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Surviving Hurricane Sandy

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Like most people in NY & NJ this week has been a bit unreal.  I heard about a possible storm as early as last Wednesday.  It wasn’t until Thursday or Friday when I realized that this wasn’t just any old storm.  My mom was planning a trip to Europe and was going to depart Monday night.  On Friday she was concerned she wouldn’t be able to get out in time.  By Saturday she had canceled her plans.

Saturday afternoon I got brought into my first disaster planning call from work.  Saturday we got a walk in with Teagan and we also went and did some grocery shopping.  We typically order Fresh Direct but when we tried all slots were sold out.

Sunday the weather wasn’t horrible yet but it wasn’t too great.  I only got out to get some formula since we weren’t sure how long the storm would be.  I got lucky at Walgreens and the guy who unlocked the case were the formula was locked up (yes formula in NYC is behind lock and key) pointed out that there was a check out person at the cosmetic counter.  i rushed over there and avoided the 20 or so people at the front check out.  Others quickly found out that trick and I dodged the line.  Most of Sunday was taken up with disaster prep calls.  I had calls every two or three hours all day from 9AM on.

I was going to take a day off Monday to watch Teagan while MC had an appointment.  By Saturday I realized that the appointment would probably be canceled and I would need to be working to make sure we had no issues with the storm.  I was right, the appointment was canceled and I ended up working from home all day.  It was my first day working from home with MC and the baby being home.

Monday night was interesting with the storm hitting.  It was odd that there was no cars on the road.  It was super windy but in this apartment we didn’t really hear it that much. We watched the news briefly but I got most of my news from Twitter feeds.  For real time information durring an incident like this it actually was helpful.  I was following the NYC Mayors office, FEMA, MTA, National Weather Service, Reuters and teh BBC.  I was pretty well informed and didn’t have to watch allot of the sensationalism, fluff or people standing in dangerous stormy areas for no reason.

We were extremely lucky and had no damage at all.  We never lost power and up and down my street I didn’t see any downed trees.  I know there was some damage south of Austin St but nothing near me we could see.  Very lucky is an understatement when my sister is without power, and a cousin’s apartment is totally destroyed.

Tuesday at work was part listing to updates on any affected systems from the storm to trying to find out what was happening with the rest of my team in the NY region.  On top of that I was trying to get normal work done.

Wednsday was a little bit more normal, but half my team in NY/NJ were not working.  No one else on my team had power, but 2 of them were able to get to an office in NJ.  My mom came over to help watch the baby, and MC and I went food shopping since my in laws were coming over.  They lost power Monday and we asked them to come over.  They finally took us up on the offer Wednesday when they still didn’t have power.  Her dad cooked dinner for us all, and they both got to play with the baby.

Thursday I was able to continue to work from home and I tried to get back into a normal routine.  Overall I was able to.  I had several calls in the morning, and then a one on one with my boss in the afternoon.  After that I took off the rest of the day since I wanted to help MC out with Teagan a bit since I had to work Sunday.  My dad called the night before to offer for all of us to come over Thursday night for dinner.  It’s his cooking night and he knew we were hosting MC’s parents.  We all headed over after Teagan’s 4ish feeding.  It was the first time we used the car seat without the base.  It worked generally well.  It was also the first time I used Siri for navigation.  I didn’t really need it since i know how to get to my parents place but I always like having the navigation running.  MC’s dad drove us all over.  We had fish for dinner.  It was a good meal.  Teagan didn’t sleep at all when over there.  I think it may be because of all the grandparents over stimulating her, but what do I know.

When we got home MC’s parents watched the baby as I made formula for the coming day, and MC tried to nap.   I then feed Teagan and just got her down for a nap.  I write this post Thursday night as everyone else sleeps.  I have Teagan up on the Dropcam on my Nexus 7 making sure she still is napping.  MC is in our room trying to nap and her parents are in the living room sleeping.  I am in my office area (aka what should be the dinning room) hoping that this light typing isn’t annoying to anyone.  Watching Teagan on the monitor all warm in her crib sitting in front of a computer with power it reminds me that not everyone was so lucky.  I have friends and colleges without power.  A cousin whose apartment is ruined and doesn’t know when she can move back in, and there are countless other horror stories to go around.  I am glad we came out of this ok, and hope for a speedy recovery or else I will be working from home for a while until they fix the train tunnels.

If The 12 Year Old Version of Me Could See Me Now

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I know that I’ve been very lax with the writing on this blog when I open this draft and realized I started to write this post about an evening I had with M on August 31, 2011. The title of this blog entry is something I mentioned to a few people and I’m personally amused by how true it is. I am not sure if I’ve written about how much of a picky eater I am. I have been since I was a little boy. My mom will tell stories about how my pediatrician would try to help my mom to get me to eat things I didn’t like such as vegetables and fruit. The story would always end with the five-year-old version of me outwitting my mom or just being that stubborn. The problem for my mom was I would be really hungry yet I could be satisfied with a glass of milk.

That’s the background of my poor eating habits. I am in no way blame my parents. I was a very stubborn little boy and those old habits generally die hard. Over the years as an adult I’ve made some effort to expand and try new things.  I still generally and pretty picky. I don’t normally eat any fruits or vegetables. I do take a multivitamin now. That’s partly to make my mom happy, but it’s generally a good idea anyway.

The main reason why I thought of writing this post is about some of the foods I’ve recently started eating. There have been 3 notable additions. When I started dating M she liked going for sushi. I’ve never been a fan but it was a good trade-off to Tai. She loved the Tai, and I could find more options Japanese restaurant then at a Tai place. When we first started going to Japanese places I tried sashimi. I like to fish so high quality raw fish did not seem like a big deal. I really liked it and would continue to have it when we go back.  M gas great and never really forced me to try anything else but would suggest it every once in a while.

This all leads up to August 31, 2011. That night I decided to try a sushi roll instead of just sashimi. My big turnoff to sushi rolls was the rice but I figured I would give it a try. It wasn’t too bad but I didn’t go “wow this is awesome”. A few weeks later after going to the Russian and Turkish baths (a blog entry I should actually make but it’s been over a year since then) we went to a sushi restaurant in the city. This time instead of just trying one of M’s roles I ordered them myself. It was this time or the third time I had sushi when it came to me that this was really good stuff.  I have been eating sushi ever since.

It was after the sushi incident when it dawned on me what the 12-year-old version of me would’ve thought of that. I just randomly pick the age but really any childhood version of me will probably react the same way and not believe it.

It wasn’t just sushi that I’ve tried recently and liked. Believe it or not I never ate eggs. I would eat things with eggs in it but never just eggs or an omelette. In December 2010 on my first cruise with M I tried my first omelette. Shocker, it was great. Breakfast for me has been different ever since!

The funniest food that I never ate before has to be fresh lox. Growing up as a child I had every opportunity to try it and never wanted to. My mom and dad both would eat it. When my dad would get bagels they were readily available yet I would not have it. It wasn’t until sometime after I started dating M when I tried it. She loved it since she loves salmon in general so I give it a try. The funny part of the story is that my mom said she pretty much had a similar story. Growing up the Jewish household her father would always bring home bagels and lox on Sundays and she never had any. It wasn’t until she met my dad when she started eating it

The list of food items that I’m willing to eat continues to grow. Probably not fast enough, and probably I will always be a generally picky eater but I’m glad that over time I’m trying to expand my horizons. My sister jokes that my child will be just like me for poetic justice. My nephew is pretty picky but my nieces aren’t. My current theory is it’s a male gene thing in my family. There’s really no proof especially since my father will eat anything but I am clinging to that theory until I can prove that Teagan will be a normal eater.

Friday September 7th

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Not a huge amount to report that I want to write about publicly on the Internet, so I wrote a private blog post. I work from home today because I needed to have some scheduling flexibility. Thankfully in the end I didn’t need it, but it’s good to know it’s available when needed.

I ordered takeout sushi for lunch today. I was also able to play a little bit with Cisco and jabber. One of the guys at work and I tested to make sure that it functions and I can receive chat messages when the app is closed on my iPhone and iPad. It will be pretty cool when we all start using it.

We do not have any specific plans yet for this weekend. We are hoping to be pretty low key, since the baby is due Tuesday. Depending on how MC feels we might get a dinner out one night. Other than that it’s vegging and making sure we get anything we need to do around the apartment done.

Brunch Out

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Today we meet up with MC’s friend Mary Beth who was in town visiting family and friends. We dont get to see her much with her living out of town so it was nice to meet up.  We meet at the Tick Tok.  I dont recall having breakfast there ever but I have had lunch and dinner a lot when I worked at Redcats.  The food was really good diner food.  i was pleased with the real hash browns.  Most places dont have them and they are way better than the regular breakfast potato options.

After breakfast/brunch we headed over to Home Depot to get some wood for shelves and some other misc stuff.

At home we spent some time figuring out were we want to hang pictures and paintings and stuff.  We have been in the apartment for 9 months and we are finally getting around to that.  We hung some items but still need to find a home for other pieces.  Time is ticking till the baby arrives and we wont have time for stuff like that!

The rest of the day was nice and restful.  Exactly what you want before you go back to work after a 3 day weekend!

Waffles and Resting at Home

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Last weekend while driving to pizza with my parents MC noticed the Waffle and Dinges truck that I love right off of Austin St.  I checked it out and they apparently have been showing up on Sunday’s.  Today I saw they were there again and I went out to pick up waffles for MC and I.  They were great as usual.

After breakfast we were living up our free weekend by continuing to chill out and do some light house work, and laundry.  MC found a new Italian place to try ordering from for dinner.  Turned out to not be so great.  Otherwise a low key day!

One of The Last Lazy Saturdays

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Today we cooked breakfast like we have been dong a lot more since May.  MC made omelets.  I think today they were perfect.  It will probibly be the benchmark for all future home made omelets.  We also tried fo-sausage, aka soy sausage.  They weren’t so bad.  Still weirded out by eating soy but i will try those again.

The agenda for the day was relaxing.  We doubt we will have many free weekends when we can just relax so we were enjoying that and doing a little work around the house.

We went out to a Thai restaurant on Austin St.  It was pretty good.  My first time at a Thai place and MC loves it so it was a good night out.  We hit up Martha’s for some desert.  It was super busy at that place but thankfully we didn’t wait to sit, but did wait a while for service.  We had a great night out.

Meetup With Gus

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Today I met up with Gus after work to grab some drinks and dinner. He emailed me a week or so ago seeing if I wanted to meet up before the baby came. Since I was doing that with a lot of people anyway it was perfect timing.

Both of us were able to get out relatively early and we met up at a sushi place near Union Square that he highly recommended. The food was pretty good, and I tried unfiltered sake for the first time. MC and I have tried regular cold sake but never the unfiltered. Gus insisted we try it and it turned out to be very tasty.

It was good to see him and hang out. We talked about a numerous topics and were able to get out relatively early so I was able to get home at a decent hour. I was glad for that since I had been up since 5:45 to do a call with China.

Work Around The Apartment

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This morning we both were able to sleep in a little. We are living that up while we can before the baby gets here. Once I was up and dressed i headed out to run an errand and then grab some bagels for breakfast.

In the afternoon I hung curtain hangers in the babies room. I’m not normally a fan of doing that sort of work, since it’s pretty exacting and I like to do things right and I am not that precise with things like drilling holes into walls with my vision all. I totally messed up one of the brackets for one of the curtains but in the end you really can’t tell the difference so MC was pleased with the results, and if she is pleased with her vision I am happy. The short curtains, I’m not sure what they’re called look really good in the room. Overall the room is turned out pretty awesome.

After curtain hanging we did some laundry and then I got MC set up so she can work on the wedding photo albums for our parents. The mockup she has for my parents right now looks really good, she’s just touching it up and I think we will put an order in.

My sister and my nieces and nephew came over to see the babies room and grab some dinner. They are spending a couple of days at my parents before school starts so they swung by here on the way. We ate at bear burger. It was really good and I’m just glad to spend some time with the kids and my sister before the baby comes.

All of them, including Alexis, especially Alexis, is very excited for the baby to arrive. Alexis keeps asking about baby peanut, the name my mom uses for the baby until she officially has a name. Morgan worked on some babes and onesies decorations since she didn’t go to the shower. They were very cute. Alexis got to review and approve some of the baby books she donated to us when she was checking out the babies room. When I mean donated to us, I mean she said she wanted to give these books to the baby and gave them to my sister. It was hysterical when she did it.

All in all relatively productive weekend. It was good to see both sets of parents and my sister especially since it will get hectic pretty soon.

Visiting MC’s Friend

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Today MC and I traveled out to Long Island to visit her friend Liz and her family. MC has been wanting to visit all summer, but with the baby on the way and other commitments we have not yet been able to make the trip. We were glad to be able to go now before it came really close to the baby’s due date and we wouldn’t be able to go.

It was only about a 30 minute train trip on the Long Island Railroad, so that was pretty easy especially for nine month pregnant lady. Overall it was a good visit. We hung out, had barbecue, and MC was able to catch up with her old friend.

Liz’s husband cooked barbecue, it was really good. We brought cupcakes from Martha’s bakery. I generally like Martha’s a lot, but the cupcakes were just okay. I will still go back to crumbs for my cupcake fix!

Date Night

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Today MC and I had originally planned to go to Jason and Gretchens house. It would’ve been the last chance we had before the baby came. Unfortunately last minute issues came up last night that I thought it was best not to go. Jason and Gretchen understood, so that was cool. The downside was we didn’t get to see them, and now we had no plans for today. MC and I decided to do some work around the house and generally try to relax most of the day. We did want to go to the movies, so we decided to head out for dinner and then catch a movie.

We didn’t realize how little time we had before the movie, so we ended up at Johnny Rockets. We like that place, it just wasn’t where we were planning on going for a date night. We were originally going to go see the campaign, but when we went to buy the tickets at the theater on Austin Street the ticket lady did not think we should see it. She saw the MC was pregnant and said the air conditioner wasn’t working the way it normally should. We agreed with her assessment and decided to try a different theater.

The other movie theater in the neighborhood on Queens Boulevard is actually a lot nicer, but he did not have the campaign playing. Luckily we did want to see the Bourne Legacy, and it was playing at the same time we were going to see the campaign at the different theater. I walked ahead and got tickets and we were able to find seats without any problem. The movie was pretty good, it kind of intertwined itself with the last Bourne movie in the trilogy. We both liked it.