Flam News

Just thought I'd say that. Aba's out playing Jewish Rock and Roll and I made a soup and a side dish for Shabbas in anticipation of something of a crowd.

Ruchie is out of town (Israel) so Meish and Chana are coming for dinner. So are 3 Bekritsky's and maybe 3 Wengrows, add Safta and we have a dinner party.

This has been a busy work week, an actual full week! It was also a week of self-disclosure on my blog, which is about to end for awhile. Too emotional. I'm sticking to what to do if your spouse has finally stopped using cocaine and you're still really, really mad at him. T-G we don't have these problems in our family.

or do we

Nah.

In other news, Yac sent me this pic of HH today and I have to share it.



She's had a haircut, which is good, since until you've seen that kid's eyes you have not experienced the greatest pleasure in life. Right YacRac?

It's true.

In other news, Safta's not moving at the end of the week. Instead she's waiting until the management moves her. In the meantime she's living out of boxes. My guess is this doesn't feel great. Lend emotional support, kids.

Grampa and Buba are looking good. Elan and Ariel are cute on Skype.

Oh! I hear a key in the lock! I'm going down to say howdy to Abs. That rhymes with snobs. He's soon to post about Abs which rhymes with grabs pretty soon on his Bunk Blog. Click on that, Mom, those two words prior to this sentence, "Bunk Blog", to read Mark's discussion about shoes.

Love to all,

Mom

I don't know how, but today at work, I hurt my back. It's the first time I can actually remember doing something like that... y'know, something which makes me feel old. And my birthday is next week, to help me keep things in perspective. Maybe Aba's right about that exercise thing.

Rachelle and I are in play mode right now, as she's in rehearsal most nights, and writing a Jewish-themed spoof of West Side Story during her limited free time.

Well, this is a crappy little post, aint it?

Hi everyone!
I know I haven't posted for awhile, but I HAVE commented. It seems when I am more creative at work, I wind up feeling less creative in, well, any other area. Including blogging, unfortunately, though I'm trying to get back in the swing of it.

Things are busy. Went to Oxnard for the weekend and was FREEZING the entire time. Nothing in our hotel room worked, including the heat, so I slept in every item of clothing I'd brought. And I refused to leave the room without my pajamas on under my skirt, the purple and pink knee-high arglye socks Mom gave me, and fuzzy boots. Add to that the myriad strange layers I wore instead of "shirt," and I walked around looking rather like a boho.

Or - like Mom, when it's under 95 outside ("BRRRR!").

I ate a lot, which made me both considerably warmer and fatter. I know, things are looking up.

LOVED "Happy Feet" on Sat. night, and Elan came away with it wanting to be an eagle or vulture instead of a penguin. Ariel came away wanting to know where THE HELL the donkey was, as in one scene, one character uses the term "daunting." This was probably the highlight of the weekend.

Sleeping in a pull-out bed with Sir Ariel was most certainly NOT. He likes to sleep horizontally, across a bed, with me as a pillow. Alternatively, he doesn't mind sticking his bare feet on my face and leaving them there once he's spun around in his sleep. He prefers waking at 5:45, yes, even (or especially! Free breakfast!) on vacation, and when he wakes, he likes to share the love by scratching my neck and face with his fingernails. Lovingly. And he gets terribly insulted when I ask him to stop.

Elan continues to overthink just about anything (see my latest OFAF blog) and fall asleep the second he hits the pillow.

And NOBODY. In all of Oxnard. Has ever heard of strawberry picking. So the plans we had for today, which were really formulated a year ago? OVER. So disappointed were we. We were told that strawberry picking with our children would be a HUGE liability for the strawberry industry, and when Yoni confusedly probed for what the hell that meant, he was quickly shut up by the hotel conceierge who just wanted us to TRUST HIM, IT WAS BAAAAD. Native beachcombers assured us that they, too, had never heard of such a thing as fruit picking in all of their years in Ventura County. Perhaps we meant fruit selling? Because there is a guy selling strawberries off the back of his truck up the road...

Yeah. That's where I'm at, too. The strawberry-field capital of the world does not allow you to pick any yourself.

Elan chocked it up to the possibility of being bitten by the Black Mamba snake he'd seen on the Discovery Channel.

I will probably have to repeat this blog on Of Fish and Family, now that I think about it. Sorry in advance!

This one I didn't even get to see. Gulped down by the grouper (best $15 meal he ever had!). There's a lesson here somewhere . . .

by the way, I did go out to replace the Tang I murdered. Check it out on the therapy blog. yes, fish are therapeutic, you didn't know?

Lessons from a family therapist

Well, we had a nice trip to Baruch and Aliza's chasana, which was great (FOOD WAS FABULOUS, I think in general I'm not appreciating food nearly enough, but this was great, oriental shmorg with chopsticks and little cartons like take-out?!)

Aba picked me up from work around 11 a.m. on Sunday(Safta came with us). I laid down in the back seat, hoping to save my lower back (didn't happen) and closed my eyes while they chattered and I zoned out but couldn't sleep since I'd caffeinated up at 4. We split the driving into Detroit.

I had really dreaded this, worried about driving back late at night, hitting a deer, veering off the road, ending up in a ditch.

But it was safe and we returned sound I sang my lungs out since it was too dark and I was driving too fast to go through the CD's I'd shlepped along:

Old Beatles songs (really old ones) and Simon and Garfunckle (great medly, must make mix) until I got stuck on the lyric, "All come. .to look FOR America, All come. .to look FOR America" and the words trailed off and so did I, remembering when that vinyl album came out and how much I loved it.

See, Sim, your generation has a ways to go, I feel, when it comes to making truly great music.

When Aba could stand it no longer he took over the wheel (I would have manically driven home but knew he was right). Barely woke up to change into p.j.'s when we got home.

So am rested and since it's sunny, hope to ride into the office this afternoon.

Here are some pictures. NO, they're not great. In fact, well...

Webisode 3 is live on youtube! Click Here!

DF

PS, without sufficient demand, the show may be cancelled. No one would want that, so show your support!

Don't anyone in the family miss today's StarWars Joke-a-Day.

Be sure to read the comments.

YacRac, can you now take a family portrait (with HH), so I can officially label it The . . .

Listen, I try to stay in touch with you guys, but you have to get blogging, too. I'm real sick of gmail. Hurts my eyes. Write here.

I wrote about our vacation (and it was a really good one, too) on my blog in a couple of places, probably to the chagrin of my readers.

But who cares? Bloggers can be pretty defensive about their blogs. But do read some of my stories about our trip on Lessons From a Family Therapist. I think they're mostly on the last 3 posts from November 14-17.

I even put up a couple of pictures over there!

Here are a few more. We took the one of Safta and Winnie when she surprised BOTH Aunt Leesa and Saft in Chicago. I have the video, too. One day will really have to make one of the past year.

Have a great Shabbas, Love, Mom

OK, I agree with everything posted about our trip so far, except for the "anxiety" about getting out. In truth, I felt we were in plenty of time, checking our luggage 55 minutes before the scheduled flight, waiting at the gate for a good 35 minutes before boarding. We deftly arranged for J. Bekritsky to drop us off in our own car (and pick us up quite efficiently on our return).

Margo's boys were equally well-behaved on the second day, when we took them to the Bob Baker Marionettes show, a bizarre, but visually stunning rendition of The Nutcracker. We had a wonderful Shabbos, full of food, and I was privileged to hear even sh'siyah's own Eli Cooper do Musaf.

Our car trip to San Francisco was admittedly long and hard on the ol' therapist's back, but Beno's house was well worth seeing (watching the sun set over the Golden Gate Bridge from his bedroom window). Also we had dinner in SF (Shangri-La, which is kosher except for the win and highly recommended, located across the street from Happy Donut), with cousin Michael Lavigne (famous author) and his wife, Gayle. AND WE DIDN"T GET LOST! (Beno drove, and, frankly, I had my eyes closed the whole way.)

On our drive back, we traversed the Salinas valley, the Imperial valley, the Central valley, and a bunch of valleys that we couldn't identify, before settling back in The Valley. We did get lost a little or detoured or something so that we had to travel twice through Salinas, CA, home of Fresh Express bagged lettuce (and spinach!). LSF's back was pretty wrecked by the time we got to LA.

It's kinda good to be back home: the bed is cozy, the coffee -- well, better. Weather is dreary, damp, drizzly, dark -- but not really cold. Following an intensive course of stretching, ibuprofen, rolling around on a mat, L's back is on the mend. My practice hasn't fallen apart, though it's often hard to tell. Ate at Shallot's last night for a drug-company sponsored discussion. The food was good, not great, and there were several things mentioned on the menu which in reality did not appear with the order (I can provide any Polskys with the culinary details on request). I actually have another dinner there tomorrow night, then Shabbos, then the Kanner chasuna in Detroit on Sunday. Cholesterol city.

Season 1 Webisode 2 is here!!!

DF

Apologies for not calling anyone. It's been a tough week.

Chammie read about some of it on my blog. Here's the link (click on this, mom).

Cham, by the way, I think you got the wrong idea. We've always been pretty good about coordinating the suitcase and the hanging bag thing.

It was hard getting out of town and traveling was stressful because it was also hard for Aba to leave. We checked in at the airport with 10 minutes at most to spare and there were 48 people waiting to take our seats at Stand By.

I had a bad day. But it was a good day because we made it to L.A. on time and rented a really decent car, a Dodge, from a low-ball rental company, Advantage, and the guys were great there, even installed the car seats. Six guys helping one little old lady while Aba got the luggage.

I got the better job, no?

It was cute.

Our first night we saw the boys and scarfed Margo's pasta (amazing) with an appetizer of lox on bagel (good lox), allowing Yac/Rac peace and quiet, as H.H. was asleep.

She's a light sleeper. They were right. But she's poo, poo, poo, so gorgeous and happy and I don't see the stranger anxiety appropriate at 9 months. Unless, of course, I'm no longer a stranger.

Thursday was delightful. Elan and Ariel were thrilled to take the day off to be with Bubs and Sabs. They took our hands as we walked. They were the best behaved boys I've ever seen. We had a good time and didn't get too lost.

I actually was supposed to be at a conference. I got there late (I WAS LOST IN DOWNTOWN L.A. AND TOOLED AROUND NO JOKE, FOR ABOUT AN HOUR, TRYING TO FIND THE SHERATON WHICH DOES NOT HAVE A BIG "S" ON IT LIKE IT'S SUPPOSED TO.

Anyway, got there, signed in, listened in on a paper presentation for 2 minutes, pretended to get a phone call, got up. Left. Aba was coming into the city in Margo's car to drop her off at work so he'd have one just in case I wanted to stay at the conference, so he picked me up.

Then at night we met Uncle Scot and Cousin Roz for dinner (a real score) at a very noisy but adequate (I thought) pizza shop (Nagila). They do make an amazing stuffed crust with those mushrooms stuffed in the crust. I have to remember to do that.

Okay, gotta' go. So don't think we're not thinking of you. I remembered to write, didn't I?

Love, Mom

So, as many of you may already know, I'm addicted to watching Project Runway. It's a reality TV competition for fashion designers. This season, my favorite contestant was a rocker dude named Jeffrey Sebelia. Jeffrey's a talented ex-junkie who likes to act tough and mean. Inside I think he's a big softie... his neck tattoo is the name of his 4-year old son followed by "the love of my life" in Italian.

Anyways, Jeffrey won the show, Mag's selling his clothes, and I decided to dress up as him for our annual Halloween party. The costume was a hit, and there were some other good ones at the party, too! I have a bunch of pics up of the real Jeffrey, me, and some of my friends at http://www.flickr.com/photos/berkeleybean .... enjoy.

I forgot to mention that Beno and I completed learning Sefers Ezra & Nehemiah.
Meanwhile, Therapydoc and her chavrutah, Dr. Ruch, finished Shmuel Alef.
If nothing else, these events call for a drink.

Hooray! Their first episode is here!

"Turtleeme S01E01 - Lech Licha"

enjoy
DF

Our boy writes from Israel:

Hey all,
Today I got to lain my first whole parsha since arriving here.
Unfortunately I had to walk like three kilometers to get there. And back.
And I had a cold. And I couldn't carry tissues because there was no eiruv.
But I did manage not to get lost and they did have tissues at the shul in
Moshav Aseret which is surprising, because as much as I gather, Israelis
don't believe in napkin-like items. Anyhoo, I also had to speak twice in
the Yishuv's shul- in
Hebrew mind you- one dvar torah and one halachah. The only problem with
the Torah one was that I didn't plan on forgetting every word of Hebrew I
ever knew by stepping up on the bima, but I think the dvar halachah made
sense. I lained in Havara sefardit, a first for me, so my rghghgrrraish
was a little inconsistent. The tuf was easy enough though- apparently two
years in Hillel Torah preschool is all one needs.
Finished The Plot Against America this week, pretty solid book, just gets
a little boring at times. Started jogging around the kibbutz a few days a
week, which gives a good feel.
Shavua Tov ya'll,
-Simhha

Costco now sells caskets. This brings up several points:
-- whaaaaaat?
-- why?
-- are they sold in bulk?

_________________

Babies do not know, nor do they apparently care, about Daylight Savings Time.

_________________

The new Brad Pitt drama called Babel is about the divisive power of language. As such, its title is a reference to the Tower of Babel.

What amazes me is that the movie opened the weekend of Parshas Noach. I'm tellin' ya, this town is getting more religious by the day!