Strippers and Tigers and Accordion players, oh my!

This could only happen in Canada. Bless our souls!

I'm a great uncle

My niece had a baby girl on January 13th, the sixth month anniversary of my father's death. I didn't want to say anything until she had been named, and I thought I'd be posting pictures. At the request of the baby's grandmother, no pictures will be posted; however, I think I'm allowed to share her name. She will be called Sarit Atara (Hebrew name), which is somehow related to, or derived from the "S" in "Israel", my late-father's name; and Atara, which was her late-greatgrandmother's name.

I believe she will be known as Sari Kayla in English.

Thankfully, my father had been told of the pregnancy prior to his passing, so I'm sure he's upstairs somewhere looking after the welfare of his namesake.

Correction

An email received from my sister should make clearer the significance of the names. I suppose I should have asked someone who knows Hebrew to explain it in the first place.

The baby's name Sarit is taken from the Torah. In Genesis Chapter 32 Verse 29:

(The angel says) "What is thy name? And he said, Ya'aqov. And he
said, Thy name shall be called no more Ya'aqov, but Yisra'el (Israel): for
thou hast CONTENDED (Sarita) with G-d and with men, and hast prevailed."

The name Atara is the Hebrew version of the Yiddish "Kraindel" meaning "crown"
Aaron's grandmother (his father's mother) was named "Kraindel".

Busy...

I've been far too busy to post lately, swamped by paid and unpaid work. Hope everyone is doing well.

Random thoughts

So, I'm sitting at my desk, trying to log in to my office, and the Terminal Server connection is dog slow. After 35 minutes of trying to login, I've been able to do that only once, and I waited nearly 5 minutes for Outlook to open. I've logged out in frustration, and am blogging instead.

This past Christmas season, I went to the office party. Since I telecommute, it had been many months since I saw my coworkers and their spouses. One of my coworkers is called Joe, though his name is actually Joseph. His wife is Mary. And they had their son (not their firstborn, I think) on Christmas Eve.

We now return you to our regular stream of consciousness.

Climb every mountain

My sister's known for some time, although she didn't let the cat out of the bag until yesterday. Her son, the one with vocal political aspirations since his pre-teen years, has received yet another promotion. I still have the first business card he was issued when his party's leader won the last election. The official government crest was quite impressive, as was the heading on the card (in deference to my sister's request, I won't divulge any more). That first position "Special Assistant" was probably very important, but to me, it sounded almost like a patronage position. The next step, "Deputy Director" was the real thing as far as I was concerned. And now, he's the "Director" of the branch. There's only one guy above him on the entire government org-chart, the premier himself! And did I mention my nephew only just turned 26?

If I sound proud and boastful, it's because I am.

correction
Though I couldn't find it when I looked, my sister has informed me there is a "Chief of Staff" between my nephew and the premier. So, I guess I'll have to be happy thinking of him as Toby Ziegler instead of Leo McGarry C.J. Cregg.