We're actually leaving in the morning. If we'd left tonight we'd be getting there about now. Instead, I've read all the blogs I follow, made some comments, tried to make a change on my blog that isn't working and am now posting.
I did set up a furnace guy for Friday and left a message for the plumber, who didn't call me back. I got food at the deli but they were really out of cheese (for the 2nd time recently) and I don't have the mozzarella I wanted to make lasagne with. Again. last time I ended up using cheddar. This time there wasn't even any cheddar. It'll be in some time next week (i.e. Thursday or Friday, the only days they'll be open) but that's too late for me.
The big thing I missed doing on Friday (partly because I ended up working until 3:30 pm and partly because I forgot) was to pick up the lulav and etrog. Since I didn't want to wait until noon tomorrow to be able to leave I arranged to get it tonight after Shabbat. I can't believe I almost messed up such an essential thing. Brain freeze. Senior moments. They're getting the better of me and I don't like it.
Anyway, we still have to get the sukkah up tomorrow and we may have to mow the lawn first, so I hope we really do get an early start.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Whoa, I'm Leaving When?
Somehow in all the activity over the past week or so something has fallen through the cracks. That would be the fact that we're leaving for our rural home after Shabbat (i.e. Saturday night) and we're going to be gone for just over a week.
I have tons of things I need to do in preparation and Friday's a short day! I have to work until 3 pm, pick up our lulav and etrog, go to the deli for all the challah, cheese and meat we'll need to eat during our time away, pick up DC at 4, come home and make both Friday night dinner and Shabbos lunch. Before sundown.
Plus, I was supposed to set up a furnace guy to service our oil furnace and the plumber to finish the job he started in July, plus find out if I need a separate electrician to install a programmable thermostat or if the furnace guy can do it. We're there so seldom during the work week that we need to take advantage of that and we're probably not going to go back until winter break, so we really need to be sure the place is winterized okay. We were fine last year but, having had that water leak underneath, I want to be sure the pipes are still fully insulated etc.
I'm just freaking out a little. Yom Kippur went very well but it's still a loooonnng fast and I have a headache. Now my brain is whirling with all these things I need to do tomorrow and I don't know if I can do it all in the time I've got.
Once we get there we'll be really busy. We've got Sunday and Monday (which is a statutory holiday) to get our sukkah up and buy anything we need for it. The holiday of Sukkot starts Monday night and the first 2 days are holiday days (fancy food, no TV, no blogging, no shopping) so I basically have Sunday for anything I need to buy in town. We really loved spending Sukkot there last year but we were way better prepared! And we had a lot more spare cash.
I expect to blog on Sunday, at least. Monday is iffy. Then I'm off for 2 days and will probably post again Thursday because I'm sure I'll be going into town then. We're coming home Sunday evening, leaving after dinner. Because we only eat in the sukkah during Sukkot that just leaves Monday to deal with and there's a sukkah at the community centre that I can use for breakfast and lunch (though I'll need the van that day to take everybody there for lunch). Then the last 2 days start and they're also holiday days. There's a big meal and dancing at the rabbi's house (he has a sukkah that holds literally hundreds of people) Monday night and we're invited there for Tuesday lunch, which is the last meal we eat in the sukkah.
Now, all we need is good weather. There's nothing I love more than eating outside when the weather's good. There's nothing more miserable than sitting in the sukkah all bundled up as the rain drips off the skach (plant material we use for a "roof") into your soup. But it will be what it will be. And the Okanagan does average 300 days of sunshine per year! We should make sure we have a couple of logs for the firepit too. We can only use it certain days, but it's really nice to have it in there when we can use it.
I have tons of things I need to do in preparation and Friday's a short day! I have to work until 3 pm, pick up our lulav and etrog, go to the deli for all the challah, cheese and meat we'll need to eat during our time away, pick up DC at 4, come home and make both Friday night dinner and Shabbos lunch. Before sundown.
Plus, I was supposed to set up a furnace guy to service our oil furnace and the plumber to finish the job he started in July, plus find out if I need a separate electrician to install a programmable thermostat or if the furnace guy can do it. We're there so seldom during the work week that we need to take advantage of that and we're probably not going to go back until winter break, so we really need to be sure the place is winterized okay. We were fine last year but, having had that water leak underneath, I want to be sure the pipes are still fully insulated etc.
I'm just freaking out a little. Yom Kippur went very well but it's still a loooonnng fast and I have a headache. Now my brain is whirling with all these things I need to do tomorrow and I don't know if I can do it all in the time I've got.
Once we get there we'll be really busy. We've got Sunday and Monday (which is a statutory holiday) to get our sukkah up and buy anything we need for it. The holiday of Sukkot starts Monday night and the first 2 days are holiday days (fancy food, no TV, no blogging, no shopping) so I basically have Sunday for anything I need to buy in town. We really loved spending Sukkot there last year but we were way better prepared! And we had a lot more spare cash.
I expect to blog on Sunday, at least. Monday is iffy. Then I'm off for 2 days and will probably post again Thursday because I'm sure I'll be going into town then. We're coming home Sunday evening, leaving after dinner. Because we only eat in the sukkah during Sukkot that just leaves Monday to deal with and there's a sukkah at the community centre that I can use for breakfast and lunch (though I'll need the van that day to take everybody there for lunch). Then the last 2 days start and they're also holiday days. There's a big meal and dancing at the rabbi's house (he has a sukkah that holds literally hundreds of people) Monday night and we're invited there for Tuesday lunch, which is the last meal we eat in the sukkah.
Now, all we need is good weather. There's nothing I love more than eating outside when the weather's good. There's nothing more miserable than sitting in the sukkah all bundled up as the rain drips off the skach (plant material we use for a "roof") into your soup. But it will be what it will be. And the Okanagan does average 300 days of sunshine per year! We should make sure we have a couple of logs for the firepit too. We can only use it certain days, but it's really nice to have it in there when we can use it.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The $2K Car Repair
The good news is we finally have the car back. The bad news is that it cost just over $2000.
We paid for half of it and charged the other half. It just kills me. But I don't know what we could have done differently in this case. Well, maybe we could have done the tie rod end a month or 6 weeks ago because that's when I first heard it. That was about $250 out of the bill. But the cooling system problem? There hadn't been any sign of the car overheating prior to a week ago when it just about redlined on a 15 minute drive.
The toughest thing is that we just can't function without a car. DC has to be taken to and picked up from school 5 days per week. I go back & forth to work, a total of 8 round trips to the office per week because of my split schedule. Hubby's been biking since his office moved but I'm still waiting to see how that works when the weather turns really nasty. That's not even counting groceries because I usually get them on the way home from work. And then there are our trips to our rural home. I've taken the Greyhound (the driver actually let me out across the highway from our back gate) but it's not even cheaper than the cost of gas when only one person goes and it would be crazy for us all to bus there.
I'm relieved that the car is fixed, but there's still an unresolved problem that will be at least another $600 and I'm worried that there will be more repairs in the future. The car is 7 years old, after all, and we put a lot of mileage on it.
Tomorrow night is Kol Nidre, the beginning of Yom Kippur and the fast ends Thursday night after dark. This is an intense day coming up and all I can pray is that what happened with the car will somehow turn out to be for the good.
I may or may not post tomorrow before sundown, but then won't be back until Thursday night. G'mar chatimah tova! May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year (in the Book of Life).
We paid for half of it and charged the other half. It just kills me. But I don't know what we could have done differently in this case. Well, maybe we could have done the tie rod end a month or 6 weeks ago because that's when I first heard it. That was about $250 out of the bill. But the cooling system problem? There hadn't been any sign of the car overheating prior to a week ago when it just about redlined on a 15 minute drive.
The toughest thing is that we just can't function without a car. DC has to be taken to and picked up from school 5 days per week. I go back & forth to work, a total of 8 round trips to the office per week because of my split schedule. Hubby's been biking since his office moved but I'm still waiting to see how that works when the weather turns really nasty. That's not even counting groceries because I usually get them on the way home from work. And then there are our trips to our rural home. I've taken the Greyhound (the driver actually let me out across the highway from our back gate) but it's not even cheaper than the cost of gas when only one person goes and it would be crazy for us all to bus there.
I'm relieved that the car is fixed, but there's still an unresolved problem that will be at least another $600 and I'm worried that there will be more repairs in the future. The car is 7 years old, after all, and we put a lot of mileage on it.
Tomorrow night is Kol Nidre, the beginning of Yom Kippur and the fast ends Thursday night after dark. This is an intense day coming up and all I can pray is that what happened with the car will somehow turn out to be for the good.
I may or may not post tomorrow before sundown, but then won't be back until Thursday night. G'mar chatimah tova! May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year (in the Book of Life).
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Let's Have an Upbeat Post
I could write lots of doom and gloom stuff right now. The world financial markets seem to be melting down and things aren't any too hot at my house right now either. The car won't be ready until tomorrow because they found something else wrong that has to do with the water pump (more money!) and they had to order the part. I've been doing some financial work in Excel and our money situation is worse than I'd thought. (Denial, it ain't just a river in Egypt....)
But I thought I'd like to write about something a little happier.
Let's talk about smoked turkey instead. I bought half a smoked turkey for Rosh Hashana dinner. It was literally cut down the middle so it included a wing, a leg and half a breast. Since it was already cooked all I had to do was heat it up in the oven and it fed 7 adults and 3 kids (along with half a salmon and a bunch of other food). My youngest son took a plate home as well.
The 3 of us (me, Hubby and DC) had grilled turkey sandwiches after the Fast of Gedaliah (the day after the 2nd day of Rosh Hashana) and they were great. I cut a round challah into slices, we put in heated smoked turkey (my hubby just sauteed it in a little olive oil) and used margarine on the outside of the bread. We grilled them in the frypan (the way you'd do a grilled cheese sandwich) and when they were toasty I opened them up and added mayo and jellied cranberry sauce. Yum! Hubby & I had 2 sandwiches each and Dear Child had one.
For Shabbos lunch I took the carcass, broke it to fit in the crockpot, added a whole onion, about 3 potatoes cut in chunks, 6 to 10 baby carrots, and a little rosemary. I covered the carcass with water and left it in the crockpot overnight on low. It was the best soup. Ever. DC had a 2nd bowl. She has never done that. With anything, especially anything containing meat. I had a 2nd bowl too.
The turkey wasn't cheap. It cost $46 but it gave us 17 servings of food, which works out to $2.71 per serving. I think that's pretty darn good!
But I thought I'd like to write about something a little happier.
Let's talk about smoked turkey instead. I bought half a smoked turkey for Rosh Hashana dinner. It was literally cut down the middle so it included a wing, a leg and half a breast. Since it was already cooked all I had to do was heat it up in the oven and it fed 7 adults and 3 kids (along with half a salmon and a bunch of other food). My youngest son took a plate home as well.
The 3 of us (me, Hubby and DC) had grilled turkey sandwiches after the Fast of Gedaliah (the day after the 2nd day of Rosh Hashana) and they were great. I cut a round challah into slices, we put in heated smoked turkey (my hubby just sauteed it in a little olive oil) and used margarine on the outside of the bread. We grilled them in the frypan (the way you'd do a grilled cheese sandwich) and when they were toasty I opened them up and added mayo and jellied cranberry sauce. Yum! Hubby & I had 2 sandwiches each and Dear Child had one.
For Shabbos lunch I took the carcass, broke it to fit in the crockpot, added a whole onion, about 3 potatoes cut in chunks, 6 to 10 baby carrots, and a little rosemary. I covered the carcass with water and left it in the crockpot overnight on low. It was the best soup. Ever. DC had a 2nd bowl. She has never done that. With anything, especially anything containing meat. I had a 2nd bowl too.
The turkey wasn't cheap. It cost $46 but it gave us 17 servings of food, which works out to $2.71 per serving. I think that's pretty darn good!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Financial Good News Too
Okay, so things aren't all bad (although they really seem that way right now). On Thursday I sat in my bank discussing my RRSP's with one of their financial services reps. It was actually a bit surreal because I knew about the cost we were incurring for the car and yet I was sitting there discussing moving thousands of dollars around.
It's not like I could access the money anyway. I'd have to pay taxes on anything I took out and I'm not allowed to because I took out money a little over a decade ago to use as a downpayment on my condo and I'm still repaying it. (The Canadian government allows you to take it out without penalty for that purpose so long as you replace it within 15 years. I'm almost done with that but still have a couple of years to go.)
I've mentioned before that I have the bulk of my RRSPs in GICs. I may not be making a fortune in interest, but I haven't lost any money yet (and my deposits are guaranteed by CDIC). Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc. aren't!
So, I had a GIC mature a couple of weeks ago and it's been sitting in my money market account making an atrocious .05% (yes, that's 5 one hundredths of one percent per annum!) ever since. I just didn't have time to go in earlier and I knew that I had another one maturing any time. So, at this moment, I have 2 of them sitting there and a 3rd one maturing early next week! The 4th one also matures in October, but not for another year.
Now, there are a couple of ways to handle GICs and maturity dates. Trent was just talking about laddering his CDs as a higher interest (but still very accessible) emergency fund. I'm actually doing the opposite. I'm combining the 3 of them and putting them into a 2 year GIC paying 4% because I don't want to have to worry about a bunch of different maturity dates. Next year I'll probably take that last one and put it into a 1 year GIC even though the rate won't be terrific (they're currently 1.9% to 2.5%) so that I can finally put them all together in late 2010.
Will I change them to a laddered format later? Possibly, as we get close to actually retiring. But, for now, it's more important that they be as simple as possible. And that they get the best guaranteed rate possible.
It's not like I could access the money anyway. I'd have to pay taxes on anything I took out and I'm not allowed to because I took out money a little over a decade ago to use as a downpayment on my condo and I'm still repaying it. (The Canadian government allows you to take it out without penalty for that purpose so long as you replace it within 15 years. I'm almost done with that but still have a couple of years to go.)
I've mentioned before that I have the bulk of my RRSPs in GICs. I may not be making a fortune in interest, but I haven't lost any money yet (and my deposits are guaranteed by CDIC). Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc. aren't!
So, I had a GIC mature a couple of weeks ago and it's been sitting in my money market account making an atrocious .05% (yes, that's 5 one hundredths of one percent per annum!) ever since. I just didn't have time to go in earlier and I knew that I had another one maturing any time. So, at this moment, I have 2 of them sitting there and a 3rd one maturing early next week! The 4th one also matures in October, but not for another year.
Now, there are a couple of ways to handle GICs and maturity dates. Trent was just talking about laddering his CDs as a higher interest (but still very accessible) emergency fund. I'm actually doing the opposite. I'm combining the 3 of them and putting them into a 2 year GIC paying 4% because I don't want to have to worry about a bunch of different maturity dates. Next year I'll probably take that last one and put it into a 1 year GIC even though the rate won't be terrific (they're currently 1.9% to 2.5%) so that I can finally put them all together in late 2010.
Will I change them to a laddered format later? Possibly, as we get close to actually retiring. But, for now, it's more important that they be as simple as possible. And that they get the best guaranteed rate possible.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Car Problems Cost Big Money
I mentioned the other day that I was having a problem with the car. What happened is that I drove to the deli, to Safeway, to the liquor store (all within half a dozen blocks of each other and about 10 minutes from home) and started to drive home when I heard a bubbling noise. I looked at the dashboard and the temperature gauge was just about to redline! Hello!? I drive to our rural home through 2 mountain passes and the car never even tries to overheat. How can it be overheating doing the drive I do pretty well every day (all this was just a few blocks from work)?
I turned off the air conditioning and turned on the heater and kept driving home, while keeping an eagle eye on the temperature. (This pulls heat from the engine away from the core and into the interior of the car, reducing the load on the cooling system.) I made it without boiling over but I was pretty freaked out. We didn't use the car over Rosh Hashana of course, but I was determined that it had to go in today.
The news is not good. There are 2 leaks (water pump and thermostat), it needs new timing, alternator and a/c belts and there's a loose tie rod end. That's the stuff we're actually having done now because it's either a safety issue or the car won't keep working without it. There's another job we're going to hold off on for now because all that I already mentioned, plus an oil change and winter check up is going to cost in excess of $1,600! It'll be ready on Monday, so that's how long we have to pull the money together.
Bottom line. We don't have it and we don't have enough room on our credit cards to charge it all. This is a real wake up call. I knew the cards had been creeping up (mostly for things like food, gas, DC's school clothes and rain gear for my hubby so he could cycle to work in the rain) but it hadn't really clicked as to how serious it was getting. It's one thing to say that you need gas but payday isn't for a few days, so you charge the gas and tell yourself you'll make a payment on the card that covers that fillup when you get paid, but what happens when payday rolls around and there are 4 or 5 other things more "urgent" than paying back that $30 to $100? Right. You know what they say about good intentions.
We have a couple of options that don't involve hitting up family for money or selling our possessions. One, my hubby can get an advance on commissions that will be coming to him at the end of October or, two, he could request an increase in his card limit (an option I'm not crazy about but he does have a lower limit than I do). I have some money in ING, but it's pretty well all already accounted for. I'll use the money in our emergency fund either towards the car or towards paying the plumber for fixing the leak at our rural home (we finally got the bill last time we were there and it was just under $300).
But, beyond paying for the repairs and the rental car the dealership arranged, what do I need to do? I have to get back into entering everything in Excel. I need to see exactly where a bunch of the money is going because we should be roughly breaking even on a month to month basis and it doesn't look like we are. Once I do that, we have to really sit down and talk about where the leaks are and how to handle them. Then we have to start working hard to get the debt back down. At the very least, we have to be vigilant about not increasing it.
But we can't stop spending money either. I'm not going to get caught being penny wise and pound foolish. We need to get a programmable thermostat and to have the furnace at our rural place serviced before winter because we aren't going to be there much once the snow starts in the mountains and I don't want to have the pipes freeze or some such nonsense just because we didn't spend a couple of hundred dollars on preventative maintenance. Also, last year we spent about $600 to $700 in fuel oil to heat the place over the winter and we should be able to save about 2/3 or more of that if we spend $100 on the programmable thermostat. So, yes, we're going to have to spend some money in the short term but it will save us money over the next 6 months or so.
I turned off the air conditioning and turned on the heater and kept driving home, while keeping an eagle eye on the temperature. (This pulls heat from the engine away from the core and into the interior of the car, reducing the load on the cooling system.) I made it without boiling over but I was pretty freaked out. We didn't use the car over Rosh Hashana of course, but I was determined that it had to go in today.
The news is not good. There are 2 leaks (water pump and thermostat), it needs new timing, alternator and a/c belts and there's a loose tie rod end. That's the stuff we're actually having done now because it's either a safety issue or the car won't keep working without it. There's another job we're going to hold off on for now because all that I already mentioned, plus an oil change and winter check up is going to cost in excess of $1,600! It'll be ready on Monday, so that's how long we have to pull the money together.
Bottom line. We don't have it and we don't have enough room on our credit cards to charge it all. This is a real wake up call. I knew the cards had been creeping up (mostly for things like food, gas, DC's school clothes and rain gear for my hubby so he could cycle to work in the rain) but it hadn't really clicked as to how serious it was getting. It's one thing to say that you need gas but payday isn't for a few days, so you charge the gas and tell yourself you'll make a payment on the card that covers that fillup when you get paid, but what happens when payday rolls around and there are 4 or 5 other things more "urgent" than paying back that $30 to $100? Right. You know what they say about good intentions.
We have a couple of options that don't involve hitting up family for money or selling our possessions. One, my hubby can get an advance on commissions that will be coming to him at the end of October or, two, he could request an increase in his card limit (an option I'm not crazy about but he does have a lower limit than I do). I have some money in ING, but it's pretty well all already accounted for. I'll use the money in our emergency fund either towards the car or towards paying the plumber for fixing the leak at our rural home (we finally got the bill last time we were there and it was just under $300).
But, beyond paying for the repairs and the rental car the dealership arranged, what do I need to do? I have to get back into entering everything in Excel. I need to see exactly where a bunch of the money is going because we should be roughly breaking even on a month to month basis and it doesn't look like we are. Once I do that, we have to really sit down and talk about where the leaks are and how to handle them. Then we have to start working hard to get the debt back down. At the very least, we have to be vigilant about not increasing it.
But we can't stop spending money either. I'm not going to get caught being penny wise and pound foolish. We need to get a programmable thermostat and to have the furnace at our rural place serviced before winter because we aren't going to be there much once the snow starts in the mountains and I don't want to have the pipes freeze or some such nonsense just because we didn't spend a couple of hundred dollars on preventative maintenance. Also, last year we spent about $600 to $700 in fuel oil to heat the place over the winter and we should be able to save about 2/3 or more of that if we spend $100 on the programmable thermostat. So, yes, we're going to have to spend some money in the short term but it will save us money over the next 6 months or so.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
It Was a Lovely Holiday
Everything went really well. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm enough that we didn't need jackets but not boiling hot.
Dinner the first night was great. The food was really good. I'm glad I did the salmon at the last minute. I put it in at 6 pm and took it out just before candlelighting and it was perfect! There was enough of everything but I don't have huge amounts of leftovers. A little smoked turkey and a little jellied cranberry sauce (mmm, turkey sandwiches for dinner tomorrow I think).
We took all 3 girls to synagogue both days, pushing a double stroller and a single one. (On Yom Tov the rules are similar to those of the Sabbath but you're allowed to cook on an existing flame and to carry, which includes pushing a stroller.) It took an hour and 20 minutes to get to synagogue (and about another 20 minutes to get to the rabbi's house for lunch and 2 hours to get home). That's a lot of walking!
You want to know the most amazing thing? I was just commenting to Abby (from i pick up pennies) the other day that my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter loves to go but can't go on Shabbat because she can't walk all that way. I mean, really, my 5 year old has only recently managed to walk both ways. Today my granddaughter insisted that she wanted to walk and she did! All the way to synagogue, all the way to the rabbi's house and (basically) all the way home! (We started home with her in the single stroller but she loudly insisted on getting out within about a block and walked the rest of the way.) I am, as the British say, gobsmacked!
I guess she can start coming with us on Shabbat now (though it'll still be a while for her little sister). Oh, and my daughter? She walked all the way home today but was happy to ride otherwise.
The baby graciously slept through most of the shofar service yesterday, allowing me to read all the prayers and take part fully. Today, not so much. I spent a lot of the service in another room with her, just dashing to hear each time they blew shofar. But it was still good.
Lunch both days at the rabbi's was as good as always (the food is always tremendous) and the girls enjoyed playing in the back yard on the trampoline and with a bunch of Little Tikes toys.
Tomorrow is a "short" fast, from 5:41 am to 7:20 pm but it's the easiest fast of the year. After 2 days of eating huge meals we could probably use the break. I'm going to eat (including having my protein drink) just before I go to sleep and then I'll be able to make it through okay until dinner. Sometimes I get up early to eat before it starts, but I'm pretty tired so I'll pass on that this time, especially as it's a regular day in all other respects. So we go to work and Dear Child goes to school (not that children fast anyway). The real fast doesn't come until next Thursday when it will be Yom Kippur.
Dinner the first night was great. The food was really good. I'm glad I did the salmon at the last minute. I put it in at 6 pm and took it out just before candlelighting and it was perfect! There was enough of everything but I don't have huge amounts of leftovers. A little smoked turkey and a little jellied cranberry sauce (mmm, turkey sandwiches for dinner tomorrow I think).
We took all 3 girls to synagogue both days, pushing a double stroller and a single one. (On Yom Tov the rules are similar to those of the Sabbath but you're allowed to cook on an existing flame and to carry, which includes pushing a stroller.) It took an hour and 20 minutes to get to synagogue (and about another 20 minutes to get to the rabbi's house for lunch and 2 hours to get home). That's a lot of walking!
You want to know the most amazing thing? I was just commenting to Abby (from i pick up pennies) the other day that my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter loves to go but can't go on Shabbat because she can't walk all that way. I mean, really, my 5 year old has only recently managed to walk both ways. Today my granddaughter insisted that she wanted to walk and she did! All the way to synagogue, all the way to the rabbi's house and (basically) all the way home! (We started home with her in the single stroller but she loudly insisted on getting out within about a block and walked the rest of the way.) I am, as the British say, gobsmacked!
I guess she can start coming with us on Shabbat now (though it'll still be a while for her little sister). Oh, and my daughter? She walked all the way home today but was happy to ride otherwise.
The baby graciously slept through most of the shofar service yesterday, allowing me to read all the prayers and take part fully. Today, not so much. I spent a lot of the service in another room with her, just dashing to hear each time they blew shofar. But it was still good.
Lunch both days at the rabbi's was as good as always (the food is always tremendous) and the girls enjoyed playing in the back yard on the trampoline and with a bunch of Little Tikes toys.
Tomorrow is a "short" fast, from 5:41 am to 7:20 pm but it's the easiest fast of the year. After 2 days of eating huge meals we could probably use the break. I'm going to eat (including having my protein drink) just before I go to sleep and then I'll be able to make it through okay until dinner. Sometimes I get up early to eat before it starts, but I'm pretty tired so I'll pass on that this time, especially as it's a regular day in all other respects. So we go to work and Dear Child goes to school (not that children fast anyway). The real fast doesn't come until next Thursday when it will be Yom Kippur.
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