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

 

 

 

 

What the heck did you do Sunday?!?

Well some people have too much time on their hands

I was minding my own business, just sitting on the bar when this happened

 

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/L80S1SloMB4z3kcA

 

 

cheers

 

 

its all because of the wild boar

I fasted this week, I say it again since they were doubters, yes I need to diet, but I can survive a day without food. We had a great post fast meal at Alla’s mom and later showed our Alaska highlights movie- part one, the early days.

Why did I fast again the same week? Not 25 hours , only 16.

I need to pass a physical for my green card application, so we made an appointment at 1 pm, the day before they call and say that I have to fast for 12 hours (Kippur was Sunday, this was on Tuesday)- so quite a shocking week for my stomach. Had I known I had to fast I would have scheduled for the morning.

So I fasted again, and somewhat hungry I came to the doctor’s office before the scheduled time and filled out some paper work, than hungrily waited for the doc, half an hour in the waiting room, why do they call it the waiting room (check old Seinfeld episodes for the answer). The doc was nice and thorough , but also violated me in ways I don’t want to divulge( it’s a physical).

Then I went to the lab to give a blood sample, and all the lab stuff. I also got a flu shot. Right after I wolfed down a couple of sandwiches.

 

So after fasting 1 and ¾ of a day you would think my Karma would be good and indeed a day later I am notified that I may be traveling to some non capital major European city for work. The good thing about it is the timing. Since my mom, Moti , shai and Michal are travelling to Switzerland and Italy next week, I already had a weekend planned to join them, I don’t get to see my brother and sister very often so I was looking forward for that.

I had to mass it up…

On Friday we had lunch at a very good Thai place, the peppermint Thai. I tried some out of the ordinary(for me) dishes before there and liked every single one. This time I tried wild boar with rice and some irregular vegetables. The boar in some peanut sauces was very well done. Never ate a boar before. Unfortunately the boar is a more impressive form of pig, which I believe to be a non kosher animal.

Apparently a boar is stronger than my 1.75 fasting days.  because a few hours later (even god has processing time, being the holidays and all)  I find out about 3 more forms I have to fill for the INS ( I hate paper work) and a minute later my euro trip was cancelled. In short, more work and less play.

 

As the old man in the Simpsons said after a laser hit his eye “my cataracts are gone, I can see all the colors of the rainbow, then the laser hits again, and his sight goes away  and he says, well “easy come ,easy go”

 

So now a day later the forms are filled and we will going to inna’s suka later today. The only questions is to make another sinya or red velvet cake?

 

p.s irregular vegetables include string beans (tried them for the 1^st time, to stringy but edible with peanut sauce), some form of egg plant (did not even consider trying it) pees (getting used to them)

regular vegetables include red and green pepper (which I usually dislike in any form but fresh, but they were good in the Thai place)

p.s2 – we asked if you say SAAATTAI or SaiiiiiTaiiiii (the Thai chicken on a stick) but its Saaaaateiiiiii

 

cheers a happy Sukot