Dairy on shabbos???

We were invited out for shabbos lunch and we accepted, what we didn't know at the time of acceptence was that the lunch was going to be dairy.

It's not that they didn't serve meat that was dissapointing, once before I unknowingly stayed by vegetarians and had dairy shabbat. What was bad here was these people WERE NOT vegetarian, they just feel that it's to early for meat. So they have dairy. I should point out that the food was really good, just no animals

I love the smell of vomit in the morning

Jonah came into my room at about 5:00 and wanted to sleep in my bed, since my bed is barely big enough for me, and I was to tired to fight with him, I went to his bed to sleep.

Shortly after I was awakened by a weird sound, it was like liquid was being splashed, in my sleepy haze I wondered if Sammy had a siuppy cup or a bottle, I look over at him, and saw him lying next to a pool of something..moments later the smell hit me, barf.

I woke up Nat told her of the situation, and then I rolled back over to sleep. or at least that's what I wanted to do. I really cleaned up the mess, while Nat calmed Sammy down and put him back to sleep.

This morning, Sammy has awoken again and is in great spirits, and not feeling sick at all

ironic

Nat bought some hot dog buns today which were called הלחמניה Ha'lachmania
On Pesach we say הא לחמה עניה- (this is the bread of our affliction) Which sounds the same, Ha'lachmania, as the hot dog buns

I wonder if the people who named the buns knew they sounded the same, it would seem weird to intentialloy named the hot dog buns, the bread of our affliction

Soccer

I think the seed was planted in Jonah's head before we came here, I believe at camp this past summer.

Jonah and I were walking past a soccer/basketball court and he told me that he likes all sports, but he likes soccer the best. And a little piece of me died inside.

Despite my personal dislike of the game I bought Jonah a soccer ball today and he was so excited. Tomorrow we will go out and play soccer at the park.

Slingbox help

I've been a little dissapointed and confused by the slingbox, I'll probably contact customer support tomorrow, for some reason the upload speed won't stay consistent. It needs to be around 300 kbps for a good picture. For some reason its ranges from 76, which is impossible to watch, to 370 which is good. It fluctuates by the second, no consistentsy and I can't figure out why. I'm not using a wireless connection, I'm plugged directly into the cable. I would think that the connection would be solid.

I hurt all over

I went to high school near Pittsburgh, and because of that I spent many a Shabbat in Pittsburgh. I swore that I would never move there because of all the hills. The thought of having to walk up uphill wherever I went was not one I wanted to imagine. And we never to Pittsburgh- We lived in a suburb for a few months, but it's important to note that that is a flat suburb.

So who would have thunk, that one day we decided to up and move to Israel, and we would pick a city, a lovely city, where I have to go uphill all the time. Someone told me that it's better this way, because in the mountains the air is much cooler, but still whenever I walk anywhere it uphill, and I have no car.

I woke yesterday so sore, all over, and then on Friday night due to crazy screaming Sammy I went on two long-very late night-walks, I woke up Shabbat morning even more sore. I hurt in places I didn't know you could fell pain. Every step is like a knife stab, I don't know what a knife stab feels like -I'm just drawing a picture here, every time I have to move my warms I wince a bit. And that is with sucking it up:)

A friend tried to tell me that this is a good pain, but he could say that, because he isn't hurting right now.

GREAT SALE

I was searching for some furniture on a website and I saw one of the mattresses had a price crossed out and under it the sale price, orginally it was 599.99 and now its only 598.99 !!!!!

Ariel restaraunt review

So far we've eaten out most meals, mostly because we have no way of cooking food at our apartment yet.

The Pizza shop, this is one of 3 pizza shops I believe, but it's the only one we've been at. I'm not sure of the name, but it's located in the Mercaz (shopping district) in the older section of town. The pizza is really good, One slice is about the size of a Personal pizza at Jerusalem pizza (in Detroit) A large plain cheese cost 55 shekel and the delievry is free.
I almost ordered on the phone, but then once they answered the phone and said something in hebrew, I tossed the phone to a friend and had him make the order.

Then we ate a Shwarma/Falafel place, also in the Mercaz, and like the pizza shop, no idea what the name is. The food was really good, and the guy who runs the place seemed nice. I had a shwarma in a laffa, and Jonah had a piece a of shnitzel that tasted really good. Nat and Sammy had teh falafel, Nat said she thinks it was good. And Sammy was cinfused because he said ball and threw it, but we told him to eat it. He had a few bites and seemed to enjoy it.

Finally, there is the Schnitzelaria (or something like that but in Hebrew) This place reminds me of subway but with schnitzel, you can poick what kind you want, I had Italian, then you pick your salads, dressings and other stuff, and it goes on a freshly baked subway. I would have guessed it's a footlong, but they don't measure stuff in feet here, so maybe it was 30 centimeter sub. They are located next door to our apartment and a sandwich only cost 20 shek. The down side is there isn't an English menu, so I just guessed at the chicken I wanted.

There are still more places that we have to check out, I hear this place called BA-BA- GRILL is really good.

pictures

..or at least a link to pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/Shauli.zacks/OurAliyah

We are here

After all the talking we finally did it, we moved to Israel, and so far it's been good. Some tidbits of teh good the bad and the ugly

Today Nat got see just how nice the people in Ariel are, I went to Jerusalem and took both sets of keys and the phone. Nat was on her to take Jonah to gan, and returned to find that I had the keys the phone and the money, and she was pretty stuck. But some new friends helped her survive the ordeal, hopefully one day we will laugh at it, for now I hope she still talks to me :)

I davened shachris at the kotel this morning and mincha in a shul at the supermarket. It was pretty neat, they announced it was time for mincha over the loudspeaker. I learn from this that the women here send the men to the store.

We finally got cell phones today, I'm not sure how people lived without them.

We moved into our apartment last night, it's 3 bedrooms 2 bathroom very nice, now we just need to furninsh it. Our lift won't get here for another few weeks, still hating on our shippping company, so our apartment is pretty bare. We need to buy some beds and closets and other essentials that aren't on our lift next week.

All in all it's been exhausting, the kids are finally on schedule Jonah started Gan a few days ago, although he refused to go today - but promised to go tomorrow. Sammy will hopefully start day care next week. I, hopefully, will find a job soon and life can go on as normal.

Goodbye Detroit, we'll miss you

Well Nat and I decided that we couldn't live in an area where Kwame has no control (although he's been out of control for a while) so yesterday we left Detroit. Detroit, really Oak Park and Southfield, is the only place I've ever really called home. I was born there and, with the exception of high school and part of college, lived there my whole life.

Leaving was definitley difficult, I certinaly didn't shed as many tears as Brett Favre did when he thought he was done playing football, but I'd be lying if I said I was dry eyed the whole way. I'll miss my family, friends, house and the comfort level that I felt there.

As Nat said on teh way to airport, It's been a good run, but now we are moving on

Happy Birthday

Today was Jonahs 4th birthday and as tradition dictates we had a great shared party with one of his best friends whose birthday is in 2 weeks. Their first party was kind of insane, there's a good chance that it was bigger then his bar mitzvah will be, this year we toned it down a bit.

We had the party at a nearby park, the kids loved it, it was kind of bitter sweet, seeing him running and playing with his friends, But knowing this is probably the last he'll play with many of his friends, pretending to be Buzz Lightyear and calling Sammy, Baby Buzz.

I know he'll make friends fast in Israel, but I still feel bad for taking him from his friends. I think one of the reasons Jonah leaving his friends is one of the hardest aspects of this for, is that most of his friends parents are close friends of mine and Nats, and I remember them being born. At the time I imagined that we would all grow up together, we'd hang out and our kids would hang out. that was one of the reasons I shot down the Aliyah idea a few years ago. For the most part, I know that even if we stayed that wouldn't happen now, because some of our friends are planning or hoping to leave anyway, some to Israel and some just away from here, but I've always like that thought.

Anyway, back to the Birthday day
Then we spent the rest of teh afternoon having fun in the pool with his cousins and ended the day the way every holiday should end, with a great BBQ