Voice mail

I hate checking voice mail. Work phone, home phone - it doesn't matter. It makes my husband crazy but I could leave the little red light blinking for days. But at work, seeing that red light makes me anxious because I know that a message implies work that I haven't otherwise anticipated.

Yesterday was busy and I could see that I was missing calls and that a few messages had been left. And today was one meeting after another. So it wasn't until late this afternoon that I finally listened to voicemail.

Really, of all the things I do, this is truly the scariest. The most frightening part is the waiting to hear how many messages there are. I know I can listen to three or four and not be overwhelmed no matter what the content is. So any number four or below is what I'm waiting to hear. Five to eight and I may need to listen to them in two groups. It's generally not more than that, so there are only a few times during the year that it would be helpful to have one of those new portable "shock your heart" kinds of things around. Of course there's no one qualified here to operate one, but that's beside the point.

I call into voicemail. "You have 10 messages." What? How can that be? Who are these people and what can they want from me in the middle of the summer?! I'm not that important!

And yet they called. I was brave and listened to the messages in only two groups because the first two were things I'd already taken care of. I like those kind of messages.

The first message was from yesterday morning, and since I'd already taken care of it, I wasn't concerned that it had been more than 24 hours. The ninth message was left at 9pm last night. That meant of all the missed calls today (and there were a lot of them) only one person left a message. What? I'm not important enough for them to leave me the courtesy of a message?!

And, as always happens, and I mean always, while I was listening to my messages, another one came in. I think it can wait until tomorrow....

Spell Check and Tossing Fish

There are too many things that spell check doesn't catch. Like form and from. Today I was trying to write the phrase 'crap shoot' and it came out 'carp shoot'. I happened to notice, which I think was a good thing.

But then I started wondering what a carp shoot might be. Is it like a game of horseshoes where the goal may be to have the fish land on the spike? Fish don't roll, so it would be hard to play marbles with a carp. Or it could be more obviously like basketball, in which case the possibilities are pretty clear. I'm not sure I like the idea of incorporating a fish into the biathalon, although that might bring in a few more viewers to the winter Olympics.

And finally, I finished my email.

Mango

I never really thought I liked mangos (an accepted plural spelling). There was an Indian restaurant that had a great sauce for their samosas that someone tried to tell me was really a mango sauce, but I never really believed them, because I was pretty sure I didn't like mangos.

Of course that doesn't mean I'd ever actually tried a mango. I hadn't. And then I went to DC where a friend bought a mango for me. To this day I'm not sure why. But when someone buys you a mango, you're sort of obligated to try it, right?

It turns out I've watched enough of the Food Network to know how to slice one and make it look pretty enough to garnish a buffet. But I still wasn't really excited about eating it. But I did. It was slimy and not completely offensive. In fact, not offensive at all, but nothing I would go look for at the grocery store.

But another friend of mine told me that she loves the frozen mango at Trader Joe's. I didn't really think that would be helpful to me, but I thought I could buy it and make a mango lassi. I did, and it was good. Very good. But let's be real, I'm still not convinced I like mango.

And then, today, a third friend sent me a recipt for amba - the spicy, curry sort of mustardy sauce they have in Israel at all the toniest falafel stands. It's a little complicated and the first step calls for 10 (!) green mangos to be cut up, salted, and left on a window sill for 3-4 days. I might still try it. I can't imagine cutting up 10 (!) mangos, but for some amba... I might need to.

It just goes to show....

You learn something new every day. And today I learned the French word for "yeah". It's ouais, pronounced "way". In and of itself this is not such a big deal. I learn new words all the time as evidenced by my large vocabulary.

But this word in particular brings a totally new meaning to the movie, Wayne's World, and the exchange:

"No way!"
"Way!"

Had I known all these years that they were in fact saying "Ouais", and not "Way", I'm sure my life would be different. I'm not sure how, but it would be different.

Economy Parking?!

I believe it's false advertising to say that Economy Parking is $16/day. That's Economy? Economy is $8/day at BWI or even $10/day in Milwaukee, but it is most definitely not $16/day at O'hare Airport.

Doing Absolutely Nothing

I'm sitting here in a little cabin on a little lake doing nothing. I've been doing this now since Friday afternoon. It turns out it's a very easy thing to do. Especially if you know someone with a little cabin on a little lake.

It's very quiet, and I think because it's a little lake, there aren't a lot of loud boaters - by the time they'd get up whatever speed they'd need to be loud, they'd be on the other side already. And it seems that unless you have a boat, pretty much the only thing to do is hang out and do nothing. And from what I can tell, the people that do have boats are doing the same thing, but on the water.

Rumor has it I'm somewhere in Michigan. and maybe not too far from Ohio. Ok. It doesn't really matter to me. I am pretty sure that I would be able to do nothing in Ohio too. There's a large family of geese swimming by. Other than sliding across the water, they don't seem to be doing anything either. Evidently it's the culture here. You gotta love Michigan.

Still Combobulated

I landed at the Milwaukee airport a few hours ago and wondered if there was any chance I'd misread the sign on Sunday. I mean, I've been telling people about this sign and virtually no one believed me. They eventually did because I'm convincing (and in this case, telling the truth), but really, why would they. Who has ever heard of a Recombobulation Area. Heck, I'm surprised the people who make the signs could even spell it. Try typing it three times. Fast or slow. It's nto so easy. But I digress.

The "Recombobulation Area" sign was still there. Evidently the sign was not a figment of my imagination. If was an April Fools joke, no one has figured that out yet. Or maybe they have and figure that after making you walk on the floor in bare feet after hundreds of people before you, you need to laugh to forget how disgusting the floor probably is.

At National Airport in DC they have little booties you can put on. Of course you can't get to them until after you've already put all of your things, including shoes, into the metal detector. But if you want booties for later (I hear they are all the rage among teens today), or for walking through the metal detector, or from the metal detector to the area that in Milwaukee is evidently known as the Recombobulation Area, you can have booties.

And once again, there are people who seem surprised that they have to take off their shoes. Have they not read the news for the past five years. Shoes can be dangerous. They can be thrown. A really spiky stilleto or a heavy work boot can be pretty dangerous (not to mention painful if you're on the receiving end). I'm not sure how the metal detectors prevent someone from hurling their shoe but I'm sure the good folks at TSA know more than I do about this.

These same people seem surprised to learn that they can't take a water bottle through, and that they need to keep their boarding pass with them. There are announcements all the time. And signs. I would think that if they are as unfamiliar with the process as they seem to be, that they would be paying attention to these things. Evidently, I would be wrong.

There was a woman in front of me in line who had two small bags, two jackets and a Virginia Road Atlas. Seeing as she was going through security and about to get on a plane, I'm not sure why she didn't pack the atlas in the bag she must have checked, but maybe she's really attached to her atlas. Anyway, when she got to the first TSA person who checks your ID and boarding pass, she had to put everything down and find her ID. And then find her boarding pass. I'm pretty sure this is the same woman who doesn't think about deciding how she's going to pay for her groceries until the cashier totals her purchases.

But I digress. So she puts everything on the floor and roots through her bags for her boarding pass and ID. The security person looks at them closely, and when she hands them back, the woman bends down four separate times to pick up the bags, the jackets and road atlas. None of them were particularly large and I'm not sure what purpose standing up straight between bobs for her next item served. But again, this is a woman carrying a road atlas onto a flight.

The same thing happens when she puts all of her things down to take off her shoes. And yes, she did seem surprised that this was happening. I was not amused. And it happened again when everything came off the line. I was even less amused. THIS is why we need special lanes for security. She was risking serious harm to herself by those of us immediately behind her. Certainly someone had heavy shoes that could have easily been dropped onto her head while she was bobbing for jackets.

In the end, I think the Recombobulation Areas should have couches, lavender incense and maybe some New Age music to calm us down after being behind these people in line. That would give true meaning to recombobulation.... don't you think?!

New Words

I usually expect my main source of new words to be the Word Spy (http://www.wordspy.com/) and I was very (!) surprised yesterday afternoon to find a new word at the General Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee.

I left my laptop in DC last week figuring I could do without it for the weekend. (I was right.) Going through security without a laptop is a breeze. I'm used to pulling my laptop out and putting it in the little gray bin, but not having to do that is just so much easier. So once my bags and shoes went through the x-ray machine and I walked through the metal detector, all I really had to do was put my shoes on. There was no reassembly of anything required.

Right past the formal security area is a place with a few chairs for people to sit down and put their shoes back on. I put my bags down, put my shoes on, and looked up. Why I looked up, I can't be sure. But I'm glad I did. I was evidently using the "Recombobulation Area". I looked at the sign three times to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was reading. Yes, it said "Recombobulation Area".

Now I was not particularly discombobulated at the time, although there were certainly people around me who were. And anyone traveling with kids and strollers seems perpetually discombobulated when tney go through airport security. But who knew there was an area where they could recombobulate?!

Let's be clear here - "recombobulate" is NOT a word found in the dictionary. In fact, neither is "combobulate". The word, evidently, can only be used in the negative, or whatever adding a "dis-" to the front of the word would make it.

Yes, I have been to a recombulation area and lived to tell the tale.

A Militaristic D'var Torah

Somehow, with no proactive actions on my part, I find myself receiving weekly Torah explanations from the Jewish Defence League. They're Canadian so yes, that's spelled correctly. I've only received three and while in general I'm not interested, it's like a crash on the side of the road you can't help but slow down for. (One in which no one is hurt, by the way).

To read their commentary, it's like Genghis Khan writes the Torah. I know the Torah covers all sorts of violent topics but not everything is about the Jews being in peril. It just can't be. The JDL concludes that the Torah portion this week (Shelach) tells us to be suspect of our leadership. The text is about the spies being sent to Canaan and how 10 of them come back and say we can't conquer the people there and 2 spies disagree.

It seems to me that the lesson should be that you can't trust all spies.

Spam

I don't get spam. It's not that I don't receive it, I just don't understand it. The folks that want to sell me things I don't want or need, ok. The people that think I'm going to fall for the "my father was the king of England and you have to help me get my money", ok. I even understand that there are people out there who are just trying to give my computer a nasty virus.

But lately I've been getting spam with the subject line of: "You Look Really Stupid Andrea". Huh? Is this supposed to entice me to open an email? I don't think so!

Tourists

My flight to DC included a large class of 8th graders on their school's annual pilgrimage to Washington DC. I would guess that there were about 30 of them and, as luck would have it, all sitting in the rows immediately in front of me. Since we know that groups regress, even with appropriate staff, once on the plane, they began acting like 6 year olds.

Not long after we took off, I figured out where they should be sitting. In the middle seats. No one else wants to sit in them, the kids would all be separated, and they might behave a little better if they sit next to "real" people and not just their peers.

Kids these days

I am sitting in a coffeeshop working. It's about lunch time. I figured it would be full but hadn't considered who the "fillers" might be. I quickly learned. I am surrounded by hundreds of middle school kids. Okay, mayber there are only 40, but you'd never know it by the noise level.

The boys all rode their Trek bicycles and locked them to the signpost outside. They each have Treks. There is not a Schwinn or Huffy in the bunch. The girls all seemed to have walked. Probably because it's hard to ride a bicycle and text on a cellphone at the same time. They came in and immediately pulled as many chairs around a small table as possible. There is only one table where boys and girls are sitting together. Pretty much all the boys are wearing tennis shoes and the girls are wearing flip flops. Another reason not to ride a bike.

They look like rows of corn when they all stand up- all the same height. Except for one or two over- and under-acheivers. And except that when you look at a corn field, you can't generally see the underachievers.

Of all of the kids here, they are all white except for four who are black. There is no one obviously Hispanic or Asian. I believe that the only people over 15 are me, the grandmother-looking person who just walked in and the staff.

Asian Vegetarian is the way to go!

It turns out that Asian Vegetarian is the way to go on flights. Or at least on Delta's international flights. I was really not interested in eating dinner on the plane last night, but they brought it around and I figured I should at least look at what it was. It was rice, tofu and spinach. I haven't had tofu in weeks - this was very exciting. And when everyone else got pancakes or an omelet (both with sausage) for breakfast, I got more tofu, but this time covered in panko crumbs with rice and lentils. Not a traditional breakfast, but definitely good.

I did see two other people on my flight wearing kipot. I couldn't figure it out. They looked like the type of peopel who wore them regularly, and yet there they were flying on a major festival. I'm not one to judge, but I'm definitely curious.

I met a man with 7 wives.

Ok, that's not true. He had one wife and 7 children. They were all tall and blond, except for the little kids, who were blond and not yet tall. The men were all wearing kipot in various styles. One had a knit one with blue concentric circles. One had a red velvet one with gold trip. One had a blue velvet one with silver trip. You get the picture.

So first, it's odd enough to see anyone wearing a kipah in the airport right now as it is already chag. Second, it's fairly odd to see a family so large who are all tall and blond here in Israel. They're on my flight and we were waiting in the check-in line together. After the flight to Atlanta, they have a 4 hour flight to Oregon (Portland, if I remember correctly) and then a 2 hour drive to wherever their home is. Evidently they come here once a year and the kids are excited because they just bought a home in Tiberius. I'm not sure how excited the infant really is, but I'll take his word for it.

My guess is that they got a big house for not so much money. You would think that lake front real estate would be at a premium there, but the international market has not yet figured out that Tiberius is just waiting for them....

The last word on the Shalom Hotel

I'm not sure who the Journo Family is, but I found myself stealing their wireless signal for the last day or so at the Shalom Hotel. If anyone knows them, please thank them for me.

I've left the Shalom Hotel, destined not to return for at least six months. By then, I am hopeful that there will be remote controls for the televisions I think it's probably too much to expect to think they would have sheets that fit the mattresses.

It is Erev Shavuot and I'm flying in a few hours. The airport is quiet, as it usually is at this hour. And there is no place to eat, at least before passport control. There will probably be something to get beyond that, but for now, as I'm waiting for another hour to check in, almost everything is closed.

I have a window seat toward the front of the plane. It's not a full flight, but it appears that my row is full. If I want to take my chances, I can sit farther back and I might have an empty seat next to me. I hate sitting farther back in the plane.... I just won't drink a lot of water and I'll hope for good movies.

Saturday night at the Malcha Mall

Last night I decided to make a last ditch effort to find the shoes that a friend of mine asked me to bring back. I've looked in shoe stores all over the country to no avail. I figured this was about my last chance and the mall seemed like it should be promising.

I think half of the city had the same idea. Maybe they weren't looking for shoes, but it felt like a mall in the US on the day before Christmas. I've never seen so much traffic to get into the parking garage, the creative use of space to invent new parking spaces where none should exist, and then the hordes of people just wandering around once inside. And no, they weren't giving anything away. Evidently, it's like this every Saturday night.

And they didn't have the shoes.

The Shalom Hotel

Really, I just don't understand the Shalom Hotel. First, dinner last night was excellent. Yes, at the Shalom Hotel. I don't understand it and I'm not complaining, but it was just such a shock. In all my stays there, so numerous I've lost count, it's never been this good. Of course, we'll see if that continues on through Shabbat....

What's not excellent there, is that their sheets don't fit the mattresses. Their sheets are just slightly larger than the top surface of the mattress, which means that they cannot be tucked in on either side. The first time you turn over, you're sleeping directly on the mattress, just like the 492 people who slept their before you. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's possible that George Washington slept there.

That, and there's no remote control for the television. That's not exactly true - the "remote" is a panel on the nightstand that also turns the lights, airconditioning and radio on and off. If you don't want to sit on the bed to watch television, the "remote" becomes a description of the distance you have to walk to change the channel.

And, I should mention, that I have a double or queen size bed. The headboard and nightstands (all one piece) are built to hold a king size bed. So when they artistically centered the bed on the headboard, they left a 6 inch gap between the edge of the bed and the nightstand. So if you're watching television in bed, you could roll off the bed before you find the right button to turn off the tv!

Not enough salad....

I ordered a salad the other day. It was at the kind of place where you tell them what you want and they put it in the container for you. I requested all of the usual suspects and told them that vinagrette would be good. And then I was told that there wasn't enough salad in the container and that they were going to add more. Only in Israel.

Two nights ago, I was out to dinner with a colleague at a restaurant with only three vegetarian things on the menu, including one I've had before and don't really care for. So ordered a grilled vegatable sandwich. The waitress responded, "I really don't recommend it. You should get the noodles or portabella salad instead." . Ok..... Again, only in Israel.

Still in Israel...

The Mega-Event was two nights ago. It was more over the top than usual. We waited a half-hour for the Prime Minister. It was possible in those 30 minutes that he could have lost his position, but evidently he was just running late. And then there was the parade of dignitaries, a video by Shimon Peres who started a torch relay around Israel that ended at the mega-event, a helicopter circling Latrun (where the event was taking place) to drop off a soldier who'd had to return to his base and wasn't going to be at the event (all staged, but it made for a good show), dancers, singers, drummers, a performance by Kobi Aflalo, and, for a huge change of pace, no Gaia. It was actually one of the best megas I've been to with nearly 9,000 people.

Afterwards, around 11pm, you can imagine the scene with 150 tour buses leaving the site, along with all the cars for the VIPs and the rest of us who drove. It was at that hour that the highway crews decided to close two of the three lanes of the highway into Jerusalem to repave the road. If they could have waited just one more hour....

I think there have probably been a lot of bloggable moments over the last week, I just can't remember them....

The Parking Lot Guy

First, I should say, I have no voice. I am barely able to whisper, except for the times when I am. I couldn't see the people on the other end of the conference calls I had yesterday, but I'm pretty sure they were making fun of me everytime I tried to speak.

Today I had a meeting across town. Every other time I've had to drive to this particular building, I've gotten lost and been late. Today, I didn't get lost, nor was I late. I pulled into the parking garage and the guy says, 'Where are you going?" I tried to answer, and eventually he understood what I was trying to say. When he handed me the parking ticket, he said, Refuah Sh'laima (Get Well). Only in Israel.

The other thing I can do in Israel is catch up on all of the shows I don't watch (and probably wouldn't watch) in the US. Like Stargate SG-1, and Dark Angel. And old seasons of The Apprentice.

Coffee Shop Culture

I've written about this in the past, but now that I work at home and at the local (Milwaukee) coffee shops, it bears writing about again. I've been sitting here at Tal Bagels for almost four hours. I ordered breakfast soon after arriving, and just got the bill, and only because I specifically asked for it, a few minutes ago. The one thing that's definitely nicer about working here and not my local shops is that there is no music. I don't mind the music that Panera or Caribou or Stone Creek play, but it's always loud. Not too loud to work with, but too loud to be on the phone with.

Plus, breakfst here is good. And if you don't want both orange juice and coffee (because breakfast comes with both), they'll give you two coffees. You gotta love a place like that.

Friday and beyond

I was back up North for Shabbat. They've been doing construction on the Bik'a road for a long time and it seems that almost all of it is done. They've taken some of the mystique out of it, but it is definitely a nicer ride. There are even passing lanes in places now. Unfortunately the only wildlife I saw were a few camels.

Tiberius is hot. And not in the hip, fashionable Paris Hilton sense of the word. About a block away from our hotel there's a supermarket next door to a mini-market. I always wondered how they could exist next door to each other and on Friday afternoon I figured it out. The supermarket sells cold alcoholic drinks. The mini-market sells cold soft drinks.

I bought a flavored water, which I don't usually do. It was litchi-watermelon flavored. It wasn't terrible, just not something that I'd like to do again soon.

Hotels...

I stayed in Zichron Yakov my first night in Israel. I've never been in a hotel whose room had a residential exterior door for an interior entrance. It was the kind of door that has a semi-circle of glass in the top part of the door so that light can come in. Which is fine if the door is being used to enter a room where no one sleeps. But on a bedroom door, with a lit hallway, it's really not a good idea.

A simple solution for a few hours, was to sleep facing away from the door. But around 3am, the moon (a night away from being full) came shining in the window. It took about 90 minutes for it to move across the window frame. (this was when I learned that there is nothing good on at 4am on television in Israel).

The good news was that the night preceded a visit to Caesaria, which is always good.

Sittin' in the Yellow

Yes, I'm sitting in the Yellow (like a gas station/7-11) working. Tiberius is a great place, even if I'm the only person that thinks so, EXCEPT, they have no wireless internet access anywhere. So here I am, back at the gas station. The advantage is that there is a table near an outlet. This is specifically important because I forgot to charge my computer last night. Had it been fully charged, I would be sitting next door in the Aroma cafe working and eating a great salad for lunch. But the Aroma has no outlets, which I knew before I even got there. As it is, I'm sitting under a ridiculously loud radio drinking grapefruit juice. But at least I'm charging my computer. (i'm up to 54%, in case you were wondering.)

Last night I learned that even in Israel, there's nothing on television at 4am. And what there was, was something I couldn't really figure out. My hotel didn't have cable, so I had three fuzzy channels and one more clear one to choose from. Since I was still tired despite not being able to sleep, I chose the clear channel. It was a pretty regular Israeli station, but at 4am it was showing some sort of reality show following an Arab group of singers trying out for Eurovision. They were speaking in Arabic and I was trying to follow the Hebrew subtitles. By reality tv standards, it wasn't a great show and I'm not expecting to see them singing in any international competitions soon.

Did I mention that the bathrooms on the plane had Lemon Grass Wasabi handsoap?

(up to 61%)

Airplane Bathrooms

I just don't understand cramped, smelly airplane bathrooms that try to be nice by having Lemongrass Wasabi handsoap. Huh? At least they had good movies.

May 14th

The paper today had several articles about Israel's 60th birthday. Even though I know the date May 14th as well as I know July 4th, I couldn't figure out why the articles were in the paper today. Yom Ha'atzmaut was last week.

Really, it took a few minutes before I remembered that a) today is May 14th and b) Yom Ha'atzmaut is celebrated on the 5th of Iyar and not the 14th of May.

Now it all makes sense...

Folk Music in Milwaukee

Evidently folk music is alive and well in Milwaukee. We wouldn't have known this except two of the three emergency room personnel though Ronnie was hurt on a musical instrument and not a very sharp slicing mechanism.

Six stitches and one tetanus shot later, he's almost as good as new.

When it was determined that a hospital might be able to stop the bleeding that superglue and liquid bandages couldn't, we had to remember where the hospitals in town are. It turns out there's one not too far away and they have free parking very close to the ER door (but no cell phone reception in the ER waiting room).

After 20 minutes of solid bleeding we were running out of gauze and decided to make a break for it and go to the Urgent Care clinic instead. After a 10 minute drive and another 20 minutes of bleeding, he was finally seen. There they have cell phone reception but won't let you use it back where they actually make you wait after having waited in the waiting room. He has to go back in 10 days to have the stitches taken out unless we feel comfortable enough with needlework to do it ourselves.

In case you were curious, the mandolin was used to make garlic potato chips last night that turned out to be quite tasty.

Passover shopping

I realize I may seem a little obsessed with Passover shopping, which is even stranger when the fact that we don't eat much bread to begin with is considered. Nevertheless, yesterday we stopped at two stores in the north suburbs of Chicago before going to seder. Despite each of them clearly not having the same selection they probably did even a week ago, they both had full aisles and sections devoted to the unleavening. It was almost, but not quite, like being back in Kemp Mill. The one thing I really was hoping to find was jelly. Evidently jelly was a hot commodity this year because I only found a few jars and they were all black currant. I've never tried it, but how bad can it be?

We're not in Kansas anymore

So far, other than the persistant snow, Milwaukee has been great. And it's even finally spring-ish and getting a bit warm. Today I went out to start doing a little shopping for Passover. There was really no point. Not only were the shelves bare, but it looked to me like they had never been filled.

And what there was could have been purchased only if a bank had been robbed in advance. Living in Kemp Mill for the last several years made Passover very easy. Milwaukee for Passover will not be easy. That much is clear.

I believe that this year we may finally fully embrace kitniyot. It will mean that beans, tofu and brown rice could be part of our menu. It also means that Passover food won't actually differ much from non-Passover food. I realize that's not actually the point of Passover, but in the whole "why is this night different than other nights" kind of perspective, for it not to be different may mean it won't actually feel like Passover....

Mice

I've been traveling all week. Sunday was LA, Tuesday was Tampa, Thursday DC. Monday will be back to Milwaukee.

In LA, at our first stop (before checking into the hotel) my traveling companion realized that her mousse had exploded in her bag. Nothing was ruined, but some things were wet. The bigger problem of course was that she no longer had any mousse.

I had only flown half-way across the country while she had flown half-way across the globe. Either way, by the time we checked into our hotel later that night, we were both exhausted.

But it was still only 8pm on the west coast and still a bit light outside. Too early to sleep. So in addition to asking the hotel clerk for directions to a drugstore, she also began explaining (hopefully for reasons that can only be explained by the sheer tiredness) to this poor clerk why she needed a drugstore. So again, I hear the story of her mousse exploding.

To which I finally respond "you should have seen it, there were antlers everywhere!"

My traveling companion did not think this was nearly as funny as I did. And nearly a week later, I still think it's funny. So there.

Traveling

Here's the thing about flying these days. And not actually these days, for the last several years. You have to take your shoes off at security. Everyone knows that. Even people that don't fly know that. And yet, somehow, I am always either immediately in front of, or worse, behind, someone who has yet to hear this news.

This morning, thankfully, the person was right behind me. She looked to somewhere in her 30s or maybe early 40s and didn't seem like the type that was taking her first flight ever. Now I realize I am in the airport fairly frequently (but not nearly as much as some other people I know) but I think that if you've flown in the US anytime in the last 5 years, which I would venture to guess is a lot of people, you shouldn't be surprised when you're asked to take your shoes off at security. Or finish your water. Or take your laptop out of your bag. Or take your jacket off. Or not put your boarding pass through the scanner. Or.....

Could it be?! Could it really be?

It's possible that spring is on the brink of being sprung here in Milwaukee. Today it was in the 50's and maybe even the 60's if I believe the temperature reading in the car. I think it would be foolhardy to take out the storm windows and put in the screens yet, but maybe in a week or two. What I do know, is that we may not get more snow. Now that would be a miracle....

People Plan, Gd Laughs

There's an old Yiddish expression probably taken originally from somewhere in the Bible that roughly says "men plan and Gd laughs.

I almost wrote yesterday about how nice it's getting outside. The snow is finally melting and we can see more grass than ice. It feels like we're really on the brink of spring, which, in Milwaukee, is a great time.

And then, today, WHAM! We're getting a snowfall that could put us in the record books. The weather service is predicting up to 14 inches and any morning televisions shows have been pre-empted by "Weather Watch". I'm not sure why since there's nothing to watch but snow coming down.

Correct me if I'm wrong but we're about at the end of March. This should not be happening. I am not amused.

More on Blue Plastic Wrap

First, evidently I should not be complaining about blue Saran Wrap because we do not have blue Saran Wrap. We have blue Plastic Wrap (by Reynolds, if that matters). Either way, I still don't like it.

But I don't want to throw it away, either. That would be a waste. So I've been trying to be more conscious about using it. I suppose in a sense that's tantamount to throwing it away since we own a bazillion plastic containers that will hold nearly everything I would need to wrap up. But somehow it seems that it's less wasteful if it's at least used, even needlessly.

Today I was thinking, "Wow. I wonder how much longer this will last. I really don't think I can use it fast enough." When, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed three frightful words (technically, two words and a number/symbol): BONUS 25% MORE!

What?! It's not enough to figure out how to use how much ever is left from the 100 square feet the container was supposed to include - now I have to use an additional 25 square feet?!

To put this in perspective, 25 square feet is a 5 by 5 area. That's bigger than a bathtub, bigger than the largest surface on a refrigerator, and, I believe, enough to cover our love seat. No, not all at the same time. But still - that's a lot of extra blue stuff I have to use. This is definitely not cool.

Blue Saran Wrap

I don't like it. I didn't even realized we'd bought it until I opened up the container and there it was. At first it was pretty cool. I mean - it's blue. That's pretty cool. It functions the same as the regular non-colored wrap and I figured there shouldn't be anything not to like, right? And I don't use that much Saran Wrap anyway so there wasn't much to think about for a while anyway.

But for some , a few times this past week, I've needed to use the blue Saran Wrap.

Onions wrapped in blue just don't look right. Neither does chili. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only thing that wouldn't look really strange is fruit salad and that's more of a guess than it is a well researched fact.

Now I've seen the red wrap, and while I haven't used it personally, it somehow seems that it would not be as strange looking on food. Maybe because there are more red foods? I wonder what black wrap would look like....

My ipod

Today was the first day in a really long time I could take a real walk outside. Up until now, it's been walking through snow and ice to the garage, or walking down the middle of the street to get out to Einstein's (coffee) or Schwartz's (bookstore). But today we finally hit 40 degrees and it seemed about time for a walk.

And of course, I decided to take my ipod with me. And then there are choices - what is good walking-for-the-first-time-since-fall-and-still-trying-to-avoid-puddles-and-random-ice music? I decided to let the ipod just start playing songs in alphabetical order and see what I have.

I knew I had some eclectic music and hadn't actually considered how crazy it would seem to someone other than me. Here's what I heard today:

• Accidentally like a Martyr (Warren Zevon)
• Allison (Elvis Costello)
• two Israeli songs
• Across the River (Peter Gabriel)
• Act of Contrition (Madonna)
• Adayin (David Broza)
• Adeste Fideles (Frank Sinatra)
• and then two, not one, two Adon Olams. One by Josh Nelson and the other by the Sheba Choir. Interestingly enough, both are versions by black Jews. How many people do you know that have two versions of Adon Olam on their ipod? If it's more than one, and the other isn't a rabbi (or other clergy) I'm impressed (or scared for you).

I am thankful for being at my front door before "After the Love" by Culture Club started.

Reality is not all it's cracked up to be

This morning it was back to work and back to reality. It's not nearly as fun as everyone else claims it is. I'm not sure what the hype is all about. I had more than a dozen phone messages (which I didn't listen to until 5pm), conference calls, and hundreds of emails to return. What's that all about?!

Plus, Ronnie has yet to be assimilated.

Ronnie was not assimilated

It turns out I was too cheap to have Ronnie assimilated at the Star Trek experience. Oh well.

ATM

Being the geeks that we are, today we went to the Atomic Testing Museum. It's the one place in Las Vegas where we have NOT seen an ATM. Strange but true. It was actually pretty interesting and there were more people there than I would have expected. Sadly, we are not here in town during one of their field trips. Evidently they do a free monthly field trip to the testing grounds about 65 miles away. Now that would have been very cool.

And tomorrow, it's possible that we're going to the Star Trek Experience. Depending on my mood, it's possible I will let Ronnie be assimilated.

Best Buffet in Las Vegas

If you're wondering where the best buffet in Las Vegas is, I can now tell you with absolute certainty that it's on the corner of Tropicana and Pecos about 30 blocks west of the Strip. You're wondering what can be good that's so far away? I'll tell you - it's the Pinball Hall of Fame.

This is a great place. It's smoke-free, cheap, clean and filled with geeks who like pinball. And, they've got a little 4x6 card on each machine with a little background on the machine - when it was made, who restored it, and any little anecdotes that might be interesting. All the old games are just 25cents and the newer ones are still only 50cents.

Some of the machines were from the 1950's. They had a good number of video games from the 70's, including Asteroids, Centipede and even an old Tetris machine. There were a lot of very old baseball machines. Who knew that there were so many?!

And there are a lot of machines, more than I realized, that are associated with television shows and movies. There were three Star Trek games. One from the 60's based on the original series, one from the 70's (also based on the original), and a later one from Next Generation. I also lost a few quarters in the Terminator pinball machine. Evidently degree of fandom does not allow for any additional skill.

As we were walking out, we saw a tall, wide machine that looked like a multi-level pinball game. It wasnearly as deep as a traditional game and it was about 2 1/2 feet tall. I can't remember the name of the game, but it was one of only two machines ever made like this. It was based on a circus and featured different levles of mini-games, a few hard to see flippers, and a pretty fast ball. It also cost four quarters to play. It was a great game and a shame that more than two weren't made. They needed two cards to tell the whole story of the machine, most of which I don't remember anymore.

The Damn Dam

The Hoover Dam is really, really big. Last October they reinstated the tours that go way far down into the dam and that's the tour we took. The difference between the regular power plant tour and the "way down into the dam" tour is significant. We were in a group of 20 people trolling around the tunnels and hallways on the Nevada and Arizona sides of the dam, looking out the vents, down the really steep pre-OSHA staircases and finally out over the edge. It's a big place.

And their building a big bridge over the canyon. In my opinion, it's going to totally destroy what is now a beautiful view. Forget that it will be an engineering feat - it's still going to be an eyesore. Think of the Holyland buildings in Jerusalem - a total fish out of water. And in the bridge's case, over water.

Boker Tov

One of my tasks yesterday morning was going to get bagels for the house in case anyone stopped by and had not yet eaten breakfast. Unlikely, but nevertheless evidently a possibility. So at 6:45am I drove up to Einstein's. The regulars were there drinking their coffee and reading their papers. I've never been to this Einstein's at this hour but I imagine that this is their regular routine. It's not the kind of thing you just do one day.

But I digress. So I walked up to the counter and a man behind the counter says in a big booming voice, "Good Morning!" And started to respond, "Boker Tov." At which point I realized he would have had absolutely no idea what I was saying. It was a little surreal.

The best part of being there - they already had mixed dozens of freshbagels sliced and in boxes so that I didn't have to decide what kind to get!

Three Bag Week

For the last six months, save for fewer weeks than I can count on one hand, Ronnie and I have generated only one kitchen-size garbage bag worth of trash each week. Everything else gets recycled.

This week, I believe we may be using our third bag. It's possible that it's only the second, but I don't think so. And I'm not sure how it happened. We didn't all of the sudden use twice as much soymilk (and therefore have more cartons to throw away). Actually, those do take up a lot of space. Evidently, there was just a lot of "stuff" to be gotten rid of.

And we recycle a lot. There's some confusion over which plastics and/or bottles can go in the bin so we probably don't recycle everything we can.

On Tuesday mornings when the garbage gets taken, I always notice that our garbage can has one bag in it and our downstairs neighbors have nearly filled theirs to overflowing. They have a baby, but it can't all be diapers. If we could switch our big garbage can with our little recycling bin, we'd be in good shape.

We were at Costco and bought a box of 200 new kitchen garbage bags. That should last us 4 years. Bonus, they are not environmentally safe enough so they won't biodegrade while we wait to use them.

Andrea's theory of relativity

Einstein may have understood the physics of time and space, but I don't think he ever mentioned the relative temperature phenomenon.

Today Milwaukee temperatures were in the low 20s. It felt downright balmy. People were walking around with untied scarves, open coats and only the elderly were still wearing hats. we still have a good layer of snow and ice, and yet street shoes are back - winter boots are back in the basement where they belong. And tomorrow we're supposed to see mid-20s. No doubt we'll see people headed to the beach.

20 degrees is not warm by a long shot. But after weeks of single-digit highs and below-zero wind chils, it may as well be summer. Conversely, when it's 90 degrees in the summer, a dip down to 60 sends people inside for hot soup faster than you can say split pea.

I have no supporting equations or scientific research to show for Andrea's Theory of Relative Temperature, but I'm sure it's true.

Weather or Not...

I had to be at a birthday party in Chicago this morning. The news called for another foot of snow overnight, so I figured to be on the safe side, I should go the night before and at least be that much closer.

Last night saw no snow and no rain. And it was relatively warm (you know it's mid-winter when 40 degrees feels warm).

This morning saw no snow and just a little rain and temperatures in the mid to upper 40s. Needless to say, I could have driven down this morning (but then I would have missed the plans I'd then made for last night in Chicago, but that's a different story). The problem with warm rain is that the snow melts and uncovers an icy underbelly. Walking anywhere is difficult unless it's a well-traveled path, which then usually means you're in the middle of the road, which is not a good place to be if, in fact it is well-traveled.

Getting into the birthday party (and then back out) was a challenge. I did not, however, embarrass myself or amuse my hosts by falling down. Actually, I'm not sure my hosts would have been amused, but their children most definitely would have been.

Tonight, the temperatures are finally dropping and rumor has it we'll get only 3-4 inches of snow. At this point in the winter, that's practically nothing. Still annoying, but not enough to get crazy about anymore....

Subway

Finally, at 2pm today, I had time to run out and get some lunch. This is a little bit of a treat because usually "running out for lunch" means sauntering into the kitchen and remembering where I put the leftovers from dinner the night before. And there's a burrito place around the corner from work that I used to like, so I figure I'll go there.

I grab my coat and ID (so I can get back in the building) and figure that even though I don't have cash in my hand, I've got a credit card and that should buy me anything.

Wrong. They don't take Discover (or American Express) at my favorite burrito place. I find this out after I've ordered, by the way.

So I walk out trying to figure out where to go next. I'm hungry. I want something relatively healthy and fast. McDonald's is not an option. Plus, it's cold out. Not Milwaukee cold, but cold enough that I don't feel like walking any farther away from the office than I already have. My choices therefore are limited. Fuddruckers - no. Starbucks - no. Capitol Grill Barbeque - definitely no. And then there's Subway. Ok, I haven't been there in a really, really long time. It's easy and that's where I head.

At 2pm it's not surprising that I'm the only customer in the store.

I order a tuna sandwich, extra pickles. Here, extra pickles evidently means they give you a second slice. And let me be clear. Their pickles are not sliced the long way, nor are they spears. They are the little round sandwich pickles you see on the commercials for hamburgers. Two? That's barely even a serving of vegetables under the Reagan administration. A little lettuce, a few olives (most of which fell off in the process of wrapping up the sandwich) and I had my lunch.

The same man that made my sandwich took off his plastic gloves to ring me up at the register (where they do take Discover), looks up and then asks, "what kind of sandwich?" Huh? I'm the only person in the store and YOU made the sandwich. Maybe I misunderstood. So I said, "What?" And he said, again, "What kind of sandwich?" And I replied, "You made me a tuna sandwich." To which he said, "oh yeah."

Weird. Just weird. (but a good tuna sandwich)

Landing in Snow

It occured to me as we were landing on a snow-packed runway that maybe planes should have snow tires. Now I know that won't help them land any more smoothly but maybe once we have to taxi on the snow it would be helpful? Or maybe it would help them grip the runway better for take-off?

I flew Northwest on my recent trip to New York. On three of the four flights the pilots were saying good bye and thank you to us as we exited the plane. That's unusual, I think.

More disturbing was how they seated everyone. First they let the first-class folks board. I'm not sure why they do that. So that the rest of us can see how comfortable they are and resent them the rest of the trip? So we can see that they already have beverages in real glasses? Or maybe so we can resent the amount of space they still have overhead for suitcases that we aren't allowed to use?

Then they seat people who need extra time and those sitting in exit rows. I would think with more space in the exit rows, they don't need the extra time. And then, if you are a frequent flyer with Northwest at whatever various levels exist, you can go find your seat. And then, finally, if you are just some average joe who doesn't fly often enough to warrant belonging to a loyalty club and didn't pay enough extra money to sit in first class or evidently an exit row, you can board the plane. And hopefully you don't need to put anything in the overhead bin, because at this point, there isn't any room left.

And don't even think about asking someone if you can move their coat across the aisle so you can use the overhead space. Instead, you can squeeze your suitcase 14 rows back from where you are sitting, which defeats the whole purpose of sitting close to the front in the first place.

Did I mention that the pilot thanked me?

My Law & Order Episode

I was in New York this week, and as the cab driver drove me from La Guardia to my hotel we went through Central Park. Here's what I know about Central Park: that's where they find a lot of bodies on Law and Order. I didn't see any, but I'm sure if we had driven just a little bit slower I would have.

And then I took the New York Subway for the first time. Not by myself, and I'm pretty sure that it would take me a while to figure out if I ever had to do it regularly. There are letters and numbers and different colors. I think it's a bit like playing twister. There are a lot of Law and Order scenes involving the subway, too. People running through cars, getting crushed by them, running down the stairs, jumping turnstiles.... I didn't see anything too exciting or television worthy during my ride.

I realized on my way back to the airport that Law and Order doesn't have too many scenes that film there, so I stopped looking for familiar sites. And as usual, I didn't see any famous people, or maybe I did and just didn't notice...

Stop that Jew!

I don't usually watch House. And if and when I do, it's usually because Ronnie's taped it and is watching it later. I couldn't have told you that it was on Tuesday nights but evidently it is. I'm sitting in a hotel room trying to get work done and figured I should invite my tv friends to join me. Other than Law and Order reruns and Super Tuesday results I didn't think there was anything on.

Now, I like election returns as much as the next person, but they break into the shows when another state closes, so I figured if there was anything that couldn't wait, I'd hear about it. Which meant I could watch American Idol. Not worth watching really, but worth having on in the background. And then thankfully it was over.

And House began. The first scene was a Jewish wedding, and a fairly observant one at that. They got most of it right, except it didn't appear that any of the women were wearing wigs. The men's beards looked pretty good and certainly better than the Law and Order I saw the other night. I'm pretty sure there that the costumer raided the Amish closet for beards rather than the Jewish closet.

Anyway, later, the husband's mustache looked pretty fake, and I'm pretty sure that someone with an untrimmed beard would have a good haircut, but that's just me. My favorite line - Dr. House has a final idea of what might be ailing the new bride as she's being wheeled into surgery and he calls down the hall, "Stop that Jew!" (And the last two lines of the show had House and Wilson saying "Shabbat Shalom" to each other.)

Bad Oatmeal

Evidently it IS possible to make bad oatmeal. Or at least accidently make it too bad to eat.

I am pretty good at making oatmeal. Not the instant kind. I'm not big on measuring, but if you mix some water, oats, dried fruit (usually raisins, cherries or cranberries), cinnamon and maybe a little soymilk around on the stove for a while, at some point, you've got pretty good oatmeal.

This morning I was not so lucky. First, the only oats I had in the house were quick-cooking that I'd made some cookies with before I went to Israel. So that threw me off my game to start with. And then, there were only dried cherries. Always good, but it's nice to have a little variety. And then, there was the cinnamon. On the second shake, the lid fell off the jar. It didn't look like THAT much cinnamon.

I was wrong. The oatmeal was virtually inedible. I say virtually because Ronnie still ate it. I'm not sure why. Or how. I got a few spoonfuls in to my bowl and decided it was subconcious portion-control. The rest got thrown away. At least our garbage will smell good.

Geography

I may have mentioned this before, but I often get asked, "How are things in Minnesota?". Really. Maybe they're confused by multiple words relating to geogrphaphic places that begin with the same letter. But they aren't asking me how things are in Micronesia. Or Mali. Or Michigan. No, they just can't remember that I live in Milwaukee and they figure that Minnesota must be close enough.

So today I went to Trader Joe's to get a few things before the impending blizzard. Yes, I've evidently turned into one of those people. Just for the record, I didn't buy gallons of bottled water (I figured I can always melt enough snow....). I'm checking out and I give the woman my re-usable bag and she comments on how short the handles are. So I tell her that I got it a few years ago in Maryland. And she says, wait for it..... "That's in Massachussetts, right"?

Really. She said that. And how am I supposed to respond to this politely and in public?! So I say, "Oh, I meant the State of Maryland". And she says, "that's the one that looks like a boot, right"?

Huh?!

It's true, they don't listen!

Well, it turns out there were really 17 voicemails on my phone. Not exactly on my phone, but on the phone that is supposed to forward to my phone. Which means that the people calling were spared my long "do not leave me a message" message but also did not hear those instructions at all and left a lot of messages.

Evidently, sometime after the first of the year, my phone got un-forwarded. Had it not taken more than 2 weeks to figure out how to forward the first time, I would not have been worried. It seems to have been resolved now, but I still have another 16 calls to return!

No Messages

Before I left for Israel I changed my voice mail asking whoever called to please email me instead of leaving a message. I probably repeated myself three or four times and basically said I wouldn't be checking voice mail until the end of January.

Shock of all shocks - when I turned my cell phone in New York, there were no messages. None. Not one. Now it could be that whoever called simply followed my instructions. But since that doesn't usually happen, I decided that maybe it was the length of the actual message, and that at some point, they just gave up waiting for the beep. I remember leaving a fairly long message and I'm not interested in listening to it all again to time it, that's how long I think it is.

Mimi suggested I leave a new one that says something to the effect of, "I'm back, but I still don't want to talk to anyone...".

Leaving Israel

I'm at the airport checking email yet again. I finally have my inbox down to 42 messages - the first time it's been so low in a few months. By next week I'll be lucky to have it down to 100.

When I checked in I asked if there was any chance a window seat had opened up. The woman told me I was asking too much. It was the only question I asked her! So I'm stuck with a middle seat but am thankfully only in row 24, which is about as close to the door of the plane as you can be, I think. There are a lot of our participants (and from other organizers) on my flight and they are all WAY at the back. One of our staff people is sitting in row 59. I could never do that.

Maybe there will be a good movie or two. The plane I came in on was a brand new fancy plane. This one isn't, but it doesn't necessarily mean there won't be a good movie....

Three completely different subjects

1. Katan o Gadol?
This question (small or large?) should not be asked after someone orders coffee. There should either be one size, or the questions should only be to confirm that you want a large coffee. I've met only one person here in Israel who ordered a small coffee. One. And this morning I finally met someone (okay, the waitress at the bagel shop) who completely agrees that the questions is a ridiculous one. Of course, she had to ask me first, but then she agreed with me. Who wouldn't with a question like that. It's a variation on the question, "Cake or Pie?" Why not both?

2. My Hebrew would be better if....
I spent more time in cabs. Because I've got the rental car here, I'm not in cabs so often. Yesterday was an exception. I left my car at the hotel, took a bus into Tel Aviv with the students, (more on that in the next section), took a regular bus back and had to take a cab back to my car. I jumped into the back seat with my three bags (don't ask). It was a spotlessly clean cab. At one point, I could see the driver weigh whether he should take the highway or the local road. He chose the highway and as soon as we made the turn we could see that cars were stopped for a construction project. So we started talking. And then I was told to sit in the front seat if we were going to have a proper conversation. Since we were essentially parked, I wasn't getting out of a moving car, which made the process easier.

One of my friends (who demands not to be named publicly in this forum) takes cabs fairly often and talks to the cab drivers all the time. She's Israeli, but her Hebrew is pretty good and I'm sure that's part of the reason.

3. Buying clothes in the grocery store
After nearly a month in Israel, I finally had plans to see a few family members. So I went to Tel Aviv and met up with Steve and Ayelet at the mall. (Full disclosure - I met up with Ayelet a few nights before, but it wasn't planned) . And I'd (almost literally) run into Boaz on the streets one night which also shouldn't count as a proper visit. So the three of us had lunch and afterwards I convinced Ayelet to go with me to the SuperSal.

We walked in and noticed it was more like a combination grocery store/Walmart. Before you got to the food section, there were sheets, towels, and then clothes. So Ayelet started looking at shirts. I successfully convinced her to try one one. But, you ask, are there dressing rooms at the grocery store? The answer would be an easy and resounding "no". So we took three hangers from the shirts, two big towels from the towel section and fashioned an improptu McGyver dressing room for her.

NOT.

Ok, she tried the shirt on over what she was already wearing but then needed a mirror. I suggested finding the section of the store where they sell mirrors (she didn't believe they'd have one) and we finally settled on using her reflection in the door of the frozen food freezers. She did not buy the shirt.

Mimi and MLK, Jr.

Mimi gave me permission to tell this story, so I don't feel guilty writing about it.

Mimi and I work together in DC. Except that I don't usually work there, but that's not the point.

I got a call at 8:30am EST from Mimi. She told me that she woke up, made coffee, got dressed, and went to meet another co-worker to walk to work together. She got a little concerned when Mindy never showed up. I'm not sure how long she actually waited before she figured out that it si MLK, Jr day and that Mindy wasn't going show up because our office is closed today!

Bedsheets

Israel is NOT a third world country. You can buy anything here, even in the smallest town, except, evidently, sheets that actually fit the bed. So then how is it possible that hotels in Israel don't have sheets that fit the beds? And that they don't use mattress pads, especially when they don't have properly fitting sheets?

Basically, when you pull the topsheet up to get into the bed, the bottom sheet, which is not fitted, comes off too. Yes, you can tuck it back in, but then you get into bed and turn over once, it's back out. And by the next morning, you may as well never have had a sheet on the bed to begin with.

And hotel towels are still terrible. They are all the size of washcloths and threadbare. Now I realize that our groups are staying at the nicest hotels, but they aren't so bad....

Go figure.

McDonalds in Israel

Yesterday, in an attempt to find a bathroom, we stopped at a McDonalds just outside Tiberius. Technically, it's on a corner of Tzomet Golani, or the Golani Junction. When I was on Volunteers for Israel 20 years ago, my base was right down the road. There was most definitely no McDonalds on the corner back in 1985.

But that's not so important (is any of this, really?). The bathrooms there were the cleanest of any McDonald's I've ever been in. And that's also not so relevant. It was clearly not a kosher store (and no, before you even ask, I am not convinced that has anything to do with how clean the bathrooms were). As we walked out, a woman walking in reached up her hand to kiss the mezuzah on the door.

Yes, a mezuzah on the door of a treif restaurant. Only in Israel.

Later in the day I was actually at another McDonalds. This time a kosher one. Given that I never go to McDonald's in the US, walking into two in a day seems almost worthy of a shehechiyanu. Given that the only vegetarian option is a salad, the kashrut status is largely irrelevant to me. And here's the great thing about McDonalds, the french fries taste the same everywhere. I am convinced tat is why they are so successful. You can walk in and know exactly what the food you will be ordering will taste like. I did notice that the hamburgers are really huge there (surface area, not thickness) and I'm pretty sure they aren't in the US. But I bet they taste the same.

Spectator sports and wildlife

On the way out of Jerusalem Monday morning we got stopped for a good 30 minutes just at the edge of the old city. Traffic was just stopped. About 10 cars up we saw a police van and lights so we figured there was an accident. So we waited. And waited. And then we saw the little robot.

Evidently there was an unknown box on the side of the road and they brought out the little robot that checks on all unidentified packages and can blow them up if necessary. I should point out that one of my passengers had gotten out of the car to walk up and see what was going on. When he saw the robot come out, her RAN back to the car.

As far as we could tell, it was a box of water bottles and there was nothing that they needed to blow up. Which was good, but as a spectator not nearly as interesting.

And once again, I drove up the Bika road. I'm not really sure how that should be spelled in English.... It was particularly nice day and since it rained last week, there was a bit more green on the hills than usual. We saw a lot of wildlife - more than I'd seen on my two previous trips up.

First, there were the camels. A huge herd of them. Maybe a hundred scattered across both sides of the road. None in the road, which was good. And then we saw tree baby camels. Not just teenagers, but baby camels. Really, really cute. I'm pretty sure the cars behind me were annoyed that I slowed down as much as I did.

And then there were goats. And donkeys. And sheep.

And then we got into the hillier area approaching the foothills of the Golan. The hills are greener and very rocky with big boulder-y rocks just sitting around. More sheep, more goats. And then, just when we though we were passing another group of rocks, we realized that they were big cows (steer?) sitting down in the sun. White ones and brown ones and all really, really big.

They blended in well with the rocks, although I'm not sure that they necessarly think in terms of trying to fit into their environment to evade predators. I can't really see them as camoflage cows...

In case you were wondering...

Pear-Kiwi juice is not as good as Pear-Kiwi-Banana Juice. Unfortunately, I have the former in my refrigerator and not the latter. And even though I know that kiwi is a primary ingredient, i still a slightly disturbing shade of green to consume.

I did finally have to use a map today. It wasn't actually so helpful because it didn't have the street on it I needed to find.I did finally get just a little lost today. Or, rather, I didn't really get completely lost, I just needed to use a map. Which it turned out didn't really have all the streets on it that I needed. So I was only 10 minutes late to my meeting.

And I finally have clean laundry. It's still sitting in the big plastic garbage bag it came back to me in, but it's clean.

The Amazing Race

When I'm working alone in my apartment, I often have the television on in the background. There are two main channels I usually toggle between - AXN and Star World. Neither has particularly recent shows and I can't really tell the difference between the two, except that maybe AXN shows more one-hour shows and Star World old sit-coms. And things that I'm pretty sure were cancelled years ago in the US. Needless to say, it's all pretty bad and therefore easy not to watch.

But today I noticed that they were showing reruns of the Amazing Race from a few years ago. I didn't see this season when it originally ran (or I don't remember), but I do remember seeing it on television when I was here last time (or a year ago). The same episode. Unfortunately it's one where they eat some fairly disgusting things.

Last night was another Avraham Infeld speech - 3 stories, 4 responses, 5 legs on the table.... There are a lot of us now who can pretty much do the speech from memory. Memorable lines include:

• Judaism is NOT a religion
• There's no such thing as Jewish history, only Jewish memory
• I saw the suffering of my people

There may now be a video of the speech, which would be good. We may need to add a spray function to it though so viewers can get the authentic experience.

President Bush

Whatever you think about the president, this much is true - he has terrible timing. He arrives in Israel tomorrow for a three day visit. Pretty much the entire city of Jerusalem is shutting down. He should have at least asked someone if it was a convenient time to visit. Let me be clear. It is not.

People who live in the area of the King David have to carry their apartment leases or deeds with them to be allowed accesss to their homes. Students at the Hebrew Union College are taking final exams across town. And several of the big hotels had to completely empty out to accomodate all of the people who come with the president and the press corps.

And no one knows why he is really coming to Israel.

Thankfully, he decided to take a helicopter from the airport to Jerusalem. The original plan was motorcade and the complete closing of the highway that runs between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. His schedule calls for a visit to Yad VaShem on Friday morning. The required visits for our buses had to be rescheduled, and some of our buses have to leave their hotels at 6:30am on Friday morning so that they get out before the roads are closed. I think I'll be doing a lot of walking the next few days....

It's a little surreal driving around the city. There are always Israeli flags everywhere, but now there are also American flags up all over as well.

Working at a Gas Station

Wireless internet access is virtually non-existant in Tiberius. This is a problem when I am up North for three days and we have a flight cancelled and participants to inform. I should be more clear. There is internet access available, but you have to pay for it, and that is not my custom.

So yesterday morning I went to Aroma - a cafe that has free wireless. It's about 10 minutes south of town, and while they have wireless access, they do not have outlets. Which means I have about 90 minutes to get work done, and then I run the risk of being shut down at an inconvenient moment.

But yesterday, I had more work to do. I went back up to town, checked in to my hotel, saw students on a Hillel Alternative Break in Israel, and then had to figure out how to get back on line. I had no charge on my computer, so I knew wherever I was going to go needed to have electrical outlets.

I figured I would try Hof Gai - a hotel that has free wireless in the lobby and a great view. And, they have outlets. I park, get all my stuff out of the car, pretend to be on the phone so security doesn't stop me at the front door and realize that the hotel is closed for renovations. That's a problem.

And because my battery hasn't been charged, I can't go back to Aroma. But then I remembered where I could find internet access and electrical outlets - the gas station. Yes, the gas station. They have a little convenience store, three tables along a wall, and wireless internet access. It's like working in a 7-11 cafe. I've never seen tables or anything resembling a cafe at a 7-11, but if you can imagine that combination, that's what it was. And they didn't have fountain soda, which is also a problem, but not as big of a problem as not having internet access....

Not a Chalet

I checked into my third hotel in three days. It's a non-descript place in the middle of Tiberius. The manager gave me the key and said we have a lovely room for you with a view of the lake. Ok. He doesn't know I've spent the last two nights in chalets and so I'm convinced that my perspective of lovely may not be different than his.

I got in the elevator which was no larger than a phone booth. It didn't lurch much and whoever was pulling the wires at the bottom was doing a pretty good job.

I open the door and fine a regular hotel room. I'm not complaining at all. The bathroom looked clean as did the sheets on the bed. The couch is also set up as a bed. I think that this is probably the way the student rooms are set up, in which case I'm not sure where they have any room for their suitcases. There is very little extraneous floor space.

I looked out the window to see my lake view. I could see the lake. after first looking at the litter strewn on the roof and yards of the buildings immediately in front of mine. If my room is lovely, I'm nervous to think what kind of rooms the participants and the rest of our staff have....

Chalets

I've stayed in chalets on two different kibbutzim/moshavim the last two nights. They're beautiful, well appointed, and in the middle of nowhere. A few things that make no sense:

• Israel has a water crisis. There isn't enough. It hasn't been raining enough and water use in general is on the rise - for the general population, for agriculture, business etc. And yet every chalet has its own jacuzzi. Go figure.
• Like I said, the chalets are very nice. But once again, they have the towels of a 1950's kibbutz. Thin, scratchy and the size of a postage stamp. And I guess if they are going to be thin and scratchy they may as well be small....
• Lastly, in the first chalet, there was a build-your-own shower. The shower head was in the corner of the bathroom and the two other walls folded in so that there was more space to move around in the bathroom. When it was time to shower, you could simply unfold the walls and take your shower. People pay a lot of money to stay in nice places like this AND they still have to build their own shower?! Not to mention that unless you're handy with a squeegee, it once again feels like you're back at the old-school kibbutz bathrooms.

A Mouse in my House!

I arrived in Israel yesterday and settled into my apartment a few hours later. I think there used to be a smoker here, maybe a few tenants ago, and it still smells like it. So I had the windows open all afternoon yesterday until it got too cold. In general, I figured I shouldn't leave them open when I wasn't here (I'm on the 2nd floor and there are bars) because cats might get in.

I was out most of the day today and just got back. It's still warm out and I figured it was time to air the place out again. 10 minutes into my fresh air interaction and what do i see in the window but a mouse! There are SO many cats around I'm not sure how it's even alive. And it was cute. Definitely not a rat. So closed the windows. Five minutes later, he's back and watching me work. Unfortunately, there aren't bars small enough that can keep them out, so I'm back to closed windows.

From 30 to 48

I used to spend about 30 minutes packing for a trip. Maybe 45 if I wasn't paying attention. And it didn't matter how long the trip was going to be. A weekend or a month - it was all the same. I mean how many different clothes can a person wear?

For this trip, I've spent at least 48 hours figuring it all out. Which bags to take. What to put in which bag. To take extra socks or not? Do I really need a flashlight? I've never brought one and have survived just fine. Except that I always encounter some situation in which I wish I'd brought one. I decided not to bring an umbrella. Mainly because I'm not quite sure where a small one is. I'm fairly sure though that I will regret not looking.

And all of the sudden, I have way too much electronic "stuff". Two cell phones (one for the US, one for Israel), the charger that goes with them, an ipod and the charger that goes with that, and mini-speakers, and a car chargers for the cell phone, and a car adaptor for the ipod, and my laptop, and the cords that go with that, and.... I never thought this would be me.

Driving may have been faster...

Last Sunday I needed to fly to DC. No problem. I bought a ticket on United that connected through Chicago and left Milwaukee and arrived in DC at decent hours with a long lay over. The weather in Milwaukee had been terrible and the news on Saturday night made us think it might take longer to get to the airport. It usually takes 15 minutes. The roads on Sunday morning turned out to be fine and while we had left ourselves 45 minutes, it still only took 15.

The plane that was supposed to land in Milwaukee and take us on the 16 minute flight to Chicago was delayed because of bad weather. It was either Souix City or Souix Falls, I can't remember which, but either way, we were now due to arrive in Chicago at 11am, the exact time of my connecting flight.

So still in Milwaukee, they rebooked me on the 1pm flight.

When we arrived in Chicago, even though it was the wrong gate, I asked the agent if she would print the boarding pass for my second flight. There wasn't a line and she didn't seem to mind taking care of me. It printed, and before I walked away, I figured I should double check my originally scheduled 11am flight. If it was delayed, maybe I could still catch it. She checked, and of course it had departed on time. And in those 30 seconds, my 1pm flight got cancelled.

Really.

Thankfully she noticed, and immediately rebooked me on the 2pm flight - within seconds of it being cancelled. This was my luckiest break of the day for a few reasons. The first is that when I was walking to my next gate, there were dozens upon dozens of people waiting to rebook flights at the Customer Service desks. The second was that because of all of the delays, there were 60(!) people on the stand-by list for the 2pm flight. I was not one of them.

At this point, it was also clear I was not going to make my 3pm meeting and I'd probably be late for the 5pm meeting.

And I had no snacks. And there is nothing to eat in the airport unless you want to pay and arm and a leg for a fruit salad that looked like it had been made the week before. It turns out though, that McDonald's has a fruit and yogurt side salad for less than $2. I should have gotten 2. And their "gourmet" coffee isn't really so gourmet, in case you were wondering. And they only had Equal and Splenda and no Sweet and Low.

Flash forward. The boarding started for the 2pm flight. I was in group 4. The called the first three groups and then stopped. I heard the gate agent answer her phone and say "Damn". It turns out there were mechanical difficulties and they de-boarded the entire plane.

In the end, they found us another plane and we left by 3:30pm or so and arrived in DC around 6pm. It wouldn't have really been faster to drive, but almost. Maybe.

1"-2" is not equal to 3"-6"

It is 6:30am. Our next door just began to snowblow her driveway. I used to think she was a nice lady.

We were told to expect 1-2 inches of snow, and when it began yesterday, it was that pretty Christmasy snow that the Eskimos would have nice name for. 6 hours later, when it was still snowing, it was no longer pretty and Christmasy. There are at least 3 inches on the ground here, on top of the other 16 that has already fallen. and some places got 6 more inches.

God doesn't shovel snow in Wisconsin

My father generally lets Gd shovel for him. Meaning that whenever it finally gets warm enough to melt the snow away, is when the driveway gets cleared.

Today, it snowed for 8 hours straight today and finally stopped about 4pm. At which time we went out and started shoveling. Well, I shoveled and Ronnie wrestled with the snowblower. Neither of us has any experience with one and it's not the easiest thing to maneuver.

This being Wisconsin, I think Gd is busy doing other things until May.

Pretty much simultaneously, all of our neighbors also came out to start clearing the snow. In my mind, the sound of winter is now the roar of snowblowers and the smell is a horrible gas/oil mixture that you can just see eating away at the ozone layer.

We have a long driveway, a big space in front of the garage (behind the house) and a relatively moderate amount of sidewalk that needs to be cleared. At least we don't live on a corner anymore! Either way, it's a lot to clear.

Thankfully, in addition to a snowblower, we have a new shovel. We still have the old one, but the new one weighs maybe 8 pounds and the old one weighs about 20. There is a significant difference in how it feels to lift a pile of heavy wet snow with a 20 pound shovel vs an 8 pound shovel.

It took us each an hour to finish the whole job. At some point, our next door neighbor started up her snowblower. It's big, and fancy (it has a light on it) and throws snow pretty far. And it can handle probably a foot of snow. She redid the sidewalk for us, which was nice. And then I saw her helping the guy across the street. I guess once it's turned on.... Did I mention that her snowblower has a headlight?!

The biggest challenge - it's been snowing for a while already. The first snow of the season was easy - you just throw the snow on the lawn. At this point, the piles of snow are 3-4 feet high and throwing more snow on top or past them is hard!

Spaghetti Squash

It needs a new name. It does not adequately substitute for spaghetti. Every few years I buy one and try to figure out if it would work in place of pasta. It never lives up to its reputation. I don't like squash to begin with, but with a name like spaghetti squash, it seems like something to try every so often.

So last week I bought another one. It sat on the counter for a good week before I finally cooked it. The strands came out perfectly - I'm not sure that's ever happened to me before. The problem, there was WAY too much and this is something I'm fairly sure Ronnie will not eat.

I tossed some with marinara and some parmesan. It was tolerable, but only because there was a lot of sauce and a lot of parmesan. Last night I thought maybe pesto would make it better. I mean pesto makes everything better, right? Wrong. Three bites in I was done. Not even basil could help this squash.

There were still at least 4 cups of it left. The choice was throwing it away or figuring out what else to do with it.

Three eggs, a lot of cinnamon, a handful of raisins, three spoonfuls of flour and 40 minutes at 350 degrees later I had a kugel. And it tastes good. In our house, spaghetti squash will now be known as kugel squash!

Heart Attack Snow

Today was all about shoveling heart attack snow. I'm pretty sure that if the Eskimos shovel, then this is one of the words they have to describe thick, slushy, not-quite-icy-but-almost snow. It's heavy. It's sloppy. It's wet. If you don't have a heart attack shoveling it, your entire body hurts just to remind you know that full body soreness is better than a heart attack.

I did not have a heart attack.

Blizzard. Part Deux

At noon, right on the nose, it started snowing. We were leaving the bank and headed to the library. Just a few small flakes and nothing that ordinarily looks like it would be sticking. We got the library and the little flakes were gathering in corners, huddled lest we run over one of their family members.

The library was not nearly as crowded as Walmart. I figured that meant more movie choices for us. And bonus, no one was already reading the People magazine. Since I don't usually shop at the regular grocery stores, I don't see it standing in line anymore. So that was good. So we sat at the library for an hour or so.

At 12:45 I glanced out the window and saw a minor blizzard. Still small flakes - nothing fun like those big sloppy flakes though. But definitely the start of a good accumulation. Now was the time to call Walmart and see about the aforementioned prescription.

We were put on hold. First, three minutes of the requisite Christmas carols which I enjoy but Ronnie does not. And then, wait for it....Mi Y'malel (Who can retell). In Hebrew. Followed by another Hanuka song. I'm not generally a Walmart fan, save for their $4 prescriptions (and winter salt), but I may call their pharmacy again just to be put on hold.

Walmart. Before a blizzard. Part 1

We're expecting snow. A lot of it. Snow and freezing rain and accumulation. Lovely. But it wasn't supposed to start until noon. So at 10am we went out to run some errands, go to the library, deposit some checks, drop of a prescription at Walmart.... In an attempt to be efficient, we went to Walmart first to drop off the prescription.

By the crowds, you would think we were about to be at seige. There was not a cart to be found. And the carts we saw coming out of the building were all filled with various forms of salt, de-icer, and snow removal accessories. Hmm, maybe getting a cart for a big bag of salt wouldn't be a bad idea.

So we go in search of a cart. You could follow people out of the store, but no one was parked close and it felt a bit like stalking. So Ronnie went off, down row eight in search of a cart while I chatted with the elderly greeters.

10 minutes later, looking as if he'd just done battle, he returned with a cart. Now we HAD to buy salt. And no wussy 20oz bags for us. Now, we went for the 50 pound bag. Even though it's not the greatest stuff for concrete, which our driveway and sidewalk are. And even though we have a snowblower (which we've never used and hope works). At least we had a cart for it and not one of those small handbaskets.

And the lines... you would not believe what people think they need to buy before it snows. Toilet paper. Chips. Shovels. Bottled water. Big bottles of shampoo. I mean this is Wisconsin - it snows all the time here. I could see (and saw) this happening in DC, but here?!

Apple Seeds

Ronnie's been eating a lot of apples. I'm not sure whether he knows they're organic or not, but that doesn't really matter. Yesterday I was on a conference call and pacing around the room. At some point, I figured I should make myself useful so I began sweeping up the living room. I was annoyed because I saw appleseeds on the floor. I mean, really, how hard is it to either pick them up or not let them fall everywhere in the first place. So I sweep it all into a pile, put down the broom and keep walking around the room. A minute or two later I glance over at the pile I swept up (but did not yet pick up because that's Ronnie's job) and I see that the apple seeds are moving. Yes, they've got legs. I look more closely and see that they are ladybugs. I fess up to the people I'm on the phone with at which point one of them tells me that what I thought was first and apple seed and then just a brown ladybug is actually a Japanese beetle.

So disappointing. I mean, how interesting would it be to have walking apple seeds?!

Katrina Pie and Other Things Heard...

The Definition of a Katrina Pie - a pie in which the filling overflows and/or breaks through the crust/levee.

On two neices having matching underwear: "It's like having friendship bracelets, only less public."

I know why the beached whale groans...

It's because it ate too much pie. Or sweet potatoes. Or stuffing. Or green beans. Or cranberries. Or stew. Or some combination of it all. We learned tonight that some whales beach themselves for a reason. It should not always be for Green Peace to decide that they need to be sent back. Give them a few days to digest, and then they'll be ready and go on their own.

Dissertating and other such words

I know someone working on their PhD. She insists that the process of writing her PhD is "dissertating". You can't just make up words like that. You write a dissertation. You don't dissertate!

This is the same person who uses the word "cohere". I will admit that it is a word, but I will not agree to use it.

This weekend, I heard a word show on NPR that discussed collective nouns. I learned that one would say:

• a smack of jellyfish
• a charm of finches
• an exhaltation of larks, and
• a blabber of radio hosts (not true).

What I don't know, is why you can't just say, "there's a smack in the ocean". Why do you have to say, "there's a smack of jellyfish in the ocean"? If 'smack' implies a group of jellyfish, isn't "a smack of jellyfish" redundant? This question was not answered.

I also learned that James Lipton, of Inside the Actor's Studio fame, wrote a book titled, "An Exhaltation of Larks" about collective nouns.

Gurgling Heat and other Random Things

Well, our heat is finally on. And of course it was in the 50s yesterday and we didn't really need it. And when it kicks in, the baseboard radiators gurgle. Like a really, really upset stomach. Or someone trying to plunge a toilet. Or a big pot of boiling water, which I guess the radiator actually is....

www.jewbutt.com. My contribution to the effort was "wholly irreverant".

Trader Joe's fresh pizza dough made with mushrooms and carmelized onions - excellent pizza.

Note to self - on a heat scale of 1-10, don't order a 7 for your paad thai unless you know how hot a 5 might already be or you have a few pitchers of water nearby.

Preaching to the Choir

So I just spoke on a panel at a session attended by 50 or so people already invested in the general "travel to Israel for 10-days" work. We had to sign podcast releases which I was against. Just on principle.

And because of the podcasting, we had to wear lavalier microphones. Here's the problem with them - you can't make snide comments to the person next to you when someone else is talking because everyone else in the room, not to mention anyone who will download the session, will hear you. In my case, the person next to me is not a fan of mine and so any comments I may have wanted to make probably would have been about her anyway.

My understanding, to anyone who is interested, is that there is still chili waiting to be eaten at home....

Too Much Chili

I started soaking beans on Wednesday. I mentioned this to a friend and they asked why I was soaking beans rather than buying them already ready at the store. Because beans are cheap and cans are heavy. And soaking them really isn't such a big deal. Plus, I figured I'd throw the ones I didn't use for chili, whenever I got around to making it, into the freezer for the next time.

Here's what I learned in the soaking and cooking process - when you include four different types of beans, and one type is a navy bean (which is actually white and not blue), and one type is a black bean (which, true it's name is actually black), the white navy beans turn gray. I suppose it won't actually taste gray, but it doesn't look as nice.

I didn't get around to making chili until tonight. And just by rote, I was opening cans of diced tomatoes and dumped them in and realized I had just overwhelmed my chili with too many tomatoes. So in went more beans, more water, more spices and more tvp. In the interest of full disclosure, the spices and tvp come together in a package conveniently put out by Fantastic Foods who also tell you how much water, beans and tomatoes to add.

And now, rather than having just a goodly amount of chili, we have a really huge pot of chili. Here's hoping it freezes well....

Goin' to Opryland

I'm headed to Nashville tomorrow, and specifically, Opryland. I'm not sure why UJC decided to have their General Assembly there, but it will at least be a more interesting location than the last few. You don't usually get to see much outside the hotel so it doesn't usually matter what city the GA is in. But at least the hotel and environs should be give us a little more local flavor. Plus, who knows, maybe Dolly Parton will stop by.

And after Nashville, there's no traveling for at least 8 days. It's like my sabbatical week (and a day).

Here and There Commuting

My regular commute is a 5 minute walk to Einstein's to sit for a while, drink a few cups of coffee and read the paper. If there's time, I can even finish the sudoku. There's a regular crowd that is there every morning and my walk back is only slightly longer because I have to be more careful carrying my coffee refill.

I'm in DC now, and the train from Silver Spring to the office this morning took 50 minutes. It usually takes 17. And it was crowded, which means it's too hard to do the sudoku with people bumping into you all the time. And there was no coffee. I don't know how people do this everyday.

Heeb at a Rugby Match

Last weekend I went with a friend to watch the World Cup of Rugby at the only bar in Milwaukee showing the match on pay-per-view. We got to the bar 20 minutes before the match between England and South America. It was already clear as we drove by looking for parking that the bar was packed. Upon trying to get in the front door, we realized that sardines have more space than we were about to enjoy.

First, there were lots of people sporting South African jerseys and flags painted on their face. Way, way back in the far corner, we saw about 10 Brits, wearing their jerseys and a few brave ones sporting full head and body paint. It was very clear that they had been drinking for a few hours already.

We found a scant amount of space squished up against the front window. And then it was time for the national anthems. First, Gd Save the Queen. I've never heard a more drunken, spirited rendition. I'm not quite sure that's what the folks at Buckingham Palace had in mind. And then came time for the South Africans. Their anthem was too long, and they needed sheets with the words (because it was too long?).

I don't get rugby at all. I now get even less of it. At some point, a woman in front of me said, "I like your hand of Gd", referring to my hamsa. I thanked her, and then she said, "Are you a Heeb?" Naturally, my answer was yes.

She then announced this fact to her friends, and then turned back to me letting me know that she had been their only Heeb friend for the last 20 years.

It turns out that this was only her second rugby match and she was only slightly less clueless than I was. I suggested a viewing section for American girls who don't really get rugby....

The Wrong Flakes

I bought the wrong cereal yesterday. The tragedy is that I didn't notice until I'd already opened the box and the plastic bag (my rant on overpackaging will be saved for a future date!). At first, I thought there was really something wrong. Like bugs or something. There were colored pieces in the bag. Upon closer inspection, and noticing that some looked suspiciously like raspberries, I realized I'd bought the fruity cereal and not just the plain, boring kind that I'd hoped for.

And so, into the bowl it went, flakes and fruits. I'm pretty sure that the rabbis would not approve of mixing in this way. My assessment: it looked prettier than my normal bowl of plain flakes, turned my soymilk a little bluish, and every third spoonful or so tasted a little tangy in an otherwise sort of fruity if you know what you're actually tasting sort of way.

More buses...

We've taken the bus a lot lately. Today, we took it to our other house in Riverwest. But before we did that, we just missed the bus, so we had to wait 25 minutes. In the sun. With little shade. But we had cold water (with lemon, even).

We got to the house and found our miracle man, Steve, already there. The place is looking great. I can't believe we couldn't move back in. That's what kills me.... We met the woman who owns the house across the street. She's looking out for us. And so is the guy next door, who hasn't liked out previous two tenants, but then again, neither have we.

We had an appointment for someone to see the house, but they spent about 2 minutes inside and then let us konw that they really wanted something more modern. Okay. We've got someone else set up for tomorrow that sounds promising, and the woman across the street has a friend who is interested, but can't afford the rent we want.

The good news, we got to use our transfers to take the bus back - we just made it under the time wire. It's the little things that are important, right?

Car Shopping

Looking for a car wihtout a car is challenging. Yesterday, we took the bus, two buses actually, and then walked a mile to the Honda dealer. On the way, we passed all the other dealerships and thought maybe we shouldn't even bother ith a Honda if we had to walk so far (and it was 94 degrees out).

We got to the Honda dealer. They introduced us to Brett, a former financial planner, now car salesman. I thought there was an obvious answer to the most obvious question, but Ronnie was the one who asked it. "So why did you leave financial planning?" Brett replied that he's in a band and needed to be able to travel. I'm pretty sure he just wasn't good at it.

We asked to drive a Civic and a Fit. Reality check on the fit - he said no one test drives them and that there's a 6 month wait and that they are selling for $750 over the MSRP. I asked why their website said they had two in inventory, and he said they were sold. That's annoying.

So we were left with a Civic. He couldn't find the keys to the red one we wanted to drive, but found the keys to a beige one. It had no gas in it, so the three of us got in and drove next door to the gas station. He then said, "Why don't you guys drive around and bring it back when you're ready?"

Ok. We had introduced ourselves but not given him any real information. No driver's license, no phone number, no nothing. But here were were driving this car around. I thought that given our walk, one of us should should drop the other off at the Toyota dealership and then just head back when we returned the car. Or at least we should pick up lunch or something.

Test drive over, we walked down to Toyota. There, the salesman sat in the back seat when we drove the Corolla and the Yaris. He didn't seem particularly rattled by either of our driving. I think we just didn't try hard enough....

Back on the Bus

I had to go to both the library and the bank today. The catch - they're in opposite directions and I don't have a bike lock. Well, I have a bike lock, but I don't have the key to bike lock, so I may as well not have a lock. But I digress.

It's a hot day out and I was willing to ride to one location (and back) but not both. The library is a much shorter trip, but there's no where to leave my bike while I was in the library. I would be able to bring my bike into the bank (to the lobby, not all the way to the counter), but I still had to get to the library.

My choices:

• walk to the library and back. Get my bike and go to the bank.
• bike to the library and back. Walk to the bank (~2.5 miles one way, and it's really hot out)
• bike to the libary and then to the bank (again, it's really hot out)
• walk everywhere -doable, but I needed to make sure that I had time to actually walk to the bank before they closed.

And then I hit on solution number five.

• walk to the library and take the bus to the bank.

This proved to be the winner, and, because I got a transfer and was efficient in the bank, I got a bus back about 15 minutes after I got dropped off. It was the same bus driver and he looked at me a little funny, but he was pretty funny-looking to start with.

The buses here have what I like to call Bus TV. They might call it that too, I have no idea. It's a screen that has local news, weather, and a map of the bus route and where you are at any given moment. The map is only helpful if you know where along the route you have to go, but it's a nice feature.

Shorewood is going to the dogs

There are a lot of dogs here. Thankfully, unless you see the actual dogs, there is little evidence of their existence outside of a big dog bowl of water outside of most of the stores. I was out for an early bike ride today and on my way back, the dogs (and their owners) were coming out for their morning walks. At dusk tonight, I went for a walk, and there they all were again, going for their evening walks.

In some cases, it was not clear who was walking whom.

other good things about Milwaukee

Phone numbers are generally only seven digits. It's unusual to hear someone first give a different area code.

The grocery stores sell whitefish.

People who have been here for generations have serious accents.

The temperature in the summer (at least so far) is usually in the 70's.

Hybrids

We're living here right now sans automobile. I think we could mainly get by without one, but it would be more convenient if we had one. For a while now, I've been interested in buying a hybrid for our next car. It's less about saving money on gas and more about using less fuel in general. But they are SO expensive! And I wonder if the same energy costs go into manufacturing them as go into other gas guzzlers.

Right now, we're using the hybrid model of walk/bike/bus. I somehow convinced Ronnie to go out for a walk tonight. It's actually kind of cold out, but 2 miles later, you don't notice it so much. And yesterday I took my bike out for the first time. It's generally flat around here, but the small hills that there are, are long! I should have gone back out today, but I can still feel yesterday's ride in my rear end. I also tried the bus. It was pretty easy to use, clean and my only complaint was that the driver didn't wait until I sat down (with my groceries) to start moving again. It's a good thing I hadn't bought eggs.

Trader Joe's

There is a Trader Joe's in Milwaukee. And it is good. It's not within walking distance, but the bus goes there pretty quickly. And three blocks away is Schwartz's. One of the last independent bookstores around. We walked over last night and hung out for a while. I can see that happening often.

The apartment is sort of starting to come together. Slowly. If living among too much stuff constitutes starting to come together. We haven't hung any pictures yet. I'm waiting to finish moving furniture to do that. And it turns out there's a reason (actually two) I have crappy phone reception in my office - solid, old construction on the house in general, and probably too many layers of old lead paint in between the main phone and the office.

But again, the good news is that Milwaukee has a Trader Joe's....