Snow

Lots of wet snow on fully leafed trees = No Power and No Internet.

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Mila's visit

Mila was visiting with us in September.

More pictures here.

Back to School

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.

Time to go back to school.

First Impression

Cautiously optimistic and curious.

At Compo

Trying to squeeze one more "last swim of the season"...
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Ping-Pong

Leon's Moving In Day at NYU

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Irene

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)

Dad's Birthday

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.

More pictures via Alik's album here (gmail login required).

"Сплетницы" (Gossip Girls),Unknown, 2011

Martha's Vineyard Vacation 2011

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).

We also ate great clam chowders.

More vacation pictures are here.

Also, here are some videos:

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!

Search and Destroy

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.

At the Anniversary Dinner

 At our 22nd Anniversary Dinner

Summer in Connecticut

Exterminators - nah...

Few shorts from Max The Sharpshooter

Fog of War

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.

More pictures here

Leon's Graduation

 

More pics from graduation are here

Max is a Published Poet

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.

Leon's Senior Prom

More pictures here

Comedy Theater

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.

Max's School Trip to Gettysburg

St.Luke's traditional 5th grade trip to Gettysburg to the battlefields of Civil War.

 Макс - под левым передним копытом.

Max's Animation Short

12 seconds. Turn on the sound.

At the Intrepid

The spring break in a full swing, but we didn't go anywhere this year.
 Here are some pictures from yesterday's NYC outing at the Intrepid museum.

See more pictures here

Max in Guys and Dolls

Max's first performance at SLS stage - he plays a Gambler in "Guys and Dolls, Jr.".

Connecticut welcomes new driver Olga

Quiz: Are you 18?

Max's Homework - Wordly Wise Story “It’s Good to be 18”

Wordly Wise Story “It’s Good to be 18”

By Max Lyakovetsky, Feb 24, 2011

Vocabulary Words:

·        vote
·        jury duty
·        play lottery
·        gamble
·        own a credit card
·        buy rifles and shotguns
·        drive by himself
·        join the military
·        get a piercing or tatoo
·        sue someone
·        be tried as an adult
·        rent an apartment

Hey, Mark! I turned 18 awhile ago and got some sick tattoos! You should swing by my newly rented apartment soon and I can show you the sweet Gatling gun I got at the weapon shop yesterday for some million bucks. When you come, we could play for the lottery together, and party all night with the worry of getting sued and serving jury duty.Then we'll go to Vegas to gamble and  pick up two hot chicks and be like "WHOO!" at our hotel. And since I have a credit card, we could order room service for our ladies. We'll then vote for McCain and Palin, and to straighten ourselves after all of this, we'll go to the Army recruiting center and spend our lives in Afghanistan 'till the War on Terror ends. Wait Mark, you're 18, right?

b.Sanya (standing), her sister Lisa and her brother Sasha, around 1920.

Swan Lake

Last Wednesday, the four of us went to see "Swan Lake" at Lincoln Center. The seats were okay and the sound was a bit too soft and the set design was too minimalistic and Odelia tripped and fell (come on, NYC ballet!) and a person in the next row was coughing not stop, but still, it was wonderful and many thanks to Mom to make it all happen.

 More pictures here

Max's Recital on Feb 8, 2011

"Shenandoah" (also called "Across the Wide Missouri")