Shabbat with the new rabbi

We have a new associate rabbi (just ordained, from Jerusalem), and this Shabbat the senior rabbi was away so he was on his own. So much for a gradual introduction. :-)

He did a very good job with the Friday-night service. He seemed at ease on the bimah, and he spoke well during the sermon. (Not reading and mostly not from notes either; I want to learn how to do that!) I know that he feels a little uncertain about his English (not his first language), but really, he did fine. Nothing to worry about there. (Hebrew aside: he pronounces the ayin. I can't quite figure out how; more observation is needed.)

He had never been to the informal morning service, so he asked the chair of the worship committee to have someone in the group lead it and the chair asked me. (I told him to give others the chance first and he did ask a couple people, who declined. Only later did it occur to me that maybe some people are nervous about leading in front of a rabbi, as opposed to when we're on our own. I, on the other hand, am not bothered by that in the least, any more. :-) )

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now that's timing

Our power went out this afternoon during a storm. After a couple hours, Dani said it's worth making sure we haven't tripped the main breaker to the house (i.e. it's not us). I pointed out that the power company's report-an-outage line wasn't answering and was instead playing a recording saying "power's out all over the place and we don't have time to talk to you; go away", but said he should feel free to check.

He went down to the basement with a flashlight. A couple minutes later, the power came on. A minute later, he came up.

I asked: did you do that? He said the only breaker that was tripped was the one powering the dehumidifer and he'd flipped that one back, but he hadn't touched anything else. Weird timing!

I'm just glad the power came on in time for me to use the oven for dinner. We had guests, and I really wanted to bake the fish rather than pan-frying it. (I wasn't too sure about the idea of poaching, the only other stovetop option I could think of.)

new game: Dogs in the Vineyard

Saturday ralphmelton (GM), lorimelton, mrpeck, and I played our first game of Dogs in the Vineyard, which Ralph had picked up recently and wanted to try out. The setting: sort of the old west, in sort-of Mormon country. The PCs are newly-minted guardians of the faith (Dogs), travelling from town to town settling disputes, enforcing religious law, preaching, and more. The style of play is very focused on role-playing: this is cooperative storytelling, not a competitive slug-a-thon. The game mechanic for resolving conflicts is like nothing I've ever seen before.

I had a blast, and I look forward to playing again. ( Read more... )