Monday, February 29, 2016

Sunday

I am a real wine connoisseur. During the Jewish holidays I like to drink Manischewitz kosher wine. This wine, at least the types I like are sweet and fruity. That can create an impression what a big wine lover I am. I usually buy it on a Friday so when somebody ask me what vintage it is I respond it is last Wednesday's. The stuff is good enough for me as it is.

Now, seeing what a wine expert I am it probably will not surprise anybody when I tell that today we bought ourselves a wine cooler. Not a plastic bag but an electric wine cooler that immediately became part of our living room landscape.

I mean come on, isn't natural that we can require that our wines are cooled to the proper temperature before opening the bottle? Anyway, even if it is not natural we now have it, it is filled to capacity and it looks nice.

I actually got very tired going down to the cellar for wine every time we wished to open a bottle thus the purchase.

Something else.

Tonight is Oscar night. Tonight is the time when Hollywood congratulates itself on the fantastic pieces of work they created all year long. The winners will gloat and the losers while happily smiling wish all the winners should be hit by lightning. The winners will ask for money from here on while the losers will be glad if they can get a job.

For days this will be news. Who won and why and who lost and why. After a short time nobody will remember any way and nobody will care anyway. They all think that they are God's gift to the cinema but by next year they will be a faint memory at best.

Now I am going to watch the show.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Travel

Eastern Europeans, mainly those coming from formerly communist countries are hooked on travel. Mainly because during the soviet rule traveling outside one's own country was unheard of. It was strictly reserved for the selected few. Maybe it was this way because the masters of our universe at that time didn't want us to see how people lived in other parts of the world. They were afraid we wouldn't be happy with what we had and might want more.

That was why I was not surprised when the Polish cardinal Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II and using his position almost immediately started to travel. Why not, it was paid by the company!

Anyway, my wife was lucky enough to travel all over Europe and saw many beautiful places. She saw bullfights in Spain, visited Barcelona, spent time on Costa Brava, was in Gibraltar and was in Italy including Rome and Venice. She also had the chance to travel along the Mediterranean as well as the Adriatic coasts and visited many inland countries as well.

I went to a few of the major cities in Europe but spent time mainly in Hungary. We talked about her showing me some of these beautiful places and I am very excited about the prospects of it.

Actually we have fairly long list of places we would love to visit and the range of it expands from Alaska all the way to Australia. So far this year we are sure of two places we will visit. Las Vegas and Hawaii.

But then the year is just beginning so we have time to plan.

The problem I have with my lovely wife is that she is very impressionable as far as travel is involved. I have two friends who have traveled very extensively and every time we are together they fill her head with travel ideas. I usually just sit there and contemplate how much these ideas will cost me.

I jokingly told her that in the future I forbid her to talk to these people because nothing good ever comes out of these discussions. Yea right! Like I would forbid her to do something.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Solet

Cholent in Yiddish or solet (sholet) in Hungarian is a traditional meal that I love tremendously. Actually it is a single dish but it is so rich in flavors that it is like a full course dinner.

Basically it's nothing but beans. But beans in a heavenly way. I don't know if the recipe is in one of Moses' books but it seems that every Jew I ever talked to know about it and like it.

Beans are cooked with beef or smoked goose legs (the non-Jewish way with pork). The secret is in the slow cooking. When I was a little boy back in Budapest my mother occasionally made this meal. She prepared it at home in a huge pot then asked me to take it down to the neighborhood bakery where the baker put it in his oven and let it cook overnight. By next day it was done and it was great.

Here my wife made it today but it didn't have to be cooked overnight. About three hours in the oven was enough and it turned out fantastic. No wonder, because beside the beans and all other stuff there was a large portion of love added to it.

I had two servings and after was barely able to wander over to the sofa to relax.

Can life get any better?

Friday, February 26, 2016

Thursday

Today is Thursday and it was one of the more fruitful days we had in a long time. After I took young Abigail to school I went back to the house and promptly got in bed which was still warm and very inviting. We stayed in bed until about two in the afternoon watching CNN's political analysis of the current situation. I have to admit it was interesting and entertaining at the same time.

Their main topic was how to stop Trump. For a neutral media they pretty openly aligned themselves with the Stop the Trump movement. It is very interesting to me that nobody seem to care about what the people want. If Trump gets popular plurality they will still fight him tooth and nail and insist that it is they who know better what the American people want. Now, is this the democratic way?

The establishment is terrified at his popularity. The masses understand what he says and according Bob Schiffer of CBS News, even if they don't they like to hear him talking. The establishment is scared because they don't know what he plans to do if elected. They are afraid that he will destroy their world.

These career politicians lie and cheat and the moment somebody different rises to the scene they all gang up on that individual. That is what they are planning to do with Trump. They never thought he would go this far so they never took him seriously. Now that he is where he is it is time for a serious action. They will all gang up on him in order to protect their turf.

Their good and easy life can not come to an end just because an outsider dares to invade their turf.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Wednesday

Last night we were watching the Nevada Republican caucus on television. As expected Donald Trump won by a huge margin. Watching this I was wondering that how much loss a candidate has to suffer before he realizes that his chances have all evaporated.

The second and third place finishes, Rubio and Cruz respectively made their speeches like they won. They never admitted that they weren't even there to pick up the garbage. I don't know if that is pride or stupidity or just not admitting defeat.

Rubio made a speech somewhere saying that the American people proved it that they do not want Trump but him instead. I can not imagine where he got that information when in all national and even local polls Trump is way up front and Cruz and him are trailing behind.

This is the way politicians are. Never facing reality never facing the truth.

The thing about Trump is that he is not a politician he is a businessman. Politicians double talk and lie. So far he is innocent on these counts. Maybe if he is elected then four years down the road he might assimilate himself to the Washington atmosphere.

That would be a shame.

Something else.

Tonight we had cold cuts for dinner. Went to a nice quasi Hungarian meat store (actually Transylvanian Romanian) and bought good stuff.

Hungarian sousages, Hungarian style bacon (szalonna), spicy hot head cheese and the piece de resistance fresh pork crackles (toportyu).

Man, that stuff was good.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Tuesday

Between my wife and I we have two cars. That is not unusual but since we moved in our new place and got married we only use one car. Mainly because we are always together, do things together and really are not apart.

One car is a Hyundai Santa Fe SUV and the other is a Mitsubishi Outlander. Both cars are fairly new models and both are parked in the building's garage. Since we are always together in the same car one car is just standing in the garage and collects dust. So, we were thinking about what if we go buy a new car and trade these two in. We can live very happily and comfortably with one car as most of the people do.

Sunday lacking anything more entertaining to do we went out to the Hyundai dealer and looked at the latest models. Since I know the sales lady there we felt her out (not up) about our idea just to know if it was doable. She said yes and being a true sales person right there and then wanted to sell us a car. My history is that every time I went to "just look" always wound up buying the stuff. This time however I was strong and resisted the urge. I'm proud of myself!

We were told that the 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe was out and it is a really good looking car. In addition to everything that my car has it has three more cameras (one forward and two sideways) and also it has a power lift gate that is really "very necessary" for a car to have.

Anyway we told the lady that we would mull over the idea and will return when we are ready but before the final decision is made we will also check out the Mitsubishi line.

Something else.

Today's dinner will be a real Hungarian dish that I happened to love. It is called paprikas krumpli. It has no English translation and I will not even attempt one. I you are not Hungarian I feel sorry for you!

One of the main delicacies of Hungarian dessert preparation is ground poppy. Not for opium but to have it with food. I happened to love the stuff. My Mother used to make egg noodles sprinkled with sugary poppy (makos teszta) and I always liked it. I kind of grew up on that. We had that for lunch today with wonton soup and for dinner a few nights ago without the wonton soup. If one wants a meatless dinner this stuff is great.

Writing about this good food made me hungry so good bye, I'm off to dinner.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Monday

Today is Monday and we did have a busy day. I had an early morning appointment with my ophthalmologist who wanted to review that status of my eyes. Three weeks ago my glaucoma tests were not so good and he gave me some drops. The drops were religiously administered and lo and behold my numbers today were in the normal range.

I was very relieved at the results. He also made some additional tests ($$) and I seemed to pass them with flying colors. We parted company with the instruction that he wants to see me in three months. That's fine with me.

Since the appointment was at 8am we really had an early start to the day. My wife decided that it would be a great opportunity to do some house cleaning. That is a weekly event in this house but it seem that we just had one. That's ok it is nice to be in a nice clean environment.

Since the winter vacation is over today was the first day back to school for Abigail. I think she was happy to go back because it seemed that she was pretty bored at home all week long. I don't know what kind of entertainment to invent for a thirteen year old girl in order to keep her amused. Maybe when summer arrives we can go to the beach or the zoo or to some similar places. But at this time of the year it is not that easy.

Today's young people are very demanding, believe me.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Sunday

This is how a Hungarian gentleman starts a nice evening. We drove into Manhattan on Friday nights for our Georgian dinner date. I kind of knew where the street was but apparently not good enough. We circled around a bit until with my wife's help found it.

Victoriously I made a right turn into the nice quiet little street until about half way through it turned out I was driving the wrong way on a one way street. I was actually wondering why everybody was waving at me. Figured they were a bunch of friendly people happy to see me. It was not the case! Eventually I made a U-turn and corrected my stupidity. But it was funny.

Something else.

Saturday night we saw The King and I at the Lincoln Center. I saw it before but my wife never saw it. This is a show that one can see more than once and I really enjoyed it again. The Vivian Beaumont is lovely theater, we had good seats and it was a good crowd.

After the show that lasted until about 11pm we went to dinner to a nearby restaurant that we frequented before. The restaurant is very popular but since we made reservation we had a table waiting. Lovely dinner, good drinks a show, fantastic company!

What more can a man ask for?







Sunday, February 21, 2016

Saturday

Friday night we had a great night. My wife's son invited us out to dinner. This was a belated Valentine's day present for his mother. The dinner was great and at the same time very educational. Educational in the gastronomical sense.

We went down to the Village and ate at a nice quaint Georgian restaurant. My wife and I had Azerbaijani food once but this was Georgian. Not Georgian from the South of the US but Georgian that is in Eurasia. I have to admit I didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be delicious, nice atmosphere and good service.

We all had appetizers and then the main courses. I can not pronounce what we ate but mine was a lamb stew while my wife's selection was a beef kebab. Both of us were happy with our selections. Oh, and we washed the food down with a semi-sweet red wine.

When one goes to a strange restaurant there is nothing to fall back on so we are relying on reading the description of each course and make the selection accordingly. Lucky for us, the menu was very descriptive and that make selection easy.

After dinner we drove uptown to the Hungarian pastry shop and finished the day with a little pastry from our neck of the woods.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Friday

We are currently very interested about how the wheels of politics are turning. And they are really turning, mainly on the Republican front. I am not a Republican, I am not sympathizing with the Republican politics and their politicians. In my opinion at times they are un-American and most of the times they are anti people. But...

I firmly believe that any one party's rule for a long time is not healthy. The system permits changes and living with that I will vote whoever they select from the other side. In this case that would be a Republican.

If Trump is nominated he will get my vote. Maybe that is what this country needs. A non-politician politician. One who is not tied to any interest group except maybe to his own. But that will not make him any different from the others because they are all doing this for their own self interest.

What is interested to see how the establishment is fighting to make sure Trump does not get the nomination. The media who supposed to be neutral and not supposed to take sides is leading the way in this fight.

The other day they came out with two totally different polls. One showed Trump leading with 35% and Ted Cruz behind him with 18%. Wall Street Journal came out with a different poll where Cruz was leading with about 28% and Trump behind him with 27%. I would love to know whom they were asking! By the way all other polls showed him with the 35% lead. Now, what is this if not a totally biased reporting?

It is really disgusting how dirty they fight. All they are occupied with is throwing one slander after another at each other. And these people want to be the leaders of the free world?

I wouldn't let them lead a flock of geese to the lake!

Friday, February 19, 2016

Thursday

Today I had a very long and tiring day. We worked almost non stop from morning 'till late afternoon without stopping, without getting up from the computer. When we sat down the market just opened and by the time we finished the market was already closed for a while.

What we did was unifying all our different accounts. Banks, credit cards, airlines etc. This is not an easy task because we have long list of everything with the accompanying passwords and when one needs one it turns out it doesn't work anymore. That was what ate up most of the time. The unsuccessful attempts.

Some had to be called because after several, like three false attempts they lock you out. Then the call, the wait and eventually being let in. Until now we were 99% successful. There are still a couple we couldn't update but in time we will prevail.

It was interesting to see how different some of the companies are as far as signing in and changing information. Some companies and most of them let you do it on line while a very few will not and insist on sending you forms in the mail or take the information on the phone.

Interestingly a company I used to work for and supposed to be a high tech firm will let you do very little on line and insists on doing things on the phone. Also some of the gasoline and store credit cards seem to be handled by the same bank so, every time we logged on we wound up with the same bank's website.

I also changed my e-mail address in the process which was one of the reason all this work had to be done. That was not a big deal. I had this address for ten years it was time for a change.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Wednesday

I appreciate the input I received on my tire troubles. Yes, temperature changes can effect tire pressure and bad road conditions can also effect the sealing capabilities of the rims.

But why all this is happening on my Hyundai? We also have a Mitsubishi and I had a multitude of cars prior to the Hyundais and none of them ever exhibited what is happening now. Poor workmanship and inferior materials, that is my verdict.

Something else.

When one lives long enough and thinks back it can be frightening how much change took place in the world. What motivated this very wise statement was a conversation my wife and I had with Abigail the other night.

For introduction you have to know that like any normal teenager, Abigail is totally hooked on her cell phone. Can not live, can not breath without it. It is always within a few feet of her for just in case...

Anyway, we were talking about the "good old days". Abigail could not imagine, could not fathom how we as teenagers were able to survive without cell phones. To add to her confusion we explained that not that we had no cell phones a great many people had no telephone at all. She could not understand how we communicated with our friends and what did we do in our spare time for amusement without the electronic games.

Back in those days these gadgets were not invented yet and since we didn't know what they were obviously we just didn't miss them. But we all survived by reading books and talking to our friends. Visiting each other was solved very easily. We went to each other's houses.

Today's young people do not appreciate how lucky they are and can absolutely not imagine a world without the present technology.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Tuesday

I am not planning to write this as a diary but since so many things are happening it just turned out that way. Like take today. When we woke up at the ungodly hour of 11 am we had a full day of doing nothing planned.

It was warming up outside and it was raining cats and dogs. To add to the misery the building announced that the elevator was to be out of service the better part of the day because of some inspection. And, since we live on the fourth floor none of us was looking forward to walking up and down the stairs. Come on, we live in America we don't walk up and down when we live in an elevatored building.

So we stayed home most of the day even though the sun came out and the elevator started to work around noon. My wife decided that today was a perfect day to polish silver. As a result her and a friend of hers spent hours talking laughing and polishing silver. Me in the meantime spent my time on the computer.

This is not a difficult time, it is very easy to get used to.

Me on the computer, Abigail in her room skyping her friends and the girls polishing silver. Nobody can ask for better than that, right? Peace and quiet as it is supposed to be.

Aside from these mundane events on notable thing happened. My wife received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from her daughter in Florida. The flowers were supposed to arrive on Valentine's day, Sunday but because an address mix up they arrived today. Better late than never.

Post script to today. Dinner was blood sausages and kielbasa with green beans and potatoes. Yummy, yummy!

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Monday

I have this 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe that I like very much. This is my third Santa Fe and I have really no complaint or problem with the car. Except...

In all my previous cars together and I had about 15 or eighteen never had so much troubles with the tires as I have with this brand.

Low tire pressure, or punctures caused by street use.

On this car I had to replace about three tires. Naturally none of the warranties cover any of the costs. The more recent one is that when the temperature drops drastically tire or tires lose pressure. When I complain they tell me it is normal because temperature change brings about changes in the tire pressure.

Baloney, I say! None of my previous cars ever had that kind of problem and I have been living in the same area for over 50 years. The tire that came with the car is Continental brand. Either it is a lousy brand or the workmanship how they are placed on the wheels is mediocre at best.

Right now my low pressure light is on and I really don't know which of the four tires is low. Right now it is snowing and I can not even go to the gas station to check it out but tomorrow I'll have to do something about it.







Monday, February 15, 2016

Sunday

God forbid we should have a nice and quiet day. If nothing happens the news media will stir up things and create panic. Now they are doing it with the weather.

In the past few days we are having real cold days and nights. Last night was single digit that lasted into mid morning. So what do the weather forecasters do? They show something that is called wind chill factor that was about -30 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, what good that kind of information is worth? We know it is cold and we know what it feels like. We don't need to be told what it feels like. It feels like cold!

Something else.

Last night my wife and I went out to dinner. Went to a lovely place where the dinner was just great. We also met some friends who were there and we spent a good 45 minutes talking with them. The dinner was buffet style with lobster, shrimp, lox and other different types of good food along with dessert. Overall we spent almost three hours there and had a great time.

Last year this same place gave a single rose to every woman guest. That nice touch was missing this time. Maybe it was an economy thing that they had to cut the roses.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Saturday

Today is erev St. Valentine's Day and we started to celebrate. We are not celebrating the St. Valentine's day massacre but the day of love and appreciation. It is Saturday, things are quiet and we decided to show our love a day sooner!

That said here is what we did so far: we gave each other lots of kisses, we gave each other beautiful greeting cards, my wife bought me chocolate covered marzipan and a bottle of slivovic, we gave Abigail a box of chocolate and a little teddy bear. I feel bad because all I gave my lovely wife was a card. But tonight we are going out to dinner to a very nice place where we celebrated our first Valentine's Day together last year.

I hope today's dinner will turn out as nice as it did last year.

Abigail is sad. She knows what Valentine's Day means and she is sad because she has no boyfriend who would buy her gifts. She wants to be cherished and appreciated and all this from the family just don't cut it. She knows a thirteen year old boy who seem to like her but he is small in stature, weighs about 72 pounds and no way will qualify as a boyfriend.

Besides, it was explained to her that at this age she is too young to have a boyfriend and don't despair time will come when there will be boyfriends.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Friday

It is amazing how one can have a full day and it be totally without any results. That was the kind of day we had.

After I dropped Abigail off at the school my wife and I headed out to Brooklyn to meet her son. The three of us went to breakfast and after that I went to get a haircut. Now, that turned out good.

The haircut was so exhausting that after that we stopped at a neighborhood pastry shop for a "bite". It was a good "bite".

After all the bitings we went to the storage place where we and sonny keep stuff. Actually he only keeps his motorcycle that he brought up from Florida there. Being winter and the roads as they are he decided not to ride his bike here for now so we keep it in our storage compartment.

He wanted to se if it still runs so we took it out to the street but unfortunately after several tries the engine just didn't start. Understandingly, he was pretty upset about it. Now these bike are electric starts and don't have the old fashioned kick start. That might have solved the problem but as it is now he plans to take it apart and take a serious look at it.

After the storage we went to pick up Abigail and drove out to Brooklyn to take so home. Being about four o'clock we hit major traffic and the usual 25 minute ride took almost an hour. Fortunately the home bound traffic was shorter. It took only 53 minutes.

Once we got home my wife decided that we should go down to the corner and buy some lottery tickets. We did. But the store is a 99cents discount store and we also bought a few other household things.

On the way back home we started calculating how much what we bought should have cost and halfway home we realized we were overcharged. Back to the store where they admitted their mistakes and gave back the eight dollars we overpaid.

All this back and forth walking in about 20 degree cold. Very refreshing but who needs it?

Friday, February 12, 2016

Politicking

This past Tuesday was the New Hampshire Primary for this year's presidential candidates. Lacking anything substantial on TV we watched MSNBC that reported all day and night long about the election results. I have to admit it was extremely boring. These reporters talk non-stop day and night but have nothing worthwhile to say.

They literarily and repeatedly take the candidates apart. They analyze everything post-mortem and basically everything they say has tabloidish value.

We watched but we were only interested in the final numbers that came about 9 p.m.

Now that the New Hampshire show is over and all the candidates swore how much they all loved New Hampshire probably none will ever return to that state. Except maybe Bernie Sanders who represents the state in the Senate.

These people promise the world, lie through their teeth just to get the votes. But this is politics and I don't believe they are different in other countries.

When being a politician is a career honesty goes out the window. It is not an accident that most of the politicians are lawyers. As such they know exactly how to circumvent the law and how to get away with stuff.

It is a rare being who just plainly feels that he or she just wants to help people to have a better life. As peculiar as it sounds, Donald Trump might just be such a person.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday. This is the beginning of Lent and 40 days from today is Palm Sunday and that is a week before Easter. The religious meaning of this day is that Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days. Good Christians also get the mark of the cross placed on their forehead by a priest with ashes.

When I used to work there was a Catholic church next to our building and I saw people lining up early in the morning waiting to see the priest. I also noticed that some people were convinced the the bigger was the mark the better Christians they were. Consequently, some people walked around with a huge ash spots on their foreheads.

Because of this special day New York City suspended alternate parking because there was no street cleaning today. Now, this is idiotic.

Unless the Sanitation Department is so religious that they observe Ash Wednesday I really can not imagine that anybody was. The Pope probably didn't work today but then I don't think he work much anyway.

Where I am living now across from us is a major Catholic high school. Over there business was as usual. They didn't get a day off but the street cleaners did.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Tuesday

Today is Tuesday and we had a very busy day. First thing this morning after taking Abigail to school we went to the gym for a "little" workout. Haven't been there for a while and it was overdue. We did it and it felt really good.

The afternoon was spent dealing with banks.

One of the major rule in a good marriage is having joint bank accounts. Since my wife and I both led separate lives until our wedding we both had multiple accounts in different financial institutions. Combining those indicate confidence and trust in one and other. We have been doing these for a while now but there are some accounts that have to be combined in person while some others can be done on the Internet.

Some institutions are easy while some are real hardnosed. Today we had the "luck" picking the hardnosed ones. We spent an enormous time in one bank setting up a joint bank account and at home we spent over an hour setting up the electronic version of the same account.

It is a darned good thing that we really have nothing else to do in life but worry about these.

I also started to collect backup data and information in preparation of the 2015 income tax filing. Hallelujah, I'm very excited about this.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Monday

All afternoon I was fighting with airlines to get the right number of points for our future travels. We belong to a few frequent flying groups through the various airlines but it is very difficult to gather up enough points. Just when I think we have enough it turns out that is only enough for half the trip.

Anyway, yesterday we realized that our upcoming Hawaiian Airlines trip to Hawaii qualifies us for JetBlue points. So I just got off the phone after talking to a pineapple dressed person who claims to have taken care of things. Time will tell.


Today is Chinese New Year and since New York has more Chinese than Shanghai(?) it is now a public school holiday. The kids really don't care as long as it is a holiday.

It is amazing how little these kids care about anything in this world. If somebody would say we will celebrate Dzingis Khan's name day they would say fine as long as there is no school.

Anyhow as I just said there was no school today but since it was snowing in the morning there was nothing we really could do in the outdoors. So we just stayed home.

Actually, in the morning I had an eye doctor appointment. He said my eyes looked great. But he gave me some drops for the glaucoma in my right eye. Two weeks from today I have to go back for a checkup.

As far as the glaucoma the doctor said it was very common amongst East European Jewish people. I said I was one and I couldn't help it.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Sunday

It is Sunday evening and the only thing America watches is the Super Bowl. I probably would watch it if I were to understand the game and would care about who wins. I live in this country like forever but never developed an understanding or the appreciation of the game.

All I know that a bunch of guys the size of my refrigerator slam into one another throughout the evening. For some weird reason Americans are crazy about this game.

An interesting observation by me.

The Super Bowl, regardless which two teams are playing, are watched by the entire country. The baseball World Series are not watched at all unless one of the teams is local. I can understand that the World Series is dragged out to seven games while the Super Bowl is a one game live or die event.

The Americans are trying Europe to accept this game by playing a few season games over there but I don't believe they met with much success. And I can totally understand the Europeans. If I lived there I couldn't care much about this sport either.

Football must be good for the potato chip industry because today the shelves were almost empty in the supermarket we just came back from.

Lately I have been watching some rugby from Australia. Now that is a man's sport. No stopped play every 30 seconds, they are not dressed in space suits but just shorts and shirts and they have nothing on to absorb the hits and falls. Those guys are tough and mean. It is surprising that this sport never found home here in the US.

But the American public is a weird mixture. They like baseball and football. Need to say anything more?

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Saturday

Don't think that we have nothing else to do but eat but my wife creates such a fantastic menus every day that I have to mention it. Today for example we had chicken noodle soup and stuffed pepper for lunch. The stuffing was veal witch was a great touch. For dessert we had some poppy seed cakes.

Ok, so we didn't have breakfast meaning I don't feel too guilty.

Now, dinner is another story.

She is preparing smoked turkey legs with sauerkraut mixed with beans for soup and then oven baked veal with tomatoes and peppers with couscous. I think these are all together about a light year's worth of calories but today is Saturday and the last time I checked it was permissible.

All these are under the pretense that we eat Hungarian but I don't believe this is what an average Hungarian meal consists of. But you know what? I really don't care! As long as it tastes good I'll eat it. And, everything my wife cooks taste fantastic. I just love her cooking because besides the normal ingredients there is an additional item in every meal she prepares. She puts love in all her preparations!

It is midafternoon at this writing and I am already anxiously waiting for dinnertime.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Friday

This morning we woke up to another day of snow covering the area. At 6:30 it was snowing and the white stuff was sticking. Because the temperature was just around freezing it was wet snow but it made everything so pretty.

Abigail hates the snow and as I was driving her to school I was oohing and aahing at how pretty everything looked. Can't help it, I love snow and that is the end of it.

Something else.

Every time we turn the TV on there is a presidential candidate being interviewed or speaking at an event or there is a debate. The funny thing is about these people that there is nothing new they can say and there is nothing new reporters can ask that have not been addressed over and over again.

Saturday night is the next Republican debate. We will watch it because of its entertainment value and not because we are looking for a candidate to chose. This show is far better than the Saturday Night Live comedy show. In this debate there is absolutely nothing new that can be said that was not said before. I can understand why they campaign in the different states but why on national television?

Now I have a deep understanding of this political system.

The Republicans are entertaining while the Democrats are boring.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Thursday

We watched the second half of the Bernie Madoff mini-series. It was very interesting and informative. Even though there was no suspense in the story since everybody knew the outcome it was still interesting.

I kind of don't feel sorry for most of the people because it was their greed that brought them to the point where they lost so much. Greed was the factor to place their monies with this guy. But then that is the American way, isn't it?

We all want to get the most return for our money and looking at that way nobody is blameless. The rotten thing he did that he stole indiscriminately. From the rich as well as from the poor and at the same time lied to his own family.

I don't feel sorry for the rich but the poor is another story. Fortunately, none of my money was invested through him and this way I was not involved. But according to the news and the movie people are slowly getting back what they lost.

Except their health.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Wednesday

Before I say anything else I have to tell everybody that my beautiful wife made Hungarian goulash for dinner. For those of you who don't know Hungarian goulash (the real one) is a rich soup that can be eaten as a single meal. Hers was great. I had two servings and after that I just dragged myself to the sofa and sat there for three hours without moving.

I didn't move because I was also watching a very interesting TV show. It was the first episode of two that was written about the Bernie Madoff story. Now this is a story most of us know but it was still interesting to see how the whole thing came about. This guy lived high on the hog and at the end he wound up living on three square meals a day.

Today was the first two hours Thursday will be the last two hours. I am eagerly anticipating its outcome.

Oh wait, I know how it will end.

This morning my wife and I went to the gym for a little workout. It really felt good. None of us exerted ourselves but the workout was still good.

The entire day was just yuk! Rain in the morning, rain during the day and it is still raining. The snow is almost gone and I'm sure all the planted foodstuff will be happy for the water but I am not a farmer and I really don't care.

Canned foods don't need water.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Tuesday

Today is February 2, Groundhog Day. They say that the two groundhogs who supposed to know about weather than the weathermen did not see their shadows and decided to stay outside. They might know something because all day long it was very springlike with the sun shining and the remaining snow melting.

If it stays like this I will take out my shorts and short sleeves and start wearing them. It looks like this year we had a short winter. About two weeks long.

But aside from that we had a very busy day today. My wife and I did laundry in the morning then on to the weekly housecleaning.

This second one meant that my wife and lady who helps out for a few hours did all the work and I tried to stay out of their ways all day long. This included going to the post office, doing some important shopping and picking up the dry cleaning. Then I retreated to my man cave where I spent valuable hours on the computer honing my Solitaire playing skills.

To reward me for my help my wife served chicken noodle soup and stuffed peppers for lunch and beef stew for dinner. Each low calories, naturally.

No wonder that by the end of the day I am totally exhausted.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Monday

January is gone and February is already here. Time is flying by. The good thing is that this year is a leap year so next year will be here a day later than usual. Come on, a day is a day. Can't afford to give up a day that easily.

A week ago we were waist high in snow, now we have almost tropical weather. All day it was almost 60 degrees and they said all the snow will be gone by the middle of the week. A shame because I just happen to love snow.

Snow makes this usually drabby looking city a little bit nicer and brighter. But then I live in an apartment house and shoveling the white stuff is not my problem. That is one of the reasons we didn't buy a house.

The only problem is that our cars look disgusting but with the wet roads we can not have them washed yet because ten minutes later they would look again the same way.

Something else.

I already expressed my feelings about electronic bill payment. Today I called a company that sends us monthly invoices and inquired about electronic payments in the future. They told me that they were sorry but I would have to keep sending checks (the old fashion way).

Well, I put on a show of extreme indignancy. I asked them how can they work this way and how much behind the times they are and so on and so on.

It felt really good.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Sunday

All's well that ends well. My wife returned from her Florida trip and we had a very sweet reunion. I knew I missed her but not until I saw her I realized just how much. Now, we are together again and I love every minute of it!

She told me it was a very easy flight. Interestingly, the plane departed almost a half hour early and got to JFK way before its scheduled time. It was a good thing that I tracked her flight because this way I was there when she walked out.

Since then we are never more than five feet away from one another.

Something else.

Today is Sunday and it is five in the afternoon and we didn't do anything useful yet. We must go down to do some emergency food shopping but otherwise it is a very, very lazy Sunday.

We have no culture programs planned for the near future, we have no social programs planned for the near future. But I think we will survive this dry spell. What we do is we stay home and talk about future plans. What we would like to do, where we would like to go. And see how these things can be realized.

To live without any plans is not living. It is just existing. A carrot exists because it has no plans. But we are not carrots so we plan.

How is this for a Freudian analysis of life.