Birthday Gifts!

Today, my parents gave me a great birthday present! This gorgeous wood and glass table for my apartment, along with four very comfortable chairs. This afternoon, after I went to the bank and deposited some cash, then paid some bills with Itai and watched the window man make sure nothing else was going to break off and hit me, I hopped a cab down to Herzl Street to check out furniture stores. I went to Lubliner, as per Itai's suggestion, but didn't really like what I had seen. In terms of buying couches, I'm pretty much at a loss. My last couch purchase was gorgeous, a denim blue convertible bed from Jennifer Convertibles. I bought it for the Upper West Side apartment I lived in for 6 months back in the day when I was 21 and tried the Westmont. It really didn't work out for me and I ended up giving the couch to a good friend as a wedding present.

So, I've decided to shelve couch shopping for the moment. Who knows, maybe someone will give me a couch so I don't have to go out and buy one. I walked into a lot of stores and came back to the same table store I had visited weeks ago when shopping for a bed on Herzl Street.

Mark, who is half British and half Israeli, was swamped today but we managed to discuss my price parameters and what I was looking for. In the end, I decided to go with a table that seats 8 people comfortably, even though with the 4 additional chairs, I now have 10 chairs in my apartment. I've decided in Tel Aviv not to do what I did on the Upper West Side and just host meals at Cousin Neils and the boys apartment every couple of months. Those meals always totalled around 12-15 people and at times we were pretty tight around the table. I'm now hoping that if I limit my meals to 8, it will be a lot more comfortable and more manageable.

To see what else the store sells, check out Sol Rahit.

My cold is really coming in nicely. Fortunately, I caught Hannah before she went on her last minute errand trip and so she's bringing me some Nyquil and some Claritin, just in case this is allergies and not a cold. I also called to arrange for a car pickup tomorrow, so that I can get to the airport in just enough time to grab Hannah as she gets out from baggage check.

Tonight, I also decided to really cook dinner. I made portobello mushrooms and onion stir fry with fake chicken strips, seasoned with shwarma spice, salt and pepper. I cooked up some couscous with onion soup mix and then cut up a some Israeli salad. It looked great when I plated it ala Emeril of course, but when it was time to sit down and eat, I couldn't do it. You know the saying, starve the cold and feed the fever? Well, there's a reason you starve a cold, you have no appetite! So, I'm hoping as Hannah, Liora and I restaurant hop throughout Jerusalem, there will be plenty of soup for me :)

Today was a big phone day! I spoke to both my parents, Shulamit for almost 2 hours, my little sister (having spoken to my older sister last night), Grandma, Marnina, Cousin Neil, Yotam, Jason and the Apple care customer service folks. I was having a slight issue with my Mac but thank g-d, it's all fixed!

Well, it's 10:00 p.m. and I promised myself to get to bed early this evening. So, good night to you all and I will hopefully blog next time from Jerusalem!

Song of the evening is Fade Into You by Mazzy Starr, because it's a great bedtime tune.