Cliff Notes Version

of the weekend, since, I cannot possibly measure up to The Possum Car Trip from Purgatory.

Thursday, as I might have mentioned, was the Fast of Esther, and I have never fasted well. This one went OK, but it kinda screwed up my digestive system. Friday itself was Purim, the commemoration of the story related in the Book of Esther. Follows the usual pattern of "They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat." One of the key commandments for the day is to hear the Book read, and to accomodate mine & the Mrs.' needs on that score, I went to a 5:30 AM service. Quick & to the point, but I was on little enough sleep as it was.

Mrs. went, sans kiddies, at 7:30. The rest of the morning was a blur of taking the kids to a later reading (they're not obligated, but we figured they should get the flavor) and delivering food gifts to various folks. The commandment itself is to deliver two types of food to one person. Over the years this has gotten blown so far out of proportion that there are entire companies set up to handle it. I've given up on getting baskets to everyone I know, and I'm certainly not filling them up with tons of processed crap.

Fortunately, both of our local synagogues have developed methods of covering everybody. You pay as you go, and every participant gets ONE basket. It's usually overfilled, but you get one instead of thirty or sixty or whatever. We made about 15 others to deliver to non-participating types, and included: 1 orange; 2 twizzlers; one bag homemade choc. chip cookies; one bag homemade fudge. As my man Tony Kornheiser would say, "That's it, that's the list"

We head off to my brothers for the festive meal, which was fun. Friday Purim can be a bit of a problem, as Shabbos still has to happen, but we got it all worked out. We did come home to two issues. First, the kids fell asleep in the car. Naps are a thing of the past for both kids, but they really could use the extra sleep. So we left them in the car with the Mrs, and I went out to get the last things we needed from the store. The second issue was the avalanche of boxes sitting on the porch, filled with goodies. I, naturally, have no self-control, so there was much sugar consumed.

The rest of the weekend was normalish. Lunch with friends on Saturday went from noon to almost 5 PM (not solidly eating, but a lot of schmoozing), which led to our dinner plans with other friends. Watched the Incredibles with the Mrs. on Saturday night, followed by a Sunday replete with birthday parties and laundry and cleaning. Spiderman 2 on the DVD Sunday nite, collapse into bed.

Since tomorrow AM is the second of my three root-canal visits, I do not expect to be too cheerful tomorrow. Can you blog if you're face is numb? I guess we'll find out tomorrow.