nice saturday afternoon

i went to Lincoln park with two of my friends, to enjoy the spring and take some pictures (and get me out of the house so i don't feel too lonely without ben)


i think Tulips are my favorite flower. they are all over town. i think people put the bulbs in the ground in the fall, and then after the ground thaws the tulips come out. i get distracted by pretty flowers no matter where i go or how hurried i am or if it rains.


... a couple of flamingos at the zoo were totally into each other, playing some sore of courtship game.

no title

... a part of a gmail chat with ben a few seconds ago (regarding some guy who i'm collaborating with)

me: yes
thats good
i just hope i can trust this clown
Ben: mi ze ha leitzan ha ze?


when your husband starts quoting Givat Halfon, that's when you know he successfully assimilated into Israeli society.

07:13 AM

ben had to fly to chile for a work-related meeting.
a little chime wakes me up this morning, and i read this text message on my phone:
"Im back in atlanta. We turned around halfway over columbia and flew back. We're leaving atl again. Will call later tonight if we get to chile"...
apparently there was some instrumental malfunction, and the pilot decided to turn the plane back and land where it started... i'm sure ben will have more to say about that.

Earthquake!!!

It would be a crime not to write something about this. In southern Illinois, some 250 miles south of Chicago, an earthquake of magnitude 5.2 on the Richter scale struck West Salem, Illinois at about 4:30 AM on Friday, April 18th . Reports were that skyscrapers swayed downtown in the loop, Indianapolis, and St. Louis and that the earthquake was felt hundreds of miles away, as far as Detroit and Cincinatti. After shocks were reported as strong as 4.6 later that morning.

There was moderate damage to some buildings near the quake, but nothing much happened in Chicago. A chunk of re-rod in the Edens Expressway in northwest Chicago was said to have been broken and exposed by the earthquake, causing damage to passing cars.

We felt nothing in our building. Keren and I slept soundly. In the U.S., the U.S.Geological Survey usually compiles information on these earthquakes. In fact, we're encouraged to report our experiences here. I don't know how they weed spam out of this, but there you have it.

Earthquakes are not completely unknown to this part of the country (see picture at right); we sit near the New Madrid Seismic Zone. It's not a normal seismic zone like those found near the intersection of plates (e.g. San Andreas in California, Dead Sea Fault in Israel -- see next map of earthquakes since 1963, where most fall along major fault lines). Rather, it's part of a Midcontinent Rift System, specifically the so-called "Reelfoot Rift".

The strongest recorded earthquake in Illinois was in 1968, at magnitude 5.4. However, a legendary earthquake in neighboring Missouri, the New Madrid earthquake, is said to have actually diverted the flow of the Mississippi River on Feb 7, 1812 (Chicago didn't exist yet). Geologists estimate the earthquake to have reached 8.0 on the Richter scale (recall that a one unit increase on the Richter scale is a factor of 10 higher in intensity). If true, this is 100's of times stronger than what we experienced yesterday. For reference, the devastating Great Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake, which killed hundreds (due to tsunami) on Dec 26, 2004, measured a 9.1.

I don't want to say in this high rise we live in long enough to find out if an earthquake will ever damage Chicago. The city hasn't even been here 200 years, short on geological time scales, so it doesn't seem impossible that we might get a real scare someday. If another 8.0 quake should strike within a few hundred miles of here, the last place I want to be is on the 9th floor of any building.

Passover

the plan:
.........
4 adults, 1 kid, 1 baby, 2 scroogim.

chicken soup w/ mazza balls
charosset (ima's recipe) w/ mazot
chopped liver (safta's recipe) w/ horseradish
salad
mashed potatos
roast beef (following ima's instructions)
dessert (probably of the chocolate family)


see what happens...

----
friday night update:
we stopped at the store on the way back from work and got a nice chunk of aged sirloin for the roast. (hebrew-english conversion of cow parts, here)
prepared chopped liver according to safta's recipe. which may be a family secret, so not sure if i'm allowed to share it... it came out a bit sweeter than safta's, but sooo good :)
Gray scrooge was hanging out in the kitchen the entire time, hoping for crumbs that might miraculously fall off the sky. i let the 'kids' lick the spoon at the end :) that counted as their dinner, and now they are both taking a nap after thoroughly licking their paws.

- made charosset. mmmmmmmmmmm :) now the people get to lick the spoon (not the same spoon, don't worry...)

---------
sunday morning update:
SUCCESS. :D
although i had to call israel in the middle of the night and wake my mom (who sleeps at 11pm???) for the roast beef instructions, somehow everything was ready when the guests arrived. and it was all so tasty :) i still can't get over how good the roast beef turned out.

i'm adding the roast beef recipe to the recipe book. it was so good. i can't understand why some people would choose to be vegetarian when there's roast beef like that out there!


---


some after-dinner fun

updates

- the daffodil patch by the gym is magnificent

- i moved to ben's office for a while (his office mate is out of town), life is better when you have a window

- my orchid isn't feeling very well, and i'm not sure what the problem is. first one, and now two of the flowers are closing, and it could either be underwatering or overwatering. i thought maybe it didn't like the ceramic pot, so i re-potted it in its original plastic pot that it came with, but i don't know if i didn't actually make things worse by that.

- Gray Scrooge ate ben's mouse cable. we worry that some day he's gonna eat through an electric cable and turn black, not in a good way :(

just venting

it's very nice out, even warm, but the AC in my office is turned all the way down so that other offices get to be just right. now i'm too cold and my fingers are blue and i can't wait to go home and hug a scrooge.
and no, i can't open a window, CAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANY WINDOWS!

Spring

it amazes me how everything starts to poke out of the recently-frozen ground, and flowers come out of nowhere. like these yellow daffodils (נרקיסים), and little buds on trees... that's sort of what we were shown in elementary school and never really experienced for real.
it's starting to be pretty everywhere.
(the picture was taken with my cell phone, towards the gym, on the way to work this morning)

Chicago Botanic Gardens

Sandy and Gary came for a visit this weekend, and among other things, we went to the Botanic Gardens.
It was a beautiful weekend, the sun was out and everything felt like spring. i'm glad we got to spend so much time outdoors!


The botanic gardens are about 1/2 an hour drive north of chicago. there are several different gardens and greenhouses. i think it would be absolutely beautiful once all the flowers start blooming; when we were you could see them starting to poke out of the ground. we should definitely go again in a few weeks or later this summer!
the indoors exhibitions, including a dessert and a tropical garden were pretty cool.
we happened to be there during the Illinois Orchid Society Spring Show. They had a presentation of all sorts of prize winning plants (not exactly sure how that goes), and in a separate room, just as large, they had many many orchids for sale.



i had to buy one for my growing garden :) this is it!