Big City Lights

This week I had to work in our Ashdod branch for one of the girls who is moving house and asked me to substitute. (I normally work in Rehovot, if you're familiar with our geography). I like that office, love the change and the fact that I feel like a guest (or a housewife in someone else's kitchen). Work turns into play, no major decisions, no big responsibility.

I wore all black again. But with silver accents this time. Photo taken in my walk-in closet, it's messy but functional. I finally bought a wall-mounted fan to get more floor space (lifting that ancient thing to sweep under it was a real pain).

Look, I'm all matchy-matchy with the pants and the flats!

After work I didn't go down to the parking garage but decided to go outside and check out the progress of construction of the new square. I was pleasantly surprised. It looked really nice with all the lighting and new restaurants. This is "Black Bar'n'Burger". Will have to go there one night.

A passage way between two buildings. Doesn't look like much in the daytime, but now with lights reflections on the tiles it looked nice.

The construction is still going on, but it has moved way up. That's going to be a tall one.

A shot of a shopping mall taken from the car (I stopped at the red light). An ugly building, but inside they have the MAC boutique which I visited the very next day, more on that later. Pardon my dirty windshield.

And this is my town. It's 8 pm and the streets are almost empty. I guess we live in a bedroom community. It's not an upscale town by any stretch. Looks better in the dark as well, you can't see lots of things that spoil the view...

Living in a dirty and unkempt town is a problem. We have raised this questions numerous times with the municipality, some things have been done. I'm afraid it's the mentality, paraphrasing Mad TV show that we used to watch in Canada years ago, this is a "lowered expectations" place. Two years ago I spent 10 days in Paris and coming back was a real shocker for me. Oh well, trying to be happy with what I've got.

Fox Tail

This week I've been dressing for comfort. The shopping mall where I work decided to charge us for parking. I decided that I go there to work and make money, not throw it away on stupid things (I have enough "smart" purchases on my list, thank you!) It all started this week, so I've been parking on the neighboring streets and walking to work which included jumping over things and wading through gravel and sand. Hence no heels.

I took these pictures on Tuesday, and on Tuesdays I work from 8 am till 7 pm. It's a lo-o-o-ong day. But I was very comfortable in my skinny jeans and the oh so fashionable camel color tunic.


This tunic has a built in scarf. You can take it off but why would you? I think it's the best part.

And now I'm going to show you my childish side. What is this hanging off the bag? Is it Snooker's little brother? He certainly thinks it is and I have to hide it inside the bag when at home.

Everyone on the fashion internet was boasting vintage rabbit feet and fox tails, so I had to follow suit. I went on ebay. Everyone wanted to sell me A REAL FOX TAIL! I'm not a PETA activist, but sporting a real fox tail seemed a bit nasty to me. Overkill so to speak. In the end I managed to find this faux-fox-tail. Look, it even has cute little face and ears!

Here is a shot of my bag and a shoe (also an ebay find, Elie Tahari, comfortable 24-hour shoes). They match the bag perfectlywhich is a total accident.

Working 11-hour days you need something sweet to pick you up. At least I do. I try not to overdo the sweets, but this sweet cheese and apple tart was calling my name. Add a nice cup of latte and you're set for the day. Pardon the table setting. I was alone at the office and didn't fancy washing up. But I used a real spoon!

After such a long day I return home absolutely brain-dead. Hundreds of phone calls will do that to a girl. By the way, I don't like talking on the phone. How did I end up with this job where people are constantly calling for appointments?

And who greeted me at home? Scooby Do!!!!

This is a TV shot from "Scooby Do and the Samurai Sword". Kid can watch it 15 times a day. We have it recorded on Yes Max (local equivalent of Tivo or something like that). I love Shaggy and Scooby. "No mind is easy for us, our minds are always empty". Zoiks!

Oh The Silliness

Cats are fun. They are cuddly, sweet, nasty, playful, fluffy, demonic, smart, dumb... You get my drift. Look at this guy for example. He showed up at my doorstep about a year ago, asked to come inside, purred and licked my fingers. Since then he managed to enslave all of us and scare the crap out of 88 lbs dog. Snooker is the King of the Castle. Look at him lounging about posing for the camera.





The other day I heard his miaow and went to see what's going on. I finally looked up and what did I see?

This is the view from our balcony. The balcony is on the 3rd floor (I'm calling the ground floor first). So the roof would be the fourth. I'm standing under the newly constructed pergola that you can't see. Snooker is checking out the gutter where pigeons like to sit.

Then I heard a loud "boom". He landed on the pergola roof. Ran around there for some time. The husband left a gap between the roof edge and the wall for the hot air to escape. The main roof overhangs a bit so we're protected from the rain. The pergola is made of painted metal sheets.

After that Snooker went to the farthest outward corner of the pergola, twisted his body in an unthinkable way and jumped on the balcony floor. I didn't take that picture because I was hyperventilating and panicking that I was about to go scrape his body from the asphalt below.

I can just hope that he won't do it in the rain, the metal sheets would be slippery.

And what was Boomer doing all this time? Here is a glimpse from the "gallery" floor.

You can always rely on the dog to do the right thing.

Is this going to be a cat and dog blog? More material stuff next time.

The Coolest Find

Sometimes I feel like dressing in head-to-toe black. It helps me feel put together. Plus the weather cooled down just enough to wear a scarf (my neck was hot but I survived). I have lots of scarves but don't wear them enough.

Took my picture in the usual room at work, played with the camera to get a full length shot and in the process discovered that I'm much happier with the picture if I cut off my head. Headless photos are the way to go.

These are my bow-ballerinas. Bought them on sale at Max Moretti, wore them a couple of times, ran out of band-aids and took the shoes to be stretched. What a difference for just 5 bucks!

On the way home I stopped at the second-hand store in town. Shopping there is not exactly thrifting, the prices can be high, but they have some interesting stuff. My friend always buys dishes, cutlery and pictures. I, on the other hand, always check out clothes and accessories. And this time I struck gold. Look what was waiting for me in the shop!

A brand new leather purse by Ferragamo! With the packing tissue paper still inside. Apparently an English lady that lives in Israel received it as a gift (nice!) but it was not her style. Lucky me!

The bag is quite slim but I filled it up with my stuff in the store and it kept it's shape and still looked elegant.

I came home and bragged to my husband. He asked how much. I confessed. So he goes: "It's an investment. You'll have this purse till the day you die and you can even get buried with it if you want". I love his sense of humor!

So I took another picture of the bag amongst other pretty things. Then I put a dust-bag over it and hid it in the closet. That's where lots of things end up...

Hello Again!

Hi, it's me again.

Just coming out of hibernation that started at the end of April. Why did I stop writing? Lost inspiration, did not enjoy looking at my own pictures anymore, etc etc...

I missed blogging though. Seeing something unusual at work or in the street I often thought "It would be fun to write about it". But I never did. Guess I've always been "a reader, not a writer". But I kept reading my favourite blogs every day, so I know what you all been up to!!!

What happened during my hiatus? In more or less chronological order:

-I lost some weight... and then promptly gained it back.

-I had to bid farewell to my kitty Skanky - she started peeing all over my mother's furniture ( it came down to choosing between Mom and Cat, and the choice was obvious). We found Skanky a new home in a moshav nearby (the guy has a garden and said that she is welcome to pee wherever she wants outside).

-This has been the HOTTEST summer ever. October is almost over and still it's HOT HOT HOT.

Boomer spent the summer doing this:

And Snooker was not far behind:

All fashion sense pretty much went out the window. The skimpier the better. Some people had A\C 24 hours a day. I'm not that rich so we had fans. Lots of fans. One of them broke. I better stop now, it's a very sensitive subject for me (HATE HEAT. HATE SWEAT. Want to move to the North Pole. Or back to Canada!!!)

Anyway, happy to be here again. Will post some outfit photos soon. As fab FF once said, this is not a blog about world peace, people!