Friday, October 26, 2007

VJ's School Halloween Party

Katie and I went to VJ's Halloween party this morning (her school is on break this week/his school next week). The kids had a great time. They sang songs and played games, had cookies and Mud Pie (Chocolate Pudding with Gummy Worms) and then went trick or treating to the other classrooms.

Firefighter VJ
VJ desperately wanted to be a Firefighter for Halloween but costumes over here are hard to come by. We had the hat already and I was able to borrow this awesome shirt from another parent.

VJ and his good buddy, Carlos.

VJ's teachers were really nice and included Katie and Claire (another older sister) in all the activities.

For some more really cool pictures go to our Kodak Gallery Website.

Congressman McNulty

I happened upon this article in the Times Union about how Congressman McNulty will not be running for reelection. It got me thinking about the time I met Congressman McNulty:

It was my 1st or 2nd year at RPI and my Dad made me asked me to go with him to a fund raiser for the Congressman. You know...pay 10 bucks (per person)...have a hotdog...shake the Congressman's hand. My Dad gave me the money and asked me to write the check. It was very important to my Dad that the payment come from my checking account.

So the big day arrives and we go over to the VFW (or whatever) Hall in Green Island. After Congressman McNulty arrived we got in line to shake his hand and get our picture taken with him. Finally the big moment had arrived.
My Dad: "Congressman I'd like you to meet my son, Vito."
Congressman McNulty: "Nice to meet you Peter."

That was 1 hour of my life that I would never get back, but whatever.

Flash forward 5 months. At the time, I did not write too many checks...I only had like 2 monthly bills + BMG Music Club...most of my checking account activity involved ATM withdrawals. I took out my last $20 bucks on a Wed (leaving a balance of like $2) but no worries since my bills were paid earlier in the month and I got paid on Friday, right?

That Friday, along with my paycheck I received 2 notices from my bank regarding a $20 check that they did not pay due to insufficient funds. I remember being puzzled...what had I written a $20 check for...nothing recently...Oh Shit!

Needless to say my Dad was not happy, my Mom thought it was hysterical and I felt that the Congressman got what he deserved for holding on to my check for so many months.

The silver lining is that my Father never asked me to go to anymore political events.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Totally Screwed

The conversation at dinner tonight nearly wrecked my appetite. Things had started off so well. I was talking to VJ about a little girl in his class, Sosha, who is just the cutest thing ever.

Me: "VJ, is Sosha in you class?"
VJ: "Yes."
Me: "Do you like her?"
VJ: "Yes, Daddy."
Me: "You can marry her if you want to."

This is where Katie decides to join the conversation and things rapidly go down hill.

Katie: "I think I'm in love with Maté from my class."
Me: with totally serious face/tone "You stay away from boys!"
Katie looks stunned.
Anna: "Daddy's only kidding."
I smile to pretend like that's true and they laugh.


WTF? When did this happen? I try and think about which little bastard is Maté.

Me: "Maté doesn't speak English very well, does he?"
Katie: "No he goes to ESL."
I can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Me: "Is he nice to you?"
Katie: "Yes."
Me: "Do you hold hands with him?"
Katie shrugs

A shrug. What the hell kind of answer is that? FYI Kate: That kind of answer is not going to fly when you're 13 yrs old.

Oh my head I am not ready for this. Pray for me please.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Singing at Assembly & Airplane Fun

All four 1st Grades sang Halloween songs at Friday Morning's all school assembly. Katie did a great job participating and singing each song.
If you look at the rest of the pictures don't be too harsh with the photographer (me). The Assembly Hall is wicked dark and I had to zoom in too much since I was way far in the back.

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VJ finally got his airplane so we took it outside late yesterday afternoon to give it a whirl. Anna said that the kids insisted on wearing their hats (it was a little chilly).

More airplane pictures.

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Overheard at the Dinner Table:

Katie: "Daddy after dinner can we watch (Barbie:) Princess and the Pauper?"
Me: "Sure."
Katie: "Or how about The Sound of Music?"
Me: "Even better."
Anna: "VJ, which one do you want to watch, Princess and the Pauper or Sound of Music?"
VJ: puts on thinking face "uhmm...how 'bout Buzz Lightyear?"

Birthday Pics

My Dad's work had a party to celebrate my Dad's 60th Birthday last week. Thanks to Melanie for sending me the pictures.

Don't you wish your last Birthday cake was as cool as this one

See all 9 pictures on our Kodak Gallery Homepage.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Updates

I've haven't been as good lately at keeping the blog updated, partly because all four of us have been sick (Katie before London, VJ at the end of the London trip, followed by Anna and lastly me) and partly because nothing much is going on. I mean...I can write about what I cooked for dinner and how much traffic sucked for Anna but, Hello...BORING.

But the little things do add up so...

Katie - Katie is doing very well in 1st grade and seems to be enjoying it. We had our first conference with her teacher and she got a very good report. For our part, we can see that she really loves to read and has really made significant improvement since school started.

As a 1st Grader she is now able to participate in the after school activities her school offers. She takes Gymnastics on Mondays and Sign Language on Wednesdays. Fridays are still reserved for Ballet Class.

Bonus for Katie: Swimming has started at school. Katie has PE 3 times a week so from now through November that means 3 times in the pool each week.

We got the proofs of her school pictures back and it came out much better than expected (remember her sitting time was right after morning recess).

VJ - VJ absolutely LOVES his new school. Here's a conversation we had yesterday:

Me: "VJ, did you have a good time at school today?"
VJ: with sad face "Yes, until you picked me up."

His class is the "Friendly Frogs" and their classroom mascot is a HUGE snail. You won't believe me, but the freakin' snail (named 'Csiga Biga' pronounced Chig-a Big-a) is about the size of a NYC rat. The other snail ('Escargot') is only the size of a mouse so who cares about him.

VJ takes Dance Class on Thursdays. The class is given by the same company and teacher that does Katie's Ballet class. Once she found out that VJ went to A-Z (and after reassuring me multiple times that no Ballet was involved) she convinced me to sign him up. The big selling point was that VJ's best buddy, Carlos (from Mexico) was also taking the class. The kids spend the hour jumping around the gym, pretending to be jungle animals and having a great time. Since Katie doesn't have after school activities on Thursday we typically go to the nearby cafe/bakery and have ice cream (her) and cappuccino (me) before going to VJ's school to pick him up. Through the closed Gym door we can usually hear him and Carlos getting scolded for being too wild.

Last Sunday VJ's school had a Garden Party. The kid's had a great time playing in the school playground (several of Katie's friend's from her school have younger siblings at VJ's school) and Anna and I got to meet many of the other parents.

Vito - I have been playing tennis on Wednesday mornings with some other AISB parents. Although I haven't played since high school it's been very fun and hey, I need to do something remotely athletic. Even though I'm not at all competitive and have no need to "win" or "be better" than the other parents, I will say that I've been holding my own in the games and am probably in the top half of the players. Although a couple of the other parents are obviously dialing down their game so as not to totally embarrass the rest of us.



And just to show that I don't just post embarrassing pictures of my Dad, here's a picture of some doofus with poofy hair and coke bottle glasses from my high school yearbook.

If we could look any closer I would bet money that there is a calculator on my watch...dork. (Billy, Dan & Michael: cash is a perfectly acceptable "thank you" for not scanning in the TEAM picture.)










Katie's teacher also guilted me into being the Room Mom Parent. I basically have to help out with class parties, find and coordinate chaperones when they have trips, attend PSA meetings and then report to the rest of the parents in Katie's class what the PSA said, etc. I had planned on chaperoning a lot now that VJ is in school but being the Room Parent is a little too much like "work" and I did not move all the way to Europe to "work." Oh well.

Anna - Anna enjoys going to work every day. Doing what, I still don't know.


Car Woes - We've had some bad luck with the cars lately. First Anna's car had to have the exhaust system repaired after some jackass basically forced her off the road and she drove over a big rock, ripping up the bottom of the car.

Then last Friday Katie & I met Anna at the mall for lunch (Katie didn't have school due to the parent teacher's conferences). As we were leaving the mall after lunch to drive Anna back to work, I hit the curb as I was pulling out of the parking garage and blew a hole right in the sidewall of the rear passenger-side tire. Even though one would suspect this, I can officially tell you that a flat tire in Europe sucks just as much as in the States. About the only thing better about it is that I didn't almost get heatstroke changing the tire as would be the case in Houston.

People think that I am more like my Mom, but in these cases I react very much like my Dad: Pure Rage. Anna knows enough to leave me alone and let me get about the business of changing the tire (having been nearly brought to tears when I yelled at her to "STEP BACK FROM THE CAR" back in 2001 when we got a flat and she attempted to help me despite being 8 months pregnant with Katie). Katie, on the other hand, thought the whole thing was very exciting and interesting and did not know that you don't talk to Daddy when he is all "Red Ross."
Katie: all smiles "This is my first flat tire, Daddy. How many flat tires have you gotten before?" pointing to the jack "What's that for Daddy? The tire is so dirty....etc."

Luckily for all, Anna intervened and helped me keep my sanity and Katie from getting yelled at.

Flash forward to trying to buy a new tire. Once I finally found the place and was picking out the type of tire (like I know anything about f&%#ing tires) it came to that point just before they started work when I did the check. You know, the all important check of the front window for the "We Accept these Credit Cards" stickers. No Stickers. Where are the stickers? I don't see any stickers. Oh Shit. I hold up my credit card to the one guy who (some what) spoke English.
Tire Guy: "Nem (one of the Hungarian words I actually know - NO). Cash Only."
Naturally I only had about 2000 HUF (~$10 USD). Luckily another Tire Guy was leaving for the day and had me follow him to the mall that was about 3 blocks away where I double parked in the Bus Stop and ran into the mall and found the ATM. At least once I got back and paid them they had like 5 guys working on the tires and were done in 4 minutes.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday to my Dad on his 60th Birthday!

In honor of this big day, I have some more pictures of my Dad. Some of you thought that my previous post of the "altered" pictures of my Dad was a little mean. Luckily, after calling me a few choice names, he took it in good humor...knowing that it was all in good fun. These new pictures are meant to show how I would honor him for the great Dad that he is...if only I was allowed to make a few changes to some US landmarks.

Happy 60th Birthday Dad!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Bowling Fun

Katie had a half day of school today so we decided to go bowling. Katie has been bugging us to go bowling ever since we got here. She went once with her old school in Houston and has been dying to go back. We've put it off since VJ is not quite ready for bowling. Since he's in school now, today was a perfect opportunity.

We both had a great time. We of course had them put up the bumpers and with that help, Katie got three strikes in her first game! We both went down hill in the second game and decide it was time for milkshakes at McDonald's.

Final Scores:
Game 1
Katie - 104
Vito - 175

Game 2
Katie - 63
Vito - 130

Ready to Bowl

Can't concentrate unless our tongue is sticking out...just like Dad

And it's not Bowling with kids unless the ball goes in someone else's lane

See all the Bowling Pictures on our Kodak Gallery Homepage.