Damned

.....if they do and damned if they do.
I just read this article and was so incensed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1014117.html
Last update - 19:47 21/08/2008 Israel removes West Bank roadblock outside Ramallah

We once accidentally drove past the entrance to a Jewish-lived-in city near Ramallah. (really they are all OUR cities.)
It was only as we appraoched the machsom (which we did not recall being there previously) and simultaneously noticed the giant billboard for Habib's used-cars that we realized our mistake. We were urged by the chayalim manning the machsom to 'turn around, fast' and 'you not want to be here.'
If that machsom were not there, we probably would have attepmpted to continue driving until we felt that there was a 'good' place to turn around.
Is there ever a 'good' place to turn around when you enter our neck of the woods that they have usurped?

Birthday party - a success!

Yes! I threw a surprise party for DH this past Friday night.

It was an oneg shabbos birthday party replete with hot kugel and cholent as well as a (b"H) well-conditioned a/c (read zealous!)

We managed to set up mostly while DH drove Things 2 and 3 to Y-M.

(They got to spend shabbos with Grandma and Grandpa. Thing 1 is in sleepaway camp, so it was just us and Thing 4 at home, kinda' strange, but really nice.) DH just didn't know who this seminary-looking-girl was and what she was doing in the house and after I refused to answer his questons, and she did too, he went on to the kids. To their credit, Things 2 and 3 wouldn't answer either, and they had a whole car ride together.

DH thought that perhaps we were hosting an NCSY se'da shileesheet or something.

I manged to get Thing 4 to bed before any loud noise made its way upstairs, and I got cozy with a bunch of reading material and a large mug of tea.

When I came down (much later) the salon (read dining room) was in the last stages of being put back to normal semblance (THANKS Mitch and Eliezer!)

DH theorized that since I made him a huge surprise bash for his 30th, which was after we were married 6 years, and that this was 7 years later, he should expect to be surprised (is that really possible?) in 8 more years.

For those of you who missed it, I heard that it was really nice, and to those of you that came, thanks for making it so.

That was close!

OK, ok, with this whole JBlooger NBN thingy scheduled tomorrow, I kinda' got inspired to blog.
After 4 years (yup, it's been 4 whole years) here, jets and low-flying choppers are so commonplace that although Ihear them, it doesn't always register. Sitting at the computer now though, I heard a chopper so low that I thought it was coming in for a landing nearby (and they don't do that!)
So as I sit here in RBS (hey, I don't think that I've ever mentioned our location in any of my previous blog posts) at 10:30 pm, I wonder just who it is they are searching for, and ehy do they think that he's in my backyard?