14,975

A surprise gift waits those who can figure out the meaning of this post title.
Another surprise gift (a 2-hour math lesson with Dad) awaits those who cannot.
You have to be younger than 18 to participate.

Bye Bye Birdie

Yesterday, we took a train to New York to see musical Bye Bye Birdie. Max went with us as a last minute, $110 addition. He was excited to see John Stamos, but it turned out that he confused him with the blond actor playing Full House Joey character (who I confused with Jeff Daniels). It was a very frustrating charade, on the way in, trying to figure out who confused who for whom. Actor playing Conrad Birdie (playing, horribly, I must add) was some teen-star Nolan Gerard Funk. Max said that he knew the guy and so happy he was in the play. All this excitement, however, didn't stop Max from falling asleep 10 minutes into the performance. He didn't wake up until the end, 2.5 hours later. Being unable to move or stretch, while Max was resting comfortably on my shoulder, I didn't find show much enjoyable. Also didn't help, being yelled at by an overzealous usher for attempting to drink a soda in the seat during the intermission. John Stamos sucked. The guy cannot sing, ok? The teen star sucked. Gina Gershon's Rosie was good. Bill Irwin's Mr MacAfee and what-her-name Mother character were slightly overcooked. The play was in the newly restored Henry Miller's theater on 43rd, where the mezzanine is at the street level and orchestra is in the below ground pit. After the play, the actors chatted up the audience into giving to some charity, quickly auctioning two sweat-stained John Stamos' t-shirts for $250 apiece. Well-aged female fans of Full House were screaming and yelling like Conrad Birdie groupies. Ah, theater...

Fixing the Wall

Max overheard us talking about the fall of Berlin Wall (today is 20th anniversary) and asked, very concerned - are they going to fix it?

Art in New York City

Despite having to sit in traffic for hours, today's family outing in NYC was a good thing. First, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw Robert Frank's The Americans (b&w pictures from his trips around the country in the 50s) []. Max didn't care much for it, making a point that unlike sculptures, the pictures we can study on the Internet. So, we saw some "real 3-D art" - Greek and Roman stuff and then an amazing exhibit of Japanese arms. 14 century samurai swords [], blades smooth and shiny like a brand new Toyota. Then, some Rodin, Europeans, impressionists, until, at a Van Gogh painting[], Max declared that art makes him hungry. We got out, had hot dogs [], walked a bit and sat down for a proper lunch []. We finished the day with a stroll through the Central Park - beautiful colors, soft low late afternoon November sun, faint smell of starting to rot leaves, red berries on graying trees [].



More pictures here

Max's Halloween Special

Max's getting ready for Halloween.

Brick Secret Service - by Max

Caterpillar

Here is what we found on the door outside. Anyone knows what this is? Leave a comment...

See more pictures here.

And thank you, Alik, for positive id on this thing - it is a "Spicebush Swallowtail Prepupa". See more here.

Last Beach Day of the Season

Mazel Tov, Таня и Илюша!!!

Совет Молодоженам от Ветеранов Семейной Жизни - Top Ten Reasons to Get Married

Connecticut welcomes new teen driver Leon

Play: That Championship Season

Saw Jason Miller's play "That Championship Season" - sad and sorry middle-age men in a depressed 70s-era Pennsylvania town remembering evidently the only highlight of their lives - a victory in high-school basketball championship. Yay...

Dad's F-word Birthday

In what emerges as a family tradition, the birthday boy was presented with this video short "Forty is an F-word" by Leon & Max.

Speed Limit 40

On the Labor Day weekend Monday, the friends&family threw Dad a wild party featuring young girls in skimpy skirts, vintage spirits, gourmet food, and, culmination of the festivities, a thriller movie "Speed Limit 40" by Alik.

Due to YouTube limitations, I had to cut the movie into three parts, so watch them in sequence. Total playing time around 15 mins.

Part I


Part II


Part III

Dad Runs Marathon

In what appears to be an early sign of midlife crisis, Dad ran a marathon just days before his birthday.

Since Dad was the only participant of this unofficial marathon of his own design, Leon supposed to play the role of the cheering crowd, a mobile feed area and an EMT. Leon, however, overslept, and Dad had to reserve to drinking questionable quality water in the public restrooms along the way. Leon did eventually woke up, brought Dad some goodies and then organized a finish line celebration.

Here is the route:Dad finished the 26.75 miles in 4 hours 25 minutes. Since he overshot the official 26.22 marathon by more than a half-a-mile, he now claims that he finished the distance in 4:20.

Leon cleans his room

After we threaten Leon with an eviction notice, he got to work and eight hours and two extra large 50lb plastic garbage bags later, the re-arranged spotless room was ready for H&G cover. As a side benefit, he found about $40 in loose change and another $50 in lost gift certificates. We are now accepting bets on how long the new order will last.

Newport, RI

Last weekend, pumped by parent's stories of great white beaches, awesome seafood and quaint picturesque villages of Rhode Island, we decided that it's time to check it out ourselves. Maybe because it is just next door, somehow we never spent any time there (besides a couple of bike races). And because it was just a short ride away, we decided not to plan much in advance and just "wing it". The forecast was so-so - periods of rain and thunder - even more reasons, we thought, not to plan, expecting half deserted town with hoteliers and restaurateurs fighting each other for our business.

We got out of the house late on Saturday and immediately found ourselves sitting on I-95 packed with beach-headed losers in their minivans full of kids, dogs, bikes, boats and other recreational gear.

When we finally made it to Newport, the town was crawling with tourists and their cars. It was hot, humid and stuffy. Tired from a much longer than expected trip, we decided to cool off at some authentic seafood place. We were picturing a whole string of such establishments by the water. After another hour spent now in local traffic, we found no such place anywhere. The much hyped beach greeted us with signs warning of bacterial contamination. The smell of the air and the color of the foam corroborated the signs.

Oh well, we thought, let's find a hotel. There gotta be some food there, right? Deserted town it was not. The only decent place we could book for the night was a ridiculously overpriced "Captain Quarters" suite at Hyatt on the Goat Island.

The hotel looked great from afar. A red brick building on a little island connected to the main land by an elegant bridge. Our waterfront room promised great views off the private balcony. The waterfront view we had. Except that under our balcony, next to the water, we found not a beach, as one would expect, but a coral of garbage containers, A/C unit for the entire hotel and an exhaust from the kitchen. The hotel was hosting a wedding event and we could tell the progression of the celebration from the smell - meaty aromas of main course turning to whiffs of coffee and confections.

We finally got to the water in the hotel's pool. To get to the pool we had to parade in our swimming trunks in front of the well dressed wedding reception, but we didn't care. The fun was back and weekend started to look good again. Until the overjoyous and overexcited Max gaged on the pool salt water and threw up. He and Leon jumped out of the pool at once and watched, laughing, my spastic attempts to get "this shit out". Good thing it was getting dark and there was no one else there. We left the pool re-assuring each other than the filters would "most definitely" clean it up by the morning. We visited the pool next day. The filters must've be off that night...

We started Sunday with a proper room-service breakfast, which we then worked off on the Cliff Walk - a footpath by the old world mansions. Thick and unkept vegetation and hot and humid air reminded me of Volga cliffs in August (sans mansions, of course). We visited "The Breakers" - quite impressive in its opulence and so perfectly preserved.

Giving up on trying to find a beach in Newport, we crossed to the next island - Jamestown, known to Leon and me from the bike races. There, we found an okay beach, built a sand castle and played in the waves with Max, while Leon looped the island on his bike.

In the evening, we went to the lighthouse were we sat with other wave watchers mesmerized by huge waves crashing on the rocks. After some dinner (eh...) and famous local ice cream (double eh...), we headed home. The return trip was uneventful and quick.

It wasn't the most perfectly engineered weekend, but looking back, it was good to get away from the house. We were absent for a little over a day, but coming back felt like returning from a much longer vacation...

See more pictures here

It's a Mac!

Sorry, PC.

Last week, Leon, tail between legs, fessed up that his old beat up Thinkpad is pretty much no more. Fed up with cantankerous Vista, we decided to switch sides and we got him a Macbook...

My Thinkpad tried to protest my placing the order by blue screening (how typical!), but we got it through and few days later, it arrived. Yeah, take this Lenovo, which took 6 weeks to deliver...

Get well soon, Alex!

Кулинар 2

Over this summer, Leon fully mastered the art of making a proper Grilled Cheese (hot pan, butter, bread, secret mix of three cheeses).

In an interview with our food critic, Leon said that he was inspired by Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Now, he is getting ready for the next culinary challenge - perfect French Toast.

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

Team "Starbucks"

For the past two weeks, in the evenings, Max and I teamed up biking / running to Westport downtown, joining there Irene, N.B. and occasionally Leon for a Starbuck.

Alas, all good things come the end and with N.B. going home last weekend, our team rides ended.

Also, after well-caffeinated Max couldn't get asleep one night, we imposed a 5PM curfew on "grown up" drinks for him.

Nine

Max's birthday this year fell on Sunday and we celebrated it with a large friends&family gathering. It was pouring rain up to the moment where people start arriving so we had to move the festivities indoor, but it worked out just fine. Max got tons of new Legos and stayed up late, well past midnight, churning out the assembled toys like a little factory. All it was left by the morning was a pile of empty carton boxes and clear plastic bags.

Cats and Dogs Days of Summer

Very weird summer this year - one day of sun - three days of rain. On another hand - the grass and leaves are thick and green and fresh, and air is wonderfully fragrant, like it is still May.

Great Parenting

By mistake instead of decaf got Max a regular strength Starbucks mocha. So, later that night, I ended up keeping Max (he couldn't sleep) company until three in the morning at what point I collapsed right on the floor in his room. Serves me right.

XX

Celebrated the 20th anniversary with an impromptu gourmet BBQ gathering. Apparently, plenty of butter, rosemary and thyme makes any last-minute grill stuff gourmet...

In the living room, N.B. put out a gallery of our wedding pictures - huge b&w photos of some very serious looking underage kids getting married. On rare occasions when we show these pictures to Americans and they ask how could it be legal to get married that young, we say that it was ok because we were brother and sister.

Perfect Children

A parent dream - Max and Leon relaxing between a string quarter practice and golf lessons...

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

The secret is out - Rachel told us that you're 34. Happy Birthday!!

*******************

Happy Birthday, Marina!!

We love you just the way you are!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo


P.S. Good luck with the new office!

Кулинар!

On Sunday evening we got together with parents and N.B. and celebrated the occasion with grilled 5-minute salmon (see below) and burgers.

5-minute salmon (credit and all complains for the recipe go to Krause)

1. season Salmon filet to taste (don't you hate this portion - to taste! what if I don't have any?)
2. wrap each filet in foil
3. place wrapped pieces on a very hot grill, cover the grill (or don't, it's irrelevant)
   
4. count until 600 (Mississippically)
5. Done

It actually works!

Hurricane Slava

Perfectly engineered intersection of a number of bodies moving from different directions at subsonic speed had occurred precisely as planned at a certain door at a certain JFK terminal reuniting us with our dear friend Slava Krause who I haven't seen for more than 16 years (Irene saw him in '97). But it was like we parted yesterday. We spent three days and nights non stop catching up on the past and sight seeing the local surroundings and New York. The weather, thankfully, cooperated.

Here is a link to slideshow - all the good pics are from Slava's camera. He has a great photographer eye making even the office buildings look interesting. He was quite fascinated by all the skyscrapers, but he was quick to dismiss Central Park - you should come and see Peterhof, he said...

Energized and pumped by this meet and by our wonderful vacation in France, we are already thinking of new adventures together on either side of the Atlantic.