Late November and December are the weekend of the year. We kicked it off with Irene's Birthday party slash Thanksgiving. We had 27 people over and it was the first time, when we had no leftovers the next day. Two turkeys were consumed to the bone, the giant cake was gone too and I wouldn't even mention what happen to three bottles of Scotch. Click here for more pictures.
Last Friday, Dad's company T3 had a gathering in Stamford. People flew in from across the country. Many met each other in person for the first time. It was fun to finally see somebody who you knew only by voice for years. More pictures are here and here.
All pictures are courtesy of Kostya.
Yesterday, we went to Sasha Tsiporukha's birthday party in Staten Island. A large red-nosed clown performed magic tricks. The tricks didn't move Max, but Dad was clapping, and singing along, totally taken by magic. The clown's music repertoire included a mix of Russian kids song, Odessa chanson, Klezmer and Soviet pop.
We also used the trip as an opportunity to see Leon in New York. It was the annual NYC Santa day and the city was filled with drunk and jolly people in Santa attire.
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Dec 3rd was Rose's 10th anniversary - we think about her often.
Past weekend, risking some serious chemical burns, Dad installed a battery backup for the sump pump in the basement, thus reaching the first level of paranoia in getting ready for floods, locust and plague - being ready for an unlucky combination of torrential rains, power losses and gasoline shortage (or generator breakdown).
The battery for the pump came "dry", without electrolyte, so we had to add it ourselves. It took almost a month to collect the right amount of sulfuric acid from various shops, one quart at a time. We were expecting the FBI knocking on the door any time.
If the neighbors were curious to look at our lit by the cold November sun porch yesterday, they would see Dad wearing safety goggles clumsily holding a menacing looking canister in his rubber-gloved shaking hands (the shakes were from the cold, not from the exertion, said Dad). The gloves were mostly for the show, as a clerk in one of the stores where we bought the acid said - oh, you be better off without the gloves, it will eat right through them anyway.
It was a number of years ago, when our dishwasher started to show first signs of age. First, it was innocent, even funny. Like a ketchup-smeared plate that it somehow "forgot" to wash - one among all other perfectly cleaned peers. Then it got more serious: rheumatic creaky rails, bad odor, undigested cleaning materials, and blown fuses.
Still, we were content to put up with it like with an old dog. But then, it started to have "accidents". Every morning, we would wake up to a pool of fetid water on the floor. The usual remedies didn't help. One day, after hours of cursing, Dad fished out of the drain pipe a pea-size ball bearing that was clogging it. The dishwasher started to lose its marbles, disintegrating on the inside. Keep reminding ourselves that it's just a stupid machine, we decided that it was time to go.
A few days later, when the delivery guy was taking it out, stripped naked, in a full view of its replacement - a gleaming smug Bosch, the dishwasher did what any frighten animal would do - it thoroughly peed all over the floor. We didn't know it could hold that much water...
But it wasn't the end of it. On the second day, in the middle of the night, Bosch emitted a series of panicked beeps and shut itself down, tub full of water. Not again, thought Dad, not again... After some serious swearing, Dad emerged from the bowels of plumbing in the basement with the culprit in his hand. This time, it was a cherry pit. Funny thing though - we didn't have cherries for months. We pondered it a minute and thought of the old guy smiling at us from the dishwasher heaven.
After two days of darkness and cold, the power finally came back on the Halloween night. Wary and tired Norwalk residents were not much in the mood for the trick-or-treaters and Max and Dennis came back from the street practically empty handed. It didn't help that Max, in his military fatigues and a replica M-16, looked more like a looter. We fared much better in Stamford that survived the storm without much outage.
Finally, after weather induced delays, Max's 6th grade starts tomorrow. With it, starts the transportation logistics challenge. For the past two years, Leon was taking care of driving to and from school, but not anymore.
Our last family event of this long summer vacation was watching (all four of us, Leon visiting for the weekend) the past season finale of our new favorite show Mad Men. Not exactly a "family television", but Max was diligently covering eyes and ears at all inappropriate moments, upset about Draper's infidelity and marital troubles and muttering "not again, Don, not again...".
Perhaps it's the unforgiving brutality of the ad-world capitalism portrayed in the series is what Max finds in common with his own recent business experience in the online multiplayer adventure Minecraft. There, Max and Dennis toiled diligently for weeks building the businesses (diners and hotels), attracting customers, trading with suppliers and accumulating some serious wealth, only to find their world and riches shattered and destroyed by an "upgrade" that their server underwent last night.
First the earthquake, and now Irene's namesake storm. The storm, at least so far, was less than spectacular, but the power and Internet outage sucks. Not sure how half of nearby towns ended up with no power - the number of falling trees is minimal. We have a generator that helps keeping refrigerator cold and water flowing, but it is too noisy and inefficient for a prolonged period.
Leon supposed to move into the dorm today, but it was postponed because of the storm.
UPDATE Mon 8/29: Power is back up, but no Internet here or in the office :-(
UPDATE Thu 9/1: Parents got power back on Wednesday. We got the Internet back on Tuesday.
UPDATE Fri 9/2: Max's school opening is delayed until 9/12, because they are still without power (as half of New Canaan)
Alik, Andra and the girls were visiting for the birthday. The visit, no doubt, was the most precious present. Among Dad's other presents were a fancy watch, 1946-vintage bottle of Armagnac, high-tech socks and a wild mushroom identification booklet.
As always, the first vacation day was the longest. In the morning, we picked up Grandpa and Grandma by the ferry and moved into the house - four bedrooms, large living room, large kitchen, wraparound deck. But no A/C. It was hot and humid, so we opened all windows and doors which somehow woke up and let into the house a stray bat. A few minutes of panic ensued, but then we caught it with an old fishing net and let go outside. The fishing net had a long rough wood handle from which I got stuck with a huge splinter under a nail that we then spent 30 minutes removing. Once that was done, the boat people brought the rented outboard engine. They plopped it on the boat and wished us good luck. It was around 6, so having two more hours of daytime, we decided to take the boat to the beach. The six of us boarded it and 20 minutes later, we were playing in the high waves of Atlantic. We spent about an hour on the beach and headed back. A few minutes into the return trip the motor stalled. The attempts to revive it did succeed and with much swearing, yelling and screaming, Grandpa and I grabbed creaky oars and start rowing home. It was getting dark, but, thankfully, the neighbor turn on the lights in his house and it served us a beacon. It took us about 50 minutes and we made it just in time, with the last ray of light. A bit shaken by the experience, we cleaned up and hurried out for a dinner in the famous rib place.
Next morning, the apologetic boat people gave us the whole new skiff and undeterred by the previous night experience we went back to the beach. There we caught a bucket of crabs which we all later ate with great pleasure. Grandpa and Grandma also picked some wild mushrooms and fried them.
We celebrated Max's birthday on Tuesday by kayaking and then having a dinner at a fancy French restaurant. Max likes fancy expensive places where he orders mostly chicken strips, fries or burgers.
The rest of the vacation went by fast and mostly uneventful. It was a perfect beach vacation - волновались в основном о том как проголодаться и где поесть. We slept late, ate some breakfast at home, went to the beach, bickered about lunch choices, then had lunch, then went back to the beach, bickered some more about dinner, then had dinner, watch some old DVDs and called it a night.
We went crabbing two more times. The locals told us to let go female crabs and they taught us how to tell them apart. Max questioned the wisdom of such sexist approach to population control, but we explained that not being exactly monogamous is helping crabs to survive and thrive with few males. Meanwhile, in the bucket, devoid of female presence, the caught crabs lapsed into debauchery and cannibalism.
Also, we learned how to shack oysters and had a little feast on the bought in the local store dozen.
Max learned how to pilot the boat, how to kayak and he also caught three crabs (two were females that he had to let go).
When we came back, the vacation didn't end right away, thanks to our friend Аня Краузе who had a stopover in New York, on the way from Arizona back home. We picked her up at the airport and spent couple of hours together catching up...
It's when she left, the vacation ended. We looked around the house and discovered many surprises. The house was cleaned and washed while we were away, which left us with broken A/C, clogged kitchen sink, broken dishwasher, broken phone lines, things re-arranged, moved, lost, thrown out...
It took us a good part of next week to get our life back on track. But it was well worth it!
Max is on the movie making streak again. Check out this clip (make sure your speakers are ON, because the sound effects, and in particular Max imitating Russian accent, is what makes this complete). If you like this, subscribe to his channel lmax88. He has a lot more there.
Despite rainy weather outside, Max's End of School Party (a.k.a. as Early Birthday Party) last Saturday was a huge hit. He had ten guests - from old and from new school. First, they went to see the latest installment of the "Pirates of the Carribean" and then, fueled by soda and popcorn, they staged a Nerf gun war in the house.
We got a note that Max's poem "Leon" was chosen for publishing in some annual compilation by student writers. Naturally, the note was accompanied by the order form (only $26.40 per book!!).
Still...
Leon
You are the song on my iPod The teammate in my game The window on my computer
You are a pop-up on my screen An email that shows up A video that is calming
You are the sound from the guitar The note to the song The string to the instrument
You are the engine to the car The master of all roads The pedal of acceleration
You are the burst from the bomb The energy rushing The laughter running
You are the clown in the circus The fun in the joke You are my brother.
A slightly embarrassed Leon called it a collection of random words. Well, we want to think it's more than just that.
Westport Country Playhouse summer season started with Christopher Durang's comedy "Beyond Therapy" set in early eighties in Manhattan. Very well done, fast paced, great set and acting.... It's nice that in the age of 10 laugh-per-minute sitcoms and comedy shows, the theater continues to entertain. The audience - especially those in more advanced age and more familiar with the era references - was rolling on the floor in spasms and stitches.
During the past few years, the playhouse artistic direction seems to move away from avantgarde to traditional, which probably works better for the box office, but is not as exciting (bad or good) as it used to be.
A week later, we saw Roundabout production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde. Extremely well done and a pleasure to watch. This thing would kick ass of any 10 laughs-per-minute sitcom.
Late November and December are the weekend of the year. We kicked it off with Irene's Birthday party slash Thanksgiving. We had 27 people over and it was the first time, when we had no leftovers the next day. Two turkeys were consumed to the bone, the giant cake was gone too and I wouldn't even mention what happen to three bottles of Scotch. Click here for more pictures.
Last Friday, Dad's company T3 had a gathering in Stamford. People flew in from across the country. Many met each other in person for the first time. It was fun to finally see somebody who you knew only by voice for years. More pictures are here and here.
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