Blog/June 2008/Jun 13th

June 6th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

What a week! We enjoyed having our friend Ilana staying with us on shabbat. As we told her, she's welcome back any time. After shabbat we all went to the Hebrew Book Week fair, in Jerusalem's old train station. This was Daniela's brainchild, actually; I didn't know it was going on. Esther got some cookbooks, Daniela got some books she was looking for, and I did as well. It was actually a lot of fun, though I didn't think the prices were anything special.

Then in the morning we got the keys to the (new) house! We immediately gave a copy to the kablan (contractor) who is doing the major work, and then we spent an hour and a half with the former owner, calling the various utilities and making sure we had everything properly transfered to our name. Now we truly own a house in Israel! Unfortunately, it is now unlivable due to the work being done... but the kablan is determined to get us in at the end of June as he has promised. This is the kitchen before the contractor started. Now look at the same room after the second day -- no more cabinets or floor. On the fourth day the electrical and plumbing work has mostly been completed. Next week is the holiday of Shavuot, so we'll lose a day and a half or two days of work time; but by the end of the week, the floors should be in place downstairs.

Later on Sunday, the Governor of Maryland came to our company - he was leading a group of investors, and they infused some cash into our company. I shook his hand, welcoming him to Israel -- and he told me to call him "Martin". So now I'm on a first-name basis with the Gov. of Maryland... but more importantly, he had the merit to meet me! I was fascinated to read in the paper that my boss announced we were moving our headquarters to Maryland. I was at that meeting, and he said no such thing. This paper has a more factually correct story.

Our dear daughter Sarah, who has been uprooted from her native country and put into a school where the teaching is in Hebrew; and who up until now didn't learn very much math, scored a perfect 100 on her math bagrut preparatory tests. Not only was she dreading the tests per se, but she was convinced she was going to do really poorly. So we are understandably proud and pleased that she was able to prove her opinion of herself wrong. We hope and pray she will continue to do so.

Daniela is winding down the year at Midreshet Lindenbaum, and is packing up her stuff. She came with exactly three suitcases, but somehow they multiplied and she has six -- each one heavier than the others. I wonder how she plans on getting them to Stern in the fall?

Speaking of international travel, my company is sending me to India sometime in July. I'll be helping to bring on new staff for our company, as well as train them, and meet with our clients there. So this week I'm going to try to get my vaccinations so they take effect before I go. I hope I don't have to wear a suit - the only one I have is wool (and I haven't worn it since we moved here).

Seen in Maale Adummim: an elderly man, religious; wearing a T-shirt which said, "There's more to life than news, sports and porn". I am virtually certain that if he had a clue what the shirt said, he wouldn't have worn it. There's a lesson in that, people: please (!) if you don't understand what it says, don't wear it! This one was extremely mild; some of the ones I've seen were literally pornographic. I wonder at the parents who let their young daughters wear clothing which proclaims their readiness to engage in carnal relations! Seriously, it's disturbing. Just as bad as the people who get tattoos in cool-looking Chinese characters only to find out the symbols mean "monkey's ass" or something.

Well, I've got to do some packing and get ready for Shabbat, so...

Shabbat shalom, and Chag Sameach!!

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