G-d works in mysterious ways

In Judaism we have a saying "This to is for the best" and that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes it just takes time to figure out why things turn out teh way they do. Sometimes we even have to die first before understaning. Lucky for us, noone had to die to figiure out we didnt get those tickets to teh concert tonight.

There was a fire at the hall and everyone is badly burned


OK, I made that up, as far as I know there was no fire, and everyone is probably OK. One of Nat's best friends from her youth called us up this afternoon and asked if she if she could bring her family to Detoit for shabbos. So she is coming with her husband and three little kids.

Had we gotten tickets, it would have been impossible for us to put Shabbos together, it would have been totally stressful, and might not have been so much fun.

I don't know how this works out for my little sister, perhaps her school wouldn't have been thrilled with her going, and tey would have punished her, but we'll never know that.

I did get Nat the Matisyahu CD as a Chanukah gift, so that she could listen to him whenever she wants.

Doghouse

In my two plus years of marriage I have stayed out of the proverbial doghouse for the most part. My string of "greatest husband on earth" ended this evening.

A few wees ago we decided to go to a Matisyahu concert, and we were going to take my little sister as a thank you for all she does for us. (Shev is you read this before I talk to you, you may want to stop and call me) We kept delaying the purchase of these tickets, we didn't want to get it from ticketmaster cuz they toss in extra charges, and then things got busy, and we didnt get them. We were going to see if we could buy the tickets directly from Saint Andrews (where the concert is).

The concert is tomorrow, so I decided I should really call up and find out if I could buy the tickets there or only at through Ticketmaster. They inform me it has to be through Ticketmaster. This means about an extra 18 bucks in service charges. At about 11:00 I check Ticketmaster online, and they have seats available

I called Nat at work to see if she really wanted to go, or just wanted to go. I wanted to go, but not that badly, I thought it would be cool to see the chasid rapping. Anyways be that as it may, after hanging up the phone, I got busy with something or another, and forgot to book the tickets.

When Nat got home from work she asked if I got the tickets, I said no and quickly went to buy them, you probably know where I'm going with this, they were all sold out.

This really upset Nat, after I apologized she compared me to Jonah who likes to hit people in the face, and then says "nice, nice, nice," or throws his food and then says uh-oh.

I do feel bad that I didn't get the tickets, it would have been fun to go, definitely an interesting experience for my sister, but sadly it wasn't meant to be

woof woof

It went great

For those who didn't get to see the interview on Fox News this afternoon, it went great. I was going against a guy who doesn't like advertising to kids in any way.

I went to a studio in Southfield, and stared into a taped X in a camera and head earphones so I could hear the other people. The host, I think his name was Varney, first asked the other guy we'll call him Gary what his problems with the advertising in school buses. Then asked what I thought.

Varney agreed with me, and said that he believes most people will take the money. Gary still didn't agree.

Then Gary went on to say that he's opposed to youth advertising because all we're going to do is have ads for violent video games, pop and other crap that kids should avoid. Varney asked if I'll have ads for pop and I said no. But I quickly explained that all ads have to be approved by the school board before it can be placed on a a bus, so that takes care of his only issue.

I am going to try and get the video on the net, and link it from this blog, but sadly I don't have a clue how to do it, I have a VHS and possibly a DVD, but I'm not sure if the DVD works. I will discover that tomorrow.

I'm gonna be on TV

This wasn't exactly how I planned my day off, but It'll do. I got up this morning and saw that I had a message from the Boss informing me that the USA Today article - Advertisers catch the school bus ran this morning. It wasn't exactly what we thought it would be, but it did mention our company and my name.

Turns out it did the job tho. A few minutes later Fox News called and asked if I they could interview me this afternoon. I will be debating a guy who also appeared in the article and thinks our company is terrible concept. Should make for riveting TV.

The show will be shown Live at around 4:40 maybe even as late as 4:50. Tune in, and lets hope I don't screw up :)

She's back!!

This marks the end of my short stint as a single guy. I went out to a bar with a few guys who are in town from New York for the holidays. We had a few drinks and watched football. It's been a while since I went to a bar with the guys, and it was nice to go out and chill. then

Nat got in much later scheduled, which was 11:00, her plane didn't land until around 11:50, and she didn't get out of baggage until about 12:30.

Jonah was very excited to see me, apparently he missed me a lot, and I missed him. The single was fun in it's time, but it's good to have the wife and kid back

Bachelorhood

Since Saturday night I have been living the single life, crazy parties, lots of drinking, going to sleep at late hours, and waking up around noon..Oh wait, that's not quite how it is.

Since my lovely wife and darling boy took off Saturday night to go to her families Holiday Party I haven't relived my single days. Yesterday was spent almost entirely in front of a TV, with the exception of a brunch with some friends. I came home from brunch turned on the XBOX and played Madden until the Pistons game started.

A friend was supposed to come over and watch the game but he never showed up and is now a jerk. So I watched the game all by myself:( The second game of the double header (Which I will probably give my thoughts about later today) I had company, the AP's came over, (these were the brunch friends) and hung out with me, and kept me from possibly going crazy. We had a good time, their daughter (2 weeks younger then Jonah) was finally able to play with all his toys without fear of getting beat up and having the toys taken away by the evil dictator Jonah.

My evening plans were initially to either go to a movie or a bar with a friend of mine who is in from NY, but the bars were closed and the movies didnt look good. So I went to his house and watched Sunday night football.

Today I am working so nothing to exciting will probably happen, and then it's of to the airport late tonight to get my beloved. Then some lights might be turned on in the house the heat cranked up a few degrees and life will return to normal.

RIP snowman 2

Today, Friday December 23 just two shopping days left till Hanukas (take that chrismakah) Snowman 2 was pronounced dead at Approximately 12:40. I was notified by my wife that he/she was no longer with us. The cause of death is he is missing half of his head, there has been no word as to whether there was foul play, or he just succumbed to the elements.

Snowman 2 leaves behind Snowman 1, his/her best buddy, they stood side by side from the day I created them and in a cruel twist of fate, only a few days after seeing him/her be created, snowman 1 watched, in what could be assumed, in horror as half of his friend head fell to the ground.

Currently there are no plans to rebuild teh dead snowman, but to leave him there as a memorial to all teh fallen snowpeople around the world. The Family is accepting donations on Snowman 2 behalf.

Thank you and Godspeed

Rabbis and basketball

When a rabbi laces up a pair of sneakers, puts on a pair of shorts and stepsonto the basketball court is there any reason to treat hikm any differntly then any other player on teh court?

If he makes a call, do you automatically believe him because he's a rabbi, is there any reason not to play as physical against him as you would a non rabbi? Should you fear hell if you get into a shouting match with him?

Dinner

The most annoying, yet consistent, question of the day is "what should we do for dinner"?

growing up I don't remember it being so annoyinmg between 5:30 and 7:00 depending on teh day and what time shul was, we had dinner. Now that I know it doenst fall from the sky and someone has to make it, it's a pain.

You don't want to have the same things all the time, but the reason you have those same meals is they are easy to make, and probably inexpensive. You can order food, but that gets costly after a while, and again you end up ordering the same foods of teh menus. From Friday at lunch thru sunday dinner, we had pizza three times.

Other popular meals are Hot dogs, shabbos leftovers, mac and cheese. We enjoy eating out at BKC. Still every night, its teh same annoying drama, what's for dinner

Snowmen

I know that I ripped the winter and the snow just a few hours ago. Shortly after that post, I had to move my car down teh driveway. Of course it was covered in a foot of snow. Normally I would just knock the snow of the car, but I had spent so much time outside shoveling that I didn't want to put all the snow back on the driveway.

During my driveway shoveling experience I piled the snow next to my driveway pretty high. So I decided that I would dump all the snow onto this pile. After a few handfuls of snow I thought I could make a snowman, Nat would probably think it was funny when she gets home. (She was shopping, and Jonah was at his friends playing, so I was all alone) I dunno if you can tell from the picture, But I even gave him arms and legs.


I still had lots of snow on my car, so I decided that my snow creature needed a buddy so I created him one. I don't know that this will change my outlook on snow, but for a little bit I did feel like a kid again playing in teh snow.

Funny Videos

Here are two music videos that are pretty funny Jew Da Maccabi is a Rappin Rabbi. He's pretty good, It's just comical to see him rap. I asked Simmy (my brother who sent me the link) how long he thought this guy was religeous, he said long enough to grow that beard.

The second video is by Sarah Silverman called Give the Jew Girl toys is really funny, and something that many have thought at one time or another.

Winter

There was a time when I loved the winter. Snow meant the chance school might closed, great tackle football games, and skiing. Now that I am all done with school, don't really play all that much tackle football, and I haven't gone skiing since I was in Israel in 2000, snow sucks.

Now snow means slippery road conditions, bundling up when I want to go out of the house and shoveling, (which is by far the worst of em all)

I can't think of ONE redeeming quality of snow

Work

Life at InSight Media is going good. We should be signing our second school district any day. Their lawyers are going over the contract now. I assume we will officially sign either next week, or after the New Years holiday. Additionally I believe that we will have another 2 or maybe even three new districts signed up by February time. All this means is more pressure for me, I have to find advertisers.

We have one (paid) advertisers under contract, a credit union, and a second will be signed very shortly. So I know I am doing something roght, I just have to do it more often. One frustrating thing that I hear from potential clients, is that if I have a different district then they would be interested, So now I am recontacting those districts and telling them that I have something lined up.

One weird story to report. I called a district and the guy told me he had been contatced by a compnay similar to mine. This struck me as odd, since I am the only person, as far as I know who does this sort of thing. I asked him what the name of the company is, and he said "InSight Media"
I told him that was my company, and I had contatced a few months before and left a message wit his secratry. then he then said teh name of the person who had contacted him , and I'm sure by now you guessed that it wasn't mine or Brian's (My boss) name.
I assume that there must be some misunderstanding, teh coincedence would be too great, another company with the same name, and same program running, Or we are being copied, which would not be cool.
I hope to find out next week, when I call the guy back, and see if teh info he has is the same as what I sent him.

Poor ESPN

I felt bad for ESPN last night. They had the most unwatchable football ever, the Lions vs. the Packers. Both teams tried as hard as they could to win. In the first quarter the lions twice had the ball first and goal inside the 5, and didn't even try to score a TD. The only pass that went into the end zone was thrown away, and that barely crossed the goal line.

In the 2nd half the lions again were knocking on the door, and again they ran three times for no gain. The Lions call TO and decide to go for it on 4th down, they run a qb sneak for a loss!!!

It was honestly painful to watch this game. The announcers were mocking both teams play calling throughout the game, but did kiss Brett Favre butt, and for some reason were showering love on Jeff Garcia who didn't do much.

Just a few more weeks and the Lions miserable season will be over.

sad article

I just read this article in CNN Iran leader: Move Israel to Europe and it floored me. For those who are to lazy to click on the link and the entire article, here are some highlights, with my commentary.

Basically the Iranian President has repeatedly denied the Holocaust. He called it a sham, and if Hitler did indeed kill a few Jews, it was blown out of proportion so that the Jews would get backing from the west to start up a land of Israel.

He then decided that If other people want to say that there was a Holocausts instead of kicking out the Palestinians from there home, Israel should just pick up and move to Europe, maybe Germany, or Austria, that reward would fit the crime of this so called Holocaust.

He wanted to know what makes Israel a land for Jews:
"The question is, where do those who rule in Palestine as occupiers come from? Where were they born? Where did their fathers live? They have no roots in Palestine but they have taken the fate of Palestine in their hands."

Obviously this guy didn't do his homework on world history, I'm pretty sure it's well known that Jews lived in Israel first. Isn't Mecca the holy land to all Arabs, including Palestinian. Why not rebuild Palestine there?

Funny article

Here's a really funny article Joey Harrington Laughing His Ass Off At Lions Loss

New Car

Well the dog didn't work and Nat was crushed so to cheer her up I decided to surprise her with a new car, a Jeep to be exact.

Up till now we only have one car, which isn't so bad considering that I work at home. But there are times that I need the car, so on those days I take Nat to work and pick her up, but I don't enjoy that.

As business get busier I will need a car more often. So it was time, I went down to the dealership, and found tehcar that Nat wants, it will be one heck of a chanukah present. It dope set the bar high for next year, but I guess I have a year to figure that out.

Hi Quaggy, bye Quaggy

For about 24 hours we had a dog, then eh was hit by a car sliding an the icy roads, and so now we are back to not having a dog. O.K., that isn't really what happened, we decided that it wasn't the right dog for us. It was a nice dog, and for the most part Jonah got along with the dog. And the dog liked Jonah so much that he despite his castration (the dogs) he still tried humping Jonah a few times (honest)

We decided that we still want a dog, if anything Nat said this made her want one even more, So we are still on the lookout. Officially we are going to wait till Springtime, but if Nat sees one that she likes, we'll take it.

Watching Jonah with the dog was interesting. Initially when the dog first came by, he would sit on either mine or Nat's lap, and smile at the dog and say dogie. But when the dog would get close, he would get scared and we would send the dog away.

Later he would get off my lap and run to Nat or vice verse as quickly as he could, trying to get to us before the dog got to him, never knew he was so fast. Finally I put him on the floor by his toys, and he started tossing his toys one by one at the dog. The dog started chasing his toys, and Jonah thought it was really funny.

Then he got ballsy, if the dog would get in his face he would try and slap the dog in the face, of course this didn't make the dog happy and he ate the boy. So we had to choose between Jonah and the dog, and we had the boy for longer, so we chose against the dog.

Boy after my own heart

Jonah has made me a proud dad this past weekend. Friday night we had dinner by some friends, and they had a little basketball hoop attached to their wall. Jonah went grabbed the ball, and tried to put the ball in the hoop. But he was to short, so he cried until, I picked him and let him dunk the ball. He gave a great big smile.

I went out this morning to shovel the snow, and I brought the boy outside, gave him a little shovel, and let him go to work. It was like a glimpse into the future except I will be inside where it's warm, and Jonah will shovel all by himself.

After the shoveling it was time to watch Lions game, and as usual they blew. I started booing at the T.V. and Jonah followed. He booed long and hard at the Lions. I was so proud of him.

Gay stores, lying about my age, just another day at the office

I spent the morning in Ypsilanti, I had a few meetings that hopefully went well. I arrived a about a half hour early for one of the meetings, so I decided I would check out what was in the area, perhaps a store that wants to advertise on my buses.

I saw this one store called Eklectic, I assumed it was a gift shop, and thought maybe thy would be interested in a sign, for mothers day, or if they do something quick enough the end of the holiday rush.I walk in the smell of incense is in the air, and I notice that right when you walk in are some rainbow stuff, gay pride and what not.

As I continue to walk through the store, the guy behind the counter asks "You come here straight from Synagogue? " I tell him no, I was in the area, and his store looked interesting, so I stopped by.He informed that they don't get a lot of Jews in his store, at leaset not wearing a Yarmulke (I dint remember if he said Yarmulke or something else) It was about then I realized that the whole store was a gay store, not really someplace that would advertise on a bus. They didn't have dirty things in there, just regular old gay things.

Then I went to my meeting, I was 15 minutes early, but it was cold outside, and if I had to wait, at least it would be in a heated building.This place was a medical center, designed for teens -21 year olds. The woman who I was meeting with came and looked me over. She asked how old I was, and as always it too a second for me to think, but finally came up with teh correct 24 years old.

She turned to the receptionist and asked if she thought I could pass as 21. They decided that Indeed I could pass as 21. Then they explained to me what was up. The Eastern Michigan Student newspaper was doing a story on them, and they (the clinic) wanted to have a picture of both males and females, unfortunately there were only females in at that time.

They asked me if I minded pretending like I was being examined so the photographer could take my picture. I had no problem, and they put me on a scale and weighed and measured me, and they got some nice pictures of me. I had to lie to the reporter and tell him I was 21, I hope he didn't mind.

My meeting after that went smoothly, they should agree to a contract with us in the next week or so, I will keep you updated