Man Down

Happy Halloween
We were a man down tonight. Jacob is sick with a fever and vomiting. Reuben and Faith were good volunteer and collect candy for him. Faith took it as her responsibility to collect for him. It got pretty confusing. Faith would knock at a door and as soon is it opened she would say “Jacob is sick”. Not trick or treat, or boo, or hello, but “Jacob is sick.” For the houses we went to that didn't know us too well, it was pretty much complete confusion. I could just laugh. On her own Faith realized this tactic wasn't working and she dropped it buy the 4th or 5th house.

Playtime In Long Island

The kids really enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa as well as seeing their NY aunts and uncles. They also fawned over Nathan giving him very sweet goodbye hugs.


Sunday the sun finally came out and the kids must have spent a good 1 1/2 to 2 hours playing in the park together with me and Grandpa.

20 Year High School Reunion

Saturday night I attended my 20 year reunion. The one friend I keep in touch with from High School planned to go. So with him going I figured at least I would have fun talking with someone.

Karen and I went along with my friend David and his wife Jen. Overall it was a pretty poor turnout; maybe 35 graduates out of a class of about 200. Just about everyone who came still lived on Long Island. I guess this isn't too surprising and I probably would not have come if my family still didn't live there. Of everyone in attendance, I'm pretty sure I traveled the furthest; pretty sad showing.

BNL Bridge Building Contest - (I had decent showing; can't remember my exact placement but I was in the top 25%.

It was still interesting and quite fun talking with people about their lives and families as if there was a close bond between us. Many of these discussions were with people who I hardly spoke with at all in High School. I was struck that for the most part everyone looked pretty good. The women stayed pretty attractive and thin, and most of the men were in good shape. Only one or two really put on any significant weight. Also, there were many classmates who had families of 3 kids and almost no one who only had one child. I probably will not rekindle any friendships as a result of the reunion but it was fun to see these people perhaps this one last time.


We did have one quasi-celebrity. Rhonda Fisher (a High School hottie) is currently running for a Judgeship in Long Island. I'm not sure I would have predicted her being a Judge but I'd probably vote for her if just to one day have the chance to see a hood face the platinum blond at the bench.

Judge Rhonda

Back in NY for the weekend

The family spent the weekend in NY. We had a very nice family visit on Saturday. We haven't seen Nathan in a long while, he so grown so much! Same holds for Jessica ;-) who's due in December.

Karen and Nathan; look at that posture!


Is it kicking?


Grandpa and the grandkids


The Family - Generation 3 and 4 (Nathan was trying to sleep)

Early Halloween Party

Busy Sunday... I'm still recovering. Part I of Sunday was a Halloween party that Karen and Karen Party Planners put on. Great fun. About halfway through I had to leave for softball and then immediately after that I had bowling with the Dads from the pre-school (look for those pictures tomorrow).

For some nice pictures of the Halloween party visit James' blog, and then enjoy my slide show highlights below.

More Repercussions To Come

Interesting column in Time Magazine from a few weeks ago. I finally just got to reading it, but it discussed the Iraqi refugees; all 2.5 million of them!! This is a little discussed side-story of the war, but one I feel will have significant impact years from now.

A million have gone to Syria, now making up 5% of the population of that country. However, like previous middle eastern refugees, namely the Palestinians, the Iraqi refugees there are not quite being welcomed with open arms. The border now is tightly controlled essentially cutting off any new refugees. Jordan has also taken almost a million. They are not faring well there either; of the 200,000 children who fled to Jordan only 20,000 attended school last year and 6,000 of those dropped out. Can anybody think of an uneducated group that nobody wanted living in the Middle East... I think they are running Gaza right now!

Anyway as disturbing as the millions fleeing to nearby states, last year the US took in a whopping 535 Iraqi refugees and only 1,700 since the war began. Sweden has taken in almost 9,000 and they opposed the war. The US isn't even letting in those Iraqi's that have risked their lives helping us. So much for winning the hearts and minds.

Burke Pumpkin Playground

Pumpkin Patch field trip. The boys' pre-school had a field trip yesterday that looked like it was a lot of fun.
Of course it was perfect weather again. After tonight, DC should have a new record of consecutive days without measurable rain; 34 days.

What Voters Care About In 2008

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

How Kid Friendly Can You Be

Today the kids pre-school had a fund raiser at the Noodle Company. What a great place for kids! I bet almost half the kids (there must have been 25+) had plain buttered noodles and loved it. The turnout was great, by my count there were probably 10 families that were there while we were there. And, we know of several other families that came earlier or arrived later. As for the benefit to the preschool, it was pretty generous; 25% of the bill went back to the school. I bet the school raised about $100 from the event. A big plus is also that the food is pretty good there. Reuben had a bowl of the buttered noodles but then said he was still hungry, so I bought another bowl of mac and cheese and he finished that too.

Sorry no pictures as I came right from work and Karen once again was without the camera purposely purchased for her purse.

Staying Around The House

Fall is now here. We had a nice around the house day. Weather once again was great, but now a little on the cool side. After going out for bagels this morning, we worked around the yard. Jacob was a particularly big help to me as I cleared vines and weeds from he back corner of the yard. He with Reuben and Faith, also helped me take down the wood from the Sukkah and store it under the house in our crawl space.
While I worked cleaning up the yard, the kids had a good time playing around. Reuben actually had a good hit on one of the balls as it shot up from the base. Kids still need a lot of practice jumping rope, though I'm not one to talk.
Before dinner we made it outside again and Jacob was in a picture taking mood...
But no one loves autumn as much as Tipper. She's outside just about all day long.
By the way as Karen beautifully photographed, our mums are looking great!

The Best Reward

Our kids love "a long play bath" especially when I run it so the water is deep. This is the ultimate reward for a well behaved day. The only way they get this bath is if Karen has enough energy to handle it. If they've been trouble, Karen's usually too tired and they get short baths or worse quick showers. But, today all was good and they got the long one.

Lazy Day

A wonderful lazy Saturday. Karen and I lounged in and out of bed until 10am!!! We alternated getting the kids breakfast and such, but then put the TV on in the basement and took a nap. Kids played well, but mostly were glued to the TV.

We then went out to Falls Church's Fall Fest which was OK, but all the interesting things, pony ride, hay ride, etc. had very long lines. So we only stayed for a little while and walked over to Jerry's Pizza for lunch and then haircuts in triplicate.





The finished product. Don't they look sharp.

The boys actually napped this afternoon for about 1 1/2 hours, but fell asleep only after being in their rooms for over an hour. They didn't wake up until after 5pm. That spoiled my plan for a hike on our nature trail, so instead we just played around the house and also started to take the Sukkah down. Then, we all had a very nice and well behaved dinner together followed by a triple bath; all three in the tub. The day is so nice when the kids are not fighting or crying. They were all really excellent today and everyone enjoyed the nice lazy Saturday.

The Final Sukkot Post

It's been so busy, I never got to post pictures from the weekend and the visit from Grandma & Grandpa. Sunday was a busy Sukkah day.
The morning got started with our friends Ken, Karen, and Amanda stopping off for bagels in the Sukkah. After breakfast it was playtime outside with Amanda and our neighbor's kids. If you have kids and don't own these stomp rockets, run out and get them. They are FUN. Amanda was a little big for Faith's bike (which if course Faith won't ride), but too small for the boys' bikes. Amanda handled the little bike really well and even got some speed out of those 10” wheels.
After a rest, it was to the main event... Our big Sukkah extravaganza – Pizza in the Sukkah. We had about 20 people over for pizza, beer, and some extra goodies. Lot of fun and Grandma and Grandpa arrived right on time all the way from NY.
My neighbor loves my parents; but who wouldn't.
The pizza was from Z-Pizza, which as far as chain/delivery places go, was excellent. We had a feta, mushroom and artichoke pizza (called the Casablanca) that was amazing.The party had lots of kids and all I think had a good time. Though, there was a lot of competition for the bikes and trikes. A lot of good sharing (and Daddys coaxing good sharing) done by all. Sukkot is now over... and I'm exhausted ;-)