Family

My cousin Synde made a surprise 40th birthday party for her husband Wayne. He was totally taken by surprise.

It was at a italian restaurant near their house in South Jersey. The food was really good. I had crab cakes italian style. It was very good. I got to see most of my cousins. Thankfully it was the cousin’s that I actually like seeing.

Merric and Arrielle are getting so big. Cerina is also growing up. It is also scary to see my older cousins. Marisa, Sari, and Adrienne are all in college. It is weird. I remember Adrienne when she was Cerina’s age and barely talking. I am getting old:( Of course not as old as wayne!!! Sorry wayne but I had to put that in!

Carrie and Morgan also came with us to the party. Morgan played all afternoon with her cousins. She hasn’t seen half these people since she was 2 months old, but she instinctively bonded with them. It was like she knew they were family. It was very cute to watch Cerina and Morgan play together. All Cerina wanted to do was hug Morgan. It was very funny.

In general it was a busy but good weekend. Now the train is in the east river tunnel, and I have to prepare for a week of work…

Got to see Morgan and Carrie for a whole 2 minutes last night. She is so cute. Morgan that is. I need to see her more often. That is what I want, and what I am being told by every women in my family except for Morgan. Of course in Morgan’s defense she cannot talk just yet. If she could I bet she would say the same thing.

Carrie got back from Germany Friday. She looked pretty good for someone who just traveled almost 10,000 miles in 5 days. I never wrote about it but she was off to Frankfort Germany last week for work. She didn’t want to go because of the baby but she said she had a good time. She will probably have to go every so often since a new project she is on is out there. I am jealous. I wanted international travel, and never got to do it. 99% of my travel was in north america. I don’t consider going to Canada international travel! Of course I do NOT regret leaving Datastream. At the time I was done with traveling. I am 100% + happier now that I am not on the road.

Out of the blue I got a really generous gift from my grandmother. She is my only remaining grand parent, but for the past several years we haven’t talked very much. She can be difficult on good days, and I decided I didn’t want to talk with her if at the end of every call I would be all agitated and we would be arguing.

Well, I saw her at Morgan’s (my niece) first birthday party. She was very nice and mellow. I think older age has mellowed her a bit. Then 2 weeks later I get a card with a large check for my birthday. I called to thank her since it was quite unexpected. We actually had a pleasant conversation. I was kind of weird but nice. I don’t like fighting with her, but for years she made it almost impossible not to. It was nice to just talk.

It was funny I learned that my grandfather liked to play craps also. Ironic since I just learned to play and like it allot.

If all conversations with my grandmother are like this one, I can safely call her and not worry about undue stress or aggravation. After all she is my grandmother.

My birthday turned out better than I expected. I ended up going to my sisters place for little while since my friend Rich had to work late and Carrie wanted to see me on my birthday. I got to see Morgan (she is running now) and Mike. Carrie got me a pizza size cookie. it was good. I ended up bringing it to work today since it was so big. I was never going to finish it.

Amanda cooked Rich and I dinner. We had some fillets. They were good. For someone who does not eat or cook meat, Amanda knows how to cook meat! Even the cheese and crackers were good!

The best part was the chocolate volcano desert. It is this individual size cake with molten chocolate in it. It explodes like a volcano the first time you cut into it. I burned my mouth on the liquid Hershey chocolate inside. Mmmm burning chocolate. It was fantastic.

Amanda was not to happy. She cut her hand on a knife, had the bathroom flood, and she claims she ruined the desert. It was a stressful night for her, but it turned out great. Thanks guys.

And to finish the day off, it did snow. For that matter it snowed today also. Doesn’t anyone know that spring starts next week?

One last bit of advise. I will quote the card my sister gave me. 30, it is a joke to everyone until you turn it:)

Sunday was my niece Morgan’s first birthday party. It was fun. I saw a bunch of friends and family that I have not seen in a while. It also marked the first time in 6 days that I left my apartment since I was sick. I didn’t stay out too long. I went to the party and then back home. The rest of the family went back to my brother in law’s sisters place to open gifts. I wasn’t taking any chances with over doing it on my first day out so I went back home.

I got some good photo’s and Video of the party. I was one of the designated photographers. I wasn’t on my A game because I was still tired, but I think I got some decent shots of the birthday girl.

Had a nice thanksgiving. Not as many kids over at the Stein’s like there was during the jewish holidays. It was only Dara and Morgan. Both are so cute and fun to play with. Dara got so big. she is running around and talking. Morgan is crawling around, and trying to eat everything. Talked with Amy and Jared, Don & Lori, and plenty of others. Allot of the Stein family didn’t show this year. That is of course not such a bad thing since there are so many people. It was nice to keep this dinner down to under 20 people.

I saw Justin V for the first time in a while. It is nice to see him, but also kind of sad. He was one of my best friends in elementary school up until I was like 13. Now I never see him anymore. He dropped out of school, and drives trucks now. It is funny how some friends you keep in touch with and others you just let slip away.

The turkey was ok. I am not a huge fan of Turkey dinner. The desert was great. My sister made my cousin Syndie’s chocolate cracker desert. I had nothing else for desert but that stuff. My dad was upset since I didn’t try out the chocolate cake. He won’t have any chocolate or sugar stuff unless I tell him it is worth it. He is diabetic, so he saves up for stuff that I say is really good!

All in all it was a good day. Thankfully I didn’t get bombarded with questions about computer stuff. I actually got to sit and talk to Jared about video editing. he works for the YES network and does production stuff. We were watching the football game and he explained how they did all the graphics and other segments. It was cool.