Eishet Freaking Chayil

My dogs are barking and my back is aching, but I have literally 3 more boxes to pack in the morning and then I'm all set to move to Jerusalem! I can't believe that, at this time tomorrow, I will be living in the Holy City! Yikes!!! I hope I'm worthy :)

Friday was a crazy, crazy day but boy was it fun! Buggy got me up at the crack of dawn and we headed out to Kibbutz Yavneh to hand deliver a wedding invitation to one of his favorite teachers from Yeshiva. Of course, we got lost. Well, we got really, really lost and ended up seeing a lot of Tel Aviv (no Buggy, everything is NOT Holon!!), Yavneh, and the Moshav Ben Zakkai. Finally, with the help of Buggy's GPS we managed to find our way to the Kibbutz. I had not realized that the Yeshiva, KBY, was on this Kibbutz and started getting excited as we approached the entrance. I told Buggy that I would have killed, 12 years ago while in seminary, to be in this very position.

Anyway, we got to his teacher's house and had a really, really great time. Avraham Stein is a brilliant man, fantastic teacher and interesting philosopher. He lost both his hands and his hearing while trying to defuse a land mine during the Yom Kippur War. The fact that he is also one of the nicest people I've met in a while is an understatement! We're really looking forward to seeing him P"G at our Sheva Brachot in Israel.

After our meeting, Buggy and I headed home (not getting late this time) and went straight to Pizzafino. This time, we split a salad and a personal pizza. It was so yummy, I'm going to miss Pizzafino's pizza's! With less then 4 hours to go until Shabbos, we ran some quick errands and then raced home so I could cook. Oren and Rachel were hosted a farewell meal for me on Friday night, and since I wanted to use up the contents of my refridgerator, Gayle offered to have lunch at her apartment.

In three hours I managed to make sesame teriyaki salmon (it was fantastic!!), barbecue pargiot skewers, 2 steaks, and a strawberry shortcake. Check out the photos! I was exhausted by the time Shabbos came in, but really looking forward to seeing my friends over dinner.

Buggy helped me schlep all the food to Oren's and El Jeffe, Gayle, Rachel, Nechama, Natalie and Rachel's friend were already there. Dinner was very lively, very fun, and very yummy! Oren made this great chicken with chestnuts! Yumm. For dessert, we had sorbet and strawberry shortcake and Nechama picked up popcorn in my honor! It was great, I didn't really want to share my popcorn with everyone else, but acquiesced. I still need to fit into my gown and knew if I ate ALL the chocolate popcorn the pounds would come back quicker than the blink of an eye.

I actually made it to shul this Shabbat, although it was towards the end. One girl I hadn't seen in a while greeted me by saying What, you're still alive??. I said yes, then introduced her to Buggy. She then asked Are you married yet? with such a rude tone, it was slightly obnoxious. As we were leaving to go to Gayle, Buggy asked me why she had a chip on her shoulder the size of an elephant. I didn't know and when I told Gayle the story, she said it was because I was engaged.

Oh well, I guess you can't be friends with everyone. Right?

Lunch this afternoon was really nice but I was starting to feel overwhelmed with all the packing I still had to do! As soon as Shabbos was over, I got to work. Buggy helped a lot, throwing out the garbage, packing up my printer and taking down the Shabbat clocks. Afterwards, he got on chairs to make sure that I didn't leave anything in the high cabinets in my bedroom, and then went through the drawers in the kitchen. I still have some more boxes to pack in the morning, but it's not much and should take me less than an hour. The movers aren't coming until the afternoon, although the cable guy is slated to come pick up the boxes in the morning.

Oy, and now my back is killing me but I'm hoping a good night's sleep will help.

Crave of the Day is Annie's Kitchen on Main Street in Queens. I would love to sit down with a container of beef lo-mein, some mini-egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken and some beef with broccoli. And then, wash it all down with some fun fortune cookies. I really miss Chinese food, and haven't had any good Chinese food since my move last August! Who knows, maybe Buggy and I will grab lunch at Annie's Kitchen the week before the wedding (after we go get our marriage license from City Hall).

Layla Tov!