For a while, I ran a series of photos on Facebook titled “What Jen is eating today.” That would be Jen the Squirrel (I named the squirrel Jen after one of my writer friends named the squirrel outside her window Debbie – though it had nothing to do with me). My office windows face fences, where squirrels spend a lot of time running back and forth, sometimes with food. Given that I work by myself all day and get distracted easily, I pay attention.

One day I saw the squirrel run by with half a piece of pizza (which I knew was not ours, as we eat all our pizza). Unfortunately I didn’t get the camera in time. But soon after I caught Jen on film munching on spiky balls from our trees (we have 12 full leaf bags full of these in the garage, and more litter the lawn). Then a banana. Lettuce. Some unknown grisly fat thing. Avocado peels.

Banana

We recently had the chance to hear about what a soferet does. A soferet is a female Torah scribe. Linda Coppleson visited TBEMC to talk to the community and make some repairs to the synagogue’s Torahs. She’s been a scribe for 15 years

What is a sofer and soferet?

A scribe (sofer is male scribe) writes the Torah, mezzuzah scrolls, megillah scrolls and fixes them as well. Some also write ketubot (marriage contracts). When repairing a ritual Hebrew scroll, she looks for dirt on the parchment and mistakes in the letters, perhaps letters that are faded, scratched or portions of parchment that are torn.

While NJ and NY locals have all kinds of stories about touring the matzah factory when they were young, I didn’t get to do that. There is no matzah factory in Arizona. But lucky me – I got to tour it as an adult! The Manischewitz factory in Newark NJ is their global headquarters, and only factory for their 400 products (not the wine – info on that in the first post). We went behind the scenes. See what we saw.

Part 1 – matzah, matzah, matzah – see how matzah gets made and baked, learn the facts. All kinds of matzah – plus Tam Tams (remember the Tam Tam shortage some time back?).

Part 2 – the other 385 (or so) products that Manishewitz makes – under numerous brands. See the Manischewitz factory in action.

I got a little weepy today when the piano movers came to the house. It was pouring down rain, not really a good day for a piano delivery. Yes, they were delivering a new piano we purchased last week. It was a a rather sudden purchase, though one we knew we wanted to make for some time. Our old piano, which got us through our son’s first six years of lessons, was not enough anymore. The keys would stick and there was only so much our tuner could do for this 1935 relic. After pouring money into maintenance and fixes, we learned the tuner had done as much as he could do and we should think about an upgrade.

When we lived in California, we actually parked one of our cars (the minivan) in the garage. That’s kind of a miracle, in retrospect. Our garage was also used for storage, as we had no basement or attic, and we had suitcases in there as well as a storage pantry (we learned what we could leave in there that the mice wouldn’t eat). I hate to think what it would be like to move back to that townhouse now, with everything we’ve accumulated.

After Zack’s Bar Mitzvah, Dori came up with a checklist of things adults could say to the Bar Mitzvah boy/man.

She writes:

In order to save the bar mitzvah kid’s time, please fill out this sheet and check all that apply:

• You did a great job!
• You got so big!
• Wow! Last time I saw you, you were three and liked to run around naked!
• Do you remember me?
• Today I am a fountain pen.
• You’re a MAN now!
• Have you seen your mom?
• Am I allowed to take a balloon?

I have a lot of friends who are preparing for their children’s b’nai mitzvah. To save them the trouble of coming up with wording on the reply cards, I wanted to share what we did, since it was so successful.

 

Given how smoothly the planning was going for Zack’s bar mitzvah, I thought I’d have no good post to share after. Ha ha! Stupid me. You’re in luck. I have plenty of lessons from the bar mitzvah, and they’re all below, in no particular order. (When you’re done, visit my lessons from Dori’s bat mitzvah).

-My name is Debbie Kaplan and I order too much food. If we invite you over for dinner in the next year, it’s likely that we’ll be serving you food from the bar mitzvah weekend. But we’ll pretend we made it ourselves.

 

 

Mark reached a new record – 5 years at one company. Yes, he switched jobs last year, moving to the mothership, but it’s the same company. The fanfare does not include a party or them throwing more money at him, but it does include a gift choice.

For the record, they include a pen/pencil set, a crystal frame, a mobile device battery charger, a clock with the corporate name on it, an MP3 speaker, and a crystal bowl that might hold nuts or M&Ms (it’s pretty small). It was a tough decision. Truly.

When I had my 5 year anniversary at Norcal Mutual Insurance Company, I chose a Kitchenaid mixer, which was much more useful. Especially since I was convinced I was never going to find the right guy and get married. Better get that mixer while I could!

Of course I met Mark the next month, and returned the Kitchenaid mixer that my aunt bought me as an engagement gift 10 months later since I already had one. I’m still using the mixer (and the hubby is still around too). I just got my annual pension notice from Norcal. Yes, I actually have a pension when I retire. It’s not much, but it will pay my cable or cell phone bill each month in retirement. While I didn’t know what a defined benefit plan was in my 20s, I know what it is now.

I know you’re all wondering what Mark chose from this list of corporate 5 year gifts.

Yup, he’s the proud new owner of a pen and pencil set. Happy 5th anniversary, Mark!

And not that we’re still sore about it, or anything, when he got laid off from his previous employer, who spent a kazillion dollars to move us (and 200 other families) to New Jersey and then demolished his department 16 months later, his official end date was one month before his 5 year anniversary. So that means they owned him nothing on his pension. Yeah, thanks for that.

By the way, this is one of the anniversary gift choices for those who make it 15th years at Kaplan Ink: 5 carat diamond earrings from Tiffany & Co. Oh wait – I’ve already passed that anniversary. Time to order the earrings!

For our 18th anniversary, Mark gave me this:

I know! So romantic! Not only does it fit my car perfectly, but it’s my hubcap.