Finally I got a few seconds to breathe (and post). Let's begin with Yom Kippur. It was uneventful, except for the fact that we moved into our house on erev yom kippur. But that was just with the stuff (or most of it anyway) that we had in temp housing. On Yom Kippur during the day we davened at the old folks home again. It didn't feel fast but it just didn't drag on forever and there was no speech. We ended up having a 3.5 hour break, and they started at 8:40AM. No complaints about that. I think we will be davening there for yomim noraim in the future.
Onward to Succos. I built a fine succah (that we haven't even used yet) on Thursday night, with one late-night stop at Lowe's for some extra wood. All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out, especially considering the fact that this was my first succah building project. Also, the whole thing only cost maybe $175, including an 8x12 bamboo mat. Next year I will probably expand it to encompass our whole backyard. Right now it only covers about 2/3 of it, and most of the schach is over the dirt portion, which I personally would love to cement over. The dirt is totally useless - I think they (the condo assoc.) are planning on putting in some plants, which according to my understanding serve no purpose whatsoever. In any case the entrance to the succah is mostly blocked by piles and piles of boxes, which segues nicely into the move... The movers were supposed to come on Friday, erev succos (Rachel couldn't take off a non-Friday from work so we had no choice). I made it very clear to them that I needed them to be done by 5 PM, and they said it should not be a problem. Except that they said they would come between 9 and 11, but did not actually show up until close to 2. Needless to say they were not able to finish before shabbos, so I had to send them away at around 6:15 (about 5 min before candle lighting) with the remainder of our stuff in the truck and all our furniture still in a state of disassembly ("no disassemble number 5!" - how's that for an obscure reference?). We slept on mattresses on the floor for the chag, but I have since assembled the beds so we'd at least have something decent to sleep on until they come back. But our house is filled with boxes everywhere and it is not fun. We have unpacked a few of them so far, but we want to wait until they come back and finish the job. Also we have no space in our kitchen for all the kitchen stuff, so we are calling in a contractor to put in a few more cabinets. So until then we will live with the boxes.
I called the moving company on Monday to schedule the movers to come back, so they're coming back on Thursday. Annoyingly, I tried to put together my desk and main computer stuff but I'm missing the mouse and some cables, which must be in one of the boxes they haven't delivered yet... (sigh)... Will this ordeal never end? Woe is me!
In work news, today was the last of our biweekly group lunch + deal or no deal series. All the people who hadn't yet played got to play today. They said that all the prizes had to go, including the grand prize that nobody had won yet, the Xbox360. Nobody today won it either, and they had a bunch of smaller prizes left also, so they just gave away the rest. They put each prize (or a piece of paper with the name of the prize) into a lunchbox and called up people in order of birthdays to pick one and get the prize inside. Everyone got to pick one. It turned out that none of the boxes had the Xbox inside - the group manager (i.e. head honcho) had decided it should go to the administrator who has organized these things each week. Most of the other prizes that were left weren't that great - couple pairs of wireless headphones, some DVDs, and the fillers so that there'd be the same number of prizes as people were starbucks and Amex gift cards and lunch tickets for the cafeteria. I got a $20 Starbucks gift card.
Speaking of Starbucks, we are finally getting our iCup machine installed! They closed off the kitchen for the past 2 days working on it, but it is supposed to be functional by tomorrow. I'm so excited! It's like free liquid heaven!
I have noticed that the comments section has been languishing, and it's probably partly my fault since I've been too busy to post lately, but come on guys! If things don't pick up after this effort I will have to hold a PBS-style telethon. "I know you all enjoy family friendly and educational postings here, such as the ones about RB and iCup machines. They don't happen by themselves. They need the support of readers like you. So why don't you show your support by posting some comments? It'll only cost you a few moments of your time. This blog wouldn't be where it was today without readers like you" etc... So if you don't want it to come to that, start creating some action here today! Otherwise it's time to start calling up some potential telethon hosts. Is that what you want?
Ari
P.S. We had a raisin-free succos! My prayers were answered!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
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I think given the scarcity of posts lately, the comments segment has been carrying the weight for this blog. An speaking of the scarcity of posts, how about some pictures.
Succos at Keren and Ira's was great in spite of the rain. We only had one raisin challah, and it was accompanied by one non raisin challah. Joseph came home, accompanied by a female person, a sight never before witnessed in Silver Spring. She was lovely, very nice and personable and bright, so now the betting has begun. When do you thing they will get engaged? A couple of Keren and Ira's friends also came so it was quite lebedig. Ira is still pretty sick. The food was great. A good time was had by all.
I have my second interview at Carefirst today. They asked me to bring in some training materials I have written. Unfortunately I had everything shredded before I left
Chicago. I had no reason to believe I would ever need them again. I did find one mini presentation on my old hard drive, but it was in power point, which I no longer have. I loaded it on my flash drive, and took it to Kinkos to print. It is not my best sample, but it will have to do. I did not tell Bernie anything, I just intend to take a 2 hour lunch. That will leave no one in the office, since I am the only dope who works chol hamoed, so if he calls, I will have some 'splainin to do.
Tomorrow night I leave for Chicago.
Hope to repost after the interview.
MOM
Just for the record, the raisin challah was NOT served at our house. Just in case anyone was wondering.
As for the telethon question, Ari, I guess it depends on who you would bring in as a host - perhaps it could be entertaining.
This morning, we ran out of Dora Stars cereal, and Sarah said, I know why we are out - it's because my cousins, Miriam, Ayelet and Adina (the kids of our Succos houseguests) ate so many! Apparently, Sarah has not yet figured out the difference between cousins and friends. Or maybe its because we kept calling our friends, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Tova. one of the two.
After Sarah met Joseph's girlfriend erev succos, she said, I want Jojo and Esther to have a kid. How's that for an endorsement?!
Finally, in other Sarah news, at the tail end of yontiff, I found Sarah and one of the other girls - Ayelet, who is just about 3, together in the bathroom. Justifiably concerned about what could happen with two 3-yr. old girls alone in a bathroom (in a previous such incident not involving Sarah, a rugrat doll got a bath in the toilet), I inquired as to what they were doing. Sarah told me, "I'm talking about Isaac, and Ayelet is talking about [some name that sounded kind of like Lee - her parents had never heard of any such boy]" It was quite hysterical. I guess we know such behavior starts early.
Well, now I have done my job in adding some comment activity - too bad I had to do it on working time. Don't tell anyone. . .
About the pictures: it will be a lot easier to do once our main computer and office area are fully functional. And what's this about Joseph having a girlfriend? Nobody told me. How long have they been dating for? And the most important question of all: Is she still intersted after meeting our family?
And Mom - you can open Power points with OpenOffice, which is the office substitute I installed on your computer. I guess it didn't automatically associate itself with office files, but it can read and write them. And the new version of office is coming in Jan, so I will get it for you then. Patience.
Well, I'm stuck in school without a sandwich. Needless to say I am hungry, and my class hasn't even started yet. It's also two hours long and then I have to go to Hebrew School immediately afterwards.
Chammie doesn't think we're going out to dinner tonight.
She's wrong.
Dead wrong.
Ari,
Who knew you're such an articulate and prolific writer, and a craftsman. Will wonders never cease!
Jerry Lewis was just on an episode of law and order last night, maybe you could recruit him for your telethon, I think he's has some experience,
Succot was nice, Grandma joined us and we had lots of fun, and no nuts, raisins or beans in the food.
Lucky you to have a 3.5 hour break on Yom Kippur, we has 1.25 hours.
The Seth saga continues, he now has sinusitis and is on antibiotics. He still feels lousy. Good thing the Yankees are out so he doesn't have to get up @ 2AM to watch the games. There's always the METs though. His finger is feeling much better.
On a sad note Aunt Ruth is not well at all, in the ICU with many tubes. Her Hebrew name is Rochel bat Sara Mottel.
We are still waiting for pictures of the house, Succah (hopefully before Succot is over), RB. If we don't get them soon we may have start putting missing pictures on milk cartons.
Good luck with the unpacking, eventually it all gets done.
Where are all the Avner family posts, this is too much pressure to be the only Avner family poster.
Good luck to your mom on her second interview.
I also am working on Chol Hamoed, and I work in a Jewish school! Where's the justice? At least it gives me time to post, otherwise I'm too busy cooking, cleaning, and baking raisin-less challah, bean-less chollent, and nut free foods
WE WANT PICTURES
The Teaneck Avners
P.S. Keren - telethons are not entertaining by nature. That's the point - it's punishment for not sending in money. It's like they're saying, "If you don't send us more money we will have MORE boring telethons that get in the way of regularly scheduled programming. So if you don't want that then you'd better pony up the cash!" But they have to say it nicer because it's a family audience, of course. So they make them as punishing as possible. Who knows, maybe I'd get someone really obnoxious to host, like Gilbert Gottfried, or Fran Drescher, or (G-d forbid) Carrot Top!
well i am so glad to see everyone is back to commenting! hoorah! well i guess we are going out to dinner...keren we are coming over later for lost/dovid needs to use your scanner. I finally got off my butt today and went to the gym...three cheers for me...have to come up with something to teach my third graders about simchas torah...gonna go to Michael's today to see what we can get for dovids art project
Thats all the news- not exciting news- just regular news
and i finally ate the spaghetti squash that's been in the fridge for 2 weeks (surprisingly still good)
p.s. dovid your computer is going super slow-- time for new RAM?
Greetings from the Holy Land! It's nice to know that I can freely talk about my hate of "raisins in food" with a brethren who shares my view. Food can always be ruined by raisins no matter how good the original food. For example Shwarwa can easily be ruined by adding raisins. I thought of that all by myself. I have nothing more to say about that issue. It sould be obvious to everyone not to use raisins whilst cooking. It just makes me so angry.
Anyway, after a long day of shtarking out, as we say, I can always count on reading this blog. It's gotten me through some really rough times. Like the time when I went to the Bais and all the Mishnah Torah were gone - heartbreaking. I could barely live with myself without my daily fix of the helegeh Rambam. I want his hat with all the fur and silk and stuff.
We haven't been able to post because Josh and I have been really busy. We went up North for a few days to the Lebanon and Syria border. I thought we were going to see a lot more damage from the katyusha rockets, but the roads had already been repaved. The only thing that really showed evidence of the rockets were huge areas of burnt trees.
We're going to Ashdod later today to visit cousins Hanna and Gari. We'll send them your regards. Miss you lots!
POST PICS!
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