Christopher Reeve died at age 52. His visit to Israel in the summer of 2003 was very impressive. His contribution to raising the awareness of spinal cord research was invaluable. (His picture was on all the channels and in all the papers.)

Keith "Nugget" Miller has died at age 84. The end of a cricketing legend, probably Australia's greatest all-rounder. (No apparent recognition on Israeli TV or newspapers. Maybe he didn't make a trip to Israel.) A cultural icon.

2 Supermen who will be sorely missed.

It's been a long busy time since I wrote last. Rosh HaShana (Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur (Day of Repentance) and Succot (Tabernacles) are all past. But I'll try to remember the highlights.

I'm finally at some definition of well. It took until the doctor gave me antibiotics (and changed the diagnosis from URTI to Sinusitis), but I'm definitely better. It meant taking tablets with water on Yom Kippur, something I don't remember doing before. However, my voice for all the Chagim (Holydays) was little better than a croak, so I lost the enjoyment of joining the singing in the synagogue.

Middle of the September the "israeli blogs" web ring was restored to life. Not a lot of life, just a little. I contacted the Israelbloggers group and sent a mass email out to previous members. To say that the response was mild would be to overstate the result. About half of the emails I sent out were returned. Although about 70 people have been to the web site of the group, only a tiny number of people have joined at this stage. To those that joined, I am very thankful. I aim to put more emphasis on establishing the ring now that the Chagim are over.

We've started looking at kitchens. We won't be moving until the kitchen is built and it will take from 2 to 3 months for a kitchen to be completed once the measurements are taken. While we should be able to get the measurements done before we get the key, it may delay our move.

Kitchens are marvelous things now-a-days. They seem to come in 3 types: (real) wood, veneer and formica. Formica and wood are supposed to be tough, veneer is less. Formica is cheapest, wood is the most expensive. Wood expands and contracts like a accordion (which is a problem if there is a panel in a wood frame). Any crevices on the doors are repositories for dust. However, if everything is flat, a line of cupboards look like a wall. Once a cupboard door is "out there", the color of the door changes making matching very difficult. If a straight piece of counter is too long, it looks like a train. Shelves are designed to take a specific weight. Equip your kitchen with special shelf inserts, corner usage ideas and quiet self-closing (when pushed). Add walls, take walls down.

The fashion is that some companies will sell you a kitchen that looks as though it belonged to your grandmother. So it's old even though it's new.

I really want S to be happy with the kitchen. So her needs are a big part in deciding the design. She has a whole page of wants.

To complicate things, even though the house is bigger than our apartment, in some ways it's smaller. There's no hidden storage space like in the apartment (and no storage room either). S wants all the Pesach kitchen stuff, which we have currently stored in various cupboards and in the storage space, in the kitchen. She wants space for electrical appliances, space for the plastic reusable containers, special dividers for the cutlery, 2 sinks (separated if possible), and so on.

I want to know where we will put the bicycles (for easy access) and the suitcases (away until needed). (This doesn't relate to the kitchen, just to the lack of a storage room.)

This Succot I used only palm branches from the tree in the yard for the Schach (cover) of the Succah. Normally I do half (branches) and half (so-called permanent Schach), but this is probably the last year I'll have access to this tree so I went for it all. It looked very nice.

Chol HaMoed Succot (the intermediate days of the festival) was spent mostly looking at furniture and kitchens as well. We haven't signed on a kitchen yet, but we did buy beds for the girls and one for the bomb shelter (for guests). We also bought Little Prince sheets for E. We went to the first time to IKEA. We weren't impressed. Firstly the road to the store was packed, the parking lot was packed and (of course) the store was packed. And then despite the expectation, we didn't buy anything. S saw a good price on a toilet brush, but didn't want to queue to pay for it.

R and E normally go on a scout trip during Chol HaMoed Succot. We gave them a choice: to go on the trip and S and I would decide about their beds and furniture, or to miss the trip, be bored with their parents when we looked at kitchens, but have input on their bed and furniture. They decided to miss the scout trip. (I don't know if I would have at their ages.)

R tried to go up a belt in karate last night, but didn't succeed. She hadn't practiced and they ran out of time. S went to watch her be kicked, but it never got to that stage.