Bearshorty's musings

We had guests today - a sort of housewarming. Janna and her 3.5 year old daughter Jo came, and Yeva, and Marianna, Adama and their 3 kids (Galya - almost 6, Ida - same age as Tanya at 2 years and almost 10 months, and Mozen - 7 months). So we had a full house.

In the morning, I made soup and cutlets for Tanya and then attempted a Swiss Roll, while Bear and Tanya were at the playground. I really should keep off my feet, this week with the hot weather my ankles got really swollen, but I really wanted to try baking it. The cream cheese frosting was delicious but the first sponge didn't quite work because the recipe really called for a bigger pan and it wasn't as thin as it should have been, so it needed longer oven time and got a bit ruined (It does taste good but I really couldn't salvage it for guests, we will eat it ourselves). I made a simpler one and it wasn't bad - Marianna really liked it, but really not my best. I will need to try again later. We did have a watermelon for desert too, which was a hit, and grape tomatoes and cheese and crackers for appetizers. And we ordered Uzbek food again, which was super tasty. So lack of proper desert wasn't terrible and everyone had a great time.

Tanya resisted her nap today and only napped for an hour - she was pretty cranky when I woke her up but she really needed to have her snack before the guests started showing up after 4pm. The kids had a blast playing with each other and all the toys. And it was great to catch up with everyone, although hosting and some kid supervising meant a little less time with my friends than I liked.

We also had the unpleasantness with our downstairs neighbor. They complained about Tanya running around twice before - which is ridiculous. We do have carpets but in this building the sound travels. We have elephants above who play flute music late at night sometimes - we don't complain. A two year old is going to run around and play and be loud. They got spoiled with an old lady living above them for years. And their downstairs neighbors complain about them too, when my Mom asked the babysitter who works there. But I just knew today would be trouble with 4 little girls running around and playing. But they are kids and they should be able to play for 4 hours from 4pm to 8pm on a Sunday - not that late. So one of the neighbors from downstairs came to complain around 5:30 maybe. Then around dinner time they were banging on their ceiling in the kitchen too to express their displeasure. Then she came again to our door around 8pm, basically saying we should have some respect and that I did tell her the guests would be leaving around 7 etc. Excuse me, she would tell me when I should have company. We never have anyone over! This time it was Bear and Adama who got into it with her. Adama did get a little heated with her on our behalf (he felt bad about it later, but he was upset at how unreasonable this is and he knows we are not particularly confrontational people and are too polite.) Bear is just afraid that the neighbor might complain that she was threatened by a big black man who got in her face. Adama didn't touch her in any way but they were standing close to each other and it got a little heated. I had to pull him away there a bit, mostly because I don't like confrontation. So that marred the party a bit but it was still great to see everyone and I was glad to see all the girls interact. Tanya really needs more playdates; she doesn't get to play like that much, as she is mostly around adults, and I think it was great for her.

I have one more week of work before my leave, which can't come soon enough. It is not that easy to commute at 36-37 weeks. There still isn't much to do at work, but this week should be a little busier since one of the directors, Gail, needs to finish off all the contracts this week and she will give me some work to do, she promised. She's been taking me to meetings too - which is good to observe to get a hang of things. And one of the best parts of going to work is all the food around there. I got Thai food for lunch on Tuesday - rice and massaman chicken curry and eggplant veggie thing - and there was so much delicious food that I didn't even eat dinner later.

This last week was also unusual in that I had some time to myself. On Monday, Bear took Tanya to Long Island to visit his parents for a day and they only came home around 10pm (way past her bedtime, she was staggering a bit there). She was so excited to go that morning that as I was leaving for work I saw her standing in the hallway by the door with just her panties and her undershirt, holding two of her toys, wearing her sneakers, which she just put on, since she was all ready to go to see Baba Regina and pet the cats. It was very funny. And then on Tuesday morning, Bear drove her to my parents' house where she stayed until Thursday. On Wednesday, my Mom took her to the zoo. And I got almost three days entirely to myself, which hasn't happened since Tanya was born really. I mostly just lay in bed and watched TV - I caught up on Season 2 of "Sense8" which I enjoyed. And I read too - book post coming next week with 3 books. It was definitely great.

I got an email from the library this morning to Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers was available for me to borrow on my Kindle. So I did and I'm about 60% through it already. He is very easy to read (It's a reason why his articles are popular in the writing classes I teach). I knew the basic premise and ideas of this book from newspaper articles when the book came out, but it is interesting to read the whole book to get details.

Although it was a rainy day, today was great because Bear and I ventured to Manhattan to meet up with everyone. Only Adama couldn't come. Marianna was there with Galya, who at 2 and half was talking a lot and is much more interactive child. Janna and Bert came with their baby Jo (3 month old) and Yeva brought her new boyfriend Jonathan to meet us. We went to an Italian restaurant in midtown. It was a bit expensive but very good and the waiters were super attentive. They came up with a great appetizer for us - salad with tomato, basil and mozzarella. I had gnocchi and Bear had veal. All delicious. It was great to spend a few hours together. We try to manage it once a month but with the holidays its been too months since we were all together. So good day overall.

Internet knows all – I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of “Loan Ended” notice on Kindle, after you return the library book on Kindle, so I looked it up. (for future reference, self, go to the notice and press right or left arrow and then delete).

Today was the get together dinner with my friends so I took the train and ferry and subway to Queens. We tried a French place called “Café Henri” in Long Island City (which is in Queens right across from midtown Manhattan). The place was good – I got crepes with ratatouille. Bear got a lamb sandwich. Yeva even ordered escargot. So we had a good time. Galya will be six month old tomorrow and she continues to be adorable. We all played with her a little bit. She is really good at restaurants. She doesn’t fuss much for a baby and she likes looking around.

After the late lunch, we went for a walk to the waterfront and the view of Manhattan was gorgeous. It was almost sunset so we saw all the lights go on. It was pretty cold but we were all bundled up. Galya was wearing baby Uggs. Then Bear drove me home and we hung out at my house. Overall a good day.

( Pictures of the city: )


Awesome poster of a fake Avengers comic book poster if men were posed like women are usually posed in comics.