Ski School

Well, Mother Nature is one cruel woman. Dylan was scheduled for Ski School on his birthday but there was an Ice Storm. The next day it was almost 60 degrees. Dylan loved skiing. Mom and Dad (Pictures destroyed) didn't fare as well in Snow Boarding school. So, we traded in the Snow Boards for Ski's. They next day was a pain...

Dylan turns 6

Wow! Six years flew by so fast. Now how old does that make me?

Christmas

Mom, Dylan, and Alexander








Ryan wondering what all the fuss is about







Dylan's Transforming Wolf Ranger and Ryan with Light Saber #23







The only kid who didn't have a meltdown during Christmas presents

Christmas Eve

Making Cookies for Santa Claus with mom. Dylan was into it for about 5 minutes but Alexander and Ryan were really into it. Santa Claus ate a lot of cookies.





This is a picture we couldn't get for the Reddish Christmas Card. Figures they managed to pose after the card was sent out.

The December Birthdays

Are you one... are you two!









Ronan and Dylan's Co-Birthday! Are you one... are you two ... are you three ... are you four ... are you five ... are you six!

Thanksgiving...

The wife's cousins and the next generation hanging out after a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner. Dinner via Grandma and Jajoo, Appetizers via Mema and Great Grandma, and patience via Mom and Dad.





This is the new headquarters/ Ryan's room. I changed it around alittle bit the day after Thanksgiving.






One day this kid will hate or love Piano Lessons.








Triple G, Mema, and Stan the Man!

Yeah.. I have been busy!

The wife says, " You update Facebook but you don't update the blog?" Well I say "Blogger needs to come up with a nice iPhone app?" it's like talking to a deaf person... here is what you missed...

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Now playing: Refused - Liberation Frequency
via FoxyTunes

Halloween! The Reddish League of Super Heroes!

This year was a bit different. The wife likes to brag that our kids asked us to dress up. The real story sounds a little bit like this:

Mommy: Do you want Mommy and Daddy to dress up for Halloween?
Number One Son: What? I'm watching TV
Mommy: Don't you think Mommy and Daddy should dress up for Halloween?
Number One Son: Can you get me some Chocolate Milk?
Mommy: I asked you a question.
Number One Son: I said please
Mommy: No! What do you think Daddy and I should dress up as for Halloween!
Number One Son: Supergirl and the Flash, now can i have some chocolate milk?

Now if you take my version and the wife's version-- mix them together-- you get an idea of what actually resulted in the picture above.

The Feral Cat "Neuterer"

This Saturday morning I woke up at my usual time—6:30 AM. While this is a typical Saturday morning for a mother of three boys, this Saturday morning was devoted to wrangling our feral cat population instead of my three sons. All the neighbors were involved and everyone agreed not to feed the cats the day before. I prepared all the traps and waited for my neighbor Sharon to help me out with the trapping. A cat walked into my driveway smelling the food that I had laid out. She was hungry after a day without eating. I decided to set the trap and sure enough within 30 seconds-- I caught my very first cat. I thought to myself, “this is easy.” So, I got on a roll and caught five more within the next 30 minutes. Needless to say I was pretty impressed with myself. Even my skeptical husband was shocked. When Sharon joined me, we caught three more for a total of nine.

Later that morning over on the corner of Argyle and Ditmas-- Andrea started her trapping. She caught two pretty quickly and then a third one a little later on. Andrea had two traps left and our goal was to catch the black male cat. As my son Alexander refers to him, “The Daddy”. She called me later to say that he had walked into the trap but was smart enough not trip the trap and walked out. Sunday is another day.

Seeing how easy it was, my other neighbors Beth and Svetlana, set another trap. They caught the same cat twice. This cat had already been fixed. They moved the cat and we caught another female. With no more room in my garage, I brought this cat to Andrea. Unfortunately she was a smart one and got out. Those are the breaks.

For the first evening feeding, we discovered we had a nursing mother. We did not know where the kittens were so we had to set her free. One days work and we had eleven cats. Our goal is fourteen cats.

Education

Dylan is well into his second week of First Grade. On the heels of that another milestone has passed. As previously mentioned, Alexander and Ryan also are starting school.

Alexander today started Pre-Kindergarten at Lolek I Bolek. Did he cry? Carry on? Resist as only Alexander can? He cried, but in the end was carried into the class by his teacher Doletti. A call at mid day found that Alexander was doing fine.

Ryan today started home pre-school. Alexandra took the first two weeks and Ryan did fine. To think, only 16 more years and Ryan will be off to college.

Schools In!

Dylan started first grade on Tuesday.
Alexander starts Pre-K on Tuesday.
Ryan starts home pre-school on Tuesday.

The kids are growing up...

Summer fading

Ah Summer.... Now that I have three children the warm months are very much a different time of year. Time to review the highlights and lowlights:

Highlights
- Having a great time at the Silver Gull Club. I always thought beach clubs weren't for me.... wrong!
- Alexander's birthday in August. Number Two son is three years old. Two felt like three years packed into one year. The kid was ecstatic for 90 minutes until the rain came pouring down
-Dylan "finding himsef" at camp-- his independence and attitude. The kid is growing up
- Ryan, learning the 100 ft. sprint and only utilizing it when his parents aren't looking.
- Peace and quiet at the home office after 11:30 AM.
- Thinking I had a hernia and finding out it was a fat deposit that looks like a hernia.
- Spending some quality time with Uncle Robert (the Hawaiin variety) in Brooklyn and the Yankee game we went to.
- Meeting and getting to know Paul Quirke from Ireland.
- Meeting all the friendly old timers at "C" court
- Alexandra, as always, keeping it together
- Biking more than a couple of times down to the Silver Gull. I can now say I biked at least 50 miles in the last two months. More than the previous 6 months combined.
- Hanging at the Siren Fest (more like beach Island with Schultz) down at Coney Island.
- Getting to see The Stooges play for 2 hours.
- Riding the Cyclone with my wife in the second to last car, the second time.

Lowlights
- A bought of food poisoning yesterday-- It sucked.
- Ryan falling and getting a bump on his head
- Missing King Khan and the Shrines at South Street Seaport for free. Missing them again at the Mercury Lounge because I thought it would be easy to get on the guest list.
- Iggy Pop's lowriding jeans.
- Riding the Cyclone with my Mother In Law in the last car, the first time. OUCH!

Pictures will be forthcoming but it has been a great summer with the family!
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Now playing: Kasabian - Sun Rise Light Flies
via FoxyTunes

Alexander Turn's Three

Alexander turns three. We had a small family party at the Beach Club and then this morning we had a short but sweet party in the yard. We got a large bounce jumpy thing for the kids which they all loved, and had some cup cakes. Then rain, then hail and we all ran into the garage. The two car garage does come in handy for something.

One Year

It's been one year in the house and I like to think I avoided the first year blues. Here are a few upsides and downsides

Upside

- The greatest wife and kids a guy could ask for...
- A great house in good condition
- Great Tenants
- Creative Lease Options
- Lots of space
- A brand spankin' new kitchen

Downside
- No air conditioning in our bedroom
- Mice
- Mosquitos in the backyard
- Backed up Sewer lines


So at the end of the day only vermin and modern convenience's have encroached on my happiness. Living on Rugby Road!

The Wife Hits the Airwaves!

After a little delay Alexandra's 90 seconds fame was aired on ABC's Eyewitness News. This Old House has rated our very own neighborhood as among twelve best places to buy and old home in the United States. That alone has me feeling a little bit better about our investment. The feature on the This Old House website and the August 2008 print edition of This old house has generated coverage from the NY Post, Brooklyn's Channel 12 and Channel 7 Eyewitness News. Sandra Bookman came to interview Mary Kay aka Great Grandma, Alexandra showed her a house in Prospect Park South and Ditmas Park West and Sandra also interviewed Dana Sclar from Ditmas Park. Most of Alexandra's airtime focuses on the house in Ditmas Park West. The children and I are very proud of their mother aka Alexandra aka "The Wife". Until we have a video that we can embed on the site you will have to head over 7online.com to check out the video. Click here.

Memorial Day Weekend!

We had our first BBQ this Saturday! I think we had more kids then adult, we were taken over. The wife went and bought a charcoal grill. I have to say that the gas grills are much better then those. We ended up cooking 2 of the steaks on the gas grill and 2 on the charcoal as the charcoal seemed to lose it's flame.
Maybe we just need BBQ lessons!!

The kicker so far has been that Sunday morning, the wife is out and I pulled my back out. I spent all Sunday laid up in bed. Luckily, I was able to see a Chiropractor in the hood who was great enough to let me come to his home and he even invited me to his BBQ.. Thanks John!!

Today we are off to the beach club, where most likely I will just be sitting on a lounge chair as my back is still killing me.

The Front Garden!!

Well the front garden is getting into shape, the Japanese Maple is in full bloom, the flowers are planted and everything is growing nicely.

8am the Husband out working

Bright and early the husband sanding the porch and getting ready to put the first coat of finish.

The Front Porch!!!!

This is the Husband first real big home improvement job. We have been very spoiled with six pack AKA Gordon doing most of the work in the house. The Husband is taking on the task of sanding our front porch.
First thing Saturday, he will be up and sanding a way!!!

I will keep you posted!!

The Wife

What is this tree?

We have this lovely tree in our yard in full bloom.

We would love to know what it is called.

Disney World

So the whole family and the in laws went to Disney world for a week.
Uncle John dog sat my father in law's dog and Six Pack aka Gordon, painted our stairwell. The stairwell was painted the same color, Hawthorne Yellow by Benjiman Moore.

Disney World was an adventure and was 5 days of non stop park hopping. Needless to say we will not go till Ryan is 5 years old...

The Mantel

When we bought the house a mantel was left in the garage. So Six Pack aka Gordon got to work on it and started stripping it. The mantel itself is Oak but has only one column which is slate and the side tiles are also slate. So we had to buy two new legs and not sure what to do with the slate?? The mantel will go in the living room.

The Fence!!

So still chugging along on the home improvement front. At least this work is not invasive.

We had the Fence in the rear correctly aligned and then we extended the fence in our driveway to give us more space. Still working on the front garden. we moved our Japanese maple from the back of the house to the front, which looks much nicer. Today Larry from J & L is going to plant our Holly tree, some box hedges in front, and then the wife will plant some more flowers.

Now if we can only get the grass to grow "at all" in the yard. Our yard faces East so we get the morning sun and the late afternoon we get sun on the North side of the yard only. The wife would love to take down our double car garage which takes up almost half the yard and blocks a lot of the sun.

What do other home owners do in there yards where "The Sun don't Shine"

P.S. 217 PLayground or Garbage Dump?

Since I now live closer to the PS 217 playground it's more convenient than taking the kids to the Tot Lot. Over the last couple of weeks as the weather has started to get nicer the state of the the Playground has gone from.. a few scattered bottles to a complete mess. Every time I get there it is a complete mess. I try to be positive and check the garbage cans. Now if they were overflowing the problem would obviously be those who are supposed to maintain the garbage cans in the playground. Every time the garbage cans have been half full or close to empty. Today I learned a few things:

- Mike an Ike candy now comes in $.25 boxes. I love Mike and Ike's and so does my 15 month old, who managed to pick up 4 empty boxes in various areas by the play set.
- Apparently the people who come to the playground like Pepsi products, because there was 15 empty bottles that were primarily Pepsi products (Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi)
- The people that frequent the basketball courts and the traffic are strict water drinkers-- I counted at least five clusters of empty Poland Spring bottles. No Gator/ Power Ade to be found.
- By one of the hoops was was a bunch of styrofoam takeout boxes. I guess they had time between hoops games to eat but not throw out their lunch/ dinner/ breakfast.
- There was too many chip bags to count. I gave up after 20. Besides, every time I had to take an empty Mike and Ike box out of my 15 month month olds mouth hand-- i lost count.

Part of me felt like I should have been picking up the garbage instead of carefully cataloging it for this post. However, I had to stop at one point because my 5 year old threw his bagel wrapper on the ground. I told him to put in the garbage. He asked why, since there was all that garbage on the floor. Also, my 2.5 year old wanted me to teach him how to slide down the pole.

Now that I am done ranting I have a couple of questions:

Is this the way the playground always is?

Does the playground have a cleanup crew visit it once a week to clean up like the Tot Lot?

Do you think signs at the playground encouraging people to clean up their garbage would help?

How about a patrol men stationed outside the playground with summons in hand for littering?

It's hard to imagine that the playground has turned into the place not to go so fast. The playground opened up in the last year.

Borders without Wars

When we bought our house the backyard boasted no less than 2 fences which were set back anywhere between 7 inches and 2 foot 7 inches from the actual property line and that was on one side. Before Spring and Summer caught up with us we decided to reclaim the backyard and restore it to a more reasonable rectangle instead of a rhombus.
One side of the fence which borders our next door neighbor unfortunately had to remain in place. So there is now two feet of unused space which includes a row of bushes, a chain fence, and a wooden fence, in that order from their side to our side.
The back fence was easier since all fences were clearly on our property and no bushes. Luckily it was the most askew and need of straightening out.

The Garden

The wife likes every thing to look nice and clean, so she works really hard to make sure that even I notice the effort and energy she puts in. Now that spring is coming it's time to start thinking about the Garden. Friday was a nice warm day so the wife and our enthusiastic gardening tenant (aka Torie) started to clean up the the areas around our house that have been reserved for plant life. They started by planting some summer bulbs and giving our "earthen canvas" a good coat of ecological primer (raking, rooting, etc.).
The spring flowers (planted last fall) are already coming out. Tulips, Daffodils and a variety of others are in their infancy.The main front garden we are pulling out the large green bush on the driveway side (not pictured) and planting a Holly tree with some other green fillers in the middle, not sure if we are going to grow grass or just keep the whole front filled with assorted foliage.

On Friday she planted Peonies , elephant ears and other summer flowers.
She is pulling out the large green bush and wants to plant a Hydrangeas(?). Leaving the small front for seasonal flowers.

I am not a gardener but the wife is trying hard to make it look as pretty as she possible can just like her!!!!!!!!! Any suggestions or ideas would be great.

A Grill

On Sunday my wife got an offer to buy a grill for $100. My first and only comment was, "Can I pick it up now?". So for the past few nights we have been "grilling up a storm". Beef kebabs, Chicken, Potatoes, etc. The inaugural meal was a steak. Which came out pretty good considering my grilling skills are more in line with "Grilling for Dummies" at this point. After all this is my first grill.
The grill might have been a little dirty but it is getting the job done.

Now that the Inside of the House is done...

It's been almost two months since the renovation on our house was completed. It's been really quiet. As the weather warms up "the Wife" starts to get ideas. So, we are starting to think about some outside stuff that needs to get done:

• Garden in front and back
• the good news here is that are tenant is interested in gardening. Less work for Jorin
• Fence redone in the backyard
• the bad news here is that 40 or so feet is really expensive
• Garage Needs to be "Organized"

Anyway you look at it seems like it could be a busy spring here on Rugby Road.

Anti-Rodent Device

Now that we are done re-doing everything we have a guest that just doesn't realize that it is time to go. His three friends have met with some untimely ends (yeah!), but there seems to be one more having a run of our house. Let's call him "Ben". Ben has been spotted on every floor except for the third floor. Most recently he was in the basement.
As this post points out we have a temporary Anti-Rodent Device. Her name is Telullah. My only hope is that Ben and Telullah don't forge some unnatural relationship like this "defective" cat to the left. To be fair, if Ben makes it out of our house alive that is fine with me-- it just better happen sooner rather than later. Telullah-- KILL!

So just a run down on our vendors

We thought it only fitting to list all the vendors we used during our renovation. We where very happy with every one we used.

S&L Lumber: 2356 Coney Island Ave 718 645 1121 (Kitchen Cabinets along with most our building materials and supplies. Henry was great came to the house and worked with Kaz.

Electrical: Michael Adanuncio 718 851 8222
Plumber: Frank Melonik 1027 Church Ave 718 469 1951 (new furnace, hot water heater, sewer line, new water pipes, gas line)

Micolosi Brothers Hardwood flooring: 718 227 2074

Five Boro Tole Corp: 3864 Flatland Ave 718 421 tile (kitchen floor and back splash)
Mondial Tiles Inc: 1402 65th Street 718 232 0800 -granite counter top
G&S Glass & Mirror - 1215 Ave U 718 627 4011 (glass doors in kitchen and master bedroom)

Brooklyn Window & Door corp: 1889 McDonald Ave 718 627 6400 (bay window)
**they do not install
Juan the Roofer: (917) 204-3841 (Help install the bay window, plus the roofing on it, cleaned all my gutters, patched a squirrel hole, cut all the cable wires hanging off my house, Juan was very helpful)

Micheal's Plumbing: Flatbush Ave and Dorchester (kitchen faucet and sink)

Brooklyn Paint: 1010 Coney Island (all the paint in the house)
Almac: Newkirk Plaza ( for last minute items we needed)
Lowes: For what ever else we needed

And of course Last but not least:

Rugby Contracting: Kaz Oplustil 917 528 3054
And his very hard worker Six Pack (aka Gregory), Uncle John who helped in renovating, and Rodley who unexpectedly passed away during our home renovation.


Thanks you to all....

The Finish Line

Well... It's done... the duplex down on Rugby Road is complete. Here is a little taste:



Check it out here

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Now playing: 20/20 - Giving It All -
via FoxyTunes

Looking Back...

This all began back in October. "This" is the kitchen renovation and the creation of the family room. Here are two pictures of the old kitchen and the old bedroom which became the Kitchen/ Family room.
Tomorrow we have a professional cleaning crew coming in to finish the job. Sunday we should have a few pictures to share with you all. Here is a run down of some of the highlights over the last few months:

Living Room/ Alcove

• At one point it was sealed up to keep out the dust from the demolition. It was like living in a bubble.
• Kitchen Table in the alcove. Somehow we managed to seat six people at that table one afternoon - Six Pack, Uncle John, Alexander, Alexandra, Ryan, Kaz and Myself. (The two kids make one )
  

Dining Room

• Painting it Bullseye Red back in September, stripping the baseboards and windows. Repainting it "pink" in January.
  
• You strip, stain and polyurethane the woodwork before you paint the walls.
  
• SoyGel
• The "Electric" range in the kitchen, then the dining room, and finally our front porch. Hope your happier at Cynthia's house.
  
• "Prime All Cuts" - Well not all the woodwork in the house is oak.
  

Kitchen

• "So, this will take two weeks", I say. "Yeah, maybe a little more", says the contractor.
• Crown molding is unforgiving. Keep the twists and turns to a minimum
• I love my granite counter top
• Hating, then loving the bay window in the kitchen. Now the wife wants to fill it with plants.
• The mouse letting me capture it alive. Me setting it free -- down the block.
  

Family Room

• Painting it the same color as before
• Catch that mouse
• Piles of construction equipment
• My one year old playing on the power saw, finding every other hand saw, and attempting to eat every nail, screw and small metal object in site. Lesson Learned- Renovate house, then have children.
  

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Now playing: Bold - Looking Back
via FoxyTunes

"I don't think I Like the color " - The Wife

I tell her, "We ain't painting it again".

Hey, you got Raspberry Truffle in my Vanilla! No, You got vanilla in my Raspberry Truffle!

Bottom Line is that the color of my Dining Room is Pink!

The Dining Room take 2

As you all know the wife did not like my color in the dining room so Six pack is finishing striping the wood in the dining room and will paint and stain the wood.

As for the kitchen we are done waiting on 1 piece of molding, we are having a cleaning crew come over this weekend to get the house back in order.
So we will post photos of the completed project by Monday...

So stay tune.....