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.  

Eating Hats

The Crazy Lady and I spent Sunday afternoon running errands. After a quick lunch I went to the park on top of the hill to meet up with Lori&co. One of the kids had too many snacks to eat and ended up puking next to the slide.
It was pretty gross so we decided to check out a "new" (hopefully puke free) park.

We settled on the rose garden park, it was pretty much empty so Buzzy and I had full reign of the slides (woo!). We all ran amok until it started to get dark out and we decided it was time for dinner.

Lori&co dropped me off at the sun house and then headed home.

Yesterday I chilled at home most of the day. Z left for school at 2ish so I went to keep Lorbles and Buzzy company. We watched Gilmore Girls and Lori made a delicious stove top chicken for dinner while Buzzy tried to make cupcakes for desert in the pantry. The chicken tasted great but Buzzy's cupcakes were a tad rubbery. Buzzy got tired and I had a chiropractor appointment in the rama so we said goodnight and I made way outside into the windy night.

Today was an interesting day, I actually managed to study for three hours. That may not seem like much an achievement to you but I assure you, it is for me.
During a study break I went to check out the rooftop garden. The pea pods that I planted last week have already started sprouting. Some of the tomatoes sprouted as well but I'm waiting to see if more of them pop up (I shoved seven tomatoes in the planter and there are only two little leaves so far).

 Teeny tiny pea stalk!

After dinner Frank, The Dibble and I had some fun with pirate hats. I originally made a small one to put on the cat because it seemed like a good idea at the time. The cat was not amused and the dog ended up eating the tiny hat.
Since the animals were unwilling to participate in the festivities, I made some human sized hats instead.

#selfies

Fishie Front Update: All the fishies are alive and well. They seem pretty happy in their new home and the pump is working wonderfully. Woo! :)

Cat-astrophic Events

Friday night dinner started out like any other shabbos dinner. There was a lot of yelling and shushing as my father tried to get us all to the table for kiddush. After kiddush we went to wash and then said hamotzie.
Everything seemed to be going well when cat-astrophe struck. Smooshie and Mr. Cat were having some sort of altercation. Unable to solve their dispute, they came to the humans for help. Oscar, the helpful dog that he is, came bounding over to the table to see if he could be of service.
Mr. Cat took one look at Oscar and decided that he'd rather save his troubles for another time. He ran under the table, down the stairs and out of sight.
In the confusion, Smooshie panicked. Mr. Cat was gone but that pesky dog had that crazy look in his eyes. She looked around and saw that she was out of options, there was only one way unblocked by the humans. With a deep breath she took her leap. Plates and wine glasses went flying, the humans shrieked as the glass plummeted to the floor. The cat bolted up the stairs, pleased with herself for making such a clear getaway.
Shards of glass decorated the table top and lay scattered about the floor. The humans sat in silence, unsure of what exactly had transpired.
The thoughtful dog tried to help by attempting to eat some of the glass shards. The humans yelled and pulled the helpful creature away from the table.
Plates were cleared, the floor was swept and a new table was set. The meal was resumed and passed without any further incidents.

Shabbos lunch was quiet. We were finishing up our desert when there was a knock on the door. Lori, Buzzy, Z and Abe (Z's brother) came through the door bearing gifts. I happily accepted the cake that I was offered, despite the fact that I had just eaten desert.
We played a game of Phase 10 which is the longest card game known to man kind. The Crazy Lady finally won (wooo) and we sat around chilling until shabbos ended.

After shabbos we had a movie night and watched Despicable Me 2. It was really cute and pretty hilarious.
Buzzy was pretty tired after a long day of adventures so Lori&co took him home.
Frank and I saved the world from zombies and then I decided that it was time for me to go to sleep.

Today looks like it's gonna be another quiet day. Perhaps I will manage to convince myself to study for an hour or two...

Halloweenie

Hanging out with the Freddie's is always fun. Freddie didn't start working until 10am on Thursday so we walked The Little Munchkin to gan together and then hung out until it was time for Freddie to go. A couple of TV episodes later, it was time to pick The Little Munchkin up from gan. I grabbed the handy dandy map that Freddie had drawn for me (because I have a horrible sense of direction and a knack for getting lost when walking in a straight line) and headed out to find the gan. The map was very detailed and I made it without getting lost. The Little Munchkin was a bit reluctant to leave the party but I coaxed her with pretzels and tea biscuits until she caved.

By the time we got home The Little Munchkin was feeling pretty good about her decision to let me take her home. We went in and made some lunch, salad with tuna for me and a toast for The Munchkin. We sat on the couch eating our lunch and watching Curious George.
The Munchkin started to get sleepy so I put her in for a nap. I watched some more TV and pretended to study for a while. Finally The Little Munchkin woke up and I had someone to play with.

We ate some more snacks and watched more Curious George until Freddie came home.
The Crazy Lady and The Mad Man had an errand to run in Rishon so they decided to stop by the Freddie's to drop off the last pieces of the bed and to pick me up.
We sat around and talked for a while before hauling the bed pieces upstairs. The Little Munchkin started to get tired so we said good night and headed back to the sun house.

The new pump for the pond arrived yesterday. The Crazy Lady and The Mad Man cleaned out the pond and switched the pumps. They put the sole survivor back into the pond but he looked kind of lonely so The Crazy Lady and I went to the pet store this morning and picked out some new friends for him. We dropped the new fish into the pond and so far they seem pretty happy (and nobody went belly up). The survivor seems excited about his new friends so I suppose it's a happy ending. :)

Yesterday was Halloween. We don't celebrate it but I made some themed donuts for shabbos anyways.

It's been raining and thundering all afternoon so The Crazy Lady decided to put up some chulent for lunch tomorrow. I personally love the winter so I'm pretty excited about the drastic change in the weather.
Have a great shabbos and stay dry! :)