Not-so-random facts

1. The Oldest Teen has finally heard from the army about his placement. He's been accepted into the Atudah program (which is basically ROTC), to study aerospace engineering at the Technion. And to think that this is the child the regional council wanted to force into special ed...

2. Word to the wise: never be the first woman in my town to give birth in a new year. Last year the first birth was quadruplets, this year it was only twins.

3. Only in a small town department: Second day of Rosh Hashanah and I'm awake, but still in bed. The Teens have already gone to synagogue and The Spouse is putting on his shoes and socks, getting ready to leave. Our bedroom door is opened up by someone calling The Spouse's name. "What, this isn't TheNextDoorNeighbors' House?" she asks, a little angrily. "No, it's ours. TheNextDoorNeighbors live next door," The Spouse replies while I sink under the covers, trying to hide from TwoDoorsDownNeighbor's mother, who was supposed to go to NextDoorNeighbor and wake her grandson (who has the same first name as The Spouse) for prayers. Think this will stop my neighbors who are always telling me how far-too-American looking my house is, when their's (they claim) isn't?

4. I'm working my way through the Mason-Dixon book; I've already knitted more from this book than from any other knitting book I own. I've done many, many felted baskets and am now working on a crop of baby kimonos (babies are SmallTown's national product). This is done in garter stitch and only one tie (never did like the look of two) in Hibiscus Yarns hand-dyed:


5. To the person who got here by Googling Jewish men allowed to knit -- whyever not?

6. I'm not sure if I find this deeply cool or deeply disturbing. There's a new mixtape CD DJ Handler presents Y-Love, and one clip is on Y-Love's My Space site. So's a warning against listen to that clip, because some of the samples include female singers. (a)If it's forbidden to listen to them, why put them up on the site? (b)How many Charedi mean who'd obey the warning are actually trawling My Space?

7. G'mar Tov!

5766 FOs and KALs

Multi-direcional scarf Bad Juju Cinxia Shadow socks pink tank top Glad Ragg socks Holly Jaywalker socks Astra one-ball baby sweater Felted Flamingo Sixth Sense socks Broadripple socks Pomatomus socks Skully sweater felted baskets (7)

The habit of silence

Once you get into the habit of not speaking much, it's hard to start again. You either gush (as at Knit Out Israel) or stay too silent (as on this blog).

You know things are bad when you listen to Sondheim to cheer you up.

Finished Business:

1. Knit Out Israel. Read about it at Amy's blog (her ice cream socks looked yummy enough to eat). Gourmet Yarn Shop would be OK for a US yarn shop; that it's in Israel at all is pretty darn amazing. Orly's got glass knitting needles and will soon have the short Bryspun dpns, and she seems pretty open to carrying just about anything her clientele will buy. Works for me.

I think I shocked the British ladies. They start talking about odd balls who have multiple WIPs, and I pull out the MD felted basket, an MD baby kimono, a garterlac placemat and Amir Peretz -- I spared them all the ER trip and did not pull out the other MD baby kimono, the sock, and the kumihimo braid. And I didn't even bring the shawl in progress, the dishcloth, the linen ties, or the other pair of socks. Nothing succeeds like excess.

2. Got our new car today. It's a case of second verse same as the first; another white Hyundai Getz, but this time a 2005 model instead of 2003.

3. It's a small world. Our Rosh Hashanah guests are bringing a guest of their own, an American whom the Oldest Teen knows from his summer university classes. A professor he may have next semester (if the army sends him to the university he's been in) has a son who used to live next door to our guests (down the block from us). The Middle Teen's housemate turns out to be a cousin of the Middle Teen's 5-6 grade teacher. I think we're getting to the point where we're reaching a critical mass of connections.

Have a sweet new year. Anyone wants some killer honey cake?

Touching history

Today, for the first time since 1942, rabbis were ordained in Germany. And of all the scribes and calligraphers in the world, who was chosen to write their ordination certificates? The Spouse! I'm so proud of him for having his hand (literally) in a piece of history. Here's a video of some of the ceremony; The Spouse's work is inside the tubes being handed to the new rabbis.

9/11

Today is not the yahrzeit, but since today is the day the 2996 tributes are going up, here are links to tributes to the two (thank G-d, only two) 9/11 victims we knew personally.

Shimmy Biegeleisen
During high school, The Spouse worked in (or rather bartered in--he took most of his wages in books) the Biegeleisen family seforim store. When we're back in New York, we still stop by the new location in Boro Park, and it's still our go-to store for hard to find Judaica, be it old books or books which one needs a personal reference to be allowed to buy. (Yes, true story.) With one thing and the other, and living in the neighborhood, you get to know nearly everyone, like The Spouse got to know Shimmy.

Shimmy, HY"D, had the zechus of letting his family know where he was, so when the initial psak came out, declaring every unaccounted-for person who was known to be in the Towers at the time of the crash halachically dead, hsi family could begin the process of mourning.

Eliyahu Furman
The Furman family, though, did got get that privilege and had to wait long months until Chavie (my sister-in-law's adopted sister) was declared a widow and not an agunah. I remember seeing her and the kids at our mutual neice's wedding that December, how heartbreaking it was to see those nearly-perfect little angels and realize I was seeing part of their lives that Eliyahu never would.

May G-d avenge their blood.

As a family we were lucky. One of The Spouse's nephews worked in the Towers and was just about to get on an elevator when the first plane hit. He freaked out so badly, just from the sound, that he ran from the building, past the first bridge to Brooklyn and caught himself only at the second. If it had hit one minute later... ut it's hard, thinking abuot hashgacha pratit, because if it was what saved Ari, wasn't it also what doomed Shimmy and Eliyahu?

When knitting gets political pt 2