Thinking Out of the Hut

October 17, 2005

I dare say we must have the easiest sukka in the world to build. A sukka is an outdoor dwelling that Jews traditionally build during the holiday of Sukkot to commemorate our ancestors’ exodus from Egypt when they had to live in this type of desert hut. Now, our apartment is on the top floor […]

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Yom Kippur Groupies

October 7, 2005

(This article first appeared on the This Normal Life website in 2003 and has been a reader favorite. I’m re-posting it now as we head towards Yom Kippur 2005. May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.) When we moved to Israel eleven years ago, we were met with all kinds of changes – […]

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Customer Service

September 30, 2005

When it comes to buying shoes, I am not an easy customer to please. My feet have very high arches; most shoes do not give me enough support. All the more so with sandals. As a result, the last pair of sandals I bought has lasted me an impressive eight years…in large part because they […]

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Party of Eight

September 22, 2005

There’s a line in the movie “Risky Business” where the character played by a teenage Tom Cruise decides to throw a party while his parents are away for the weekend. When the folks call to check in on him and hear music and merriment in the background, they confront their son over the phone who […]

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Pack Rat

September 15, 2005

“Happy Birthday!” my wife Jody and the kids cried out as they placed before me a home-made chocolate cake with white frosting and peanut M&Ms spelling out the number “45.”.   “Thank you,” I said as I hugged each one of them in turn. “And what’s this?” I asked innocently.   As I felt the […]

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Romantic Dinner…For Three

September 8, 2005

Coming home after vacation is always a bit tough. The time away is filled with adventure, with new things to see and do every day. There’s no school, no need to wake up early. And most of all (if everyone gets along that is) you have plenty of quality time together as a family. That […]

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No Place Like Home

September 1, 2005

It was a rainy afternoon in Freiburg on the last day of our recent family vacation in Europe. It seemed a shame to stay cooped up indoors despite the thundering skies outside. Our German/Israeli friend Chana who, along with her three kids, was visiting her brother, had a suggestion.   “Why don’t we go to […]

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Deleting Marla

August 26, 2005

A cell phone is an intensely intimate device. It’s not just that it can be used for conducting personal conversations in discrete locations. What you have stored on your phone’s memory card tells a lot about a person. I’ve had several phones over the years, all with the little SIM memory cards that can go […]

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Vision Therapy

August 15, 2005

As regular readers of this column know, I am quite meticulous about exercise. Rarely a day goes by without me hitting the pavement, IPod strapped to my arm.   Now, apparently, I have to give my eyes a work out too.   A few months ago, I got a new prescription for my glasses that […]

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Mouse Massage

August 5, 2005

  My wife Jody and I try to get away for a night without the kids every so often. It’s not so easy when you don’t have grandparents living nearby, so it had been several years since our last romantic getaway and we aimed to make the most of it. Our destination: the Mitzpe HaYamim […]

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