nothing will stop me reaching the piroshke

This school less summer gives me lots of free time for work out. and now with the Olympics I am enjoying sports I rarely see (probably haven't since the last Olympics) such as ping pong and  water polo) but I still stick with soccer, watched 2 games on the elliptical. since long distance running is out of the question :( , and i like to break my own records, lame as they may be, biking is the thing. I arrived at about 6 to the main square down town and stood next to the tower building trying no to get soaked from the rain, a short drenching of 20 minutes ended and I began the ride along with about a thousand others, this was the Critical Mass ride, my first, but this kind of ride occurs on the last Friday of the month in lots of cities, I asked someone what it stood for, and they told me for no reason, strange to me, but if there is a reason I don't know it. 22k ride on the bad areas of Cleveland where i wouldn't go on my own, but with such a big group, no issues and the people honk their horns, clap, shout and cheer,  this was on the same day as the opening ceremonies and I think they felt like we were like the Olympics. the fun event ended in the Velodrome. I didn't know Cleveland had one of these, never seen one before and was amazed by the angle, It doesn't look this curvy on TV.

 

Next day I went on a 59k bike ride, my longest to date, this was on a mostly paved mostly flat path, with the other bikers used to this distance and I was working hard all the time just to keep up, the pace which was faster than what i ma used to actually got faster on the road back! I got an unexpected rest in the middle when one of them crashed his knee next to a divider on the road, fell forward, and after a few minutes kept riding, this guy would later that day go on another 50k ride and the next morning on another 50Miles race with lots of hills. I am way out of my league here. the biggest hill (they call a speed bump, I call it mountain) was at the very end, made it , barely and was really exhausted), now I have to break this personal best again...

 

My volley ball was cancelled on Sunday :( so instead I climbed on the treadmill and watched the Great Brittan soccer match with my favorite United player Ryan Gigs playing well and Brittan winning, because of him, I am supporting Great wales this tournament.

 

In the evening I went with Alla's parents to pick up Alla from work and go to the Russian festival. this event was held next to a medium size church with several priests roaming around in robes. they served some decent Russian food and had some dancing Georgians, the debate whether they are from Georgia or not still goes on. as the show began, Dina fell on a small step, we rushed to help. nothing serious, she banged her finger on the ground and bled from underneath the nail, no damage but painful and another scrape on the palm. a nurse came to assist, washed it off, with alcohol (not from the vodka that stood nearby) and Alla bandaged her, and after a few minutes after all the commotion ended and as soon as the last nurse left, she went right to the pirushke. this was after 7PM on the last day of the festival and fearing that this dish would end she rushed, didn't see the step and would have kept going if these annoying people would stop treating her and preventing her from reaching the dish. everything ended well and we all enjoyed pirushke (usually it has onions, so not for me, this one didn't)

I liked the mashed potatoes, Alla devoured Pelemini and we sampled some other stuff i cant recall the name.

as festival goes, this is a tiny one. 2 hours is more than enough to sample everything , see the Georgian band playing and bandage a finger

 

not sure what this week will bring... more on that next week

 

on designer mutts and transitional homes

our fun summer continued with a short weekend trip to Baltimore, only 6 + hours away in a never ending rain and tolls that take way to much, Pennsylvania thieves. Alla's school roommate lives there with her husband Eugine and their dog Dexter which was named after the serial killer in the show with the same name.

we left Friday and drove through the rain with only one Starbucks break and enjoying Humus we brought from home. we arrived kind of tired from our current unusually boring audio book. we had 2-3 hours till dinner that i should have used for napping but instead, Alla was catching up with Tanya and i was catching up with 2 episodes of Veronica Mars. somewhere near by (40 minutes away) is one of our favorites uncles, uncle Julio, which is a Mexican restaurant chain, but our hosts tell us that Mi Casa is much better and only 5 minutes away, so we go there and try the fajita which was good, as good? i need both side by side to compare since with didn't eat at Julio for a while (no such place in Cleveland). but no complaints it was good food. we met their friend and all decided independently (even me with my broken gaydar) that one of the guys was gay, he was there with his date ( a woman).  when we talked about it in the car after wards (without the guy) everyone laughed , we all thought alike. after this place we went for deserts at a soft serve place (which is more of a custard) which results in a very good ice cream.

we returned to our host's home with one of the couples (not the gay one) and went to sleep a bit after pretty tired.

 

after  late breakfast of eggs and toast we headed for down town Baltimore for Art Scape. a very big art fare. lots of booths displaying all manner of art, sculptures, jewelry, painting and more types of pretty and useless crap. it was raining still, but warm, so we had T-Shirts and umbrellas and walked between the various displays. this was a slow progress, it took us over 3 hours and we didn't even finish the stands. some displays were packed and some empty with artist looking like wet dogs (the look in their eyes, but i think they were dry). unfortunately we had lunch in the carnival food stands. I was hungry, but that was crap food, but filling. now we have a pet dragon hanging of a lamp, this is a cute outside thing but we hanged it inside, we also got some gifts for those with upcoming birthdays and a necklace for my butterfly.

Tania got a statue of Athena made of wire, very interesting. but the question was for what style of home this statue belongs? this type of conversation i have no clue about, and wished the closet gay guy would come in and give advice. Tania thinks she doesn't have a modern home, nor a traditional home, which makes it transitional, a term I didn't know existed. transitional or otherwise, a status of a goddess with a spear, shield and helmet is OK by me. oh, for the dragon piece, I actually negotiated, I guess the Thai looking saleswoman reminded me of previous abilities. we still over paid, but over paid less.

 

we returned to the transitional home and placed the transitional statue , next to the big flower pot, or perhaps on the other side, it should be in the center, no the other side,, in the end in was on the side with a knife in the middle , 2 sea shells and a big vase (all other items pre-existed).

and we played with the tiny serial killer Dexter, which is a mix of Cavalier something and poodle, a small dog, like to chase a ball around, lick you legs, and bite strings and loose items, but not hard, still a pup 6 months. i called this dog a mut, since, for me any non pure breed dog is a mutt, how ever, Alla knows that this dog was made by design, both parents known to create this specific creature. we discussed it and came to the conclusion that this was a designer mutt.   when America got talent act showed a woman dancing with a dog, our dexter barked and jumped at the screen, it was so cute, link to video here.

 

oh i forgot, on the way from art scape we drove back thorough the bad part of town also known as baltiless, continued and later stopped at the same ice cream place....mmmm..

 

later, after a much needed afternoon nap, we headed back to downtown baltimore for seven west- it says its American cuisine with a Mediterranean twist- but it is actually a Russian place, we rarely go to such places, not that it is bad, just not our style. the food was very good, we ordered several things and shared and I had my quarterly drink with a pineapple schnapps, since this is a Russian club, dances quickly followed, but the dance music was not to my liking, i need lyrics... this was junk to me, but i was in the minority. so guys with better dance skills (also known as black guys) danced real impressive, with fancy break dance type moves, going on 2 hands, i got a video of that as well. in comparison, i was doing the white man shuffle, and wasn't really into it, need 80s music.

 

we returned late not stopping at any ice cream place (closed!) , woke up late and went for a near by diner for eggs Benedict breakfast and since this place is a walking distance from yes, that ice cream place...mmm..

we headed next for old eliccotte city, a cute street of cute shoppes, the reason was a fairy factory store, my kind of store, but this small street has three toy stores, 3 in the same block? well i cant complain, i got something in each one- a dragon , a gift and another dragon (the gift is not a dragon btw).

 

full from toys and ice cream we left this very cute street and drove home, 7 hours later we got home.

 

good night and have happy Ice Cream dreams

 

p.s- photos and videos are in the link below

https://picasaweb.google.com/gil.even/20120720BaltimoreTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCJiClc666uaJzgE#

 

 

Day and night in Chicago with hawks and italians

These last 2 weeks were not real eventful, but somethings did take place.

My 1^st summer semester ended with an A, but I still am not sure how I did, I only got back 2 of the 6 homework I handed in. the crazy but good teacher is sick, cancer I think which affects her, so good with the grade, nothing more to do. The 2^nd course started badly; this teacher is inflexible to the extreme, he gave quiz dates (surprise quiz) in advance and the date falls on the one lecture I knew I had to miss, no retakes, cant do it before, he wouldn't budge, so I had to drop the course. Which left my summer wide open unexpectedly.

Lately its sports and movies.

The previous Friday I took my poor hybrid bike and went mountain biking for the 1^st time. All the rest had Mountain bike and mine actually did OK for a non mountain bike. But my breaks are awful, they work, but they squeal loud, I said it my bear deterrent device.

This was hard, fun and scary- most of the way was upward, so it wasn't fast, mostly on the lowest gear, lots of turns and twists, branches and roots. I only hit a tree once , more kind of blocked myself against it when I hit a particularly tough root. Some down hill (mild down hill) areas were fun, but I kept my hands on the brakes, the ravines were too close for comfort. Usually after biking my behind is OK, it use to be sore in the 1^st rides, but after this bumpy ride, without shocks, the pain returned. Next morning, with a home work free weekend I went on another bike ride, now on the flat canal path. There is a program of ride and bike. You put you bike on a train, traveling next to the slow flowing cuyahoga river and ride for only 2$. It's a slow scenic train, several stops on the way but the group went till the end of the line, 45 kilometers away, and then you take you bike and ride back (you can do shorter routes), these guys call it a leisure ride. It was a hot day and the path is mostly light gravel, so you have to paddle even on down hill. The path is mostly flat since it follows the river, but on occasion it goes up. After 7 k we stopped at the valley cafe for breakfast of eggs Benedict , 7 k later at a farm that sells produce for much needed lemonade. I was somewhere at the back of the pack ,trying hard to keep up. 7 k later in Boston Hts- I was already dead. The trip mentioned this place as having the best home made ice cream in Cleveland. They have Mitchel's there , which is a known local chain which I am not a huge fan of. Some one told me about caramel and sea salt, I tried it. I was parched and tired , and still threw most of it away. Where is Ben and Jerri's when you need it (try the chocolate therapy!). I then tried some new carbonated kiwi flavored drink, took a sip and left the rest, no luck for me at Boston.

It was time for the last part of over 20k, rode it alone since the pack moved much faster. I passed by the bald eagles nest but didn't see it, I did see some blue herons, deer and a pretty blue bird I didn't recognize.

The ride itself was 2hr and 40 minutes, my longest ever of 45 k and I know this is not considered a great distance for bikes, but you got to start somewhere.

When I came home and relaxed after a much needed shower, I enjoyed the company of Ben and Jerry , chocolate therapy, so good. All the calories returned.

 

For the last month+ , every day at noon , at work is workout time, different activities every day, and now they begin having a soccer and volley ball leagues , soccer begins tomorrow , should be fun.

Yesterday, I went orienteering and since I never learn I chose the hardest course, only 6.5 k (if you walk in the most straight path, through the trees), 6.5 doesn't sound too bad right?  A minute before me , a guy twice my age left for the same course, and he immediately became my challenge for the day. I caught up at the 1^st check point, then decided to go on a different way then the other guy, without a compass, this is sometimes a bad move, like this time, I ended up almost where I started, wasting precious time. After a couple of minutes to get my bearing, I headed back out double time (or in my case 1.112 pace) and had to go through a patch of vegetation which left its mark on me as much as I did it. Waist high ferns and Thorny stuff and me in short pants is not a good combination. I got the point and the next one a bit easier and then saw my competition way ahead (he didn't make a mistake apparently). Now the routes split, he went the high way, I took the lower way and reached the 4^th in front. Went quickly till I hit a place where a path should have been but wasn't, covered by vegetation. Spent time not finding it, then went the long way, the point was a hut, and after passing through evil plants, I reach  hut that wasn't marked on the map, throwing me of into more evil vegetation. I Finlay figured out that my point was higher, kept going and found it , the same time as the guy. I was out of breath, he said there is a rock that marks the trail head, well I am not a scout, from here the rest was easy, from a vegetation point of view, the next point was on the hill, with a steep climb, after that easier points to find, this is the hard course which means the points are hidden better and to find them you have to be right on top of them, and I felt good not wasting time looking, I was orienteering better and trying to run as much as I could (not much) I was breathing hard and trying to to trip on anything. Came in 7^th place (out of 8 J ) with the guy behind me by 16 minutes. My times in the past used to be twice and up over the leaders, now just time and a half, I am doing better but still far from winning.

 

I have a new friend in the yard, a red tailed hawk, I saw it three times, seating on our swing set or just flying around, but we do hear it a lot (but I didn't hear it this weekend, I hope it didn't leave) it does make a lot of sound, scaring the tinier birds that come to eath from the bird feeder. It is really and impressive bird. I changed the bird food and I now saw finches, these are small but vary bold yellow birds, once eating the finch appropriate food according to the label and once eating something of the weeds that I have to weed out- so should I take out the huge weeds that the finches like? Hard choices!

 

Are are now in the process of choosing a car for Alla, she is melting away in her current antique without AC (busted) , in this extra hot summer, it's a killer. But getting a price from a dealer is hard and so exhausting a process. We actually left most places without getting a final price, they say when you come and decide you are (meaning we) serious, we will seat down and give you a good deal. They don't realise that that is not serious, how can I decide without price, with similar cars for similar companies, price matter. I guess we will chose by the end of the week. I am tired of car consultant (they are not sales man….)

 

In between car shopping and woods running I jumped on a plane to Chicago , for a 2 day convention Auto-Segmentation, the project I was working on had an unofficial launch night, with the entire group and lots of customers.

Landed in the after noon and hopped on the L and was in the very fancy hotel an hour later, lucky I am not paying for this. Huge shower and a very nice room. Lucky there was no need for a suit, but I did wear a nice shirt and pants and headed out for SPICE Night (Smart Probabilistic Image Contouring Engine). The night meant to demo the new software to potential clients, I had no role but to learn and enjoy. The food was very good, I even tried a vodka tea (vodka lemonade and tea) and very unique water bottles shaped like a perfume, or vodka bottles (pending whom you asked), but it was just water from Voss, Norway (the pretty town overlooking the Fjords). The rest of the drinks were regular. I watched several demos hearing customer mostly praising which is a very feel good kind of thing to hear about your baby project. After the event , we walked outside and headed to millennium park. In front of the museum there are 2 big lion statues and one one them was ridden by a group of kids. As we approached them a lions roar came out of the museum speakers followed by a "get off the lion" warning, I guess lions are not as scary as they used to be, but the kids Finally left the poor copper beast alone, just in time for us to take our picture with it (but not to climb it), copper lions are endangered status species.

 

Next we reached a purple lit double fountain wall, two big walls that are a fountain, and even though it was almost 10:30PM , people was entering the fountain. We had nice clothes on, not fountain worthy and went on, only to find that the rest of the park is closed, 10:30 on a hot summer night, very strange, we missed the bean. So we kept walking and reached the magnificent mile, which is even more magnificent after closing time since you cannot by a thing. We finished out 2 hour walking trip and returned to the hotel. A surprisingly good breakfast buffet awaited us, this is a fancy convention center, I approve of everything except the price. After that we had lectures all day from industry leaders on future stuff, the target audience was the physicists and dosiometrists but we got the gist of it. And the nice lunch was helping.

 

I had a few hours for myself after the convention, so I headed back to millennium park, which hosted the taste of Chicago. The one in Cleveland is tiny, the one in Tel Aviv is big, this was huge. But I was full from lunch and passed the entire taste fast without sampling a single thing. But I did see the bean, a bean shaped silver status which acts as a huge mirror and lets you experiment with photos (they should arrive in a few days). I also reached the fountain that appeared on the love and marriage show (Al bundy).

Another 2 hours walk, then the train to the airport, then 5 hours wait….:(  3 hour weather delay so I got to finish my book, by another and read 100 pages.

 

Yesterday, after resting from Orienteering with very scratched legs, we drove to an Italian American festival in Akron. A small festival but offers Italian food. We sampled something like a flat lasagna, forgot its name, we passed on the Stromboli but tried instead pasta in a bread bowl!  I head soup in a bread bowl, never even heard of pasta in it. It was a creamy pasta, and the bread was soaked in garlic butter, very healthy and very good. We listed to some bands, drank good fresh lemonade and enjoyed the ambiance.

 

Every week you have 3-4 different fairs like this one, small but with kind of authentic food, I like it

 

But now its time to go, I have to take out the weed that feeds my finch L

 

cheers

 

p.s- enjoy some photos

https://picasaweb.google.com/gil.even/20120715Chicago?authkey=Gv1sRgCODTl_OAw9GL4QE#

 

Michigan and the beach boys photos

enjoy some michigan photos

You are invited to view gil.even's photo album: 2012-07-01 Michigan trip 2012-07-01 Michigan trip Jun 30, 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=gil.even&target=ALBUM&id=5760689070332529089&authkey=Gv1sRgCOPPyuOAgO2UPQ&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

under the bridge, on the edge or in kokomo?

Don't you love a good road trip, I know I do but before, we have to cover the musical month of June, the month began with the red hot chili peppers, the show was kind of ok, the problem was the sound distortion, the music was clear but the words were not, if a didn't know the song, then I couldn't make out a single word, very annoying, I recognized 6 songs and sang along as I like to do, but I didn't hear most of the song, I kind of made up the gaps in my head. Toronto weekend came after and I already wrote about that part, next came my first ever bike ride to work, its 10 each way, 50 minutes, not bad for a first ride, there is a shower there and the weather was nice, few ups, few downs. I also found that there is some sort of class every day at noon, so for the last month , I have been training every day, at work! We do 10 exercises , a minute each with 15 seconds break, then repeat the whole thing for a total of 3 times. Each day the exercises are different, 2 days for strength, 2 for abs and one for cardio. Still not in good shape but feeling improvements in push up, pull ups, abs and my calf muscle, that didn't feel right for a while now, feels normal again, awesome.

 

In mid June, Aerosmith came to town, this band was my 2^nd band ever (well my first, since Michael Jackson is not a band) I saw them in 94 in Israel, reached front row (you didn't have to buy expensive tickets then, just push…), got the T-shirt , which I wore again for this show, but it was in the same venue as the chili peppers, and in similar seats. Stephen Taylor was running around , doing his crazy thing, but we could barely make out the words, big disappointment, so we decided to cross out the Q as a possible music arena, shame, they do have lots of shows. But still , 7 songs recognized, and again singing out loud, the parts I knew were fun fun fun.

 

Meanwhile , the 1^st session of the summer semester just ended  and I had to do 2 more presentations, the 1^st is already on face book, from 2 weeks ago or so, I will put the other in  few days, again the nerves, it's amazing that I cannot shake the nerves away, I feel I am getting better, probably since I repeat the presentation to myself out loud so many times that I kind of know it by heart, without truly memorizing. Wouldn't it be nice not to be nervous at all?  I am waiting for my grades to come in, hoping for another A.

 

Alla found yesterday that when you go under the bridge , your Google map app, turns dark, not sure if from being underground effect, or from lack of reception, we needed the road map, since we went on  road trip.

 

Our 2^nd , nonconsecutive trip to Michigan. We woke up yesterday at six, packed quickly and headed on out, nibbling on hummus, 3 hours later , we reached Zingerman's  in Ann Arbor. This has become our place, though it is 3 hours away, I went for a Malaysian cinnamon and butter sandwiches, I think Malaysian cinnamon is much better then Indonesian cinnamon, and my co tripper decided to repeat the Toronto experience by getting some weird veggie things with mushroom, avocado, hummus , and other none meat things. We also got some fresh bread and good brownies. After that we went to the next door farmers market, just to walk around and around to digest till I got around to the car and we headed  for the arboretum. 4 years ago, this was our 1^st trip, and then we went to this town, ate at Zingerman, went to the arboretum (and also went dancing at a crazy place,, see blog from the past) now we repeated it, except the dancing part, perhaps I should have asked Alla if you want to dance. It was much hotter now but the arboretum is green with some common regional wild life (chip monk , squirrel and deer). But we did get the see a deer pooping, not a sight often seen, or one we care to see again.

 

We just crossed the maummy river, in Toledo,  this is a huge river, and I never even heard of it!

 

OK back to Michigan,  we finished our 5k hike or so and went to an important land mark, IKEA, lucky my car is not a van, or it would be an expensive visit (long tables), we did get smaller items… sigh of relief, after that we got our hotel , quick shower later and we reached the Palm Palace. 2 weeks after Toronto, but we cannot skip a good middle eastern place. This restaurant has mixed reviews, without much time to choose and no other similar food in this area, we opted to go and came out with mixed results. Good fresh OJ, great Pitta's , good Garlic sauce, decent humus (yes , this is Alla's 3^rd humus of the day, only 2^nd for me..), OK fake Shwarma ( not on the spit, but in a fryer), but beggars can't be choosers. We didn't have much time so I asked the waitress, help me Rhonda, and she did speed up our meal. We hurried up, for our main reason for this road trip, the Beach Boys!

 

This is their 50^th year tour, including 3 of the original band (2 have died) and unlike the previous two shows, this venue was outside, the front parts are covered and grass behind, where we sat. and now the acoustics was how it should be. I had no idea they had so many songs, it seemed like they could play forever, and well most of their songs sound similar, and we like it, even songs we don't know, and there were plenty of them , were enjoyable because you can hear the lyrics, and sing along to songs you don't know. Lots of beach balls were flung to the air and the crowd played along and flung it back and forth which adds to the fun. A freaky guy in short jeans and suspenders runs around cheering the crowd, not sure if he is a roadie or just insane, but he appears harmless. There is no cloud in the sky, clear blue skies , the heat has passed mostly and we just sit there singing. I had no idea I knew so many of their songs, seventeen songs! , for me the more I sing along the more fun I have ( oh , I almost forgot, the Aerosmith preview band was cheap trick, a 2 hit wonder band, with the mega hit, I Want you to Want me!!! Awesome song), the beach boys played for over 2 and a half hours, which is impressive since they are in their seventies. I really liked this show and every time I thought they had no more hits, they gave good vibrations and surprised me with one more, if you can, go to this show.

 

Almost forgot part 2, we also seen the blue man group, this month, highly recommended!

 

After the concert ended, we returned to the hotel and I went to sleep till 10 AM.

 

We enjoyed the brownies from the day before as we headed north towards Vassar, a tiny town surrounded by lovely green fields and red barns. There is no real reason to come here, unless you go to the renaissance fantasy fair, we almost missed the tiny entrance, but as we came in we were surprised, the entire festival was in the woods, which was great, since today was crazy hot as well. This is a medieval fair , and many guests dress up as well and it is a lively experience. Sword fighting, lots of interesting arts and crafts, original food, and lots of music. We watched a show with dancers flinging various things with fire, fire fan, fire rods, this wasn't a super impressive acrobatics, but still very nice. Then we tried archery, it was harder than the last time I tried, got one in, Alla tried some wench dresses and tried a robin hood hat on me (not for me). Alla decided to braid her hair, princess style, looked real cute, then we tried the black rat meat. It was beef, btw- steak on a stick, very good. The dragon cider was carbonated cider. The Irish music was nice, we watch a black smith make tiny blades, the worse magician ever, a giant (on stealth) playing a Viking and over all having a great time. 3 hours later we left this place and headed for Frankenmuth. We visited this little Bavaria a few years ago, in the winter, it is much better in the summer, the main street is full of color, German music is playing everywhere, live accordions, lots of fudge stores, souvenirs and food. The nice thing is all the houses look Bavarian style, even a Marriott hotel , has spires which add to the feeling. We walked around, then stopped at the Bavarian Inn for a wiener schnitzel. This place has very nice shops, including a German cuckoo clock shop. 2 hours and an ice cream later we left this lovely town and now we are driving back home

 

Its almost 9, now in my car, we have an hour or more to go, we finished our excellent thriller audio book- "the snow man", recommended and now have something not as good, well they all can't be great one's

maybe we will see a movie later, the night is still young

 

Cheers

 

p.s this blog is full of many song titles from the 3 bands, who can find them all?