So it's the end of another month. ("So what!" I hear you say.) Well it's the day before school begins (strikes willing). It's the day after I missed my deadlines (hope the vertigo goes away). The Olympics are over. OK, nothing really earth shattering, but I've decided to write today anyway.

All of us visited the new house, to get the dimensions of the rooms. We picked up the room and kitchen drawings, but we forgot to measure the space taken up by the built-in cupboards. The new microwave oven I bought Friday will fit in the kitchen. (We donated the old microwave to R's school for the new Year 7 students to use.) But we'll still need to buy a new this, and a new that, and a new one of the other.

The weekend was quiet, with guests only for Shabbat lunch (HB and her son). Friday night I took a walk with E (the usual walk down to the Eruv line (marks the edge of the permitted carrying area of Rehovot for Shabbat) on the by-pass road). Sunday night I took a walk with R to the new house. Both times were excuses for the girls to talk. But no real deep things were said. Or to put it another way, the under-layer of deepness was not revealed to me. For example, R told me that a certain girl from her school had moved to another school. But it was S who told me that that girl was one of R's friends and that she hadn't returned calls during the summer.

I encouraged both to work on getting the next level of karate belt. R told me that she had to research a type of karate (and doesn't require my help). E told me she has to learn a lot more.

R started school on Sunday, while E goes back tomorrow. While R was suffering from end-of-school-vacation blues, I don't know if she is really happy in school.

S enrolled A in a basketball class (after school, 2 days a week). This will be a follow-up to the basketball camp he went to during summer. If he sticks with the class, it means we will have to buy him a proper basketball and put up a hoop at the new house. As always, it's not that we want him to be a star, it's just good upper-body exercise.

2 buses exploded in Beer Sheba, apparently due to 2 separate suicide attacks. At least 12 dead [1-8-04 16 dead] (86 wounded: 7 serious, 23 moderate, the rest light). First successful suicide bombing since March 14. We cannot stop them all.