Aerated Topsoil and Infant Flatulence

Yesterday I worked a bunch. Today we went to the nursery, bought our own spade, rake, shears, and some flowers, and spent some quality time marveling at our newly improved grass, planting the row of soon-to-be amazing flowers, and maintaining our compost pile. I even got a blister! And then the downpour began. Geshem appears to have worked. Living out here in the ’burbs is relaxing, but a little too uneventful. I feel removed from the rest of civilization. This could make a nice vacation home (though it would be nicer if it had restaurants) but I don’t think I’d want to live here.

On a different note, have you ever felt a fart from the outside? I was holding one of the boys with a supporting hand on his butt and experienced a unique tactile sensation of a rumbling, followed by a soft, staggered expulsion. I figured that I must have perceived a pooping first-hand, in-hand, but he didn’t smell dirty. After consultation, the verdict was that it was “only” a fart, but that doesn’t change the fact that I felt it. Also, have you ever held a baby with hiccups? Or one whose tummy growls? It’s so bizarre to experience bodily functions when they are happening to someone else.

And I heard a man was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in Gilo, a neighborhood in southern Jerusalem. If I seem casual about it, it’s because everyone here seems to be casual about it. This is such a (tragically) normal occurrence that I sense more relief from people than anything that only person died.