that cake is awesome indeed--I sent it to the girl I'm seeing, she loves the muppets.

Two of the tomatoes on my plant are getting red, I'm very excited to get to eat them soon!!

I've got about an hour to kill before I head to the House of Blues. At some point before I leave, I will need to put on some outside pants.

I wanted to go to the Farmer's Market this morning to buy tomatoes. But, I realized that I had no cash. And, there's no ATM around here that wouldn't involve a walk out of the way to the Farmer's Market. I considered driving somewhere to an ATM, but then thought, well, if I'm driving, I might as well go to Whole Foods, since the store next door has potting soil. Which I need. And then, I did nothing. Still on the couch. Have enjoyed a bagel with nova bits (you can buy the scraps at HT for $2-3, so perfect for a bagel) and some nice coffee. I do not see myself leaving the house today.

I managed to jog on my trampoline for 45 minutes. Go me! Now I must shower and go to Trader Joes.

There has been Statue of Liberty

And Ellis Island

And Junior's, where there were massive amounts of brisket on latkes

And the World of M&M where there was a Saturday Night Fever M&M with disco balls suspended above his head

And a cabbie who was nice enough to not run over the clueless tourists standing in the middle of the intersection at 45th and 6th. When I mentioned this to him, he dryly responded, "Eh, it's Sunday."

And a walk from Times Square back to our apartment.

Now, I think a shower. Maybe a nap.

I am determined to make cherry clafouti today . But it took me forever to find a recipe that didn't make something that is simple into a complicated thing. or do something where I was going to have to guess /make translations. Crazy

I am in awe of those of you that are articulate in more than one language. I only make typos in English.

This has its disadvantages. I think I'm still traumatized by the 10 minutes in high school my English teacher and Arabic teacher made me go back and forth between English and Arabic. Ouch, poor brain. But only when I arrived to US for a month I learned that language is a culture not only theoretically, but also in real life.

But hey, did you know that "judge" in Arabic means chicken? (The emphasis is on the "ju", but still). Also, "cake" means cake (thought it is mostly pronounced "ka'ak", with the sort of sound English speakers are not used to pronounce, from the bottom of the throat).

(Using anchor's voice) Next, on Shir's Adventures With Linguistics: The day Shir learned the other meaning of "nail", by saying to a guy he will have to nail her to a wall in order to make her get a tattoo!

Good night guys. See you tomorrow.

Well, that's better than the way that I learned Hebrew, which was that we learned it through the siddur and the Torah. So that I know all kinds of biblical words, and about seventy different adjectives for describing G-d, but am totally lost when it comes to any sort of normal conversation. Last time I was in Israel, I was staring at a sign on our bus, and one word was "assur," and I got all excited: "Assur! I know that word! It means forbidden!" Finally figured out that it was a "No Smoking" sign. Then there was the time I was looking for a bathroom and realized that I had not idea what the Hebrew room for "bathroom" was. I finally ended up asking, "Where is the room with the water?" It got me laughed at, but it also go me directions to the bathroom.

I am determined to make cherry clafouti today . But it took me forever to find a recipe that didn't make something that is simple into a complicated thing. or do something where I was going to have to guess /make translations. Crazy

Can you make cherry clafouti with sour cherries? (Since those are what I have, and anyway I like them better.)

Wait, I have no butter. Never mind.

The day Shir learned the other meaning of "nail", by saying to a guy he will have to nail her to a wall in order to make her get a tattoo!

Ha! Shir, I hope you don't mind me laughing -- it's only because that sounds exactly like something I would do!

(In my college German classes, I learned that, unless one is careful, instead of saying that you want the vacuum cleaner, you might say you want a blow job. Trufax.)