the top is down and the wind is in his hair

I know your asking "what hair?"

well I was actually referring to Shomer not Barry. We took him for a ride in the new car and he was so well behaved.... better than he ever is in a car with a top.


































I wasn't able to get a picture of his favorite spot which was with is front paws on the front counsel and his head up over the front windshield with the wind in his face.... so you will just have to enjoy these.





And no he has not gotten any bigger.

The Vaginas

yes you read that correctly... As of this blog entry that is the name of Sam's football team, which I might ad has had a position change and Sam is now a Corner Back... you go girl!!!!





This next part is for Nativers only.... you get to vote. I will be working on them this weekend so vote soon just put a note in the comments section. All of them will say Nativ 26.


Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

GO VAGINAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sammie as a wide receiver...

yes you read that correctly....Sammie is on a football team in Israel and she is the wide receiver. She had her first practice today... and their first game is next wednesday. So far she has learned what the quarterback means when he yells 24 red 32 blue ... and tomorrow she is going to try to catch the ball... I am waiting for a full report and pictures someone please send me pictures....

Any way I Sammie also reminded me about that class I couldn't remember ... Intorductions to the Holocust and she loves it.... and our two new hebrew words of the day for those of you who want to learn along with me are.

Ein-wine and Lechem-bread.

and still my most used phrase is still ata ba rashima hara shelli said at least twice a day to Shomer the Wonder Dog



Oh one more thing the football league is all girls.....but I still want pictures.

The computer gremlin has been haunting me...

O.k. So maybe I am exaggerating .... no ... the gremlin has gotten to me and I have not been able to work on anything else ... we are converting our old ACT to a new version and it was suppose to be smooth and easy.... that is why I have been at the office for the last week and a half at 6:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night and it's still not done.... but I digress enough, it is time to bring everyone up to speed on all the exciting good news that has been going on while I have been stressing over this conversion.

So ... what has been happening

Celia

well in Portland we had two birthday Celia is 22 and Sean is 24 check their blog for the birthday reports. And we have a date: May 25, 2008 I will keep everyone updated as the plans start happening. We are also very excited about going up to see them for Thanksgiving so there will be more to report from Portland in November.

Then there is Miss Samantha....

her mini-mester is over and she helped Daniel Sher celebrate his 18th birthday.. and their plan (yes she is in on this idea) is to celebrate Daniel reaching the legal drinking age everywhere in the world which means that Israel was 18, South Korea is 19, Japan or Iceland is 20 and then 21 in the good old USA.

Well Daniel got his birthday kiss and then they were off on a 3 day survival training hike in the Negev... in hearing about it I think the real survival was just being with each other without showers for 3 days.

Well Sam has started her regular semester and for the life of me I am having issues remembering what classes she is taking so if I get this wrong Sam please accept my apologies and correct it. She has Hebrew every day, she has Sociology, Israel/Arab Journalism, and one more class that I just can't remember what it is but she has it from 4:30 to 7:30 on Tuesday and Thursday.... I will have to check my notes and get back to you on that. And when Sam send me more pictures I will put them up also.

And Miss Morgan...
and let me tell you this kid cleans up well!!

She went to Homecoming with two guys .... we just don't know which two? But Morgan our still unanswered question is ..... Did Yegar get to go to the dance or did she only get to be in the pictures?

Morgan it looked like you had a great time .... but this picture is leaning a little on the Sharon Stone side.

Which leaves us with Indian Hill...



well the sukkah is down and we are starting to think about Hannukah... yes I know I am getting ahead of myself. Ashleigh has been having fun being the only child ... NOT.. she misses her sister ... but she is managing...last night she was on a USY into the night...she has not quite recovered yet.

As for me, I bemoaned enough about what is happening in my life which I hope will be over soon so I can go back to writing on a regular basis.

But then there is Barry's new acquisition.... no there are no more dogs... this acquisition is much better behaved... and Ashleigh is waiting for her turn to try it out... yes the bear has a new car... the insurance agent is trying to figure out how we can have so many cars and only two drivers..

And with that I will say good night...... and I hope that I will have more to write soon.

change...

O.k. I updated to the new blogger beta and now it is time to update the templet ... so if I loose something you wanted to see let me know and I will look for it...

Time

Yes I know what a line.... and usually it is associated with too much on your hands or not enough or how when you plan to use it a certain way it never works out that way.

We finished our week of Sukkot eating at least one meal a day in a sukkah.... usually not ours but now as it is time to take it down Nativ has just put up the pictures of them putting theirs up, It made me tear up because Sam was not in any of them. On the other hand I can report that Sam did make it back from her survival trip in the Negav a little lighter than when she left, a lot smellier also. When she first called she sounded exhausted but as she started to tell me about it you could hear the excitement in her voice. And then they moved into Simchat Torah... which she did enjoy she said that there was plenty of food and booze everywhere....unfortunately I have not heard from her since then ..... or seen any new pictures (Sam when you read this that was a hint)

The weekend here was very busy with our Simchat Torah celebration to cap off a week filled with long hours on a computer conversion that didn't go as easily as they said it would ... Yes I know stop rolling your eyes. and the sad part is that we are not done yet....

But Simchat Torah was fun and then we (Barry and I) went to an Armenian Baby Shower... Barry and 150 women but you will have to ask him about that one. Then Bubbie when with us to see "Man of the Year" and all I can is Tom Dobbs for President! It was a funny movie but the message was good and I just hope it can be heard by the people and the politicians yes I know I dream...

But the exciting part in this weekend is that we decided to haul our butts up to Oregon for Thanksgiving... It is a long drive but one that is well worth it. We will get to spend a couple of days with Celia, Sean (Happy Birthday Old Man) and all the other transplanted Californians are

Sam has made some new friends....

She will be out of touch for 3 days....and when she comes back who knows who will want to touch her...(3 days in the dessert without a shower)... but in the mean time she has left us with a few pictures of her friends ...

we will have to wait till she gets back to find out more about these people... and some of these pictures leave a few questions that will need to be answered.

Sam told me that she has made many diffrent friends and some of them I have even talked to .... others I have just heard about... but I guess we will just have to wait until she gets back to learn any more.

Ushpizin

It is the custom during sukkot to invite people to eat and celebrate with you in your sukkah and even though we are only 2 days into sukkot we have had ushpizin and we have been ushpizin. But either way we have been having a great time.


Everyone does their sukkah's a little different we have even heard (not seen yet) about one of the sukkahs that has a waterfall in it. But, we like our little sukkah it has the kids on the walls to remind me of when they were small and we were doing this for the first time. We had such a great time cramped but great, eating in our little sukkah now it is bigger and all that we have this week is Ashleigh, Barry and Me to eat in there, that is when we are not off being ushpizin at someone else's sukkah.

On Friday night for shabbat and the first night of sukkah we had the havurah over. Les and Melinda, Ronnie and Mike, Mark and Marla, Allison and the Judge and Janice. It was a nice easy evening and the food was great (Marla made kuggel) And this is for you Celia and Sam.

Anyway, yesterday was Shabbat and after we did a little torah study with our group at the Freeman's sukkah (they all send their regards) during which Barry fell asleep on the sofa and that is where we learned about ushpizin and that we are required to be happy for the whole 8 days (it says so three times in the torah). So we are trying to be happy here and I hope you are all trying where ever you are.

Then we had dinner with Ashleighs USY crew at the Weingartens sukkah, now they have a big sukkah, we are talking a table that will seat 20 plus. Our little sukkah is not quite there yet.

But this morning I did have a little breakfast (it was nice no Hebrew High so we slept in) in the sukkah this morning and I did talk to Sam while I was sitting in the sukkah She is going to the Negev for survival training tomorrow morning. Her statement was "3 days in the desert with no shower... My friends are going to see a whole new side of me and it might not be pretty, and it definitely won't smell good"

The Moon Over My Sukkah

Well that is what it is all about .... sleeping in the sukkah and seeing the moon through the roof (o.k. it is about a little more than that) But we built it (if it's we then why is my body the only one that is hurting). It is up and we will be having shabbos in there tonight with the Havurah.

I had always wanted a sukkah, but it wasn't until we were in this house for a year or two that we finally put one up. On Sept 11, 1999 David and Andy and some of the Brown family came to help us put up our first sukkah.

I was sad that Morgan and Nathan would not be with us for this holiday so I did the next best thing and traced them on the cloth that would become the walls of my sukkah. Actually I traced everyone on the walls of the sukkah. And a few years latter I tried to re-trace them over the first one... but the kids had grown to big.

But I digress... back to the traditions of the sukkah. Since the the number of tool safe people in our house is limited (that story is for another time) It has always been the job of the Sr USY member to get me some tall boys to help assemble the sukkah First it was Celia who found me boys and then it was Sams job and we had a lot of fun over the years. In 2004 we even had Nathan around to help us

But this year it was different, besides Celia and Sam being gone we didn't have a weekend between Yom Kippor and Sukkot. So it was up to us (Barry, Ashleigh, Bubbie, Shomer and Me) to build our sukkah. It was a bit of work because we are not the tallest of sukkah builders and there is only one ladder but by Thursday night it was finished and we are ready to party. I look forward to next year when I hope that we can have the whole family for dinner (o.k. maybe more than one) in our sukkah.

Sam has told me that she helped build the sukkah for Nativ and she also bought her own Etrog and Lulav She will be going on a survival weekend in the Negev on Monday I am looking forward to more pictures when she gets home.

As for Celia and Sean... don't put the date in your calendar in pen... there could be changes ... stay tuned for more information.

So exactly what is Sam doing these days...

So here is Sam and some of her Far West Crew Elisha is in the green tank and Ariel is third from the right and now Sam needs to fill in the rest




Then there is the give a pint get a pint (for every pint of blood donated you would get a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream) but Sam didn't have a pint to give so she just had to share with her buddies

May 11, 2008

no I am not offering rides in a time machine, and lord knows the day will get here before I know it... but that is the day that Cealia nd Sean have chosen to have a wedding... so mark your calendars and check back for more information.