Back in the Mercaz

On the road again: Today I find myself up at 5:15 and out the door by 6:15. It is yet another training session with one of my favorite customers, a large high-tech company in the mercaz (center of the country). Their facilities are gorgeous, their engineers are smart and funny, and they treat me well, so it's worth the long, grueling drive down there and back. Only problem?

1. The session ends at lunchtime.

2. The clients are located extremely close to IKEA.
3. IKEA has a great cafeteria with fresh, inexpensive meals.
4. Eating at IKEA very often costs hundreds of shekels, as I inevitably discover many "essentials" on my way to and from the cafeteria. Drat those IKEA fiends!

Today, Nadine is the big winner, as I come home with a small sheepskin rug for her (a belated bat mitzvah present). She adores it. She spends several minutes sniffing it, biting it, and rolling on it, before settling down like some 1940s Hollywood starlet at a cheesecake photo-shoot. When I check on her an hour later, she smells faintly like old shwarma.

All the news that's weird to print: It's time to catch up on the most important news items that you may have missed:

1. Mercaz LS gets us started off with more ferocious stingrays.
2. She also gives us yet another good reason why China is not on my list of hot vacation destinations.
3. Finally, Karmiel LS brings us the work of a truly deranged man who has dedicated his life to making Lego versions of bible stories. Suddenly, blogging seems hopelessly normal.