Full Storage

Just went to post the photos from today's trip to Monkey Park with the Kid, and Blogger said that I have reached the free storage capacity in Picasa. Could someone please tell me what to do next? Can I just delete my old stuff from Picasa? To tell you the truth, I didn't even know about this "product" as the Blogger calls it...

I can't upload even a single picture.

Help!!!

Just Before the Ceasefire

Just wrote the word "ceasefire" that we're supposed to be having since 9 p.m. And the siren went off. And it's 10:39 p.m. Ceasefire - shmeasefire!!!!

 

Anyway, this is Boomer in the bomb room, waiting for the siren to stop. The picture was taken before 9 p.m.

 

The name of this post should be "Ceasefire My Ass".
We'll see what happens overnight.

45 Seconds to Hide

So it's day seven of the "Pillar of Defence" and we're still waiting to see what's going to happen. The sirens have been blaring everyday, though less often now. I'll try and show you what we do.

First of all, we hear the siren. A very soothing pleasant sound. Since I came to Israel, this is war number four. The Gulf war, the Lebanon 2, operation "Cast Lead" and now "Pillar of Defence". Well, Lebanon 2 was up North and we didn't get the sirens in the South, but still, it was nerve racking.

 

So, we hear the siren (hope the video works. I believe the lines that you see in the sky are trails of Iron Dome rockets).

 

 

 The siren means that we have 45 seconds to go and hide in the shelter. We are lucky that "the bomb room" is inside the apartment. We are on the top floor, my parents downstairs. So we have to go down these stairs.

From the bottom of the stairs we go across to my parents' bedroom.

This is the reinforced room with a heavy door that is our bomb shelter.

 

Of course, my parents turned that room into a walk-in closet.

So we don't have much room in there. The Kid, my Mom, myself and the dog - and it's crowded. My Dad doesn't hide. He is a fatalist I guess.

The door locks from the inside with these latches. There is an old-style (not cordless) phone on the wall that always works.

Even when it's quiet you're always listening for that siren. And if it's been quiet for too long, you feel like "I wish it came and gone already". I'm not the sort of person to panic, I don't get hysterical and start flapping about all over the place. But there is always a feeling in your gut "what if".

Anyway, they say it's going to be a decisive day today whether they agree on ceasefire or not. We'll see. In the meantime the Ki

Sorry, we just had another one. I'm not being dramatic, I really stopped typing and didn't finish the word. I was going to say that the Kid is at home, not doing much, and it's a pain for him, and I can't really concentrate on my translations either.

Read one of my fave blogs last night. The latest post ended with a question: And how was your weekend? I thought of writing a comment but then decided not to spoil  the mood.

Again

Here I was, organizing my winter booties, boots and shoes, lining them up in my eternally unfinished shoe-closet. Hey, at least I have a shoe-closet as opposed to stacking boxes wherever I can. Now I can stack them in the shoe-closet.

 

Anyway, here is the shoe and bootie wall.

 



And some of my tall boots came out of storage as well.

Out came the trenches, the blazers, the long-sleeved shirts and dresses and my faux fur Zara vest.

And then the operation in Gaza began. No school for the Kid, air-raid sirens pretty much every hour or so, non-stop news on TV. That's how we spent the last two days. I tried to upload a little video of certain bright flashes in the sky that I filmed while walking the dog, but it didn't work (the Blogger froze). Not much of a movie, just two flashes and then two loud "booms" sometime later. Oh well, anyone can see and hear this stuff on TV.

You can kind of get used to the sirens during daytime, but when they wake you up in the middle of the night it's usually a shocker. I jump up and run to the Kid even before I wake up.

So I might have slightly OD'd on ice-cream tonight. I got on my scale this morning and saw that I've lost 5 kg since I started my "healthy eating plan" that is low-everything diet. I still have quite a way to go but I already feel better and I'm determined to go on. So tonight's ice-cream was my once-a-week indulgence. I'm hoping to lose another
5 kg and then work on maintaining my lower weight. Otherwise I'll have to buy a whole new wardrobe, and who's got money for that in this economy? Happened to be at H&M yesterday, the whole store was 50% off the second item, and what did I buy? A thin light brown belt, leather but cheap. That's all.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Hope there'll be no sirens at night and we all can sleep like normal people.

Thank You, Rain

Rainy weather continued until yesterday and I was finally able to wear stuff I never wore before. Well, some of it. Like this dress and blazer.

 

I wore this for my cousin's birthday dinner. My shoes matched the dress and I added the blazer for "the pop of color" as they say. And I wore my newly found skin tone fishnet tights that I found at the Accessorize shop (Amber, thank you for the tip). Amber said that she always buys the single pack but they didn't have the single and I got the double. I'd like the tights to be a little lighter but hey, I'm grateful for what I could find.

My horse necklace made another appearance and everybody liked it.

Next day the rain continued and I could finally wear these H&M pants that every fashion blogger out there seems to have as well. No fancy footwear (dry feet somehow felt more important).

Went with all black and an orange purse.

And this Zara scratchy heavy necklace that I love anyway.

This has been my big clothing adventure.
The weather has warmed up since then but it's definitely jeans temperature. I'm happy!

Dream Come True

Ever since I read the Brooklyn Blonde's post "A Camel and Red Roundup" all I could think about was wearing my camel Mango blazer with a red top. But it was too hot for a blazer, so I had to be patient and wait. And then, today, at 7 a.m. the skies finally opened and it rained. And the heat was gone, just like that. See, the autumn here in Israel is extremely short, almost non-existent, the summer pretty much turns into winter. It's raining right now, the wind is howling, and I had to pull my winter tracksuit bottoms out of storage to walk the dog.

 

Anyway, today I finally wore my camel blazer with my ancient but still vibrant red top (sleeveless, it's not that cold yet) with boyfriend jeans and suede booties (from Mango as well).

 

Had to return iguana dry food that I bought for Norman, but he refused to even look at it. He loves his salad. So I drove to the mall, got my money back, picked up my gray Nine West pumps from the cobblers (toe-box stretching) and drove back home. Told my husband that for the first time in my life I left the mall with more money in the wallet than what I had coming in.

I love the booties, they are comfortable and stylish, I appreciate them not looking like cowboy boots (been there done that). And I dared to wear them with the boyfriend jeans, skin above the boots showing and all. Not exactly your best leg-lengthening technique.

Going to my cousin's birthday dinner tomorrow. Maybe I'll wear a dress that I bought in September but haven't worn yet. Maybe I'll pair it with my fuchsia H&M blazer that I haven't worn yet. We'll see if the weather keeps cool.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

The Cat and the Lizard Update (again)

Due to the lack of fashion photos I bring you the animal update.

 

First of all, here is Norman. He is so obviously posing for me! So full of himself. Giving everybody the stink-eye.

 

But he is not too proud here. Being hunted is not much fun. I always drag Snooker away if I see him near the cage. But today I just had to take their picture first.



"Help!"

 

If you look closer, you'll see that Snooker has a scratch under his eye. Another run-in with the neighbors' cat... Not so boring life in the boonies.