Looking Back

This morning I was looking over my blog and stumbled upon an old blog I wrote in July of 2010 titled Getting Back where I realized that I had allowed myself to balloon to 210 lbs!

Well, it’s been a long road since then – full of fits and starts in addressing that problem. Back then I set a goal of dropping my weight to 175 lbs and running a marathon in 2011. The good news is that I’m down to 169.8 lbs now although I haven’t done the marathon yet. I’ve had mixed results there – my first attempt at a half-marathon in May of 2011 was interrupted by a business trip to South Africa; my second attempt at the same half-marathon in May of this year was interrupted by a knee injury. Still, I will try again. I’m slowly ramping up my mileage again (did 6 miles on Sunday) and this time I’m also doing weights to strengthen my muscles around my knees as well as cross-training more. My goal of hitting 165 lbs before the end of the year is definitely in sight and the half-marathon is a priority for 2013 with a stretch goal of the Marine Corps marathon next October!

Rashi or Rabbeinu Tam?

I’ve been seeing the ads from the Israel Ministry of Immigrant Absorption targeted to Israelis living in America (of which I am one) calling on them to return to Israel.  The ads range from the young girl who is mourning the loss of life (and presumably friends) on Yom Hazikaron while her boyfriend things that she is interested in having a nice “candlelit” dinner at her apartment with him to the grandfather and grandmother asking their granddaughter at the start of Channukah what holiday is about to start to which she replies “Christmas!” (there’s one more but it escapes me at the moment).  While the Jewish Federations of North America may be all up in a stir about this campaign, I think one need only look at the following picture (found at The Muqata blog – an odd name for an Israeli blog) and realize that the Ministry is actually very correct (and yes, I know the picture is photoshopped but it does a good job in making the point):

Is Santa's Tefillin Rashi or Rabbeinu Tam?

(Original picture can be found at http://muqata.blogspot.com/)

An Amazing Land, An Amazing People, An Amazing Video

This is an awesome video about Israel.  Definitely a must see!