Blog/August 2009/Aug 21st
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Aug 14th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!
This week we attended the wedding of my third-cousin-once-removed, whose parents (also my cousins, of course) live on the other side of Jerusalem from us. The groom's mother is one of the "long lost relatives" I met when I first came to Israel, in the 1980s -- and we've kept in touch to varying degrees since then.
In any case, the wedding was held in a place called Gan Hapekan (the Pecan Garden), which is almost an hour and a half drive from where we live. So we go there and the first people we see at the place are our next-door neighbors from Maale Adummim! Turns out, they are close friends of the bride's family.
Besides meeting my neighbors, we also met up with quite a few of my various and sundry cousins -- some from Israel and some from the US. I really enjoyed catching up with the family, and hope to stay in a bit closer contact than before.
And speaking of that "various and sundry", one of my cousins (from the other side of my family) was contacted by a previously unknown second-cousin of his, who had a bunch of information on our (common) family. So now I have that information, and I'll be incorporating it into the mostly moribund family-tree project.
This is Grampa Victor's last shabbat here with us this time around, so we're pulling out all the stops. Kibbeh, stuffed artichokes, challah, matbucha, roasted chicken, Hummus, techina and hilbe. Plus a fruit cobbler for dessert. All homemade, of course. And that's just for tonight... mmm, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!
This is also Daniela's penultimate shabbat with us this time. So I made "fish-n-chips" last night per her request, and I have to make "pad thai" sometime this week to fulfill my fatherly obligation to spoil her before she slips out of my reach again.
Sarah is starting her summer job on Sunday. I think she's looking forward to making some money. I'm taking Sunday and Monday off from work so I can spend time with Grampa Victor and Daniela before they escape our clutches. We'll see just what we end up doing.
American pressure on Israel to not build "in the disputed territories" has reached new heights of stupidity. Here in Maale Adummim, the mayor is protesting that he can't build in the industrial park -- which is part of Maaleh Adummim, not an expansion of anything. Nobody ever lived there. Nobody lives there. Nobody wants to live there. But due to Uncle Sugar's pressure, our faithless government is not permitting us to build where we already have the legal right and presence to do so.
This is, of course, supposed to encourage our "peace partners" to stop attempting to murder us and rather, grudgingly, permit us to live. On an even smaller plot of land than we already have, but then we should be simply grateful to be alive, no? Sadly, those same "partners for peace" have now officially decided only recalcitrant terrorists need apply for their government. These aren't street goons, these are the government of the so-called "PA". Well ok, they are street goons - but they get paid by the "PA". Actually, they get paid by the UN and other well-meaning but increasingly irrelevant suckers of the Western World. Schmucks.
Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!
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