I'm in full NaNoWriMo swing again this year. Every year at this time I realize that I'll never be much of a fiction writer, but I'm too stubborn to stop (besides, I already ordered a t-shirt, and I can't very well wear around a t-shirt for an event that I failed at, can I?). So I'm now 35,000 words into a novel that is EVEN WORSE than the one that I wrote last year (seriously. It's about a pig who works in a candle factory, complete with murder, espionage, and ninjas). In addition to that I'm helping with an upcoming production of The Diary of Anne Frank by the Jerusalem English Speaking Theatre - so I'm staying pretty busy.

Franklin, as usual, is in the basement making guitars. Even though our farewell was today, he still has a month of work at the office left, which is good because we need the stipend, and bad because every second spent in the office is a second that he isn't in the basement. And it will be weird for him to go back to his office-mates on Monday after crying about how much he was going to miss them on Friday. Perhaps we should have insisted that they wait until we were actually leaving to throw us a farewell party.

Our August visit with US family and friends went very well. We love spending time with our various family members, and wish that we had more time to spend with them. Our quick jaunt up to Michigan was awesome - we're now officially VERY EXCITED about living in Big Rapids for 6 months. Don't believe the Michigan nay-sayers - they've just never seen the prettier, friendlier face of the oven-mitt state. Click here to read Franklin's (guitar-centric) account of our trip north. We still don't know exactly where we'll be living (in a van - down by the river?), or what exactly I'm going to be doing with my time while Franklin studies (eating a steady diet of government cheese?), but we're confident that everything will be fine, and that Franklin's lutherie education will be top-notch. The rest is details.

Our plan now is to leave Israel mid-Februaryish, and move into our tent/van/apartment/cave in Big Rapids on March 1st. The course goes until mid-August. We'll spend a few weeks in the Carolinas with family and friends and then go about setting up a business here in Jerusalem. Franklin just finished a 70s era Tele that might be the most perfect guitar ever in the whole universe (I'm not biased, I swear) and he's back in high demand for guitar repairs - it's like we never left.

See pictures from our US trip here.

So at the end of the year we will officially step down from our positions at the ICEJ and take a six month sabbatical in Michigan where Franklin will study to receive his Master Luthier certification from one of the most respected guitar builders in America. Please, please someone take the time to dig up a positive comment or two about the state of Michigan - we're hearing horror stories! Anyway, we feel very strongly that this is the next step for us. Now is certainly the time in our lives to step out of the boat and have a go at making a career out of something we love. If we don't do it now we never will.

This is all a bit scary for us and we're very sad to leave our friends and family at the Embassy - but we're also excited to see what the future holds.

We have a friend who is actively involved with the Israeli folk music scene, and Franklin recently finished a major repair on one of her guitars. She told us that the luthier who had done almost all the repair work for local folk musicians had recently died, and that the musicians were desperate for another capable luthier. She asked permission to give Franklin's name out.

So it happened that last week we had a visit from a fellow who needed a repair on his mandolin. In a fit of nostalgia, Mr. Mandolin called the other luthier's widow to see how she was doing. She informed him that she was doing well, was moving, and planned to throw out all of her husband's old equipment. He put the widow in touch with Franklin, and she generously donated all of the equipment to us. Franklin went to pick it up yesterday and is over the moon about the guitar forms, tools and general guitar stuff that he found.

We had a lovely Passover season. We had our seder with our good friends the Salways, and spent the rest of the week at work (boo!). Things are busy at the Embassy - this week we have our annual director's meeting - but other than that, mostly unchanged. Franklin is now officially the Embassy's CFO, and finds the position very stressful. I'm still doing the web thing, and I'm happy to announce that our Front Page Jerusalem site is now live, and the new Grafted site is coming soon. Work, work, work!

We spent our days huddled with friends in our living room. It's COLD in our house. The chilly temperature makes it really hard to get out of bed in the morning, but to tell you the truth we're having fun with it. We're running our three tiny blow heaters 24/7, wearing a million layers of clothing, and we robbed the beds in the guest room for extra comforters for our bed. I also carry a hot water bottle with me everywhere for my feet. But, like I said, we've been spending a lot of time socializing and playing games in the living room (if we bring 2 or 3 of the little heaters in there it warms up pretty well - especially if we're playing the Wii).

We've also been spending our time putting the finishing touches on LinkerGuitars.com. Go on over and check it out. It's still a work in progress, but we'd sure appreciate your comments and feedback, and it would be grand if you'd send your guitar playing friends our way.

For the sake of accountability I'd like to report that I made my word-count goal for the month of January, writing an average of 869.5 words per day for a total of 26,956 words. Only 11 more months to go.

It's the law in Israel that all buildings must be equipped with a solar hot water heater. For 9 months out of the year, these panels are more than sufficient to provide household hot water needs. There are various systems in place for the remaining 3 months (an electric element that can be turned on 30 minutes before shower time is the most common, and it's what we use). It's a very eco-friendly way of doing things, and I'm happy that it is part of my life. Usually.

It's been unusually cold in Jerusalem this week. It's been hovering around 0]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:26:04 -0800 http://virb.com/roni/posts/text/418728 http://virb.com/roni/posts/text/399608 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 direction. I stumbled onto a link for 101 questions to ask at the end of the year and picked out a few to discuss with Franklin. Here are some of the results.

Funniest moments of 2007:

• "Sumo" wrestling in Spain
• "Push 'em back, push 'em back, waaaay back!"
• Laura Gail's surprise engagement

(I'm sure we missed some good ones - if you remember any, post them in the comments. Or, use the comments to share one of your funniest moments of the year.)

Franklin's resolutions:

• Build a few guitars, at least one of his own design and at least one acoustic
• Make at least $1000/month with guitar repairs
• Do something concrete to advance himself musically (voice, piano, or guitar lessons, for example)

Ree's resolutions:

• Write 300,000 words
• Learn to hand bind books
• Create website for linkerguitars

Things we want MORE of in 2008:

• Outings: camping, hiking, beaching, exploring. As a couple or with friends.
• Social opportunities: spending time with friends old and new - eating, playing games, watching movies, hanging out. We want to be instigators.
• Time with one another.
• Devotional time - together and individually. This is how we keep our focus.

One of the questions asked about our favorite movies of the year, and we realized that we couldn't really remember any movies - only the ones we'd seen recently. Ditto with our favorite books. So this year I'm keeping a list of all the movies we see and all the books I read (Franklin will have to keep his own list of books, as we almost never read the same book). Again, if you'd like to share your favorite book or movie of 2007, feel free to do so in the comments.

Franklin has been keeping up with his songwriting for January. I'm going to try to convince him to let me post a few mp3s here. I didn't do much editing over the break, so I think I'm just going to clean up the grammar on the NaNo Novellette and put it up. The longer I delay, the more you lot are going to expect something good.

Photos from November & December: