but I said, "no, no, no!"

It feels like the end of an era. We had our official farewell at the Embassy today, and everyone said very sweet things about us. Apparently after 7 years of working at the Embassy they still don't know us very well. Afterward we had a lamb roast and red wine at lunch - …

underneath me all around me

I'm sitting in the balcony at King of Kings watching the worship team get ready for the service and thinking about the overwhelming amount of grunt-work to be done in the next few months. Franklin leaves the Embassy at the end of the year, and theoretically I leave …

Chloe just wanted to say "Hi."

She doesn't know it yet, but she's losing her ovaries this week.

collect the moments one by one

We have big news here at the Linker household. We have officially decided to chase our long-time dream of doing full time guitar building and repair right here in Jerusalem. We've long wanted to be 'tent-makers' here, and Franklin has had more and more opportunities to …

but techno was proven wrong

In a supreme act of thoughtless remote linking, I recently crashed the linkernews site (and the server it lives on - sorry Keith!). It was down for a bit, and some people are reporting that they still can't access the site. I figured that this was as good a time as any …

Sounds from Jerusalem

Here's a little video I made for a friend who is working on an audio project and asked for sounds:

we'd all have fins and scaly skins

There's been a bit of excitement in Jerusalem over the past few days. Local meteorologists predicted between 8 and 11 inches of snow first for Tuesday night, then for Wednesday night. They got it wrong - there was very little accumulation, but the icy wet slush that we …

intermission

Wii Dance Party from Ree Linker on Vimeo.

I love a woman that rains

Rivulets of water have been coursing through the streets and alley-ways of Jerusalem this week - water coming not from the sky, but from thousands of broken solar panels.

It's the law in Israel that all buildings must be equipped with a solar hot water heater. For 9 …

Time is on my side

I am not a fan of new year's resolutions. It's no secret that they never work. But I do believe that we all need to take time every so often to look back on our lives and evaluate the things that we do and whether or not those things are moving us in the right …

buy it use it break it fix it

Good News:

Franklin has committed to writing at least one song every day in the month of January

My back is 100% better - and the physical therapist prescribed massage therapy as part of the continued treatment

We're off work until January 2nd

I'm setting aside a …

see the vegetable man in the vegetable van

The exciting news of the moment is that last Wednesday for the first time in my life I threw my back out. I wasn't doing anything weird; I was in the process of sitting down and SNAP, I felt something pop in my lower spine. It hurt. I crawled to our bedroom and tried lying [...]

don't even look at the clock

Franklin turned 36 on Sunday! I can't believe I'm married to such an old man! We had a lovely day together, from breakfast in town to dinner with friends. As usual, all he wanted for his birthday was guitar building equipment. He is a man of steadfast focus!
I finished …

and walking behind was a bay

It's Thanksgiving week and we're looking forward to stuffing ourselves on the big day. We're getting together with other expat friends for the traditional turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie (and a ton of other food as well). It's always hard to be away …

roadrunner roadrunner...

We just got back from a wonderful (and needed) vacation with our friends and neighbors the Kings. There's something about living and working in Jerusalem that necessitates periodical retreats. There's a heavy atmosphere in the city, and without even being aware of it, …

I can't remember...aeroplane

We drove the mother to the airport at 4:30 am yesterday and said goodbye in a fog of sleep deprivation. We miss her when she's not around, but she'll be back in February so we won't have to miss her for long.
Franklin and I got the rare opportunity to facilitate an …

back to the egg

Something extraordinary happened to me right before the Feast. I decided to make omelettes for breakfast one day, so I pulled out a bowl and started cracking eggs. The first one I cracked open had two yolks. The second one I cracked open had two yolks. The third one I …

walk without rhythm

Some people are just impossible to please. For the first time in my life I'm updating the blog on a regular basis, and what does my family want? More twitters! Just kidding guys - it's an encouragement to know that there's someone out there that loves us!
Today is the …

but if I had your face

Franklin and I both went to the dentist today. I don't think I've ever had a joint dentist appointment before. Anyway, after a brief period of wrist slapping wherein we were both informed that we don't floss enough, we checked out OK for the next 6 months.
As I write …