Wild turkey and the long lost marsh

strange day today, one of those beautifully sunny and cold at the same time, perfect weather for hiking and the last orienteering event of the season.

as usual , I posted the event on the meetup website, 10 people came and wanted to go in sub groups which is great since I got to do it alone.

this event is a score style. usually if you never tried the sport , you have to find certain check marks in order. in a score you have lots of points scattered  around with more points for the further away points are those harder to find or harder to get to. well today it was a score with all points being of equal value (winner is the one who get the most points) but just before the launch they added a twist of certain points (at random) have a bonus, the 1st to get to those gets a few more points; the course is kind of a figure 8 and you (unless you run fast) have time for 1 loop. so I thought i was clever by going on one loop against the logical path, which means i can get to certain points first, not by running faster (I wish i could do that) but by running further out.

they launched the race and people ran to various directions, each with their own plan, I tried to out race some guy to my first check point, but he got their first, but this point had no bonus, and then we each went our separate ways. my next point was next to a marsh and I couldn't find it, i got a bit lost and tried and tried to re-find my way, i reached the other side of the wood and knew where I was, I ran down a steep hill to squires castle parking lot and made my way to the next point, almost slipping several times on the wet grass and almost losing my shoes in the mud. I saw the next point and had to climb up a steep slope and found the point without bonus. the next one was only a 100 meters away, but you had to go down the slope, slide a few times, go between branches, slide some more, then go up and eureka a point with the little pin bonus, so my tactics pays off:) but that area is awful, for the next point I had to walk a lot on the slope, and slipping often and tangling branches, but i was rewarded with another bonus point, then walk up to peak and surprised a pack of wild turkeys, so cute, they ran away fast and i stared at them catching my breath. the next point was a bonus as well for my 3rd and last bonus. but at this point i was breathing hard and my muscles were aching. the next 2 points were on either side of a steep ravine, I totally missed the mark, but still i went down the ravine and up the other side, slipping a lot, falling on my face knowing whatever wind i had left out of me, using branches to climb up, it was so hard, I reached the top and saw a point far away and slowly made my where there, and to my surprise it was the same point I missed in the beginning. i happily marked it (no bonus) then i remembered that it was supposed to be next to a marsh, i looked around and didn't see any, then I took a few steps and realized where the marsh was, I was in it. it was easy to identify the marsh now since my ankles were deep in the cold water. just my luck, so for the next 30 minutes, not just muddy all over but with wet feet i ran for a few easier points, then reach another super steep ravine and went down on my back side, slid down , legs forward, it was really fun, but i knew I had to climb the other side, I walked in the creek, then began climbing out, I had to hurry since the end time was approaching. at the same time, other families were running the easy basic white course, so they happened to be in this creek at the same time, and one of the kids, perhaps age 3-4 was climbing this slope and couldn't make it, i helped the kid up and couldn't believe he was climbing alone, that angle was impossible, i had to use branches and trees again just to haul my self up there. I found two last points and made it to the finish line with 2 minutes to spare. I was exhausted. I drank water and just stood there trying to regain my breath for 10 minutes or so and checking my scores against other runners, I passed some runners who are good, but I already know others beat me, I will know my result in a week or two (well I know mine but not the result of others) . still it was a fun challenge , to do, even though now 10 hours later my muscles are still feeling the strain and my lungs as well.

tomorrow is Halloween, an experience I have yet to experience, so expect something in your mail box soon on that!

cheers from the slippery slopes of the beautiful north chagrin reservation

few words on speed dating

untypical of me lately,I woke up yesterday(well waking up is typical) at shortly after six and went to FedEx to print resumes. a career fair is scheduled for today. I select a fancy looking paper and printed 50 copies. usually i have 2-3 copies and the idea of having over 100 possible interviews scares me, I am fearing to choose unwisely. now there are no choices so its o.k.

it is still mostly dark and cold when I get home, but even in the dim light the silvery white grass is visible, it is the 1st night of frost this year, winter is officially here. the fair starts at nine am but i already know i have a scheduled support call at 9 am and I hope to be done with in soon. lucky the guy i need to help contacts me and we begin a little before 8, unfortunately its a new problem of the non obvious nature, hate those , since you spend time wondering around and supporting a site in Holland with not a fast connection and having to explain my actions to the Hospital IT makes it slower still. I get nervous for the delay but there are no errors. it takes me time but I finally find the source. this hospital admits a dummy patient, lots of sites do that for various uses, but this one has 20000 orders, imagine a real patient with this many medication, the stomach would explode! so i fix it and stumble onto something else wrong and my thought begin to wonder, I am already late for the career fair, I can drop this less important problem but I cannot, the traits that me me good and my work can cause me my work, annoying. 15 minutes later its done and the dutch guys actually write (we chat instead of talking on the phone) writes "I like you" and i recall the former vice mayor of ra'anaana with a similar saying (roughly translated to "you cute you"). its after 10 and I begin to question if I will ever get there. 

and check my mail before I go and see another support call,,nooooooooooooo. a part of me says and the other says yesssssssssss, well i am not a psycho(or am i?). I am terrified of tests and interviews , though usually I do OK in them, the fear is never reduced, and on top of that the possibility of a choice. well here is the thing, i now work part time supporting our former clients, usually I work 3-5 hours a week on a bad week, sometimes I am on call but nothing direct, for the time I am actually working I get paid well (if you count the actual working hours) but you never know when a call would come in so its kind of a 24/7 thing and the over all pay is low. how ever we are starting a new project that might (yes only might) be profitable, If i pull out it will reduce chances of success and reduce my rewards, but should i stay with a maybe or go for some full time thing. the other problem is that what possibilities I have mean that I have to greatly reduce either my former pay or position (usually both) for a full time job, and i don't want to take a job knowing i will keep looking (idiotic of me, I know, but that is me). so now you may see why my twisted mind wants and fears a choice. another point is that I am a hopeless optimistic, meaning that if I go to this fair, I will get a job! i have no doubt, which will force a choice...

a while ago I interviewed with a big company for a lower level position, good pay and possibility of growth, so I went, passed 3 interviews then I was asked to go to lunch to meet the entire team.. yes great sign i know, only to find out later that I got the job, but the position was cancelled (stupid budget)...its like being hired and fired on the same day. but still i am optimistic. sorry, i took a break for a support call.

so back to yesterday, again i had an internal debate with my more ethical self and stayed to resolve another call, this one was in an area which is new to me so took a while but resolved, it was now 11:40 and my thoughts were racing with should I or shouldn't I go, so i asked my self, would i regret this later if i didn't go , my self said probably yes. so i happened in to the shower and was quickly interrupted by a call. I usually dont take calls while in the shower, I didn't recognize the number and fearing another support call I took the call and this was another company, checking my eligibility and telling me that someone else will call to set an interview. its kind of like the sign saying that a stop sign is ahead. this was Amdox and I don't know to which location I am recruited for(but I know its not Cleveland, they have no office here). I also got an email from a rival company of ours with a possible recruiting in Wisconsin! Wisconsin? its colder than here...

so I rushed and put on my suit with a green shirt and blue tie (later I was told these colors clash, but i never presumed to understand colors, that is why I don't do marketing. btw, this is not my only tie, but the only one that is noose shaped, so i can wear it quick, i still have not mastered the skill of tie knotting. wore pants, took my resumes and nice black folder and headed out the door. did I forget something? yes a belt!!!! so I was on the highway and thinking, should i go back to get it, if so i will definitely be late (its a 9-2 event) and it's already pass noon, and i decided to keep going, with the suit, no one notices the belt (or so I hoped).

nature break- there is a woodpecker right not on a tiki torch outside. the thing is made out of wood, but i have never seed the peckers on it, he is packing away and is not packing at the tiki box which holds a flammable liquid...freaky birds, ok he went away (its a he since the head is red).

I heard about this fair super mom Inna, one of there patients works there and i was supposed to meet her there but i didn't know exactly where would she be or how she looks like; anyway I parked at the employer's parking lot at the university and headed in, signed up, put my name on a sticker and than Ivanka (that's her name) recognizes me, for a short time she was filling in at the entry booth, lucky. i expected a Russian (Ivanka, after all) but she is not, or at least no accent, she quickly points out the right way, i take a breath and head on in.

Speed dating is an activity I never participated in, but there is a lot in common between a date (true it been over 41 months since the last one) and a job interview. the attempts to be your self and hide everything at the same time, the nervousness, not knowing what the other side is thinking, leaving without knowing if there will be a 2nd date. so for me meeting over 100 possible employers in one place is speed dating.

this fair is mostly for new graduates, but there are reps here from many big companies in the area looking to hire in various roles. I walk between the booths and nervously looking for eye contact (they say, don't fear the rep, approach them) i take my first shot at a company that called Gil....xxx something, I see it as a sign and approach, they are in construction, not my field, but I broke the ice (that's in my head) and started dating. I think i spoke with 10-15 companies (not all the companies were hiring in my field), I skipped the many sales offering, I checked the FBI but i need to be a citizen, so i passed all the other nice looking jobs in other governmental offerings. I reach the booth of american greeting, a place where I interviewed last week! 3 interviews and heard nothing back, but the recruiter was there so I asked, she checked her mail and notified me that i am not on the disqualified list :), and i should accept a call back for the final selection next week, good news. it is possible that soon i will ask you to buy your gift cards in a certain place, If not, avoid this chain! kept going after meeting this recent ex to another Ex, a company I interviewed in june! passed 6, yes 6 interviews than fell (they never tell you why), this recruiter (most recruiters here are regular employees to speak about the company, not real recruiters, except the AG one), and this guy remembered me, since he passed me onward, so he took my resume again and will see. GE my initials company always had a line. then i met brightskies, this is not the real name but very similar, never heard of this company but i think i will have an interview there soon, good position :).  kept going, highland software another big firm. spoke to a QA rep there which was very excited about the place and got me excited too, since they are not a rigid company, I expect a call from them at the very least. mmc something my be promising ( I have the card with the real names). as you clearly see, I am too optimistic...  some places were no match, looking for interns or beginners  but over all it was a great session. I ran into Ivanka again at this MMC place and as i left the booth i heard her telling them that I come from a great family II think she knows only Inna, and I agree).

I took a break to get more resumes from the car and went again for the last session (Highland was the last) and the rest of the employers were already packing up their booths. 

I feel great for going, and very nervous from all these possibilities, Plus Alla has an interview next week in Athens (not Greece) Ohio, 3 hours south. so all of a sudden their are numerous possible relocation options. my head is spinning.

went home, took of my belt less suit and raked some more leaves to relax, then later met my pharmacist for a date at a stand up comedy club (free tickets are always nice), it was perfect after a stressful day.

now I have nothing but possibles (and each one is a guaranteed job, of course) so I will have to wait and see.

on a totally different subject- last year i received a package with a late wedding gift. last week I heard that i did not thank the gift bringer. I don't recall that, I think I even sent a thank you note (how american of me, influence of my better half). but something must have slipped (could be my memory) so M, accept my apologies. and this week I got another package from LostInJaffa (who told me about my previous mess up) containing nice Africa photos a cool 50's style postcard and a mango chocolate, so thanx for that (but i don't like Mango!!!) , no worries, someone will enjoy it.

cheers from hopefully optimistic not from Seattle

its a circus out there

I think that if Hitchcock grew in this area, he would not have made a movie about killer birds but on killer leaves.

they attack non spot, you pile them, rake them and still they keep coming.

so, in the middle of non stop gathering we took a break and went to the circus. It may be a bit strange but i have never been at the circus, well that is almost true, I went once but i was too young to remember so it doesn't count. 

the Wringing brothers are in town, famous name as far a circuses go so we took the kids (nieces Maya and Ariel) and headed for the Q arena. since NBA is on strike, this area will be empty this year, but the show must go on.

the show started with a big carnival with lots of tumblers, jugglers, clowns, elephants, horses, unique big bicycle and other freaky things. the problem with big arena show is the distance. in Norway we have seen one juggler up close and it was most impressive  fire and knives juggling. here we had lots of jugglers juggling all sorts of stuff, which was nice but too far to impress, even when they juggled with lights off and dresses is sparkly clothes.

the kneeling elephants and dancing horses and zebras were nice but the impressive things were the acrobats.

the old fashioned walk on rope was replaced with dancing on rope, riding a bicycle on rope, carrying other people on rope and jumping over other people to land, yes on the rope. now the rope is not a rope but more like a narrow strong pipe, but it is still impressive.

then two guys in two large pendulums, twisted around, ran on and under these rotating devices followed by a huge crossbow catapult firing a burning man to a mattress on the other side.  they put out the fire but did not hurry to do so, then ended with another carnival and lots of confetti.

in the break, we filled some form that promised one lucky winner with an unknown prize to be announced at the end of the show, with 5000-10000 people in the arena, the odds are 1 to never. but they didn't announce a winner at all (which greatly reduced the odds even further). the kids went to protest,and complain at the  which didn't help but very good that they did, good civil lesson.

since then I have been raking more leaves...

and last night we drove south to Columbus for the Ohio Pharmacy boards graduation ceremony to hand out the official pharmacy diploma. the ceremony was short, a guy spoke (head of the board) then another guy (some senior guy) read with the graduates the pharmacist oath, followed by some other guy speaking. and lucky they didn't talk for long and it was time for the names. the brochure has 630 give or take a few new pharmacist in Ohio, which is a bit too much, but lucky only 10% of them came so the names went fast, except my lovely pharmacist not even stopping on stage to get a decent photo. we had deserts later, mingled with some other pharmacist and left. we went to dinner (yes, we had deserts before dinner, good idea) at Uno's for an OK deep dish pizza and drove 2.5 hours back home.

today I raked some more and the rain of leaves continues..

You are invited to view gil.even's photo album: 2011-10-22 alla pharmacist ceremony

You are invited to view gil.even's photo album: 2011-10-20 the circus 2011-10-20 the circus Oct 14, 2011 by gil.even View Album Play slideshow Contribute photos to this album 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: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=gil.even&target=ALBUM&id=5666360562591806289&authkey=Gv1sRgCP3g-OGBuvyO8wE&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

Fwd: gil.even shared an album with you.

enjoy photos from the Maine trip and a nice fall hike at kendall lake (this email has 2 albums)

You are invited to view gil.even's photo album: 2011-10-09 hike in the fall

You are invited to view gil.even's photo album: 2011-10-02 - weekend in maine 2011-10-02 - weekend in maine Sep 25, 2011 by gil.even View Album Play slideshow Contribute photos to this album

its raining Maine and the existence of cooties

It was supposed to be an amazing full of foliage weekend in Maine. My dad came over so we drove the short 12 hour distance to the Boston area where we spent the night at the Hamptons. unfortunately, its not the famous Hamptons where all the rich people go, but its a nice beach town in its off season phase. we stopped at a simple motel and went for Chinese food. nice dishes with lots of plain good white rice was just what we needed after the drive. on the way we listened to the girl who kicked the hornets nest so the drive actually went well. in the morning we went to the beach for a shot walk, it was windy and too cold for a swim. Alla enjoyed the pacific ocean air, but soon we went back to meet my dad and Liora at Applebee's. we had a nice clam chowder lunch and kept going north, passing new Hampshire and into Maine. we asked in the welcome center where to stopped and the Bostonian help center ranger dude told us to go to buthaba haba... , the problem is that this place doesn't exist. once you overcome the Bostonian accent you realize that its booth bay harbor, a lovely town in the middle of many inlets. for what ever reason booth bay is full of booths, or more specific, touristic shops and restaurants, and though it was the off season and fog is hiding the small nearby peaks, it was still a nice walk. we walked for over an hour, including fudge tasting (yumm) then we had to stop for out jet legged guests. we stopped at McSeaguls. we stopped earlier at the restaurant next door (most places are already closed for the season) but that place was full of bikers so it didn't feel like our kind of place, plus the fact that they had no seating. McSeagulls was nicer with another bowl of soup. we returned to the bed and breakfast for bed and woke up in the morning for breakfast. this bed and breakfast like most of these places here are someone's actual home, so the land lady made interesting eggs and potatoes. we left a bit later and drove on route 1 through the little towns to Acadia national park.

it rained some of the way and it was foggy without the amazing views we expected. we went for a walk on a small trail which was a wooded boardwalk in the forest which took 30-40 minutes of easy stroll , then we split, my dad would drive through all the spots and we walked and we would meet on the top of mount Cadillac, the highest peak in the park. we began to hike up via many stairs of rock, already feeling how out of shape we are, we took some photos of the view which quickly disappeared in the fog. just for the fun, rain began and didn't stop till we reached the peak. this trail had 2 peaks actually, we peaked Doar mountain at 1500 ft (its not that high of an area but it starts low, since the ocean is right there), we almost made a trail mistake, easy since you cant even see the next peak from the fog. but we made the right choice and began heading down from the peak and we had to use our hands which hurts on the seemingly smooth but actually pointy rocks. soon we left the peak and began our way up the 2nd peak, Cadillac mountain at over 1800ft. at an area that looked like the peak with a view point to an amazing view of the fog we found a post explaining about this mountain and discovered that this was the highest in the US Atlantic coast, a nice bonus. we walked to the nearby peak shop and had some hot chocolate to warm us up after the 2 hours hike with my fully soaked shoes. in the shop we found that the actual peak is not at the view point but at some other point 100 meters away so of course we couldn't miss it and we headed up to the area and looked around for the tiny peak marker and looked for a couple of minutes and no luck, Mrs Pacific headed back but i was stubborn and soon found it hiding on a rock and took the mandatory photo.

its true, Alla was 10 meters away, but not at the peak...

we went to the hotel to dry up, then went to dinner for more soup and other things at a nice place i forgot its name. this town is unique where many shops are open on Sunday night. afterwards we walked the main street of BarHarbor (localy known as BaHaba) and passed several very large lobsters selling ice cream. we stopped at an ice cream place where they actually sell lobster ice cream!!! we didn't try it and Mrs Pacific tried blueberry ice cream (not that good).

why Mrs pacific? well, on the 1st morning on the beach , Mrs pacific mistook the Atlantic coast for the pacific coast, in the photos i will send later you will see her laughing hard at herself for it, so I am allowed to laugh as well.

in the morning we walked to an island! how do you walk to an island you ask, well its all because of the moon. with the low tides the path to the island of Bar Island is revealed and you can actually walk to the island and we did. the path has many seagulls who find clams, fly up throw it down on the rocks then dive fast to catch what comes out before the other gulls gull in on the kill. it was very nice to see and they were doing it a lot, much to the annoyance of the clams. we also collected treasures such as open clams and unique rocks, we spiked some stones in the water, reached the island, walked back and had a nice time.

after that we drove to Bangor, the capital of Main. it stopped raining this morning but the town seemed like it had nothing to do (probably wrong), but we had 15 hour to drive so we started driving home and my dad drove to new Hampshire for better fall foliage views. we drove on and on and on ...listening to the girl book and drove...at 3 am the next day we arrived and went to sleep.

on a less fun but more funny event- we seem to have encountered an alien species. it may came from Africa or perhaps from Lithuania we are not sure but 2 weeks after the return we started to itch and had red spots on our hands and legs which begun to spread. at first I thought it was nothing and we let it spread. now that we had no insurance we let it drag more, till it spread more and we decided that it is something, my private pharmacist researched and found that it was kooties- or more specifically scabies!!! who has scabies these days, i heard about it in the army that it comes from dusty blankets, but never actually seen it, till now. so we drove to the free clinic and waited in line, the time was 9:30 am. we registered and were told to come back in 4 hours. the free clinic is not efficient... so we drove 40 minutes back, then 2 hours later drove 40 minutes back and met the doctor. the doctor confirmed Alla's diagnosis of cooties and gave us some lotion. the instructions were to put all our clothes in the wash and put the cream on every where.... and remove it 12 hours later, that was fun and the cream worked , we are now cooty free for over a week.

well enough embarrassing stories for one evening, I will soon send some Maine photos, which is now state 38-39 need to recount..

have a happy Sukkot and happy Columbus day (did you know Columbus used viking maps?)