Just learned how to link websites. It's scary working with templates. Thank you Steve P. and also the blog help site. Last night and today is Memorial Day for Israel's fallen and again the sirens signal a moment of silence. We were on the balcony last night standing still. It feels silly to do it alone in your home. When you watch tv the sirens sound over there too, so you cannot miss it, no matter how much you crank up the volume. There was nothing on tv but memorials and somber documentaries- but my 14 year old daughter - who is giving me a run for my money was at the police station (as usual) doing what the police officer called "shtuyot". This means "nonsense" in Hebrew - but is used in terms of teens rebel rousing. She and a friend grabbed someone's cellphone and ran with it. I told the officer - she collects these white papers the police station puts into one's file. Unfortunately. Unfortunately the system nor ourselves have been able to deal with her. She hasn't been in school since February. She'd been thrown out of three this year and now my weekly calls to the social workers result in "there's no money for her to go to a boarding school, there's no room in any schools that are suitable for her now". Great. So this is what we have.

After my hike to the police station, I threw off my sandals. My older daughter's Iranian-born boyfriend looked at the way the sandals were strewn on the floor and said from the way it looks I don't know what direction to turn to. He looked at my 14 year old's shoes and said she'll be going on a short trip/outing. What on earth is that? Shoe-ology?

The Jerusalem Municipality has a great link for activities on Israel's Independence Day beginning tonight. Go to: http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/