Photos of flowers, pets , forts and a few other things

You are invited to view Gil Even's photo album: 2012-12-25 israel 2012-12-25 israel Nov 22, 2012 by Gil Even View Album Play slideshow If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=104769303678729727539&target=ALBUM&id=5826023552761868833&authkey=Gv1sRgCI7TqdfNmd2V0AE&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

on shoko, krembo and wild flowers

a few days ago after almost a month of unexplained but very welcome month of blue skies , the snow began, with a storm as well, just as I was supposed to fly back home, with some flights cancelled , and major delays in new york i was relived to find my flight via Toronto is fine, I just had too many hours of waiting which I gladly used to finish my 800+ pages book. already ordered the next and last one, schedule for release next month. with the book finished and still hours to kill, i decided to crash for a few hours on the airport floor, 10 minutes later, some airport person wakes me up, not for my noise disturbance but they have to clear this area, since Israel flights have extra security and they need to clear this zone, i wish i knew 10 minutes prior, had to relocate in a half zombie state, few hours later, plane leaves on time and i began to watch movies. Arthur X-mas - well it feats the season, OK cartoon, Magic Mike, not a bad movie, but i could do with less male dancing. expendable 2- nice action and l liked the way the too old cast (Stallone, Schwarzenegger, van dame, chuck Norris, Bruce Willis) laugh about their age and catch phrases, sealed the evening with Paranorman also OK- none of the four was a masterpiece. with movies on a 10+ hours flight with hardly enough sleep the previous night, i landed in an extended zombie state and was very excited to see my brother waiting and a nice hot sun, well hot for me, he was wearing 3 layers, after coldland, this was great. my family was waiting for lots of catch up and tshulnt, i some how managed to stay awake for a few hours, then crashed.

I was told, it took a while to wake me up, it was the after noon, its good to wake up, or mess up the night and remain jet legged. that evening I went to meet with friends and have a shwarma. the simple mall food court shwarma was much better then anything they have around Cleveland, tried both kinds...mmm.  we watched the Hobbit , long movie, not fit for a sleepy person, It was with some difficulty so i kept changing my sitting position (sorry random person sitting behind me), but the movie was good and worth the effort. sleep came soon after...zzzzzz

on Sunday I went with my dad for a field trip, its early in the season for wild flowers but we tried any way, and found some next to giva'at ada, photos will arrive soon after, then enjoyed a yumi falafel. we went to an acclimation farm where exotic species are researched to see how and if they can grow in our climate an to check that they do not spread disease and the like, its a decent size orchard and we sampled some rarely seen fruit (in this area)- fagoya, radiating purple on the inside dragon fruit, seen some huge fruit and heard about blue banana (on the outside) but have not seen it. 

it is really difficult to blog right now , with tom trying to sit on my lap and hides the screen.

we saw the monument for the Carmel fire 2 years ago and went to some other location to find Narkisim, the paper promised they would be in a certain place, right here left there, across the cow gourd and such, we followed the directions to find this flower that should be in any corner, well we didn't see a single one so we  grabbed some ice cream before returning home. later I met with friends in some trendy place in tel aviv, before entering, i entered a parking lot that had no fee listing , so i asked the guard the price, he said "don't worry sir, every thing will be OK" which in Hebrew speak means, "i will screw up later and you will pay the bill". the trendy brewery was good, tried the Dennis fish with a puree of something i hope was sweet potatoes. spent a few hours with my friends , then went to ice cream again... very hard here...

yesterday we attempted to do a part of the Israel trail, the ranger said the part we planned was very muddy and its a connecting trail with not much view, instead we traveled Afek park and the origins of the yarkon river with the adjacent old fort, saw some birds (shrakrak and siksak and some type of duck), then went to migdal tzedek, also a fort and toured he ground and walked around it- 12 k total, i almost got a sun burn, so great in December.

in the evening I went to my sister to catch up + some Michael Douglas movie which was good.

after that i do my usual routine, go in feet the cat, take the dog out, by the time honey finishes, tom finished eating, now its time to kick Tom out, since he wails inside, bring the dog in and go to sleep. the former macho tomcat is now half blind and the dog is mostly deaf, strange odd couple, well they are in their late teens, but it is good to see them too.

not sure why, perhaps the up coming promotion, school break and the good treats (krembo, shoko in a bag, zfatit cheese, milky) I am relaxed here and succeeded in solving some riddles- like sudoku but different, one type is kakuro , another is a hive like riddle , games i didn't solve before.

today we are doing some bank errands , and going to my grandmothers grave then Jerusalem.

expect photos in the evening

cheers from Israel

 

Shredded not stirred

After an exciting weekend in new Orleans, I spent one night at home, with barely time for repacking and headed for a work week in Fitchburg Wisconsin. Wisconsin was cold but with nice blue skies and no wind, cold is fine.

nothing special at work but had a few too many hours afterwards, some spent on studying and other on movies. saw one movie a day for 4 days, way over average. this was almost a month ago, so the movies might be outdated.

James blond was first, and since then, movies just got better, its a good action movie in some parts, but the character has no soul, he is not a charmer, might as well be replaced with scarecrow which has more personality, waste of good effects on a weak plot, I vote to replace this guy.

Wreck it Ralph was a much better movie, funny , just enough partially expected twists and funny side characters from games similar to what i played as a kid.

Twilight, I realise is a movie most will not go see unless you are a teenage girl, her boyfriend, or me but unlike the previous movie, this one was actually very good (most were OK). funny , some action, surprises, I know its trendy to lash out at this series, I personally approve this movie.

the 4th was seven psychopaths , which was not at all what I was expecting, very interesting, mostly talk and very good cast, if you like nontraditional, go see it.

since coming back from my trip we only watched one more- Life of PI- which I predict will win an Oscar for one of the technical aspects- photography, animations, one of these not important ones, and perhaps a nominee for actor or best movie, very interesting story, we both liked it.

 

since then I have been busy with upcoming tests, quizzes, presentations, projects, book reports, all these for only 2 courses. on Monday I finished the last test on one course, finance and I felt i did relay well, and on Wednesday I had the other final, and figured i did well too, after the class i was talking to some other students from previous classes, comparing results, comparing which teacher to avoid in future semester and the like, I stayed and talked longer than i usually do, then the email blips on the phone and i see an email to check the test results from Monday, the email says 98 is the highest in the class. i check my grade and its 91, which is enough for my A but i presumed I did better, a minute later the finance teacher comes out of the next class over, his other class was taking their final there and he asks if we saw the grades, i say I was disappointed and he says that he remembers i did well on the multiple choice part, how does he remember? actually I felt the other section of open question was better for me since he asks similar and identical questions to what he gives for home work. I never go to check my exams after wards, drive 30 minutes just for that, not me, lucky he just came out when I was near by, i check my grade on the test and 98....highest in class, ye! my test score is highest, not sure about over all but cant complain on my A. and an A on the other course made for a good week.

 

things changes Thursday evening, I came home and something happened to my key, it decided to go for a walk to an unknown location. in the last 3 days i searched every trash bin in the house, behind every toilet , over, under and inside the couches, inside the blankets and pillows, under carpet, inside the vacuum, in the refrigerator, inside drawers, behind drawers, every vase or status was thoroughly searches, the laundry, the drier, the oven! the micro wave, it just disappeared, trying to retrace my steps causes to to walk back and forth to the mail box, maybe it fell there. of course my car was locked, i didn't think i left the key inside, but it wasn't every where else. on Friday morning i received a nice email, since we finished a project at work we got a little bonus point to buy from the company store, and i look at the gifts section and the 1st item i see is a key finder, I am so getting this once i find my key, this device has something that connects to a key and a beeper part, but how long to you think will pass before i lose the beeper? AAA came and unlocked the car, they used a blow up pillow to pull the door and use a modified bar to reach the handle, that cant be good for the door but it got the job done, its good they didn't ask me for my ID, good thing to know in case i want to steal a car. i repeated the search in every possible cavity, went over every pocket, lifted the couches. I had to go to therapy, for my annoying shoulder, its impossible to get around in the suburbs without a car, i walked 7k, lucky its nice out side, very unusual for December and perfectly fine by me. then managed to get 2 lifts to further destinations. today i took my bike to go play tennis instead of driving, which is good i guess but i arrived panting. the lock smith was due to arrive soon after, they have some way to recreate a key without the original or spare. I returned home and decided to give the search another go, the 5th time, with a 20 minutes dead line till the lock smith comes. i turn over remaining leaves, perhaps it fell under, check under rugs again try the laundry for the 3rd time, and then notice a gap between the plastic parts where the door grabs and there it is fully washed, cleaned and happy, my key, it is strange but finding this key is a greater achievement then getting both A's.

Alla calls from work later to check

Alla: did the guy come over?

Gil:no

Alla: he didn't come?

Gil No

Alla hangs up before Gil has a chance to tell her that he called the guy to cancel after finding the key.

SO I called her quickly, not to bother the poor locksmith, but she already used her cell to call him (obviously to reprimand him for his no show), lucky for him he didn't pick up, she answered my call and i explained , then heard her apologise to Mr lock on the other line.  happy ending.

 

oh, after AAA unlocked my car in my deep and very detailed key search i found my credit card which was missing for a week. you may spot a trend here if you try real hard.

 

with all this time on my hand, I use it for reading, you may recall that i am reading a long series in which the author decided to die before he wrote the end, well now I am reading one of the last 3 books, completed by his son, and i think the son is better, finally someone gets to the point, you can see which episodes the dad wrote (the super slow ones, where the leaves are falling, and each character is deep in thought about its place in the world, remembering its past, thinking on what to do, the leaves are still falling...etc...) and the ones the son completed in which the plot continues!! , i heard the last book comes in January, i have 500 more pages in this book, another 800 or so in the next and presumably another 800-1000 in the last one, finally, i can end this series which I started reading in 1998!

 

can't wait for upcoming Israel trip from next Saturday till the 31st... see you soon.

 

p.s - we have a top ranked leader on baby name, but my last name is proving to be a difficulty with some possible middle names, final name update is due on April 7th,