Fish

Yesterday, after months of planning and coordination of schedules, we met with Andrey and Eva in the city, where we polished off this four-pounder.

Vegas

Last Saturday, we met our friends Piskunovs in Vegas.

What happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas. Except for this photos from the Hoover Dam.

Vampire Deer

Last year, the deer ate all the greenery around the house. This time, we bought some magic potion - check out the ingredients (dried blood, garlic, cloves...). It will keep the vampires away for sure, but what about deer? Will see about that...

Irene with Sheldon Fetissov

Best in Show

While at the New York Autoshow few weeks ago, Leon took part in the competition on the race simulator. Turns out, his time was best in show. He is now expecting a windfall of promotional goodies from Ford.

Cinematography

Max's rendition of Aunt Rhody Boogie

P.S. Дрожащая в середине клипа камера, это, по всей видимости, кинематографические эксперименты насмотревшейся Виктории Гай Германики Иры.

Photography

Due to weird temperature fluctuations - a week of a very warm weather followed by weeks of cold nights, the blooming this year is especially long... The flowers stay on the branches like being refrigerated.

Here is the photo gallery link. 

All shots are from local streets.

Осторожно Тигры

Here are some pictures that Max took on his school visit to the Bronx Zoo about a month ago. Interestingly, the sign "Осторожно Тигры Рядом" was only in Russian...

Rip Current

After an uneventful day at the beach, kids went to cool off at the pool with a waterslide. Leon got a bit too enthusiastic going down the concrete chute one too many times, ending up with an epic and embarrassing rip on the back of his trunks. His "back" is ok, though this pretty much concludes the watersports part of the trip for him.

Before...

... After

Few more pictures from Irene's phone added to the album here.

Discovering San Juan

Blue stones of Old San Juan

In the morning (our morning here starts at noon), we went for a swim, reinforced ourselves with a fresh coconut hacked by an enterprising local right from the tree above, and headed for San Juan.

Finally! After four days in the banana republic of the East, we discovered modern, clean and fast-paced city. We spend rest of the day walking the streets of Old San Juan, which is so beautiful, we couldn't get enough pictures of it.

Fort San Cristobal

See more San Juan pictures in the updated photo album here.

We liked San Juan so much, we went there again on Thursday.

Walk in the Park

On Tuesday, we got adventurous and headed for the much hyped, "one-and-only" rainforest. What we found at the end of the serpentine road looked more like a run-down Disney park then a wild nature preserve. The waterfalls were small, their basin filled with murky water crowded with wet, semi-naked (and mostly ugly) tourists posing for pictures. The forest was no more dense or challenging then our local Cranbury park. And of the animal species, we saw only one stray cat (the home kind).

We had an authentic lunch of some fried crap on the side of the road in a shack that looked like a post-war Sarajevo.

Roadside lunch

By the evening, we were done with exotics and went for a proper dinner in a standard American resort not far from home.

At the resort's convention center

More pictures added here

Going Local

On Monday, we drove to the beach, advertised as secluded and pristine. Well, it wasn't neither, but not too bad. The water was not as warm and clear as it was same time of the year in the neighboring Dominican Republic. More like at home in August. The beach facilities, which charged a dollar per person, were of a third world quality. We wanted "local" - we got plenty of it.

Somewhere on the Internet, Max picked up that a toy store at the nearby mall sells a rare edition of some Lego thing. It became his raison d'etre for the whole P.R. trip, so after the beach, craving a bit of civilization, without much fight, we gave in and drove to the mall. When after sitting in traffic for an hour we got there, we didn't find any toy stores. So, we drove around for another hour (including a horrifying "shortcut" through a one-lane mountain road). Then we came back to the same mall - you know, to make sure that the toy store didn't somehow came into being while we were balancing our car on a cliff. The toy store was still not there.

Because going to the same mall twice was not embarrassing enough, on the way home, we stopped by a Wallmart, where we bought some crappy tea and a loaf of Wonderbread. Let's see if we can get any lower.

Mayo and Ketchup

We spent the first full day in P.R. getting acquainted with the immediate vicinity, the "playas" (beaches), restaurants and other food sources.

At Fajardo

We live on the Northeast coast of the island, which is rocky and with some cliffs. The views are spectacular but the beaches are not so much. We'll keep looking.

While getting loaded with provisions in the supermarket, Max discovered a dream condiment - mayo and ketchup in the same bottle. Hot tea, which we drink at home quite a lot, is not a popular drink around here. In fact, in a huge supermarket, we found no tea of any kind. Though oddly, in the spices section, we found linden flowers ("липовый цвет"). Other than that, the shop looks indistinguishable from one at home.

Back at home, we staged a photoshoot in the infinity pool (the edge dissolves into the horizon).

Infinity Pool

More pictures added here

Fajardo, Puerto Rico

We are at Puerto Rico for the spring break week.

Yesterday, we met up with Leon at the airport and after an easy four hour flight landed in San Juan, where we picked up the rented car (a Taurus, to kids disappointment) and not without getting lost for a bit, an hour later arrived at the apartment which we booked for the stay. The apartment is bigger than our house and it took the owner good 15 minutes to tour us through the enfilade of rooms, nooks, verandas, appliances, etc.

We had a quick dinner a some place next door and closed the night with some quality American television.

View from the terrace

More first day pictures here.

Happy Birthday, Alik

Alik, a fan of the series "Sons of Anarchy", got this cut for his birthday. Hope, it's not an actual club or a gang.

P.S. We are also going to tattoo this on his back, when we see him next time.

See more modeling shots here.



On the subject of celebrations, please read these two essays про водку, by Е. Гришковец - "Из личного опыта...", "Коллективная память". Или смотрите тут (и далее по ссылкам):

Once on This Island

Max played a "Gossiper" in his school's production of "Once on This Island". He also played the back of the automobile and the back of the magic dragon. Max's performance, the costumes and the set design were great (though Leon later told Max that he didn't project enough). Years earlier, Leon was in this play too. He played two human characters.

Pizza and Tea

Carnegie Hall

Yesterday, the two of us and Max went to see Denis Matsuev at Carnegie Hall. Going in, we were a bit worried how Max would take two hours of classical music at the end of the full and exhausting school week, but he was a great trooper, listening attentively and, at times, not without interest.

The performance was, indeed, great - watching him playing Beethoven's Appassionata vs., say, listening to his recording playing same, is a big difference. And Stravinsky's "Petrushka" was a breathtaking rollercoaster - we didn't know you could play piano that fast and smooth. At times, the staccato of individual notes transcended into a contiguous sound like a cello. The audience brought him back for five encores, including a pin-drop crystal Debussy and a fantastic jazz improvisation. Unbelievable.

Speaking of audience - most, if not all - Russian. Which might have sucked for Matsuev. Once, Grishkovets, when asked why he stopped performing abroad, said, if I wanted a Russian audience, it would be easier to go to Voronezh. Having all-Russian audience, besides blocking the fair share of truly international name recognition, has one more downside. Most of us in that middle-aged audience never learned to display our emotions freely on public. While the applause were long lasting, its energy was by far less, then, say, an all-American audience gives even after a mediocre performance. And there were almost no shouts and whoops. Maybe because it was Friday.

Shoveling and Getting Married

We brought home some snow from Utah.

... and Alik brought home some indie Sundance magic...

Sundance Film Festival

Here is Alik's entry (in a short documentary category) on Sundance Film Festival that took place in Park City last week.

"12,000 feet, baby!", by Alik Lakowsky

Snowbird, Utah

Today, Leon and I (Alik left yesterday) went to Snowbird Ski Resort. It is on another side of the mountain, an hour drive from Park City. Last 20 minutes is a drive up a mountain road with cheerful warning signs about snow chains, avalanches, falling rocks, black ice and other such fun.

This resort caters to a more adventurous and experienced rider. A bright orange sign by the lift said "today - expert riders only". Not exactly my profile, but turning back was not an option. The view from the peak at 11000 feet was absolutely breathtaking. While taking the picture at the deck on top, I knocked down the poles, mine and of some fellow picture taker. So my day of fun started with a hike to fetch the poles (luckily they didn't go too far).

The pictures below don't really do justice to the view, which was truly magnificent. The trails, blue and black, would also be great, if they would have some snow on them. Today, they were mostly covered in snow pack and ice, not too much fun, but again, the views were awesome.

More pictures

Park City, Utah

Leon, Alik and I (and "flat Rachel") are on a ski trip in Utah. There is not much snow this year, only few blue and green trails open, still, great skiing. Here are some pics.

Click for more pictures and check again soon for the video.

Revelations

Certain things became public at a spontaneous gathering at Andrey's and Eva's place yesterday...

Rachel's 7th Birthday Bash

New Year Day

More pictures

Happy New Year !!

More pictures here

XBox Party

For the holidays, Leon got himself a semi professional German-made set of steering controls for X-box. Grandpa mounted the rig with some serious hardware on a custom-built table. Then, everyone got a chance behind the wheel...

More pictures...

Coq au Vin

Earlier in the week, we had what is becoming a traditional annual outing in the city with Alik, Andrey, Oleg and spouses. This time, we went to a French restaurant. The chef's special that day was Coq au Vin, which brought lots of juvenile joy to the male members of our party (as in, "who wants some of my cock", get it?). The waiter assured us that Coq is, indeed, a rooster, though those who ordered a more pedestrian Chicken Under Brick couldn't really tell the difference.

Speaking of Coq. Next day, Alik, Andra and us went to see a revival of Noel Coward's "Private Lives" with Kim Catrall (yes, who played Samantha on "Sex and the City"). The set design (a modern style Paris apartment) was spectacular and so was the male lead, but 50++ Catrall trying to pass for a 30 year old was a stretch.

The Protester

Olga, caught on camera at a protest rally in Saratov

Happenings

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.

***

Dec 3rd was Rose's 10th anniversary - we think about her often.