Last Saturday was my oldest niece's Bat Mitzvah. (No, her name isn't Denise, that was a bad joke). She did a very good job, and everything was very nice... but boy. It has been a long time since I went to Reform services. Monica, is it normal to skip large chunks of the "Shabbat Service II" in the siddur? (I'm blanking on the name, but it's ( Read more... )

So last Friday, during pesach, Joy[1] and I went to a Matza Brei[2] party at a friend's apartment. At one point I noticed someone who I didn't know, who wasn't really talking to anyone. Now, I'm not normally the most outgoing of people, but I thought it would be nice to include her in conversation. So I basically said, "Hi, my name is Goljerp ( Read more... )

Pre-pesach panic list, or: Goljerp lowers his standards for cleanliness. Dust and dirt are not chametz. Crumbs are... but I need to remember I don't eat on my piles of papers or books.
( panic here )

Alas, all is not totally stress-free in Goljerpland: JD has pink eye. One funny thing, though: last night we forgot to give him his eye drops before bed, and around 9:30pm I realized this. So I did something which I don't know we ever actually did when he was a baby: I went to his room, unwrapped his face from his blankets, softly said, "JD, I've ( Read more... )

Dear Weather,

3-6 inches of snow predicted here. Have you no sense of decency? Have you no sense of decency? (I know, everyone I know in the Boston area is probably amused at my thinking anything less thana foot is significant.)

This past week, Joy and I celebrated our 10th (!) Anniversary. Joy had a birthday which was also significant. Joy read torah for the first time (in real life, that bit wasn't a dream). Yesterday Joy finished the "dog and pony" show for her school. She also recently handed in 180 grades for the students she has this semester (a higher than ( Read more... )

Dear Weather,

It is March 18th. Please return that snow that was falling to sender, or possibly to the southern hemisphere.

Sincerely,

Goljerp

p.s. don't even think of giving us significant snowfall on Friday. Seriously.

Originally I wrote this as a comment to Xiphias, but I think I want to put it here where I can find it easier ( Read more... )

Hmm... one (advantage?) of being on LJ so long is that I can find what I wrote about a trip in '03 now, 12 years later. The report was ( Read more... )

I guess I didn't write about this recently, but a good college friend of Joy's was diagnosed with brain cancer last fall. He passed away a couple of days ago. Joy did manage to get down to DC to visit him and his family in November -- we were worried he wouldn't make it 'till December. I didn't have the privilege of really knowing him, but the ( Read more... )