Mazal Tov!

Hi there cyberspace! If anybody still comes to check my blog - Thanks for the loyalty :). To those of you who posted Mazal Tovs in comments, thanks for the Brochos and well wishes :).

The lovely lady you see sitting next to me is my Kallah - Gitty Freeman - making me the luckiest man alive! L'chaim Git! Heres to many years of health, wealth, happiness, and nachas!

MUY MUY LOCO!!! 

Icecapades :)

 
All 16 incredible counselors of Gan Yisrael of The Valley "Chillin" on the ice. Hey, you cant skate around all the time...Kumzitz in the center of the rink ;)!

[Editors Note: For those counting, scratching their heads, and trying to figure out why there are 19 people - there were three interlopers who just couldnt resist jumping into the picture with us :)] 

Taking Hollywood By Storm

 
Heres (most) of the Valleyboys from this past summer, just after we got off the studio tour. That was a fun day :). To all my fellow counselors, hope this brings back memories, and... COME VISIT FLORIDA! Those of you that already called me with travel plans, I cant wait to see ya :)! Have a Good Shabbos everyone! 

I'm Baaaaaaaaack :)

Ok guys, if anybody is still here reading this, I'm not going to waste your time with long aplogies for letting the blog go for a while. I'm just going to say that I had NO internet access for a really long time, but now that I'm home, things should pick up around here again. So about this picture...

 
Levi and I were counselors in Gan Izzy of the Valley this summer, we ran the Pioneer division - lots of crazy fun :). What youre looking at here is us and some of the campers in GAP. We went there, calmly pulled the craziest clothes off the wall, quietly tried them on, and then I asked one of the employees to take a picture of all of us. She said she would, even though its against GAP policy, and...Voila! Enjoy :) 

Paintball!!!

Meet Brett, professional paintball killer.

Thats all of us, post war (were standing in the parking lot at Chabad of Irvine btw). Levi and I you already know. If you ever meet the other man in the picture - run for your life. Hes a cold hearted killer. I know he doesnt look it with that smile and all...but that just makes him more dangerous.

So heres the story. Sunday the 21st, We took the kids on a paintball trip to Camp Pendleton (training grounds for the USMC). Very cool fields, we had an awesome time. There was one hitch though. Brett.

Y'see, Brett has a little boy who was coming along on the trip. Seeing as how Brett plays pro paintball, Levi invited him to come along. BIG mistake. Biiiiig mistake. He took us apart. We walked off the field looking like a picasso painting. And once the killer had taken care of Levi and I, it was childs play for him (literally) to take out the 12 year olds...

I had my golden moment though. Levi sat out one round taking care of his bro (too much running, not enough drinking), and I single-handedly wiped out Bretts whole team, and then took out the man himself. Thats right, respect yo ;)!

Levi and I squared off with some one on one matches at the end of the day. 1st round we took each other out simultaneously, I painted up his side, and he took out my knee. 2nd round he took me out with a head shot. 3rd round I reciprocated with a paintball to his head...So we tied ;).

That picture to the right is the entrance to Camp Pendleton btw. Theres some really nice scenery there, and they have the helicopters all lined up like hundreds of metal insects. Lots of military types running around, and all during our games, we kept hearing real gunfire from over the hills...

Paintball is such a cool game :).

Shabbis Wit Matis

Matisyahu doing Havdalah. Photo compliments of Levi - as always ;)

Well that was fun :).

Thursday afternoon, Levi and I drove to the airport to pick up Matisyahu. He was spending Shabbos at the Tenenbaums, because the Rebbetzins cooking is spoken of in awed and hushed whispers by the entire music industry (and most of the film industry too :)).

What you dont believe me??? Well, he did also need to stay somewhere close to the Irvine Ampitheater so that he could make it to his concert on Motzaei Shabbos on time, thats true. Ok, fine. So he had more than one reason for coming ;).

So we chilled with him all the way from LAX to Levis house. Hes a nice guy, a little quiet, but nice. Hes got his Jewish values straight, ill give him that. All those people worried about Matis frying out can take a deep breath and relax. In his own words:

"I became frum to escape all that. In the life I lived, sex, drugs, all that stuff, none of it was considered bad. I'm not tempted by that stuff, because I saw it all. I dont ever want to go back."

Go Matis :)

On Shabbos he pretty much kept to himself. He did come down to our teen minyan though to daaven Musaf. Those kids had to pick their jaws up off the floor when he walked through the door ;). Levi wished he had a camera to capture some of their expressions - he says it would have almost been worth breaking Shabbos ;). (Note for the humor impaired - hes kidding)

Afterwards, the kids had a Q&A session with him. Then it was up for the traditional COI (Chabad of Irvine) kiddush. The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and straight after Maariv and Havdalah, a car was waiting to take Matisyahu to the "KROQ Weenie Roast," where he performed to the cheers of hundreds (I'm assuming, I wasnt there :)).

So to wrap it up - it was fun, he was cool, and I cant wait to make it to his next concert...after Sefirah ;)

Excelsior! 

This in no way reflects the views or opinions...blablabla

Yea, what he said. [for all my humor deprived visitors, "he" would be a reference to the title ;)]

Basically I just felt the need to cover myself from any legal ramifications - so I dont get embroiled in a political discussion here :). I refuse to talk politics on this blog. I still say that these time wasters are getting weirder and weirder, but this is a funny little one...

Thanks to Aybei for showing this to me :).