on pee, review and the cold

while waiting for final final results of the elections, i am busying myself with issues of true importance. pee

work meetings are usually 1 hour longs some times more, and some times back to back, requiring a clear bladder before the 1st one, but this week i am in fitchburg in training and the sessions are 30 minutes long with 5 minutes breaks which is just enough, but right away another meeting starts...so should i go or not? a really important question, what will happen if i don't go,  true, only 30 minutes to the next break, but habits are hard to ignore. other then these completely irrelevant thoughts, the training on agile is very interesting.

but this week i believe is the coldest I have even felt, it reach -20 Celsius, and wind! without wind its mile torture, but the wind makes it unbearable, i need to find my bank robber ski mask, it would be perfect right now.

 

new semester has begun and i am taking a marketing course, this group has nothing but group work, so naturally I want a good group. each person introduces him/ her self at the beginning on the class, then the teacher gives each of us a random number that is our group number. during the introduction one guy speaks so softly that i can't hear a things, I don't want him in my group, since you need to present, it helps when people speak up, so randomly , not surprisingly, we are grouped together.  the next week, more people come in, who skipped the 1st class, one guy says he will always come to class 30 minutes late at least, I don't want this guy in my group, who wants the guy who skips class! so of course he is in my group. this week we have more additions, naturally i will not want the person that i have worked on in a previous course and kept ignoring the group and came unprepared to the presentation, so she is in my group as well. not looking forward for group work. so far, for the 1st project, I am doing half the work, I submit it for review and the guy who skips class replys, its great, no comments. now, you read my blogs, i have spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes and god only knows what else, it is not perfect!  that is crap review... this course will ruin my average...

 

ok , enough nonesense for one night

 

cheers from frozen Wisconsin

on the the importance of air

I didn't really give much thought to how late i may be when the plane left Israel an hour and a half later, Still on a shwarma high. some hours later with several non quality movies watched the air PA announced that some flights might be late, that was all i needed, to be late on new years eve after promising Alla that i had already confirmed with the pilot well in advance and checked the weather and all is well (that is my regular irrelevant promise). they told us that passengers on some flights were already re-routed- other might make it and several more, mine included, to check at the agents on the ground- so now I have to wait till landing to find out if I am stuck in the airport for another year!. I decide to take action, i asked the guy who brings the food (not sure what is they politically correct name these days) to ask the passengers to remain seated while those in a rush can pass, no luck, i ask to move to a more front line sit, no luck. action failed. so i try to ask my fellow passengers to move a head of them. my row was 32, the guy next to me allow me to jump over and ...that it, no one is budging, some say that they are on short connections as well, great, the back of a big plane with short connection, and customs, what are the chances. I finally leave the plane and begin running with an overloaded back pack and a very heavy luggage and a stomach full of shwarma, neither aspect is good for airport running, lucky i am in snickers and short pants (it was warm on the plane). airport running is not easy, and i run passed people , stop for air and run again, stop, run ,stop run . i reach the luggage area before customs and... wait,, the suitcase is not there, few minutes pass and i converse with fellow rushers, they all have short connections- mine is 25 minutes away, before customs and before my suitcase has arrived. bags come out, not mine, not mine, looks like mine, but not mine. then the ramp that brings the suitcase stop, but you see some cases (not mine), I am getting restless, the worker guy calls another guy, few minutes pass and the other guy comes, presses a button and suitcases flow again, too bad not mine... its 8:09 (flight at 8:25) that my suit case arrives and I finally head towards customs, lucky this is not new york, shorter lines, every one in front has short connections, the guy in front of me when we reach the front of the line goes to the booth, and I turn to the booth next to it (without being called), mistake! the light is off on this booth, he makes me wait, come on, come on, i think i look like a smuggler with my nerves at this point, finally the passport check, finger prints, OK let's move it, I noted that i have dairy products on the customs form, this brings a line of questioning from the agent, what kind of cheese, I specify this is store bought cheese, not from a farm or something like that, I say it is soft cheese, not hard cheese, this info pacifies her, not sure why hard cheese or soft cheese matters but finally , i pass the passport counter. next, the guy who collects the customs form, while in line, i hear him asking for passengers to prepare the form, so i put it in my passport for easy reach, and he stops me and explains that he needs the form out of the passport, 7 more seconds gone! I hand him the form and move to another security point, this line is long and doesn't move fast , its already 8:20. as I get closer to the metal detector- the agents go on a break! and close one of the lanes, while everyone on this line is about to miss their flight! blame Canada! i can't miss the flight, 2 minutes later a resource full agent calls the rest to reopen a lane and i quickly line jump to pass through- and now once passed security I run again. i could never sprint for distance, that always made me cough and whiz (similar but not asthma) , it only happens on sprints and when i push heavy things, now i sprint with my heavy suitcases and feel like my lung will collapse, I make it to the gate over 10 minutes late and... the plane is here!! later i found that they delayed some flights , but this one was just regularly delayed. I was barely able to speak and took several minutes to get my breath in order and 2 days for my lungs to feel normal again, but I made the flight, I would probably have made it if i had walked without rushing at all. i quickly moved out of my short pants to longs pants and coat, the snow storm that hit Cleveland few days prior left piles over knee high at my house, lucky we got the service that clears the drive way, but there is no service that clears the path to the bird feeder...

 

I purchased so much treats for Alla (hence to suitcase overweight) and the pile of candy on the floor was impressive , we even have a photo, and Alla is enjoying them for the last 2 weeks, but supplies are running low.

 

last week we took the nephews and went tubing. the problem with tubing is the weather. you need icy conditions to have maximum speed, but icy conditions means a freezing face, not fun. if its warmer, your face is not freezing but the ice melts and the tube lanes are slow. the counter lady warned us that lanes might be slow, but we chanced it, took tubes, went up the gang way and tubed down, so slow... you don't even make it down and have to walk part of the way, but we tried to have fun anyway, by we I mean me, Michael (age 8) didn't enjoy it and after 2 runs decided it was enough, its hard to argue with kids,Ariel had more fun but we didn't stay long, we need to try a day of freezing cold weather. but on the way there, we noticed cars stop ahead of us. a deer was running on the road but not to cross it, but on the road itself, Alla stopped the car and watched the deer run at us limping, and hits the car! we were totally stopped, did he not see us? of doesn't like Mazda's? the limping deer limped away and we saw no damage on the car, I didn't get the deer's plates.

 

a few days later we took the same kids to watch shrek the musical. the plot is much like the movie, with much more songs, its funny in a different way, lord farquad is great and Fiona funny, shrek needs improving, but over all lots of laughs for both of us and the kids. and this is not parenting training session, they simply had birthdays. happy birthday (month overdue).

 

heat wave someone said, where , when? on the weekend, rumor said the temperatures will reach the 60s, amazing, 60s in Cleveland is only seen when the cavs play. what to do on such a day, go hiking? go biking? , but few days later Alla's boss asks her to switch (he probably heard of the sunny day as well) and a painter has to come to the house which means some one has to paint it, which means, no! i have to stay home on the best day of winter noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

usually doing nothing and watching movies is an activity I like, but not on such a day. the painter comes, he is a smoker. some people , i cant say why, reek of cigarettes , I really can't be near them, but on such a day i decide to open all the windows and air the house and avoid the guys scent ( he is a nice guy and a good painter) just smokes too much. now that the heat wave has melted most of the snow, i can reach my feeder and replenish it and with open windows you can hear so many different birds sounds which is really nice, usually i see the birds but don't hear them. So i sit all day, watch movies , listen to birds and imagine what i would do if i could leave the house. the guy leaves shortly before sunset, day lost.

 

today how ever was not as warm, 50+ but war enough- the day begins with tennis (indoors- since the outdoor courts are wet and don't have nets!), then while Alla is stuck with the painter on day 2, I go biking. 19 miles with a biking group, the organizer said there are no hills, only one incline, well for me, hill are relative, anything over flat ground is a hill for me- and the road we go has nothing but uphill no matter which direction you go. in the first part, I ride fast but remain in last position way after the rest of the group, some one else rides with me, but i know he is there to keep me company, he can ride faster, on the break I notice the tires are not properly filled, which makes my slow pace , ever slower. now after pumping, its better and i manage to keep up and even pass a guy (ignore the fact that he had a flat and had to pull over). on the way we pass the Everett covered bridge (like Madison county), not sure what is the purpose of this bridge but it looks nice. I see a great blue heron overlooking a pond, a hawk and white geese. with aching legs we reach the ends after over 2 hours of hard pace biking (well hard pace for me). an hour later I play tennis once more, this will probably be the most active day for me this winter and i will feel the results tomorrow!

speaking of tennis, I invented a new pair of tennis shoes. it started in Israel. i walked a long hike with high tops, not made for walking, and the right foot was rubbed below the ankle, so i cant wear that shoe, but i dare not play on without high tops on my left ankle- so had no choice but to use both types, high tops on the left, regular shoe on the right, so far its kind of working, no one yet has asked me about on the tennis courts.

 

today, Alla is choosing colors for the baby room. OMG , she spends hours on color selection, blue and gray, no stripes, mural, no blue and gray again...hours gone by, I went biking over 3 hours (with the drive) then tennis and she is still on selection, baby better like the colors!! - i think we have a selection now- but i don't want to say till its 100.1% decided and painted.

 

I joined a fitness group, hosted by someone from work- last month they had a squat challenge , start with 5 a day and increase by 5 a day till you do 100 a day by month end, not a difficult challenge, I was doing it for 3 weeks till it was time to fly to Israel. the problem is where to do it in the airport, its weird activity to do in public. In Toronto airport i went to the family bathroom. I don't plan on squatting in the men's room! but the family restroom is private. for the first and second day I did the challenge in the garden while taking the dog for a lish less walk, then I dropped it for the rest of the month. new month and new challenge, much harder- lots of abs and chest work, even got some wights to do it at home, takes 30 minutes to complete, on top of other activities, it is a commitment, i am so far able to keep, which reminds me, i have not done so today!

 

cheers from the mat in front of the TV

 

 

on wet things and one broken table

I owe you a debt from last time. I entered the parking lot with the guy who said, "don't worry mister, it will all be OK" and forgot to mention the way out... well not a big story, there was no one on the way out, i just exited, it is possible this was a free parking lot, but not likely, not with a guard at the gate, but no worries, i paid exactly what they asked me.

 

a better story is what happen to my sister at the pestigal (annual Hanukkah shows for kids with all the kids celebrities) she went with my nieces and nephew, during the show, little eilon, age 4 had a voluntary accident (who wants to go all the way to the bathroom in the middle of the show?), but he was sitting on my sisters lap!. she asked him if he went and he just said yes, and probably kept staring at the show. after he was changed he refused to sit again on her lap, why? well. he said, she is wet!

 

last Tuesday we went for an afternoon in jerusalem. the city is renovated with a light train and several more buildings and looks good, and the old town always looks great. we entered from the jaffa gate and toured the market listening to some old town stories from my dead, we toured the main christian church- i always forget its name and the western wall followed by a trip to the machane yehuda for a nice meal of Pargiot (chicklet). there are no photos of the old city this time, camera was left at home.

 

Wednesday was an unplanned day, we went to the Israel museum in tel aviv for an exhibit of winning photography from all around the globe in the past year with many powerful tragic photos, then we ate yummi fish (denis) at the marina. the attraction this day was sailing. My mom is taking a yacht sailing course, this week was a practice sail from herzelia to Tel aviv and back. this is my first sail on a true sailing yacht, I was enjoying my self, taking photos of captain mom steering, connecting ropes etc.. the small ship bounces up and down and a non stormy sea, its very easy to fall overboard. now she can't say, hey don't do that, its dangerous, I have a counter argument!. 4 hour sailing with lots of turns and twist and no sea sickness and great views of Tel Aviv. when we returned to the marina, we saw lots of ambulances , fire department and police and people with robes walking out and later found out that a spa burnt down near-by with 1 smoke inhaling death.

 

on Thursday we headed north for a 3 day spa hotel. this is not my usual hangout, but my friends went and I joined them. on the way after a hike of about 45 meters I enjoyed a Shwarma, so good. we got stuck in traffic after cop delay for a ticket (lucky i wasn't driving); from a left single lane turning to a 2 lane road, first go the the left, then the right!. it took us almost 4 hours to get there, to zfat. i tried to buy some schnapps but i can't find it here. we brought an almost empty bottle of apple schnapps from home which felt strong to me. the hotel looked nice with lots of tea spots, located on the mountain with nice views- this is the start of a 3 day food fest, not that the proceeding days were any less (or the days after....) in between there were lots of laughs, pool hot tub, Turkish bath, sauna and interesting workshops on diet, reiki, chakras, meridiens, meditation. i especially liked the chackras workshop, after learning about the 7 chakras and as we meditated, i fell a sleep. i guess i am one with my chakras. we also played tennis for a few hours and ran a bit to not nearly enough to offset the food. on one morning we had fresh juice, well, we had fresh fruit and a a juicer, amazing oranges,  great sweet potatoes (not in the juice) and jachnoon on Saturday.

 

 on the way back after the 3 spa days we stopped at the choclatino - since we desperately needed more calories- the white chocolate drink was sublime. unfortunately i tasted someone Else's drink that had just a bit of coffee in in, ruined my taste buds. on the way back with some but less traffic we played- guess the 80 games- song and performer . playing this game with Amit feels like soccer with messi. he knows them all. so we began changing the rules. he and only he gets points deducted for mistakes and we were very partial to the correctness - for example -the song - the winner takes it all by Abba- for us it would be enough to say- the winner, or takes it all, but he would have to say the whole thing exactly- no forgiveness. after all that, we still got creamed by the man who probably knows all band member of cream, but still fun.

 

later that night we sat with the family and debated a bit of politics, elections are coming. beer as you know is the source and solution to all of life's problem (H. Simpson)- and when my mom handed shai (the friend, not the brother) a beer, something went wrong in the beer pass (this was before drinking it) and it fell on the big glass Coffey table, breaking it into 2 pieces (1 large , one smaller) causing it to fall on my leg. no damages to limbs, but the table is dead. shai took the blame, though it wasnt his fault and now my mom has the fun joy of table shopping.

 

on Sunday morning we went on a walk from tel Baruch beach in northern tel aviv to Jaffa on the south side - around 10-11 k easy walks on the board walks and small parts of the Israel trail. we saw hand full of birds, blooming cactus and lots of people with too much time to kill sitting at cafe's and complaining about the economy. we got some gifts at the flee market and some old vinyl records and before we had to leave, we tried a shwarma, the best of the trip so far and according to the unaffiliated cab driver, the best in jafa, can't say i disagree. Friends came over in the evening for a good-bye night and next morning was time to head back to the airport.

 

a too short vacation of Tzfatit cheese, shwarma friends and family ended.

 

some photos are attached below

 

You are invited to view Gil Even's photo album: 2012-12-30 israel

 

cheers from somewhere near flo, more on that next time

 

 

 

 

 

 

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,

 

 

 

 

 

on strange pipes, a chip and a NOLA weekend.

on Thursday, I barely managed to sneak away from work to make an early flight to the other city of sin. on the way i had just enough time to stop for 10 minutes at home to say goodbye to Alla. i was surprised to find a van with strange pig pipes entering the house, tin foil type pipes like they had in E.T, but no aliens here (well, perhaps the workers were aliens) just pipe vacuums, I need to borrow these pipes to suck all the leaves from the grass. after a super quick lunch i rushed to the airport, and for the 1st time, the economy park is full, forcing me to waist time and park else where, forcing me to run to the airport with 2 suitcases, lucky it wasn't raining, but made it breathlessly on time.

 

few hours later I landed in New Orleans and drove away from the city to the other side of the big lake (which is not really a lake, more of a fjord, with a narrow channel) driving over the longest over water highway of 24 miles and right to bed after studying on the plane, having a test on Monday and an out of town weekend together is not a desired combination. the reason for this trip is a Bar Mitzvah of my uncles grandson , Dylan. a kid i met just once before at my own wedding, so you might say we never actually met.

 

next morning began with a good omelet at the hotel followed by a beautiful warm day in the city, the sunshine was so good.

we reached the French quarter and I liked the city right away and started clicking at anything that moves (statues and such), but you cannot capture the ambiance, its a fun place to walk around. you have human statues, cute souvenirs, street dancers, street musicians, flee market, art galleries , a Nutela truck (which gives free bread with nuttela!), Bengt which is a doughnut which is covered with tons of flower sugar, lots of jazz and lots of tourists. the nearby Mississippi hosts large river boats sounding music and cruise ships preparing to depart, Jackson squares stands impressive amongst the many 2 storey house and color full verandas. after a 2 hour tour of the city and the market we headed to Oceana- a sea food place which this city is known for. I can do shrimp, and like seafood chowder (mostly for the cream) but the other stuff which was orders is just nasty, i don't know how fish can eat this stuff all the time and stay silent. but I tried a pasta with chicken which was very tasty and this place is added to the good places list (mental list). we kept walking next to the galleries when a woman approached me saying she can tell me where i got my shoes, exact city and state!. perhaps it was the closeness to sea food, but do I stand out as live bait? i didn't even think twice and said OK. then she said that i "got" these shoes in new Orleans Louisiana, which is right, she explains that she didn't say purchase or bought, but got, then she proceeded to shining my shoes, which were sneakers, but it is a part of the scam, then she asked for 10$ per shoe! well i was only a part time sucker and gave her 5$ total, for which she gave me the (i survived hurricane Katharina while you yank were doing nothing to help kind of insulted) look and walked away to find the next mark. a few days later on an evening visit , we saw this trick applied on other just as lucky victims. we returned to the hotel for an early dinner, one of the many Bar mitzvah event followed by a 2 hour Kabalat shabat, which i didn't attend since,,,perhaps never, the cantor was very happy and sang out loud, and Dylan read and sang on stage. after wards there was dinner (yes, more food) finger food this time with fake candles battery operated.

my aunt is a character, no mouth filter whatsoever; but she liked this candles, so she borrowed them indefinitely from the temple on a Saturday!

after the food ended with speeches and more speeches, we returned for the hotel where i kept studying.

 

the next morning was the bar mitzvah day itself, woke up to another omelet, more studying and purchasing of food. as part of a Barmitzva project, Dylan gathered sports equipment for kids without dads program and also gathered food for a shelter inviting all guest to participate on donate, i don't recall even knowing what social responsibility was at age 13, but times are different and this is a nice deed. unfortunately the supermarket i went to wasn't cheap, could have gotten more food if i knew the area better. next time.

so back to the synagogue and now in my wedding suit for few more hours of prayer and song and a nice haftara reading from Dylan and the cantor. at one point during the ceremony , my aunt shouts out that the rabbi is tired!, out loud, I don't think he was, but told you, a character.

in the traditional candy tossing at the end (you are suppose to throw at the now barmitzva boy, but throw gently) and my nephew Daniel, threw the pitch of his life hitting the cantor in the for head, lucky it wasn't a baseball, she survived.

 

after the service came, well, the food. later back to the hotel for more studying(yes, its a theme now) and in the evening , we returned for the party. in a fancy place- a light display naming Dylan high up on the wall, the theme this evening was hunger games (also related to the food we brought, help with the hunger of the poor), they had cups with hunger games logos. a different kind of cup with the log, water bottles! with Dylan's name, they gave fake bows, fake glasses from the movie, the cake looked like a tree from the movie, the tables had branches on them, the long kids table was completely hunger games decorated. impressive.

 

on the out side they had a kids area with bow and plastic arrow shoot, tattoo artists and Lazar tag. the other outside are for grown up had lots of finger food (weird new Orleans things, not for me, except the chicken) and a Schnappsless bar.

my uncle snatched a couple of tray from a passing waiter , leaving the poor girl shocked bewildered. I never seen this done before, not in a movie.

 

then we entered the big hall, for food... various types of line dancing, including the chicken dance, and well, party. this is age 13 for many guests, Dylan's entire class, and i didn't expect them to be so fancily dressed, in high hills in which some girls could barely walk.

i took home some silly prizes which i will use next Halloween or scavenger hunt.

later back to the hotel for more studying which is what i did the next morning after my omelet. at brunch time we headed for my cousins home where i took some nice photos of the house and the family. I then went with my dad to a 2nd trip to the city.

 

we walked around the colonial garden district, took lots of photos of pretty houses, the former home of Ann rice (author of "interview with a vampire") the home used in the Benjamin button movie and other nice homes. we returned to the french quarter with more photos of curious bar stools (shaped like a horses ass), cute store sign, T-shirts, street art and the great ambiance of the city. then i noticed that the camera chip was missing, which means all my many photos that dare are gone :(. well we kept walking and i enjoyed the views, remembering them without photo taking for once. we walked to the river walk mall and tried the famous Bengt with the tons of sugar powder. we went again to the french quarter for Bourbon street to see it at night. the Saints, local football team just defeated the falcons and many locals and tourists were wearing their team jerseys and celebrating, the street was closed to car traffic and was full of pedestrians.

 

at one point my dad had to go and all places do not allow free bathroom goers, we entered a color full pizza place which doubles as a dance bar. i got a slice of cold not very good pizza and avoided obscene dancing from the locals, i wish i had my camera to show you, then again, i might get beat up. locals were hustling tourist with the shoes scam, but mostly people were having fun, drinking , with lots of jazz and blues playing from the many bars.

 

we returned to the hotel full of excitement and empty of photos and i studied some more, went to sleep early for my flight back over the fake lake, got into the plane on time...and then.

 

heavy fog in Baltimore (my connection) followed by "the plane doesn't start"... i became tense since i had a test that day, about 4.30 hours later a new plane, a working one this time, came and we rushed to Baltimore, the lucky thing is that my connection, due to the fog was delayed and as soon as i de-planed, i boarded to Cleveland. i was scared that my suitcase wouldn't make it, especially since i was wearing short pants (nice and warm in the south) and was welcomed by a freezing Cleveland, but it was there, but no time to waste, wore my jeans over my short pants at baggage claim and rushed to the car and made it 34 minutes before the test, which went well i think.

 

cheers

again, sorry for the lost photos, have no choice but to go back