A Round of Applause

I forgot to mention La Bimba's other big breakthrough: she claps her hands. If my neighbor C. is reading this, she is probably thinking, "Oh La Bimba has been clapping her hands forevs." It is true that she had grokked the concept about a month ago, but she was just lightly tapping her fingers together, her hands in an A-frame position, emitting no sound. Now she slams her hands together, full palmar action. You can hear her from the other room! So now when she dances her fabulous shim-sham-shimmy, she alternates between Fosse hands and clapping, her mouth wide open, having a grand old time. Still, I hope she grows up to become an accountant.

During one of the gazillion ultrasounds that my OB did during my pregnancy, we saw La Bimba with her hands together in front of her chest. The doctor said, "She's praying," to which I replied, "No she's not. She's doing that Neapolitan hand gesture that means, 'What do you want from me?' or 'What the hell'd you do that for?'" Here is little visual guide to Neapolitan gestures, hardly comprehensive.

I just downloaded and watched season one of The Office. Steve Carrell is too funny. Really. He is too funny, like it's too much, it's actually painful to watch at times. Can someone in the know let me know if it's worth downloading seasons 2 and 3? Or is it just so much of the same? Do any relationships develop? I still haven't gotten Sky and probably never will, so the occasional iTunes download is my only hope, and the DVDs my mamma brings me from the States. Thanks, mamma!

The chocolate cake I baked the other day came out great. It had yogurt in it. NB: it had yogurt in it. The cake is gone. Next up: yellow cake.



Hey! I am planning a seder at my house on April 2nd, first night of Passover. The Husband is being very unsupportive. I think he is afraid I am becoming religious. Fear not, dear man, that is not going to happen. One of my closest friends from college became an orthodox Jew a couple of years after we graduated. She is now married with, at last count (we're not in touch anymore) four kids, and lives in an orthodox Jewish enclave north of NYC. She did not grow up remotely religious. The last time we spoke she told me she was worried about me because I was making a bad decision being with a non-Jew (she was right about that guy, but his Gentile status had nothing to do with it) and that nothing is inevitable because God decides (this in response to my comments on the situation in Israel/Palestine...I think I said something controversial like, "War is inevitable"). I suppose nothing is ever inevitable, just very very likely.

She and I were great friends, had a lot of naughty fun in college. People change, paths diverge, yarmulkes are crocheted, Jews marry Italians and have little matzoh-pizzas. La Bimba is a delicious matzoh-pizza. Maybe that's what we'll have at the seder: matzoh-pizza! With bitter herb topping!

I printed a Haggadah, the Passover text, in Italian. All the prayers that made me squirm once I understood them now sound great. Here's an example, the 10 plagues: sangue, rane pidocchi, bestie feroci, mortalità, ulcere, grandine, cavallette, oscurità, morte dei primogeniti. Don't they sound pleasant compared to the English: blood, frogs, lice, wild animals, disease, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death of the first born. Boils! Ewwwww. And you're supposed to eat after that? All the wine-drinking is probably to keep your appetite up. Anyway, I am looking forward to my first Italian seder. It won't be kosher and we won't throw out the bread in the house, so it will be just like I remember.