Monday

As usual here with a not creative blog title.

Lorraine is a little bit crazy. She is too young to be depressed. She calls it "the feeling". It sounds like a dark cloud hanging over her 11 year old body. Angelina refused to sign her up for more therapy. They went one time and it seemed to help. Jonny is now the only one she can talk to about her problems.

Angelina is dealing with Jesse's teacher in school at 2nd grade. He has been labeled as a trouble maker. The teacher thinks he is causing problems. This is because, not ten minutes after she is done speaking Jesse will say "what are we supposed to be doing". He did this last year in 1st grade. Angelina says by this time she got the teacher straightened out. Wow is that how that word is spelled?

Alberta is causing all kinds of problems. She doesn't work up to her potential in 8th grade. This morning Angelina and Alberta got in an argument over laundry. Alberta won't have the right equipment for her after school practice.

Jonny plans to go to her basketball game on Tuesday of this week. But he will really need to buckle down and impress Penny. Also at work he plans to listen this week to the parsha. This week's parsha is Vayishlach. He has the real audio player already to listen to the Grossman lecture.

Over the weekend in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Alberta and Jonny went to the minyan on Tuesday night. So technically it wasn't over the weekend. They were helping out the temple president. But in that temple Alberta doesn't count. Ironically to Jonny, Alberta is against the concept of a female rabbi. This is an issue now, because the main Ann Arbor, Michigan rabbi is on sabbatical. The backup is the female rabbi assistant. Alberta has never liked her. Not because of her personality, just because she "doesn't think women should be rabbis"

Jonny finished the 305 page book, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. Go to Amazon if the reviews there capture the attention. Jonny just finished the hype and is now about to start page 1 of The Eight by Katherine Neville. Penny got him that back last December as a "present" for "that time of year"

Thanksgiving Vacation

On Sunday the week long Thanksgiving vacation will start for Jonny's family. They are going to Pennsylvania.

Jonny listened to Toldot parsha twice, once Monday, once Wednesday as is tradition. It answered the quetion as to why Esau asked for Isaac to pour that red stuff down my throat. Jonny also listened to the parsha chanting today.

Finally he finished the bed book. It was a long title and a short read. The bed book was 156 pages. Not recommended. The next book, was picked out by Lorraine. It is called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy 5 book series. The author is dead. Jonny also read the sequel to the Dirk Gently first about three years ago. It was moderately funny, science fiction, fantasy like and generally weird. This one is even weirder. It was written in 1987 so it contains a lot timely edititorial. For instance how long it takes to write a computer program. Another example is how useless some areas of academia can be. It even pokes fun a monks are weird remote religious beliefs. Finally we meet the main character Dirk. His name is mentioned on page 38. Just in the nick of time, since without him the book might get tossed right away.

This was a good week. Jonny didn't even have to finish watching Monday night football. The reason for this is because the Cleveland Browns were getting pummelled 16-0. Earlier in the night when the game was live, Jonny went to 4-point Sheraton for some refreshing popcorn bud-lite. At the half time the game was 0-0. In very fast fashion Baltimore Ravens intercepted the ball twice in a row for touchdown run backs. Throw in a field goal, blocked extra point and you quickly have a 16-0 shut out.

We can only hope the same happens to Michigan again Ohio State this weekend in college football. And if by a miracle they win, Michigan gets to go to not the toilet bowl but some other potato chip type bowl, with their hard fought 6 wins. Oops almost spelled potato, Bush style. Thank goodness for blogger spell checker.

Alberta got out of school early by faking a sickness. Jonny watched her play her middle school's arch rivals in basketball. Tappan was victorous by over 20 points. They were winning 13-1 when Jonny arrived with 2 minutes to go in the 1st of four 8 minute quarters. The game ended close to 6 PM. There were at least two injuries on the Scarlett side. There was a girl who glasses got crushed. Another girl who got the wind knocked out of her and was taken off the court, limping and crying. That team was a bit darker than Alberta's team, minus the loud mouth coach her team has. Of course skin color doesn't make or break a basketball player's skillset.

Friday

Jonny might go to happy hour.

He rode his bicycle to work. Jesse and Jonny rode to Jesse's school. Then Jonny continued on to work.

No headache.

Jonny is up to page 59 of the bed book.

Lunch was a burrito, nachos, apple and coke. He couldn't finish the whole 8 slices. So he saved the other 4 slices for later.

Jonny just listened to the parsha discussion twice of Vayera Sara. He also listened to the Torah chanting.

Over the weekend with Wendell and Kristina Jonny raked leaves. He took Alberta to a Bat Mitzvah at Chabad. He took Lorraine to her art class. Angelina sold parking for the football game. UM lost to Purdue. Alberta had a soccer game at wide world. The game started at 6:30 PM so Alberta, Wendell, Kristina and Jonny waited until after to eat dinner. They ate at the Seol Garden. It is a Korean restaurant. This has become a tradition. That is because once they stayed at the Sheraton. On that occasion, Alberta went with them to dinner very late. The restaurant is right across from the Sheraton.

Jonny has had a pain in the neck literally all day.

headache

Jonny has a massive headache today. Nothing seems to help.

Working certainly makes it worse. Penny is harassing him again about some prostate report/form/printout/email batch job. No one of course knows what their talking about. Everyone is lying, deceptive and unhelpful to getting answers to the puzzle of the prostate programs. Lea is off today and is busy with her personal life. So poor Jonny with a bad headache has to fight Penny all by himself, minus Lea's good council and supportive listening.

Jonny has started a new book. The new book is called It's Okay to Miss the Bed on the First Jump: And Other Life Lessons I Learned From Dogs. Jonh O'Hurley who play J. Pererman on Sienfeld wrote this and Before Your Dog Can Eat Your Homework First You Have to Do It: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog to a Young Boy. These books fall under the category of pet books. Angelina probably got it because Lucy is 16 1/2 years old.

He finished Blue Blood. It was 563 pages. He was watching SNL from Saturday night in the living room. He saw out his window that his neighbor the police man was letting his dog out to pee. Jonny ran outside and gave him the book. Jonny told the cop it had some 9-11 stuff at the end. The neighbor is a canine cop and the book has about 1/3 of a page dedicated to his area of speciality.

He started the bed book while waiting for his broken computer to come to life.

Wednesday

Over the weekend Jonny's parents came to visit.

Right after the last post, Jonny started to drift off to sleep. Then he realized he parked his car in the 2 hour limit residential permit zone. So he packed up for the day. He ran to the car. Luckil there was no ticket. First he drove down some streets, the Jonny doesn't know the name of until he go to State Street, near where State Street ends on the north side of town. He drove south on state street towards the Red Hawk Bar. It was parent's weekend in Ann Arbor in more ways than one. For some reason the U decided the weekend of the Purdue game was a great weekend for students to have their parent's visit them.

Jonny struggled to make it 4 blocks through bumper to bumper traffic. His nap interrupted he was getting cranky. In definite need of a beer. Happy hour as a matter of fact. But Wendell and Krisitina had checked into their hotel. They too struggled to follow the GPS directions from North Campus to the South University and State Street area. Jonny had only $0.75. This wasn't enough to park the car for even 1 hour at a meter. But he did park at a meter 1 1/2 block south of Red Hawk. He was between South University and Madison. His parents arrived later to give him more money for the meter.

At one point the meter only jumped from 54 to 57 minutes with the deposit of one quarter. Gosh parking in Ann Arbor is expensive and a major pain. They went inside and ordered a duck quesadilla. Despite blogger's objections this is the true spelling. They also ordered a pitcher of the rotating tap for $15.95. But since it was happy hour, all alcohol was half price. The beer had a hint of citrus flavor. Believe it or not the beer was probably from Cleveland. Great Lakes Burning River Pale Ale is what is what it was called.

Next the piled into their separate cars. Jonny arrived at home around 5:25 PM. He and Jesse walked the dog up to the gas station. They were excited about the arrival of Jesse's grandparents. Later at around 6 PM they all went into Angelina's minivan for the Harvest dinner.

Lorraine was in the garden club. She was at school already. Alberta was at school already, she got accepted to the basketball team, so she stayed for the daily practice after school. Unfortunately the couldn't all sit at the table. Jonny took several pictures. Lorraine, then Angelina and then Jonny sat in a row with Lorraine at the far left end of the table. She was the table's server as part of her club duties. Alberta sat alone at another table behind Jonny and his back to hers. Two tables in the other direction, sat Jonny's parents. With Jesse flanked but his grandmother on his left and grandfather on the right.

Friday

Right now Jonny is listening to the parsha chanting of Vayera. He listened to the parsha discussion twice this week. It is nice inspiration for teaching his class. The class is a computer class, but the idea is the same. There is lots of repetition and patients with the students.

Today Jonny went to lunch with Wendell and Kristina. They flew in from Virginia at 10:30 AM. Jonny went to his meeting at Death Valley. From the meeting he drove to Casey's Tavern. Then he left his car there. Jonny walked his parent the 1 mile to the Hotel California. After touring the radiation oncology area, cafeteria and Rob's office, they went to the Hilton Hotel. They thought Jonny's Hilton Hotel was very nice. He showed them where their picture was on his wall.

In about an hour Jonny is taking the number 2 bus. Yes it is happy hour again. He will meet them there. Then drive to pick up the other car. And then back to Q street. The weekend promises to be a busy one.

Earlier in the week, Jonny and Angelina meet to discuss Alberta's orthodontist work. It will cost 5900 minus insurance of 1500. Angelina wants to smash Alberta.

Angelina got the minivan fixed. It costs $850 for the 60,000 mile check up. Also the passenger door window got fixed.

Thursday

Last week was Lech Lecha parsha.

This week Jonny ran out of mustard. He forgot to bring some. On Wednesday he remembered to bring some. He also ran out of rye bread. Jonny borrowed some hotdog buns for his sandwich.

On Sunday a new episode of Cold Case came out. On Wednesday a new episode of Criminal Minds came out. Angelina and Jonny watched both of those this week. They haven't seen Without A Trace in a while.

Unfortunately on election day, on Tuesday, Jonny and Angelina both didn't vote. The Ann Arbor education millage didn't pass. Some people say that the school is pretty inefficient with their money they do have. So therefore they don't deserve more money.

Jonny is up to page 480 of the book Blue Blood.

Wednesday

Jonny is sleepy. He has been sleepy a lot lately. Last night he dozed off a few times. He had to help Alberta with her algebra homework. She had a temper tantrum. So Jonny proposed a break. Then he took a shot of Jack Daniels. Then he went and lay down in Jesse's bed. Jesse was asleep in the top bunk. Alberta was watching TV. Lorraine was playing farm on Facebook. Angelina was talking on the phone. Lorraine was screaming, where is Dad. They found him. Then later Lorraine went to bed. Jonny help Alberta with the rest of the math homework. Then Angelina wanted to watch TV. Then Alberta went to bed. Then Jonny said he didn't want to watch this show. So he snuck back upstairs and lay down in Jesse's bed again. At 11 PM Angelina screamed at home. Then she went to bed. He went downstairs and played on the computer, took a shower and went to bed.

Today at work Jonny has a seminar to go to about health informatics. This is at 4 PM. He is pretty sleepy right now. So he took a nap this morning. But it wasn't long enough?

All day he was trying to get the Machine Log program to work on the port 3532. It wouldn't use that port. Then it wouldn't load on any other port. It turned out after waiting for his mentor to write him back what to do. She guided him in the direction of the loginservice.xml file, without even realizing it. That was still pointing back at the port 3532. He changed it and work just fine.

Tuesday

Jonny finished a book. He was listening to Machievelli, Philosopher of Power on CD. He finished listening to this in the car and it was 6 CDs. Angelina is returning it to the library.

Yesterday was a boring meeting in the Hotel California. It was at 3 PM and Jonny had to sleep the whole day as not to be too bored in the meeting. He still took a bathroom break in the middle. And this was when they were discussing the change management process. He tried to call Angelina but she didn't answer.

Wanda is still in the hospital. That is 10 days.

Jonny spoke to Kristina early Sunday morning. The clocks were changed back over the weekend. He told her about Wanda being sick. At this point Angelina isn't making a trip back home. Mitchell has been doing all the work. He has been commuting back and forth from Philadelphia to Harrisburg where Wanda is in the hospital.

Jonny called Kristina and Wendell again this afternoon. That is because he just found out he has a meeting at death valley at 10 am on Friday. Penny is in the meeting as well. If she drives Jonny and herself to the meeting from Hotel California, that would be convenient.

Jonny is reading the book Blue Blood. He is up to page 450.