Night of the Living Dreidle

Our 10th annual Rock For All Ages Chanukah Concert took place on December 2nd. It's my favorite night of my Stone Gardens year. It's where my two lives come crashing together. I get to play music with my band at the place where I spend many of my waking hours. It's like "Bring Your Band to Work Day."

So, Noah Budin and the Promised Band ripped through an hour's worth of contemporary and traditional Chanukah songs and some Noah Budin originals. The band was great. I make it a point to surround myself with musicians much more talented than myself - it makes me sound good.

One of the songs we did was a new take on the Dreidle Song. This one was written by Singer/Songwriter/Recording Artist Julie Silver. (I met Julie many years ago when she only had a couple of CDs out and I didn't have any. She made an appearance on mt first CD and we've become friends.) I had Sarah video the song with our FlipShare camera and later that night I uploaded it to YouTube and sent the link to Julie. I wasn't going to share it unless she gave me permission. Well, she didn't exactly give me permission. She shared it first. Here is what she posted on Facebook:

Don't even START with me and how much I love Noah Budin and his band. Don't. Even. Start. In the "Who Loves Noah The Most" category, I uncovered the daily double and made it TRUE. So I'm biased and I love his wife but WOW. Sweet band Noah. Your rocking vocals and stage presence as always, steal my heart. And the fantastic woman in gray out-shined all of us...

Noah Budin sings "The Dreidle Song" by Julie Silver

www.youtube.com

Created on December 2, 2013 using FlipShare.

The Promised Band is, from Left to Right, Norman Tischler (sax), Bob Sandham (Electric Guitar), David Budin (Bass), Rob Ticherich (Percussion), and Jay Singer (Keyboard).

By the way, the "fantastic woman in gray" is Sarah's daughter Ahuvah. She's a fan of mine. It was her birthday that night and I called her up to sing my song Hallelujah Land with me and the band, as I have done before. I am a fan of Ahuvah.

You might be able to click on the link above to see and hear The Dreidle Song. If not, this one should work:

http://youtu.be/ZIptu9h3CeY

(Just keep in mind that they say the camera adds ten pounds.)

Chag Sameach!

This is Professor Plum in the Library...with a Blog Post

On November 5 we will have the Grand Opening of our New and Improved, Refurbished and Remolded Library. We have doubled our shelf space and we need books!

If you have any gently used books in good condition, in just about and category or genre, that you're looking to get rid of, we'll take them! Just drop them off at the Front Desk or with Sarah or Noah.

This is what the Library looked like a couple of weeks ago:

This is Marla Papcum and part of our wonderful and dedicated Library Committee who has been working hard to create the kind of library Stone gardens residents will love:

The renovation is almost done and we've begun re-shelving. But we still need more books. I'll take some more pictures of it when it's complete, but I hope you'll stop by and see the beautiful new library or come to the grand opening on Nov. 5 at 2:30 PM.

A Tale of Three Picnics

I'm a little behind on my blogging, so here are a few summer outings.

On Sept. 11, we had our annual Tashlich Picnic. Tashlich is a ritual performed between Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur which involves symbolically casting one's sins away by tossing bread onto a body of water. Every year (weather permitting) we go to Colby Park in Wickliffe, OH, for picnic and to perform the ritual.

This is us driving to Colby Park. That's our sins on the dashboard.

First we eat, and then we atone.

Ethel is very serious about her sandwich.

This guy was also very serious about Ethel's sandwich.

Then, we went to the little bridge over the water and became sin-free.

And then there was this guy. (Insert your own duck dermatologist joke here.)

Then, on September 18, we went fishing at Punderson State Park.
This had nothing to do with any Jewish Holiday (although it is customary in some circles to serve a whole fish on Rosh Hashannah).

 

 Larry caught the first fish, but we threw him back. The fish, not Larry.

Larry Betlejewski came with us because, well, I begged him to. I had never been fishing in my life.

This is me casting my first line.

The third one really wasn't a picnic, although we were eating sort of outside. We were in a structure in which we could see the sun and sky through the roof. It was built that way on purpose. OK. It was a sukkah, 

This was our annual Sukkah Hop, where we drive around and spot various sukkahs in various neighborhoods, and then we stop at Rabbi and Mrs. Rennert's and have lunch in their sukkah.

And, just for good measure, here's one more picture of me and fire from our last campfire of the season. I promise, this is the last picture of me and fire. Until next summer.

Warning: There is More Going on in Helen's Place Than You Probably Know!

Warning: There are 37 photos in this post.

I finally got my hands (electronically speaking) on a bunch of photos from Helen's Place. So, here they are.

Helen's Place just opened in March, but there's been no lack of activity. The photos cover a variety of activities upstairs, in the garden, and on outings. (I couldn't get the photos to fall in the order I really wanted, but they'll still give you a good idea of what life at Helen's Place is like.)

 Art project:

Outing to Jack's Deli:

Helen"s Place gets a visit from FUNdamentals:

Outing to the Art Museum:

Outing to:

Gardening in the Memory Garden:

The Menorah Park Singers visits Helen's Place:

Making Challah:

Outing to Five Guys:

Speaks for itself: