Steven "Michael Jack Schmitt" Kleinman March 5, 2008

Today is of course the first day of baseball.  I am very excited, especially after my dreams of a big five team winning the NCAA tournament were dashed last night by UNC beating NOVA.  Bummer right?  Well except that NOVA is my second least favorite big five team.  I guess the funny thing is that Drexel, St. Joes, LaSalle don't really count.  It's mainly that I like Temple, actively root against Penn, and for the most part like but don't love NOVA.  Any Philly ball team with the exception of Penn is great to root for, all I'm saying is that NOVA can also be a bit lame as a place of education, not as lame as Penn, but still up there. 

All of that seems to be a bit of a transgression.  What I really want to get at real quick is a short list of the events of our month, some things we're looking forward to, and maybe some gruff about biking.  So as far as events are concerned, we had a good month in March.  The most exciting event was our Date Auction.  I went for $45.00.  Not bad.  But I haven't gone on my date yet.  In other news, I started dating a girl who was there that night, she didn't buy me, but it was still a good event for my personal life.  I also lost my voice at the event because we had so many Gesher city Schmoes shouting.  it's like being in Old City Philadelphia on a saturday night, just about everyone was new to the environment and acting like their parents didn't teach them better.  That's one of the major reasons that I'm coming to really love our shabbat dinners.  I think we are starting to get a more regular crowd.  And while some folks still treat our house like a restaurant/bar/late night motel, we are really starting to iron out a group of folks who truly care about what we are trying to do.  For this reason March brought with her two great shabbat dinners.  They were a bit small in numbers but the people were really great at both.  

Biking stuff:  I've decided to start riding riser bars.  I know I know, too trendy right?  Well listen, mostly I ride my bike in the city, and it pays to be upright.  For longer trips I agree that drop bars are more ergonomical.  But on a shorter - say sub 10 mile - trip, it pays to not have to strain my neck.  There was talk of a riding trip with some MH guests on Friday at shabbat.  I think I'll try to debut my new style for that trip.  Also, I want to learn how to do track stands better so that I can wheelie.  I think the two go hand in hand.  

OUT.

S

Ilana Schuman Stoler; MH Chicago; MMMMMarch!

What a month. Well, I used to love March but unfortunately, not any more. Today, in Chicago it rain/hailed and was SOO cold!!!! A week ago, it SNOWED!!! This is too much for me!! Warm weather come on already!!!! Well, I was able to keep warm inside as I chopped veggies for my family's seder this Wednesday. My family does this thing called extended carpas where we eat celery and carrots, and other dip-able veggies for the duration of the meal after carpas and then we have stuff to crunch on while we do all the other seder stuff! So I must have spent three hours slicing veggies and they're going to be soooo yummy! This year, seder is going to be really nice. We're older, and have so much of a different perspective on things and I am really looking forward to it. Chag sameach everyone!!!

March Madness!

Yet another month has absolutely flown by! And what an eventful month it was. From the incredible Purim Feast, to the out of control fire on Devil's Peak that almost threatened our house.

My top event this month with out a doubt has to be the Moishe Theater Sports which we ran. With such a huge attendance everyone got involved and it turned out to a be a most enjoyable night.

It is also great to finally be on vacation, even if its only for a week. We will finally have time to do the long awaited re-decorating of the living room which we have all been putting off for quite some time now!

I am also really glad that we have finally launched our monthly Moishe Book club! This is something I am very passionate about, and it will be great if this tradition carries on for the whole year!


Until next month

Rossi

My birthday

So my birthday was this past Wednesday (April 1st and no I am not kidding). I have had pretty good luck throughout the years on my birthday as far as pranks go, more specifically, as far as not being pranked goes. My birthday was pretty good, no complaints. People have told me throughout the years things like
"You were born on April 1st? That makes so much sense!"
"You're an April Fool!"
"Now I understand your personality."

I don't know. I mean, I like my birthday (although I don't get to choose it) and it suits me well I reckon. I just hope that the trend of not pranking me on my birthday continues. If it doesn't, I've had a good run.

With Passover around the corner though, I am kinda glad that my birthday already happened. I mean, I can do a birthday without cake no question. But as far as celebrating is concerned, Slivovitz and potato vodka are not exactly my cup of tea.

Passover should be good though. I think I'm doing seders with my family on the first two nights and then we are having our regional director Jeremy Moskowitz in town at the end of Passover and we'll have a seder then as well. Also, a Rock Band competition towards the end of Passover. No beer or grain alcohol on account of the holiday but it should be fun anyways. Like I said before, Slivovitz and potato vodka will have to suffice.

This Rock Band night will be slightly different from our last Rock Band night though. We are planning a competition of sorts. People will come and form a "band" with 3 others and we will have sets of 2 or 3 songs wherein the band will try to get the highest score possible. It should be fun and then we can be sure that people will get to play fairly equal amounts. I hope it works out.

Wishing everyone a Happy Pesach, and lots of delicious Matzah balls, Matzah meal pancakes, and some tasty Matzah Brei,

Sam
MH-Cle

Is it really April already?

This year has been going by so fast-I can't believe it's already April!  I just wish the weather outside also realized that it's April so that I could finally put away my winter clothing for the season.  March was a busy month, I had finals and papers galore to write but at least my Spring semester is over and I can finally get my weekends back.  I also recently started doing the first semester of my student teaching field work at a special education school in the city which is challenging but I absolutely love it, and it's definitely keeping me busy.  

Now on to Moishe House March was a good month with our usual shabbat dinners and an awesome St. Patty's day party!  Unfortunately I couldn't partake in the festivities during the day since I had six papers due the next day but I suppose that's what I get for deciding to take Sunday classes (I'll never be making that mistake again!).  We had a slight snafu when the rabbinic intern who was supposed to lead a discussion on Passover had to cancel at the last minute, so we improvised and got some pita, chummus, watched The Zohan (see it-it's a super funny movie!) and everyone that was there all talked about their various Passover experiences and different family traditions.  It was great that even though things were up in the air for a few hours over whether or not we were going to have to cancel the event altogether, which we didn't want to do since we had a bunch of people that were excited to come, the event turned out to be a great success.  April will have a lot of great events too, starting with a joint getting rid of chametz party and Rosen's birthday party which is starting in a bit so I need to go get ready! 

March Madness

The madness of March is done and we're onto another full month... Spring is coming- slowly but it's on it's way. The air is warming and the days are longer. March begins the active Chicago that makes the winters bearable. We started the month with the Chididarod, a Chicago favorite. The urban Ididarod is a day long "race/ food drive" that combines all the fun and competitiveness of costumes, speed, social consciousness, music, alcohol and this year rain... Purim followed with a costume celebration with tons of hommentashen. Tasty, tasty our house favorite was apricot. The month ended with a deep spring house clean and a yoga class taught by a MH Chicago community member. We welcomed spring in true Chicago fashion with 70 degree weather followed by a snow storm- gotta love Chicago. We might have gotten a little too excited by the first warm weather and peeled the plastic off the windows. We're excited for the warm weather and the goodness that April will bring. Chag Sameach to you all, early Pesach and Seder blessings around. All the best Moishe's.

Spring finally came to Warsaw!

All of us in Moishe house warsaw are very happy because of beautiful spring weather outside. Im going everywhere by bike and it is really nice. 

So There is a lot of freshness in our moishe life, we have spring and new flat mate Jakub who moved in two days ago, so we are slowly prepering for pesach  and enjoying nice sun a lot.