Omes visit

Omes was here for exactly 31 days.

Within the 31 days Makai learned that chocolate is the best thing to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner or for dessert. He also knows who owns the chocolate stash and where to find it. One of his favorite sayings... "Omaaaa, chalk-late?". He also tried taking her chocolate croissant last nite for dinner. To which Oma replied, "Makai, no, that's Oma's! Don't you remember... You bought this for me." She won that battle.

Among other things Makai has learned from Oma's visit, he has learned the proper way to cover his mouth when he coughs, he has learned to sing the ABC's during dinner, and all the best sayings... "Whoopsie Daisy" "you who, you whooo!" "Oh shoot!" "Stupid computer" "Ruby fat butt" (Oma was trying to squish Ruby onto a train and her butt was too big) "Crazy" "Pali-anna"

What has Oma learned? There are some nice, polite Israeli's but also inconsiderate and rude Israeli's. Israeli's are lazy and also impatient. Custom food orders are not tolerated in this country unless you go to a fancy restaurant. While at a local cafe Jan ordered sea bass without the olive relish--the waiter said no we can't take it off. To which Jan replied, well, if its on top of the fish, tell the cook to withhold the relish." To which the waiter replied, no, you can take it off yourself.) Goat cheese is pretty good when fried and mixed with beets. Lamb kebobs in the middle east tastes like turkey when you make it for toddlers. Baba ganoush is quite tasty when you call it eggplant hummus. Figs with shrimp, grilled calamari and parmesan cheese taste really good together. Makai's potato, chicken, peanut butter and ginger latke's are AWESOME. (sounds gross but they are pretty good). When Oma buys green bananas they stay green. Vanilla soy milk tastes like custard. Israeli breakfast is quite big and has a bunch of sides which she absolutely loves such as canned tuna salad and tomato gazpacho. As Scott said her first day here... "Wow Omes, bring you to a foreign country and you're willing to eat anything".

All in all, we had a good time and appreciated all the kitchen cleaning Oma did. Scott thanks you for doing his chores. I thank you for doing them as well!

Omes

I get an email from Oma or "Omes" as she is now referred to saying,

"How is it "Uncle Graham" got a full page write up in "Looking for Moses" and Oma got nada???!!!  Nothing! Where's the priority here???"

So here you go Oma.

Oma came to visit for the whole month of October.  During this time, she played with Atom, helped us move, made more photo books, and got fed up with the many rude people she interacted with (this group did not include Jana nor myself.)

On the way to Jerusalem, we drove down the 443 where I pointed out to her the Palestinian villages, the military checkpoints, and the security wall.  She commented, "Well at least the wall is pleasant to look at."  I'm sure the people on the other side don't think so. 

Here are some photos:

Take your dog to work...

Jana and Atom left for the States last Monday.  That left me with Pali.  Rather than have her stay at home for 10 hours where she would have been tormented by Sabbia our cat and had to hold her pee, I took her to the office.  It turns out she was loved by everyone, everyone except for Nachala.  She screamed when she saw Pali. 

Most of the time, she hung out in my office but would tagged along if I had to walk around the office.  She even was right there to greet a job candidate and sit through the interview.  Unfortunately, the second day I brought her to the office, Nachala saw Pali, turned around, exited the office building, and went home.  So having her at the office became "a problem," and she was thus banned.  Sorry Pali. 

Uncle Graham & the Crazy West Bank

Graham came out for a visit.  He's an old friend from Shell.  He interned for me, and then joined Shell the month after I quit.  By working on an offshore oil platform, he has a schedule which some would love while others would hate. It's known as "two weeks on, two weeks off."  He basically works for two weeks straight on the platform, logging 12-16 hours a day.  Then he gets two weeks off.  Being a bachelor without a family, he gave me a call and asked if we would like to adopt him for one of those two weeks.  I guess we could have said no.

But we didn't, and a month later Graham ventures over here on his very first international trip.  Right before he left, Jana asked, "Does he know he needs a passport?"

And for his first international trip, I think he had an awesome time.  It started off a little slow as it's the rainy season here, and it poured for a number of days straight.  But as the sun came out, he took my car and explored Israel.  And in the evenings, he and Atom played.  Atom would jump up and down on the guest bed as Graham simply sat there.  And that's how he became Uncle Graham.

The final two days of his trip, Graham and I ventured into the West Bank and the Dead Sea area.  In the West Bank we visited Bethlehem and Hebron with a guide, and all I can say is "This place is crazy."

Anyways, here's a link to the photos of the trip to the West Bank and the Dead Sea.  I've tried to caption it to provide some context to the photos. 

The Number of Israeli's it takes...

To find a leak in your apartment and decide who foots the bill.

A total of 8 landlords. 
Two are standing in the kitchen.

All landlords decided to hold a meeting in our apartment to decide which apartment was leaking water into the first floor tenants kitchen. The funny part, there was no plumber.  Just a bunch of Israeli's trying to decide which apartment the leak was coming from and where.

The outcome: No one had the patience to troubleshoot, and no one wanted to pay for a plumber. The downstairs owner decided he didn't want anymore damage to his flat so he asked if he could come upstairs and seal our bathroom as well as our neighbors in hopes this would solve the problem.