Avri J. Balofsky

It's been a busy couple of weeks in our lives.

We've purchased a new old car. She was bought two years to the day that we bought our old old car. She's a purple Honda Shuttle with the mileage of a girl half her age. She's a 1997, but only has 90,000 kilometers. She's had regular maitenance and is in really good shape. There's a little bit of rust by one door that I'm going to pick up some spray for, but that's about it. The paint is sun faded and my neighbor suggested that I paint and/or buff it, but why in the world would I spend money on my car in a way that doesn't make it more functional. In fact all it would do is make it more likely to get stolen. No thanks.

I haven't posted about this, but in the past couple of weeks Lorien has been running around going crazy trying to figure out where Chana should go to school next year. Academically she's definitely able to go ahead to grade 1, but we were worried about her social skills. This year she's made great progress with general clumsiness (thanks to horseback riding, OT, and ballet), but it was a very hard year socially for her. She didn't make any real friends in her class and often played alone and was teased. We thought that she might have a mild case of Asperbergers or some PDD. Lorien did all kinds of research into resources and procedures and documents and assessors to figure out how to go about deciding the right place for her. Whether to stay in Gan Chova, to go into a regular grade one, to go into a special communications oriented grade one class in Jerusalem, etc. We got somebody to go and observe her in class... and of course on that one day she actually has a totally random good day and plays with others and behaves fairly normal. (The next day she was back to being chased around and teased). She had a one on one meeting with the psychologist and he said that she's very bright, and if she has anything it's very slight. She's too young and it's too mild to assess anything definitely and he recommended going to a regular grade one and evaluating how it goes.
Maybe it was all just a lack of maturity and she'll do better this year. I hope that's the case.

Lorien's leaving to Canada on Sunday night with the kids, which makes me a bachelor for 2 weeks. My neighbor has already scheduled some Wii time with me.

School's out which means a surge in game night attendance. We had 10 this week, and that'll probably go a little higher.

Lorien's been getting a decent amount of work lately which is nice. My work has been pretty busy lately which is nice. The pace is picking up as we're doing load testing finding any structural issues, and gearing up for some major stuff. I'm really looking forward to my vacation though :)

Chana had a cute line the other day which really outlined how bad the tooth fairy idea is. She recently got a frisbee from the tooth fairy and promptly lost it at school the next day by throwing it on a nearby roof.
"Don't worry Abba."
"Why not? Did the teacher say she could get it back down for you?"
"No, but I have another wiggly tooth!"

Sefi is a chocolate-milk-a-holic and NEEDS one after waking up in the morning and after naps. He's still an occasional biter in gan, we've been trying to work on that, but we really just hope he grows out of it soon. He got a new shape sorting puzzle with shapes with holes in them that slide onto pegs and he's really good at it. Supposedly that's pretty good for somebody who's not yet 2. Lorien just hope he sleeps on the plane.

Evidently the lady I called at Canada Post was not entirely correct. My mother in law read the delivery notice and it said that somebody else could pick it up if they had signed permission. So we scanned in a copy of my passport, wrote up a letter, and I signed it on Lorien's tablet PC. We then emailed the letter to mom.

The package is now safely home in London.

Yay! Thanks again to my ever-so-patient inlaws who I made jump through hoops. I'm so sorry.

Here is a recent spam email I received.

From: Aditya Abbott [stewartb@aol.com]
Subject: detp sxx yefhjh tcaw ecky

fhjhp caw positeckywion
atsgthe detppart
you sxx by yefhj
youptcame peckyfrom tcatsgtart.
Illbedetp besxxfore yefhj.
beptca pouncepeckypony.
thiscatsgceremony
detp filsxxlsmy yefhj.
a punptcach toy vopeckylunteer kcatsgnee.
is detpalu wasxxnt tohyefhjear
aptcand apeckyyou wcatsgsee.


That's it, in its entirety.

Is there some secret message I'm missing here?
How is this supposed to cheat me out of my money?

I hate Canada Post. I made my annual board gaming purchase and had it shipped to my inlaws in Canada. I unfortunately forgot to have it shipped C/O or ship it to my mother-in-law's office. The package arrived, and nobody was home to pick it up, so it was routed to the local post office for pickup.

If somebody had been home, anybody could sign for it, and it'd be fine. Now that it's in the post office nobody can pick it up but me. Not even if they live at the address I shipped to. I called the Post Office to see what we could do since I was currently out of the country on business. Could I fax over my passport, a note, and a signature? No. Could I have the shipper notify Canada Post that it was ok for anybody to pick it up? No. Was there anyway to have anybody who wasn't me pick up the package? No.
...
How about if they had power of attorney?
...
Yes.
Aha! Thanks!

We thankfully gave my inlaws power of attorney before we left so they could manage any bank thingies n' such. Who knew that we'd be needing it to pick up postage parcels?

We are expecting another addition to the family on December 31st give or take.
I wonder if I'll finally get a birthday month buddy.

One note I forgot to make about our night out for our anniversary. My mom came over to babysit the kids so we could go out. Not only did she baby sit she even did the dishes. Not only did she do the dishes she even washed the floor! Dayenu!.

Living near my mom has worked out better than I could have ever hoped when we apprehensively moved in around the block 2 years ago. I just wanted to take this opportunity to say "Thanks Mom!" My mom rocks.

Thing the first:
I discovered today that one of our bags of milk leaked all over the bottom of the fridge, and had evidently been like that for a few days. The bottom of the fridge was still covered in paper from Passover and the milk had dried a bit and was attaining a cheese-like consistency.

Thing the second:
It didn't smell all that bad which was surprising. It smelled like cheese.
It tasted ok too.

Tonight we finally went out for our real anniversary dinner after the fiasco that was our first attempt failed miserably.

We went to the Jerusalem Culinary Institute restaurant night. The menu looked pretty good as put out an ad and we booked a reservation last week. It was fantastic, the perfect amount of food, very tasty, and at a great price point. We had the sesame seared salmon and the roasted veggie antipasti for appetizers. (The antipasti was amazingly good, the best thing of the night I think, even better than the fish and meat... and this is coming from me!). Main courses were the steak and the chicken breast. The menu had changed slightly from what had been advertised online (I ended up with french fries instead of Duchess potatoes), but everything was still good. For desert we had an apple strudel and chocolate mousse. We ended the night with a cup of tea. We of course shared all our courses with eachother, and thankfully everything went well with everything else.

The dinner took place outdoors by candle and torchlight. It was fully booked with about 35 people there total. It was a really nice atmosphere.

As a bonus surprise when we paid for the meal (100 shek each) the receipt came back with a tax receipt! Evidently the meal was actually a tax deductable donation to the school. That means we'll get 35% of the cost of the meal back. 130 total for a really nice dinner for two? Sounds great! We'll definitely look into this again next year.

We also asked the head chef, when he walked around, about the possibility of them catering a turducken for my birthday. He was totally into it and said it would make a great class project. This may be like getting your hair cut at the student barbers, but it'll hopefully be a slightly cheaper way to get a really nice turducken made for us. Heck, it might even be tax deductable in the end! (That'd be sweet)

NASA To Trigger Massive Explosion On the Moon In Search of Ice
from the smashing-darling-smashing dept.
posted by timothy on Tuesday June 16, @12:13 (Moon)
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/16/1556254


cf. Apu's ice fetching expedition to the arctic.

Lorien has recently starting reading through my journal from the start. That got me reading through my archives too. This has made me aware of a few things.

1. I used to actually post amusing things, I was never that active of a poster, but I at least I knew how to write at some point.

2. All my one liners and link posts now just end up on Facebook instead, which is a bit of a shame really b/c of:

3. You can't really browse through your history and life on FB like you can on LJ. I used to go through my journal for the past year when I hit my blogiversary (I started in 2003), and though I don't do that anymore the fact that it's there and can be gone through is fantastic. So many awesome and amusing memories are recalled as as I read through my archive.

The medium (called so b/c it is so infrequently rare or well done) is the message, and LJ is just a much better medium for remembering your life in the future than FB can ever be. FB is better for pictures though, and it also is just easier to share media/links on it. Unfortunately they then basically get lost amidst all the other crapload of Facebook info.

Now even though I've been inspired to blog like I used to, that doesn't mean I actually will, but I sure will pretend to attempt to try! (Kind of like davening in the morning)

Last night galads_forest and I celebrated 8 years of marriage. The plan was to get my parents to babysit, ideally having them sleep there and go out to a nice fancy dinner.

My mother wasn't feeling well, so my step father came over to babysit for a limited time (until 9 at the latest). That meant dinner out of town was out.

We really wanted meat, and there's aren't that many options for a nice meaty meal in Bet Shemesh. Really there's only one. The Oriental. It's a fine Chinese place, though I haven't given them business since they delivered a meal about 2.5 hours late one time. Fine, it was time to give them a second chance.

We got to the Oriental at around 6:30, sat down and were promptly informed that they were booked for an event at 8:00, so we could stay if we wanted, but we'd have to be done by 7:45. We didn't feel like being rushed, so we left.

Our anniversary evening turned into us going out for shawarma, picking up groceries at the local super, and being back home in time to actually tuck the kids into bed.

Funds lock in for 3 years on June 9th. The principal is guaranteed

It tracks 4 indexes 25% each: NASDAQ. SNP, FTSE, HANG SENG

If at any point in the three years the index closing price goes over 50% gain then the 25% linked to that index earns only 8% for the three years.

If an index goes up under 50% in those 3 years, that % is earned. (So if the NASDAQ ends June 9th 2012 up 30%, 25% of the principal would earn 30%).

If the index closes down after 3 years then that 25% earns nothing.


(I need to clarify what happens if it goes up over 50% at some point but then finishes down after 3 years...)

Wear Sunscreen

What would be your opinion of a wedding where they served Bagels as the meal?

Lag Sameach.

So I found myself calling out the correct answer to the as-yet unasked question halfway through the second panel after he said the name of the episode.

WHO has recently raised the threat level of the swine flu pandemic to 5.


Costello: Well then who sets the swine flu threat level?
Abbott: Yes.
Costello: I mean the group's name.
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The group that sets the level.
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The group that...
Abbott: Who!
Costello: I'm asking YOU who sets the level!
Abbott: That's the group's name.
Costello: That's who's name?
Abbott: Yes.
Costello: Well go ahead and tell me.
Abbott: That's it.
Costello: That's who?
Abbott: Yes.
Costello: Look, you got a group that sets the level?
Abbott: Certainly.
Costello: Who?
Abbott: That's right.
Costello: All I'm trying to find out is what's the group's name that sets the swine flu level.
Abbott: No. WHAT is the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group. [wikipedia.org]
Costello: I'm not asking you who's the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group.
Abbott: Who sets the level!
Costello: I don't know.
Abbott & Costello Together: Third base!

• Seder went well, nothing too interesting to note.
  
• Spent Shabbat in Kiryat Sefer where I got to "suit up" and wear my spiffy hat.
  
• Dealt with a minor flood and fixed it with a 32 shekel purchase (new sink connector thingy) from our awesome hardware store guy
  
• Took the kids to:
• Various parks,
• A farm (tractor rides, horseback riding, petting zoo),
• Bowling alley (just for the arcade where Chana can win tickets to "buy" junk")
• Indoor Playground (bouncy castle, huge play structure, train rides, wall climbing)

Ran the BSBGC Games Day with 16 Attendees and 20 games played (including first plays of Agricola and Cosmic Encounter

Lorien made an awesome lunch for the last day of the holiday with cream of broccoli soup, matzah lasagne, and salmon

Last night we turned the house back to chametz status pretty quickly, then made some tuna steaks that we had accidently defrosted along with the salmon. We then relaxed and drank white wine and ate tuna steaks while watching How I Met Your Mother. A nice evening.

Well there's good news and bad news. First the good:

It was after Games Day finished (Games Day was pretty awesome)

We won't have to mop again this week

Nothing electrical shorted out

It was clean water

The pipe did not burst and it looks like it's an easily replaceable part

There is a slight gap under the front door so the water didn't get too high

My floor is not flat so water managed to avoid some parts and not get into the toy room

Now if you haven't guessed by now, here's the bad:

We had a slight flood last night

It was overnight so we didn't know about it and a lot of water was wasted

No water in the house until we get this fixed

Mom can't do laundry in our house (Our dryer broke and her washing machine broke and we were to share laundry)

Family Fun Day is Cancelled (Or at least postponed)

Of all the things you can wake up to in the morning, I have to say that, "Avri get up. You need to turn off the water to the house," is not destined to make it into the top 10.

Strange and bad things have been happening since the mezuzah fell from Sefi's door. We should get that checked.