16. September 2011 by Guy Lipof.

I’ve been reading a bunch of articles and seeing a few videos as they relate to the Middle East.  With the impending push by Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen of the Palestinian Authority) requesting statehood at the UN, I wonder what is the real goal of this action.  We see much disagreement between the various Palestinian groups (like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority) on this action and even with the Palestinians in Jordon (see NY Times article on recent Rally).  I think much of the disagreement is around making peace with Israel and recognizing her right to exist.  If the Palestinians could do this, then the question of borders and such is a mere technical discussion.  Many people tend to forget the history of the middle east and how its borders were established and changed.  So, I feel Danny Ayalon’s (Israel Deputy Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs) You Tube video, while very simple, highly relevant:

• “The Truth About the Peace Process“

Couple the above with the turmoil between Turkey and Israel over the Mavi Marmara, see article by David Romano, and the Arab Spring events throughout the Middle East, I feel the push for statehood recognition is really a push by the Palestinian Authority out of fear that there will be a Palestinian Arab Spring.  The question I wonder is: “Will a failed bid for statehood stop the toppling of the Palestinian Authority?”  My guess is after 15 years of pain and lack of progress by the Palestinian Authority and two Intifada’s, the people in the West Bank have a worse life and have lost much of their patience.  So, I think the Palestinian Authority will collapse.  I hope that real elections happen and a governing body that wants peace is established.  My greatest fear is what will replace the current lack of authority and corruption will be Hamas, and we see what they have brought to Gaza.

My hope is that at some point Arabs and Israelis can become good neighbors and someday friends. I have friends that are Muslim and I know there are moderate Muslims and Arabs in the western world that also hope so:

• An Arab Like Me

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6. September 2011 by Guy Lipof.

Well, we’ve returned from vacation and school has started.  Susie spent some time in Sonoma visiting some dear friends and our nephew, Matthew.  She came back to blistering temperatures near around 110 F/ 43 C.  Fortunately, we were turning around and making a trip up to Washington and Montana.  We visited Susie’s sister Kim and her clan in Tacoma, while taking in the sights around Puget Sound and Mt. Rainer National Park.  I had a great time hiking around Rainer, we were at Mowich Lake and Eunice Lake.  I think for some the hike was a bit too long, I’m still apologizing.  On our way out to Montana, we stopped in Ellensburg to see Dick and Jane’s Art House Spot along with the Gingko Petrified Forest.  The journey was quite comfortable and we were surprised by the difference in climate and landscape between western and eastern Washington.  We drove through the Coeur d’Alene National Forest in Idaho.  The lakes and mountains in Idaho were most impressive.  We did notice that there were people on boats, but no water skiers.  I believe the water was way cold, even with wetsuits.

We spent about a week touring around Glacier National Park.  We were with Ted (best friend from University), Juliana, their family and a guest from Ireland (Jamie).  We did a bit of hiking around lakes, near snow and some slightly rocky terrain.  We didn’t see any bears, while hiking.  Most of the wildlife we saw, were chipmunks, pikas, red squirrels, big horn sheep, mountain goats.  We did see a black bear on the side of the road eating berries.  While touring the park was great fun, I think the highlight of our trip was rafting down the Middle Fork River.  Ten is the perfect number for getting everyone wet going through some fun rapids.  No one fell into the water, but there were a few who went in for a swim.  Most got out pretty quickly.

Even though the kids started school on the 22nd of August, I would have a tough time saying summer is over.  We were still in 100+ Fahrenheit/ 38+ Celsius temperatures and there was no forecast in sight that temperatures were going to get cooler.  Well surprise surprise, today it has all of a sudden gotten cooler (90 F/ 32 C).  I never thought I would think of 90 F as cool.

I woke up very happy about this change in temperature, only to learn that there are some terrible high winds and fires going on all around the city, see the Austin American Statesman Newspaper for details.  Much of Susie’s family (the Callahans) live out in the Bastrop area, so they are heavily impacted by the fires.  We are spending much time glued to the television with our thoughts going out to everyone impacted.

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3. September 2011 by Guy Lipof.

I don’t normally write political rants on my blog, but I find the latest news (Boston Globe, Reuters and The Telegraph) ridiculous that Turkey has expelled Israel’s ambassador and is cutting their military agreements with Israel over the recently leaked UN Flotilla Report.  The synopsis from many websites is that the report concludes Israel’s actions on the Mavi Marmara were excessive but legal.  Most of us knew the UN report would state Israel’s actions were excessive, everything the UN analyzes about Israel normally concludes her actions as being excessive (duh, can you say predictable?).  Nonetheless, the kicker and big surprise, which Turkey is reeling about, is the report stated not only was the blockade and boarding of these ships trying to enter Gaza legal ‘BUT’ that Turkey should have done more to prevent these ships from traveling to Israel.  This last statement in layman’s terms seems like common sense to me.  I’ve been thinking about it why and I keep thinking about the following analogy:

If I had a group of kids under my care and they performed some mischief, me as the adult in-charge may be held responsible for their actions.  Mischief by teenagers tends to be quite harmless, but let’s assume their actions were severe.  Hopefully most sleep-over situations do not result in death, but let’s assume the kids tried to break into a guarded facility and I knowingly did not try to stop them or, god forbid, I encouraged them.  In most states, I think I would likely be held responsible for their actions.  Also even if the reaction at the guarded facility was considered illegal, I expect I would not be completely absolved of the situation (especially by the children’s parents).  If the guarded facility’s actions were legal, then I would likely be held liable for the situation (definitely by the children’s parents).

If we assume in the above scenario that Turkey is the parent, the flotilla are the children and Israel is the guarded facility and that the guarded facility’s actions (as noted by the UN report) were determined as legal, then I think Turkey would be considered responsible for the situation.  Prior to the report, Turkey wanted Israel to apologize and compensate the people of the flotilla.  Their premise was that the blockade was illegal, thus Israel’s actions were also illegal.  Turkey was also unwilling to accept responsibility for the flotilla, as they felt telling the not to go was enough, even though they knew the flotilla’s purpose and result could likely turn violent.  Now that Israel’s actions has been deemed a legitimate security measure and that Turkey’s actions were considered inadequate (’more could have been done’) to stop the flotilla, I think we can conclude it is Turkey who should do the apologizing and compensating.

Considering Turkey has yet to come to terms with their responsibility (and continued actions) with the Kurdish and the Armenian peoples, I doubt they will do so with the Turkish IHH organized flotilla.

08-SEP-2011: Found a post, For the Sake of Zion, that directly relates to the above.  Enjoy!

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12. May 2011 by Guy Lipof.

Well we have had a whirl wind of an April/ early May.  We joined my family in Connecticut for a long weekend to celebrate Pesach, went to the Callahan Rockport Beach House for Easter, Susie joined the Callahan women for a weekend getaway and we celebrated Derby Day and Mother’s Day in Austin.

• Building at the Beach
• RockPort Sand Castle
• The Sculptors

Foremost to all of our activities, we just returned from MD Anderson.  Where our visit with Dr. Yung went well.  Susie will be continuing yearly visits for the next five years.  He said there has been no change between her scans from six years ago and the ones from Monday.  He also mentioned that Susie’s Parotid tumor surgery scar is hardly noticeable.

So, we now feel more comfortable planning out our summer.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to get out of here before we start counting days over 100.

Love and hugs… Guy

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5. April 2011 by Guy Lipof.

Life is chugging along as if we have truly settled in Austin, though there are still four boxes that should be emptied (no earthly idea what is in them, but they are looking at me every weekend).  The kids are doing terrific.  Gabriel was part of two recent Jazz events (Jazz Concert at the Austin Jewish Community Center and a Jazz Festival at Temple College).  Pearl just returned from a school camping trip, where kayaking was the most enjoyed/ talked about activity/ event.

We also joined my parents for snow skiing in Park City, Utah.  Our dear friends, the Mahaffeys, also joined us for the later off of Spring skiing.  While the snow was not exactly winter powder, it was a true pleasure to carve.  We did have some windy days and a day that started out with drizzle turning into snow.  Susie did a mixture of Apres skiiing and tightening her boots for downhill runs with Gabriel, my father and at the end with Pearl.  The kids were a bit apprehensive, as they hadn’t skied for a few years, but they jumped in with little loss for time.  I’m now looking forward to trying to plan in a couple of trips for next year.  I hope you enjoy the 2004 to 2011 comparison photo of the kids with the Park City Bear Bench Statue.

In the meantime, we are visiting the Northeast for Pesach.  We will also join family for Easter at the Texas Coast.  We are talking about summer travel, but have not firmed up details.  We are leaning to somewhere cooler than Texas (like Canada or California/ Washington).  While both are fine locations, we would love to experience summer evenings at the Cambridge Blue.

Warm regards and much love… Guy and family

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2. January 2011 by Guy Lipof.

This last year was definitely a year full of changes.  Looking at the writings on my blog, some of the changes were quite stressful and some were anti-climatic.  However, we could not have gone through them in a successful fashion without the strong support from our friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic.

Our move from Cambridge back to Austin was much different than our move to the United Kingdom.  We knew our life at both locations but the return, while very good on many fronts, did not feel like we were going on an adventure.  With having friends and family here, the relocation back felt like we were moving into a new chapter referencing the past of a book.  In fact, the last few months have been kind of dream-like.  Almost as if our time in Cambridge was a dream or that our return to Austin is one.  You could say the edges in life were a bit fuzzy.  For the last few months, I think most of us have been wondering when we are going to wake up and where that will be.

Considering Susie’s tumor surgery and the hurdles associated with of our move, going on an adventure to another part of the US was not, in my humble opinion, appropriate.  Even with these challenges, we have adjusted well (albeit dreamlike) and have hosted two parties in our new/ old home.  We’ve been able to reconnect with souls that we haven’t seen in over half a decade, and we have visited with Susie’s clan.  While we do have a few more boxes to unpack (not sure where we will put them), I feel our relocation back is complete and we’ve settled back into the Austin environment.

Hopefully, 2011 will have an adventure in it without the plethora of 2010 changes.  We wish all of our friends and family a very happy and healthy new year.

Warm regards and much love… Guy, Susie, Gabriel and Pearl

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6. November 2010 by Guy Lipof.

We’ve hit November and what a whirlwind/ roller-coaster October was.  Susie had her surgery, to remove a tumor from her Parotid Gland, on Monday the 11th.  That first week was very challenging, but we got through it with lots of help from her mom, family (like cousin Amy) and dear friends, specifically Ken and Lisa.  Not to mention, the love and support we received from friends and family via phone calls, emails and FaceBook postings.  All of which culminated in Susie’s check-up visit to the doctor today, where he said she’s healing well and he doesn’t need to see her for six months..  Thank you very much for the get well wishes!

As I’m a stickler for ensuring that one does not get to relax and recover in complete peace, I thought it would be quite humorous if we also moved into our house towards the end of Susie’s two week recovery.  I believe my assumption that the two could be coupled was a bit naive.  Therefore with all of the hub-bub, we still aren’t unpacked.  In fact, I think we have not even reached the 50% mark.  Nonetheless, we do have essentials like beds, clothes and kitchen items at our ready.  We even have phone and Internet working.  So we’re open to chit-chat or even a visit while getting the house in order.  If you want to drop us a line, our FaceBook profile has been updated with our new contact information.

Now if I can just find the coffee machine, I might be a bit more useful in the morning.

Warm regards and much love… Guy

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23. September 2010 by Guy Lipof.

Well, we are all in Austin.  We are staying with our dear friends, Ken, Lisa, Zoe and Phil.  The kids started school, Susie now is the proud owner of a Honda CR-V, and I’m hopping around the US (Tampa, Phoenix, Dallas and Chicago).  After a short delay, our house in Cambridge (that was supposed to sell on the 1st) closed on the 21st of September. So, we are no longer a two house owning family (thank goodness :-).  We just heard that our house in Clarksville will be ready for us to move in middle of October.  So, I’m working with the movers if we can pull in our delivery from beginning of November to middle of October.

The only things left for us to do is move-in, get settled and take care of Susie’s Parotid tumor.  We should be done by Thanksgiving and ready to embrace the holiday.  We have no idea what we are doing for vacations/ holidays, but we intend to remain in Austin for Christmas.  We’ll be planning vacations, like skiing over Spring break, probably over Thanksgiving.  If you have ideas or want to meet up, our vacations will happen during breaks in the Austin ISD calendar.

Thanks for all the love and support!

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20. August 2010 by Guy Lipof.

Well we’ve sold the Alfa, dismantled Gabriel’s bed and are almost set for the movers next week.  My office is still a mess and we have a few things still to sell (Gumtree Cambridge):

- Portable Air Conditioner
- Samsung HD850 Multi-Region DVD Player and 23″ LCD TV
- Philips FWC170 Mini Hi-Fi System
- Panasonic Microwave and DeLonghi Toaster Oven
- Lamps, Extension Cords, Two CD Clock Radios, Two Fans and Two space heaters

After those are gone, I’m looking forward to Labor Day weekend in Austin (more stuff to do, buy a car and mobile phones).

Posted in Texas, Cambridge, Travel | 1 Comment »

16. August 2010 by Guy Lipof.

Well we’ve begun the transition from Cambridge to Austin.  Our house is under contract, movers are scheduled (25-AUG), Gabriel has crossed the Atlantic, and Susie/ Pearl will follow on the 24th of August.  So, next weekend is the last weekend that Susie and I will be in Cambridge (for some time at least).  We made the most of the Summer with camping at the Secret Garden Party, dodging rain drops at the Cambridge Folk Festival, dinners with friends and Pearl Camping with Girl Guides.

We know many of our UK friends are likely to be on holiday now.  Nevertheless, we will be at the Cambridge Blue around 5 PM on Saturday the 21st of August for drinks and bon voyage.  Hopefully, there will be critical mass (hint, hint) before our quick departure.  Otherwise, we’ll look forward to visits in Austin (just not in Summer ;-).

Warm regards and much love… Guy, Susie, Pearl (and far far away Gabriel

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