Blog/May 2008/May 16th - Revision history

Ron at 10:45, 23 May 2008

2008-05-23T10:45:51Z

Ron at 12:29, 16 May 2008

2008-05-16T12:29:54Z

Ron at 11:53, 16 May 2008

2008-05-16T11:53:35Z

Ron at 10:35, 16 May 2008

2008-05-16T10:35:22Z

Ron at 10:30, 16 May 2008

2008-05-16T10:30:07Z

Ron at 10:09, 16 May 2008

2008-05-16T10:09:09Z

Ron at 16:19, 15 May 2008

2008-05-15T16:19:54Z

Ron at 11:04, 13 May 2008

2008-05-13T11:04:38Z

Ron: Replacing page with '{{blog}} {{bheader|May 16th|Devar/5768/Behar}} Hi again! * [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel the happiest?!?] Shabbat shalom! {{nav|Blog|Blog|...'

2008-05-12T13:14:56Z

Replacing page with '{{blog}} {{bheader|May 16th|Devar/5768/Behar}} Hi again! * [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel the happiest?!?] Shabbat shalom! {{nav|Blog|Blog|...'

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

2008-05-12T13:14:12Z

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

New page

{{blog}}
{{bheader|May 9th|Devar/5768/Emor}}

Hi again!

Last week I mentioned that my laptop had given up the ghost. It turns out that it was "heat death" -- the machine had overheated at some point, and the "thermal compound" which is put between chips and their respective heatsinks, had all squished out. Some of the chips had "popped out" of their sockets, and so my machine was in a bad way. I gave it to the guy I mentioned last week, on Friday morning. A few hours later, on Friday afternoon, he calls me back to say I can pick it up -- he had resuscitated it completely! For anyone in the Maale Adummim or Jerusalem area, I highly recommend this guy: [http://pc-repair.cheaper4u2.com Raymond], phone: 052-384-0188. The machine actually seems to work better than it did before ...

Before I get too serious, those of you with connections to Chabad may appreciate this odd video of a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwzPQz8HO3w Jamaican meshichist]. Yea, mon!

This week we went to Talpiot (southern Jerusalem) to pay for the appliances we had ordered two weeks ago. Now we didn't want to use our Israeli credit card, because that would basically wipe out our credit line (that's another discussion). We didn't want to use our foreign credit cards, because the exchange rate is so bad. Instead, we wanted to use plain old checks. The store was fine with that, and even let us spread out the payment over twelve checks at no interest (this is pretty standard procedure here). So when we are just about to write checks, they say, "not yet, we have to get approval first". They call some check-clearing agency, which doesn't approve the transaction. Why? Don't know. So we call our bank, figuring there must be some reason they put a hold on us. The bank manager was surprised we didn't get approved, and said that it's not really connected to the bank, but rather to this independent bureau. We went home without paying, and faxed our information to the bureau -- who said the problem was that the address the store gave them didn't match the address on record for us. Of course: the store gave them the delivery address.

During the week, we met with the contractor who is going to do the actual work on the house -- and he told us the price of a toilet (installed, with all the parts) was 450 shekels (or thereabouts). I told him I had just bought a toilet seat (only!) for 140 shekels! He laughed, and said he gets "contractor prices". So we mentioned our purchasing the appliances, and he said we should go to some other place, with whom he does business, and they would give us a better price. So we went there, and did get a better price. We ended up getting better appliances for about the same price, all said and done.

This week was "Yom Hazikaron" (Memorial Day), and "Yom Ha'atsmaut" (Independence Day). The first is a somber day, filled with various ceremonies at the several military cemeteries across Israel. An alarm siren sounds twice, once at night and once during the day; during which the vast majority of Israelis stop what they are doing, and stand in silent memory of the fallen. Even I remembered people with whom I had served "back when", and who had fallen in the line of duty.

Immediately at the end of that somber day, the mood changes 180 degrees, and people start honking horns and playing music, firing up barbecues and generally having a good time. In our fair city, there was a big concert/presentation at the central park. Esther and I went with a blanket, parked ourselves on the lawn (yes, a lawn here in the desert!), and waited as people milled in and the festivities commenced. There were between five and ten thousand people there, making noise and having fun. The show started with some singers and dancers. Eventually, the mayor of Maale Adummim came on and told us how great we were. Finally, the star of the night, {{wiki|Yehoram Gaon}}, who was called by the announcer "the Frank Sinatra of Israel". Pardon me, but his voice is much better than Frank's. There were excellent fireworks displays, and a good time was had by all. All of the two of us, that is -- Sarah and my mom stayed home and missed out.

The festivities for Israel's 60th birtday party were paralleled by the Pal's celebration of "al Naqba" (the disaster), which is what they call Israel's founding. Indeed, a terrible disaster for the Arabs who live in Israel -- since they have higher literacy and longevity rates than their co-malefactors in surrounding countries. The disaster is so extreme, they even have representatives in the {{wiki|Knesset}}. Now ''that'' is a disaster, but we don't need to discuss it now. By the way, for those of you who think that giving back the territories conquered in the 1967 war will bring peace (because Arab terrorism is a direct result of Israel's aggression then), a quick recap of only [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%20Obstacle%20to%20Peace/Palestinian%20terror%20before%202000/Which%20Came%20First-%20Terrorism%20or%20Occupation%20-%20Major some of the Arab terrorist acts before 1967] may be an eye-opener. Interestingly, once again the [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627042533&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Jordanians have the guts] to tell the Pals to take a hike. Boy, maybe we should have bought in Amman?

In more odd news: the son of the Kuwaiti ambassador in Poland took several Brazilian students on the [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627025055&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull March of the Living] hostage. Good old [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627023189&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Saddam Hussein] apparently never studied [[risks|relative risks]]; he was afraid of getting HIV from his American captors -- he should have been more worried about keeping his head attached.

In good news: our mayor [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627027478&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Benny Kashriel] kept office in a tent in the E1 neighborhood (not really a neighborhood just yet) on Independence day. And Israel shows its [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126093 true face], helping out Myanmar.

Shabbat shalom!

{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2008/May 2nd|May 2nd||}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:45, 23 May 2008
Line 44:		Line 44:


−	{{nav\|Blog\|Blog\|Blog/May 2008/May 9th\|May 9th\|\|}}	+	{{nav\|Blog\|Blog\|Blog/May 2008/May 9th\|May 9th\|Blog/May 2008/May 23rd\|May 23rd}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:29, 16 May 2008
Line 13:		Line 13:

	I took my mom to the [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/117142 Machane Yehuda Market] (aka ''the shuq''), where she bought a kilo of pistachios. She'd been raving about the pistachios since last week, so we had to go and let her get her fill. A kilo. That's a lot of nuts. Apparently we get them from Iran. Not 'nuts', just pistachios -- Iran has its own nuts. Speaking of nuts, you may [http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2008/05/the-funniest-th.html want to be careful what you say] when you aren't completely fluent...		I took my mom to the [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/117142 Machane Yehuda Market] (aka ''the shuq''), where she bought a kilo of pistachios. She'd been raving about the pistachios since last week, so we had to go and let her get her fill. A kilo. That's a lot of nuts. Apparently we get them from Iran. Not 'nuts', just pistachios -- Iran has its own nuts. Speaking of nuts, you may [http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2008/05/the-funniest-th.html want to be careful what you say] when you aren't completely fluent...
		+
		+	Who is like Your people, Israel! As were were at the shuq, I went to the vegetable vendor I normally go to. He had fresh cherries, and I inquired hesitantly about the price. He said, "they're not so bad... not sixty, not fifty, not forty..." -- I was wondering when he would get to the actual price. He said, "here, try one". So I took the fruit, and said the ''shehecheyanu'' blessing (the blessing said before eating a seasonal fruit for the first time, among other things) -- and three people around me answered, "AMEN!". ''THAT'' never happened to me in the USA.

	An interesting article in the Asian Times, explains why [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel is the happiest country]. A thought-provoking article, whether or not the actual data are correct (that needs to be verified independently).		An interesting article in the Asian Times, explains why [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel is the happiest country]. A thought-provoking article, whether or not the actual data are correct (that needs to be verified independently).

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 Esther and my Mom met with the contractor to pick out bathroom fixtures and tiles.  We are gutting the bathrooms as well as the kitchen in the place we're moving to; lately it seems our lives are revolving more and more around the mechanics of getting the work done before we move.  Anyway, she picked out the ceramics so now we can move on.  Hopefully the contractor will start on time (and more important, finish on time).  We'll update you as that progresses.
-I took my mom to the {{wiki|Machana Yehuda Market}} (aka ''the shuq''), where she bought a kilo of pistachios.  She'd been raving about the pistachios since last week, so we had to go and let her get her fill.  A kilo.  That's a lot of nuts.  Apparently we get them from Iran.  Not 'nuts', just pistachios -- Iran has its own nuts.   Speaking of nuts, you may [http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2008/05/the-funniest-th.html want to be careful what you say] when you aren't completely fluent...
+I took my mom to the [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/117142 Machane Yehuda Market] (aka ''the shuq''), where she bought a kilo of pistachios.  She'd been raving about the pistachios since last week, so we had to go and let her get her fill.  A kilo.  That's a lot of nuts.  Apparently we get them from Iran.  Not 'nuts', just pistachios -- Iran has its own nuts.   Speaking of nuts, you may [http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2008/05/the-funniest-th.html want to be careful what you say] when you aren't completely fluent...
 An interesting article in the Asian Times, explains why [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel is the happiest country].  A thought-provoking article, whether or not the actual data are correct (that needs to be verified independently).

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:35, 16 May 2008
Line 7:		Line 7:

	After Dan, we went to {{wiki\|Tsfat}}, which is beautifully scenic but a pain to navigate in a car. Then we descended to {{wiki\|Tverya}} and moved on to our accommodations for the night, at [http://www.zimmer.co.il/galil.asp?Site_ID=1715&page_id=2476&mega=0&spa=&pool=&h4m= Mitspe Netofa], a very quiet and scenic religious village. The rooms were clean and well kept; and there was room for all of us in one 'suite'. That night, we went to Tverya for dinner, and had a wonderful dairy meal close to the water. The next day, we headed south to {{wiki\|Afula}} and had breakfast there. Then we continued to {{wiki\|Caesaria}} on the Mediterranean coast, and on to {{wiki\|Tel Aviv}}. Finally, we headed back to Maale Adummim. Mom got a good overview of what the Land is like (as did my daughters, though they had seen most of what we toured before).		After Dan, we went to {{wiki\|Tsfat}}, which is beautifully scenic but a pain to navigate in a car. Then we descended to {{wiki\|Tverya}} and moved on to our accommodations for the night, at [http://www.zimmer.co.il/galil.asp?Site_ID=1715&page_id=2476&mega=0&spa=&pool=&h4m= Mitspe Netofa], a very quiet and scenic religious village. The rooms were clean and well kept; and there was room for all of us in one 'suite'. That night, we went to Tverya for dinner, and had a wonderful dairy meal close to the water. The next day, we headed south to {{wiki\|Afula}} and had breakfast there. Then we continued to {{wiki\|Caesaria}} on the Mediterranean coast, and on to {{wiki\|Tel Aviv}}. Finally, we headed back to Maale Adummim. Mom got a good overview of what the Land is like (as did my daughters, though they had seen most of what we toured before).
		+
		+	During the drive I kept thinking something was wrong with the car, because I would periodically hear a loud "eeep!" sound, which I could have sworn was due to a faulty transmission or something. Turns out, it was my mom -- bless her, she thinks the brakes are voice-controlled! After we pried her fingers out of the hand-rests, she was fine. (Nota bene: I drive like other Israelis -- to do otherwise is to court disaster. I had toned-down my style to suit my mom more closely, but apparently not closely enough.)

	Esther and my Mom met with the contractor to pick out bathroom fixtures and tiles. We are gutting the bathrooms as well as the kitchen in the place we're moving to; lately it seems our lives are revolving more and more around the mechanics of getting the work done before we move. Anyway, she picked out the ceramics so now we can move on. Hopefully the contractor will start on time (and more important, finish on time). We'll update you as that progresses.		Esther and my Mom met with the contractor to pick out bathroom fixtures and tiles. We are gutting the bathrooms as well as the kitchen in the place we're moving to; lately it seems our lives are revolving more and more around the mechanics of getting the work done before we move. Anyway, she picked out the ceramics so now we can move on. Hopefully the contractor will start on time (and more important, finish on time). We'll update you as that progresses.

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 Esther and my Mom met with the contractor to pick out bathroom fixtures and tiles.  We are gutting the bathrooms as well as the kitchen in the place we're moving to; lately it seems our lives are revolving more and more around the mechanics of getting the work done before we move.  Anyway, she picked out the ceramics so now we can move on.  Hopefully the contractor will start on time (and more important, finish on time).  We'll update you as that progresses.
-* [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel the happiest?!?]
+I took my mom to the {{wiki|Machana Yehuda Market}} (aka ''the shuq''), where she bought a kilo of pistachios.  She'd been raving about the pistachios since last week, so we had to go and let her get her fill.  A kilo.  That's a lot of nuts.  Apparently we get them from Iran.  Not 'nuts', just pistachios -- Iran has its own nuts.   Speaking of nuts, you may [http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2008/05/the-funniest-th.html want to be careful what you say] when you aren't completely fluent...
 '''What Really Happened This Week: A Sarah's Eye View'''

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 Hi again!
 * [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel the happiest?!?]
 * [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627068751&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Bush-whacked again]
 * [http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2008/05/the-funniest-th.html ah, nuts]
 Shabbat shalom!

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:04, 13 May 2008
Line 5:		Line 5:

	* [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel the happiest?!?]		* [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel the happiest?!?]
		+	* [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627068751&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Bush-whacked again]

	Shabbat shalom!		Shabbat shalom!

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{blog}}
-{{bheader|May 9th|Devar/5768/Emor}}
+{{bheader|May 16th|Devar/5768/Behar}}
 Hi again!
-Last week I mentioned that my laptop had given up the ghost.  It turns out that it was "heat death" -- the machine had overheated at some point, and the "thermal compound" which is put between chips and their respective heatsinks, had all squished out.  Some of the chips had "popped out" of their sockets, and so my machine was in a bad way.  I gave it to the guy I mentioned last week, on Friday morning.  A few hours later, on Friday afternoon, he calls me back to say I can pick it up -- he had resuscitated it completely!  For anyone in the Maale Adummim or Jerusalem area, I highly recommend this guy: [http://pc-repair.cheaper4u2.com Raymond], phone: 052-384-0188.  The machine actually seems to work better than it did before ...
+* [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE13Ak01.html Israel the happiest?!?]
 Shabbat shalom!
-{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2008/May 2nd|May 2nd||}}
+{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/May 2008/May 9th|May 9th||}}