View source for Blog/December 2011/Dec 9th

<!-- vim: spell tw=0: 
-->

{{blog}}

{{bheadernew|Dec 9th|http://ronware.org/devar/vayishlah5772.pdf}}

Hi, again!

Sick!  This week Esther was getting over her bout with a cold, and thoughtfully passed it on to me.  Fortunately, it didn't take me down too far -- although I'm still battling it.  But as the expression goes, God gives the remedy before the affliction -- the fall in Israel sees large quantities of citrus fruits to help battle the colds and flus.  And we took in a bumper crop of tangerines from our own tree -- very tart but also sweet, a refreshing bite of stored sunshine!

This week we made some acquisitions.  I guess it was really last week that we took possession of the new vehicle, but we didn't get to really check it out until this week.  I remember with some fondness the times when all cars were pretty much the same; you just got in and drove.  Now you need to pore through all sorts of manuals just to figure out how to turn the thing on!  Well, anyway; the car is the nicest one we've ever had -- very smooth ride.  I hope it turns out to be better than our previous one!

I also took possession of a new phone.  Not that I ''needed'' a new phone, per se.  However, I've had a "Palm Pilot" for years -- which has my eBooks and my Torah texts so I can learn "on the bus".   Anyway, said Palm Pilot is on its last legs, and there are no more.  So I decided to get a new Android based phone, allowing me to have just ''one'' device for all my portable needs.  It's a pretty sweet little phone, actually; and it's nice having everything in one device.  Still getting used to it though...

Also got paid for the first time at the new job -- always an exciting moment, knowing that the company has enough funds to pay you, at least this time around!  Making progress in my tasks there, managed to train them to accept my work hours -- life is good!

In health news: I went for my periodic blood tests last week.  For the first time since they've been monitoring it, my fasting glucose was under 100 and my HbA1C was 5.4 -- so it's looking like the combination of exercise and diet has ''substantially'' improved my insulin resistance, B"H!!!  Have I mentioned recently ''how much'' I like the Israeli healthcare system?

* Nice poem about the vagaries of [http://spelling.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/english-pronunciation/ English pronunciation]
* Israeli Apartheid [http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/06/israel%E2%80%99s-mona-lisa-weapon/ in practice]
* Are [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ML06Ak01.html Jews better off in Israel]?
* This week's [http://www.youtube.com/user/LatmaTV#p/a/u/1/QcjSe_GTVXA Latma]

We're looking forward to a quiet ''shabbat'' this week.  Just the three of us.  On our menu this time around:
''pargiot'',
baked half-eggplants,
corn salad,
tuna salad,
"orange" soup,
''ḥumus'',
braised fennel,
oven roasted potatoes,
meatballs,
some pastry things,
fruit


Until next week,<br>
shabbat shalom!

{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/December 2011/Dec 2nd|Dec 2nd|Blog/December 2011/Dec 16th|Dec 16th}}