My husband thinks it's funny when he walks in and I'm blogging. I didn't even know what a blog was until a few weeks ago. Sometimes I'm writing an email to someone and then I think, "I should put that in my blog!" You know, I used to think I was a pretty unique person, and here I am blogging and buying crocs just like everybody else. I need to go find a niche somewhere.

David got on a bus today and went all the way into Beit Shemesh to get us set up for paying the Arnona tax and to talk to the gas company. Guess what? Government companies are closed on Tuesdays! Who would have thunk? And at the gas company, only one woman could possibly know anything about our gas bill and guess what? She won't be back in the office until next Sunday! Who would have thunk?

Sometimes the things that happen here just don’t make any sense. When we first arrived in Israel, we shared a cab to Ramat Beit Shemesh with a couple from our flight who I really liked. Zvi came to work for Aish and Toby was really friendly. All 4 of their kids live here; the 3 oldest are married, plus Toby’s parents and siblings live here; they’re so lucky. She came over tonight to play mah jongg but no one else showed up, so we sat and talked. She said that when they went to set up their bank account, they were ready to go to the bank on a Friday morning, but figured it would be closed because almost all businesses are closed on Friday and open on Sunday. So they waited until Sunday and when they got there, it was closed because they’re open on Fridays. Who would have thunk?

After awhile you get tired of asking, “Why do they do things like that?” and just go with the flow. After 2 other tries of going all the way to our health clinic to get some lab work done (the first time I got there too late even though I got there at 11 and the clinic hours were until noon, and the 2nd time I got there really early in the morning but no one told me I was supposed to have fasted), I went for the third time really early this morning and got done “chik chak.” That’s what they say when something happens fast and easy. It doesn’t happen often! Or maybe it does if you know how to read Hebrew.

I’m so scatterbrained sometimes. Tonight I went to get some ice and couldn’t find the zip lock of ice cubes we keep in the freezer (I have about 6 ice cube trays I make from bottled water and empty into a bag so I always have enough). I thought David must have emptied it and instead of re-filling it, thrown the bag away. When he came home from davening and went to get a drink, he asked, “Where’s the bag of ice?” I said, “I thought maybe you finished it; I couldn’t find it.” At the same time, we both had the same thought – check the frig. Yup! That’s where I put it!

So tomorrow I'm going to be all alone. Chanoch is picking David up pretty early to head up north. They probably won't get back until late tomorrow night. The first thing I'm going to do is check out David's bookcases in his computer room/Beis Medrash. Every time I go in there I find books I've never seen before. Tonight I found TWO, not one but TWO, sets of 8 leather family zemiros/bentchers on the top of one of his bookcases that he apparently bought in St. Louis before we made aliyah. His response? "Okay, now that you've seen them we can put them out and start using them." Hello! How many other books are there I don't know about?

This morning David disappeared for awhile, and when I called him on his cell, he said that the rebbe at Aish Kodesh had sent an email saying that anyone who wanted some books of his (the rebbe's) father should come to the shul and look through the books. So David left with our grocery cart. He came back absolutely filthy and sweaty with a full cart, and then left again with our luggage cart to fill that up as well. May I remind you that this is a much smaller apartment than the house we left in St. Louis? Might I also point out that he already has a set of shas (or two) and he didn't need another two sets? The books in one of the new sets he brought home are hughmongous (I have no idea how to spell that but you know what I mean), and of course they're all in Hebrew. I know, I know - they didn't cost anything, but - hello! They're full of dust and they're going to collect even more dust! (Just so you know, David likes me to write about him. He says it reminds him of Phyllis Diller always talking about her husband, Fang...)

I'm on a nefesh b'nefesh email list where new olim write to ask for or give advice about problems they've encountered or if they need help in knowing how to do things or where to get things done, etc. So last night someone wrote that she's been fostering a dog and cat for the past year that had belonged to a family expelled from Gush Katif, and she needed to find them a good home together. Apparently the two animals are very close; they play together and clean each other and sleep next to each other. I knew I should have just deleted it right away, but I wrote her to say we really didn't want them (especially the cat) but if she really couldn't find anyone, she should let me know. So what does she do? She sends me the cutest pictures of the two of them playing and sleeping cuddled up together! But we're not going to take them. For all of the reasons we didn't think we could bring Anton with us - we wouldn't be able to come and go whenever we want, the dog hair would be everywhere, we don't have a yard and would have to walk the dog, etc. And besides, the landlord probably wouldn't let us keep pets. If we asked. So we won't.