Our favorite Pizza place is in downtown Patchogue, a place called DelFiore Pizza Company. It is full of authentic Italians who know how to cook Pizza. Ah, and don't forget the Garlic Knots (we don't have silly breadsticks here in NY). I should have called this Dan's Food Blog, it would appear that I am obsessed with eating all the time, well... I guess I am haha.
Mmmm... Pizza from DelFiore
Ah, nothing quite like lunch on good ol' Uncle Esselte. Dave (one of my former staff members) and I went to Ruby Tuesday's for a lunch "meeting". I ordered a plate of thier hottest buffalo wings and then Dave and I found that the rest of our food was quite bland, hmm I wonder why. So I have not been to Ruby Tuesday in over a year or so and have been there twice within a week. Dave and his wife are in the process of purchasing a home in the Lake Ronkonkoma area and I can then pick him up on the way to work and drive in the carpool lane on the Long Island Stress Way. He should be in their home sometime in august or September.
Lunch at Ruby Tuesday's with Dave
I don't know about everyone else but my commute lately has been really bad. I have averaged over an hour to get to work all this week (for a lousy 30 miles). Yesterday I had to take local roads to get to work because of a rollover, which I don't understand how anyone can roll their car in Long Island when the average speed is 10 miles per hour on the roads in the morning. Going home is no picnic either, another hour or more. Don't people take vacations during the summer anymore? Why are the roads so bad? I don't think they change the silly signs anymore, they all say "Delays Ahead" permanently. I can't wait to get to the clean, crisp, wide open spaces of Southern Utah next week, although with all the stinky fires we might have to keep the windows closed ahhahah.
Delays Ahead!
Tonight we went to a Ruby Tuesday's for Lunch/Dinner that was just converted and reopened not too far from the house. The joint use to be a steakhouse called the "Ground Round" yeah, like I'm going to go to a place called that, no wonder it went out of business. It was new, complete with a "cooks wanted" sign which makes one wonder how the food got cooked. The waitresses didn't know what they were doing either, so it was pretty comical. Isabelle and I then went grocery shopping at "Walbaums" which is a major grocery store chain here along with "Pathmark", "King Kullen", "Stop and Shop", "Shopright", all funny names. We get a kick out of the fact that we can buy Bear Creek brand stuff here from Heber City, Utah. It's a Small world. They usually make soups but we found on the end isle this new product that makes slushies. Fond memories of Mom's Bacardi frozen mix slushies... without the rum of course... right mom.... ?
Heber City products on Long Island, haha!
I must say that I was very sceptical when I payed 58 bucks for a heavy tractor thingy with a sprinkler head, but it has been well worth it's weight in iron. I can just lay out the hose and make a path of my choosing and let it go, it will even shut off when it reaches the special "ramp". It is more of a fun toy than a chore now. I can just set it up and forget about it and the whole yard get's sprinkled. I have it pictured here with the dumb dog, little does she know I gleefully have my hand on the spout ready to spring my trap. I was hoping for a funnyest home video moment here, either the sprinkler arm would fling her through the air or she would jump like a monkey. Alas, the dumb dog just sits there and get's wet... sigh.
The Tractor, sprinkler thingy with the Dog
The end has come, Heather's hair change is now complete. She went and got her perm early this morning. Ah, the sweet fresh fragrant lovely smell of a fresh perm, can't wait to snuggle up to that tonight (yuck!). You would think we can put a man on the moon or put a smart missile through your front door anywhere in the world, but make a perm smell good... noooo, can't do that, the technology is too advanced for this generation I suppose. Although Heather has corrected me, they no longer call it a perm, it is now called "movement waves" like that will make it smell different! Silly people. Anyway, I told her she now matches up with the Heather version in my dreams so I am very pleased (when I first met Heather she had long wavy hair just like this, gorgeous!).
Heather's new hairdo
A couple of meetings and I'm out-a-hee-a. I love summer Friday's. The weather is Gorgeous today, I may get my yard work done early this weekend. Today is Isabelle's last day of school (although I would argue her last day was two weeks ago when the teachers stopped handing out schoolwork).
A Salt and Garlic Bagel, yummy
Happy Birthday to Heather, this is the only time in her life when she can say, "I'm only 29", and it is actually true, haha. For her Birthday she got a new baby girl (yes, she also got a baby for Christmas, Anniversary, and Mother's day), I'll milk it for as long as I can, no pun intended. I left work at noon as a surprise to her and brought her home Pizza Hut dippin strips and a box of Krispy Creme doughnut holes (mmmm... yummy). I then took a long nap and read my SF book the rest of the day. Overall it was a great Birthday for Heather albeit she claims I got more out of it than she did... Preposterous! Who wouldn't want pizza, doughnuts, and long naps... wait, I guess that was all for me.. ooops. Anyway, happy Birthday!
Heather with her Birthday present... the gift that keeps on giving
Happy 1st day of summer! The weather is nice, the day is moving along. It's a nice quiet week to get loads of work done in the office. I have 4 month's worth of expense reports to get in before the budget meetings hit on Thursday, I'm sure I'll get to it by then.... So far my summer is going great, no complaints. The lazy dog was unable to find a summer home while we are on vacation so Heather took the initiative and found someone in the Ward who is willing to watch the dog while we are gone. They have a Shitzu so she will have a summer buddy to play with or to be eaten by, whichever comes first. The dog has given us her silent consent by shaking like a wet rat while Heather discussed her fate on the phone, funny how dogs know you are talking about them. Isabelle only has a few days left of school. She was hit in the ear by a whoofle bat yesterday and almost had to come home, Heather was getting ready to go get her when Isabelle called from the nurses station and said "I'm fine mom, I'm going back to class!"
On a sad note, Isabelle and Heather were going down the street to sign Isabelle up for her next year's tap dance class and she decided to get on her bicycle which she hasn't used since last year (we can't seem to get her off the training wheels). So she was scared to go up onto the sidewalk where it meets the street corner (gentle ramp were talking here) butHeather used her motherly charm to talk her into it. Well, she happend to have her Game Boy in the basket and of course it flew out and she hit her brakes and came to a crashing halt on top while dragging the Game Boy under the tire. The Game Boy looks awlful and is scarred for life, but it luckily still runs just fine, oh, and Isabelle is ok too (although the training wheels will never come off now, nice work Heather).
Busy day at the Desk at Esselte
So today was the big day for Isabelle, a chance to show off all of her hard work over the past year for Dance. The Recital started at 5pm and we fully expected it to get over in 2 hours. Instead it lasted for 4 hours and we did not officially get out of there until close to 10pm. The show was great and Isabelle didn't miss a step in her Jazz routine (she was the best dancer up there if you ask me). Just like last year, Heather, Aubree and I sat in the vaunted nose-bleed section of the theatre (tickets are given based on a lottery system, we always get a bum draw). The funny part was, we had another couple and grandparents sitting next to us and they had four month old twins sitting quietly in thier car seats. Naturally they did not make a single peep during the whole 4 hours, like innocent angels. Our three month old little demon child on the other hand was her typical Adams' self and could not sit still for more than a few minutes. Heather and I took turns standing next to the camera man in the back (yes, we were one row from the top). We made sure the sound guy got plenty of fussy baby cries and noises for the recorded production, that will teach them to put us in the back ha!
We gave Isabelle a dozen red roses and a little froggy named Bettina at the end of the show. She will get her four year trophy next year.
Isabelle's grand performance and rewards
Aubree is getting much better at traveling to the local stores. This is a picture of her in her car carrier in a grocery cart (or a Wagon as they say in NY) while we went shopping in Target. She is such a sweetie-pie.
Aubree having a stroll in Target
Hey it's my Birthday. Thank you Mom and Dad for having me. I got to choose my dinner choice tonight and decided upon a new place called El Dorado. It is a steakhouse. I had Louisiana Ribs and Heather had a 1/2 pound BBQ hamburger with onion strings. The food was great. Isabelle insisted on telling the waitress it was my B-day so I got the royal treatment and annoyed the entire resturant patronage I am sure. We went to see a movie matinee, Madagascar, then Build-a-bear (see below) then dinner then Walmart and I found a really cool sprinkler, the old fashion tractor type that runs along the track of the hose and is really heavy with big spiky wheels. Anyway, I had a great Birthday today. Thank you Isabelle and Heather (and Aubree for being so good).
Happy happy birthday... Everybody now!
Bagel of choice today was Salt bagel with plain cream cheese. I'm in jeans and am ready to go home at 1pm to play with the girls (whoever came up with casual, half day Fridays for the summer was a genius!) I got the official approval from my boss this morning to leave for vacation in July (whew). He will be in the US during that same week so I was concerned that I am leaving that same week when meetings are scheduled and some big happenings are going on. We compromised and I will just spend a day in Stamford, Connecticut on the 5th with the Sr. Management team and my boss can use my office while I am out. We are getting really excited to come home, everyone but the dog of course, who has no place to stay as of yet, tick tock, time is running out dog. I remind the dog every day that she better get working on finding a place, but she just sits around all day long doin noth'n, staring at me with those puppy dog eyes (I wish I were a dumb dog). Isabelle has just one more week of school, today is some kind of walk around the block-a-thon and Heather and Aubree get to participate.
Ah, the bagels
The Bishop had an interview today late, so as usual I grabbed Isabelle and we went to the church and played in the gym for awhile (the Ward Exec Sec hard at work, magnifying my calling). The interview-ee was very late so we did not get out of there until after 9pm. Heather of course is not happy because it is a school night. I guess I will have to play with the big bouncy ball all by myself next time... sigh. The upside is, we missed dinner so I was alowed to pick up late night Micky-Dee's, mmm, spicy buffalo sauce with chicken strips (I'll be paying for that all night if you know what I mean, or shall I say Heather will be paying for it, hahah).
Waiting at the church with Isabelle
I had my 3 month post op visit today with the eye surgeon. All looks well with my eye so far. They strap me to a particular machine that takes a topographical 3-D image of my cornea, the cone shape of my right eye is about 1/2 the size and steepness it used to be, so he still thinks it was a success (instead of looking like mt. everest, it now looks like a blown out mt. st helens). I honestly can't tell if it is better or worse than before the surgery, just different. On the bright side, at least I get a free eye exam every 3 months for a year with no co-pay (whoopie!). I take great pleasure in messing up all the buttons and settings on the eye gizmo machine in the picture while I am left by myself "unsupervised" in the room (does it look better here, or here, 1 or 2....). Amazing how many dials and settings there are... haha.
Eye Doctor gizmo thingy-ma-jig
This is a view from my office window looking West. It's another unusually hot day today. I just finalized my dates for another visit to LA. I will be there August 19th for a weekend and a week. Now Heather can't say I did not warn her in advance, it is in writting for all to see, hee hee. We are moving offices from LA to Buenna Park and I need to be there to oversee the project from an IT perspective and make sure the Business is happy.
Office view
Fishes, fishes, fishes in the sea. We drove into Baby's-R-Us tonight to get something for Isabelle's dance teacher who is expecting a boy shortly. While there I purchased a mobile for Aubree, she loves fishes and the sound of water. You will find Heather or I running the kitchen sink at 2am most mornings trying to get Aubree to go back to sleep, something about the sound of running water. Interestingly enough, Isabelle was the same way when she was a baby. Also Like Isabelle, Aubree hates driving in the car and makes us suffer whenever we go somewhere. Just yesterday Isabelle and Aubree had a crying contest in the car, the baby inadvertantly won of course (Isabelle was no match for the new lungs, her stamina needs some work).
New mobile
Hey, it's Friday. This means summer hours, jeans at work, and Bagles and juice. I had an everything bagel - this way nobody will talk to me at work and I can leave on time at 1:15pm (can you say Gh-aaalic Breaheth). It is raining on Long Island this morning, which means I don't have to water the lawn. This also means that I can't play with my new lawn mower after I go and pick it up today. I rode the Pacifica to work today, what a sweet ride that is... I am now convinced that having a stick shift on Long Island is worthless (the Pacifica is automatic of course). I was priveledged to be allowed to take the new car to work so I can pick up the lawn mower (Heather's permission granted, cha-ching).
On a more unhappy note, Aubree and Isabelle are now coming down with the Summer cold that Heather and I are suffering with. This means baby is up every half hour and we get no sleep, misery breeds misery as they say, and oh are we miserable!
Today is bagel friday
Very cool. This is me in my office. I have setup my mobile phone so I can snap a picture and send it to this blog directly. Very cool! It works!
Dan at work
