July 31st, 2008 at 4:51 pm
(Dan, New)
This is a post I meant to post earlier, so better late than never.
So I am visiting my brother in New York, just for the weekend, since the kids and wife are in St. Petersburg (Ru).
(Friday)
Arrived around 11 PM
Flight was delayed, but we made good time on the flight and good time in the cab getting to Dan’s apartment.
Had a late night snack of some cheese cake, which was good except that there was a bit of mold on the outer edge, which I didn’t notice initially because I start to eat from the point. Well at least I got to enjoy most of the slice.
Started watching Walk the Line (Johnny Cash story)
Dan has a real bed, not the inflateable air matress of old. Acording to Dan I can thank his new girlfriend for that.
(Saturday)
We slept in really late (it was rough but we toughed it out)
Comic book Store
Met Dan’s new girlfriend Orlya (Or-Lee-Ah) not to be confused with my wife Olya (Oh-Lee-Ah).
Dan overcomes the confusion by calling her “Babe” or “Baby” all the time, course he now calls me “Babe” as well, which is akward with us sharing the same bed at night.
Avenue Q
An Adult Muppet show, and by adult I mean there is sex, puppet sex.
Very funny (even the muppet sex), and I recomend it for any adult with a sense of humor.
Had a late lunch at The Chicken Bar
Moldy black and White cookie at Starbuck’s (yes they even have Starbucks in New York)
Saw the cast of Avenue Q at Geogioes, waved at them.
Scrabble, I didn’t win, this should come as no suprise to anyone who knows me or reads this blog. Scrabble in not the game for me, now if we had played tactical game involving giant robots and space aliens, i think I would have wiped the floor with them, but Dan doesn’t have one of those kind of games (too normal).
Comendy / Improve
Well this was not that funny, if I could do it over I would have rather lost another game of scrabble.
The worst part was the troupes signature skit where they do improve to random music.
But the music was not that random, as they got to select what they wanted.
Kind of interesting with New York, is that they clear you out of the hall fast so that they can bring in customers for the next show ASAP, sometimes the showes are the same as with Avenue Q, other times it is a completely different show with a different cast.
Talked to police about why there were so many cops out, including a Swat team wearing full body armor, and holding Automatic Rifles. I was told this was normal and happened every night, just more on weekends. I am sure it keeps the crime down with just a show of force.
ate at Gerogioes.
The cast of Avenue Q was gone, but the food was still good.
Watched some more of Walk the Line
(Sunday)
Slept in later again (Woot).
My goal for the day is to not have moldy food.
Hoping to eat in Brooklin Pizzarea and Afgany restaurant, which Dan take everyone but me.
Well we mad the pizza place, and the pizza was good but I think they simple charged us for the special extras we ordered and gave us a standard pizza. Next time going to order a standard pizza.
Good lemonaid while waiting in line for 30 minuets to get a table.
Lots of walking but it was fun.
(Monday)
Had too leave early to catch my flight and go to work.
Walking down the block to the main street to catch a cab, I came to a shop with an awning. Lucky for me I decided to adjust my corse at the last moment to walk UNDER the awning, because as I did half a dozen or more pidgions decided to relieve themselves where I was about to walk. So I was spared smelling like pidgeon poop for the next few hours, which would have sucked on the plane ride.
2 Comments
April 15th, 2008 at 10:23 am
(Damien, Dan, My Kids, New, Parenting Tip, Sergey)
One of the things that Damien is a bit behind in is block building.
This one is our fault, we didn’t give him blocks at an early age because we were worried that he would throw them, like at the window, or computer, so he just never had the experience.
When it came up during his eval I started playing with him with blocks.
Not just building towers, but other shapes as well. Damien is not really interested in copying my shapes like squares, triangles, or pyramids. He like to make upside down T’s, but now he is branching out into making L’s as well.
We will even make multiple sizes of the same shape, like several small T’s and one big T (the master T, or maybe it’s Mr. T).
This morning when I took the kids downstairs, Sergey wanted to watch Elmo, but Damien wanted to play with blocks. That was fine with me, I am sure it is better for him. So I went back upstairs to catch some more Z’s (not a block pattern).
Later we heard Damien cry out, I turned to Olya and said “I bet Damien Is complaining because Sergey smashed his block tower; because that is what Dan (the evil block basher) did to me when I was that ageâ€.
As I get close I can hear Damien asking Sergey to “Stop†and “go awayâ€. At the doorway I can see Sergey on top of his brother with a fist full of Damien’s hair in each hand. Sergey’s notices me and he immediately stops smiling and begins to cry as if he is hurt.
“Not a chance†I tell him. I go over and comfort Damien. Damien said “Sergey smashed my blocksâ€, which is a really good sentence for Damien. Then I yell at Sergey about how bad it is to smash other people’s blocks “If you don’t make them, then you can’t break themâ€.
Sergey had a “You aren’t supposed to yell at me I’m the baby†look on his face.
After Sergey left, I stayed to comfort Damien a bit more and he said “Sergey should get a time out, he was bad.†That’s two really good sentences. So there is a silver lining.
Parenting Tip: Kids start to lie and deceive before age two.
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January 11th, 2008 at 10:52 am
(Damien, Dan, Parenting Tip, Sergey)
My Mom, Dan, and I took the boys to the Betty Brin Museum.
It seemed like the perfect thing to do on a cold winter day over the holidays. The only bad thing was that a lot of other people had the same idea.
When we got to the museum, there was a long line just to get to the ticket counter. It took almost an hour, but the wait was not the that bad for us, it was very bad for Damien and Sergey. They don’t know any of these people, and the weren’t allowed to run around.
Mom tried just putting Sergey on the floor when he didn’t want to be held, but the moment she took her eyes off him, he started off on his own voyage of discovery. Like a dummy I had forgotten the diaper bag at home, with all the food, toys, change of cloths, an diapers. But since we were already there, I decided to risk it, besides I didn’t want to loose my place in line.
Theater Area
The Puppet Show was one of the first places that we stopped at that the kids liked. They liked walking on the little stage, and listening to some of the kids try to give them “stage” advice and direction. Damien really liked the attention of the bigger kids, but he had no idea what they were trying to say (niether did I for that matter), but he did smile back at them.
Sergey and Damien both picked up a puppet that they liked, and proceeded to try and walk of with it. Well for Sergey it was more like drag off, but it was clear that they really liked puppets. From their perspective, it was like:
Sergey “Wow, look at this toy, it comes with it’s own handle for dragging around!”
Damien “Yeah, it’s like the perfect hybrid of Toy and Stick, this ROCKS!”
Sergey “Speaking of rocks, have you seen any?”
Damien “Not yet, but let me know if you find some, I want to put them in my mouth, just to annoy Dad.”
Well that is my best guess.
Toddler Area
Part of the problem is that our kids are still so young, good thing there was an area for three and under. This was set up like a backyard in the summer. There were fake trees, a slide, a rocking hourse (which the kids spent about half an hour each on, just as Mom, she was on rocking horse duty for almost an hour), things to bang one, another slide, crawling tunnels, and a sand box.
The sand box, had room for several kids, and it had lots of toy, like buckets, and shovels, scoops, and spinning wheels powered by sand being poured into them. I noticed that Damien kept licking the sand off his hands (let me just say “eeeeewwwww“). So I told him not to put sand in his mouth, and he was scooping sand and dumping it onto the spin wheel. So of course what does he do. He looks at me smiles, the licks the sand off his finger, and smiles again. “Next time you put sand in your mouth you are done playing in the sand box”, I say.
So he takes a big sccop of sand and pretends to pour it into the sand wheel then he smiles up at me and moves the scoop of sand to his head. Now Damien has been known to dump whole buckets of sand on his head, for fun, in the summer it is common for Damien to come home, with two or more table spoons of sand in each shoe. But this time Damien was going to shoe me who was boss, nobody tells him, he cant put sand in his mouth, including Daddy. That is when he tilted his head back, opened his mouth as wide as he could, and duped oever a cup of sand into his mouth. “Yummy” was probably what Damien wanted to think, but the reality of sand was too much fo rhis optomisim, and he begane spitting it out. True to my word I remeoved him from the sand box, and we went to the bathroom, to give his mouth a good cleaning.
Harley Motorcycle Fun Box
Harley has a Big box that is set up like a jungle gym for kids, and it has sevearl morotr cycle parts in it for kids to climb on and play on, both of the kids liked it. Damien played with the lights in a secret compartment, and Sergey practiced his climbing skills. When Damien go board with the lights he went off with Mom. Dan and I stayed to keep and eye on Sergey. There were two entraces to the big climing box, on opposite sides, so Dan watched one, and I watched the other. There may be a secret third exit, because after awhile I couldn’t see Sergey anymore. I went over to ask Dan if he could see him, but Dan was goone as well. Next thing I know Dan walks up to me carrying Sergey. Apparently Sergey snuck out and neither of us noticed, Dan said he looked around when he didn’t see Sergey climbing, and happened to notice him half way down the first flight of stairs, leading out of the museum. Good going Egale Eye.
When we left around noon, there was no line what so ever, next time we sould come after the kids nap, that should be a Parenting Tip.
2 Comments
December 14th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
(Dan)
Me and my brother have been playing email tag for awhile, about when we are going to get together, over the holidays {see below for an example}. So I thought this blog might be a good place to sort all that out.
Some things to consider.
1. I have to work the 28th, for some end of year database stuff, but other than that, I am kinda open.
2. I would like to go Tree hunting with Mom and Dan if possible.
3. The great extended family gift exchange has been canceled as far as I know, but we will be getting presents for the little ones.
4. Not sure on the family gift exchange, what we will be doing, but Mom and I talked about toning it down, or removing it entirely, except for the boys.
I look forward to your comments.
==================================================================
Besides, the 24th/25th when I’ll be ‘doing x-mas,’ we can hang out. I think it makes sense to hangout in bunches, in order to lessen the transportation to-and-fro. In that vein, here is a suggestion: we hangout 1) sat & sunday the 22 & 23rd; 2) midweek (assuming you can take the days off) wed, thurs, & fri the 26, 27 & 28th; and then again around new years. I’m just throwing that out there, it can be more or less depending on your schedule.
Anyway, very excited about seeing you, Olya and the boyZ.
- D
On 12/5/07, Bill wrote:
> I can have off most of the days that you are in town. Let me know
> which days you want to spend with your bro.
>
> My plan is to game Friday evening, but that is the evening, I can have
> the days free if you like.
>
>
>
> Bill
4 Comments
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
(Damien, Dan, New, Sergey, Swimming)
Well work was terribally busy the last two weeks, lots of working through lunches and such.
I’ll just try to blog some thing quick every day rather than try to get a good story going.
 Most of my stories start off as short info blurbs anway and balloon into stories. Not that any of them are any good so if I write another bad on no big deal.
 Last weekend by brother Dan (not to be confused with my other brothers) came to Milwaukee for a visit. The big bummer is that he had so little time to spend with us.
Dan went to swim class with me an the boys taking Olya’s place, on the down side he does not look as good as Olya in a swimsuit, on the plus side I could see his nipples, and I am here to tell you they were perky.
Normally Damien is the complainer, and Sergey is the swim champ, so I let Dan help Sergey, however, it appears that Dan is no substitute for Olya where Sergey is conserned, so we switched kids. All in all it was a great bonding experiance for Dan and the boys.
Damien is still asking for “Uncle Dan” every other day.
 Auto Spam may be broken 
3 Comments
August 14th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
(Dan)
Apparently I had a cerlebity sighting while visiting my brother Dan in NY NY see NY NY 2.
I was with Dan and somw of his friends at a Cafe, after wathcing the movie Manhattan.
When Andre J arrived with a guest and sat two tables away.
In retro spect the lavender body suit should of given it away.
Dan found a picture of Andre J, which will save me the trouble (and it would be a trouble) of having to describe what Andre J looks like.
Here is another view.
Yes they are both wearing high heals.
Yes they are both HeShe.
For more information you can go here.
Which One Would You Hit?
1 Comment
July 24th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
(Dan, New, Vacation)
Just some bullit points, for now, so I don’t forget what happened.
Breakfast – Waffles
Central park
paddle boats
RC sail boats
music
Statues – Polish King, women, Alice in wonderland
Museums
MET
Geubenheim
- in reverse
-ceiling
- bath rooms
- art
- impresionists
walk down 5th
missing building.
black and white cookie
cheese cake forsaken
market day
to the airport
home at last.
1 Comment
July 24th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
(Dan, New, Vacation)
Well today we went to Coney Island
Rode the Cyclone rollocoaster
Bumper Cars
Listend to some live music and the live music concert that happened to be held there.
We were going to have a world famos hot dog, but the lines were too long, so I settled for a pork kabob, yummy.
We played some skee ball then played some quarter drop game, called silver ski slope.
We racked up hundreds of tickets and even had a little fan club at the end, as people watched this huge pile of ticket mount up at our feet.
Total tickets 380.
We bought a Elmo hat, a soft flower, and a winner medal, hopeflly the kids will like them.
We also did some foseball, one game I scored all the point, but that is not saying much because there were only two ball for some reason. I think the game just realized my total superiority and took pity on Dan, so it stopped giving us balls for him to save face.
On the way home I got some Strawberry Shortcake Cheesecake. Origianally Dan said he wasn’t hungry but just wanted to try a bite, but then proceeded to take the biggest fork fulls he could, honestly I think he ate almost half. 
There is a Mid Summer Swing thing going on at Lincoln center tonight, it includes a dance lesson, so I talked Dan into going with me, I’ll let you know how I do.
Well Dan and I did fine, we both learned some new steps and met lots of people, if I got to NY next year I’ll try to time it to do this again.
After taht we went back for a shower at Dan’s then headed out to meet up with some of Dan’s friends at a Bulgarian bar for some music and dancing. When we first got there it was rather daed. After about an hour of watching topless women on a loop of Bulgarian TV (which never got old even after the third viewing) music and dancing started happening, so Dan and I along with Jill, her fiance, and her sister Amy did even more dancing. We were so tired by the end that we took a cab back to Dan’s place.
1 Comment