Trying To Keep My Feet Warm

Last night I could barely fall asleep, because my feet were too cold, so I just put up water for the hot water bottle.  I plan on warming up the bottom of the bed.  Yes, of course I wear heavy socks to sleep in.

I've heard about special warming inserts to put in shoes.  That would be a good thing to get.  Yes, I have a problem with my feet.  They get cold.  So do my fingers.  I have to take care at work, because some of the store isn't completely indoors.  I like working in the outside part, because I get to help people more.  Indoors there are more salespeople.  There's always something to straighten, though it's hard to believe that I spend so much time folding clothes.  I'm not very good at it.  I prefer helping customers find just the perfect item items to buy.  The people aspect of the job is the most fun.

Good night!

Waking Up to Matisyahu on Letterman

And a good morning to you, too. An fb-plus friend, or friend on more than fb or a f2f-fb friend had it up, and it just seemed perfect to post here to start the day prior to drinking coffee. I'm writing this as I drink Brazilian coffee this morning.  Maybe I should have made something stronger, but the flavor is good.   I wonder if the Turkish has all that much more caffeine...

It doesn't seem possible to get an accurate reading on the amount of caffeine in different types of coffee and preparation methods. So I'll just enjoy. The Brazilian coffee has a very smooth flavor, or maybe I got it just right this morning in terms of how much coffee and sugar to cook up...

Festive Meals, Menu Please

I do all my own cooking, except that over ten years ago, the kids decided that my husband should make the weekly chicken soup.

Oops!  I've started this in the middle.  Let's start again...

As a Torah-observant Jew, I serve festive meals weekly.  Many traditional Jews, less strict than I also have at least one festive family or with friends or community meal on Shabbat, the Sabbath.  I've heard this described as "a couple of Thanksgiving dinners each week."

Technically, there are three meals, or are supposed to be three meals.  Our Sabbath starts at night.  I light Shabbat candles and my husband goes to shul, synagogue.  I could go if I want to, but I love that quiet time after the hectic rush to get everything ready.  I pray at home and finish with all the last minute stuff, like setting the table and making the fresh salad.  I like the salad made just before eating.  And what else do I serve on Friday night?

• chicken soup, which my husband makes
• challah, our festive bread
• fancy, but easy to make, baked vegetables
• one or two, sautéed vegetable dishes
• a protein, poultry or beef or combination
• a carbohydrate, rice or potatoes or something else
• large fresh, raw salad

Sometimes I experiment combining the protein with vegetables, or like this very different meatloaf.

We finish the meal with tea.  My husband and I are both trying to keep weight off, so we don't eat cake.  I sometimes have baked apples, amazingly simple applesauce or compote.

Shabbat lunch, which we sometimes eat as early as 10:30am, is very similar.  Just delete the soup.  During the late winter months, we serve artichokes as a first course.  I put up everything to heat on an electric hotplate before I leave for shul, and I make the salad just before we sit down.

And each meal begins with the ritual Kiddush over wine or grape juice, and then we usually have some wine during the meal.

Yes, that's it.  I serve very simple, but ample meals.

Oy, When and How Should We Buy The Tickets?

We're going to have to go to the states in a few months for family reasons.  Decades ago, we'd get those tickets as presents from our parents, who were willing to pay anything to see the grandchildren.  Those were the days when you got "real printed tickets," not the print your own e-tickets of today.  Ticket delivery was always a hassle, but we neither paid nor chose the airline.

Now, my in-laws are buried here in the Shiloh Cemetery, my parents are in a senior citizens place in Arizona, and I have to get out there.  It's no longer a simple non-stop El Al flight to JFK Airport, as I had done for a decade.  Going to AZ is much more complicated, expensive and requires that I deal with lots of confusing options.  And I also have to be in New York for about a week or so, so it's not just a trip to Arizona.

Should I just go to some travel agent, use either the El Al or American Airlines frequent flyer clubs or do an internet search for the cheapest travel deal?  The latest news is that it's very complicated to find a reliable cheap deal on the internet.  Yes, and another option would be to learn how to use credit card points.  I feel like a total imbecile.  Maybe I am.

Advice, Re: Picture Posting, Please, Thanks

I keep hitting max (don't get the wrong idea, so) maximum on the free versions of picture-storing/hosting sites, or whatever they're called.  I can't use:

• flicka Is that the name?
• picasa
• and now photobucket

So I need some more ideas/sites.  That's why you haven't seen many new pictures here or Shiloh Musings recently.  I also need to take the plunge about having picture/photo books instead of the old fashioned pictures in albums.  Do they ship here?  or just to the states?  Are there places I can have it done reasonably here in Israel?

And now, I really must get to bed, so good night.

Real Food? Cut the Fake Vitamins and Minerals Out of Your Basics

As you can see in the previous post, I really did go to town on the juicer.  I keep expecting to turn orange since after making more carrot juice than the crowd wanted to drink, I drank it myself, along with more fresh apple juice than I should have.  I've upset some of my friends by telling them that their "juice diet" isn't natural. 

"Juicing is processing, too."

It is.  I look at the mush that comes out of the juicer, wondering what can be cooked with it.  But I was at a party, and compared to all the other food, the unsweetened freshly squeezed juice was the best act in town.

I have fits when trying to buy other basics like, cottage cheese and tomato paste.  I don't want extra calcium in my dairy products nor glucose and salt in my tomato paste nor all sorts of artificial vitamins in the cereals.  And natural full, or partial fat dairy products has the vitamins. They are eliminated with the fat making them harder to digest.

I was disappointed that the New York Times article about "real food" doesn't mention this.  I have a sneaking suspicion that scientists will someday reveal that many of the vitamin and mineral additives to basic foods, especially for kids, are the causes of serious medical problems.  It's better to play outside than have artificial vitamin D in food and walk to school or a friend's house to strengthen bones, rather than have all that extra unabsorbable calcium.

Fresh fruit and raw salad are best for Vitamins, A, D etc. 

All those fake eggs, oxymoron fat free half & half etc should be banned.   I'll never forget my father's explanation on why he doesn't like mayonnaise:

"Read the ingredients."

Yes, that's just it.  Start reading the ingredients.

Partying

Here are a couple of pictures from last night's party.

photos by Miriam Feyga Bunimovich

Yes, I'm glad I went, even though today I've been terribly tired.

All Juiced Up

Last night I manned womaned the juice bar at the Shiloh Women's Party.  The party is an annual event, but I must admit that last night was the first time I've ever attended it.  It used to be that every year I had something else to do that very night. 

This year, I didn't plan on going.  Why change my "custom?"

Then last Friday, Rosh Chodesh Adar I*, one of my newer neighbors went with me to Tel Shiloh to pray, and she insisted that I must go to the party.  She was right.  In a sense I had gotten myself into a rut of sorts about those parties. 

I called the organizer and volunteered to help.  Just attending isn't my thing.  I found myself making fresh, natural juice.  There were two juicers going.  One was apple juice and the other carrot juice.  I did the carrot juice.  Here and there I sampled some of both.  And when the program started, there was a lot of carrot juice left over.  And how could I just leave it to spoil?  It's much healthier just minutes after being juiced.  So, of course I drank a few cups.  Well, the cups were small.  I also ate a few dates.

There was also lots of foods, salads, soups etc, which I never ate.  Before leaving the house I had eaten dinner.  I made a nice serving of techina which I ate with an artichoke.  I wanted to make sure that I had a good portion of protein in me to prevent temptation from ruling.

It was a great party; I'm glad that I went.

*Join us Rosh Chodesh Adar II on Sunday, March 6, 9:30 at Tel Shiloh, for Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers

Coffee Bargain? When Good Coffee is On Sale

The other day, I saw Brazilian coffee on sale at Rami Levi, near the Yafiz where I work.  It's an Elite Coffee, the brand that makes the Turkish coffee I like.  The price was very reasonable, so I bought some.  This morning, since I figured I could always make myself some Turkish if it's awful, I made it.  Yes, that's pretty risky, two mornings in a row.

Various coffees have different flavors, and that's without anything artificial added in.  I like a coffee you can smell as soon as you open the bag or jar.  Yes, I like strong coffee.  I've walked into coffee shops asking for something to counteract jetlag and been disappointed when the worker replied with a blank stare.

Oh, yes, about that Brazilian coffee... a weaker than Turkish aroma entered the room as I opened it.  Yes, that's an acceptable start.  I cooked it up with sugar in a pot, as is my standard low-tech method.  It doesn't taste like Turkish, because it's Brazilian, but it definitely is coffee, a bit gentler but tasty.  So, when I'm next at work, if the special is still on, I'll buy more.

Have a great day!

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings

One of my younger friends has been marrying off her kids.  In some families it seems so easy.  Tonight was one of the weddings.  Lots of young families, all looking so happy.  In this crowd hardly anyone is single after the age of twenty.

Weddings aren't cheap.  A friend who's marrying off the fourth or fifth of about eight, said that prices have gone up tremendously.  When they made their first wedding, they were able to "make a deal" with the caterer to simplify the meal and save a lot of money.  Now the caterers refuse to "down-grade" their "style" and look G-d forbid cheap.

All and all, at this point, I'd prefer those problems...

MAZAL TOV!

There Are No Bargains When It Comes To Good Coffee

Another disappointment...
Last week I decided to try/buy the much cheaper package of the mid-eastern with cardamom coffee I saw at Rami Levi's.  The package is white with mostly green decorations and lettering.  Don't buy it.

I must stick with the Elite Turkish Coffee with Cardamom.  I'll have to have this new stuff join the fake mocca when I clean out the pantry before Passover.  The question is which plants should get them as fertilizer.  We have grapes, sterile lemon, need to be pruned roses, a pathetic apple tree, hardy rhizome irises, a giant olive tree and many other plants that would prefer to be cared for, not abused.  I wonder which would prefer the faux coffee.  Suggestions would be welcome; I wouldn't want to kill any of my plants.

An Adventure With A Lantzman

Today I had an adventure with a Lantzman.

Some of you may ask what is a lantzman.  It's someone מאותו הכפר me'oto hakfar from the same town.  Actually, I didn't know him from there way back when, but he was in my sister's class, and he was a friend of my brother, and his parents and mine were friends.  And his sister was in my brother's class and I even sort of taught his brother one summer, when I was the assistant in the synagogue's nursery school summer camp.

I only met him when he came to Israel and looked me up.

Some of you may have heard of him or heard him play one of the stringed instruments he played with the Diaspora Yeshiva Band, and some of you may have heard him more recently, since he still plays  gigs all over the states.

Nu, you're probably curious as to what adventure could we have experienced together.  He is visiting from the states, rented a car and picked me up at Yafiz at the end of my work day.  We then drove to Jerusalem and went to Mount Zion, his old home, and met with the legendary Rabbi Goldstein of the Diaspora Yeshiva.  Rabbi Goldstein took us on a grand tour.  G-d willing, photos will follow at some point.

KCC By Mrs. S.

The latest Kosher Cooking Carnival has been prepared by Mrs. S. at Our Shiputzim.  She has done a great job offering the best of the kosher cooking posts of the last month.  I highly recommend that you visit and taste what's served.  And if you're not familiar with her blog, then there's even more reason to stop by.

Next month's KCC is at Miriyummy and to send to send in your posts, click blog carnival and fill in the form.  It's very easy.  And if you're interested in hosting a Kosher Cooking Carnival, please contact me.

Romantic? Hah!

Would someone like to tell me why most (at least it seems like most) of our electric problems come on a Friday when I'm getting ready for Shabbat?

According to Jewish Law, we're not supposed to be dealing with electricity on Shabbat, nor cooking, changing switches, lighting matches etc on Shabbat, that's the twenty-five hours from before Friday sunset until at least three stars are visable in one glance Saturday night.

Friday afternoon, suddenly most of our electricity went.  Why did I write "went?"  I hate euphemisms.  But in this case, when the fuses were fine and I couldn't figure out why the TV didn't work, the den computer did, the bedroom lights didn't, the outside light did, but none of the kitchen appliances were working including the oven and refrigerator, so, I'd say "went" is a pretty accurrate verb.  A nearby neighbor called in a panic saying that they thought that all their electricity was out.  And they were expecting grandchildren for Shabbat.

I called our electrician, the only electrician this house knows.  He worked with the contractor who built the house and visits when it needs repairs.  So, as soon as I explained the awful mess, he said:

"It's from the three-fase wiring.  Not all the fases work.  Call the Electric Company."

We reported to the customer report number, and the electrician called his contacts.  A crew was on its way, but of course nobody knew how long it would take.

Luckily I had baked most of my vegetable treats.  I'd have to finish off on the gas stove top, food, water etc.  I had already gone that road  a couple of months earlier.  Everything was fine except for the fact that I didn't want to open the fridge.  Then my neighbor came in for some dog food, table scraps.  I started apologizing saying that I didn't want to open the fridge when it suddenly occurred to me that I had to open it to lock the light off.  It's a good thing she came or I may have forgotten to do it and then we'd really be in trouble.  Sammy got his food and I prepared the fridge.  And I also asked if I could bring the baked veggies to her fridge. She had full electricity.  We did that.

Did I tell you that I was expecting guests?

Yes, four guests.  To make a long story short.  They loved the candle-light dinner.  I did a good job keeping the food hot.  Everyone had a great time.  They all took food home to their functioning refrigerators.

And we went to bed early.  Later at night, as we slept, the electricity came back.  This morning I ran off to some of the neighbors to bring home the food we needed for lunch, and now I'll get the rest of it.

I'm become quite an expert in coping with these "incidents" or "situations."

B"H, it worked out OK.

Have a nice uneventful week full of wonderful things.

G-d Plans, Please Pray

I guess you can add this to your collection of "only in Israel" stories, most probably because there probably isn't another place in the world at this time when a grandmother well into middle-age tremps or hitchhikes...

Yesterday after I finished and signed out from work at Yafiz, I went to the Sha'ar Binyamin (it's a nice-sized shopping center with a Kupat Cholim Le'umit Clinic and office building) bus stop to wait for a bus or ride to Jerusalem.  My son was playing in a football game, and as a good mother (I should hope) I was on my way to watch him and cheer for him and his team.

After a reasonable amount of time a young woman stopped and said that she was going to Jerusalem.  I was the only one who needed that direction and got in.  After we rode a few minutes I asked where she was going, she told me that she had been referred to an immediate medical appointment with a specialist in the center of town.  I told her that the location was perfect for my plans.  I had hoped to buy a wedding gift before the game.  And I wished her that whatever the problem it would turn out well.

As we traveled she said that she was very nervous and not feeling well and wondered if it had been wise to take a trempistit passenger.  She offered to drop me off in Pisgat Zeev, so I could take a bus.  I told her that if she doesn't feel comfortable driving she should park the car in Pisgat Zeev and take a cab, but she was afraid that she'd be late and get there after the doctor left.

In the end we continued together and discussed the best way of going to her destination, considering how the lightrail has made a mess of downtown Jerusalem.  As a confirmed pedestrian and passenger, I generally don't pay too much attention to exit signs and other drivers navigation tools,so I kept hoping that I knew the directions.  To keep up her confidence and mood, I kept pointing out that all the greenlights we reached must be signs from G-d that she'll be OK.

I was worried that she was going to be alone when seeing the specialist, but she said that her sister would be with her, since she couldn't reach her husband.

I helped her navigate to the street where the doctor was, and even she saw the Hand of G-d in that she got a parking spot where one is never free.

I asked for her name (plus mother's name) to pray for her and told her that I'd be praying at Tel Shiloh today.  Please add her name to your Refuah Shleimah, Complete Recovery list if you have one, or just say a special prayer.  I have no idea who she is, but it's clear she needs our prayers.

Malka Yehudit bat Chana Rut

Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom

Have a Good Month and a Peaceful Shabbat

"Have You Ever Tried To Control A Class?"

Pretty much every time I work at Yafiz, I run into an old friend or someone I've known from the many, various things I've done over the years.  Some are rather shocked to discover that I'm working in a clothing store.  It's no secret that salespeople make much less money than teachers whose salaries are calculated according to education degrees, experience etc.  I also rather quickly made it up in the  world of EFL teachers in Israel, giving popular workshops at ETAI national and international conventions.

One former neighbor looked at me in total shock:

"Isn't it hard?"

All I could reply was the truth:

"Have you ever tried to control a class?"

That's right.  Like many teachers, including the store manager, I find it worthwhile to put away the lesson planner and use marking pens to mark prices rather than tests.  I may not get paid for summer vacation or that long Passover Holiday, but I no longer have to prepare lessons, mark papers/tests/compositions, go to parent and pedagogy meetings, etc.  My schedule is flexible, so I can attend weddings and my granddaughter's chalilit, recorder recital.

Yes, I do work hard.  I have no set breaks, because you can't walk out on a customer in the middle of serving him/her.  Yafiz experiences waves of business and quiet like most stores.  Serving customers is our #1 priority, after that we are constantly arranging and rearranging and adding to the stock of clothes.  No two days are the same.  Actually, I like that.

And because of my schedule's flexibility and the fact that I'm only working part-time, I can still tutor students of all ages in English.  And I can still do diet coaching and photography, too. 

It's Thursday, so on with my day....

Only In Israel Are There Bus Drivers So Great

Rickismom tells a great happy ending story about her daughter who was helped by some Israeli bus drivers.  It brings me back to something that happened to one of my duaghters almost twenty-five years ago.  We've been in Shiloh almost thirty years.

Our youngest daughter must have been between ten or a bit older.  It was in the middle of a very rainy winter.  Her friend's parents had invited her to a special birthday they were making for their daughter and insisted that she come.  They live in Maale Levona, which is just west of Shiloh.  At that time the bus passed the Maale Levona junction; only a few went in.  The parents promised that they'd pick her up at the junction.  It was a very rainy night.  When my daughter got off the bus, the driver asked her what she was going to do, because he was worried.  He waited there for a while and then told her to get in; he'd drive her to their house, which he did. 

Apparently the parents had been so busy with their other guests that they had forgotten to pick her up and were surprised when the bus stopped at their house.

Facebook Taking Over and Photobucket Problem

Facebook is taking over a larger and larger portion of my computer time.  I'm beginning to enjoy it.  It's a nice combination of email and blogging.  I have things set up so that my blogs also get posted to facebook, and sometimes there are a lot of comments there and not on blogger.  Generally different people comment on the different media.

I enjoy all the multi-directional "conversations" going on, too.  It's more open than email, though you can have private correspondance as messages.  I set it up with my photobucket account, but now I think that was a problem, so I have to figure out how to detach them.

Photobucket has announced that I'm reaching maximum for the month, just as February has begun, for the free account.  If I pass it, there will be a freeze, sanctions.  So, no more photos to upload on photobucket.  That once happened with Flicka and recently with Picassa.  So, my dear friends, followers and random readers, what other free programs can you recommend?

Thanks

Trying to Communicate When There's No Common Language

I've blogged that there are quite a few Arabs who shop in Yafiz.  With most I can communicate in either Hebrew or English, plus a bit of pantomime.  Last night, I ended up trying to explain the "half off the second (or less expensive) item" discount with another medium of communication.

I finally grabbed a piece of paper I found and started writing:

100+80 (80X1/2 =40) =140
100+100 (100X1/2 =50) =150

And yes, after that they caught on to what I had been trying to communicate.  I explained to one of my young fellow sales people that I had been a remedial teacher.  I honestly believe that those talents, skills and experience really help me with some of the customers.

When one method doesn't work, I try another.  I did that when teaching EFL to small groups.  As long as there is basic intelligence there will be a method that suits.  Today's teaching, at least here in Israel, is based on the very expensive and rigid workbook.  The "experts" claim that it's good that the children can progress at their own pace, but there is very little real teaching.  Not everyone's mind suits those workbooks.  Some people need to hear the concepts and facts repeated in different ways orally, and workbook learning is not oral.  Workbook teaching isn't flexible either.  I would have been a total failure and trouble-maker in today's classroom.

I learn best with discussion.  I use that when I give my Tanach, Bible classes to my friends.  If any of my grandchildren are like me, they're in trouble.

Baby Safety

My kids were born in the days when babies slept on their stomachs in carriages and cribs.  You could still buy a nice large bucket of a baby carriage or pram as the British call them.  Since my babies were very active, I had "zip a babes*" set up in the carriage, then stroller and another in the high chair.  My kids stood early.  "Number three" was crawling with belly up by five  (or was it four and a half) months and standing straight and short in the high chair which she rocked with a vengeance.

My babies moved all over the crib before they had common sense, so bumpers kept them safe.  These weren't pillowy soft padded ones.  They were foam coated with some wipeable plastic.  No one could suffocate because of them.

The cribs had moveable mattresses, so that tiny infants were higher up, easier on my postnatal back to reach.  As the kids quickly got more mobile, turning over, sitting, standing I had to keep lowering the mattress.  Of course the challenge was lowering it before the baby could topple out.  Maybe that's why some (or all) newer cribs don't have that option.

American product safety laws and parent guidelines are always changing.  I personally think that there should be a healthy dose of common sense besides all the technical guess-work and statistics.

*I guess zip-a-babe is out of business.   The device I did find seems to have a similar usage.