Wednesday, 30 April 2014

I was sound asleep last night when my phone rang. It was a friend (who shall remain nameless here) calling from California, who had not realized, obviously, what time it was here. I was only half-awake, so I'm afraid I wasn't quite as friendly as I would normally have been. She said she'd call again, but so far she hasn't. Anyway, it took me a while to get back to sleep, but I eventually did and slept quite well. I did get up late this morning, though.

I taught 10 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:00-11:30, 11:30-1:00, 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, and 7:00-8:30.

We really didn't eat lunch at all today because I had gotten an appointment at 1:30 for David to get a CT scan that the doctor had ordered. We just barely got back in time for my 2:30 class.

In the evening, before my last class, though, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt, and we watched the 6:00 show while we were there.

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

I slept okay last night, but not really well. Still, I felt pretty rested when I got up.

I went to the WIZO meeting this morning and enjoyed the presentation there by Debbie, an African-American blind (or mostly blind) woman who moved to Eilat recently after making aliyah to Israel several years ago. She's a very interesting person and gave a good presentation, too.

We decided to order pizza and eat at home today, but after lunch we drove down to the pet store to get more food for the cats, and then we drove up highway 12, turning around just before the checkpoint.

I was scheduled to teach only 4 units of Berlitz lessons today, but I actually ended up teaching 5 because another teacher lost her internet connection half-way through a lesson: 3:20-4:00 (the half-lesson), 5:30-7:00, and 7:00-8:30.

Monday, 28 Aprll 2014

I slept very well but got up a little late and more than a little lazy. Besides, I knew I had a big teaching day ahead of me today.

I taught 12 units (9 hours!) of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 3:00-4:30, 4:30-6:00, and 7:00-8:30.

The sirens sounded for 2 minutes this morning at 10:00 as the nation paused to remember those lost in the Shoah (Holocaust). I, too, stood for part of the time, but I did have to continue teaching my lesson (3 students in Poland, somewhat ironically).

We actually had to eat lunch at home today because the restaurants are closed for Holocaust Remembrance Day. We had vegan shwarma and delicious fresh tomatoes.

Sunday, 27 April 2014

I woke up fairly early this morning but was again quite lazy.

I did a lot of medical-related errands this today, making appointments and trying to get some financial issues straightened out. I was partly successful, but it took up much of the day. I ended up having to go to the hospital TWICE!

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers today.

In the afternoon, I took some time to assess last week's projects ("Pong") from 5 of my peers (assigned randomly to me), as required. They all did a good job, in fact!

Towards evening, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt. There was no one at the stand where we usually get it, so we waited. Finally, some minutes later, one of the workers showed up, but he told me he had already closed down the frozen yogurt machine so we couldn't get any. Luckily, there is another stand at the far side of the circle that also serves frozen yogurt, and they were still doing it. The reason for the closure is that יום הזברון לשואה ולגבורות yom ha-zikaron la-shoa uligvurot ("The Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and of Heroism") begins tonight and continues through the day tomorrow.

Shabbat, 26 April 2014

I woke up quite early this morning but just felt too lazy to go out for a walk.

I watched all the video lectures for the new week of my Python programming class, and I took both quizzes. On the first one, I got 100% on the first try, but I had to do the second one THREE times to get 100%! At least I got it before hitting the max number of tries (5).

We ate lunch at Barbis today, but neither of us had soyaburgers. David had tomato-potato soup (the soup of the day), I had onion rings, and we both ordered stuffed mushrooms. Actually, David had some of my onion rings, and I ate part of his soup, too. Afterwards, we took a short drive up the Arava before returning home.

Friday, 25 April 2014

I woke up very early this morning and got out of bed fairly early, too. I walked over to the highway 12 kikar and back, and it seemed like a rather long walk. I'm afraid I'm getting quite out of shape! Later, I walked down to recycle cardboard and buy challah for Shabbat.

I taught 4 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:30-12:00 and 12:00-1:30. After that, I took David to a routine appointment with his psychiatrist at 2:00, and then we had lunch at Il Pentolino. I had my usual dish there (whole-wheat spaghetti with Palermo sauce), but David got adventurous and had spaghetti with Firenze sauce. Both were delicious, though!

In the evening, we made Shabbat by lighting candles, sipping sweet red wine, and eating challah.

Thursday, 24 April 2014

I slept well and long last night, but at least I woke up feeling better than I did yesterday morning.

I taught 8 units of Berlitz lessons today: 11:30-1:00, 3:30-5:00, 5:00-6:30, and 6:30-8:00.

We enjoyed lunch at Buddha Burgers again today, the first day they've been open since Pesach!

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

I took a Coldex pill before I went to bed last night, and I slept very well. I got up late, though, with a headache and a stiff neck.

I taught 8 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:00-11:30, 2:30-4:00, 5:30-7:00, and 7:00-8:30.

After quite a bit of discussion, we decided to each lunch today at the falafel stand on the corner of HaTmarim and Khativat HaNegev. It was good, and we were glad we had chosen that place.

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

I had trouble getting to sleep last night and then didn't really sleep very well. I woke up early but too tired to feel like going out at all.

I ran quite a few errands this morning: paying the car registration for the next year; going to the Maccabi office about several issues regarding ambulance and ER fees; doing the weekly grocery shopping; and going to the pharmacy to get the monthly prescription refills.

We were going to eat lunch at Buddha Burgers, but they were still closed. So we drove down to Ice Park, but the lower parking garage was closed so there was still no nearby place to park. So we just drove over to Il Pentolino and had our favorite dishes there.

I taught 6 units of Berlitz lesson today: 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, and 6:15-7:45.

Monday, 21 April 2014

I slept quite well last night (with the A/C on, set at 30˚C and, later, 29˚C), but I was lazy this morning and didn't get up early at all. It's a holiday, after all!

I made a few small improvements to my week 4 mini-project, Pong, and submitted it. Then, I decided to extend the idea further on my own (but not to turn in, of course). I now have a version where either side can be played by either a human or the computer! It's actually pretty cool.

We ate lunch today at Barbis and then took our usual drive up the Arava as far as Samar. We turn around there because there's an underpass under the highway, so we don't even have to make an actual U-turn.

In the evening, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt, and we also watched the 6:00 show.

Sunday, 20 April 2014

I slept fairly well last night, but woke up for a while in the middle. We had left all the windows open, and it was just a bit too hot. I guess we'll be leaving them shut and running the A/C tonight.

I took David to our family doctor today, mostly to deliver the hospital release letter to him so that he'd have all the details about David's treatment there, but also to get a couple of prescriptions. Then we had to drop by the pharmacy to get them filled.

After that, we made the mistake of driving over to Ice Park, planning to have lunch at Café Café there. What a zoo! We couldn't find any parking anywhere, so we decided to just drive home. I figured I hit less traffic by going around the north end of the airport, but that, too, was utterly wrong. We got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic of people trying to leave town and head north! We finally made it home and just had beans and weenies for lunch.

I did my mini-project for the new week today. It's an implementation of the game of "Pong", and it's really quite fun to play, actually. I haven't submitted it yet, but it's all ready. I also evaluated 5 mini-projects written by my fellow students for last week. All but one were perfect implementations of "Timer: The Game" as required.

Here's a little puzzle for those of you who know some Hebrew. There are some big public services message signs along the highways with various messages about staying safe. I know what this one means -- do you?

לא מסמסים בזמן הנהיגה

Extra points if you can tell the etymology of the verb in the sentence (as in, what language is it from?). :-)

Shabbat, 19 April 2014

I slept well but got up quite late feeling a little "off".

I watched all the videos for the new week of my Python programming class and took both quizzes for the week. On the first quiz, I got 100% on my 1st try, but I had to take the 2nd one a 2nd time to get my 100% (which I INSIST on getting!). I didn't start work on the mini-project yet, though.

We ate lunch at Barbis today and then took a short drive up the Arava, as far as Samar.

Friday, 18 April 2014

I slept well but again got up late. Also, since the bakery is, of course, closed for Pesach, I obviously did NOT walk down to buy challah today.

I taught only one 2-unit class today: 9:00-10:30.

We had a bit of confusion about lunch today. We initially set out to eat at Aroma at Mercaz Big, but when we actually arrived in the area, we thought maybe we'd prefer Greg Café. However, ALL the tables were full there, so we decided to walk on to Aroma after all. But, when we got there, we saw that it was closed for Pesach! On the way back, we decided to eat at an Asian place. We basically had the same type of food we had had yesterday at the Asian place (different completely) at Ice Park. Again, there was soy sauce on each table, and this time the ingredients were listed in both English AND Hebrew, and wheat was the SECOND ingredient. This was, nevertheless, a kosher restaurant. I'd just find this whole thing quite humorous, especially since we ourselves make no pretense whatsoever of keeping kosher for Pesach (although we are eating charoset and matza this week).

Thursday, 17 April 2014

I slept well last night but again got up to late to go out for a walk.

I taught 8 units of Berlitz lessons today.

For lunch we went to an Asian kitchen at Ice Park (which shall remain nameless here for reasons you will see shortly). It's a kosher place, so, of course, they can only serve food that is kosher for Pesach. Now you might THINK that this would have little effect on an Asian-style eatery, but it had a lot more than you could imagine. I could get neither wasabi nor ginger with my sushi (why???), the sushi itself seemed less tasty (I don't know exactly why), and the rice-based dish David wanted to order wasn't available at all. This is particularly annoying to us, since we don't observe kosher for Pesach rules at all, even at home. Here's the kicker, though: on each table sat a little typical container of soy sauce, the third ingredient of which (clearly printed in English!) was -- wheat (WTF?!?). Kosher l'Pesach?!? NOT!

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

I slept well last night but woke up too late to go out for a walk this morning.

I taught 9 units of Berlitz lesson today: 10:00-11:30, 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-6:15, and 7:00-8:30.

We ate lunch at home today.

Tuesday, 15 April 2014 (1st day of Pesakh)

I slept well last night, woke up early, walked to the gym, worked out there a bit, and even stopped to do stretches on my way home (as the sunrise colors in the sky over Jordan were the prettiest!).

I got quite a bit done today. First, I washed a dried a couple of loads of jackets so that they'll be nice and clean when we get them out in the autumn.

Then I evaluated last week's mini-projects of 5 of my fellow students in my Python programming. Four of the five had programs that worked well, but the other one ran but didn't work right at all.

Then I worked on my own project for this week, "Stopwatch: The Game". I got it all finished and working perfectly, so I submitted it.

For lunch, we went to Barbis. I had my regular soyaburger, and David had vegetable soup and breaded cauliflower. Afterwards, we grabbed a couple of bottles of PepsiMax at the gas station and drove up the Arava as far as Samar.

I took a couple of selfies of myself in the late afternoon, using my iPhone, and edited one of them to be my new profile pic on Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Monday, 14 April 2014

I slept well last night and woke up quite early this morning, but I did not feel energetic enough to go out for a walk (or maybe I was just lazy).

David, however, has been very sleepy all day. He finally got up quite late for breakfast, but he was so sleepy he couldn't eat and went right back to bed. In fact, he didn't actually get up, stay up, and eat until late afternoon, and then he lay down and slept some more.

I had originally been scheduled to teach 6 units today, but I had had to ask them to take away the first two lessons (4 units) so that I could take David to the ophthalmologist for his regular check-up (this doctor, apparently, is only in on Mondays). However, because David was so sleepy, I had to cancel the appointment. So, I only taught one 2-unit class today: 12:00-1:30.

In the evening, David was able to get up and stay up long enough for us to do a quite abbreviated seder. But at least we had celebrated Pesach, and that felt good.

Happy Passover to everyone! חג שמח לכולם!

Sunday, 13 April 2014

I fell asleep quickly last night and slept well until about 2:30 a.m. Then I was awake for a while but drifted back to sleep quite a bit more before getting up quite late. I felt well-rested, though.

I had scheduled an appointment for David with our family doctor this morning, before last Friday's episode that resulted in David's hospitalization. The reason was to talk about possible alternative solutions to David's neuropathy pains, so David suggested that I go in and talk to the doctor for him, since he was still in the hospital. I agreed, and so I did. The doctor didn't know about any pain clinics or biofeedback training here in Eilat, but he did suggest that I check out Maccabi's alternative medicine center here, which also offers acupuncture. I went by there later in the day, and no one was there, but I did pick up a couple of their brochures, which I haven't yet read (they're in Hebrew, so quick scanning is NOT an option for me!).

After the seeing the doctor, I headed down to the hospital to be with David. The doctors came around a while after noon and asked David if he wanted to go home. He did NOT hesitate before saying, "Yes!" So, he was released this afternoon. I managed to get over to Shufersal to do the weekly shopping and to get ingredients for our kharoset, get everything home and the refrigerated stuff put away, and get back to the hospital to pick David up and bring him home when he got his release letter. Then I zipped back over to Maccabi for my own visit with the ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor. He checked my sinuses and found no infection, so I guess I've just got to cope with my sinus problems as I've been doing -- I'm already on the best medicine, Avamys spray. I also asked him to order a hearing check for me, just to make sure that I haven't lost too much (I think it's actually about normal for my age).

In the evening, David helped me make our kharoset. The ingredients: golden raisins, dried blueberries (both soaked in wine), walnuts, Brazil nuts, half a green apple, and a red apple. I think that's all. It seems to be pretty good. We sealed it in a container and put it in the fridge. In the morning, we'll check to see what else it might need -- perhaps a bit more red wine.

Shabbat, 12 April 2014

I slept soundly and well last night but woke up with a headache and stiff shoulders. It could have been sinus-related, or a result of not drinking enough yesterday (dehydration), or, who knows? Anyway, after a couple of big glasses of PepsiMax, breakfast, and a couple of ibuprofen, it was mostly okay.

I spent much of the day today at the hospital with David, and, luckily, I was there when the doctor came by a little after lunch. He was very good, and fluent in English, too. He told us that they have found no evidence of any heart problems, so that's good news, indeed! Although David's pain was a lot like that of people having heart attacks, the doctor assured us that there are several other well-known causes of such pain, as well. However, they still don't know what, exactly, is causing David's pain. It was less today, definitely not gone completely. The doctor did have them give David some kind of stronger ant-pain medicine, and it helped almost immediately. It seems to make him a bit sleepy, but perhaps it's just natural to sleep more when one gets relief from such pain.

I did come home during the afternoon and was here long enough to get a load of whites run through both the washer and the dryer. I also watched the first 3 video lectures for the new week of my Python programming class, and I also took the first of the 2 quizzes for the week. It took me 3 tries, but I finally got 100% (we're allowed up to 5 tries).

Friday, 11 April 2014

I had some trouble sleeping last night and even got up for about half an hour or so in the middle. But, in the end, I got a fairly good night's sleep.

I walked down before breakfast as I usually do on Friday mornings to recycle the cardboard boxes and to buy challah for Shabbat.

I taught 4 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30 and 10:30-12:00.

David was scheduled to see his psychiatrist today at 1:30, but before the time came, he began to feel difficulty with breathing and strong pain in his left arm and in the left side of his chest. I called the Maccabi 24-nurse consultant, and the nurse I spoke to (who was almost certainly an American-Israeli, judging from her English) ordered an ambulance to take David to the hospital. They arrived a few minutes later, and he spent the entire afternoon in the ER. They ran EKGs on him multiple times, did blood tests, and took an x-ray. But they didn't find what was wrong. Finally, they gave him some morphine intravenously, which did lessen the pain but which also made him feel quite sick. In the end, they decided to admit him to the hospital for evaluation and further tests, so that's where he is tonight.

Thursday, 10 April 2014

I didn't take any cold medicine (Coldex) last night at all, and I slept fairly well, although I had some trouble getting to sleep. I had some drainage this morning and some sinus pain during the day, but generally the cold seems to gradually be going away.

I taught 7 units of Berlitz lesson today: 10:00-11:30, 3:00-4:30, 5:30-6:15 (but it was a late cancellation); and 6:30-8:00.

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers today.

I had some complications with both my last lesson yesterday and the last one today. Both were the respective first sessions of classes of students from the same company, a car-rental company in Germany, and both are scheduled to use special Customer Care materials that are produced by Oxford. The materials are NOT online, so we have to depend on both the teacher and the students looking at their hardcopy books. And that's where the problem was -- I have the 2007 edition, and the students were sent a newer one. Worse yet, the first chapter is completely different. Last night, I resorted to having the students read from their books without myself knowing what would come next. Tonight, I implemented a different strategy -- I simply had them read and discuss an article from Forbes' online. Unfortunately, the office staff were either out (2 of them) or too busy (the remaining one) to even read the urgent e-mail I had sent them after class last night, and, by the time I finally called, it was too late to do anything at all about the problem. But, the good news is that I feel like I successfully delivered pretty good classes despite the giant screw-up with materials!

Wednesday, 9 April 2014

I had trouble getting to sleep last night but slept pretty well in the end. I didn't wake up feeling very good, though.

I finally managed to get the plastic bottles out to the recycle bin this morning. If I counted right, I had 67 of them!

I taught 7 units of Berlitz lessons today: 11:30-1:00, 3:00-4:30, 5:30-6:15, and 7:00-8:30.

We ate lunch at the Aroma at Mercaz Big today. We split an egg salad sandwich.

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

I slept alright last night but not quite as well as I had been sleeping. I felt achy and tired when I got up but felt pretty well most of the day.

I went to the WIZO meeting this morning and really enjoyed socializing there. The speaker told a very interesting story about meeting the Bolshoi Ballet dancers when she was a child in Los Angeles and they visited there (at the height of the Cold War!). It was very interesting!

We ate lunch at the falafel stand downtown today.

I taught 7 units of Berlitz lessons this afternoon and evening, all back-to-back: 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-6:15, and 6:15-7:45.

Monday, 7 April 2014

Regular story now: good sleep, up a little late, no walk, still having some cold symptoms.

I taught 11 units of Berlitz lessons today, although one student (2 units) was a no-show: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 2:30-4:00 (the no-show), 5:30-6:15, and 7:00-8:30.

We ate seitan (glutten) with teriyaki sauce for lunch at home today. Then we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt during my longest break (before my 5:30 lesson).

I turned in my mini-project for the second week of my Python programming class today.

Sunday, 6 April 2014

I slept well last night but woke up a little late this morning. At least the cold is not as bad today, although it is NOT yet gone.

I did the mini-project for this week for my Python programming class. I think it's now all done and working correctly, but I'll check it again before I submit it. I also did the required evaluations of the work of 5 of my classmates for last week's mini-project. All of them did it perfectly.

We went to Buddha Burgers for lunch today. David had half a pizza and chocolate cake with ice cream, and I had hummus with vegan shwarma.

In the afternoon, I went to Shufersal and did the weekly grocery shopping.

In the evening, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt.

Shabbat, 5 April 2014

I had trouble getting to sleep last night but slept well. This morning, however, I woke up with a lot of congestion. All day, I've had drainage and quite a bit of sneezing. Will this damn cold EVER go away?

The videos and other materials for the next week of my Python programming class became available this morning, so I've gotten a very good start on the new week. I watched all the videos and took both of the 2 quizzes. In fact, the only thing I haven't yet done is the miniproject for the week. Also, beginning tomorrow and lasting through Wednesday, I need to assess the miniprojects of some of my peers from last week.

For lunch today, I went down to Mike's Place and brought back their veggie and bean Tex/Mex-style burritos, so that was something different and enjoyable. Then we talked to David's sister in Ohio. Finally, we drove down to Ice Park and had our traditional frozen yogurt.

Friday, 4 April 2014

I slept well last night but woke up quite late this morning. I did, of course, walk down to recycle the cardboard and buy challah.

I taught 6 units of Berlitz lessons today, all back-to-back, filling my Friday availability time entirely (however, that last student had to leave after only 15 minutes of class): 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, and 12:00-1:30.

We ate lunch at Il Pentolino, each having our favorite dishes there. Afterwards, we took a short drive up the Arava, up to Samar.

In the evening, we lit candles, sipped sweet red wine, and ate our whole-wheat challah to welcome another lovely Shabbat.

Thursday, 3 April 2014

I had a little trouble getting to sleep last night (David did, too), but I eventually slept well and woke up not too late. Although I'm feeling quite a bit better from my cold, I'm still not quite ready to go out walking again yet.

I taught 9 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:00-11:30, 11:30-1:00, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-6:15, and 6:15-7:45.

I went over to Buddha Burgers and brought lunch from there home for us today.

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Although I had already taken today as a sick day, I felt quite a bit better. As usual, I think the cold will linger on in my chest for who knows how long, but I'll be basically okay.

I again mostly relaxed today, but we did go to Ice Park twice, first to Café Café for lunch and then later for frozen yogurt.

David has been quite discouraged and tired lately. We'll be going in again to see his psychiatrist on Friday, and we hope that he'll be able to help.

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

I slept better last night and got up reasonably early. My cold is still pretty bad, though, so I was glad I had taken the day off. In fact, I'm also taking tomorrow off, as well.

A little after 7:30 this morning, when I was out on the mirpeset (balcony) cleaning the cats' boxes, I heard a very loud sound. At first, I thought it was a jet flying VERY low, but then I realized that it was the Iron Dome interceptors that are based near us launching. A few seconds later I heard 2 or 3 distant booms and assumed they must have intercepted some incoming rockets. However, later in the morning I learned that they had been launched by mistake and that there actually were NOT any incoming missiles. Anyway, it was a little excitement for the early morning. David, by the way, was sound asleep and slept through it all!

This morning I got 2 appointments for us with our family doctor, one for me and one for David. I needed to see him to get a letter for Berlitz so that I can get my sick days. For David, we needed to take the report from the nephrologist we saw yesterday and to get a Maccabi prescription for the medicine he prescribed.

Afterwards, we took a short drive up the Arava (as far as Samar) and then had lunch at Chooka (at Ice Park). On the way home, I stopped and got the prescription filled at the pharmacy.

The rest of the day, I just pretty much tried to take it easy and rest.