Well, another week has passed and it is starting to appear routine. I go to work, work around the clock, get much done without too many results, and come back home. The MRS. is still round and waiting, and CJ is showing no rush in coming out to the world.
We have been trying to pass the time till CJ will decide to start his trip. Luckily for us the weather has been really nice this weekend. But there's not much to do but wait.
At least now I've got a gym membership and I allow myself to play volleyball once a week. The games are mid-week and mid-day, so I can skip a couple of hours of work for volleyball. Soon the whole group will start playing sand-volleyball in a departmental tournament.
That's it. Nothing else to tell.
Hope for more news next time.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
A non-post
I really don't have anything new to share at this point. So I won't write anything today.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Heat, water, shopping and walking
It is crazy! Today the weather hit 31 degrees with very high humidity after it was 8 degrees and raining only 4 days ago. I already dread the summer when the temperatures will stay high and the humidity would be a killer, but we still have a several weeks of see-saw weather until summer hits.
Yes, it was really hot, and millions of people at the Boston area could not (and still can not) drink tap water. A huge water main broke out to the west of Boston and 28 towns around Boston cannot get treated water to their taps, so we have to boil any water we use for drinking, brushing teeth, washing food and so forth. It is going to take several days to fix the water main and today at the supermarkets people were buying many boxes of bottled water.
May 1st was just a day ago. And instead of marching for the workers and getting a bit socialist, the people of the greater Boston area enjoyed shopping. Garage sales and lawn sales were popping all over. Yes, for some reason the first days of May are garage-sale days, celebrating capitalism. Funny.
Today we thought of going with friends to a statue park just outside of Boston. This should be pretty easy on any other day, but in Boston no day is any other day. Today thousands of people walked for hunger. A 20 mile route was closed and people poured into the streets walking. This caused traffic jams around the city and roads were closed everywhere. It took us over an hour to move in the city and then less than 15 minutes to get to the park once we were out of the city. It seems like Bostonians don't like to sit at home. Whenever they can they find a reason to get out to the streets. Let's wait and see what will be next week.
That's it - the MRS. and myself are still waiting for the arrival of CJ. We took a tour of the hospital facilities and we saw the birthing rooms and the rooms for after-birth recovering. It's really nice to see how a hospital allows these kind of visits since it wants you to come and be its patient (as it is a private health plan and the hospital behaves like a financial entity).
Oh, yes - I have finally got a gym membership that will allow me to return to regular workouts and to volleyball games. And except that there's nothing new. That's it.
Yes, it was really hot, and millions of people at the Boston area could not (and still can not) drink tap water. A huge water main broke out to the west of Boston and 28 towns around Boston cannot get treated water to their taps, so we have to boil any water we use for drinking, brushing teeth, washing food and so forth. It is going to take several days to fix the water main and today at the supermarkets people were buying many boxes of bottled water.
May 1st was just a day ago. And instead of marching for the workers and getting a bit socialist, the people of the greater Boston area enjoyed shopping. Garage sales and lawn sales were popping all over. Yes, for some reason the first days of May are garage-sale days, celebrating capitalism. Funny.
Today we thought of going with friends to a statue park just outside of Boston. This should be pretty easy on any other day, but in Boston no day is any other day. Today thousands of people walked for hunger. A 20 mile route was closed and people poured into the streets walking. This caused traffic jams around the city and roads were closed everywhere. It took us over an hour to move in the city and then less than 15 minutes to get to the park once we were out of the city. It seems like Bostonians don't like to sit at home. Whenever they can they find a reason to get out to the streets. Let's wait and see what will be next week.
That's it - the MRS. and myself are still waiting for the arrival of CJ. We took a tour of the hospital facilities and we saw the birthing rooms and the rooms for after-birth recovering. It's really nice to see how a hospital allows these kind of visits since it wants you to come and be its patient (as it is a private health plan and the hospital behaves like a financial entity).
Oh, yes - I have finally got a gym membership that will allow me to return to regular workouts and to volleyball games. And except that there's nothing new. That's it.
Monday, April 26, 2010
I have no smart title today
Another week and the work load is just growing exponentially. It seems like every action I do produces more work. I make some materials - I need to measure them in different conditions, I measure them and I find out I need to make different materials, and so on. It seems that days have become shorter and shorter since I cannot fit everything into a day's work. But I guess that it gives one a reason to wake up and go to work.
The MRS. and myself are almost entirely ready for CJ's arrival. And that means at least in the operative sense. We got everything we need for the child (including cloths, furniture and all the little things an infant needs) or at least we think we are ready. I bet that once CJ arrives we will find out how many things we still need to get/buy.
The Israeli community in the Boston area is like a Kibutz, you can get anything passed on to you and there is no need to purchase anything. The down side to this community is the fact that everyone has suggestions and thoughts (like any good Jew) and they are not shy in conveying their thoughts and planting stupid ideas in the brains of others. We are trying to keep an open mind, yet we use (or at least I do) a lot of criticism regarding anything we hear.
I was computerless for 2.5 days this week, as my computer was being fixed at the Apple store. I must admit I was going through withdrawal symptoms while I had no computer. It isn't as if I sit and use the computer ALL the time, and we do have two more computers at home, but the fact that I didn't have the possibility to use MY computer was the real problem. However, I finally got my computer back and like a junky getting his fix, all my symptoms were gone.
The MRS. and myself are almost entirely ready for CJ's arrival. And that means at least in the operative sense. We got everything we need for the child (including cloths, furniture and all the little things an infant needs) or at least we think we are ready. I bet that once CJ arrives we will find out how many things we still need to get/buy.
The Israeli community in the Boston area is like a Kibutz, you can get anything passed on to you and there is no need to purchase anything. The down side to this community is the fact that everyone has suggestions and thoughts (like any good Jew) and they are not shy in conveying their thoughts and planting stupid ideas in the brains of others. We are trying to keep an open mind, yet we use (or at least I do) a lot of criticism regarding anything we hear.
I was computerless for 2.5 days this week, as my computer was being fixed at the Apple store. I must admit I was going through withdrawal symptoms while I had no computer. It isn't as if I sit and use the computer ALL the time, and we do have two more computers at home, but the fact that I didn't have the possibility to use MY computer was the real problem. However, I finally got my computer back and like a junky getting his fix, all my symptoms were gone.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Marathon and Independence day
So today is the Boston marathon, and very early in the morning streets were fenced off to allow the runners (who will only start at 10:00 and end around 19:00) to run with nobody jumping into their paths. The Boston marathon takes place on Patriots Day, which is a Massachusetts only holiday. I believe that this holiday was created especially to allow the marathon to take place. Anyways, I have arrived to work very early to avoid all the traffic and commuters that will form later today.
Yes, it is the Israeli Independence day as well, and it is funny and strange to step aside and see the rituals of other Israelis leaving away from Israel. Some are looking very hard to find a ceremony for the Memorial day (which unlike Holocaust Memorial day is not mentioned by Jewish Americans), some only want to light a BBQ and eat, and it doesn't matter if it is a day before Independence day (yes - right on Memorial day, but what can you do, it's a Sunday and a day off of work) or several days after Independence day (what can we do, there is a communal BBQ in the building and we had to book it in advance, well, we forgot).
So these days all Israelis are occupied in finding a place and time to celebrate, because for most - Israel (as is seen and remembered from afar) is the best place in the world (disclaimer - I still haven't made up my mind, I am just conveying the feelings of others).
So work is going OK, I finally got the $40K instrument I ordered 5 months ago. And one would expect that if you pay so much for an instrument it would come assembled, or at least an expert would come to assemble it and show you how to work with it. But NO, I have spent the last 2 work days assembling it, and I still have at least a days worth of work before I'll have to start learning how to use the softwares (yes - in plural). And I also have to do some other work besides this. So it is a busy time at work.
Another reason for it being busy is the fact that our due date is coming closer. The MRS. feels very heavy lately, and we are anxiously counting the days (only a figure of speech) until CJ is due. We go to child-birthing classes, where we learn to relax while we learn about every complication that can occur during labor. We went to infant CPR class where we learned how to revive a dead infant. So, as you might understand, we are focusing on the most optimistic and happiest place we can find.
But cynicism away - we are happy and waiting for CJ to be born. We started thinking and discussing names (the name will be revealed only after birth) and planning the circumcision of the child (which will take place in a doctors office with no guests except for the parents of the child). So this also keeps us busy.
I'll finish for today, since I need to start working. Have a happy Independence day in Israel.
Yes, it is the Israeli Independence day as well, and it is funny and strange to step aside and see the rituals of other Israelis leaving away from Israel. Some are looking very hard to find a ceremony for the Memorial day (which unlike Holocaust Memorial day is not mentioned by Jewish Americans), some only want to light a BBQ and eat, and it doesn't matter if it is a day before Independence day (yes - right on Memorial day, but what can you do, it's a Sunday and a day off of work) or several days after Independence day (what can we do, there is a communal BBQ in the building and we had to book it in advance, well, we forgot).
So these days all Israelis are occupied in finding a place and time to celebrate, because for most - Israel (as is seen and remembered from afar) is the best place in the world (disclaimer - I still haven't made up my mind, I am just conveying the feelings of others).
So work is going OK, I finally got the $40K instrument I ordered 5 months ago. And one would expect that if you pay so much for an instrument it would come assembled, or at least an expert would come to assemble it and show you how to work with it. But NO, I have spent the last 2 work days assembling it, and I still have at least a days worth of work before I'll have to start learning how to use the softwares (yes - in plural). And I also have to do some other work besides this. So it is a busy time at work.
Another reason for it being busy is the fact that our due date is coming closer. The MRS. feels very heavy lately, and we are anxiously counting the days (only a figure of speech) until CJ is due. We go to child-birthing classes, where we learn to relax while we learn about every complication that can occur during labor. We went to infant CPR class where we learned how to revive a dead infant. So, as you might understand, we are focusing on the most optimistic and happiest place we can find.
But cynicism away - we are happy and waiting for CJ to be born. We started thinking and discussing names (the name will be revealed only after birth) and planning the circumcision of the child (which will take place in a doctors office with no guests except for the parents of the child). So this also keeps us busy.
I'll finish for today, since I need to start working. Have a happy Independence day in Israel.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
A surprise post
I just had to share this right away.
The students at MIT like pulling hacks every so often. Sometimes you get to MIT and find a truck on top of the dome and other times you find out that MIT was "bought" by Caltech and it was taken over in one night.
This time some students have decided to put up a whole living room upside down, hanging on a free-standing arch way that is 3 stories high. The living room is equipped with armchairs, a pool table, a plant and even a cat. It's hard to understand how they got up there, since the arch way is not connected to any building. Anyway, it's really fun coming in to work in the morning and seeing this weird scene of an upside down living room hanging way up in the air.
Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:
The students at MIT like pulling hacks every so often. Sometimes you get to MIT and find a truck on top of the dome and other times you find out that MIT was "bought" by Caltech and it was taken over in one night.
This time some students have decided to put up a whole living room upside down, hanging on a free-standing arch way that is 3 stories high. The living room is equipped with armchairs, a pool table, a plant and even a cat. It's hard to understand how they got up there, since the arch way is not connected to any building. Anyway, it's really fun coming in to work in the morning and seeing this weird scene of an upside down living room hanging way up in the air.
Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:
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