Definitely a Polsky!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
And now for the video you've all been waiting for...
The bath video! This is the one we'll be showing at his wedding.
Who would have thought cell phone video cameras would come so in handy? As much as I thought it's a pointless feature, it's always a pain to get the real video camera for those quick little videos and the quality is good enough for this. And the best benefit of all is that I can satisfy the blog readers without actually thinking of something witty to write. Less guilt and more time for video games - it's a win-win!
Ari
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By popular demand
Another cell phone Levi video! Hopefully the sound will work on this one
P.S. After watching the video I realized it isn't clear that Rachel isn't whacking him. In fact she's lightly tapping him with a paper plate. Please don't call the DCFS!
P.S. After watching the video I realized it isn't clear that Rachel isn't whacking him. In fact she's lightly tapping him with a paper plate. Please don't call the DCFS!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
First year retrospective
Greetings, loyal readers. I know that just because I haven't blogged in a few months, it doesn't mean that you've all had to find other blogs to satisfy your hunger for a glimpse into the goo in my brain (or at least the part of the goo that is concerned with the day to day mundane thoughts). I imagine you all checking back every day, just hungrily awaiting a new post. And this is why I couldn't leave you for another day to be disappointed yet again to find nothing new here. So I finally caved after much badgering (okay, threatening) from Rachel and decided to write something. Also it seems we now have some stiff competition from Dovid's blog. I can't have him hogging all the "family blogger" respect next time we all get together. Save some for me!
So I figured now is as good a time as any to post some thoughts, as our one year anniversary of moving to Seattle has recently come and gone. There are a few formats that have gone through my mind to present a retrospective of the past year. But which would be worthy to present timeless truths, wisdom for the ages, and some semi-vulgar words that I can now get away with since having a child who makes stinky poops (that's one)? Should I compose a sonnet? Write a song? While I have no doubt that my wonderful education at the Yeshiva and that other Yeshiva would well-equip me for such an endeavor I think that a "the good the bad and the ugly" format, or maybe a Lettermanesque top ten list would be more apropos. Also the word "butt" (two. Too vulgar? How about tushie?) probably wouldn't work as well in a sonnet. "Shall I compare thee to a summer tushie? Thou art more lovely and more temperate" - see? True though it may be, it doesn't quite work. Or maybe my "great" "education" wasn't as good as I thought. Can you do better? Maybe our next blog contest should be who can most artfully place the word "tushie" into a famous sonnet. But I digress.
So without further ado, here is some stuff that has happened this past year, in no particular order. Some of it old, some new. Nothing borrowed or rented, we own.
First and most importantly, of course, was the arrival of our darling little monster of a child. Everyone says he is advancing very quickly and of course we always try our hardest not to brag too much to the other parents. "Um excuse me, but your blob of a child is getting in the way of our genius child who is trying to solve his first partial differential equation. Oh look, the blob rolled over. I'm sure he's just a few weeks away from sticking his foot into his mouth." Etc.
To help him think while pondering the big questions he faces every day (where's my food? where's my food? Is that my food? Let me taste... mmm, this tastes almost as good as that fuzz ball from earlier) he sticks just about everything he can find into his mouth with little to no regard for whether the object is actually "food" or food-like. If he really likes it he slobbers all over it and everything in its general vicinity. If he doesn't like it so much he slobbers all over it and everything in its general vicinity. If he really hates it he slobbe... well I think you get the idea.
One thing is for sure - this kid is a Polsky. He hates it when other people are eating and don't share. He likes pretty much everything we've given him so far, with the exception of parsnip and scotch (haven't tried bourbon yet, though he loves gin. Does that run in either family?).
On to work-related news. We moved offices about 1-2 months ago, which makes 2 office moves and one reorg that I've been through in my first year at Microsoft. I hear this is about average. When I first started I was sharing an office, but that was only for a few weeks until the last of the summer interns left. I had my own until my first move, when I shared with a Chinese guy who's in my group. Moved again, then shared with a Chinese girl (one of very few female developers I've seen) for about a month. She moved out recently when this year's crop of summer interns left. So now I'm back to my own office, and I'm planning on moving my couch back in soon! I had to give it up to someone else while I was sharing because there wasn't room. The actual work I'm doing at work is going well, though with Halo 3 coming out on Xbox 360 tomorrow I can't imagine there'll be much "work" going on over the next several days. They are keeping me quite busy but I enjoy it. Our company meeting was a couple weeks ago. You can read last year's account of it. It wasn't too exciting this time but I did get a nice fleece picnic blanket. It will really come in handy for all the picnicing we do. Also picking flowers and following magical rainbows. I would have preferred something I might actually use someday like, oh I don't know, a shawl.
Let's see, other things of interest...
The kollel holds a golf tournament a couple times a year, so I played in that a couple months ago. Someone who was supposed to play dropped out at the last minute and we only had 2, but then 2 random guys showed up who wanted to play the course and didn't know there was a tournament going on. Well needless to say the kollel gladly took their cash despite the fact that they were clearly gentiles. They're very open minded at this kollel (Their motto: come one! come all! even gentiles! bring cash!). They ended up getting paired with us, which was fine by me because they were a heck of a lot better than the Jews on our team. The format was scramble and we actually finished 2 under par, tying for third. The tie-breaker was some sham of a trivia question game at the dinner they had that night. Our question was about salmon. The winning team actually got a question about, duh, golf. They couldn't do a tie-breaker hole because by the time all the scorecards were in we were long gone. Oh well, I still got a free sleeve of golf balls out of the deal. Well, calculated another way the sleeve of golf balls actually cost $80, but I prefer the first way. And it was still surprisingly a net plus, as I did not lose a single ball all day!
So I think that's all the really interesting stuff that's been going on here lately. Maybe if you post supportive comments I won't wait so long to post again. Get that positive reinforcement going. Yes I realize that it takes someone with a lot of gall to say that after so many months of narry a word blogged. Too bad, it's my blog.
Everyone have a great Yom Tov!
Ari
P.S. Take that Dovid!
P.P.S. Tushie!
So I figured now is as good a time as any to post some thoughts, as our one year anniversary of moving to Seattle has recently come and gone. There are a few formats that have gone through my mind to present a retrospective of the past year. But which would be worthy to present timeless truths, wisdom for the ages, and some semi-vulgar words that I can now get away with since having a child who makes stinky poops (that's one)? Should I compose a sonnet? Write a song? While I have no doubt that my wonderful education at the Yeshiva and that other Yeshiva would well-equip me for such an endeavor I think that a "the good the bad and the ugly" format, or maybe a Lettermanesque top ten list would be more apropos. Also the word "butt" (two. Too vulgar? How about tushie?) probably wouldn't work as well in a sonnet. "Shall I compare thee to a summer tushie? Thou art more lovely and more temperate" - see? True though it may be, it doesn't quite work. Or maybe my "great" "education" wasn't as good as I thought. Can you do better? Maybe our next blog contest should be who can most artfully place the word "tushie" into a famous sonnet. But I digress.
So without further ado, here is some stuff that has happened this past year, in no particular order. Some of it old, some new. Nothing borrowed or rented, we own.
First and most importantly, of course, was the arrival of our darling little monster of a child. Everyone says he is advancing very quickly and of course we always try our hardest not to brag too much to the other parents. "Um excuse me, but your blob of a child is getting in the way of our genius child who is trying to solve his first partial differential equation. Oh look, the blob rolled over. I'm sure he's just a few weeks away from sticking his foot into his mouth." Etc.
To help him think while pondering the big questions he faces every day (where's my food? where's my food? Is that my food? Let me taste... mmm, this tastes almost as good as that fuzz ball from earlier) he sticks just about everything he can find into his mouth with little to no regard for whether the object is actually "food" or food-like. If he really likes it he slobbers all over it and everything in its general vicinity. If he doesn't like it so much he slobbers all over it and everything in its general vicinity. If he really hates it he slobbe... well I think you get the idea.
One thing is for sure - this kid is a Polsky. He hates it when other people are eating and don't share. He likes pretty much everything we've given him so far, with the exception of parsnip and scotch (haven't tried bourbon yet, though he loves gin. Does that run in either family?).
On to work-related news. We moved offices about 1-2 months ago, which makes 2 office moves and one reorg that I've been through in my first year at Microsoft. I hear this is about average. When I first started I was sharing an office, but that was only for a few weeks until the last of the summer interns left. I had my own until my first move, when I shared with a Chinese guy who's in my group. Moved again, then shared with a Chinese girl (one of very few female developers I've seen) for about a month. She moved out recently when this year's crop of summer interns left. So now I'm back to my own office, and I'm planning on moving my couch back in soon! I had to give it up to someone else while I was sharing because there wasn't room. The actual work I'm doing at work is going well, though with Halo 3 coming out on Xbox 360 tomorrow I can't imagine there'll be much "work" going on over the next several days. They are keeping me quite busy but I enjoy it. Our company meeting was a couple weeks ago. You can read last year's account of it. It wasn't too exciting this time but I did get a nice fleece picnic blanket. It will really come in handy for all the picnicing we do. Also picking flowers and following magical rainbows. I would have preferred something I might actually use someday like, oh I don't know, a shawl.
Let's see, other things of interest...
The kollel holds a golf tournament a couple times a year, so I played in that a couple months ago. Someone who was supposed to play dropped out at the last minute and we only had 2, but then 2 random guys showed up who wanted to play the course and didn't know there was a tournament going on. Well needless to say the kollel gladly took their cash despite the fact that they were clearly gentiles. They're very open minded at this kollel (Their motto: come one! come all! even gentiles! bring cash!). They ended up getting paired with us, which was fine by me because they were a heck of a lot better than the Jews on our team. The format was scramble and we actually finished 2 under par, tying for third. The tie-breaker was some sham of a trivia question game at the dinner they had that night. Our question was about salmon. The winning team actually got a question about, duh, golf. They couldn't do a tie-breaker hole because by the time all the scorecards were in we were long gone. Oh well, I still got a free sleeve of golf balls out of the deal. Well, calculated another way the sleeve of golf balls actually cost $80, but I prefer the first way. And it was still surprisingly a net plus, as I did not lose a single ball all day!
So I think that's all the really interesting stuff that's been going on here lately. Maybe if you post supportive comments I won't wait so long to post again. Get that positive reinforcement going. Yes I realize that it takes someone with a lot of gall to say that after so many months of narry a word blogged. Too bad, it's my blog.
Everyone have a great Yom Tov!
Ari
P.S. Take that Dovid!
P.P.S. Tushie!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday, August 06, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Sorry it's been so long!
It's been almost a month since there's been a post. I've been Ari's case for awhile but he's gotten busy at work so he's had no time. As for me- one of the teachers at my school had a baby so I ended up covering for her after she left. She taught the PreK 1- which means the two year-olds. Needless to say, after watching 7 two year-olds and Levi on top of that, I was exhausted when I came home. Right after school ended, I started working at a camp here. Originally, I wasn't supposed to be working for TDS after Pesach so I thought I'd be bored by the time June 22 rolled around. Therefore, I agreed to run a backyard camp here for 15 little boys. It's for five hours everyday and the boys are crazy! I have two high school girls helping me and we sit there counting down the minutes til camp is over. I know how pathetic that sounds but the owner of the backyard is so happy that there were people in Seattle she could hire. For the past three years, she's been flying in staff.
As for Levi- he's growing slowly. The doc said he's in the 15th percentile for length, weight and head circumference. He's hitting all his milestones on time so I'm not worried. He started rolling over at three months and now he gets into everything. Just two days ago, he shredded Ari's magazine that was on the floor. He figured out how to blow raspberries and that's all he does now. It's very cute. He's also become a dirt magnet. I take him to camp with me and by the time we get home, he's covered in dirt, spitup and also some paint, glitter and whatever else we used in arts and crafts that day. I do bathe him every night (he loves baths) but no one can tell at 10 in the morning when he's gotten himself all filthy.
That's all for now. We are still waiting for summer here. It's been cold and rainy but I'm not complaining because we have no AC. Next week it's supposed to be in the eighties which is really really hot for Seattle so we are preparing for the "heatwave".
The pics are kind of old but I don't have the camera to put up all the new ones here. I'll put them up next time I post.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Shavuot Recap
Look at how big Levi is getting!
Shavuot was very nice even though we were all alone (Leah!). I had all my meals planned out but we ended up getting invited out for EVERY meal. Yontif is so enjoyable when you don't have to cook, set or clean up the meals. We also lucked out in that every meal was very good and that odds of that happening are quite small. Perhaps Ari will end his streak of non posting and let all the foodies here know what we had but that's all I have to say on the topic.
Anyways, Levi is very very cute. I know this because random people come up to me in the mall and tell me this. I find that a stroller is a schlep and a half so I strap him to me in the Baby Bjorn. He's very easy to shop with now and he enjoys the dressing room mirrors.
That's all the updates for now. Shabbat Shalom.
Shavuot was very nice even though we were all alone (Leah!). I had all my meals planned out but we ended up getting invited out for EVERY meal. Yontif is so enjoyable when you don't have to cook, set or clean up the meals. We also lucked out in that every meal was very good and that odds of that happening are quite small. Perhaps Ari will end his streak of non posting and let all the foodies here know what we had but that's all I have to say on the topic.
Anyways, Levi is very very cute. I know this because random people come up to me in the mall and tell me this. I find that a stroller is a schlep and a half so I strap him to me in the Baby Bjorn. He's very easy to shop with now and he enjoys the dressing room mirrors.
That's all the updates for now. Shabbat Shalom.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Levi Baby Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelavner/LeviMay10?authkey=B-xJv7rl0ho
All is well in Levi-land today. He's getting big and really fun to play with. He's still very chatty, smiley and now he's beginning to master the first steps of rolling over. He can get from his back to his side and needs a small nudge to get to his front. As you can see from the pics- he also holds up his head really nicely and loves tummy time now.
As for other news, not much is going on here. Last Shabbos we went to West Seattle where there's a TLC (Torah Learning Center). The daughter of the Rabbi was my student this year and she was so thrilled to have us over. The Rebbitzen is seven months pregnant so the two daughters (plus a sleepover friend) were all over Levi "practicing". I really enjoyed myself as I barely had him except when he was sleeping or crying. West Seattle is absolutely beautiful and the house was 10 minutes away from the beach so I took a shabbos walk with the girls while Ari babysat. As we walked around the neighborhood and to the beach, I decided I would move there in a second if it weren't for the fact that there is barely any yiddishkeit there. Ari already has issues with where we live now because there are no pizza places so going somewhere where there is no shul is out of the question.
I'm making plans for the next month now. Next week, I'm subbing at my school and since they are desperate they are letting me bring the babes. I don't know what we are doing for shavuot yet as Leah has deserted us. She decided she'd rather stay home and play with Julie and Josh rather than come play with Levi. Guess who isn't winning the Auntie-of-the-year award this year! But seriously, it's going to be lonely here so I'm thinking we'll have guests for at least two meals. I've had my menu planned for a long time so I'm very excited.
That's all for now. I really stink at writing posts so if everyone can pressure Ari to post in the future I'd really appreciate it!
All is well in Levi-land today. He's getting big and really fun to play with. He's still very chatty, smiley and now he's beginning to master the first steps of rolling over. He can get from his back to his side and needs a small nudge to get to his front. As you can see from the pics- he also holds up his head really nicely and loves tummy time now.
As for other news, not much is going on here. Last Shabbos we went to West Seattle where there's a TLC (Torah Learning Center). The daughter of the Rabbi was my student this year and she was so thrilled to have us over. The Rebbitzen is seven months pregnant so the two daughters (plus a sleepover friend) were all over Levi "practicing". I really enjoyed myself as I barely had him except when he was sleeping or crying. West Seattle is absolutely beautiful and the house was 10 minutes away from the beach so I took a shabbos walk with the girls while Ari babysat. As we walked around the neighborhood and to the beach, I decided I would move there in a second if it weren't for the fact that there is barely any yiddishkeit there. Ari already has issues with where we live now because there are no pizza places so going somewhere where there is no shul is out of the question.
I'm making plans for the next month now. Next week, I'm subbing at my school and since they are desperate they are letting me bring the babes. I don't know what we are doing for shavuot yet as Leah has deserted us. She decided she'd rather stay home and play with Julie and Josh rather than come play with Levi. Guess who isn't winning the Auntie-of-the-year award this year! But seriously, it's going to be lonely here so I'm thinking we'll have guests for at least two meals. I've had my menu planned for a long time so I'm very excited.
That's all for now. I really stink at writing posts so if everyone can pressure Ari to post in the future I'd really appreciate it!
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
More Levi Pics
Pics can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelavner/LeviAt25Months?authkey=ByRrRIcczTM
You can order pictures directly from the album and you can also download the album if you'd like straight to your computer.
After the whole "not gaining enough weight"" scare last week- the doc told me on Thurs. that Levi is back on track. All his tests came back normal so B"H all is well in Levi-land. He's really smiling and interacting with people. He plays sometimes with me but he loves playing with Ari- that's when his really good smiles come out. He's a hit at shul- we give him up by kiddush and he gets passed around. I must say he's the cutest baby there! (That's an objective observation of course.)
Ari's been a real help. He occasionally changes diapers and he's already given two baths. For those of you wondering- Ari still doesn't like other people's kids so no miraculous change there.
That's all the news for now.
http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelavner/LeviAt25Months?authkey=ByRrRIcczTM
You can order pictures directly from the album and you can also download the album if you'd like straight to your computer.
After the whole "not gaining enough weight"" scare last week- the doc told me on Thurs. that Levi is back on track. All his tests came back normal so B"H all is well in Levi-land. He's really smiling and interacting with people. He plays sometimes with me but he loves playing with Ari- that's when his really good smiles come out. He's a hit at shul- we give him up by kiddush and he gets passed around. I must say he's the cutest baby there! (That's an objective observation of course.)
Ari's been a real help. He occasionally changes diapers and he's already given two baths. For those of you wondering- Ari still doesn't like other people's kids so no miraculous change there.
That's all the news for now.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Paternity Leave Pics
Pictures can be viewed at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelavner/PaternityLeave?authkey=W-TmMYQRMKQ
http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelavner/PaternityLeave?authkey=W-TmMYQRMKQ
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Pidyon Haben Video!
I know, I know... It has been way too long since I blogged. But I have had a really busy 4 weeks of vacation and I saw many of you readers anyway. But here is a link to the pidyon haben video, which should make up for it. Camera credits: Dovid. Warning: The video is unedited and may cause a severe case of boredom, resulting in falling asleep and banging your head on the keyboard. As a precaution, do not view alone. If nobody else is available (read: a big enough sucker to watch with you) a keyboard cushion can be used. Or you can tape your head to your chair.
Enjoy.
Ari
Enjoy.
Ari
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
THANK YOU KEREN!
Keren (my sis-in-law) sent us a bouncy chair when Levi was born telling us that it would give us many needed periods of sanity. We love Levi very much but he is a very very crabby baby - in fact his Auntie has named him Mr. Attitude. Thank G-d for that chair- the minute you put him in it he stops screaming and goes to sleep. Now I understand why according to the book Baby Bargains some parents would rather give up a kidney than give up their bouncy chair. I would have never thought to buy this myself so a big thank you to Keren for looking out for us!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Pictures!
Ari changing his first diaper- We have the whole thing on videotape too!
The curl.
Levi with the ants on Purim. (That was not a typo.)
Learning how to be a software developer.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Levi Ovadyah's Bris
Pics can be seen at
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Bbt2rFy2asva
Levi was a brave boy and doesn't seem to be too traumatized much to his father's relief.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Bbt2rFy2asva
Levi was a brave boy and doesn't seem to be too traumatized much to his father's relief.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Important Milestones
His first Simpsons episode
All dressed up for the first ride to the airport
Meeting Aunt Julie for the first time!Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Superbowl pics... plus a fun game to play
While the Bears lost, we had a good time eating (as always). To the left are a few pics I took while the two guys were busy munching. The guy in the bottom pic is our neighbor Chaim. I just found out that he likes Settlers and to Ari's dismay, I extended a permanent invitation to come play every Shabbat afternoon.
In other news, I'm just hanging on here waiting. My doc told me last week that the baby hadn't dropped so I wasn't too happy about that. She also told me that it's about 6 lbs. I'm giving RB pep talks everyday reassuring him/her that the outside world is a fantastic place to be. So far- it's not working. To make this waiting time a bit more exciting- Ari and I have decided to set up a game- everyone picks a date for the baby to be born (not when I go into labor) and the winner gets a prize. Hopefully this will pick up the rather dismal commenting rate on this blog. Just to give you some help- my due date is Feb 19. Looking forward to seeing the guesses. Don't be shy!
In other news, I'm just hanging on here waiting. My doc told me last week that the baby hadn't dropped so I wasn't too happy about that. She also told me that it's about 6 lbs. I'm giving RB pep talks everyday reassuring him/her that the outside world is a fantastic place to be. So far- it's not working. To make this waiting time a bit more exciting- Ari and I have decided to set up a game- everyone picks a date for the baby to be born (not when I go into labor) and the winner gets a prize. Hopefully this will pick up the rather dismal commenting rate on this blog. Just to give you some help- my due date is Feb 19. Looking forward to seeing the guesses. Don't be shy!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Parties galore!
Last week, as I mentioned in my last post, Vista and Office 2007 were released to the public and we had a party. I use party in the loosest sense of the word - what we actually had was a video feed to the real party, which was in NY. So what we had was thousands of geeks packed like sardines into various cafeterias around campus watching Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer speak on a video screen. Not quite the kind of party I would use the word "glamorous" (or any similar word) to describe. It was kind of ironic that there was no real party on campus considering that there were real parties in many places around the world, including Tokyo, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, and NY... But at least we had prize balloons. Of course, for every cafeteria of like a thousand+ people there were maybe 100 balloons, with prizes in only a handful (actually, only one in the place I was watching from). So it was actually quite lame. Oh well. I guess the rationale was that we already had our real party when we released to the manufacturers. It was on a Friday so I didn't go, and I heard from others that it was pretty lame too.
But we did have a real party on Saturday night at the museum of flight in Seattle, conveniently located about 10 minutes from our house. The museum was pretty cool - they've got this Da Vinci exhibit with models of a bunch of his inventions with brief explanations. I would have liked it if they had more explanation for each one. They didn't really explain much of the physics behind them, they basically just said was its purpose was and why it was significant. Overall I would definitely not pay $25 per person for it, which is what it costs normally. But it was a nice museum to visit for free. Now we can add that to the list of tourist attractions we've visited in Seattle. That brings the list to... (tallying...) a whopping one! We're so adventurous! I figured the counter would be stuck at zero for at least a year. Although we did drop off Patty, Cham and Dov at their hotel near Pike's market when they were here so maybe that counts? And we've seen the space needle from the highway so I think we can count that as a half (and at $14 a person for an elevator ride I think it's going to stay at half for that one). Let's round it up to 2.
The funny thing about these parties is that they're full of people who have all the social skills of creamed corn, but with none of the charm. So the men stand around and try really hard not to bring up work because that would be like admitting that's the only thing they know how to talk about. The women do better, so if you brought one you can at least stand next to her and not look like a total doofus. The ones I really feel bad for are the single men. They really just stand around looking awkward. The only saving grace is that there's booze, but they give you only 2 drink tickets, which I have found is not enough to transform a Microsoft party into a fun party. Next time they should invite the lawyers. We ended up staying only an hour because we were hungry and for some reason they did not have the kosher food I had ordered. We actually tried going to the indian place of spongy cheese cube fame (they're actually growing on me... not literally though. At least I hope not), but it was already closed. So we went back home.
Today, of course, was the Super Bowl. This is one of the things that I have taken on the Avner minhag for, but I don't feel bad about it since there is no Polsky minhag regarding Super Bowl. Also the minhag consists of eating dangerous quantities of unhealthy food so I figure it could pass for a Polsky minhag anyway. The idea is to make BLTs, using Beef fry as a substitute for the real B, and beer-battered onion rings and watch a movie since we never really care about the game anyway. This year, since the Bears were playing we had to change the plans a bit. So one of our neighbors brought over his 13-inch TV and we watched the game with BLTs and curly fries instead of onion rings. That curly fry maker is really getting some use!
I've already ordered started ordering Vista and Office 2007 for people with my employee discount. If any other friends or family want it please let me know and I will send you a price list - it's between 1/6 and 1/10 of the retail price.
That's about all from here. Until next time...
Ari
But we did have a real party on Saturday night at the museum of flight in Seattle, conveniently located about 10 minutes from our house. The museum was pretty cool - they've got this Da Vinci exhibit with models of a bunch of his inventions with brief explanations. I would have liked it if they had more explanation for each one. They didn't really explain much of the physics behind them, they basically just said was its purpose was and why it was significant. Overall I would definitely not pay $25 per person for it, which is what it costs normally. But it was a nice museum to visit for free. Now we can add that to the list of tourist attractions we've visited in Seattle. That brings the list to... (tallying...) a whopping one! We're so adventurous! I figured the counter would be stuck at zero for at least a year. Although we did drop off Patty, Cham and Dov at their hotel near Pike's market when they were here so maybe that counts? And we've seen the space needle from the highway so I think we can count that as a half (and at $14 a person for an elevator ride I think it's going to stay at half for that one). Let's round it up to 2.
The funny thing about these parties is that they're full of people who have all the social skills of creamed corn, but with none of the charm. So the men stand around and try really hard not to bring up work because that would be like admitting that's the only thing they know how to talk about. The women do better, so if you brought one you can at least stand next to her and not look like a total doofus. The ones I really feel bad for are the single men. They really just stand around looking awkward. The only saving grace is that there's booze, but they give you only 2 drink tickets, which I have found is not enough to transform a Microsoft party into a fun party. Next time they should invite the lawyers. We ended up staying only an hour because we were hungry and for some reason they did not have the kosher food I had ordered. We actually tried going to the indian place of spongy cheese cube fame (they're actually growing on me... not literally though. At least I hope not), but it was already closed. So we went back home.
Today, of course, was the Super Bowl. This is one of the things that I have taken on the Avner minhag for, but I don't feel bad about it since there is no Polsky minhag regarding Super Bowl. Also the minhag consists of eating dangerous quantities of unhealthy food so I figure it could pass for a Polsky minhag anyway. The idea is to make BLTs, using Beef fry as a substitute for the real B, and beer-battered onion rings and watch a movie since we never really care about the game anyway. This year, since the Bears were playing we had to change the plans a bit. So one of our neighbors brought over his 13-inch TV and we watched the game with BLTs and curly fries instead of onion rings. That curly fry maker is really getting some use!
I've already ordered started ordering Vista and Office 2007 for people with my employee discount. If any other friends or family want it please let me know and I will send you a price list - it's between 1/6 and 1/10 of the retail price.
That's about all from here. Until next time...
Ari
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Spongy Cheese Cubes
Okay, after a week of begging and prodding by Rachel (both figurative and literal) I'm finally ready to blog. Let's start with a recap of last week's visit by Abba, Pat, Cham and Dov. Pat was on the same flight with Cham and Dov since she went to SanFran for business, and Abba was supposed to get in about an hour later but his flight was delayed. So I picked them up from the airport and took them out to dinner. I use the term "took out" loosely, since all I did was drive - Pat actually paid (thanks Pat!). As I've mentioned here before, there are no normal kosher restaurants in Seattle. So we went to the vegetarian Indian place (their motto: at least it's not vegan!). Dovid asked the waitress what the closest thing to pizza was and pat asked what the closest thing to vegetables was. They didn't have anything remotely close to either one. But as I had already discovered the best thing on the menu last time I was there I had no problems. Although by the time I had tasted everyone else's food I came to the conclusion that all the food there is the same - cubes of "cheese" that would be more accurately described as "scotch brite sponge chunks" with some vegetables in some kind of red sauce that tastes like Devon Ave smells, served with rice. Which is still better than the slime balls we had at the vegan chinese place.
On to shabbos: Rachel made this chicken in rice thing from the Yeshiva cookbook that was really good. The trick is that you cook the chicken on top of the rice so that all the fat that drips out of the chicken that normally looks so gross in the pan soaks into the rice, more or less deep-frying it. YUM! Abba, as usual, fedexed us a prime rib. He overnighted it the Thursday a week before they came so we wouldn't have any doubts about it arriving in time to cook it for shabbos. Unfortunately, that was the week of the snow storm here so fedex was unable to deliver it on time. We got it Monday. We thought that all hope was lost, but it was still cold, albeit thawed, and didn't smell bad. The other meat in the package also looked okay. So we decided to eat it. It ended up being fine - at least so far we haven't had any adverse effects. And even if we had gotten sick it probably would still have been worth it because it was soooooo good! Thanks Abba!
On Saturday night we were debating going to the indian casino that's near here, but it's like an hour away and we couldn't really get our act together in time. Also I was a wet blanket (big surprise, right?). So we ended up going to Albertson's and buying some frozen pizzas, which is what you do when you live in a lame city that has no kosher pizza places. And we took out the deep fryer and made some spicy curly fries, thanks to the curly fry maker that mom got us - it actually worked really well. Thanks Mom! I think it's safe to say that the theme of the weekend was ingesting unhealthy quantities of fat and oil (not to mention cheese sponges).
On Sunday Abba and Pat left early and the rest of us sat around all day like a bunch of big fat blobs. Our only adventure was trying to hook up the cable from our internet to my TV tuner card in the computer to try and watch the Bears game (go Bears!), but for some reason it didn't work. We did go to my neighbor's place to watch the last few minutes on his 9 inch TV. We may end up doing the same thing for the super bowl unless we get invited to a real super bowl party. If we stay home we hope to continue the tradition of making BLTs using fried pastrami as a substitute for the real B, and fresh onion rings and french fries. I love having a deep fryer! Angioplasty, anyone?
Outside of the family visiting not much else has been happening here lately. We had our first non-family shabbos guest this week and rachel made pumpkin pie because we had 3 giant cans of pumpkin filling (1/2 a can down, 2.5 to go!). Let this be a lesson for you all: don't do your impulse shopping at Costco.
The big work-related news is the Vista/Office 2007 public release this week. All the real partying will be happening in NY but we are having satellite video feeds in some of he cafeterias. After the speeches they will be dropping hundreds of balloons in the places with the video feeds, and some of them will have tickets for prizes in them! Laptops, Zunes, Xbox 360's... Wish me luck! If anyone wants my employee discount on Vista or Office let me know (Mom and Abba are already on my list).
But it has been otherwise quiet around here. I guess that will come to an abrupt end soon so we are trying to enjoy the tranquility. But in the meantime that is all the news from the Pacific Northwest. Hope to see you all soon!
Ari
On to shabbos: Rachel made this chicken in rice thing from the Yeshiva cookbook that was really good. The trick is that you cook the chicken on top of the rice so that all the fat that drips out of the chicken that normally looks so gross in the pan soaks into the rice, more or less deep-frying it. YUM! Abba, as usual, fedexed us a prime rib. He overnighted it the Thursday a week before they came so we wouldn't have any doubts about it arriving in time to cook it for shabbos. Unfortunately, that was the week of the snow storm here so fedex was unable to deliver it on time. We got it Monday. We thought that all hope was lost, but it was still cold, albeit thawed, and didn't smell bad. The other meat in the package also looked okay. So we decided to eat it. It ended up being fine - at least so far we haven't had any adverse effects. And even if we had gotten sick it probably would still have been worth it because it was soooooo good! Thanks Abba!
On Saturday night we were debating going to the indian casino that's near here, but it's like an hour away and we couldn't really get our act together in time. Also I was a wet blanket (big surprise, right?). So we ended up going to Albertson's and buying some frozen pizzas, which is what you do when you live in a lame city that has no kosher pizza places. And we took out the deep fryer and made some spicy curly fries, thanks to the curly fry maker that mom got us - it actually worked really well. Thanks Mom! I think it's safe to say that the theme of the weekend was ingesting unhealthy quantities of fat and oil (not to mention cheese sponges).
On Sunday Abba and Pat left early and the rest of us sat around all day like a bunch of big fat blobs. Our only adventure was trying to hook up the cable from our internet to my TV tuner card in the computer to try and watch the Bears game (go Bears!), but for some reason it didn't work. We did go to my neighbor's place to watch the last few minutes on his 9 inch TV. We may end up doing the same thing for the super bowl unless we get invited to a real super bowl party. If we stay home we hope to continue the tradition of making BLTs using fried pastrami as a substitute for the real B, and fresh onion rings and french fries. I love having a deep fryer! Angioplasty, anyone?
Outside of the family visiting not much else has been happening here lately. We had our first non-family shabbos guest this week and rachel made pumpkin pie because we had 3 giant cans of pumpkin filling (1/2 a can down, 2.5 to go!). Let this be a lesson for you all: don't do your impulse shopping at Costco.
The big work-related news is the Vista/Office 2007 public release this week. All the real partying will be happening in NY but we are having satellite video feeds in some of he cafeterias. After the speeches they will be dropping hundreds of balloons in the places with the video feeds, and some of them will have tickets for prizes in them! Laptops, Zunes, Xbox 360's... Wish me luck! If anyone wants my employee discount on Vista or Office let me know (Mom and Abba are already on my list).
But it has been otherwise quiet around here. I guess that will come to an abrupt end soon so we are trying to enjoy the tranquility. But in the meantime that is all the news from the Pacific Northwest. Hope to see you all soon!
Ari
Saturday, January 27, 2007
RB Pic! Only one more month to go!
Ok- So I'm huge now. I've also started swelling- my hands, feet and face are bloated. Gotta love the water retention- at least my blood pressure is normal. Just wanted to let everyone know that all is well. Ari can't blog under pressure so he said he will try to post tom if I annoy him enough.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Seattle proves once again that it does not have boring weather
I know I begin every post with the mandatory apology for going so long without blogging, and this one will be no exception. So here it is: sorry it's been so long. But once RB leaves the B we'll have much more to blog about and I'll have much more time with which to blog, seeing as how I won't have to deal with the constant complaints from R about her B being too big and crashing into things and weighing her down and making her eat half her weight in chocolate and making crank phone calls to our congressman and developing nuclear weapons. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration - she only eats about a quarter of her weight in chocolate. But after all that is over and with R presumably being distracted keeping B happy and clean and fed I will have much more time to blog.... Well, at least the part about having more to blog about was true.
So we've had another bout of very interesting weather here. Yesterday it started snowing in the middle of the day, but by the time we noticed it had started snowing it was too late to try and plan to leave work early, so we kind of got stuck. We left at our normal time, but about 5 - 10 minutes after pulling out of the parking lot we had not moved at all. So we literally backed up the way we had come, back into the parking lot and parked. We decided to go out to dinner and figured the traffic would be better an hour later. One of the few kosher restaurants in the area is actually right near campus so we walked there. It's the same vegan chinese place that Rachel and I went to for my birthday - the one at which I ordered the food with fennel in it. This time I made a much better choice and got a hot pot, which is basically a cross between a soup and a stew. It was pretty good, with the usual qualification of "for a vegan chinese restaurant."
We walked back to the car about an hour and a half later and put the snow chains on the tires. The traffic was a lot better than when we had tried to leave the first time, and when we got a few miles from campus we realized that the snow chains were a total waste - there was no snow anymore. But we had to limit our speed because of the chains. Then, when we were about 10 minutes from home, we hit a bump in the road and the low rumbling we had been hearing from the chains turned into a something that was like a cross between a grinding and being caught in the crossfire in a gang war - not a comforting noise when you're in the middle of the highway with 8 people in a van. We pulled over to the shoulder, and what had happened was that the chain caught onto some piece of metal in the wheel well and the force had bent it to the point where it was making contact with the wheel. It was a pretty sturdy piece of metal so we couldn't really bend it with our hands and we didn't really have any tools we could have used to bang it back into place, or at least to the point where it wasn't touching the tire. A cop stopped but was not much help - he didn't have any tools either. So we didn't have much choice - we took the chains off and drove home slowly, enduring a pretty horrible grinding noise, although at least with the chains off the gang crossfire noise was gone. Once we got off the highway we saw that seattle actually got quite a lot of snow, at least in our area. It was probably a good 3 inches. Now before you midwesterners scoff and write a comment about how you had to walk to school in 12 feet of snow with nothing but old newspapers on your feet, you have to realize that I can count on one hand the number of snow plows that Seattle owns (in fact, in the couple snow storms we've had so far I have not seen a single plow). So nothing was plowed, and to make matters worse, it's really hilly here. So the last bit of the drive was kind of a nail-biter, to say the least. But we did make it home safely.
Meanwhile, Rachel was skidding all over the road on her way home from her afternoon job and she was too afraid of skidding down the hill by our house, so she just parked our car a couple blocks away and walked home. I picked it up on my way to shul this morning.
So today, since we had no van and I wasn't about to take the car to work, I worked from home. But for some reason my usually speedy remote access was really slow today and I kept getting disconnected. So my major accomplishment for today was taking a really good nap. And I guess I can add to that the fact that I posted to the blog.
There isn't much other exciting news here, but for those of you who are hungry for some pictures I do have some news on that front. We bought a video camera and I got the DV cable you need to download the video to the computer (advertisement: the BEST place by far that I have found for every kind of cable under the sun is monoprice.com - the cable was $5, including shipping), so we may start putting up some videos. There is nothing much interesting to tape now, but in a couple months there just may be... But until then, I'm thinking that once our place is suitably clean we will do a video tour!
Speaking of the cleanliness of our place, we ended up deciding not to put in new cabinets, which is a whole story that I don't want to really get into right now. Suffice it to say, we called a cabinet guy who was recommended to us and he treated us like dirt so we decided to put in some free-standing shelves from The Container Store instead. So not only did we save a bunch of money by not putting in cabinets, but we got the shelves for about half price because we bought the floor models. Yay!
That is all from here. We are really looking forward to Abba, Pat, Cham, and Dov's visit! We just got a brand new trundle bed set so there will be beds for all! No sleeping on the floor for you.
Hope to see you all soon.
Ari
So we've had another bout of very interesting weather here. Yesterday it started snowing in the middle of the day, but by the time we noticed it had started snowing it was too late to try and plan to leave work early, so we kind of got stuck. We left at our normal time, but about 5 - 10 minutes after pulling out of the parking lot we had not moved at all. So we literally backed up the way we had come, back into the parking lot and parked. We decided to go out to dinner and figured the traffic would be better an hour later. One of the few kosher restaurants in the area is actually right near campus so we walked there. It's the same vegan chinese place that Rachel and I went to for my birthday - the one at which I ordered the food with fennel in it. This time I made a much better choice and got a hot pot, which is basically a cross between a soup and a stew. It was pretty good, with the usual qualification of "for a vegan chinese restaurant."
We walked back to the car about an hour and a half later and put the snow chains on the tires. The traffic was a lot better than when we had tried to leave the first time, and when we got a few miles from campus we realized that the snow chains were a total waste - there was no snow anymore. But we had to limit our speed because of the chains. Then, when we were about 10 minutes from home, we hit a bump in the road and the low rumbling we had been hearing from the chains turned into a something that was like a cross between a grinding and being caught in the crossfire in a gang war - not a comforting noise when you're in the middle of the highway with 8 people in a van. We pulled over to the shoulder, and what had happened was that the chain caught onto some piece of metal in the wheel well and the force had bent it to the point where it was making contact with the wheel. It was a pretty sturdy piece of metal so we couldn't really bend it with our hands and we didn't really have any tools we could have used to bang it back into place, or at least to the point where it wasn't touching the tire. A cop stopped but was not much help - he didn't have any tools either. So we didn't have much choice - we took the chains off and drove home slowly, enduring a pretty horrible grinding noise, although at least with the chains off the gang crossfire noise was gone. Once we got off the highway we saw that seattle actually got quite a lot of snow, at least in our area. It was probably a good 3 inches. Now before you midwesterners scoff and write a comment about how you had to walk to school in 12 feet of snow with nothing but old newspapers on your feet, you have to realize that I can count on one hand the number of snow plows that Seattle owns (in fact, in the couple snow storms we've had so far I have not seen a single plow). So nothing was plowed, and to make matters worse, it's really hilly here. So the last bit of the drive was kind of a nail-biter, to say the least. But we did make it home safely.
Meanwhile, Rachel was skidding all over the road on her way home from her afternoon job and she was too afraid of skidding down the hill by our house, so she just parked our car a couple blocks away and walked home. I picked it up on my way to shul this morning.
So today, since we had no van and I wasn't about to take the car to work, I worked from home. But for some reason my usually speedy remote access was really slow today and I kept getting disconnected. So my major accomplishment for today was taking a really good nap. And I guess I can add to that the fact that I posted to the blog.
There isn't much other exciting news here, but for those of you who are hungry for some pictures I do have some news on that front. We bought a video camera and I got the DV cable you need to download the video to the computer (advertisement: the BEST place by far that I have found for every kind of cable under the sun is monoprice.com - the cable was $5, including shipping), so we may start putting up some videos. There is nothing much interesting to tape now, but in a couple months there just may be... But until then, I'm thinking that once our place is suitably clean we will do a video tour!
Speaking of the cleanliness of our place, we ended up deciding not to put in new cabinets, which is a whole story that I don't want to really get into right now. Suffice it to say, we called a cabinet guy who was recommended to us and he treated us like dirt so we decided to put in some free-standing shelves from The Container Store instead. So not only did we save a bunch of money by not putting in cabinets, but we got the shelves for about half price because we bought the floor models. Yay!
That is all from here. We are really looking forward to Abba, Pat, Cham, and Dov's visit! We just got a brand new trundle bed set so there will be beds for all! No sleeping on the floor for you.
Hope to see you all soon.
Ari
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