Blog/June 2009/Jun 5th - Revision history

Ron at 10:53, 12 June 2009

2009-06-12T10:53:12Z

Ron at 14:45, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T14:45:21Z

Ron at 14:23, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T14:23:06Z

Ron at 14:22, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T14:22:42Z

Ron at 04:14, 1 June 2009

2009-06-01T04:14:01Z

Ron at 19:29, 31 May 2009

2009-05-31T19:29:09Z

Ron at 07:49, 31 May 2009

2009-05-31T07:49:36Z

Ron: New page: {{subst: :Blog/Latest}}

2009-05-31T07:47:57Z

New page: {{subst: :Blog/Latest}}

New page

{{blog}}
{{bheader|May 29th|Devar/5769/Naso}}

Hi again!

As promised last week, here's more about Daniela's year. It was fine. She learned a lot, had bad food at school, didn't get engaged. That's about all I got out of her this past week. If I find out more, I'll let you know. We did find out she is ''extremely'' attractive to our local mosquitoes. So far, she's counted fifty-five bites in a few days -- and they've turned into the big-pink-patch kind of bite. So we got her some 'skeeter repellent, but I'm thinking she's just too attractive to the bugs for the repellent to do much good. Truth is, the mosquitoes don't bother us too much -- they seem to be able to distinguish between "locals" and "those who aren't yet locals". Zionist propagandist mosquitoes.

Speaking of 'attractive': the other day I was shopping for food with Esther, standing in line and minding my own business. Then I saw it: a woman wearing baggy pants which were apparently a skirt sewn in the middle so that it resembles a pair of pants. The middle fabric was swaying pendulously between her legs. I don't want to be too graphic -- this ''is'' a family blog after all -- but it looked like she had a full diaper-load in her skirt/pants/whatever they were. I'm sure it was intended to look that way, but it was possibly the ugliest fashion I've ever seen. I still have nightmares...

Further 'fashion' foibles: why do Israeli stores have such unfortunate names? The lingerie store ''Aphrodite'' (named after a Greek idol); the shoe stores ''Caligula'' (named after an insane Roman emperor who detested Jews) and ''Nimrod'' (named after the Biblical character who, according to the ''midrash'', persecuted Avraham avinu).

We are anxiously looking forward to the fabulous ''shavuot'' meal Esther has labored over. Spinach {{wiki|cannelloni}}, various salads, home-made ice cream and cheesecake. Tomorrow I'm going to be the grill-master, as we participate in the Israeli tradition of grilling on yamim-tovim. After seven weeks of performing the simple mitsvah of "counting the `omer", we are ready for a celebratory meal or two. We plan on "shul hopping" tonight, as the tradition is for people to study Torah all night -- and there are a plethora of synagogues around, each (hopefully) giving different ''shiurim''.

My work on a Mac OS/X version of my [http://ronware.org/reva/ Reva Forth] is making progress, but the Mac OS is ... eh, "unique". The fact that almost no-one writes assembly-language for the Mac is slowing the progress on that. My work on making an English translation of the [http://mechon-mamre.org/ Mishne Torah] is proceeding very slowly, but at least it is proceeding. Maybe the yom-tov will re-energize me?

You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!

Until next week,<br>
Shabbat shalom!

{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2009/May 22nd|May 22nd||}}

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 {{bheader|June 5th|Devar/5769/Beha'alotcha}}
 Hi again!
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 There is a synagogue in the final stages of construction just a few houses away from us.  Because of its proximity, I will probably be going there most of the time.  When I mentioned that to two separate people over shabbat/yom-tov -- one of them an "important" person, I got the response, "you would pray there?  It's a ''sephardi'' shul!".  To which my response was, "prayer is prayer", and it makes little difference to me any more where I pray as long as there is a ''minyan'' of kosher Jews.  I find this "Ashekanzi superiority complex" very disturbing, but I've grown used to it.  I only wish I understood its source.
-This week there was a [http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4103134 country-wide defense exercise], simulating simultaneous attacks on Israel from several fronts as well as country-wide terrorist attacks.  As part of the exercise, we were supposed to go to our "shelter room".  We don't have a "shelter room", since our house was built before they became mandatory.   But each neighborhood has a bomb-shelter -- the only problem being we had no idea where our was!  Fortunately, our neighbors did know -- and we found out the shelter is at the end of the building.  We hope and pray that we won't have to use it, but it's good to know that there's one available if needed.  If more of the Islamic world were like [http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/05/islam-today-1.php  Khaled Abu Toameh] we wouldn't have to conduct such drills.
+This week there was a [http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4103134 country-wide defense exercise], simulating simultaneous attacks on Israel from several fronts as well as country-wide terrorist attacks.  As part of the exercise, we were supposed to go to our "shelter room".  We don't have a "shelter room", since our house was built before they became mandatory.   But each neighborhood has a bomb-shelter -- the only problem being we had no idea where ours was!  Fortunately, our neighbors did know -- and we found out the shelter is at the end of the building.  We hope and pray that we won't have to use it, but it's good to know that there's one available if needed.  If more of the Islamic world were like [http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/05/islam-today-1.php  Khaled Abu Toameh] we wouldn't have to conduct such drills.
-You might think that we had enough food over the Shavuot holiday and shabbat immediately afterwards -- and you would be right!  Nevertheless, I tried my hand at making [http://ronware.org/Pictures/Shawarma/index.html lamb shawarma].  It was a whole production, as you can see from the pictures... but it was definitely worth it!  Today I recycled leftover lamb into a kind of {{wiki|bulgogi}} side-dish for shabbat.
+You might think that we had enough food over the Shavuot holiday and shabbat immediately afterwards -- and you would be right!  Nevertheless, I tried my hand at making [http://ronware.org/Pictures/Shawarma/index.html lamb shawarma].  It was a whole production, as you can see from the pictures... but definitely worth it!  Today I recycled leftover lamb into a kind of {{wiki|bulgogi}} side-dish for shabbat.
-In case you don't know already, {{hebs|חמי עין גדי}} does ''not'' mean "Ein Gedi hotties".  Sarah gave us that helpful translation this week.  Rather it means "[http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1,7340,L-2625397,00.html Ein Gedi hot-springs]".
+Just FYI: {{hebs|חמי עין גדי}} does ''not'' mean "Ein Gedi hotties".  Sarah came up with that helpful translation this week.  What it means is "[http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1,7340,L-2625397,00.html Ein Gedi hot-springs]" -- much less likely to get you in trouble.   But given the hot weather right now, I don't know why one would want to soak in hot-springs.
-You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!
+Anyway, I've still got some prep-work to do before shabbat, so...

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 You might think that we had enough food over the Shavuot holiday and shabbat immediately afterwards -- and you would be right!  Nevertheless, I tried my hand at making [http://ronware.org/Pictures/Shawarma/index.html lamb shawarma].  It was a whole production, as you can see from the pictures... but it was definitely worth it!  Today I recycled leftover lamb into a kind of {{wiki|bulgogi}} side-dish for shabbat.
-In case you don't know already, {{hebs|חמי עין גדי}} does ''not'' mean "Ein Gedi hotties".  Sarah gave us that helpful translation this week.  Rather it means "[http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1,7340,L-2625397,00.html Ein Gedi hot-springs".
+In case you don't know already, {{hebs|חמי עין גדי}} does ''not'' mean "Ein Gedi hotties".  Sarah gave us that helpful translation this week.  Rather it means "[http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1,7340,L-2625397,00.html Ein Gedi hot-springs]".
 You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 Hi again!
-* [http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/05/islam-today-1.php Islam today]
+''Shavuot'' followed by shabbat was very restful.  The weather wasn't too hot, and the food -- the food! -- was wonderful.  We had guests over for one meal, and it was overall just a fine ''yom-tov''.  I hope yours was as well!
-* Ein Gedi hotties
-* sephardi shul -- ashkenazi arrogance
+There is a synagogue in the final stages of construction just a few houses away from us.  Because of its proximity, I will probably be going there most of the time.  When I mentioned that to two separate people over shabbat/yom-tov -- one of them an "important" person, I got the response, "you would pray there?  It's a ''sephardi'' shul!".  To which my response was, "prayer is prayer", and it makes little difference to me any more where I pray as long as there is a ''minyan'' of kosher Jews.  I find this "Ashekanzi superiority complex" very disturbing, but I've grown used to it.  I only wish I understood its source.
 You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 * [http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/05/islam-today-1.php Islam today]
 * Ein Gedi hotties
 You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:29, 31 May 2009
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	* [http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/05/islam-today-1.php Islam today]		* [http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/05/islam-today-1.php Islam today]
		+	* Ein Gedi hotties

	You can help [[tsedaka\|feed the hungry]] in Israel!		You can help [[tsedaka\|feed the hungry]] in Israel!

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 {{blog}}
-{{bheader|May 29th|Devar/5769/Naso}}
+{{bheader|June 5th|Devar/5769/Beha'alotcha}}
 Hi again!
-As promised last week, here's more about Daniela's year.  It was fine.  She learned a lot, had bad food at school, didn't get engaged.  That's about all I got out of her this past week.  If I find out more, I'll let you know.  We did find out she is ''extremely'' attractive to our local mosquitoes.  So far, she's counted fifty-five bites in a few days -- and they've turned into the big-pink-patch kind of bite.  So we got her some 'skeeter repellent, but I'm thinking she's just too attractive to the bugs for the repellent to do much good.  Truth is, the mosquitoes don't bother us too much -- they seem to be able to distinguish between "locals" and "those who aren't yet locals".  Zionist propagandist mosquitoes.
+* [http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/05/islam-today-1.php Islam today]
 You can help [[tsedaka|feed the hungry]] in Israel!
@@ Line 24: / Line 16: @@
 Shabbat shalom!
-{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2009/May 22nd|May 22nd||}}
+{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2009/May 29th|May 29th||}}