Coffee pot and a little TMI

I am looking for a coffee pot. I want a small electric appliance that can take up space on my counter, and provide me nice, yummy coffee when I wake up in the morning. I want it to do this on its own - that is, after I program it the night before.

No coffee pot I've seen in this country is programmable. Unless its an espresso maker, or a cappachino maker, which is not what I want. I just want to be able to get dressed in my warm bedroom before venturing out into the freezing kitchen to first put the water on for coffee. I want to come out, pour my coffee, and leave for work.

For all those unknown readers - are you there? Have you seen a coffee pot in Israel that is programmable? I've even tried the 220 stores in the states, since my in laws are making aliyah anyway in a month, and no luck.

I'm going to look again this Friday, after I get my blood work done, possibly a chest xray and EKG, and buy Eden her very own umbrella.

And for the TMI. This is something I've been dying to share but have not really found the appropriate time to. That's probably because there is no appropriate time.

The cutest thing that Eden has said recently was when she was sitting on the toilet, pooping. Often I sit there with her, since I really don't trust her to wipe herself. And as she was pushing she said (in Hebrew), "Hene! Hene! Hene ha-poop sheli!" ("Here it comes, here it comes! Here comes my poop!") She was so excited.

Right, so that's not really the type of thing I include in my Eden updates to my grandparents.

This morning, when she woke up she took a big stretch. And she said, "I'm stretching! Arm is stretching! Foot is stretching! Other foot is stretching! Both feet stretching!"

She is just so adorable.

Surgery Date

So I've got a date for surgery - Dec 24th. My mom will be in from the 9th to the 30th, my in-laws making aliyah on the 27th. Lots to do (chest x-ray, ekg, bloodwork) lots to think about (putting my "affairs in order" to give me peace of mind in case something Gd forbid happens to me), other things lots to do - getting the door fixed before my mom comes, finding appliances and signing on an apt for my inlaws.
Work?
Spending time with Eden so that I don't feel guilty for having surgery and she not knowing whats going on.

Woes of work

The comparisons between work and other, less professional, aspects of life is sometimes daunting. Everyone knows that work is work - and its nothing personal of course. For example, I worked on a complete documentation set, including about 10 manuals (including generic ones that I did not need to update, but still), and even published it. Only to find out that the release had been canceled.
My boss thought that I'd be really hurt by this. I'm not - its only documentation. I got paid for my time, what do I care whether they used it or not? OK, there is also unpaid overtime to worry about, unnecessary stress, etc, etc, but that's all part of the game, and its past. She was more upset that I was it seems.
Other times, I am not so unaffected by work.
Relationships at work are like relationships anywhere else - there is competition, jealousy, the ebb and wane of friendships, and the sighs when your heart says to you, "That's just the way it is now. Get used to it." Recently we had a really big organization, and I've got a new boss, new team, and new product. Someone else is working on the products I worked on before, and my old boss is now working closely with someone else. And although there is nothing unsatisfactory about the new situation, I miss my old team. We worked closely together and spoke all the time - about work, but also about lots of other things, and we were good friends. Now if I see them in the hallway for long enough to say, "Hi, how are you", its a lot. Everybody is just as busy as they've always been, and its always hard to take the time and keep up a friendship. It feels a little bit like junior high, where last year I was in one class with one group of friends, and this year we've all been promoted to different levels of honors classes. Its hard to see your former friends being all chummy with new people, in the ways that they were once with you. Its hard to see someone else doing the things that I used to do, as I'm sure its hard for others to see me taking their place. But that's just it, that's the way it is, and we all try to convince ourselves that its for the best - professionally. But personally? I miss my friends, because even though its just documentation, work is so much more than just that.

Jewish smarts

Whatyall think of this?
http://www.slate.com/id/2177228/nav/tap3/

I see so much discussion out on the regular, secular bandwidth that I read about Jewish smarts. A lot of it is because may journalists and editors are Jewish, and they are interested in themselves. But still, it makes me feel funny. Too many people are thinking too hard about Jews for my comfort level it seems.

I still have Holocaust dreams. I expect many people do, especially Jews, when they are young and first find out about the terrible things that happened to the Jewish people in Europe halfway through the 20th century. I used to dream that it was happening again. Every once in a while I still have a dream like that, and I'm sure that somewhere deep in my subconscious, I fully believe that "Never Again" is only a hope and a prayer. So when people start talking about things like Jewish smarts, it makes me feel uncomfortable.

I think that I partly moved to Israel for this reason. I don't want to live anywhere but our own country, and can trust no one by my own Jewish brothers to defend me and my family. On the other hand, one of the first things we did when Eden was born was go and get her US passport. And I hold on to our US passports tight. Because I know that if Israel was ever under nuclear attack, I do not know what I would do and if I would have the courage to stay. I may indeed feel the need to take a trip back to the states, for a little while.

A while ago, I had a discussion with friends about tattoos. Never mind the halachic aspects, I don't like the idea of anything permanent on my body that God did not put there. (OK, OK I put the cake and cookies on my hips, but hopefully that's not permanent.) The idea of a Jewish looking tattoo came up - I mean what could be wrong with that? What a great idea, identify yourself permanently with your the Jewish people.

I did not like the idea. It made me so nervous - what if you got trapped behind enemy borders? What if you had to pass as Aryan? Or Arab? Or anything, anything but Jewish. But you had this great Jewish star on your shoulder, or your elbow, or hip, or of all things on your chest. In yellow. How many gays get a pink triangle tattoo?

This coming from me, who dreamed about living out on a hilltop in a caravan, with a strong and swarthy Jewish husband with a gun sitting outside my door. Or it would be both of us sitting outside that door with guns, protecting our babies inside. Whose first glimpse of her husband was a picture of him in uniform, holding his M16. It was love at first sight.

I'd like to think that if push came to shove, I'd be stronger than this. But really, I don't like to think about it at all. Which is why Jewish star tattoos and articles about Jewish smarts give me the heebeejeebees. Just being honest here.