I have so much to do in the next couple of days; I leave for St. Louis on Monday. Between making sure the house is cleaned, the laundry's done, David has all the provisions he needs, my clothes get ironed, arrangements made for the dog, and a myriad of little details - plus making sure I don't forget anything, I'm a little stressed. I really hate the flight, but I'm looking forward to going and seeing everyone. My grandson won't even know me; he was only 11 months old when I left last year. I got him and his sister, Zoe, huge, colorful towels with their names monogrammed on them. I probably should have gotten my sons presents as well, but money's pretty tight.

The past few days have been excruciatingly HOT. Even though we have ceiling fans and floor fans, it's just been horribly uncomfortable. We decided today that we're going to have to get air conditioning. Even though people are saying this is an unusually hot summer, I just don't think I can live with this heat. Even Emma has been panting and sleeping under one of the beds in the guest room. I gave her some ice cubes throughout the day and she licked them up in no time. David and I had lunch together and then I walked down the hill to Penina's to play mahj with her and her mother and daughter. They have a window air conditioner in their salon and it felt so good! I think that one of the medications I take says that I shouldn't be in heat while on it, so I think that justifies the cost of the ac. Not that we need to justify it, but our cash supply is dwindling fast.

David has decided to start taking the bus to work instead of driving. Gas has been costing us around 300 NIS a week which really adds up. It's over $6 a gallon here. David is still on crutches but he sees the doctor tomorrow and hopefully he won't need them anymore. His knee has been feeling much better the last few days so we're hoping it's healing finally. It's been almost two months, so it's about time. He's felt pretty handicapped and is itching to start using his rather extensive tool collection to build things for the house. The gate he built is really beautiful; he bought some green paint to make it the same color as the fence. Our landlord should be pretty happy with all the improvements we're making to the place, although I have to admit that we hope they decide not to come back and eventually sell the house to us.

I can't forget to take all my notes from ulpan to hone up on the plane. My friends in St. Louis are going to think I'm proficient in Ivrit when in fact, I haven't had any pressure to be speaking it and have forgotten most of what I've learned except for the basics.

I probably won't get a chance to write again until I get back the middle of August so this may be it for awhile. !להתראות