Recent stuff

Tonight I went to pick up Michael from his friend's house, several minutes drive from my house. About 10 seconds down the street cars were stopped still in an endless line as if there was an accident or something impossible to go around. I turned to take a different route, only to quickly meet up with the same grid-lock. Like a parking lot. This was on streets that I've never even seen real traffic. Tried a few other routes and met up with the same scenario. Then I heard the name of my street on the radio, amidst Hebrew so I had no idea what was being said except for I was certain that the apocalypse must be starting right there half a mile from my house. A terrorist had bombed a bus in Tel Aviv a couple hours earlier and so my mind was wandering...maybe something happened here too? Rude driving was going on. A van tried to squeeze in on my right where there was no lane, trying to eek past me. Of course I'm like, what the h#!!?! And as I looked over to the car with that expression on my face, I saw a man who gave me the most evil I'm-going-to-kill-you look I have ever been flashed, and in the same instance saw a huge chain saw sticking straight up into the air next to him. A FREAKING CHAIN SAW!
So I kindly offered him the spot in front of me, via his non-existent third lane.
The boring end to this story is that after 45 minutes of "driving", I turned back home (it took about 3 minutes once I was able to turn around), put on my running gear and took the jogging stroller to pick him up. It was amazing how light it was without Michael, and Ella kept screaming with delight "Fast! Fast!". It only took 15 minutes, I passed all those cars as quickly as I was passing houses, and my smugness was so delicious I could taste it. These are the instances I LOVE that I love to run. I had visions of what it might look like if there ever really was a mass exodus and my vision of us escaping by bike with the kids trailer attached made me happy to think about.*
Apparently the insane traffic was because IDF was stopping cars trying to find the bombers.

Unrelated, yesterday Rob actually witnessed the crazy guy who attacked the guards of the US Embassy with a pick axe.

We are happy to hear the cease-fire deal. My hopes are high, but expectations low, considering that there have already been numerous rockets launched into Israel from Gaza since the cease fire. I guess they aren't coming from Hamas, but it certainly doesn't make it seem like the most effective deal ever made.

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Since this is already long, I'm can't help going pointing out some lameness about the news reports. From a report in BBC about the bus bombing:
The US "strongly condemns" the bus bombing, Mrs Clinton said.
Thanks for that nugget, BBC!

The Ichilov medical centre in Tel Aviv said that of the 28 injured, 10 had suffered "body injuries" - three of them serious - three received "moderate-light" injuries including shrapnel wounds and burns, and the remainder were suffering from "anxiety". 
Is BBC seriously humoring whoever decided to call anxiety an injury? Honestly!? I'm sure the anxiety is dreadful. But not an injury. Come on now. All the spin that both sides are trying to put on every aspect of this war is ridiculous. 

*Dear Anna - it's kinda like the homeless survival game.