THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Lots in Bloom on the Lot

I picked some flowers for the sabbath table early this pm. They were all from our yard.

Admittedly, they are not as nice as the display at the beginning of this month (see a five posts ago).

Two types of roses (the vase to the left) , one purple iris (probably the last of this spring's blooming), one peony (the dark red one on the upper right), one rhododendron (below the peony) and one clematis (purple just above and to the left of the rhododendron).

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:56 PM

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Denard Span Career Day

I was at the National's game yesterday (courtesy of Marvin Fells). The Nationals beat Cincinnati 9-4, although Cincinnati really beat themselves. The Reds made 4 errors and their star pitcher (Johnny Cueto) got wild in the 6th inning hitting two batters and then giving up hits.

Denard Span, the Washington center fielder, came in to the game with a batting average of .238 and went 5 for 5 (raised his average to .263). He also had a stolen base and 2 RBIs (two of the hits were doubles).

This event concluded a day where I left my house at about 445am (I got back home about 1130pm)

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:15 AM

At the Ambassador's Residence

I was doing mashgiach work yesterday. I worked at three different places: downtown at AIPAC from 545am to about 9am; then at the food preparation place in Rockville to about 3pm; then at the residence of the Ambassador from France to about 530pm (then I went to a baseball game - previous post).

The Residence of the Ambassador flew two flags outside; one was that of France, the other that of the EU (the French flag seemed to be a few inches higher).

In the residence were a least a half a dozen portraits of the Marquis de Lafayette (aka Gibert du Motier) and at least two busts. Of course the Marquis de Lafayette is probably the most popular French statesman of all time to Americans (my brother pointed out that Louis Pasteur, etc are also popular). There were no portraits of Charles de Gaulle or, Jacques Chirac or even Francois Holland (the current one).

The image is of the Marquis as a General as of about 1791 (although the artist painted it in 1834)

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:00 AM

Sunday, May 18, 2014

M at Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute)

I went to the last performance of the five opera company 'The Magic Flute'. The Kennedy center allied with Omaha, Kansas City, San Francisco and Opera (Charlotte) Carolina ; there were multiple shows in each city.

The costumes, set and so forth was very good. All the singers were wonderful (there was a fantastic duet with two sopranos). The bass (the sorceror/brotherhood leader) was also wonderful except when he hit the very low notes (60Hz or so), he couldn't project his voice and when these notes were part of a duet or trio or significant orchestra accompaniment, I couldn't hear the bass part. I asked a few people if it was my hearing aid or did they have the same problem. They said that this was a problem that was hard coded into the opera by Mozart. He must have assumed they could find people to hit these notes, although since it was done late in his career, he should have known better.

Anyway, the opera was performed in English (and with english subtitles too to help out). The opera company used the translation to get in a bunch of contemporary jokes (e.g., there was a sarcastic comment about tweeting and a sly appeal for contributions).

The image is from the Kennedy center website. It shows Papageno (left - the comic baritone character who has magic power over birds) and Pamina (right - the female character that the tenor falls in love with)

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:15 PM

Sunday, May 11, 2014

It's Azalea Season - Finally

The azalea season is late this year because of the severe winter. However the azaleas look as good as ever.

The small image (with Ann and me) shows the breath of one of the azalea hedges (the hedge borders our next door neighbor). The large image is a close up.

You can make the images larger by clicking on them.

This is just the first wave of azaleas. A lot of them are just now starting to bloom and there will probably be some blooms out as late as Memorial day.

By the way, the winter seems to have killed every chrysanthemum plant in my yard and also our fig tree.

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:42 PM

Monday, May 05, 2014

Flowers for various occasions

We began to acquire some table flowers on Passover. Diane White brought us the flowers that are in the blue vase.

Then Beth sent the lilly in the white rectangle planter for my birthday.

Then Beth sent the tulips in the clear glass holders for Ann's birthday.

The top picture was taken April 30 (tulips not out, Ann in orange sweater).

The bottom picture was taken May 5.

The Dahlia in the vase is still looking nice - about 3 weeks after we got it.

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:34 AM

Friday, May 02, 2014

Pulse Rate in Good Shape

I was at the platelet/plasma donation center today and, as per usual, they took my pulse.

It was 66 (I had exercised for about an hour at the gym earlier that day).

I was pretty proud of myself since I had been averaging in the 70s and low 80s for the past half dozen times I've given blood and had it measured.

However, I looked up the 'average' pulse rate charts (here is one) and, per those charts, I'm just 'good', not anything special (and those rates in the 70s and low 80s are 'worse than average'. Of course the Red Cross people told me then that they thought 70s and low 80s were just fine.

posted by Martin Weiss # 6:02 PM