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!