Shuk Day

it's 11:30 P.M. in the holy city of zefat. i just finished cleaning the house. i still didn't get to do the master bedroom but perhaps i'll get around to at least, hanging up my clothes, tomorrow. i had a late start this morning. i didn't start to fill the buckets of water til around 1:00 p.m.

i washed the bathroom and threw around tons of water. unfortunately, there is no drain in the bathroom, so i have to drag all the water through the entire house and out the front door and down the stairs. i also cleaned the blog room and t.v. area. the water was full of dog hair and turned dirty brown. i lost track of how many buckets i filled. just as i threw the first few buckets of water around, michal came over to visit. i was not the most congenial hostess. i kept on mopping and throwing more water. i was desperate to get the house clean and fresh smelling once again. hours later, i did stop to serve michal and zvi some hot dogs and baked beans.

i was on a tight schedule because i have sahar with me tomorrow and friday. the kids decided to have shabbos here this week. i'll take sahar with me to the supermarket tomorrow. it's a 20 minute stroll. my birthday is saturday night and i want to buy a small cake from the bakery. i could have the kids take me out to rosh pina for coffee and dessert but it will be much cheeper this way. if i buy some icecream i'll have to keep it upstairs. i have gone through over a gallon of icecream by myself, lately. i gained nearly 10 pounds and i am not proud of myself.

i think i'll make something more festive for friday night. last week's shabbat meal was a near disaster. i planned on making meatballs for the meal. i defrosted a bit of chicken and fish from a previous shabbat meal. i made several salads, the usual potatoes and eggs that no one eats anymore, and i made a rather, tasty potato kugel. i put up the tomato sauce and started to make the meatballs. i somehow, got it into my head, to add fresh minced parsley and cilantro. i also added a bag of dried onion flakes to boot. i made lovely balls and threw them into the pot. i checked to see how they were cooking and i noticed that they were disintergrating into the sauce.

now normally, i could have made a meat sauce for spaghetti if it were during the week, but this was shabbat night. i had only three chicken legs, which were not reheating that well. the fish was not defrosting at all. i desperately, drained all the ground meat into a huge strainer and made balls out of them. this time, i added some oatmeal. once again, they began to disintergrate into the sauce and i once again, strained all the meat from the sauce and added more oatmeal. i decided to make huge balls with this awful, glutonous, mixture and stuffed them into artichoke bottoms. this time i decided to bake them in the fleishig toaster oven. wouldn't you know these suckers wouldn't bake.

i took the semi- defrosted cooked fish and put it into the oven. i added sliced potatoes and prayed that it would taste okay. it was moments before candle lighting and i was in tears. i was so bummed out about the failed meatballs, that i couldn't feel happy or relaxed. as soon as zvi came home and made kiddush, i made myself a tall glass of watermelon juice and rum. it hit the spot. nobody really cared about the meatball fiasco. everyone was satiated and full. the dogs liked the meatball concoction, just fine. i served a frozen strawberry yogurt pie for breakfast and nobody complained. i had made the pie earlier in the day, when i was still hopeful. i even schmoozed on the phone for an hour with my good friend from efrat. who knew what was to come up later in the day.