Zoo on Judgement day

Last Saturday was Jewish yearly judgment day - iom kipur. Every Jew is supposed to fast, pray, and not do many things - as this day man's fate is decided for the next year. I am completely non religious but I have a long going tradition of not eating. (Hmm go figure why I am doing this...)

Judgment day or no Judgment day - I am taking the kids for the weekend. My kids do not like to fast even for half an hour, want entertainment no matter what day it is, and are not even technically Jewish. So Saturday became a Zoo day with a fasting dad.

Hmm truly Judgment day:

10:00 AM - Kids are fed. Dads hungry but proud.
11:00 AM - Going to the Zoo. Hungry and Proud forgot the stroller
11:30 AM - Arriving at the Zoo - Kiddos decide they are going to ride the dad to the entrance
11:45 AM - It is Judgment day so the line up is twice as long as any other day
12:00 - We got in. Renting a wagon. Zoo keepers have a strange notion of what children wagon is supposed to be. They assume that a blue box on wheels with shallow flat bottom is the masterpiece of children wagons. They get offended if someone tries to distort that vision even a bit.
12:30 - We are going to see the dinosaur's exhibit. There was a lot of noise about it in the summer. I heard that first weekend it was on, there was a huge traffic jam starting from 401 to the Zoo. Now there is a relatively thin stream of people going in - we managed to get in with our box on wheels.
1:00 PM - Going through the exhibit. Dinosaurs move, moan and groan and seem to be interested in a human dinner. Dad is mildly interested in the dinosaurs, definitely more interested in a dinner. Anna is very interested in dinosaurs, but also very scared - so she displays her interest from Dad's arms. Evan is sitting in the blue box with stone face. When asked he formulates: "I am not interested in dinosaurs". Brief investigation shows that he is interested in something to eat. Deeper investigation reveals that something equals ice cream.
1:30 PM - Something to eat becomes a question of life and death. Because it is Judgement day the lineup to pizza is more than to any other exhibit, ATM machines are permanently "temporarily out of duty", and there are fights over tables. Because we are a team we win the fight over a table, and slice through the line up.
2:00 PM Kids are eating - Dad is looking at them with hungry eyes.
2:30 PM Have you ever tried to get rid of garbage while kids are playing "lets run into different directions" game?
2:45 PM Looking through Americas exhibit. Evan is interested in flamingos. Anna is interested in running. Dad is also interested in flamingos but from a culinary perspective. Ice cream time
3:00 PM More exhibits. Evan is interested in pushing the blue box. Anna is interested in getting in and out of the blue box at the most unexpected time. Dad is interested in two things
1. What kind of "natural" color they put in an ice cream if it cannot be removed with wet napkins?
2. Where is my gun with one bullet so I can shoot myself.
3:45 Finally they get tired. Dad is considering monkeys from culinary perspective. Evan demands another restaurant. Going back to the car with arms full of kids. People think I am a giant.
4:00 Evan sits in the car - only after he is promised that we are going to the restaurant. He goes to sleep 35 seconds after. Anna goes to sleep 25 minutes after.
4:35 We are passing Innsfill. Picture of a juicy burger does not want to leave my mind.
5:35 We are passing Innsfill. Picture of a juicy burger does not want to leave my mind.
6:20 Evan wakes up. First question: "Are we at the restaurant yet?"

UFF. THAT WAS LOTS OF JUDGMENT DAY FUN.

Labour Day Monthly Post

Uff - just finished the 2008 release. I worked 12 hours a day for the last couple of weeks. True meaning of Labour day for me and my crew (amazing people) was exactly that - Labour. So while most of you enjoyed the Air Show, and all the other Labour Day festivities - we enjoyed our monitors, conference calls, and nightly emails - and only heard the sound of barrier booms from afar, mixed with keyboard typing sounds and occasional dialogs between a developer going nuts and a defenseless laptop (I am assuming it is defenseless because I never heard it reply back:)).

1.The apartment.

I wish I could say there is a lot of progress on this front, but there really isn't much to tell. For lame reasons why it is like that - see the introduction. However I am happy to report several good things
a) I am much more comfortable in the apartment right now and have actually started to call it home. It is been a while since I have had a home - not just a place to spend the night.
b) Financial situation is in stabilization process - after the separation dive (The back theme of this post is definitely the air show that I have missed:)). This means that during this month home will not only feel comfortable - but also become comfortable.
c) I am actually capable of keeping my place clean. (Everything in life is relative:))
d) My superintendents have finally managed to fix the leak - and cheerfully create another. This is actually more amusing than I thought:)
e) No I have not thrown out that empty beer case. It is still on the balcony. Yes I will throw it out. It also has an empty white wine bottle near it- to keep it company:)

2.Personal

I have been spending every bit of time I had with the kids. There are amazing and make me more and more proud every day. Besides no management experience can be ever compared to commanding two+ kids in the pool or lake especially in their current age. If you are in charge of 20 20 year olds - try 2 3.5/1.5 year olds:))

I have understood - through my life experience right now - how important it is for them to feel appreciated loved and sure of themselves. How important it is to

• never make them scared when they do something wrong.
• ask their advice even though they are so little.
• never make any of their misdeeds (and there are plenty:)) personal for them.
• always tell them that they can achieve whatever they want, and never put them down
  
• always approve of them and validate their feelings.

I am now putting all of this into practice. That creates problems between me and other people in their life that have the special forces mentality (break em to make em) when it comes to kids - and kids mentality when it comes to special forces:)

My personal life is pretty much in the same state as before. I am discovering things about myself, that are new to me, and slowly answering the "what do I want from my future?".

I still have Green Eyes in the back of my mind and visit that place a bit too often for my taste.
Somehow she manages to hold on in there even though she does not deserve it . Some questions got answered - some still come up. I don't know why but I still care (for her), and that "why" is a BIG question.

As usual when I am not looking for anything - anything desperately tries to find me. I passed on most of that , went on a couple of dates (with no particular purpose) - and returned with a strong sense of what I DON'T WANT.

One point I would like to make is about Honesty. This is not so much about dating as about relationships between people in general. I have met many people in the last month - and quite a few of them have boasted about their honesty, and how they are looking for honesty in others. I found out that the more someone is "honest" and "looking for honesty" the more that someone is a liar to others, or to him/herself. So please - stop looking for honesty in others - specifically in me - until you find it in yourself.

3.Health Fitness

I am getting into shape, even though not quite there yet. I am now ready to pass firefighter, police or even GTF entrance tests. No I am not planning to change my career to any of these any time soon :-) This is just for fun. Not quite the form for Gibush Shaetet but getting there.


4.Career

Well, the beginning of this post was all about the job. Aside from that the 'A' is now officially dropped from AVP, which does not make any difference what so ever to me. The exceptions are new business cards and some other things that I am not at liberty to discuss in a blog. I still need a vacation. Otherwise - who knows - I might switch a profession or two - at least firefighters have and use their vacations:))

5.Overall

I should just copy that from the previous monthly report.
Some pictures could be found here.