GERANIMO!!!!

Just wanted to say a quick hello to all of my friends in the blogosphere and apologize for lack of updates. Life has been slightly hectic lately. Here is a brief timeline:

11/8 - Three year old yells "Geronimo", jumps off of sofa and injures his left foot.

11/9 - Refuses to walk on said foot and insist on being carried around all day.

11/10 - Force our way into pediatrician's office and see Physicians Assistant who says that she highly doubts that there is anything wrong with the foot. Gives us a prescription for xray to be used if foot gets worse and tells us to get the hell out of the office. Mommy accidentally steps on her toe.

11/12 - Brilliant parents that we are, we decide that his foot is fine and he is just afraid to walk on it. We buy an ace bandage and tell him that it has magical properties and attempt to force three year old to stand on his foot. He screams hysterically, so we give up.

11/13 - In ultimate act of schleppness, Mommy takes three year old to have an xray. The day involved me pushing three year old and my unusually large infant in a double stroller with a broken wheel, while carrying a single stroller and a car seat.

11/13 (Late at night) - Medical assistant calls to tell us that all xrays are perfectly normal. Brilliant parents nod knowingly to one another and congratulate ourselves on being right that there is nothing wrong with the foot.

11/14 - Abnormally overconfident pediatrician recommends we take three year old to an orthopedist. Mommy begrudingly makes appointment.

11/14-11/16 - Brilliant parents try to bribe three year old with Laffy Taffy to get up and walk. Three year old hobbles around weakly to obtain candy.

11/16 - More shlepping! Orthopedist says three year old has a fracture that isn't showing up on xray to due the lack of ossification in a three year old's bones. He says he is going to send brace guy in to put a brace on three year old. Brace guy comes in and says he couldn't possibly lower himself to accept our insurance. Mommy kicks brace guy in the shins. Three year old ends up with a cast.

11/16 (Late at night) - Brilliant parents sit around talking about how we knew it was a fracture all along.

11/17 - Mommy takes three year old to a lovely Brace lady who tells Mommy that no Brace person in there right mind would accept our low class, blue collar insurance. Instead of $350 brace, three year old gets a spiffy shoe to go over his cast.

11/17 (Two minutes before Shabbos) - Three year old rips heal support out of spiffy shoe. Mommy yells alot.

11/20 - Three year old returns to school wearing spiffy shoe. Mommy realizes that teacher has been mispronouncing three year old's name all year.

Mommy = exhausted.

Peace on earth - Just under the Wire

Just in case you have just started your Blogrolling for the evening, today is a warm fuzzy day on the internet. Mimi has spearheaded a campaign to circulate this graphic and thoughts of peace to blogs all over the globe. I just checked in with her blog and from the looks of things, this has been a very successful effort. Congratulations on a job well done!

So, now its my turn to pontificate on peace. First a little bit of biographical information about me. I am a seeker of peace. I am an Orthodox Jew. I am an American. I am an educated woman. I have three children. I live in an urban area and I don't have a car. I have my groceries delivered and I send the kids on the bus to school. I seldom leave my house. I don't bother anyone. I like my peace and quiet. Don't I deserve a little peace and quiet?

Somewhere in the world, there is a guy sitting in his house who hates my guts. He may not know me personally, but he knows I'm out there. My very existence is an insult to him and his very way of life. I have no worth, my children are just as bad. I am an infidel. He can't rest, he can't get on with his life. As long as I exist, he can know no peace. Doesn't he deserve a little peace?

Me and this guy will never meet over a cup of joe at the local bagel place to hash out our differences. Neither one of us is interested in understanding the other. He hates me and I hate him because he hates me. What is my obligation as a seeker of peace?

He seeks peace and he can only find it by destroying me. I seek peace, but I put self preservation ahead of that. I can only find peace through the destruction of he who wishes to destroy me. World peace is impossible while both of us exist. Its either him or me.

In the middle east, two peoples lay claim to the same piece of land. Jews and Arabs die daily while seeking a little peace on what they feel is their rightful homeland. The Jews offer the Palestinians portions of the Jewish Holy land. Jews expelled Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip to provide the Palestinians with a place to begin the formation of their own state. The Jews did this with the hope that finally they could live in peace on their land. Don't they deserve a little peace?

The Palestinians do not want to share the land. They have used the Gaza strip to smuggle in stockpiles of weapons to use on the Jews. They want the entire land of Israel as their Palestinian homeland. This is not political rhetoric, this is clearly stated in the Hamas charter. The Jews must be wiped from the land in order for the Palestinians to find any peace. Don't they deserve a little peace?

A great many Blogs have mentioned John Lennon today. John Lennon who told us to all stop what we were doing and just "Give Peace a Chance." How is this possible? He told us to just imagine. Imagine a world without the religions that give multitudes strength and direction in their lives. Imagine a world with no borders where people of widely different cultures could mingle and try to make a go of it. Imagine a world without the government who provides us with education, food stamps and law enforcement. One needs to only look at how long it takes the looting to start during a blackout to "Imagine" how this solution would work out. I may say that John Lennon was a dreamer, and unfortunately he is far from the only one.

So what's the point of my rant. Peace cannot just be obtained through imagination. Sometimes and I'm afraid most of the time peace can only be obtained through a period without peace. We cannot feel peace while our very survival is threatened by another. Being a seeker of peace does not obligate us to sit in our houses and chant while our enemies are coming to kill us. Being a seeker of peace means standing up and destroying those who can know no peace until we are destroyed.

The Jews will never be at peace in their homeland while they seek to make peace with those that want to push them into the sea.

I fear this world will never know peace until the arrival of the Jewish Messiah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe said in prophecy that the time of our Redemption has arrived. The Lubavitcher Rebbe encourages us all to hasten the arrival of the redemption by doing acts of goodness and kindness.

If all that isn't enough - Britney and Kevin are calling it quits. Time to declare Marshall law.

Thrilling Conclusion of Sadaam Hussein Trial Tonight on Lifetime

This dramatization of the sentencing of Sadaam Hussein has been brought to you by BabyOwls.

Chief Judge Rizgar Amin portrayed by Ben Kingsley







Sadaam Hussein portrayed by Mel Gibson (of course)