Nu? Where's The Applause?

Final installment of the fridge saga. See parts 1 and 2.

Yes, don't you see? I did it, and I did it very quickly. The only really difficult thing was the bottom drawers and shelf. After I put the bottom shelf in, I had to take it out and put in the big drawer. No real surprise, since it really all had to be done int the same order reversed as taking it out. And I had to remove one of the door shelves to get another shelf in, but then I put it back no problem.

Cleaning can be dangerous, so be careful.

Quite A Challenge

Yes, this is it the "naked" refrigerator, stripped of its inner shelves. It was delivered, fully equipped, so this is going to be quite a challenge.

And, yes, this pile of plastic is the collection of shelves. I just hope that I can reassemble the innards of the fridge.

I know that my baby could do it, but he's in New York. I'm sure my older son could do it, but he's working and living in Jerusalem. I have just under an hour before I go to T'hillim (Psalms.) If I don't make any progress, I'll plead with my friends to find me help. I'm sure King David had different things in mind when he wrote them.

I Feel Stupid

My present, the "new" refrigerator, is my third one. Each one has been different from its predecessor.

I treat my appliances with tender, loving care so they won't break. I've heard so many stories of people cleaning their appliances to death, taking things apart, which shouldn't be touched and drenching delicate electrical systems until they drown.

I wouldn't dare do such things to my appliances. Sometimes it makes it difficult to clean for Pesach; though my surfaces are always clean and covered.

Today, as I was gently moving something on the freezer door shelf, the shelf moved. Wow! Did that mean that I could actually take it out?

Very carefully, I tried. Yes, the shelf can easily be removed for cleaning, so I did. Then, as you can see in the pictures, I took out all the shelves in the fridge door.

I did the scrubbing after taking the picture.

Everything must be dry by now. So, time to return to the kitchen, put the shelves back in and attack--oh, so gently-- the fridge itself!!

Are We Going To Find Bargains In New York?

The United States Dollar has been sinking in relation to the Israeli shekel, so I figured that it may be a good idea to shop a bit more than usual during our upcoming visit to New York.

I generally find that the prices aren't that great compared to Israel, unless it's a real sale. But now, apparently, at least according to this New York Times article, many more stores are going bankrupt. So, either we'll find some bargains, or we'll have trouble finding stores to shop in.

It wasn't that long ago that Manhasset, Long Island's "Miracle Mile" looked like a ghost town. So many stores, including the department stores of my youth, had gone belly up. During recent visits, the long shopping street was booming, every building full of busy stores. Maybe they didn't have the same names I remember, but I don't have the same name either!

Oops!

For days I've been trying to find someone to help me "flip" the kitchen, move the stuff from closet to closet so it'll be all ready for Passover. I kept saying I wanted to finish that today. So far, no takers, neither for love or for money, but...

Oops!

Last year we almost used up all the shelving paper, and I had forgotten to remind my husband to buy more. This morning before he went to work I had him take down the paltry remnants. Now, if I find someone to help, it can't be until my husband returns with the paper.

Is Murphy going to rule?

Some good news.
I've been saving crackers and an enormous supply of dried fruit, hoping that the Pre-Pesach Camp would come by collecting goodies. They just did. So if some more kids come, I'll take out the frozen cupcakes and pittot, which I want to get rid of. I already gave a neighbor the frozen batzeik alim, puff pastry dough.

Toodiloo!
Off to work I go.
Fridge, beware!

It's your turn!!

Escaping The House

I just had to get out around dusk. I had been home all day cleaning. Yes, I did take a break or two on the computer. It's not against the law, right.

We're still having the peculiar weather. The sky goes from black to grey. There wasn't any gorgeous sunset to photograph.

People are throwing all sorts of things out. This cat looked very possessive and proud perched on that couch. It was like she was trying to stare me away. She needed have bothered. I certainly wasn't interested in her couch.


At this other garbage "frog," there was something for puss 'n boots.

Yesterday I was in Jerusalem. At one point I found myself waiting by the parking lot near Binyan Clal on Agrippas Street. Yes, when I wait, I get bored, so I took out the camera.

I've been waiting to hear from a young enterprising businessman who is sending his friends to clean. I need some help.

With A Little Help From A Friend

I was wondering if it would be safe for my nails to try another attempt on the remaining contac paper. If I covered it with a new layer, I'd just be postponing the inevitable, but I couldn't get the paper off. I didn't want to try chemical; they would corrode the floor and be bad for my skin and nails, even with rubber gloves. They'd probably corrode the gloves, too.

Then today, during my pre-lunch break I spoke to a friend. She knows lots of tricks, especially from her Jewish fly baby group. Actually, that's how I originally knew her. She told me to try a hair dryer.

The hair dryer heated the glue, and most came off. There were a few more pieces, which I got off by pouring some boiling water. So, that's how to get off contac paper, hair dryer heat and boiling water.

Now back to the laundry room.

What a Coincidence

G-d's doing a strange kind of "Pesach cleaning." It should have had been enough that last night I caught someone I knew from way back when on TV, but then today, a little while ago I got a phone call. It was from someone else I knew from the same time and place. Someone who was once a very good friend. We were still in touch during our early years here in Israel.

We hadn't been in contact for decades. And as we were talking about what our kids are doing and where, we discovered that we have married children in the same yishuv and grandchildren who are in the same pre-schools.

Sefira Reminder

So far, I've only found the OU Sefira Reminder. Strangely, I had to do a search from their site. They don't have a large

Reminder!

SIGN UP FOR THE SEFIRA REMINDER

I find that pretty peculiar. I'm also wary about the fact that it's only set, at least so far, for the American time zones.

It's disappointing that the sefira reminders I've used in the past don't automatically send out sign-up reminders or automatically sign us up.

I'd appreciate more options, including Israeli cellphone ones.

Now to the kitchen....

Familiar Face

I wasn't really paying attention to the TV, and then I realized that a "lantzman" was being featured. A mutual friend had once told me that Jeff Gabbay was involved in producing socks that didn't need to be washed and prevented/cured all sorts of skin problems on the feet.

And suddenly, there he was on TV touting his special fabric, which now is more than just army socks.

His big announcement was that finally a hospital would be using blankets made out of the fabric as an experiment to see if the fabric would reduce the incidence of hospital infections.

Sticky Problem

This isn't some creative modern art project. This is a very sticky problem. It's the downside of one of my favorite Passover "techniques" and annual attempts at redecorating.

Have you guessed?

Stubborn contac paper!

I like using contac paper on the counters and this "peninsula" table. I frequently leave the sticky stuff on this table for most of the year, since the cream-colored formica shows the scars of its age without shame. As you can see, last year's contac paper is still stubbornly holding on.

I could have done the fridge with all the time and energy I've wasted on the removal of this awful contac paper. At least this year I bought paper I find truly ugly, so I won't be as tempted to allow it to remain.

Happy cleaning!

PS Just a reminder. Please send me all of your kosher food (including Pesach preparation) links for the next Kosher Cooking Carnival. Remember that KCC isn't just a recipe carnival. It includes kosher food traditions, holiday foods, halachik articles, cookbook and restaurant reviews, anecdotes and, of course, kosher recipes! If you post or see anything concerning kosher food, please send via the carnival submission form.

Thanks!

Dance Along With...

The Matzah Man!!

I just need the right music to clean to. Once I put the right music on, I can do anything, anything at all.

What's your favourite cleaning music?

One year I bought a CD of Carmen. It's like killing the Chametz, with "toreador!"

Priorities

I helped my daughter with the kids today, not to clean. I had to watch them when she took care of some things. The baby slept, and the girls were busy drawing and sticking stickers on their pictures. Originally, I thought we'd take a walk, but the air was awful, dry and dusty, and since we were in Jerusalem, probably polluted, too.

The Passover cleaning will wait.

Lots of Good Things in the JBlogging World

Certainly worth more than Esser Agaroth! Ya'aqov has done a great job on the pre-Pesach Havel Havelim! The next one is after Pesach and there's definitely two weeks' worth of readng here.

Ya'aqov, thanks so much. Have a Chag Kasher V'Sameach!!

PS Did you get a waffle?

Confusing

I just got back from a very confusing shiur, Torah class, about what we're to do and not do next Shabbat which is immediately before Passover.

Rav Elchanan Bin-Nun is the Chief Rabbi of Shiloh, and there are Jews from every ethnic group here in Shiloh. He had to cover it all.

The topic that interests me the most concerns the "menu." Rav Elchanan doesn't agree with the idea that you can breakup the morning meal by a technicality to make two meals to cover Seudat Shlishit, the third Shabbat meal. The Third Meal is supposed to be later in the day. The bottom line is that we must have it without grains, matzah of any sort or cake or kneidelach. I can serve my potato or vegetable kugel with meat or fish and cheese, avocado, too. It's a good protein; don't forget eggs.

Olive Oil

During Passover, many Ashkenaz Jews don't use any kitniyot/legumes, including the everyday soy oil. For many of us, olive oil is the oil used for salads, cooking etc. So I was very happy to see this short article about the benefits of olive oil.

Olive Oil for Flavor and Health

Personally, I'm not willing to try most of the other non-kitniyot oils on the market, like cotton seed oil. There are great debates over the safety of making food out of cotton seeds, since cotton isn't grown as a food crop.

Olive oil is one of our most ancient foods, also used medicinally, so I feel safer with it. And I also love the flavor!

New York - Handbook For Erev Pesach That Falls on Shabbos

New York - Handbook For Erev Pesach That Falls on Shabbos

Please see the attached PDF file. It was written in memory of Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum Z"L.

Erev Pesach Handbook.pdf

Of course, if you have your own rabbi to ask, you should, but this does give some important halachot, and it's in writing. Click the pdf above.

Shabbat Shalom

Thanks to ah

Confession!

This is not my favorite season.
I hate cleaning.
I even hate cleaning for Passover, and I'm a very Torah-observant Jew.
It's bad enough in America, a bit of vacuuming etc. But when I got to Israel and discovered that people move all the furniture and scrub the floor with a scrub brush. And many people paint their houses, every year. OK, I should correct that. The big houses are not always painted, but small apartments are or used to be. People used cheap white paint. Every piece of furniture was moved from room to room.
They also took out every single book, opened them and banged them. The whole neighborhood sounded like some pre-school drum lesson.
Also every closet was emptied, all the clothes, and then they were strung out to air and then refolded. I have enough trouble keeping up with the laundry. Once as a teen I decided to go through my closet at the beginning of summer vacation. I emptied it on my bed, and it was a good thing that my bother and sister were in sleep away camp for eight weeks. It took me that long to finish going through the closet; I needed the extra bedroom for sleeping.
I don't know if people, in apartments still do it, but my neighbors in Bayit V'Gan used to scrub their floors every night. All the chairs went on the tables. Everything off the floor.
Most people's homes look better on ordinary days than mine does for Pesach. The important things are always clean in my house, like the clothes and dishes.
I remember when I worked in the day care center for babies up to 3 years of age. I was the cook. During the four years I cooked there, there were no stomach virus epidemics. I introduced the concept of covered containers for storing food. I kid you not. It was considered revolutionary. I labeled the shelves to show where everything went, so it would be easy for workers to put things away, and the other workers and I wouldn't have to waste time looking for everything.
There was someone who sometimes worked there. She looked down on me, bragging that her house was so clean you could eat off the floor. Then one day I was in the kitchen when she took a spoon out of the drawer to get sugar for teach. She wiped it with her grimy hands and then attempted to put the spoon in the sugar. I told her that she had dirtied the spoon with her hands. Maybe in her house, you could eat off the floor, but in mine the plates and cutlery were cleaner!

The First Closet

That's always the first closet ready for Passover. Actually, that's why it has newspaper and not my usual nice clean paper. The shelving paper hasn't been found, taken down or even looked for yet.

The canned goods in the closet have been in the house for "ages." I checked and they all say KP, Kosher for Passover. And my husband bought some cakes already.

I've also scrubbed the floor by/under the stove. I'm just doing basic cleaning in the rooms nobody lives in.

Yesterday I bought contac paper. I like using it on all of the counters. I bought the paper in a store in Pisgat Zeev, when I had a bit of time between the pool and going to work.

I went to the store which had once advertised with me in the days when I worked in advertising. I'm pretty loyal to my old clients/customers, or whatever they're called. After he measured out the paper, he said he'd give me the whole thing, since only a drop was left. While he was putting my credit card through the whatever, I mentioned that he had once advertised with me and that's why I was there. I like to be loyal. All of a sudden he took the receipt I was supposed to sign and told me to just go. I didn't have to pay.

Some days have such wonderful surprises.

Why Will This Passover Seder Be Different From Others?

Actually, there are a number of reasons. I'll just write about one right now. I'll have some new clothes. Usually, I don't. Some people make a point of having something new to say "Shehechiyanu." That's a rare case for me.

But this year is different. It's not that I've gone shopping for new clothes. I buy things on sale, when/if I come across clothes that fit of the right price which I need, or will need.

It just ends up that there are a few things waiting in the closet. They needed the right hat. So I bought ribbon-yarn, but I didn't end up crocheting with them. Then this week, my neighbor, who owns the best and most veteran hat store in Netanya, had a "hat bazaar" in his home. He does it about twice a year. I went down and took the pictures posted on Yesterday. I found a hat my daughter may like for the wedding we have in the states early July, or just because it's her style. I tried not to buy anything for myself, but one hat, just one, cried to me to try me on. And I did and I bought it, and it matches the clothes which have been waiting in the closet, so, I have new clothes to wear on Pesach.