Happy new year!

And so another year draws to its end.
We've traveled around, done a thing or two,

Went many places, visited both family and friend.
It's time to have a short look back, hope you think so too.

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We met up with family all over the world
From New York, to Minnesota, to the land of the Dutch

And even if at times it may have seemed odd, 
It helped us have fun together and keep in touch.

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We said goodbye to some friends, at least for now
Old and new, furry or not, we miss you all

We're trying to make new friends, none of them say "meow"
We know that we'll think of you with the drop of the ball.

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Happy new year everybody!


Tessa and Ofer

Buddy Piling

Last weekend we went on a little trip to the Dead Sea. Just to recharge our batteries - you know, going to the Netherlands can really drain your batteries :)

The last time we were there was Tessa's first time but the water was very cold so you could only dip your toes in the water before rushing out. That is, unless you were an old German tourist in which case you slowly walked into the water and stayed there until your vacation was over.

This time, however, was very different. The water temperature was great so we spent most of our time there just bobbing around in the water and coming up with various interesting uses for the water's extreme buoyancy - how about the world's first full-submersion water marathon?

As part of our exploration and exploitation of the hotel's resources we ventured into the spa. The young man at the counter handed us a leaflet detailing the various treatments one can get at the spa. Among the various massages, facial treatments and such we did find one very interesting option: a classic massage for 40 minutes and then another 30 minutes of "Buddy Piling". Now.... I don't know about the Dead Sea hotels, but in the rest of the country this sounds like something which is quite illegal (at least if you're going to charge 230 NIS for it) and in any case is at least a PG-13 rated activity.

Docks, Socks, and Kocks – It's the Netherlands again!

You think August was a tough month?!?! What about September!!! Well… actually… September was ok – the weather was slowly changing from "Inferno summer" to "Plain old hell summer", Tessa's summer Ulpan was over, and the Day of Atonement was just around the corner. Since we're not very good with atoning (and it seems like we're already living in hell for about 9 months of the year) we decided to go sin a little just so that we had something serious to atone for.

We caught a break on the flight (2 for 1 baby! We must be doing something right!), rented a car, and soon found ourselves driving from Germany to the Netherlands, with one destination in mind: Groningen (don't try pronouncing this at home. We are trained professionals.)

The reason for this unusual destination was our desire to meet up with Tessa's friends Ali and Drew. They currently live in Germany but were in town for a conference. Together we explored Groningen, its traditional dishes, and its crazy museum.

(The only photo I took while in Groningen. Guess why.)

We then left Drew to prepare for his conference and took Ali with us to Amsterdam. We checked Ali into her train-themed hotel and then went to look for the dock where our boat-hostel was docked. Our boat was "parked" just outside the NEMO museum of science and it afforded us great views of other boats parked just outside the NEMO museum of science. We had two cute bunks and a little port-hole overlooking the "VITA NOVA" (which we had originally intended to book for our stay in Amsterdam).

(The VITA NOVA, as seen from our little cabin)

We spent the next couple of days exploring Amsterdam's various attractions – from Anne Frank's house to the Albert Cuyp Market, from the Red Light district to the Vondelpark. Ahh Vondelpark – a well known hang out for couples, people walking their pets, and the place where we would meet Rambo. A retired, Dutch Rambo (Dumbo if you will), but still a Rambo.

We were minding our own business on a little bench facing the lake in Vondelpark. Near us, and behind a tree, an old man was sitting on his chair. He was obviously there for the long haul – he had his chair, a fishing hook with a little stand, fishing net, and a small dog. The small dog was also obviously there for the long haul – he had his own little mattress, a little post to which he was tied, and a large, old man.

The man was hidden from view because of the tree and so we couldn't understand why at a certain point the dog started barking and jumping at the man's feet. He kept barking and barking and wouldn't stop. We could hear the man shush him away but he still kept at it. All of a sudden a cloud of feathers exploded from behind the tree and a bird came flying out. Rambo had somehow managed to catch that bird! Being a Dutch Rambo he decided to let it go, but still – he had caught a bird! Regardless of the obvious question – WHY would you want to catch a bird – it was quite amazing to think about the other question - HOW THE HELL WOULD YOU GO ABOUT CATCHING A BIRD WITH YOUR BARE HANDS?!?!

(Dutch Rambo, lying in ambush, waiting for an innocent bird to fly by…
"la la la, I'm just fishing here, not at all interested in birds")

(The bird, after its traumatic experience)

The man then proceeded to demonstrate his extensive survival skills by fishing a large fish out of the lake in the middle of Amsterdam, and throwing it back in.

(The man, presumably looking for Jonah in his little leviathan)

Amsterdam proved to be too exciting for us and we therefore decided we needed to relax a bit before driving over to my sister's place in Nijmegen. We decided the best way to accomplish this would be to program "Kinderdijk" into Ivonka (our GPS) and follow her instructions.

Kinderdijk is "the" place to go to if you want to see windmills - it's like the China of the windmill world. 19 windmills in close proximity to each other, blue sky, green pasture, some cows, great weather, and some water – what else could you ask for in the Netherlands? Oh right – clogs! Well, as you can see from the photo below, there was also an assortment of clogs to try on and you can see me sporting a sexy pair of socks I had purchased while hunting for hiking boots in Amsterdam (I didn't find any boots – I just got the socks).

(Windmills, blue sky, green pasture, some cows, clogs, Ofer's sexy leg
sporting some hi-tech pair of hiking socks – the quintessential Dutch experience)

Our time at Kinderdijk was up and we asked Ivonka to take us to Nijmegen. But a serious problem loomed ahead – we were hungry. Really hungry. Our famished tummies led us to a small town along the road where we stopped at the first restaurant we could find. The people were nice, the food was nice, the setting was nice; the only problem was the name:

(Yes, you heard me! I ate at De Kock!)

Just next to De Kock we found a funny little reminder of Tucson. So this one is for all you Tucson people:

(The Basis School of whatever that little town was called.
I wonder if the teachers also eat at De Kock every now and then)

We finally made it to Nijmegen and managed to meet up with some more of Tessa's friends. An old school-mate of hers now lives in Nijmegen with her husband (Leon) and as far as I'm concerned she has the coolest name ever – Barbara De Barbanson.

The rest of our time there was spent with the family: just hanging out, having some fun, eating some pannekuchen, and going to the Kröller-Müller Museum museum/park where you can see art and also take one of their white bicycles and ride around.

(4 white Dutch bikes, 3 brownish Israelis, 1 blond American)
(1 blond Dutch girl who just had to get in the way)

Now that's what I call a good September!

One and W

Some of you already heard about our excursion to the towers my father designed. Now it's time for some pictures. So here is the place where some rich people are going to live.

"One":

From Tour to the "One" and "W" towers, Tel Aviv.

"W":

From Tour to the "One" and "W" towers, Tel Aviv.

The views they are going to see from their windows:

From Tour to the "One" and "W" towers, Tel Aviv.

From Tour to the "One" and "W" towers, Tel Aviv.

Unfortunately some of those views are not to be seen, because soon even more towers are going to be built there, blocking each others' views. So this is what they won't see for long:

From Tour to the "One" and "W" towers, Tel Aviv.

From Tour to the "One" and "W" towers, Tel Aviv.

And this is how the "One" tower looks from the top of the "W":

From Tour to the "One" and "W" towers, Tel Aviv.

If Alona wasn't a chemist she could make a fine construction worker. At least by the looks of it:

From Tour to the "One" and "W" towers, Tel Aviv.

And this is a small look into what my father is working on now:

Sarona

This is a really cool project, in the center of Tel Aviv, just where I happen to work now. Several towers, squares and ... underground street!

Video (FB) Killed The Radio (Blogger) Star

Ofer is officially the last decently blogging person among us. Out of 8 items posted this far in the current 2009 year, 6 are written by him, one by me and another one by Oren (who is a really rare guest here).

I never was blogging quite regularly here. But in the last year I had a significant decline in the number of articles published. Maybe it's because we traveled less than he did. But I have another suspect in mind: Facebook! It's quite trendy to blame all the deadly sins on Facebook these days. It's accused of encouraging shallowness and of replacing real communication with virtual.

While I don't agree with all these accusations (yes, I do like Facebook, sorry), I certainly think it has something to do with me being less active in this blog. After all, it's all about sharing. And Facebook let's you share your photos, short thoughts, links and notes in much easier way. I also found that I stopped uploading pictures to Picasa, because Facebook is so much easier and exposed to more people at once.

But this blog is different. It's only ours, nobody else reads it. I think it kind of reflects our history as friends. If you trace back the articles you recall what was going on with us in the past few years. This is something Facebook can't do.

I want to remind that the entries here don't have to be long, it can be just a short something about anything. Yet any entry would be very valuable, history-wise. I intended this article to be an analysis of why I am not blogging much (except for the fact that I'm plain lazy), but it turned to be a motivation speech. How about that...

Happy days and Jew-bilation!

Man, August is a tough month. It's full of birthdays and anniversaries and drenched with heat and humidity. I feel like I need to take a vacation...
So we did – we went for a short trip to Jerusalem, to check out the so called Shrine of the Book (is that a fancy name for a place that chronicles what some crazy Jews did in the desert or what!).
Unfortunately the rest of the museum is closed for renovations so we could only explore the "Shrine" itself and the adjacent model of ancient Jerusalem and the Temple.


(Photo courtesy of Tessa. Actually, I did not ask her permission to put it up here. So I guess it's just theft, no courtesy was involved).

On the way back home we stopped over at Mini Israel which turned out to be quite boring, making Israel look like it's comprised mainly of big, ugly hotels and various industrial facilities which all seem to be related to big brand names. Hmmm...
We did however like their display of a giant lizard ambushing a bunch of innocent tourists in the ruins of Caesarea.


We had celebrated Tessa's birthday at home, seeing as she was still jetlagged, but that was not to be the end of it. After a couple of weeks during which she recuperated we set out for a weekend along Israel's northern shores. We went to Acre and explored its harbor, old city, markets, and promenade. We brought home a nice game of "spot the difference":

(Hint: the full name of the game is "spot the person impaled on a pole")
We also managed to catch a rare glimpse of the mysterious "flying man of Acre" (A.K.A. "Just some guy jumping off the city walls into the sea to show off"):


When I told Tessa we were going to spend the night sleeping in a cabin I think she was expecting something quite different than the wooden hut we finally got to. It seemed like the fact that the place had running water and electricity was a pleasant surprise. The hot tub and air conditioning were probably even more so.
The following day we went even further north to Rosh Hanikra and explored the various grottoes. Humidity still reigned supreme at somewhere around 70% so I guess we now know what it feels like to be living inside of a human body. In one word – disgusting.
Now August is finally over and today we're moving into our apartment – happy days and jew-bilation!

A classic 56

Celebrating my soon to come trip to Rio


(you can identify a young Ofer in the picture)

Coincidence? I think not!

During our short vacation in New York we encountered a few interesting things. Coincidences seemed to be chasing us around. Well… chasing me around at least.
This trip happened shortly after my post about Jewish toys and I should have realized that finding a Torah Toy in the gift shop of the Jewish Museum was no mere coincidence. Something was going on.


This photo was taken in the patio of our rented apartment. In it you can see the Torah toy, but also a book. A book which should be very familiar to many of the renegades. It was on the bookshelf in the apartment and how it came to be there is still a mystery.

The last thing I did in New York with my parents was to go to the UN building. After standing in line for the tickets and waiting for the tour to begin we were led through various areas of the building. When we got to the general assembly hall we were given some time to take photos. As I was checking out the various features of the hall I happened to look down at the chair next to which I was standing. Sure enough, it was chair number 56.



Coincidence? I think not!

New York, New York

Start reading the news, we went that way
We wanted to be a part of it – New York, New York
Rented an apartment, a place to stay
Right in the very heart of it – New York, New York


I woke up in a city, where my parents I'd meet
And we walked around – hurting our feet


My previous post, about toys for pray
I found a brand Torah toy – in old New York
If I don't buy it there, I'll never find it again
Thank you – New York, New York


New York, New York
I woke up in a city, where my parents I'd meet
And we walked around – hurting our feet
Walked around


Teresa then joined, in time for the parade
People dressed in fancy clothing – in old New York
New Yorkers with bonnets everywhere, all on their heads
It's Easter in – New York, New York

Pepper as a Passover Plague

First I must apologize for a long silence. As usual, Ofer is working for all of us here, posting things while we enjoy the reading and contribute nothing. I have an excuse though. It is, of course, the apartment we bought, the moving and all the tremendous amounts of work around it. More of this in my future posts (hope I'd have the energy).

This post is going to be short. Just wanted to share with you a curious incident with important moral.


A couple of days ago we went to buy a Passover present for my parents. This alone is a traumatic experience, but nothing unusual. We wandered into a fancy kitchen equipment shop ("DOMO") and I saw wooden mortar grinds. I thought one of those might look good in my parents' kitchen, so I picked one to examine. It had some dust at the bottom, so without thinking I blew it off. What I couldn't imagine was that someone in the store already tried the mortar for grinding pepper and what I blew wasn't dust.

Did you ever experience an effect of tear gas? This was my second time :) After 10 minutes of standing there and crying I managed to open my eyes and go to the bathroom to wash up. Alona was laughing like crazy... well, at least she felt bad about it.

Moral of the story - before you blow into something, check it for dangerous substances!
Happy Passover!

Muhammad, Moses, and Mahjong

In one of our recent conversations the topic of the Sudanese "Muhamad" teddy incident arose. For those of you who have not heard of this, here's how the BBC summarizes this incident:

"A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad."

Pondering how a similar incident would have been treated by Jews, my own local schoolteacher informed me that she had been employed in the past by a Jewish family and that one of the children in that household had a "Torah stuffed toy". This puzzled me and so I harnessed my electronical steed and set out on an informational crusade.

I discovered that there is a huge variety of Jewish toys and other strange paraphernalia. These range from board games such as "Matzah Ball Bingo", "Let's Go Schlepping", and "Quick Shtick".


to the adorable "Fishel the Frog" Passover doll, and the ever popular "Juggling Matzah Balls".


I even found the aforementioned Torah toy, in several variations – here's just one:


I'm not entirely sure what (if anything) this actually says about Jews, but one thing I did find disturbing - the fact that in the same collection of Jewish stuffed toys, games, and books I also found the following Mahjong game:



P.S. All of these products and images are trademarks or copyrighted by their respective owners. :)

Within four to six weeks, you will be a college graduate

You know how you usually delete spam even before the pictures are downloaded ... so this time I was actually curious what's inside. And I wasn't disappointed.



I just spent 6 and a half years of my life for nothing ... if I just knew of my possibilities beforehand :-(

Coffice Space

One day, while I was sitting in my coffice (coffee-office, most rights reserved to vlad on this one) I happened to glance at some of the advertisements lining the walls. Most were what you'd expect: guitar lessons, math tutors, missing dogs, etc. But among these one in particular caught my eye. It may have been the bright yellow paper on which the ad was printed, or it may just have been destiny but I found myself reading about an animal communication workshop run by one Ms. Johns. Not just any animal communication workshop – a "level 1" animal communication workshop. I guess that's the equivalent of a yellow belt.

The ad informed me that attending the workshop would enable me to awaken my natural ability to communicate with animals. Cool! Apparently I could improve my already impressive skills (telling the cat to completely ignore me, etc.) using hands-on exercise and guided meditations. This sounded a little suspicious to me. Was Ms. Johns planning to put me into a meditative state and then put her hands on me? Anyway, this training would allegedly teach me the three skills necessary to develop my abilities. Unfortunately the ad didn't specify what those abilities might be.


Nothing I had read so far prepared me for what was to follow: "We'll also experience tapping into the higher collective consciousness of whales."

I'm normally a rather open-minded guy. But this was pushing it, even for me. Not only did she presume to know about the existence of a higher collective consciousness shared among whales, not only did she claim to be able to tap into it, but she was also proposing to do this in Tucson, Arizona – in the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles away from the nearest ocean!

As Vlad once said – there are no Whales in Wales, and I'm pretty sure there are none in the middle of the Arizonan desert!