Rare rainbow

The other day, it rained in the morning.  I caught a rainbow in the west.  Very cool!

We also replaced several windows in the house.  Here are some of the old windows - and why we wanted to replace them.  No more plastic covers on the windows!  Woohoo!



I took off Monday and Tuesday this week.  On those days, I painted the shed, moved three rooms of furniture for the window replacement, and entered a writing contest.  Each dog went to the vet - Buddy for his annual shots and Abby for hay fever.  Poor thing!  Her eyes were swollen and she itched all over.  She'll have to be on antihistamines every year during tree pollen season.  I won't be able to open the window on the lovely cool nights.  On Wednesday, I did laundry and shopping and worked four hours.  On Thursday, the windows went in.  I kept the dogs away from the window people and worked five hours.  On Friday, I mowed the lawn and called it a week.  Phew!  It's almost dangerous for me to take off from work. I always try to accomplish the BIG projects when I take a couple of days off.  Today my major project was returning a couple of books to the library and buying a new kitchen timer.  That was accomplished in about a mile-and-a-half walk.  Nice day.  Easy pace.  Pretty close to a real day off.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Israel

It's been almost 30 years since I visited Israel.  The trip was pretty much unexpected and I barely had time to get a passport before the trip.  I took 14 rolls of film with me, the most frames per roll that I could buy.  By the fourth day, I was the only one who was still able to take pictures.  Everyone else had run out and buying film in Israel was rather expensive.

I ate everything that wasn't nailed down and lost weight.  (Only had one sugar in ten days - a piece of baklava.)  We walked miles every day.  I took notes while we were walking.  I almost jumped off the bus to live in the Galilee.  It was beautiful!  No wonder Jesus spent a good chunk of His time around the lake. 

Breakfast was a buffet with fish, fruit, and waffles with date syrup.  I'd love to find a way to make date syrup.  It was amazing!  After breakfast, I'd grab a pear and tuck it into the seat pocket on the bus to eat for a snack while we were traveling. 

Lunch would often be at a kibbutz where the meal would be rice with a tasty vegetable sauce and an excellent piece of fish or other meat.  I'd never had hummus before.  I never liked spinach until I ate a spinach souffle in Israel.  The last meal we had before the flight home was in an Italian restaurant.  They served in the usual Italian manner of leisurely eating.  Our tour guide got nervous about getting us to the airport on time.

I spent six months trying to duplicate the bread we ate in Israel.  My oven isn't hot enough to properly bake pita.  And as for the bread twisted into a loop that we tasted in the Arab section of Jerusalem - I hope they serve that in heaven - because I have no hope of getting it right and I'm pretty sure I won't be visiting the country again in this lifetime.

I still have a Coke can with the traditional red and white logo, but in Arabic and in Hebrew.  The can is a much heavier grade of metal than our cans are. 

Thirty years.  Huh.  The memory is a tricky thing.  It doesn't seem like that long ago.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi