That's the way uh-huh uh-huh they like it

I just posted this on my other, funnier blog, but I decided that it would go well here, too. I hope you like it!

There's a new steak place here in Efrat. We like supporting local businesses, and we like eating, so we decided to give it a shot. It's run by a nice enough guy, and the food was pretty good. For six of us ordering, we got two pargiot (boneless dark meat chicken) sandwiches, one hot dog, two hamburgers, and a toasted cold cuts sandwich. That last one was a little unclear, so I asked what it was. The guy said, "you know, like you'd make a toasted cheese sandwich, only with cold cuts instead." My daughter likes cold cuts, and it sounded intriguing, so we agreed that it was a good choice.

Just out of curiosity, how do you all make toasted cheese sandwiches? I know that I take two slices of bread, put some cheese in the middle, and then either 1) fry it up in a pan or 2) stick it in a sandwich maker griddle thing. This was a slightly different experience. This place goes for the sandwich maker, but they don't use sliced bread. Nope - this was a baguette. And a big one, too. It was pretty long to start with, but after it was squashed in the sandwich maker, this was - seriously - a family-sized sandwich. So pretty, and so strange, I just had to take a photo, and here you go:

Just to make it clear, that's a full-sized dinner plate that it's sitting on. Impressive sandwich, don't you think?

Skywatch Sunrise

My dear husband has been getting up at the crack of dawn - literally - for the past week or so. A couple of days ago, he said, "Toby, I know you like sunsets, but you should try sunrises, too! There was a beautiful one this morning." And so, all photographer-like, I decided to get up and try it this morning. Here in Israel we're changing the clocks this weekend, so I knew that if I didn't do it today at 6, I would need to do it next week at 5, and the chances of that happening are slim at best...

Here's what greeted me when I left the house:

By the time I got behind the park for a better view, things had calmed down quite a bit, and I thought maybe I had missed the action. I did find some little trees on a hill that appealed to me, though:

Anyway, about fifteen minutes later, things were getting kind of boring, and I went to check the mail. As I was coming back, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I zoomed back to the spot I had found before, just in time to get this:

 

Which soon developed into this:

It wasn't really that dark - I think that's my camera compensating for the brightness of the sun. Like I said, I'm not actually a photographer, so I'm not sure :) But getting up this morning and pretending was fun!

Check out lots of other sky-oriented photos here. Have a great weekend!

Hazy Trees

I was flipping through my old photos, looking for a nice one to post, and I found this one, from February of 2008. I remember taking this - I was walking by a stretch of land that I've driven past hundreds of times in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem, and suddenly had the opportunity to look down below the road. What a surprise!

Do click on this to enlarge, and get the whole experience :)

What's going on at work?

This is!
My apparently albino African Violet has been going nuts:

So pretty, right? (As always, click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Skywatch - Happy New Year!

Well, this is it - tonight is Rosh HaShana. Ready or not, here it comes!

Here's a sunset taken on our balcony, two nights ago. As winter approaches, it's been getting a lot cloudier, and the sunsets are getting more and more dramatic.

As always, click on the photo to enlarge... and be sure to go here to see more skywatch photos.

See you next year!
;)

A Seasonal Ruby Tuesday

How can you tell that Rosh HaShana, the Jewish New Year, is fast approaching, here in Israel? Easy - just walk into any grocery store, and you'll be greeted by these in the produce section:

A happy and sweet New Year to all!

Don't forget: On Tuesdays, just post any photo you like (it must be one of your own) that contains the color RED and then link to this blog. Happy Ruby Tuesday!

A new meme

I found a cool meme today - it's called 12 Kuvaa (12 Photos). Basically, you're meant to photograph a scene now (between September 1-15), and then take a photo in the same place at the same time of day one month later, and then two months later, and so on for a year. I thought it was a cool idea, and I found it just in time to join, so:


That is the view of our park from my kitchen window, taken at 4:30 this afternoon. Green, with a bunch of kids. We'll see what it looks like in October... stay tuned!

Magenta rubies

I bought a mild mannered plant last summer - it was pretty and green, and seemed to be doing well. Then one day it woke up and did this:


So pretty, right? It radiated joy like that for a few months - what fun!

Don't forget: On Tuesdays, just post any photo you like (it must be one of your own) that contains the color RED and then link to this blog. Happy Ruby Tuesday!

A fast flower

It's been a bit nuts in the past few days - I was hoping to post this yesterday, in time for Today's Flowers. Better late than never?


It's another occasionally-flowering succulent plant on my balcony. As always, click to enlarge - enjoy!

Stripy Skywatch

I'm telling you, I have SO many sunset pictures packed away from the last few years - it makes blogging in time for Skywatch Friday a breeze. Here's a particularly wacky one from this past February - I remember it well! I can't decide which photo I like better, so I'm including both.



Happy Skywatch Friday, everyone - click here for more cool sky-related photos!