Dishpan Hands

I have a serious case of dishpan hands from almost 24 hours of washing dishes, pot, vegetables, chicken - you name it! Now I understand why both my sisters have dishwashers. To save their hands from looking all cracked and dry, bleeding and broken (every single one of my nails). I gave myself 15 minutes to update the blog and then it's back to work! I still have to reheat the butternut squash soup and try to salvage it. My friend Tamara suggested that I stir in some brown sugar and cinnamon to sweeten up the taste. I hope that works cause what I have now just doesn't taste good to me. I don't want a repeat of the zucchini bread incident (only family and close friends know what I'm talking about, and trust me when I say that it's a good story!).

So, the final menu is as follows: taco salad, israeli salad, coleslaw, butternut squash with sugared pecans, spinach chicken rolls, deli roll, orzo with roasted vegetables and pine nuts, cauliflower kugel, corn kugel, string beans and sesame oil, garlic roasted potatoes, apple pie and fruit salad for dessert. We're 8 all together and I'm hoping this will be more than enough food! I took a picture of what my table looks like but of course my battery died just when I wanted to upload the photo to the blog. I have to buy more batteries so I'll upload the photo at a later date. However, I'd like to take a moment to thank my parents for buying me such beautiful judaica for my shabbat table. It really looks nice in my apartment right now and, even with the exhaustion from 2 full days of preparing for tonight, it's really worth it!

OK, funny story. Last night I was on the phone with my sister and my niece and, just when she started to sing a sweet little rendition of the A, B, C's, I looked up at the ceiling above my "office" and noticed two big yellow stains. Now, I've seen water stains before and I pretty much knew that this was not a good sign. So, I immediately called Itai to tell him what was going on and I think I caught him in bed because he said he would stop by in the morning to check it out. Sure enough, this morning, he stopped by and I showed him the water stains. I mentioned that I called him as soon as I noticed it and he told me that I should "be cool" and that I didn't have to worry that they would blame me because he knows that there was no way I could have "pissed" on the ceiling. I told him that if I could do that, I certainly would be able to do a whole lot more with my super powers and doubt I would be living next door to him. I didn't appreciate his response, I didn't call him because I don't want them to blame me but rather because a) the leak is above my office and I don't need it to start raining down lord knows what (remember folks, it's YELLOW!) onto my wires in the office. Second, I mentioned it because if the role was reversed I would want my tennant to let me know before the damage gets really bad. Sure enough, Itai went upstairs and it looks like the bathroom is directly above my office and they think the shower might be leaking. So, the person who renevated that apartment upstairs will have to come back and put in a whole new ceiling into my apartment. This time, I'm going to insist that they work it around my schedule because there is no way I'm letting workers into my apartment if I'm not here.

Times up! I have to go call Grandma before Shabbos and finish getting ready. Song of the day is Goodbye to You by Michelle Branch. And, the above photo is a beautiful kiddish cup by Sharon Geller Metal Designs.

Shabbat Shalom!