Too Much or Too Many?

Today I had the good fortune of coming up with an example of how to differentiate between many and much. I asked, "Am I wearing too many browns?" To which someone replied, "Yes." Then they went on to say that I was not wearing any other color which meant they understood the question as ...too much brown. Clad in five brown articles of clothing, the answer was probably yes in both instances but I look good in brown so 's okay.

Blustery Day

A warm frothy mocha beverage topped with whipped cream on a blustery winter day is pure YUM!

Secondary but not Second Place

It is not every day that you see someone clad in all 3 pigment scale secondary colors. In this case they were practically tertiary or even beyond but they were complementary. A teal green fuzzy coat framing a purple backpack under a shock of red orange fiery hair. For a color junkie like me - this was a great sight.

I had apologized for the lack of color in this post. Until my place of employment joins the Firefox revolution...I will be unable to color my words. Fixed.

613+

This past weekend I did the unthinkable. I had to know how many seeds were in my pomegranate. There were 904! So we ate them.

Color Everywhere

This is where the fairy lights grow.

An etrog box I made as a gift.

Shoes in autumn colors.

Sad Plastic Wrap

Being realistic only makes the truth minimally easier to bare. Barely.

White n Brass

Perhaps I have mentioned before how I really enjoy the fact that there is no rule in effect for wearing white after Labor Day. I have a few white items of clothing and in a week I intend to wear a new white skirt (with aqua trim).

And what is it with the 5 agurot piece?!? Why will the supermarkets not give me the correct change? At least at the shuk, I don't know that they have rounded to the nearest 10 but with the computer screen I can see that you not only rounded up but you took an extra .05 NIS! So watch out cause I am taking some 5ers with me.

H'apple'y New Year!

Yo Man.

Today is the day when I can start using my new day planner! The new year blows in next week and brings us many jubilant events. I will not mention them now because it may be better to say "we celebrated" than "we will celebrate"...who knows what the future holds.

Just Call me Rosa

Today I went to the mall. I don't usually enjoy the mall and today did not disappoint. I rolled my weekend bag through the crowds and did not find what I was looking for in the stores. However, I did find fun Sabbath gifts in the supermarket and also lucked out with a short line but the mobs of people made it all rather unpleasant.
Then I boarded the bus to the Gush.

My orange skirt with aqua flowers and my indigo top went very well with the bus interior and by default I coordinated well with the other passengers who wore just black and white. I obediently sat in the back of the bus and arrived at my destination soon after. I chatted with my hostess and ate yummy bean salad and took a nap. I hope there will be a few more of those this weekend.

Missing my Ramah family group and the wake-up calls and the free endless buffets and the back of the bus antics and the deep conversations but not the heat exhaustion!

Shabbat Shalom.

Always a Bridesmaid

This is my 4th job filling in for someone on maternity leave. Yay!

Blog Takes a Turn

Yesterday was a strange day. People looked odd. Everyone seemed to have a layer of grime on them. I sat at the bus stop and thought about who I perceived to be a chauvinist to my left and his 2 less-than-gorgeous sons and a wrinkled older man with a cane to my right who waited for the #31. I thought about how in LA, "normal people" never take the bus. Here, each week, it becomes incrementally difficult to drive into the center of town with a car. City planning. Judgment. Self-awareness.

With my new job comes education, understanding, and of course politics. And for me; food issues, identity, and politics*.

* see 1a and 6

Sugar vs. Lettuce

The lettuce is flowering and the violets have not in many months. I have been subsisting on Oreos, lemon wafers, ginger snaps, and Trix for the past half a week all because the lettuce has bolted (gone to flower/seed) and therefore is more bitter than normal. But it sure is purdy!

Another Web

Not having internet helped me re-discover the thrills and chills of Spider Solitaire. So of course even after the HOT (eh) guy installed a new modem, I had to win a game before I could shut down the laptop.

Some Lettuce for Some Fruit

The little old man is back where he should be, working his beverage stand on Emek Refaim. I buy freshly squeezed orange juice from him and the price can't be beat at 8 shekels for a large cup. I appreciate his return and am secretly glad that he is not selling candy too so I will not feel compelled to buy it.

Blueberries and raspberries are available at the gourmet grocery stores at their steal of a price - $.18 a berry. I will have to remember to stock up when I visit the family in NJ by eating them daily.

And lime season is almost upon us again. No idea if they will raise the price again, even so, it will be worth it.

The romaine is doing nicely as is the marjoram with full sun for at least half the day and water every other evening.

Distant Relative

Been thinking a lot about writing. Not only the blog but the children's books that are swimming in my head, and emails to long ago friends, and the beyond technicolor dreams I have almost every night. Thought about weaving a short entry about the plants that grow in our porch side flower boxes which would have been followed by a sarcastic remark about how the flower box was not code for anything and it was the only fruitful thing around.

Now I have the time for projects and walking to town and back. I have both the interest and the opportunity to see friends during the day. Time is a distant relative and I don't know if re-connecting and catching up are possible or what I desire. I think that trust and faith, patience and calm, peace and happiness, are worth staying in contact.

Here is a beautiful article...I shed a few tears. I loved that show and now the reality of the man behind it.

Food Fiesta

How to link all those Food meme people? Is it merely a cut 'n' paste?

Well here is a smattering direct from the last 3 weeks in no particular order:

Maui Taco at EWR. I like the paia burrito which is dairy vegetarian. I added pineapple salsa and cilantro to the delightfully filling meal.

Mom Ann's kitchen. While not an official restaurant and an invitation is needed to partake of the fare, one should definitely try to go when in the Detroit area. Her chicken marbella or honey mustard salmon are yum-my!

City Diner in NYC. Harvest waffle with fruit and nuts and a cheese omelet. 'nuf said.

Udupi Village in Montclair, NJ. The lunch buffet is the right price and the kosher vegetarian status sweetens my gulab jamun.

Sharing Chinese fare with my Mom upon arriving to Jersey. Steamed veggie dumplings and mixed stir-fry with garlic sauce. Good eats and great company.

Back to sleep to dream of sugar plums...

Little Dull Empty

At first it seemed like a reunion trip straight out of Grosse Pointe Blank only I wasn't a professional hitman, I had already married my love, and there was no actual reunion. I looked through some photos of times gone by (I don't think there are any of the future), and experienced short flashbacks of the drug-free variety - the paper route, the "round" bank that has been replaced by two monstrosity buildings, and how to get to Route 22 if Martine Ave. is traffic jammed.

It is disorienting to be "home".
It is humbling to go back "home".
It is difficult to take pieces of "home" back home with you when you are limited to 50 lbs. a suitcase.

...

Tasty Planet

Sometimes you come across an online game that speaks to you. It suits your mood and you get the humor; it simply works. That is Tasty Planet.
You are a bathroom cleaner globule and well, you just don't stop after the dust and dirt are all gone; you go for lice, dice, mice and more.
Don't hold the mustard!

Hoping for Another Shade, But Okay for Now

You are Ocean Blue

You're both warm and practical. You're very driven, but you're also very well rounded. You tend to see both sides to every issue, and people consider you a natural diplomat.

What Color Blue Are You?

Two Red Shoes

My red vinyl shoes are no longer part of my collection. They developed holes in impossible-to-fix places. And thus they were given the boot.
I have become a clearinghouse for clothing, shoes, and other stuff that people no longer want or need. I pass it on. It leaves our apartment. Then it goes on to new adventures. As will I.

Nature

Nature is really fascinating. In Japan...
In Israel we have black and gray plumed crows and while I haven't witnessed them cracking open walnuts, I have seen one pick up a small rock with its beak and today I saw one with one leg up on an olive tree as though it were tying its shoe!

At the intersection of Keren HaYesod, King David, and Jabotinsky Streets, the pansy flowers spell out Yerushalayim - in Hebrew of course.

Tower of Babel

I love reunion stories. Here is one.
I cry for joy when they are reunited.
However, I look quizzically at the author's name.
I love culture and language but this one is a bit much.
The tower of Babel is alive and well.

Art Switch

Yesterday morning felt more like the Groundhog Day movie script than Friday. I left the house without an umbrella and thus was soaked the minute I stepped out of the apartment entranceway. I crossed rivers to get to the makolet (quickie mart) and when trying to cross the railroad tracks while simultaneously avoiding speeding cars who were oblivious to the puddle/lakes that they were driving through, I realized my socks were wet. I went back to the apartment for dry clothes.
The second time down the stairs, I noticed that the "art" on the wall had been switched in the short time I had been away. The cartoon-like cats were now to the right of the clockface. I think that whoever is responsible for the cats and clocks may feel as though they are on Sesame Street featuring the letter "C". There are also chintzy ceramics but Maria Montessori would not approve of that as it is not phonetically apropos.
It was just another Manic Sunday.

The Prophetic Shadow

Tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays primarily due to the movie of the same name - Groundhog Day. Today should not go unnoticed. I bring you a bit of Crayola history.
Have a colorful day.

If Idaho, I'd plant 'em myself

Baking potatoes are here!
I don't know where you can buy them in the raw but baked and ready to eat - go to HOT POTATO!
It is located in the alley between Leonidas Belgian chocolates (and Village Green) and Sbarro.
They have the strange Israeli favorites such as corn, olives (both kinds), and tuna to top off your tater. I suggested sour cream and chives and told the owner that both things exist here. For 20 NIS you can get all those toppings and more.
Delicious.

Time for Planting

My flowerboxes now have marjoram and romaine lettuce seeds in their soil. I bought seeds and trays to catch the water overflow, and my mom-in-law bought more earth as the latest rains claimed the dirt. No, 'tis not an allegory for anything else.

Perhaps the new year that I have longed for is the New Year for Trees.

Top 5 Reasons Why the Flu...

is better than a kick in the pants:

5. You lose your appetite and save on grocery bills.
4. The heat is on and you have a valid excuse.
3. There is more than enough time for recreational reading.
2. Looking the way you feel is okay.
1. I fit into those curve defining boot-cut plum trousers again!