Guess what I realized?

Tamar's Corner turned one year old this week! Happy Birthday to my blog! Yes, I know that was cheesy. Anyway, I missed the actual birthday, which was on the first day of Chol Hamoed. I started it that day because I wanted to do something to cheer myself up after being annoyed at my father for buying a guinea pig. That's ironic, because the saga of our pigs ended (almost) this week too.
Now that I'm on the subject of the piggies, I should wrap it up. So here we go:
First there was Lucy. I don't really know where that name came from, if it was originally Lucy as in I Love Lucy or not. In any case, it was Lucy, and the woman who worked in the pet store said she was pregnant. We were told that guinea pigs are happier with company, but if we were expecting babies, we weren't exactly about to buy two of them. And when the babies came, we'd figure out what to do with them.
The babies never came. Apparently Lucy wasn't really pregnant.
So we got another pig. We made sure to get another female so we wouldn't have to deal with guinea piglets, and it was obvious to all of us that her name was Ethel.
A few months later, three guinea piglets appeared in Lucy and Ethel's cage. By the next morning, there were only two. Now, six months later, the third one is still classified as missing, but we have our ideas about what happened to it. When they were old enough, my father took the two remaining babies to the pet store and got a credit.
It looked like Ethel was the mother, but we really didn't know. And then it happened again, when I was already in the U.S. Another baby appeared.
Now by this point, my mother, never much of an animal girl, had been lobbying for my father to get rid of the pigs for awhile. Probably about as long as we'd had Lucy, I'd say. She argued that they smell, they make a mess, and they have unwanted babies. She had all of her daughters behind her.
It was therefore decided that Lucy had to go, because, as my mother said, "He fathered too many children." The way I see it, that's quite an accomplishment for someone named Lucy. They couldn't take her back to the store, of course, so they gave her to Ein Yael, this "living museum" place with a petting zoo.
When the rest of my family went to America, they gave Ethel and the latest baby to the neighbors to watch. When we came home, with no intentions of getting rid of either one of them right now, we decided they both needed new names. The baby never had a name, and Ethel was quite weird without Lucy.
Since we'd just been in England, and we'd taken the Tube a lot while we were there so we knew all the names of the lines, we named Ethel Piccadilly and her kid Bakerloo after our favorites.
After that came the biggest surprise. Another baby. I need to point out that Piccadilly is both this kid's mother and grandmother, to put it mildly. I can also say that this kid is its own nephew/niece, but I think I should stop there.
So that latest development, plus the horrible stink, the mess and the fact that my sister Mira claims to be allergic to them (and I believe her, because I'd rather not have them) my father finally gave in and decided to get rid of them.
He took them to Ein Yael, only to get a call from them later that day, where they told him they actually don't want them. Then he posted on the Efrat e-mail list, and someone said they want them. He gave them Piccadilly and Bakerloo this past Motzai Chag, and then he gave them the baby because it's not done nursing yet. When it's done, we may give it to a cousin of ours who was at our house during the Chag, who said he wants it.
Wow, that was a long story. The point is, we have no more piggies in the house. I wouldn't reccommend them to anyone, but that's just my opinion. We're still celebrating the end of the era.
And my blog is one year old, but I don't think Ein Yael wants it either...

PotterCast II

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Hey Potter People!
Let's see how much more I can write about this amazing podcast. See, this contest we're not talking about is still going on, so I get to rave more. First of all, have I mentioned that PotterCast won Best Entertainment at the 2006 Podcast Awards? I think I didn't, so that's another very good reason to listen to the trio. That just goes to show you that I'm not the only crazy one who listens to PC- we fans did the voting, and we did a wonderful job. Actually, those of us who listen aren't crazy at all. Or maybe we are, but think of how much fun it would be to join us? It's fun being crazy... but back on topic. PC has tons of fans- check this out. Not one of my regular websites, but it's worth mentioning. Not only that, but PC has tons of videos- some made by fans and some made by the trio themselves- on YouTube. I really discovered those videos only last night (I'd heard of them before but I never bothered to look at them) but they're awesome! Just another way to show how many fans this podcast has.
Anyway, last week Melissa shared with those of us who read the PotterCast Blog, that she's very annoyed because a lot of people spell PotterCast with a small C, which is simply unacceptable. Well, not really, but let me just clarify this: It's PotterCast, not Pottercast, people. I was supposed to blog about this last week, but I didn't get a chance.
The topic they want us to tell you PC-ignoramuses about this week is how we listen to it. Get this, it's so easy. I listen to PC on iTunes. I have no idea how it works on the other podcast catchers, but with iTunes you subscribe once, and then every time there's a new episode it downloads automatically- and let me repeat that it's free. So the new episode downloads onto my iTunes, I listen the first chance I get, and if I don't get a chance I download it onto my iPod and listen on the way home from school or wherever I happen to be. See, it's so easy. Now I don't do this, but there's also the option of downloading each episode by itself. And over the summer, when I was in the US at Savta's house, she didn't have iTunes on her computer and I wasn't going to download all the episodes onto her computer, I listened online. At PotterCast's site, there's a handy "Listen Now" button, which opens a player that plays PC online- similar to the player on my blog.
So that's how I listen to PC. I highly reccommend that you do the same. Or listen differently, if that's what you prefer. Just listen.
By the way, if by any chance anyone who reads my blog started listening to PC because of these posts, I'd love to know! I'd be thrilled, so please share that with me.
Now go listen!
Edit: In praise of the PotterCast Blog Challenge, I just had to mention that I really just realized right now that PC is none other than my favorite podcast. If there was one podcast I really look forward to every week, that really makes my week- definitely PC. I love MuggleCast, I love (in a very different way) the Sameach Music Podcast (Sameach Music is the company that releases most of the Jewish music I like, and their podcast previews it) and most of the other podcasts I listen to, but PC is definitely the best. Anyway, I heard about this blog challenge, and I would really have no problem raving about PC anyway, because I always knew I loved it. It was only when I thought about what I was writing that I realized how much I loved it. So thanks, for that, PotterCasters! Now let's just hope MuggleCast doesn't do a similar blog challenge, or I'll be in trouble... What's ironic is that I've been listening to MC for so much longer and I actually found out about PC from there...

Hey, how's it going?

Chag Sameach! Our first Chag was very nice. The sukkah came out beautiful, and we had a great time in it. We've been doing the usual Chol Hamoed stuff- hikes and the rest. Savta's coming tomorrow afternoon Be'ezrat Hashem so we'll have some fun with her.
I'm trying to think what else has been going on. I don't remember exactly when my last post was...
Anyway, I've been writing a lot lately, I'm cooking up a story and I hope it turns out good. But in any case it won't be turning out anything for quite awhile.
Have a good week and a Chag Sameach, and don't forget to listen to PotterCast!

PotterCast

Click here for episodes and info; click here to subscribe via iTunes, and click here to use this player on your space and win prizes!

OK, so I really don't know if any of you are Harry Potter fans, but if any of you have the slightest interest in the books (and have preferably read all of them) you must must MUST listen to PotterCast.
PotterCast is "the official podcast of the Leaky Cauldron", which is one of the best Harry Potter fansites on the web. It's quite hysterical and hosted by the wonderful trio of Melissa Anelli, John Noe and Sue Upton. Melissa is awesome, John will crack you up, and Sue is so adorable! Not to mention that they have a great Harry Potter discussion every week.
Oh, and for those of you who don't know:
"A podcast is a pre-taped radio show that you listen to at your leisure - whether at your desk, in your car, in your music player on a jog - whatever you like. We make it and upload it; you subscribe to a service that automatically downloads it onto your favorite or just on your computer, and listen whenever and wherever you want! (If you want to learn more, visit Wikipedia.)" (Thank you, pottercast.com!)
PotterCast is one half of the "Leaky Mug", which is a joint podcast with MuggleCast, which is also an awesome podcast representing MuggleNet, another one of the best HP sites. My personal favorite thing about the Leaky Mugs is their live shows, which they often do after some big HP event. Those two great podcasts combined creats something spectacular. Just one more reason to check out PotterCast.
You can listen to it by clicking on the play button on the PotterCast logo to the left of these posts, by subscribing to it from a podcast catcher such as iTunes, iPodder and Odeo, or by downloading each show. You can listen to it on an iPod or an MP3 player, and, oh, and it's free!
Now, of course you all know I'm only telling you this so you'll listen to PC and have a great time, but there is another very irrelevant bit of information that PC is giving out prizes to people who promote it on their website, blog, MySpace, etc. But that's really not important.

Update (and I'm dropping the weekly...)

Actually, there's not much going on right now. They're starting to talk to us about Sherut Leumi at school, my driving lessons are slowly getting better, and on Sunday we had a cool activity with the 9th graders.
Shana Tova! Ktiva V'Chatima Tova!

Belated Update

• On Thursday night, we had an all-night trip in the desert with school. It was pretty awesome, and I should just mention that we saw a shooting star and got back jet-lagged.
• I had a driving lesson today, and it wasn't horrible. The good news, which may acutally be bad news, is I'm not switching to automatic...

I think there's not much else to say. Have a good rest of the week!

I'm trying something

Ignore this picture. Or, you can look at it and gush about how cute the Potter trio used to be.







Edit: I'm trying something else. Don't mind me.






OK, this post is going to become the post from which I upload everything I need onto the internet.









Another test:

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