It was a busy day here in our imminently-moving household. I paid our last month and a half of rent, got BSM's medical records, returned library books, washed dishes, packed boxes, and did a looot of laundry. (I really did the laundry, too: between the laundry room being short-staffed over the summer and the post-nine-days rush, we likely won't get our stuff back in time if we throw it in the general laundry room.)
As an aside, I may have mentioned that I'm reading The Name of the Wind in Hebrew. I'm fairly certain I also mentioned that (in English), it is the best example of storytelling I have ever read. And that is saying a lot. A very, very lot. Anywho, The Name of the Wind is epic fantasy, and as such, the word "bar" comes up a lot. I didn't realize how often someone is in a tavern at a bar, or in a theater looking at the bar, or passing through the woods when they come across a fully-stocked bar (OK, just kidding on that last one) until I realized that one of the words I now know beyond forgetting is dalpak. It means bar. Which is kind of disappointing, because if I learn a new word in Hebrew, I'd like it to actually be a word I might one day use. (I don't go to bars all that often, and as Husbinator pointedly observed, modern Hebrew for bar is probably barrr.) Well, when I returned the library books today, the librarian told me to go to the main room and put them on the dalpak! How's that for nifty? I cleverly understood exactly where in that room she wanted the books: on the wooden counter-like device. The bar, if you would. Ha-ha!
Back at my busy day, Husbinator and I also went to a couple of hardware stores in Beit Shean and figured out which little pieces to buy to get our new-for-us solid wood crib in working order. I'd say we spent about two hours and 40 shekel and left feeling very confident that this crib frame is now good to go. We came back, Husbinator went to work, and I picked up BSM and swung back into Beit Shean to pick up a mattress for our now-functional crib frame.
Husbinator and I went to Beit Shean a few days ago and discussed mattresses with a baby-store guy. Unfortunately, we had a little language mix-up. We thought a new standard-size crib mattress would run us about 75 shekel. Great price, no? Well, it turns out there are three types of baby-sleeping-devices here in Israel. There's the לול, which is an American playpen; there's the עריסה, which directly translates to "crib" but only refers to a folding crib slightly larger than a playpen; and there's a מיטה, which directly translates to "bed" and is in fact slightly smaller than a typical American crib. A few days ago, we discussed the second type of mattress with the store proprietor, thinking we were discussing the third.
So I showed up and instead of 75 shekel, the guy tells me it will be 200. Boo. (No, he wasn't just trying to fool the foolish immigrant, this was an actual miscommunication.) I don't want to pay 60 bucks for a second crib. We have a really nice crib in our lift. And a playpen. And we got this crib frame for free. So I said thanks but no thanks and went to another baby-supply store. This place also charges 200 shekel for what I will still call a crib mattress. I explained the situation to the guy, and he said he could go as low as 150 (because my kid is so cute, and I'm moving soon, and in a jam, yadda yadda yadda). I really don't want to spend more than 100 shekel, though, so it's back to the drawing board. Sigh. And Husbinator and I worked so hard to figure out how to fix the frame! We'll probably end up finding a second-hand mattress somewhere. At least that's the hope: I don't want to give up that frame now!
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