ReZ O. Lution: the rebel inside

2009 Election Recap

2009-11-04T06:06:00.003-05:00

There were three pivotal races being decided last night: VA governor, NJ governor, and a special election in NY-23.

In both governor races, Republicans ousted Democratic administrations. I don't think the outcome of either of these races says anything about how the citizens of those states feel about the president. In Virginia, Creigh Deeds ran an awful campaign, Virginia has a famous history of electing the opposite party of the president who is currently in office, and Bob McDonnell did not run against the president. In fact, many of his commercials by the end of the campaign ran on the same message of change. He ran a very positive campaign and voters turned out for that. Virginia is a toss-up state, in any election, and this one showed that once again.

In New Jersey, politics is its own dirty animal. Corzine was tremendously unpopular and even in a mostly blue state, Democratic voters voted for the other guy. Also here, Christie ran on the message of change. Exit polls in both states showed that folks didn't vote to send a message to Obama, but that their reasons were local.

NY-23 is slightly different. This is one race which can potentially tell a story for 2010. In short, you had a three-way race until the weekend, when the Republican candidate dropped out. What happened? The right-wing conservative nut faction of the Republican party thought it a good idea to import their own candidate, because they weren't happy with some of the views of Dede Scozzafava, the candidate who was chosen by the district to be Republican nominee. Now, if you know anything about NY Republicans, you know that the majority of them are not right-wing conservative. But in this race, in this district that hasn't gone Democrat since the 1800s, conservative Republicans took it upon themselves to make a statement and push moderates out of their party. But the tactic backfired on them and the Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate, won.

Now this can be painted in many ways. My personal view is that all moderates- Democrat and Republican- should be feel threatened by what the conservative right did in NY-23. They imported their own guy who didn't live in the district and worse yet, didn't know a thing about local issues. Make no mistake about it-- the Republican party is fighting for it's future here and it's not going to be pretty.

So if you want to look at any outcome of last night's election as a bellwether for what the fight will be like going into 2010, look no further than NY-23. The big fights will be moderate vs. extreme, for both parties. But it's certainly more pronounced, and can potentially be more ugly, for the Republican party.

Paris: Days 4 & 5

2009-09-09T14:44:00.004-05:00

Shabbat in Paris was fun-- we didn't do much, at all, which was exactly the point. Friday night dinner and Shabbat lunch were both at the same restaurant and the amount of food we got was huge. I was so full, I couldn't really eat dessert, which is truly a rarity (who doesn't have room for dessert?? Well, I guess my husband doesn't, but that's another story).

On Saturday morning we had every intention of making it to synagogue, but then Andrew kept on falling asleep, so we never made it. We left the hotel room at around 12:15, ate lunch, returned at 2:30pm, and read. We read all day. And didn't leave again until after havdalah, at 9:15pm, when we left for a nighttime cruise down the Seine River. The cruise was fun-- it was the first time we got up close to the Eiffel Tower at night, which was beautiful, and seeing Paris from the water offered a different perspective on the architecture, geography, and general sites. The cruise lasted around one hour and then we headed back to our hotel and found a surprise on the way back-- the pizza joint around the corner from our hotel was open! So we had a midnight pizza and were both quite happy.

On Sunday, we woke up early to pack our bags, pick up food, pick up the rental car, and head to Versailles. The plan was to spend the day in Versailles, grab dinner, and then drive to Chatres for the night.

Versailles, in one word, is gorgeous. French King Louis XIV basically turned Versailles into the beautiful place it is today-- he transformed it into the seat of government, re-made the castle, and built the amazing gardens. The chateau itself is huge-- we got a free audioguide with the pass that we bought, which was a good deal, and walked slowly around the palace. The history of each room was nice, but we were both pretty disappointed that the narration neglected to mention the modern-day historical significance of the Hall of Mirrors, which is where World War I ended. In general, to me at least, the palace is more wonderful from the outside than from in. And the gardens-- just wow. There are around two miles worth of gardens and various sized fountains, with lots of walking paths and two large canals of water in the middle. It's just immense and beautiful. The place was packed with tourists, as it always is on the weekends, since that's when they turn on the fountains during the day and play classical music in the background. We walked. And walked. And walked. We brought a picnic lunch which we ate in the gardens and just took in the beauty of it all. Lucky for us, the weather was terrific.

We left the palace grounds at 5pm, both tired and exhausted from a full day outdoors in the sun, looking forward to dinner and the 1.5 hour drive to Chatres for the evening.

Paris: Day 3- a Tale of Opposites

2009-09-06T15:27:00.004-05:00

Friday brought us to the Musee d'Orsay. In general, art just doesn't do it for me. I can appreciate a drawing or painting only up to a point. Sitting and staring at it for 15 minutes won't make it any better or worse for me, I just move on. I guess I do art like I shop: I scan and scan very well and fast. Once I see it, I either like it or I don't like it, and most of the time, I don't need to try it on, because my eye can tell me quite quickly whether it's for me or not.

In any case, the Orsay is another one of those "must sees" in Paris, but thankfully, is quite different from the Louvre. I quickly fell in love with the place. The museum is housed in an old train station and the architecture is amazing. It is home to arguably the best collection of impressionist masterpieces and even though the museum was quite busy, I enjoyed myself immensely. I think it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had in an art museum. It's definitely one I would visit again.

After the Orsay, we walked across the Siene to the East Bank over one of its many bridges. As we descended to the path that runs under the highway, we were approached by a man with a gold ring. I immediately recognized the scene straight out of the introduction to the Paris book we had brought with us-- it's one of the very familiar ways that tourists get scammed. Basically a guy has a ring, asks if you lost it, then offers to sell it to you for a very cheap price. I chuckled and just walked away from the man.

The walk across the Seine to the 1 Metro line took us through a bunch of gardens. Paris has many gardens and the best part is that there are random chairs located throughout. So you can eat lunch, read a book, relax, take a nap, do whatever you want, and still be comfortable.

We took the 1 line to the Jewish Quarter in the Marais for lunch. By the time we got out of the metro, it was drizzling. By the time we got down the street, it was full on pouring. Lucky for us American tourists, we had ponchos. Yes, bright yellow and orange ponchos. While everyone else either had an umbrella or got soaked, we wore ponchos. Wearing these bright yellow and orange ponchos, we fit. right. in. But at least we didn't get wet...

The rain stopped for a bit and after lunch, we walked to the Centre Pompidou- a huge building that sticks out like a sore thumb and house modern art. The building is huge but most of the art is spread out on the top two floors. Let's not mince words- this was is no Orsay. The first floor we visited was dedicated to an exhibit on modern feminist art, which seemed more like a real bad attempt at a political statement instead of a bad attempt at art. There was some ok stuff on the next floor but all in all, the visit kinda sucked.

After the Pompidou, we slowly made our way back to the hotel, to relax and get ready for Shabbat. Of course, that involved falling asleep for an hour or so. Our dinner reservations were for 8pm, so we had time to spare.

Paris: Days 1 & 2

2009-09-05T17:50:00.001-05:00

It's Friday afternoon, almost 6pm, and we have taken a break from all the site seeing to relax before shabbat. It's been a fun 3 days so far!

All in all, I have yet to fall in love, like many said I would, but there's still time I guess. :-) Perhaps some of it has to do with the incredible pain I find myself in after hours of being on my feet. Paris is definitely the city of walking and stairs...lots and lots of walking and stair-climbing. Our baby will be lucky to be blessed with Andrew's feet, as flat as they are, and not mine.

We arrived on Wednesday morning, and after getting to Paris from the airport, checking in to the hotel, walking around the area to learn more about the 9th Arr (9th district), we headed to grand boulevard of Champs Elysees, detouring near the Louvre to walk through the gardens. Our first stop was the Orangerie Museum, where Monet's masterpiece, the Water Lilies, hang. It's a small museum and the Water Lilies are the focal point (we'll be driving to Giverny, Monet's home and gardens on Monday).

Afterward, we took the metro 3 stops to the top of the Champs Elysees, which features the Arc de Triomphe, France's war memorial. There is a tomb of the unknown soldier at the bottom and beautiful city views at the top. Mind you, the top is 250 stairs up a spiraling staircase. So I huffed and buffed and made it up, but not without losing my breath a few times! As we climbed back down, a re-lighting of the flame ceremony had just started. Apparently, they re-light the flame near the tomb of the unknown soldier every day at 6:30pm. And it's not just re-lighting of the flame. It's a whole ceremony with French veterans, flags, shaking hands, a band, etc. It's weird to me that they do this every single day with all the pomp and circumstance, but hey, it's France. They have all of the pre-20th century war fighting to be proud of!

We walked a bit down the Champs Elysees, but besides for a grand boulevard with lots and lots of high-end shopping, there's really not much to see. So we metroed back to our hotel for a break and dinner. We ended up just eating at a small place near our hotel at around 9pm, since I fell asleep as soon as we got back (and not to mention my foot pain...). I would estimate that we walked a total of approximately 5 miles all day. For some of you, perhaps not so much; for me, it's a tiring hike worthy of a damn good drink at the end...but alas, no drinking for me. :-(

Thursday was our first real full day here. We started it off by sleeping until past 9am...we only had around 3 hours of sleep on the plane Tuesday night, so we deserved it. We grabbed some yogurt and headed for the Louvre. When in Paris, everyone goes to the Louvre, but I think more so because of what it represents (largest museum in the world, formerly king's palaces, etc) and because of what it holds (Mona Lisa and a handful of other famous pieces of art), then because they actually really enjoy the experience. The Louvre is immense. Plain and simple. We hit the highlights and just that took us around 2 hours because of it's sheer size (and don't forget all the stair climbing!). We had a real good book that guided us through, so we had an idea of where we were going. Doubtful I'd go again if I'm ever in Paris in the future.

After the Louvre, we took the metro to the 4th Arr, the Jewish Quarter, to get some lunch. We ate at a dairy joint called Pitzman and had some fantastic pizza. After, we walked across the Siene River to start the Historic Paris Walk, which took us into the Notre Dame, through the Latin Quarter, to the Cluny Museum, and finally the Sainte Chapelle. Because of the winds, the top of the Notre Dame tower was closed, but there was still a long line to climb the tower anyway. We skipped this (I decided it was best not for me to try to climb 400 steps if I wouldn't be rewarded with a good view at least) and instead sat in the square outside of the historic Notre Dame church to take in the view and read about its history. We then toured the inside of the church and then walked through it's gardens towards the Left Bank (Paris is split by the Siene River, so you have the Right Bank and Left Bank, with Notre Dame on an island in the middle). In the Left Bank, we walked through the Latin Quarter, had coffee at a small cafe, and toured the Cluny Museum. We then walked to the Sainte Chapelle, which is a church that was built in 5 years basically to be the home of the Crown of Thorns. The church has beautiful stained glass window panes. We got lucky to get in-- little did we know, but the church sometimes closes early to prepare for evening concerts. This was one of those evenings. But because we had bought a 4-day Museum Pass, we didn't have to buy tickets so they let us in. By the time we finished at the Saint Chapelle, it was after 6pm, so we went back to the hotel, rested a bit, then headed out for dinner at a kosher Indian restaurant.

It's getting late, so I will end here. For shabbat, there's a restaurant 2 blocks from our hotel that takes reservations and serves dinner and lunch, so we reserved for both. There is also the grand Rothschild Synagogue not too far from here, so we should make it there tomorrow for shabbat services. After that, we'll see. The problem is there is no eruv, so while we can walk to our hearts (and feet!) content, I can't carry any water with me (nor can we carry our passports, which we've been doing. So we'll see...shabbat ends at 9:10pm, so we have a long afternoon on our hands.

The Last Lion

2009-08-27T09:40:00.002-05:00

Ted Kennedy died yesterday. With him died old school politics and the last standing genuine fighter for liberal ideals. Sure, there are other liberals in Congress, in State houses, in governorships. But when Ted spoke, people listened. Not just Democrats like himself. But Republicans too. While he fought hard for liberal ideals, he did not hesitate to reach across the aisle and forge real, workable partnerships. I can't help but think about how different the discourse on the healthcare debate would be if he were alive and healthy and able to participate fully. How different these town hall meetings would be if he were standing up there. Sure, there would still be a debate, as there should be, but can you imagine someone standing up in there calling Ted Kennedy a Nazi? Doubtful.

Kennedy had his many flaws, as all of us do. But he achieved more in his life as a senator for the common good of all Americans than almost anyone. Who will fill his shoes?

hCG

2009-05-07T19:53:00.004-05:00

Manny got busted for using a drug that women produce normally once becoming pregnant.

As has been reported, it is also used by men to restart their body's normal production of testosterone after a steroid cycle.

One thing that is not being reported, though, is that at times men get hCG injections for fertility treatments.

So, Manny could legitimately have fertility issues. But, think about it: if you know you have fertility issues, you've already gone thru sessions with doctors to learn about the choices you have. And you become an expert in all of the options, especially including the drug(s) that your doctor is recommending you take for it.

So if Manny really did take hCG to help him with fertility, then he would have known about hCG and what it does AND that it is considered a banned substance by MLB. If he really wanted to use it, he would have contacted MLB to get approval or to let them know about it. And he would have looked into other options.

Oh, and if you know about Manny, you know that he already has 3 children.

Judge for yourself...

Miss California

2009-04-30T16:30:00.002-05:00

I finally saw the video of Miss California, Carrie Prejean, answering the question of whether she supports gay marriage.

My reaction: who cares? While I disagree with her opinion, I actually give her credit for stating up front that we live in a country where you can (now) choose (though I never heard the term"opposite marriage" before), but she was raised with certain ideals and that's what she believes. So what? But now, because of all the fuss people made about her stating her opinion, she's become a spokesperson for the National Organization for Marriage. Does anyone out there think that she would have thought one extra second about it if no one made a big deal about her opinion? OK, I understand. She could have been crowned "Miss America." But seriously, folks, did anyone reading this actually remember that that contest was still around, and if you did, does it actually mean anything to most people?

The gay rights movement has a lot going for it right now but still a lot to fight against moving forward. Miss America didn't really have to be one of them.

Inheritence

2009-02-08T17:27:00.003-05:00

Just finished reading this piece in today's Op-Ed section of the NY Times. Beautifully written, these two paragraphs really sum up pretty nicely how I've felt about my modest upbringing and what I would want to pass along to my children, regardless of tax bracket I end up occupying:

I am not talking about trust-fund brats who get arrested for throwing hissy fits on Sunset Boulevard. I’m speaking of those perfectly well-mannered folks whose parents left them enough to ensure they never have to lie awake at night worrying about college tuition or second mortgages.
The young family who can afford the brownstone without ever enduring cramped life in an apartment, the couple who are able to jet away on holiday while the rest of us sit in traffic on the way to the local beach, the household whose teenage children are never asked to help out — there is something missing here, the sense of accomplishment derived from patient effort. It is hard not to think that their parents have done them as much harm as good by installing an express escalator on the uphill sections of their lives.

Bailout and Bonuses

2009-01-30T15:46:00.003-05:00

I would LOVE for this bill to pass.

I would LOVE for the obnoxious, selfish, irresponsible fat cats on Wall Street to finally shut up and take it like the rest of us are taking it.

I would just LOVE to hear the reaction from the likes of Bank of America, Citi, and the other big boys out there who took taxpayer money and spent it on private jets, office redecorating, and bonuses if the bill passes. Would they reject the bailout money to save their seven-figure salaries? Would they turn around with their tail between their legs and say "yes sir" and "yes ma'am" and start lending money again?

I would just LOVE for this to be more than just big talk and for the government to finally take action against this. It's utterly outrageous and there is no justification for it.

Catch Up

2008-12-25T14:10:00.003-05:00

I've been remiss in completing my Australia trip journal. Since returning home, things have been hectic-- catching up with work, mail, laundry, and preparing for parental unit weekend visits (my parents visiting one weekend and Andrew's mom and aunt visiting another). Plus, I'm on a de-cluttering kick. We finally re-organized the kitchen and got all of the kitchen-related wedding gifts out of the second bedroom (thanks, Mom!!). Now we need to unpack the leftover boxes of crap that have been sitting in our bedroom since we moved almost two years ago (if we haven't missed any of it over the last two years, then we don't really need it, right?), re-organize the linen closet, the bedroom walk-in closet, and tidy up the second bedroom. It's also time to buy new furniture for the living/dining room. The furniture we moved in with was fine enough while we focused on the bedrooms and the kitchen, but I'd like to get a buffet/hutch for our china and various things that don't have space elsewhere, buy a wall unit for our tv and electronics that are hanging out, and finally decide on permanent hanging spaces for some art. We went to a few furniture places a few days ago and actually found a few pieces we like, ironically enough, from the same place from which we bought our bedroom furniture.

So as you see, life's been busy. And it ain't slowing down for at least the next 5 weeks. Why? Well, I've got two business trips and both my sister and Andrew's sister are pregnant and due within 2 weeks of each other. Conveniently enough, my first trip is to Orlando the week of January 12-- the week after my sister-in-law is due, so if she has a boy, I will have to figure out how to make it to the brit (circumcision) in New York. My second trip is the week of January 26 to San Antonio, the week my sister is due. In between Orlando and San Antonio is President-Elect Obama's inaguaration, which I plan to attend somehow, somewhere on the Mall. And to top it all off, Andrew's job is keeping him verrrry busy and will continue to do so.

But I guess I should at least summarize what I left out of the trip log:

We spent our last Shabbat in Bondi Beach, which was nice but would have been nicer had it not rained all weekend
On Sunday we walked around parts of downtown Sydney
We decided to splurge and stay our last two nights at a 5-star hotel. That was AWESOME. Some highlights of that: toilet seat that hugs your butt, free breakfast, free coffee, sodas, and drinks at the shi-shi club on the 30th floor, a bed you can just sink in and stay forever, and an Opera House view in a room on the 31st floor. Definitely worth every single penny.
We walked 1/4-way acorss the Sydney Harbour Bridge
We saw a ballet at the Sydney Opera House
We took a ferry from Sydney to Manly and back again, which is apparently the best way to take in the views from the harbor
We did A LOT of walking :)
It took us 32 hours and 4 planes to finally get home

And, finally, for those interested, here are two links to all of our pictures. Note: the first 30 or so pictures from the Great Barrier Reef are not ours. They gave those pics to us for free. The water was unfortunately somewhat murky at our second dive/snorkel location so it's difficult to see the beautiful fish and corral we saw that day.

The Blue Mountains

2008-12-05T01:43:00.004-05:00

(Yeah, it's been a while since the last trip post and yeah, the trip is already over, but I'll still share our experience in Sydney and the surrounding area over the last 5 days of our trip.)

On Thursday we flew into Sydney, rented the car, and were on our way. Our first stop was Bondi Beach, a western suburb, but more importantly, where the Jewish community lives. We basically ran out of our cheese, salami, and bread up North, so we needed some substanance to last the next few days. But of course we got a little lost, paid a toll we didn't have to pay, then found our way using the local streets. By the time we finished with lunch (meat pies at Katzy's!) and some light grocery shopping, we were really on our way, but it was just in time for rush hour traffic. Where were we heading? Why, the Blue Mountains! Home of the famous Three Sisters and one of the most beautiful and preserved rainforest landscapes.

The drive out west wasn't too bad; from the city to Katoomba, our final destination and the largest town in the Blue Mountain region, is about 100 km, easily doable in an hour or so. From reading about it while preparing for our visit, I somewhat envisioned a Skyline Drive type ride-- one lane each direction, with windy roads and beautiful, majestic views. Well, this drive had 1 of the three characteristics: beautiful, majestic views. Surprisingly and interestingly enough, the road up to Katoomba was two lanes in each direction, perfectly paved, not that windy, and had trian tracks in the middle of the road to boot. We were somewhat shocked at the relative ease in getting there.

The weather was a bit crummy and heavy rains were forecast for the evening, so we figured we would get to the BnB we booked and turn in early. We got to Echo Point right around dusk, said hello to the Three Sisters and ate cold pizza. The lookout was beautiful: you could see the storm clouds rolling in from the mountains right across the valley we were overlooking but the sun was setting in the west at the same time. The wind kicked up and we made it to the BnB right before it started to hail.

We started early the next morning and headed to Scenic World, home of the Scenic Railway, Scenic Cableway, and the new Scenic Skyway; three terrific ways to take in the beautiful scenery. We did the Skyway first, where the floor becomes see-thru and it feels like you are walking on air. The skyway takes you across and back over the Jamison valley. Next, was the Scenic Railway, the steepest incline railway ever. The drop is unbelievable and impossible to explain; it's just simply amazing that no one falls out of the carriage! At the bottom, we took a walking tour of the rainforest and learned about the different species of trees and plants and about the old coal mine that used to exist down there. To get back up the mountain, we took the Scenic Cableway, apparently the steepest aerial cable car in the Southern hemisphere.

We interupt this program...

2008-11-29T16:02:00.003-05:00

We checked-in at around 3pm Friday afternoon and hopped online to check out the latest news from Mumbai. I was surprised to see the NY Times headline at that hour: Indian Special Forces Fire Upon Jewish Center. At the time, there really was no real information besides for that.

We left for Friday night services a few hours later and I somewhat expected the rabbi to lead the service at the end with a few Psalms, even if only to pray for the survival of the hostages inside the Jewish Center (let alone all the others in the Taj). But there was not even a mention of it.

On Saturday morning we learned that they stormed the center and 6 hostages were killed, including the young rabbi and his wife. But still no mention from the rabbi during his two (yes, two) sermons. I know that if I were home in Washington, we would have said a few Psalms and I'm sure our rabbi would have mentioned it. He wouldn't have expounded on it's political implications, as it's not his way to do so in a congregation full of real politicians, would-be politicians, fake politicians, government employees, and others. But he would have at least acknowledged the tragedy that was unfolding half a world away. In Sydney, the tragedy was unfolding a bit closer, but we got nothing.

Saturday was the first time since this trip began that I wished I could have been back home, even for 24 hours.

The Reef and the Rainforest

2008-11-28T00:40:00.003-05:00

Tuesday was all about the Great Barrier Reef. We were picked up at 7:40am—this was going to be a full-day adventure. We got to the marina and checked-in: price of admission included 3-4 hours of snorkeling in two different Reef locations and we paid extra for scuba diving lessons and two subsequent dives. The day was gorgeous: all sun, no clouds, and more importantly, winds at 5 knots, meaning the water would be calm all the way out to Opal Reef.

While the boat was heading out to Opal Reef, we learned about the equipment we’d be using and what the dive would be like. Our instructor told us all about what we would experience, how to equalize the pressure in our sinuses and chest, and what hand signals we should use when communicating underwater. After a 20-minute session, we got all geared up and ready to go, but when it was my turn to dive-in, I put my head under water and couldn’t breathe well. The combination of the weight of the gear, the underwater pressure, and breathing the compressed air from the oxygen tank made it feel like I got hit by a truck. I felt too much pressure on my chest and was nervous it would just get worse as I went deeper.

The good news was that I could still snorkel. I waited for Andrew to return from the first 20-minute dive and then we explored the reef together snorkeling. We were one of five people who rented a digital underwater camera, which gave us up to 500 pictures, so we went all out snapping away. We saw beautiful coral and fish. During lunch, we moved to the other side of the Opal Reef and were ready for more. This time, Andrew went down for a 30-40 minute dive with the camera (cameras aren’t allowed on the first dive) and I explored the reef on my own. This side had more character: the colors were brighter and there was more variety of fish. As I swam, beautiful schools of fish swam all around me. At one point, I saw Andrew and his instructor below me and I followed them around for a bit. Unfortunately though, while the scenery was better on this side, the water was murkier, so the pictures we have didn’t come out too great.

On Wednesday, we drove to Daintree Rainforest. This part of Australia is the only place in the entire world where you have two World Heritage locations sitting side-by-side to one another. We drove to Daintree Village and then took the car ferry to the other side of the Daintree River, where the road takes you through parts of the rainforest and up to Cape Tribulation. The Cape Trib side of the river is not connected to an electrical grid, but there are small towns all along the 39-km road through the rainforest, which means that all of them are run by alternative modes of energy, which is pretty damn cool. We stopped at the Discovery Center and took a self-guided walking tour along designated paths inside the rainforest. Later, as we reached Cape Trib, we parked and had lunch at the last lookout point before the unpaved road starts (only 4WD vehicles are allowed past that point). We were basically at the edge of one part of the rainforest which led to the Cape Trib beach. As we stood between the edge of the rainforest and the beach, you could feel both a hot and cool breeze: the cool breeze coming in from the shore and the hot breeze blowing out from the rainforest. This is one place where you can see the rainforest and the Reef meet and oddly enough, live in perfect harmony.

The Original Australian Coffee Pioneers

2008-11-28T00:33:00.003-05:00

We pulled into the plantation parking lot at 4:30pm. There were no other cars around. There was a café which also doubled as the check-in point and there we met the Jaques family. They officially closed at 5pm but were more than happy to give us the tour, which consisted of a 10-minute introductory film to the family and the plantation and then a tour of the plantation itself on the Bean Machine. And considering we were the only people there, we got terrific personalized service and access to the family and the land.

Their story is absolutely fascinating. Nat Jaques originated from Tanzinia and Linda came from Zanzibar. He grew coffee; she grew tea. After getting married, they decided to move to Australia and open their own coffee plantation. After doing much research, they decided to settle in Cairns as the climate seemed perfect for coffee growing. In the late 1970’s, they purchased land and planted 25,000 coffee seeds. Coffee takes about 5 years to flower and ripen and by 1983, they were about ready for their first harvest when Australia suffered a major recession. Bank interest rates skyrocketed to 22% and they were forced to give up their land and leave the 25,000 plants of coffee ready to be picked. Not to be deterred, they purchased another plot of land a few years later and tried again. This time around, as the coffee was ready for its first harvest, the government came in and sprayed the entire plantation with pesticides, since there was a fruit fly infestation in the area, though there was no evidence of the fruit fly in the plantation itself. But instead of spraying the legal amount they were supposed to, they sprayed 10x over the prescribed limit and killed the entire crop.

But the Jaques were determined to try again. And like they say, third time’s a charm. Since the pesticide devastation, they’ve been growing and roasting coffee unabated. But, they’ve also been involved in a 12-year battle with the government for compensation over the episode. They did win the original case but since then, they’ve been mired in appeal after appeal, with the case going all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in their favor yet the government found something else on which to extend the case, and they’re currently waiting for one more judgment, which will hopefully be in their favor, end the fight, and finally close this chapter of the story.

What is fascinating here is that the Jaques are normal people and their plantation is family-owned and operated. They know a hell of a lot about coffee, were the first ones to grow coffee in Australia, and they make a fantastic roast. After the movie and the tour, we sat for around 50 minutes in the café, sipping their coffee and chatting with Linda, learning about their plight and how they’d love to expand operations once the pesticide case is over. Just to give some perspective: anyone who has seen me drink coffee knows that I like it sweet. With this cup, I enjoyed the coffee with only 1 tsp of sugar. It was that good.

In addition to coffee, they have a few fruit trees growing. As we were getting ready to leave, they picked a few bananas off one of the trees and gave me one to taste. The banana was terrific.

We left the plantation with two bags of coffee, one bottle of excellent coffee liqueur (we asked if it was grape-based; she didn’t know, so she rang the winery down the street who makes it with her coffee base, and asked for us; they thankfully answered “no”), and a shot glass. More importantly, we learned something new about Australia, met some fantastic people, and had an excellent time yet again, off-the-beaten-touristy-trail.

A Day in the Life of Cairns

2008-11-28T00:21:00.004-05:00

We awoke early Monday morning to catch our flight to Cairns, which is in Northern Queensland. After checking in, we proceeded to pass thru security, and there I was getting ready to take off my shoes, remove my coat and sweatshirt, empty my pockets, and show the security guard my boarding pass. Then Andrew laughed at me. “We’re not in America anymore, dear.” Right. While we wait in long lines to get thru security in American airports, the rest of the world is still living like its September 10, 2001. Ahhh, those were the days…

We landed in Cairns three hours later and as soon as we disembarked, the heat and humidity hit us like a ton of bricks. While we left Melbourne at a cool 16 degrees Celsius, Cairns greeted us at 35 degrees Celsius. For those who forget the conversion formula, it comes out to around 95 degrees Fahrenheit. We were going to be in for quite a shvitzy few days.

Our first, and only scheduled stop for the day, was the Tjabukai Aboriginal Culture Park. In just a couple of hours, we learned about the native tribe that lived in the area of Cairns before settlers from the English kingdom arrived. We learned how they lived, using the surrounding rainforest and rivers in all aspects of their lives, and how their world was turned upside-down upon the arrival of English settlers. It’s an old and unfortunately not unique story with which we are quite familiar—Native Americans, Africans, Yemenites in Israel, etc., etc. Specifically in Australia, I get the feeling that it’s a story I’m not quite sure the country has truly and come to terms with yet.

The park was pretty hands-on: we heard stories of Tjabukai culture and heritage, saw a dance performance, learned which plants they used for medicinal purposes, and learned how to throw boomerangs and spears. All in all, it was quite informative, but, at least from my perspective, I felt a bit uncomfortable taking pictures, especially of the dances, feeling that perhaps I was intruding or somehow mocking their culture.

We got back to the car at 3:30pm. We had nothing else scheduled for the day except to drive up to Port Douglas and check-in to our room. So, in following tradition, instead of taking the main highway to Port Douglas, we took a different route. The map showed a coffee farm just 20-30 km to the west, so why not check it out?

Well, we tried to check it out, but we got there and the sign simply said “Not Open Today,” so we continued driving. Good thing they weren’t open, because as we learned just 15 minutes later, a real coffee plantation was just around the bend waiting to be explored.

Our tour of the Jaques (pronounced Jakes) Coffee Plantation was so interesting and unique, it deserves its own post.

"Broadband" Internet

2008-11-25T18:31:00.002-05:00

Up until arriving to Port Douglas, we've had pretty good internet access. No, we haven't been online all day everyday. We would just quickly browse the headlines in the morning and in the evening and every once in a while check our email. It also obviously has allowed me to post these trip diaries.

All that ended in Port Douglas. The place we're staying claims it has "broadband" internet access. You pay for the amount of time you want, they give you an enthernet cable, and you sign-in and start browsing. Well, unfortunately, it ain't that easy.

Weirdly enough, as soon as we plugged the ethernet cable into the laptop and the internet started flowing, the mousepad stopped working, which, as you can imagine, made browsing and clicking and scrolling pretty damn difficult. I was frustrated: I had these three blog posts all written and ready to be published, but I couldn't post them! A few days passed by because we were busy scuba diving and snorkling and visiting a coffee plantation (more on that later!), but we assumed, if we used the two desktops available in the reception area at some point before we left, we'd be fine.

Wrong. I was able to post my trip diaries just fine but for some reason, it won't upload any of my pictures and it takes forever and a day to get to any simple website. So much for broadband.

Anyways, the point of this long-winded message is to tell you that as soon as I can find reliable access I will add pictures to the three posts below. :-)

Game of Penguin

2008-11-25T18:22:00.003-05:00

We left St. Kilda finally bathed in warm sun of the southern hemisphere and headed southeast, with our ultimate goal of Phillip Island to see the little penguins parade back from the sea to their burrows at sunset. The big question was how we would get there: would we drive straight to Phillip Island or would we take a circuitous route thru off-the-beaten-path towns in Prom Country? Well, if you know anything about my husband, you know the answer to that question.

Our drive started at around noon and we headed south out of Melbourne. One thing that I haven’t really emphasized enough up until this point was the sheer number of cows we had seen so far, mostly in the country land to the west and south of Melbourne. Well, the south and east of Melbourne is pretty much full of them too!

Our first stop was Korumburra, and old coal mine town, where we walked thru Coal Creek. From Korumburra, we drove 30 km south to Inverloch, where we picked up the coastal road to Wonthaggi. The views from a few of the lookouts were unbelievable.

From Wonthaggi, we picked up the road leading to Phillip Island. The main attraction of Phillip Island is the penguin parade, but there’s a lot more to keep the tourists busy until the penguins arrive at sunset. We arrived on Phillip Island at around 3:30pm and drove to the Koala Conservancy, whose job it is to protect the koalas that are left on the island. We walked around the grounds for about an hour and saw koalas of all sorts and sizes—from joeys in their mother’s pouches to grandmother koalas. One thing we have learned throughout our trip so far though is that while koalas look quite cute and cuddly, in truth they can be quite nasty. But at least we have fun pictures!

After some hot chocolate at a café and a very windy walk around the Nobbies, we got all bundled up and ready to sit on the bleachers on the beach. Don’t forget that Phillip Island faces south and gets hit with chilly Antarctic winds every night, so I was bracing for the cold. We got to the bleachers around 45 minutes before sundown and after some waiting, we could finally see schools of black dots rolling in with the waves. The excitement was building. From one corner of the beach, a little penguin emerged out of the water and tip-toed onto the sand, walked up a few feet, and then all of a sudden, scurried back into the water. We were told earlier that the penguins wait until sundown before heading out of the water in order to ensure that the path home was safe from predators. This dance happened many more times along the length of the beach: 1-3 penguins come out the water, take a few steps inland, and then run right back. I decided from then on to rename “game of chicken” to “game of penguin.”

Finally, after around 20 minutes of watching the penguins scurry back and forth, one group finally ran from the water across the beach. We continued to watch as each group move in and as we started walking back towards the visitor center (the center is around ½ km back up from the beach), we were able to watch up close many penguins run up the side paths to their burrows underneath the center.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures of these tiny and cute penguins, so all we got to take back with us is the memories of what we saw and this sign outside in the parking lot (yes, we check underneath our car for penguins before pulling out;, no, there weren’t any there, but we did see a few penguins in the lot on our way out. They were pretty damn cute).

Four Seasons in One Day

2008-11-25T18:21:00.001-05:00

Apparently it's not unusual for Melbourne to experience "four seasons in one day," as a few local Melbournites pointed out to us. But the weather they'd experienced in the last 72 hours we were there was a bit unprecedented. On Saturday we had rain, gale-force winds, and hail, plus a bit of sunshine every 30-45 minutes or so. Just last week, they tell us, the weather was terrific, sun was shining, and it was a marvelous 25-30 degrees (Celsius that is). But all that changed by the time we got here. As you’ve probably gotten by now from previous posts, the theme of our trip to Melbourne has been the weather (and more cows!).

We arrived in St. Kilda at our Shabbat hosts with plenty of time to spare. While the sun doesn’t set until at least 7:45pm, the Jewish community likes to bring in Shabbat early, so we made sure to arrive with enough time to relax and shower before ushering in the Holy Sabbath.

Our hosts were spectacular. My sister-in-law spent a semester in Melbourne in 2002 and was “adapted” by this family during her stay. So when she told them we were coming to Australia on our honeymoon, they graciously opened the doors to their home for us. As soon as we were greeted at the door, there was instant chemistry—no awkward hellos, just a pleasant feeling of being “at home” with people you don’t really know, in a home that isn’t yours, and a city that is thousands of miles away from familiarity and comfort. After a busy week of endless hours on planes, in a car, and very little resting time in one place at once, it was comforting to know that Shabbat was almost here and the only responsibility we had was to shower and get dressed.

Shabbat itself was great: we had dinner Friday night with our host family and a family friend. Conversation was good and flowing and we learned a lot about the Jewish community in Melbourne. Turns out that after Israel, Australia had the highest rate of Holocaust survivor immigration after World War II. On the flip side, Melbourne boasts the highest rate of aliyah to Israel than any other city in the world.

Following with the theme of the week, it poured on Friday night. The men returned home from synagogue soaked pretty well, and it was only a 5 minute walk. The next morning was no different: as mentioned earlier, gale-force winds, rain, some hail, and pockets of sunshine. It was incredible! Our hosts informed us that Melbourne was in the middle of experiencing a bad drought and strict water restrictions were in force. But oddly enough, this rain didn’t really do much besides for water the grass, probably because it wasn’t a constant downpour. Regardless though, the talk of the town was the odd weather pattern Melbourne was in the midst of experiencing.

On Shabbat, we spent part of the day with other people in the community and we also got a nice 3.5 hour nap in. Apparently we were both quite tired. Between havdalah at 9:01pm and the time we turned in (after 1am), we learned all about rugby, watching New Zealand pull off one of the greatest upsets of all time beating Australia in the World Cup, and had a terrific supper with other members of the community, as our hosts hosted what turned out to be a small dinner party. Despite the obvious age difference between us, our host’s daughter, and everyone else in the room, we had a fun time, talking politics and learning more about Melbourne.

On Sunday morning our hosts were gracious enough to take us shopping to help us prepare for our upcoming trip to Cairns. Since there is no Jewish community up north, we needed to take food with us for lunch and dinner for three days. So we bought packaged cheese, a loaf of bread, some deli meat, and snacks, figuring we can buy fruits and vegetables once we get to our hotel in Port Douglas. As we packed our bags and prepared to leave, we thanked our hosts for a lovely weekend, for taking us in, and taking such good care of us. Anyone planning a trip to Melbourne and needs a place to stay for Shabbat would be lucky to have them as their hosts.

A Day in the Life of Melbourne

2008-11-25T18:07:00.002-05:00

I was pleasantly surprised to wake up early Friday morning to sunshine. We had a packed day ahead of us: a stroll thru the Queen Victoria Market, hopping on the tram to take us to Flinders Lane (a 10 min ride) for some breakfast (yes, kosher breakfast IN THE CITY!), starting our touristy trail thru the city of Melbourne by 10am and getting back to the hotel to collect our bags and drive to St. Kilda (a suburb of Melbourne) for Shabbat by 4pm.

Queen Victoria Market is simply amazing. For those familiar with the shuk in Jerusalem, this is the shuk on steroids. A huge tent full of fresh fruit and vegetable stands, an indoor market of cheeses, breads, pastries, meats, fish, teas, and coffees, and rows upon rows vendors selling general goods. The fruits and vegetables looked so fresh and so delectable; given how much of this stuff they eat, AC and RSC would have been in heaven. If only we had planned to stay in the city for more than a day and had a full kitchen in our room, I would have cooked up a storm (well, a vegetarian storm at least). A few highlights from the market was the seeing the Sarah Palin jacket on sale and the American Doughnut Kitchen van parked right outside.

Before leaving DC, we made sure to print out all of the relevant kosher food information to have handy when the need arose. Once we arrived in the city and got to know the streets around us, we realized that one of the kosher bakeries was located just 10 minutes from our hotel! How spectacular! Turned out, this bakery is part of a chain called Glicks. They have 5 locations in Melbourne and one in Sydney. I’d like to meet the owner and propose that he go international. Seriously folks: not only is this a bakery; they also make their own bagels, pizza, and sandwiches! We ate our breakfast and picked up lunch for the road while we were at it. And since this place is downtown, the majority of the customers are not Jewish; they just come here for lunch and don’t think a thing of it. What a concept…

At 10am, we made our way to Federation Square, which has become the meeting place for people of all ages. We walked around and made our way to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). After a 30 minute stroll thru parts of the museum, we made our way to Southgate, an area right on the other side of the Yarra River (the official boundary of the city itself is the river) and walked along the promenade. By then, it was already 11am, the sun was shining, and we were enjoying a glorious spring day.

The City of Melbourne has a terrific public transportation system. Besides for the trams, which run along the middle of the street, there are buses and trains, all of which run very frequently and are pretty easy to figure out. In addition, Melbourne runs a free tourist shuttle, which stops at 11 designated areas in the city along its route and runs in a loop. We decided to split our day with walking and taking this shuttle between sites.

Our next stop after Southgate was the Royal Botanic Gardens, which was simply beautiful. The Gardens sit right outside the city on a huge plot of land and showcase every type of plant that can be found in Australia and the surrounding countries.

After the Gardens, we hopped on the tourist shuttle to take us north to the Melbourne Museum. We ate our lunch in their café and bought our tickets to stroll thru their galleries. The Melbourne Museum is a bit different then other museums: it is certainly not traditional, where you stare at pictures on the wall and/or look at artifacts behind glass. Instead, their displays are very hands-on and deal with more present-day subject matters. While the galleries tended to be more scientific in nature (human body and forestry, for instance), it’s not a science museum. It also had a display on the history of Melbourne, but it’s not a history museum either. To me it seemed like a museum modeled in a post-modern tradition (very sleek, not many walls, etc) without much of a direct mission, besides for education. It was certainly interesting and had some character to it, but seemed a bit scattered.

Our last stop was Lygon Street: Melbourne’s own Little Italy. The four-block stretch was lined with cafes and clothes shopping and by 2pm, was hopping with a post-lunch crowd and kids who finished their uni classes (university) for the week. The weather was still unbelievably gorgeous. Little did I know what was to come just 5 hours later.

Stormy weather better than none

2008-11-22T16:25:00.008-05:00

The drive along the Great Ocean Road was magnificent. We started our drive on Thursday morning from Apollo Bay, which is just about the halfway point on the route we were taking to the Twelve Apostles at Port Campbell. The sky was overcast and a steady drizzle was falling accompanied by blustery winds, reminding me of an autumn day in Seattle. I was a little bummed at first, but the woman who checked us out of the little motel we stayed at assured us that seeing the Twelve Apostles is boring any other way. And as we started driving, I realized she couldn’t have been more right: seeing the ocean rip against the eroding limestone and shoreline as the waves come crashing in was absolutely awe-inspiring.

Our first stop that morning was the Cape Otway Lighthouse, which is around 15-20 km detour to the coast off the main road (at this point on the GOR, the route goes more inland, as opposed to the first half which mostly hugged the coastline). On the way to the lighthouse, we saw a car pulled over to the side and two people standing with a camera near a tree. We got out of our car and immediately saw a sleeping koala! The koala was literally at eye-level on a branch snuggled so cutely against the trunk. We snapped a ton of pictures of the sleeping one and his two other buddies higher up on nearby trees. By the time we were ready to get back on our way, 5 other cars had pulled over fascinated by the same little guy.

We got to the lighthouse and started the walking hike around the property. At this point in the morning, the wind was ripping and it was especially windy on the coast where we were. After walking through the old residents’ quarters, we got to the lighthouse and climbed up the winding staircase. At the top, we met an older man, whose job it was to greet tourists and tell them about the history of the lighthouse. Before walking out to the balcony, he warned me to take off my hat if I “fancied keeping it”. We stepped outside to take in the views but couldn’t really stay out for so long given the strength of the winds. As we got back inside, the guy asked us where we from. After we answered, he asked us if we were happy about the outcome of our recent election, and we told him yes. He then went on to tell us how riveted people in Australia were and how much the media here followed the campaign in America. In general, he said a majority of Australians are quite happy with the election outcome and they are hopeful that Obama can repair America’s standing on the world stage. As we chatted for a bit more, it was remarkable to reflect on the extent that people around the world actually cared about who Americans would vote for; not just that they cared, but how deeply they felt about the last eight years and what it had done to America’s reputation. The fact that Australia is not a main player on the international stage makes it hits home even more: in very simplistic terms, Australians look for America to blaze the path, lead, and do what’s right. And they are hopeful that America can be that again once more. That’s humbling.

We left Cape Otway, making our way back to the main road, passing the sleeping koala with now at least 15 people standing near it snapping pictures. The next stop, more than an hour away, was Port Campbell, home of the Twelve Apostles. The weather didn’t change much, except for the on-again off-again drizzle and the packets of sunshine that tried to make its way thru the thicket of threatening clouds in its way. But, no matter. As we walked out to the lookout points, the words of the woman from this morning rang true: seeing the Twelve Apostles when it's sunny and calm is boring. In brief, the Apostles are limestone stacks that apparently were once part of the mainland but, over time, eroded from the intense wave action endlessly hitting against it. If you click on the Wikipedia link above and look at some of the pictures at the bottom of the page compared to the picture on the right, it's hard to argue that it's just better to experience in windy weather.

Since the plan was to be back in Melbourne for the evening, we decided not to just turn around and drive the GOR back, but to take a route inland that would take us thru Ballarat, the home of the Australian Gold Rush. (We learned only a day later that Ballarat is also home to the oldest synagogue in Australia; the stupid guide books didn’t tell us that.) The 2 hour drive to Ballarat was mostly flat, and after a day of meandering, windy roads thru the cliffs of the Australian coast, I was happy to see flatland filled with cows. Yes, southern Australia is dairy land, full of cows grazing on endless land. We drove thru very small towns on the way, flat land all around, except, to our surprise, a few formidable volcanoes standing in the middle of absolute nowhere. Here is Mount Elephant. Who knew?

We made it to Ballarat by 4:30pm, just in time to get in to the Gold Museum (everything touristy in Australia closes by 5 or 5:30pm, which is a bit disappointing, but doable). The main part of town still has the old building facades from the late 1800’s, which is pretty cool to see.

By the time we got back to the city, the day was practically over. We grabbed dinner and drove to our hotel for the night, which conveniently enough, was two blocks from the famed Queen Victoria Market (more about that later). Since we were both extremely tired, we ate dinner and called it a night at around 10pm. Friday was going to be a full day of city touring.

Two quick Australian observation:

Filtered drip coffee doesn’t exist here. You either have an espresso-based drink at a café or you drink instant at home.
Australia loves it's powernaps. In truth, they use these signs to encourage drivers to take powernaps at service areas along the highways so that they don't fall alseep while driving. Brilliant.

Shabbat shalom

2008-11-21T02:35:00.003-05:00

Shabbat is slowly making it's way to Melbourne. We're staying with a lovely family for the weekend and I couldn't be more excited. After 3 days of driving and running around with an early to-bed and early to-rise mantra, I'm very much looking forward to a quiet 25-hour period of home-cooked meals, a nap or two, and really terrific people to converse with. Not that being on my honeymoon and only having my husband to chat with all day and all night is a terrible thing, don't get me wrong. But it's never a bad thing to be around interesting people, a new community, in a totally different part of the world to drum up conversation and good fun time.

In short, we toured the city of Melbourne today, including an early walk around the Queen Victoria Market, which, to some reading this, can be described as the Jerusalem shuk on steroids. It's quite awesome. Wish I had me one of those in DC.

OK, must run. More about our last two days on the other side of the Holy Day of Rest.

Look Right, Not Left

2008-11-19T16:56:00.004-05:00

Well good’ay from not-so-sunny Melbourne! Today is Thursday, November 20, 2008, despite what the dateline on Blogger may tell you. It really is a strange thing to realize that you are 16 hours ahead of everyone else you know. It’s like it is today for me but you are reading this yesterday and by the time I get to write to you again, it’ll be tomorrow for me but still yesterday for you. Yikes.

Anyways…we are now Down Under. I don’t recommend the 24 hours of being in transit to get anywhere, but I guess you have to do it in order to get here, so you’re kinda stuck if you don’t.

Our journey began on a Virgin America flight from Dulles to Los Angeles. Virgin America is a cool airline. You can order your food and drink from your seat and it magically appears within minutes. Brilliant! And these new in-seat entertainment centers, where you can choose from a ton of different movies, tv shows, play games, read the news, all with a touchscreen, are AWESOME. More on that in a few…

We landed at LAX, collected our bags and made our way to the Bradley International Terminal to check-in for our flight with Qantas. Now this was going to be exciting, because we delayed our trip by one day so that we could fly on the new A380. Most people wouldn’t know the difference when scheduling a vacation but when you’re married to a guy who loves trains and planes, you pay attention. More on the A380 in a few…

By the way, next time you connect out of LAX, have some layover time, and want awesome kosher food, call Jeff’s. They apparently deliver to the airport. Or you can call a friend who lives down the block from Jeff’s and he’ll deliver to the airport; specifically we ordered two sausages, a schnitzel sandwich, and two orders of fries to be exact. Yum!

Back to the A380: We boarded the plane at around 10:40pm LA-time with about 400 other people. Yep, 400. Simply put, this plane is MASSIVE. Just click on the link and take a tour of the Qantas A380- it’s huge and pretty cool. We didn’t get to sit in First or Business, but we got exit row seats which were nice, after I stopped being grumpy about them. Turns out these two seats are a bit narrower then regular Economy class (regular Economy class seats on the A380 are about 1” wider than the Boeing 747) and there’s no room to leave your carry-on next to you. The plus side is that you have all the legroom you can possibly need. And the awesome touchscreen entertainment center pops up from between the two seats, so it’s like your own personal TV right there. You can choose from literally hundreds of movies (I watched Don’t Mess with the Zohan and Baby Mama), TV shows, a ton of games (interactive too!), read the news, listen to audio books, and get your email (for a cost). Plus, you can create your own playlist of music from different genres and CD choices that will play for you over and over again until you change it or do something else. Flying will never be the same, and these are quickly becoming the standard. Needless to say, they make a 16-hour flight go by just a tad faster.

After we landed, a terrifically-splendid flight attendant gave us a tour of the upstairs, which includes business class and premium economy. One word: SWEET.

The line to get thru customs and passport control once inside the terminal was quite long. If you didn’t know this before, Australia takes their customs pretty seriously. Not only do they ask you to complete a form declaring anything non-native you are carrying and bringing in (all countries do), but while standing on line, they bring around trained dogs to sniff it out of you in case you aren’t 100% truthful. And in case the dog didn’t find it, after you pass passport control and collect your luggage, you and all of your bags are randomly screened thru an x-ray again. The Australians are pretty hard core- no meats, fish, poultry, aqua stuff, cheese, etc., can come thru without being declared and perhaps taken away from you, obviously in order to protect the fragile eco-system on this huge country, continent, and island. And just in case the Australian version of Big Brother is watching, I won’t go into details about why my heart was pounding when the dog came around. Suffice it to say, they mean it, and the signs all over the airport telling you “Declare It or Dump It” every 10 feet made you think twice about sneaking anything even remotely similar to anything on that list.

Once we finally made it thru customs and got our bags, we picked up our rental car. I’m thankful to the Australian government for being sensitive to the fact that the majority of the world drives on the right side of the street. Until you do it yourself, you have absolutely no idea how disconcerting it is to be driving down the street and see cars coming at you from the wrong side. Or in this case, from the right side, though it certainly didn't feel right at all. It's not that hard to get used to highway and city driving, but once you're out on the Great Ocean Road, where you're winding all around the mountain and the coast and there's just one lane each way around the twists and turns, it gets kinda freaky. That's all I'm saying, it's just freaky. And crossing the street? Man, I thought I had that down. Apparently not. Two words: Look. Right. After you make the mistake one time and you come out of it unscathed, you never make the mistake again.

Once you get over that (not saying I have yet), you start enjoying the views and boy, they are spectacular. There's something to say about knowing that once you pass Anglesea and you're standing on a cliff looking straight out to the ocean, there's absolutely nothing between you and Antarctica. And then you realize that you're basically at the end of the earth. That's friggin cool.

All in all, it's been a good first day. We called it an early night on Wednesday, given how exhausted we were-- all I wanted was a bed, as I had not been in one in 35+ hours. Due up this morning and the rest of the day: more of hte GOR, the Twelve Apostles, and driving back to Melbourne. Hopefully the weather will clear at some point.

Let the Honeymoon Begin!

2008-11-16T22:52:00.004-05:00

The trip is finally all planned and we're ready to go!

We'll be heading to LA tomorrow afternoon and then hopping on the grand spankin' new A380. For those interested, I'll be taking some pictures of the cabin and posting them at some point later.

Our itinerary, Monday Nov 17 to Tues Dec 2, in short:
Mon: Fly to LA, then to Melbourne
Tues: Doesn't Exist :-D
Wed: Land in Melbourne, drive Great Ocean Road
Fri-Sat: See Melbourne, Shabbat in St. Kilda
Sun: PENGUINS!
Mon: Fly to Cairns, go to Tjapukai
Tue: Scuba the Great Barrier Reef
Wed: Daintree Rainforest
Thur: Fly to Sydney, drive to Blue Mountains
Fri-Sat: Shabbat in Bondi Beach
Sun-Mon: Explore Sydney
Mon night: See ballet at Sydney Opera House
Tues: Start journey back at 11:40am...land in LA at 10:50am...finally land at DCA at 11:24pm...

Keep an eye out for some trip logs and pictures.

Spurning Reagan

2008-10-26T19:39:00.002-05:00

“Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears.”

I'm no fan of Ronald Reagan, but considering how much the Republicans claim to be the Party of Reagan, they sure have done a terrible job at acting like him.

Bipartisan

2008-10-17T16:14:00.002-05:00

Can't make this stuff up:

Democrat from Florida Rep. Tim Mahoney, responding to the question of how many affairs he's had: "You're asking me over a lifetime? I'm just saying I've been unfaithful and I'm sorry for that."

Gotta love it.

(Green) Investment Advice

2008-10-08T13:45:00.002-05:00

Overheard:
If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left. With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left of the original $1,000. With AIG, you would have less
than $15 left. But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214 cash. Based
on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

Finally feeling it

2008-10-08T13:14:00.002-05:00

So in my 10 years of working, I have never really felt the impact of being Orthodox on my work life. Until now.

I have always considered myself lucky for never feeling stressed or pressured regarding taking off for Jewish holidays, leaving work early on Fridays for Shabbat, and eating kosher. My current employer has been really terrific about it; as a consultant, I have had plenty of opportunities to telework when I needed to, which has allowed me to travel to NY to see my family and work at home on Fridays while cooking for shabbat.

All of that still stands, for the most part. Teleworking is frowned upon with my current client, but I still worked out a plan where I can work 9+ hours Monday-Thursday and 4 hours on Friday mornings, leaving me wriggle room in the afternoon (I never actually only work those 4 hours on Friday anyways, since something always comes up, but my managers understand the firm deadline I've set for leaving at least an hour before sundown).

But, doggone-it, these chagim falling out during the week are killing me! Not because I have to miss work, but because I'm being forced to miss team events after work!

Background: For five days in September, my team worked hundreds of collective hours writing out a proposal for a huge contract with our current client. Long story short, we won the proposal- $27 million over 5 years for an expansion of the work we're currently doing for them. Needless to say, this was a HUGE win for us; it was, in fact, the largest contract my firm has ever won.

Now the partner in charge wants to celebrate with the core proposal team, 7 of us, but can only do it this Thursday- yes, TOMORROW, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. I don't begrudge him for this, obviously; they tried working around my schedule, but it just won't work.

So I'm sad- I'll miss the cruise on the Potomac and a limo ride to a fancy-shmancy restaurant in Alexandria (where admittedly, I'd only be able to have a salad). It's not the actual activities, but the out-of-work time with my team that I'm really sad about missing.

The salt on the wound is that the larger team- including our client, spouses, significant others, kids, etc.- is having a get-together on the last Saturday of the month as a celebration as well.

My consolation prize is that they're buying me a $100 gift certificate to a spa as a thank-you for my hard work and an I'm Sorry you can't join us. I guess I can deal with that. ;o)

Unbelievable!

2008-09-18T16:26:00.001-05:00

The House Left Standing.

See for yourself.

Overheard

2008-09-11T18:51:00.003-05:00

Overheard in the lobby of my building as I was walking back to the office from grabbing a snack:

"So I lost my PNC ATM card. I've been meaning to call someone about that."

Not sure there's anything to add here other than MEANING TO?? HUH????

Motherhood and Hypocrisy on the Campaign Trail

2008-09-09T13:19:00.007-05:00

I'm gonna go ahead and say something crazy and then duck for cover real fast:

Talking about Sarah Palin's family and her as a mother is fair game.

Now take some deep breaths and read this next sentence:

I 1000% agree that talking about and criticizing a politician's (or any other person in the media spotlight for that matter) family should be off limits.

HUH??

How in the world do those two statements, taken together, make any sense?

It's quite simple. The politician-- not the family-- is running for office. That's what matters. That politician's views on the issues that matter to this country should be on the table for discussion, dissection, and political attacking. A child didn't ask for any of it and is just an innocent bystander in all of it.

But once you start parading each member of the family out onto the national stage more than just for when it is necessary, once you start staging photo ops with the kids and place one specifically in the spotlight, and once you start basing your campaign-- your appeal to voters-- on your family and your role in that family, you put it all out there on the table. If you want to tell me that you're "just like every normal American" and that you're the "everymom," just like all other moms out there who are trying to balance it all, then I have the right to ask you about it.

Once you start including motherhood in the picture that you're painting for the American voter, you open yourself up to those questions. Simple as pie. No one asks male candidates about their fitness as fathers, because, among other things, they aren't talking about it. That narrative is just not there.

Please, don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating for the conversation on Sarah Palin as mother to continue. I wish it would die, actually, because every time someone mentions it, it takes time away from discussing the things that do matter, like the fact that she didn't really say no to the Bridge to Nowhere and that she doesn't really hate earmarks as much as she says she does. But the bottom line is this: if you don't want them talking about it, don't bring it up and definitely don't make it one of the the central themes of your campaign.

And forget about Palin's daughter being pregnant-- while many vocal conservatives used to judge and belittle other teenage mothers in the spotlight (it's great that they've seen the error of their ways!), there's no need to keep the story going just to expose the hypocrisy. Instead, we should be talking about the failures of an abstinence-only education policy and be asking our leaders to do more to support teen mothers in need. Not every teen mother is privileged to have parents who are as understanding and in good financial position, such as the Palin's, as support.

VP Rant

2008-08-30T20:50:00.002-05:00

I spent the majority of Friday in a car driving from Washington, DC, to New York, frustrated beyond belief. Not because it took us 6+ hours to drive up north when it usually takes us 4, but because I was stuck not being able to write this rant until now, and by now, you've probably already heard it all, but I'm going to write it anyways.

As a woman, I'm absolutely aghast at who McCain picked to be his vice presidential nominee. As a woman, I'm insulted beyond words that he truly believes that he could win the female vote simply because he chose someone who doesn't have a penis. Does he think that low of me and the millions of other women who voted for Hillary? Is it really true that the majority of women don't care about anything else? They don't care about the environment, gay rights, gun control, and oh, shall we not forget, women's issues? Does he really believe that women vote based on sex alone, when it's been shown that women vote based on party preference and most women are Democrats? There's a reason for that, and it's not because they're voting for other women.

The women McCain is obviously pandering to should be offended. And if they still had qualms about voting for Obama simply because of how the Democratic primary ended, this choice should override all of that. If the word of God came down from heaven and told me today that this would be the only chance in the next 100 years that a woman would be this close to the presidency, I still wouldn't vote for her.

It's that simple. I have a brain. And I use it. Like many other women. And it's quite obvious that besides for biology, Sarah Palin is a far cry from what Hillary Clinton represented to those who voted for her.

2008-07-16T08:39:00.003-05:00

I'm humbled and saddened this morning as I read about and look at pictures of the prisoner swap that happened on the Israel-Lebanon border this morning. The picture of the two black coffins carrying the remains of the two soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah is captivating. And it reminds me how high we value these human beings- even bodies, just bodies, being returned to their families for a proper burial and a proper mourning. A value so high that they were worth not just other bodies in exchange, but the freedom of a cold blooded murderer. People can debate forever whether or not the price was too high, but at least we can now, sadly, remove two names from list of the missing for whom we prayed every week for two years.

We place a high value on these things. And for that, I'm proud.

Some more tidbits I forgot to mention

2008-07-14T20:14:00.003-05:00

Simply saying "we saw Wall-E" to a bunch of Bostonians doesn't mean what it means to the rest of the country. No, I didn't see Wally on the Mass Pike. I saw Wall-E in the movie theater.
My MIL is starting to worry about the people her kids married: a day after I stabbed myself and spent the morning in the ER, my sister-in-law's husband had a light bulb shatter in his hand and they spent the night in an NYC ER as he got three stitches on his left hand ring finger. Quick, hide the sharp objects from the other in-law kid!
Driving a Prius means 450 miles = 1 tank of gas.
The highest point of I-90, the longest interstate in the country, ~~west~~ east of South Dakota is in the mountains of western Massachusetts. (Thanks, DB for the correction.)

I stabbed myself...and other interesting tidbits from my weekend in the mountains

2008-07-14T11:48:00.003-05:00

Yup, you read that right. I stabbed my left hand on Friday, while we were getting ready for what should have been a beautiful 20-mile bike ride along the quaint little roads of Lee and Lenox, MA, in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains. Instead, Andrew drove like a maniac to the hospital and we spent the morning in the ER.

3 hours, 4 stitches, and a pack of Vicodin later, we took in the sculptures of Daniel Chester French instead, which was actually quite nice. But you really don't realize what you need both hands for until you can't use one, and then you feel kinda helpless. Have you ever tried putting on a seatbelt with your right hand instead of using your left? How about typing? Carrying groceries? Opening up a bottle or turning a faucet? Cutting your food? Yup, Andrew had to cut my food for me Friday night; kinda felt like a baby.

Thankfully, 3 days later, I have most motion back in my fingers though the tip of my middle finger gets numb every now and then. It's really a weird feeling to get pins and needles just at the tip of your finger and not the whole hand. Doc says it may take a while for the feeling to return.

A few random other tidbits:

When renting cars, don't pay extra for a hybrid car, because they'll just assign it to you anyways. We got to drive a Prius all weekend. It. was. cool.
If you bought take-out Chinese and drove 2.5 hours to your destination and forgot that the food was still in the car because you couldn't smell it, chances are the food has no taste.
Corollary to the above point: kosher Chinese in MD ain't that bad compared.
Even in Western Massachusetts, just miles from the NY border, they love their Red Sox.
Supermarkets in Western Massachusetts, even though no Jews live there year-round, have more kosher food than supermarkets in DC, where Jews live year-round.
Never use a sharp knife to try to separate food items that are frozen together. Chances are, you will hurt yourself.
Massachusetts has more Priuses (Pri-ii? Pri-a??) on the road then the entire MD-DC-VA area.
Still can't my rings off my finger. And my finger tip is still numb.
Did I mention that hybrid cars are cool?

I want to be a loser

2008-07-01T20:47:00.002-05:00

The biggest loser, that is.

Today was the first day of the biggest corporate loser challenge in my office. It's just the kick-in-the-ass that I need to get up, get moving, and get caring about my body. The basic premise is this: Pledge to exercise and eat well between July 1-November 30. There are no weigh-in's and no one is keeping tabs on your diet except for yourself. There are only three requirements:

Exercise at least 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes each time;
Drink a minimum of 64-oz of water a day; and,
Support your team.

So how do you become the biggest loser? It's optional to set a weight-loss goal, and if you do set one, it's added to the goal of your team and whichever team loses the most (percentage of total goal), wins. Points are added/deducted based on how well you follow the first two requirements (we are supposed to keep a daily log).

That's it.

I set my 5-month goal for 20 lbs. Is it ambitious? Yeah, probably. But if I keep to my requirements, I know I can do it, because I did it before. My roommate in grad school took ridiculous care of herself- ate well (mostly vegetarian) and worked out- and I fell victim to the peer pressure. What else could I do but follow her act? So I started eating better (though the lack of kosher take-out in Syracuse as compared to what was available on Main Street in Queens helped quite a bit) and went to the gym almost every day. As a favor in return, I re-introduced my roommate to chicken. :-) More importantly, I lost a ton of extra weight and felt really good about myself. I kept the habit for a year after I moved to DC, but then I lost my cheap gym membership at GW and basically stopped with the strenuous physical activity. That, plus loving food so so much, has brought the pudge back.

So I'm determined to lose it. It helps to have a workout room in my building, which I will finally truly take advantage of.

Wish me luck!

Life just kinda sucks sometimes

2008-06-02T10:04:00.002-05:00

My uncle in Israel died this morning.

In the span of 3.5 months, my grandmother lost her husband and son.
In the span of 9 months, my mother lost her father, brother, and two very close friends.

Life just kinda sucks sometimes.

My uncle had diabetes for a long time. He was notorious for never taking care of himself. Last year, he had a stroke that paralyzed half of his body. Even after that, he still ate foods he shouldn't have and just a month ago, had to have one of his legs amputated. My mom left two weeks ago to visit him and is actually on a plane back to NY now, that is scheduled to land at 5pm in Newark. When she left he was ok. She still doesn't know that she's booked on a 9pm flight out of JFK with my aunt to return to Israel for her brother's funeral.

Life just kinda sucks sometimes.

Olympic Torch Relay

2008-04-15T07:00:00.003-05:00

Sports Illustrated is reporting that Olympic organizers in England are considering a British-only torch relay for the 2012 Games. Given the protests and scuffles from this year's relay for the Games in China, they haven't ruled out the possibility of skipping the world-wide relay tradition.

Does the UK have a human rights issue we don't yet know about?

Happy New Year

2008-03-31T10:50:00.002-05:00

To all of my baseball friends, I wish you all a Happy New Year. May the year be filled with fun, exciting games.

Let's play ball!

Nationals Park

2008-03-31T07:58:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, after being shut out of Opening Night tickets (they sold out in 6 minutes while we waited on hold and in an online ticket "waiting room"), we decided to buy a 40-game season package for the Washington Nationals. For $10 per seat, per game, including Opening Night, it seemed like a good deal. The package included 6 Mets games, 6 Phillies game (easily sellable to a good friend who is from Philly), and 13 games which are on Friday/Saturday nights, that's already half the package. And considering that we both work in offices with 100+ people, we figured it wouldn't be difficult to sell tickets to games we can't go to. And to prove it, even before the season started, I was able to sell 10 games to fans in my office spanning the first two months of baseball.

While Opening Night was last night and we spent a good 3 hours at the stadium, we didn't get a chance to walk around and actually look at the detail and take it all in, mostly because of the sheer number of people walking along with us. We figure we'll get the chance to stroll leisurely before another game, when there will definitely be less than 40,000 other people with us. But my initial thought of the stadium is that while it's brand-spanking new, it's unfortunately not that exciting. Perhaps there are a few things they could have done differently to make it more fun, but it's just difficult to build a new stadium for a team to call home when the team just doesn't have much history to build around. Many of the new stadiums these days focus on modern architecture and how they can best display snippets of the team's history along the concourse walkway. The Nationals really didn't have option. Hopefully one day they will be able to replace some of the displays of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle with images of Ryan Zimmerman and some other to-be Nationals Great.

Just for fun, here's my Mastercard commercial from last night:

15 minute Metro ride from Foggy Bottom to Navy Yard: Surprisingly painless.
90 minute wait on line to get into the stadium because Secret Service only set up 3 metal detectors at the first base entrance: Unshockingly excruciating.
30 seconds of boos as the President strolled to the mound to throw the "ceremonial" first pitch (which was way high): Priceless.

Inevitable

2008-03-25T07:23:00.002-05:00

I left DC last week on Wednesday, believing that by the time I would get back late Sunday night, the kitchen would be 99% complete. The plan was to finish installing the faucet and other water stuff around the sink (water filter, instahot, etc) and finish tiling the floor.

Instead, we got a phone call on Saturday night from a good friend of ours who was crashing at our place for the weekend. He proceeded to tell us about how when he arrived home after Friday night dinner at 1am, he noticed water running and 1.5 inches of water on the floor of the kitchen. NOT GOOD. To make a long story short, turns out one of the hoses from the water filtration unit came undone and instead of filling the tank with filtered water, it tried to fill the kitchen. It didn't quite make it to the auto shut-off level, I guess thankfully so. He quickly ran and got the front-desk man who called the building manager to help out. They shut off the water from the under the sink and then raided our linen closet to mop up all the water.

As I quietly listened to him tell this story, I thought to myself: Isn't that inevitable? 3 weeks go by in what could otherwise be described as one of the most perfect and mostly on-time kitchen renovation projects in the history of man; something was bound to go wrong at some point.

While we did have a wedding at 4pm Sunday afternoon in NY, I couldn't shake the feeling that we had to go back- if only to check on things and assess the situation before 2am Monday morning (when we would have gotten back after the wedding). My brain knew that everything was ok- things were drying, didn't seem like anything was damaged, and water wasn't leaking anymore. But my heart told me that we should go back, that it was irresponsible to leave the apartment empty (our friend was on an early morning Sunday flight to New Orleans), just in case something else went wrong. So we decided to skip the wedding and drive home early.

The plumber came on Monday morning and fixed the hoses. Turns out there's something wrong with our faucet, though that wasn't connected to the Friday night flood. Kohler is sending us a new faucet. And hopefully today, we can get the floor finished.

Suffice it to say, I am extremely thankful that we let our friend crash in our apt, despite the mess, dust, and boxes all over the place. If the apartment were empty, who knows when someone would have noticed that our kitchen (and rest of our apartment!) was flooding- probably not until our downstairs neighbor would wake up the next morning and notice his ceiling leaking. And by then, we would be dealing with something totally different and far more disturbing.

More kitchen

2008-03-19T07:20:00.003-05:00

Two more pictures uploaded to my Flickr account. The countertop has arrived!

I'm leaving to NY today, so I won't be able to see the progress in the kitchen until I return early Monday morning. It's too bad, but hopefully when I return, I will be pleasantly surprised. Things should wrap-up by Friday! Yay!

Kitchen pictures!

2008-03-13T20:30:00.011-05:00

Well, sorta...

Apparently Blogger really really SUCKS when it comes to uploading more than one pic to a post. So instead, the pictures have been uploaded to my Flickr account with some captions so you see the progression. Start from the bottom... :)

Enjoy!

Kitchen renovations

2008-03-13T13:24:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to post thoughts and pictures of the progress of our kitchen renovations, which started on Monday, February 25, the day after we got back from New York after my grandfather's funeral. I made sure to take the pictures mostly every step of the way, but haven't yet quite gotten around to actually uploading them. They will come soon, I promise.

In any event, here's some narrative:
Some of you know that we've been planning on renovating the kitchen since we moved in last year. The kitchen was quite old (~25 years) and hadn't been updated since the condo was originally built. It's a classic L-shaped kitchen, with a wall on the other side. There were a few issues with this:

There were only 2 drawers in the entire kitchen. Any normal kitchen should have more than two drawers; otherwise you end up wasting counter space for nick-knacks, other utensils, etc.
Cabinets didn't maximize the actual space of the kitchen. With at least two sets of everything, we need as much storage space as possible. Thus is the life of kosher.
My baking sheets did not fit into the wall oven. 'Nuf said.
The wall on the other side of the kitchen was empty. It could be used for more storage!

So we thought about it for a while, and with one of us not having a job at that point, we couldn't really pull the trigger on any work yet, so thinking time was good. During the 9 months between when we moved in and when we decided to get our butts in gear, we decided (with the help of a mom or two) to knock down the wall on the other side of the kitchen and expand. What's on the other side of the wall, you ask? None other than a 1/2 bath. In a one-floor, 2-bedroom condo, is a 1/2 bath really necessary? Especially with the second full bathroom off the hallway and easily accessible to guests? It's a nice luxury, but an even nicer luxury is a larger kitchen. :)

We spent a whole bunch of time visiting kitchen renovation people, and once we decided they were outside of our budget, we visited Home Depot and Lowes, who offer free design services, and the cabinet lines they sell are pretty good. We decided to go with Home Depot, which ended up being a bit cheaper than Lowes on the cabinets, and we found our own contractor, Oscar, who happens to be terrific (If you live in the DC area and need one, please don't hesitate to contact me for his info; he needs referrals to get back to school and he does excellent work!).

Work started in earnest on Monday, February 25th. Oscar knocked down the wall and started priming the kitchen for a full gutting. Our appliances were delivered ON THE DAY THEY PROMISED, Monday, March 3, and our cabinets also were delivered ON THE DAY THEY PROMISED, Thursday, March 6. Oscar started installing the cabinets this passed Monday and hopefully by tomorrow, 90% of the kitchen will be complete!

We spent a good chunk of the first week packing up the kitchen in preparations for the total gutting. Everything- food, dishes, utensils, gadgets, etc.- were packed into boxes and moved into the living and our bedroom. Oscar spent that week tearing up the floor- you'd think that removing a floor would be easy. Nope. Turns out the floor wasn't tiled, but instead was a thick sheet of marble that they cut lines into to make it look like tile, which forced Oscar to buy a jackhammer to pry it all off. The jackhammer then caused more dust than we anticipated, which got sucked into the ventilation, and spread throughout the apartment. This didn't make me happy, but what choice did we have? Though it turns out I'm kinda allergic to this stuff and it has caused major throat irritation for the last two weeks. Not fun.

Then the appliances and cabinets came. In anticipation, we moved everything in the living area to the far side of the room. Little did we know that the all the cabinets would come in 50 million boxes. No joke. OK, maybe not 50 million, but there were A LOT of boxes. So many boxes, that they took up THE ENTIRE ROOM. I have pictures to prove it. We were forced to live in our bedroom for the last week, with no entertainment but our laptops, some books, and each other. We've taken to watch the previous night's Daily Show and Colbert online to sorta make it seem like we can watch some TV.

So far, though, there are no regrets. Yes, we've had a bunch of little things come up, like marble floor, trying to move the water line for the sink to the corner and discovering a building pipe in the way, finding out that the pantry gets in the way of vent on the ceiling, etc. But, so far at least, things are going relatively well, and I'll be pleased if we move back in by next week. (And now that I'm making all this public, watch something happen to totally screw us over...) I'll also be pleased to have my living room back so that I don't have to eat and work on my bed. But even more so, I'll be happy to stop going to Home Depot every other night.

Pictures will be forthcoming, I promise.

Standing Up

2008-02-21T13:44:00.002-05:00

My grandfather was a very integral part of the Queens Bucharian community. My grandparents moved to Queens from Israel 39 years ago, and basically helped set up the community. Everyone knew them. In general, the Bucharian community is very orthodox- extreme right wing, fire-and-brimstone type. My grandparents came from Israel as very traditional people, but not orthodox. After my grandfather's mother died, he was hozer b'teshuva, returned to the faith and got a little caught up in the rhetoric he heard from the pulpit.

It's with this introduction that I tell you the story of my grandfather's funeral. The rabbi who officiated was someone I didn't know, but apparently someone who knew my grandfather well. He began the ceremony speaking in Hebrew, which was Strike Number 1, since many of the people that came from my mom's side to pay their respects were not Hebrew speakers. Someone then recited a few Psalms and then it was time for eulogies. Two very well-known rabbis spoke first- the chief Bucharian rabbi in the US knew my grandfather from when they were still living in Israel, and the rabbi of my grandfather's synagogue spoke of how much my grandfather did to build the community and the synagogues. Then a few other men spoke- one spoke in Bucharian (which is a mix of Farsi and Hebrew) and only a handful of people understood him. Finally a couple of other rabbis spoke in English. Everyone, for the most part, spoke very nicely.

Then came Strike Number 2. The officiating rabbi took to the microphone one more time. He started telling two stories (in Hebrew) of how he got two different people to hozer b'teshuva- got them to return to the faith and lead an orthodox life. This got him to the fire and brimstone part- he began to beseech to everyone in the room to become religious- keep Shabbat, keeper kosher, etc. etc. I turn to my sister and ask her what this has to do with our grandfather? She just shook her head. His little speech went on for about 10 minutes. Once he was finally done, he thanked everyone for coming and gave the address for where the family would be sitting shiva. I looked over and my mom, wondering what was going on- my cousin and I had prepared eulogies and this guy was getting ready to leave! So she told him that there were still two more to go. And then Strike Three went like this:

Rabbi: "Mi od yesh?" ("Who else is there?")
Mom: "shnei nechadim." ("Two grandchildren.")
Rabbi: "ok, mi?" ("Ok, who?")
Mom: "Ronnie v'Elanit." ("Ronnie and Elanit.")
Rabbi: "LO! Nashim lo m'dabrot po!" ("NO! Women do not speak here!")

Then I immediately pipe in:
Me: "Ani m'daberet bishvil ha Sabba sheli!" ("I am speaking for my grandfather!")
Rabbi: "LO!" ("NO!")
Me: "Ken!" ("YES!)
Rabbi: "Az ani holech!" ("Then I am leaving!")
Me: "Az telech!" ("So go!)

And he stormed out.

I asked my cousin to speak first, if only to give myself some time to calm down. I was so taken aback by the entire conversation, my hands were literally shaking. Who was this man to tell me that I couldn't give a eulogy for my grandfather? I know enough Jewish law to know how utterly ridiculous he was, and there was no way I was going to allow him to stand there and tell me what women can and cannot do. Argh!

I can't remember any incident such as this which forced me to explicitly stand up for my rights as a human being. For the most part, I am at peace with the way Modern Orthodox Judaism has adapted along with the changing modern times, and most of the battles associated with a woman's role in Judaism I had to face were internal- if I would cover my hair, wear pants, etc. This was something totally new.

The Rabbi hasn't been seen since; I have no idea if he will actually show up to my grandmother's home to pay his respects, but if he does, I will not be moved to the other side of the room and I will not hide from him nor anyone else who would want to shove me into a corner. (I had half a mind to start my eulogy with the line "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!) I certainly don't believe that's what my Sabba would have wanted.

It's so hard to say goodbye, Part Two

2008-02-20T22:28:00.003-05:00

Sabba's funeral was today. And, as expected, there was drama. But I'll keep that story for tomorrow. For now, since I am exhausted beyond belief, I post the eulogy I gave this morning. (Some of it may be repetitious from the previous post.)

---------------------------
I’ve known for quite some time that I would need to write something for this day. But every time I would sit down to collect my thoughts during the last week, I’d come up empty. Not because there’s nothing to say. In fact, just the opposite. How do you summarize a life of 85 years in a five minute speech? How is it possible to illustrate to all of you the vibrant life my Sabba lived?

For 18 years of my life, Sabba was the force behind our family, physically and spiritually. In his prime, he was a hefty man, with the strength, body, and energy of an ox. He loved to use his hands- no project was too simple or too complex for him. After he retired, he split his time between helping Miri and David in the hardware store, which he had opened with Savta years ago, and lending a hand at my father’s shop in the city. His helping hand also extended to his grandchildren. Ronnie, Mikey, and Leore can share plenty of stories- they lived much closer to him than we did, and saw him multiple times a week, while us in Staten Island saw him every Shabbat. But on those occasions when we’d get together on Sundays to celebrate Father’s Day or Mother’s Day or the other myriad of holidays that would bring our family together, he would not shy away from asking us about our school work and offer his help with projects. I have a picture of him from years ago- based on my haircut in that picture, I must have been in the 7^th grade- sitting in the dining room of our old house, helping me put together posters for a social studies project. Sabba’s world revolved around his family- he was so proud to have us all so close. Yes, there were ups and downs- and with every family, we had our fair share of drama. But every time something happened between us that seemed to be too much, he would come around and remember- and remind all of us- how important family was and how devastating it would be for something to come between us. Nothing was more important, absolutely nothing.

But his sense of charity didn’t end with his family. Our Sabba was a true baal chesed, a true man of loving-kindness. As far back as I can remember, Sabba would bring back countless number of sets of tefillin from Israel to give to boys of bar-mitzvah age in his shul who couldn’t afford their own. Every evening, right before closing time, he would go to the bakery down the block and buy up all the leftover muffins and cakes and cookies to bring to the shul’s yeshiva the next morning. He cared for them so deeply and sacrificed so much for his shul to thrive and grow. There was no prize or reward or special recognition at the end for all that he gave; he just gave from his heart, and his heart was big.

The last 10 years were completely and utterly different. Unless you’ve experienced it yourself, you can’t even imagine what it’s like to care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. But little did he know, Sabba made sure we were prepared for what was to come. If not for his immense focus on love and importance of family, we would not have emerged from this closer to each other and to him than we ever were before. For the last 10 years, we were blessed with the opportunity to give back to him in ways no one would have ever imagined. No, the wretched disease was not a blessing and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But out of every misfortune comes adversity, and with adversity comes an opportunity to rise above. And together, we all rose above. My mom, my aunt Miri, and Savta came together to care for Sabba and make him as comfortable as they could from the first chapter right up until his last journey on this earth. They worked so hard, so tirelessly, gave up so much of themselves, to make sure he received the best while constantly being surrounded by those who loved him. If all parents were so lucky… The grandchildren also banded together- taking turns to watch over him when Savta needed a break, making him laugh and teaching him to chant “Lets Go Mets” when the games were on, and simply reducing the stress and pressure whenever we could. Through this experience, what was once a love based on respect and fear of the father of the family turned into pure, unadulterated love and devotion.

We learn that the greatest act of chesed one can do is chesed shel emet- the truest act of kindness is giving to someone who has absolutely no ability to return the kindness. This act is pure, genuine, because there’s no doubt in its intention. We learn about chesed shel emet when we read about the acts of the chevra kadishah, casket pallbearers, and anyone who does something for a person who has passed on. But I believe that it’s possible to do chesed shel emet even with the living. And that’s what Sabba taught us- everything that he gave to others- to his shul, to his community- was pure and innocent, with only the best of intentions, without waiting for anything in return. And the love we freely gave to our Sabba, our beloved Bobosh, was a love we knew we couldn’t get back.

But it turns out he still had a little more to give. This past Saturday night, when we all thought the end was near, Andrew and I were driving up furiously from Washington, to hopefully get the chance to see him one last time. On the phone with my mom, I asked her to ask Sabba to wait for me, even though we were still 4 hours away and death seemed imminent. Miraculously, when we pulled up to the hospice at 1am, he was there, sleeping peacefully. Indeed, he had waited. As I walked into his room, I slid next to his bedside, gently bent over to kiss his forehead, and thanked him for waiting and that it was ok to go. There was no need for him to suffer any longer.

Life and death are so difficult to explain, to justify, to come to terms with. But if I'm positive about one thing, I'm positive about this: our Sabba has a one-way ticket to a seat near the Almighty. I'm no expert on these things, but he's suffered far too long and far too much for anything less. He lived a good life, with his family always around him. He was a man of chesed, loving-kindness and charity, always thinking about helping others, and always had family in the forefront. And I'm positive he will be rewarded for all of that in the World to Come.

It's so hard to say goodbye, Part One

2008-02-18T21:33:00.002-05:00

Have you ever stared at death in the face and wish he'd just get it over with? I did this weekend.

After a long drawn-out battle with Alzheimer's, my grandfather passed away this evening. We've kinda known for the last two months that this day was on its way- he was taken to the hospital two months ago because he was having trouble breathing, but then they discovered that his colon wasn't working any longer. So after six weeks of drama in the hospital, my mom and aunt decided it was time to move him to a hospice, make him as comfortable as possible, and let him go. That wretched disease took away almost everything mental and physical about him- in his prime, he was a hefty man, with the strength and body of an ox; this past week, he was just a shadow of himself. And after the trauma he went thru during the first few weeks in the hospital, what was left of him mentally just retreated away, inside, where no one could penetrate.

On Friday evening, we thought it was the end. I called my mom to wish her a shabbat shalom, and she told me that she was running out to the hospice because he was in heart distress. I secretly walked around all shabbat with my cell phone, justifying that with the fact that I could not go 25 hours being in this limbo of not-knowing. But, no phone call came, and Saba lasted another night. We had already planned on driving up to NY on Saturday night for a wedding on Sunday- we planned to return Sunday night but packed for a week, in case we needed to stay. As we were running out of the apartment, I called my mom, who said that he's gonna go any minute, but I told her to tell him to wait for me. And indeed, he waited.

He waited long enough for us to pull up to the hospice in Queens at 12:45am. As I walked into his room, I slid next to his bedside, and saw my grandfather sleeping and breathing heavily. I gently bent over to kiss his forehead, thanked him for waiting for me, and that it was ok to go. I pleaded with him- told him we would all be ok and we'd take care of Savta, and that there was no need for him to suffer any longer.

But it turns out he did me one better- he waited until today, so that there wouldn't be sadness on my sister's anniversary, which was on Sunday. Always thinking about his family, that guy.

Life and death are so difficult to explain, to justify, to come to terms with. But if I'm positive about one thing, I'm positive about this: my grandfather has a one-way ticket to a seat near the Almighty. I'm no expert on these things, and certainly may be professing blasphemy at the moment, but he's suffered far too long and far too much for anything less. He lived a good life, for the most part. He was a man of chesed, loving-kindness and charity, always thinking about helping others, and always had family in the forefront. And I'm positive he will be rewarded for all of that in the World to Come.

We got back to DC Sunday evening. We brought up the suitcases we packed the night before, but just left them lying on the floor of our bedroom, somehow knowing that the time would come soon for us to pack up the car and make the drive north once again. And tomorrow, we'll be on the road again.

I feel myself fortunate to have grown up with all four of my grandparents. We saw our grandparents every single weekend until it was time to move out of the house and move away. Most are not as fortunate, and I feel blessed because of it. Grandparents have so much to give and so much to share with their grandchildren. I would never give up those years for anything.

Flu addendum

2008-02-07T16:43:00.000-05:00

1. I have never gotten a flu shot.
2. I can't remember the last time I had the flu.
3. If you suspect you have the flu, get to a doctor within 72 hours of first symptoms. Tamiflu can help. Otherwise, flood your system with hydrating lyquids, taking hot showers, and getting some fresh air helps in the recovery process. Having great friends who will bring you a thermometer, PowerAid, Nyquil, and do your shopping helps even more. :)

Overheard behind the counter

2008-02-07T15:51:00.000-05:00

Raise your hand if you were smart enough to get the flu vaccine this year? Yeah, I figured most of you did. Now raise your hand if you know anyone who's gotten the flu this year? Quite a number of people, huh? (That would make sense since many of you reading this were at my Superbowl party and currently have the flu.) Now raise your hand if you think that since you got the vaccine, you're all set? Nope! Wrong! Cuz guess what? The flu strain that's going around this year is NOT one of the strains included in the vaccine. Sorry, guys. The scientists guessed it wrong this time.

So we go to CVS with three scripts in hand to fill, two of which are for Tamiflu. The pharmacist takes a look at the notes and says flatly: "we only have two pills left, but we can order some more and they'd be in by tomorrow." So we kindly asked her to see if another local CVS had some, and while we wait, we hear someone from behind the counter say: "This stuff had been sitting on the shelf for 6 months and all of sudden they all want it and now it's gone!"

I blame global warming.

Idealism vs. Realism

2008-02-05T18:32:00.001-05:00

Much has been written on the idealism of Obama versus the realism of Hillary, and I'm sure more will be written before all is said and done. But here's one point I don't think I've seen yet: if I remember correctly, in most, if not all of the primaries so far, Obama has gotten much of the under 40 vote while the 50+ is going to Hillary. At the same time, since the Ted Kennedy endorsement, Obama has been compared numerous times to his brother, JFK. Perhaps the 50+ group is going to Hillary because they actually lived through the JFK years and beyond, and while they may remember the idealism of the time and the positive, uniting message that JFK disseminated with fondness, how do they feel about his actual actions in office? How do they feel about whether or not that idealism and unity actually translated into something concrete?

I don't profess to know the answer; but I think it's something to think about. How does a president get the real hard stuff done? And perhaps the returns from tonight will prove this wrong. Just a thought.

Just Super

2008-02-04T08:19:00.001-05:00

I'm not a huge football fan, but anytime a New York team (other than the Yankees of course) make it to their respective sports championship game, I get amped up. And last night was no exception.

We hosted a Superbowl party of 16 people- we've definitely had more than that number in our apartment before, but really never that many crowded around a single source of entertainment: the TV. Thankfully, with a plasma, you can sit anywhere in the room (sans behind the TV) and experience the same view as the person sitting directly in front. So 16 people was just fine, except they didn't eat enough.

Of course no party planning goes on without a little bit of craziness. We had a tiny snafu with the chili and I needed to run out with the car at 6pm to drive the hot pot over to our place. Usually, when I get frazzled, I'll get a bit aggressive with the driving and let out some verbal steam if I'm the only one in the car. As I was rounding Washington Circle and telling myself to breath and calm down, I took notice of what was around me: the streets were mostly empty of cars and instead of drivers, a countless number of people were scurrying about, holding six-packs of beer or a bag of chips and other food to bring to their own Superbowl parties. And immediately, I became calm. It was just so amazing to me that, literally, so many people were doing, or getting ready to do, the same exact thing. There was something soothing to the soul about it.

By the time I got back to the apartment, our friends were milling about, chatting about the pre-game, eating some chips, and scouting out their favorite seat in front of the TV. All in all, we had a terrific time. This year's game was the first time in a while where we had fans for each team watching together and where the stakes were so high. Everyone wanted to see every single play and everyone wanted to see every single commercial. The only real break we had was halftime!

The game itself was also one of the best football games I have ever seen. I am a bit biased, being from NY and all, but we were all on our toes, biting our nails, screaming, etc., the entire time. And I have to give our resident Pats friends credit- they took the loss with so much class; I was quite impressed with their sportsmanship. Xerpentine even led the first after-game toast to the Giants! All I know is, if we had just finished watching the Mets lose the World Series, I would have kicked everyone out of the apartment so much earlier than how late everyone stayed and chatted after the game.

Overall, we had a great time. The only issue, is that now 6 out of the 16 people at the party have the flu or flu-like symptoms, including myself and AJ. Oy.

I'm a junkie

2008-02-01T09:17:00.001-05:00

A political junkie, that is.

My version of a fun evening: having dinner with the hubby, then curling up on the couch for two hours to watch a presidential debate. Yeah, I know. I'm pathetic. The best part of last night was that the entire 2-hour debate was full of wonky policy talk, and boy, was that exciting. There was nuance and high-brow discussion on everything ranging from healthcare to taxes to Iraq and even to the Dream Ticket. And boy, did the place erupt after that. All the talk about making history, charting a new direction, a united Democratic Party, and all the cheers were enough to leave that lump in your throat present for two straight hours. It was fantastic.

What i loved so much about it was the fact that so many people were interested in listening. It amazes me that this campaign season has turned so many people on. Perhaps you can blame it on the Hollywood writer's strike, but so what? People are still tuning in and showing up to the polls in record numbers. Will it last thru November? Who knows. But it's still fun and exciting to watch. I can't wait for Super Duper Tuesday.

Day of Suck

2008-01-15T08:19:00.000-05:00

What should have been a pretty good day ended up sucking royally. A year ago yesterday was the happiest day in my life and we had modest plans to celebrate. But the day didn't start out too great and only got worse as the hours went by; how good can the day be when the spouse is sick and achy all over and doesn't even have the energy to eat dinner? And when your day starts and you're all over the place because you didn't get a chance to go thru your regular morning routine when you got into the office, it takes a while to recover. And that recovery never really happened. So I went thru the day feeling as if I was in a fog and confused and couldn't really concentrate at work despite the fact that we had a major deliverable briefing in the morning with the client. We did end up going to dinner, but then we got home and that was that. AJ collapsed in bed after catching up on some stuff and I stayed awake for no real reason, except waiting around hoping that some important people in my life would remember. But that made me feel even worse so I climbed into bed around 11pm; not even Stewart or Colbert could cheer me up.

So the day finally ended and a new year has begun. Here's to another great year of love and excitement together with AJ and hopefully a more relaxed and special Year 2 milestone.

The polls weren't wrong. DUH.

2008-01-10T12:19:00.000-05:00

Let’s put this to bed right now: the polls were not wrong. The reporting of the polls were wrong. Here are some numbers from polls taken between January 4-7th (thank you to Keith Olbermann for pointing this out):

Fox News: 32% for Obama
NY Times: 35% for Obama
Rasmussen: 37% for Obama
WNBC/Marist: 36% for Obama

Those numbers basically hit the nail on the head for Obama’s results, right?

But what about Hillary’s numbers? Well, the NY Times poll also reported 9% of Democrats “undecided” and 28% “not definite”. Fox News reported 12% “don’t know.” And, here’s the kicker: WNBC/Marist reported that 23% of Obama supporters and a whopping 30% of Edwards supporters were “not firmly committed.”

“Not definite” and “undecideds” and “not firmly committed” seems to have helped Hillary, without a doubt.

Does this not prove that the polls weren’t as wrong as everyone is saying? Seems like the media is just infatuated with the top line numbers that can cause a big splash and don’t bother turning the page to see what else the polls are showing. I have my own issues with polling and all the hype and attention the polls get before an election. But this was not a polling error.

I think it’s time to put this to bed and move on to the next hot thing to talk about. As long as it has nothing to do with crying.

A hypothetical

2007-12-17T18:52:00.000-05:00

Take 100 politically- and baseball-inclined people.

Ask them the following two questions:

Does torture work?
Do you believe the evidence provided in the Mitchell Report?

What are the odds that the answers to both questions would be the same?

(For those not baseball-inclined, the evidence provided in the Mitchell Report was provided after threat of jail time.)

Innocent until proven guilty...

2007-12-13T17:46:00.000-05:00

...But not in the court of public opinion.

Once your name finds its way into a steroid allegation, you're screwed for life, unless you somehow dig up evidence to clear your name from the mud.

It's sad, but it's the way of life. And that's why I have no sympathy for the players named in the Mitchell Report. How does that make sense? Because a huge fraud was perpetrated here, by everyone involved: the players, first and foremost. The owners and other baseball employees who turned a blind eye, the commissioner (who somehow thinks he's exonerated now that the report was released), and the media. Everyone ignored it. And everyone must pay the price for keeping the ol' boys club circle closed to protect each other's bottom line.

I'm not saying the Mitchell Report is perfect. Far far from it. The only evidence in there is circumstantial and based on the words of two guys who are facing federal charges and two MLB players (Jason Giambi and Frank Thomas). But every time they encountered a new name, the committee called the player and gave him a chance to speak. Once these guys got the phone call, they knew that their names would appear in the report but they ignored it. They decided to protect each other instead of protecting themselves, their reputations, and their families. Of course they probably felt under attack and they probably didn't want to give the investigation any credence. But this is it. This will be how history remembers the Steroid Era of Baseball. Right or wrong.

Look at Jason Giambi- he was implicated, testified at a grand jury hearing, and publicly apologized. Did he want to do that? Of course not. But his reputation is in tact. He's seen as a guy who stood up, admitted his mistakes, and moved on. Do you hear anyone booing him anymore? No one cares about Giambi anymore. But we're still talking about Bonds. McGwire. Sosa. And the whispers about Roger Clemens will now be spoken out loud, simply because his name showed up in the report. No one is going to care whether or not the report is based in pure fact or conjecture. A future Hall-of-Famer was named and now he's guilty in the court of public opinion.

You're name is in this report and you feel you're innocent? Well then, open your mouth and say so. And confront your player colleagues and force them through public shaming and peer pressure to step up and take responsibility for their actions and for sullying the names of every player who played in this era. Wishful thinking, I know, but again, I have little sympathy.

Two Random Questions

2007-12-13T08:18:00.000-05:00

Two random questions that have absolutely nothing to do with anything:

Why do most people not look at the person they are speaking with? I've had meetings with pretty high-up people in management and clients, and most just look down or away when they talk to you. Weird. Whatever happened to making a connection with your audience?
Why does toast always come buttered?

That's all. :-)

Good business decision of the day

2007-12-11T14:03:00.001-05:00

This morning started off a bit slow for me, and I took some time to just browse Amazon.com. They usually have pretty interesting Gold Box surprises and other deals that are only available at specific times during the day. So I figured, hey, why not check it out?

Since we placed an order for a new TV, we've been waiting patiently for Frys to get a new shipment and honor the price they advertised right after Thanksgiving (they had it on backorder). At the same time, I've been tracking prices for the same set, just in case Frys didn't deliver on the order. Up until today, none of the prices were below $1050.

So as I was trolling the Amazon.com website, I saw a link advertising low prices on select HDTVs. I decided to click and take a look at what they had. And, lo and behold...Amazon had our TV, the Samsung HP-T4254, for $900 with free white glove shipping! Wait! It gets even better! They had the sets IN STOCK AND READY TO SHIP!!

There's more: With any purchase of a Samsung 40" or bigger flat panel, they are giving away a free Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote. (The Logitech's are awesome but not necessarily needed for HDTVs if you connect everything thru HDMI, but hey, it's free!) And, we get a $100 gift card to nflshop.com.

And, I realized that it gets just a tad better than that. Amazon sold out their stock and is now selling the same TV for $1069 through another vendor, and without the free shipping. Someone, who will remain nameless ;o), wanted to wait until tonight to figure out which to buy. (Amazon is selling HP-T4254's sister model, the HP-T4264 for $999. For those wondering, the ONLY differences between them is a USB port and ultra-ultra-ultra anti-glare, as opposed to ultra-ultra anti-glare.) Good thing I insisted on a purchase within the hour of the find!

Oh, and once the purchase was made, I called Frys to cancel our original order. No questions asked and no credit card charges.

So there you have it. Today's lessons:

It pays to waste time at work surfing the internet for amazing deals during the holiday season.
Amazon.com rocks on any given day.

I'm quite happy with myself. It's been a good day. :-)

Passed!

2007-12-07T10:12:00.000-05:00

"Congratulations, you have passed the exam."

1 down, 2 to go.

CGFM

2007-12-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

Boy is it hard shifting back into the studying gear. It's been four years since I took my last exam and for some reason, I've brought it back onto myself again. Oy.

Tomorrow I take exam 1 of 3. This one is the easiest; it's obvious why. I spent perhaps 2.5 hours a night studying (really, just reading the study guide) since Monday. I have no idea what I'll do for #2, considering the study guide was 3x the size of this one. I'm just so out of that mode at the moment. I may not even take the other two, we'll see. I really just feel very ambivalent about the whole thing, and if not for the fact that it makes me more marketable and attractive to my firm and clients, I probably wouldn't even take tomorrow' exam. Ugh.

Debates

2007-11-28T21:53:00.000-05:00

Ironically enough, tonight's Republican YouTube Debate was the first debate I've watched at least half of so far. While it mostly reaffirms why I won't be voting for any one of these guys, I decided I kinda like Mike Huckabee. There's something about him that's different from the seven others on the stage and it's quite appealing. He's calm and smart. His answers are professional and thoughtful, and dare I say, real. He answered the first question on immigration with class and smarts, despite how it really didn't fit into the classic Republican anti-immigrant campaign. He defended his policy on granting children of illegal immigrants the same rights to qualify for merit scholarships as citizens with grace and honesty. His answer on the death penalty was moving- though he didn't address the reality of faulty convictions and the current Supreme Court halt on executions. (On the other hand, that comment on putting Hillary on the first rocket to Mars was a little tasteless; yes, everyone else had to mention her, but he was doing just fine without it.)

Don't get me wrong- I wouldn't vote for him. He's super conservative and I disagree with him on many things. But if he got the Republican nomination, I can somehow envision a true shift in national conversation on who should be our next president. His style would dramatically alter the politics and campaigning that we are used to. Perhaps it would be something truly worth tuning in for.

Bad Business Decision of the Day

2007-11-26T12:34:00.000-05:00

We've been doing a lot of research into flat panel TVs, since we have this nice big wall in front of our couch that would be just the perfect setting for TV viewing pleasure. We've looked into the differences between LCD, plasma, and DLP, decided what size we wanted, how much we wanted to spend, and narrowed the search down to a few different brands, based upon level of support, quality, and user reviews. Andrew then spent the weekend scouring the ads for good deals, and found this from Frys, a West Coast electronics chain: a Samsung 42" plasma, a $1500 set, for $900. And, to boot, it came with free shipping!

We didn't want to buy the TV without seeing the picture in person, so, on our drive back down to DC yesterday, we stopped at Best Buy and liked what we saw. During the drive, we decided to stop in Delaware, just in case we found something else we wanted, so that we could take advantage of the free shipping. Also, it couldn't hurt to see if anyone would match the price we found online.

We walked into a Circuit City with online ad in hand. Turns out, CC was selling our set for $1199. I approached a salesman and asked him if they would match the price we found at a competitor out West; he asked his manager, and his manager said yes! We were psyched. The guy walks us over to the Samsung, writes down the model number, and takes our online ad, to ring up the purchase. 5 minutes later, he returns with a change of heart: they will match the $900 price but will have to add what overnight shipping would cost (~$198) if we were to purchase the TV from Frys.

Wha?? I looked at the guy and pointed out that ground shipping was free, so we wouldn't actually pay any shipping on the TV. He countered with the fact that we want to take home the TV today from CC, so in essence, it's overnight shipping. So, we said thank you for trying, but we'll just buy the TV online, thank you very much.

Logically, his argument makes sense, but how much does it make sense when stores are trying desperately to keep their share of customers away from cheaper, online purchases? We walked into Circuit City with the intent of dropping at least $900. We were willing customers who would probably have bought a movie or two while waiting in line to buy the TV. But we walked away, in the same position we were in when we walked through their doors- we have $900 to spend on a TV, but instead of spending it (and perhaps more) at CC, we're spending it online, from the comfort of our own home, without the hassle of loading and unloading the car with a 42" TV. I don't care that I have to wait a few weeks for the TV to arrive, no skin off my back; but CC just lost yet another customer to the internet.

2007-11-13T14:57:00.000-05:00

I love autumn.
And I love the cherry blossoms.

There isn't anything environmental or having to do with nature that I love more than autumn and the cherry blossoms.

The sheer and absolute beauty encapsulated by the changing colors of the leaves and the blooming of the cherry blossoms just simply can't be beat.

I mean, I love snow, flowing rivers, beaches, and mountains-- basically any picturesque nature scene. But there is nothing as accessible and as absolute and definite than autumn and cherry blossoms, at least in DC.

For as long as I can remember, the end of summer meant the leaves would inevitably change from green to yellow, orange, and red. It is the truth of autumn in these areas; you don't have to do anything, and it's there. The same with the cherry blossoms. As winter turns to spring, the cherry blossoms bloom pink and white, and the Tidal Basin transforms into an even more gorgeous landscape. Again, I have no role in this; it just happens.

So nothing thrills (and distracts) me more than an autumn drive along the George Washington Parkway. Even now, halfway thru November, you are enveloped in the rustic colors of fall and the absolute intensity of the trees against the backdrop of the Potomac River and Georgetown. I drove this the other day and was in absolute awe of the beauty surrounding me. Just a few weeks ago, we went to West Virginia for the weekend just to see the changing of the leaves, but who knew that this splendor was right here, five minutes from my home?

If you have a free moment and a car, jump in it and just drive. Drive north on the GW Parkway and pull over into one of the scenic overlooks and just take in what's around you. You won't regret it.

Yay cheesy!!

2007-11-07T19:19:00.000-05:00

Stolen from the lady, Princezz O'Phun:

Copy and post your answers in the comments, and if you post on your site, I'll post my answers:

1. Do you have a tattoo?

2. How old are you?

3. Are you single or taken?

4. Fish?

5. Do you dream in color?

6. Ever seen a corpse?

7. Hipsters or Hillbillies?

8. How did we meet?

9. What's your philosophy on life and death?

10. If you could do anything with me, and have no one know, what would it be?

11. Do you trust the police?

12. Do you like musicals?

13. What is your fondest memory of me?

14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?

15. Would you cheat ?

16. What are you wearing?

17. Have you ever peed in a pool?

18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to?

19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?

20. Which do you prefer - short or long hair?

21. What's your favorite day of the week?

22. What's your favorite color?

23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be?

24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you?

25. What was your first impression of me?

26. Have you ever done drugs?

27. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?

Invasion of the chocolate bugs

2007-11-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

For the last few months, we would notice just one or two little bugs moseying along in our kitchen near our stovetop. We got rid of them quickly and wondered where they were coming from. We usually wouldn't leave food lying around and kept the area relatively clean. Mostly, there were some papers and a small box in the corner area of the countertop. These little buggers would show up every now and then and keep me confused.

Then last night, as I was cleaning up, I saw a few more. I was in cleaning mode, so I started to clear off the counter, and lo and behold, I lifted a piece of folded paper that had been sitting in its exact place for who-knows-how-long, and found: a partially unwrapped bar of chocolate, which I hadn't seen for quite a while.

And then it hit me: it says wonders that we've had a cleaning service clean our apartment every other week for the last few months and the folded paper and other little stuff we had sitting in that corner was never once lifted to clean underneath. What on earth am I paying them for if they are only going to clean the areas of my home that don't have any "stuff" on it?? I understand not wanting to disturb clutter on a desk, but they would always clean up our table and make neat piles of all the mail. So why not the kitchen??

Ugh.

I gotta hand it to the little buggers, though- after all this time, they didn't bother us anywhere else. All they wanted was that chocolate. But then again, would we all be happy if our world consisted of one big bar of chocolate?

A moment of brag

2007-10-25T21:34:00.000-05:00

Please excuse the shameless display of pride in my man.

Can any of you guess which one he is? Hint: his name is not Grover:

And, this, from RNN TV. (For those of you not in the loop [I wasn't until today, so don't feel bad], Regional News Network is one of the largest independent TV broadcast stations in the country.)

Enjoy!

I*Gorman

2007-10-23T15:55:00.000-05:00

I love I*Gorman.

Who is I*Gorman, you ask?

I*Gorman is the best jewelery shop in town. Bar none. Ask anyone who's shopped there before and they'll agree. You walk into I*Gorman and all you get in friendly, personable, understanding service. They don't try to pressure you into a purchase and they have patience you'll never see in professional sales.

I*Gorman is a family-run business. They sell absolutely gorgeous jewelery, pieces from designers you won't find in many other stores. They are unique, special, one-of-a-kind, simple yet elegant. And beautiful. We've already bought three pieces from them: the necklace you see here and our wedding bands. When the day calls for a special gift to someone special, I will buy from them again.

After leaving the Social Security Administration offices this afternoon, I realized I was one block from I*Gorman; one of the coils on my necklace was fraying, so why get it fixed? I stopped in and immediately was welcomed by Nicole Gorman. I showed her the necklace and without even a blink of an eye, she said that she'll check to see if the necklace was in stock and would replace it for me right away. While I was waiting, she offered to clean my rings and necklace pendant.

I*Gorman has a very simple satisfaction guarantee: if you bought it from them, and it broke, regardless of fault, they will replace it, for the lifetime of the product. No ands, ifs, or buts. No one asked me how the coil frayed or when we bought it. They replaced it, brand new, simple as that. Can it get any better?

I've already recommended to a handful of people to go there. 95% of them have ended up buying something. Two haven't: one who found an engagement ring cheaper someone else (and when you're buying a diamond, you go for quality and price over everything else, so that's understandable), and the other, who just hasn't yet gone in; but he will, I know for sure. Regardless of reason though, all of them only have good things to say.

So next time you are in the market to buy something special for that special someone, or even to indulge yourself in something new and unique, go to I*Gorman. I'm not getting any kickbacks (though I probably should!) for this; it's just the simple truth: shopping for beautiful jewelery has never been easier. And you'll never stop hearing the compliments from others marveling at that new piece you've got on; it's been over a year, and I still get compliments on my necklace.

It's official

2007-10-23T15:46:00.000-05:00

I'm officially Elanit Zina Rothschild Jakabovics.

You can call me Elanit Jakabovics for short.

It only took me approximately 9 months 9 days 4 hours.

Yes, some of you are thinking it, so I'll just say it: I could have had a baby in the time it took me to change my name. Luckily for everyone, I just changed my name. :) Everything in it's own time, folks.

Do I feel different? A little, I guess. Identity issues, aside, it just takes getting used to. For the last 9 months, I've continued to introduce myself as Elanit Rothschild, both socially and professionally. Not for any reason except that's what flows off my tongue without even thinking about it. On Friday night, knowing I would have to introduce myself to the scholar-in-residence at synagogue, I collected myself and reminded my brain that I was Elanit Jakabovics and I should say that. And I did.

I always feel bad afterwards, especially when my husband is standing right near me, though he says it doesn't bother him. While I do believe him, it still is a bit awkward. He understands the process and difficulties involved, I'm sure. I just need to try harder.

Political Ads

2007-09-21T12:05:00.001-05:00

Can someone please explain to me the difference between the Moveon "Betray-Us" ad and the Swift Boat lies from the 2004 campaign? How about the Max McClellan ads? If there is no difference- if you think that all three ads were, at the least, not in good taste, why does one deserve a vote in the Senate condemning it and the others do not? Why does our President call one "disgusting" but uses the others to help his own campaign?

Time

2007-09-11T08:56:00.000-05:00

Last night, even before reading this New York Times article, I turned to Andrew and asked, "When is it time to say enough with the name-reading ceremonies, the all-day coverage of memorials, and move on to a different type of remembering?" I didn't mean for the question to be cold and careless; just the opposite. As a Jew, I'm all too familiar with yearly ceremonies and memorializing those who were tragically killed throughout the years. But at what point do we turn to each other and say that we've grieved enough and it's time to do something different on this day? Not forget- never forget!- but just something different.

Far be it for me to suggest what that different would be. I've already written too much about my experiences, and Andrew was right last night when he said that I have a visceral reaction anytime the topic is brought up. I can't deny the fear of reliving, and I'm sure neither can many of those who either lost loved ones, experienced the terror first hand, or experienced any other sort of trauma because of it. And perhaps that's describing most of us.

As much as I want to move on, something pulls me towards reading the commentary and news articles, the first-hand accounts, and staring at all the pictures. But there's gotta be some sort of medium between not being able to let go and letting the day pass like it's any other day. Maybe it's just a function of time.

A Bun in the Oven

2007-08-28T14:53:00.001-05:00

Last night, Andrew sent out this email to our closest family and friends:

Dearest all-

I know email can be an awfully impersonal way of sharing wonderful news, but Elanit and I wanted to share some early pictures of Oscar with you. He's not much to look at now, but he's very active and been growing nicely. (And to think he started as just a bunch of hungry cells.) Our hopes and dreams for him are that he will live a long and fruitful life and that we can share him with family and friends near and far for years and years to come.

Love always,
Andrew and Elanit (and Oscar)

Needless to say, it kinda freaked a few people out. But that was the point. :-D

If you haven't already guessed from the picture, Oscar is our sourdough starter. A starter is basically a wild yeast colony, which provides the sour flavor in sourdough and helps the dough rise more naturally. A starter is a batter consisting of flour and water- it's that simple! The most interesting part about it is that a starter is like a plant- you have to feed it to keep it alive and growing, otherwise it will get moldy and die. After a few days of room temperature growth, you can leave it in the fridge and feed it once a month; when you want to use it in a recipe, just take it out, let it get active again, and voila! Your starter is ready for use.

Because starters get tastier with age, it is not uncommon for bread bakers to have starter that is over a hundred years! And, because all you need is a small amount to get going, one starter can be split between family and friends. It really is a most fascinating thing!

Andrew is a huge fan of sourdough and since it's so hard to find fresh kosher sourdough bread, I decided last week to surprise him for his birthday and make my own starter. After following a recipe, I let it sit and watched it grow. I fed it everyday with organic whole wheat flour (organic whole wheat has more organisms off of which the yeast can feed), and yesterday decided it was time to make our first loaf. The outcome was mostly a success; because we started a bit late (you can blame Metro for that), we didn't have the patience to let it rise for longer than an hour, and it turns out that sourdough takes much longer to achieve a sufficient rise. So the bread was a little dense, but it seems like Oscar will provide us with good foundation for yummy breads for a long long time!

I'm back

2007-08-28T14:52:00.000-05:00

Apologies for the three month hiatus.

I'm back.

Raise the roof.

Clarification

2007-05-02T16:22:00.000-05:00

It looks like I need to clarify my previous post. David read my post and came to the conclusion that I was proposing we reintroduce a mandatory draft into the armed forces.

I'll say it plainly: I am not an advocate for a mandatory draft and I don't support the idea of reinstituting it here in this country.

The point of my post was to highlight the striking parallels between the criticisms of Olmert's handling of the Second Lebanon War and Bush's handling of the Iraq War. The point was also to highlight where these two diverge: where Israel appoints independent commissions who release no-holds-barred truthful analysis of the actions of their leaders, the United States is still playing through the "debate" as to whether our "leaders" lied and misled this country into a senseless war, the consequences of which we will experience for a long time to come.

Yes- I do believe that President Bush and VP Cheney deliberately misled the country- and there's enough proof out there to support the claim, starting with the false assertions that Hussein was complicit in the 9/11 attacks and that Iraq had clear ties to Al-Qaeda. We know that to be false. But yet, the administration continues to peddle that theory. I can go on, but that's not the point of this post. David- I have no desire to label my "opponents" as evil and vile, especially not for the hell of it. (And shall we point to the myriad of Republicans out there who label their "opponents" as unpatriotic, America-haters, anti-family, baby-killers, evil, etc. This is not just a "Democratic" issue.)

The point here is this: Outrage from the Israeli public on the handling of this war fueled the impetus for the commission and the commission verdict was unanimous. They hold their leaders accountable for their actions to a much higher degree than we do in this country.

One major difference between Israelis and Americans is clear (besides for all others): every single Israeli knows someone who is serving, who once served, who was injured, who was killed. They are clearly more sensitive to every single soldier's death. The comments I heard on NPR made it obvious: "119 soldiers are in the ground." Those were his exact words! We blink at 119 and move on.

The bottom line is I think a draft would make people more sensitive and aware of the devestations of war, especially those not being fought on our soil (and if that point is not obvious, just take a look at the country's reaction to 9/11, the Columbine shootings, Va Tech, Oklahoma City, etc. We react much differently when it happens here, but when 20 soldiers are killed by a roadside bomb, we read the article and move on). But that doesn't mean I practically support the concept as policy.

Striking parallels

2007-04-30T21:32:00.000-05:00

You don't need to be intimately familiar with the politics and history of the State of Israel to see the striking parallels between the damning Winograd Commission Partial Report on the debacle known as the Second Lebanon War and the criticism surrounding the Bush administration on the debacle known as the Iraq War. They say that Ehud Olmert has an approval rating of 2-3%- yes, you read that correctly: 2 or 3%! Of the entire Israeli electorate! Bush's 33% looks good compared to that! And yet, Olmert has the audacity to go on public television and state that he will not resign despite the findings of the commission. Hubris doesn't even begin to describe it!

Just read some of these lines and tell me they don't sound familiar:

"He made up his mind hastily"
"He is responsible for the fact that the goals of the campaign were not set out clearly and carefully"
"Made a personal contribution to the fact that the declared goals were over-ambitious and not feasible"
Decisions were made "without close study of the complex features of the front and of its military, political, and diplomatic options available

The list can go on, if you want. But what is truly striking, though, is across the spectrum reaction to this report. Almost everyone, not including Olmert's family perhaps, is calling for him to resign. So much so, that there are reports that one of the largest demonstrations ever in Israel will take place on Thursday evening in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. They are estimating over 400,000 people! And what past demonstrations would this one rival in numbers? Only the one held after Rabin's assasination and after the massacres at Sabra and Shatillah. That's it.

And for what purpose? To let the government know exactly how they feel about last summer's war. Why? Because 119 soldiers died. Yes- the public is outraged because 119 soldiers died. Unbelievable!

It's true- we as Americans will never fully comprehend the earth-shattering consequences of war until every single one of us tastes it. Until we each know someone who sacrificed for their country. Because thousands of American soldiers have died so far in this disaster of a war, and countless books have been written, countless inquiries have been made, but it's still not obvious to many in this country how their leaders misled and lied for their own selfish reasons, and still refuse to be held accountable for their actions.

I always nodded my head in passive agreement in the past, but it really struck me as I was driving home this evening from work listening to an interview of an Israeli reservist that perhaps only a mandatory draft could start getting people to really care again about preciousness of each and every life that serves to defend the country.

The Voting Rights March

2007-03-28T18:56:00.002-05:00

I just registered to participate in the Voting Rights March, which will take place on April 16, DC Emancipation Day.

Like many others living in DC (and hopefully around the country), I was shocked and dismayed at the Republican derailment last week of legislation to give DC residents full voting rights in the House. The bill has bipartisan support (one of the bill's co-sponsor is a Republican from Virginia, Thomas M. Davis III) but the White House and Republican leadership believe it to be unconstitutional. Truth is, I just don't think they care much and that they'd rather not hand the Democrats another victory.

I have no problem with people believing that the bill is unconstitutional- there's serious debate as to whether the bill, as it is currently written, can withstand a constitutional test. But, what about alternatives? If the White House truly believes that the only issue with the current bill is that it is unconstitutional, why not work with legislators- Democrat or Republican, I don't care- to write up something that can pass muster? Or, why not just leave it to the courts to decide?

Here, we have a President who travels all over the world talking about rights and democracy, invades a country and sacrifces the lives of thousands of American soldiers, promising to bring them those rights, and yet, he actively denies citizens of his own country the basic right to vote. And don't forget all the parts of the Constitution that he's stomped on and trashed the last six years. And now he pulls out that very same Constitution to deny 500,000 citizens of his own country the right to vote. It's inconceivable to me that such hypocrisy could exist so blatantly!

So, on April 16, I will participate in my first rally. (I've never been to a rally or a protest before, but that's for another day.) Because this isn't about politics or about left and right. It's about right and wrong. It's about a basic right that I lost once they shredded my NY license at the DMV making me a full-fledged DC resident. A right that was given to me and every other citizen of this country over 200 years ago (well, actually, the right was given to me personally in 1919 and to everyone else who's not white in 1870, but you know what I mean). A right that Iraqis now have, but I don't. And I live in supposedly the freest country in the world.

Join me. If you live in DC, you have no excuse not to march, unless you really don't care about not have a true representative in Congress (for that, you should be ashamed!). If you don't live in DC, use it as an excuse to come visit the nation's capital.

2007-03-24T22:20:00.000-05:00

I'm awe struck by John and Elizabeth Edwards. Much has been written about this already, but why not add a bit more to it- the decision to continue the campaign despite Elizabeth's illness is their's alone and I personally give them a lot of credit for fighting on. But the bottom line, it's not my place to judge whether it's good or bad, except whether it can negatively impact the country if Edwards is elected. But that decision will be made at the ballot box, not on this blog.

But that's not what makes me admire them. Have you looked at a picture of them lately? Is there anything phony about how they look at each other, their chemistry, and their love for each other? There really are no words to describe it, besides for describing it as the epitomy of what love in a marriage should be like. Considering their age and what they've been through together-- the normal trials and tribulations of marriage, not to mention illness, the tragic death of a child, a political campaign-- you know it's nothing superficial. They didn't just get married to justify the googley-eye-ness of what's going on between them. Have you ever seen this between a presidential candidate and his wife?

How can you not admire that? How can you not look at those pictures and wish that regardless of what God throws your way, in 30 years, you too can be looking at your spouse with the same devotion, commitment, and love the same way the Edwards do today?

Identity

2007-03-22T16:47:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to write about this since January, but kept on getting distracted. A wedding, buying an apartment, selling an apartment, and moving, not to mention working 40+ hours a week can be somewhat distracting.

The week after my wedding, it hit me: due to social norms and my adherence to an Orthodox lifestyle, I was being forced to actively question my identity- public and private. All of a sudden, I was being asked the same two questions by almost everyone I saw that week (and I saw A LOT of people that week):

1. Are you changing your name? How?
2. Are you going to cover your hair? How?

It's not like I only started to think about these questions after my wedding; on the contrary, they'd been on my mind for months before. But I just never quite put the two together to recognize what an impact it would have on my life and how difficult it would be to decide what my answers would be.

For both these questions, there are so many options. I can keep my last name, hyphenate both names, make my maiden name part of my middle name, or change my name completely by taking on my husband's last name or creating a new last name based on both. I already knew which options I would not take-keeping my last name was out of the question. Why? It just doesn't fit with my belief of what a marriage is. With all due respect to the women out there who have kept there last name or intend to keep it, having a different last name than my husband and/or kids makes things seem very individualistic- like I'm above, or somehow different than my family. A natural outcome of a marriage is forging one family unit (with or without children). Of course, each person within that unit is an individual and within each individual are seperate identities and shared identities, but the sum of the whole is greater then it's parts. As one unit, there should be one merged family identity.

Hyphenating was also not considered an option from the very beginning, but for more practical reasons. Just think about it: Rothschild-Jakabovics? What would the kids say? How would they fill out their SAT bubble sheets? They'd run out of room really quickly. For the sake of our family sanity, I couldn't do that. Some hyphenated names easily roll of the tongue, others, not so much...

But I still can't quite wrap my head around just dropping "Rothschild" completely. (Merging Jakabovics and Rothschild into one name also didn't quite make the cut.) I've lived 28 years with the name. I identify with it- not because of the history of the name itself (my family has no direct link to the wealthy and famous Baron), but because family means so much to me. If I drop the name, do I lose my intrinsic connection to everything that came before my wedding? What happens to everything I accomplished as "Elanit Rothschild"- the book I edited (royalties, baby!), the scholarships I won, the degrees I earned, the articles I wrote, and everything else out there associated with that name? And more simply, I've always been known by my initials, EZR (take a look at the name of this blog- there's meaning behind the words and phrase). Where does it all go? Does everything have to change?

These aren't easy questions to answer; if they were, my name would have already been officially changed. I continue to think twice when I introduce myself to colleagues and clients, when I am asked to fill out my personal information on forms, and when I sign my name. It's tough and I feel uncomfortable with the fact that it's been over two months and I am still undecided.

On the other hand, it continues to annoys me that people assume I changed my name. Out of blue, I received a statement in the mail from Macys addressed to "Elanit Jakabovics." I certainly didn't request a name change! They just assumed that since I registered with them and the wedding date has passed, that now my name has changed. But how do they know? How do the people in my community know? Or my family? Those who have written my name as "Elanit Jakabovics" haven't asked; they just assumed it was so. That bothers me.

It bothers me because they don't recognize the difficulty in all of this. They take it for granted, or it is just expected, that automatically change their name once they get marrierd. But that's not the case, especially not in the 21st Century.

It's a question of identity. Most men don't have to go through this process, but many women do. And especially Jewish women. At different points in our lives, we are asked to make changes to ourselves that force us to shift our perspective on who we are. It may seem petty or even insignificant to some, but in truth, at least to me, it strikes at the core of who I see myself to be, what image I want to project for myself, and how I relate to myself and others.

So the easy way out of this, it seems, is to shift my maiden name to be my second middle name. And as of now, that's the name I have associated with my email address. But I'm not sure it's going to stick. For one, it's a real mouthful. Will I just get tired of it after a while and decide to just stick with one middle name and one last name and be done with it? Will I go by one name professionally and another name socially? I don't want this to be difficult, annoying, and confusing for people, but it's difficult, annoying, and confusing for myself.

I haven't yet made any official changes- we're flying internationally next week and I didn't have enough time to change my passport before purchasing the tickets; that was a real good excuse to just push this decision further down the line. But I'm afraid that by the time I do decide, it will be too late from a public perspective, since everyone knows I got married in January, so what am I doing only deciding to change my name in May?

The hair covering issue gets to the same points. I don't feel strongly either way, so I'm covering my hair by default when I'm not at work and not at home (broadly defined to include my families' homes as well). Why? I don't know. I learned the sources and reasoning behind the halacha, I can't say I'm terribly convinced, but I'm doing it nonetheless. Some will think it's because of social pressure. But I can truthfully say that it's not. A friend of mine said to me a few days before the wedding that he would afford me tremendous respect if I didn't cover my hair after I got married, because, according to his logic, the reasoning doesn't make sense. I thought about that for a little bit- but I guess if I cared what others thought of me, I would specifically decide to not cover my hair so that this person would respect me more, right?

But regardless of how I practice, I still struggle with the meaning of it all. Why is it that women are forced to confront these issues head-on more often then men? I was pretty comfortable with myself before all this. I'm mostly pretty comfortable with myself now, but still feel unsettled about all of it. Am I blowing it all out of proportion?

Real Estate Blues, an update

2007-03-18T08:08:00.000-05:00

So although we finally moved into the new apartment, there's still the matter of Andrew's apartment still up in the air. About a week after the apartment went back on the market, we got a few offers and accepted one of them. We went thru the inspection and appraisal processes again and eagerly awaited March 15th, the date the financing contingency was to be lifted. Unfortunately, the buyer never made it to March 15th.

On Wednesday, March 14, the day we moved into the new apartment, we found out that the buyer's financing fell thru. Nothing as exotic as a diplomat not being able to get the right person to waive her immunity; our lives are busy enough as it is at the moment, we could use less drama. No, this time it was simply the fact that the bank didn't believe the buyer would be able to afford two mortgage payments on his salary (he already own one apartment and was planning on using the rent from the first apartment to pay for this one). It was as simple as that. Nothing we could fight against. We felt so helpless; the news totally ruined our first night in our new home.

But, as they say, the sun will come out tomorrow. Our realtors put the apartment back on the market and called a few people who had expressed interest in the apartment last month but missed out. We are expecting a bid to come in today. Third time's a charm?

Moving Day

2007-03-14T06:49:00.000-05:00

The movers arrive this morning between 9-930am.

We will start at our storage unit in Alexandria and then pack up all the boxes and furniture left in the apartment. Then we head over to the new place for delivery.

Packing sucks.
Moving sucks.
But knowing that tonight we'll be sleeping in our new home...can't get any sweeter than that.

Disgusted

2007-03-07T21:01:00.000-05:00

As I was riding the metro this morning, I pulled out the first section of the Washington Post and started reading this article on the front page. About halfway thru the article, and already on page A-9, my eyes stop dead in their tracks when I see the name of a kid I knew in college named as a co-owner of this message board that's turned into a cesspool of sexism, racism, homophobia, and anti-semitism. I continued to read on, but my stomach turned. I've read many news stories that have disgusted me, but these felt different, if only because I actually knew one of the people involved- no, not just involved in the story, but the actual instigator of it all!

Read the story. At first, it sounds like regular freedom of speech vs. privacy argument. And there are many debates nowadays about holding bloggers and other internet posters accountable for their words. But reading on, you see how this is different.

Women are threatened with violence. Identities are being stolen.

And then you read this classic line:

The two men said that some of the women who complain of being ridiculed on AutoAdmit invite attention by, for example, posting their photographs on other social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace.

Invite attention? So because many women post their photographs on other sites, they deserve to be ridiculed, made fun of, insulted, harrassed, and threatened on AutoAdmit? Um, doesn't this ring a bell?!?!

But the next paragraph is the clincher. Given how the article started-- students losing out on prospective jobs because employers Googled them and found negative things written about them online-- one wonders why the writer buried it all the way at the end of the article:

Cohen said he no longer keeps identifying information on users because he does not want to encourage lawsuits and drive traffic away. Asked why posters could not use their real names, he said, "People would not have as much fun, frankly, if they had to worry about employers pulling up information on them."

So, let me get this straight: the posters are supposed to post their messages anonymously so that they don't have to worry about employers pulling up this info on them, but they are allowed to write disparagingly about others and use their victims' real names, thus basically ensuring public hell and embarassment to those they are writing about?

And the cherry on top: People would not have AS MUCH FUN. So it's a game now? It's not really about freedom of speech and providing an online forum for the "marketplace of ideas," and the "exchange of ideas." This message board is for people to have fun. I see now.

It sickens me that a law student such as Ciolli can't distinguish between moderation and censorship, and can't stand up for the integrity of his own website and services. The "freedom of speech" be-all and end-all is not the holy grail. There's a responsibility that comes with the freedoms and protections in our Bill of Rights, and for a lawyer-in-training to just shrug his shoulders at these abuses of that right, actively allowing it to go on, is appalling. But then again, I guess I already knew that, since he pulled the same crap at Queens College 4 years ago.

The sweet taste of victory

2007-02-28T17:00:00.000-05:00

Amount of dollars increase from monthly rent to mortgage payments: at least $1000
Amount of money given away at closing: a lot. :)
Number of packages needed to be sent in order for one to arrive: 4
Number of weeks delayed from original closing date: 2
Number of sellers needed to fly in from Germany at the last minute: 1
Number of times I just wanted to throw my hands up and quit: too many to remember
Number of people around the table at closing: 9
Number of our new apartment: 305
Value of finally owning a new home: priceless.

Thanks to everyone for your support during the last trying month. If anyone out there needs a trusted agent, look no further than Elley Kott and Kira Epstein. Anyone can tell you where to look for a place and where to sign your name, but when the going gets tough (as it did too many times in this case), some realtors just go through the motions and some go the extra mile. Elley and Kira went at least 100 extra miles to make sure we got to closing and then added some extra emotional support along the way. They fought our fight and sheperded us through the process like it was their own. We wouldn't have gotten here without them.

Buying property is a real bitch, but if you have the right people on your side- from realtors to mortgage brokers (yay Seth!), at the end of the day, when all is said and done, it's a real rewarding experience.

Now, onto the renovations...!

Real Estate Blues, part Zvvei

2007-02-24T19:42:00.000-05:00

The saga just doesn't end.

Last week, we left off with the main characters very sad and stressed out about their temporary living situation. Since then, a lot has happened, but not much has changed.

Once we decided to walk away from buyer #1, we were left in a bind with the apartment we wanted to buy: do we let it go or do we try to somehow find short-term financing to cover for the money we were going to use from the sale of Andrew's apartment? We literally only had a few days to figure it out, and thankfully, we were lucky enough to get it done.

So it's February 13th and closing is scheduled for Thursday, February 15th. The seller (we'll call him Doctor), who lives in Germany, had just put signed documents that we need at closing in the mail through DHL. In the meantime, Washington and most of the Northeast get a ton of ice dumped on them and the airports shut down. DHL was unable to deliver the package on time- as it turns out, DHL was unable to locate the package AT ALL. So the Doctor went back to the consulate, signed and notorized the papers a second time, and sent them off- this time thru UPS. We're told the package will be delivered by Saturday, February 17th, so we rescheduled closing for Tuesday, February 20th. OK, no big deal, so the closing got delayed by a few days, but it's only paperwork that holding it up, so what can possibly go wrong, right??

WRONG!!

Saturday February 17 comes and goes. We check out the status of the package and, as of 5:10am local time on February 16th, the papers left Cologne, Germany. We called UPS and all they can tell us is that the package is somewhere in Pennsylvania but they don't know where. They can put a trace on it, but it will take at least eight days. EIGHT DAYS!!

At this point, the closing has been indefinitely postponed. The Doctor was on business in Luxembourg, but he was going to try getting it nortorized there and perhaps this time use FedEx. Turns out, the private notary needed to get the docs translated into German, as required by law, but our the company we are using for title only accepts a US consular notary, so that would be a waste. So he goes to the Consulate, but it turns out the Consulate only notorizes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he got only on Wednesday, and wasn't going to be back in Germany until Thursday night, so the earliest he could get the papers sent would be Tuesday, February 27th. Argh. And the frustration and stress continue...

Thankfully, the Doctor was able to get to the Consulate on Thursday. He got the papers notorized yet again and shipped them International Express...but thru DHL, since that's the company the Consulate uses. So, we track the package online all day Thursday and Friday and everything looks good- the package left Luxembourg, took detours in Belgium and the UK, and was on it's way over the Atlantic. We figured that by the time Shabbat is over, the package will have already been delivered, safely and soundly. Right?

WRONG!!

(You didn't think this would end normally, did you?)

Right after Shabbat, we check the status online. And what do we find? The package arrived in Ohio yesterday and left the facility for...drum roll please...WASHINGTON, PA! At 9am, it left the facility in Washington, PA, for delivery, and by 2pm, it was discovered that the address didn't exist, so it was being sent back to the sender. You think I'm kidding, don't you? Check it out for yourself- tracking #4813941952.

But, there seems to be a silver lining, we hope. We frantically called DHL and find out that they realized their mistake (DUH!) and the package should be on it's way to DC as we speak. Yeah, right.

If you're interested in living thru this experience with us, feel free to check in on our package every few hours. For up to the minute tracking details, track package #63413351746.

At this point, all I can do is laugh. This has gotten to be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever been involved in and really can't put into words how ridiculous it is. You'd think that perhaps we just weren't meant to buy this apartment, but at this point, there's no turning back without significant financial loss. Not that I want to turn back. But WTF??

Real Estate Blues

2007-02-11T21:20:00.001-05:00

Everyone keeps on asking how married life is treating me. For the last six months, we kept hearing how the engagement is the worst part of your life and the first year of marriage is the toughest, so we've been quite prepared, mostly thinking that everyone was referring to what our relationship was going to be like. What nobody prepared us for was what crap the outside world would heap on us once we started making big plans, like, say for instance, figuring out where we would live.

The original plan was to sell Andrew's 1-br apartment and buy a 2-br condo. Andrew's apartment went on the market the second week of December. A couple people came along 3 weeks later and placed a bid. By January 2, a contract was signed and a buyer was found. Not bad for a declining market. Then we got married, came back to DC, placed a bid on an apartment we really liked. A day later, another contract was signed and we started making plans for our new home. And then God started to laugh...

Slowly, things started to unravel. Our buyer was an older woman working for the embassy of Country "G." As a diplomat, she was required to waive her diplomatic immunity in order to receive the loan she qualified for to purchase this apartment. Traditionally- no, wait, actually, by law- immunity must be waived by a government official. This is a very important point to keep in mind, as it seems some people from Country G (and their agents) don't really believe this.

After waiting until two days before the closing date, the buyer got the diplomatic waiver form signed and submitted it to the bank for approval. Unfortunately for us, though, this particular bank did not accept the signature of a "school teacher" as the official representative of Country G, waiving this buyer's diplomatic immunity. Who woulda thunk that a school teacher's signature wouldn't be sufficient for the bank? Man, banks these days...so demanding...

Closing date came and went. Buyer informed us she found a lender who did not require the immunity waiver form and that it would take 10 days to process the loan. Being the nice people that we are, we gave her an extension to secure financing. At the same time, we were told that as long as she took the waiver form to the Ambassador, he would sign it. So there was hope that either option would work. After being reassured by the new lender that the loan would go thru, we were told that the new lender was just bought out by Wachovia and that Wachovia would not allow the loan to be processed without the waiver. OK, but there's still a chance to get the waiver signed by the Ambassador, right? WRONG! It turns out that, while Spain and France and countless other countries have waived diplomatic immunity so that their diplomats could buy property and receive loans in the United States, Country G won't allow it. Country G instead likes to be different and screw with people for their own fun and enjoyment. (Do I sound bitter? No, I'm not bitter. Why would I be bitter?)

So, we're back to square one. We've given this lady enough chances and we decided it was time to just walk away. After busting our butts to get that apartment empty a week after our wedding so that it could be sold before the end of the month, Andrew's apartment is back on the market, the prospects of actually buying the apartment we were planning on living in for the next 5-7 years decreasing by the minute, and we're living out of boxes in my 1-br place for the forseable future. How does that sound for the first one month of married life?

We all say that God has a funny way of handling things but that they happen for a reason and everything will work out in the end. So perhaps this is your lucky day. Anyone out there interesetd in a terrific 1-br apartment in Foggy Bottom/West End? Let us know...

Prescription Drug Costs

2007-02-06T09:02:00.000-05:00

The New York Times's second editorial this morning praises the state of Texas for becoming the first state to require vaccinating girls against HPV. The new drug, Gardasil, boasts being the only drug to guard against the disease that causes cervical cancer in women. Opponents of the mandatory vaccination have nothing more against it than they do against condom distribution in schools, family planning advice, and the birth control pill: that it will promote sexual promiscuity. Of course, we all know that to be false, so there's no point in even trying to debunk that statement. As Governor Perry recently said, the HPV vaccine promotes promiscuity just as much as the Hep B vaccine promotes drug use.

I'm quite impressed that Texas was the first state to pull this off. But other states are not just sitting and doing nothing. Virginia and Colorado are both moving to mandatory vaccinations as well. As is Illinois and probably a bunch of other states as well.

While all of this is good news for the fight against cancer in general, in it's congratulatory editorial, NY Times is overlooking an important issue that is rearing it's ugly head once again: the cost of the drug. A full round of the vaccine (3 doses over an 8-month period) costs $360. While most insurance companies are covering the vaccine, they are reimbursing only $2-$15 for each $120 dose. That leaves the doctor covering at least 85% of the full cost they pay Merck, the makers of the drug. So doctors are either not providing the vaccinations, charging their patients a surcharge, or writing prescriptions for the patients to purchase the vaccine and bring it back. All this does is pass the bloated costs of the drug onto the patients. Meanwhile, Merck is spending it's time lobbying state legislators to pass the mandatory vaccination bills and donating tens of thousands of dollars to their campaigns (see Virgina). What about just lowering the cost of the drug?

What actual good do these laws do if the doctors can't afford to stock the drug and the patients are saddled with the high costs? Will costs naturally come down once the drug becomes mandatory? I'm not an expert in medical economics, and my gut feeling could be wrong, but somehow I doubt it.

2007-02-01T08:55:00.000-05:00

Is anyone else as fascinated by what's going in Venezuela as I am?

2006: A Year in Review

2007-01-17T23:50:00.000-05:00

(I originally published this post last Thursday but blogger decided to file it in December 2006 because that's when I started writing it. A few people mentioned that they haven't seen an update in a while, even though this has been up for almost a week. Now I know why.)

And now, for the annual Year in Review. Last year, it was blatantly stolen from Yo Ambro!

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Went on an all-day biking trip, visited Detroit, got engaged. :)

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
There's always room for improvement!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
One close to me, then a whole lot of people in my community. The one close to me, being the most important- my sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, my nephew Aiden, in February.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit?
Aruba!

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
A new, clean, beautiful apartment, a bit more health, and less spending time at doctors for unknown ailments.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 1 – the official first date anniversary, the second time around.
July 15- the night we got engaged.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finding my true love and learning to enjoy my job.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Letting things fester for too long instead of just nipping them in the bud before they became big issues. (Same as last year, apparently I haven't figured out how to overcome this one yet.)

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yup, had some stones rolling around my head, which caused crazy nausea and vomiting. Not fun at all. Two major incidents on Super Bowl Sunday (two days after my nephew was born) and in May. See more here and here.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My new laptop, more West Wing dvds, a bike.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Mom's and Dad’s, always. The voting constituency.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
- President Bush (still)
- someone close to me; still trying to figure out how to deal with it.

14. Where did most of your money go?
- New York Mets
- Food and gas
- My bridesmaids (but they won't know that for another couple of days unless of course they are reading this now)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- me and Andrew
- New York Mets
- Aiden
- A Democratic majority

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
Got no clue...

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? – much happier
b) thinner or fatter? – I believe a teeny weeny bit heavier
c) richer or poorer? – richer, thanks to GT.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Read, bike, and exercise.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Get into arguments with Matt. But I feel things are getting better. I'm trying.

20. How will you be spending (did you spend) Hanukah?
With my friends

21. Did you fall in love in 2006?
Hell yes!

22. How many one-night stands?
None.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
The West Wing, even though it's cancelled, I watch the DVD's all the time.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I think there are times when I dislike one or two people more than others and I wish I didn't do that. Sometimes I just get this viceral reaction and then other times things are fine. But tate is such a strong emotion. Don’t think I really hate anyone.

And that one person I wrote about last year under this question: well, I put the ball in his court and instead of stepping up to the plate and doing the honorable thing, he cowered away and decided not to deal with things. (Yes, I'm being blatantly vague, but it's something too personal to write about at this point.)

25. What was the best book you read?
"The Flanders Panel" by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
None. But I still love Barrage. :)

27. What did you want and get?
- True love. So corny, but what did you really expect from a woman who's getting married in 2 days?
- To enjoy my job

28. What did you want and not get?
True reconciliation with someone close to me.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Stranger than Fiction. Absolutely terrific, fabulous movie. Totally under the radar but definitely worth it.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 27 and a good friend conspired with Andrew to throw me a really nice dessert party on the Friday night before my birthday. The weekend after my birthday, Andrew and I spent with his mom and sisters and they made me a cake, bought me some balloons, and treated me to a $50 iTunes gift card. It was a nice way to be re-introduced to his family.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less drama, though at times, friendships became stronger because of it and in spite of it. But at other times, the links became cracked. (Yes, same as last year. Some things just never change.)

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Nothing really special.

33. What kept you sane?
My family, friends, and Andrew.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
David Wright of the New York Mets. Gotta love the boy.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
- The midterm elections

36. Who did you miss?
- Julia and Selim
- Omi and Opi
- Saba

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Tom

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
Just how much people change in the span of year.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

At Last
Etta James

At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song.

At last
The skies above are blue
And my heard was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you.

I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known!

You smiled,
And then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
And you are mine at last!

To everything, there is a season

2007-01-03T00:45:00.000-05:00

It was a day full of good news.

First, for all those who were worried, Andrew and I officially do not have syphilis. Thank you, DC, for requiring the blood tests before issuing us a marriage license. Because, you know, I was worried.

And, for the rest of you who thought the housing market in DC was a bit sluggish: I am proud to report that after 25 days on the market, Andrew's condo is under contract! Not only under contract, but above asking price!! Under contract in 25 days, while two other apartments in his building are still actively looking for buyers, even after at least 2-3 months of being on the market. How's that for a job well-done?

Not on our part, mind you. All we did was listen to our realtors, who obviously knew what they were talking about when they asked Andrew to re-paint, re-tile the kitchen floor, put in new carpet, and de-clutter his apartment to the point where it looked like hardly any living was done in that apartment. Three cheers to Elly and Kira for being terrific realtors. Of course, they, like every realtor, are out for the sale, but throughout this entire process, they've treated us like we're they're only clients. They worked on Christmas and New Year's day for us to get the job done. We raise a glass to them!

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Closing is on Wednesday January 31st, and a lot can happen between now and then (not to mention our wedding and the fact that we won't be here for a week afterwards). So, let's not party and celebrate just yet. Let's just say that it should all happen in good time.

To everything, there is a season.

Going Dry

2007-01-01T00:48:00.000-05:00

I decided I don't like alcohol. It's not that I can't hold my liquor. I've never gotten drunk before, but not for lack of full cups in hand. Even after 3-4 drinks, I don't get drunk. Perhaps I'm just not drinking enough. But that's besides the point.

The point is that my body just doesn't like it. I don't really enjoy it. I go to a bar and have trouble figuring out what to order since nothing really does it for me. I'm not a beer drinker. I've stayed away from most Vodka-mixed drinks a long time ago. And now I add Rum to that list.

I had one drink tonight-- just one!-- of the mixed juice-rum-seltzer variety. And it's currently still doing backflips and handstands in my stomach. Not good. I've been feeling kinda lousy the last 90 minutes or so and I'm not convinced it's going away anytime soon. Blech.

I've had drinks before without this negative reaction, but why risk it? I do like wine every once in a while. The only thing that too much red wine does to me is put me to sleep, so that's safe. And I do enjoy a good gin and tonic (Bombay Safire of course!) when it's nice out. But I think I'll be staying away from the mixed drink for now. Hell, I don't really think I'll miss it much, to tell the truth.

Now if only this stomach discomfort would just go away... :-/

Irony

2006-12-31T17:18:00.000-05:00

I saw this in a letter to the editor last week after President Ford passed away, but I haven't seen it acknowledged at all in the media. Does anyone else see any irony in the fact that Gerald Ford died on the same day, December 26th, as Harry Truman? Both men who's presidencies were forced upon them at times of great national distress. I think it's pretty ironic.

I'm no expert in the Ford presidency (though I know Truman's pretty well, he's my favorite). Any other similarities out there?

2006: A Year in Review

2006-12-29T09:57:00.001-05:00