Blog/August 2015/Aug 21st

Aug 21st (See this week's devar torah)

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It was a hot week, well above seasonal norms. We nevertheless managed to keep cool. Kids traveling, wine, weddings and more!

Daniela and Jeremy commenced a wild adventure, visiting my Mom in Seattle and touring around the great Northwest. After a delayed flight they arrived safe and sound, to Mom’s relief. They’ll be there a week, taking in the sights and moisture of the PNW. Enjoy!

My nephew Chaim just arrived yesterday to start a several-month stay at a yeshiva in Jerusalem. We look forward to seeing him and his +1 this coming week.

Sarah and Esther and I went to our second in a series-of-three weddings, this week. It took place in picturesque Jaffa, mentioned in the tanakh as the place the prophet Jonah set out to try and escape from God. Didn’t work well for him. But Jaffa is very pretty, and the wedding was a nice, intimate affair.

This week we did make our release of 8th for “Raspberry Pi”, and it seems to have garnered interest. We’ve also commenced an advertising campaign using “Google AdWords”, to try to drive traffic to our site and expand our customer-base. We’re also beginning to push to get noticed in the “embedded” space… success will take some time, probably.

I’ve been suffering a “mystery pain” for a number of years, just under my lower-left ribcage. It’s one of those things that comes around maybe once a day or so, and is only very uncomfortable rather than really painful. So I just lived with it, until Esther got upset with me ignoring it and forced me to talk to the doctor.

Now, I’ve had an enlarged spleen for years; not huge, just enlarged — and I figured my super-sized spleen is just rubbing against something else and causing pain. The doctor didn’t think it was that, so he sent me for a variety of tests — including a stress test. They discovered the alarming news that, despite appearances to the contrary, I do have a heart (and nothing seems to be wrong with it, B”H).

The upshot after all these tests is that the doctor now agrees with my self-diagnosis: it’s the spleen, stupid. But he doesn’t yet know why it should be causing me pain, so I’ve got even more tests to do. It’s not very clear if the Dr. will actually be able do anything for my pain except give me even more medications. We’ll see…

Every year we’ve looked forward to the Jerusalem Wine Festival, which we attended this year once again. I personally am interested in being able to sample wines which I would not normally have the chance to encounter, and to see if there may be a new one we especially might like. But this year, the pickings were slim: many of the wineries which had come in years past chose to skip this time around. Furthermore, a good number of the wineries which did come were not kosher… a surprising thing, considering probably 80% of the people attending in J”M are interested solely in kosher wines. Anyway, we did pick up a few bottles, and are looking forward to the more serious “Pyup”-sponsored event in February.

According to the forecasts, the temperatures will drop to seasonal again for this coming week. Bravo! Make it so!

Well, last week Dinah snubbed us, but she’s making up for it this week. It’s just us (and Dinah) for shabbat. The menu might have (but is not limited to):
regular ḥamud (not at all how Esther makes it, but…), veggie-option-ḥamud, braised chicken thighs, veggie lasagna, salatim, and watermelon.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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