Happy Hanukkah from Pittsburgh

It's been a long while since the last time I wrote. At least I have kind-of an excuse... :-) Big portions of this period were filled with health problems, visits (e.g. Anat recently came back from 10 days in Israel) and a new job for me. Health-wise, I was unfortunate to have a hernia ("ki`le" in Hebrew slang), and underwent minor surgery. Indeed this is a simple and almost risk-free operation, but still it was performed with full anesthesia, and recovery took a while; as a matter of fact to this moment I'm not yet fully recovered, and I'm still holding back on returning to physical exercise. Along with quite a few illnesses of all family members, these past two months weren't the healthiest for us, but we hope this is behind us now. And for what it's worth, this was another reminder that we ought to cherish our usual good health...

Winter has arrived in full force, and we've already experienced several full-fledged snow blizzards. Shoveling the stairs and the pathway in front of our home and sprinkling salt to melt the ice have become frequent and necessary activities. Driving is often tricky, and in certain conditions the icy roads are really dangerous and call for driving really slowly and carefully. Luckily, the minivan we purchased as a second vehicle when I started my new job is pretty massive and hence is much more stable in winter road conditions. Typical temperatures are between -10 to 0 degrees (Celsius), and going out every morning is a lengthy ordeal that involves bundling up with scarves, gloves, heavy coats, hats and boots. Not to mention scrapping the ice from the windshield, or shoveling the snow from the car after a snowy night. The resulting daily routine is very different from the winter routine we were used to in Israel, but I must say that one gets used to it fairly quickly. It simply becomes an inherent part of life, and it comes with several advantages as well: beautiful white landscape around and the peaceful atmosphere when it's snowing to name a couple. Most of the optional activities during the coming months are indoors, such as museums, library etc., but there are some opportunities thanks to the weather, such as skiing, ice-skating and snow-sledding. We have all of them around here, and are cheerfully enjoying them.

As I mentioned above, I started a new job with a company called Vocollect less than two months ago, and so far it's everything I could have hoped for. The actual work I'm doing (as a software development engineer) is very interesting, surely comparing to other alternatives here in Pittsburgh, the people with whom I work are both very nice and very professional and the company culture is commensurate with what I was looking for. Even my daily commute is reasonably short: 15-20 minutes in each direction. Vocollect (http://www.vocollect.com/) is one of the few "real" high- tech companies in the area. It manufactures a voice-based product which is used by employees in large warehouses. To make a long story short, the product consists of a wearable computer on the user's belt, and a headset. The system instructs the user where to go next, how many boxes to pick etc., and then uses speech recognition to make sure that the instructions were followed accurately. Users interact with the device using speech only, leaving both their hands free. The company was founded almost 20 years ago, it has almost 300 employees and tens of thousands of its products are installed and being used daily all around the world.

Getting back to my perspective, the fact that this is not a young and small start-up is a key advantage. A typical work day is of 8 hours, and not 9, 10 or even 11 as is the case in many high-tech companies, here and in Israel. One is almost never expected to work on weekends, and for the most part deadlines are reasonable, making crunch times sufficiently rare and short. Most of the people around me have kids, which has a lot to do with a culture of working sanely and leaving enough time for family life. In short, my new job allows me to lead my life the way I want to, with Hadas, Noga and Anat being my highest priority. It wasn't clear to me that I would be able to find a position that would work out so well, and our general feeling in the past month is that we are very lucky to be able to maintain two full-time jobs with this level of leisure time and attention to the girls.

Speaking about the girls, they are AMAZING!!! I just had 10 days with them while Anat was away, and they were simply fabulous! They are so mature, so understanding and helpful, that at times I was wondering whether they were as young as they really are. They are both almost constantly happy and cheerful and the range of activities with which they can be entertained is ever expanding. Hadas suddenly became so big and so verbal, that it's sometimes hard for us to believe it is actually her speaking to us in these full and complex sentences. She had a brief period of tantrums a while ago, but it has almost completely vanished by now. Noga is a school girl in all respects, and is very happy with studying. She's reading and writing (in English) more and more, and has started speaking some Spanish as well, as her school teaches the language. The best part, however, without a doubt, are the relations between them. For extended stretches of time they play with each other, and they each other's best friends. For example, when Noga is visiting a friend, and Hadas wakes up from her nap, the first thing asked is usually "Where's Noga?". As a parent, this is the thing which I enjoy more than anything.

Finally, this time of the year is the "holidays" time here in the states. In the office, we had a week full of parties of all sorts, there are several formal vacation days and even work-days will probably see a half-empty company. Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year and school winter-break are all combined, reminding us of the Israeli atmosphere between Rosh-Hashana and the end of Sukkoth… We have many plans for Hanukkah, almost every day hosting or visiting friends to light candles and celebrate the holiday of lights.

We wish you all a happy and joyful Hanukkah, full of light, candles and happiness.
Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora

PS: Following multiple individual inquiries, I'll point again the link to our updated family web site (http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/aprior/personal/index.html). It contains numerous photos, some of which are fairly recent.