I'm grateful for: too many things to list them all, so I'm grateful for having so many things to be grateful for; my wonderful doggies, who seem to become more wonderful with the passing of time; pregnant goats; managing to squeeze some fun out of the holiday despite everything.

Wednesday morning before Simchat Torah. I'm somehow still alive and miraculously have absolutely nothing I have to do today besides burn a disk of a movie I've got on my computer. That's it.

It's a good thing, after what the last several days have looked like. Take yesterday. A friend from high school (!!!) came over. She and her husband live in the north, and such a surprize to find someone from my high school graduating class in Israel. She's lived here for about twenty years longer than I have. They were taking advantage of the holiday to come down south and visit people and things, and dropped in here. It was delightful.

She's a chatterer. She starts stories and never finishes them, and asks questions and doesn't let you get out a whole answer. Always sunny, friendly, beaming. I commented after she'd left that she is one of those high energy people, but somehow she doesn't leave one exhausted from all of her chatter. We looked at pictures, and asked dozens of questions, from how did you end up in Israel to what did you do doing the war.

Being up north, the war for them was the one with Lebanon in 2006 - and they stayed in there homes, went to work, carried on. It was good to hear, the rocket fire up north was really bad, but not so bad near Haifa as it was by Tsfat, and Kiryat Arba.

Since we lived up north when we first came here, we could talk about people and places. I love it - Israel is a small country, and there are so many little serendipities that occur.

Anyway, they only stayed for a couple of hours, and headed off to Ashkelon to the beach. They tried to leave without eating, and that was NOT happening, so I did manage to have guests in my sukkah! We had a nice little meal of vegetarian chili (husband has the recipe, it's his own and it is good), hummus, various fresh fruit and vegetables, pecans, peanuts. We can set a decent table when Hashem chooses.

I've already said I want to go visit them up north. I'll probably wait until my friend Lisha returns from the U.S. (she's working there for six months, she's an olympic trainer and they needed a training venue not available in Israel). Lisha also lives in the north, in Haifa, so I can combine a trip to visit them both. Hashem willing, of course.

When our guests left, I lay down for a bit, then we dashed off to Be'er Sheva to buy S3 a bicycle - his birthday present from us. We had no difficulty, he found a bicycle he loves in no time and at quite a reasonable price. Some of that stuff to fix leaks in the tires, night lights, a bell and a helmet later, and he is all fixed up to go riding anytime. Daytime, nighttime. Now he just has to wait for his birthday (which is this shabbos) and then one more day because he can't ride on shabbos.

While in Be'er Sheva TH returned the dvd player that I bought because it only plays region 2 movies. This was our second trip to return it because the first time they reassured us that despite the fact that it said 'Region 2' in very clear letters on the box, that it did in fact play all regions. ... Nope.

So this time we succeeded in returning it, which will pay for this month's part of S3's bicycle. I'm making three payments, 'cause we are so completely flat I couldn't pay for it in one. I can't afford to be making more payments, either, there's been too much of that for a while now. I've told everyone the month of October will be bleak money-wise. On the other hand, we have our tents, and the beaches are free to camp on, so we may manage to have a fair bit of fun - more than we managed all summer - on almost no money at all. I would really like that.

So, having run our errands in Be'er Sheva we returned home for supper so that I could turn around and go back to Be'er Sheva. As long as we were spending money we couldn't afford... I was QUITE determined that we were going to do SOMETHING fun during the holiday and not let RS ruin the whole thing. So last night we had a family outing. TH took D3 and S2 to Sderot to watch a South Korean vampire movie (Thirst), and I took S1 and S3 to Be'er Sheva to watch Legend of the Guardi@ns. It was in 3D - my first of that type of motion picture. And it was - cute.

I personally think the whole 3D thing detracted from the movie. It was a nice story - good guys and bad guys and the necessity of fighting evil ('doing the right thing') and how doing the right thing is hard. And not pretty. It was more like a movie from my youth than any of the political propaganda that seems to have been passing for children's films for years now.

But none of that, it was a good tale. S3 loved it, was thrilled and excited, and the owls were rather cute. We have a thing for owls in our family, having rather more than average (as far as I can tell) children's books with owls in. I suspect that will be changing a bit with this movie.

The popcorn was good and the theatre almost entirely empty, which made for an unusually quiet movie viewing experience in Israel. I'm guessing because it was in English - the earlier shows were dubbed in Hebrew and probably were packed.

That got me home by 11pm, one home visit and two trips to Be'er Sheva in one jam-packed twelve hours. My right arm is in really bad shape. I haven't had a full night of sleep in several days. We were hoping to go to the beach today, but it is looking like we will just flop about the house today, resting and recuperating. My body is not any stronger than it's been, or it should be, but it is not completely shot, either.

We're going to be watching Wh1sky G@lore tonight, the Ealing film. I've never seen it, but I know the story (and the true story it was made from) and the husband has seen it, and it should be a lot of fun for the kids. And that is the sum total of my plans. Oh, I forgot about sleep. I do plan to sleep. Sometime. For some reason I am awake now, at 11am, despite the extremely full day I had, and not falling asleep at a decent hour.

I couldn't sleep, the phone (RS's internet phone) rang at 2am. There was another late night phone call as well, but I can't remember. I think it was at around midnight. I am not happy, but what can I do? It rang and rang, and eventually whoever-it-was gave up. So, that's the end of that I suppose.

RS did phone yesterday, but it was as we were on our way out the door and I didn't talk to her, a couple of the kids did.

Ooo, and I have to say that S2 has the most wonderful little bit of mustache! Being a light red-head with pale skin it didn't show up much at first, but now it's looking like a right little bit of lip-fungus. I can't wait to see what he looks like when it's come all the way in. Cute.

I find it amazing that I have grown up children. Simply amazing. It was never a part of my wildest dreams somehow. Heh. Grown up children who like me. Who'da thunk it?

I'm listening to Duke Ellington: Maori. - I've been listening to early Ellington for a few days, and I am loving it.

:: Yesterdays : Tomorrows ::

~~~Last Five Entries~~~
Hi and goodbye - 2010-10-15
I'll be moving on - 2010-10-10
Gold membership and stuff - 2010-10-10
Decisions, decisions - 2010-10-07
Days to go - 2010-10-06