Blog/August 2012/Aug 10th

Aug 10th (See this week's devar torah)

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Hi, again!

It was an ordinary but hot week in the Land this time around. Work as usual, some outings to attend, doctor's appointments and the normal middle-east-muddle. Lots of activity, not much to show for it I think.

Esther attended something called the "Klita Expo" this week, qelita (reception) being the commonly used Hebrew term for "immigrant absorption". She was there representing her accounting firm, "showing the colors" as it were, to try to bring in new clients. Since she is not, shall we say, enamored of salesmanship, she manned the company booth while other people tried to canvass new clients.

My company moved offices this week, to a much nicer office building which is also more conveniently located for me. We only made the physical move on Thursday, but the entire week involved preparations for the move... so it was pretty difficult to accomplish anything. I made a bug-fix release of my zemanim application, which has now got about 700 users and climbing. Actually, I made two bug-fix releases in quick succession.

We attended a seʿudat hodaya (meal of thanksgiving) given by one of my cousins, who has had two open-heart surgeries in the past three years. He said that perhaps because he didn't make a thanksgiving meal after the first surgery, he required the second surgery. That's certainly something to think about!

We also attended a yahrzeit (memorial for the dead) get-together for our friend's father, who passed away a year ago. Since few people from Maale Adummim were able to attend the funeral (which was in England), he arranged to have some of the same words as were said there, repeated here. The event was well attended, and we were moved by the tributes to the father.

I'm OK, don't worry! About two weeks ago, I started having a pain in my chest (while at work), and it didn't subside. The pain wasn't sharp, but it was exacerbated when I took a deep breath. It seemed to me that it was unlikely to be a heart-attack, and I figured it was probably due to an infection or muscle strain (though I couldn't think of any activity I had done likely to cause such pain). Anyway, the pain subsided in a few days and all was good. Then, at the beginning of this week, the pain returned; this time, I figured it would be wise to consult a doctor. So I went to the doctor, had an ECG and other pushing and prodding, and he agreed that the problem was a muscle strain of some kind, for which he gave me some pain medication. But he also tore into me, telling me that if I have chest pain again, do not self-diagnose, but get to the doctor right away. OK, lesson learned ... but at least no harm done! I also learned that taking my medications without food is not a good idea. Yeah.

Sarah's (new) school had an event this week, where the creator of the TV series House came one evening to talk about the show, being in the business, etc. Sarah went and found it very interesting, and was able to ask him a question about the series ("why did you make a show about someone so unlikeable?"). You'll have to ask Sarah what his answer was.

Daniela is still enjoying her pre-work freedom, though she's starting to get bored not having something specific to do. Besides assembling furniture, that is. She entertained her in-laws one evening, going out to a musical. Jeremy was assigned to his work team, so now he's starting to do the real job for which he was hired (I think).

Various and sundry:

• Our Egyptian "peace partners" can't bear the idea of talking to Israelis
• Our other "peace partners". yikes!
• Cyber-security: Apple/Amazon/Gmail security failure. Really, you should read it.
• This is the house that Obama built
• Interesting read: Nachman Kahana on the parasha
• Caffeinated sushi, anyone?

This week we're having another quiet shabbat, featuring: ḥamud (that's not Esther's recipe, but it's somewhat similar), salatim, butternut-squash soup, cole-slaw, rice (brown and white), crockpot chicken, and brownies

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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