The end

Yesterday at about 4:30 "The Dog Experiment II" came to a close. We had made the decision the day before that even though the doggie was nice, it didn't fit into the way things ran in the house. Firstly nobody likes to get up 6, and if Jonah gets us up, we can bring him in bed, and go back to sleep. When the dog started making noise at 6 AM it meant someone had to get up, dressed and out of the house.

Jonah liked the dog, much the way my little sister like Cinnamon, a dog experiment my parents tried a few years ago, if you asked her, she loved the dog. As long as it wasn't next to her. Jonah would call for the dog, but then yell when the dog came near him, he hung out on the couch or in the arms/laps of his parents.

There were a few times that he braved the dog and tossed him a bone, or his toys, but then he would run quickly back onto the couch.

I didn't hate the dog as much as people (my wife) seem to think, except during the night that he was constantly biting on my foot and leg, and whatever else he could bear his fangs into. Nat claims he's a puppy and he was teething. I think he saw me like I see a chicken or cow, dinner:)

You can see some cute picture of Jonah and the dog on Nat's Blog

Man's best friend?

I don't know who coined this phrase, but he probably wasn't a real social human. To me man's best friend is someone who comes over, watches some TV, has a beer, and doesn't bark at him. But that's just me.

We are now day two into the dog experiment (She still has no name) and I still don't get why people want dogs, I agree that they are cute and all, but to own them is just added responsibility that you didnt have the day before. I kinda wish the dog was like an XBOX game I can turn her on and off when I want, that I wouldn't mind so much, or if you could just rent them for a few weeks.

I know I sound like I'm bitching a lot, and truth is I don't hate the dog, I'm just getting used to having it around. This is a nice dog, and if we are gonna have a dog in the house this dog is as good as any.

Jonah loves the idea of the dog, when the dog isn't in the same room he calls "doggie doggie" but when the dog comes in the room he hops in my lap and enjoys the dog from the safety of my lap. I kinda feel bad for him because he is a bit afraid to play on the floor by himself. Hopefully within the next few days they will get used to each other (right on time for Pesach when we somehow get rid of the dog for a week) and can happily coexist. that why we are leasing the dog for now.

Nat flat out loves the dog, although she (and I ) wish that is was more trained. It is toilet trained, which is something that it can brag about to Jonah. Although Jonah likes to go up on the couch and laugh at the dog cuz it can't go on the couch. I think they have a Stewie and Brian Griffin thing going.

Why is it that a dog licks you? If a person licked you, you would be grossed out, but a dog who licks its crotch and doesn't brush it's teeth, its OK for them to lick you?

I will post pictures probably tomorrow

Dog

Yesterday the family went to the look at some dogs for our constant search for non human life to be in our house. We looked at two dogs, a black one a white one with black spots. We liked the black dog, and today we will bring home little quagmyre for a test drive, if we like her then she becomes ours.

The timing is pretty crappy, what with Pesach coming and all, we are planning on moving out of our house for a the week of Pesach, so we have to figure out what to do with the dog then. But first we have to make sure the dog likes our house. Jonah did seem to like him at the clinic.

Win or go home

That's been the situation for my Sunday morning basketball team the past three weeks. We did our part the past two games winning rather easily. Today was our final regular season game, if we win we are in the playoffs, possibly a 1 seed, if we lose, we need lots of help to get in.
Over the weekend we received some bad news, seems our starting point guard tore some ligaments in his arm playing ball during the week, we would have to go on without him. So far I think we won only one time without him.

The game started at 8:30 AM, and I was exhausted, I couldn't move, I didn't go around picks, didn't move on offense, it was really frustrating. I put the blame squarely on lil Jonah for the exhaustion since he kept me up for a good while in the middle of the night. Despite my early struggles, our team played well and we went into the half up a couple of points. I ended the half with 5 points, hitting my only free throw, but very annoyed at my lack of energy.

The second half was a different story for me, I somehow woke up and found the missing energy during the break. I hit 4 jumpers to help our team pull away offensively, shut my man down, and grabbed a handful of rebounds.

We won teh game and now we advance to the playoffs, once again we have an 8:30 game, which sucks, but hopefully Jonah will let me get a good nights sleep before the game

South Park

Let me start off by saying I'm a big fan of South Park. I don't watch it as much as I used to because Nat absolutely hates the show. Her hatred stems from an episode that included a religious joke, more specifically a Holocaust joke.

Personally i didn't mind the joke, SP is an equal opportunity religious basher, but lately they have come under the microscope because they totally ripped Scientology, spoofing Tom Cruise, John Travolta and a few other famous scientologists.

Issac Hayes, who plays chef, a Scientology's quit the show because of this episode, basically saying, I don't care if you make fun of everyone else, so long as it isn't me. That bothers me, I'm glad they killed chef in the last episode.

Due to alleged pressure Tom Cruise Comedy Central won't rerun the Scientology episode, and this bothers me. The other night I was watching reruns and they played the episode where Kyle's stereotypical Jewish cousin moved in with hm for a week. I like this episode, there is a concentration camp joke in there, that I always thought was funny.

Why doesn't Steven Spielberg and other Hollywood Jews call in and complain impose their will and never let that episode be aired. Why stop there, there should be no religion, mocked or otherwise, on TV.

Obviously this won't happen. Shame on Comedy Central for pulling that episode. I'm glad that the the South Park creators aren't bending, they say they will touch this issue on upcoming episode.

Watch the controversial episode here no download needed

I WON!!!!

It took 159 games, some full games some partials, but I beat the stupid Spider game.
Now that I on, I hope my addiction will be cured.

She's Back!!!

After a week of living t up in NY with Jonah, Nat has come back to the comforts of home.

I'll be honest, I was pretty bored when she was gone, there was nothing to do. I barely left the couch, let alone the house. There was a lot of Madden, a few movies (Loved 40 year old virgin, hated truth about charlie) and as I mentioned earlier waaaaay to much Spider Solitaire. There was no partying, getting drunk, or reliving of my single days. It was the laziest I've been in years, which felt great. I had no reason to get off the couch, I even worked while on the couch. I did no cooking no shopping just ate whatever was around. (Just on the side, I'm writing this while I watch the Pistons game, and I'm pretty sure that Bill Walton has crazy gay love for Dwyane Wade, he just said that wade has a perfect beautiful body, that Michelangelo dreamed about. He then talked about his chest and shoulders...they should get a room)

It's good to have her and Jonah back, they keep life interesting and exciting.

addiction

Addiction is a terrible thing. It can take over your life. sometime, like in my case, it's unexplainable. I can't stop playing solitaire, spider solitaire, to be exact. During work while relaxing on the couch, I'm even playing while watching the Pistons.

I don't even like the stupid game, I have never won which may have caused the addiction, honestly I don't think it' s even possible to win. My best game has been clearing 2 suits (King - Ace) and I've only done that twice. To win you need to clear 8 I believe

Mark, You are the greatest

Mark, my former YU roomie, went beyond the call. I asked if anyone knew a good a website to DL the Sopranos, and he went one step beyomd. He already had it so he IMed it to me .

Nat's dad

Tonight and tomorrow is Nat's father (David ben Avraham) Yartziet (Anniversary of his death) May his Neshama have an aliyah (May his soul be elevated(in heaven))

Downloading TV shows

It started when I was in YU, I would download whatever TV shows I wanted off the network, and watch them commercial free on my PC. It continued when me and Nat spent a few month in Pittsburgh and missed most of our favorite shows.

When we got back home, and had our cable back downloading TV shows was done. Or so I thought.

The Sopranos have finally returned to television after a long hiatus, but unfortunately they are on HBO which is only available for digital cable subscribers, which I am not. So it's time to get the programs that I used top have find the good websites for downloading TV shows, and see whats going on in Tony Sopranos life.

If you know good websites for please let me know
'

March Madness

Here's a nice thing about march madness this year. I am guaranteed tow in my office pool bracket, assuming I actually get around to filling it out that is.

Weird Story of the Day II

Someone left me a message at my office on Friday afternoon, the message just said "It's Marco, please give me a call at 248-555-1234 (not real number)" Didn't say where he was calling from, or what it was about, also it was pretty obvious English wasn't a first language.
I assumed it was a wrong number, but he did hear my message and then left his message. So I decided to call him back and see what he wanted.
I called him, it was a cell phone not an work number, and after explaining who I was and what I wanted, he asked if we could meet. I said, why? And he told me he thought we could be friends.

I told him I was pretty sure he had the wrong number, and he kept repeating the first couple of digits in my work number, and I said yes that's my phone, you called me, and I think you had the wrong number. Finally he hung up. I wonder if he'll call me back, if not what kind of friend would he have turned out to be anyways.

Weird Story of the Day

ESPN.com is repoting that the mayor of town in New Zealand wants to ban the 3rd annual nude bike race because the riders aren't wearing helments.

a few thoughts come to mind when I read a story like this.
1. Why is the mayor only concerned about helmets, what about knne and elbow pads? If you fall off your bike without clothing on you will skin your knees and elbows.

2. Nude bike racing doesn't sound even remotely attractive.

The ironic part of this whole story the point of the race it to promote safe cycling. This should accomplish the exact opposite of their goal. I can't think of a less safe way to be on a bike.

Kosher McDonalds

If you are going to be in Israel soon, or you happen to be there now, and you are craving McDonald's but you just aren't sure which ones are kosher and which aren't, life just got easier for you. The chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv asked that the Kosher Mickey D's
have different signage, so now instead of the traditional red background with yellow lettering, the background is Israeli blue. B'tayavon

Sports odds and ends

Pat Tillman left the NFL a few years ago to fight in Iraq. He was killed while there, initially it was reported he died heroically in battle, but then the news leaked out that he was killed by friendly fire. Now they are investigating his murder. (Maybe he was code reded) My question is do they have a murder investigation by all friendly fire deaths in war time, or are they doing a special investigation because Tillman was a star football player?

I am watching Cuba play Panama in the World Baseball Classic -I put the over/under at 5 for how many Cuban players defect to the U.S.

One rule that I don't like in the WBC is a mandatory pitch count. No pitcher can throw more then 65 pitches in the first round. If your starter is throwing a great game, but his count gets to 65, the relief pitcher comes in and blows the game, and your country doesn't advance. I think just like MLB play, the manager should make the determination of when top sit the pitcher.

This country was founded with a unique policy of innocent until proven guilty, yet Barry Bonds is constantly under the gun for his alleged steroid use. A new book just came out claiming that the authors watched Bonds inject steroids into himself. My first question is if Bonds was shooting himself up, why would he do around a few reporters from the local paper? wouldn't he do it in the privacy of his home? Baseball should administer a drug test to Bonds, have him drop trousers in front of the tester so he can't use someone elses urine, no whizzinator or anything like that and end this debate for now.

I think the Pistons miss Darko more then most people realize. Darko usually got in the game if the Pistons had a huge lead. The starters would get the team a huge lead just for Darko, now that the Victory cigar is gone, so is the desire to put teams away early.

Upset

At the end of the "Tagged post" there was a question that asked when was the last I was upset. at the time the answer was I don't really get upset.

Ironically a few hours later I got upset at some random kid. I took Jonah to the mall so he can run around and play in the kids play section.

Jonah was playing by himself, sitting a slide, when some little kid walks up to him and growls and ROARS in his face. Jonah first looked shocked, and then started to cry. The little brat (not Jonah) then did it again. I got off the bench I was sitting at and made my way to Jonah, the stupid little kid turned around and started to walk away.

I caught him before he got away by grabbing on his sweatshirt, and I told him he wasn't nice, and I made him apologize. He mumbled an apology, and I said, don't say I'm sorry to me, say I'm sorry to Jonah you made him cry. So the kid mumbled "I'm Sorry" to Jonah.

I calmed Jonah down and off he went, until the a sibling of brat number one, came and growled in Jonahs face. Sadly, he got away before I could make him apologize.

The thing that pisses me off most is the guy who brought these kids, perhaps the dad, was just sitting there and didn't say anything. It's possible he didn't know english, but control your kid in whatever language you know.

back at college

Not really, but it sure feels like I am. I am sitting a library doing research using Lexis Nexis. It reminds me of the not so fun times I had in college

Tagged

I was tagged by Adina so here goes:

Q: WHO'S THE 4TH PERSON ON YOUR RECEIVED CALL LIST?

A: On the Shu and Nat cell phone - the House
A2: on my work cell- an ad agency in Chicago (Foote Cone & Belding)

WHAT'S YOUR MAIN RINGTONE ON YOUR PHONE?
A: on the Shu and Nat Cell - Latin
A2: Work Cell - Motion

Q: WHAT WERE YOU D0ING AT MIDNIGHT LAST NIGHT?
A: Either watching the Pistons Laker game, Saturday Night Live, or doing dishes

Q: WHAT DID THE LAST TEXT MESSAGE ON YOUR CELL PHONE SAY
A: I am so sick. Sorry for not replying sooner. I'll try calling u tommorow. Good Night. (It was a message to Nat from one of her friends

Q: WHOSE BED DID YOU SLEEP IN LAST NIGHT?
A: Mine

Q: WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
A: A grey University of Detroit Mercy shirt

Q: MOST RECENT MOVIE THAT YOU WATCHED?
A: I saw the first part of anchorman a few days ago, and part of shrek with Jonah. The last full movie a saw was Closer, last Saturday night, quite possibly the worst movie ever.

Q: NAME 3 THINGS THAT YOU HAVE ON YOU AT ALL TIMES?
A: Boxers, Wedding band, Cell Phone

Q: WHAT'S THE COLOR OF YOUR BEDSHEETS?
A: I think they are blue

Q: HOW MUCH CASH DO YOU HAVE ON YOU RIGHT NOW?
A: none

Q: What is your favorite part of the chicken?
A: I don't really have a favorite, if I had to choose, I'd go with the boobs

Q: What's your favorite town/city?
A: White Oak, PA CIRCA 1997. Now it's depressing to go there

Q: I can't wait to (til)...?
A: Every bus in Michigan has about 15 ads on it. OK, I can't wait for one bus in Michigan to have 15 ads on it.

Q: When was the last time you saw your mom?
A: Friday

Q: When was the last time you saw your dad?
A: Friday

Q: When was the last time you talked to them?
A: Friday

Q: What did you have for dinner LAST NIGHT?
A: Leftover chicken, deli roll, and sesame seed noodles. with 7 layer cake for dessert

Q: How long have you been at your current job?
A: About a year

Q: Look to your left. What's there?
A: Jonah has just fallen asleep while eating lunch in his high chair.

Q: Who is the last person you spent over $50 on?
A: Me and Nat, we bough new couches.

Q: What's the last piece of clothing you borrowed from someone?
A: I borrowed some pants from O's Fan, we ate lunch at his house and it was raining and and snowing at the same ( It was a shabbat meal, so we walked )

Q: What website(s) do you visit the most during the day?
A: ESPN.com (Homepage)

Q: Do you have an air freshener in your car?
A: No, I like the way it smells

Q: Do you have plants in your room?
A: No

Q: Does anything hurt on your body right now?
A: Yes, my right foot is hurting, and i think swollen. I hurt it playing ball this morning

Q: What city was your last taxi cab ride in?
A: Either Jerusalem or NYC, not really sure

Q: Do you own a camera phone?
A: Yes, two of them. for the most part, they are pretty pointless

Q: What's your favorite Starbucks drink?
A: Never even stepped inside a Starbucks

Q: Recent time you were really upset?
A: I don't really get upset, I just roll with the punches.

Q: Have you been in love with anyone?
A: Yep


I tag all the Israeli Zacks, my little sister and krunk

Cable

I received a phone call from the local cable company this evening, they wanted me to subscribe for digital cable, and in return they would lower the cost of my internet by 15 bucks. The cable would cost 30 dollars for the next 6 months. Basically for an extra 15 bucks we could have digital cable, and On Demand TV.

I should mention that unbeknownst to the cable company we have basic cable coming into our house for free. One day we plugged the cable wire into the TV and whaaala free cable.

That being said, I was ready to accept the phone offer, then she mentioned that this package doesn't include HBO, that would be an extra 8 dollars a month. This was still OK for me, I thought to go out to a movie for one person cost 8 bucks, with this I can see as many movies as I want and when I want to see them.

I was ready to say yes. I asked the girl on the phone a quick question about installation, and she put me on hold while she wen to ask someone else. While I was on hold I started to think. We are trying to keep the TV off when Jonah is around because for a while he was watching way to much TV. I was also cutting back on my TV watching, it struck me, why am I gonna put myself in a position where I'll never want to turn off the tube? (I lack self control, but that's a different post for a different time)

When the girl got back on the line with the answer to my question, I told her that I had time to think, and I didn't want to sign up with her at this time. She was disappointed and asked what changed in the few minutes she was away.

I decided to blame Jonah, I told her we our child watches to much TV as it is, so getting this package isn't a good idea. She tried valiantly to recoup the sale, started telling me about all the parental control options they have, so we can control what he watches. But it was to late, my mind had been made up.

The lesson here is if you get a sales call, and are ready to sign up with whatever they are offering, get rid of the salesperson for a minute and think. I realized that we were happy with our TV and the channels we watch, and while it's true that HBO cost 8 bucks, and a movie cost 8 bucks, I can barely remember the last time we went out to a movie.

We went to Milk n' Honey...

No not the land of, but the restaurant at the JCC.

Nat and I decided to go on a date and this was really the only choice for a nice restaurant. No offense to Jerusalem Pizza, but this place has waiters and they constantly fill your cup with water. This was my first time going down there for dinner, and as soon as I saw the menu I realized why I had never gone there.
There wasn't one thing on the menu that I wanted to eat. I'm not a fish person and that made up 95 percent of the menu. They had some fettuccine Alfredo but it had a weird sauce, we asked if they could use a regular sauce, which they happily did. I do have to give them props for their french fries and bread, and the service.

Here is where Nat and I differ, she enjoyed going to a nice restaurant, where the waiters constantly come and disturb us to ask if we are having a nice time. I found it annoying, every five minutes someone would stop on by and see how we are, if the food is good, and what else could they do for us. I do like that they filled up my cup every time I take a sip.

As terrible as it sounds, it was great to go out with Nat and leave Jonah at home with the greatest babysitter in the world. (shout out to shev) and now worry about someone tossing food across the table, and all that fun stuff that comes with Jonah.