Blog/June 2008/Jun 20th

June 20th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

The week has been another busy one! Sarah finished school, and had been taking all kinds of tests. I've been coordinating several projects at work, as well as coordinating the contractors. And we've all been packing our stuff -- but at least that's almost done!

I know you heard me brag about Sarah's successes only last week, but this week she got her first Israeli report-card (actually her second, but it's the first "year-end" report card). She got really excellent grades - and I'm happy to say that she did it on her own (albeit with tutoring help). Neither Hebrew nor a much tougher school proved too big a challenge, so we are really happy for her, and wish her even more success this coming year (which will indeed be a harder year in school).

At work I've been given a lot of responsibility, so my days are quite full. Besides having to do the programming work, I'm also coordinating the technical handling of our potential clients. For that reason I'll be flying to India in a couple weeks, to help build up our Indian operation. But in order to get to India, one needs a visa -- and that is more tricky than I ever thought possible. Hopefully I'll get the visa before my intended flight, because otherwise I'll not be able to get into the country! Not that I would mind, but my boss would be unhappy.

Besides that, I've been working like a wrangler trying to coordinate all the different contractors we have to deal with. There is the main contractor, and the electrician -- they're the main guys. But there's also the countertop guy, and the cabinet guy, and the tile guy, and the grout guy (yes, there's someone who specializes only in grout, apparently). There's the movers, the roofers, the cleaners, and the pest controllers. There's the painter, there's the plumber and the air-conditioner guy. All we need is an Indian chief and we'll have a complete set. The electrician and the main contractor don't get along well, so I have to try to get them moving around their differences. The painter paints every single thing in his path, mobile or not -- so that also upsets the other contractors whose work gets painted over. The main contractor assures us "it will all wash off", but he's not the one whose going to do the washing -- the 'cleaners' are. I sure hope they're good at what they do...

Just to give you an idea, this is the kitchen as of Thursday; here's a different view. Imagine what it will look like when the countertop is installed, and the appliances are in, and the wall's fully painted, and ... well, just imagine. Remember what it looked like just a week ago? Well, they've done a lot of work in a couple weeks, so stop complaining!

Because Hashem is merciful, He arranged for a friend of ours to invite us to spend shabbat with his family in Nof Ayalon, which is between Modi'in and Beit Shemesh. We stayed there once before, several years ago, and look forward to a relaxing shabbat. Next shabbat B"H, we'll be in the "new" house, but it will be pretty messy.

As I was at the store getting some wine for shabbat, I noticed the guy behind me had a large bottle of Clorox. To my surprise, it had in large letters: "Not for eating" לא למאכל. I wonder, how many people would drink Clorox were it not for the warning? Wouldn't the smell alone put one off drinking it?

The disputation: at the "new" house, one of the rooms had a very well done drawing on the wall. The painter (an Arab) said it was Jesus. The main contractor said it was Moses. The electrician said it couldn't be Moses, because Moses wouldn't have been holding a lamp. My girls said it looked like a character from one of the "Lord of the Rings" books, which was my opinion as well. So I called the original owner, who said it was actually Moses, as rendered by her artistic daughter. So the main contractor was right -- I'm going to have to tell him on Sunday.

Shabbat shalom!

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