Saturday

 I can't believe it, on Friday I had time to take things to the post office and FedEx, with a stop at Hu's lunch truck to start off, got back here and listed 25 things that I'd photographed before taking off, and since a lot of them were circuit boards all out of the same gadget the listing went fast. 

Then I had time to go over to Whole Foods and do my shopping for Shabbat, a nice bottle of wine, two bottles of the cheap stuff, roast beef, cucumbers etc. I kept the roast beef cold by wrapping it up with a package of frozen rockfish filets that were decently priced. Plus it's sure cooling down overnight. 

I also had time to drink a bottle of "Space Dust" IPA because why not, I keep getting ads for the stuff, and eat a couple of these gamey tasting No Sugar beef sticks. Looking at the wrappers, they use "beef, beef hearts and beef liver" well OK it's the liver. They're not bad. 

I got over to the service and did my sign in etc. There were lots of people there because there were Bat Mitzva parents there plus a celebration of ... Shomrim students? As far as I can tell, Shomrim is the volunteer quasi-police force places like Crown Hights in NYC have so I dunno. 

I felt kinda bad wearing sweat pants (clothes I'd not feel too bad getting wet in) but one kid had a great Keith Haring sweatshirt on over his woven shirt and there were some pretty casual dressers so it was all good. We got our singing in, I'd brought my glasses, and we did our prayers which I'm slowly learning through sheer osmosis. 

The food afterward was .... just about all candy. There's always cheese, but if I'm going to go right home and eat beef that's not quite on. And there's hummus but that's kind of carb-y especially considering one needs crackers or something to eat it with. 

I actually didn't socialize much other than telling the kid his Keith Haring shirt is great and I had a friend who was really into Keith Haring and was an artist, with a style like his but his own style. The kid's dad said (about Keith Haring) "He's really popular in our house". 

(I actually looked up the old friend and he owns a big liquor store / market / lounge  with a cigar lounge in Central Arizona. Amazing. I suppose I could hit him up for a job or something but then I'd have to live in Central Arizona... ) 

I wanted to get home before the rain started and it was just starting to sprinkle when I took off. I got back here dry and fine. 

Today I was up a bit earlier than usual which is good. The Judaism 101 classes are once a month while the Intro To Judaism are more often than that I think. I'm all signed up but I just need to get a schedule on where to be and when. The classes are all Tuesday nights something like 7-9 PM. And yes they're during the rainy season. I'm serious enough about this thing that I'll just do what it takes to get there and back, even if it means taking a cab or something. 

So we're back to Square 1 on the Torah. I read Bereshit which means "Beginning" then Noach which covers Noah and the flood and the tower of babel and they got their speech scrambled haha. 

And I did a certain amount of geeking out on Brompton bikes. They're really pushing the G model which has the larger, 20" tires at the bike shop and I think it's a great bike but it's also $2500 and counting, whereas the traditional, 16" tire A is maybe $1200 out the door and I want to keep things very simple and basic. Assuming Bromptons are as fun as everyone says they are, my dream line-up would be the A for fun trips, taking it on the bus or train or into a hotel room, and the G for the kind of hauling I do with the cruiser.