Val-isms

Guests and cello playing

After a crazy busy week at work, we did a mega cleaning of the house last night in preparation of having a guests for Shabbat dinner tonight.

We don't have a weekly cleaning day in our house.  We try and keep things 'livable' but not even close to on a regular basis. 

Inviting guests over is the key to ensuring that things will get cleaned up!

The place looked so good upon getting up this morning, I almost didn't want anyone coming over to mess it up! 

This couple is pretty cool.  They are one of the first people we got to know upon joining the Temple, as they were fairly new to the Temple, as well.  R is a midwife and the daughter of a Rabbi.  She is a runner and did the Disney marathon in January of this year.  Linda is signed up to run it in January 2010, so I'm sure that'll be one of the many topics of conversation.  She is also the Sisterhood president, so Temple stuff will be discussed, as well.  Oh and we like her husband J, too.  He's a good guy!  We're glad to finally be able to repay the lovely Shabbat dinner that they had us for in 2008!

Tomorrow is open.  Linda has a run to do for her marathon training, but the day just might include a bike ride if we're lucky.

Sunday, we hope the weather is good for kickball, as Sophie is looking forward to playing this time!

Sunday night, we'll be at services for Yom Kippur and this is my favorite service of the entire year.  Having the cello soloist playing "Kol Nidre" to start off the service sets the tone for the most spiritual evening for me. 

Sophie informed me that she will be trying to fast for half a day on Monday.  We'll see.  Even if she does do that, she still has to be given lunch in front of us, so it's just that much more challenging for Linda & me!  (nothing like going to the drive thru at McD's and having the french fries aroma filling the car!)

We're also hosing a small "break-fast" at our home after the last service of the day.  We did it last year and it was nice.

May all of you who are fasting, have an easy one and to everyone else, have a great weekend.

Shabbat shalom.

Rosh Hashanah 2009 (5770)

Perhaps this blog should be changed to "Val's weekly update" for all that I've been blogging lately.

I honestly don't know why I haven't been blogging, but I guess the creative juices haven't been flowing and reading F*ceb**** entries are so much easier to do than writing anything remotely entertaining yourself!

I don't remember much from last week except that I had headaches on Wed and Thursday that were manageable and then on Friday, the BIG ONE came along and kept me in bed for the day.  I was sick enough that I didn't make it to Rosh Hashanah eve services on Friday night.  And I had been given the honor of doing a reading that evening, but just wasn't up for it.

Thankfully by mid-evening, I was able to do some cooking for the dinner we'd planned for Saturday evening.

Sophie, Linda & I did attend services on both Saturday and today and I may be biased, but I really think that our Congregation and clergy are just the best!  Inspiring, entertaining and educational - as always.

The dinner I referenced earlier was not to be remembered for the food, as the kuggel recipe I used stunk and I should have used the same one I used earlier this year.  I also tried a new recipe for salmon steaks (as i was hosting a vegetarian) that was pretty bland. 

What was special about the evening was that my ex accepted our invitation to dinner so that Sophie could celebrate the Jewish New Year with both her Mom's and at our (Linda & my) home.  This is a first.  And I hope that it's the beginning of forging ahead in that journey that I think might be possible to enable Sophie to not have to 'choose' when celebrating some of the holidays in her life.

It wasn't completely comfortable for the 3 adults participating, but it wasn't nearly as awkward these types of things can be.  5 years later, it's a definite step forward.  Wine helped, and the fact that it was a timed dinner, as Sophie and my ex had plans that evening.  All in all, everyone played nice.

We may have had the last warmish weekend before the real fall weather comes in and it was excellent.  I just wished I could have enjoyed it by playing Qickball, but we'll be there next week!  Sophie can't wait to see what it's all about!

This is what happens after you leave the party...

This past Sunday, Linda & I went on a great 13 mile bike ride around town with a friend of ours from Temple who doesn't bike that often.  So we took it slow and stopped often to take pictures and just hang out and chat at different points along the way.

It was a perfect day... 70 degrees out, sunny and a nice breeze.  I barely sweat and that's saying something!

We were out on the road for about 2 hours.

Friends of ours from bowling had posted on F*ceb**k that they'd be out playing kickball from 11-1 and anyone interested in playing could just stop by.  So, off we went to see who showed up.

i think the last time I played kickball was in 4th grade! I forgot how much fun it was and how frustrating that big rubber ball can be! 

We left about 1, but they were still playing.  We knew that lots of pictures were being taken by lots of different people, but it seems that we missed the taking of the team pics, which happened at the very end.

I leave you with some pics that I liked.  Here I am playing 2nd base:

And here is Linda, the scorekeeper:

I tried to get Tina out, but she cheated and made it to 2nd base somehow!:

But the best was that here is our team picture, but Linda & I had already left:  (Tina's son Jeremie was the one of only 3 guys who played with us and he was awesome putting up with us crazies!)

But Tina wanted to make sure that we weren't forgotten, so she did a little magic.... and voila, there we are!:

As you can imagine, the comments when she posted these on F*cB**K were hysterical, but my favorite was something about how cute it was that we were wearing our special "Qickball" helmets!  (Yes, the game was called Qickball, cuz queers were playing it!)

We look forward to playing again.  Lots of fun and so worth the pain in my legs the next day!

1st day of 4th grade

Sophie started 4th grade today.  A little nervous, but I'm sure when I pick her up later today, she'll have had a great day.

And here we are:

I don't know about you, but on the first day of school, it used to be nippy outside... and here she is in flip-flops!  (Trying to hang onto summer as long as she can...)  But she did insist on wearing that new sweater over her shirt this morning.

Beautiful day in NYC

Yep, 2 posts in one day!  When it rains, it pours!

My Mom had a follow-up appointment with her surgeon this morning so if things went well, we'd be back in CT by early afternoon.  Ah, the great plans and all that!

Sophie had to be back in time to be dropped off at birthday sleepover at 5pm, so that was the only time issue.  But just on the chance that things went crazy, we brought the sleeping bag and over night stuff with us, so we'd be prepared to drop Mom, Dad & the dogs off and head right to her friend Tory's house.

it was picture perfect out as Sophie & I headed to my parents house for 8:30am.  We departed immediately and arrived in plenty of time to get to the 10:30 appointment.  Sophie & I had brought books, iP*ds & DS's, so we were well equipped to bide our time in a NO STANDING ZONE near the doctor's office.  (This made my law-abiding daughter very nervous as she kept reminding me for the first 15 minutes that "Mommy, we should not be parking here.  Did you see the sign?" until I told her that no one was put in jail for doing this.  They would just tell us to move.  sigh.

So at 11:25, my sister called to see where we were (as she knew we'd be in town, but we hadn't heard if she would be free to see us or not).  When I told her that i was just waiting for Mom & Dad to come out of the appointment, she said that her kids were momentarily expected to return from a trip with their Dad and would we all like to come over to her place on the West Side (we were on the East Side of Manhattan) for lunch?  Oh, yeah.  Sophie was all for leaving right then and there if it meant seeing her cousins!  (Grandma & Grandpa who?!!!)  But within 15 minutes, out they came with an "everything looks good" verdict from the doctor regarding her hand!   So across town we went!

We arrived there about 10 minutes before the cousins did - and wonderfully, it's as if no time has passed since they were all together!  They were thrilled that not only their cousin was there, but their grandparents and their dogs, as well.

We all enjoyed a wonderful lunch spread, let the girls hang out and play and headed out about 2:30.  Here's the crew getting into the elevator:

 

I thought to myself, "how smart of me to have brought everything for the sleepover party with us."  Smiling so smugly.  

Well, my ex called to see how the day was going and casually asked if we'd remembered the bathing suit that Sophie was to bring for the dinner on the beach that the girls would be doing first thing at the party.  uh... nope.  sh*t!

So now it was the mad dash back to Connecticut... and we still had to stop at the Post Office to get something overnighted so the dogs would be able to travel 'legally' to Israel on Sunday with my parents!  But we had to stop at my parents house to pick up the necessary papers.

Somehow it all worked out so that I got Sophie to the party by 5 and then a few more errands for my own household and home I went.

linda just got home as I finish typing this, as she had a business dinner tonight.  I cannot remember the last time I had the house to myself.  I was too busy straightening up to really enjoy the time, but it was nice, just the same.

Oh, and for my closing, when the cousins were playing together today, somehow a wig that my niece Noa had (who know why!) ended up on my daughter's head:

10 honest things about me

1).  I am a huge procrastinator who is somewhat anal.  This combination is deadly as I put things off until I am ready to do them and then expect others to have that same sense of urgency that I have!  Linda just has to give me a look and I know better than to think she’s got ANY sense of urgency forwhatever the Hell I’m thinking of doing!  But I’m getting better at controlling this craziness!

 

2).  I have a secret ambition to be a writer of some sort, but know that I don’t have the discipline to actually do it.  Hence, I blog!

 

3).  I love hands.  It’s one of the first things I notice about people.  I’m envious of people with slim, straight fingers, as my needle-nosed fingers are just plain strange!  It gives me some comfort  that my sister Elizabeth and youngest brother Benjamin share this lovely trait with me.  My Dad and my brother David have nice hands.  And Linda’s are, of course, exquisite!

 

4).  I must have the following things with me when I travel:  nail clippers & q-tips.  I get anxious if they’re not with me.  (This past weekend, we didn’t have the nail clippers but I was able to put it out of my mind somehow!)

 

5).  I love driving.  I could not WAIT to get my driver’s license and treasure the memories of the driving lessons my Dad gave me all those years ago.  I wanted to be a professional chauffeur for the longest time when I was younger.   I love driving with Linda and Sophie, as they are the perfect passengers to go on road trips with.  They don’t whine and don’t have to pee often.  :)

 

6)  I always wanted to wear glasses growing up, but had perfect vision.  When I got past 40, I finally got my wish and despite the saying of ‘be careful of what you wish for’, I am happy to be wearing glasses to this day.  They’re cool.

 

7).  I am grateful for the fact that despite all the stupid things I did growing up, I never injured anyone else.

 

8).  I’m so glad that I found my religious ‘home’ and that my fiancée is converting to Judaism to share this religious journey together with me.

 

9).  I love being tall.  I always hated being the tallest one of my friends or in my class.  It somehow made me feel different and oafish.  Since being with Linda, I appreciate the advantages that I have as a tall person and how many challenges there are for shorter people

 

10).  I strive to do all that I can do so that when Sophie gets older, she can look back and say, “Boy, I had a great childhood.” And “Now that I’m an adult, I consider my Mom my friend.”