Ah, Mayor Ron, this stroke of 'genius' may cost you the election when your term is up...

I ended up going and had a better time than I thought.

Here is Barchi Nafshi:


And here is Chad Gadyah, performed by Cantors Alberto Mizrahi and Jackie Mendelson:


They had about 70 cantors from the US and Canada come and while most of the songs were in Hebrew, there were a couple that were a mix of Hebrew and English and one song each in Russian, Yiddish (although this was a medley of songs), Ladino and Spanish.

In addition, the Cantor's Assembly gave composer/conductor Charles Fox an award and he conducted the philharmonic in a new composition of his music from the movie Victory at Entebee.

An update on the babysitting issue:

TC came home at 9:20.... it's almost 10:30 and the family hasn't called her or the house.

Needless to say my girls will be making sure to have a cab there and back in all future jobs that are across town.

SR agreed to babysit for someone who lives on the other side of town. This family doesn't have a car.

She'd be babysitting for about 2 hours. She charges 15NIS/hour.

The guy she spoke with mentioned paying for a cab to take her home (12NIS flat rate) but didn't say anything about how she'd get there. I told her (and her sister) that in the future, transportation both ways had to be covered by the family, even if it meant they'd pay more for transportation than for actual babysitting time.

The street these people live on doesn't exist on the maps we have of the town. So she got directions from the guy and they're pretty incomprehensible.

So she (well, really TC - SR isn't feeling well again) took a bus to the other side of town (2.70NIS) and called the guy for further directions.

Only the guy isn't answering his cellphone or the house phone and those are the only numbers either of us have.

So she's coming back home.

Poor NS... he's had pretty bad diarrhea since Thursday afternoon. I've gone through all his onsies, he goes through 2-3 pairs of pants a day and I've even had to wash his sheets.

He's been on rice, rice cakes, bananas and some water since Friday afternoon.

We'll give it another couple days of this diet before deciding if a trip to the doctor is in order. I doubt he'll do anything for it though other than to tell me to continue with what I'm doing.

NS also has had a pretty runny nose for a week so I know that's contributing.

Yesterday we had a get together in honor of a couple families checking out the community... there were probably as many 4 year old and unders there as there were adults (about 20 and 20 I'd say) and pretty much every kid who was a year and under had runny noses and crusty eyes. The 1-2 years old there had runny noses. Total germ-fest. I mentioned to one of the other moms that NS has had diarrhea for the past few says and she mentioned that her 1 1/2 year old also has it. I then remarked that her toddler is in playgroup so it is expected that her son will have runny noses, upset tummy, ear infection and whatever else, however NS is home with me and his only interaction with other kids is the sporadic story hour.

So tomorrow night is an Oneg Shabbat and since it's actually in the neighborhood (and we'll have babysitters), I want to go.. whether Zach will go is a different story as he's off to the Negev this afternoon with one of our neighbors to do some astronomy stuff and he has this plan to catch dawn at the Dead Sea... and then he has to have the rental car back in Petach Tikvah by 12:30...

So maybe I'll make rice krispy treats to bring... in honor of Hallowe'en LOL...

One of the many reasons I'm glad we moved to Ariel...

From our email list:

At Shvut Ariel, hakafot and dancing during maariv and shaharit.Before musaf, there is usually a decent 'kiddusha rabbah' - more details to follow. Kids are encouraged to dance with parents, and get the communal aliyah followed by loot bags. What kind of activity might you be able to suggest/expect? I would not mind some fun 'shtick' in the shul during services but I've never seen that here.

Motzei chag is 'the' major dati event of the year in Ariel with 'hakafot shniot' at the matnas. Starts with a torah parade from the heh b'Iyar circle to the matnas gym and then includes hakafot and dancing with live music. Separate section for women.

One of the things I really like about this place is their attempts to include the secular folks in Judaism without being pushy and in your face about it. You want to join? Great! You don't want to? Fine also.

They had on the first day of Rosh haShana shofar blowing in the afternoon. For Yom Kippur davening, Chabad had one of the gymnasiums, had Machzorim in Hebrew only and Hebrew with Russian and every so often would call out the page number of where they were.

Roasted pumpkin soup
chicken pot pie (chicken has been cooked and shredded)
stuffed cabbage and meatballs
rice
chicken schnitzels
duck sauce
spinach kugel
carrot kugel
roasted potatoes (sweet potatoes and white)
challah
Mexican brownies
pineapple upside down cake
green salad
citrus salad

Not a bad start for today considering I didn't start cooking until 12:30 and here it is, 6:30 p.m. and I'm STILL awaiting my fresh vegetable and fruits order.

I got to the industrial area of Ariel around 9 a.m. The fruit store was just opening it's doors and the delivery truck hadn't arrived with the fresh produce so I window shopped for a bit, bought disposable aluminum pans and papergoods. Went into the clothing store and was happy to see that I can get NS his winter wardrobe right there. I went to the Judaica store only to find out they were sold out of the wooden beams we needed to keep the bamboo mats from sinking into our Sukkah.

And then I went in to "Kfar haSha'ashu'im". It's a chain of toy stores around Israel and frankly I wasn't impressed with the ones I've been in, in Jerusalem. The aisles are tiny, the shelves are crammed with everything and I always feel claustrophobic going in. But not the one here in Ariel... HUGE store, well laid out, nice aisles. THey have a nice arts and crafts section, toys for all ages, puzzles, games, ride on stuff, etc. And they had the Crayola crayons I've been searching for!! So I got NS a box, I got the girls a couple craft things to make for the Sukkah and I think when Zach's dad is here, I'll have him get NS a table and chairs.

Then back to the fruit store. The truck was being unloaded so it took a while for me to get my list filled. I also had to improvise a little because they didn't have everything I wanted. And then of course they had things I didn't know I wanted. Dessert one day is going to be a citrus salad - pomelo, red grapefruit, clementines and pomagranite seeds.

When I went to pay, I asked for delivery. (Mind you, it's about 11:00 a.m. now). She said no problem, but some time after six.

Uh... not that good. But there's no way I can get this all home myself. Thankfully after looking over my menu, I was able to make good headway into my cooking.

The veggies arrived at 6:40...

After a very stressful 3 weeks, we just signed a lease on a duplex in Ariel!

We're down the street from the religious school and the Mikvah, we're 2 minutes from one of the supermarkets and the new 'country club', depending on which direction you go we're right near several bus stops and I think we're also a few minutes from the Netzrim enclave.

So now I have to find movers and pack!

Sigh.

My head is starting to hurt.

The owner of the duplex wants to know if we can make bimonthly payments. Which we can, but again, the problem is the initial payment. Having to pay 8200NIS plus pay movers and buy a stove top and oven... there's just no way. So I need to call him and see if for the first two months we pay each month on its own and then go bimonthly.

The thing is though this guy is starting to send up red flags about his stability... he advertises one thing and then just when we're about to sign, springs this on us. He still hasn't given me a move in date and he's asking city prices for rent. Yeah, Ariel is a decent sized town, but Petach Tikvah it ain't.

As gorgeous as the duplex is, I'm not sure it's going to be worth having this guy as a landlord.

There are two smaller apartments I called about in Ariel. They have 3.5 bedrooms (one room is very small). One is on the second floor, they're asking 2500NIS with bimonthly payments. Available from August 1. The other is 3500NIS a month but it's a garden apartment. Available September 1.

Truth is, I think I'd prefer the smaller, less expensive apartment, put away 2000NIS or so a month and have a down payment for our own place in 3 or 4 years than pay 4100NIS a month and not be able to put anything away.

Sigh. Have I mentioned my head hurts?