Garden of Ed... Brooklyn

Ireland Pt. 1

It's Clobberin' Time Alleyway Crew Style

Your little Pirate

Breakthrough Day at the Chess Tournament!

Dylan lost the initial round. He rallied to win round two and kicked butt in Round 3. Heading into the final round Dylan is in 6th place in his division "Unrated". He won again and got a medal

Prospect Park Ice Skating

Dylan and "Little Sister" Lily at the Prospect Park Skating Rink

Dylan won his first match at a chess tournament!

Dylan won his first ever competitive chess match.

It Started at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village...

The wife and I were partying like it was 1998 this weekend. Friday night we went to Mission of Burma and Freshkills at the Bowery Ballroom. Saturday we hit Le Possion Rouge for Pistolera and Red Barrat in the West Village. The evening ended with a mad dash to the Mercury Lounge to catch the The Giraffes and a quick bite to eat at Katz's. We arrived home at 3.30 AM. Thankfully Meema had number two and three son, while Dylan had his first "co-ed" sleepover with his buddy Lily. Most days these activities end up killing us the next day. However, as I said to Schultz at the end of the night-- Not a bad decision was made last night. So, Schultz asks me at 3am, "What are we doing next Saturday?" Well, probably something not remotely as exciting as last night. Good Times!

Ryan getting annual Blood test

The boy did not cry

Forget Bounce! Best $125 I spent ever

My office re-imagined. This is how we tried them out on the cold days.

Winter Weather I Can Deal With

Nice haircut Goofy smile

2009 In Review on Rugby Road

The Good

- Single best investment in terms of day to day comfort- Insulating our third floor. We haven't entered the coldest part of winter yet but early signs point to less layers in doors this year.

- Best Long term investment was re-financing our mortgage. As the lawyer said at closing, "Your fortunate to have made it to closing". However, a ~22% decrease in our monthly mortgage payment is well worth setting the payment clock back to 360. I will be 69 when we pay it off, but I know the next couple of years I will be happy.
- Ryan left his nookie and diapers at the Beach Club at the tender age of 2 years and 9 months
- Dylan has become the homework warrior and regularly gets 100% on this spelling tests.
- Alexander has turned into the Arts and Crafts King at school.
- The Wife tried a bold new look, it's like I have a new wife in the same great package

The Bad

- The points we paid to re-finance.

The Ugly

- Our mini-Japanese Maple contracted some sort of disease. Half the tree shriveled up. June and Judy's gardener helped the wife prune it and hopefully saved the tree. If not, we lost a great tree.

Dylan's Christmas Show

We can show you all the video when we see you. "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Frosty the Snow Man" are the songs the kids are performing.

Best Gift Ever From the Wife!

This year my wife really outdid herself. No, I did not get at 72" HDTV. Instead she got me two tickets to Mission of Burma. This is the equivalent of me buying her tickets to the ballet. Talk about getting exactly what you like-- a night of live/ great music.

I got my haircut now give me my lollipop!

Shaggy gets a new 'do

Friday Pizza Tsunami

The Family checks out the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade

This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We took the train to 57th street. We exited on 55th street and it was fairly crowded. We cut over to 54th street and was able to get within 40 feet of the street. We couldn't see the marching bands, but to be hones the only things that caught the kids attention were the balloons and Santa Claus.

Out of their shell

The Yellow Storm finishes their season

Yellow Storm Season ends and Dylan received his "3rd" trophy and is looking forward to next spring.

Not Man United but the rather The Yellow Storm

Treats are good- The Boys would agree!

America's Tribute to Search and Rescue Dogs- Proof I need to get out of the house more often

The Next Generation getting ready to watch V

A Long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Actually Last Night Halloween 2009

Anakin, Luke, and R2-D2-- Luckily no one chopped off anyone's hands.














Someone asked why I wasn't Luke Skywalker. I told them that it would have been a little creepy-- After all Han got the girl and the girl turned out to be Luke's sister. I can't imagine what kind of Jedi counseling Luke had to go through after Leia planted a big one on him in the Empire Strikes Back!














Han, Luke, Leia, Anakin and R2-D2-- What to be next year?

Sunday

Talk about starting early-- The Wife got up with Dylan and they went to his 8am game followed by CCD. At 10 am the whole family piled into the family transport and headed off to Shannon's Florist. They had a blow up castle and a grumpy ol man who just would not get out of the way. Ten minutes and a $19 pumpkin later we sped off to the Cortelyou farmers market. An hour of play made for some very hungry kids. Since we were within sight of San Remo's we pikced up a sausage roll, two slices and veggie pizza. We headed home where Dylan started his book report, Alexander got his fix, and Ryan and I played in the backyard. Eventually Dylan scored a playdate with the kid from around the block. This evening it is off to Dylan's "new girlfriends" house for dinner/ bbq. Thank god the weekend is almost over I am getting tired.

Ikea - Friday Night!

Patricia told the wife that she was going to IKEA since they have free dinner for the kids. Since we are in the market for a new couch for the family room we thought we would check it out. After all, they also have 45 minutes of free babysitting. So, we headed down to Red Hook for a quick visit that quickly turned into three hours.

We dropped the kids off at Ikea babysitting. Alexander opted out for 10 minutes then wanted to go and we obliged. We were able to check out the empty IKEA, scope out leather (or pleather) couches, and didn't have to entertain the kids for almost an hour.

The store is like every other IKEA in the world, but there is something about the experience when the store is virtually empty. We bought a couple of new beer mugs and new beer glasses. Checked out some sofas. Decided on some throwaway silverware. All I can say is 45 minutes goes by fast.

Dinner at Ikea is ... lets just say stick with the meatballs. I got pasta, sauce, and meatballs. The meatballs were good but the pasta sucked and the sauce was ketchup with oregano. The kids said the Mac and Cheese was gross and concurred on the pasta. The apple juice and chocolate milk passed muster. We ended up buying 2 hot dogs and a pretzel to fill up their empty stomachs. The wife liked her meatballs and mashed potatoes.

We then went through the store again with the kids doing all the things kids do:

- Jump on all furniture

- Touch everything that is fragile

- not listen

- Ask multiple times when we are going home and then running away before you can answer

At the end of the night I was impressed that we burned through 3 hours painlessly, the kids did not watch TV or play video games, and the wife and I were relatively calm. I think I found a place to go on cold winter nights.

Dylan of the Apes

Model Student

Dylan doing homework