Sunday, 31 August 2014

I got up very early this morning and got in some good exercise.

I went to the bank this morning to apply for a Visa card. Until now, I haven't needed an Israeli Visa card because I could use my American ones, but now the Israel Apple App Store apparently won't accept American Visas anymore, so I can't buy anything there (it's doesn't accept Isracard). Of course, a trip to Bank HaPoalim is always a BIG pain because of the long wait, but it just had to be done!

Afterwards, I did the weekly grocery shopping at Shufersal.

For lunch, I went down to Mercaz Big and picked up falafel in pitas for us since David didn't feel like going out.

I spent quite a bit of time today working on my med inventory application in Python, but, right now, I'm pretty discouraged because my button-handling routines are getting called as soon as I start the program, whereas they SHOULD only be called when their respective buttons are pressed. Obviously, I'm seriously misunderstanding SOMETHING in Tkinter (the graphic user interface routines), but I can't figure out what. It's VERY annoying!

Shabbat, 30 August 2014

For some reason, I apparently needed a lot of sleep last night and so got up much to late to go for a walk this morning.

I relaxed quite a bit today, but I also started working on a Python program to keep track of our inventory of medicines (mostly David's, of course). I have been doing this in a Google spreadsheet until now, but I think I can make a better version using Python. So, we'll see.

We were about to go out for lunch today, but we tested David's blood sugar and found that is was a few points lower than it should be, so we decided to give him a couple of cookies to bring it up, and then I ordered veggie burgers from Barbis.

In the early evening, we drove down to Ice Park and had frozen yogurt.

Friday, 29 August 2014

I got up very early this morning and walked to the gym to work out there a bit. My energy level seemed a bit low, though, and there was very little breeze, so I felt a bit warm. But it was still a good walk. Later, I walked down to recycle the cardboard boxes and to buy challah at the local bakery.

I had only one student for a 2-unit Berlitz lesson today: 11:00-12:30. We spent quite a bit of time in this lesson with him (he's from Spain) telling me about his recent trip to the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). This was good practice for him, and it was also very interesting for me to hear.

Immediately after I finished teaching, we hurried over to David's appointment with his psychiatrist. After that, we had lunch at Greg Café at Mercaz Big. David had their "Home Fries" הום פרייז salad, and I had their "Country" כפרי salad.

In the evening, as the shadows of the Eilat mountains advanced towards Aqaba, we lit candles, drank sweet wine, and ate challah to welcome the Shabbat queen. Oh, and Pascal (our amazing and wonderful Israeli black and partly white cat) ate seeds from the challah, something he looks forward to every week.

Shabbat Shalom to everyone! שבת שלום לכולם

Thursday, 28 August 2014

I slept somewhat lightly last night and had trouble getting up this morning, so I didn't go out and walk at all.

I taught only 4 units of Berlitz lesson today, back-to-back: 10:30-12:00 and 12:00-1:30. Then we went to Rachel for lunch. David had his usual toasted cheese sandwich, and I once again had their Balkan Platter.

I spent most of the rest of the day finishing up work on the first unit of my class, Algorithmic Thinking. The "application" portion was quite difficult, but, in the end, I managed to do what I needed to. It's peer-assessed, so we'll have to wait and see what my score will be. It should be close to perfect, though, if not 100%. The programming and the analysis required were actually quite interesting.

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

I got up very early this morning and got in a good walk and an excellent work-out.

I was scheduled to teach only 4 units of Berlitz lessons today, but the first student (2 units) was a no-show: 9:00-10:30 (the no-show) and 2:30-4:00.

I spent most of the rest of the day working on my "application" for unit 1 of my Algorithmic Thinking class. This is the portion of the unit's work that will be peer-assessed, and it's turning out to be quite difficult. Part of the problem is my having to learn a new desktop Python environment whose documentation is not very easy to get quickly. I think I've finally successfully solved the first problem and produced the required data plot for it. Now, just 4 more to go. :-)

David didn't feel like going out for lunch today, so I ordered it delivered from Chooka -- chaing-mai for him and vegetarian sushi for me. Of course, I ended up also eating more than half of his dish!

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

I got up a little late this morning but still had time to walk to the gym and work out a bit.

This morning I did the homework/quiz for the first unit of my new class, Algorithmic Thinking, and, in the afternoon, I also completed the project successfully. Now I have to work on the application, which will be peer-assessed and will be quite a bit more work.

I enjoyed the weekly WIZO English-speakers' meeting this morning. After socializing for some time, we took turns telling some of our favorite jokes to the group, and that went very nicely.

For lunch, David and I went to Greg Café at Mercaz Big. He had yam ravioli with mushroom cream sauce, and I had their wonderfully delicious Fatoush salad.

I was scheduled to teach 4 units of Berlitz lessons today, but no one (out of a class of FOUR!) showed up for the second lesson: 3:30-5:00 and 6:00-7:30.

Monday, 25 August 2014

I again slept a little bit weirdly, but I woke up and got up early, so I got in good morning exercise.

I was scheduled for only 4 units of Berlitz lessons today, but the second 2-unit lesson turned out to be a no-show: 9:30-11:00 and 7:00-8:30 (the no-show).

The materials for the first 2 weeks of my new class, Algorithmic Thinking, were opened today. So I watched all the videos and read the materials. Next, I need to work on the homework/quiz, then the project, and finally the assignment. That last thing (the assignment) will be peer-assessed. This is the third course in the specialization sequence that I am taking, all taught by excellent Rice University professors through the website Coursera. I'm really excited about it!

I drove over to Buddha Burgers today planning to order and bring home food for lunch, but, unfortunately, when I got there I discovered that they have gone out of business! That's really disappointing because I really liked their food! So, I came back home empty-handed and prepared lunch at home.

I also got a bit more reading done in my book about China in the 15th century. It's really quite interesting stuff, and it's also helping me maintain and improve my Hebrew ability and increase my vocabulary.

Sunday, 24 August 2014

I slept a little tensely last night for some reason and so didn't get up in time to get out for a walk this morning.

I did the weekly grocery shopping this morning.

For lunch, we went to Greg Café at Mercaz Big, where David had tricolor pasta with mushroom cream sauce, and I had their Sabikh salad.

In the afternoon, I made a brief trip to the pharmacy to pick up a few more of David's meds.

Other than these things, I mostly just relaxed today.

Shabbat, 23 August 2014

I got up a little later this morning but still had plenty of time for a walk and a good work-out at the outdoor gym.

I spent some time today trying to port the Zombie Apocalypse program over from CodeSkulptor and SimpleGUI to running natively on my computer using Tkinter. Unfortunately, SimpleGUI and Tkinter are sufficiently different that it's going to be quite a bit harder than I had anticipated. Finally, I ended up finding a Tkinter tutorial that I hope will help me learn it more from scratch and get familiar with it. Then perhaps I'll be able to do the port. The reason I want to do it is so that I'll be able to save my obstacle configurations in files, something the CodeSkulptor doesn't support.

We had lunch at home today delivered from Barbis.

Friday, 22 August 2014

I got up very early this morning (just after 5:00 a.m.) and so got in both a good work-out at the outdoor gym and a walk down to recycle cardboard and buy challah, all well before breakfast.

I taught 4 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:30-11:00 and 11:30-1:00. Both students were ones that I hadn't taught before, and the second one was particularly interesting. He is from China but studied in the UK and is now working for a year in Singapore.

We ate lunch at the falafel place at Mercaz Big today, and, of course, we both had falafel.

In the evening, we lit candles, drank a bit of wine, and ate whole-wheat challah to welcome Shabbat.

Thursday, 21 August 2014

I got up very early this morning and had an excellent work-out. The breeze was particularly welcome this morning, since it was quite warm.

I taught only 6 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 11:30-1:00, and 6:30-8:00.

We ate lunch at Rachel today. David had his usual toasted cheese sandwich, but I tried their "Balkan Platter", which I really liked!

I got some more reading done in my Hebrew book today. It's interesting to learn a LOT more about that period of Chinese history (the late 14th and early 15th centuries of the common era).

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

I slept in this morning and got up much too late to go out for even a short walk.

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

We both had pad thai for lunch today at Togorashi (at Mercaz Big). I also had a Japanese salad, and David had corn soup.

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

I slept a little strangely last night and got up a bit late this morning. I still managed to walk to the highway 12 kikar and back, though.

I once again greatly enjoyed the weekly English-speakers' meeting at WIZO this morning. The conversation is always enjoyable, and today we also had a bit of fun with singing.

We ordered pizza delivered for lunch at home today.

I was scheduled to teach 5 units of Berlitz lessons today, but one 1-unit lesson turned out to be a late cancellation: 2:30-4:00, 4:00-4:45 (the late cancellation), and 7:00-8:30.

Monday, 18 August 2014

I got up nice and early again this morning and again got good exercise.

I was scheduled for 6 units of Berlitz lessons today, but the middle student (2 units) was a no-show: 9:00-10:30, 11:00-12:30 (the no-show), and 4:00-5:30.

We ate lunch at Il Pentolino today. I had my usual whole-wheat spaghetti with Palermo sauce, but David tried the Arrabiata sauce, which was a bit to spicy-hot for him. We both splurged and had dessert: chocolate soufflé cake for David and tiramisu for me.

After my last lesson, I drove down to Ice Park to get some help setting the time on David's talking watch. He wants to start using it again, but the time on it was wrong, and I couldn't figure out how to set it. A guy at one of the stores there that sells watches showed me how to do it. Then, I walked around the mall and did a bit of shopping. I bought new gold hoop earrings and a couple more pairs of Bumpers flip-flops (colors I didn't yet have). I probably have more pairs than I really need, but I do wear them nearly all the time and through most of the year here.

Sunday, 17 August 2014

I got up early this morning, but not until I had relaxed a bit in bed while Pascal (our mostly black cat) licked my hand. Then I was off to the gym for some good exercise.

I got the special diet food for the cats from the vet today, so tonight they start on it. Katom (our gingi American cat), in particular, really needs to lose some weight.

Next, I did the weekly grocery shopping. I stopped first at the Mega store in town to get some Quaker Oat cereal packets (David's usual breakfast), and then I continue to Shufersal to do most of the shopping.

We ate lunch at Greg Café at Mercaz Big. David had tricolor pasta (even though it's actually no longer on their menu), and I had their "country salad". Afterwards, we drove down to the Yellow station by the airport to fill up and to get Rosa (our Fiat Panda) a badly needed bath.

Later in the afternoon, I went over to the Maccabi pharmacy to get our monthly prescriptions filled.

I did some more reading today in a book I barely started many months ago. It's a Hebrew translation of a book entitled "1421: The Year China Discovered the World", and it's very interesting. It seems that the Chinese actually sailed around a lot in the Western Hemisphere, including the Caribbean, several decades before the Europeans. Even more interesting, the Europeans may well have somehow gotten maps that the Chinese had made, which, of course, would have helped them. I'm only a little way into the book, so there is much more information to be learned, obviously. Of course, one of my main reasons for getting back into reading this book is actually to practice and try to improve my Hebrew.

Shabbat, 16 August 2014

I got up early enough for excellent exercise at the gym this morning.

I spent most of the rest of the day tinkering with my Zombie Apocalypse simulation and testing the changes I made. Yes, I know, it's a bit of an obsession, but it's fascinating to see the how the distance matrix works, and sometimes things go quite a different direction from how you think they're going to.

We ate lunch today at Pastory, an Italian place in the hotels area. We both had desserts, but neither of us was much impressed with them, unfortunately.

In the evening, we went down to Ice Park and had frozen yogurt.

Friday, 15 August 2014

I got up very early this morning and so got in a good work-out at the gym and still had time to walk down and recycle cardboard and buy challah before breakfast this morning.

I taught only 2 units of Berlitz today: 11:00-12:30.

We ate lunch at Rachel. David had a grilled cheese sandwich with black olives, and I had their "Celebration" salad.

As the sun was shining its last few minutes on the Jordanian mountains across the valley, we welcomed the Shabbat bride by lighting candles, drinking a bit of wine, and eating delicious challah. Shabbat Shalom to everyone! שבת שלום לכולם

Thursday, 14 August 2014

I got up early again this morning and again got good exercise.

I was scheduled to teach 8 units of Berlitz lessons today, the one 2-unit lesson was a no-show, and another was a late cancellation: 10:00-11:30, 2:30-4:00, 5:00-6:30 (the no-show), and 7:00-8:30 (the late cancellation).

We both had sushi for lunch today at Chooka at Ice Park.

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

I got up early this morning, walked to the gym, did a good work-out there, and walked back, all before the sun appeared over the Jordanian mountains.

I taught 6 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 2:30-4:00, and 4:30-6:00.

We ate lunch at Barbis. David had onion rings, breaded cauliflower, and stuffed mushrooms, and I had a soyaburger.

Tuesday, 12 August 2014

I somehow couldn't get awake and stay awake until quite late this morning and so didn't go out for a walk at all.

I once again enjoyed the weekly English-speakers' meeting at WIZO. This week, several of us shared our stories of how we met our partner. I was the last to speak, and I told about how David and I met, about 19 years ago now, at Beth Chayim Chadashim.

We ordered pizza delivered to our apartment for lunch today.

I taught only 2 units of Berlitz lessons today: 2:30-3:15 and 4:00-4:45.

Monday, 11 August 2014

I got up a little late this morning but still walked to the gym and back. It was a bit warm out, but there was enough of a breeze to keep it from being impossibly hot.

I taught 8 units of Berlitz lesson today: 9:30-11:00, 2:30-4:00, 4:00-4:45, and 6:00-8:15. We had vegetarian weenies and corn on the cob for lunch at home today.

Sunday, 10 August 2014

I got up early this morning, before dawn, and again walked down the tayelet by the Mediterranean Sea in Haifa. As I started that way, I saw a orange sphere in the distance and thought at first it might be some lighting effect near the cable car station. But quickly I realized that it was actually the setting full moon!

After another nice breakfast at the hotel, David and I checked out and drove the short distance over to his appointment at Rambam. That went quite quickly, and then we were on our way back home.

We arrived back here around 3:30 p.m. David has been sleeping since then, and I've been mostly pretty lazy myself.

Shabbat, 9 August 2014

I didn't sleep as well last night as I usually do at home, but I still got up and took a nice walk this morning on the tayelet by the sea. Along the way, I found 4 friendly cats that I petted: a jet black one, a dark tabby, and two calicos, all lovely creatures.

After a delicious breakfast this morning here at the hotel and a short rest, we headed out for a drive around the North. First, we drove out to the Golani Junction, which has now been completely rebuilt as the Golani Interchange! From there, we drove north on highway 65, which is currently undergoing a major amount of construction to convert it from a 2-lane highway to a 4-lane freeway. The terrain is very hilly there, so this entails a LOT of work.

We also drove up the east side of the Hula Valley and then across and down to the Koach Junction, then up and down through Nakhal Dishon and on to the Birya Forest, just north of Tsfat. After enjoying the cool breezes blowing through the pines there, we continue to Khurfeish, where we had a wonderful lunch at our favorite Druze restaurant.

By then, David was exhausted, so we came on back to Haifa, and he has been sleeping pretty much ever since. I played games on my iPad, surfed the internet a bit, enjoyed some music videos on YouTube, and took another short walk.

As I write this, the daylight is fading, and I can see the lights on a large ship that is waiting out in the bay. Tomorrow, we go to David's appointment at Rambam and then start the long trip back home.

Friday, 8 August 2014

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

We spent most of the day driving north to Haifa, where we will be until Sunday. David has an appointment with the doctor at Rambam Medical Center on Sunday morning.

We're staying at a nice little hotel in th Bat Yam area of Haifa only half a block from the Mediterranean Sea, which I can see from the window as I write this.

Thursday, 7 August 2014

I got up early, walked to the outdoor gym, and got in a nice little work-out there.

I has 8 units of Berlitz lessons today, but two of them were a no-show: 11:00-12:30, 2:30-4:00, 5:00-6:30 (the no-show), and 6:30-8:00.

We ate lunch at Rachel today. Both of us had toasted sandwiches.

Wednesday, 6 August 2014

I got up early and walked to the gym for a nice work-out this morning.

I taught only 5 units of Berlitz lessons today: 11:00-12:30, 2:30-4:00, and 4:00-4:45.

We split an egg-salad sandwich at Aroma for lunch today. I also had a Bulgarian cheese pastry.

Tuesday, 5 August 2014

I got up and walked to the gym and back this morning but didn't work out there.

I once again enjoyed today's weekly WIZO meeting, chatting with some folks I hadn't talked to much before.

We ate lunch at home today.

I taught 5 units of Berlitz lessons: 2:30-3:15, 3:45-5:15, and 5:30-7:00.

Monday, 4 August 2014

I got up early this morning and so got in a good walk to the gym and exercise while there.

I tinkered some more with my Zombie Apocalypse program today, making it so that the zombies have some probability of exploding based the the current ratio of zombies to humans. It means that sometimes the game will end with a remaining human or two and no zombies instead of as before, when it always ended with all the zombies remaining and NO humans.

I taught 9 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:30-12:00, 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, and 6:00-8:15.

We ate lunch at Greg Café at Mercaz Big today. David had 3-color pasta with mushroom cream sauce, and I had their delicious Fatoush Salad.

Sunday, 3 August 2014

I got up early this morning, walked to the outdoor gym, and did a bit of a work-out there, too, as well. There was a nice breeze blowing.

This morning I took David down to get his hair cut and his beard shaved off. Afterwards, I went over to Ice Park to get an earring I had purchases there a week ago replaced because the post broke off after less than 2 days. Then I continued on to Breishit (the health-food store) and Shufersal to do the weekly grocery shopping.

We ate lunch at Barbis today, having stuffed mushrooms, onion rings, and breaded cauliflower florets that had been deep-fried. Not the healthiest meal, but nice to eat.

Shabbat, 2 August 2014

I got up fairly early this morning and walked all the way to the outdoor gym and back. I didn't work out there any, though.

I spent most of the day working on my final mini-project for my Principles of Computing class, and I finally managed to finish it successfully (100%!). It's a program that computes moves to solve the Fifteen Puzzle.

David has been sleepy all day today. He got up for breakfast, but he was so sleepy that I literally had to feed him. He didn't get up for lunch at all, and we only snacked a bit in the late afternoon. He was up for a little while 2 or 3 times, but he kept being so sleepy that he had to go back to bed. This isn't the first day he's been sleepy much of the day, but I think it may be the worst so far. I'm being to worry a bit about it.

Friday, 1 August 2014

I got up early enough to walk to the highway 12 kikar and back this morning, and, of course, I later walked down to recycle cardboard and buy challah.

I taught the max amount of Berlitz lessons for a Friday for me today, 6 units: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, and 12:00-1:30.

We ate lunch at Rachel today instead of Il Pentolino.

I spent much of the afternoon and evening working on my mini-project for Principles of Computing. I have now completed Phase 1 successfully and am working on Phase 2 (out of 3 phases).

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