Working again, ain't that shick?!?

So it has been almost two weeks since my back surgery and finally I went back to work. I didn't go easily back to work, I actually dove head first back to research - and it felt really good.

I must admit I didn't suffer too much staying at home the last 10 days. Spending quality time with The MRS. and CJ was fun. It is unbelievable how fast they grow! Now I have to decide whether I should say "yes, he is 6 months old" or "hey! Only 17 and a half more years".
We got to the point were we need to child-proof our apartment. Move the TV to a high shelf. Lock the cabinets, remove books from low shelves, and more. The little 'energy-machine' (I won't use the term I really call him, otherwise I might find myself with an ex-wife instead of a wife) can scream like the is no tomorrow. He can crawl, especially backwards. He can hit, mostly direct hits to the face while you try to sleep, or to the glasses at all other times. And the most important thing he learned is to be opinionated. And I mean really opinionated - he knows what he wants and when he wants it, and if you don't understand then 'tough'. You will hear a high pitched, loud squeal until he will get everything his way.

Returning to me, but only for a short while, I am finally off most narcotic pain killers. I do not feel like a drug addict, but I have a new look now. "Heroine shick"! I lost nearly 8kg since I started using the opiate narcotics (yes, the pain killers are from the same chemical family as opium and heroine) and I am now the lightest I have been in over ten years (let's see how long this would last). But as I stopped using the pain medication, and as the pain is slowly subsiding, my appetite is recovering. However, I will try to keep the status quo, pat least in this area.

That's it. Time to go to bed. Tomorrow is another work day. A full day of experiments and measurements in the dark lab.
How long will it be till I am fed up with that?

See you on my next post

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPAD

I'm here, but first 'let's go back'

So I disappeared for over a month. It wasn't because I didn't know what to write, or I didn't have time. I disappeared because, as my last post stated, I threw out my back (or actually herniated a disc) and I had to go for back surgery. I decided that the next time I update my blog is when the anesthesia wears off and I know that everything went as it should.
Well (although I wrote this post last night - yes, before the surgery, summoning the 'evil eye') this has been posted which means all is well, for now.

It is actually the time to summarize a year in Boston. Last year, on Halloween, I landed in this foreign land, not knowing where I am and what exactly I'm going to do. And now, a year later, a child later, a freezing winter and hot summer later, a tax report later, several Jewish (and non-Jewish) holidays with friends later, a car purchase later, a couple of surgeries (or surgical interventions) later I can finally say - Hey! I now know where I am, but I sure as hell don't know exactly what I'm doing!

Dangerous paragraph alert: NOT FOR PEOPLE WITH WEAK STOMACHES!!!
So some of you might read the above and say "back surgery" is only one, why does he say a couple. So, of course, nothing goes smoothly when you really hope it will. Just a week before my surgery was scheduled my body decided it was a good time to start a small infection by a lymph node. 'Sure' it said (my body if you are not following), 'if we can stop the surgery, why not?'. This infection was dealt with at MIT medical, that did a poor job. Why poor? Well, first when they decided to open me up they did not give me enough lidocaine and I could feel the cut and the drainage. Second, they left most of what was growing in there. The back surgeon didn't think twice, once he saw what they did, and sent me to a surgeon of his own. This surgeon flooded me with lidocaine, and I really didn't feel a thing. I didn't feel the 1inch cut, or the wick that was placed deep inside the wound. The intention of this wick is to allow me to reopen the cut a couple of days after the surgery (how fun) and avoid it from closing. Anyways, it worked and we are passed that.
END OF DANGEROUS PARAGRAPH

CJ, our son, is growing really quickly. He looks and acts just like a real person. A real person that cannot talk or walk, but still a real person. His advancement is incredible. It's hard to believe that just a few months ago he was this crying, eating, pooping and peeing lump of meat, and now he is completely different. Now he is a crying, eating, pooping, peeing lump of meat with wills and wants and with a very strong conviction for getting what he wants.

So a year, a year of so many changes and so many turn-of-events. A year of many visitors and new experiences.
All I wish ourselves for the upcoming year in Boston is more new experiences, more visits and more advancements. And hopefully, this time, we can skip all the health related issues.

Have a great end of year without me around,
See you on my next post.

- Posted using BlogPress from the COSTiPAD

I'm back - or am I?

So some of you might wonder where is the weekly post I have promised? You know what, a biweekly post instead? But as you can see I suck at committing. The last two months I have been suffering from a herniated disc in my back which has changed a lot in our life. At first it was painful, but I could deal with the pain and it did not disrupt my life too much. However, around a month ago things changed, and changed fast. I could hardly step on my right leg and I had to use a cane for walking. As weeks went by the pain became stronger and stronger up to a point where I missed work for over a week.
Right now I am waiting for an appointment with a back specialist, or rather the assistant of the specialist, because seeing the specialist in flesh and blood requires a wait of two months. Oh yeah, and for the mean time i am heavily sedated with an assortment of pain killers and narcotic sedatives. The amount I take daily could probably put a horse to sleep, but every time I say the word 'pain' near medical personnel at MIT I am immediately offered more drugs or refills of my current favorite narcotic.

As you might understand, work is progressing at an agonizing slow rate, but I guess it will have to wait until I feel better.

The most aggravating thing in this situation is the fact that I cannot hold CJ in my arms, and have not held him up in three weeks. I know that once I feel better, that boy is going to beg me to get off my hands and onto the floor. I promise you that.


p.s. We would like to convey our best wishes to Dani and Maayan for the birth of their beautiful girl - Yarden. May you have only happiness with her.

3 agenda points (or - what's between books, bugs and flip-flops)

So there have been a few topics that I contemplated about in the last several weeks. Nothing too existential, but topics non the less.

And well try to keep them alphabetically ordered.

1. Books - it is just amazing to see the amount of reading that is taking place in this city. The morning and evening commutes are times that most people on the train spend by reading. Books, ebooks, articles and more. Any written page is good.
It was once said the the Jews are the "of the book" (although the origin of this phrase from the Quran means both Jews and Christians). And many Israelis say this with pride, as if we are the chosen ones and are above all other people. But when you stop to think about it, it seems like Israelis have abandoned the book a long time ago. Now I know that the MRS will not agree, because she swallows books at an alarming rate, but if you try to generalize the behavior and actions of a whole nationality - it is true! The real people of the book are those who spend their commute reading (with or without earphones playing music) instead of texting or listening to music on their phone's loud speaker as if to annoy everyone around.

2. Bugs - apparently pests are a function of geography. Ladybugs in Israel are not very abundant and are considered cute, with their red bodies with black polkadots. Here, on the other hand, there are so many ladybugs and they get everywhere (even through screen windows) that there is only one way to address them - as pests. Also, it seems that ladybugs have had some transformation here, instead of a red body with black spots you can find many that are black bodies with red spots. And the real questions is 'do you start to mutate when you arrive in huge numbers?'

3. Flip-flops - Summer is almost at an end and the Plagues of Boston (after the Ten Plagues of Egypt) are flip-flops. So let's say it out loud - "NO! Flip-flops are not acceptable footwear with your business suit/formal attire/work cloths/else. If you are not wearing a bathing suit under your cloths or you are on a vacation, please avoid them"

So that's it.

Oh yeah! This was written with my iPad (wooh hoo!)

From a special place (or gadget)

So the first thing I want to say is that this post has been written and posted from my newest toy - my iPad! Yes, I thank the MRS. for this great gift she got me.

I have not written in a long time because I can hardly find the time to sit and write. It's not that I don't have anything to write about, but free time is a very expensive commodity at the present time.

CJ is growing fast. He is just getting big every day, and he starts controlling his hands. It is really interesting to see how he grows and develops. But again, him growing is a very time consuming matter. It takes a full time job of two (he and the mrs.) and a half (me) people to grow.

The work is progressing slowly, and I cannot report of any ground breaking results yet, even though I have to present a talk in a huge conference in a week.
At least our visa status has been extended for 2 more years, so, theoretically we are here until 2012.

That's all I have to update about right now. I will try to post more short posts (now that I have the iPad it should be easier) every time I have something to say, and until then...

a short (but one that took 3 days to write) post

There are not enough hours during the day. I cannot seem to find the free time to write here. It's either work, CJ or sleep - not much more than that. Even this short post took me 3 days to write.

I will update that CJ is growing and changing every day. He smiles, laughs and talks (baby talk of course) a lot, but also does a lot of baby stuff like cry (instead of conveying his feelings in words!). And I must say that he already knows how to play us, even at this early stage. For example, he learned that by smiling to us and lifting his chest we will pick him up, and he will use that every time. And it doesn't matter if he suffers from stomach aches or really tired, he will stop his crying long enough to smile to us and lift his chest.

As for work - I'm really trying to go back to a well structured schedule, but I'm not quite there yet. In a month and a half I have to give a talk in a conference and I still don't know what I'm going to present. Other than that it's research as usual.

Oh, yes, we also bought a car. Even though we thought we won't, we found out that a kid requires a car. Depending on taxis and public transportation is not fast enough, reliable enough, quick enough and cheep enough when you have a child. So we have bought a small SUV, because in America live like an American.

And again - I'll try to update whenever possible, but I can't promise it will be at known intervals.

A late update (and a new theme)

So I cannot keep my word and write every week. But it is only because I had crazy few weeks. (Oh, yeah, I decided to go with a darker theme for my blog - just to keep it nice and black)

Work-wise I am back to work, back to experiments and science. And I finally got to present a group meeting. Some might say "big deal", but it is a big deal. In our group we get to give a group meeting about once every six months (and even then it is really flexible). I gave my first meeting after 8 months in the group. During the group meeting you present all you have done (and plan to do) to the boss and this is the only time he really hears about your project. Usually the boss, and some of his minions, try to find weak spots in the project and once a weak spot has been exposed then they sink their teeth and start tearing the raw flesh. Luckily for me - this group meeting was more of a material science and material/electrical engineering meeting, therefore no one is able to shake me and expose weak spots in my knowledge of these subjects. I gave a 1.5 hour presentation that was very satisfactory. Now I have six more months until the next time I need to report to the boss (unless I decide it's time to publish an article, and then I have to make sure the boss knows that).

But the main interest is, of course, on our personal life and not my professional life. CJ has been growing fast. We can see changes in him and his behavior almost every day. He finally stopped ignoring the world around him and he studies with great interest anything that appears in front of his eyes. He is loosing his hair fast (he was born with a head full of hair, but he prefers to look more like his dad, bold). Also, in the last couple of days he started smiling at me and the MRS, not a smile out of a deep sleep, like he has done before, but a genuine smile directed at that face in his field of vision.
The only thing is that he sleeps whenever HE wants and not when we want him to sleep. By now I know what 4AM looks like pretty well (that's my feeding shift) and we go to sleep at 10PM just to make sure we get our 6 hours of sleep.
But sleeping is not the only thing - I cannot understand why he cannot tell us what's wrong!! He cries when he is hungry, he cries when his stomach aches, he cries when he wants a pacifier, he cries when he wants to go to sleep, he cries when he needs to burp. Why can't he just tell us what the problem is? or, at least, have a different cry for each of the different cases!

Well, we found out that raising a child is a full time job. Now we are trying to juggle that and our previous life. Good luck to us.