new kids on the block!

Introducing: the Scrooges!



This is the Black Scrooge


And this is the Gray Scrooge


They look more alive most of the time, but the only good time to take their picture is when they take a break and lay down for a rest... :) otherwise, they keep trying to play with the string attached to the camera :D

here's what they're doing now:


We brought them home on Thursday night. They immediately started exploring their new teritory, checking suspecious corners, figuring out the best route to the top of the refregirator, and trying to get into our dinner plates.
Gray scrooge has a favorite spot on the couch; Black's favorite rest area is the corner under the omputer table. They have the smelliest poo you have ever seen. but we figure that if they feel comfortable farting around us, they consider us family!!!

Here are some action shots of Black:



oh, looks like Gray is waking up..!


mmmmmmmmmm prrrrrrr... good morning... what's up?

hmm... maybe i can help you here with this computer thing, what do you say? .. hmmm... boring... i'll go see what my dad is doing...

err... he's just sleeping on the floor... i think i'll go eat now.

stuff

I didn't have a chance yet to download the pictures from the camera, so weekend stories will have to wait a bit. (although i did keep a couple of open spots for those stories... i hope i get to them before they disappear down the page and nobody reads them!)

many things are happening at the same time, and it's almost hard to keep track...
my recent paper is about to be published (they just sent the last version with editorial corrections, like adding comas here and there, replacing "which" with "what" and so on), and i can finally say that this project is behind me. ben has to fly somewhere boring for one day, he was invited to give a talk at some conference. the most exciting thing about it is that he can fly with no luggage, that's a real dream-come-true...

Pessach (passover) is coming up, and we are having a seder with the Kramers on Monday, and with the Schwartzes on Wednesday (Sara and i decided that since we are in the "galut" we can move the holiday to a more comfortable date...). hope i remember to take pictures! I am not sure what's going to happen on Monday, but for the Seder with Tom, Sara and little Mira we planned to make soup with kneidalach, charosset, mazot, safta's chopped liver (although i'm sure mine will never be as good as hers! good thing i have a food processor...), Sara is going to try her mom's recipe for brisket, and ben will have gefiltefisch for his first time ever (yuck). it's gonna be fun!
will tell more about it.

as you will read soon, i had a lot of fun in the Kibbutz last week, an it made me very homesick. we dont have any israeli friends in Chicago, and i miss the atmosphere, the mentality, and speaking hebrew all the time... but maybe that will change soon, who knows!

we have a meeting with our lawyer next week, towards our GC interview. we will be asked to supply proof that we are happily married. the "hevre" in pasadena said that they sometimes ask what the color of our toothbrushes are! isn't that funny? well, i don't expect any problems there... i just hope ben knows the color of HIS OWN toothbrush ;)

and finally, the most exciting thing, is the long expected expansion of our little family: no, we are NOT pregnant, we are going to bring home a couple of adorable cats. i'm sure there will be a lot more to tell about these guys after they finally come home with us - we are supposed to go pick them up today at 6pm... i can't wait!
we looked for adoption centers for a while, both online and on foot. all the cat shelters here give the cats away after nutering them and giving them all the shots, worm medicine, anti flee stuff, but they differ in the way that the cats get there and the way they are kept. some, like this one, look like a cat factory, with cats living in cages waiting to be picked... just like those sad tv comercials. others have the cats roaming free in a big room, and people can come in and pet them :)
the one we ended up applying with is called PAWS; we went there a couple of times, talked with the "adoption consultants", and got friendly with some cats. the adoption takes a while, they had us fill in a long form with questions like "who will take care of your cat when you die" and "what will you do if the cat scratches your furniture", list our current and previous pets and their whereabouts now (some are six feet under :) ), and references (did you get a phone call?) that can say we are nice enough to have a cat.
the other day we went over to target and spent the rest of our gift cards on cat stuff: litter box, special no-odor litter "sand", cat food, carriers, brush, and a gizmo to remove unwanted cat hair from places (like the couch). so i would say we are all set! we plan to build some cat furniture when we go up to cadillac next weekend, like a scratching post and something to sit on and watch out the window. ben had a name for it which i forgot.
the lady at the cat shelter said that one of them is still on antibiotics, so we will have to give him a 1/4 pill every day for a few days... that reminded me of this story (or this one, which is the same, only in hebrew). :D

more later!

weekend with the koesters (or: getting drunk in Chicago)

another space saver :)

Pasadena

The closest Kibbutz to Chicago, IL, is in PAsadena, CA. Unlike a traditional kibbuz, the members get paid real money, in $$, and don't need to wake up at 5 in the morning.
However, much like a genuine kibbutz, they all live close by, their doors are always open, every one knows what everyone is doing at any given time, and they exploit the system of "what's mine is yours and what's yours is mine" to the fullest. in the best possible way!

My visit was short this time. i had a great week with the Ofakim, who are now working on a new project - "Ofakim Chadashim" - "New horizons" -- a baby girl!
I also got to reunite with old friends and meet some new friends (chaverim, kibbutz members) and take an active part in the traditional Purim party, which took place on St. Patricks day. I am not allowed to publish Eran and Orly's pictures, but I will put some of mine when i finally get a hold of them. people went really wild with the costumes. it was by far, the best costume party i've been to, ever. including elementary school. the "theme" was california, and costumes ranged from cheerleaders (joint husband-wife costume, with a full set of pompoms and a rehearsed show!), blonds in flip-flops, flintstones, hockey player, angels, cinderella, and many more... and they were all awesome. lots of cross-gendering going on, too ;)
Here are some examples:


----- NEW! -----
This is the pirate :) i know -- not a very californian thing, but on a short notice that's what i could come up with. we got the accessories at some weird 2nd hand /"vintage" store, the top is one of Ben's old t-shirts that i put some more holes in, and the sward is just some alluminum foil wrapped around a cardboard. i also had a hook and a telescope, which don't show up in the picture... it's been a while since the last time i put a costume on, it sure was fun!
-----

visiting the kibbutz made me miss the friends at home, and the atmosphere in our crowded office on the roof top of TA. i think i didn't speak a word of English the whole week. On campus, at home, everybody speaks hebrew! it's a genuine "little israel".

it's so damn hot!

it's warm outside, and even hotter inside. "they" are working on the a/c system or something, but the result is that all the warm air is flowing into my windowless office, and the thermometer says it's 90 degrees. look it up. it's HOT.
i feel like i'm in a sauna.
my laptop complains and actually shut itself down a couple of times, so working is kinda out of the question today... i went to the library (and found a rather large section of hebrew reading books), went to a coffee shop, anywhere that's not here. finally it's time to go home.

this is more of a to-do list of things i want to write about... so it will be short, but come back for the details soon:
1. my visit to pasadena (AKA: Kibbuz Pasadena, CA, 91106) and the awesome Purim party, that took place a couple of weeks after Purim, but who cares :D
2. we are looking for a cat!
3. mom&dadK came for a visit and got drunk

-keren

a glorious weekend

last weekend we had a wonderful time with Matt and Erin, who came for a visit. between a couple of pajama parties (including Ben falling asleep on the carpet), we spent a sunny day doing touristic stuff.
this is us at the aquarium with a friend:

and here we are, with another friend by the field museum.



more pictures can be seen here

poor red car

spring is in the air. and i'm not talking about the smell of flowers and blooming, or green leaves starting to grow on trees. i'm talking about the temperatures, that finally climb above freezing for a little bit, and sometimes stay there for more than 5 minutes.
warm is nice, but personally i prefer a bit colder and snowy rather than a bit warmer and rainy!
at least one driver in hyde park can't be enjoying this season. this poor sod parked his car on a heap of snow a couple of weeks ago... the snow melted into a deep pond, and then... froze solid.
wem keep passing by that car every day, and it's still stuck there... we hope to be there when the poor red car tries to pull out.
here are a couple of pictures in different stages of freezing and thawing...



--- Addition: March 21 2007 update
The red car is still there. It's spring now, we had a few rains, and all the junk that was hiding under the snow has melted its way out and now floats in the ditches. We woder what the deal with that poor car, since it's not being moved at all, and its owner doesn't seem to care.

------ April update: the red car is gone. we suspect that it was towed away for street cleaning.