Fund Raising Debut

As some of you know, I am the 2008 Campaign Chair for UJF! Considering I've been on the committee for the past 2 years I didn't think this would add too much more stress to me life...WRONG! Two weeks ago I received an email from the staff person that handles the Campaing...it seems that the President of the organization is going to be out of town for the Major Gifts event so I will have to make The Pitch! Oh my, well not too big a problem, I can do that! David and I were fortunate to have attended a fund raising/talk giving workshop with a woman who taught Dale Carnegie classes, I can do this, no problem! Well, actually, one catch...per our teacher you are not to read to the people you are to talk to them! Oh my, this is a little different from what I've done in the past. You mean, just talk to them! Well, I worked on my topic, emailed it to the staff person and waited for the congradulations I would recieve because of the topic, how I presented it, etc. When I hadn't heard right back I knew I was in trouble. Sure enough I received a phone call (now you know that's serious) saying what I wrote sounded good, however, he didn't like the topic. The good news is he gave me an idea for the topic, the bad news...I was having a difficult time getting passionate about the new topic. Well, re-writing went on until this morning (the day of the event!). At 3:00 I finally got it together and now had to feel comfortable with it! Well according to the people that came up to me after my presentation, it was good! Now, I haven't counted how many told me it was good and how many left without saying anything! I think I'll just take it on good faith that it went well. Hopefully my next attempt will be a little easier!

A Little Bit of sugar...

Well, we all know the song that Mary Poppins made popular "A little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down"! A little bit, yeah, right! I can't believe how addictive sugar can be. Last night we had people over for desert after the Jewish Film Festival opening night. The deserts were great and I managed to get through the evening without eating or craving any. That was last night; tonight was a whole different story. Friends invited us over for dinner; very delicious! When we got home it was like the leftovers from last night were calling me from the refrigerator! I finally had a small piece of pie, that turned into a brownie followed by a piece of carrot cake. It was like I was another person watching what was going on! Then, of course, the guilt set in. Now I'm feeling nauceous...I have this yucky taste in my mouth! What is so frustrating to me is that I've not had sugar in over 3 weeks! Ok, can't beat myself up...got to get on with it! Just to get the devilish things away from my sight I've asked David to put them out in the garage. Hopefully he'll finish them up tomorrow!

Facebook

So, I was sitting in the chiropractor's office waiting for my mom to be "adjusted" when I saw an article in Newsweek about Facebook! Little did I know that when I went home there would be an invitation from a friend to join her circle of friends! Well, join I did and now I am slowly, very slowly, finding out what is going on! I know I can "poke" people, classify them as friends, join social events, send people cupcakes! there is no end to the fun! Now if I can add another few hours to my day to continue to play with this I'll be in very good shape!

True Confessions

Well, it's time to "fess" up and tell you first, the sukkah is down, the holiday is over and I didn't post the final picture! Sorry...well, there's always next year! Second, I have a thing for Mark Bittman of the NY Times food section. Just when I am sure that there is no variety to the food we eat; he comes up with something interesting! This past week David declared our home "Chicken Free"! He said he could finally understand why my Dad started to hate to eat the yellow things! Well, Mark had a recipe for a Zucchini-Pear Soup in this past week's paper that was great; it passed the test, no chicken in it! For those of you who might be interested:

3 TBS butter or extra virgin olive oil, or a combination
1 med carrot, peeled and diced
1 med onion, peeled and diced
1 med potato, preferably high-starch (russet or baking) peeled and diced
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or a pinch of dried thyme
Sale and pepper
4 med zucchini, trimmed and diced
2 med ripe (but still firm) pears, peeled, cored and diced
4 cups chicken or veg stock, or use water (I used veg stock for obvious reasons!)
mint leaves for garnish

1. Put butter and/or oil in a large skillet over med heat; within butter melts or oil is hot, cook carrot, onion, potato and thyme with a healthy sprinkling of salt and pepper. Stir occasionally, adjusting heat so vegetables do not brown. When onion is softened, about 5 minutes, add zucchini and continue to cook until everything is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Add pear and cook until has softened, about 5 minutes more. Add liquid and bring to a boil; taste and adjust seasoning. Cook mixture, then puree. Serve cold or reheat and serve hot, garnished with mint, if desired. Serves 4

Well, this is definitely the season for this soup. It's the end of the zucchini season and the pears are wonderful!

Reflections on Life by Sylvia

Several years ago (2004 to be exact) I came up with the idea of interviewing my mom and hearing what her life was like when she was growing up. I had planned on doing a family history years before this with my mother's sisters and never did. Now many of those stories have disappeared because two of my aunts have died. I also wanted an understanding of my dad's side of the family, however, he cannot give me that information. So, Mom and I started on a warm afternoon in July, 2004. The stories were great. There were some that I knew, like how she and Grandma, Aunt Lil, Aunt Helen and Mom used to make flowers out of material that had to be formed by petal, then fastened together into flowers and finally attached to the back of vanity, hand held mirrors. They got paid by the piece for this work. Money was extremely tight and food was scarce.

Well, the project went on hold for 3 years, until yesterday! Earlier in the week I received an email from my cousin Shelly; she is Billy and Marilyn Wallach's younger daughter. She is in the process of putting together a book about mothers and daughters. Here is what she had to say: "...it occurred to me I really knew very little about her. I thought about what her favorite color was and I didn’t know. I didn’t know much about her childhood, her relationship with her mother, her siblings, who were her friends, did she have a boyfriend in high school, how she felt about her life, and so on.

I live in a community of women close to my age..mostly in the baby boomer generation whose mothers, if they’re still alive, are elderly. Most of them said they too knew very little about their mothers. I decided to write a book..a sort of resource guide to spark women to talk to their moms before they run out of time. I sent out a survey (I’m going to forward one to you) and got so many responses. I couldn't’t believe how many people sent back things they wanted to know about their mothers. The idea took on a life of its own"

Doesn't this sound fascinating and I appreciated that it got me back into the conversation with Mom. It is so amazing, we live this life as if the people we know and love will be here forever and that's not how it works. So, last night we continued the conversation we started in 2004. The stories were as wonderful as ever. When David came home he participated as well. We all had such a wonderful time. I taped Mom as she spoke so now I have to transcribe what we talked about.

So, I told you about the piece work, I'll give you some more stories as I get them written up. Now it would be fun to have Aunt Shirley and Mom together and see if they remember things differently! Also, I have to corner Uncle Paul the next time he comes to visit so we can get some of that Plotkin/Barkon history on paper as well!

Birds Feeding Frenzy

It is Fall here and the dogwood trees are covered with tiny red berries. The birds have located this buffet and can be heard during their feeding frenzy from early in the morning until sunset! Between the birds on the trees, the deer eating the crab apples off the tree in the front of the house (haven't been able to get a picture of them yet) and the bunnies running around it is like an annex to nature's classroom! We also seem to have a family of garden snakes, I try to stay out of their way!

I haven't posted the sukkah in its final stages as the cross branches have not been taken out of the woods yet! I'm sure this will be done by the end of the holiday, or not!

Sukkah Construction

Well, it is that time of year...Sukkot! Every year we go through the debate about whether or not to build a sukkah; this year David decided to bite the bullet and buy a "real" sukkah! The kit he bought had the sides and brackets to use to hold the whole thing together. You had a choice in construction; you could purchase everything from them or buy the wood yourself. David decided on the later option and he did a fantastic job of purchasing the lumber; cutting it and, eventually putting the whole thing together! As you will see from the final picture WE DID IT! It looks great! With less than 24 hours to go the only part left is to put the branches across the top and the decorations! Promise, a final picture when it is ALL done! The premise of the sukkah is to build a portable hut similar to what our ancestors used when they were traveling in the desert! There are some who sleep in their sukkah, not sure if we'll go that far! The other thing that was interesting about building the sukkah was that we worked on it for so long it was totally dark out, so, believe it or not David agreed to put the outside lights on! Wow!