Sunday - Lehitraot

We started the morning at the Kotel.  Adam even put on tallit and tefillin (this I would not dare).  We left the hotel and took a cab to Hod Hasharon.  There we schlepped all of our suitcases into Linda and Menachem’s house, and played with Ilan, Yasmin, Zohar (who is half and 2 years, as she’ll say), and Gilad (who is an adorable bouncy baby boy).  They left just as Emily, Simon (a very big 4 year old boy) and Eli (sweet and so blond) showed up from Raanana.  We went out for felafel (because the best is in Hod Hasharon) and Adam had important jobs, first of entertaining the boys, then of sitting between them in the car in the back between two car seats!  It was so hot but really nice to see them.  And it’s not true what you read on their blog, Eli does talk! J  We got to the airport, thanks to Emily, and checked in. 

The flight home was fine, El Al style.  Delayed, not boarded properly or with any order, and even started with broken ticket scanning machines so we had to go to a different gate first.  Loud annoying children sat in front of us, but Adam and I were tough and did not entertain them.  We landed late, got the bags and the car, and drove to NYC where we could not find a lot to park in.  Very annoying.  We slept from 4-7 AM then I went to my Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing training.  We’re back in West Hartford now and of course we miss Israel.  Can’t wait to go back soon!

Yaffa wants her own entry and picture

Here's a picture of the real Ravid and Yaffa.  She didn't like that the picture announcing her engagement was not of her.  So here it is: the happy couple.  Not much going on Chez Garberkowitz today.  We just saw the movie WALL-E (or however you write it).  Adam liked it; I was bored.  There were lots of kids there and most seemed totally engaged.  I agree that it had a good message about the state of our planet, but it lacked decent dialogue (that's a joke, there's no dialogue!) and the plot was rather simplistic.  And it was gross to think that if we don't take care of our land and our bodies, things could really end up like that. Time to hit the gym! 

Celebrating with Joyce

Mazal tov to Joyce Juda, who celebrated 25 years as NERUSY director last week.  Adam and I went to Providence, as did Yaffa and Ravid, and we caught up with lots of old friends. The day was lovely and included tributes to Joyce from all the 25 years.  We ended with singing the regional song, "Joyce's Little Region."  Our day continued with Celebrate West Hartford (basically a big fun street fair - awesome) and then a great dinner at Claire's in New Haven (kosher and vegetarian food - something for everyone!  BTW, the picture in the previous post is not of Yaffa and Ravid - I hope you've figured that out! :)

Yaffa and Ravid are engaged!

Been a long time - we're busy people with no time to blog. But I'm trying.  So here's just a quick update.  Yaffa and Ravid got engaged last night!  Apparently it was very sweet and romantic - I've only really heard Yaf screeching so far - she's very excited.  In other news, Adam and I were just trying to BBQ and I think we burnt the BBQ!  I'm in shock.  I didn't think that could happen.  So we've moved the chicken inside and we'll have to look at the BBQ next week.  Right now, I'm in a fight with the BBQ and I don't want to go near it!  Adam played with the Zamir Chorale in the beginning of June.  That was great - so nice to kvell in Boston!  Here he's pictured with my beloved Cantor Aryeh Finklestein after the show.  OK, must finish a sermon.  Shabbat Shalom!

Memorial Day

We had a memorable Memorial Day, starting with the West Hartford town parade - a real small-town experience with Daisy, Brownie and Girl Scout troops, sports teams, etc.  Then we went to Karyn and Melissa's for a BBQ and discovered that Adam likes to play badminton.  After, we drove to NYC to play with Hannah and Micah.  They are so cute!  Yes, they ate a topless dinner, but then we played with balls and read stories. So much fun. Yaffa and Ravid came over (after bedtime) and we enjoyed dinner with Lauren, Scott, and Yael. It's so nice to eat kosher food from a restaurant - we are so lame in Hartford. Anyway, then we toured Yaffa's apartment - very nice. And we were her first house guests.  That was a packed day!  Now someone just has to teach me how to load the pictures on blogger so they are in the right order. So annoying.

Sharing some pictures and I met The Nanny!

OK, I wrote this whole post and it disappeared. Not fun. So I'm starting again and I don't care that I can't get the pictures in the right order. What do we have here? Some pictures from Adam's Carnegie Hall concert - how wonderful that he was on the poster in the streets of NYC! He's still on a high from that wonderful experience.  We have some pictures here from our birthdays. Adam came home from kosher Chinese to a candle in pareve ice cream, and after he and I went out for dinner for my b-day, we met Ray, Craig, and Rachel for ice cream (of course). We have some pictures of the adorable Hannah and Micah, who love to say "cheese!" and they were so much fun to play with this week.  And finally, tonight I met THE NANNY! OK, I didn't really meet her, but I joined the local female rabbis and cantors in singing the anthems and then I did HaMotzi.  She was a great speaker - this was a Federation event and there were 600 women there.  It was very powerful for me to stand on the stage and sing with all of these women. Fran Drescher spoke about growing up Jewish and about having cancer. She's a role model for women everywhere. Check her out!  In any case, I'm relieved I've finally figured out how to make this post, and I'm sorry the pictures are all over the place. We'll get there one day.  Oh, and happy birthday, Israel! Today is the secular independence day - May 14 - how wonderful.

We're older and Petula Clark is older than that

Adam and I both got older in the past few weeks. He turned 29 forever and I hit 31. Yikes. But that's ok. We celebrated in style. Adam was craving Chinese food (hard to find kosher Chinese in these here parts) so we drove almost 2 hours each way to New Rochelle for Eden Wok (definitely worth it).  We stayed local for my birthday dinner and ended the night with ice cream with friends. Then tonight we went out to celebrate (an extension of my birthday and) our 6 months of being married! We drove an hour to Mohegan Sun (the casino) and went to the Petula Clark concert. Let me just say that I have always loved her, and that when I went to her concert in 2005, I thought she was amazing. Well I'm not sure what it was, but she was not good, and the audience never really warmed up to her.  The sound was poorly mixed so we couldn't really hear her. And the whole act seemed old. Oh well. Adam and I were definitely the youngest in the audience. Then we went to grab a snack and found ourselves in the loudest bar in the world - we had to leave it was so bad. Maybe we are really old. I'm not sure what generation we're in anymore. I just know that I'm exhausted from this adventure!  Here's hoping our year ahead is not too loud and is not poorly mixed, but is just right. :)