THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Friday, September 28, 2012

An USPS Violation of Murphy's Law 

We had a registered letter come on 9-26. No one was here. I went on line and asked the letter to be delivered 9-27. It wasn't. 

Today (9-28), I called the USPS and they said the letter was being held at the USPS River Road Station. 

I decided to scan some websites before going to the River Road Station. Just as I finished and I was getting my car keys, there was a knock on the door. It was the USPS letter carrier and she had the registered letter. So, the website didn't work, the phone info was wrong but the delivery turned out OK.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:20 PM

Monday, September 24, 2012

Premium Library Service 

Our Synagogue recently cataloged all the books and created an electronic book reservation system (to supplement the standard 'come in when the library is open' system). 

The e-reservation system is a bit kludgy given that it is based on copying pieces of an .xls file and pasting them into email but I thought it would be interesting to see how it worked.

In addition I wanted to have something to read after kol nidre this Yom Kipper and on the festival days of Succos.

A few minutes after completing my e reservation I got an email saying I was the first person to make an e reservation (two books by Martin Buber) and that, as an award, the books would be brought by my house (instead of having to pick them up at the synagogue office).  

The guy who brought them by (about 15 minutes after I sent in the e-reservation) told me that this service was definitely a one shot deal and thus I should expect to have to pick the books up the next time.

The image is not our library but one in what is now Tajikistan (formerly known as Buhkara).

posted by Martin Weiss  # 11:18 PM

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Another complex dream 

I dreamt I was an architect in charge of a number of structures (the image on the left is part of Hong Kong). 

In the dream I had a bunch of workers (I think at least some of whom were Chinese).  They kept bringing me designs of many story office buildings that were tinted colonial yellow or green. 

I told them to change the color (I don't like those colors on buildings in general). I don't remember what color I said to make it.

After a very short time they brought me designs for one and two story buildings that were a kind of nice shiny blue. I said the building were supposed to be tall and they pretended that they hadn't understood the first time.

Then different people came in to my office (I suppose they were the investors) and wanted to have some tea with me. I couldn't find a phone to order tea but then someone came in to the room with a plate of carrots.

I was annoyed both at the carrots and the lack of tea.

Working sure is a bummer. Even dreaming about it. 

posted by Martin Weiss  # 9:26 PM

New Space Saving Chicken Recipe 

When I was growing up, we frequently had chicken and rice. It was one of my favorites back then and it still it.

Beth told us a few months ago that she makes a one pot chicken and rice dish sometimes and it comes out yummy. We'll we tried it and, sure enough, it was yummy. In addition, it saves room.

This time we used an expensive rice in a box and I cooked the rice to a 3/4 condition before putting in the chicken and some mushrooms and cooking it. Next time I might try 1/2 cooking the rice and using a less expensive brand.

The rice in the image above was cooked with cream of mushroom which is why it is so white I think.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 9:11 PM

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I wish I hadn't bought these chips 

I bought a bag of Golden Fluff Natural Flavored Parve Corn Chips.

Corn tastes good right, thus naturally flavored corn chips ought to taste good also.

Nope.

Turns out that, perhaps, you need artificial flavoring to make corn chips taste good.

Or, perhaps, I just got a horrible tasting bag by chance.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:10 PM

Monday, September 10, 2012

Ten Verses for Free 

A few days ago, I was reading the Torah for the minyan I attend. Both the 4th and 5th reading (aka, aliyah) begin with the words, 'וַיְצַו מֹשֶׁה or Vayetzav Moshe' (and commanded Moses). When I was supposed to read only the 5th reading, I instead began with the 4th. 


No one seemed to mind and since the 4th reading was only 10 verses long, it passed quickly.


Its a good thing it didn't happen later because the 6th reading (someone else did that one) is over 60 verses long. 

The image is Michelangelo's Moses that is in the chapel of St Peter in Rome.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:20 PM

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Beer and Legislation 

I was preparing for a telephone conference. The conference is to assist a State in their compliance with and use of the newest Transportation authorization.

I only spent about an hour or two reading the actual statutes and the various summaries, conference reports and the like and found that having a few beers while doing this really makes it less painful (actually the law isn't anywhere nearly as bad as I had feared - it even had some stuff in it I liked).

Ann came home and saw some empty cans at my computer station and thought I might have a 'problem' but she accepted the explanation.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:10 PM

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Another complicated dream 

I've been having complicated, yet remember-able dreams lately.  I don't know why.

Anyway, in this dream I was visiting a school that G or Beth or Ann was attending. There was some break in the schedule and I was in their library and picked up a book about Winston Churchill. A professor saw me reading and came up to me and told me that the book I was looking at was badly flawed. The professor had an artificial eye.

Just then somebody else came to see me and asked me if I was available for mashgiach work (apparently the school was a jewish one). I said 'yes' and I was hustled to the kitchen.

My job had nothing to do with what I typically do with mashgiach work. Instead, I was going to wash large slabs of beef and then place them in a radiation machine. 

Then I woke up.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 1:11 PM

Monday, September 03, 2012

fielder's indifference 

I was at the National's game courtesy of SAC today.

The National's won 2-1. It was their 82nd victory - the most a Washington mlb team has had since 1969 (they had 86 that year).

One of the interesting things was that in the top of the 9th, a base was taken due to fielder's indifference. This led to a run being scored.

Here is how the top of the 9th is described by the National's website:

• Tyler Moore remains in the game as the left fielder.

• Pitching Change: Tyler Clippard replaces Drew Storen, batting 9th.

• 1.Anthony Rizzo singles on a line drive to right fielder Jayson Werth.

• 2.Alfonso Soriano flies out to center fielder Bryce Harper.

• 3.Starlin Castro flies out to right fielder Jayson Werth.

• With Welington Castillo batting, Anthony Rizzo advances to 2nd on defensive indifference.

• 4.Welington Castillo singles on a soft line drive to shortstop Ian Desmond [note it was just over Desmond's reach]. Anthony Rizzo scores.

• Offensive Substitution: Pinch-runner Tony Campana replaces Welington Castillo.

• With Josh Vitters batting, throwing error by Tyler Clippard on the pickoff attempt, Tony Campana to 2nd.

• 5.Josh Vitters strikes out swinging. 

   

  The run was counted as earned and charged to Tyler Clippard of the Nationals who nonetheless got his 30th save of the year.

  
  

  The win makes me 3-0 for the season in games I attended. (I was 3-0 last year also).

  
  

  Here is a NYTimes article about the subject of fielder's indifference.

  Here is a video of a more famous fielder's indifference from a few weeks ago where AJ Pierzynski of the WhiteSox went from 2nd to home on the Oakland A's indifference (although incompetence would be more like it). The image at the top left is taken from that event.

.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 8:37 PM

A Strange Dream Started with an Opera 

I had a strange and complicated dream.

It began with me attending the Bizet's opera Carmen, where the part of Carmen was played by an 8 year old girl. Then I came home and had nightmares (dream within dream). 

The next day I got up and drove downtown to attend a meeting at the Federal Highway Administration (I think that in this dream I was still a full time employee rather than a consultant, but I'm not sure). I didn't have a parking pass so I paid $20 to park. 

At the meeting, the Administrator, apparently wanting to begin with small talk, asked if anyone had done anything interesting the previous evening. I mentioned the opera and said the kid did really well. 

The Administrator then moved the discussion forward saying that the purpose of the meeting was to choose person to fill a vital position (it might have been Executive Director since that's about the most vital position and, although a political appointee, by law, the person has to come from the Civil Service). The candidate was named Whiskey Mike (or maybe that was his nickname) and I said something positive about him. Then some other people came into the room (people I used to work with) and made frivolous comments about coordination of window cleaning or something like that.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 9:32 AM

Sunday, September 02, 2012

Ann and Beth's trip 

Ann was on a cruise with Beth last week.


The cruise began in Barcelona. Ann got there a few days early and had Sabbath with the Chabad people there before the cruise left on a Sunday (Beth flew to Barcelona from Israel on Sunday).  The cruise line was Norwegian.  Ann reports that the ship seemed to be more crowed than our previous cruise (to the Baltic back in 2009).


The cruise went fine and they say the French Riveria and several parts of Italy.


Top image is Beth near some of the old Rome.


Second image is Beth with a Pinocchio. There  are, per Beth's report, lots and lots of Pinocchios now in Italy - all very camera friendly I guess.


Third image is Ann in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.



Ann got to Dulles airport about 830 pm on Sept 2.


 Customs wasn't much of a problem but since she got her passport mixed up with Beth, there was a delay at the Immigration and Naturalization Service checkpoint. So it took her about a hour or so to get through them. 

 

It took me over an hour to get to Dulles airport to pick up Ann from her trip to the Mediterranean. 


First I had to go to 3 service stations to get gas because two were closed (pre labor day). Then I almost had an accident getting onto the Beltway when someone cut me off and I ended up going the wrong way. 


I ended up getting to the passenger pick up area about 5 minutes after Ann got there.



Of course dealing with the construction along the way (the Silver metro line and a new HOT lane) was no joy either. Grump Grump.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 11:50 PM

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