its not june anymore

Digging through my draft box- I found an unsent blog from June (goes to show how often I recycle)

It would be a shame to throw it away unread…

 

 

 

Nothing like the present to discuss the past.

Sometime ago in June I had my East West games as part of my ongoing fundraising for crohns. My race was pushed to December, and I was hoping that this event would get me very close to the mark.

Planning took most of my spare time for a long while , lucky the open university was on strike at the same time.

I needed an “impartial” area to host the games, cleveland has a very nice park, on the ocean (this lake should be an ocean), part sand, part grass. The park had a pavilion to rent, and for a while I was thinking of renting it, but after a tour of the grounds, it was clear that it was not a good idea. Why? you ask, well, bugs. Not like my usual rental car, but annoying flying little things that stick to you. So I passed on the pavilion option and went with the usual picnic tables. The risk of rain was the only thing I was fearing.

 

Getting people there was risk number 2. I posted in several meet up groups. The adventure group, the 20s-30s, singles, new in town. I asked few bars to bring teams, nudged the people at work, and emailed everyone I knew in the area.

 

Since there were games involved, I had to bring some. I went rummaging and got a single golf club, bocce ball, trivia, croquette, few odd size balls for dodge ball. But more was needed.

I drove an hour to meet up amy’s house , I was there once when she hosted a party with the guitar hero and noticed the foosball table. She agreed to lend it to me. This table has several games in it, including ice hockey, ping pong, pool and shuffle board.

The mega prize came from Nancy, she is a former school teacher , who was just fired. But she still has friend in a local school. We drove there and I was granted the right to raid a school gym.

I hit the mother load. Every box and drawer contained treasure. Weird balls from all shapes and sizes, cones, rings, hoops, foam sticks, soccer balls. I took 2 huge bags full of stuff and with that the equipment part was almost done.

Therese is a Chinese, which was adopted by Latin Americans, hence the Latin name. she came to one of the orienteering meetups that I arranged  and loved it.  The week before I was orienteering with her for 4 hours and after wards we asked the orienteering club for markers, I went to Google earth and printed a map of the park. We went to the park for another tour and decided where to place the markers. I set the markers on the map and printed copies. I never organized a real orienteering event (the previous ones, I arranged a meet up to come to a real orienteering event), this was the first.

 

I offered josh to arrange the silly questions game and I think he had find browsing the net searching for unique questions. I also looked up questions for a trivia game and arranged missions for a scavenger hunt.

 

Next came the food. The problem was not knowing exactly how many people to feed. The meet up site lets people say maybe, and I had 25 of these maybes, so it’s hard to plan. I emailed my 25 maybes asking them to change to yes or no. several people changed their RSVP and now I had 30 maybes!

 

Food options started with a big barbeque, moved to pizzas, then to self made sandwiches, each idea had different costs and issues. After comparing prices and visiting various places, the decision was made. Wal-Mart with food trays of various types. I also had to arrange breakfast and after advice from Stacey, chose bagels, lots and lots of bagels, with cream cheese of different flavors.  This food would cause a local diplomatic incident later.

 

Now all was ready, it was time to party.

My sweet party connection won a party for a 100 at the howl at the moon tavern. This place has 2 pianos, and 2 players who play and sing whatever you ask them (for tips, or no tips) and arrange a general good time. Around 20+ people came from the meet up site, and Inna (alla’s sister) brought 6 couples who had events of their own to celebrate. I love to sing, and I did whenever I knew the words. At some points they called our names and got us to come on stage, and sang a song for us. Inna told them it was our engagement party. It wasn’t, but who cares. We actually danced on stage (there are photos, I think I already sent them).

At one point I asked them for a rod Stewart song, I was looking for a specific one, but did not remember which one. They played and sang and we danced. Then the players (who didn’t like the song) asked for tips to move to another song. A guy stood up and gave 2 bucks and they stopped while we were dancing! I was shocked (and I didn’t pay more for them to keep playing, since they would asked money from others to stop again… they did that a couple of times, and people play ball (pay up))

Other people who had events also went on stage and danced , and they had us to the hokey pokey. We had a blast.

We left a bit early to pick up my cousin (twice removed or something) mike who came in by chance for a wedding in the area.

 

In the morning we checked the weather sites which promised nice weather. Mike and I went to in the morning to pick up the Bagels and the sky apparently didn’t check the weather site. It was drizzling when we left and pouring by the time we reached the bagel place. We reached the park and started to unload the stuff.

Brandon came in early to help (when I initially posted the games, Brandon asked me to delay it for a week for his own personal reasons, I did which was a mistake in retrospect. This weekend is graduation week and many families go on vacation and the week before had a beautiful weather…. But never mind, too late now) by start time at 9 we had barely 6 people. Therese went to set up the orienteering points and we started with croquette. Never played croquette before, a simple game, but requires some skill. A new play was soon invented, called the ‘Irma rule’.  The Irma rule occurs when you slightly tweak the rules to fit your needs. In croquette for example, you need to hit the ball once, but if the ball is close to the hole and to the side. It is hard with one shot, so you do little movements instead of just one and make it (it’s not cheating, it is just taking advantage of the Irma rule). This rule was used often during the game especially by Irma. I finished third, mike forth and Brandon won.

These games were east side vs. west side vs. south side of cleveland (cleveland has no north, since the north is the lake) and the east was in the lead.

 

Orienteering was next and they went running in the park looking for the carefully placed markers (which some of them were not in the places the map said they would, well Therese is new at this).

Most people got most of the points but Brandon won again. Inna and her family came in by then with Alla, and with more people the games continued. Ring toss was next.

Everyone tried to hit rows of cones – 3 in the 1^st row, 2 in the 2^nd and one behind with increasing points for each. 3 rounds each and after round 1 Irma was leading but not by herself.

I gave inna’s kids advantage by having them throw from a closer distance.  Little misha somehow knew of the existence of the Irma rule and got in closer, right on the cones, even with standing so close, he struggled (he is 4 years old), but did manage to win. Since he lives on the east side, I let the cheating remain… I am from the east as well.

Obstacle course was next,  the obstacles were, jumping through a hoop, jumping over a rope, running on hoops, then doing the triple jump, finishing with a jump rope. By then we were around 12 and everyone went. People hit the ropes, hit the hoops, skipped instead of jumping in the triple jump and running instead of using the jump rope. I went through the course with caution, since my leg was not well, so I did not run fast, but I was glad to have done it. Inna went twice, not believing so many people passed her, and did better the 2^nd time. I think Igor (Inna’s husband won) but I am not sure, it may have been jay (a south sider).

 

Dodge ball was fun, we played with 3 balls of different sizes , with the kids playing, so it’s hard to throw strong. At one point I threw a fast one at Igor, who dropped down and let the ball get passed him, hitting little misha (his son) on the leg instead. Few tears later and misha was fine again. I love dodge ball.

 

The bagels were good and we stopped to rest while playing silly questions game.  Josh had a series of very good and funny questions that most of us did not answer. I can’t reveal the questions since I want to use them again.

We played volley ball for an hour and a half on the beach, and had some funny trash talking and teasing then came back for the Wal-Mart lunch delivered by Racer.

 We played flag football (I got the flags from the gym, I told you it was a gold mine) and I made my first touchdown pass since I was in the fourth grade. People tackled people (by removing a flag from them) and we all had fun. Later we had some long ball kicking, bocce ball, horse shoe toss and I am sure I missed a few games.

 

The only issue was the pouring rain in the morning which scared away half the people who signed up and all the maybes. After a cloudy morning, the sun came out and I actually got sun burned.

Both events raised 400$ for the cause (397$ to be exact) and lots of fun memories.

 

See you in the 2^nd annual games next year

 

race photos

Hey all

Some more race photos...

on good gifts and bad gifts

It’s the holiday season and people keep asking me what am I bringing for Hanukah. I tell them it’s an American Jewish tradition , not an Israeli one, but my lovely bride (19 month anniversary todayJ )

Has got me a the best gift you can get me.

Season 8^th of the Simpsons… hour of nonstop laughter , even though I have probably seen all the episodes more than once, twice and thrice…

I was asked again in the office what I got racer, but reply nothing yet.. the office tax assistant wanted to know, since I usually get romantic things (according to her) , well I do my best.

I couldn’t figure what to buy, so I decided to make something.

Since I am awful with little errands, hate doing the small stuff like pay bills, or do anything related to speaking with phone system (our options have changed, no matter what you press you will never speak to a person , that kind of system). My mom probably agrees with every word.  little errands are not my thing.

I gave racer a card with 8 slots, each represents a right to make me do something I normally wouldn’t do, or drag my feet doing it, and now I think, what have I done?

I can be forced to wash the car!!! Or worse, what can be worse than cleaning the car?, I don’t even want to know. The deal is that I have to do it with no protest, so I am protesting now in advanceJ.

 

Now it’s time to prepare for the real present, for my Alla’s birthday. I have a few ideas, have to decide which one to go with. Till then I am doing few winter events, the 1^st being a build a snow man competition. Never built one myself, so it will be fun, I hope and not too freezing.

 

Not much news lately, I will get my finger prints taken soon (no, I have not been arrested…yet) just for the green card and exams approaching, that will be fun

Till then will try to learn how to ski

 

Cheers and ho ho ho

 

 

 

what a bunch of dxxcks

If you recall, I was unable to get a bicycle from a certain store, after a few attempts

And now Maya my niece in laws twice removed..or something  goes happily to Dicks (the same sporting goods store) and tries to get new ski boots. And what happens? The ski dude is sick!!! What the fudge is going on, is the ski guy and the bike guy the same guy? Did he not get well in months? How can they get out of the recession if they prevent buyers from buying. I don’t get it. Well this event reminded me of my long lost bike and I went on line to the site of the above store. And let me tell you, the web site I arrived had many things but bikes was not one of them.

 

Few more Oklahoma issues I forgot to mention.

It started on the way there, with a 6:45 flight, it is wise to leave home at let’s say 5:30 the latest (only because cleveland airport is a great one (no lines)) so why did I leave at 5:50… usually I don’t have begs so no worries, only carry on, but this time I had 2 – since I was delivering a server. arriving at the airport at 6:08 left no time to park, get on the bus (you need one for the economy parking) so I went curb site, checked in and rushed to the economy parking and had a couple of minutes to catch my breath, you think I would learn something, well think again.

 

Friday after noon , about to leave the ok state. I check my flight and see 7:45 pm, and I have plenty of time, returning my car and arriving a little after 5:30, I check in and get a buzz from the machine that I have a late check in. dumbfounded I stare at the board…and realize I was looking at the connection flight, and my flight is in 15 minutes… I run to security and wait…small line but takes forever. I forget to take off my shoes and they don’t even notice it (but even terrorist have better things to do than come to Oklahoma). And run to the gate,  somehow made it on time and boarded the plane last but actually found a free window seat (curtsey of an elderly couple- guy takes the isle and wife takes the middle seat). Quick stop in st, Louis and wait for a delayed connection (nothing like a delay on the way home) and again I board late (check late board late) and once more a guy on the isle and his wife (another couple) in the middle giving me a window seat… the simple things in life… I don’t have another trip scheduled (good) but I will probably come late again… (p.s my suit case did not arrive!)

 

I was asking what is the Christmas spirit and was told its good will towards man and being irritated from the shopping lines. Not sure about the 1^st or the 2^nd reason, the store was kind of empty and the bicycle were cheap but I didn’t have room in the car so no bike yet.

 

We went to the Christmas story house. I am (or used to be) a great movie fanatic, but this movie I didn’t know.  Apparently it was a big 80s hit and was shot in cleveland. Americans being able to make anything in to a museum, did not fails here. 1 regular house is a souvenir shop, another house is the actual house from the movie with everything inside preserved as it, and another house is a museum on the movie.

Many people (not I) knew about this house and the lines were long (even though it was cold) people took photos and were generally very excited. In the museum they had one of the minor actresses from the movie sign autographs and asks people if they recognize her (I didn’t , didn’t see the movie remember!). now I have to find the movie to see what the fuss is all about.

 

Did you hear about the Morgans, if so, don’t bother seeing it, it’s cute but no more.

 

Ski season is upon on and hopefully this weekend I will crash again on the snow, my goal is to defeat the bunny hill (the beginners\kids level) snow reports will come soon

 

Cheers and happy Chanukah, Christmas, quanza or whatever you celebrate

 

 

 

 

 

 

how to watch your ass in oklahoma

My previous tours of the ok state were far from ok- bad hotels, everything closed etc, this was different

 

Trip started with a broken reading light on the plane, so I couldn’t read and had to fall asleep (yes, I know tough), sure I could have moved since the plane was half full, but I was asleep by the time I realized that.

Oklahoma greeted me with a clear blue skies, not a cloud in sight but so cold…18f (-5c) brrrr…. Lucky the wind is almost none existent here, forgot the GPS so had to use these square pieces of paper with markings on them to get where I need to go. A later burger breakfast/early lunch later and I was at where I was.

A bit unusual but I didn’t have a hotel reservation. There is a motel in this town but even the locals told me not to stay there (after my previous OK experience, I took their advise), roaches don’t even go there, so I am staying in a minor city 30 minutes away.

 

Forgot to bring basic stuff (tooth brush, razor etc)- so had to go shopping at Walgreens. My purchase was 14$, I come to the register and the clerk tells me she has coupons for some of the stuff ( I love when they do that), she searches for a while and comes with a few coupons and from 14 the price comes to 7$!! (I just receive an email from Walgreens- I am on their junk mail list- but great timing) + a discount for 4$ on next purchase- one more purchase and they will end up paying me!. So my feeling about Oklahoma greatly improved. Regular 17 hour Work day (field day) ended and I was tired and hungry, lucky my hotel key card had a commercial on it for a pizza, so I ordered one. The delivery boy (a 40 year old hippy with voice like Nick Nolte) comes and says he loaded the pizza extra for me (got a big tip for saying that), though I am unsure with what exactly did he load it. Next day ended with a simple meal in a sports bar, it is refreshing to see open places here, I must have been really in the middle of nowhere in previous visits. also managed to find an open post office to submit home work. Even the common lovely odor of skunks (oh so many skunks) didn’t ruin my mood. I guess it’s because of a local channel I found on the radio with great songs. When ever in the area of ok city, listen to 92.5 on your FM dial.

I got some usual questions if life in Israel is like they see on CNN, a guarantee that god will take care of things at the promise land and more entertaining conversations.

The place I was at treats inmates and security is tight. You cannot bring a phone to the work place and my job requires 25/8 phone and email connection so had to go back and forth, most annoying.

So with inmates in the area came the inspiration for the title of today (don’t think I must explain it). Day 2 ended with a reduction of my movies black list (the I can’t believe I have never seen this movie before list). And today – first blood a.k.a Rambo 1 . I started watching the 2^nd half of the movie then Rambo 2 and followed by the 1^st part of Rambo 1 (lucky they repeated their marathon). Rambo 2 is better then 1, but check one movie off the list.

Hospital cafeteria is not always a bad thing, this statement does not apply here, lucky found a decent Mexican place for dinner.

After dinner I was feeling kind of not Flemish (not Belgium related) and had to clear my throat. Watching a college basketball game did not improve my horrible aim and I missed by much and hit the top of the truck of a red neck. Hitting a pickup truck here in Oklahoma is not wise and I scrammed out of there quickly making sure  I was not seen.

 

So an exciting week… boring yes, but a lot better than previous visits, time to go to sleep, returning home tomorrow J

 

 

 

 

race report

This was written last week-sorry for the delay

 

Landed in Vegas late Friday and met the gang. We were 8 runners from cleveland, and the food at Diego’s was ok, not worth the price though, but hotel’s restaurants are expensive.

I didn’t stay to gamble (never do), just went early to my room and met my roommate Jermaine, a fellow runner from Michigan.

We woke an early and headed for a training run of just under 2 miles. We ran to Mandalay bay and back, which is the location of the race start the following day. I felt ok during this run, which helped my nerves. During the run, I received a donation and seen the notification as I finished and you should have seen the smile on my face, it was perfect timing.

 

After the run in the cold morning air, I went to the running expo, to pick my runners packet and my bag of goodies. It was mostly brochures, but also various energy drinks, energy gels, protein  bar etc. the running coaches told us not to try anything new on race day and before, but I didn’t have breakfast and the morning run got me going so I sampled everything. Most was bad tasting, the drinks were worse, except one bio yogurt which I sampled 3 times. I also enrolled to various things to win prizes. The only thing I will win most likely is more junk mail.

 

After noon was spent in work so not blog material and in the evening we met the whole group of runners, around 900 of them from all over the country to a pasta party. The party had simple food , and only 1 type of pasta, which was odd for a pasta party. This event was a motivation event.

They brought a former Olympian trainer, which was interesting and funny. Prizes were given for biggest fundraiser. The top one raise 39000. I did 3200, so this guy rocked. He did more than twice the 2^nd biggest. The evening host was the CNN morning weather man. Didn’t actually know him, but some might.

It was a fun evening full of screams, shouts and other motivational themes. After wards I went to see robin Williams, who was performing at the MGM, I was getting nervous by then and wasn’t free to enjoy the show to much, but robin Williams is my favorite actor and other that him saying f$$k all the time, the show was good. After wards I arranged all my stuff for tomorrow neatly on the floor and went to bed.

 

Woke up at 4, got dressed and went to the lobby where the mayhem was happening. Hundreds of runners were already there, all dressed in team challenge jerseys, each with their honoree on their shirts. We got some team challenge temporary tattoos and soon we went out still in the dark towards Mandalay Bay. It was cold and I was underdressed. The race was suppose to start at 6:15 , but they start us in waves, and I was in corral 26, and had to wait  40 minutes till my run began, tough 40 minutes with the cold and my nerves.

They had fireworks and skydivers on the starting line. The race begun m and we were waiting, then the sun rose and soon our race began as well.

This was the rock and roll race so along the path they had lots of unknown bands, and the singing helps distract. After about 2 miles I tossed my over shirt aside, whatever you throw in this races gets collected for good will. There were tons of hats, gloves and sweatshirts along the way. At this time I was already calculating how much more to go and soon squashed these though away, I tried hard not to think on the run. Mile 3 came close and I tried to take photos of every cool hotel we went by. It’s really nice running n the strip with bands playing, cheerleaders cheering, passer by shouting supportive cries and family members of runner supporting as well. with27 thousand runners, it was crowded, but not too much. 5k sign cam right after, and I missed mile4, and5 came to fast, I was feeling great and my running coach ran by me and said I was faster than I should be. I felt good and didn’t slow by will.

I passed the 10k mark in a good time for me, great actually ,then ran more with the other running coach (a married couple). I passed and was passed by many Elvises, some santa’s, wonder woman, and lots of newlyweds. They had a wedding on the strip for a dozen or so couple of runners, and after the event they ran, in uniform similar to bride and groom. The Elvis runners were the best since they had music with them. I actually took videos of myself during the run (soon on you tube). We passed the stratosphere(the big needle)  and kept going on the unfamiliar regular areas of Vegas. I began waiting for the point of turning back, my legs began slowly get heavier and heavier, but I was still smiling and in a very optimistic good mood, unlike the mood I was in all week about the race.

Thing began getting hard around mile 9, a cramp in the left calf muscle, which is the uninjured one. Kept running and it eased, but I was mildly limping and legs grew heavier still. I was again next to my coach (he ran with all the cleveland group and did 18 miles by then, without looking a bit tired. Btw, the coach has colitis) another cramp a bit later and my limping increased. I was already much slower by now, and kept jogging to the endless cheers of the crowds (cheering to everyone..), mile 10 passed and I was alone again, I thought I might speedup, since I realized if I didn’t I would miss my time goal of 3 hours, I sped up which was a mistake and soon the other leg was cramping as well, and the last 5 k were very difficult. Breathing wise I was golden, but legs were my Achilles heel (which was sore as well). 2 miles to go and the Mandalay way was visible again, it was also getting colder again and my hands were freezing and my pace was very slow by now, but the spirit was up, that was the important thing , I didn’t let myself get me down. Message in a bottle was played by one of the bands and I was singing along. I actually made one phone call during the race, to my sister Michal, just before the finish line, since she was my honoree, I can’t believe I had air to speak on the phone. Last k was painfull, but I managed to sprint in the last 10 meters and cross the finish with my hands raised and my camera on.

Debbie, my pace maker (a fellow walker who walks as fast as I run) was behind the whole race- (didn’t see her) and she finished 35 seconds after me, knowing she was behind was also a push. Speaking with other runners helped, knowing I made promises helped. Passing the 10 k in a race was a fulfillment of a promise to myself at age 13…..to finish 10 k in the Ra’anana race.  

Right after the finish line the adrenalin ended and pain began. They server bread and bananas and water and I had some of each and the pain level grew quickly, calf muscles, hamstring. My feet were killing me. But worst were the ribs. I don’t recall a rib pain during training, but they rib muscles were cramped bad. My jaw clenched and I was stretching for a long while trying to relax my muscles.

Lunch was server by PFchangs and warm Mongolian beef really hit the spot, too bad the lines were long, and I wished I hadn’t thrown my top shirt off, it was cold!. I was limping to the shuttle bus, barely making it on the bus steps and worse when we got off the bus, slowly I made it to the room, took a long hot shower and just sat in bed watched the lord of the rings.

I didn’t limp bad in the evening, and my legs were worse off after several of the longer training sessions, and other then the ribs I was better now than before.

 

We met in the evening and got some Chinese food, and I went back to the room already thinking about the next challenge (yes I am nuts).

 

Going to sleep, this was fantastic, I recommend you try it to know how good it feels to cross the finish line.
this is my result page

http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=71134144&rsID=88303

 

missed my goal by 2:55 minutes

 

 

 

 

RE: To complete a journey

This was my pre race letter- which is kind of a pre blog

Dear friends and colleagues

I am 2 days away from my awesome journey's completion.
In under 2 days I will be running a half marathon on the Las Vegas strip.

As some of you know the way to get there was not easy for me.
I began late February and was training for a June race and tore my calf on the soccer court from over training. After Weeks of therapy, pain and limping I began training back and got reinjured (volley ball) , and from there training more but trying hard not to overdo it and limiting my activities.
Till now I have ran 11 miles at one point (18K) , so the half marathon will be my longest personal run ever and it is a frightening challenge.

Along the way I had thought of quitting several times, I think I would like to quit even now… but I am committed. I am exposed to CROHNs greatly with my sister Michal suffering from it greatly and my wife has a lighter case of this awful disease as well, so I know that by doing this I am helping them both, and helping millions who are sick with either CROHNs or Colitis.
I was surprised to find out that 3 other company employees have close family members with these diseases, didn't know till then how wide spread it was.

So the running part is close to completion, all I have to do is not give up for 3 hours or so and I am done. My audio book is set, I have a new battery, shoes and clothes are ready, weather is ideal. All that needs fine tuning is my mind.

For the other part of the journey, I need help to complete it. The fund raising part. So far I have collected 75% of the sum. When I started, I received a big support from you and that gave me a big push, I need another push to get me over the top. I hope you will show the same kindness as you have a year ago and donate whatever you can, every sum helps. The donations are text deductible and CCFA is top rated in the direction of the funds, so they are not wasted on salaries , since they use volunteers like myself to raise the money.
Currently I lack 938.50$ to finish, and since this email goes to over 100 people, it seems possible- 10$ per person average and I am there.

I can't thank you enough for donations, and every donation along the way was a boost of energy for this project. And let me tell you what I have done to gather funds.
Other than emailing everyone I know including face book. I contacted some organizations including the teams I follow (I got a poster from man united but no cash), local Jewish organizations in cleveland, my bankers, the cop who gave me a ticket a few months before.
I walked door to door in our building dressed in green on saint Patrick day, I stood on the door way of Sam's club begging donations, I organized a scavenger hunt and sent people on wild missions, I arranged whole day of games which was a huge fun but early morning rain deterred people away, I arranged a big party the night before the games. I approached various business places for sponsor ship, I did hikes after work, 50/50 raffle and a trivia night, and a few more little things along the way. My approach in life and I tried to follow it here is , if things are to be better, many people should help a bit, instead of a few helping a lot. And true I am doing a lot right now, but I expected people to give a little every time in exchange for fun.
This was a busy year for me and my efforts have been fruitful but insufficient, will you help me?

With time ticking away and my nerves are stretched, the thing that will help me more is emails from the donation site (I get one on every donation); I don't want large sums (but would not object☺) but many small sums; 5$, 10$ ,20$ will be better.
http://www.active.com/donate/lv09neohio/vegas09GEven

Ok- I am about to board to Vegas, please lift my spirit and I promise not to give up.

Wish me luck

Gil Even
December 4th, 2009-12-04
Midway airport

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OMG- non stop all the way :) half marathon is done

Will tell you all about it later

Now I must rest

About 3 hours- no official time yet- but mission accomplished

 

cheers

 

should a pilot be allowed to drink beer? what is butts up and I do

The pilot drank beer on the plane! I am not kidding.

Usually I have lots of laughs on south west flights, since the crew is telling little jokes now and then, but today was different.

Sis it matter that the pilot was not flying the plane? I don’t think so.

In this case the pilot sat in the same row as I and enjoyed a beer on the flight. I still say that is not responsible. What happen if we fly to Minnesota and the pilots fall asleep (probably from staring at the same landscape over Nebraska), or both the pilot and co pilot eat the fish and become sick, or snakes get on the plane and bite the pilot.  (all these are real cases, except 2 which were movies), and they will be announcing, is there anyone who can fly the plane, and the pilot will stand up and fly the plane, in his condition! No way.

When we landed in Chicago, the landing  was hard, usually the land soft,  I looked at the pilot to see if he would comment something like ‘idiots, they should know how to land by now’, but he said nothing (probably too drunk from that single beer).

Anyway the clouds before the landing looked like rows on plowed land, white rows on a blue land, which was quite nice to see.

 

Before we boarded this flight, the person who called the boarding order kept confusing with a flight to saint Louis, which was funny and then said to the passengers to double check their tickets, and she wasn’t even drinking (that I know of)

 

This flight is long, 4hours+ so I have time to study some finance (very boring)

 

It has been 2 hours since I sent my funding request and I am very curious, but cant check, no internet here, a minute after the email was sent, there were no changes, I am still uncomfortable with the idea of asking for money, this part did not get easier over time, career in sales is still not for me.

 

Speaking of career, December 4^th is a meaningful day in my professional history. It is not only the birthday of Michal lubovitch- gatenio and little Michael kessalman.

Imagine retro music going back about 7-8 years.

 

At the time I was working at internet-bee and things were good, recently the application that we did to manage election votes and track labor party members had helped Abraham mitzna win the labor party chairman seat, and after the win, we began supplying various labor party members info, from the registered voting book for the labor internal election in preparation for the national election day.

I don’t recall all the names but some were very well known members.

Our original book with mitzna had data on the voters age, and after the win, we used the party’s records which relied on the date of birth.

I was asked to give a list of all young voters, 20-30 so they can send them specific messages addressed to them. Which I did.

Then I got a call early December 4^th, apparently people called to complain they were receiving mail with messages who do not make sense.  Imagine a 70 year old getting info on housing for the youth and reducing the prices on universities and other such things. Apparently I gave the info of people born with in the years 20-30. This was a minor mistake, with a bad bad result.

Because of me, 25 thousand letters were addressed to the wrong crowd, so then they had to resend the letters to the right crowed and send apologizing letters to the initial crowed. The cost of this operation just a couple of days before the election was great and the company paid. These 2 parliament members lost their seats.

My boss back then is an amazing gentle man and after this issue I was not even fired, but I couldn’t stand the fact that the mistake cost the company so much. The company was tiny, and I set its finance back a year, my boss was the company, so he actually paid from pocket. The fact that he has resources did not reduce my guilt. That was a very emotional day for me of course, with nothing to do but apologize. I said Ben was a gentleman and even this mistake, did not prevent him from recommending me to a QA position at MDG. I think that incident made me appreciate the value of a good QA, and my drive to always focus on double checking and attempting to catch errors before they come us, so professionally, that incident was good to me, but not for others involved.

 

So now, December 4^th, I am going to face a challenge which is beating myself and my own thoughts, hope I win.

 

Ok back to Belize,

Charmaine left without braiding anyone and we took a tour bus and looked at lovely Belize. On the way, the tour operators, a smiling group that kept asking us to shout louder when they asked us stuff like ‘good morning’…I can’t hear you…. And ‘are you ready to have fun’ and other such nonsense. They gave us tiny shots of local cashew wine. Since I don’t like cashes or wine, I was surprised that I  liked the drink. Our 1^st stop was ATV. We stopped in the jungle (it was a ranch of some kind, which had jungle instead of grassland, no wild animals…) and we boarded our ATV’s. these were the small ATVs, one vehicle per person and we went into the mud. The entire trail was muddy and we kind of drove through a river. The problem was that it was slow, since we were 12 riders, we kept stopping to wait, so we didn’t get to ride fast. It was still fun but not as it could have been. Our local escort had our cameras and they took our photos, then ran ahead to take another, so you can see how slow it was.

At a point they splashed muddy water at us. They hit me, and left alla alone. I was outraged! At the next mud splash I made sure to ask them to get Alla, and they did J. This was about 30 minutes ride, but fun muddy time. We took a brief shower at the end and went for destination # 2- cave tubing.

It started with a jungle hike, where we have to carry our tube for about 20-30 minutes through the lovely jungle. On the way the guide explained about various trees and what you can make from them (a potion to slow snake venom was one of them and explained on the local plants you want to avoid). One of the guides took Racer’s tube much to her delight, and carried for her.

 

We got to a river in front of a huge cave mouth. Got into the tubes, then they set us in lines. So one tube was connected to another, each person holding the feet of the beson behind him. Which didn’t leave room to maneuver, they were very concerned about safety (safety usually equals less fun), I was the last in our bunch. And soon we were on our way, the high water level carried us in good speed through the cave which had the things that come from the ground and the top (rock formations) I forgot their name- staglmites – something like it. The cave had bats (which I didn’t see) and various interesting rock formations. It was very nice in the dark cave, being led by our guide, but I missed some of the explanations since I was last in line and the guide behind me for another group was too loud,

In the middle of the cave, it branched to a side cave which collapsed , and that area was open from above and it was full of green, it was the kind of scene from an adventurous movie just before they find some ancient temple. An amazing sight. We passed by an underground waterfall.

‘Butts up’ was often heard, letting us know there were rocks of shallow ground and we had to lift our bodies or risk running in the the known rocks – the nut cracker, the jewel buster, you get the meaning. In the middle of the cave the person in front of Alla let her go and our group split, the guide which was with us had to run and chase the group in front and sounding very much in distress. It took over a minute for us to catch up, mean while the group in front ran in to issues and the person who let go, banged his head on a rock. Nothing serious , just a mild punishment.

When we exited the cave, the most amazing blue skies loomed over the luscious green of the jungle and I was sorry I left my camera on the bus, from fear of dropping in to the water.

We tubed connected for a while longer, the disembarked and return to the bus for a lunch and headed back to the ship (for more food?!) Without stopping at charmaine.

 

In Costa Maya, Mexico , we decided to simply go to the beach.

The sand was cold and the water was not warm, but not cold. We swam for a while, then went snorkeling. The dude in charge of giving us our life jackets took forever, but forever later we were over the reef staring at lovely fish and coral. Eilat is a better snorkel site, but this wasn’t bad. After an hour and more in the water, we went back to the beach and enjoyed a massage, well, alla enjoyed hers, I didn’t enjoy it very much. I guess not all massage therapist are good, or some message takers complain to much.

 

After wards we went to the bazaar and bought one to many souvenirs, nice stuff(an elephant, a pepper dish, a fish plate to serve fish, an octopus, and a sun refrigerator magnet, can you guess which ones I bought and which ones Alla?) and boarded the ship.

 

Our last shore day was a private island in Bahamas, were we didn’t do much (not much to do) but sit on the beach, play sharks, jump on huge sea mattresses and eat. I avoided sand volleyball which I simply love doing, since I didn’t bring my brace and I was afraid to reinjure myself so close to the race, so had to pass itL.

I got very mildly sun burned this week and got some color which is good, I usually burn bad.

 

We returned to Miami and we spent an afternoon with my uncle Menashe and my aunt shrilly on the Hollywood beach, boardwalk (Hollywood, fl) and dined at an Armenian restaurant with an Israeli waiter.

 

So that was the cruise, I need to send the link to my karaoke performance, not sure if you want to listen to it! But I will send it none the less.

 

We had a good time, especially from all the family being together and getting to know each other.

 

There is one event I promised to write about and haven’t so far- going back to November 9^th. Which was our 0 days anniversary.

 

We woke up early and Alla left to get her hair done, I was shining my shoes and then went with my dad to decorate the car. I think I wrote about this stuff, I can’t verify since there is no internet here, so I will just repeat. The decoration I put on the car flew in the strong wind, but the just married signs were inside the car and thus spared. I had another such sign on our apartment door. After wards I completed the facts game.

We had a page for each person in both our family’s and gathered interesting facts on them, so that the other side can get to know them better and also act as an ice breaker( Do you know how much a polar bear weigh? Just enough to break the ice). So I made last minute updates, printed it and made sure all was set.

Then I got dressed, without a tie, since I don’t know yet how to tie it, alla came home looking like the most beautiful bride, got in to a white dress (not a real dress, that will be in June, but a lovely one anyway), a made one last face book update and we headed for the church. It was no church of course, but the city hall of shaker heights. I took out the balloons from the car and we all hugged each other, got in the building and signed in. we went upstairs for the official hall and waited for the mayor. There was a water fountain there and I drank 3 cups prior to the ceremony (but I wasn’t nervous…sure….). I managed to add one more line to the mayor’s speech, which was taken from a song.

“it doesn’t matter what you do or where you go, as long as you do it together” – can someone tell me the singer?

And in no time the ceremony began and quickly it was over with me kissing my wife, then stepping aside to sign paper work. We have the ceremony on video and when things settle a bit, it will be uploaded to you tube.

I remember I was listening to the mayors words and agreeing with them, he made a nice speech. I didn’t see the camera which was pointed at me at all times, and after was I saw I was grinning (not greening) like a fool in love.

After the ceremony, we went to Rita’s house (Alla’s sister) with good yummy food from a very good Thai place and Gennady(Rita’s husband) surprised us with a great salmon, cooked on a special wooden oven plate which was delicious (the fish, not the plate). Gennady also edited the wedding movie and we much appreciate it.

 

After dinner and good ice cream cake, we started the game, which was a lot of fun, trying to guess who the person was based on the written facts.

On one sheet, I had 8 facts which fit 2 people in the room. And even the people in question did not recognize them self. Is it safe from a mental state to have your mother and wife with so many similarities….

 

Well we are 20minutesaway from Vegas, I hope to get donations notification by the time I land, and sorry from jamming your inbox with so much stuff.

 

36 hours to race time…. Got to go

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what is typhoon tea

I am seating here on the porch outside my brother’s neighbor  house. I came a bit early and there is no one here for 20 minutes more on a chilly night. The neighbor after asking me what I was doing here (lurking outside) invited me to her porch, and now went in and got me some hot typhoon earl grey tea, which is ok, but the warmth is great. I am underdressed for this weather.

Tried to do some work but no internet so nothing to do but blog.

 

I think i covered everything on the cruise. Let see, food, check, activities, check, rubber lady check, bingo, who cares, dancing check….

 

Next we had the excursions

1^st shore day was Roatan Hunduras. We got a driver for a cheap price, who drove us around the island. At first we went for the zip line. I have considered zip line to be the farshiest of the extremes-since you don’t do much but sit down. The last zip line I was on was amazing from the viewpoints it offered but was not all that exciting. But I soon found the other side of zip lining. Tricks!. Before I would sit, but in this place, they let us and actually expected us to experiment. You start with no hands, then lean back wards with totally trusting the wire, then sort of jump, act like superman, or simply lean back straight, it is hard to explain but you can do all sorts of things and that was awesome! It was 12-15 zip lines one after the other and other than one incident that I crashed into the guide, all was well. (the guide is fine now, but look like in some pain at the time,,,,we left him a tip).

After the zip line, we went into the monkey cages. the have capuchin monkeys, the same that Ross had. Tiny cute things. So I go in to the cage and try to seduce a monkey with a banana. This doesn’t work!, I guess they are going ape sh#t from all these bananas. I keep trying by standing close to them, till one of them jumps on my shoulder and poses to the camera. Another on joins and the 1^st stand on my neck and starts looking in my hair. I don’t have tics, or do I? the monkey continued doing things that wrong, i can now say I was molested by a monkey (not sure if it was male or female), eventually there were 3 monkeys on me doing forbidden things. After that I went to the parrots cage. Huge Jacko  parrots were there, but they let a smaller green one sit on your shoulder, one of them did and then my co pirate tried to seduce the parrot to her shoulder, the parrot resisted and moved to my other shoulder, I was laughing , it was funny, eventually the parrot gave up and Alla got her photo opp.

 

From there we stop for a quick rest stop and drove to a mangrove tour. We went in to little boats , and noticed that Maya, was left sleeping in the van! Lucky we noticed it before we took off, or we would have one unhappy kid. These small boats took us on the tour and we got to see lots of houses situated on the ocean, some on stills, about to fall and other more  fancy houses on top of the hills. Our boat was not shaded, and it was hot. The trip went on through a canal made by the mangroves; the roots were visible very clearly and the tops created a canopy, so it was a natural tunnel, a  unique experience. On the way we noticed a box from Wal-Mart Honduras , on the side of the canopy. The was not good, since Wal-Mart here, ruins the 3^rd world country experience; I wanted to take a picture of the box, but when we returned to that spot, few minutes late, it was gone! Since we seen no one there, it was bizarre; are Honduras people alien? Or just magicians, or just quick at box transfer; this will forever remain a mystery.

 

From there we went to the beach. This was a private beach, and a long island just close to the beach closes on it and creates a natural lagoon, with warm shallow water, and lots of palm trees which result in the ultimate relaxation beach. We swam to the other side of the lagoon and back (not that long), then played sharks. Sharks is a new game for me, a sort of tag (tofeset), but trying to escape 4 kids chasing you is not an easy task. After about an hour and some on the beach we went back to the ship and managed to buy a durable bag at one of the many markets.

 

We said our good bye to Honduras and returned to the mobile food fast.

 

 

The next days was underwater Belize.

You may Belize it or not but this country is under sea level. It is protected by a great barrier reef, so a bad storm can wipe them out…

Belizeans are scared from height (since they are so low) and from the cold (since its always hot) and they use the term refreshing to state that it is cold.

 

We took a touristic tour of cave tubing. I did such a thing once before in new Zealand and was looking forward for my most anticipated of excursions. Before we boarded the bus, a local woman came to us and introduced herself as charmaine and offered to braid the kids hairs. She was promising good service and asked the kids to look for her when the tour was done, the kids (maya, Pauline, misha and Arielle) stood next to me and charmaine kept referring to me as daddy, daddy don’t worry, daddy this and that… no one has called me that before…

A few minutes later 2 other braiders came and offered the same things then maya told them that charmaine said the same things, and then they started a monologue (duologue since there were 2 of them) that charmaine was not in the union, and so unsafe and blab bla bla. With a large group of anti union Russians, the no union was not the best argument to convince us. Charmain came again and we told her what the other 2 said, and she admitted not being in the union and said she is still better and don’t worry daddy…

 

Ok time to board again….

To be continued

 

 

and then charmaine called me daddy

Just woke from a powair shnutch

A power shnutch is defined as a quick but deep slumber, a powair shnutch is a deep but needed slumber from take off to beverage serving on the plane. And now hydrated with diet coke we can go on with business.

 

At 4:00 sharp, give or take a few minutes the previous Friday we left for Akron airport , with a furious attempt to avoid the rush hour which wasn’t bad and made it with plenty of time to spare. It was just a chance that in a Friday we were searching for a TGI Friday’s which was not there, but boarded the plane on time and exchanged planes in Atlanta, and arrived in ft Lauderdale just before midnight.

Then a 15 minutes wait to the shuttle, and away we went , and with an impressive short cut, came right back to the airport, so we waited for 20 more minutes. We headed south on the I-95 till traffic began to pile. Which is strange to see lots of traffic after midnight. We felt right at home from the many signs of road work and they closed the entire high way. This road goes all the way to new York and more and they just close all of it[ not the whole road, just a section].  So our shuttle took us through the Miami neighborhoods and our fellow shuttle passengers who were familiar with the area said that this is not a neighborhood you should go through , unsafe, but we had no choice, since we were not driving, but safely made it to Miami south beach to a milady smelly but nice hotel. We crashed and woke to a beautiful sunny day. It is now about 2-3 degrees in Cleveland and a sunny day is more than welcome. We jogged on the boardwalk for 40o minutes. While I was training for months, alla didn’t run in a few months and still she was running easily ahead of me while I was struggling to keep up ( and failed). My mom and moti were there as well and they were walking on the beach and tried to convince a cop that a live black cat was actually dead. The cat was simply napping on the boardwalk, unsacred by the many joggers and looked at ease as only cats can be.

In another part of the world, another cat managed to wake them up at night here in Miami. How is that possible you ask?

Well this is Tom, my mom’s cat and he is the master of the house. He has a spot that triggers the alarm, he goes there whenever he wants to go out and there is no one awake to open the door. So the security people called them.

 

After the jog, we went for a swim in the ocean. The water were not warm, but far from cold and we enjoyed the shark free water (if we didn’t see them , they weren’t there). afterwards we all went with Venezuela Cecil (she is my distant cousin by rescue (long story…another time)) to Lincoln street, which is a nice street with shops and restaurants and no cars. We had brunch at a middle eastern place for some good food. I had Bide, which is some kind of flat bread pizza, never heard of the dish  before and some humus like spread made from walnuts which was good.

We said goodbye to Cecil and continued walking the Miami strip, then came back to the hotel to rest, and after a dinner, we met Yaron, revital and the kids who just landed.

 

Later we went to check out the newest hotel on the strip which was rumored to be impressive, and it was. Water fountains, lights, you cannot really describe impressive, I guess you will have to wait for the photos. We went with the kids to a very fancy shmency bar that you don’t take kids to, and tried their chocolate cake which was excellent. Than everybody but us went home and we stayed to check out the scene (since when am I saying so check out so many times). This was a trendy place and lots of locals came to the dance bar, there was a silent completion on who wears the shortest dress and the highest hills.

 

Next morning we met for breakfast and took a shuttle to the cruise and met Inna, Igor, Dina, Aron and the kids (my family just got a lot bigger recently), and boarded the Norwegian jewel.

We went to our window less cabin on the bottom floor adjacent to the kitchen and the Laundromat (it was not really, but we laughed that it was). The cabin is small like any cruise cabin but the no windows thing was great, since we slept in every morning with no light to wake us up.

We took a personal tour of the ship which was smaller than previous ships I have been on, but this was Alla’s first cruise. We went to the Jacuzzi a couple of times and the pool only once the whole week.

Food is always the problem on a cruise so I made a deal with myself to avoid bread the whole week. It was tough since I love bread with butter, and they have lots of cakes, banana cakes and corn cakes which I love!, but I stayed away. Don’t get me wrong, I ate a lot, but bread makes it worse, since I eat more things with it. The cruise main problem was the ice cream, I ate so much! The food was good, not great, but good and a lot from it, server all the time.

 

In the afternoon of the 1^st day they had an on boarding party with line dancing and a conga line, with various dance to the sounds of Uprizing, the ships Caribbean band. They had 2 more sessions of line dancing, unfortunately they were identical repeats of the 1^st one, I don’t know why they can’t invent few more dances, it is less fun with the same things. They had games on the ship. We tried to volunteer for the ‘newly weds and not so newly weds game’ where they have 3 couple answer embracing questions and try to match answers, they took the most newlywed couple which was not us, a 20 year married couple and a 62yrs couple). The game was fun but had exactly, word for word the same questions they did on another cruise ship of another company. The lack of originality is my theme for this cruise. It seems like they try to be identical to others, so when you have to chose a cruise company, the company does not matter, only destination and price. I find it odd, but whatever…

 

The 1^st entertainer was aeeee – not great, some comedian who tried to hard, the 2^nd was great. It was a puppet and her handler. The puppet Mathilda made us laugh the whole cruise. They had a vocal band as well, a kind of new age barbershop quartet named the cats pajamas which was very good. We sang kareoki, I sang Delilah again, and Alla made her Karaoke debut  with a duet of “I want you to want me” which was good in the Corus, not so good in the rest, but I want to want her so we need to practice for the next performance.

The kids sang a few song including Yesterday and ghosts busters.

Both families were a great match from the get go, which was great to see and enjoy, you never know how these things turn out, but we were happy it was smoother then the calm ocean.

They had dance shows as well with the ships dance crew with lots of flip flops, dance and song with a Broadway style. But the most impressive was the rubber lady.

A couple of acrobats. The woman was probably Russian with rubber limbs. And made her body twist in unbelievable angles, you had to see it to believe it. In one move she held her legs while bending backwards and made a circle, then her partner held her up in mid air and dropped her on him. She dropped in this ring shape position and he opened his legs like a stop ramp and the ring stopped on the legs, I have no idea how someone can be this limber, but it was wow after wow.

We learned how to Cha Cha and how to fold napkins in different ways.

They had another sow of dancing with the jewel stars, some of us signed for that, but it was a raffle and we didn’t get in. so guests were dancing with the crew in a dance off and the winner was a 75 year old woman who dance pretty good in general and was shaking her grove thing. The next day they tough us how to swing, Alla chose to sun tan, and I went dancing with Marge, the 75 year old dancer. I am allowed to dance with other women if they are celebrities and a winner of a cruise dancing with the stars is a celebrity.

We went to a ping pong tournament on a windy table. Alla was playing with this kid who was trying to show off by playing Chinese style, he soon found out the showing off does not pay off and was creamed. I nervously defeated too others , and Alla beat another dude and we met face to face on our anniversary in the final. Sorry I am no gentleman when it comes to serious things like ping pong.

 

Which anniversary you ask, well it was a triple event- on November 23^rd.

It was our 2 weeks marriage anniversary, 6 months to the day since we got engaged and 18 months to the day since we started dating! How awesome is that!, I don’t think the stars will align so well in the future.

 

Landing now, this ends part one, and I didn’t get to charmaine…

 

 

how to insult 3 at the same time or why is my mate speaking to me

So, today I am going to use the facilities , for a number 1.

I usually don’t blog about this since I go every morning, evening and during the day depending on the amount of diet coke I am drinking, so this is not that big of a deal.

But today as I was , … well , I heard a voice coming from my mate, saying “hello Gil”, it was unusual since it never spoke before. I was trying to figure it out and looked bewildered.
till I understood.

Before I got in I must have hit the send button on the phone by mistake, which was in the front pocket on my jeans.

The voice was of Mat and not my mate.

So the mystery of the speaking mate has been resolved, and the mate remains mute.

 

We are no in the airport waiting for our flight to Atlanta, home of the inventors of the flight delay. The played “we didn’t start the fire” and my bride guessed Rod stewart. I corrected her saying it’s not Rod, but maybe Bruce springstin or probably Billy Joel, she said they all sounded alike, so she managed to insult all 3 of them at the same time. We did go last year to a rod steward concert, I guess we must go to the others, as a tutorial session (not because I want to go).

 

Oh I think we finally found our slow dance song, it is a difficult challenge and it is by one of the above 3 insulted. No names now, need to keep some surprises. We have a few nominees for the walking up to the Hupa song and no nominees for the the song right after. It is more difficult to chose than the DJ or camera man.

 

Last weekend after not running for 10 days during the marriage week, I was suppose to run 2 hours and 15 minutes. I ran this time before, but I was feeling heavy that morning. It was a hard run, knowing I have so much to run makes it harder. One of the other runners is over 50 and doing the same race. She is running and walking, and I am running all the way and yet she was always few steps behind, her walking speed is the same as my running!! I am that slow. But she helped me run, whenever she got to close I pushed myself ahead. I don’t think I could have ran that day by myself. But after 2 hours and 30 minutes I had completed over 11 miles (18 k) and felt great, and felt pain!.

Next day I hiked for few hours and close to the end managed to sprain my ankle. But unlike previous times, it was bloated just a bit and I can run again (we will see tomorrow), so I am still good to go for the race, with 2 weeks to go, to bad I am still behind my fundraising – so feel free to help http://www.active.com/donate/lv09neohio/vegas09GEven

 

 

I know I still have to describe the ceremony, but cannot do so on the same blog as me urinating.

So cheers

Were boarding…

 

 

 

little bit on goats, pink things and bicycles

Dear diary, it has been a while… so what new events occurred recently?

 

What is pink and spinning around?

Salmon in the microwave.

I have been eating more fish in the last season than 10 years before combined, and I like it. One day I took salmon to work and hit it up in the micro wave. Salmon as you know jumps against the current, and even after death it still knows no rest, the fish exploded in the microwave, scattering to every possible place. Took me minutes to clean it all. What ever was left on the plate (the less adventerous part of the fish) was good.

 

Haloween party took place on haloween , how bizzare. And my finace’e and I went to a party at the natural history museum. We went to a custom store to get a custom and tried on a few things. I knew what I wanted to be, but not how. My nick name on meetup- the site I do the hikes and other events with is the international man of mystory. I don’t know why I got that nick name, but since this party had about 80 people from meetup, it seems appropriate. So I had to be international – so I took a kilt, israeli sandals, scotish socks, irish flag, I coulndt find my brazil Tshirt , so I wore a lizard shirt (which become my undercover nick name for the evening), I wore kind of a clowny hat (should have brought a turkish hat), my green eyes glasses with fake eye lashes. Cut my beard in a weird shape- to fit both conditions where I would have to be shaved or bearded, and a tie for formal missions. I also were spandex which looked like garder belt, very sexy. To top it all I had an umbrella- as my cover.

The problem was that no one knows what the custome is, with out asking so its hard to get votes (there was a competition) and I didn’t win. Well next year… the level of cusotmes there realy amazed me. People invested time and effort and had great results. Even the band dressed up like the flinsttones. It was a fun night.

 

I also reach new peaks of endurance (peaks for me anyway), and broke the 9 then the 10 miles! Mark- 16k of non stop running. I was very much excited, with 24 days till the race-  I have only 5 k to go.

With fund raising how ever I am very slow. I stood 2 days last week infront of the sams club and asked for donations. This was approved by this huge chain, but first they came and told me I cannot ask any one in the parking lot, than that I must stand in a specific spot behind a table far from the exit door. You cannot ask money after people already spent a bunch on shopping, you must do it before they enter, while they still have money. So it was a cold, very cold actualy hours- so I am still far from my fundrasing goal.

 

Home work season has begun with finance and accounting courses- not very interesting, and orienteering season is about to end with the approaching winter. But ski season will soon begin, so something to look forward to.

I went to go get a bicycle. If you know me, you know I have a history with bicycle shopping. So I go and chose my bike at Dicks, it’s a big sports department store. The thing is that they inspect all the bikes for safety before they leave. But the guy who is doing that has swine flue! Poor me, I have to wait, and I do and call backa few days later and the forgot about my order and about me in genral. What a bunch of [enter store name here]. I went again last week, and chose another pair, agin they told me that the guy is not there (but he has recovered) and I should come again later, they wouldn’t event put the bike on hold. It’s a very unamerican store like behavior from them. I guess they are [store name].

So still looking for a bike, but my bike rack has arrived.

 

Recently we bought shelves to help arrange the fast filling room of stuff, now it realy is the room of stuff and it is stuffed.

 

We have seen an exhibition by gaugin at the museum of art. He is famous but not my style. Luckily they had another exhbition there which I liked more, same period 1850-1950 but more vareity.

 

The leaves are falling, there is almost nothing left, but the views this season have been out of this world. Days are hot sometimes, but mostly cold and it will be colder again.

 

I have once made a goat faint! That is easy when you are chasing a fainting goat, but regardless, we went to see the man who stares at goat. New movie with great cast. Very weird with a potential to become a cult movie. High marks for originality, and less, for ‘what the goat what that?’ Its an entertaining movie over all.

Couples retreat was a different story, simple romantic comedy, what ever you expect was there, but also entertaining.

 

That is all for now

Next update will be on the marrige and this very eventfull exciting week.

 

Cheers

And remember , if you look at the goat and it doesn’t faint, you didn’t try hard enough.

 

 

 

FW: Invitation to view gil.even's Picasa Web Album - 2009-10-31- haloween party

Pictures from the haloween party

 

You are invited to view gil.even's photo album: 2009-10-31- haloween party 2009-10-31- haloween party meseum of natural history- cleveland ohio - Oct 31, 2009 by gil.even View Album Play slideshow Message from gil.even: These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/ If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=gil.even&target=ALBUM&id=5399123377521251953&authkey=Gv1sRgCMHfjNzajuinsQE&invite=CL3e5sAL&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

 

welcome to chicago - where its always sunny, or into the mist

After the 12k last weekend, I was actually stupid enough to go for night orienteering at kandell lake. Last year I sent the most beautiful shots from the lake, the trees in all the colors of the fall, reflecting on the lake with a clear blue sky. That was before a night orienteering event as well. this time was different.

Cloudy skies hid the sun and the lake is gone!!!

How can you make a lake disappear?. There was a damn on the lake, for some unknown reason they opened it and let the water drain, leaving nothing but mud and a small puddle of water, so no reflection this year, too bed. But still, I had my event. 2 others joined me this time and we left quickly and ran large parts of the way. I was surprised that I could still run. This course was short and easy and we were done in 46 minutes which may be my first ever win in orienteering, it’s about time… still no results at this time. Then drove to the west side for a night of karaoke. Intern decided to stay home and study. I sang “ironic” and “mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmm” by the crash test dummies and managed to forget my debit card at the bar (had a sandwich….), this reminds me that I have to call them to get it back.

 

The next day went on a hike that wasn’t long by distance 9k but took a long time, 3 hours, we walked fast, so I guess the distance meter was wrong…or we walked slow. Though it was an easy hike, the combination of exercise this weekend was felt the next day. I also enjoyed watching terminal with tom hanks. Such a good movie, and Hanks makes the story believable. I would give him an Oscar, though I don’t think it did.

Finished a book lately Brisinger, which is the last book of a trilogy , started with Eragon (which was turned to a movie few years ago). I like the series, but the problem was that at the end of the 3^rd book, the series didn’t end… so the trilogy became a cycle, hoping the 4^th is the last, and want be like the wheel of time series, with 14 books that I was reading (as they came out) for more than a decade, and then the selfish author dies….what a nerve.

 

From cloudy cleveland I left this week for sunny Missouri.  At least it was sunny on Monday when we got there. I was traveling with my colleague happy camper. The week went well except the swine flu that hit this little town. With few wards of the hospital closed for quarantine, being there was unpleasant, and discussions on the vaccine were frequent- questions like- is this a government conspiracy? Is the vaccine safe etc…

On the drive to the hotel we spotted a large variety of wild life including: deer, raccoons, possums who decided to check my breaks and luckily survived, some nocturnal bird, perhaps an owl, Geese, a fox all the previous were alive and many more specimens of each dead on the side of the road (including a coyote, who wasn’t Wyle, if it did, it would still be alive). The roads in this area are in good condition but very narrow, and curvy since this area is hilly. Driving here at night, in the rain (came on Tuesday and never left)  was slow. And happy camper kept commenting on the way I drive but refusing to drive herself.

 

Like my last visit here I also chose a beetle, much to the annoyance of happy, who likes the comfort  of the bigger cars. I was thinking on the environment , we will see what we rent next time, mini cooper or SUV.

 

Now I am at Chicago airport waiting for my flight home to intern. I fell asleep on the plane as soon as it left the gate and woke up to see nothing but white. It was an impressive site of nothingness. There was nothing but white. I couldn’t even see a single cloud, it’s like we were flying in the mist. A picture of that would make the world hardest puzzle.

When we landed at rainy Chicago, the steward made the comment that appears in the subject line, their comments always make me laugh.

 

That’s it for now

8,5 miles this weekend, home work in finance and another hike are the main weekend plans

 

Cheers and way to go hapoel…

 

 

 

a little bit Endurance

Last weekend I went on a dreary morning for edge water park for my weekly training run.

We arrived at this place because it was the final hour of a national championship event.

A 24 hours endurance run.

Crazy people of all races, genders and ages run nonstop for 24 hours, I shit you not. We came at 8:30  and people were running, not just slugging along, their pace after 24 hours is still faster than my single lap speed. Top runners pass 140 miles. Winners from this race are going to the Olympics, so we have seen Olympians and world record holders. One of the runners was an 80 year old guy, who also ran nonstop, this was more than incredible. When their run ended at 9am, all the runners dropped and began to make sounds of people who just run 24 hours make, but they recovered fast enough. Then our group began running on the same tracks, this was a .92 mile loop (they ran this same loop nonstop, I would die of boredom) for an hour and fifteen minutes (the run is longer and longer week after week). When the run ended, I was just finishing 10k YEH, first time since the injury. But lots of cramps. And next I did something I should not have done and went orienteering. It was a 7k course in the lovely woods of cleveland. In orienteering the course is what they say if you go straight from point to point. I don’t do that, since I like to avoid trees, brush, and hills- so its longer, not sure by how much, but 4 hours later (unusually long this time) we finished the course, found everything , but my legs were in bed shape. Later that evening, I was reading on the pooch when I got a bad cramp in one leg, the kind you get some time in the night after too much exercise. I began messaging my leg and trying to undo this pain, then the other leg cramped, first the quad, then a few seconds later the calf. So I couldn’t move and was in quite a bit of pain. Now when you have a cramp in the thigh, your kind of want to bend your leg, and for a cramp calf, you want to straighten it to release the cramp. But when you have both, man you are screwed. I was with both my leg half bent, messaging hard, each movement , no matter how small gave me more and more pain from the perspective muscels. After a time which felt like forever but must have been 5 minutes the pain went away. I was limping for 3 days after that.

Week after there was suppose to be a 10 k race, and us fund raising runners were suppose to participate as a practice run. I left early, but to the wrong place (there was a marathon also, and 2 launch sites) and I went to the wrong one, by the time I manage to get in, the race has begun and I missed it. Which was a good thing, since I was hiking the day before at Chardon area (photos soon) and the leaves are amazing. We did 7 miles walk, which is a lot but not too much. So 2 heavy events would cause cramps so lucky that I missed it.

Few hours after my missed run, I went to a scavenger hunt. I do love my hunts. This one was different. We went to case western, a local university with a big campus. And the hunt was to find pieces of information about certain building; like find some specific sculpture and write who built it, this kind of mission. But there were many of them in a short time. The cleveland art museum is right there and we had to track specific works of art. We kind of snuck in the museum, even though I am a paid member, we still actually just walked in. we visited the botanical gardens, various shops and at the end we had to drink a double shot espresso. As you know, I hate coffee in any form, shape or maker( don’t even like mocha) so that was a bad bad bad tasting drink from star bucks. I was wise to get a chaser (a big glass of hot chocolate) which was good, but did not totally diffuse the coffee taste. I didn’t know case western very well, but others in my team did and we hustled and got many missions completed, I was sure we won, but came a close second.

 

Last night we went country line dancing. I did line dancing before in Israel, but not country style. It was always hard for me, I am losing the rhythm very quickly and its difficult for me to keep up, but it is still fun. But last night was advanced. They move so gracefully and they turn so many times and fast. I was out of my league. We did have fun, the music was good. I knew some of the oldies songs, but only 1 dance (electric slide) which I danced here, but to the music of latino’s. need to improve on the dancing part for June.

 

Feeling like a pin cushion lately. After my physical we went to the immigration doctor, who so me for maybe a minute, then I got another shot of tetanus. My last shot was 3-4 years ago after being hit in a head by some ugly brute on the side lines of my last rugby match. So now I have so many antibodies in me, that my shadow is immune to tetanus.

I an hour I will go get the results of my TB test. I seem to have no TB which is good, after that all the green card paper work and tests are done….finaly……. now we submit (after the cruise) and wait patiently.

 

Results of my last school exam came with a 79 in my business strategy course, and just like the biology degree, I seem to be able to get many 79s, not sure how this happens, but I had many courses with this result. Now I am taking accounting and financing, both tedious , and difficult course.

 

Today was another weekly run. 2 days ago I ran/walked 5 miles at the gym and I wasn’t sure I was ready for today. It was a cold morning, so I ran with my work gloves and something which is not a hat that covers the ears. I guess I was ready after all. Ran 2 miles, walked 0.5 till I got to a much needed sudden nature break. Then ran 5 miles more…. My longest straight run since the injury and my longest ever weekly run. 12k!. this morning I was finally feeling like I can actually complete the Vegas half marathon in December. Just have to make sure I will not injure myself. Next week 8.5 miles…(13.6k).

 

Got to go soon, also getting a much needed hair cut. need to look good for the weddingJ

 

More updates as soon as I can write them, cheers