My nephew Zach’s birthday is in under a month. That means I am thinking about what to get him. I don’t even attempt to get him the most outrageous present. That is reserved for my dad to come up with something crazy. My problem is I can never think of what my niece or nephew would want for a present. I rely on input from my sister, otherwise I would never have thought to get a 5 year old a printer for her birthday. Zach is only two so he will probably get some traditional two year old gift. My issue is I don’t know what that might be just yet. It is always fun to shop for him, but I need guidance:(
Family
Passover Weekend
This weekend was the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Now I never claim to be a religious person but on a holiday like this I do get together with my family and do the whole family holiday thing. If anything, it is nice to get together with my family.
On Saturday I went with my parents to my mom’s friend Martha’s house for the first night of Passover. It was a nice night. Thankfully I wasn’t the only person my age there. I was the only guy, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Overall it was a nice evening. Carrie and the kids were in Jamaica, or shall I say coming back from Jamaica so we didn’t see them on Saturday. What is so weird about going to my mom’s friend Martha’s is that my mom actually met her through me. Martha was actually one of my High School history teachers. I actually did well in her class, and ended up doing service work for her in I think the attendance dept. Turned out that she went to the same beach club my family went to, so my mom and dad would meet up with her and her husband every so often. After I was out of school I guess the began hanging out more, and last spring my mom went to europe with her. Martha is a knowledgeable traveler. Well I just find it a funny side story, so i decided to throw it in here.
Sunday the entire family went to my sisters father in law’s apartment in Manhattan. That meant that besides Zachary & Morgan there where 3 other little ones. Lauren and andrew were there with the twins (Ethan & Tyler) and Evan. There was lots of yelling and running around, but they are all so cute! It wasn’t a restful night but it was fun getting together with everyone.
My Birthday Weekend
Wow, I need a vacation to recover from this weekend. Last Sunday was my birthday. If you know the calendar at all you would also know that Monday was St. Patrick’s day. With both events so close craziness ensues. I went out every night from Thursday through Monday. Thursday & Friday I went out with people from work. We went to a bar or two and drank. It is always fun to unwind with them.
Saturday I went with Gretchen & Jayson to a Piano Bar. They have been a few times but it was my first time to this one, Sweet Caroline’s. It was fun. I always loved the dueling piano bar in the New York, New York hotel in Las Vegas, and the one in Pat O’Brien’s on Burbon Street. I had a fun time, even though I drank much more than I had planned.
Sunday night my parents took me to the Waterfront Crab House in Long Island City for my birthday diner. It was good. I had king crab legs, and finished off my mom’s crab cakes. It was good food and I had a good time.
Monday I meet up with Douge, Yan, and a few others for a few drinks on St. Patrick’s day. I didn’t stay out too late since I was really tired from the long weekend of being out, but it was fun meeting up for a little while.
Family Travels
My sister and niece are going on a two week trip to Hong Kong on Tuesday. One of her best friends moved there about two years ago with her family and my sister is going to visit. Her friends twin daughters are also friends of my niece, so she is excited to go visit. While they are away my nephew will spend a week with my mom, since Michael could only be home 1 week, since he had to work the next one. My mom is taking him to Florida for the week to play in the sand, and do what other 18 month olds do.
Recently Zachary has become attached to Elmo. He is the first kid in my family to finally like the red muppet. I am a fan of Elmo, so I have been trying to get all the little cousins in my family to like him, but none have been as attached to him as Zach seems to be. I am trying to find him an appropriately sized Elmo doll for him to take on his trip. The one I ordered seems to have gotten lost in shipping.
And the farthest I am going for my vacation next week is to Manhattan for a hair cut.
Visiting The Kids
I spent Wednesday through Friday hanging out at my sisters house. I got to play allot with my niece and nephew. It was nice, especially since I don’t get to see them as much as I would like. I babysat for them on Wedsnday night since it was my sister and brother in laws anniversary. The rest of the time we just hung out. I had a good time since I don’t get to see everyone that much since they moved.
Unfortunately I caught a cold Thursday night and I feel like crap now.
Vacation to Nowhere
I tried to make today as eventless as possible. It was my last day at work before my vacation. I didn’t need any excitement to delay my rest. Thankfully I had good mojo or something since nothing crazy happened like earlier in the week.
I hit the local bar everyone from work goes to for a quick drink before my vacation began. I am off for 11 days counting weekends and the christmas holiday. I am not really going anywhere, but I needed to take some time off. I haven’t been on a vacation since my Cancun trip in 2005. For this vacation I couldn’t think of where to go and couldn’t find any travel companion’s so I just decided to take time off and relax. The second half of the week I am going to my sisters in New Jersey to see her and the kids and to babysit one night. So that will break up the vacation a bit.
Even though I am not going anywhere I am not going to contact work. That means my Blackberry is off, I have the away message in my email client running, and I told everyone in my group I would only answer the phone for them and only if it was during certain times of the day. I need some time to relax. Lets see how that goes!
Dinner With The Family
I took a trip to the Queens Center mall today to try and do some clothing shopping before the crazy holiday season takes off. Well, I was too late. Apparently the holidays do in fact start before thanksgiving if the level of crowds and decorations at the mall are any indication. I ended up not buying anything. I didn’t find any clothes that I wanted. I was actually disappointed by the selection of stores at that mall. Most of the ones I would shop in that I tend to expect to be standard fare at a mall weren’t there. The ones that were didn’t have anything that caught my eye. So the trip was a bust.
On the plus side the mall trip was part of my master plan to get to see my family for dinner. My sister, niece, and nephew were at my parents so my mom picked me up from the mall and we all went out to eat. I then got a ride home. It was fun seeing everyone. Those kids keep me laughing. Thankfully I will see them again in a few days for Thanksgiving.
This visit with my sister also got me up to date on what I will be getting the kids for the holidays. It is nice to have a web site and a product number so I don’t have to go back to the mall!!! I will be online later this week to place my orders, even though I still maintain that Zack would be happy with an empty box.
The Move
The move went as well as you could expect. No major issues, but I was very worried about the movers showing up with enough time to move me out while i still had the elevator. Apparently my building only gives you 2 hours to move out, and my movers weren’t the most prompt group even though they suggested scheduling them first thing in the morning to prevent just what i was worried about them (not being there when the elevators were mine). They showed up and got everything out around the time i had been given.
My mom showed up with Zach to wait with the couch that my sister decided she finally wanted. I ended up leaving around 12:30 with all my stuff gone, my mom and Zach hanging in an empty apt while Carrie was getting the moving truck. I took my luggage with my clothes for my parents place with me in a cab and went to work. The rail road home wasn’t too bad, but dragging the big luggage was a bit of a pain. SInce both my parents are at my sisters this week i have their apartment to myself. The down side is that it is hot in most parts of the place except for the living room and their bedroom, and i can’t find any wifi spots to connect to so to be on the internet on my laptop requires me to plug into my dad’s cable modem in his really hot office.
Technorati Tags: Moving
Fathers Day, A Day Early
I went to my sisters today to have an early fathers day. My dad was hanging out watching Zachary while my sister packed. My mom came to get me in the city so we could go get Morgan’s bike fixed. We then all hung out at Carries place and had dinner. It was low key but i had a good time. I am slowly starting to get a big concerned about my dad’s foot, but I was told not to worry yet. Worrying anyway!
Time With The Family
Today i went to my sisters to primarily see everyone, but the alterer motive was to fix my niece Morgan’s computer. Who knows what they did but i had to fix it. This will probably be the last time i see them at their apartment in Forest Hills since they move in a week. It is always high paced but great to see everyone. You can’t sit still with little kids!