Yoav’s Blog

My mom and dad arrived in late February, and will be staying with me until mid-March.  They’re REALLY enjoying taking the dogs for daily walks and the sunshine (so I’m glad they’re getting sun instead of the rain that Liat’s family got).   Other than that though, they really don’t seem to be too interested in doing much, just relaxing I guess…

We went to the zoo yesterday, and went to Coronado three days ago.

I guess that means I won’t go to the Arnold’s to cheer Heidi, nor see Watchmen opening day….  but maybe I can convince them to sit through a 3-hour art-superhero-borefest anyways… ’cause I do want to see it!

The Oscar

I just wanted to ask:

1. Departures?  I was sure it would be The Class or Waltz with Bashir….
2. Sean Penn??  I mean the acting was good, but Mickey Rourke sold his soul AND sacrificed his little doggie for it!

And boy Hugh Jackman singing is fun.. More shows like this one!

In unrelated news, I noticed slashfilm crashed REALLY hard post-oscars.  So hard that when I tried to access it, I got the wordpress initial installation page.  Oops…

Liat, Laurent, Carmel, and Jeremy came to visit us for the weekend.  We had planned to do some fun outdoors-y things, but the weather would have none of that.  It rained and was cold for just about every day they were here.  And the moment they left, it turned sunny and bright. On the Saturday,  (valentine’s day) I was busy with Guillermo, and so Liat and Laurent took the kids to Sea World.  Apparently they LOVED shamu.  Or at least we think they did since they came back with stuffed shamu plush animals, which Toby really really wanted.

On Sunday, we went to the Midway.  It’s an old WWII-era aircraft carrier, now converted into a museum.  You can walk around and see what it was like to live on board one of these vessels.  On that trip we also walked around the seaport village, and rode the carousel.

Monday, we went to the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, and saw very little.  But Carmel and Jeremy got to paint a light bulb (inspired by some extremely generic Jasper Johns ‘light bulb’ exhibit).  We then continued onto the Children’s pool, where they got to see a baby seal being born.  It was clearly a highlight of the day for Laurent, who enjoyed seeing the seagull trying to munch down on the afterbirth.

We went to Balboa Park afterwards. There we walked around for a little while since the rain had stopped.   But it started getting cold, so we elected to try out the science museum.  Carmel and Jeremy got to play with multiple ’scientific explanation devices’, and built little structures out of wooden blocks.

Finally, we came back home, and rested. The next day, we went to old town, and sadly, by noon, they had to be on their flight back home. Toby misses them and wants to chase Jeremy some more. Carmel had become an expert at walking Roxie. Hopefully they will be back soon, and this time for better weather.

the three amigos

Ok so it took multiple attempts:

1. winds were blowing the wrong way
2. too many clouds
3. superbowl
4. YAY!  Went skydiving

So yes.  It took 4 weeks for us to go, but go we did.  James, Deborah, and I finally got on a plane, and tandem jumped (no training, they do everything).

We were each instructed on how to get attached to our instructor, and how to fall.

Lucky or unlucky for me, the guy I was with was trying to have ‘more fun’.  First they train us on how to step to the ledge of the plane, lean and fall out forward, etc.  Instead he brings me to the ledge SIDEWAYS, and makes me look over the side ‘just as a peak’.   He then asks me how I like it, and of course falls off sideways, so we go backwards.  With a little bit of arms in and out, we get to control our fall…

The fall is a rush.  The view was gorgeous, and the wind blows past you FAST and HARD.  Unfortunately, it was very cold up there, and with the ‘wind chill’ my face and ears were hurting like crazy.  It was a relief when the chute deployed and we slowed down some.  Of course, that gave him the chance to spin us around.. A LOT.  Never thought you would get that much of a G force from spinning, but by the fourth spin I was sure I was going to pass out..  Thankfully he didn’t try a fifth in a row, but changed direction.

Finally, the landing was nice and simple.  Legs up on the approach, then put them down and walk at the last second.  It all went very smoothly!.  I’m hoping to have more pictures and possibly a little bit of a video clip later….

Even though I was the last off the plane, I somehow ended up on the ground earlier.  I think we held off on deploying the chute for longer — or I’m just fat….  hmmm.  Either way.. woohoo!!!

There are some pictures up in my gallery, but I learned a valuable lesson about asking someone who is used to point-and-shoots to take pics with a DSRL….

So, I go out to check my mail, and there’s a package in there.  Sent from “Fulfilment Center” in north carolina.  I’m fairly certain I didn’t order anything, but hey, in the past I’ve received random invites to lunch with the GOP, and entire catalogs of porn that I didn’t ask for (REALLY), so of course I wanted to know what it could be this time.

Well, I open the package, and inside is a book, titled “Let my People Go!” by Tom Hess.  No receipt, or gift note, or anything.

“Ok, that’s strange….”, I think.  I’ve never heard of the writer, or the book, so my curiosity piques.  “The struggle of the American Jew to Come Home to Israel” is the subheading under the title.  Now I’m REALLY wondering what this is about.  Except, you see, it’s a book, and it would require *reading* it.  And I don’t waste my time reading things that I’m not already interested in reading.   So I go online to see if I should bother reading it.  Sadly, no reliable reviews, nor any information on what group may have decided to send it to me.

I initially thought it’s some stupid prank.  But nobody I know is *THAT* lame.  They’d pick a better book.

So, at this point, I think some group apparently has me down as a Jew that should perform Aaliyah (not the dead R&B chick).  I *hope* it’s some Jewish group encouraging immigration, and not an anti-jewish group encouraging people to leave (shudder?).  Either way.  What a waste of time and money!

The book is sitting on my desk here, and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it.  I’m still somewhat weirded out by it, but I guess I should just move on….