on small talk and other things

Watching the movie big these days seems like such a non big deal.

The whole story is that he has to wait for some info to arrive to find the Zoltan machine. If they would remake the movie today, the script would be unbelievable (I am ignoring the fact that he changed from a kid to a grownup- that is believable). All you have to do is open Google and search Zoltan. But it is still a great movie.

 

I was on a plane last week and next to me sat a very talkative guy. I am noticing lately that I am lousy at small talk, it’s kind of disturbing since outside of work I have not made any close friends here, I need to improve my small talk to get to know people. So the plane guy is a talker, so we talked- the guy works for the FBI as a hard drive recoverer ; hard drive cought as evidence are given to this guy and he checks for deleted info by reading binaries. If you know anything about computers, you know that reading binaries is less believable than the zoltan machine in the big movie. Most impressive.

Well the guy flew on to Ok city and I went to Dallas.

 

Over the weekend I went to catch a basketball game.

Seeing a live game is always exciting, and there is a great ball team here.

Meet the Plano Spartans- average age is 8, average height is 3 feet 1o inches, average hair color – dark Blond. This is the team my niece plays at and the had a game vs the PSO. I am still impressed by how these little leagues have more equipment, organization, referees and everything better than my adult rugby league. Under one roof they had about 20 games at the same time (huge building split to sub games, and every hour different team take the courts. Games are 6 minute per quarter.

The rules from a normal game change a bit

For starters, they are more flexible, traveling for example, a player must actually hike a mile with the ball for the ref to call for a traveling violation.

They dribble the ball, the run with it, dribble more , run more and all is well.

The one rule they do keep is that you are not able to steal the ball till a certain line, so you cannot block a fast break, which is odd- but since the ball is much to big for them, I guess it makes sense.

Scoring is low- 1^st half ended with 8-6 for the bad guys (girls in this case), but the mighty Spartans would not give up. The local jordans (#23on each side) are in charge for 60% for each side. We were into the game and yelling at the ref for bad calls, calling the players to move and cheering on. In the end 18-15 for the Spartans and all is well with the world again.

p.s yael was running from side to side; doing no points (1 throw) and no damage either- much like her uncle, does not belong on a basketball court, and much like her uncle, just has fun.

 

I am now somewhere in northern Texas and while driving the sign for Oklahoma to the right and Miami on the left (heading west). Miami is a tiny town here, no comments about it.

 

Unlike the 1^st paragraph- google is not always the best place to search; I was checking distance from Dallas to my current location and Google says 7 hours, but Bondy led me through another road with under 5 hours. 2 hours less driving is great. My current audio book is the new Dan brown which is fast becoming irresistible, the book will end on the drive back.

 

If you ever go to Dallas, go to uncle Julio and order fajitas. Simply the best meat you can find. Great flavor. We went there on Saturday and on Sunday Alla and I went again and ordered the same thing.  Simply great.

On Saturday we went to the Dallas aquarium. The entrance is not impressive, but the rest is. This place is a huge (everything is bigger and better in Texas) building and its some sort of an indoor zoo which tries to have animals is an environment which looks natural (probably not). Unlike a usual zoo, you have 1 path way which kinds of winds through this multi level complex. But this place has some interesting specimen. Various colorful stingrays, a manatee (sea cow), sharks – the aquarium part is above you so the sharks swim above you and you see them from the bottom, most cool- I like the sword fish sharks. Many interesting parakeet. The giant river otter were play full, the swam around and when yaely move a paper (the zoo brochure) back and forth, the otter moved and copied her motions, very funny. A sloth was slothing on a tree, ant eater was doing nothing, monkey were everywhere. Some birds in cages, and others roam free (this is a roofed complex). A huge alligator, piranha fish. Other fish that reach 6 feet. Colorful frogs (amazing colors), eels and many more. The most amazing things were the see dragons. I guess they are related to see horses, the look like Chinese dragons. There were 3-4 species of them and one of them, had what appeared to be real looking leaves. They weren’t leaves, just a part of the body, but it looked so real. Amazing camouflage.

 

All this occurred over the weekend

I was asked to get a driver’s license from my wallet, went upstairs to get it, came down and forgot to bring it, went up again and came down again without it (forgot again), it took 3 attempts to remember to get the driver license.

I forgot a gift I just receive in some store (I don’t recall which store precisely)

And I arranged a trip but first booking the flight and then checking other things like

1.       Will my boss let me go

2.       Can the place I am going to have me

3.       Do I have transportation

4.       Do I have a way back

 

The above paragraph is a list of things that I would do, but NO- those are all Alla; she is suffering from serious gilification!

 

At the airport a soldier was in front me at the security line, the bag check dude said she did not have to take her shoes off for the security test because she was in uniform, unlike the rest of us commoners.

So she put her bag on the conveyor belt and passed through the gate, which of course blipped!, so she had to go back and put her shoes on the belt; if there is metal in the shoes I don’t know why they are making them go through all this fuss, just put the shoes on the belt.

 

The last thing I learned this week is that “7 days without god makes a man weak” from a church sign along the way- just seem like an interesting sentence

 

Ok, enough small talk

 

Good night

 

 

 

the mysteries of the savanna

In the savanna there are lots of animals, high grass, low grass, the largest group of national geographic photographers in on enclosed area.

In Savannah Georgia , if you made a comparison they wild critters like cow pork, chicken, salmon and shrimp, grass on the loans of house and the kind students teenagers buy, news photographers to track the rising crime levels and all these I am only guessing since I didn’t get to see it, yet again!.

 

I arrived at savannah /Hilton head around 9:30 pm after a usual working day. Flight was unusually event less. At the car rental I had my minor incident. My license you see has expired.

Not a big deal unless I am pulled over or something.

This is a legal issue, since according to my passport I am not allowed here anymore, with my expired work visa, but because I am waiting for green card change, I can remain with this status till I get approval (or get deported…). Ohio my home state of never ending moisture does not want to renew my license till I get my green card. For this reason I cannot leave the country (or, I can leave, but cannot return, till this process is done).  Here your driver’s license is also your ID. So you may find it interesting that I can pass 2 airports with an expired ID (Go airport security!) but I cannot pass the car rental counter lady, lucky I have my Israeli driver’s license so I used that. But it’s not that simple. I am a member of the emerald club (the exclusive club where you sign up for repeated car rentals, and get nothing in return). as a proud car members I appear with my us license, and it does not like the other tourist license. Long story short, its lucky times are hard and they wouldn’t like to lose business over technicalities and after few hits to their terminal. They approved it and I was on my way to get my car.

Not so fast…

I reach national parking spot A-15 and speak with jerry – he is the “let me get you car” dude who tells me that the car is not here. I guess is you book 2 weeks in advance you expect to find the car, but Jerry assured me that the car is in the wash right now and should arrive soon. As he was saying that, to ladies were taking some other car for the wash.

So I waited a bit , and after the cold of cleveland, standing outside close to 10 pm with 1 layer feels great.

Quickly the ladies return and the car is still wet from the wash (unlike my own car who hasn’t seen a car wash in months). I quickly find out they were washing in a hurry since I found ketchup in the place for cans, a big umbrella, a receipt and those without looking very hard, but the car was so much cleaner compared to mine, as long as there is no smell of cigarettes I am fine.

Oh, when I land , I am renting another car, so we will see if they check for expiration…

But I was finally on my way with the new Dan brown audio book. Started boring, but is becoming interesting.

From there I went to the town of Springfield to install something at the local hospital, and slightly after midnight I checked in the hotel and fell asleep right away- there goes 1^st night not in savannah.

Went In early the next day and finished not that late, but I was tiered and crashed early, day 3 involved training of the night shift (which for some reason do not start their shift till the evening) so there goes night # 3.

I had a possible chance to go today but in the hospital always one issue chase another and now I am on the plane heading for Dallas and no savannah.

Someday ,dear readers I will unlock the secrets of the savannah… (they say it’s a really nice city)

 

I did try some new things this week, like Mexican corn muffin (Mexican part was jalapenos), salmon croquette (ground salmon, looks like tuna, with too much onion) in the hospital cafeteria, beef brisket which turned out to be fatty thick pastrami, and Tex fajitas – which is beef, chicken and shrimp instead of the usual beef of a regular fajitas , in the local Mexican restaurant.

 

State # 32 approaches – and with some luck Wyoming will be added to the map of travels , with more luck I will see a national park- they have a bunch in the area; Yellowstone, grand Teton, glacier national park- so will see what happens.

 

Well that’s my update for now…

 

 

                                                                    

 

 

 

 

Not my cup of tea

It is my understanding that if you hook up couples, you get heaven points

With that in mind, I went skiing yesterday, with an organized meet up that I organized (not much too it, just post and event and people come). Because a 30 minutes phone call at 4 pm ended at 5:20, the need to scrape ice from the car, icy roads and traffic I arrived 15 minutes late to an event in which I am the host. I would have called someone but I left my cell phone at home(un typical of me, I usually forget it outside, not at home).

But this is a ski resort and people from these groups know each other in general, and they started skiing or snowboarding and I joined up later. My skiing level improves dramatically – I can almost control myself on a non too steep hill (I think I am getting ready for green which is the lowest level above the bunny hill). But I am digressing, where was I, oh yes, hot chocolate and pizza break after wards and a few more rounds on the slopes and the evening began.

After the event I get a message from some Justin dude, which I never met saying he did not find any one and was left to ski alone, I apologized and asked if he did have fun any way. And said he did and met a chick! And would not have met her if he would have joined the group. Basically, I was on time, I would have waited for everyone and Justin + chick would never meet. This is the butterfly effect.

1 late call and destiny begins. So do I get heaven points for this one?

p.s I don’t know the name of the chick, Justin never said, and I still don’t know who this guy is…

 

with all this heaven credit, I set myself up for a mission of importance. Making a good cup of tea. The story goes like this

this is what my bee requested

regular tea with lemon and honey – how difficult is that

the lemon has to be round piece

as for the honey (since last time, my honey bee overdosed from the amount I put in the cup) I had clear instructions of how much to put. Our honey is in a plastic jar with a squeeze tube- so the instructions came as put in this much meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemeeeeeeeeeeeeeemeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (imagine honey bee actually making these sounds- it is probably funnier than reading it) and I reply, so mmmmmmmeememmemeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and I am corrected to mmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeememmemememmemememem and memmemememem.

So I boil water, take regular Lipton tea, cut a piece of lemon, put in meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee of honey , add water and mix it all up and hand the cup to bee.

“Perfect cup of tea” she said

And then

Please add more water, I do so, then add some more , she requests

Then – the lemon is not enough- goes in the kitchen and cuts a larger piece

And finally not sweet enough and add more eoeemmememmememmemememmemememmeme of honey and a bit more eeeeeeeeeeeee after another sip

 

After that the tea is finally perfect

The last quote is “it was good till I tasted it”

 

After this event I have to quote a great man.

“Trying is the 1^st step towards failure, so don’t even try” H. Simpson

 

My own tea was ok- but I need whole milk and not that diet flavorless kind.

 

This weekend I am hosting another event- build a snowman competition and perhaps a game of snowdodge ; since I have never built a snow man, this will be a recorded experience. And snowdodge is dodge ball in/with snow.

 

Another issue I did not know is that there is more than 1 type of snow, and I don’t mean light snow or heavy snow. There is dry snow and wet snow. The wet snow makes skiing a lot faster- which makes it the good skiing snow and also you can pile it up and build a good snow man (or snow woman if you want to). The dry snow doesn’t stack up and you can build perhaps tiny snow cubes at best. But dry snow has its uses. With dry snow on your car, it doesn’t stick, so when you want to hurry at the end of a work day, all you have to do is brush it off (with certain percentage getting in your car) but a wet snow tends to ice and then you scrape and scrape till your finger goes blue (especially if you didn’t put on the glove that you have in the car right next to you!), clearly there is no winner on which snow type is the best. There is also slushy snow, and probably more, but I am just a soft more in snow studies, I will report on other kinds when I learn about them.

 

Looking forward to a snow/homework filled weekend

 

Cheers (and If you see the sun, let me know, I have not seen in this decade at all)

 

 

 

what is 42? on snow thougths and house broken

If someone asks you what is 42 and you have a good answer (not six times seven) than you must be a geek. I know this, since I am and I know the answer. If you don’t know the answer, it doesn’t imply that you are not, by the way. For those who don’t know the answer, it is taken from the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. And it is the answer to the most important question of all. But they don’t say what is the question (earth explodes, before the question is known). Why am I remembering this scene??

Well, usually  I am a decent student – most grades in the neighborhood of 80, so when I handed in my 1^st homework assignment this semester in accounting, I felt good and expected a decent result. With shock and horror I discovered my result. The shock since I thought I did a good job. It wouldn’t be a shock if I did a hasty work. So now I am awaiting 3 more grades to come in….hate waiting. Not to worry, this is just a few points from the total grade , so just need to do well on the exam.

 

A big snow storm hits cleveland yesterday and today and a bottle of apple juice we placed on the porch for cooling (yes we heard of the invention of the fridge) is way under the ice at this time. The snow passes my knee at the edge of the porch. And I am noticing I have similar though patterns as last winter.

The issue is how not to get snow in your car. So you walk to your car in a snow storm, the snow is not that high outside- but enough to cover you shoe (unlike my porch where it piles up- don’t ask me why), you open the car door and now its time for a quick decision. If you get in all the snow from your shoes will get in the car. If you sit on the seat and bang you feet against each other, it will remove some (not all) of the snow on them, but the snow storm will get snow in your car. You are stuck between the snow and the snow plow!

And once you are inside, you notice that the windows are covered with snow (thank the gods/karma/nature/gaidamak) that it is not covered with ice today(a lot harder to remove). The issue now is what areas of snow cover you can spare- issue of safety vs freezy- you obviously can’t make do without the front windshield, you can’t see otherwise- but what about the side? That is an important factor- will you sacrifice a minute of freezing, just so you can perhaps not hit a cyclist or a pedestrian?

The rear window brings other thoughts, true you probably do need to see who is behind you. But in a snow storm , everyone drives super slow, so it does not matter very much. And since on every turn , you slide left and right, what does it matter if you see or don’t see the car behind, you hit everyone no matter what (no, I didn’t hit anyone).

So after all this, just so you know, I did clean the whole car (by cleaning I mean get the snow off it, what did you think?) and I did get a lot of snow in the car…this issue remains solution less.

 

 

I had a very troubling thought this morning. Today is the 4^th, the day before my rent is due and I was thinking of should I write the check now. My usual though is , do it tomorrow, but this morning I said (to myself) “Gil. You are not crazy” and more troubling “do it today”. This is a serious change in my though process. I did write the check and already put it in the mail box, but this got me thinking on recent changes. Credit goes to my trainer.

So the question that came up is, am I house broken yet?

Let’s examine the fact – changed from messy house to semi organized house, from clothes on the floor to closes on chairs, sofa’s, doors and even hangers!!!. Laundry on time this was the pattern before, but now actually folding!!! Yes folding (in a poor to acceptable folding quality) right away. Dishes usually done the same day (even if Alla is not doing them, which means that I am doing them) and I even learned how to operate the dish washer (you have to turn it to the right property after pouring the detergent and not the other way around. I am making half the food, arranging to go bags in neat little packages (for my trainer any way) and I even cleaned the oven and kitchen table with a wet Lysol napkin). There are more minor changes of thing I am doing that I never thought I would ever do, so am I house broken. My trainer thinks I am on the way, but not there yet (need more training). I guess she is good, since we haven’t reached our 2 months anniversary.

To be honest, I am trying hard to change.

But if you wanted to know if I am office broken , or car broken- the answer is NO.

 

Ok- time to go study….exams are coming