Month: August 2012

  • Like the Rabbanut… on Facebook.

    A couple months ago, out in Jerusalem, we noticed that kashrut certificates for restaurants seem to have been updated: Hmmm… I didn’t even see it at first, but that ubiquitous blue F doesn’t stay out of your eyesight for too long. The Jerusalem Rabbanut on Facebook – how kosher can that be? So – would…

  • The time I taught Koala about the atmosphere.

    I left at 1:50pm to pick Koala up from gan, which ended at two. Only by the time I had parked across from the gan’s front yard, and noticed the street was lacking other parked cars, and the yard was lacking children and laughter, I knew something wasn’t right. And it was Koala’s face. Buried…

  • Still innocent (phew).

    So Koala was standing next to the shower while I was taking one (he didn’t want to be alone since he’s suddenly scared everyone is going to leave him). I started shaving my armpits. He asks me, “Whoa, what are you doing?” So I answered, “Shaving.” Then with this really confused look on his face,…

  • Fifty-Two Frames: Natural Framing.

    America loves water parks. And New York City loves water in local parks. And we love taking advantage of it. Since I’ve been visiting with kids, we’ve discovered two awesome local playgrounds featuring water play on Staten Island. I’m sure there are more, and sometime when we go back, I’ll find out. Week 34: Natural…

  • Koala update: You have an American mom.

    I grew up with this perception of the Israeli kids in school being pretty laid back, coming to school with their lunch packed casually in plastic bags. I thought it was really cool… because I was a kid, and anything I didn’t get to do was cool. Even if every year my mom took me…

  • Flight service feedback for United Airlines.

    Dear United Airlines customer service department, I never write letters like this, and I’m usually very easy going, but this experience left me pretty upset, and I figured the customer feedback will be valuable for United Airlines. I was on flight UA84 from Newark to Tel Aviv which departed on Wednesday, August 22, 2012. I…

  • New York, New York…

    New York, I love you. New York, I hate you. New York, you’re absolutely brilliantly fucking gorgeous. Your soul is as pure as antibacterial hand soap. You lure me in to my self-doubting ambivalence, time and time again. New York, New York. Fuggedaboutit.

  • My firehouse.

    For months, Koala and I have been discussing our plans for New York. For months, he’s been obsessed with firetrucks, firemen, סמי הכבאי and hoses. And for months, the top of the list was visiting a firehouse. And I’ll freely admit, I was as, if not more, excited about this. Firemen were always curious characters to…

  • Fifty-Two Frames: Heat.

    I may have stretched this a bit, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to show off the fact I hung out with a ROBOT this past week. Week 33: Heat After the PR-2 showed signs of overheating, it was too late – the aggressive characteristics had already set in. If… only I……

  • The time the kids met the PR2.

    And now for something different… Meet my brother, a robotics engineer Phd student at the University of Pennsylvania. (Disclaimer: I’m not sure if this can realistically say much about me). Meet the PR2, Willow Garage‘s research and innovation robot, which my brother works on with a team at the GRASPY lab in Penn, coding for arm…

  • Fifty-Two Frames: Shopping

    Never gets old… Quick snap at a Target on Staten Island. I liked that with a little playing around, it looks more like a surreal alien world. Week 32: Shopping Fluorescent shopping wonderland.

  • Home.

    I looked up when, among the mumbling, I heard the word ‘מעליב.’ Standing in a long, slow-moving line at a Staten Island department store, I suddenly felt at home. And yet, it wasn’t because I was in Staten Island, or a department store. She turned around to complain about the long line in English, and…