Friday

I am stunned that today this stupid blog came on without any problems. That means I have no reason for another outburst.

Today is Good Friday and there was no school. We could have slept late but instead got up at around 7:20 and drove to the place to have those bumper guards installed on the new car. Being a holiday there was nobody before us and this way we were the first costumer. The work took about an hour and a half and now the car looks totally protected.

My wife didn't let me park the car on the street because she was afraid somebody might hit it. But now with those tank bumpers it is OK to park them outside during the day. Anyway, the stuff look good.

Then just so things wouldn't go totally easy this afternoon the saleslady called and asked if we could bring the car in tomorrow (Saturday) morning because there was some kind of recall that needed to be fixed by the dealer's service.

This means that there will be no late sleeping tomorrow, either.

Going back to the bumper. This place where we went is doing a pretty good business. They are able to do any car model and as far as I know they have everything in stock. The stuff cost about $500 per car and there is always a line of cars waiting. They also have a large working area and that means they are able to do two or three cars at a time. I think they are making a bundle.

Never a dull moment.

Thursday

This blog is seriously getting on my nerves. There are very few things aggravate me in this life but the organization that does this blog is on the top. I do very little complicated exercises on the computer and nothing irritate me more than when one thing works one day then with no explanation it will not work on the next.

The same thing happened to this blog. With no explanation it just disappeared and I was ready to give up my writing career. But then I prevailed because I thought the multitude of my readers would feel abandoned. And I do not want to let anybody down.

Anyway, today it is back and tomorrow is another story.

Tomorrow morning we will take the car to a shop where they will install front and rear "bull guards". That is the name of those metallic bumper guards. We had them on the 2014 model and kind of got to like it. And now my wife wants it and I'll do anything to make her happy. We found a place not far from us and not too expensive so tomorrow we are getting up early and taking the baby there.

Tomorrow being Good Friday there will be no school so Abigail will be able to sleep as long as she wants.

By the way, it was proven again that some foods taste better the second day. Tonite we had the leftovers from yesterday's lunch and man, they all tasted just fantastic. There is also a belief that on the second day they are not as fattening!

Wednesday

Today is Wednesday and aside from the fact that yesterday Donald Trump won the Arizona GOP primary and leading in the delegate count we also had a very good day.

Today we had the first official invitees to our new home. My bestest friend and his wife visited us and we just had a great time. Since him and I are like brothers it is a very easy and honest relationship we are having. My wife and I were happy to have them. As I mentioned it yesterday we had a Hungarian food festival.

Menu:

Chicken ragout soup
Spicy sausages and blood sousages
Pork chop with roasted tomatoes and mashed potatoes
Cabbage with smoked meat (lucskos kaposzta)

Dessert:

Poppy and walnut filled roulades (beigli)
Fruit cakes
Napoleon
Cottage cheese filled Hungarian crepes (palacsinta)
Apple pie

Drinks

This was such a success that we might take orders.

Tomorrow we will start our diets!

Tuesday

I am kind of anxious to install the new computer but we just never got to it. It is still sitting in its box and from there smiling at us. I guess we'll get to it later today.

I hope it is simple to get it started. I don't like complications. Take the darn thing out of the box, plug it in and it should work. Anything more I can't deal with.

But we will overcome any obstacles I'm sure of.

We are a little delayed in doing this because my wife is in deep preparations for receiving our first visitor to our home. My bestest friend and his wife are visiting us on Wednesday. The apartment is being cleaned, and she has started to prepare the food. I won't say what we will eat but I'm convinced everybody will like it. We all like Hungarian food and this is promising to be a Hungarian food festival.

Something else.

It is interesting how the sleazy car salesmen behave when they see a costumer or should I say patsy.

The manager in the place where we bought our car went to all lengths to explain why this two year younger model is different and better than the one we had. Different headlights, better tires and over all just better.

Sunday when we went back to hand over our car I told him that he was full of baloney. I drove the car for two full days and there was not one thing that was different the positive way. There were changes from the 2014 model but they were minor and certainly not betterment.

This just proves that they would sell their grandmother as a young maiden if there were any profit in it.

Monday

Today is Monday and early morning we did have snow. Not much but it was the real white stuff. In a few hours it was only a memory.

Today we didn't do much. Returned the license plates to the Department of Motor Vehicle and upon getting home I cancelled the insurance on it. It seems I will be getting a refund. So will I from the Motor Vehicle because over here everything is prepaid. They have no trust in people at all. Companies much rather give a refund than trying to collect overdue bills.

After all this heavy duty stuff my wife and I had a few quiet hours to ourselves.

Abigail is fighting a nasty cold and I am trying hard to stay out of her way because that is the last thing I want to catch. So far this winter I was lucky and survived it without any problems but since she is so sick there is a good chance that I'll catch some of it.

Today we were working on this computer when we agreed that this one is getting slower and slower and it is time to look around. I have a very poor record with just looking around. I don't look around, I buy the stuff.

On that thought we went out and looked around for a new computer. Looking ended up buying. We wondered into an Apple store and wound up buying a 27" iMac computer. Me Mister negative told my wife that I hate Apple. They are only good for eating but she didn't want to hear my objections and said I will learn to like it. By the time we left the store I changed my attitude. Now I bitched about how heavy the darn thing was.

Never a dull moment in this house.

Sunday

Today was the big day for cars in our household. Until today we were a two car family but from today on we are a one car family. I'm not saying that I miss the second car but it gave me a secure feeling that there always was an alternate vehicle around. Well, that is no more.

Today we brought back the 2014 Santa Fe to the dealer and left in the new car. When we went in for "just for a few minor details" we thought it would not last long. Those minor details lasted over two hours. But hopefully everything was ironed out and there were no problems remaining.

This afternoon we drove the new car and it worked very nicely. There is really no change between the 2014 and 2016 model except that we now have a tailgate that rises and closes automatically. That's about it.

I'm writing this at ten o'clock at night and there is no trace of any snow they were forecasting all day long. An other false rumor again. The GOP opposition will probably say that Trump did it.

Saturday

This world is now, culturally speaking without borders. I became such an international person that I even amaze myself.

Yesterday we went to see a Spanish or more accurately Andalusian flamenco festival in Manhattan. After the show we went to a Brazilian restaurant for dinner. I have to mention that on Wednesday we bought a Korean (South not North) car.

Today we went to a Polish delicatessen but before that we visited a Romanian butcher store where they sell great cold cuts and most of them are Hungarian style. After the butcher store we went to a German supermarket and all that was before the sun went down.

To keep up the international spirit my wife and I went to dinner to a Peruvian restaurant. I never ate Peruvian and if this was that I am very satisfied. Yesterday's Brazil was so-so but that might have been our fault.

For two Hungarians this was like trip around the gastronomical world.

Friday

We were supposed to take the car to the dealer today to complete the entire setup but because we had other things to do that was postponed until Sunday. Like I said before the GPS needs to be setup and the dales lady has to go through the car and show us how things work.

Now that's a laugh. By that time we'll have the car for three days and if we don't know how things work by that time we'll never learn. But I guess that is the process.

Today we were very busy. We had family visiting until early afternoon and when my wife's son is here he always helps with the electronic things in the house. With these computers there is always something to complain about.

Tonight my wife and I are going into Manhattan to a Flamenco dance festival. My wife saw several in Europe and I saw one here last year and got to really like it. It is so full of activities that even if one finds it boring it is impossible to fall asleep because of the insistent tapping and the music.

Now here is an idiotic thing. Monday is supposed to be the first day of Spring and here in New York they are expecting snow. It is an absolute crazy season we are having. A few days before it was summery warm, people took out their light clothings and now we have to look for the warm and heavy winter stuff again.

The only one who does not care about the weather is Abigail. She wants to dress according to the calendar. Every morning before she is off to school there is an argument about what coat to wear. She wants a light one her mother wants a warm one. I think Abigail has Eskimo blood in her because there was no cold this winter when she would had admitted that it was really cold.

Oh, the young ones of today.

Thursday

I have a very good excuse why yesterday's writing was skipped. At least for me it is a good excuse.

A few weeks ago I wrote that we were contemplating getting rid of both of our cars and getting a new one. One only.

Well, yesterday was the day that this thought became a reality. Around three o'clock in the afternoon we went to the dealer and told her that we were seriously interested in getting a new car.

That was at three and around ten thirty we drove out in our new car. By the time we left us and our saleslady were the only ones left in the dealership. We were all exhausted, mainly I. We drove a hard bargain but I think at the end we succeeded. (At least I believe it.)

We handed back my 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe and traded in my wife's 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander for a brand new fully loaded 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. This car is not much different from the one we had but this is not a lease, this is ours. We won't have to watch the monthly mileage allowance because it is our car.

This car has all the electronic features the previous car had except it also has a self opening/closing rear hatch. That comes very handy when there are packages to put in the back and it is raining cats and dogs.

The interesting thing for me was that we made the deal and a few hours later we were able to drive the car off the lot. I know in some other states this is a usual thing but I never saw in in New York.

Anyway, the car is in the garage and it did get a welcome reception.

Abigail

Just a little more about Abigail. She is 13 years old and three months shy of 14. She seemed to be smitten by a boy also thirteen. She doesn't want to admit it but whenever she has a chance she talks about him.

It seems that these kids have a serious communication problem. Abigail told us that she and the boy skype or talk on the phone A lot but when they are face to face they can just not communicate. Abigail is shy and I guess the boy is also shy. Abigail gets excited when I call the boy boyfriend saying that she has no boyfriend. She claims she has a boy friend. And that is a big difference.

Well, for someone who is just a friend the boy seem to occupy a lot of her time.

This girlfriend boyfriend thingy is getting to be a very big subject of their lives. She keeps telling us which girl of her circle has a boyfriend and who likes whom and so on.

Now, remember again these are 13/14 year olds. This friend thing does not go outside the school. These kids don't go on dates. These kids can not cross a street without a parent present. Their relationships are strictly limited to inside the school.

But interestingly this is now a major subject between these boys and girls. It looks to me like some kind of an awakening.

Monday

Today the new gas oven was installed and I can now breathe with a sigh of relief. The work was completed this morning with less complications than I expected. Actually, two screws were left out and we are waiting for the super to come back and fix the stuff.

My wife's son came over this morning and helped with moving the monster fridge. At the same time he took the doors off to make room for the super to work. While the doors were off my wife decided to have the swing of the fridge doors reversed. Good thing that the son was here. I supervised it.

Speaking of the good life.

Abigail's class today went to an arcade place to play electronic games all day instead of school. I really don't know what the educational value of this is but I do know that the cash value was $40. This trip again was for the entire eighth grade which means there must had been a lots of kids there.

As far as I know there are two more trips before the year ends. One is a baseball game and the second and last is the senior trip. I have no idea what this second one is about and neither does she.

This is the good life.

Sunday

Tomorrow is promising to be a very difficult day in our home. As I might have noted earlier when we moved in we brought with us a monster of a refrigerator and a gas/electric oven. Aside from these the apartment was equipped with brand new appliances. But ours being also new we decided to keep all of them.

Right now we have two fridges and two ovens. Actually both fridges are pretty full and this way they justified their existence. But the ovens are another story. While the refrigerators only needed to be plugged in the extra oven has to be connected to the gas line.

And that's where our problem lies. Although the building super said it was not a major job, only about an hour's worth I am terrified of it. He said he would do the work tomorrow but we will have to move the monster fridge and empty out from under the sink.

When a super tells you it is only an hour's work it will be about half a day if we are lucky. For us to move the fridge we will have to remove its doors because that thing was fitted in its place with a shoe horn. And then when everything is done, move it back and replace the doors.

I am also convinced that the tight kitchen will just get tighter. But we will have another working oven.

The lengths a man will go to make his wife happy!

Saturday

There is an American custom that I think is stupid and wasteful, and that is the prom dance. It seems to me that at the end of a particular school term it is usual to hold a prom.

Like at the finishing middle school, finishing high school and finishing college. As the ages advance these events take on different approaches. Probably the most innocent one is at the end of middle school while the wildest one is at the end of college. High school is somewhere in the middle.

Today we were hunting for a prom dress for Abigail. I could not imagine anything more exasperating than finding a dress that everybody liked. The criteria was that it had to be a certain color, it needed to be fashionable, it could not look like an old lady type, it needed to be the right shape and it had to be twirlable. Twirlable is my definition for a dress that twirls the right way when its wearer dances.

We went to Macy's and looked and searched high and low. What we liked she did not like and reversibly what she liked we didn't think was nice enough. It got to the point when I just gave up and sat down and told them call me when it was time to pay.

But eventually we found a beautiful dress that everybody agreed upon. Now only time will tell if she will wear it because the prom is still far away, in June.

Now, why in the world 14 year olds need to have a dance? They don't have any idea what goes on in the world but they need a dance. When I was 14 year old my school didn't have any dances. School term was over we went home and that was it. And, we were happy.

Friday

Today was an important day for me. I got a haircut. I go to get my hair cut once a month and it was today. It usually is the second Friday each month which is right after the second Wednesday of each month. The significance of the second Wednesday is that that is when my Social security gets deposited. So my SS and my haircut are umbilically connected. One will always remind me for the other.

Another thing happened today but this one really ticked me off. This one involves our glorious postal service, the USPS.

My wife and I mailed a certified letter from our house to Daytona Beach, Florida on March 5. The stuff was accepted in our neighborhood post office and by 10:51 pm it was in Manhattan in a large collection facility.

This is when the thing hit the fan. As of today that piece of mail is still sitting in that same Manhattan post office. It is sitting there when it was already supposed to be in Florida.

I called the P.O. and launched a complaint. Naturally they were not able to tell me anything new except that they would open a case and see what can they find out.

This is very upsetting because there is nothing we can do except grin and bear it. Their help line is as helpless as a two day old baby, but at least we are on record with this case.

Thursday

Ever since we moved into this apartment our downstairs neighbor has been complaining about us. She wrote a or more letters to the coop board complaining about the noise we were making. We eventually agreed to put some carpeting down and went as far as letting the super of the building to come up and inspect the apartment. Actually the coop rules say that the floor are a should be covered at least 85%.

I think we lived up to that requirement even though some carpets will have to be moved here and there to satisfy the 85% requirement. We have rugs and we also have carpets in the apartment. There is a difference between the two but I will not go into the explanation.

Anyway, we seemed to pacify the board and the building management because there was not a peep from anybody for a long time, until...

Today my wife and I ran into the woman who happened to live just below us and boy, she gave us a mouthful. It seems that we are very noisy people. We listen to the TV loud; we walk loud and stay up very late and then walk loud, we also vacuum the apartment loud and several times a day. She said that she was unable to sleep and her husband had to move into another bedroom because of us.

We really got pissed at all these accusations and gave it all back to her. This Russian bitch has nothing else to do but complain about us. We were standing on the street and arguing back and forth for quite a while.

But at the end we parted company smiling and promising that we will try to behave normal and I will learn to fly in order for my noisy feet not touching the ground.

Wednesday

It is a good country New York. And, it is nice to be an eighth grader here. For instance today, Abigail's class went to Broadway to see Finding Neverland. That is a Broadway musical where about 29 of her class was taken. They had two classes in the morning then school bus took the kids into the city to the theater.

This was a matinee performance starting at two pm so there was plenty of time before the show. The kids went to haunted themed restaurant that served them lunch then it was on to the theater.

I think they enjoyed it even though Abigail said that the first act was a little boring and she almost fell asleep. But then the second act made up for it.

The next excursion will be to a game parlor which is also for the eight graders. Two weeks ago the entire class went to the movies to see a film about Jesse Owens.

There will be one more outing, at least that I know of. And that is to Citi Field to see a baseball game with the New York Mets. I would much rather if they would take them to the Met in New York to see an opera. But no, it is a baseball game. Speaking of mindless sport.

I think by this time they gave up teaching the eight graders and that is why all these excursions are planned. I don't know if I said it these are all during school hours. Oh yes, and every single one of them cost money.

I think when I went to school we went to the movies once and that was a special student screening too. Once and that was it.

Good country, New York.

Tuesday

Today is Tuesday and aside from doing our weekly laundry not much else did happen. Well, we went here and there but those things are not contributing thankfully to our exciting lifestyle.

Actually I am not looking forward to much excitement in our lives. When least expected they show up anyway and there is very little we can do about it to prevent it. I love to have a quiet life without much complications. That will allow me to enjoy my new family, my new environment and mostly to enjoy the company of my wife.

Today is International Women's Day and to celebrate that on the way home from dropping Abigail off at school I bought single red rose for my wife. I think it was pretty romantic, wasn't it?

I really don't know what International Women's Day is but if it is to celebrate women then I am all for it. I am convinced that after men women are God's second greatest creation!

Where would we be without them, I ask? The world would be a pretty lonely and sad looking place. So, since we have them might as well celebrate them.

Interestingly, I don't know anything about International Men's Day. I guess we do not deserve one day out of the 365.

Monday

Just a little politicking, again.

I have been living in this country long enough and have seen many elections but there is something I still don't understand.

Why should I as a "normal" voter should care which candidate the New York Times or any other organization or politician endorsed? The TV is full of super intelligent people voicing their comments on the chances of the candidates.

It seems that everybody thinks that the average voter is stupid or backward and have no idea what to do without guidance. The average voter has to be led to the voting booth and has to be shown how to vote. But there is a little controversy here. New York Times readers are usually a slice above the average. So, why they need to be told who to vote for?

Aren't they smart enough to make up their own mind? Does the paper think that their opinion or decision will be blindly followed? If so, then those souls should not read the New York Times.

That's about all I had to say tonight.



By the way, this is what we had for dinner last night.

Hungarian goulash (soup)
Roast chicken with bacon
Bean salad
French salad
Roasted potatoes

Dessert

Fruit torte
Jewish Napoleon

A small slice each. This very important.

Sunday

There is something to say about good friends. For one thing they are a lot and I mean a LOT better than relatives. Family members are there just because they have nothing else to do and their DNA put them there. Some of them just freeload because they think it is their right to demand others just don't give a hoot.

Now why am I going on this rant?

Because today the nicest surprise was happening to us. No, we didn't win on the Lotto.

Today my closest friend in the whole wide world wrote me something very surprising. This friend and I are so close that I am grateful that we think we are related but don't know how because I value our friendship as is much more than if we knew how we were related.

Today, three months after our wedding he wrote that his wife and him would like to pay for sight seeing day cruise while we are in Hawaii next July. It is such a nice gesture that my wife and I were speechless for a moment. And I don't get speechless too often.

When I came to, I wrote to him and thanked them for their generosity and told him if he really wanted to outdo himself and get the top prize he can pay for the entire trip. No response yet.

I am shameless!

Saturday

Just to expand a little on yesterday's events as far as Abigail's high school selection went she told us that there were kids who were not selected to any school. Now, since high school education is mandatory everything is not lost. Those kids have a second round chance to submit more schools and wait where they will be accepted.

Kids who found out that they were not accepted anywhere were naturally shocked and many of them were crying. She said there were tissues everywhere on the floors from all the crying.

When she came home her telephone didn't stop ringing. All her friends were calling trying to find out who and where were accepted. It was very interesting for me to watch the entire process.

I remember that when I went to high school in Budapest it was one particular school that I wanted to go. Actually, it was my parents' decision that I would go there. I don't think I had much input into that process. But I do remember that my parents used all the influence they had to assure my admission. Fortunately they succeeded. I think in those days parental influence counted a lot. It was not money but it was mainly who knew whom.

Friday

In the New York City Public School system before a student finishes the eighth or last grade it is required to select a high school where he or she wants to continue schooling. This selection is done around October of the last year and some specialized schools require special tests. Decision is made based on the these test results as well as the academic result of the student.

Abigail had her heart set on going to a high school that offers drama as part of the curriculum. In order to achieve this she took an audition in a well known high school not far from us. I was there with her and I was convinced that her audition was great. This is a New York City High School that is well known and has a respected history.

Her mother and I were really rooting for her to be accepted in this school. Abigail had her heart set on studying drama and we thought why not. This world needs more drama queens, right?

Along with this one school she listed two others on her application. Each equally good but not as good as the first one.

Anyway, today was the day when it was announced at her school who was accepted and where. And guess what!

Abigail was immediately accepted into her school of first choice where she will study drama among other things.

Naturally we are all very happy and proud of her.

I am happy for another reason. I don't have to get up earlier in the mornings because the school is not far.

Thursday

Today is Thursday and not much is happening. My wife and I went the gym for a little workout that was way overdue. Were not able to go for about two weeks and today was a little difficult for me because of the long absence, but I managed.

Currently our physical activities are limited to watching TV and the political programs. Tonight at 9 is the next Republican debate and even though it is limited to only four people only it is still more entertaining than anything else.

While it is entertaining it is also extremely annoying because since I am in this country and since I have been watching televised political debates I have never ever seen such a lowdown dirty behavior. The only thing missing is a fistfight but I wouldn't bet that it might not happen.

Speaking of Television. I used to watch certain shows religiously afraid to miss an episode or two. Now, I rarely have a chance for scheduled nighttime TV watching. But interestingly whenever I catch some of the shows I like and didn't see for a while I never have problem figuring out what did happened. The storylines are stretched so long that missing a slew of episodes do not make it impossible to get back in line and follow what is happening.

Slowly, very slowly I am getting used to the electronic bill paying. I thread very carefully and my wife is next to me directing traffic. That way the money goes out where it supposed to go out from and goes into where it supposed to. Check writing has been reduced to a minimum in our household.

Ain't technology great?

Wednesday

I think today, March 2, 2016 should be remembered in history as the death of democracy in the US. We are being ruled by two parties. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party with an occasional Independent sprinkled in. These parties claim to know what the American people want and if they don't want it they should. They also have the tendency to talk us into believing that they always act in out favor. They also swear on their bible that whatever they do it is for the benefit of the people.

Now, there is a presidential candidate by the name of Donald Trump who is not a politician and wo does not like politicians and also claims that he know what is good for American people.

The problem begins with the fact that the people believe him and do not believe the Washington politicians. As a result he is shoveling in the votes on his favor. Now what do the Republican leadership does?

They are mobilizing everyone and everybody in order to attempt to sabotage Trump's progress toward the Republican nomination. They even went as far as announcing that if it looks like he is close to capturing the nomination they would introduce a different candidate, or something like that.

This irks me enormously!

The Republican leadership showed that they really do not care one iota about what the people want. The people's interest is secondary behind theirs. To me this reminds me of the communist days when we were told who are the best to represent our interest and all we had to do was just nod and smile. The Republican leadership is doing exactly that.

They are so afraid that if Trump wins the presidency these people might lose their controls, their cushy positions and might just have to get acquainted with real life.

So I ask. Where is democracy? What is happening to our democratic society that these people are willing to go to any length in order not to lose their grip on the population.

If I were Trump I would reinforce my security detail because who knows how far his opposition is willing to go to destroy him.

I did not leave my old country for this. The way I see it in a democratic society if the person the population choses is not to their liking do not reelect him. If he is good give then him another term. I believe it is our choice and not some dirty politicians' in some smoky back room.

Trump is not planning to become a dictator but the Republican leadership is certainly on the way.

Tuesday

Today my wife and I spent at least a day and a half at Home Depot. In the morning the locksmith came to our home and installed the new lock and some other stuff we purchased yesterday. After he left we moved in to Home Depot.

I am glad we didn't buy a house. As is with the apartment we bought a lot of things. We will install window guards in all our windows, we bought touch up paint to touch up at places where the paint was smudged as the result of our moving in. We bought silicon caulking to fix some of the cracks that developed in the bathroom.

The people who sold us the apartment did a lot of fixing up and the place looked very nice. The problem is that a lot of those fixing ups are just cosmetic and are on the surface. They need adjustments and since we are here to stay all the adjustments are our problems.

The good thing is that we don't have to worry about the outside. No grass to cut, no hedges to trim, no gutters to clean. Not our problem and oh man I am so glad.

Tonight it is too late to start but I think tomorrow we will start some of our home improvements.

I can't wait!

Monday

My wife loves a clean house. Actually everybody love a clean house but she is very committed to it. She cleans every day and I don't mean just a little cleaning. She cleans very seriously. Dusting, slight vacuuming and floor washing. These chores are done daily with no exceptions.

It is a mystery why there is so much dust visible when the sun shines in and the place was just thoroughly dusted. If we wouldn't have so much sunlight maybe we would not have so much dust!

We re not permitted to wear shoes inside the apartment. There is a safety zone around the entrance door in which we can be without taking our shoes off but God saves the one who dares to step outside the zone.

Now, don't misunderstand me, I am not complaining. I do love to live in a clean environment and sometimes even without asking I offer my help in cleaning. Because of all the cleaning our apartment became such a hospitable place that we just hate to leave. Many times we don't have to argue about staying home or not. We love to stay home, relax and just enjoy our surroundings.

Something else.

Today is February 29. If I were born on February 29 I would be about one fourth or less old than as I am. Right?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Alone

This past Wednesday my wife flew to Florida to be with her daughter. Even though the girl was here a little while ago my wife thought it would be nice to be with her on her birthday. So, what does a good husband says at a time like this?

Go darling, have a good time! But really only meaning the first half of the sentence and not the second. Anyway, she went. And has been there ever since.

I could not go with her because there is no way to take Abigail out from school every time we want to go Florida and this time it would have been three days. So now I'm mom and pop to the little girl.

In short it ain't easy! But I am trying my best to fulfill her expectations of me.

My wife and I are both miserable being alone and apart from each other but thankfully tomorrow she is coming home. I can't wait to see her again and have her here next to me. When one loves somebody a lot you just don't want to let go no matter for how short a time.

I don't cook and that means that Abigail and I eat whatever we like. It was Popeye one night, lasagna from the Italian place the last night and today I think we are having ravioli. Tomorrow night we will have normal food again.

This is not a vacation. It is not easy to be alone and at the same time be responsible for another human being. But I gladly do it because this what a family is all about.

If I don't write tomorrow it must be understandable. I am looking forward to a long and sweet reunion!

Thursday

Today is Thursday and by all indications it should have been a nice quiet day. Give credit where credit is due it did start as a nice ordinary day.

Got up at 6:30, got ready and around 7:30 took Abigail to school. So far so good.

Went to the bank to do some banking but it turned out that this bank did not open until nine am and I did need teller service. So not to waste my time I went a nearby Staple's and bought some necessary cartridges. After that I "dropped" in at my cable company's office because one of our TV had a problem and a very knowledgeable lady on the technical help line (probably in Mumbai) told me to replace one of the cables. I did and time will tell if it works.

Back to the bank and finish my business and heading home for a little am rest.

Just as I turned around the corner to the house my lovely wife calls wit a great suggestion. Why don't I drive out to Manhattan Beach and pick up her son and bring him over to our hose because we just bought a new router and it needs to be set up. Now, why didn't I think of this before?

I naturally did as it was suggested and at the end also drove him home.

I am such a nice guy. Exhausted but nice.

Tues/Wednesday

I keep falling into this pattern of delinquency by not writing as I should, meaning every night. It is not laziness, it is not that I have nothing to write about its just that I run out of time and by the time I get to writing it is so darn late that I rather go to bed than sit here and write.

My wife and I have a routine that we do almost every night (nothing dirty, mind you!). Around midnight we go to the computer and do Hungarian crossword puzzles. There is a daily edition that we try to solve and mostly we succeed. It takes about twenty minutes to a half an hour. But the problem is that after we finish it we start to watch some Hungarian videos on YouTube and before we realize it is almost two am.

Now, at that time I am really not capable to write anything not even my name. So, this is my excuse.

Right now, life is quietly flowing by. Thankfully nothing exciting is happening. And that is good because when something does happen it is usually unexpected and unpleasant. Who needs such an event.

Somebody might say that we are living a boring life. What is boring and what is not boring?

Things constantly happening do not make it an exciting existence. However nothing happening will certainly not make it a boring life. Maybe somebody young needs something happening at all the times. But, over middle age nothing happening is sometimes a relief.

My wife and I have theater tickets, we made arrangements for a few vacations, we go out to restaurants and we also meet friends. There is nothing boring about this. Yes, we also do laundry and clean house on a regular basis.

And we love our life just the way it is now!

Old Stuff

It is very interesting and at the same time it is sad that things we remember from our earlier lives are now becoming antiques. Items that used to be in those days "high tech" are now nothing more than just plain relics relegated to be nothing more than just something to place on a shelf or on a desk.

What made me write this?

I'm sitting at my new desk and thinking about what to write when I noticed a very nice looking small typewriter sitting at the corner of the desk. It is beige color and is in perfect condition. It used to belong to my wife and she placed it on the desk for decoration. I don't see that we will ever use it but it is still nice to have it. I have another portable typewriter in the trunk of my car I just never got to bring it upstairs.

The one in my car I got as a present from my cousin when I came to the country and I used it lots of times. I wrote letter, resumes and other things on it but now there is no use for any of them.

The interesting thing is that I probably know how to use them while today's youngsters wouldn't know what to do with such a thing. I bet some would look at these and would not know what they were.

My mother used to use coal burning iron to press clothes. Recently I saw some used as flower pot. Then there is the rotary dialed telephone. If somebody would have to use one probably wouldn't know what to do with it. We still use the word dial but dialing is not what we do. We press the numbers on the number pad.

When we moved I was forced to revisit all the things I stored away and found things that even amazed myself. I have a Super 8 movie projector and millions of feet Super 8 films. I also have a Super 8 movie camera that I used to make the films. Now these are really ancient. But I also have a video camera that I used to make video tapes. This last one is "only" 16 years old but I'm sure already a relic.

Why do I have them? I don't know. I think because I am a hoarder and also because I like to keep old technical gadgets. I didn't even mention the various old cameras I have in the house. These I bought throughout the years and just didn't feel like throwing them out. I don't know why I keep them, one can not buy film any longer.

Tuxedo Madness

My friend who is on this around South America, three month long cruise keeps sending photographs from their stops and more interesting events. I think the pictures are only published when the ship is in port because he told me the Wi-Fi was very poor, unreliable and costly on their previous cruises.

I admit the pictures are very good, they look great and the food they take pictures of look appetizing, but...

So far he sent about six pictures where they were dressed to the nines. Him in tuxedo (a different one each time) and his wife in some kind of fancy evening dress. To me this is not a vacation where one is required to dress formal so many times and they are not even half way through their voyage.

To me this is an absolute nuisance. A vacation I my definition is where a person can be casual where a person is not required to carry much formal clothing and can spend most of the time in shorts and tee shirts. If it is a coronation I can see taking five or six tuxedos but on a cruise it is absolutely ridiculous. As I understand there are eight formal nights during this three month long cruise. Now if that is not stupid then I really don't know what is.

I am sure someone from the ship keeps a tab on what people are wearing to these fancy events and if necessary let the interested party know what was worn the previous times in order to avoid any fashion faux pas like wearing the same getup more than once.

I wouldn't even know how to pack all that clothing like six or seven tuxedos and all the other clothes on such a long trip and making it sure nothing gets wrinkled beyond repair.

Now here is my dilemma. The trip is almost three months long. There are at least three good meals a day on the ship plus in between snacks. What about if one puts one some extra weight and by the time the last fancy gala comes around nothing fits?

Snow Saturday

The snow came, the snow is here and in a few days the snow will be gone. We have so far about 2 feet of snow. That's about 61cm for those who have no idea how much two feet might be. Not two feet on a body but two feet in length.

So what is the big deal? the big deal? I tell you what the big deal is. The city is in total panic. The buses stopped running early afternoon. All Outside subway lines as well as the commuter trains stopped running. The airports are all shut down. And from 4 pm cars could not be on the roads and that means that the only remaining transportation was walking.

This means now some people will have a good chance to find out why they don't like to be with their families.

I would be very curious to find out if nine months from now the birthrate in the city will increase or not!

My wife and I were out around noon for a few hours and I tell you honestly I really loved it. The roads were empty and my four wheel safely took us anywhere we wanted to go.

Later in the afternoon we took a family stroll around or block which was a lot of fun for the three of us even though Abigail is not much of a fan of snow. She says it is too cold and wet. I explained to her that there was no such a thing as warm and dry snow. At least not yet.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring if we would be able to leave the house or not. If they lift the driving restriction we might go out for a little drive. But staying home for my wife and I is not the worst thing in the world.

Friday

I mentioned it before that there is nothing else in the news but the impending snowstorm/blizzard. The City is making all kinds of preparations, the airlines are making all kinds of preparations and the reporters are out in droves asking people how they plan to deal with that.

The funniest thing I saw was that they reported from a Burlington Coat Factory that people were buying up the warm winter clothings including the big and warm boots.

That made think (I do that sometimes!). This is the middle of Winter. What were these people wearing until now? What were these people were wearing last year during winter and the big snowstorm we had? Were they going about in shorts or bathing suits that they have nothing to wear? It is so peculiar that every time there is a major weather thing coming people start to buy things like it is the first time they have to face such a condition. I would just love to ask them, hey what did you do last year?

I am writing this around 5:30 in the afternoon and there is nothing but darkness outside but the ones in the know say it is coming. They are so serious and ominous about it like the end of the world would be coming.

I would be laughing very hard if tomorrow morning it would have turned out the storm decided to go somewhere else.

Thursday

No matter how hard I try, my confidence in this e-pay thing is just not there. Today I found out that my mortgage has been twice paid this month.

I like to pay all my bills on time but this is getting to be ridiculous. To pay a mortgage two months at a time is just not being done. But I will very likely get used to this thing in time.

Something else.

In the past few days we really didn't do much. Actually we do a lot it just doesn't amount to much. We love to stay home and just loaf around the house. During the day while Abigail is in school we have the place to ourselves and us being newlyweds that is very nice. She finishes school at 2:30 or three o'clock and after that privacy time is over.

Right now she is madly in love with a band and all she does is listening to their music. Thank God all that is through an earphone otherwise we all be in a loony house.

Something else.

Next September Abigail has to go to high school. We selected a few schools along with a few private schools. The private schools are catholic high schools and one of them, the best one is just across the street from us. The catholic schools require an admission test which Abigail did take. We were recently notified that she was accepted to the second choice catholic school. And, last night there was meet and greet event.

We went to see it because we were curious about the school and how it worked. We were already told that these schools are not extremely religious. There are all different ethnicity kids attending and Catholicism is not being shoved down their throats. There is an academic subject about the history of Christianity but that is all.

At least this was what we were told.

Last night's affair started with a nun saying a prayer and most of the people putting the sign of the cross on themselves. Then the nun noted that in the cafeteria there are prayers every day and also some readings from the bible on the school loudspeaker.

That was the point when we looked at each other and realized that this was not the school for Abigail. No matter how good a school it is she is still a Jewish little girl and her mother and I will not allow our daughter to go to such a strong religious school. For higher education like college it doesn't matter what the institute's affiliation is, but to very impressionable little girl it matters a lot.

So after listening to the speeches for a half an hour and stuffing my face with chocolate chip cookies we quietly left and wrote off catholic based education. Remains the New York City public school system which I heard is not so bad either.

Wednesday

Even though I'm aware of that I am fighting a losing battle deep down I know that I'm right for not liking electronic pay systems. Today was a perfect example why I'm against it.

My car lease payments are due on the 19th of each month. For some reason we scheduled the payment for the 19th of this month on January 2 of this year. Then subsequently since it was forgotten that the payment was already scheduled this payment was again submitted a few days ago.

Result was that this morning I found a very dangerously low balance on the bank account. Upon further investigation I found that the car payment was deducted twice by the bank because it was twice paid.

I called the leasing company and they told me that at this stage there was nothing they could do. But since it was a double payment February is now considered paid. So there is a bright side of this saga but I am still against it. I still think the good old fashioned checks worked better. But hey, when I'm licked I capitulate.

As the weekend approaches news get more and more hysterical about the possibilities of a snowstorm on Saturday. Me personally, believe it when it gets here. I think the weather forecasters get to be paid off by the sanitation unions because the only ones who profit from these storms are the sanitation workers. They sit in their snow plow/salter trucks all night drinking coffee and hot chocolate and wait for the snow. And in the meantime getting overtime pay. And they have the nerve to ask the public to feel sorry for the poor overworked sanitation workers.

Nobody ever felt sorry for me in my working days when I had to work overtime, which included working seven days a week.

Tuesday

It was brrrr cold today. It looks like winter finally arrived. They also forecast serious snow for the weekend. I can't wait to see the city under a nice white blanket. But weather forecast is about as lame as the financial forecast.

They are only successful with retroactive forecasting. They have no idea what to expect but they can clearly explain why what happened happened. Was this a deep enough thought.

Today's morning was spent with housecleaning and laundry. Both extremely exciting however, when I do it alongside my wife I really don't mind it at all. This is a large apartment and it needs constant upkeep. She cleans it every day but once a week it is also being washed behind the ear.

As I mentioned it earlier we started paperless bill paying through the internet. I am in a constant fear for what do we or did we forget to pay. I guess I am too old fashioned and need to get used to this system. I have to realize that I have to move with the times. I thought I was patriotic when I wrote checks and mailed them because I placed postage stamps on the envelops and kept the postal system operating. Now, I am abandoning my patriotic attitude and will not buy anymore stamps.

Sorry mailman!.

Sunday/Monday

I am not a tardy person but this time I have to say mea culpa because last night I just plain forgot to write. I am not promising that this will not happen again but I will make every effort for not to skip any day.

Yesterday we had a very lovely brunch with my former brother-in-law and current friend and his wife. The brunch was for my birthday and it was held in a nice Manhattan eatery. The weather was good, parking was no problem and we spent a good two and a half hour eating and talking. Haven't seen each other for a very long time so there was a lots of catching up to do.

My wife, Abigail and me ate well but abstained from dessert because we had an ulterior motive for after brunch.

And that was going in to the Hungarian pastry shop and have some good Hungarian pastry, which we did. My wife had a nice generous portion of chestnut puree, I had a humongous slice of poppy strudel while Abigail had a similarly humongous portion of apple strudel. Interestingly, we ate everything. Meaning the stuff must have been good.

By the time we left the pastry shop snow was coming down pretty strong. Not a blizzard but a good snow shower. January 17, that was the first snow for this winter season. It snowed on and off all night long and this morning there were areas covered and most of the cars on the street were blanketed. But unfortunately (for me) it didn't last and in spite of the cold by the end of the day most of it was gone.

Today is MLK Day and that is a national holiday. Some businesses are closed but I never had this day off when I was part of the working class. The only thing we noticed that traffic was lighter than usual.

Schools were closed today and because of this Abigail was home. It is totally fascinating how a 13 year old can piss a day away without doing anything useful. All day on the smart phone/tablet/Skype and God knows what else. Somewhere in this three day weekend the homeworks were squeezed in but I really don't know when and how.

As long as the good grades keep coming in I'm ok with it.

Saturday

I skipped a few days of writing because I was told not to go near my computer. Actually the reason was medical. Last Tuesday I went to see an eye specialist because earlier my optometrist said I should have my eyes checked for glaucoma.

So I took my eyes to the doctor for the checkup. The last time I went to see an ophthalmologist was over twenty years ago and I really didn't know what to expect. About twenty-five years ago I had cataract surgeries and I didn't have any problems since.

The doctor now told me that on my left eye there is a little secondary cataract that should be removed. The reading test proved that point because I had trouble reading certain lines from the chart. The doctor said the procedure is very minor and it is done with laser and he could do it right there and then. I naturally agreed to it, why drag it out unnecessarily.

So, he did it. Blasted my eyes with the laser for about twenty five minutes or less and then it was over. I didn't feel anything except I see clearer on that eye now. He prescribed an eye drop that I had to use only for three times. Do you know how much it cost after insurance? $266 was my copay. Unbelievable! They gave me a coupon but the coupon had so many exclusions that I was not able to make use of it.

Next time I'll try to get the prescription done at a Sunoco station because over there I get a 5 cent a gallon discount.

Now, because this procedure was done I was advised to take it easy for about three days and try not to strain my eyes. My wife said looking at the computer screen strains the eyes and that was why I couldn't do anything.

I guess he isn't to concerned about my glaucoma because he only wants to see me in three weeks. Why should he be? It is my glaucoma, not his!