Oh, no. Thanks for sharing, msbelle. All love to Maria and family.

This day is a most Epic day! Happy birthday to EpicTangent! May the day be filled with love and treats. May this year return you to good health so that you can fully celebrate next year.

Happy Solstice!

Maria, I am holding you and yours in my heart.

msbelle, thank you for sharing Maria's sad news.

Happy birthday to Plei and Epic and anyone else who had a birthday while I was gone (like Javachik and my son!)

Tom, I skipped several hundred messages but it sounds like you and I are Covid buddies? This is the worst club ever and I hope we both get to quit it soon.

I'm 99% sure I caught it on the airplane, since I flew the week the US decided to remove the pre-flight testing AND masking requirements, and started feeling sick about halfway through the (12 hour) flight.

Oh, and Jess, let me know how that tahini is!

I'm waiting until my taste buds work again because right now everything tastes bitter and weird. :(

Meeting up with Shir and Nilly was the absolute highlight of my trip. (Blah blah Dead Sea blah blah Negev blah blah eating amazing food and watching the sun set over the Mediterranean I GOT TO HANG OUT WITH SHIR AND NILLY AT THE SAME TIME.)

I am very sorry to hear about Maria's mom. My condolences. {{}}

Tom (and Jess!), I hope you are feeling better now. Covid sucks.

Meeting up with Shir and Nilly was the absolute highlight of my trip.

My God, I still cannot 100% comprehend that we managed to do that. It was fantastic!

I'm waiting until my taste buds work again because right now everything tastes bitter and weird. :(

Good call. For those of you who are not following at home, I was putting my foot down on a certain tahini brand (Al Jamal), nevermind if a certain U.S. buffista had room for it in her luggage or not.

I was putting my foot down on a certain tahini brand (Al Jamal), nevermind if a certain U.S. buffista had room for it in her luggage or not.

I suspect this is your way of making sure I come back because there is no English anywhere on this package so I don't think it's available in the US!!

I will neither confirm nor deny. Just still sad that we didn't have the time to go for the original plan of sandwiches and k'nafeh.

{{{Maria}}} I'm so sorry.

Sorry you are sick, Jess, but what an amazing trip!

Did I mention yesterday that I couldn't get into our system to do my work? Today nobody can. I am trying not to feel like it's my fault. And trying to think of something I can do to keep busy...

My condolences on your loss, Maria.

This day is a most Epic day! Happy birthday to EpicTangent! May the day be filled with love and treats. May this year return you to good health so that you can fully celebrate next year.

Thank you! I will take those good wishes!

I did not have yesterday off; in fact, it was my first day back to work post-surgery. My laptop decided it couldn't connect to my wi-fi properly (despite the fact that I purposely turned everything on & logged in to everything on Saturday night to ensure that I would be able to start Monday morning without a hitch. *sigh* Best laid plans...) and it was a solid 3 and a half to 4 hours before I happened on the one IT guy who recognized the problem and knew how to fix it. But it was 3 and a half to four hours where I was getting paid to watch Friends re-runs while IT tried to figure stuff out, so not that much of a hardship from my end.

Congrats on your return to work, askye! I hope things continue to improve for you.

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, Maria. Much love and comfort to you and yours.