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I have been remiss in my blogging and I am sorry. I have been busy with life and temporarily lost interest in sharing anything. It happens with me occasionally, brief and rare episodes of not caring about anything but just taking care of family and everyday tasks.  We've also went to Mexico for a week, which was needed by the adult members of the family. Both me and The Awesome Wife have been working without a vacation for a fairly long time and work load was pretty big. Naturally in February we've decided to drop everything in May and spend at least a week swimming in pools, enjoying the beach and spend as little time as possible not doing anything useful or meaningful. Last year we went to Cancun, to one of the all expense resorts and it worked out pretty well. This year we've done absolutely the same, changing only the resort. The resort was huge. Basically somebody cleared up a huge piece of the jungle and said: "This is going to be hotel." From t...

Most of my loyal readers, three or four of you, know that I take trips to New York every couple of months to visit my family. Now, when i say New York what i really mean is that I usually fly over or near above mentioned city and land just across the river in the fine state of New Jersey. I call these trips "going to New York" for the same reason I never say "I hail from Glenview Illinois". It takes too long to explain that Glenview is approximately seventeen miles north and a little west from the downtown Chicago, that is why I simply say I am from Chicago. The same reason applies to my trips to New York. I don't want to spend time explaining which exit of the Turnpike my parents live at. Anyway, I usually don't get to go to the city, as it would take too long to drive over. This time around it was a little different. Instead of flying to Newark we flew to the LaGuardia airport in New York. This gave me a unique (or a rare one) opportunity to go on a car ...

I haven't written in a while, again. It's tough for me to write these days, I am swamped with work and life and can't find neither will nor strength to share the boring parts with the audience. A month or so ago, the Awesome Wife accidentaly came across dirt cheap tickets to Boston, so we planned to take a trip down to the East Coast at the end of September. We stayed near Copley Square right across the Prudential building. We didn't, however, go to the top of it to the observation deck. While it would be nice to view the city from above, the cost of $15 per person just didn't made it attractive enough to visit. We prefer to experience cities on foot and absorb the atmosphere. So, we spent four full days in Boston on our feet. I haven't walked so much in ages, damn you Boston for being so easily walkable. We've made up a loose plan of things to see and visit, as well as eat a lot of lobsta rolls and clam chowder. And we didn't deliver, I ate a single cla...

When I said I was out, I really was out. We went for couple of days to Vegas, with help from my parents. They have decided to help us out and came to spend some time with the kids, while me and the Awesome Wife partied and gambled the inheretence away. We also visited Hoover damn Dam and I will post pictures of that. BTW, Zumanity is probably the best Cirque de Soleil show in existense at the moment. Cheers!

Went to New York to visit family. I haven't seen certain members of it for almost 3 years. I took the 5 Year Old With Me, on my first father-daughter only trip. I think she had a lot of fun playing with her cousins. We did get to visit New York on sunday. Introduced the 5 Year Old to the Rockefeller center tree, and showed her the Times Square. I think she was more impressed with the pretzel we got from the street vendor, and the entrance to the Subway. On the way back it was my first time flying the very small jet. I don't remember the manufacturer (not Boeing or MD) but it seated two on one side and one on another. BTW considering price/service Continental is taking a place above United or AA for me.

We are back home. I can't do more than 7 days of doing nothing. I am hardwired to move around. We said our goodbuys to the gulf today, with the throwing of pennies into the water. Old Russian tradition you know. Tomorrow I have to go back to work, and finish up with the Quiz for Finance class.

The weather has been at a steady 90F all week without a single clowd in the sky. The gulf is warm, the pool is warm, life is good, although coming to an end in two days. Just a couple of pics to show my reader how good the life is. The view from the balcony. The obligatory sunset shot. The Little One wanted to touch the sun. A here is one winged friend, decided to walk among us humins. We've also seen dolphins jumping along the beach more than ones. A sting ray jump the water couple of times. One of our friends getting stung by afore mentioned stingray (maybe a different one), and that's about all of the exitement one needs one one's vacation.

Here are couple of thoughts I missed or forgotten... Orlando reminds me of Vegas. Hotels, hotels, hotels, malls, malls, malls, Disney parks are the casinos, and jungle instead of the desert, but overall the landscape is almost identical. West Coast Florida beaches are very similar in archetecture to Miami. It seems that the art deco stylings have been frozen in time here, and no architectural breakthroughs have been made since the Cuban revolution. I love lazy vacations, the only things that are worrying me at this very moment is finding the prettiest possible seashell for the Little One.

Is it me, or does Florida has more tattooes (added .. and mustaches) per capita than any other state? Everytime I see five pelicans flying in a broken V formation, I duck and expect bombs to start flying. These bastards fly really low and have shadows like B-52s. While you baing lazy take this quiz. I found it at Roger Ebert's blog. http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx Your Results The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa. Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking. How did the Belief-O-Matic do? Discuss your results on our message boards. 1. Secular Humanism (100%) 2. Unitarian Univers...

Boogie boarding is not as easy as it sounds or looks. I keep tipping over into the wave. Of course I like tipping over, it is a fun activity in itself. The water in the gulf is warm. Usually to break in, I run like hell into the water and dive right in. Today I just walked in, so warm is the water. Yesterday foray into the Seaworld (before we left Orlando) was awesome. Playing with dolphins is as much fun as everyone thinks it is. However, the dolphins are pretty much like dogs. If you don't have food on you, good luck attracting attention. If I wear a hat my hair gets all scraggly and weird. While driving in a car: - Daddy, daddy you hair is beautiful - Well, thank you sweety - Yeah.... just like a girl's

Well, we didn't follow Jason's advise to pace ourselves, and did 12 straight hours of Disney Goodness. Three parades, one fireworks, and oodles of fun rides. Tired as hell. We came back from the park about 20 minutes ago, everyone except me is asleep already. I'll do a full report later tomorrow, either before the Tampa drive, or after we arrive to Tampe. The clock on the post lies, it's 11:50 pm EST.

Budget SUCKS! S-U-C-K-S! The Flight to Orlando was uneventful, if a little bouncy. We picked up our luggage and went to the Budget counter to get our car. The line want not very big, but it took us HOUR AND A HALF to get into a car. There were three cashiers working, and one of them left as the line grew longer. When we complained about the long wait, the clerk actually told us that this is the busy time for them. When we asked him whether it would be more prodent to have more clerks during the busy time, we only got a blank stare. Anyway enough complaining. The accomodations are great. The first day's trip to Seaworld was awesome. First we went to see Blue Horizons, a show with acrobats and a lot of dolphins. The dolphin show in Sheed Aquarium pales in comaprison. Then we went to see a sea lion/pirate show. It's great for kids, got a few chuckles out of adults, and overall enjoyable time waste. Then, we went to see the sharks, and the penguins. The shark thing is great. They s...

I have pictures to show from yesterday. We've had a lot of fun. The Little One enojyed the ski school for a at least two hours. I have decided to try out for cross country skiing. I have failed. Partially because the snow wasn't really trampled enough to make good skiing experience. Partially because I can't ski. It was more like skating, slipping and sliding, and falling down a lot. I don't fall when I skate actually. So after going for about half-a-kilometer I returned with my ass beaten figuratively and literally. My legs hurt as hell too. Oh, well. At least the waterpark has a jacussi.

So, here I am gazing out of the Millenium UN Plaza Hotel out to the Metlife building and the beautiful midtown below and thinking. I have lived in NY for about 8 years, but I have never visited it as a tourist. Oh, sure enough me and my brother visited a place or two and walked around a bit, museums and such, but I have never came back to Manhattan to look through a strangers eyes. For example, I have never visited the Grand Central. Today, coming back from the broadway show, I have convinced my wife to take a stroll down the 44th from Broadway all the way to the 1st. Grand Central is truly awe inspiring on the inside. We just stood there gazing on the ceiling. I have never noticed that Manhattan is so dirty. Part of it was all of the garbage bags lying right there on the street. Thinking of why its not so obvious in Chicago, my wife helped me by reminding that all over the city there are back ways where all of the garbage is stored. However, i have never seen so much cigarette butts a...

Today is the second day we are in Jersey. But later today we are moving into a Hotel in Midtown, for three days. What's in plan? I don't have a clue. Today is theater night, as we are going to see Spamalot. We are planning to see afriend or two and a cousin. Lots of walking around, and visiting museums. Yesterday we went to a nice little safari in Jersey's Six Flags. Very nicely done, great animals (if a bit lazy). Very enjoyable for the little one, as well as the kids inside of most of the adults. One question though. What's up will all the ostriches? They are like Canadian geese for us down in the mid-west. I have to put a site up here for reading. A great book, written by Nathan. No Crying In The War Room