SSSS

On FRIDAY I flew out of DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) airport ... and I had been selected by the security for a Super Special Security Screening (aka SSSS) ... they way the airline identifies such a passenger is putting a SSSS on the boarding card ...

... and today I got voted ... probably because I was travelling alone, bought the ticket at the last minute and I got a 1 WAY ticket ... process in simple and neat ... you have to stand there a person makes a physical check that you are not hiding anything on you ... and unfortunately for this task they always match you with a person of your sex ... so no much luck there ... and after that they open, check all your belongings, sniff with an artificial nose of you had any explosive on your belongings (explosive are very aromatic powders ... so it is a kind of easy to identify them). Anyways I went thru this process I think hundreds of times .. especially when I was living in ISRAEL .. and there it is is not nice ... the security guards are asking you all type of questions ... if you have a girlfriend, why you travel alone, if you know Arab people, how long have you been with a girlfriend, if you have any receipt proving the travel you are describing ... an all that type of stuff that is understandable in a way, due to security reasons, but in an other way is really bothering ... especially when they go to personal business ... anyways ... not important for this post .. just told you in case you fly from the BEN GURION AIRPORT (Tel Aviv Airport) ...

... today I asked to Paul, the ATA guy, who had the misfortune to check me (I had so much small and strange stuff in my bags that the check itself lasted for almost 10 minutes, I believe) ... if I could take some pics ... he was cool enough to let me shoot them ... I took the pics and I told me that I was going to use it for my blog ... so he gave me his email address ... so I can send him both the pics I took and the link to this post ... funny enough a Paul'S colleague told me to describe in a nice way the way they threated me ... otherwise they were going to track me and created me troubles next time in DFW ... of course he was kidding ... but .. hey guys ... THEY THREAT ME WELL ... :O ... only complain .. is that next time I would like a girl going tru this process ... I believe girls have a better touch ad they can feel if a person hides some stuff on his body ... ... almost forgot, of course, the guy in the picture is PAUL ...

DALLAS, FEELING THE HEAT

I am back home in LA now ... but until Friday I was still in DALLAS, TX ... and in these days DALLAS it is all about the MAVS (i.e. MAVERICKS) are in the NBA final with MIAMI HEAT. Also in my company everybody are really excited about it. Actually I don't care much ... I am more into the FOOTBALL WORLD CUP. Yesterday there was GAME 4 ... so in the office they did a small TOMBOLA and distributed some gifts ... and I think I got the best prize ... I basically won a MAVS TShirt ... now a real jersey ... just a TShirt ... but it was a special edition to celebrate the MAVS victory in the WESTERN CONFERENCE ... lucky ... isn't it!? Here a picture of my new T Shirt ...

... pretty cool as a memory of this trip to DALLAS. Of course there was also a CAKE to celebrate the event ... here MANU carrying over to the kitchen (or at least this is what he claimed) whatever we didn't manage to finish ...

In the evening with some colleagues we went to dinner to a SUSHI place and after that CHAMPS a kind of SPORTIVE PUB not far from the office ... and we had some good fun watching the NBA FINAL ... from the pictures I am not sure if we did drink too much beer ... or if my colleagues just wanted to show their disappointment for the fact that I was supporting MIAMI ...

... anyways MIAMI won ... actually they crashed DALLAS and DALLAS is really feeling the HEAT now ... from 2-0 we are now 2-2 and next game is in MIAMI ... next week I will be again in DALLAS ... so I will let you know how things will go ... in a way I think would be nice to be part of the CELEBRATIONS for MAVS VICTORY ... in a way I continue to support MIAMI ... I always prefer places o the shore rather than in the mainland ... :D

CUBA LIBRE

Tonight dinner and evening with my colleagues here in DALLAS, TX ... we went to a cafe-restaurant called CUBA LIBRE in DALLAX downtown ...

... food and drinks were good ... and THANKS G-D we went out together after work ... I think in a city like DALLAS I could easily get really bored without friends and colleagues. As far I understood ... there is not really much to do here ... but shpooing and eating ... and in these days is really really hot ... I think we are close to 100F ... :O

TAXI DRIVER

Travelling so much I take a lot of TAXIS ... especially from my place to LAX and vice versa ... and I like to chitchat with the TAXI DRIVERS ... and I think that in these 3 years in US I never met any American ... and they really work hard ... 8-10 hours a day 7 days a week ... seating and driving all day in the crazy LA traffic (*) ...

... most of them are waiting for a better opportunity ... all of them would like to do a different job ... I remember one of them telling me "The TAXI DRIVER is not a real job ... you do it waiting for something better".... none of them really find the promised land in USA, but very few would really like to go back to their country ... all of them like to speak about politics ... they are good companion of my trips ... after I am speaking with them ... I feel really lucky ... I am also a foreign worker here in US, but I believe I have been luckier than them, so far.
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(*) I shoot these picture last FRIDAY on my way back home from LAX after the flight SEA-LAX. Now I can't remember the name of the driver (I have such a bad name for names) ... and he was originally from UCRAINE.

BIRTHDAY PARTY

So LAST SATURDAY we had the BIRTHDAY PARTY in our place in HERMOSA ... 100th BIRTHDAY PARTY because the sum of LEIF, KEITH and MINE age sums up to 100 ... LEIF took the ownership of the PARTY PREPARATION ... he did pretty much everything ... went to COSTCO to buy stuff and COOKING ... here LEIF when almost doe with the cooking is cleaning ...

... because of the multinational birthday we decided to put out the 3 flags ... GERMAN, AMERICAN and ITALIAN ... a couple of pictures ... in the first LEIF is filling the cans we had put put in order to avoid the flags flying away ... and in the second the 3 flags with also LEIF's CAR in the foreground ... he has the GERMAN FLAG on it ... because of the FOOTBALL WORLD CUP ...

... before the real party started LEIF, JASON, IAN and I tested if the BEER FUNNEL was working fine ... JASON basically failed with 3 beers ... I did my 2 beers in 2 rounds and LEIF shoot only for 1 beer and succeeded to make it one shot ...

... here some random pics from the party with LEIF, NHAT, MIKI, GREG, CHRIS ...

... here LEIF taking care of the preparation of the FUNNEL for BRIAN ...

... and these are pictures I kinda of remember I took ... but I wasn't sober anymore ... if I remember correctly in the last two ... I tried to keep the camera lenses open for 10 seconds ... which doesn't really work that great if you are drunk and don;t have a tripod ...

... sorry for all the people who missed it ... but we will try to shoot an other party soon ... :D

FRIENDS

So ... here I am in DALLAS, TX ... 2 days of work .. which went OK ... new customer, new money and everybody happy ... but the best thing of this trip has been the re-union with BRIAN and NATAF ... a couple of very good friends I met for the first time when all of us were living and working in ISRAEL ... now we all live in US ... I live in LA, they live in DALLAS ... and even if we meet only every few months ... our friendship is still there ... time to time we manage to meet and it is nice to share whatever we are going thru ... here a picture we took tonight in a THAI restaurant in DALLAS ...

... I personally think that FRIENDS are one of the best blessing I am enjoying in this life ... most of my HAPPINESS is due to them ... THANKS TO ALL MY FRIENDS FOR MAKING ME SMILE EVERYTIME I AM THINKING ABOUT YOU ... AND ULTIMATELY MAKING ME HAPPY ... :D

FOOTBALL WORLD CUP so far

After 3 days of secondary matches in Germany ... today first match for the ITALIAN team in the 2006 FOOTBALL WORLD CUP ... ITALY played against GHANA ... and we won 2 - 0 ... here I picture I took some time ago ... and I think it kinda of fit the event and the final score ...

... D. in case you are reading ... thanks for gracefully posing ... :D

MY GUARDIAN ANGELS

In this very moment I am in DALLAS, TX ... not much down here so far ... just work ... I will be here till WEDNESDAY ... so hopefully I will have some nice story and some picture from here as well ... but before that I have still some story ... this happen during my 3 days in the GLACIER NP ... so this happened after I took the NUMA OUTLOOK HIKE on Friday June 2nd (now that I am here in Dallas ... looks so far ... but it had been only 10 days ago) ... during the last part of the HIKE there was a little bit of RAIN and WIND ... but nothing really dramatic ... so after the hike I decided to drive back to my room to take a shower and my plan was to go to drink some BEER in the WEST GLACIER PUB. I hit the road around 5PM (sunset is around 10PM) ... the road from the trail to the cabin was probably 15 miles and after a couple of miles ... BANG ... here you go a LOG ON THE ROAD ...

... nobody around ... no RANGER ... no CELLPHONE ... on the other way there was no chance to go anywhere but back to the trailCOVERAGE ... I didn't have any other chance ... so I had to remove the LOG by myself ... a kind of funny ... especially because it wasn't particularly heavy ...

... back to my car ... while I am driving ... I am looking around and ... I realize that probably the tree fell on the street because the FOREST IS COMPLETELY DEAD ... a WILDFIRE burn it down ... probably not long ago ... and after a couple of minutes drive there you go ... AN OTHER LOG ...

... and again ... even this one is over ...

... but I have to say that I am start getting nervous ... how more longs am I going to find on my way ... !?! ... I have to drive for almost 15 miles ... an other 2-3 minutes drive ... and there you ... at least 3 ... and this is heavier than the other two ...

... I manage to remove this as well ... but not by myself ... I had the help of what I called my 2 GUARDIAN ANGELS ... ERIC and ANGIE ... a couple of guys who are driving a SUV and got just behind me ... we continue on the road and there you go ... we find other more logs ...

... and again the 3 of us remove them one of the other ... the change comes to big log ... where even if you are in 3 people you can 't really do much ... so ERIC decides to use the SECRET WEAPON that every AMERICAN has in his car ... the TOW STRAP ... an there you go ...

... at the end we had to clear all the road ... in certain cases we had also to use the AXE (the other secret weapon that ERIC had in his SUV) ... so pulling the logs we were able to break them in two ... in other cases we really struggled ...

... at a certain point we got really scared that the number of logs was going to be too much for us and for the time we had before sunset ... none of us knew exactly how big was the dead forest ... and we didn't know how long was the road ... and the sunset was getting closer and closer ... at the end we managed to go through this ordeal ... basically WE DID CLEAR THE ROAD ON BEHALF OF THE RANGERS (who didn't show up at all) ... we ended up removing 21 LOGS from the road (after these logs I did stop to take pictures ... but believe me ... it was almost a nightmare ... almost every curve there was a log on the road) we basically avoided to sleep in the middle of nowhere ... but I am telling you ... these two guys, with their SUV, TOW STRAP and AXE really saved my *SS ... I don't know what i was going to do without them ... they really were my GUARDIAN ANGELS ... :O ... the motto of the NATIONAL PARKS is "DON'T SEE IT. EXPERIENCE IT" ... I think the 3 of us really did it ... for one day we did experience what does it mean to be a RANGER ... :D

We managed to get to the GALCIER NP McDonald LAKE LODGE ... around 10PM ... the kitchen was closed. With our story we manged to have something out of it ... here the happy and well deserved dinner ... I got my favorite new burger ... BUFFALO BURGER ... really tasty ... :O

... after dinner ERIC and ANGIE tried to get a room in the MOTEL in WEST GLACIER where I was staying but the RECEPTION was CLOSED ... so they continued their trip ... but I am sure that if and when I will need them they will show up ... isn't this the best skill of the GUARDIAN ANGELS!?

HIKING in the GRIZZLY COUNTRY

"HIKING is supposed to be a relaxing sport ... no rush ... you take your pace ... you have to enjoy the beauties around you" ... this is what I learned growing up when my dad introduced me to the HIKING ... and it really works pretty much like this back in EUROPE ... what I have learned here in USA ... especially in the GLACIER NP ... is that most of the time you are stepping in someone else "home" during your hikes ... you are stepping into a GRIZZLY COUNTRY ... this is the sign that I found in the parking lot of the NUMA LOOKOUT HIKE where I left my car (which was the only car there) ...

... of course when you see this LANDSCAPE and you know that you are going to HIKE UP to those mountains ...

... you don't care and you go for it ... :D ... the doubts start again, though, when you see this "informative flier" after 10 minutes hiking ...

I started getting REALLY SCARED when after 1/2 hour hike (out of 7 hours) ... I heard a very loud ROARING comig from the forest ... to me only a BEAR ... a REALLY BIG BEAR ... can do that noise ... at that point I thought seriously to go back ... but again ... becaue I am basically STUPID I continued ... but following the RANGER suggestions heard the previous day at the PARK ENTRANCE ... I tried to make NOISE ... CLAPPING MY HANDS ... and I continue all the way up ... a CLAP every 5 steps ... and believe me ... it is a lot of CLAPPING when you HIKE UP more than 4 hours ... but I got even more conviced that I was doing the right thing when I saw these FOOTPRINTS on the TRAIL ...

... SCARY, aren't they!? To me they were ... and still they are looking at them now ... bottom line I clap my hands as much as I could ... and this was the first hike where I got my hands more sore than my legs ... :O ... but of course as soon as I got to the top of the mountain ... at the NUMA LOOKOUT ...

... I forgot everyting and I just enjoyed the wonderful scenery ...

... and also a squirell came to visit me ...

... and I managed to take a nice picture of this flower ...

... the way back has been more relaxed ... not sure why ... probably because the upcoming rain made me run all the way down and not think too much about to the fact that I was in a GRIZZLY COUNTRY ... I got to the car safely ... only slightly wet for the rain to the car ... got into the car ... and start driving back ... and while I was driving back I got into a real adventure ... a very funny story ... but I will write about it in an other post ... :D