Monday, 30 June 2014

I got up a bit late this morning, but I still walked all the way to the gym and back. It was warm out, but the nice breeze kept it from feeling hot.

I taught 12 units of Berlitz lessons today (although one 2-unit lesson was a late cancellation): 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-7:00 (the late cancellation), and 7:00-8:30.

We went to Buddha Burgers for lunch today, but it was so hot there even with all their A/Cs running that we ended up having them wrap up our food so that we could bring it home and eat it here.

Sunday, 29 June 2014

I got up and walked to the highway 12 kikar this morning and back even though I felt quite tired and it was a bit warm.

In the late morning, I did the weekly grocery shopping at Breishit (the health-food store) and Shufersal.

We ate lunch at Chooka at Ice Park.

It was HOT out today, although I think it may have been slightly cooler than yesterday.

Shabbat, 28 June 2014

I woke up late this morning, and it was also unusually hot out, so I didn't go out for a walk.

I watched the video of my nephew Grant's Senior Recital (12th grade!) today. The recital itself took place nearly 3 weeks ago, but I hadn't yet seen it. Boy, was I impressed! He played virtuoso, difficult pieces on piano, violin, and organ for more than an hour and a half, ALL by memory! If you'd like to watch it, too, here's a link to the Vimeo page it's on.

The predicted high temperature in Eilat today was 46˚C (113˚F), but I saw that it actually got to 47˚C(115˚F). That's HOT, even though it IS a very dry heat.

We didn't go out for lunch today but instead opted to have our soyaburgers delivered from Barbis. We did drive down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt in the late afternoon, though, and saw a turboprop take off from the airport as we drove alongside the runway on our way there.

Friday, 27 June 2014

I woke up very early this morning but didn't let myself get out of bed until 5:00. Then I walked to the gym and worked out there a bit. Later, I took the cardboard down to the recycle bin and bought challah at the local bakery.

I taught only 4 units of Berlitz lesson today: 10:30-12:00 and 12:00-1:30. After that, we had our traditional Friday lunch at Il Pentolino.

In the afternoon, I set to work on my project for this week of Principles of Computing, and I managed to finish it all successfully well before candle-lighting time. This week, we are teaching the computer to play Tic-Tac-Toe, using the Monte Carlo method. Basically, this means playing the game out a LOT of times, keeping track of which squares seen to be the most and least successful for winning, and then moving accordingly. It was actually quite easy and fun.

In the evening, we lit candles, sipped sweet red wine, and ate the delicious whole-wheat challah I had bought to welcome Shabbat as I watched the sun do its last bit of baking Aqaba and the mountains of Edom (now in the Kingdom of Jordan) for the day. The view out our kitchen window at candle-lighting time is almost always beautiful!

Thursday, 26 June 2014

I got up early this morning and got in a good walk and work-out at the gym.

I taught 10 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 2:30-4:00, 5:00-6:30, and 7:00-8:30. However, the last lesson turned out actually to be a no-show.

Because I had only a 60-minute break around lunchtime today, we ate at home.

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

I slept very well last night but woke up quite late this morning. Nevertheless, I managed to walk to the gym and back, although I didn't stay there and work out at all.

I taught 12 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:00-11:30, 11:30-1:00, 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-7:00, and 7:00-8:30. There were NO no-shows or late cancellations today!

We had lunch at Greg Café at Mercaz Big today. David had tricolor pasta with mushroom cream sauce, and I had their delicious fatoush salad.

Tuesday, 24 June 2014

Another early rising, walking, and working out this morning.

I think Tuesday is rapidly becoming my favorite day of the week, since it's when I get to go and chat with the interesting women of WIZO!

Afterwards, I managed to get the homework/quiz for my Principle of Computing class for this week done.

David's stomach was not doing well at lunch time. In fact, he even threw up shortly before we were planning to go out. It's all due to his problems with sinus drainage. At any rate, we decided to eat at home instead, and he had no more problems for the rest of the day.

I taught only 4 units of Berlitz lesson today: 4:00-5:30 and 6:00-7:30.

Monday, 23 June 2014

I got up early this morning and got in a great walk and a good work-out.

The materials for the next week of my Principle of Computing class have been released, so I managed to watch all the videos today. The theme this week is probability and the Monte Carlo method. Good stuff!

I taught 12 units of Berlitz lessons today (9 hours!): 9:30-11:00, 11:00-12:30, 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-7:00, and 7:00-8:30.

We ate lunch again at Rachel, the new restaurant we tried for the first time last Tuesday. I had their namesake salad, and David had a nice toasted sandwich. We both enjoyed our meals very much.

Sunday, 22 June 2014

I got up early this morning and got in a good walk to the gym and a short work-out there.

We had an appointment for David with our family doctor today to discuss a couple of issues.

I bought more food and cat litter for the cats and then proceeded to Shufersal to do the weekly grocery shopping this morning.

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers, and, after that, we drove up to Yotvata to buy more dates.

I did the monthly pharmacy visit to have prescriptions filled this afternoon.

In the late afternoon, David and I went to a meeting about increasing accessibility at the airport and on the planes for people with handicaps and limitations. Unfortunately, all the Hebrew was much too rapid for me to pick up much, and David got even less. I did figure out that the women at the table on the right were representing airline companies, and the guys at the table on the left were apparently representing the airport or the airports authority. Some of the people in the audience, especially one guy in a wheelchair who had lost one of his legs, seemed quite hostile. But that's about all I could figure. Finally, David and I just got up and left. I had hoped that I'd be able to get more of the Hebrew, but the somewhat live acoustics in the room made it even more difficult (although I'm sure that, in English, that would have been no problem at all for me!).

Shabbat, 21 June 2014

I slept okay last night but woke up very late and so didn't go out for a walk at all.

I continued working on my Principle of Computing project, a simulation of the Cookie Clicker game, today. I got the code working quite easily and nicely, but I was having trouble with the tester they provide because it kept timing out. When I ran my program, it actually ran quite quickly, but their tester somehow seemed to keep getting stuck, perhaps in some infinite, or at least excessively long running, loop. Finally, I put in a counter in my main loop that limits the number of times it can execute. I set the max number to one bigger than it was ever actually doing in my cases, and that seems to have fixed the problem with their tester, too. So, I eventually submitted it to the grader and got 100% for the project!

We ate lunch at Landwer Café today. David had their shakshuka, which he didn't particularly like, and I had their breakfast, which was great.

Friday, 20 June 2014

I woke up and got up early this morning, but I only walked to the highway 12 kikar and back for two reasons: it was quite warm out, and I needed to walk down and recycle the cardboard and buy challah later (which I did, of course).

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

We ate lunch at Il Pentolino. I had my usual dish, but David had fried mushrooms and a nice pizza.

In the afternoon, I began work on my project for this week for Principle of Computing. It was quite difficult. For a while I couldn't figure out what wasn't working until I discovered that I had missed a crucial step. I fixed it quickly, and now phases 1 and 2 are finished. Tomorrow I'll work on the 3rd and final phase, implementing other strategies.

In the evening, we lit candles, sipped sweet red wine (from a new bottle, which is quite a bit better than the old one!), and ate challah to welcome Shabbat.

Thursday, 19 June 2014

I got up a little late this morning and so only walked to the highway 12 kikar and back. But it was very pleasant out.

I did the homework/quiz for my Principle of Computing class this morning. It was quite hard! But I managed to get 100% on my 3rd try (the max number of tries allowed).

I taught only 4 units of Berlitz lessons today: 12:00-1:30 and 2:30-4:00. However, since there was only an hour between them and they were right in the middle of the day, we had to eat lunch at home. I cooked up a couple of the vegeburgers I had bought at the health food store.

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

I got up early this morning, walked to the gym, worked out a bit there, and walked back. It was very nice out!

I taught 12 units of Berlitz lessons today (but one 2-unit session was a late cancellation because the student had no internet connection): 9:00-10:30, 11:30-1:00 (the cancellation), 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-7:00, and 7:00-8:30.

We ate lunch at Greg Café at Mercaz Big today. David had yam ravioli with mushroom cream sauce, and I had a delicious, healthy, and unusual salad.

Tuesday, 17 June 2014

I got up early and felt great this morning! I walked to the gym and back easily, comfortably, and happily.

I watched all this week's lecture videos for my class, Principles of Computing, which just became available today.

I really enjoyed chatting with the folks (okay, really I only chatted with the ladies) at this morning's weekly WIZO meeting.

For lunch, David and I went to Rachel, a restaurant near the hospital that somebody mentioned at WIZO today. David had a nice pasta dish, and I enjoyed a great salad with wonderful bread. I think we'll go there again.

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

David attended a meeting that is the first of a series about integrating people with various handicaps into the community in more effective ways. It's all in Hebrew, and I couldn't take him because of my teaching, so the social worker sent a cab to pick him up. I was able to go down with him and make sure he got safely into the taxi. He just arrived back home, safe and sound, as I was finishing writing this!

Monday, 17 June 2014

I got up feeling quite achy and sore this morning, but I still walked to the highway 12 kikar and them highway 12 a bit. I wanted to see what they were doing with the flood catch basin there since I had seen a big bulldozer working (and there's a fence blocking a better view). Actually, they're simply cleaning out the basin to make sure that it will be effective if there really IS a flood.

I taught 12 units of Berlitz lessons today, although the last lesson was a late cancellation: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-7:00, and 7:00-8:30 (the late cancellation).

I ordered a delivery of lunch from Chooka today since David didn't feel like going out. In fact, he slept most of the day.

Sunday, 15 June 2014

I only walked to the highway 12 kikar and back this morning, but at least I did get out there and get some exercise.

We spent much of the day today battling David's high blood sugars. We don't know yet if it's a bad bottle of insulin, bad injection sites, or something else, but we have not been able to bring them down as we usually can. This has naturally been a bit stressful for both of us.

I did go to Shufersal to do the weekly grocery shopping. I also stopped at Breishit (a health food store) on the way there.

David didn't feel like going out for lunch, so I went to Buddha Burgers and brought some home for us.

I made a few additional tweaks to my 2048 program and did quite a bit more testing of it.

I finished watching the videos for the career development class. I think I've saved all the handouts that might be useful to me, so now I think I'll officially drop the class so that it won't show up as a class not completed in my Coursera records.

Of course, I WILL keep taking my Principle of Computing class!

Shabbat, 14 June 2014

I got up a little late this morning and felt a little tired, too, but I still managed to walk to the highway 12 kikar and back.

Last night (after I wrote my entry for the day), I was able to finish my mini-project for this week in my Principles of Computing class. It's an implementation of a game called "2048".

I actually did very little today except for playing Risk (on my iPad), Rice Rocks, and 2048. It was a lazy day.

We ate lunch at Landwer Café in Ice Park. I had an omelet sandwich, and David had breaded cauliflower on a bed of tehina and salsa, and a majedra based on lentils, quinoa, and green beans. I also ate quite a bit of his food, and it was all delicious.

Friday, 13 June 2014

I got up a little late this morning, but I still walked to the highway 12 kikar and back, and then I also walked down to recycle cardboard and buy challah later, all before breakfast.

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

We had lunch at Il Pentolino today. I had my traditional whole-wheat spaghetti with Palermo sauce, but David had whole-wheat spaghetti with Napoli (tomato) sauce. We both splurged and had dessert, though -- chocolate cake for David and tiramisu for me.

I did the weekly homework/quiz for my Principle of Computing class today, and I also began work on this week's mini-project, an implementation of the game 2048.

In the evening, we lit candles, sipped sweet red wine, and ate challah to welcome Shabbat.

Thursday, 12 June 2014

I got up early and walked to the gym and back this morning. I also went on the cross-trainer there for a bit.

I was scheduled to teach 12 units of Berlitz lessons again today, but I got an e-mail first thing in the morning telling me that one lesson (2 units) was a late cancellation: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 3:30-5:00 (the late cancellation), 5:00-6:30, and 6:30-8:00.

I went to Buddha Burgers today and got food to bring back home for lunch, since David didn't feel up to going out.

Wednesday, 11 June 2014

I got up early enough and walked to the gym and back. But I felt a bit tired, so I walked more slowly and didn't work out at all. I'm not worried, though. I think it's just my body absorbing the good work-out it got yesterday.

I was scheduled to teach 12 units of Berlitz lessons today, but the first student was a no-show, and another one was a late cancellation: 10:00-11:30 (the no-show), 11:45-1:15, 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30 (the late cancellation), 5:30-7:00,  and 7:00-8:30.

We had seitan (gluten) with teriyaki sauce and chips and salsa for lunch at home today.

Tuesday, 10 June 2014

I got up early this morning and got in a great walk in the lovely morning breezes and an excellent work-out at the outdoor gym.

This morning, I completed the first small programming project for my new course, Principle of Computing. This project is not actually required, but it's a good way to get myself warmed up for the more stringent coding style requirements of this course.

I attended the weekly WIZO meeting this morning and really enjoyed just talking with several people. There was no program for today, other than Isobel making the usual announcements about Eilat activities and events. I particularly enjoyed chatting with Fay, a woman who is originally from England but who has lived here in Eilat for many, many years.

For lunch today, we ordered a pizza delivered. It's always delicious!

I taught only one Berlitz student today, for 2 units: 2:30-4:00.

In the evening, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt, and we also watched the 6:00 show. They were still working on the key kikar, so we once again had to go around the airport to get back home, and the traffic was also bad that way again today.

I just sent my resignation letter to University of the People. I have decided that the hassles of working for them are no longer worth the small amount of money they have been paying me.

Monday, 9 June 2014

I got up very early this morning and so got in a good walk and a nice work-out at the gym.

I was scheduled to teach 9 units of Berlitz lessons today, but the second student was a late cancellation (I was informed just before the start time), and the 3rd was a no-show: 9:00-10:30, 12:00-1:30 (the late cancellation), 2:30-4:45 (the no-show), and 7:00-8:30.

We ate lunch at home today, having some of the seitan (wheat gluten) in barbecue sauce.

My new class, "Principles of Computing" started today, and I've already watched most of the videos for the first week and started working on one of the programming exercises.

In the evening, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt. We were a little slow getting home because they were re-bricking the kikar that one HAS to go through (beside the airport) to get into town without going all the way around the airport. So, naturally, there was a LOT of traffic on the road up the east side of the airport.

Sunday, 8 June 2014

I got up a little late this morning, but I still managed to walk to the gym and back.

My first task after breakfast was to do the weekly grocery shopping. Later, after lunch (at home, on various foods we had brought home from several restaurants recently), I went to the pharmacy to pick up a couple of items and then on to the gas station to fill the tank and get the car washed.

The rest of the day, I was mostly lazy, although I did make a few additional small tweaks to "Rice Rocks" to make it a bit more fun to play. I also watched several videos from my careers class.

Shabbat, 7 June 2014

I got up early this morning and got in a good walk and a great work-out at the outdoor gym.

Other than that, I was quite lazy today. I did tweak my "Rice Rocks" program a bit so that it continues to produce plenty of rocks even when the score gets higher. I also added a "pause" capability. If you'd like to try it out, click on this link. Then click the "play" button in the upper left to run the program. Of course, you can also look at my Python code if you're so inclined.  :-)

We ate lunch today at Barbis, having our usual soyaburgers there. Afterwards, we drove up the Arava as far as Samar and then turned around and came back home.

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

In the evening, I went to a book exchange party at Fay's house. Mostly, it was just a nice excuse for a little social gathering, and the weather was perfect for just sitting around in Fay's lovely garden and chatting with other WIZO people.

Friday, 6 June 2014

I got up a little late this morning, so I only walked to the highway 12 kikar and back. However, I did also walk down to recycle cardboard and buy challah and candy a little later but still before breakfast.

I was scheduled to teach 4 units today but only actually taught 2, since the first student was a late cancellation (for which I still get paid!): 9:00-10:30 (the late cancellation) and 10:30-12:00.

We ate lunch at Il Pentolino today. I had my usual dish there (whole-wheat spaghetti with Palermo sauce), but David had a nice pizza.

I watched more videos from my career class, and I also read a bit more in the book about Swift, Apple's new programming language. The later parts got VERY advanced, so I didn't try to follow everything, but I DID get a nice sense of the power and safety of the language -- definitely a big improvement going forward!

In the evening, we lit candles, drank sweet red wine, and ate challah to welcome Shabbat. Pascal, our Israel-born cat, sat quietly nearby and listened as I sang the candle and wine blessings! Of course, he DID later get his seeds from the challah (which he loves!).

Shabbat Shalom, everybody!
שבת שלום לבולם

Thursday, 5 June 2014

I got up a little late this morning, but I still took time to walk to the gym and back.

I taught 12 units (9 hours!) of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 3:30-5:00, 5:00-6:30, and 6:30-8:00. Whew!

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers between my stretches of back-to-back lessons.

Wednesday, 4 June 2014 -- Shavuot

I got up early and so got in a good walk and some work-out at the gym this morning.

I spent quite a bit of time today reading Apple's iBook about their new programming language, Swift. Now I'm beginning to get to things that are pretty abstract, and I'll have to see more examples and maybe even write some myself to be able to really grasp them. However, for now, I'm just reading through to get acquainted with the language fairly generally.

I also spent some time today looking at more videos from the career development class.

David was very sleepy today and wasn't really able to get up and do anything until late afternoon (although he did eat breakfast before heading back to bed). However, when he did get up, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt.

Tuesday, 3 June 2014

I got up early, walked to the gym, worked out a bit there, and walked back this morning. It was great out there!

The WIZO meeting this morning was special because we were celebrating May, June, and July birthdays. So there was some food, and there was cheesecake (also because tomorrow is Shavuot). I met an interesting couple there who happened to be sitting near me. The wife is originally from South Africa, but the husband is from northern Sweden (in Lapland!), and that's where they have now lived for many years. Apparently, they also spend some time each year here in Eilat.

After the WIZO meeting, I drove down to Buddha Burgers to pick up the vegan cheesecake that I had ordered. I know, I know, a cheesecake without cheese seems a little strange, especially since Shavuot is when we specialize in eating dairy products. But, I must say, they have some of the best cheesecake ever there, anyway!

David was really tired and sleepy most of the day today. He didn't go to the WIZO meeting, and he didn't even feel like getting up to go to lunch, so I called Chooka and ordered our usual dishes from there to be delivered to the apartment -- sushi for me and chaing mai for David.

In the early evening, we took a short drive up the Arava, just to get out for a bit. I didn't have any classes at all today because I don't teach on Tuesday morning, and today is Erev Shavuot (the day before Shavuot) and is thus treated like a Friday, when I don't teach in the afternoon.

Yesterday, Apple released a new programming language (called Swift) and an iBook manual for it. I downloaded it today and began reading about it. It sounds pretty cool!

Monday, 2 June 2014

I got up early enough to walk to the gym, work out there a little, and walk back. It was very nice out this morning!

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

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers and had frozen yogurt in the late afternoon at Ice Park.

Sunday, 1 June 2014

Today I again got up early and walked to the gym and back. This morning, though, it was cool out with a wonderful breeze. I still wore only my sandals and short pants, though (no shirt) and felt comfortable.

I got the weekly grocery shopping out of the way first thing this morning.

We had an appointment with a new social worker for David from a special program here for people with disabilities. Her name is Laura, and we were quite impressed with her. She young, having just graduated from university. She's originally from Argentina and speaks fairly good English. Most importantly, she's a warm and caring person who really "gets it".

Because today is our 18th anniversary, we splurged and ate out at Ginger. We both had miso soup, David had a Javanese noodle dish, and I had a noodle dish with 3 different kinds of mushrooms. We even had cocktails -- a ginger martini for David, and a drink with strawberry, mint, and gin for me. It was all very delicious! I was sitting facing basically east while we were eating there and got to watch 4 planes on their final approach to the airport, just before landing. It's quite dramatic -- it's not every restaurant where planes fly by practically just outside the window (well, actually there were about a block away, but that's still pretty close)!

In the late afternoon, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt. On our way there, though, we stopped by Buddha Burgers to order a vegan cheesecake (yes, it's better than most actual dairy cheesecakes that I've had!), which we will pick up on Tuesday, just in time for Shavuot.

Today, I looked at the final exams for both my U of the People classes to see if there were any errors. Luckily, I only found one.