Imaginary Friends

Election day turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be. After we voted, Timmy and I met up with Lori&co at the park on the hill. Lori brought her big fancy camera and let me play around with it for a while. I'm not exactly an expert (ok so a lot of the photos were way over exposed and I sometimes forget to take off the lens cap) but I managed to get some pretty nice shots.

I may not be an expert photographer but I'm good at photobombing. :)

 We all ran around the park like lunatics until we got tired and then headed back to the fambily house for some dinner. I made crockpot pineapple chicken which tasted pretty good (despite the fact that I forgot to cut the chicken breasts into slices before cooking it). It started to get late and Buzzy was getting sleepy so we said goodbye to Lori&co and everyone headed to bed.

Wednesday morning Lori and Z dropped Buzz off and went out to run some errands. Buzzy watched The Aristocats with The Crazy Lady while I made some vegetable soup for lunch.
Lori&co came to pick Buzzy up and I decided to try and finish organizing my room. I moved some of the furniture around and then The Mad Man and Z helped me hang up some hooks for my coats. I also went through all of my old high school notes and managed to clear off a couple of shelves.It took most of the afternoon but I think that it was worth it. The room looks much bigger now and I was able to put away a lot of books that had been living on my desk.
Lori&co stayed for dinner again, we enjoyed some delicious meatballs and spaghetti.

Late last night one of the outdoor cats (Passi) passed away. She was a cat whose nine lives served her well and long. Honestly, she hasn't been looking so great since last winter and I'm relieved that she's not in pain anymore. She's hanging out up in kitty heaven now eating "meals on wheels" and chatting with her old friends.
Frank and The Mad Man laid her to rest in a nice spot under the pomelo tree in the backyard.

After the "service" for the cat, The Crazy Lady and I did some gardening work on the roof. The plants needed a little help after our two week vacation. Weeds were pulled and plants were trimmed. I pretended to plant some cherry tomatoes but I'm not sure if they'll actually grow (I didn't actually sprout the seeds or anything, just stuck them in some dirt and hoped for the best...).
Grocery shopping was next on the list so The Crazy Lady and I headed over to Shufersal to find some chickens for shabbos. We didn't need much so it didn't take us long to get back home.
We made some FF pizza for lunch and then I went up to my tower to get some stuff done.

I noticed a spider on my wall and spent twenty minutes or so suspiciously eyeing it. As I worked I sort of got used to the little critter. I named him Greg and made sure to check on him every once in a while. After a while it became evident that good ol' Greg wasn't moving around very much. I thought that he might be taking a nap but upon further investigation I discovered that Greg was not a spider, but a scratch from when they were taking apart my old bed.
I figured that I had probably been staring at the computer screen for too long so I got up and went to walk the dog.
It's almost time for dinner so I should probably go help The Crazy Lady out. The Freddies are coming for shabbos and Lori&co are supposed to be coming for lunch. It's gonna be a full house!!

Smuggling Tools

The Little Munchkin has been sick for the past few days. Despite the fact that she was sick she seemed to have more than enough energy to run around like a lunatic.

Sunday evening The Mad Man (my dad) and Frank drove over to the Freddie's with my old bed. The Mad Man, Frank and Mr. Freddie schlepped the bed upstairs and put together in The Munchkins room. After the hard labor we celebrated with soup and other snacks before sending The Mad Man and Frank on their merry way.

Monday morning Freddie, The Munchkin and I hung out together. We went grocery shopping, did some cleaning and made a BIG (delicious) lunch. The morning seemed to fly by and before we knew it, it was two in the afternoon. Freddie got ready for work while The Little Munchkin and I got ready for the park. We said goodbye to Freddie as she headed towards the hospital and then continued going straight towards the park. It was a little hot out but The Little Munchkin didn't mind, she ran up the steps and slid down all the slides. After half an hour or so of fun she started getting tired so we headed back to the apartment and tried to take a nap. 

The Little Munchkin vehemently opposed to the whole napping idea and instead spent an hour singing and playing in her crib until at last I came to rescue her. Excited about being free she ran around in circles before asking me to put Curious George on for her. We got some snacks and then settled in to watch Curious George monkey around (they put up some new episodes since last time I watched her so I had plenty of episodes to catch up on). 

Mr. Freddie came home from work and dropped me off at the train station. The Mad Man had forgotten his tools the night before and the security guard seemed slightly puzzled by the fact that I appeared to be carrying a hammer, screwdriver and wrench with me. He gave me a funny look and I told him that I liked to be prepared for any/all situations. He nodded and handed me my bag. 

The first train was pretty empty and I had a four seater all to myself. I amused myself by watching the people outside the window, I noticed a guy running for the train and began to chant "run forest run" under my breath. The guy made the train and sat down opposite me, I looked up and noticed that his shirt said "run forest run".

I laughed, the guy looked confused.

The next train was a little more crowded but I managed to snag a seat anyways. The Mad Man picked me up from the train station (I think he felt bad about making me carry the tools home).

I was pretty tuckered out but my new bed still hadn't come, the delivery guy called and said he would come at ten. 

At 10:40 the delivery guy pulled up and started to unload the bed. It was schlepped up to my tower and took all of 10 minutes to assemble (no screws needed). I was a little worried that it wouldn't fit into the space where the other bed had been but it fits perfectly. 

The bed is much lower than my other bed so everything is at a funny angle and the mattress is much thicker and bouncier. It took a little getting used to but I got a good nights sleep so I think it will work out just fine.

Today we elect a new mayor for our city, it's my first time voting for mayor so I'm pretty excited. 

Other than that there are grocery stores to raid and errands to run. It's gonna be a busy day!

Wiggly Wiggly

We made it home from Frankfurt early Wednesday morning. After making a racket with our suitcases and waking up half the neighborhood we decided that it was time for bed.

When we awoke a few hours later it was business as usual, The Dibble and Frank went to school and mounds of laundry needed to be sorted through. 

At 3ish Lori&co showed up, we regaled them with tales and showered them with presents. I started to get hungry and went to scavenge for food but was not overly successful so we decided that a trip to the grocery store was in order.

Lori&co needed some things as well so we all headed over to shufersal for an adventure. Lori , Z and my parents tried to shop as Buzz and I ran amok through the isles. I helped Lori do self checkout (mainly because I love pressing all the buttons), I waved goodbye as they left the store and then headed back to the produce section to annoy my parents. Back at their car, Lori&co had offered to give a lift to a neighbor that lives a few blocks over from us. They piled into the car and began their drive when the neighbor said "wait! I thought I saw your sister in the store with you...?" Lori replied that I had in fact been in the store with them and then continued to stare out the window as if everything was fine. The neighbor looked slightly confused and asked "but why are you leaving her there?". Lori thought about it for a minute before realizing that the neighbor hadn't seen our parents and therefore thought that they were abandoning me in the supermarket. She laughed and then explained the that my parents were still there and that they would drive me home. The neighbor nodded and let out a sigh of relief before turning back to the window.

Thursday was a busy day. In the morning my parents and I went up to the rama so that I could pick out a new bed. The bed that I'm currently sleeping on is a kids bed that we had made when we first bought our house in bet shemesh which was originally intended to be a vacation home. Everyone else grew out of their beds and got upgraded to sapapas (sort of like a sofa bed) but being the shorty of the house it never seemed worth it to buy me a new bed until Freddie asked if we could move it to their new apartment for The Little Munchkin to sleep on. 

I tried out a bunch of mattresses before settling on a nice one that promises to make you feel like "you're sleeping in another world". I'm not sure which world it's supposed to be taking me to but it seemed pretty comfy so I suppose I'll just sort of go with it...

When we got home I ate some lunch and then headed out to Jerusalem to meet my friend Sea. 

Sea started university this past Sunday (woooo) we went to the central bus station to change her bus card to a student card (because students get a discount). We went in and looked at the number on her ticket, 956. We looked up at the sign next to the door, the number 526 stared back at us. This was gonna take a while. We left the central bus station and walked around for an hour, when we checked the screen again it had moved up to 620. Dejected, we went to the food court and got some fries to snack on. We found a bench to sit on in a more or less secluded area and waited another hour and a half before heading back to the office. This time the number was at 915, we were so close! Another 40 minutes went by before her number came up. We pushed through the mob at the doorway and sat down by the desk. Changing the card took a whopping 5 minutes and we pushed our way out and then left the bus station. 

Sea walked me to my stop and waited for the bus to come before crossing the street to catch her bus. The ride took a while but I put my headphones in and drifted off for most of the ride.

Friday was full of cooking, shouting and cleaning. Dinner was simple (soup and stew) but delicious. The Crazy Lady and I were both still recovering from our adventures and decided to go to bed early.

Today was fun,we had a quiet lunch and I walked over to Lori's in the late afternoon.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit the Freddie's and hang out with The Little Munchkin. They moved into their new apartment while I was away so I'm pretty excited to check it out. 

Updates and stuffs: I know I missed out a couple of days due to lack of internet access. I'm working on filling them in! I added photos to some of the posts and uploaded a post for October 10th. Hopefully I'll have it all filled in by the end of the week so don't forget to keep checking back for updates!

Frankfart

Hello from Frankfurt! The Crazy Lady and I made it through the ginormous airport and security and are now waiting by the gate. 

Today had been exhausting.... The flight from Dublin to Frankfurt went by smoothly, there were no delays or cancellations and our suitcases (somehow) weren't overweight. 

We arrived in Frankfurt a couple of hours ago but our gate was closed so we found some seats and waited for them to open the gate. 

A mob of Israelis formed around the gate and they eventually started to let us through security which was quite extensive and stressful.

We were supposed to board the plane at 6:25 but it's nearly 7 and the plane is nowhere in sight. 

I hope it comes soon!!!! I can't wait to get back to the holy land!!!!! 

Recalculating

Hello! I hope you haven't missed me too much... I'm back in Dublin at the Carlton Airport Hotel and thankfully they actually have (free) wifi!!!! WOOOO!!!!!As you may recall from my last post, I've been living wifi-free for the past week or so (which is why I haven't been updating). It's been fun being MIA for the past few days but I won't pretend that I wasn't overjoyed when I discovered that the hotel had free wifi.Today we drove from Doolin back to Dublin, the drive took about three and half hours and was exhausting. After finding the hotel (no thanks to the willful GPS) we dragged our luggage up to our room and then headed back out to return our little red car.The car rental place was easy to find and it took under five minutes to return the car. We hopped onto the shuttle (which we assumed would magically take us back to our hotel) and ended up at the airport. After much deliberation and instructions from a nice stranger, we found the shuttle that took us back to the hotel. Now we're sitting in our hotel room eating potato chips and getting ready for tomorrow. Our flight leaves at 12pm tomorrow and after a four hour stopover in Frankfurt lands in Israel at 1am Wednesday morning. I definitely enjoyed the last two weeks but I think that I'm ready to go home. :)This is just a quickie update to let you know that I haven't abandoned you! Don't forget to check back for more updates wherein we travel through the Atlantic ocean in a tiny boat, explore Galway, storm the Bunratty castle and are serenaded by a cow next door from dusk till dawn.

Bunratty Castle and Folk Park

Shabbos was cold. We closed all the doors that we could and confined ourselves to the living room where we spent the day reading and drinking lukewarm tea from the thermos that we had filled before lighting our candles. We briefly considered going on a walk but decided against it after looking at the overcast sky through the window.

Sunday we headed over to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. When we arrived at the park we were greeted by two huge Irish wolfhounds. The Crazy Lady asked if she could pet them and the trainer told her that they only ate one tourist a day and had already had their allotment so she was free to pet as much as she wanted.
We pet the pups and then went to find the castle.

The castle was built and destroyed a bunch of times before the current structure was built/extensively restored some time in the 19th century and is the most complete and authentically restored castle in Ireland.

The park also has many different types of cottages to show how people would have lived based on their jobs and status. There are houses from all over the country, Limerick, Kerry, Tipperary, Clare and County Mayo.

Most of the houses had little fires in the fireplaces and people in costume to tell you about how life would have been. You can watch them churn butter, bake bread and apple tart all of which the visitors are welcome to eat (although The Crazy Lady and I decided against it).

After the cottages there is a 19th century village complete with school, doctors house, pawn shop, grocery store, post office, (some other stuff that I can't remember) and pub.

The school house.

Sneaking behind the counter at the post office (there was no sign saying NOT to go behind the counter....)

Some of the stores have actual shops in them where you can buy pottery, sweater and all sorts of souvenirs. The pub at the end of the street called MacNamaras is a fully functioning bar where you can stop in to eat and have a pint.

When we had visited all the different parts of the park we looked around for something else to do (since it was still pretty early) but due to the fact that it was Sunday, lots of stuff was closed. We headed back to Doolin and started to pack stuff up since we were heading back to Dublin in the morning.
We got in to bed for a good nights sleep treasuring the silence of the little cottage. A couple of minutes after we got into bed The Crazy Lady came into my room and asked me if I had heard the funny noise from outside. I said that I hadn't so she went back into her room.
I was lying in bed trying to figure out what she was talking about when I heard it, we conferred and determined that it was probably a cow.
Happy to have solved the mystery, we went to sleep hoping that the cow would follow suit.

Galavanting In Galway

For Fridays adventure we decided to drive up to Galway. We drove through the beautiful scenery of The Burren for about forty minutes before coming to a sign saying "Corkscrew Hill". It wasn't hard to  see where the name had originated from as we made our way down the sharp curves of the mountain. Despite the intense curves and my mothers fear of heights, everything seemed to be going smoothly. As we rounded one of the curves we saw a sign warning us that the edge of the road was unstable. Thankfully it was a one way street and there wouldn't be anyone coming from the opposite direction, right? Wrong!

The man in the car coming at us smiled reassuringly and after a slight panic we were somehow able to pass him and escape unscathed. 

We made it to Galway alive and found a place to park the car.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, a lot of the National museums in Ireland have free admission. The museums are a great way to learn about the city that you're in and about the country in general. We found the museum and spent an hour or so looking at the exhibits. After the museum we walked into the town and walked around for a while.

It was a Friday afternoon and there was lots to do for Shabbos so we decided to head back to Doolin before it started getting late.
We made a quick stop at the Galway Bay on our way to pick up the car.

There was a nice big Supervalu in Galway, we stopped to pick up some veggies and stuff for Shabbos and then drove back up Corkscrew Hill and on to Doolin.

Back at our cottage we started to get stuff ready to go in the oven. I found some ground almonds in the store and made a batch of snickerdoodle cookies for dessert. The oven was slightly uncooperative and some of the cookies were a tad under baked while others managed to get slightly overdone but they tasted good anyways. 

We set the table with our best dishes (plastic kid plates from Ikea and foil tin-pan bowls) and got ready to enjoy a relaxing Shabbos.