Oh no she didn't!!

Apparently Angelina Jolie has done it again, or at least is trying to. There are reports that she and Brad are trying to adopt a little girl from Chad.

Ok, it's great that she's adding to her family and giving the girl a home, etc., and so forth, but good Lord this is really annoying me. She *just* finished the adoption of Pax and now she's starting again?!

What about bonding time between her and Pax? Brad and Pax? Brad, Angelina and Pax? The other kids and Pax? (And, let's be honest, the nanny and Pax). To adopt again *so* quickly, in my opinion, is a bit irresponsible of her, Brad and the agency or lawyers that they're using.

I'm not trying to compare her situation to ours of adopting from China, because the systems are vastly different, and to be honest I know (less than) nothing about adoption from Chad. I understand her reason(s) for wanting to do it, I just think it's a bit too soon...

When will it end?!

I was looking at one of my daily reads and saw this and this. Take a moment, go to the last two links and make sure that you aren't feeding your pets these foods...

When I get info about recalls on any other pet foods, I'll post the 'warnings' here. We have to look out for our little furbabies...

By the numbers... ***UPDATE***

So while I wasn't looking, I surpassed my 12,000th hit on the blog...and my 300th post. Woo. I had a ton of hits yesterday because I wrote a little blurb on the RQ site. I find that whenever I write anything there, people come here in droves, which is odd.

But I digress...

Josh and I are having a dinner party this coming weekend with some of our adoption buddies. Woo! We're really looking forward to sitting down in a quiet place and being able to talk about things without a bunch of other people around. Since it's still going to be smack dab in the middle of Passover, we decided that we're going to make a matzah lasagna.

What's a matzah lasagna, you ask? Well instead of using noodles, we'll be using sheets of matzah. (I know, it doesn't sound appetizing, but oh my G-d, you'll see Jimi Hendrix afterwards...trust me).

Anyways, we came to the horrible conclusion Sunday, in all our preparation, that we don't have any dairy dishes for Passover. We've always just used paper plates, since we never entertained during the holidays before. (Well, that's not entirely true, we had a Passover Seder nine years ago but we used our Passover meat dishes.)

Since we're going to have about nine people over, the thought of using paper plates...and a saucy, possibly semi-messy dinner, didn't exactly strike my fancy. Not that any of our dinner guests would mind, but when we do a dinner party, we like to pull out all the stops...or try to, and the last thing I want is for someone to wear their dinner...or Deuce to get someone's dinner because their 'fancy shmancy' Chinet plate broke/ripped. ;)

So in a panic, we decided we were going to go out and get new dishes and a tablecloth and a plastic cover for the table. The plastic covers are a lifesaver...no worries about spilling...just wipe up the plastic and ta-da you're done. At the time we decided we were going to go to a store, pick up the dishes, go to another store and get a table cloth, and then go elsewhere and get the plastic. It sounds like a lot of work for just a few items, but oh well.

Anyways, as Josh was driving around, I suddenly remembered that we had a new Linens 'N' Things store that just opened. Oh my G-d, I'm in LOVE with this store...seriously, absolutely, undeniably IN LOVE with the store. We got everything there...and then some. The surprising thing is, when they tallied up the bill, Josh was still vertical.

***Ok, D, what's up with the coupons? I need details. ;) I don't think we get those here, but I might be wrong. After all, it was my first time in that store.

I kind of got annoyed when I got home and saw that everything I bought was half price had I ordered it online, but I didn't have the luxury of time to place the order. Oh well.***

It's all about having your head in an oven, isn't it? - posted by Josh

It's that time of year again when my Jewish brothers and sisters clean their houses down to the baseboards in preparation for the Great Pumpkin who rises from the pumpkin patch and gives presents to all the...oops sorry, my mind drifted and I was suddenly in a Peanuts/Charlie Brown cartoon. I am back now.

Yes it is that time of year when my Jewish brothers and sisters clean their houses almost as well as they cleaned it for their social worker's home study visit. Shhh. Actually, between you, me and six billion other web viewers, the house was cleaner for the visit by the social worker than when Elijah visited.

With the cleaning and the bank-busting grocery shopping behind us (more on that in the next post), we, according to tradition can relax and recline, as we are now free from our labours.

It's the labours that I want to write about. It seems my brethren have lost their way, or more accurately, they have forgotten that cleaning one's home does not have to be a scene from TV cop show CSI. Every year, our shul publishes its "Passover Guide". All you need to know about Passover but were afraid to ask.

References to toasters, toaster ovens and blenders as options to be koshered are laughable. There are too many moving parts. Put any appliance like this in a tightly sealed plastic bag and store in the recesses of your home so that you are not tempted to make a bread pudding smoothie. If you must have a blender for making gefilte fish or chopped liver, then have a good one in storage that's only used for Passover.

It's the koshering of cutlery, sinks, ovens, dishwashers and pots where the Guide mentioned above takes a weird turn. I dealt with the requirement to use saltwater or boiled water immersions performed over days, blow torches on metal surfaces and self cleaning ovens many years ago. Here is my solution that helps one observe the rules while keeping your spouse smiling over the next eight days.

1. A young exasperated woman was standing in a kosher bakery describing all that she had done to prepare for Passover. My mother, interested in how other women were handling the "Big Clean" listened intensely. The young woman, eager to follow Halacha (Jewish law) and her Rabbi, went as far as to scrub the walls of her house. An elderly woman, herself an Orthodox Rebbetzin (Rabbi's wife) , known for her modern no-nonsense ideas stepped forward upon hearing the young woman's burdens. With regal pertness, the Rebbetzin took the young woman aside and stated "I don't eat off the walls...so I don’t scrub them!"

2. Somehow Jews have managed to observe Passover without frost-free refrigerators, self-cleaning ovens, Wedgewood service for sixteen, dishwashers, and a staff to clean their kitchens. Why is it within the last 40 years, we treat preparing for Passover like preparing for a mission aboard the Space Shuttle? Why can't we keep things simple?

3. Do the Poland/Palestine Litmus test. This is a mental check when you are preparing for Passover. Was the activity you are about to perform, done in Poland 100 years ago by your ancestors who did not have today's modern conveniences? Was the activity you are about to engage in done in the desert when the Jews left Egypt? Likely no. Here is a simple example: Using blow torches to clean an oven even after you have cleaned it out with the most caustic of chemicals. Did your great grandpa have a blowtorch? Did he have an oven? Hmm. Another example is the great Cola question. Coke changes their labels to indicate that their regular products are kosher for Passover, their diet products are not because Aspartame is made from a corn-based sugar. Did they have Coke in Poland or the desert thousands of years ago? If the product is not available, then simply buy juice or water. Why tie yourself into knots?

4. As it relates to cutlery, pots and glassware. Buy a second set for Passover and put it away every year. The set will last forever because it's used one week per year. I would never dream of performing a multi-day immersion of anything, cooking supplies are so cheap, you could replace the dishes every year and not feel the pain. Or use paper plates and plastic cutlery and the problem is solved!

I appreciate that rules exist for ritual immersion and "conversion" of cutlery, pots, etc., to Pesach, but the holiday need not be made difficult on purpose. The emphasis should be on remembering the story of Pesach and enjoying it with one's family!

Keeping it simple means having your head in the oven before the holiday, because you must, instead of putting your head in the oven because you want to from the stress.

Referrals are NOT on their way...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, people, but you heard it here first...or maybe second.

I heard from my agency on Friday and they don't anticipate referrals to arrive until late this week (at the absolute earliest) or sometime next week. I knew this on Friday, but foolishly thought they might be wrong. I need to remember that they're always 99.9999% correct (I have to build in a margin of error). ;)

Feel free to shoot the messenger below...

With a name like this, it HAS to be good...

Josh and I went to the supermarket and did the last bit of grocery shopping for Passover this evening. I was looking at the various brands of juice and this caught my eye...

Of course we had to buy it, wouldn't you?!

He's not 40, it's the 21st anniversary of his 19th birthday...

Well today is my brother's big 4-0 birthday! Yes, for long-time readers, I refer to him as Ugly...I always have, and I always will. I found this picture on a Google search, and it pretty much fits my brother to a T. ;)

Anyways, last night his wife arranged a surprise birthday party for him at the Mandarin restaurant. Since it's his 40th birthday, she invited 40 people who mean a lot to him. He was totally blown away when he turned the corner and saw 5 tables full of people waiting for him. He knew that my mom and I were there because her friend has a personalized license plate, but he had no idea about the rest of them.

Of course, there was also a cake...mmmm cake. It was one of those picture cakes, I don't know if any of you have seen them, but they print a picture on top of the cake in icing. The picture looked like Ugly was around 5 or 6 years old at the time, and the resemblance to his son was incredible.

After dinner a friend of L's (Ugly's wife) got into our car and my brother looked at us quizzically and asked where we were taking her. We told him that she needed a ride somewhere, because her boyfriend had some people downtown. He let that go, thought nothing more of it and we went on our way...to his second surprise party.

Ugly, L, and a couple of friends went back to his place and they started watching the hockey game. L said she wanted to go to a bar, listen to some music and just relax.

He bought it.

Her original plan, if he gave her a hard time was to ask him to name some bars, she would write them down on pieces of paper and stick them in a hat...but she would write down the same name on each piece. :P

They got to the bar, he saw a couple friends standing outside having a cigarette and just thought it was a coinkydink that they were there, or maybe a few people were there for a little party. He walked in and there were about 20-30 more people in there. We had part of the bar sectioned off just for his party. I think he was even more blown away by that...there were people at the party he hadn't seen since high school. Somehow, his wife tracked down his old high school buddies and they were there.

Anyways, it's also my brother-in-law's (D - Josh's brother) birthday today! He turns the big 33. He came into town for Passover, but he leaves on Wednesday. Hopefully we'll see him a few times before he goes back to NYC.