My Passover 2008 (with an emphasis on Hol haMoed)

This past week (plus the previous two weekends) was the holiday(s) of Passover this year. The first half of the time, my wife and I spent in Rochester, her hometown, where her parents live and the last half of the time in Columbus, where my parents and grandmother live. For the first weekend, we stayed at my mother-in-law's house, attending services at a local shul. For the latter weekend, we stayed at my grandmother's house, attending services locally, as well (albeit a 45-minute walk). For the week in between, there was Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday:
Tuesday
On Tuesday, we mostly got to hang out with my wife's father, including going to the batting cages, which was certainly fun, as well as going to the mall. As it was earth day, there were a lot of things trying to be green. Don't get me wrong, however, I generally try to be green and environmentally-conscious, etc., but the trendiness of environmentalism in the past week has been quite a lot! If I wasn't already into it, I would try to go against the grain - it just seems all so sudden. Anyway, I think that, on the whole, it's a positive and I hope that people are somehow more environmentally/ecologically aware because of it.

Wednesday
We went to the Rochester Zoo (actually entitled "Monroe County's Seneca Park Zoo") before driving to Columbus. We had a pleasant time there, as, although it started raining a little bit, the weather got better. The highlight of our trip was watching a burmese python eating a bunny rabbit - certainly a special treat for us to watch. While the zoo is not particularly large, according to the guide we got when we entered, they have "New York State's only African elephants", something we don't have in The City. Also, there one can see "the only Bornean orangutans and white rhino in New York State as well as the only Eurasian arctic wolves in the U.S." The guide also added that their "African penguins are one of the top three breeding colonies in the nation."

Thursday
We shopped at Easton on Thursday, mostly shopping for clothing, but also just browsing the stores. Our favorite non-clothing store was Sharper Image, where they had neat gadgets and the like, but there was this one particular massaging chair that was simply great (and expensive).

Friday
Our big thing of the day for Friday was to visit COSI. However, before we did, we visited Topiary Park, a "landscape of a painting", the painting being Georges Seurat's most famous work (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte). Our time at COSI was fine, though as we were going through it, I kept remarking to my wife that it wasn't the same as the previous COSI, whereupon she said to stop saying that and for her to experience COSI on its own terms for herself (as an aside, my family members and other people with whom I spoke also agreed with my thoughts). Anyways, aside from the exhibits themselves (we liked the space area a lot), we enjoyed the two movies on the extreme screen, "Sea Monsters 3D: A Prehistoric Adventure" and "Greece: Secrets of the Past" (although we enjoyed the former moreso than the latter).

Also, each of the nights (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday), we enjoyed our holiday with a movie an evening. Okay, now we can go back to eating hamez after the week+ hiatus.

In Rochester: Wedding Preparations

In Judaism, there is a positive commandment to get married (see Rambam's Sefer HaMizvot, positive commandment 213; Sefer haHinukh 552, Sefer Mizvot Gadol, positive commandment 48). As such, it is appropriate that one prepare for this mizvah.
This weekend, my fiance and I are in Rochester (and the shul where we'll be going for services, which will also be the same one as where my aufruf will be on 11 August, Beth Sholom, has a little blurb in their June newsletter about our engagement (on page 3)).
Our preparations today for the wedding included going to the shul where we will be wedding to pick out which huppah we shall be using and to figure out the space (even though both of us were at a wedding there last year, it still helps to get another look at it).
A very important meeting happened when we met with the florist to pick out our floral arrangements, etc. for the wedding. Flowers are, apparently, a very essential element to weddings.
Although that was it for me for the day for wedding preparations, my fiance also went to the hair and make-up dresser to get a testing to see what may be done.
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On Sunday, my fiance's bridal shower will occur.