Val-isms

Shabbat sleepover and a captured sunrise

Sophie had a playdate after school on Friday at her friend Kayla's house.  When I picked her up in time to go to services, we asked Kayla if she wanted to come along (Kayla belongs to the local Conservative Temple in town), since Sophie's Jr Choir was singing at our Temple.

Of course, kids being kids, that wasn't good enough.  Sophie wanted Kayla to sleep over.

Now, the plan for Saturday morning was for Linda, Sophie & I to head to the beach EARLY Saturday morning to take some pictures of the sunrise.

Sophie is an early riser in the morning, so this was something that she was looking forward to. (No kidding, I have to insist when tucking her in every night, that she is NOT to get up before 6am!)  The girl needs VERY little sleep!

Anyway, Kayla insisted that she, too, wanted to see the sunrise, so the sleepover was on!

Kayla was just as restless during services as Sophie is when she's sitting between Linda & me - even with the great music being sung by the Jr Choir!

We told the girls that they'd be going to bed by 9:30 since we'd be getting up at 5.  So at 10pm, they were asleep.

Here they are, acting goofy before bed:

Sunrise was at 6:48am, but we wanted to be down at the beach (Jennings) by 6:15, so we could get all the 'preview lights' over the Long Island Sound.  The plan was to leave the house by 6, so we could stop at the local drive-thru coffee shop for coffee for us and hot chocolate for the girls, along with some bagels and donut holes for all.

The temp outside was about 40 degrees - which is pretty warm considering it's late November, but still pretty cold. 

When we arrived, we interrupted a couple's romantic sunrise.  We were very quiet, but our presence was not appreciated, so they moved elsewhere.

It was awesome out there.  The colors in the sky could not have been any more vibrant and the kids had a great time being models! 

The next few pictures were taken before the sun actually came up:

This was looking towards the lighthouse at Seaside Park in Bridgeport.

Who knew that the lifeguards were on duty this early and at this time of the year?!

Sophie is on the left & Kayla on the right!

Linda caught me climbing me up to talk to the 'lifeguards'!

Even the photographer gets into the fun, when she lets go of the camera for a minute!

Now for the sunrise:

And here I am bending down to give a kiss to my little girl:

Here are Sophie & Kayla playing bookends to the sun (Kayla - on the right - was wearing Linda's down parka which was slightly too big for her!)
 

It was a lot of fun and the girls wanted to hang out at the playground before we headed home:

 
 

We came home and the girls decided to tackle cleaning out Sophie's closet without being told.  They did an excellent job.  Then I asked if they wanted to help me clean out the garage, so we all went outside to enjoy the almost 60 degree weather.  They were quite the helpers.

At 2:00, we drove Kayla home, as she had a basketball game at 3 (we planned a pit-stop at Dairy Queen!), both kids fell asleep on the 6 mile drive!

Sophie & I ran some errands and then I dropped her off at my ex's.

Linda & I went to a fundraiser Saturday night that needs it's own blog entry to be described.  So that, kids will have to wait for another day.

Hope you enjoyed the pics and if you've never gotten up for a sunrise, I highly encourage you to do so.  It's one of those miracles that everyone should experience at least once (especially with someone you love) and I look forward to doing it more often.   Thanks, honey, for taking such great pictures.  You've really got a talent!
 
 
 
 
 

Summing up our lives lately.

We're tired.  And Tommy, apparently, is the MOST tired.

[kudos to Linda for the great shot with her new camera... thanks honey!  That's your boy!]
 

Meet Pumpkin

Sophie has wanted a dog for the longest time and the answer to that request has consistently been "NO".  I know.  She is truly deprived.  She has nothing.  Just 4 cats.  A loving family and plenty of wonderful opportunities to explore any interest she has.  It's sinful.  Someone should be notified!

Anyway, in lieu of a dog, there is a new member of "Sophie's world".  He's a guinea pig - named Pumpkin (Sophie's name for him!). He's 2 years old.

My experience with guinea pigs (as we had 2 when I was about Sophie's age, which were kept in a crate in the small upstairs bathroom that my brother David & I shared), was that they were messy and noisy.  The second the refrigerator door opened downstairs in the kitchen, no matter how quietly it was opened, there was a chorus of high pitched "wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, etc..." coming from above.  Kind of like an angelic choir, but not.  More like nails on a chalkboard.

Annoying? Oh, hell, yeah.

During the summer, we had an outside cage (since we couldn't keep them outside year round, as we did live in Upstate NY), so it was just a matter of feeding them.  There really was no holding of them, if I remember correctly.  And even outside, they knew when that refrigerator door opened!

So I did not have very fond memories of the specie.

Well, Pumpkin was rescued a few weeks ago by my ex and Sophie at the Westport Humane Society, where he'd been residing in solitude for a month.  The lone guinea pig orphan.  Poor thing.

He is the most grateful, affectionate and personable guinea pig I've ever seen.  He responds to his name.  He looks inquisitive.  He loves being held and will sit in Sophie's lap for hours.  He really loves to be bathed and requires and SO appreciates a little blow dry of his fur, so he doesn't catch a cold, if you please!!  In other words, he's a gem of a pet.

Well.. almost.  If you don't take into consideration the amount of poop he creates.  Thankfully, it's poop pellets, but still, it's an impressive amount.  

But he sure is cute.  Sophie adores him.  And the dog request has been eliminated from Sophie's vocabulary.  It's just enough responsibility for a 9 year old. 

Pumpkin is a dog -  just a small one.  He doesn't require walks and is happy to play in an a 3-4 foot area and loves to eat straw, carrots and lettuce.

The new best friends:

And thankfully, he lives at my ex's house, as Tommy & Petey would only see him as a game and unfortunately, they'd most likely win! 
 
 

A little of this and that

First off, I absolutely coming up with titles for my posts.  Seriously.   Perhaps that's why I haven't blogged since the 1st of this month?  Hmmm.  no.  Nice try.

So,to cheat, I'll not be writing too much, but rather letting pictures speak.

First off - our new-ish cat member - though by new, she became a part of our family at the end of August.  She was Linda's cat a long time ago and now is back.  Meet Brandy.  She is about 10 years old and though it's hard to tell, she is a calico:

We took Thursday November 12th off to go up to Hartford, CT to celebrate the 1st anniversary of Marriage Equality in CT, but since we didn't have to be there til 3:30, we were able to watch Sophie and her classmates (actually the entire elementary school) ran their annual Turkey trot!  (4th & 5th graders had to run a mile - 3 laps around the school)  (Sophie is the one in the bright pink jacket!):

Sophie & her friend Tori:

Sophie and her friend Kayla:

And here's Tommy: (sleeping with his stuffed turtle!)

 
 
 
 
 

Car adventure #3 and an anniversary

So...last we left our dismal piece-of-shit-cute-Mini, it was towed to our local mechanic for a look see as to why the shifter was again flopping in the wind!  (Just a slightly annoying thing to deal with when driving a stick-shift car!, but only if you are not just driving down hill!)

Anyway, at least the towing was free thanks to that company with all the A's!

As for the diagnosis, not so lucky in the financial department.  Seems that the shifter cables (not the technical terms, but what I'm calling them!) had snapped from wear. (which we had been warned could happen when the repair in June had been done).

$680.00.

Thankfully, we are lucky enough that my parents had left us the use of their car while they winter in Israel, so that as long as it's only one car in the shop at a time, we each still have a car to drive!

So with the game of musical cars in full force, when I picked up the Mini last Saturday, I left my parents' 2001 BMW there for an oil change and fluids check so that it's all set for the upcoming winter.  As I was paying the bill for the Mini, I asked my mechanic what he thought about the Mini and whether I should keep it or not.  He said, "Get rid of it."  He said that with the mileage at 60K now, he'd be surprised if the transmission would last past 75K.  So I left there trying to figure out our vehicle options.

Linda was driving the CR-V and I was driving the Mini all week.  And quite frankly, each time I got into it, the only thing I thought of was "I wonder what is going to go next on this car and when."  This is not what you should be thinking when you're driving around in a cute little Mini.

This past summer, Linda &I had been trying to decide on what car to get when the lease on the CR-V was up at the end of January.  We wanted something sporty, a hatchback, 4 door, not too big, but big enough.  We also didn't want it to be too expensive.

We headed to the Subaru dealer and fell in love withe the Subaru Impreza Outback Sport.  At the time that we went there in July, they didn't have the sport one and they didn't have any 5-speeds on the lot.  So we drove the automatic and fell in love.

Thursday, I went on-line to see what their Inventory was and lo and behold, they had only 1 on the lot and it was the 2-toned silver one.  JUST the color we had wanted.

So I told Linda about it and said we should go and check it out over the weekend.

Arriving at the dealer about 11:30 Saturday morning, we saw the car immediately.  Looking better than any picture could do it justice.  The only thing was that I didn't see the roof rack that I knew was part of the sport package.

Linda fell in love instantly, as did I.

What Linda didn't' know was that I was a woman with a mission.  A woman who had already looked up the trade-in value of the Mini and had the title to the Mini in my back pocket!  I had a plan.  I wanted to make a deal.

And so we did.  By 1, we had test driven the car (alone without the salesman!!), had the Mini appraised for trade-in  and already had the monthly payment agreed upon.  We were told to go out to lunch or something and that we could come back at 4 to pick it up!  They would put the roof rack on (it was in a box inside the car), wash & wax and prep it for pick up while we were gone!

And so it is that we are now the proud parents of this:

It drives like a dream.  My only complaint is that they don't make them with a sunroof.  But I'll get over it.

These pictures were taken today as I was Linda's helper on her 13 mile run that is part of her marathon training.  I stopped every mile and read the paper, talked to my parents and then started taking pictures of the car! 

Linda did the 13 miles in 2 hours 30 minutes and she looked strong all the way thru!  Way to go, babe.

Oh and yes, Linda will be the primary driver of the Silver Bullet.  So she's a very happy gal. 

And I'm a happy gal cuz 3 years ago today, Linda said "yes" when I asked her to marry me.  2010, baby!
 

Speed reading in another language

Who knew that reading Hebrew would somehow become a timed sport?  Oh, you weren't aware of this?

Well, as part of her Tuesday & Thursday afternoon Religious school curriculum, Sophie spends an hour of learning how to read and write the various prayers, recognize the 'root' letters and also learn the meanings of the words she's reciting.

In addition to practicing writing her Hebrew, she has to recite the prayers a certain amount of time.  And she's done quite well, right from jump. (I think she's had a great advantage to her classmates, as she's been listening to the prayers at services over the past 4 years, so the words seem somehow familiar to her!)

This week, as she's reciting her 'lines' to me, she says, "Time me!".  So I do.  And she now has a personal best time of 17 seconds to read the 5 lines!  It kind of reminds me of my brother David reciting the blessings in his manic speed reading manner!

Bottom line -- she's reading Hebrew and helping Linda with her Hebrew studies!