achievement unlocked

 whew! big weekend. the biggest part of the weekend was taking advantage of the break in the rain to go riding with mr smear to the pump track in ramat gan: he rode his bike for over 6km there and back, and went twice around the "five sense" track, and even handled the idiot family (who stopped on the track and then closed in on him when he yelled to let him through) like a proper israeli ("mah yesh lachem?!")

all-in-all it was a great ride, he was sore by the time we got home but he got extra-special treats to show appreciation not just for his physical achievement, but for the mental fortitude he demonstrated the entire way. i'm seriously proud of how he handled himself today ^_^

...

thursday:

the first day of the ICJ hearing, making me as ashamed to be a south african and i am proud to be an ex-south african. here's a theory about what's behind south africa's accusation.

here's my take on it: for months, ignorant and brainwashed idiots (and smart people, too) all over the world have been calling our attempts to defend ourselves against genocide: "genocide". when, ironically, we're doing everything in our power to *not* harm innocents, which would be far easier and safer for us (we could have literally flattened gaza in a couple of days if that had been our intention).

because nobody can police stupidity on the internet, these ridiculous assertions have run wild and there's been no real platform for defending against them.

i have a feeling that we should be grateful to the criminally negligent and morally bankrupt south african government for taking us to the ICJ. it looks like all eyes will be on the proceedings and it'll give us an opportunity to defend ourselves in an actual court, as opposed to the court of public opinion.

i really appreciated tal becker's statements to the ICJ from yesterday.

...

work was good this week, i think. a little slower than i'd like, but overall good. i left the office after telling a coworker it was time to introduce him to our postman team, and then discovering that we'd reached our team limit and couldn't sign him in.

you're like a jehovah's witness that's come to my door, and then when i let them in they're like "oh, sorry, i guess you're going to hell after all" 😂

...

i came home to find a mess in our building entrance - it looked like someone's dog had peed a massive volume at the bottom of the stairs. after one of our neighbors made the effort to clean it up, we realized that it had been a bottle of olive oil that we hadn't realized was missing: the delivery guy had broken the bottle and tried to "hide" the evidence.

yesterday:

stressing about what appeared to be a leak above our fridge that i identified on thursday.

a lot of time on the phone trying to complain about the olive oil incident, breakfast bagel, shoe shopping, a bus to dizengoff to pick up gd's new glasses but having to rush immediately to the school to pick mr smear up in the middle of a downpour. and mr smear wasn't even at the school, his umbrella had broken and he'd gone off with a friend of his (fortunately his friend's dad called to let me know).

back to the center, picking up three cool shirts while waiting for gd, eating a big and delicious lunch from our favorite vegan food stall, then making our way home for a quiet afternoon (minor exception: cleaning our bedroom fan).

i was very tired by mr smear's bedtime, and i kept passing out while he read to me :P

something seemed off about the fridge, and about the leak above it. i eventually went to bed with a bad feeling about it.

today:

i dived in to research the fridge / leak story, and i'm now pretty much convinced that there's no leak, but that our fridge's "power cool" mode is the cause. i don't know if we didn't have the problem before, or didn't identify the problem before, or didn't have it on that setting before ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i sorted out the caption guide for the next graphic novel page, and when i realized how late it was i went to go and check on mr smear... i was pleasantly surprised to find him sitting up in his bed and reading his kindle 😍

the bike ride took a few hours, and we both needed to rest when we got home. i had a nice bath, and i've spent most of the evening reading or watching random things. now it's bedtime, and i have a feeling i'm going to be going to sleep myself soon.