It's time to abolish the draft. (Creating a draft dodger.)

The drafty door between our unheated mudroom and our kitchen has been driving me nutty!

The tile floor was too cold for bare feet, and I could almost see the money from our heating budget seeping through the crack!

This morning, I finally fixed it. Here's how I did it.

First, I measured the door in units of empty paper towel tubes. Since they had to fit inside one another to form one long tube, the total length (of three tubes for my door) had to be a bit longer than the width of the door.


I fit the three tubes together, folding one to fit inside the other, forming a "supertube". These were attached with a ring of glue from a hot glue gun, along the inside of the outer tube.

Using a chopstick and a broom handle, I stuffed the supertube with plastic grocery bags, packing them tightly.

On the door flashing, I placed a super-strong magnet on each nail. Then, I put some hot glue on the magnets, and quickly pressed the stuffed supertube onto the glue-y magnets.

The result is a supertube that attaches to the (nails in the) flashing, magnetically.

This project requires the strong magnets, because the flashing is aluminum (not attracted to magnets), so the tiny nail-heads are the only metal for holding the whole supertube. In order to work properly, the attraction has to be strong enough to hold up to frequent door opening.

For doors without flashing or metal, see the next post for what to do.

When opening the door is tested with a full length supertube, it will knock the supertube off, due to interference from the corner/end piece.

Trim the end piece just enough to allow the door to open easily, allowing the maximum draft-covering length to remain.

I needed about 3/4 of an inch of clearance.

Then I covered the supertube with fabric, using the glue gun. I was careful to leave only one layer of fabric over the magnets, to avoid interfering with their hold capacity.

This was a very quick project, using materials on-hand and about 10 minutes (including photographs.) The frog fabric was from my stash, purchased on clearance at about $2/yard, and I used less than a quarter-yard. Scraps of sheets/tablecloths would work nicely, too. The total cost was under $2.

I wonder how many minutes of New England Winter it will take to recoup my costs from the heating oil bill?

It works very well, and our bare toes are grateful!

Stay warm, everyone!

Shabbat Shalom!

Please note that on Friday afternoons until Saturday evening, the author of this blog is unavailable, in observance of the Jewish Sabbath.

Comments made during this time will be held in a queue, to be moderated afterwards.

Thank you for your patience.

This cake for parshat Vayigash depicts Joseph's servant on his way to bring gifts for Joseph's father Yaakov, traveling from Egypt in a Pharoh's chariot, after the brothers have been reunited.

We're having a minimalist, from-the-freezer, snowed-in, guest-less, cocooning shabbat this week with challot from the freezer and just one cake.

Shabbat Shalom!



LINKS that made me smile
"To the person who broke into my car last night." What a great attitude! You deserve to enjoy your new toys, Epes.

Nerd sniping is a dangerous trend that threatens to harm our family and many of our friends. Stop it now.

I wish this video were slower, so I could figure out the steps to make this origami toy.

The public needs to be made aware of this egregious example of the politics of personal destruction and this important public service announcement (via Neatorama)

The glowing reviews of these onion goggles intrigue me. The problem is, I wear strong prescription glasses. I wonder if I could rig up something made of foam to fit around my glasses, that would work in the same way?

Thanks to WiseBread, I have that song from 1776 stuck in my head..."To the right, ever to the right; Never to the left, forever to the right ..." but I forgive them, because I've bookmarked their cell phone signal boosting hacks list, which touts a method that might justify the existence of my twist-tie stockpile. (While this artistic prodigy's latest work justifies hoarding all those little ketchup packets.)

Jessica Hagy's Indexed is like peeking into the contents of a great idea index!

I find it hard to tell friend from foe in the Kipple Wars. My problem is Kipple disguised as non-Kipple, and vice-versa.

Brian Clark asserts that all bloggers have muses. Hmmm. Here's mine.

I've printed a copy of Furoshiki - Japanese fabric package/gift wrapping techniques to study.

Are you an over-buyer or an under-buyer? from The Happiness Project .

I may be susceptible to this virus. Must. Be. Careful.

There's a video going around of a masked "superhero" in New York, defending someone from a group of attackers. Here's another hero, sans mask.

RWAC says his cute Mad Libs Eulogy is in bad taste, but I disagree. I know he meant it in jest, but in the throes of grief, having any starting point, especially one as non-threatening as this, could be helpful. Humor is an emotional tool in stressful situations.

Delivering a eulogy combines public speaking and death. What could be more stressful? (Please don't answer that. Let's all think happy thoughts, and have good news to share. Amen.)

On a more serious note, consider this a gentle nudge to discuss and record your life-end preferences with loved ones, today. May you live long and prosper** to 120.

Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks' weekly "Torah Thoughts" are reliably eloquent and consistently excellent. Here's his dvar torah for Parshat Vayigash from last year.

Shabbat Shalom!

** Since on their wedding day, a Jewish bride and groom's prayers get Priority Shipping* to Heaven, it is customary for the couple to bless the wedding guests.

Composing a meaningful personalized blessing for each guest in the midst of all that nuptial hubbub (on an empty stomach) is challenging, particularly if you've never met the person!

On my wedding day, when confronted with the need to bless countless newly-introduced spouses-of-colleagues-of-in-laws with unspecified religious preferences and family situations, all I could think was, "I didn't know there was going to be a diplomacy quiz!"

Whenever stymied for an appropriate blessing, I fell back on "live long and prosper" from Star Trek. Thank you, Mr. Spock.

(* It is said that G-d forgives the bride and groom on their wedding day, purifying the couple as though through a private Yom Kippur.)

In Praise of Parallax

Emily (age 7) has discovered oatmeal. It is her new favorite breakfast.

On Monday, her older sister and veteran oatmeal fan, Hannah, taught her how to make it. (We have an instant water dispenser, which makes this very simple.)

Yesterday, after witnessing Emily's less-than-successful first solo attempt (result: oat soup), I subjected the girls to a lecture entitled, "Best Practices in Measuring Cup Management: Theoretical Approaches and Practical Concerns".

It was a multi-media presentation (diagrams on the refrigerator door) complete with a live demonstration with audience participation (we moved our heads around while looking at some water in a measuring cup) and a question-and-answer period at the end of the session.




I know it was well received, because this morning, Abigail (age 9) serenaded Emily with:

"Measure from the bottom of the meniscus - that is how to pour the water for breakfast..."

This original composition is best appreciated when rendered by someone whose natural mispronunciations make it rhyme. ("menist-kist", "brefkist")

After they left for school, I settled down to read my e-mails.

I subscribe to more e-mail newsletters than I can read. To keep my inbox clear, I set up filters that collect newsletters in a folder. I read what I can when time permits.

This morning, I received a copy of an internationally-distributed-sometimes-inspiring-and-profound-Torah-portion-related newsletter that I usually just skim, apparently forwarded by my rabbi, Rabbi G., directly to me.

Mine was the only e-mail address in the "to" field, yet he hadn't written an introductory note. I hadn't spoken with him in over a month. This was the first time he forwarded something from the Internet to me.

Rabbi G. often contacts me by e-mail, but his messages are usually very focused and specific one-sentence notes that ask or answer a question or request. When he sends e-mails to the whole shul, they are always short and action-oriented.

Clearly there was something in this newsletter that demanded my attention, something he assumed I'd want or need to know, something I'd notice and understand immediately when I saw it. It had to be something that needed no explanation.

Ignoring all the barking e-mails in my inbox, I studied this (long) newsletter, trying to discern its message for me. I read and re-read the divrei Torah, thinking about each sentence, testing its applicability to my life - and to my imagination of Rabbi G.'s perception of my life.

I read all of the classifieds, donations, and dedications, looking for names of relatives and close friends. Did someone die? Did a family member make a sizable donation? What was the last question I asked Rabbi G.?

Could the parenting advice column be what he wanted me to read? Was this his way of telling me something, gently preparing me for something about a friend or loved one?

My anxiety mounted. I was missing it. It was still too early in the morning to call him and ask for clarification.

Maybe it was meant for someone else. Maybe it was a slip of his mouse, sent to me in error. Perhaps I'd soon receive another e-mail, this time with an explanatory note.

On my third reading, I figured it out.

The newsletter was not sent by my rabbi, but from the e-mail address of one of the newsletter's editors who shares my rabbi's surname. Not Rabbi G. G., but Rabbi D. G.

The newsletter editors must have had a problem sending this issue, and sent it as a forward from a personal address. Thus it fell through my e-mail filters and into my inbox. I had never noticed that the editor of this newsletter had the same last name as my rabbi. Since they use "BCC", each recipient gets an copy as the only recipient address in the "to" box.

I took a deep breath, and indulged my inner Winnie the Pooh with a smile. "Silly old bear."

Later this morning, talking to a friend on the telephone, I caught myself sharing a couple of points mentioned in that newsletter.

I had this information to share, only because I read the newsletter so carefully. This only happened because I thought mistakenly it was addressed directly to me.



Changing my perspective changed my measurement of the value newsletter's content. Unlike the water in Emily's oatmeal, when I looked at the newsletter from a different point of view, I really did get more out of it.

My "parallax error" in perception resulted in better accuracy!

Magnets on the inside of cabinets

Remember that tuna can project a few weeks ago? Admit it: You were wondering what I did with the lids. I knew it.

I use a seven-section pill container for my vitamins. It had a reserved place in a corner of one of my kitchen cabinets, but I kept forgetting about it because it was tucked away, out of sight.

I wanted a place for it that I'd always be able to see, but I didn't feel comfortable leaving something personal (and perhaps dangerously attractive to children) out in the open.

The solution was to glue-gun magnets to the back of the container, and stick it to.... something metal.

The "something metal" was the tuna can lids.

I washed them well, and lined their potentially sharp edges with glue from the glue gun. When the hot glue dried, I used leftover 3M Command strips to attach the tuna can lids to the inside of the cabinet door.

(I didn't want to do anything that would ruin the cabinet door. The clothespins in the picture are also held up with leftover command strips. I put them there to hold in-use recipes.)

(I'm a big fan of those Command Strips. The package with hooks usually comes with extra adhesive strips, which I save for projects like this. I've even used these strips for a friend's seasonal rental apartment, where nails were prohibited, everywhere, including in the shower and to attach mezuzot firmly to the door-frame for a season. They stayed up all summer and removed completely with a single stroke.)

This has worked really well. The tuna lids are very thin, so the combined width of the pill container fits in the gap between the edge of the shelf and the cabinet door. I was able to put them up higher than the children's unaided reach.

The best part is, I haven't forgotten to take my vitamins since setting this up, three weeks ago!

UPDATE: This project works well inside a cabinet, but if you want something more aesthetically appealing, try cutting the metal into shapes and/or painting, as described in this post.

7 for the Seventh Day

A few weeks ago, Teacherninja tagged me with the seven things meme, in which I'm supposed to share seven weird or random things about myself, and then inflict it upon invite seven others to do the same.

Though I've shared eight things in a meme not too long ago, I started sorting through my abundant idiosyncrasy supply to meet his challenge. I quickly realized that there are just too many odd things from which to choose. (Well, *I* don't think they're odd, but there does seem to be a consensus forming amongst those who know me...)

Since today is the seventh day of Chanukah, I decided to narrow the list to weird or random things about how I celebrate Chanukah.

1. We prefer our donuts without jelly. All of us. I bought one of those Bismark tips for filling them, but rarely bother to use it.

2. When my son was two and a half, he came to me one Chanukah morning, and proudly said, "I lit the candles."

"That's nice," I said, thinking he was engaging in imaginative play. It took a beat before I realized this was a naive and dangerous assumption.

"Show me. Show me the candles you lit."

He led me downstairs and cheerfully pointed to the chanukah candles burning on the table. He then took me to the kitchen, where he explained the furniture ladder he constructed to reach the matches that were stored in a high cabinet above the counter.

Breathing deeply to hide my panic as I put the fire out, I asked him as casually as I could, "So, did you light any other candles today?"

He shrugged and said, "I don't remember." Then he skipped away.

Thank G-d, there was only that one fire

He's fifteen now, and has taught others about fire safety as a Boy Scout. Yet there hasn't been a Chanukah since that he (and everyone else) hasn't had to listen to a fire safety lecture from me.

3. We have a tradition that everyone must give tzedaka before any of the gifts are opened. I dump a pile of change on the dining table, and the kids take from it and deposit it in the tzedaka box.

[begin kvell] This year, a few of the kids insisted on giving from their own money, instead of using mine! [end kvell]

4. We light with candles. After too many mishaps with olive oil, we've decided (for us) it's more mehudar (beautifying) to keep our house unchared and my heart out of my teeth.

I ordered a case of 48 candle boxes about eight years ago, and still have about half of it. The candles cost about 20 cents a box this way. I think we're building up stock, however, as we get a few boxes each year from tzedaka mail, my mother, and this year the PTA sent each child home with their own box.

These trays go under each person's menorah.

5. Over the years, we've developed a system we like that lets the kids receive a gift for each night of Chanukah, without overdoing the consumerism, mess, and needless acquisition (and acquisitiveness.) I hope.

A few weeks before Chanukah, I hang a large personalized black bag for each family member on a portable garment rack in our hallway. Also hanging on this rack, is another bag that holds a collection of reusable fabric bags for wrapping the gifts. I made these using colorful fabrics from torn t-shirts and stained tablecloths.



(Here's an old t-shirt being made into three quick gift bags: turn shirt inside out, seam across the chest, under the armpits, and then seam each sleeve below the shoulder. Cut excess with pinking scissors. Voila! Two small bags and one large one. We tie them with pipe cleaners - easy to remove and reusable, too.)

When the grandparents and aunts ship gifts to the children, they know they needn't bother with (or pay for) wrapping paper. As the gifts arrive, I put them in the gift bags, and then in the appropriate big black bag.

By the time Chanukah arrives, there are usually five gifts in each child's bag from the grandparents and aunts, leaving me with three gifts per child to get. For the girls, I provide a hair ornament, a book, and a craft supply. For my son, it's a book, a larger pair of slippers, and a roll of duct tape. (This is not a gag gift. He loves making things from duct tape.)


The idea is to have something for them to open each night, without accumulating a bunch of unnecessary stuff, and without a trash bag full of expensive and unappreciated wrapping paper.

I also like this system because it extends the anticipation, and allows each gift to have its own spotlight night. Since the wrapping bags come from home, when the children reach into their bags to select a gift, they really don't know whether they are getting an extravagant gift from a grandparent, a toy from an aunt, or very modest gift from us.

Even when they know what they're getting, they don't know which night they'll choose it. This also makes it much more difficult for the children to compare what they receive to what their siblings get.

6. When something does arrive in wrapping paper, (surprise!) I save and hoard it for crafts.



7. I made our chanukah napkins knowingly using fabric that has a misprint on it, because the fabric was $1 /yard on clearance one February (ten years ago!)



It has a chet on the dreidel, not a hey. Useful acronyms, anyone? Neis Gadol ???? Sham?

And now for the next victims lucky tagees:
FernChasida, AidelMaidel , Miriam, Jendeis, BabkaNosher, Ayelet, Tzipporah

Here are the links to thier completed tag posts (updated as I find out about them):
FernChasida, AidelMaidel, Miriam, Jendeis, BabkaNosher, Ayelet, Tzipporah, (and Batya, indirectly!)

Link Potpourri - Productivity, Chanukah, etc.

How am I supposed to get anything done, while this whole Internet thingy is still going on?

PRODUCTIVITY

• Try to do one nagging task each day, or even better, avoid having a nagging task. by Gretchen Rubin at the Happiness Project



• Never underestimate the power of a checklist.



• Leo Babauta wrote this great concise recap of the heart of GTD: Focus on Actions to Get More Done in Less Time for FreelanceSwitch.

CHANUKAH

• Check out this cute home brewed menorah.



• Ted of Help! I have a Fire in My Kitchen wrote this excellent and comprehensive chanukah article, which I have bookmarked for future forwarding to anyone looking for background on Chanukah.



• Jack did a great job with Havel Havelim 144



• Five things people say about Christmas that drive me nuts by Penelope Trunk



• Apparently, great minds think alike! SimpleJew also made a chanukiyah shaped challah last week!



• Torahlab: The Scroll of Antiochus, free PDF in Hebrew and English, translated by Rabbi David Sedley. (Requires free newsletter subscription to download.)



• Babkanosher's clever method of telling the chanukah story , adjusted perfectly for an elementary public school classroom, highlighting the Macabees' fight for freedom of religion, without bringing religion into the story. What a great balancing act!



• I'm not sure which impressed me more about Danya Ruttenberg's recently republished wrenching and thoughtful article, Moving Past Two-Mindedness - the conclusions she reached, or the path she took to get there.
  
  She describes meditating on her anger with Judaism in the glow from chanukah candles that she continued to light, despite her frustrations. This iconic image will remain with me as a symbol of the commitment and intellectual honesty required for our Jewish national pastime: wrestling with G-d.
  
  In 2004, I enjoyed the collection of essays she edited, Yentl's Revenge: The New Wave of Jewish Feminism (** see disclaimer, below) and thus found the evolution of her rapprochement with Chanukah and Judaism - and her honesty and rigor within her progressive feminist paradigm - particularly interesting. (Even her creative use of pronouns was new to me.)
  
  I also plan to follow her suggestion to put applesauce and sour cream in squeeze containers when serving latkes, like she observed in Germany, which apparently is not the only place in the world where they put bacon on just about everything.
  
  As a kosher-cooking Jew of Yekkish (German) extraction, I've read so many recipes in non-kosher German cookbooks that my brain automatically translates "half a pound of bacon" to "a stick of margarine and a full package of onion soup mix" without conscious intervention.
  
  She also shared The Grinch Who Stole the Latkes



• If you're worried about the lead content in the children's toys, here is a new lead test kit.



• Texas No Limit Holdem Dreidl game by ModernTribe (via Judaica Journal)

ETC.

• A mathematical equivalent to moral relativism? I guess it all depends on what units you use.



• Good to know: Superglue can be removed with Vaseline.



• Pop Quiz: Neil or Carl?



• Now I know why scientists to work in labs, rather than in cubes. (via mindhacks)



• This idea for augmenting store-bought maternity clothes makes me want to make something similar (from outgrown t-shirts, probably) for the girls.
  
  At a minimum, can just sew contrasting outgrown shirt piece onto the bottom of the next one, in order to stem the insidious, burgeoning population of belly shirts collecting at the bottom of my girls' closets.
  
  Will probably try this with and without a coordinating ribbon on the front (to hide/disguise the seam.)



• This book signing proposal made me smile.



• I believe with perfect faith that the Internet will soon provide me an opportunity to use the word snoutband in a sentence.



• Yoda pizza could be made kosher, I think. Must keep this on file for my Star Wars-obsessed daughter's birthday party.



• This one made me sigh: The Man Not in the Mirror.



• I wish there were a way to make a Torah scroll's handles from this tree.

Gut Chodesh, everyone!

---

Disclaimer: I read widely and have eclectic taste. I seek and enjoy diverse perspectives, distinct voices, and opinions that differ from my own. I don't restrict my reading to "kosher" lists or sources. (Or blogs, for that matter!)

Orthodox readers who prefer to limit their exposure to non-Orthodox material should not construe the expression of my appreciation of this book as an indication that this book meets their requirements, or as an endorsement of its authors' arguments, conclusions, or lifestyle choices.

If you're trying to keep your bookshelves hashkafically pure, then this book is not for you.

I found it a fascinating collection of well-written essays from young women trying to reconcile their identities, Judaism, post-feminism, yearning for spirituality, and practical concerns. As they wrestled with G-d, I didn't always identify with or cheer about the outcomes, but I did appreciate the integrity of their struggles.