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Happy birthday to my brother — may he have many more, God willing! And happy birthday to Daniela (well, in a couple days)! This week was one for seeing friends and family, and for experimentation.  The weather was cold, and we even got some rain.  And we wrapped up the ''ḥanukka'' holiday with a blaze of light.

“''mazal tov''” to my nephew Chaim and his fiancé Ariele, whose engagement party we attended this week.  They have a ''lot'' of friends, many of whom were on hand to celebrate with them.  Sarah was the camera-person, and at some point we’ll see those pictures.  In the meantime if you like, you can [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153674446693654&set=pcb.10153674447358654&type=3&theater view my decidedly unprofessional pics].

As an aside: it’s embarrassing that even with the phone being so smart and doing pretty much everything for me, I still can’t take good pictures with it.  Clearly Sarah didn’t get her photographic skills from me.

The other day we went to Tel Aviv to meet with a friend of ours from the “old country”.  We were happy to visit with her, and while we were there more of her family joined us.  It was a very Israeli phenomenon — people just coming by and joining in.  Anyway, we had a pleasant time, and afterwards left the mall to stand in the heavy rain waiting for our shuttle-bus.  As we wended our way eastwards, the rain subsided.  In Jerusalem it had only rained a bit, and in Maale Adummim it hadn’t rained at all.  The variation in weather from one part of this tiny country to another is always impressive.

Stuff and nonsense:
* [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18043#.VmqYMhp95E4 Why does Obama say “ISIL”] when referring to “ISIS” (a.k.a. ''daʿesh'')?
* The one who seeks to grab all [http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428577/counterproductive-corporate-taxation ends up grabbing nothing]
* In “man bites dog” news: [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/205010#.VnOxbxp95E4 a Ḥaredi drug-and-gun-running ring] was rolled up. I didn’t ''used'' to be scared to walk in Mea Shearim…
* Don’t be so quick to [http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2015/12/14 shut your kids up]!

We decided to experiment and run an “end of year sale” on [http://8th-dev.com/ our product ''8th''].  So far, the results seem to show that we should have offered it for a lower price initially; because it’s a new product and doesn’t have the track-record or name-recognition yet, people are hesitant to spend a larger sum.  We’re probably going to adjust the price down and see what happens.  We’re also looking for a professional salesperson to help with customer acquisition, so if you know someone who’s willing to work strictly on commission, please let us know!

We’re ''very'' excited about Daniela and Jeremy’s visit this coming week!  Got to do some serious planning…

Just us chickens this ''shabbat''!  On the table for our consumption:<br>
roast chicken,
''pasta primavera'',
vegetable soup,
''salatim'',
and chocolate.


Until next time,<br>
''shabbat shalom''!

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