Exploring

It is a lovely, unseasonably warm weekend here in the Big Apple so what are Squid to do? Go for a bike ride, of course!

The Squidlings wanted a "lame-o" ride, so we mapped out a path that would take us down the new piece of 9th Avenue bike lane, over to the green market and then back via Chocolate Haven, the Birdbath and the Lilac.

Setting out, we took a different route then the "same-old, same-old" and found ourselves giving the kids a history lesson on the corner of Second Avenue and 10th Street. St. Marks Church, seen above, is built on the site of Peter Stuyvesant's farm. It does, in fact, rest where Stuyvesant's private chapel used to sit. Stuyvesant, himself, rests in a vault below the church. For those of you who do not immerse yourselves in New York City history, Stuyvesant was the first Governor of New York or, rather, New Amsterdam as it was then known. Old Pegleg ruled with an iron fist and a wooden, silver studded, leg. My alma mater is named after the Governor and, amusingly, all the teams are supposed to be called "The Peglegs." Since, for many years, the name reflected the skill of the football team, the athletic department decided to allow the teams to name themselves whatever they pleased. Hence the Penguins swim and the Untouchables fence and many of the team are now tops in their leagues.

Across the street is the former site of the Second Avenue Deli. During the "summer of love" (1986 if you care), Mike took me there for some of our many dates. Mushroom barley soup and tongue sandwiches. Yum!
Still remaining is the Yiddish Walk of Fame. The founder of the deli, Abe Lebewohl, created this walk to honor the stars of Yiddish Theater, an institution that still exists in New York.

At this point, Mike was able to persuade the kids to extend our ride into Brooklyn with a trip over the Williamsburg Bridge.
On the other side there is a monument to Valley Forge but we did not get close enough to confirm that the figure in the saddle was George Washington.
Slipping under the bridge to the other side, we came upon Peter Luger's, the famed New York steak house, home to many wonderful meals with my mother-in-law. Just thinking about them make me want to go there for lunch on Monday.
And across the street is one of the branches of the former Williamsburg Bank. This is not the famous Williamsburg Bank building but rather a "lowly" branch.
Heading toward the waterfront and the Manhattan Bridge, we took in some lovely sights.


And then stumbled upon the Sweet 'N Low factory, across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

As we pedaled past the Navy Yard I gave Little Squid a quick history lesson and we discussed what life was like during World War II. I am on a little bit of a WWII history jag right now as I watch The War on PBS.

History lesson over, we continued on over the Manhattan Bridge (to avoid the crowds of the Brooklyn Bridge), and rode around Chinatown for a bit looking for my favorite frozen dumpling place. I wanted to stock up on the sticky rice in leaves things (yea, I don't know the proper name) but they were closed. Squidette saw one of her friends from school at about the time that I was about to say "hey, see any of your friends around?" She has a fair number of friends who live in Chinatown. My kid travels in a multicultural crowd.

No, there are no pictures of Chinatown. For some reason I feel odd taking pictures there, like I am saying "look at the funny stuff here," and I don't want to do that. I find Chinatown to be a great part of NY and one day I will take some pictures but I need to be able to do so in a respectful way.

That said, we then continued on uptown where we got some chocolate and toured the Lilac.

The Lilac was a lighthouse tender, providing service and supplies to the lighthouses on its route.
The engine room. She still has her original steam engines.
Crew bunks.
The original propellers.
Um ... I have no idea but they look like they were to pull things up.



From the Lilacs pier (Pier 40), there was a lovely view of the Lakawana Railroad terminal which also serves as a ferry slip. When Papa Squid and I circumnavigated the Hudson last summer, we took the ferry back from here.
More views of New Jersey.


And a couple of New York.
Heading back down the pier, we gazed at the paddle wheel boats in dock. These go out on pleasure cruises as party boats.

Notice the lack of paddles on the bottom of this wheel.

To finish up our ride, we stopped at the Birdbath for pastries and such and then, for the sake of syncronisity, stopped at Lilac chocolate for just a small treat.
Today? All about errands.

Oh the Agony!

Two days ago Squidette was invited to join the borough-wide band. This morning we realized that since the band meets on Saturday morning and Hebrew school meets on Sunday morning, both kids will not be able to join me for Rhinebeck. I was planning on going on Saturday, and since my Aunt is coming down from Massachusetts, I kind of have to be there that day.

The answer? Go both days of course! Now to find someone to share the driving since Mike will not be able to go either day. Ideally, someone to provide a ride for me and a Squidling one day and I will provide transit the other day. I have a mini van ... lots of storage room for goodies ... I am working on a good friend right now.

Oh, and I am both a player and a Square for Saturday blogger bingo.

Teens Knitting: Let There be Men Man

Yes, the first boy joined us this week and took off like a shot! He already knew how to crochet so knitting came quickly. I got him casting on and then one of the young ladies got him knitting while I dealt with other school matters. He, in turn, got the young lady crocheting. Love it!

Our young man was the only newbie this week but one of my seniors stopped by earlier in the day to drop off some squares for the school blankie and also dropped off two triangles. She showed where she had accidentally learned how to make a ruffle -- and quite a nice ruffle it is. I suggested that she make a matching piece and sew them together for a Barbie dress. Another student stopped by and moaned when she saw the new squares. She was hoping to be the first to give in squares this year!

And there you have it. This week's edition of Teens Knitting. There may not be an edition next week as I have to cancel club in order to be at a function for the other group I run.

A Cautionary Tale

It all started because I am a nice mommy.

My kids wanted to ring in the New Year and weren't buying our line that, at 8 PM it was already midnight somewhere in the world. So I promised to wake them up and we all trouped off to bed.

This was the year that Squidette had chosen the "union"* frames for her glasses. That will never happen again.

After snuggling Papa Squid to sleep, I reemerged around 10 PM and knit quietly until 11:45 PM. Then I started the process of waking the kids. First up was Little Squid who is difficult to wake. I partially roused him and then went into Squidette's room. She woke with a start, knocking her glasses to the floor. While she crawled around, finding them, I finished waking Little Squid and we all met in the darkened living room. Squidette was holding the pieces of her glasses. The knock to the floor had cracked open a superglue frame fix and the lens had popped out. Again.

Did I mention that these were the union frames? Only 6 weeks or so after she got them, the screw on one frame corner had decided to stop holding the wire frame together. We were traveling at the time and my Uncle had repaired them with superglue holding the screw and frame into place. Since the superglue fix had held quite well, I'd never gotten around to getting them properly repaired.

Back to New Year's Eve.

We snuggled under a blanket on the couch and watched television coverage of the ball falling. Squidette squinted at the screen. We hugged, kissed, and opened the window to hear the echos of the crowd in Times Square. Then the kids returned to sleep and I went for the superglue to fix the broken glasses ...

Retrieving a brand new tube of superglue, I carefully used the cap to pierce the foil covering and returned the applicator to the tube. The cap was carefully set aside where the residual glue on it could dry without dripping on anything.

Glue was carefully applied to the glasses and, for good measure, I had put some around the rim to hold the lens to the frame in case the screw joint gave way again.

I then held the whole thing together, being very careful to avoid getting glue on my fingers. At some point, I decided that it would be a good idea to close up the tube of superglue. So, with my free hand, I reached for the cap and stuck it into my mouth to hold.

Do you see where this is going?

As I grabbed the tube to push into the cap, I stuck my tongue against the top for extra leverage and encountered ... you guessed it ... the still wet superglue in the cap top from piercing the foil. Quickly, I removed the tube and cap from my mouth and set it down on the table but the damage was done. I had superglue on the tip of my tongue and, now on my fingers as well. D'oh!

Keeping my tongue stuck out of my mouth, I started working on peeling the glue off my tongue. As I recall, it came off with only a moderate amount of effort and left no damage behind. I can only assume that the ever present coating of saliva prevented a more permanent bonding.

Nail polish remover was quietly retrieved from the bathroom and I worked for quite a while at removing the superglue from my fingers and, of course, the lenses of the glasses I had been repairing. Sometime around 1 a.m. I finally fell into bed with most of the superglue removed from my person.

The glasses? They looked just fine and the repair held until the next pair was purchased 4 months later.

The moral to this story? Never use superglue after midnight!

*Union Frames: those frames totally covered by our optical insurance. Generally kept in a dusty box in the basement of the opticians and consisting of frames that are 10 years or so out of date. (O.K., I am exaggerating somewhat. The pickings have gotten a little better since Mike was a kid. Squidette's glasses were quite in vogue at the time.)

Cut to the Chase

This morning ...


This evening ...
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Pathetic

I am typing this post sans glasses, which, for those of you who know me in person, means that my face is about 10 inches (or less) from the screen and the text is magnified big time.

Today, you see, has been "a day." Not a horrible day. No one died, no blood was shed but lots of stupid, annoying things happened.

It started with my glasses.

While getting into the shower this morning, I managed to whack my glasses off the sink, on to the floor. I glanced at them and they seemed fine, initially. Then the kids and I headed out the door and I kept fussing with my glasses, trying to get rid of the "hair" that was resting on my nose and bothering me. Glasses came off, face was wiped, glasses returned. Same problem. Nothing visual, it just felt like a single hair was resting on my nose. Finally, after driving a mile or so, we stopped at a light and I took a look at my glasses. And realized that one of the nose pieces was missing. Blah. Not horrible, just annoying.

The day continued in that vein. Got stuck behind a garbage truck for 15 minutes when I was detoured off of my usual route by construction. Was delayed by other construction after dropping off the kids. Found a nail in my, flat, tire. All bothersome but not horrible.

Came home, had a nice dinner with my family and searched the bathroom for the glasses nose piece, initially to no avail. On the second search, however, success! Out came the super glue, taking great care not to repeat my last debacle with the stuff. (Ask, it will give me blog fodder for tomorrow!) And I ever so carefully positioned the nose piece in the nose piece holder on my glasses. The spectacles were then gently set aside to dry while I read blogs with the text magnified so that I could see about 2 words per line.

After a few minutes I went to retrieve said glasses and discovered this.

Look closely at the positions of the nose pieces. Note the one pointing toward my eye not my nose. And this is why this post started out with me perching inches from the screen as Papa Squid and Squidette removed the misglued piece and reglued it into place. I am now, once again, properly bespectacled and ready to throw in the towel for the day. Or maybe knit ...

Knitting!

Yes, this is a "knitting" blog and to prove it ...Child's First Sock from Vintage Socks. Modeled by the owner, the lovely and growing-too-fast Squidette. The yarn is something she picked out in Lancaster last year. A locally dyed product obtained at Labadie Looms.

Now on the needles, a plain sock for Little Squid -- also growing far too fast.

Our recent visit with every piece of clothing that we own revealed that most of their handknit socks were too small and so ... mama is knitting for them. Little Squid is getting Cabin Cove socks from yarn intended for ... someone else. Knitting it for larger feet, however, would require my digging through the still buried stash on the balcony for my heel and toe yarn and so, Little Squid is getting the good stuff. I'll just have to order more. Aww shucks. (Also, the Cabin Cove was readily at hand while the rest of my stash is buried under bags and bags of stuffed animals.)

For those of you concerned about the trauma of tossing half my stash, please note that I am not upset about it nor am I looking to replace it. I am still sticking to my goal of more yarn out then in each month and am not counting the tossed ones against the total. Nope. Not doing it. September is ending net negative 5.5 balls of yarn and I hope to knit up another one or two before Rhinebeck. I also hope to put Dave's wonderful roving on the wheel later today if I can gather up the energy to spin.

I did finish plying my alpaca yesterday and hope to skein and wash it today -- and then figure out which issue of Interweave Knits has the Flower Basket Shawl as that is what I think the alpaca wants to become.

And there you have it, knitting and spinning here at Squid Knits. What a surprise!

An Early Autumn Ride

After the exterminator stopped by and drenched our home in bug-killing pesticides, we fled the fumes in a very Squidly manner -- on our bicycles.Yes, yes she has grown. In all dimensions. It is enough to truly freak out a mother. Almost more then the bugs. Almost. O.k., more so. Really!
When we stopped for a "natural" break on the Upper West Side (after fighting our way through a fund-raising race in Riverside Park), I noticed this building in my rearview mirror. Given that my mirror usually just shows me my shoulder, I turned around and took notice.

It's tall. And seriously contrasts with the surrounding neighborhood. Change is not always good, in my opinion.

Then we headed in to Central Park, where the leaves are still very green.
Little Squid and I enjoyed a leisurely ride while Squidette and Papa Squid raced on ahead.We met up at 6th Avenue and carefully pedaled our way to 5th Avenue.
Once on Fifth we had much of the road to ourselves, despite the buses that seemed to think that we were really in their way.
Too bad 5th does not have a bike lane on the left. On a day like today we could have saved the buses a lot of aggravation.
And on down 5th we continued.

5th is changing. Many of the old, unique stores that gave it it's character have gone, to be replaced by shopping mall standards like this.
Outside of Lord and Taylor we were stopped by a police car and a black suburban with DC plates. There were too few agents for it to be the First Lady but someone "important" was doing some shopping. Yes, 5 bicyclists (there was another lady-on-bike who came up along side us at this juncture) were a threat to whoever was shopping. Yup. This is where my tax money is going. No, I didn't take a picture -- figured I'd lose my camera if I did.

Notice the Flatiron Building at the end of the street. Always one of my favorite buildings.

Less then a mile after that rather annoying stop, we got to the greenmarket to purchase some fresh, local veggies for this week's dinners. Mushrooms, stringbeans, apples ... yum!
Yes, yes Little Squid did get a hair cut this morning. Why do you ask? And yes, that is a rather odd expression on his face. No, I do not know why.
Later, Squidette started unpacking some of the bags that have been hanging out on the balcony. So far she has liberated 3 bags of stuffed animals mixed with clothing. Woo hoo! I found my jeans!

Our balcony is still covered with bags that look like this.
Slowly, we will restore the contents to their rightful places. For now, however, it is time to remake all the beds.

Good night, sleep tight and ... well you know the rest.

Buggy! Ick!

Remember last week when I mentioned that I had tossed half of my yarn and fabric stash? And then said no more? Well, I am willing to come clean, in a manner of speaking. No, it is not moths. At least not yarn moths. We do have some grain moths that we are trying to get rid of but they are not the bugs that made me trash my stash.

Promise not to cringe?

B e d b u g s. There, I said it. Ick! I am not writing it out properly because I do not want to become a part of the obsessive b.bug blogging crowd. Yup, there is one. You can really freak yourself out if you spend too much time researching this subject via google. And so I have stopped.

We found them on the morning of Rosh Hashanah and spent all of what should have been a lovely 4 day weekend preparing our home for exterminating. This involved taking EVERY piece of clothing and linen to be washed or dry cleaned and putting all other fabric based objects in the dryer for 45 minutes. This is where the yarn wipeout began. Much got tossed before the drying step, much got tossed after being ruined in the dryer. Dave, your stuff survived pretty well -- just a bit of pilling on the outside of the skeins. Two balls of angora ruined everything else that was with them. I haven't tossed that batch yet but it will probably go once I find it again. Lots of belongings got tossed as well. Think of a frentic three day fall cleaning. Frankly, it would have only taken us another 8 hours or so to be ready to move house. Yup, that is how thoroughly we went through and packed up our stuff. Much of it is still on the balcony.

We have 3 captain's beds -- with drawers and in my case cabinets, too -- built in. It is the Mama and Papa bed that got hit by the little buggers -- the squidlings seem to be o.k. for now.

Every drawer, every crack, every crevice of every bed and dresser and bookcase had to be vacuumed. And then they came and sprayed. Everything. And now we are waiting for a second visit. The drawers have been reemptied (but not rewashed) and the beds stripped. The little laundry service down the block has all of our bedding -- and the week's laundry to date while we were at it. You realized that we probably paid their rent last month.

May I repeat myself -- ICK! Oh, and I was storing much of my yarn in the bed cabinets. Double ick. The yarn will now live on the balcony in rubbermaid type boxes. I figure they will be protected from b.bugs and moths -- at least during the really cold part of the winter and the really hot part of the summer.

Nope, have no idea how we got them. No idea how long it will take to be totally rid of them. Lost lots of sleep over this and wound up getting a nasty headcold on top of it all. Hopefully the exterminator will arrive soon and we can all go for a bike ride.

There, I said it. Promise to still like me?

William Tell Overture for Moms

Time for a smile! Thanks to my sister who, while still a relatively new mom, realized just how funny this was and sent it on to me!

Teens Knitting: Starting Fresh

Kids have been asking about the knitting club for a couple of weeks but, as always, I was a little slow getting things going. Still, all said, getting it rolling before the end of September is pretty good and is probably the earliest I have ever managed to start it.

This afternoon found four young ladies wielding yarn and needles for the first time. All caught on pretty quickly and three of the four were purling by the end of the afternoon. Two "older" knitters came by for a refresher course and immediately remembered what to do. They quickly knocked out a couple of inches on the first blanket blocks of the year and promised to bring in the finished blocks by the end of the week.

For those of you new to this feature of Squid Knits, a quick summary of the "Teens Knitting" subplot. Everyone else can tune out now as I have nothing interesting to say on my own life other then I managed to get my Treo sync'd with my new computer with absolutely no trouble! And Audible is working too!

***

Teens Knitting is a heading I started back in the days when I actively participated in the Socknitters Yahoo group. Back then, I posted looking for sources of inexpensive suppliers in NYC and found, instead, a wealth of wonderful people who wanted to support my students' newly acquired knitting habit. For a few years I would post the "adventures" of my teens on the mail list and received encouragement and supplies from the interested readers.

For a few years the club was in hiatus while life got in the way but it was resurrected last year to great acclaim. In fact, the club was so popular that we rapidly ran out of supplies with needles going first. In return for learning how to knit and getting to use the school supplies, the kids knit block for Warm Up America blankets, last year completing two full blankets and most of a third.

The kids who knit span ethnic lines with Banglas learning how to purl from Dominicans and native Harlemites showing recent immigrants from China how to bind off. Seniors interact with Freshmen and Sophomores and Juniors are tolerated with a grin. For the most part, they do not span gender lines though one or two boys do learn how to knit each year. It is my girls, however, who keep things going. They take it home, show mom and grandma and get the older generations knitting again. Sometimes I wonder if I am responsible for a knitting renaissance among the families of my students.

As for me, what do I get out of it? I get the nicest hour of my week. I get a chance to eavesdrop on their conversations and learn about their likes and dislikes and crushes and ... oh, all sorts of stuff. I get the trust of a group of kids who might only know me as "the lady in the hallway." I get so much, all of it intangible, all of it so very fulfilling.

That said ... if you have some orphan needles (preferably in sizes 6 - 9) looking for a good home, let me know. The school address is here -- just don't address the packages to "Mama Squid." They think I'm weird enough already.

My New Toy

I admit it, it is a toy, pure and simple. My new baby is an HP Pavilion tx1000 series "entertainment pc." 4.1 lbs and tiny enough to easily sit on the arm of my chair without being in imminent danger of toppling over. It is fast, light and has lots and lots of memory. And a really cool screen that pivots.

I still have to finish setting up all of my programs and the am busy transferring all of my work and personal documents from my "old" machine. Picassa is now set up and the iRiver software is downloading as I type. I think I got my new Palm software last night but need to double check that. Security software is just waiting for the iRiver download to finish so I can restart the machine. Lots to do and it is already late ...

Oh, and on top is a new sock for Squidette. Started last Wednesday before her blessings class and finished tonight while waiting for her to get out of Hebrew School. Lots of knitting time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this year. Little Squid and I had a lovely dinner at the diner and played some Scrabble on my Treo while Squidette was in class (he goes from 4-6, she goes from 5:30 - 7:30). This will be an interesting year.

Tomorrow I restart the knitting club at school.

New Computer!

Yea! I have a brand new computer!!! Nothing was wrong with my old one but it was a loaner and it was time to finally get my very first brand new computer. Yea!!! I figured out what I needed in a machine -- lots of memory for audiobooks and photos and a very small footprint -- and with some help from Mike, finally bought it. Woo and Hoo!!!

I have pictures from Sunday's bike ride but they are still on my old machine. I'll retrieve them, probably, tomorrow after I remember to bring home my thumb drive from work (so that I can move all my files over). Tonight is for downloading my software and playing a bit with my built-in web cam. Cool, huh?!

More Distraction

I was tagged by Mary for the newest incarnation of the seven things meme.

The rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

The things --

1. Mike and I were in the same homeroom in high school but did not even know the other person existed until the end of our senior year.
2. I have taken classes at a total of 6 colleges / universities.
3. I held a degree from one of these colleges before ever having taken a class at it.
4. I am the only one in this apartment with a middle name.
5. We honeymooned in New Orleans.
6. I just threw out about half my yarn and fabric stash. (Yes, threw out.)
7. I am the only one of my siblings who cannot dive.

Due to severe brain fog I am not tagging anyone. Consider yourself tagged if you want to do this.

One Year ...

Earlier this week I received an email from a friend / colleague who had just become a father. He stated that he now understood what we meant when we talked about our kids being the best things in our lives. He finally "got" the light that comes into our eyes when we kvell about them and the worry that overtakes us when something goes wrong. My answer was simply "welcome to parenthood."

One year from today the lovely, intelligent, sensitive, and constantly growing Squidette will stand up before our family, friends and semi-random congregants and go through the rites of our religion. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.

A year from today will be a big day for my amazing daughter but it will be only one day in a lifetime of big days and just one more joy in a lifetime of joys.

Now ... go hug someone or something that you love.

Talk Like a Pirate!

Oh! I almost missed it! Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Avast ye mateys, I have a unique opportunity to show just how adept I am at talking like a Pirate as I make the morning announcements. Or not. Arrr! Some dignity must be preserved. Maybe I'll just clear the halls like a Pirate and tell them salty seadogs to get to class.

No matter what, I do pledge to finish reading Peter the Pirate Squid tonight. No t.v. for the Squidlings this evening, just good clean Pirate Squid fun! (We'll forget the fact that Squidette and I won't get home until 7:30 so t.v. is out anyway.)

Wishing you all a swashbuckling day!

Seventh Avenue

In an effort to distract you all from the realities of my life this week I will provide a short treatise on Seventh Avenue.
Seventh Avenue from roughly 42nd Street until roughly 34th Street, is nicknamed "Fashion Avenue" and is at the heart of the Garment District. This is where the center of the United State's fashion trade has been housed since ... well, for a really long time. (You can tell that this is a well researched article. Not.)

In my own life, the Garment District means button stores and fabric stores and the sense that my Zedda (grandfather) walked these streets during his time as a furrier. By the time I knew Zedda, he owned a candy store but my dad tells great stories about how strong my Zedda was, all from handling the furs day in and day out. One of these days I'll snap a photo of the Garment Center Synagogue (they do not seem to have a website), it is still an active, Orthodox congregation. No, I do not know if my Zedda worshiped there but I'd like to think so. (Yes, I could ask my dad but the phone is so far away, and I am so very tired ...)

When I started sewing, many, many years ago, I haunted the remnant stores in the high 30's guided by my mother-in-law. She forced me to get over my shyness and dive right in to the bolts and patterns -- though she never understood keeping a "stash."

During the day, one must dodge the couriers, dashing about with their carts hanging with ready-to-wear or piled high with bolts of fabric. Walking Seventh Avenue is definitely an "only in New York" experience.

Same Difference

As we approached this, um thing, on the walk way yesterday, Squidette referred to it as an anvil. When I gently corrected her, she responded: "yea, well if if falls on your foot you get the same result as with an anvil. A flat foot."

And then when viewing this picture, she noticed the people beneath the, um thing you tie boats up to, and said "see, it is an anvil."

Hope your day is full of three-dimensional people.

Blue Cards

A quick google shows that the term "blue card" is used for many, many different reasons, including immigration. If immigration is why you came to my blog -- sorry for the disappointment. My blue card is endemic to the New York City public schools.This "little" card is the most important repository of emergency information in our school system. On to it goes everything school staff needs to know about a student in the event that they need to contact an adult. On the back is a place to tell the school what to do if none of the people listed on the card cannot be contacted. (I always write "use your best judgment.")

When I was a kid, and up to about two years ago in my own school, a parent had to complete 3 cards for every kid. One set of cards went in the main office, one to the school nurse and one to the deans. Basic contact information was easy to obtain. These days our school just collects one and photocopies it. (We actually make our own blue "form" with all the information and then some on one side of a letter size sheet of paper.) Why? Because getting all three of them back is difficult.

But, I hear you thinking, why can't you just look it up in the school computer? Well, we could but half the time the parent/guardian phone number is incorrect because the student has moved and failed to update the school on the situation. So, we depend on blue cards and pray that the information on them is correct. Sometimes it isn't. Wiley high school students will fill them out with false information leaving us grasping at straws when we have to find their parents or another responsible adult. Others, just fail to return them, usually intentionally, leaving the end result the same is in the preceding instance.

I had to fill out one of these for each of my kids this year, something I don't always have to do for some strange reason. Despite the blue card, however, I also had to correct or enter my address on three other documents for Little Squid's school -- for some reason they still had an old address despite my changing it two years ago and my kid being fully registered for a metrocard, something that would not happen if the Department of education computer system had the wrong address.

Basically, my take on these administrative forms? Blue Cards good, no blue cards bad.

Squid On Water

While Little Squid was in hebrew school this morning, Squidette and I got a little exercise. First, we walked to 57th Street and the Hudson River only to discover that the place we were going was closed due to a lack of volunteers. Then we continued walking uptown to 72nd Street where we found these:yup, kayaks! This little outpost was adequately staffed (there were two volunteers on duty) and so we went out on the water. No pictures since I had to keep my hands on the paddle.

We paddled around for a bit and then walked back home via the West Side County Fair, which was just setting up.
Squidette got to see a wooden cow up close and personal.
And then there were the cute animals.
Continuing our journey home, we did a spot of geocaching and found one that had evaded the entire Squid clan a few weeks back. When we sat down to log it, this is what we left:
Yes, our tush prints. You see, kayaking is a wet business.

A Twist on Worship

For years I have attended High Holy day services in an attempt to actually worship. The reality of it is that I was always too distracted by those around me to get in more then a few minutes of what I consider to be authentic worship and reflection. This year I found the solution, I ushered.

Our congregation is HUGE. Over a thousand families, most who come out during the High Holy days and try to squeeze into the limited space that is our synagogue. The building is not small by any means but there are just that many members.

Years ago, well before I hooked up with Mike and started going there, our congregation had to start holding two sets of High Holy day services -- early and late. For the first many years of our relationship we went to the late services (11:45 for morning, 8:30 for evening). This allowed us to eat dinner at a reasonable hour and to sleep in if we desired. The only drawback was that we still rushed dinner because Mike's mom had to get on line early to "get a good seat." She needed to sit in the sanctuary, preferably close up so she "could see." Personally, I never got that. I don't need to see the action on the beemah to know what I need to know. Listening does just fine for me.

Eventually we persuaded her that by leaving a little early, but not hours early, we could get decent (by her) seats in the balcony. The auditorium was never an option. This worked for a few years and then we switched to early services to accommodate the kids. K-6 student programs ran only during the early service which solved the childcare issues (we'd switch off which parent went to services to take care of the kids). That was about the point that Mike stopped attending services all together. I was happy to go to keep his mom company and he could contemplate in his own way, outside of the chaos that is our synagogue.

Mom and I were free to leave as early as we wanted, which was not a big deal because people do not line up obsessively early for early services. We quickly discovered that we could get one of the two-fer pews in the back of the sanctuary which worked well for my getting out and up to the kids quickly and thrilled mom. Fast forward a couple of years.

Mom is gone and I am now attending services on my own. I will not make Mike come just to keep me company, after all, worship is a personal thing.

The first year, I sat alone in the sanctuary and quickly realized why Mom always wanted company. I missed the little exchanges we would have before services started and during a "break" in the action. We were always respectful but one can communicate a lot with a look and jab at a particular passage in the prayer book. After mentioning this to friends, they suggested I join them in the auditorium.

This is where I discovered the most social of congregants to be gathering. There was almost non-stop movement and whispering here. Still, it did not really bother me, I had friends to make my silly asides to and to laugh or groan with during the Rabbi's sermon (he sometimes makes bad jokes). When I asked Mike why Mom would never let us sit there, as I could see just fine, even from the very back, he said she hated the more social aspect of it. Fair enough.

This year I was asked to usher. Ushers, it turns out, are vital in our huge congregation. Not so much at the start of the service when those who are on time show up, but rather when the vast numbers of latecomers arrive. And I mean vast. All wanting seats together. Even when they are over an hour late. No kidding.

Squidette joined me, as the youngest usher ever, in the balcony. We handed out prayer books and found seats for people. We collected the Annual Appeal (formerly known as the Yom Kippor appeal) envelopes and were generally busy for the entire service.

Did I actually get any personal worship in? Nope. But I got much more out of "working" the service then I ever got sitting in it. I spent quality time with my daughter and provided a necessary service. Yup, it was a good New Year. We think we'll volunteer for Yom Kippor ushering.

A Happy and Healthy New Year for those celebrating this week. L'shana Tova