Popcorn

Popcorn

Poor Hubble.

As of last weekend, Hubble can no longet use its main camera, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, to view the universe. This makes me very sad.
As you probably guess, it's not that easy to fix hardware in orbit. You can't just send the technician up with a screw driver, or ask the observer to kick something... Hopefully, the telescope will be revived during the "Servicing Mission 4" moonwalk, scheduled now to mid-late 2008. Until then, we can comfort ourselves with pretty pictures in the archive, like this one.

Green Flash

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070129.html

Walk on the beach

1) a huge experiment in physics
as the waves hit the concrete wall, they bounce back and interfere with other incoming waves. this creates a huge pattern of wavefronts (that you can barely see in this picture...), with the constructive interference causing a spike in the ridge in the junctions where two wavefronts meet.



2) written in stone
The stone wall is scarred with all sort of love statements, names, faces, drawings, cartoons, and what not. This is my favorite...

"the good things that happened this week" [2]

* it was sunny yesterday
* walks on the beach
* we hired a lawyer to tell us what to do
* had fun at 2 new restaurants
* we started using Netflix (it was a gift from the guys at TAU)
* chicken and rice (my calphalon pots are awesome! non-stick re-defined)
* miguel unplugged our kitchen sink in <3 minutes and no mess at all
* snowflakes
* sleeping on a real mattress
* books on sale
* rode the 1st car of the el, saw the driver in action
* it was sunny yesterday

Eating/Chicago

Chicago Restaurants Review

Habeebi's
(1131 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-878-6600)
Wed, Jan 24, dinner. We had a plate of Hummus, Kube and Shawarma, at "Habeebi" restaurant, just down the street from us.
[Hummus: 2.95; Kibbeh: 1.65; Lentil soup: 1.95; Chican Shawarma (plate): 7.50]
When we asked Yussuf Habibi, the owner, where he was from, he said: "Palestine". Later on, we talked with him some more, and learned that he was actually born and raised in Jordan, and spent most of his life in Europe/America, but his family are from Jaffa. We got some "Baba ganush", which is eggplant in thina salad, on the house, as well as a 2nd bowl of lentil soup and a couple of fallafel balls that were left at the end of the day.
surprisingly, everything was very good, except for the pitas which were the flat thin american pita bread that you get at the grocery store. Is is so hard to make good pitas?!?
When we suggested that to Habeebi, he said that he had planned to have a pita oven but the architect took too much room for the men's restroom, and there was not enough space left in the kitchen. Too bad! This could have been a pilgrimage site for all israelies in Chicagoland.
We don't have a rating system yet, but this one is definitely a good israeli/mizrachi (outside Israel).
delivery+ lunch+ location+

Shiro Hana
3242 N Clark, 773-477-1652
Thu, Jan 25th (Ben's birthday)
Japaneze/sushi place. We found this one through the lonely planet book. It's located on the lively Clark street, and serves all kinds of sushi combinations as well as other Japanese food.
We had a few rolls of sushi - spicy tuna, California, salmon&avocado, shrimp tampura, and spinach, that didn't really belong. the wasabi wasn't spicy enough, but the ginger compensated for that. two cups of great misu soup came with the order. the prices ranged between 3-5$/roll (there were more expensive rolls on the menu), their wine/beer list is very limited, but the food, atmosphere and price were good :)
all in all, the best sushi joint we've been to in Chicago. that doesn't say much yet, as it's also the first one...

Our car

Our car is fully equipped to battle life in Chicago:

Car ornament (it used to be air freshener, a few years ago. now it's just decoration, and helps us recognize our car in parking lots).


Time showing device. it has a systematic error of about 2 hours, since it still shows the daylight-saving time in ann arbor. good thing astrophysicists know how to subtract. or add. which one is it ?!?




Car Google


Car Google-maps


Navigation system


Required equipment to keep the navigation system in an operational mode


A driver :)

Canada III

so here's what we found on our camera from that trip...

We had a one day head start, and headed north with Ron and Omer. Here are a few pictures from the bridge:


We arrived at the cabin after dark, and after a hearty bowl of white chili (see recipe below), Ben felt too hot, and decided to cool off at the lake.
For the record, he was the FIRST AMERICAN IN THE LAKE this year. ha!
What you see here, is Ben walking on the frozen part of the lake, finds a crack in the ice and dipping his own crack in it.


Ron wasn't far behind, and claimed the FIRST ISRAELI IN THE LAKE THIS YEAR title. I think he will hold the "Only Israeli in the Lake" title at least until the spring...

Ron warmed his numb feet in a "gigit" of luke-warm water;

As you can imagine, the NATIVES are not as adventurous: Dave chickened out, and put on his wet suit. his sub-zero, good for any weather, wet suit.



The next day, we rode/walked up the mountain. The 4-wheelers were left behind where we had to cross a very deep stream (sometime later that week, the same stream was crossed by some people, so we heard. but the water level got lower in time, and therefore when THEY crossed it was no big deal).
We had to cross by foot, and walk the rest of the way. here are some selected pics, the rest can be found by a click of a mouse...

Ron ALMOST made it dry to the other side. Actually, he did cross successfully, only that SOMEONE left the key in one of the avts, and Ron volunteered to go back and get it... we heard "thomp squash thomp squash thomp squash..." for the rest of the walk.



And finally - a nice panorama of the LAKES

"The good things that happened this week" thread

More from Canada

A few memories of Canada from the American side of the family:


At right is proof that the Sharons made the obligatory trek up Fire Tower Mountain, the big rock you see in pictures of the lake taken from our cabin. It's takes an hour or so to travel on foot, but we took pity on Dalia's poor foot and made the trip on 4-wheelers--at least most of the way.



At left is most of our party, stopping at Black Lake to have their pictures taken. I think Grady may have been out on the ice looking for a stick when it was taken, but he was also part of the group. At the end of the line of 4-wheelers you can see Gary, riding behind "Give 'Em Hell Harry" (aka Omer). Omer (and Ron) apparently have a bit of Canadian blood in their ancestry because they took 4-wheeling in the mud and water like they were born to it. Look below to see the proof.




This is our Canadian clothes dryer (also our Canadian television). It's full right now with boots, gloves, socks, and whatever else got saturated with mud during the trip. Someone's pants are drying on the chair next to it. I think someone's pants were drying next to it all weekend.

Here is another very common sight in Canada.
This photo was taken after a long hard morning of hiking around Aubrey Falls. We stopped at the Aubrey Fall Trading Post where the "Truckers' Special" was the recommended lunch and Ron learned the truth about jackalopes. We were all worn out after that, but these two gave in immediately and just went to sleep.

Actually, we did a lot of this, when we weren't sitting by the fire listening to music or sloshing through mud. (Sorry it's so blurry. I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't see that it was a lousy shot until I got it on my computer.)It should be noted that Oddi is a closet card shark and seems to wind up with all the chips at the end of the night. Dalia and I mostly just did as we were told during the poker games. Gary introduced Oddi, Omer, and Ron to the mysteries of Euchre though, so I can now lose at that to Israelis as well.

Canada?? oh, Advanture island...

Grady with Dalia and Odi. At first he taught he was kidnapped, but as he saw the bridge, he started smiling. He knows Canada when he sees one.

Dalia's first meeting with the river next to the cabin. Grady makes sure she is not getting to know the river "face to face". he knows the river is wet and cold.

On the way to see the "Aubrey Falls". yeh, there was snow!!! so we had to put a brown carpet under the table.

Here is the fall...

Here we are on the bridge. Trying not to fall!

On the way back Omer took the chance of having reception and phoned Dikla.














Yep, that's the famous anchor. The Sharons demanded a proof about this story. Even the barrels are still there, with Gary's ropes. Omer is still using his chance of a signal with home.










What a light.... The aliens are coming!!!! Oh, it's the sunset.

The "Canadian TV" was on... but no sound! this is the sunset we saw while you were welcomed into Chicago.



A link to the Sunset - all 22 photos, step by step.







Dave & Brenda Stake House
"How about some Moose for dinner, "Hey?


The Game Dinner. Moose, Deer, Ram... I think...








The AfterParty around the fire! Check out the sleeping drummer!





You guessed wrong. it is not the CRCC (Canadian Road Construction Corp). This is us guys, on Stinky Lake, with the uniform Dave got us for the 4wheelers ride.












We had a nice quite evening in the cabin, playing music and cards...
That was after the 16 wheeler trip we had with thanks to:
Dave for two 4 wheelers , and fashion clothing.
Gary for one 4 wheeler, and navigation.
Dave's Brother, for his 4 wheeler, and kindness.


















Here we are leaving. This picture was taken in moments of stress. Sandy and I, in the 2nd car, with my passport on the first car. "Young Man, you should know that you must curry your passport at all times". I didn't think I should take the officer's photo after that.

BYE BYE CANADA.

Koesters, you have some more pictures we don't have....

The ball is in your hands.