Tom" (that's what we call him in the office ;-) ) was a very enthusiatic player. Especially in tennis. We had to keep telling him to move back because he kept jumping in front of the screen to make a shot (despite the fact that you don't have to walk around to play the game), blocking our view. Then on a backhand shot we learned that he didn't put the strap on. The controller shot out of his hand and WHAM, right into the ceiling! Then it shot back down to the floor, barely missing another co-worker's head. A piece of the ceiling tile fell to the floor too. After that, whenever Tom would play, even a nice game of golf, we'd make sure he had his wrist strap on... tightly.

Sometimes I get whacked with a "Clue x 4"

Yesterday I had a decision I needed to make. After work, I could go home, finish up my Hebrew homework, and also prepare for our oral test; or I could meet up with Laya and the kids at the Chabad "Chanukkah Wonderland" where they were playing. I felt that I was really getting behind in my Hebrew, and needed to catch up, so decided to head home to do some studying. Just as I reached my car though, my left hearing aid stopped working! (Left ear is the one I get most of my understanding from, right ear is just for loud noises.) Completely, no sound!! I tried changing the hearing aid battery, just to see if it was the battery (although usually when it's the battery, it's a gradual decline, not a sudden stop). Nope, same thing with the new battery. Sigh.

Well, at least the hearing aid shop is only a few miles down the road. I'll have them take a look. In the car and off I go. However, exactly as I turned from the entrance ramp on to the main roadway that leads away from my home, and towards the hearing aid shop, I hear a "ZIP!" and the hearing aid starts working again. I checked the switches, the dial, etc., everything is working fine. Hmmmm... I also happen to be pointed straight to the Chanukkah Wonderland. Hmmmmm...

After making sure traffic was clear ahead of me, I took a look up to the sky and said "Okay, okay, I get the message!" Then proceeded to the Chanuakkah Wonderland to have some fun with the kids. And I didn't do too badly in the Hebrew class either.

Side note: I actaully have an appointment with the hearing aid shop today as I need new aids soon, so I'll have them check it out anyway.

Need to watch what/where I'm singing!

This past Shabbos, I was walking to shul with Tikvah. About halfway there, she asked if we could take a rest. The yard we stopped at had two large rocks we could sit on for a few moments. Tikvah asked me which rock I wanted to sit on. Suddenly I sang "I wanna ROCK, BAM!!!" Tikvah looked up in alarm, and asked me what that meant. I told her it was an old song that daddy used to listen to (by Twisted Sister), and since she had asked about the rocks, it just popped into my head and out of my mouth before I even thought about it.

We continued on to shul. Just as we arrived in the parking lot of the shul, Tikvah asked me why some people drive on Shabbos, and some (like us) do not. I explained how some people observed the mitzvah of keeping Shabbos more than others, just like some people keep kosher at home, but not outside the home, and some don't keep kosher at all, but we were still all Jews. And I said that in my earlier days, I used to drive to shul, but now I walked. Then again, the singing bug bit me, and I sang "Walk like a man, talk like a man..." (by the Four Seasons) Tikvah gave me another one of her looks. Oy. But more alarming, a shul member passed me on the ramp up to the shul. I could have sworn no one was around me before. How much of my singing did he hear?? Oh man, I need to muzzle myself before heading to shul again!!

That night I was curious; I went on YouTube and searched "I wanna Rock." Cool, they had the whole video on there. Tikvah climbed up in my lap and wanted to watch. Ahava either didn't like the music, or the video, and retreated to the kitchen. After watching that video, I also wanted to see "We're not gonna take it." Tikvah said the woman dressed very strangely. I had to tell her that Dee Snyder was a man, not a woman. She took it pretty well. But then at the dinner table I noticed that she kept singing "I'm not gonna take it..." Uh oh......

Writing, but for another blog...

I've been a bit quiet here, sorry. My more recent writings have been for BeyondBT. I made a post recently about Thanksgiving, posted here. I just finished another post and sent it in a few minutes ago. They'll let me know when it's up. I think it's a really good one, so I'll post a link here when they do so.

Hopefully now I can focus a little more attention back here! I'm sure I'll have some material to write about soon. Blogger-in-law is coming to visit from Israel, along with my wife's sister, and my first and only niece! Since they are coming, my parents-in-law are coming, as well as my other brother-in-law. That's (counting fingers) 10 people in our little townhouse!!! I better put in my reservation for a shower now!!

How to torment your mother...

I mentioned in this previous post that maybe I would post other ways I've tormented my poor mother. This one is my favorite! (which of course means it's probably pretty low on mom's list of wonderful life events...)

This happened about a year or so before my Bar Mitzvah, so I was 11 or 12 at the time. We were going to services one Friday night, for someone's Bar Mitzvah. We got about a mile down the road when my mother realized she forgot the Bar Mitzvah gift. As the president of the Sisterhood, she would present the Kiddish cup to the Bar Mitzvah boy. So dad turned the car around and home we went. Dad clicked on the garage door opener, and mom ran in the garage to the house. All the sudden we heard "Ahhh!" and saw my mom dance around a little bit. Trying to see what was going on, we looked more closely, and saw a snake slither out of the garage and into the grass. Mom composed herself, went into the house, and got the cup.

So now it's a little bit later, we are back on the road, heading to the synagogue. I look at my brother and give him the "shhhh" sign. I then slowly take off my leather belt. Then slowly, slowly, inch by inch, I push the belt up and over mom's sholder. Finally she glances down and... "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" Oh, that's what a blood curling scream is!!! Fortunately dad was able to keep from driving the car into a ditch during all this, and I of course got yelled at. (I think I saw a smile on dad's lips though... hmmmmm). I guess I'm just fortunate that the belt wasn't use to wack my hide after that!

Even now, almost 30 years later, when we go to the zoo with my mother (taking the kids) she'll pass on the reptile house and happily wait outside in the sun while the kids gawk at the snakes and everything else. Poor mom...

Who knows one?

There was a recent post on BeyondBT from Azreila Jaffe. (Side note, Ms. Jaffe wrote the book, "Two Jews Can Still Be a Mixed Marriage," a book Laya and I used before we got married to discuss several issues that we could see were approaching us, and I think it really got us off on the right foot in our marriage) Anyway, in her post, she discussed how she felt when she struggles to keep up, whether with the observant community, or with her children know that mom can't help them with their Hebrew homework.

The timing of the article was astonishing. Just two days before, I experienced the same thing with Tikvah. I've recently started taking Hebrew, and am working on learning the numbers. So I was sitting at the kitchen table reciting them. aH-aht, shtah-yem, shah-losh, etc. Each time I started, Tikvah would joyfully start to recite after me, but then overtake me, and reach es-air (10) before me. That includes taking time out to correct my pronunciation if I get something wrong on the way. That's when it hit me. I can take all the classes I want, study as much Hebrew as I can. Heck, I could even move to Israel and immerse myself in Hebrew (no, blogger-in-law, don't start getting excited, I'm talking theory here). But no matter what I do, Tikvah, and soon Ahava are always going to be ahead of me. I might have a slight lead now, but I've seen how fast they learn, once they start really working on Hebrew, they are going to rocket past me in no time flat. While I'm swelling with pride in my kids, I'm also starting to feel a bit of a deflated ego... Guess they'll be tutoring me soon enough!

Where (not) to put your beads...

Okay, we've got the computer back, and we're now working on making sure we have a back up of EVERYTHING, then we'll start putting it in full use. But for now I want to get this story out, since it happened two weeks ago already.

So it's Shabbos afternoon, and I got up from a nice 1 hour nap. I went down to see how Laya and the girls were doing. Tikvah (4) ran over to give me a hug, and commented, "Daddy, I have a bead stuck in my nose." I answered, "That's nice sweetie... ... ... Ummmmmm, did you just say you have a bead in your nose???" Yes, that's what she said.

"Okay, so how did that happen?" She just put it in, and now it won't come out. Huh... Okay, sit up here, and let me take a look. I don't see any bead. Are you sure it didn't fall out. No? Let's look again... I press against the side of her nostril, the back of her nose, have her breathe out of her nose hard, etc. I don't feel any beads in there. So we figured it probably fell out and she didn't notice.

Fast forward...

Havdalah is done... get the kids in their pajamas, brush their teeth, read them a story, sing a song and now into bed. I see Tikvah put her finger in her nose. Just before I can tell her to take her finger out of her nose, she says "Daddy!! I feel the bead!" Oh, I forgot all about the bead. I went and grabbed a flashlight and shined it right up her nose. And what do you know... there's some plastic in there. Oh boy. Where are the tweezers? I'm searching all over the house, then I finally find them. When I approach Tikvah, she gets wide eyed. "No, no, don't worry sweetie, this isn't gong to hurt, I'm just going to try to get the bead out." But every time I get the tweezers in her nostrils, she starts moving around and I'm afraid I'm just going to push it further in. I took a break to talk with Laya about a new strategy, and wondering how long do we try this before we give up and take her to the emergency room. (yeah, like we'd be a high priority to see a doctor???) In the meanwhile, I reminded Tikvah to breathe hard out of her nose. Suddenly she shouts out "It came out!!!" And so it did. Whew. Below is a picture of the bead and my pointer finger. I don't have a ruler handy, but I'd guess my fingernail is about a half inch long.

After this, of course the main question was "Why did you put a bead up your nose???" And in an answer that Bill Cosby made immortal, she replied "I don't know!" Every now and then, after the events, I've asked her if she has thoughts of putting anything in her nose. So far she insists that nothing else will go up there except for her finger. Oy, we still need to work on this.....

Still down...

The home computer is still down. We are working off a laptop, but definitely not as much processing power there. Hopefully I'll hear back soon about the computer. Long story short, the main hard drive was doing a slow nose dive. Hopefully the repair tech I brought it to had enough time to back up all the data (pictures, stories, etc.) that was on the drive. I have some of it backed up, but not all. :-(

Remember to back up your files!!

Just a public service reminder... remember to back up all those important files you have on your hard drive. Pictures, stories, webinfo, etc. Our computer konked out, it's now in the hands of someone more knowledgeable than I. I hope it is something simple, like the power supply, rather than something more damaging, like a hard drive crash. I had a post and picture that I was going to put up here about our adventures over the weekend, but things have been slightly postponed. I should still have the picture in my camera and will try to download it to my laptop so I can post from there. Let's just say it has to do with interesting places that kids decide to put different objects. :-)

Let's Dance!

Simchat Torah at my shul (a Chabad center) is always a rocking good time! When we dance with the Torah, we dance! This year in the days leading up to Simchat Torah, Tikvah was learning about it at school, and also Laya and I mentioned it several times (especially in the context of "If you want to have fun dancing at night, you are going to have to take a nap, otherwise you'll sleep right through it).

And she and Ahava did dance, mostly from on my shoulders, but they also joined in with some of the other young girls dancing around as well. But the "Kodak" moment for me (ummm, actually, can you have a Kodak moment on a Yom Tov/Shabbos when you can't actually use a camera?) was a little later on. They laid a Torah down on a table in the women's section, and the women formed a circle around it and were dancing around. Laya was sitting down with Ahava (one of both of them were probably worn out). Tikvah butted into the circle, took two of the women's hands apart and joined right in. It was all grown women, and Tikvah, and while she wasn't quite getting all the steps right, she was really getting into it with them.

Unfortunately soon after that, Ahava saw what was going on and ran up to join in. (She's a "Me-too" child, wants to do everything her big sister does). The problem is that Ahava ran up just as the women were shifting from one foot to the other which sort of resulted in a butt shift, and one woman accidentally sent her butt right into Ahava's face just as she was running up, causing her to bounce off and crash into the floor. I started a mental countdown, "5-4-3-2-1" "WWWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" One of the other ladies scooped her up and I waved her over to me. A little TLC from daddy (and mom came up soon afterwards as well) and she was raring to go again.

The other fun thing this year was the mix of singing and dancing. Usually at our Chabad center there are a good mix of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Lubavitch Jews. This year there were also several Yemenite Jews as well. When some of the bids for certain verses got into nice high numbers, they let out a good "Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi." Plus it was interesting to hear how they sang some of the verses. That's one fun thing about Chabad, you never know what type of person will come in next and what you'll learn from them. And in the end, it all blends in and we all have a meaningful and fun experience together.

Dougies is coming to Baltimore!

And I thought Subway's was exciting news...

I received some great news just before Yom Kippur. By reading Presence (specifically this post) I learned that Dougies is coming to Baltimore, at least as a mobile restaurant. For those who aren't familiar with it, Dougies is a great kosher BBQ restaurant. My wife (at the time my girlfriend) took me to the Dougies in Manhattan for my birthday, since I had mentioned that I like BBQ beef ribs. The ribs there were incredible. After we got married, we ate at the Brooklyn Dougies a few times when visiting her family in Boro Park. And when we did the Ride to Remember, Salute to Israel Parade out of Teaneck, we hit the Teaneck Dougies with my parents. The BBQ beef sub was so stuffed with beef that even as delicious as it was, I couldn't finish it! Right around when we got married, Laya asked the (manager? owner?) of Dougies if he'd open up a shop in DC or Baltimore. He just said something like "we'll see, some day maybe."
I guess we'll have to make visits to Baltimore a full day event now, lunch at Subways, and dinner at Dougies (or at least take out and bring home with us)!

I e-mailed the contact person for Dougies, and he said that after they get their business going, they want to add a second truck to hit the Rockville / Silver Spring area, which is a good bit closer to me.

This news didn't make my fast any easier, but it's certainly worth it! :-)

A few lines to add to the Al Chet this year

I wrote this last year when a Jewish e-mail list I'm on got a little heated up (and it was right near Yom Kippur too) These also work for web boards, and some blogs too.


-For the Sin we have committed before you for thread hijacking,
-And for the Sin we have committed before you for off subject posting.

-For the Sin we have committed before you by forwarding a story without checking http://www.snopes.com,
-And for the Sin we have committed before you by immediately forwarding an e-mail that says "FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK!!!"

-For the Sin we have committed bfore you by not usng the spll checkur,
-And 4 the Sin we have committed b4 u by using werd acronyms.

-For the Sin we have committed before you by being too quick to flame others,
-And for the Sin we have committed before you by turning a blind eye to a flame war.

-For the Sin we have committed before you by not changing the subject line of an e-mail when writting about something completely different,
-And for the Sin we have committed before you by not putting in a subject line at all.

Nice that my co-workers think of me...

A few months ago, a co-worker brought in a bunch of donuts for us. She was baffled when I told her I couldn't take any. I explained that I keep kosher. She still seemed a bit confused, but accepted it. Today she sent out this e-mail...

Ladies and Gentlemen:
I brought in some Hebrew National Beef hotdogs, rolls, mustard, homemade chili, slaw, relish and potatoe salad and fruit. Plus the cherry cheesecake. All you would have do to is zap the hot dog and the chili in the microwave, if anyone is interested in lunch. I will be at a VTC in ... today, so it will sort of be self-serve. The containers are all in plastic bags in the refrig. Would anyone be able to set it out? I can put it up when I come down for ANOTHER meeting at 2:30.

Now, I can't say for sure that she was thinking of me, but she did specifically mention the Hebrew National hot dogs. (then, of course the cheesecake). Just checked, not a kosher cheesecake. Drat. :-)