Too Sweet Tout de Suite

Tout de suite (in French, pronounced tüt-swʸēt) is an expression that means “all at once.” That is how my life has been unfolding these past few weeks since my last post. Every day has been a challenge in one way or another, good and bad. Let me start with the bad. Almost two weeks ago, I had my yearly physical with my internist. I should probably schedule yearly exams a year in advance, as my doctors are so booked up that my checkups usually are stretched to every year-and-a-half. Saul went in for his checkup two days later, as they will not schedule two in one day in case of cancellations. When I accompanied Saul, I was informed that my blood profile had returned and that my A1C reading was 10.2. A reading over 7 indicates diabetes. The doctor introduced this information by telling me that I must be very sweet. I was horrified. I have been waiting for diabetes to descend upon me all my life, as my paternal grandfather died from a diabetic coma, my father was insulin dependent, and my mother developed mild adult-onset diabetes as she aged. I am in my sixties, overweight since menopause by about 40 lbs., and I have been able to eat whatever I pleased without too much concern for all of my life. I think I have a relatively healthy diet. I don’t do fast food, fruit juice, soda, hamburgers, or vast quantities of melted cheese. I only eat meat once in a while, and I love fresh fruit, veggies, fish, and salads. But, I do have a “sweet tooth.” I expected that eventually, as I aged, my A1C would begin to rise and the doctor would warn me so that I would have a chance to modify my diet and avoid medication. To my dismay, none of that was to be. For the last 10 days, I have been on a strict diet and have had a nasty reaction to the first medication, Metformin. Since the number is so high, the doctor insisted that I try another, Glimepiride. In addition, I have become a human pin-cushion. Thank God, Saul is not squeamish and has been poking me twice a day to measure my blood sugar. We haven’t worked out the One Touch meter very well. I have had to be poked numerous times to get the requisite drop to fill the meter. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, everything will settle into a nice normal pattern again.

The good news (I hope) is that we appear to have won the poker game that now is the procedure for bidding on a foreclosed home in Florida. It is really ludicrous! We bid on this particular house while it was a short sale several months ago and lost it to Fannie Mae, which decided to foreclose, take it off the market, “relocate” the tenants, clean it up, and then put it back up on the market. It is a house that is right around the corner from the house where we stayed in December when we were vacationing with the family, and it has the identical layout. The bank sets a particular price and then investors are invited to bid on it through a broker. Our first bid was a bit under the asking price. After that, we were informed that there were other bidders and we were invited to raise, stand pat, or withdraw, just like with a poker hand. Legally, we are not allowed to know what the other bids are, so if you up the bid, you may just be bidding against yourself. We decided to up the bid to a little bit over the asking price. At that point, we were informed that a new bid had come in and the bank was required by law to inform all the other bidders and again invite them to raise, stand pat, or fold without knowing the amount of any of the other bids. This time, we decided to stand pat and as Saul said, “let it ride.” After last Wednesday, the bank had the right to turn down all the existing bids and open up the bidding to additional investors who would not necessarily be occupying the house. A good sign was that on Wednesday, the last day before it could have been opened to additional bidders, Fannie Mae asked us to produce evidence that we would truly be occupying the house for at least one year after purchase. We sent them a copy of our agreement of sale on our present house. On Friday afternoon, we learned that they had accepted our offer. From that date, by law, we had exactly 10 days to have the house inspected and let Fannie Mae know if we intended to proceed with the sale or withdraw our offer. If we decided to accept, we had exactly 30 days from the  Friday we were notified, April 19, to complete settlement, which we are legally bound to do once we accepted. Let me say that it is more than a little bit scary to buy a house where you have never actually been inside. At our request, my brother-in-law Larry drove over from The Villages, an hour away, to meet the home inspector and insect inspector. After extensive reports by Larry, the home inspector, and the insect inspector, we decided to buy it before we have seen it. We plan to drive down in a few days, after the fact, to take a look.

Part of the “all at once” nature of these last two weeks is that on the same Wednesday we had hoped to have a decision on the house, Saul was honored by Chestnut Hill College on the occasion of his retirement. Jess had other commitments and could not attend, but sent a congratulatory planted bowl of fresh herbs with the wish that he would now have “lots of thyme” to enjoy life. Larry S. attended, as well as next year’s president of MBI-EE, who also teaches at the college. Ari drove in from DC the previous evening to attend the ceremony and we had hoped to fly down to Florida together, last minute, over that weekend. Since we did not get the acceptance until Friday, it was too late to make arrangements. That was the same Friday that I found out about my diabetes. The retirement ceremonies were heartfelt, touching, creative, and gratifying. Wonderful speeches were made by some of his colleagues and students to express their appreciation. He received a beautifully-crafted, personalized, wooden box, a generous cash award, and a lovely geranium plant that was the centerpiece of our table at the dessert reception afterward. It was very sweet to know how much his teaching and support was appreciated by faculty, administration, and students.

The day after joining the kids for Shabbat dinner on Friday, we celebrated Izzy’s Aleph Consecration at TBS on April 13, a lovely ceremony that began with the 36 students in the Aleph class being escorted into the chapel with a member of their family, where they received a certificate. Since Alex was in charge of the ceremony, Izzy chose her “saba” to accompany her. It was very sweet to watch as the children came up in small groups to competently contribute their parts in the services. The services were followed by a light luncheon with a make-your-own-sundae bar. We ate very lightly, as Jess and Alex had prepared a luncheon at home for us in Izzy’s honor. As we whiled away a few hours over the table discussing our upcoming plans, we were delighted to spend a sweet afternoon with our children and grandchildren. Jess suggested, as we were discussing the plans for Sami’s upcoming bat mitzvah, that I do a painted frame that could be scanned, digitized, and used for her “save the date” and invitation. I loved the idea and set about doing that painting over a period of about four days immediately afterward.

The Friday before last was the one fraught with all kinds of momentous news. As I took the completed painting over to Sami, Saul, Ari and I purchased a bottle of prosecco at Roger Wilco to toast the success of our Florida venture. Jess and Alex ordered Indian takeout for Shabbat dinner from a wonderful nearby vegetarian restaurant, Rajbhog, Alex made a curried squash soup as a first course. Over that weekend we enjoyed spending time with Ari, and together, making plans for the future.

During the week after Ari went back to DC, I was recovering from an adverse reaction to the first medication, and beginning the second medication, which seems to suit me better. Towards the end of last week, I baked and decorated a “ball pit” birthday cake for Yona’s 4th birthday party, which she shared with her best friend from school, Julia. I attended Faith’s class on Thursday, which, by coincidence, featured the Torah portion, Mikketz, from which Sami will read on her bat mitzvah. Its imagery had been the subject of the invitation painting that I had just completed, Pharoah’s dream of seven fat cows being consumed by seven emaciated cows and seven abundant heads of grain being consumed by seven parched heads of grain. Joseph’s success in the interpretation of the dream is what brought our people to Egypt, subsequently to be enslaved when we became too numerous and successful.

Last Friday, Saul took me to the hospital early for another blood test. Afterward, Saul caught up with end-of-the-semester work for a few hours while I got an upscale haircut and then we drove out to Cherry Hill with Yona’s cake to have Shabbat dinner. Alex made yummy miso soup, assorted sushi, and panko-fried fish. The kids had leftover fruit sorbets from Passover for dessert. We brought Sami home with us so that we could all attend Faith’s granddaughter Sophie’s bat mitzvah on Saturday evening in Metuchen, NJ. Sami and Sophie know each other through Faith, and will be attending Camp Ramah together this summer. For the long drive, we also picked up longtime friends and neighbors from our teaching days at Temple Sinai, Joe and Marilyn. The beautiful and athletically-talented Sophie did a remarkable job of leading the service and reading from the Torah. Between mincha and maariv, there was a 20-minute “intermission” for food, and we all had a chance to mingle around the buffet table and catch up with old friends. After the services, a gala party began with a DJ and buffet dinner. We all had a lovely time and arrived back home, exhausted, at about 1:00 a.m. We slept late the next morning, and about noon, we headed out for Yona’s birthday party, which took place at the JCC where Jessica works. About 20 4-year-olds attended with parents and some grandparents in tow. They had a blast playing in the Imaginarium for an hour or so. Then, we were ushered into a room that was set up to color designs for individualized t-shirts. Each child’s name was lettered onto the transfer paper in advance. Then everyone filed out to another room where the tables were set for birthday cake, soft pretzels, fresh fruit and drinks. While the staff ironed on the transfers, the kids were able to spend another hour in the Imaginarium.

After the party, Elaine, Alex’s mom, went home, but the rest of the family went for a.y.c.e. sushi at Winnie Q Restaurant. Rif called Paul to join us there, as he was finished working for the day. Both Yona and Izzy were so tired from their play that they both fell asleep sprawled across the banquettes at the restaurant. We were able to rouse them for a few minutes to down some fried ice cream for dessert. They shared an order. Then we all separated and headed for home.

It was an incredible weekend, full of sweetness and satisfaction at the wonder of our beautiful families, and, for me, full of gratification at being able to create things that bring joy to all of us. I hope the sweetness continues, not in my diet, where I will have to learn to manage it, but in all our lives. One sweet aspect of even the bad part, is that for the first time since menopause, I can easily fit back into my favorite size 12 clothing that I have stored away for a long time, of which I was about to rid myself in our upcoming move soon to Florida. Fitting back into that clothing, tout de suite, was pretty sweet, too.

Samara’s Corner

Introducing Ramah in the Poconos!  
Hey everybody! So when I wrote my last blog, it was about my life until today, but I forgot about Ramah and everybody was saying that I needed to write about it, but I decided that it would be much better if I wrote a blog post about it so, here goes…

What Ramah is…
Ramah is a chain of camps in America and Israel that are strictly Jewish, nothing else. There are only two that I know of in America—one in California and one in the Poconos. Naturally, being from the east coast, I went to the one in the Pocono mountains. Ramah has been around for very long time. The first time my mom went to Ramah, she was 9 or 10 years old, and she’s over 30 now, so you do the math. Ramah is not even just one camp anymore. It is a series of camps. I know there is a family camp, a day-care camp and a few others. I even have a t-shirt from 1981 for Ramah (designed by my grandmother), so think on that while I explain my experience. 
*Keep in mind that there are age groups that we're in, too,—Notitzim, Tziirim, HALUTZIM!!!!!, Bogrim, Machon, Shoafim, and lastly. Gesher.

The Rules and Tips of the Road…
The first thing that you have to remember at Ramah is that you are not the only one in your bunk, so when you “borrow” something from someone without asking (which you should never do in the first place, but it happens), give it back the exact same way that you found it, or you are so busted for the REST of the time that you are there. The second thing is that you should only pack the essentials in your duffel and take the rest (nail polish, cards, games, stationery, set books, sunscreen, bug spray, etc.) in another bag, so that you have enough room for everything. The third thing (yes, this is going to be awhile, so sit down and relax, especially if your child is going to Ramah this summer) is do not bring a cell phone to camp. I REPEAT, do NOT bring a cell phone to camp because they train the counselors to sniff out a cell phone from a mile away. Parents, if you give your child an “emergency” phone they WILL take it. iPods are fine, though, as long as they stay in the bunk. The fourth thing is that you should NEVER EVER EVER EVER bring a boy into your bunk if you are a girl, or opposite for a boy. I remember last year, a girl in my bunk had a crush on a boy, and brought him onto our bunk porch and flung the door open while a girl was changing for swim. The girl that did it was almost sent home from camp for the rest of the summer so DONT DO IT. The fifth and final thing is that if you only stick with people that you already know from other places, it WILL get very boring. So shake it up, make some friends, and have fun. That was the rules of the road.

I need to get some stories on set in 3, 2, 1, action… 
My Camp Experience (finally)
The first thing that I did for camp is my least favorite thing—packing. It was hard, organization-challenging, and boring, and I don’t have that many clothes with which to work. When I was done, I didn’t have that many clothes left, so I had to do the laundry every day. They took my duffel a couple days before camp started, so that I didn’t have to shlep it all along on the bus ride. I got on the bus and got there, and didn’t do anything in between except for say goodbye a lot. Then I was at camp, and it was on one of the mountains, so we changed our clocks (which, by the way, are a handy thing to bring on the trip, too), and we unpacked and got ourselves organized. Not just in the bunk, but in our heads, and the first thing that I saw in the bunk was plaques, and I mean in the rafters, on the wall, and a couple on the ceiling, too, and they were the only source of color in the bunk. There was a bathroom with two stalls, two sinks, and two showers, and a schedule for chores and showers on the door. There were also themes for every bunk. Mine was Candyland. (Do not ask me what my plaque was, because I was only there for half of the summer. For the rest of my summer at Ramah, I had a blast, but I want to chunk it down into paragraphs seeing that this one is getting big. 

I need schedules, schedules on the set in 3, 2, 1, action… 
Schedule Confusion
Now we get to the most confusing and best part of camp—ta da, scheduling. Now, I know what you are thinking—“well, I thought that we do that at home.” Well, you don’t. The second day that you are at camp, you figure out your schedule. The first thing that you do is go to the basketball court so that your counselors can show you all of the different sports and stuff like that. Then you go to omanut (oh-mah-newt) and see what arts you can do. Then you go to schiyah (sch like challah, e like eek! and ya like yacht). Yes, I have to do that. And then you go back to your bunk to see what you are going to do. The only things that are required are schiyah, dance, eating, sleeping, and the play. Don’t count on getting into everything that you signed up for, because Ramah is great, but they can’t please everybody. And you can also switch out of things, too. Like, I chose three different kinds of omanut and got two sports and teva. So naturally, I switched out. But they’re not that mean. They do let you have a second choice if you don’t get the choice that you picked. 

And I get the play on set in 3, 2, 1, action…
Yes, there is a group play, and yes, you are required to be part of it.  
There is a play for each of the groups that I mentioned. Every edah has a different play every year. Last summer, our halutzim play was Willy Wonka. We had to memorize all of our lines in Hebrew. I was Violet Beauregard (the girl that turns into a blueberry). It takes about three weeks to finish and make perfect, but it was really worth it.

I love camp and I’m going this summer as a full summer Bogrimer. So, see you there!

March 2013—In Like a Lion and Out Like a Lion

If you are reading this on Facebook, slideshows and videos are often attached. Click on this live link to my blog: http://www.marilyfe.blogspot.com/ if you would like to get the full experience.

Although the groundhog had predicted an early spring this year, the weather this March has been unseasonably cold, sometimes frigid, with only a few mild days scattered in to tease us and the forsythia into thinking that spring was just around the corner. There wasn’t a lot of snow, but it was enough to put off buying flowers and putting away sweaters, wool socks, winter coats and gloves. Cartoons have appeared depicting frozen groundhogs, or showing people’s desire to strangle them.

Purim was very early this year, falling on February 23, a Saturday. The two weeks in February leading up to it shaped our plans almost hour-by-hour. We had dinner with Larry at Cheesecake Factory during that week. On Valentine’s Day, Saul and I had a late lunch together at Metropolitan Diner. Then we went to see the movie, Quartet, which we absolutely loved. We were too full to have dinner after that and hit the sack early.

On Friday, February 15, we picked up Faith and had a delightful Shabbat dinner at Jess and Alex’s with the girls. The time has come to begin emptying out the freezer, refrigerator and pantry in preparation for Pesach. I took challahs to them from the freezer, both the regular and rainbow type, and iced a sweet potato cake that was in the freezer with its brown sugar glaze. Alex filled in the rest with sushi, salads, and tofu shawarma. We had an assortment of ice cream with the cake.

After attending services on Saturday morning, we spent most of the afternoon online searching for a place in Ocean City, NJ, where we can be near the beach and boardwalk and have enough bedrooms so that Ari has one, too, all this without breaking the bank. I was really excited when we finally settled on one Sunday morning and thought we booked it through our agency, only to discover on Monday that the owner had booked it for the week we wanted already. A subsequent choice, like the first, also got shut down for the same reason. In the ensuing few days, we finally pinned one down.

At the end of February, Saul began complaining about a rash, but it was minor and not very troublesome, so we were just speculating about whether something was different about our detergent or whether he was eating something different. On Tuesday evening at 1:30 a.m., my eyes suddenly shot open with the thought that he might possible have shingles. I spent the rest of the night awake, watching him sleeping soundly and waiting for the alarm to go off at 6:00 a.m. so that I could ask him if the rash was on one side of his body only, one of the symptoms that I learned about as I perused the Net in my distress that night. Although it was not, he arranged to see the doctor the next morning in between classes. Thankfully, it was not shingles, but a minor rash, as we had originally thought. So we dodged yet another bullet. We were planning to spend Saul’s entire spring break week in DC with Ari beginning on Thursday, but decided to delay until Monday because we decided to get the shingles vaccination. That whole process became such a boondoggle that we wasted a few days of our vacation, and still have not received the shots.

On Wednesday, the day that Saul got an all-clear from the doctor, we met Faith for dinner at The Metropolitan Diner. As we were finishing, about 7:00 p.m. we got a call from Randi advising us that Ken had been rushed to the hospital on Kauai on Monday evening with horrible pain spasms in his lower back. On Tuesday, he was airlifted to the hospital in Honolulu in case he needed a neurosurgeon. Randi asked us if we could go to their house, get the discs that contained previous MRIs that had been taken of the area from their files, and ship them by FedEx overnight to Honolulu so that they could be compared with the tests they were about to perform. By some miracle and with a lot of help from two wonderful women at the FedEx center in Ft. Washington, we managed to get to the house in Warrington, find the discs, and get them to the FedEx office two minutes before the office was due to close at 8:00 p.m.

In the ensuing weeks, Ken endured a three-hour angiogram, among other tests, in Honolulu which did not lead to a diagnosis. In great frustration, he finally opted to return home a month early from his vacation to see other doctors here. As I write this, his pain and his frustration at not having a diagnosis have continued through a number of doctors’ visits of various specialties. He finally obtained an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis and has scheduled a flight there on April 16.

The shingles shots fiasco delayed our spring break plans to spend the last week of February and beginning of March with Ari in DC. We were told that we shouldn’t be around small children, pregnant women or health-compromised adults right after receiving the shots, so we delayed getting them until after the Purim festivities on Saturday evening at Beth Shalom in Cherry Hill. Very early Monday morning, after Saul took a fasting blood test, we discovered that Abington Hospital does not give the shots as our doctor (who also does not give the shots) had told us. We drove back towards home and then decided to have breakfast at a restaurant we had never before tried while we waited for Costco to open. The restaurant, next to a gun shop, had apparently gone out of business. By then, Costco was open and would take our insurance (the shot costs $188 each at Costco, and about $240 elsewhere). While we waited for the shot to defrost, we breakfasted on churros and smoothies. Half an hour later, we were informed that Aetna would not cover the shot if they administered it. Only our doctor or an approved clinic could administer it so that we would be covered. We then called Aetna, who suggested we get the shot at a nearby Minute Clinic (inside a CVS). While we waited to speak to someone there, on hold on the Bluetooth in our car, we had time to drive over there, only to finally be told that no Minute Clinics in Pennsylvania administer the vaccine. By then, we were so frustrated that we decided to return home, grab our bags, and take our chances in DC. At least our drive was relaxing with light traffic almost all the way. We picked up Ari relatively early from work and had dinner at our new favorite restaurant, The Heights, near Ari’s home.

As we continued our quest to get shingles shots, we wasted most of a day of our vacation on the phone with various representatives at Aetna until we finally got one who really got involved for a few hours, making all the phone calls to various places with us on the line. Eventually, she gave up, telling us that the only way that Aetna would cover the shot was if we picked it up frozen and took it to a doctor to be administered. She told us that the vaccine was good for several hours after defrosting. We decided to table the process for the time being and later, back at Chestnut Hill College, Saul learned from a colleague that a friend of hers had suffered a case of shingles for doing just that. The live bacteria had multiplied too much in the two hours it had taken her to get the frozen vaccine to the doctor. I think, perhaps, this is the dumbest thing I have ever encountered when it comes to health insurance coverage, and I have encountered a lot. In the meantime, after various colleagues encountered the same runaround, the college is looking into having someone come to administer the shots there.

Returning to spring break in DC, we had an absolutely marvelous time in the days we had left. We all had a completely unplanned culinary trip around the world. One rainy evening, we randomly stumbled on Jaleo in Crystal City after unsuccessful attempts at finding a quiet place downtown, a tapas restaurant owned by José Andreas, my fourth favorite chef in the world, after Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria, and Michel Richard. We had exquisite small plates there and sampled cheeses, foods and wine, imported from Spain, that are available nowhere else in this country. The next evening, it was still raining. We ate at the Indonesian restaurant, Satay Sarinah in Alexandria/Van Dorn. Ari often has lunch from their food truck parked near his downtown DC office, and he wanted to try the restaurant from where the food originates. It was very clean and pleasant, though very spare in decor in its ethnically diverse strip mall location. It was my first Indonesian food, and seems to be a cross between Thai and Indian. Very nice. Ari was in Tysons Corner all day on Thursday for recruiting business. Saul and I had lunch, again, at The Heights, and then stayed in and watched The Chronicles of Riddick and The Sorcerer's Apprentice on television. The next day, hungry and in desperation to find a restaurant where we would not have to wait an hour for dinner, we bagged a much-sought-after reservation at Thai Xing (pronounced “crossing”). This place is a quirky little venue that usually books months in advance ever since it was “discovered” by Anthony Bourdain. It usually takes months to get a reservation, but they said that if the three of us could get there within 15 minutes, they would take us. The food is a set menu, depending on the season, several courses brought out in a specific sequence as they are prepared, with no printed menus and no choices. Supposedly, the cachet is the authenticity of the dishes. It certainly was not the ambiance. Our “table,” in the basement of a DC townhouse, was a flea market-purchased desk and a large brass tray on a stand. Saul sat on a beat-up office chair, while Ari and I chose a makeshift window seat. The food was delicious and plentiful. We especially enjoyed a pumpkin dish and a beautiful salad presented on a large banana leaf. The main course was salmon. The meal cost $40 per person and did not include any alcohol. It was a great serendipitous experience that we all totally enjoyed, but it was way too expensive. During that afternoon, Saul had been perusing Facebook and pointed out to me that our friend Susan’s husband’s granddaughter, Madeline Rile Smith, was exhibiting a piece of her glass art that evening at a gallery in nearby Anacostia. I mentioned it during dinner, and we all decided to attend, arriving an hour before closing. She and her mother were absolutely shocked and delighted to see us there. We totally enjoyed looking at the avant garde art and meeting Madeline.


No international trip would be complete without China, so we had dim sum twice in a row, once at Silver Fountain, our new find, and once at Oriental East. Ari had all but demolished the chicken soup we made together on a previous visit, so we purchased the ingredients and made another batch of nine quarts. This time, Ari assembled it completely by himself with my instructions from the couch as I was considering a nap. His next-door neighbor, Hazel came over, to ask about the difference between her oil and his gas heating bills as she was considering switching over. The difference was shockingly huge! We chose and ordered a special front door for his home at Home Depot, which turned out to be a several hours-long project that seems to have turned out futile, as the company that makes the fiberglass doors refused, several weeks later, to make one wide enough to fit the opening. We finally bought a “real” vacuum cleaner (not a robot) at the new (and surprisingly uncrowded) Costco in DC. All too soon, it was time to return home and go back to our routines, but only for a short while as the advent of Passover changes everything.


When I heard that Ken and Randi were returning early from their Hawaiian vacation, and knowing what a nightmare the return flight was likely to be for Ken, I spent a couple of days shopping and cooking to stock up their refrigerator with Ken’s favorite foods. He had not been able to eat for a few days at a time while hospitalized, so he returned quite a few pounds lighter than when he left. I was grateful that I cooked, because within a few days, Randi, with her lowered resistance from all the stress, caught the flu. Thankfully, Ken did not catch it, too.


During March, Saul and I attended the Philadelphia Flower Show for the first time in a few years. We had been disappointed at the high cost and quality of the show in previous years, but decided to give it another try. It was very sparse this year—not crowded, but that was because there was tons of space between each display in which people could move around, lots of floor space, not many exhibits. We had a mediocre lunch at The Down Home Diner in historic Reading Terminal Market, but the Bassett’s ice cream we had for dessert was as good as it was 30 years ago.

Our realtors up in the Poconos found a suitable tenant to sign a one-year lease for the property, and we agreed. The young couple just moved in a few days ago, and it looks, so far, like it is going to be a win-win situation for all of us. He works at a Wal-Mart, has a great credit rating, is very handy and willing to fix things, and said that they absolutely love the house.

Saul and I spent a day driving to Ocean City to check out the place we had reserved from online photos for our family vacation this summer. After a couple of hours of trying to get in to see it with various keys that the realtor collected from a number of his offices, we discovered that someone had broken off a key in the lock. It was a bitterly cold day, lightly snowing from time to time, and we consoled ourselves with lunch at a nostalgia location for us, The Crab Trap in Somers Point. Driving back, sorely disappointed, we were again consoled with a lovely Shabbat dinner with Jess, Alex and our granddaughters. We rescheduled when Ari was here during the week of Passover, packing our own picnic for the day, and were wowed when we finally got in to see it that the reality was even better than the photos. We can’t wait for summer! As an added bonus, we spent about two hours checking out the new Revel Casino in Atlantic City, which is gorgeous, and now my favorite. Ari also lost some money to the slot machines, but we had a great time. On our way back, we stopped to take the older girls and Jessica to see The Croods at the Marlton Theater, stupid, but funny and cute, and in 3D, visually stunning.

Backtracking again, I spent the week before Pesach, converting over the kitchen, shopping for supplies, and cooking for the holiday. The first seder took place on Monday evening, March 25, this year, Jessica’s birthday. I decided that I missed all the traditional foods that Alex doesn’t make. Ari was going to be with us for the whole week, and for a few days, Beth, so I figured it would be okay to make small quantities of the things I was missing for a few years now to eat during the week. I was going to be making larger quantities of desserts for the entire crowd during the two seders at Jess and Alex’s home. Alex doesn’t like to make desserts. Among the foods that I only make once a year during Passover are: gefilte fish, homemade chrain (fresh ground horseradish and beet relish), chopped chicken liver, brisket, stuffed cabbage, smoked turkey, matzoh apple kugel, and Passover potato knishes. Saul and I had very little hope of finding the live or very fresh carp we needed for the gefilte fish. We checked in at Assi Market, but the manager told us that even though they usually carry it, this time of year, the truck arrives without any. On Sunday, a week before the seders, he said he would order it and to check in with them the following Friday to see if it was really on the delivery truck. Lo and behold, when we called on Friday morning, they said that two had been delivered. The market is only five minutes away, so we ran over and found the most beautiful, large, fresh carp I have ever seen. I was intending to take only one, but after cleaning and gutting, the fish weighed only 7 lbs. I figured by the time we removed the head and fileted it, I might only have two to three lbs. of actual flesh. I decided to take the second one also. We rushed it home and Saul broke it down and fileted it while I prepared the stock. It was the best, most delicious gefilte fish I have ever made. We stopped at Wegman’s in Warrington to pick up and drop off some items to Ken and Randi, who was in the middle of her flu. There, we were surprised to find an interesting array of kosher for Passover food items that we had not expected to find. At $17 to $18 a lb. from the kosher butcher, Simon’s, I had decided against making brisket, knowing that it shrinks to almost half its size when I cook it. At Wegman’s, I found glatt kosher fresh meat sealed in blister packs for about $8.00 a lb., so I bought a small brisket and some stew meat. Both were outstanding. Ari claimed it was the best brisket I ever made. I used the stew meat to make a delicious beef and cabbage borsch with the cooking liquid from cooking the cabbage for the stuffed cabbage, the trimmings from the leaves and the core of the cabbage, the root vegetables pureéd from a large batch of chicken soup, and a jar of tomato sauce. After Wegman’s, I met Jessica at Simon’s Kosher Meat to pick up my part of the Passover order, fresh chicken liver, ground beef, and some chicken necks for soup. Ari picked up several packages of fresh Empire kosher boneless chicken breast on his way here from the Costco in Maryland that stocks cases of kosher meat for their large Jewish clientele. Everything is way cheaper if you can find it at Costco. Saul and I made eight different sorbets this year—lemon, orange, pineapple, banana, mango, strawberry, grapefruit, and sabra, along with the usual mocha mousse crepes, flourless chocolate almond bars, and strawberry rhubarb crumb pie. I even had a chance to experiment with a pink birthday cake for Jess that turned out wonderfully, a classic sponge cake with a frosting made from pure organic coconut oil, Passover confectioner’s sugar and grape juice. I had a blast cooking during the week before Pesach and absolutely everything turned out superior this year. I never felt the exhaustion I usually experience as I spread out the labor over the whole week and Saul helped tremendously. I even finalized a large publication at the same time for my business.

We had Shabbat dinner the Friday before the seders at Larry’s, along with Faith, Lori, her husband, Saul, and their son, Jordan. Ari drove up from DC that afternoon. He left the office early and made it here by around 8:00 p.m. Because he was not feeling well, he was not able to eat much, but had a few pieces of the smoked turkey leg that had just come off of the kettle grill, some of the chometz that I traditionally leave on the kitchen table and a lot of coconut water. We had breakfast at Duck Deli, met with our accountant about taxes, and had dinner at The Metropolitan Diner. On late Sunday afternoon before the seders, after our friend Faith came over to help us dig up the horseradish from our garden, an older couple who had seen the “For Sale by Owner” sign on our lawn, came to look over our house. They said that their married son, who lives only a mile or two away, had seen the sign. They loved the house, and after some discussions and haggling at the kitchen table, agreed to pay our price. We received a check in the mail from them a few days ago, so it looks like the deal is on.

The seders were stupendous as usual. Alex outdid himself in preparing our personalized family haggadot, chock full of photo montages of everyone in the family and friends that attend the seders, pertinent drawings that all of us have supplied over the years, anecdotes, and blessings for each other as well as the traditional readings. We were supposed to pick up Beth at the airport the Saturday evening before the seders, but her flight was flying through Denver and was snowed out by a huge blizzard there. The earliest she could arrange to arrive after that was Monday evening after the first seder, so she opted to cancel, a great disappointment for all of us. The weather was terrible the evening of the first seder and we all feared for black ice on the drive home. Luckily, we all arrived home without incident. The first seder was attended by Jess, Alex, Sami, Izzy, Yona, Elaine W., Anne, Bobby, Michael E., whose youngest daughter had a baby that evening, same birthday as Jess, Elaine S., Naomi, Matt, Talia, Rifka, Paul, Ari, Saul and me. The second seder was attended by Jess, Alex, Sami, Izzy, Yona, Elaine W., Anne, Aunt Ruth, Bobby, Larry S., Aaron, Stacey, Jacob, Lilly, Zach, Ari, Saul, and me. The food was incredible as usual with Alex’s vast array of karpas to keep us  occupied “culinarily” until the sumptuous meal and his ingenious devices for keeping the kids engaged throughout the service. During Passover week, Ari worked long hours remotely during the day. We began to look at properties in Florida in between. Although he had not been feeling well when he first arrived, after several days, he became himself again. Unfortunately, I caught the norovirus the day after the seders and was under the weather for a few days. Despite the fact that I had prepared and handled all that food, no one else caught it, thank God. We managed to meet Jess one night at Neshaminy Mall to see the movie, Oz The Great and Powerful. Shabbat dinner during Pesach was real homemade shawarma at Jess and Alex’s, and Rifka joined us for the evening. Ari returned home on Monday with a supply of Passover food for the following day and beyond. Putting away all the Passover paraphernalia was relatively easy this year with Saul’s help and the organization of the new kitchen. We met Faith at Aman’s Bistro for an after-Passover vegetarian Indian dinner.

We have found an exciting property in Florida on which we have begun negotiations. Saul will be retiring in just over a month, and our lives appear to be changing dramatically, hopefully for the better. The weather is still harsh and chilly, but the crocuses and daffodils have begun to appear, so spring must certainly, finally, be just around the corner.

Thrills and Chills in January & February

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As the end of January neared, and February began, the weather grew super cold, yucky foggy/rainy/sleety/snowy, and gray, gray, gray! I love gray inside, but it needs to be tempered with blue skies outside. I believe I suffer from S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder), so on days like these, I have to work at things that cheer me up. One of those things is cooking. For a few days, I just grocery-shopped and cooked, sometimes putting things away in the freezer for the future, sometimes to satisfy cravings. I made Israeli salad, potato salad, fresh tuna salad, chicken salad, and a sweet potato cake. Saul helped me turn out many dozens of hamantash in every flavor to pack away in the freezer for the upcoming holiday of Purim. I also found time to make the yeast type that Saul loves. On Wednesday, January 23, after about two hours of cleaning house and doing laundry in the morning, I discovered that the diamond from my engagement ring had fallen out of its setting. I spent most of the day searching everywhere and Saul helped me when he came home, but it never turned up and I suspect it either disappeared in the washing machine or toilet. We even emptied the ice in the ice maker and let it melt to see if it dropped off in there. I have not shed a tear about it because it is only a thing and not really worth crying over, but losing it certainly didn’t help to cheer us up.

One thing at the end of January did cheer me up, and that was seeing a display of the art of Mordechai Rosenstein during Faith’s class. Hearing him speak about the development of his art, his childhood in Philadelphia, and watching him apply his vibrant colors to a new work was very uplifting for me.

On Friday, January 25, Saul and I drove to the Social Security office in Norristown for our scheduled appointment and both of us registered to receive Social Security. We had a very helpful and pleasant staff person who took us right away, guided us efficiently through the process, and she answered every question we had. After that, we arrived early at Noboru and tried the $9.95 buffet lunch. We decided it wasn’t worth it. We made plans to have an early bird dinner with Larry before Shabbat, but canceled them because it began to snow. We had dinner from all the leftovers of my cooking spree, lit the candles, and went to bed early, watching the snow fall outside the window.

Saul had Team Children on Saturday and while he was gone, I stayed in my cozy, warm bed and finished the Sunday New York Times Crossword Puzzle on my iPad, one of my favorite guilty pleasures. When Saul returned, we slept most of the day. A lot of the snow was gone by evening and we were well rested, so we called reservations ahead to Bahama Breeze and had a lively dinner there as soon as we arrived, circumventing a very long line waiting for tables. Then, we drove down the street to King of Prussia Mall and walked around there for about two hours. We tried out a Sleep Number bed, which we are considering buying, and bought a pink cake ball pan and sugar decors at Sur La Table for Izzy’s birthday cake.

On Sunday, we rose at 6:00 a.m. to drive to Cherry Hill to babysit for the two younger girls. Izzy had been sick with a cough and fever for two days. Sami was not due in Sunday school class until 10:00 a.m. Jess in her new job, was responsible all day for Super Sunday and Alex was running his school until 1:30 p.m. I took two batches of hamantash dough with me. Sami helped with the first batch and then Saul took her to school. The younger ones helped complete the second batch with Yona cutting the circles. I made lunch for them, but Izzy was too sick to eat and I tucked her into bed. When Alex returned, Saul and I left and had lunch at Famous Dave’s. When we arrived home, we went to the Giant and bought sour cream and candy for Izzy’s sleepover birthday cake to be eaten at Shabbat dinner the following Friday.

Monday, January 28, was another snow day. Although the college stayed open, Saul canceled all his classes because of an ice storm in the early morning. His first class is at 8:00 a.m. Alex called to say that Izzy had slept from the time I tucked her in until late morning. She had gotten up at 2:30 a.m. for ice cream and hamantash and went immediately back to sleep afterward. She was feeling better, but Jess took her to the doctor, anyway, who prescribed amoxicillin. We went back to sleep for a couple more hours. Then, while Saul caught up with computer work, I caught up with phone calls, spending a long time with both Roxy and my sister (who sounded very upbeat and happy). Saul and I had a leisurely breakfast, watching the ice build outside the window. Then, I cooked some more, making three more batches of hamantash dough, among other things, followed by Izzy’s sour cream pound cake. In the evening, we were invited to dinner at Foulkeways by our friend, Marianne, just down the street, so the ice was not a big issue. Marianne had just been given a new iPad for her birthday by her son, John, and was beginning to take classes on how to use it. We spent an hour or so before dinner, and an hour after dinner showing her what could be done with it. Both she and her friend Cliff were absolutely wowwed when we Googled their names about how much information resides on the internet and Marianne was flabbergasted that all her photos taken in Israel with her sister a few years ago were available there because we had posted them to Picasa when Saul and Ari had returned with her from the trip. We showed her my blog posts in which she is mentioned and photos we took together. I also took Marianne a half of a carrot cake leftover from a previous dinner that I had frozen (she once told me she dreamed about my carrot cake) and some hamantash.

I attended Faith’s class on Tuesday. After Saul and I had lunch together at home, we began to assemble Izzy’s birthday cake. Saul made the red cake bases and sliced up the cake into six “beds.” We had dinner with Faith at Cheesecake Factory in King of Prussia and then made a shiva call in West Chester at the sister of a former dance teacher who was on Faith’s faculty. Saul and I had taught with Diane many years ago. I had danced with her and the children in the school for a few years as an assistant. Diane died of breast cancer.

On Wednesday, January 30, the weather was again foggy and horrible. Saul was gone all day, but I hardly noticed the weather or his absence. In fact, I was having so much fun working on Izzy’s cake that I forgot to eat all day. I worked on it from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. when Saul came home. We drove together in the awful weather to pick up Ken’s car and check his house. He left us three $20 coupons for Bonefish Grill that needed to be used by February 10. We used the first of them for dinner that night. Driving together to Executive Auto Body, we dropped off the Prius so that the bumper that we had damaged at Downtown Disney and duct-taped up could be replaced. The repairs were finished by the following Monday and cost a little over a thousand dollars, not worth making a claim with the insurance company because of the deductible, but hard to swallow nevertheless. Ari paid the bill, bless his heart. My friend, Roxy, called in the afternoon to tell me that her daughter, Sarah, had given birth to a healthy baby girl. They named her Eliana Rose.

On Thursday, January 31, I skipped Faith’s class because of an upset stomach and slept late. I baked a date bread loaf and more cake pops to make two additional “beds” for Sami and Yona as Jessica had pointed out that I hadn’t taken them into consideration and I felt badly about that. I spent the afternoon finishing up Izzy’s cake with icing hair and white chocolate name plates for the cake dolls. In the late morning, Jess called because she needed last-minute babysitters as Alex needed to be at a last-minute meeting and she was still obligated for Super Sunday week. Thursday is an early day for Saul, so when he returned home, we had a quick bite of lunch, stopped at the Giant for additional candy for the two new cakes, and headed out to Cherry Hill. When we arrived, we took the girls for a walk around Cherry Hill Mall so that I would not be exposed to the dog for too many hours. The mall turned out to be very boring as malls go. There was absolutely nothing for the girls to do there and we won’t be going back. We had dinner at Bahama Breeze there (the girls choice) and while the food was delicious, the service was incredibly slow and inefficient. The girls were finished with appetizers and entrées before Saul and I received our meals. They even brought Sami a child’s pasta meal that had sausage in it by mistake. There is never sausage in the child’s meal. We had waited so long for it that they quickly replaced it with macaroni and cheese and didn’t charge us. All through the walk around the mall and the long period of sitting at dinner, the girls were angels. The afternoon was a delight for us, just watching them interact together. When Saul and I returned home, we were very tired. We were in Ken’s car, so I had to get out to manually open our garage door. When I slammed the car door shut, I closed my left pinky in the door. I opened the door in an instant, but the pain was horrible and I got nauseous and then faint. Saul was so upset, he left the car running and came into the house after me to apply ice. Luckily, the finger was only badly bruised with a tiny cut so I did not have to go to the hospital, but the incident set off a chain reaction. By the following Monday evening, I called the doctor, told him about my symptoms of nausea, chest pain, and aches in my left arm, and begged him not to send me to the emergency room because I believed I was experiencing simultaneous esophagitis and trauma to my arm (further exacerbated by aggressive use of a rolling pin to roll out fondant), a situation that I had experienced exactly the same way a few years ago. He agreed and set up an appointment in his office three days later that confirmed my own diagnosis.

Izzy’s actual birthday party, on Shabbat evening February 1, was a delight. The little girls were all adorable. They and their mothers were so impressed and delighted with the cake that one-by-one they whipped out their iPhones and took photos of it. One even wanted to know if there was a way to preserve it permanently. It is probably my favorite of all the cakes I have made over the years. I made a big pot of black bean soup, Izzy’s favorite, and Alex made a huge salad and an assortment of his special homemade pizzas. After dinner, I enjoyed watching the girls dig into their individual cakes, so excited were they that every part was edible. We took Larry along with us and we were joined by Saul’s sister, Rif. On the way to Cherry Hill, we stopped at Singapore Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant downtown to order the food for Saul’s birthday luncheon at MBI-EE the following Saturday.

We went to services at MBI-EE on Saturday, despite the way I was feeling, as the ache and nausea were intermittent. Saul and I dined on my cooking spree leftovers for lunch and took a long nap in the afternoon. Because we had only a short time to use up the $20 gift certificates from Ken and Randi, we decided to dine again at Bonefish Grill. Neither of us was very hungry and we ordered judiciously, so our bill for the evening was only $4.00 plus tip. We found seats at the communal table immediately, so we didn’t have to wait, and we met a pair of young ladies next to us, who gave us packets of coffee samples for a company they represent.

That Sunday, February 3, we slept late, and had a leisurely breakfast. I was feeling yucky most of the day, worried about my symptoms, and hesitant to call the doctor. The family was due in on the following Friday night for a big Shabbat dinner here and to sleep over for the luncheon on Saturday at the synagogue. I wanted to be up for all of it.

On Monday afternoon, I was finally able to meet my friend, Laura, for lunch at the Metropolitan American Diner. We have not found the time to get together for almost a year, and it was so nice to just sit and talk face-to-face to catch up with each other’s lives. We had big bowls of hearty soup and tied up the table for a long time as we kept thinking of things to share that we had forgotten. We also shared photos of the grandkids—all girls. I hope that somewhere out there someone is having boys! The doctor put my mind at ease that I was not going to spend time in the emergency room, so I was much more relaxed the rest of the week. We picked up our repaired Prius that evening.

I went to Faith’s class on Tuesday morning and then went shopping with Saul on Tuesday afternoon for supplies for his upcoming birthday dinner on Friday. Later in the afternoon, Jessica convinced me to make a fleishig meal as their kitchen has become totally dairy and she and Izzy have been craving meat.

Saul has a late day on Wednesday, so I used the opportunity to shop for fresh kosher chicken and veggies to make a large pot of chicken soup. I spent the entire day cooking, preparing for Friday. I made chicken soup, kasha and bow ties, black and white rice, beef stew with assorted root veggies, sweet and sour meatballs with Moroccan sausage, cole slaw and the final batches of hamantashen. When Saul came home, dinner was leftover lecsó (pronounced “lehtch-o”) that I had made with small chunks of dry salami, a delicacy that I had readied in honor of Izzy’s upcoming visit (she had a few slices as an appetizer on Friday), and couscous.

On Thursday, a big nor’easter blizzard named Nemo began to be predicted for New England and south beginning Friday night. After speaking with Larry, we decided to cancel Saul’s luncheon. When I returned from attending Faith’s class at Temple Sinai, I reached Singapore and the owner, Peter, said it was okay to cancel. Saul arrived home early and went with me to the doctor, who put my fears to rest, telling me to take Pepcid morning and evening for two weeks, and do pendulum exercises for my rotator cuff discomfort. I fairly skipped out of the doctor’s office feeling I had dodged a bullet. Arriving at home, we had soup chicken and cole slaw for dinner. Ari arrived at about 9:30 p.m. from DC and we kept him up until midnight finishing up two batches of jumbo oatmeal, peanut butter and raisin cookies.

Because of the impending storm, everything was very “touch and go” on Friday. Saul and Ari left early in the morning. Ari had an appointment for his Mercedes at a local dealer, and Saul had a meeting at school. After dropping off the car, they had breakfast together in the school cafeteria and Ari went to work, remotely, from Saul’s office. I went back to sleep after they left and slept soundly until almost 10:00 a.m. Ari’s car wasn’t ready until almost 1:00 p.m., so they didn’t get back home until 1:30 p.m. I had been working in the kitchen for a few hours by then and I was incomprehensibly tired again. We all just had a snack for lunch and drove Ken’s car back to his house to put in his garage in advance of the storm. At about 3:00 p.m., I laid down in bed and took a nap until 4:30 p.m. By 3:00 p.m. Jessica had committed to coming, but not sleeping over, and was bringing Rif with her. Larry picked up Faith and brought her along. When I awoke from my nap, Ari and Saul, particularly Ari, had readied everything perfectly. The table was expanded and set perfectly with beautiful linens and all the appropriate tableware. Ari had readied the challah pans with non-stick spray and cornmeal, and prepared the egg and sugar glaze. He had made mango/passion fruit iced tea. The dishwasher had been emptied and the extraneous items had been washed by hand. Ari had anticipated my every need. That was a beautiful thing! And, he stood waiting to assist with the last minute prep. I began to warm all the items I had prepared previously. I kneaded and braided the challahs, then glazed and sesame seeded them, while Ari squeezed lemons and limes for fresh lemonade and made simple syrup. Jess, Rif and the girls arrived just after the challahs went into the oven. They said they thankfully did not encounter any precipitation. We blessed the candles together. I prepared a lime juice, fresh herb and tomato mixture for guacamole into which Izzy mashed avocados, while Sami put out multi-grain chips. We snacked on seasoned pistachios while waiting for Larry and Faith to arrive. Yona took Rif into her bedroom to show her all the toys in her toy box. We had a heavenly, delectable Shabbat dinner together, right on schedule. When everyone left, about 7:45 p.m. the snow had already laid down half an inch, but luckily all arrived home safe and sound in record time because of the lack of traffic.

At 8:00 a.m. the next morning, when we needed to start preparing to leave for synagogue, the weather still looked awful. We got only 2 to 3 inches through the night, but the wind was whipping it around and temperatures were bitterly cold. Danny had not plowed our driveway yet. We decided to go back to bed. Around 10:00 a.m. we had a huge bagel breakfast comprised of most of the items I had purchased in anticipation of everyone sleeping over on Friday night. The sun came out and began to melt the snow. While I finished my crossword puzzle and snoozed away the afternoon, Saul and Ari together accomplished something I have been trying to get done for at least 10 years. They moved our WiFi connection to the middle of the house and disconnected and removed the huge spaghetti of wires that was under both Saul’s and my desks. They were both grinning like Cheshire cats when it was finished and our signal is now strong everywhere in the house. In the early evening, we caught the movie, Silver Linings, at a nearby theater. We all liked it immensely. Then, we went to dinner to celebrate Saul’s birthday at Tamarindo’s, which was lively, crowded and very good. We only had to wait about 20 minutes to get a table, not bad for a Saturday night.

We still had a $20 coupon to use up by February 10, at Bonefish Grill, so we arrived at 11:00 a.m. when they opened for their relatively new brunch. We tried three different selections and enjoyed them all, but felt it would have been a little pricey without the coupon. Ari and I took a walk around Montgomery Mall in the afternoon because he needed some new pants. In the process, we found a $200 goose down jacket for Saul that was marked down to $35 at Eddie Bauer. It was the only one, just his size, and just seemed like it was fated to be there for his birthday. I love when the planets align! On Sunday evening, we had dinner together at Bertucci’s in Plymouth Meeting so that Ari could just get on the Blue Route and head back to DC. What a wonderful weekend it turned out to be, despite the bad weather and cancellation of the luncheon.

On Monday, I had some major cleaning and laundry to do to get the house back in order, but it was a pleasure knowing how we had all been healthy and together for this milestone. I attended Faith’s class yesterday morning, had a yearly mammogram, which will hopefully be okay, had lunch with Saul at Eastern Dragon, and then a white pizza dinner with Faith at Giuseppi’s. The weather and some of our circumstances might be full of chills, but the thrills these last few weeks have definitely surpassed them.

Tissues, Towels and Tequila—Winding Down 2012

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Fortunately for us and our family, the end of 2012 should really be called “Winding Up 2012,” but the news was so awful that the end of 2012 can only be called a downer for the rest of the world. I refer, of course, mostly to the horrific elementary school shootings in Connecticut. Having a personality that tends to dwell on these things, I made a concerted effort to limit the amount of news I consumed to a few minutes a day. Even Saul, who chides me about these things, agreed to limit the time we spent viewing the bad news. The worrisome stuff this year included the possibility of copycat killings, the looming “end of the world” predicted by the Mayan calendar, the threat of Iran becoming a nuclear power accompanied by the threat that Israel and the United States will not let that happen and will initiate a preemptive strike, the fiscal cliff, the housing fiasco, seemingly limitless corporate greed, and the rate of unemployment. Everyone on the news says that the economy is recovering, but I don’t see any signs of it around me.

Our family has been very lucky and we have all been having a great time these past two months. On November 16, Saul and I, with help from our friends Gerry and Betty, and Bea and Phil, and a phalanx of volunteers, made a Men’s Club dinner for about 40 members of MBI-EE. The guest speaker that evening, Allen M. Hornblum, had written a book about Harry Gold, the spy who had exposed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. I was very nervous about preparing the dinner in our new facilities, but members of the congregation pulled together to make sure that we had all the equipment we needed by visiting the temporary storage facility and pulling out almost everything we had requested. Additionally, a large convection oven was made functional so that we could warm all the food.

Also in the middle of November, Ken made arrangements for a prixe fixe “Russian night” at a Russian nightclub in Northeast Philadelphia called Golden Gates for about two dozen of his friends and relatives. We had done this a few times before over the years, but had given it up because of the smokiness of the room. We were all sick from smoke the next day. Because indoor smoking in Pennsylvania has since been banned everywhere, we decided to give it another try. The experience did not disappoint! Ari came in for the weekend to join us for his first time there, and is keen to set up a similar evening for some of his friends. The couples sitting next to us at an interminably long table, there for the first time, were blown away by the amount of food, the delicious variety, and the beautiful and efficient way it was presented throughout the evening. They said it was the most enormous variety of food that had ever been offered to them anywhere. There were a multiplicity of salads, fish courses (the sea bass was delectable!), cheeses, cold cuts, steaks, lamb, side dishes galore, fresh fruit assortments and desserts. The live band and singers were talented and entertaining. Everyone got up to dance at one time or another. Many of us drank quantities of byob vodka and wine, making the price quite a bargain and the evening, a sparkly and satiating blur.

Shortly after that evening, we flew down to Orlando, Florida, for an early delightful and memorable celebration of Thanksgiving and the 70th birthdays of both Adele and Larry, who had settled into their new home in The Villages right after the presidential election. On the Tuesday afternoon before Thanksgiving, joined by Ari, and Ken and Randi with Brenna in tow, we met at Atlantic City Airport for a delayed two-hour flight on Spirit Airlines. Beth met us at the airport in Orlando in a rental car, having flown in from Tucson earlier, and after Ari picked up a second rental car, we all piled in and drove to The Willows, the wonderful home we had rented for the week, complete with pool and spa. We arrived so late, because of the delays, that the nearby Publix Supermarket was closed. Luckily, we found an open CVS Pharmacy where we were able to find the most important items on our shopping list, “tissues, towels and tequila,” and a Papa John’s with a sympathetic manager, so we all devoured a few pizzas before heading off to bed.

We arose early the next morning. The weather was good and we decided that Wednesday would be the least crowded of the Thanksgiving holidays to visit Universal Studios’ The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Not having put in many provisions, we had breakfast at a Golden Corral on our way, which turned out to be a big mistake for some of us. Ken and Saul rented electric scooters and procured passes which allowed us to circumvent any lines that were longer than 20 minutes. This proved to be both a blessing and a curse, as we all decided to experience the Harry Potter virtual reality ride and did not have time to wisely reconsider while waiting in the regular two-hour line. I was the only one who was not either sickened or terrified by the ride. Randi’s screams were so blood-curdling that I thought they were a part of the ride. Brenna was in tears and buried her face in Saul’s chest for 5 minutes when we got off. Saul was so nauseous he could barely stand there. Beth had to be helped off the ride and spent the first few minutes sitting on the floor with her head between her knees. Ken and Ari were also nauseated for a while afterward. I still really can’t see what all the fuss was about. The chairs were very secure and probably less than a foot off the ground. If you closed your eyes, the movement itself was not really any more violent than a wild rocking chair. The whole ride was only about six minutes long and Randi says she did not even open her eyes once it began. I guess the problem, like car or seasickness, is about the disconnect between the movement and what your eyes are seeing. After recovering, Ari and Brenna were able to experience every other roller coaster in the park, but in the end, Ari had done so many rides that he declared it was all over for him after a spin in the teacup-like Cat-in-the-Hat ride. We enjoyed many other quieter pleasures in the park, including dinner together at Mythos, a visually stunning venue with better-than-average food for a park restaurant.

On Thursday morning, we languished in the heated pool and spa, enjoying the beautiful weather. I put in provisions for our week, and we all headed out for Thanksgiving dinner and to visit Adele and Larry and celebrate their birthdays at The Villages. The ride takes about an hour and 15 minutes. Our buffet Thanksgiving dinner at an elegant hotel dining room within the environs of The Villages, was adequate. Adele and Larry were happy to have us all there. Beth and Brenna spent the night with them and joined us the next morning after the rest of us had a late breakfast at the Cracker Barrel in Davenport. Ken and Randi went off to spend a few days in Disney World at the Dolphin Hotel with Randi’s sister Lori and her husband, Jules, and their married children. Besides hanging out in the pool and spa, we found a good dim sum restaurant in Orlando, Ming Bistro. In Tucson, Beth has been starved for both dim sum and sushi. We knew a good sushi place, Aji Sushi, where we all indulged ourselves for dinner, but we thought that dim sum would be beyond the scope of Orlando. We were wrong. We were able to satisfy Beth on both counts. Beth and Brenna spent a day together at Sea World where Beth had arranged for them to swim with the dolphins. Saul and I found a home that we wished to buy across the street from where we were staying, but our negotiations have not worked out. We checked out more real estate as well as the closest synagogue and JCC in Orlando and were pleased with the facilities. Our flight home on December 3, was uneventful and we hated coming back to cold weather, sweaters, and socks.

Saul finished up his fall semester the week after we returned. The older girls came over for a few days to bake cookies for our family Chanukah party, and to give as gifts, when their schools had half-day parent conferences before the winter break. We attended a lovely, Chanukah-themed dinner with engaging interactive activities for the families designed by Alex in honor of Izzy’s class at TBS.

Then, we began shopping for yet another dinner that we had agreed to prepare to welcome new members to our congregation. There were quite a few since we have moved into our new facilities within KI. Again, on December 14, Saul and I, with the help of our friends Gerry and Betty, and a cadre of volunteers from the congregation made Shabbat dinner for 100 people at MBI-EE. Preparing the dinner was quite harrowing because, within a week, the number rose from 31 to 80, and then went from 80 to 100 in the last two days. Thankfully, we were able to prepare what turned out to be more than enough food. The room looked beautiful and welcoming with candlelight, floral centerpieces, and piles of colored rose petals and silver Chanukah gelt chocolates strewn across the tables.

On the evening of the following day, our family Chanukah party took place at Jess and Alex’s home. The party doubled as a house-warming as most of the extended family had not been there in light of the problems when they moved in and the months-long renovation of the kitchen. The two of them outdid themselves in the preparation and presentation of the food. Before kindling the candles, I made our new recipe for jelly donuts with the children. They were a big hit! It was a delightful and heart-warming evening, although we all missed Adele and Beth very much as each family lit their own chanukiah. Saul was able to reach Meredith on FaceTime with his iPad, so she was “sort of” present as well for the candle-lighting.

Around this time, Jessica applied for and landed another job within the JCC of Cherry Hill where she has been working and, because she was due to start on January 2, we found that the whole family would be available to take a winter vacation between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Ari’s firm actually closes down during that time, and Alex and the girls would all be off from school. We had such a good time during Thanksgiving week in Florida, that we decided to see if we could arrange the same type of rental again. At the last minute, Ari bagged another house with an identical layout to the first one in a different development. The house was so spacious, that Elaine, Alex’s mom decided to join us as well. The owner had just renovated the house and was planning to use it, but changed his plans when we expressed an interest. This worked out very well for us as everything in the kitchen was brand new and Alex could use it freely without kashering.

On Thursday morning, December 20, Saul and I cleaned the house spotlessly in case the realtor wanted to show it. We each packed a small suitcase, two bags of staple food items, and one refrigerator bag full of food from our refrigerator and freezer, and headed off to Wegman’s in Warrington to pick up four kosher rotisserie chickens to form the basis of our family Shabbat dinner in DC.  Our drive to DC was relaxing and relatively free of traffic. After unloading the car at Ari’s and resting for a short while, we picked him up from work and had a leisurely dinner at The Heights in Columbia Heights. This place, which is walking distance from Ari’s home, is fast becoming our favorite in the DC area. Ari and I shared an appetizer and a dinner as neither of us was tremendously hungry. Our waiter was one of the best, ever! Without being overbearing, he anticipated and fulfilled every request and our appetizers and dinners were split on two separate plates and beautifully presented. We each tried a featured artisan beer, both of which were high in alcohol (but low in sulfites), so the satisfying and delicious meal ended with a slight, pleasant buzz. Saul had developed a chest cold a few days earlier and was on amoxicillin, but felt much better after a few days on the medication.

On Friday, after dropping Ari at work, Saul and I headed over to the Giant Supermarket in Columbia Heights to pick up the rest of the ingredients for Shabbat dinner. Jess, Alex, Elaine and the girls were coming right before dinner, and we invited Alex’s sister Naomi, her husband Matt, and their daughter Talia to join us for dinner. Elaine was sleeping over at Naomi and Matt’s new home in Tacoma Park. In the afternoon, we set the table for dinner for 12 with disposables and prepared a huge salad with fresh basil, baby spinach, lettuce and mixed greens, hard boiled eggs, artichokes, olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, red onion, etc. When everyone arrived, we warmed up the chicken and ate it with giant, baked, salt and olive oil-rubbed baked potatoes. I failed at finding pareve pastries for dessert in DC, so we had to make do with an arrangement of fresh pineapple and grapes. During the day on Saturday, we had a bagel breakfast together and lazed around most of the day, taking naps as we were waiting for sundown to leave for Florida. We were planning to drive through the night. Ari and I walked Izzy to a nearby playground so she could climb, and swing, and run around for a few hours to release some of her excess energy.

As darkness fell, Ari and Jess went to pick up Elaine while the rest of us packed and put Ari’s house in order. We set off in two vehicles, our Prius and Jess and Alex’s SUV. Finding a place for dinner for nine on a Saturday night on the road was quite a challenge, but we were very lucky to find a sushi restaurant, Akida Japanese, in Richmond, VA, just off of  I-95, that was highly recommended on Yelp. I called about an hour ahead for reservations (estimating traffic, speed and distance), and I am positive that the hostess that took them did not believe that we were really coming or that we were really nine people. She barely spoke English. The place and the neighborhood looked really sketchy. We were warned by patrons who were leaving to be sure to find a legal parking spot as someone’s dispute with the restaurant had caused a police car to be posted nearby solely for the purpose of handing out parking tickets to unsuspecting patrons. Signs inside the restaurant also warned about the parking situation. Walking in, we realized how tiny a place we had chosen. It only held about a dozen tables, but two had been set aside, and they quickly moved them together and set them up. Even though our reservation was for 9:00 p.m., we were followed by enough people to form quite a waiting line by the time we left. As billed, the restaurant had beautifully prepared, wonderfully fresh sushi and sashimi. The staff was extremely congenial and the prices were very reasonable. Thanks to our modern-day iPhones and Google, Google Maps and Yelp, travel by car over long distances is so much better than in the old days!

This drive to Florida was fairly easy compared to other trips we have taken. Everyone was well rested, the kids went right to sleep, the weather was fair, and the only heavy traffic we encountered was during the first hour after leaving DC. We arrived in St. Augustine on Sunday morning just as the restaurant where we decided to have breakfast was opening. Again, based on Yelp reviews, we found a winner, Wildflower Cafe, where refreshed with a hearty breakfast and basking in the warm Florida sunshine, we happily set out on the final 2-1/2-hour leg of our journey to our beautiful home in Orlando.

Having just had a vacation where we overdid things on the first day and then spent a few days recovering, we decided to flip it so that we would have a few days to unwind before tackling Disney World at its busiest time of the year. During the first afternoon, I went shopping with Elaine and Jess and we laid in a week’s worth of supplies for meals and snacking. We spent the rest of the day hanging around the pool, watching television, and napping from our journey. Sweet Tomatoes, the unique buffet restaurant we had loved on a previous trip was where we headed for dinner the first night, and we were not disappointed. Monday was Christmas Eve day and many places were closed by noon. Our pool was not heating up properly and had only reached about 75°F. The management company was great about getting someone over to look at it, but it wasn’t until after Christmas that we were finally able to get the temperature over 80°F. We used the pool almost every day, especially Izzy and Yona. On Christmas morning, Saul, Ari, Jessica and I went for dim sum again at Ming Bistro in Orlando. Later, except for Ari, we all went to see the movie, Return of the Guardians, and had dinner at a Chinese buffet. Several times, we went to our secret place for a free and unobstructed view of the spectacular fireworks over the castle in the Magic Kingdom. The weather turned sporadically rainy on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, so we put off our day at Disney World until Thursday. We spent the morning on Wednesday at Downtown Disney, where the girls spent an hour or two shopping, constructing with Legos, riding the carousel, and then watched a glass artist who was meticulously creating a Minnie Mouse that sells for $250. Sami could have stood there all day, but the artist took a break after about an hour. The weather began to get very windy and damp, so we decided to have an early lunch at Fulton’s, a building built to look like a steamship. Elaine was much happier when she learned that it was indeed a building and not an actual ship that rocked. After a half-hour wait to accommodate our number, we were seated at a table upstairs that looked out over the lagoon. Our waiters were very attentive. The food was good and the Bloody Marys were remarkable. A driving rainstorm came and went while we sat comfortable and cosseted for a few hours. Then we headed home to rest up for our day at the park.

Originally, we had intended to visit the Magic Kingdom to check out the new Fantasyland, but discovered that most of it will not be completed for another year or two. Since Epcot is our favorite park, and is the least crowded park, especially during the Christmas season, and because you can drive right up to the entrance with a handicapped parking permit and not have to wait for the monorail or ferry, we decided spend our day at Disney World there. It was a good choice. The weather forecasters were accurate, and after a very chilly morning the sun warmed everything to balmy Florida temperatures. It was a glorious day. We arrived just as the park opened and by judiciously obtaining FastPasses, we were able to ride on Soarin’ (my favorite ride in Orlando) twice and Fast Track twice (within a half hour) before lunch. It seemed that Morocco in the World Showcase was our best bet for a vegetarian lunch. While the lunch was expensive, the restaurant was a unique, Casbah-like setting, complete with a beautiful belly dancer performing to the accompaniment of live musicians playing exotic instruments. The food, as in most of the parks, is good, but not great. Our servers were very attentive. After lunch Sami, Izzy and I did a spy mission involving Phineas and Ferb characters that led us to secret places by way of a phone that activated various animations around the World Showcase. We dined on incredible pastries we purchased in Norway. During our day we were able to do lots of the activities—Turtle Talk with Crush, the Finding Nemo ride, the Imaginarium ride, the boat ride through the fish farm and greenhouses where they were harvesting eggplants, the dinosaur ride with Ellen Degeneris and many others. We sampled Coca Cola products from all over the world. We totally exhausted ourselves by dinnertime, but had a great time. The park was open very late that night, but although some of us would have liked to go back after another dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, we were all too tired.

We invited Adele and Larry to join us for our Shabbat dinner in Florida. I shopped in the afternoon for provisions and Alex made an incredible dinner with various salads, broiled marinated salmon and haddock fish tacos, couscous, pico de gallo, Brussels sprouts, etc. I made potato-leek soup and Russian dressing for the lettuce-wedge salad. For dessert, we had fresh watermelon, with ice cream and slices of a variety of small cakes we had purchased. Adele and Larry did not stay late as their dogs could not be left for very long and the ride to and from The Villages takes almost 3 hours.

On Saturday evening, after hanging out by the pool all day, we had a feast of a sushi dinner at Aji and drove through the back roads of Disney to the Disney Boardwalk. Only Saul and I had ever been there before. There were various street performers and a real wooden boardwalk around the lagoon. We spent some time wandering there, but the weather had turned cold and windy again when the sun went down. Since Jess had promised the girls that they could each pick a souvenir, and they had not yet bought anything, and they were leaving the next morning to drive back home, we headed back to Downtown Disney. While trying to back up to catch a rare parking space, we badly damaged the rear bumper of our Prius on the extended trailer hitch of a very long van. The hitch didn’t have a scratch, and the car was drivable, so we decided to duct tape it back together and take care of it when we got home. Jess and Alex, the girls, and Elaine all headed home on Sunday after breakfast and arrived about 2:00 a.m. on Monday, December 31. They weren’t too tired to take the girls to the pre-Mummer’s Parade festivities in downtown Philadelphia.

Saul, Ari and I stayed on in the house for a few more days. Continuing to look at real estate, we traversed several new developments and drove through some old ones. We tried an Indian restaurant,  Dhaba, near our house and liked it very much. Even though it was almost 9:00 p.m. on Sunday when we entered the nearly empty dining room, as usual, we started a rush. The owner was very congenial and spoke to us for a while expressing his pride in his restaurant and the quality of his food. On New Year’s Eve, we settled for a late lunch barbecue feast at Sonny’s in St. Cloud after being turned away by early (unannounced) closures at two non-chain restaurants that we tried first. After Sonny’s, there was no need for dinner. We had drinks and ice cream by our lighted pool, enjoyed the fireworks set off in our neighborhood, caught the 8:30 p.m. fireworks display at the Magic Kingdom from our secret spot, and watched the ball drop on our big flat-screen tv back at the house—a very satisfying New Year’s! We began the journey back on January 1, but we got tired and hit rainy weather around North Carolina, so we decided to stay overnight at a motel. We checked in, dropped our bags, and had dinner at an Outback Steakhouse about a block away. In the morning, we refueled and had breakfast at a Cracker Barrel before getting back on the road for DC. The remaining five-hour drive was very pleasant, but Saul was beginning to feel the return of his head cold and chest congestion. He had finished his 10 days of antibiotics on the previous Sunday.

Back in DC, on January 2, Saul was feeling lousy, and we decided to stay with Ari until Sunday. Afraid we would catch the flu, and chilled by the unaccustomed cold weather, we decided on pho for dinner at Pho 14 in Columbia Heights. Towards the end of finishing our big bowls of steaming soup, we could not help but notice a man was seated at the table next to us who appeared so miserable and had such a bad cough that we could not leave fast enough. We went to the Giant Supermarket across the street, leaving Saul in the car,  to pick up milk and other staples. Saul began taking over-the-counter medications that the doctor recommended the next day, but was not feeling much better, so we ordered in dinner the next night from a nearby restaurant. On Friday, we picked Ari up relatively early from work and had a Shabbat dinner from soups that I defrosted from Ari’s freezer, challot and some other items that I picked up at the Giant, and leftovers of the previous night’s dinner. Saturday afternoon, Ari and I went on a scavenger hunt to find the ingredients necessary to make a large pot of chicken soup. We began at the Giant, but the lines were so long at every register (at least 12 carts) that we abandoned our cart and drove to a brand new, huge Safeway with underground parking that had been cleared of most of its fresh produce and also had huge lines. Ari and I bought a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies from the Starbucks register near the entrance as by then we were starving. Nearby was the new Union Market, but upon arriving, we realized that there was not much fresh produce there. Lastly, we decided to try the Yes! Organic Market that is within walking distance of his home. There, we found everything we needed and the prices were comparable, just a little higher than the supermarkets and organic to boot!

Arriving back home with our purchases, the three of us finished off the last of the leftovers, and Ari and I began preparing a big pot of chicken soup. It simmered on the stove until midnight, when we turned it off and went to bed. I arose early on Sunday morning and packed nine quarts of soup into Ari’s refrigerator and freezer. Then I finished all our laundry, including the sheets and towels we had used, remade the beds, and repacked our suitcases. Ari needed to meet his friend, Zach, in Rockville, MD, to pick up some concert tickets Zach had for him, so we followed Ari there in our car and tried yet another dim sum restaurant, Silver Fountain. The quality of the food was excellent and the staff, very congenial and helpful, belying the Yelp reviews we read of surly waitstaff. We arrived relatively late for dim sum, so it was hard to tell what kind of variety was available earlier.

Saul and I arrived home early Sunday evening. He scheduled a doctor’s appointment for the next day as the chest cold had fully returned and seemed to be getting worse. The doctor prescribed another round of antibiotics, this time Levaquin, which took about two days to make him feel a lot better. For fear of catching the flu which is rampant this year, we have both been sleeping a lot and not going out much. The new semester has started and we had a nice past two weeks having Shabbat dinner with Jess and Alex and the girls, joining Ken and Randi at Bonefish Grill on their last Saturday night before they left for months in Hawaii, and shopping for and cooking some nice meals at home. Cocooning at home through the cold weather in January and February has become a regular tradition which we enjoy, but after Saul retires from CHC in May, we hope to be soaking up the sun in warmer climates next year.