Americanistas, I must say that the heat wave we had the past few days arrived fashionably late to you. The good news: it'll be over.

OK, how many knew that in 1978, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner that had strayed over its airspace? (I a Reader's Digest article about it as a kid.)(Nope, this is different from the 747 shot down in the 1980s)

I knew that! Every family Friday night dinner I learn a lot of new historical facts from my dad, the historian-librarian. This Friday 10 minutes were dedicated to countries that shot down other countries' airplanes, and this was included.

I just heard two hour special on the radio of 30 year celebrations to one of the inalienable assets of Israeli children's literature. I'm still grinning like mad, this made me feel like a 4 year old (I usually say 5 year old, but this made me feel even better!). More good things to be happy about are clean garbage can (it's the big monster of the house, I was very brave) and clean countertop.

So. The waking up at 3:30am thing. As some of you may know, there are three holidays on which Jews traveled to Jerusalem. This is one of them. Tonight, just before sunrise, after a night of Torah studying, thousands will walk from all over the city to the Western Wall. Yours Truly, as a secular person who saw this two years ago and was very impressed by this magical walk will wake up at this ridiculous time, walk 2.5km (I had to plan a by-pass route so I won't have to walk through East Jerusalem. I'm not afraid walking there at the moment, it's just I have a mom who will murder me if she'll know I even considered making a shortcut through East Jerusalem), meet there a German CouchSurfer and watch the sunrise over the Western Wall. I don't even want to imagine to way back, and really really hope that there will be taxis from certain point of the road.

Damn holidays, why aren't there any buses?

(Edit: post this long, body's so tired and I actually thought I'll be able to post without edit. Yeah right).

And-Also-Forgot-To-Say-From-The-Past: Daisy Jane, it's wonderful skirt!

(Why am I not napping now? Because Buffistas are more interesting, of course)

Given a lazy sunday choice...

Intermittent TV signal and couch at home

-or-

Cafe with .75 cent refills and people + Dresden Files books

I just got back from the farmers market. I am now exhausted, soaked with sweat, and my face is sunburned. However, I have strawberries. And potatoes and mushrooms, but the strawberries are what make up for the rest of it.

Shir, Shavuot in Jerusalem sounds really neat. I'd love to see it sometime. (I've got a vague sort of plan to travel around Europe and/or parts of Asia next summer after I graduate, and getting to Israel for a holiday is definitely on my list of things to try to do.)

I apologize, ita. I thought I was being stealthy enough with the tennis.

I have acheived massage. Now food - pad thai with chicken.

Hil, Shavuot is a lovely time to come here. It's usually not too hot, it's only a one-day-holiday, and no weird food regulations (read: passover). I'll see how tonight's walk will be, right now I just got a little bit scared doing this on my own. I never walked the route I'm planning to walk before, I hope for plenty others to be on the streets (after-thought: it might be too late, but I'll post a message to ask others if they're planning to come as well).

And strawberries are awesome! Although, I think I might have to wait until winter to meet strawberries again.

(Edit: grammar? What's that, again?)

I got two quarts of strawberries. I think I'm going to eat one quart fresh and try to can the other quart. Not sure how well it'll work, but strawberries seem easy enough for my first try at canning something. Once I've gotten the hang of the canning process, I'm going to try some more complicated things.

Haven't a frustrating day. Last night I dumped Dr. Who and charlie Jade to tape but fell asleep and the tape ran all the way to the end. This means that my crappy vcr ate it. And this morning when I tried to get it out the tape broke in the machine. Not feeling like dealing with it while I was watching tennis I waited. And I looked and couldn't see any bits of tape. So I put the head cleaner in. Now the head cleaner is stuck and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get it out. It will partially eject and then if you touch it it goes back in, tries to play and then partially ejects again. All the while making that obnoxious grating sound.

I have 8 hours of tv to tape for people and I think I'm not going to be able to do it at all.