I feel so terrible about the fact that I rarely update here anymore.   Thank goodness for ping posts or nothing would ever show up here! 

Life is good.  I have a Lola dog practically sitting in my lap and a Blanca kitty who just curled up next to me.

School is going great again this semester.  I am doing what they said not to do and taking two core courses at once.  When I see my grades and if I get straight As again, I'm going to add a third class to the fall semester and a third to spring and be done before next summer.

Work is going well and I'm hoping to get an interview for the II position.  I am hoping they promote me even though I'm not done with the degree yet.

We're heading down to Miami on Friday for Father's Day.  My Dad seems to be hanging in and responding okay to the treatments.  My Mom is doing okay considering everything.  I can't wait to hug my brother and stare in disbelief at his new wedding ring. 

This past weekend, Michael's sister and family drove up to visit.  The family includes our nephews, Benjamin, who is five, and Sammy, who is eight months.

We met them for dinner at Cody's where they have the best ever house salad in existence.  I'll bet anyone to find a better one elsewhere.

When we got home, we set Benjamin off on his treasure hunt.  Earlier in the day, I went to the bank and got some presidential gold coins and we buried them in a tin can in the yard.  We gave him a map and a flash light and helped him follow the clues.  After taking ten big jumps from Michael's car trailer, we gave him a shovel and told him to dig.  He loved it! 

On Saturday, we went to the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire in Gainesville.  It was a gorgeous day and I nicely put on festival.  We watched the joust tournament and I really liked the tent full of birds of prey.  They had some gorgeous owls.  I was also amused to see some of the same performers I used to see in South Florida almost fifteen years ago.  It's a different company, so I was surprised.

**This next part might offend some of you.  Don't worry, I defended your honor and told Michael a large dude in armor might have to beat his ass.***

Michael told Benjamin that we were going to the "Dork Fair" and Benjamin kept yelling that in excitement.  It was funny, but not nice at all.

That night, Benjamin helped me make pizza for everybody and he absolutely loved it.  I let him get good and messy and covered in flour. 

Sammy is just learning to crawl, so he had a blast scooting himself around the living room.  Lola had a blast covering him in puppy kisses.

On Sunday morning, Benjamin came to play in our bed.  We told him we were going to feed him to Lola.  Michael said he was going to turn him into a "Shiskabenjamin."  He fired back, "I'm going to make a Michael kabob!"  Come on, that is totally brilliant coming from a kindergartener.  We also told him that Lola loves Benjamin flavor and he said that his flavor was "blue."  Love it. 

We love when family visits.

Happy Holidays, everybody!  I've had a very nice holiday week, though I am at work today...boo!

Mom and Dad drove up on Tuesday night.  We had a nice dinner.  Michael and Dad planned out the construction of my kitchen pantry. 

I had to work on Christmas Eve, which was totally stupid, because after 2pm, the library was completely dead quiet and we had to stay open until 6.  Mom came to work with me in the morning so she could see the library.  She liked our little branch, of course.  I set her up on a computer so she could check email.  That morning, we had been talking about old friends of theirs who live NW of Gainesville and whom they hadn't seen in close to ten years.  So funny enough, a Facebook friend request popped into Mom's inbox and it was from that friend!  Ah, the universe!  So since we were having Chanukah dinner, we invited them down and we had a great evening of old stories and latkes and yummy wine.  I tell you, my Dad is one of the world's best storytellers around.  I need to start recording him.

Oh and of course, Mom's latkes.  YUMMMMM!

Christmas Day, Mom and I went to the movies to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was great, just maybe a half hour too long, but a very sweet film.  Dad and Michael spent the day constructing my kitchen pantry and it is amazing and I love it.  It really makes the kitchen much more sensible.  That night, we had traditional Christmas lasagna and drove around looking at Christmas lights in the historic district.

Yesterday, Mom and I went shopping and I got $12 pants at Old Navy.  We also went to Lowes and I found tile for the kitchen backsplash on sale for 34 cents a tile.  Deal!  I am going to have the prettiest kitchen ever!

My parents are leaving today, in fact, they might already be on the road.  It was a happy visit. 

I am looking forward to only two days of work next week. 

Look who we adopted today!  Meet Lola...

Elena and Andrew won the Disney honeymoon! So thanks to all of you who voted for their video!

Hooray for Disney Democracy!

Now if only I could convince so many Jews and Cubans to vote for Obama...

People, my brother and future sister-in-law are finalists for a free dream Disney honeymoon.  Please go vote for them! 

They are dorky couple B.

Here is their message:

Hello Everyone, 

This is ELENA SMUKLER and ANDREW DOYLE here to ask you a favor!

For those of you who don't know, Elena & Andrew have been dating for 6 years, are engaged to be married, and love all things Disney.  We visit Disney as often as possible, and we even got engaged in Disney last summer on a fairytale Beauty and the Beast scavenger hunt that Andrew created himself. Being so, we decided to submit an entry to win a DISNEY DREAM FAIRYTALE HONEYMOON on Get Married.com...and GUESS WHAT?
We're 1 of 3 Finalists!

Now we just need U to vote for us to win our Dream Disney Fairytale Honeymoon!
Which includes a 1 night stay in CINDERELLA'S CASTLE SUITE (ahhh!)

All you have to do is go to: http://www.getmarried.com/disney_giveaway_get_married.php
Sign up to be a member of GetMarried.com (just register as "Other," and don't worry, they don't send you any spam) and VOTE FOR VIDEO B/Elena & Andrew.

Thank U All SOOOO Much
ELENA and ANDREW

I had an almost five-day weekend, which was pretty much awesome.

Last Thursday, I went to a NEFLIN workshop on technology training.  I wasn't completely thrilled with the training.  I wanted more ideas on how to run my classes and the different skills I should teach people, but instead it was a lot of "how to be a trainer" basics.  I am new at all this, so that was good for me, I just wish I knew going in so I'd be more prepared with questions.  Still, it was fun, I learned some cool things, and I got caught up on all the library gossip.  Bonus. 

I did find out that I might be able to score us a projector.  It came to my attention that the two new branches got their own projectors, so the one we shared with their old buildings should in all fairness become ours.  I hope! I hope!

I wish I had the power to act out Powerpoint presentations.  Sadly, I'm not THAT talented.

On Friday, I spent the day shopping with gift cards left over from the wedding.  Free money!

We finished kayaking the Silver River on Saturday.  This time, we launched from Silver River State Park and made it to the spring head at Silver Springs.  It sucked having to compete for space with the glass bottom tour boats in the park.  And I thought the light jazz being broadcasted from speakers in the trees to be TOTALLY OFFENSIVE!  

But...

We found the monkeys!  About two miles up the river we found them on a small island.  I could see about eight of them, including one tiny baby monkey.  I nearly fell out of my kayak, I tell you what.  

On Sunday, we drove down south for Samuel Noah's bris on Monday.  That baby is so tiny and so cute.  I held him and I think he's the tiniest baby I've ever held.  During the ceremony, the mohel explained about Elijah's chair and if a married woman under 99 sits in it after the bris, she will have a baby within the following year, and that's a guarantee.  Michael asked if the mohel guaranteed boys, and the mohel said, he doesn't know, because he's only called when it's a boy.  He jokes! 

There was no sitting in the chair for this lady.  No way.  Not ready yet!

All is well, back in Ocala, back to work...

Next up, how to convince Michael's family to vote for Obama?  I need help!  Jews aren't supposed to vote for McCain, DAMMIT!

We went down South this weekend.  

On Friday, we had lunch with Michael's dad and sister Jodi and then babysat our nephew Max.  He is so friggin cute.  He's walking.  He says 'hoot" for owl, "woof woof" for dog, and "po" for hippopotamus.  He also gives high fives.  And if you say "Dame un beso" you'll get a kiss on the lips.  Michael's other sister Nikki came over in the afternoon with Benjamin, so the house was a zoo with all the kids and kitties and puppies. We all went out to dinner for teppanyaki, which was amazing, but I felt like I would need to be rolled out the door.  So much food!

On Saturday, Mom and I went to Mel's baby shower.  She is really the best-ever-looking pregnant woman.  Her Mom had out all of her baby books and I'm in nearly every picture.  My Mom jokingly asked if it was my book or Mel's.  Some friend of her Mom was at the party, a woman I'd never met before, so clearly she was a new friend, and she asked me who I was.  I felt like yelling, "Who am I?  Who the hell are you lady?"  But instead, I was just a little snarky and replied, "I'm Erin, I've only been around for 25 years.  Who are you?"  

Michael went to a family friends' house to pick up some "free" furniture.  In this case "free" equals tolls, gas at 10 MPG, and the pain in the ass of driving a rent-a-truck that stunk like b.o. for 300 miles.  It's really pretty furniture, though, and it looks sweet in the guest room.

Saturday night, we went out for Scruby's BBQ with grandpa.  Yummy!  Mom and I went to some tiny theatre in Coral Springs to see a show called Filler Up.  It was a one-woman show starring a jewish New Zealander who bakes a challah during the course of the evening and tells stories about her life, her Holocaust survivor parents, and her struggles with eating and her body.  A really interesting and funny show.  We also saw my 5th grade teacher at the theatre.  Random.

On Sunday morning, Michael picked up his Mom from a turnpike service plaza, where she was dropped off by bus.  She was dead tired after chaperoning 400+ kids at Grad Nite.  We had bagels and then headed North.

Another jam-packed family weekend!  And we get to go back down in two weeks for my brother's college graduation.  Aww.

Saturday was Yom Kippur, so Michael and I drove South AGAIN to be with our families.  Mom and I went to temple and then to torture ourselves, came home during the break in services to make rugelach.  People, never bake while you're fasting.  It's no fun when you can't taste stuff! 

After sunset, my aunt and uncle and Grandpa came over to break the fast.  We all started scarfing down on bagels and lox and Mom offered Grandpa some blintz souffle.  He held out his plate and then my Irish Catholic grandfather looked at me very seriously.

Grandpa: "I'm a member of the NRA."
Me, swallowing: : "Oh yeah?"
Grandpa: "Yes.  Never refuse anything!"

So cute.  I love him. 

After dinner, Mom and I convinced Andrew and Michael to walk back to temple with us for Havdalah and the Shofar blowing to signal the end of Yom Kippur.  It was so cute, they shut off all the lights in the sanctuary and gathered all the kids out in the lobby and then they all marched in with glow sticks. And everyone sang Hineh Mah Tov. (The song in my icon up there.)

I hadn't been back to Beth Torah in probably five years, so it was nice to be home again.   

It's great to be back in Florida so I can see more of my family, but we've had to make the drive home to Miami three weekends in a row.  We're going back down on Friday for the Yom.  And with my trip to New York a couple weekends ago and the upcoming trip to Saratoga for P's wedding, we won't have a relaxing weekend until the second week of October! 

We love our families and love that we have a lot to celebrate, but we just want to sit on our couch and be lazy for awhile.