Happy birthday Dovster

Happy Birthday Dov. Many many more

Happy birthday Dovster. Enjoy the dancers!!

🎈🎈🎈!יומולדת שמח🎈🎈🎈

Thank you all for your birthday wishes. I tried to convince everyone that I am only 30-years-old but fortunately, the IDF did not believe me, so I am not being mobilized.

Oh wow, happy birthday, Dov! Have a great dinner and wonderful evening with your family!

🎂 Happy birthday! 🎂

To convince people that your age isn't really such a big number you clearly need to do what my father does. Use the Celsius scale. That would make you a sprightly 25 1/2. :cool:

Natal felicitations, Dovster!

You're (barely) less than a dozen years ahead of me, which seems closer and closer as time passes.

Happy Birthday Dov 2 days late.

A belated happy birthday, Dov.

Whatever happened to your adopted Russian family? Did they go back to Russia? What a shame if they did.

No. Like most Israelis who decided to leave, the family changed its plans and are still here (although, like me, they have been ordered to leave their home until the war ends)..

is their current living situation better than it was before? I’m aware that you’ve been an extremely high enhancement for their lives.

Financially, it is. They are getting 70% of their usual monthly income from Unemployment Benefits, an additional 12000 shekels per month for housing (but are paying 3000 shekels), had their October property taxes excused (no word yet on November and December), and 1000 shekels for winter clothing. Of course, this came at the price of leaving their houses for the duration of the war in the North and having the two girls change schools -- with the accompanying cost of having to buy books that the new schools demand, which are not the same books they bought for the old schools.

The apartment they are renting has only one bed, but I bought air mattresses for the girls (they love them) and sheets for the beds. However, the biggest expense for me is buying them lunch or dinner two or three times a week, and they insist on mid-level hamburger or steak restaurants.

KFC? McDonalds? Forget it! Although they did give in one time and agreed to an Italian restaurant where I was able to get lasagne bolognese.

Hannuka is over but the girls figure that Christmas is not.

There was a very bright flash of light this morning which actually woke me up. It was followed almost immediately by a large "boom". These are not considered to be favorable signs when you are in a war area. (Yes, a few rockets -- not many -- have reached central Israel.) I should have done the intelligent thing (which is contrary to my usual behavior) and headed for the bomb shelter. Instead, I did the most idiotic thing possible by getting out of bed and standing in front of a large window to try to see the damage.

Happily, all I could see was a deluge of rain accompanied by winds so strong that most of the trees were bending over. The thunderstorm knocked out my electricity for a few hours but, to the great dismay of husbands everywhere, I was unharmed.

Thank you for the update Dovster.