That hit the spot, II

In a few weeks I head back to Afghanistan.  Now I'm not saying anyone stole the last nine months from me, I'm just saying a minute ago I had them and now they're gone.  I checked under the bed, between the couch cushions and in the fridge.  Nada.  So if you did take them, just leave them on my welcome mat and ring the doorbell.  No questions asked. 

If you don't, the man with the mustache will get you.

Ok I exaggerate.  I did have some fun, got to do some living, met some new people.  Most importantly, since my last post I've collected an additional sister and nephew.  I was actually shopping for a great-aunt but some lady pepper-sprayed me in line and took the last one.

Confession: it seems I'm a lot more of a family man than I realized, especially for a single guy.  Usually I'm rolling my eyes back to my brain stem as you (agonizingly slowly) flip through 2348923 pictures of your new baby niece.  Turns out, it's just your family that's boring.  Mine is adorable.  So yes, I showed a picture of the newest M to some friends.  A picture.  One.  That's how it's done folks: Isn't he cute?  Yes.  Thanks, go back to your crossword.

HOWEVER.  This blog is a voluntary undertaking.  If you're reading this you've chosen to set aside the sodoku/knitting/SVU marathon.  So here I'm going to post more than one pic.  A lot more than one.  You've been warned.

First came the baby.  His name is...redacted, like all names in my online paranoia.  But his initials are ALM.  The original LM was this baby's father's father's father's father, who died at Auschwitz.  ALM was born on 22 Dec 2011, 7lb 11 oz, of which 2lb 8oz was hair.  See for yourself:

Seriously.  Am I just biased or is he the cutest baby ever?

 Exhibit B

Uhh...now what.

They'll love him no matter what.  If he does drugs, steals purses, drinks expired milk.
  Just as long as he doesn't go to Auburn.

 

Family's first Hanukkah

 

Mamma

 

Daddy 

 

Saba (Grandpa)

Family

More family

Brit Milah

Just three days after ALM was born, E and R got married in Israel.  I haven't seen all the professional pics yet but I do have some to show you (mostly stolen from NS' FB page - thanks!).  First though, a little story.

After the men finish signing/witnessing/haggling over the ketubah, we dance our way into the main hall.  E greets his bride and then they go to the chuppah.  There, in a last minute decision, R follows an ancient Jewish custom and circles E seven times.  I hope one of the photographers captured the moment.  E has his eyes closed, head down and looks like he's in the direct presence of G-d.  R is slowly walking around him with her head bowed.  A musician is playing a mournful Jewish tune on the oboe (even in joy Jews never forget our tragedies) and my mother is bawling.  It was the most beautiful moment I've ever witnessed.

Ok enough about that.  Here are the pics.  I told you my family is adorable.  Judge for yourself.

The groom

Anyone know a good chiropractor?

The bride and the moms

No escape for the groom

Under the Chuppah

Unisex dancing.  Not as bad as I expected.

Notwithstanding all the celebrations (and preparatory house work) I did also get to do some traveling.  I had three main goals: spend more time in Jerusalem, visit Masada (finally), and do some hiking in the north.  Went three-for-three.

We started with a trip to the City of David - original, pre-Temple Jerusalem.  They are excavating sites there that are nearly 4,000 years old, some of which we got to walk through.

City of David, as it looked a year ago during my R&R

Excavating ancient ruins

 Click on the pic and read the inscription.  Fascinating.

 The view on exiting the ancient aqueduct.  What you see here is the Arab neighborhood, an avalanche of litter, and in the top left the 3000 year old Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.  Draw your own conclusions. 

 Outside the Zion Gate.

Then we tooled around Jerusalem for a bit and ran some pre-wedding errands for the groom.

I never did understand fashion...
 

No really.  No left turn.

No really.  We're a café.

And people seriously wonder why I was always getting lost in Jerusalem.

 The ugly (imho) new bridge in central J'lem

Making it look good.

Converting Shekels/Liter to $/Gallon, I think this comes to just under a grand.

A few days after Jerusalem I finally got to Masada, upon which stands an ancient fortress built by King Herod (who also expanded the Second Temple and built many of the ruins visible at Caesarea as you might remember from my last visit).  About a century after King Herod, Jews fleeing the Romans following the sacking of Jerusalem and destruction of the Second Temple made their final stand at Masada and famously committed mass suicide rather than surrender and become slaves.

Aside: I'm currently reading a novel, The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, that is set in this period.  I give it 3.5 stars so far, but it's fascinating to follow the main character as she describes passageways and storerooms that I stood in a only few weeks ago, 2,000 years after she would have lived. 

Anyway, Masada continues to play an important role in the modern Jewish concept of self-defense.  Here's a good article if you want to read more. 

The night before Masada, we camped out at a nearby campground whose name I've forgotten.

Lighting the second candle

 My cousin's Judeo-modern art

 My cousin

Our camp site

Sunrise over the Dead Sea, from our camp site

The Negev desert.  Greenhouses on both sides of the road.

We hiked up the Snake Trail, which is moderately strenuous though Israelis tend to make a much bigger deal out of it than it is.

The Snake Trail

Part-way up.  Dead Sea in the distance.

The view from the top.  The square near the bottom is the ruins of one of several Roman base camps, from which they laid siege to Masada in 72 CE.

Storerooms

The raised floor used to heat the bath house

Herod's Palace

Ramp used by the Romans to take Masada

Ruins of the main Roman garrison

One of the Roman walls up close

In the distance, IDF CH-53Es conducting exercises.  Better them than me.

I believe we did that trip on a Thursday.  Sunday was my brother's wedding.   On Tuesday morning we returned to Jerusalem with the newlyweds for a truly remarkable tour of the excavated tunnels at the Western Wall.  Big thanks to E's father-in-law for making that happen on short notice.

Entering the tunnels

Looking straight down at some deeper excavation

Model of the Second Temple.  Only about the nearest third of the Western (left-most) wall is visible (outdoors) today, but the rest still exists...

A new family in an old place

Original Kotel stones on the right.  Original dad on the left.

 

Ancient stone quarrying

These ancient cisterns still trap water that drips from the limestone. 
Here's an unexpectedly interesting article I found on this history of Jerusalem plumbing.

Back in daylight in the Old City

Dad at the southwest corner of the Kotel

Man on a mission
 

Finally, the day before I left we got in a quick hike up north, at a place called...

 Prehistoric caves
  

The new bride has a new pet

Bride and groom praying at sunset

Snow-capped Mt. Hermon
 

Well that pretty much wraps up the last month or so.  In the next few weeks I've got to finish (also start) packing up my whole apartment, which by the way looks like this, for those of you who have never gotten to visit:

Living room

Study / guest room

Not pictured: Thermonuclear test facility Perfectly Clean and Organized Bed Room

Then at the end of the month I'm off, expected return around July/August.

I know you just loved scrolling through a million pics of my family.  But as my brother and his wife said:

"Thanks for celebrating with us!"