The past ten days have been incredibly full. It was ADC's birthday, I got a lot of work (and paperwork) done, I visited the Old City in a dust storm, we have refurbished the kitchen somewhat, and preparations for Rosh Hashana are underway.
ADC's birthday was last Thursday. Like last year, I bought him a cake, as he does not believe I can make fancy birthday cakes. I totally agree! At the same time as buying the cake, I also bought a salad spinner. Since A and S have decided that they do eat lettuce, we have been eating salads rather than cut up vegetables, and ADC has been complaining for a while that we need to buy a salad spinner. My first stop was at a branch of a fairly fancy houseware store, where the salesgirl really didn't want to sell me anything. I remembered seeing a new kitchenware store just by the Machane Yehuda market, and continued there. Happily, although it was mostly accessories for baking, they did have a salad spinner - nicer and cheaper than the one I'd seen before. The salesperson took me around the corner to their other shop in order to wrap the box - and the other shop sells Arcosteel pots and pans, has a knife sharpening service; in short, it is the kind of shop that ADC loves. Telling him about it was an extra present, and he has been using the salad spinner almost daily, too.
This week's work: reviewing an article (that required checking translations of a text, and I had suggestions for improvement, so it was worth it), submitting the final version of an article of my own (and being invited to give a talk on the same topic to a general audience - that will no doubt be a post of its own), paperwork for the Israeli income tax authorities for 2014, paperwork for getting our lift released from customs (hopefully next week, immediately after Rosh Hashana), and editing a first draft of a grant proposal. I also officially finished working as a research assistent for one of my PhD supervisors, as his grant ended, and began negotiations to begin working for another professor who has just received a grant.
For the past few days, since the early hours of Tuesday morning, Israel has been suffering from an unusually violent dust storm, coming from the north (Syria), rather than the south (Jordan/Saudi Arabia) or west (Egypt) as they usually do. Jerusalem was particularly hard hit, as it is on the edge of the desert, and on Tuesday there was almost no visibility, with outside games cancelled at schools and dozens of people with asthma etc. needing medical treatment. Unfortunately for them, that was the day M and her good friend V came to see Jerusalem. M said she hadn't been to the Old City since high school, and this was V's first visit; I am so sorry it was in such poor conditions!! We climbed up the bell tower of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Christian Quarter, one of the highest points in the city. On a good day, you can see to the Dead Sea; on a normal day, you can see to Mt Scopus; that day we could barely see the city walls. The nice guard refused to take our money, and we continued to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was surprisingly not busy. I guess anyone who could was staying indoors. We then continued to a viewpoint of the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. I have never seen the Dome so un-shiny, and it was quite eerie to see it against a flat white background, instead of seeing the Mount of Olives behind it.
The house was quite dusty, as we had left the windows open when we went to bed on Monday, so it was a good thing that the carpenter was due to arrive on Wednesday. I have not provided a photojournal, so you will just have to take my word for it that my kitchen is now much more spacious and organized. Admittedly, I can't reach the top shelf of the new pantry, but that is why I have a very tall husband and two sons who are on their way to being as tall. I have found myself just standing and staring at the pans that now hang from hooks and are easily accessible, instead of being stacked and hidden away in a drawer.
Finally, Rosh Hashana is on its way, starting tomorrow at sundown. ADC has been trying to make profiteroles for years, and as a trial run, we invited my sister J and her family for brunch today and fed them highly successful ones (finally!). We are going to ADC's family for Rosh Hashana, and I hope the batches he makes for them are as good.
May all my f-list have a happy and healthy New Year! שנה טובה ומתוקה!
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