Shabbat shalom, Happy Hanukkah, 17.12.09

Hi everyone, For the last 24 hours, the heavens have wailed and thrashed with a northern front moving in.....just a few minutes ago it settled down and began to rain. Or rather, began to drip. Another grand entrance followed by a disappointment. Our skies remain constipated. We had hoped for a break in the years of drought, thinking we had signs of a wetter winter, but so far no such luck. So the water rationing continues..... It's the Sixth Candle of Hanukkah tonight, nearing the end of Hanukkah Week. Yep, that's your Prime Minister lighting those candles, Canadians. Good on him. Nice menorah too. You Canadians are civilized people. Western Christmas is around the corner, too. I'm taking off Wednesday and Thursday from work to relax and enjoy it. (Friday isn't an office working day here anyway; it's like Saturday in the West.) So a 4-day weekend until work starts again the following Sunday. I am really looking forward to it. Took my Mazda to the garage again on Sunday with an engine light which turned out to be a bad catalytic converter which was caused by the bad ignition coils which downed my car last week. What I learned about catalytic converters this week: they have platinum in them and cost 4000 shekels new. I got a used one for half price but it still kicked a hole in my budget. Threw up my hands and opened my savings account to cover all these bills. I'm not crying; that's what savings are for. I'm lucky to have some savings in these days of recession; a lot of people don't. I just hope something else doesn't give me a bit bill for a few months. My sick kitty died on shabbat also, so this week was depressing.....I feel guilty about that one too because I hesitated to take him to the vet, thinking it was kidney problems that couldn't be helped, while all along it was an abscess in his jaw that could have been helped, perhaps. Or maybe cancer; the vet wasn't sure. When a cat has trouble eating, take him to the vet. Period. To balance these home problems, work is going well. My database developer has created a prototype for the system we've been developing these last three months, and we are going to put it on the network next week. Also, I was informed today that I have a decent budget for more development next year, so we just keep on going. I've been sitting on my hands waiting for the launch of the "long term plan" for computation that my organization has been babbling about for maybe eight years, and still babbling. Finally gave up, and decided to do it myself. To my surprise, that's okay with them, because they didn't know what to do with biological data anyway. I'm stupid, I should have figured that out about five years ago and started sooner, but maybe there would have been too much resistence then. Typical Olsvig behavior: ask once, ask twice, kick ass hard, stomp around, and then just go do it. At the end, most people are glad we did it. Hate the methods, love the results. At least in my European project, EBONE, folks seem to really like the fact that my team is the little engine that could. They are getting used to the idea that the Israelis usually go splat right into the matter, with few preliminaries. Teams from other countries are worrying about their hours allocated to the project, deadlines, deliverables, etc. The Israelis don't pay attention to the time, just to the job, poke it a bit here and poke it a bit there, improvise some kind of methodology and are off and running, while the English and the Germans are just standing around picking their noses. (The Italians and Austrians seem to catch on faster.) Well into the project, we already have a reputation: nobody knows what the hell the Israelis will pull next. Gotta keep up the national reputation, you know. That's except for one old English guy who just loves us, thinks this is a lot of fun, and has been here in Israel four times in the last four years as a result. He's a retired professor from the North Country with a low tolerance for bullcrap, and a high tolerance for beer. We keep him fueled and run around the country with him, which he loves. Fortunately he's co-leader of the project so we use him to drive home the stuff we are doing, to our mutual satisfaction.....Big, rawboned farmer type, mind sharp as a Japanese knife, blunt and earthy, he's pre-adapted to Israel and we enjoy him. Not much more to mention. Had some annual medical tests, and my collection of autoimmune diseases seems quite stable for now. Hematologist is happy, family doctor is happy, I'm happy. Last thing I need now is bad health. Lord knows I deserve it, but it hasn't happened yet. With winter on us, my arthritis bothers a bit, and I'm planning some time at the spa, which I haven't done since summer. A soak in the jacuzzi and a massage do wonders; that's my holiday present to myself. Sure looking forward to it, too. Shabbat shalom, Happy Hanukkah, Linda