Finally… she blogs!

Yes, it’s been a long time, no, I don’t have an excuse.  I started writing something at least two times, and was then distracted by something and then was too tired.  I really do promise that I’ll try to get back to the writing everyday thing.  Otherwise the little mundane things are missed, and I like writing about the mundane.  

So, start with a clean slate, I’ll have this post be a little longer and include everything that’s happened recently either before or after the last post and that 

I didn’t get around to writing about yet.

First to pop in my mind is a cool local event called the “Friends of the Library” booksale.  It’s a really cool bi-annual event in which everyone can by books from a local organization that throughout the year local organizations (including Cornell) and individuals donate books to.  When they open up for sale, there are over 250,000 books.  The way it works is that 2 times a week they open for 3 weekends, and from week to week books cost less and less.  We went on the first week, when books were still “expensive” at $1.5 to $4.5.  Initially we went “just to see”, and we had to stand in line 20 minutes to get in, needless to say, we did not walk out empty handed – we bought 15 books (for a total of just over $60).

Another big thing is that Uri got a teaching job with the conservative synagogue downtown. Starting September, he’ll be teaching history to the 6th and 7th graders twice a week.  It has t’s pro and cons – the big pro is that Uri gets to teach, as in – to do something that is actually relevant to what he wants to do with the rest of his life (when he grows up :)), the bummer is that it’s younger kids then is ideal, and that it’s on Sundays and also the (almost no) money he’ll be making.  But I (and he) think that he’ll have fun and that it will be interesting. In the meantime he got a set of books that he needs to study so he can teach the kids what they are supposed to learn.  I thought it was kind of amusing, and the first question that popped to my mind was what will the Rabbi say if Uri teaches something that is not in the narrative the books are written by.  It’s kind’ a like the Zionist version of creationism vs. evolution I guess.

The next huge thing is that I finished my first year of the MBA program

! It ended quite strangely actually – I had the presentation for my Brand Immersion Project, which I worked on (with my team) the entire semester, working for one of the larger CPG companies.  I think the results we got were decent enough but it wasn’t a woohoo moment since the presentation itself was one of the worst presentations I had ever given.  I don’t know what happened to me, and I won’t waste time or space going in to it, but it did put  a bit of a slump to the whole “finishing the year” thing.  One the flip side, the presentation for my BRI project with the Italian restaurant went quite well.  Also -  I got my first A in one of the core course (not an A-, an actual A) and I got asked to TA the core marketing course next year  - so good for me (lol).

To celebrate finishing the year, and having 3 days without much to do I baked like a mad-woman (I do need to admit that I did have stuff to do, but I just let then go, as I was in dire need of having a few days with nothing to do).  I can say without a doubt now

 that Dorie Greenspan is my new baking goddess.  I really recommend everyone buy “Baking: From my home to yours”.  Here is what I made from it: Chocolate Chunkers (adding cranberries on top of the raisins), Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chips (substituting the oatmeal with rolled rye flakes and rolled wheat berry flakes and substituting raisins for most of the chocolate chips), Coffee-Cheesecake Brownie and the Ricotta and Polenta Cake (using yogurt instead of half the ricotta and pears tossed in thyme and rosemary instead of the figs). 

I love that book.  And I love baking! I missed it so much, it was really fun.  I decided I really will try to bake one thing once a week next year.  Try is the operative word here.  Remember, I also said a while back that I’ll try to blog everyday and that I’ll try to go to the gym more often.

Last but not least – I’m staring my internship tomorrow.  How nerve-wrecking for me!  So yesterday (Saturday) Uri and I left Ithaca… oh I suddenly remembered one more thing that happened, before I get to the internship thing: Uri rented out a plot of land near our house ($12 for the year) and planted peppers, tomatoes and basil! He turned the land on Friday, bruising his hands in the process, and then planted everything on Saturday before we left.  It’s co-owned by him and our friend Dafna who planted everything with him. 

So back to internship - We drove to Boston (a 6 hour drive) stopping at an outlet on the way to get me some business casual clothes to have for work.  We got to the city at 10:30 pm and went to dinner with Ya’ar and Shimrit who also served as our very gracious hosts. Today in the afternoon we drove down to cranberry land, where Ocean Spray is putting me up in a really cute B&B until I find a more permanent place to live for the summer.

  Tomorrow I’ll head off to work, and Uri is tasked with trying to find me a place to live.  I’ll (try) t

o write again tomorrow to tell you how everything went.