Friday Update, Parshat Emor

For some time now I've been sending out Friday family updates to our friends and family. In only recently occurred to me that this might be a good thing to add to the blog. So here's the first from this week, and we'll see how it goes from there.
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Happy Friday! It is *finally* sunny here, after almost a full week of lousy, rainy weather. I don’t know if it is going to last, but I’m definitely planning on kicking the kids outside to play while the weather permits.

It has been, for all intents and purposes, a fairly uneventful, standard week for all of us. So there isn’t much to report. I am continuing to plan my trip to Europe—just this week I purchased my last plane ticket, this one from Milan to London. Now its time to work out all the various details—the latest being where I am going to be for Shabbat while in the UK. I was going to stay in London, but I just received an invitation from a friend to spend the weekend in Cambridge, so I will more than likely do that once I work out the details.

For my first Shabbat, I will be in Vencie with a good friend who will also be there (for a different conference). The kids are very excited about this, especially since Zoë recently received Olivia Goes to Venice from her Bubbe and Zayde Rabba. In recognition of that, Zoë has informed me that I should get a picture with Olivia if I see her there. (The conversation was a little strange in the beginning, when she asked me “are there pigs in Venice?” out of the blue. It took a few more questions to determine she was talking about Olivia and not questioning the animal make-up of the city, lol.) Also, since Olivia and her family eat lots of gelato in the book, I was informed that for dessert this week I was going to make gelato. (Zoë and JR both requested I bring some back from Venice, but after nixing that, this was their next best solution.)

On Sunday HaSafran took the Z girl and visited the local farmers market for the first time this season. While there wasn’t a lot of produce yet, they had a lovely time, and HaSafran found where he could get jicama when it is in season, something he hasn’t been able to find since we moved here.

Otherwise, it’s been a very mellow, and, well, typical week for us. Here's wishing everyone a beautiful weekend full of sunshine!