Stardate 62862.11 - Happy Birthday Loren!!

Today is Loren's birthday. Hard to believe it has already been three years!

Happy Birthday, Loren!!!

NYC

Stardate 62856.16 - Loren's Third Halloween

For Halloween we bought Loren a new doctor costume and pirate costume and let her choose which she wanted to wear. When we were in Arkansas we also picked up a Halloween shirt for her to wear to school on Halloween during the day, before the "fall festival" began. She decided to take the pirate costume with her for the festival.


After school, Cheryl took Loren down to Peter Cooper Village to where our friends Chris and Lisa and their daughter were participating in their local Halloween event outside.


Once back home, Loren decided she wanted to be a cat for trick-or-treating in our building (Cheryl ran into the Super and mentioned to him about not being able to trick-or-treat in the building and he told her our building does do trick-or-treating and that there was a sign-up sheet). Loren remembered her cat costume from last year and when Cheryl pulled it out of the drawer we found that it still fit (barely!).


People signed up if they wanted to hand out candy, although many people just ended up placing it on tables in the hallways with a sign saying "Help Yourself!". Loren was very good at taking only 1 piece, and in fact for our second stop she put her first piece into their collection before taking a new one. We told her that she could actually keep one piece per stop!


Then we went back so we could start handing out candy at 7 PM (we signed up to hand out candy, but only after 7). We had probably 5-10 groups stop by, including the mother of twins who are Loren's age. In fact, they ended up inviting us to their birthday party today (Sunday). We would have returned the favor, however our party from yesterday was already at capacity for the facility (we'll try and post pictures today or tomorrow).

NYC

Stardate 62854.65 - Arkansas

A couple of weekends ago we took a trip to Arkansas to visit Cheryl's brother Steve, his wife Rachel, and their two children Ethan and Ellie. They have been in Arkansas for more than a year, and we've been saying we needed to get down there for a visit so we finally put a trip on the calendar. We flew out on Friday the 17th and back on Monday the 20th. On Saturday, we went to a wild animal safari and Loren got to see her favorite again - Zebras!



We were a little concerned about the donkeys that seemed to be in or right next door to the tiger cages, but then we saw the following sign:


The animals didn't seem too "wild" and frequently came right up to the cars or pretty much ignored us.




This one ostrich, however, came right up to the car and began pecking at the glass. He (or she) did this for a good 2 minutes before I gently moved the car forward. The ostrich did continue to follow us for another 30 seconds or so before moving away off of the road.


After the ride through the park, which turned out to be longer than we expected, the kids were hungry and thirsty and ready for a snack.


We then entered the petting portion of the facility, where we were immediately beset upon by hungry goats.


Loren did help feed them.


Then we found the ceramic gorilla for the kids to climb on and pose for pictures.


On Sunday we went to Drake Field to see the planes and the big hit was a helicopter that the kids could get inside of and play. They had a blast pretending to drive.


We also had a lot of fun just hanging out and watching the kids play in the back yard. Loren's favorite toys were the Geotrack trains, although I think the gas pump for the little red car is a close second.

We flew back on Monday with minimal delays on both ends, although there were some slight delays.


It was a great trip overall, and Loren's favorite place we ate at during the trip was Mad Pizza, which she still talked about for a couple of days after we got home.

NYC

Stardate 62850.60 - Busy, Busy, Busy

Things have been crazy these past couple of weeks. I was very busy with preparations for the General Election and then I worked a 20-hour day on Tuesday. I'm finally getting a chance to catch my breath and realized that we haven't posted anything in over a week, including the photos from our trip to Arkansas (the photo above is one from that trip).

I'm quite happy that Palin...I mean McCain...lost the election. It made the long, long day bearable. I won't get into a long political rant or anything, but I think this country has been on the wrong path for a while and it really is time for a change. And McCain can claim to be a maverick all he wants, but by picking Palin as his running mate the Republicans have proven once again that they pander, pander, pander to the religious right. If only they would focus on fiscal conservatism and leave the social issues alone they'd be a party I might like. Back in April I wrote about political parties and my beliefs, so I won't repeat them here. Regardless, I was pleased with the outcome.

Now I have to get Loren ready for school and me ready for work. TGIF. We'll try to get the Arkansas pictures up on Sunday.

NYC

Stardate 62824.78 - To The Zoo

Two Sundays ago (October 19) we took a trip to the Bronx Zoo. Normally we've gone in the very off season on unseasonably warm days (like in January). This time the Zoo had many more people in it than on our previous trips, but still not too crowded.






Loren's favorite thing, and what she talked about the entire time until we got to them, was the zebras.



NYC

Stardate 62804.69 - Shrek 2 and Persepolis

Watched Shrek 2 last weekend. Cheryl had watched it on a plane, so when it finally bubbled up to the top of the NetFlix list I was the only one interested. In short, I found it to be pretty well done (maybe because I had low expectations?) and enjoyable. I won't really speak much about it because I cannot imagine anyone would be watching the sequel if they hadn't already seen the original. I give it a thumbs up.




Cheryl and I watched Persepolis that same weekend. This very well done film tracks the life of a girl who is very young at the time of the revolution in Iran, up thorugh modern times. It was very interesting, and shows the perspective of people and families who were not part of the Islamic movement. We both thought it was quite good - two thumbs up. The original is in French and we watched it dubbed into English--normally not something we do but since it is a cartoon we figured watching it in French with English subtitles was unnecessary.

NYC

Stardate 62800.19 - Mr. Jack-O-Lantern

We've started our preparations for Halloween, and the first activity (after buying pumpkins) was to carve one up into a Jack-O-Lantern. I'm not sure what Loren was expecting when we took the top off, but clearly the seeds and junk inside was not it. Loren had previously drawn on the pumpkin, making eyes, a nose, and a mouth so Cheryl used that general lay-out to do the carving of the face. Here is the end result:



Cheryl also purchased two costumes for Loren, a Doctor one and a Pirate one. Loren tried on the pirate costume first, and that is when the "low battery" warning on the camera started to flash so we didn't get pictures of the doctor one (but I'm sure she'll wear it again).


While dressed as a pirate Loren wanted to bury her two treasure chests (well, hide them) and then carry them to her ships. Her chests were two plastic wipes containers, and her ships were two cardboard boxes from Fresh Direct. Then as the doctor she gave me and Cheryl each multiple check-ups before Cheryl persuaded her to start on her stuffed animals.

The sad thing it, we're not even sure that our building does any trick-or-treating at Halloween.

NYC

Stardate 62797.17 - Beer Chang

When we were in Thailand back in 2004, I fell in love with Beer Chang. It was available at the local 7-11s and every restaurant we ever went to. Singha may be better known and more likely to appear at your favorite Thai restaurant in The States, but Beer Chang was cheap and very tasty. When we got back, I tried to track down Beer Chang but I couldn't even find a web page for them at the time. I continued to ask for it at Thai restaurants, but no-one ever had it.

All that changed last week as we were placing an order with Fresh Direct. As I hopped over to the beer page, imagine my surprise when Beer Chang was featured on the main page! I immediately added a 6-pack to the shopping cart and it was every bit as tasty as I remembered. In fact, we're going to place another grocery order today and as I'm already out of Beer Chang I plan on picking up another 6-pack.

NYC

Stardate 62796.96 - Sailing Video

Thomas took a short video of the sail from Newport to Block Island I wrote about here.

NYC

Blue skies, shining on me

I think this post will finally catch us up with the last set of pictures we've taken. This past weekend we stayed home on Saturday. One of Loren's classmates (actually on-again, off-again classmate -- he aged out of her class a couple months ago) and his younger sister came over for a playdate. They live several blocks north of us so we frequently walk home together. Once the kids had all gotten their fill of Loren's toys and looking for the cats hiding under the bed, we went up on the roof to enjoy the gorgeous weather.


On Sunday, we decided to take a drive out on Long Island to Robert Moses State Park. Curt and I had been there once before, but he had a hard time remembering it because it was in the pre-digital camera days (by a month or so). We hiked on the boardwalk through the dunes to the Fire Island lighthouse. Loren walked a good bit of the way there by herself, but hitched a ride back on Curt's shoulders.




Yes, I am looking a little chunky these days. If all goes according to schedule, Loren is going to be a big sister in mid-to-late January!

Weekend in NJ

Here are some belated pictures of my trip to NJ with Loren while Curt was sailing. We went pumpkin-picking at Dearborn Farms on Saturday, and took part in the American Heart Walk on Sunday with the team from the hospital where my mom works. Much thanks to Jen and Andy for serving as photographers for most of the weekend. On Saturday I forgot my camera, and on Sunday I was too busy supervising Loren at the Heart Walk to take many pictures of my own!


Loren's first pony ride!


On the hayride

Andy and Jen


With Grandma


Loren in her team shirt for the Heart Walk (no kid's sizes available!)


On the boardwalk in Point Pleasant


Decorating pumpkins while waiting for the start


And her first moon bounce