devarim

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I had a cavity filled this afternoon in a lower molar (#19, for those of you who know the system). Because of the tooth's location, my dentist had to inject the anesthetic fairly low and far back, resulting in the numbing of not only my tongue and lower lip (and the tooth, of course), but also part of my throat on one side. ow that I'm home, I'm trying to decide which...

Today put on my best pinch-hitter hat and I helped out in our shul office for a couple of hours, mainly answering phones. And damned if I didn't almost-say "Hello! Young Israel of Cornell - how may I help you?" when I picked up the phone. Every. Single. Time. But only almost. I'm sure it would have been very confusing for the guy calling about minyanim in the greater Boston area to...

Hey, at least I can admit that I'm writing crap, right? This morning, shotly after I woke up, I read that Saddam Hussein had been sentenced to death by hanging. Perfect! I thought. Now I can do a whole weighty blog post about the death penalty in general, and this sentence in particular. Alas, no. Instead I shall complain about the lousy options for endtables and coffee tables (which are apparently properly...

I can't start every post this month with "Oh crap what did I get myself into?" - can I? But, really, I feel like I have nothing to say. Except...I am very, very, very grateful for our dishwasher. I made a North Indian vegetarian (mostly vegan, actually) mini-feast for dinner his past Shabbat, and nearly every dairy pot and pan in the kitchen has something adhering to the interior. (It perhaps would...

What did I discover tonight, after four years of marriage and another four years of dating prior to that? That my husband doesn't like stew. The foodstuff, I mean: the liquidy dish with meat and potatoes and vegetables. Not to be confused with any persons by the name of "Stewart," who, in my experience, at least, tend to be nice guys with whom Julian gets along just fine. No, I mean the...

There's been a Columbine-style threat at my sister's high school for tomorrow, November 1. There is, supposedly, a list of names (i.e., targets) floating around, and a rumor of gang involvement from elsewhere on the Island. My sister, her friends, a whole bunch of other students, and an even larger bunch of parents are (understandably) freaked out, but the school and the district - while taking appropriate steps to protect themselves and...

This time I have an excuse for the absence, I think. Nearly a year after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, my father has rejoined my mother - physically, in Eretz Yisrael, and, spiritually, in wherever or whatever it is that comes after our time in this world has ended. My sister and I got up from shiva this morning. Donations in memory of Elan Bar-Giora (Elan ben Avraham v'Flora; born: Matityahu Massouriani)...

Happy Anniversary, my love....

We have a nephew! (Julian's sister, not mine. It would be kind of disturbing otherwise.)...

We've lost our permanent guest parking spot. There is now a brand-spanking-new Volvo S40 (tricked out, I might add) parked there. Registered to me. :)...

This morning, I left my cell phone at home. When I try to log into Gmail (or Google Calendar or any of the other associated Google Account services), I get a 404 Not Found messag elike this: Not Found The requested URL /sorry/?continue=http://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin%3Fservice%3Dmail%26passive%3Dtrue%26rm%3Dfalse%26continue%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fmail.google.com%252Fmail%252F%253Fui%253Dhtml%2526zy%253Dl%26ltmpl%3Dyj_wsad%26ltmplcache%3D2 was not found on this server. When I log into Squirrel Mail to use my @gorfajn.com addresses, the program tells me it can't find my prefs file and so...

...or, I suppose, a tram stranded above the East River. I know everyone's heard the story by now (and if you haven't, well...now you can read it for yourself), but I have yet to come across a treatment of one little twist. In the rescue picture from yesterday's New York Times, Julian and I noticed what looked like two (maybe three) men in Hasidic garb (sect indeterminate) in the rescue basket used...

On Wednesday (tomorrow) morning, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 am, the time and date will be: 01:02:03 04/05/06 (Thank you, ProjGen!)...

Me: [freaking out about something minor] Julian: There's so much negative energy in you. Now if only we could harness it for the good... Me: "There is still good in him, Obi-Wan" - kinda like that? Julian: No, I mean I need a way to convert it to electricity. Me: And solve the energy crisis? Julian: No, just to lower our electric bill. Me: That's selfish. Julian: I'm a child of the...

The irony of having cancelled last night's Tu B'Shevat wine and cheese due to winter weather has not escaped me. If you venture outside today (as I must - no repeat of last year, sadly), be sure to hug a tree!...

Guess what? I'm planning another wine tasting for our shul. This post constitutes my shameless plug for the event. Details below...and if you are local and want to come, please RSVP to the posted email address and not to any of my personal ones. Spring is coming! Sample fruits of the earth and fruits of the vine as you celebrate Tu B'Shevat at a Wine and Cheese Tasting Sunday, February 12, 2006...

It's Shevat! Almost time to hug a tree......

I just IM'd the following to Alisha: i'm tired and cranky and stressed and depressed and my life sucks and i almost gave into the urge to BUY CHALLAH Off to proof the yeast......

Received from a co-worker of mine: my lovely wife, [---], is in need of patients for her new england regional board dentistry exam. she is offering dental work for the low, low cost of zero dollars ($0). all that is required is that you receive a free screening from her at a mutually convenient time and that her needs for her exam match your needs for new teeth and such. please pass...

During 2005, Devarim had... 243 posts published 878 (non-spam) comments posted 172,299 hits 142,383 page views 54,436 site visits 1,366 average unique visitors per month Thanks, guys!...

It's Tevet! And you thought I forgot, aaron, didn't you?...

Nothing of substance - I just thought I'd share with you all a little example of my oblliviousness. Julian and I recently bought elfa closet materials from The Container Store, and have been installing the stuff in the closets in our new home, one by one. Our first experiment was the closet in the TV room - great. Last night we did the coat closet, and I graduated to DrillMaster. Look at...

(A few hours late, but there's a whole week to go, so...) Happy Chanukah! We had a wonderful first night of Chanukah last night, involving much ruining of (other people's) children's dinners with chocolate. I hope everyone else is having a lovely holiday as well....

...and to all, a good night!...

Remember my shock at the thought of Johnny Damon going shaven and shorn? It looks like my fears were well founded. Damn, but he's fugly without all that hair....

So, it looks like Johnny Damon is going to the Yankees. Does this mean he'll have to shave? And cut his hair??...

See update in extended post Yesterday at about noon, Rabbi G sent a message to our synagogue's email list announcing that the eruv would be down for this week. The reason, it seems, is that there are insufficient funds for the Greater Boston Eruv Corporation to check (and, if necessary, repair) the ropes, wires, and other accoutrements that make up our community eruv. From time to time, when money is low, the...

It's Kislev! That means it's almost Chanukah...a time for fried food and gratuitous fire....

It's (almost) Cheshvan! Thank you to Miriam for reminding me (and to aaron for reminding her)....

The good news: it seems I have resolved my crisis of faith. Well, mostly. And probably not in the direction that Stella would have preferred. But there was a revelation, an awakening, an awareness, or at list a glimmer of enlightenment - something that made me realize that it is possible that I maybe do believe in God after all. Of course, that's just putting a positive spin on a terrible experience....

The B.U. extension of the greater Boston eruv is now up. Be sure to read all the notes - it sounds tricky!...

What day of the week is it? Am I supposed to go to work tomorrow? Fast? Do laundry? Not do laundry? Cook for forty people? Build a seven-story condo complex? Any insight would be highly valued!...

Word on the street is that local ice cream chain J. P. Licks is considering disassociating from the Va'ad (i.e. they would no longer be certified kosher). I don't know the reasoning, but we speculate they they want to expand their offerings of non-ice-cream foodstuffs (pastries, breakfast foods, hot drinks, etc.) and limiting themselves to kosher products and ingredients has been a financial and gustatoy hurdle for them. If you have any...

It's amazing how many people come out of the woodwork to call you when you put out a request on the shul's website saying that you don't have a sukkah and would like to be invited out for meals. I felt terrible turning people down once we got "filled up" for in-sukkah yom tov and Shabbat meals, particularly since everyone who called was someone we'd love to spend more time with. I'm...

There was plenty of good food at our Rosh Hashana table this year - but of course nothing goes off without a hitch. Or several....

Once again, am I torn between being grateful that we are permitted to cook on festival days (as opposed to Shabbat, when cooking is forbidden and reheating is tricky) and being somewhat annoyed at myself for using this halachic tidbit to leave so much work over to do on yom tov instead of having it all done before so I could focus a little more on the religious and social aspects of...

There will be much cooking tomorrow in anticipation of Rosh Hashana. And what anticipation it is! Since I'm so short on vacation time, we can't travel to NY and spend the holiday with our families. Instead, we will host a bunch of friends for two of the four holiday meals (dinners/lunches for both first and second days) and look forward to being hosting in other people's homes for the other two meals....

I thought it was bad for my sister when she ended up with my seventh-grade English teacher last year. This year, though, her English teacher is...one of my seventh-grade classmates. Next year she'll be in high school, where my sister-in-law teaches chemistry and one of my close friends (and a bridesmaid in my wedding) teaches English. She's never going to get away with anything. Poor kid. Poor teachers....

Anyone want to feed a lovely blogger and her lovely husband (in the throes of moving) and possibly his lovely parents this coming Shabbat (September 9 and 10)? To clarify, for the smart alecks in the crowd - I'm looking at you, persephone and uberimma - we are in search of local meals hosts. Please. Update: No lovely parents-in-law this weekend. They are still lovely, but they will have to be lovely...

With the help of some terrific friends (thanks, everyone!), we've moved about half of our belongings (including lots of the annoying and heavy stuff, like books) into our new apartment. It's nice to have the move underway, but my back has seen better days....

It is (just barely, okay, maybe I missed it by a few minutes) Rosh Chodesh Elul. A month of reflection, the month of my mother's yahrzeit, and also the month in which we got married....

In possibly the dumbest move of my life, I decided to go leave my car with only half a tank of gas last night, rather than filling up the tank again (I had just done that on Monday). Half a tank is not quite enough gas to get me to and from work today and tomorrow, and due to the holiday weekend coming up, demand was going to be high today even...

I'm too emotionally drained from all I've read and seen to really comment on the Katrina aftermath. Last night on the news here they had a guy standing next to a child (his son I presume) telling the reporter how he was holding his wife's hand through the waves and couldn't hold on any more, and she told him to let go and take care of the kids. And the reporter kept...

...stuck in the middle(sex) with you. (translation: I'm going back to Cambridge for my fall rotation. Yay!)...

Let it be known... Proclaim it far and wide... Declare in every corner of the land... I hate packing. We're moving five blocks away! Why can't this stuff just magically transport itself?...

A little over a month ago, Julian and I closed on a new apartment. The place needed lots of renovations: there was major water damage on the parquet living room floor; similar (minor) damage on the master bedroom floor; hideous carpet over even more hideous fake-wood ceramic tile in the other bedrooms; the same hideous carpet over slightly more palattable but totally impractical marble tile in the hallway; scary-looking floor-to-ceiling mirrors in...

This evening I had my upper left wisdom tooth removed (you know, the other one). The bottom two should be able to stay in. Now that I have two teeth out of my head (and in a small cardboard box on my desk)...maybe I could make a pair of earrings? The big scary roof-of-my-mouth injection didn't hurt as much this time, but the actual tooth-removal was considerably more noticeable while in process,...

It has come to the COR's attention that an unauthorized COR 386 has been put on the following products: * Trader Joe's Chick Peas * Trader Joe's Black Beans * Trader Joe's Red Kidney Beans These products are not kosher supervised. This alert came out on August 8, 2005, and was brought to our attention today. On August 1, 2005, I made a pot of chili using a can of Trader Joe's...

Thanks to the RenReb, all I've been able to think about on Tisha B'Av so far is the imminent disengagement/withdrawl/evacuation/displacement/eviction from Gaza (and four settlements in the northern West Bank). Well, that, and the Holocaust. I've been forcing myself to read through Gilbert's Holocaust whenever my mind wanders. It's not the main point of the day, but I figure it's better than nothing. Back on today's troubles, rather than those of sixty...

Whoops - couldn't post this actually on Rosh Chodesh but - it's Av now....

This time I really am the worst granddaughter ever. I forgot my Grandma's yahrzeit (anniversary of her death, according to the Jewish calendar) yesterday. (Obviously not that grandmother.) Even worse is that I thought about it at mincha (afternoon services) last Shabbat, when we usually say a remembrance prayer for those whose yahrzeits fall in the coming week. I thought of it, then tried to line up the calendar in my head...

So, a day and a half after the tooth-yanking, and I'm in pain. But not pain of the oral variety. Oh no...it's the damn mosquito bites on my feet that will drive me out of my bloody mind before noon....

Thank you for bearing with us during today's technical difficulties. As we get back online, it is my pleasure to tell you that my upper right wisoom tooth (tooth #1) has been moved from my jaw to my pocket. The extraction was a tad more challenging than my dentist expected, but still nothing he couldn't handle. Upon removing the tooth, he said: "Aha! That is a lady's tooth." Why? Because the roots...

This morning we settled on paint colors for our new home. Allow me to present them in a story about our new friend Benjamin Moore: They met in a field of "flowering herbs," her hair golden in the "filtered sunlight." It was not long before he was overcome by "dark gypsy love." She brought him into her boudoir, so different from his "shabby chic" hovel. The sky turned a "starry night blue"...

So if orange is the color of the anti-disengagement camp, and blue is the color of the anti-anti-disengagement camp (because I don't think "pro-disengagement" is the right term)...then what does that mean for Mets fans? I understand the meaning behind the orange-and-blue ribbon that DovBear (our BlogHost) has on his sidebar, but I'm not sure I can get behind it. Just saying "I want all of Israel to be united" won't make...

Well, the bill to extend the tax-free shopping weekend (to rather inconveniently include Tisha B'Av) has been passed. The vote was 145-7, too. I just hope those 145 legislators feel the same way the next time around, given that this won't be doing us much good next month. Boston Globe article link...

Massachusetts has planned a tax-free shopping holiday for Saturday, August 13. In the past, I've been moderately put-out that such days are always on Saturdays, when we (and other shomer Shabbat Jews) cannot shop and therefore cannot participate. So, when I first heard that the Legislature is considering extending the tax breaks for the entire weekend for the explicit purpose of including observant Jews, I was delighted. Until I checked my calendar...

My savta (grandmother) passed away some time in the past several hours. My little sister (who has been in Israel, along with my father, for about a week) called to tell me. The phone rang first around 2:00. Julian picked up; apparently there was no one on the line and so he hung up again, but I knew. When the phone didn't ring again within a couple of minutes, I allowed myself...

This was such a good day. This moring, Julian and I closed on a beautiful three-bedroom condo (don't worry, still in Brookline). We're going to start renovations very soon, and hopefully we'll be in there by the end of the summer. I couldn't wait to get back froom work this evening, pick up some shawarma from Rami's, and eat dinner on our new balcony. Then I got to work and read about...

It's Tammuz. Not our best month, as naomi chana points out. Still, peninah, every rosh chodesh is a mini-holiday....

Does anyone out there know how to fix a pudding that did not sufficiently puddingify (er...set) in the refrigerator overnight? It's already been spooned into serving glasses and it's supposed to be for dinner (er...dessert) tonight. Stupid me for trying too many new recipes in one day, including a recipe involving carmelizing sugar, which I almost always mess up....

My wake-up this morning? Hearing on the radio about "explosions" in London. You know, kind of like when I woke up to the radio news on September 11, 2001, and a panicked woman stading on a rooftop in downtown Manhattan was describing how a plane (only one, then) had just flown into one of the Twin Towers. Before any commentators that morning breathed the word "terrorism," my father was on the phone...

I am overjoyed to announce the engagement of David Levine and Tamar Katz! (not their real names) ...though if you get the joke, you should be able to figure out who really got engaged....

Today, Julian and I (and several other people - not all linked-to here) participated in a great Boston July Fourth tradition. No, we didn't go down to the Charles to hear the Pops play a patriotic medly followed by the coordinated booming and roaring and banging and popping of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture paired with cannon blasts and fireworks. (Duh, check the timestamp.) Rather, this morning we decided to head on down to...

(with apologies to aNYj, who probably thinks this entire story is blasphemous) In my current workplace, we have a shared one-cup-brew Flavia coffee maker. Mid-morning today, I ventured down to the breakroom for a cup, two quarters in hand to feed the machine. Popped in quarter...the machine spit it right back. Popped it in again...rejected again. Flipped the quarter, re-inserted...nope. Tried the other quarter (even though I need fifty cents for a...

About an hour ago, I was drawn out of my chair and onto our balcony by the sound of children? women? chanting and singing in Hebrew. I couldn't quite make out the words, but it sounded vaguely more or less like a kumsitz* so I smiled and bounced happily in the night air for a few moments, called Julian outside, and then bounced some more. I imagined a group of teens getting...

I can't believe it, but at 12:30 A.M. I am making a cheesecake. As in, I am just taking the mixer out at this moment. I am certifiable, I'm sure, but I blame it on the people who commented here....

Am I yotzei Shavu'ot* without cheesecake? I'm making so many other desserts for our party Monday that I'm not sure I'll have time to make it as well, and of everything on the list it is the least party-friendly food. Opinions? I'm serious here. * I have no clue whether that sentence construct is even a little bit passable. I never quite "got" the grammatical aspects of yotzei/motzi bit of halachic discourse....

Whoops. It's now the second day of Sivan. Yay cheesecake!...

Well, according to the quick in-office test, I don't have strep. I do have some nasty allergy complications, and my head still feels like it's stuffed full of cotton, so I've taken the whole day off of work. All that means, of course, is that I'm spending my day doing laundry and washing dishes in between bouts of feeling sorry for myself. At least it's a nice, sunny day, so I can...

...in other words, "Oh no, not again." I think I have strep throat. Culture tomorrow morning. Have I mentioned that I hate using up my sick time, even when I'm actually sick, and even though I derive no benefit from not using it?...

To clarify... I'm not asking for a gift of any sort. I'm just lamenting the current state of my Scotch collection. My friends have good taste and keep cleaning me out of the good stuff. Just in case you have $50-$70 burning a hole in your pocket, and have an incontrovertable desire to buy me something, I am either out of or almost out of the following Scotches: Lagavulin Talisker Dalwhinnie Glendronach...

Update - 24 May: Things appear to be in working order. For now. The Gmail monster is eating my love letters. Until further notice, if you are sending an email to my Gmail address, please also send a copy to my old BU address, but put in @gorfajn.com instead of the @bu.edu part. If oyu don't have the BU address, send it to my blog/spam address and hopefully I'll see it. If...

I spoke too soon. Four cavities. Four! I guess the single, solitary cavity that was discovered when I was nienteen was starting to get lonely in there....

I just came home from a lovely dinner with naomi chana and elf, after which I had a terrific time getting only a little bit lost in Cambridge while dropping people off. I strongly encourage everyone else to go meet up with imaginary friends; it's fun!...

I haven't been to a dentist for a cleaning and checkup in...a really long time. Let's just say that, until a few minutes ago, I didn't have a local (to Boston) dentist. I called up Julian's dentist's office, hoping that he could take a new patient and figuring I'd have to wait two or three months for an appointment. Good news: he's seeing new patients. Better news: they have a cancellation. For...

Inspired by an Indian-themed potluck for Shabbat dinner and a last-minute Quince de Mayo celebration last night (like Cinco de Mayo, but ten days later), Avi (a/k/a avtherav) helped us come up with some lovely food-centered names for our future children. World, prepare to meet: Biryani, Ghee, Cilantro, and Raita Giora Gorfajn. In case you can't tell, the oldest and youngest are girls, and the middle two are boys. It's actually kind...