Life of Spud

Well, it doesn't start until tomorrow afternoon; but I needed a title for my blog, so there it is. OK, some updates: Mazal Tov to my oldest brother, who just had his third child (a girl). He's living in Israel and things between us are complicated, so I haven't spoken to him yet. I did send off an email.... Stop judging me, please. We just got our driveway redone last/this week. It was an expensive and frustrating experience. I never realized just how convenient our driveway was until those guys dug it up and spent a week and a half putting it back together. It was also one of those situations where - against my better judgment - we hired a "local" company (see: Eruv List) to do the job. It was never really clear to me what was going to happen and when. We never signed a contract and the work took longer than we had originally intended. It was a stupid move (I watch a lot of those Judge shows and I should now better), but I figured I could trust the guy. Well, luc...

Tonight's the last night of Chanukah, so it's a good time to summarize what's happened over this past week: The holiday has been pretty enjoyable. My wife made delicious latkes and special holiday cookies. We also decided to jump on the presents bandwagon this year to ensure that our daughter will always have a positive feeling toward Chanukah. We've been giving her one gift each night of the holiday and she's really enjoyed tearing open the wrapping paper and trying her "prizes". She refuses to touch the candles (a good thing, I guess) and she cries whenever we start to sing (she only likes to sing her songs), but we consider the plan an overall success. We went to a couple of parties during the holiday. The first was a Sat. night party for our friends' daughter who turned two. They had a lot of family in town, so the place was pretty full. We debated buying a gift and decided, at the last moment, to do so. We were lucky to find a "Mrs. Potato H...

We got our first snow today. Unfortunately it didn't start until after the school day, so no day off of work. Baltimore is famous for its low tolerance for snow and all day the students (and faculty) at my school were waiting for the fateful announcement that never did come. It was really putting a damper on my day until I realized that I did not teach past fourth period and could duck out early (to avoid the carpool rush). We'll see what the deal is for tomorrow. It's not supposed to snow anymore, but a delayed opening would be great (don't have to deal with students and Tefilah - not that there's anything wrong with that). The snow didn't keep me in the house tonight, though (Ironic that I almost NEVER leave the house, but on a snowy night - that's when I decide to get out for a bit). I was over at the JCC to meet and hear from Nathan Englander. I first read his work when I was in Israel ("For the Relief of Unbearable Urges") and really enjoyed i...

So last Thursay morning I was playing "row, row, row your boat" with my daughter (I was the boat) in an attempt to avoid the Barney videos while keeping her entertained. All seemed in order until I got my daughter ready to go to the babysitter, at which time my back started to spasm. I really thought the pain would subside over the course of the day but I was mistaken. By Friday morning I was in some serious pain, but I had a ton of work to catch up on at work and had to wait until after that was done to see a doctor. I dropped my daughter off at my father-in-law and headed over to Patient First (which is where people with no real doctor go if they need to get checked out) where I waited for two hours to see a doctor. And what a doctor! His name was Dr. Hooper and, at first glance, it seemed that he was probably an older relative of Mr. Hooper from Sesame Street (yes, that old!). He also reeked of cigarette smoke, but that was a good thing because by now I had given up hope...