We've moved...

Moved away, and moved on...

2010 started quite badly for me.  We lost Connie's grandma.   She was a great woman, a supportive grandma and an understanding ear to Connie, a loving and fun great-grandma to Lizzy, and a kindred and welcoming spirit to me.  Not to mention that she was a wonderful cook.  We have been missing her greatly.

I then failed the FSOA test in DC, again.  After working towards this goal for > 3 years, it's really, really frustrating to hit this wall again.  Really.  Really.  Frustrating.

So, this part of my life is over/on-hold.  Might try again some time in the distant future, but for now, I'm done with this quest...

And have moved onto the next thing: Life in South East Asia

Not Quite Humdrum - New Year's Resignations

As in, I'm resigned to some of the facts of my current life...

I've been quite silent lately. It must be the exhaustion of routine life mixed with the added strain on free time (read: toddler in our midst) - oh, don't forget cold weather, a downer in any place unless you're cross-country skiing for your commute. To summarize: my wife and I are both working full time jobs in New York City - the geographical specification is somewhat important as it denotes long working hours, on average. Combined with a 2-hour commute, work days leaves something to be desired...

We currently live in the top floor unit of our two-family house. My wife's parents live on the bottom unit with my father-in-law's grandmother, and my brother-in-law's daughter. The in-laws take care of Lizzy during the day, and prepare meals for us as well. We all eat dinner together most weekdays. Despite the lack of privacy, I find the arrangement congenial and it is hard to imagine another kind of life without one of us quitting work - something we'd both love to do if only for a few months. I've already had my taste of that forbidden fruit and I've found it delicious.

Still, work has, on the whole, been rewarding. I work in a small development team in a mega-bank. We work on several complex problems and there is some hiring, some production maintenance, and some mentoring to keep us all busy and entertained. The group has become tightly-knit over the past year and I spend some time off work with one of my colleagues - an older, kinder gentleman whom I'd love to see get his due (in general).

Besides getting sick occasionally, we've spent the past couple of months indoors when not shoveling snow. It only really snowed once, but it has been arctic-ally cold. Home time is almost completely dedicated to entertaining, feeding and caring for Elizabeth - another rewarding job. Her first birthday has come and gone with some fanfare. First (experienced) Halloween. First major flu. First week of teething-augmented tantrum mania. First words - in 2.1 languages (Cantonese, English, and 1 word in Hebrew).

Connie's grandmother has been sick in and out of hospital and much free time has gone towards nursing her back to home, which I am glad to report is where she's at! Cable-free for some time now, we've spent TV time on Netflix movies, the Good Wife, the Yankees, and now the Jets...

We have some vacations coming up in the next 2 months we are excited about - one Caribbean getaway, and a wedding in the UK (we have not been back there since 2005, after living in London for 2 years).

Daddy - Proud Silly

She can eat using her own hands, poop sitting on a potty, and now pretty much walk unaided. She is daddy's little girl and I'm not afraid to show how silly I get over her amazing feats of development:

Hiking Frenzy - Harriman and Bear Mountain

In the past few weeks we've been going hiking on the weekends. We bought a new child carrier (the Kelty FC3.0, highly recommended!) since our first hike up to Bear Mountain with the inappropriate front-carrying Baby Bjorn. We went back to Bear Mountain and followed the more challenging Major Welch trail (on the way down!). Then one Saturday we went up the popular Pine Meadow Lake Trail in Harriman State Park. When we got to the lake (2.25 and mild elevation gain - easy to moderate) we realized we should have brought bathing suits. The lake is relatively secluded and serene as cars cannot reach it (unlike Lake Welch, which is overrun!) with several rock outcroppings suitable as tiny beaches (I believe, officially, swimming is not allowed - so don't tell!). So we went back the next day and had a great swim with Lizzy. There are plenty of fish big and small and Lizzy enjoyed following them as they ate our bread crumbs (and the Cheerios Lizzy kept throwing on the floor). We have gone back twice since, both times in foul weather and even bought a pair of walking sticks mimicking the other hikers on that trail (mostly small and large groups of older Koreans). We were joined by one of my work colleagues on one occasion, and our friends with their two daughters on another. I feel we've now exhausted that portion of the trail, so we'll either do another or avoid the lake and continue on that trail further (there's a 10-mile loop we could try) on our next trip out hiking. You can see pictures from these various hikes here:

Some Sun and Lizzy's First Steps

Lizzy is starting to walk this month and we are excited and scared at the same time. We're proud of her, but wary of the new physical dangers. We've begun baby-proofing the apartment more seriously...
In the last month we enjoyed the Coney Island boardwalk and beach, took a ferry to Governor's Island for a Judy Collins concert-picnic, and visited the Prospect Park Zoo where Lizzy enjoyed feeding all kinds of sheep in the petting farm, as you can see:

Early Summer With Savta Haya

We're making the best of the few nice weather days, but early summer is pretty much a wash-out... It's good to have Savta Haya here taking care of Lizzy and us (meals, domestic upkeep, etc). My dad visited as well and we celebrated his 60th birthday by eating outrageously for a week! Lizzy's been visiting the Bronx Zoo, Coney Island and the Aquarium, and various playgrounds around the house - as you can see:

Tour de Cure: Mission (almost) Accomplished

Well, I tried my best, but I was completely unprepared for the terrain on this course (Tour de Cure, Baskin Ridge, NJ). Although it is described as moderate, there are a few steep hills and one very long ascent. The steep hills are all along the first 30 miles. I completed this portion at a fair pace (~15 miles/hr). At around mile 40, the course begins gaining elevation slowly but surely for a few miles. This is where I lost my company (an older gentleman who was kind enough to push me along the first half of the course). I was on first gear for a long while, before I reached the peak and began a quick - and therefore unsatisfyingly short - descent down to a rest stop where I caught up my buddy only to lose him again right after we started out from there.

I learned a lot about riding in a long-distance tour and toughing it out, but I cramped my right calf on the hill just before the 72-mile finish line turn-off and I felt I had done enough for my first bike tour, so I ducked out to the finish line, claimed my free lunch and collapsed into a chair for 15 minutes. This was 6 hours after starting out, and my final avg speed was ~13 miles/hr.

I managed to raise $250 from friends, family and co-workers (THANK YOU!!!). This was matched by Barclays and I received a nice gift from ADA for my troubles :)