December already? *Updated **Updated again!

The whole month of November flew by without a post by me, while other bloggers were posting away, sometimes daily. Why was I so negligent, you ask? (Assuming there are any of you still out there.) Well here's what was going on:

1. My fifth blogaversary. If that does not explain why I didn't post during November, you just don't know my logic. If you do know my logic, please explain it to me.**

2. Houseguest #1. She went to New York for what she thought would be two months, and sublet her Tel Aviv flat for two months. She returned two weeks early and needed to crash at various friends'. I was good for six nights. If she'd stayed longer, I wouldn't have known, because each day she left before I awoke and returned after I went to sleep, and my dog knows her and therefore didn't bark to announce her comings or goings.

3. Houseguest #2. She needed a brief R&R from her Stressful Life Up North, and I was please to offer Soup Salon + Shabbat hospitality. Fun trading dog stories.

4. Houseguests #3&4. My nephew and his new bride on their first trip to Israel together, although both of them have been before. I got to meet the bride and reaffirm my belief in God: he had to wait until he was 48 to find his beshert, but he did and so did she! It was fun to introduce her to a local friend I thought would be compatible, and to discover that they both studied flute with the same teachers in Paris and Germany!

5. Houseguest #5. The Lord of the Dascha, come to celebrate Thanksgiving. Although it was a day late and there was no turkey, but there was stuffing (modified Savtadotty logic).

6. Houseguest #6. A toy poodle who is still here and will be returning to her convalescing owner in three more days. The excitement of having a second dog in the house has kept both Shuki and me in a state of heightened awareness for the last two weeks.

7. I discovered the Cafe Alexandria downstairs and spent a lot of time and a little money enjoying their excellent bran bread, antipasti, cookies, and shipudim, not in that order. Many more items on their menu to sample, so I should be spending some more happy hours downstairs this month. Cafe A. is dog-friendly and have free wi-fi, but wrangling two dogs was enough for me without shlepping my laptop too. Hence, no blogging.

8. Knitting many a miniature item to mail in time for Chanuka, which has been done. Completed: American Girl Doll dress, American Girl Doll knee socks, American Girl Doll poncho, American Girl Doll and Canadian Girl owner matching sweaters. That last took a bit of marathon knitting, as Canadian Girl owner is growing at a rapid rate, and her sweater was girls' size 12!

9. Painting in oils. I've completed several paintings, and several others are in progress. In case you didn't know, oil takes a long time to dry, but it is also very forgiving, and a couple of the paintings that I thought were done I decided needed a few more touches. Photos will be posted when I've put the final coat of varnish on...stay tuned, o ye loyal remnant!

* How could I forget this one?
10. Bible study. In a doomed attempt to fill a cavernous gap in my education, I take the occasional course in Torah or something vaguely related, provided sat least some of the instruction is in English. In November I started a class on Isaiah, who seems to be quite the scold. but we're only up to Chapter 6 of book One so I'm hoping I.'s prophecies will be a bit more hopeful as we progress. If it's all stick and no carrot, Isaiah won't make it to my Favorites list, I'm warning you.

** I've found the single word for my logic, but it's only in Hebrew: davka! It works for both examples in this post.