Good Food Magazine

Here's a tasty link (thanks tafka pp!) that I should have posted last time:
Check out the Genders on tour in the U.S.A.!

The past few days have been a gourmand's dream. On Friday, Sharon made Shabbat dinner and we cleaned the house to host her parents. A lovely visit all around! We had homemade challah, chicken soup that we picked up from the ever-friendly "Take Me Home" shop near Emek Refaim, a starter of asparagus wrapped in salmon (I had garlic mayonnaise on the side), a main course of chicken breast stuffed with rice and wrapped in prosciutto (it smelled traif!), salad and vinaigrette, mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes, and homemade cake for dessert! We used our beautiful new plates, bowls, and silver from the wedding. Sharon also bought pecans and sugar-coated them in a pan. Great snacks and leftovers for Shabbat!

Last night (Sunday) Sharon and I went to Marcus's apartment for dinner. No bother that everyone was running a bit late, it was all timed wonderfully. We got a tour of his great place, filled with fantastic photographs he took himself. Many are posted on his Flickr site: calendar magnets, sunsets, friends, and art that adds up to more than a hobby. He has a yard with a garden, a little office space, a new leather couch, and lots of amenities with comfortable ambience. On our candle-lit table we were served: hot rolls and butter, pumpkin (and squash?) soup with optional cream, fresh salad with creamy vinaigrette dressing, a deep porcelain dish right out of the oven was split into "green" tortellini with herbs and "red" tortellini with tomato sauce all covered with melted cheese, some side dishes of small squash stuffed with olive paste and mushroom heads topped with cheese, followed by tea and warm chocolate cake and three ice cream flavors! I can't believe I ate the whole thing. It was all delicious and impressive! I wish we had some pictures-- I'm really not doing justice to the whole meal and all the flavors.

Then there was the Wild West Mystery Party, with both kinds of food: country and western. We have photos for that so hold yer horses, pardner, we'll lasso them dogies and corral them pictures on that newfangled internet thang! I hope you all have a good day and happy eating!

Shop Talk

By the time I got home yesterday, word had already got around about yesterday's post that I had made in the morning. Thank y'all for paying attention and giving feedback. Someone said I had "outed" people by using real names, but I disagree. Those that I mentioned don't have other identities and don't take any great pains to hide their identity. I don't think they'd mind being mentioned in the context of what happened, and if they do mind I will make amends.

I'm just reporting the news. I will, of course, maintain secrecy for those who do have other identities or those who make it known to me that they don't want their names on the site. I guess what I posted yesterday was the first time I had mentioned full names, but that's only because those people don't have their own blogs or a relevant link (and y'all don't want me to post your pictures, do you?) So yeah, yesterday's post had a different agenda than, for example, the description of the last Risk game, in which I purposely hid the players' identities. You know why? As the late, great comedian Sam Kinison once said screamed, "There's a reason. There's a FUCKING REASON!!!"

The reason is that some players may disagree with my interpretation of the events that transpired, and I wouldn't want to discolor the journalism nor offend those players who indulged in the giving and receiving of "table talk", that rude, lewd, boastful, insulting battle chitchat that is only meant in the spirit of the game and should stay at the table.

I feel justified that I don't have to revise any postings and I will continue to report news and views in my way. Free blogs, and my comment area, are open for public debate (although the comments section was once edited and somewhat censored because of table talk from said Risk game entering the blogosphere).

Those that didn't get mentioned yesterday... don't worry! There's plenty of stuff to dish about-- I just can't remember it all at once. I am reminded of someone who once said, "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." Someone else once said, "Even bad publicity is good publicity."

While I'm here, let's try to stay current and review yesterday and today. I'm enjoying some new responsibilities at work until the end of this week, when my "lease term" on being borrowed from my regular office is up. Back to 8 hours a day in the education building after that. Yesterday we used an hour and a half at a ceremony for the unveiling of a new study center. The donors and MK Tommy Lapid and others were present, with speakers, honors, and nice food (fruit and pastries). Keren came over to our place later for a brief visit. According to Tamara I missed her and "the other" Jeremy rapping with H. about adult responsibilities, which soon turned into a shouting match. Wish I was there to act as a calming influence or at least have a few laughs. Today I got another email praising my curent work in the other building. We got a free lunch from the army. I dropped in on Tamara doing her first tour of the new museum. Her friend Tali is in town, and I hung out with him and Tamara's cousin last week in H.'s backyard. Tali is very funny, constantly in motion, smokes very quickly, and works at a pizza joint on long Island, which I can definitely relate to. Also today some woman came into our office and bitched about a project that she didn't like-- disturbed the whole office for no good reason. Tonight we'll do some food shopping (Sam, Dina, and a friend will stay over for Shabbat) and pay a shiva call to a friend. Liz is a new gal in our office and will hopefully show me some techniques for Flash animation. I'm reading Ireland, a novel by Frank Delaney covering legends and history of the Emerald Isle, and also reading Preacher again, one of my favorite comic series ever.

Been a long time...

...since I rocked and wrote. Sure there are the usual excuses, and my main one is I'm so overwhelmed with new experiences that it gets harder every day to blog, as the details keep slipping away in a vicious circle of non-writing. Knowhutimsayin? Here are some things I would love to tell you more about (or show you pictures soon):

• I got married! So did the lovely Miss S! I'll make a rhyme and say, "To each other no less!" And she's now Mrs. W-Z, but that was harder to rhyme. For me.
• We went to Prague for four days and it was awesome. Beautiful, friendly, historic, fun.
• Mr. and Mrs. Hawaiian Shirt joined me and the missus for a Shabbat a few weeks ago in Netanya. We were glad they were there to play Rummikub while waiting for the car repair guy. After a frantic search for a new electric starter thingy, the garage boys got it done and we ate at the great Farmer's Daughter restaurant. P.S. I think Mr. Hawaiian Shirt's blog needs a counter to note all the traffic we send there to read the in-depth articles.
• On Monday Sept. 18, Asaf drove myself and Sharon to the Barby club in Tel Aviv to see the Genders. Starring Tani as "the new bassist" before their U.S.A. tour. The show was professional, fun, skanky, and ROCKING.
• On Tuesday, Sept. 19th, we went to a barbecue at Martine's house to inaugurate her new 'cue (grill), and then we went to the Blue Hole Pub to (temporarily) say "good luck" to Katka as she leaves for Poland for a while.
• On Thursday, Sept. 21, I met Alex and Liat at Mike's Place in Jerusalem for the Toga Party! Woo-hoo! Scroll down the page and click on my picture for more debauchery!
• On Tuesday, Sept. 25, Sharon and I went to Netanya to buy some stuff from IKEA. There was traffic on the way there, and a massive traffic buildup due to accident/injury/possible death just outside Jerusalem. Nothing moved from about midnight to 1AM. Three lanes of traffic, including buses, had to move aside to let police through. People were pretty good about it, and eventually it was like a big curious street party with cars in the way.
• I've spent much time since then building said furniture, like bookshelves and bedside tables. Martine came over to help with an endtable, and Keren got us started with a Kullen. I helped Keren post photos of her beautiful paintings on a web site.
• Tamara finally came over and enjoyed our hospitality!
• Alex and Shani got married in Cyprus, and had a great reception in Herzliya Pituach. A classy affair with guests like Jason and Andrea, Liat, Pinchas and Orly and kids, Mark and Leah, and Bradley Fish on guitar! I shared a fun taxi ride home with Bradley, Mike H., and Moshe.
• That was the first night that Sharon was in England for a week, visiting our new nephew Jonah! Mazal Tov to the family! There were lots of other families and babies to see as well. Phil and Sarah visited me on Shabbat and looked at the wedding photo albums.
  
• Had great holidays here in Israel. Rosh HaShana... Cousin Sam slept over for Yom Kippur, Sharon and I went to Yossi's for (Sephardic) first night of Succot, and our good friend was honored to go up to the Torah for the 1st reading (Bereshit/Genesis) on Simchat Torah! On that Shabbat I also met up with Hilary to check up a Reconstructionist service, which was all good.
  

Gotta go... I'm sure there's more to remember and post! Plus, Things to do: Take over the world (RISK game of global domination coming soon), and investigate Blogger in Beta, which should offer tags to browse my posts by topic. See ya!