Flap Your Tiny Wings

On Thursday my cousin Jeff came to hang out with us after finishing his birthright trip. Lori&co came for dinner and Timmy made a special appearance.

The Crazy Lady made enormous quantities of food for shabbos and even with a full house, we barely made a dent in it.
On Friday afternoon I mixed up a batch of cold rise pizza dough and on motzash Lori and I churned out four pies. The people descended on the pizza with a fervor as though they had never seen pizza before.
After the pizza had been devoured, Timmy, Jeff and Jeff's friend headed to Jerusalem.

Sunday was boring. Lori&co came to eat leftovers for dinner and I found some pea pods on the pea plant.

On Monday Jeff and Timmy returned to the sun house and Lori&co once again joined us for dinner. The Crazy Lady turned some of the leftover into chicken potpie and nobody cared.

Jeff headed back to the states this morning, it was sad to see him go but I think that Oscar misses him the most. A piano tuner came to our piano and in a surprising turn of events, Lori&co came for dinner. The Crazy Lady turned the rest of the chicken into stirfry which was quite tasty. Frank got a new coat and Z beat me to the end of Assassins Creed.

How To Properly Open A Coconut In Five Easy Steps (As Taught To Me By My Mother).

Step Juan: Acquire coconut and cleaver.

Step Two: Firmly grasp coconut in your hand. 

Step Three: Hit the coconut with the cleaver until the coconut succumbs to its fate and splits into multiple pieces. 

Step Four: Remove the weird hairy stuff from the coconut flesh.

Step Five: Enjoy your fresh coconut. 

This is also highly effective method for waking sleeping family members. 

Eggnot

Last night was erev christmas. We had a little get together to celebrate the occasion, mainly because we love a reason to party.

I'd never had eggnog before but thought that it might be fun to try. I soon discovered that I wasn't the only one that had never tried the festive beverage so Lori and I whipped up a big batch for everyone to taste. It was super fluffy and sweet, sort of like melted ice cream but with a weird aftertaste.
Personally, I'm not a fan.

The rest of the family more or less shared my feelings on the subject except for my father who happily sipped away at his glass.

Today was my parents 30th anniversary. I made a fancy sign for the occasion with the help of one of my furry friends. I use the term 'help' loosely as the cat spent a majority of the time trying to eat the crayons and batting around bits of paper.

When your cat is eating crayons, stop and take a picture before trying to wrestle it out of their mouth.

Lori&co came to help us celebrate the joyous occasion and in typical jew fashion, we had a chinese style dinner. Chicken and broccoli stirfry and a meat dish which I've named beefN'chickpeas (mainly due to the fact that it contains both beef and chickpeas and partially because I forgot the actual name) with a brownie and chocolate chip cookie creation (courtesy of Lorbles) for desert.

It may seem like my father is wearing the exact outfit that he was wearing last night but if you look really closely you'll note that his button down shirt is a different color. Do not be concerned by the knife (which was used to cut the cake) or empty wine bottle, it was like that when we found it.....

Merry anniversary to my wonderful parents on this joyous occasion. May the next 30 years be as full of furry creatures and happy times as the last.

My Spinach Puffs!

The past few days have been exceptionally uneventful.
After spending countless hours staring out of my window while studying, I decided to go outside for some fresh air. While I was outside, I decided to conduct an impromptu inspection of my plants. My trusty pup came to assist me on my mission.

We started with the peas, they appear to be a tenacious bunch. Little white flowers have popped up all over the place and I'm excited to see what the next few weeks bring.

The tomatoes seem to be doing well. Unlike their neighbors, they prefer to keep to themselves.

I was surprised to find some fugitives hiding out under the leaves of the  strawberry bush.

The birds haven't gone near them yet but I'm sure that they're just waiting for the berries to turn red before taking a dainty little peck out of each and every one of them.

I spent the rest of the day alternating between studying and finding various ways to avoid studying.
Lorbles and Buzzy made a guest appearance and now we're watching The Emperors New Groove.
 

One For All And All For Me!

In an effort to prevent myself from doing something productive (like studying), I decided to spend an undetermined amount of time drawing this.....

"No cookie gets left behind!"

Don't judge me.

15,000 Shekel Storage Unit

I went to visit my sister today and noticed her new "storage space". I commend her ingenuity and resourcefulness. Why buy a new cabinet when you can simply use your 15,000 shekel air conditioning unit instead?

 

Lori's Clothes (Sweaters&Skirts)

*Note: This is a joke. My sister does not actually store her clothing in air duct. The cardboard is there to block the airflow to the room that they're not using in hopes of warming up the rest of the apartment. 

Alarming Dinners

Z's class got cancelled today due to the aftermath of the storm. I was debating whether or not I should go to Lori's for our weekly date night when she called with a brilliant suggestion, bring the party to my house.
We quickly came up with a game plan for dinner and then told The Crazy Lady that she was off the hook for the night.

I did my best to distract The Crazy Lady until Lori and her entourage arrived with the goods.
We set up the indoor grill (grate thing) and got down to business! Unfortunately we forgot how smokey the grate gets when you try and grill on it.

We opened all of the windows and tried to air the place out but the smoke alarm was overeager to join in the fun. Halfway through the burgers we heard its shrill call from upstairs. Someone eventually managed to get the battery out and we resumed our grilling.

Frank's mad photography skillz.

Shark Bait, HOOHAHA!

Dinner was beyond delicious. I think that everyone enjoyed.. :)
I made some chocolate chip cookies bars for dessert because no meal is over until you feel like you're gonna explode.

:)

Pesky Trees

The stormy weather prevailed throughout shabbos. The Freddies came to keep us company and Lori&co joined us for lunch.

This morning started off a little strange. Three burly guys from the iriya showed up demanding entrance to our backyard but then decided that they would rather not face the dog. Apparently people had called to complain about the overhanging trees from our backyard claiming that they were a danger to the citizens. Further investigation revealed that a lot of our neighbors were facing similar charges. The men said that we would be fined for our trees reckless behavior before moving on to the next house.

About half an hour after the men left, we heard a strange noise outside. It sounded suspiciously like a chainsaw....

We went outside to investigate and found a claw machine ripping trees and fences out of our neighbors yards. My father hurriedly called the gardener who promised to send some guys over to trim our trees. The iriya's "gardeners" that were "trimming" our neighbors yards offered to do our as well (provided that we foot the bill for their valuable time and expert workmanship) but my father declined the offer.  When the so called gardeners made it apparent that they wouldn't leave without ripping our trees and fence out, my father decided to stand guard until the gardeners arrived.

Freddie and The Munchkin stayed in the sun house to hang out for the day. We started our adventures out at the supermarket and then ended up heading to the mall for lunch with S&S.

Just as we were leaving for the mall the gardeners arrived to save the day. The Crazy Lady and The Mad Man stayed behind to supervise while the rest of us headed to lunch.

Lunch was delightful and the company was superb. The waitress was a big fan of the munchkins and gave them free chocolate.

Chloclit

After lunch we let the munchkins run wild in the play area.

 The Dibble proved that you're never to old to have some fun.

Spot The Dibble.

It started to get dark out so we said goodbye to S&S and Lori&co and headed home to see how things were going. The gardener did a lovely job on the garden and we're now the only ones with trees in our yard and an intact fence.

Shpunky Monkeys Day Off

Last night Shpunky Monkey was left behind at our house due to a series of undetermined events. Some claim that it was a simple misunderstanding on Buzzy's end while others argue that he was hiding on purpose (he was found in the salad spinner). Whether or not he ended up in the salad spinner by choice is hard to determine as neither party is willing to give coherent answers on the situation.

Ernie was more than happy to let Shpunky crash with him for the night. The two pals are spending the day catching up and having fun. They don't get to hang out to frequently so they're certainly making today count!

  

Cookie eating contest.

Joy rides.

;)

Poker

And of course, Xbox.

Kidnapped

Monday night was date night with Buzzy and Lori. I made waffles while Lori made butterscotch sauce and Buzzy looked cute.
We served the waffles up with some ice cream, just for good measure.

Not the most well balanced dinner that I've ever had but definitely one of the most delicious. 

Yesterday we went grocery shopping where we "conveniently" bumped into Lorbles and her entourage while we were checking out.

We had some family friends over for dinner. It was really nice to see them before they went back to the states.

Today is very wet and rainy. Z kidnapped me a couple of hours ago and Lori requested some nice warm cookies to help fend off the chilly weather. 

I'm trying to comply with their requests but I'm not yet sure when I'll be taken home. 

Living In Alaska

Last week was more or less uneventful, which definitely contributed to my disinclination to blog.

I consumed far too many deep fried foods, felt sick and lit lots of candles. I recall a conversation wherein I tried to convince my little brother that Kentucky is not a country. I'm not sure that he believes me but at least I tried.

I hung out at the Freddies for a few days which was really nice. The Little Munchkin and I went on an adventure to the park and made some nice artwork. 

We had a bunch of yeshiva guys over for shabbos. My father was ecstatic at the opportunity to impart his wisdom unto their impressionable young minds. The boys seemed happy to indulge him in return for drinks and snacks.

After shabbat lunch I was debating whether or not I should walk up the hill to visit Lorbles. I decided to take a snack and wait for a sign. Just as I was finishing my brownie,there was a knock at the door and Lorbles strolled in with her entourage in tow.

We hung out for a while but Buzzy wasn't in the mood to be inside so we decided to walk back to their side of town. We made a stop at the park on the way home and let Buzzy and Z run rampant. By the time we got back inside, shabbos was almost over. We ate cookies until it was time for havdalah.

After havdalah I raided Lorbles fridge for some dinner while Z washed the dishes. We somehow managed to get Buzzy into pajamas (how many adults does it take to get a 20 month-old into pajamas? Apparently three...) and then Z whisked the monster away to put him to sleep while Lorbles and I watched a movie tended to some very important business.

The cold and rainy weather is still going strong and I'm loving it. The only problem with rainy weather is that it makes me even lazier than normal. All I want to do is hide under my fuzzy blankets and watch TV or even just stare at the ceiling. Pretty much anything but study.

So far I spent a majority of my day studying the plants outside my window and watching a spider build a web in the corner of my room. I doubt that either of these skills will come in handy on the phsycometri but I suppose you never know.

I've kind of always wanted to go to Alaska but thanks to the weather, I can experience the freezing temperatures from the comfort of my own room! At some point in the afternoon, my fingers were so cold that I couldn't hold my pencil anymore. I took it as a sign that I should stop "studying" and go downstairs to make some soup.

I came downstairs to find my father unknowingly about to spread some leftover tinted frosting on his lunch thinking that it was chumus. My mother came to his rescue and showed him where the chumus was. 

I was making my soup and feeling rather smug about not having tried to put frosting on my lunch when my father kindly reminded me that my AC was also my heater.

I left my soup on low and returned to my tower to glare at my AC/heater with the utmost contempt. 

Now I'm sitting downstairs and trying to enjoy some of my nice warm soup.

Mr. Cat was carrying around his toy and begging for someone to play catch with him. I made the mistake of throwing it for him once and now he thinks that we're best friends. I accidentally threw it under the couch and sort of hoped that it would end things. It did not. He somehow managed to wrest it from the depths under the couch and is now sitting on the table staring at me with his big eyes from behind my laptop with the cursed toy hanging from his mouth. 

One Thousand And Eighty Two Words

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm not exactly sure where the phrase originated but I'm willing to bet that it had something to do with somebody trying to get out of doing their work. In which case, I greatly admire whomever they may have been.

In an effort to emulate this wise person, I will let this picture speak for me.

(Regular posting may resume when I stop being a lazy butt.)

Catching Fire

I spent most of my day in Jerusalem hanging out with my friend Sea. We walked to the central bus station as it was getting dark outside and I somehow managed to snag a seat on the bus (woo).

Lori unlocked the door for me while singing her rendition of the miami boys choir "light up the nights",  "Light up the night, backyard burning bright, on the festival of lights, here on hanukah!!". The lyrics seemed a little off, but I hadn't heard the song in a while so I shrugged and went to find my candles.

I lit my trusty dusty chanukia and noted that the room smelled faintly of smoke.  I later discovered that my neighbors had set fire to their weeds and piles of discarded furniture "garden" earlier this afternoon (perhaps in an attempt to get into the holiday spirit?). 

Lori's rendition "light up the nights" suddenly made a lot more sense....

We had a delicious stir fry for dinner, courtesy of The Crazy Lady and Lorbles. A question about where the chicken had come from sparked a lively debate over the pros and cons of cannibalism. I'm not sure what the general consensus was but I wasn't overly enthusiastic at the thought of being served up with a side of mashed potatoes.....

Hope you're all enjoying chanukah! Remember, you don't have to set your backyard on fire to get into the holiday spirit. Just clog your arteries with deep fried food instead!

Tiny Cake

Shabbos was short but fun. Freddie and The Munchkin stayed in the sunhouse for shabbos and the Nemdy's walked over for both of the meals.

Dinner was festive, we had latkas with our roast and enjoyed a nice wine that a neighbor had brought over. The wine was supposedly very fancy, it smelled of oak and tasted like raisins (with some prunes thrown in for good measure). I didn't particularly enjoy it but my father seemed to think that it was "very nice".

Somebody got into the moose before it was served (some parties claim that it was me but I'm maintaining the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing..) and the tiny cake that Lori brought was a big hit.

Timmy tried a new tea for desert, Lori sniffed the outside and said that it smelled nice. We spent the next few minutes passing it around so that everyone could get a whiff. As it was being passed around someone asked the question that we were all thinking "Why am I sniffing a teabag wrapper?". There was some mumbling shrugging  from the side of the table where the tea bag had originated and and then everyone resumed their cake eating with much enthusiasm.

Lunch was nice, we decided to have chalavie and had ice cream Sundays Saturdays for dessert.
I spent most of the afternoon hiding in my room reading my book. When I went back down to join the party I saw that it was snack time.

The Crazy Lady wanted to share some snacks with Buzzy but Oscar was determined to show Buzzy that "sharing is caring". The Crazy Lady tried in vain to keep the dog from eating the snacks but clearly underestimated his unwavering sense of determination.

She eventually managed to keep all parties happy by putting some of the snacks on the couch for Buzzy to eat while feeding some snacks to Oscar as far away from the couch as possible. Satisfied from his snack, Oscar went off in search of a quiet place to sleep. The rest of the afternoon passed by quickly and suddenly it was time to say havdalah.

It's the fourth night of chanukah and I can already smell the obligatory latkas being made.
Excuse me while I see to it that some of them mysteriously disappear.....

Thanksgivanukah

Last night was Thanksgivanukkah. Lorbles hosted a BIG fambily dinner complete with a 7 kilo turkey.

She made cool seating cards too!

In addition to celebrating turkey day and chanukah, we also celebrated my grandparents 54th anniversary!

Happy Anniversary!!!!!

There was lots of food to go around and we all gorged ourselves on turkey. After we ate we tried to get some nice family pictures. Some of the family members where a little on the uncooperative side...

Others were more willing to comply with my requests.

All in all, I'd say that it was a major success! I hope everyone had an awesome thanksgiving and has a great shabbos chanukah!!!!

How To Con Your Friends And Influence People.

My brother Frank conned his friend (let's call him Joe) into giving him an undisclosed amount of money and a new set of speakers.
Joe had somehow broken his fathers speakers (which he wasn't supposed to be using) and didn't want him to find out. Luckily for him, Frank knew just what to do.
Frank just so happened to have the same speakers and offered to sell them to Joe for the amount that he had originally paid for them.
Joe was overjoyed at the prospect of not being grounded for life and agreed to the deal. Since the other speakers weren't working anyways,  Joe told Frank that he was welcome to take them as a token of his appreciation.
Frank brought them home and asked The Mad Man if he thought that the speakers could be salvaged.
The Mad Man took a look and said that he would do his best to bring them back to life.

                                     

Wires were striped and the soldering iron was brought out. We waited in anticipation while The Mad Man worked his magic.

After what seemed like an eternity, it was time to test the speakers. Frank plugged his ipod in and pushed the power button. Everybody smiled as music filled the room. 

And that my friends is the story of how my little brother conned his friend and got himself some extra cash and a new speaker system.  

Rice Head

Shabbos was nice, as per usual. Lori&co joined us for lunch, much eating and merrymaking ensued. Buzzy wanted to go to the park so we said goodbye to them and sent them on their way. I read my book until shabbos came to an end.

Yesterday morning was a little hectic but the rest of the day was quiet. I did a lot of staring at my computer and pretending to study studying and tried my hardest to drive The Crazy Lady insane.

Garfield always hated Mondays but I beg to differ. 

Z has school on Monday nights so I get to hang out with Lorbles and The Buzzinator. Our evenings usually consist of various exciting activities such as, frolicking in the park, eating delicious food, spontaneous shenanigans and watching Gilmore Girls. 

Last week we sailed the seven seas on S.S. Buzz. 

Today we decided to stay on land. We made some Buzz Bucks and I got a tour of the apartment with Buzzy's Joy Rides. I also got a complimentary hairdo from Buzzy's new salon. It's a little more "relaxed" than I normally wear it but it looks nice and the service at the salon was great. 

The peas and tomatoes that I planted a couple of weeks ago have started to grow like crazy. The peas seem to be getting a little too friendly with their neighbors, I think it may be time for me to intervene. 

Maybe stake a few of the rowdier ones..... It's all about sending a message.

The Story Of How I Didn't Eat An Entire Recipe Of Waffles For Breakfast.

This morning I woke up on the early side. I went downstairs for some breakfast and noticed that the house seemed awfully quiet (aside from Mr. Cat flinging things off of the counters). I looked out the window and noticed that the car was gone. After a quick look around, I determined that I was alone in the house.

The kitchen was on the messy side so I decided to straighten up a little. After washing (almost) all the dishes and loading the dishwasher, I felt like I deserved a treat.

It seemed too early for ice cream and pancakes just didn't feel right. After a lot of thought and consideration, it came to me. Waffles. Not just any waffles, chocolate chip waffles.

I put on an apron, hunted down the recipe and got to work. Rice and barley flour dusted the counter tops and some of the batter mysteriously ended up on the wall. It was time to get out the waffle iron.
The hardest part about making waffles is trying to figure out exactly how much batter needs to go into the iron to ensure the perfect waffles. I put too little in the first batch but by the third batch I had discovered the secret.

Beautifully crisped waffles lay stacked on their plate, just waiting to be eaten. I was finishing up the last batch when I was struck by a genius idea, I should eat ALL of them. There would be no
witnesses, no one would ever know.

Pleased by my ingenuity, I picked out the chocolatiest waffles and got to work. I was finishing off my third waffle when I began to feel a little sick. I looked at the waffles sitting on the counter and realized that my plan might not have been quite as genius as I had originally thought.

I decided to call on some friends for advice. "Is eating an entire recipe of waffles for breakfast a good idea?" the general consensus was "No". I decided to heed the wise words of my friends and put my waffle back onto the plate.

I looked around at the shambles of the once clean kitchen. The waffle iron had dripped a little after I had overfilled it with batter and one of the cats had rolled around on the counter top and was now coated in a light layer of flour. I straightened the kitchen up and chased the cat around with a dishtowel in an effort to clean up my mess.

The counters were clean and the cat was hiding in the couch. I put the waffles into the microwave and stuck some sticky notes on the door to let my parents know that they should eat them.
After a quick survey around the kitchen I gave myself a pat on the back for a job well done and returned to my tower.

"Toss The Body Into The River"

Shabbos starts pretty early nowadays. After a delicious dinner we decided to play some games until it was time for bed. The Mad Man fell asleep on the couch with a newspaper on his face so The Crazy Lady, Frank, The Dibble and I had fun without him. 

We started off with a couple of rounds of bananagrams and then had a cut throat game of settlers. It's hard to say who won bananagrams as there were many disputes over which rules are the "real" rules. We would have read the original instructions to solve the problem but they were slightly unintelligible after years of abuse.  

By the time we were done settling the land of catan we were all pretty tired. Frank was crowned as the victor of settlers and then we headed to bed.

After lunch I walked over to Lori's to see what was going on over there. They had a guest over and we all sat around and ate deserts until shabbos came to an end.

After havdala Lori waxed my armpits in the living room while Buzz stared on in horror. We scavenged in the fridge for leftovers and then Lori drove me home after we dropped Sarah Leah off at what we hoped was the right bus stop.

Sunday was very quiet, I studied a bunch and did some laundry. I also tried to make some granola but had trouble remembering the exact quantities that I normally add. Going to get the recipe off my computer seemed like the best idea but in my infinite wisdom, I decided to "wing it". I added varied amounts of most of the ingredients while (accidentally) omitting others. It was a feisty batch that seemed determined to defeat me, but I showed it who's boss when I flung part of the contents of the tray onto the bottom of the oven. 

Surprisingly, the granola tastes pretty good and is strangely addictive....

Monday was dark and gloomy. I studied for a bit and then got sucked into the xbox void for a good couple of hours. Z had class so I went to hang out with Lori and Buzz. We sailed the seven seas and played with photo booth while we waited for dinner to cook.

Dinner was delicious and I made some cookies for desert. It was bedtime for the Buzzinator so we got him in his jammies and tried to convince him to brush his teeth. 

After he fell asleep it was time for some Gilmore Girls. We watched two episodes and then Z drove me home.

 

Today was a very lazy day. Lori and Buzzy came to hang out while Z ran some errands in Jerusalem. I ended up spending most of my day playing Assassins Creed II. The game is weirdly addicting and although I knew I should stop playing and go study, I couldn't tear myself away. Frank and The Dibble came home from school and were surprised to see how far I had gotten. I was stuck on a tricky part and my darling brothers had many words of wisdom to share with me. I eventually got tired of hearing them chide my every move and surrendered the controller into their waiting hands. Everyone took turns leaping through the air and dangling off of the chandeliers until Frank managed to get to the top. 

My hands began to get cramped from holding onto the controller and my eyes hurt from staring at the screen. I decided to call it quits and handed the controller over to The Dibble so that he could play some Halo.

After dinner we took a girls trip up to the rama and got some new books to read.

I'm not sure what the plan is for tomorrow but I'm hoping that I'll resist the urge to assassinate more people. 

Extra Credit

This morning started out like any other, I woke up, got dressed and went downstairs to make some breakfast. I was standing in the kitchen making hash browns when The Mad Man walked in and said "oh yes, I remember what we did last night. We tried sticking balloons onto the cat!".

I was the only other person around and he didn't appear to be addressing me with his statement. I stood by the stove, spatula in hand, with a bewildered expression on my face. I watched as he found his cup of coffee and wandered down the stairs as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. 

I stood there watching the stairs, wondering if he would come back up to elaborate. He didn't. 

The potatoes started to burn and I turned my attention back to making my breakfast. 

A while later The Crazy Lady came down, I asked her if she knew why my father had spent the night "sticking balloons onto the cat". 

She laughed and told me that The Dibbles science teacher had offered to give him extra credit if he brought in a picture of a balloon stuck to a cat using static electricity. The cats had been less than pleased with the assignment and were extremely unwilling to cooperate.

After multiple attempts, it was determined that they would have better luck using a dead cat. Fortunately, we didn't have any on hand so they were forced to admit defeat. 

My breakfast was delicious, despite the slightly burnt potatoes. The rest of my day has been pretty normal, lots of cooking (and tasting) and other pre-shabbos stuff.

Have a great shabbos!

Late Night Shenanigans

Last night I went to meet up with my friends Em and Sea. Em had a car with her so she picked Sea and I up from the bus stop and decided to drive us somewhere (preferably a place with free parking). The one flaw in her plan was that we weren't sure where exactly somewhere was.
We drove around for a while and then headed in the general direction of emek. On the way we passed by another friends apartment and thought it would be funny to try and kidnap her. We pulled up in front of her building and called to check if she was home. We were in luck, she had just finished eating dinner. After a very cryptic phone call, we persuaded her to come outside where we were waiting. She was happy to see us and said that she would be glad to join us on our adventure.
After we had clambered back into the car we headed towards emek (again). Turns out there wasn't much in the way of parking, we finally found a spot (possibly an illegal one) and parked the car.
Em and Sea hadn't eaten dinner so we decided to check out a couple of restaurants to see what they had to offer. Apparently the thing they had in common was astronomical prices so we got back into the car and decided to go to the shuk to find some food.
Surprise surprise,  parking at the shuk was even more sparse than parking on emek. After driving around in a couple of circles we managed to find a spot.
We wandered into the night life of the shuk (which is actually quite nice) and headed for a pasta place that Em and Sea love.
After the meal we headed back to the car where Em insisted on driving me down the block to my bus stop before driving everyone else home. Being that Em is overly persuasive, I caved and got in the car (which turned out to be a good thing). My bus pulled in just as she was pulling up to the stop, I said my good byes and then hopped out of the car and onto my bus.
It was pretty late at this point so there wasn't much in the way of traffic, I made it home about forty minutes later.

All in all, I'm not entirely sure what we did last night but it was nice to see my friends. Hopefully I'll get to see them again sometime soon!

Good Food, Great Company.

Sunday I spent most of the day studying (Wooo! Go me!). The Mad Man picked up a package for Lori at the post office so she and Buzzy came to visit for a bit, which was a welcome break from studying. We made some lunch and hung out while Frank and Buzz played some Xbox. 

Eventually Lori and Buzzy had to head home, I said goodbye and went back up to my tower to try and study.

Monday was more exciting, I studied in the morning and then walked over to Lori in the afternoon. I got there just as they were getting ready to go to the park. I dropped my bag off and then we headed to the park for some much needed outdoor time.

Buzzy and I went down the big slide and played in the tunnel. Then we walked up to the jungle gym and then on to the swings. By the time an hour had gone by we were all pretty tuckered out, we headed back to the apartment to wash up and think about dinner.

Lori had some chicken breasts in the fridge but we couldn't decide what to do with them. The idea of chinese fake-out was suggested and met with approval. We settled on sweet n' sour chicken, after a quick google search we found a recipe for sweet n' sour sauce and got to work. 

Everything came out AMAZING! It sort of looked like we had gotten take-out and then dumped it onto our plates. 

We watched some Gilmore Girls while we ate and then it was time for Buzz to go to bed. Pajamas were put on, teeth were brushed and the monster was herded into his room. 

After the Buzz was asleep, Lori and I watched a couple more episodes of GG until Z came home from school and offered to drive me home.

Yesterday morning was filled with failed attempts to study. I made some granola and then watched some TV with The Crazy Lady.

We had a big family dinner at cafe rimon, it was really nice to see everyone and I think we all had a good time. Buzz and The Munchkin entertained us throughout the meal and the food was delicious. 

After we finished eating we went for a stroll around the mall. It started to get late so we said goodbye to S&S, The Freddies and Lori&co as everyone headed their separate ways. 

So far today is going swell. I'm supposed to meet up with some friends later so I should probably try and study for a while... 

Monopoly- Go Bankrupt Or Go Home (so lifelike, you'll forget it's not reality).

The Crazy Lady put a roast up to cook friday morning and it spent all day sitting in the crockpot smelling delicious. We devoured it for dinner and went to sleep nice and early.

Lunch was super quiet, The Dibble ate at a friends house and Frank was "too tired" to join us. The Crazy Lady, The Mad Man and I enjoyed our meal and then I walked over to Lori's.

Lori and Z seemed relieved to see me. We decided to look through the game box to find something fun to play. For some inexplicable reason, I thought that monopoly would be fun. Z decided that we should play "by the rules" in hopes that the game would go by faster. The rules stated that if you landed on a property and decided not to by it, the property was put up for auction to be claimed by the highest bidder. Playing by the rules also meant that there was no "free parking" or any other of the house rules that we made up to keep extra money floating around.

We began the game with gusto, excited to see how the new rules would pan out. Z was determined not to let anyone get a monopoly and spent the first few rounds outbidding Lori and I until he had acquired at least one street from each city. By the fifth round or so he began to run out of money and regret his strategy. Lori managed to buy a nice amount of properties while I spent most of my time in jail. I finally got a few properties (including some railroads) and started raking in the cash.

Lori built houses on the boardwalk and I somehow managed to land on it almost every time that I passed that section of the board. Z kept landing on my properties and eventually resorted to paying me with his mortgaged properties.  Z was out, but the war waged on.

Lori and I spent an hour handing our money back and forth as we landed on each others properties. Finally we decided to call it quits and count our money to see who the winner was.
Due to the fact that Z had handed over all of his properties without auctioning them off, it was hard to determine a winner.  After much thought and deliberation, we decided that it was a draw.

I raided the fridge and found some leftovers to eat for dinner (mmmmm, stew). Z is trying to Buzzy to sleep and then we might watch a movie. It's fun when shabbos ends early :)

Instructions Are For Squares

The Mad Man and I headed to Ikea on Wednesday afternoon to pick out a new desk chair for me. I found a super comfy (and expensive) armchair and desperately tried to convince him that I needed it. He politely reminded me that I would be paying for my own chair and after lamenting over the status of my bank account, I decided to look for something a little more budget friendly.
After many deliberations I settled on the Malkolm chair, it seems sturdy and has a nice back support. We passed by some teddy bears having some sort of party on our way to pick up the chair.

Back at home I decided to try and put the chair together by myself. My initial reaction closely resembled the illustration of the guy in the instruction manual.

It appeared that some of the pieces were missing and the back of the chair seemed oddly heavy. After much perseverance and determination (and a little help from the instructions) I discovered that the "missing" pieces were stored in the back of the chair. The rest of the process went smoothly and the chair was put together in no time.

Yesterday I spent most of the day in Jerusalem with my friend Sea. We had a picnic in the park and wandered around town until it was time for me to head home. When I got back to the sun house my parents were heading out to run an errand. I jumped into the car and asked them to drop me off at Lori's house for dinner. 

Lori made some delicious indian style chicken and I ate lots of granola for desert. Buzz ran around like a lunatic and we watched some TV before Z dropped me off at home.

Today is Friday, again. I'm not quite sure how that happened or where the week went...

Time sure does fly by.