ain't talkin

Just walkin...Sara's first steps captured on video.

Rusty's Visit, Halloween and Sara's Birthday

Lauren visits Hoboken

Unfortunately, we didn't get any great shots of Lauren on the Hudson, but she took these great photos of Sara.

Sara in the city

Since we moved to Hoboken, Sara has had a lot more opportunity to crawl (the apartment has more space). She is starting to pull up on things, and can stand with support, but she doesn't seem interested in doing that. 

We took her to the city to ride the carousel, and she loved it.

Also, now she can hold her own bottle.

more of sara crawling

Sara's crawling a lot more, and still as cute as ever. She's also eating more different foods, and trying to feed herself.

sara crawls

Here's a video of Sara on her second day of crawling. She has now been improving her technique, and can just about cover the entire living room.

New Job, New Place

It was kind of sudden, but a friend recommended me for a job in finance with his old boss, and I got the job.
I will be working as a "quantitative analyst" for a startup hedge fund in Manhattan. A whole new field for me (again)! I am really lucky and I know it. I hope i don't blow it.













Since the job is in Manhattan, about 1 1/2 hours each way from New Providence, we are moving to Hoboken, NJ. Just across the Hudson river from Manhattan, near the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.
Our new apartment is much bigger than our current one, and a lot nicer. It looks like the one in the photo (although that's a picture i found on the web). We will have a lot of windows, and a lot of room. We'll have 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, central A/C, all the modern conveniences. And it's 2 blocks from the bus stop to the city (apparently a 15-minute commute). And it has a view of the Empire State Building!

Sara Sits!

Sara sat for the first time today, and i caught it on video. I don't know whether to be prouder of her, or of myself for catching it. Anyway, you have to watch all the way to the end to see her sit for the very first time in her life.

amarillo trip

amarillo

Two Saras

Sara's first trip (to Houston) Part 2

SaraHoustonDad

Sara's first trip (to Houston) Part 1

SaraHoustonSharon

Sara at 5 months

For mom's birthday, i decided to upload some recent video of Sara to the blog.
Enjoy!

More Sara Photos

april 2008

I didn't bother picking out the "best" photos from this slide show, so it's kind of long. But i like all of the photos!

Sara's first softball game

We went to Lehigh University to watch Lauren play, and got some photos of everyone. Sara wasn't the happiest in the photo, and she screamed ALL the way home(!), but she had a good time seeing her aunt and being out in the springtime weather.

Grandpa visit

Today was the first hot day of the year, and when Sara got home we had to take her clothes off, which she really enjoyed. And she got to sit in her Grandpa's lap, which she also enjoyed.

Word Rules

Here are a few rules that i "discovered" about English words. (As far as i know, I'm the only person in the world that knows these, so they're probably wrong). If you have counter-examples or other similar rules that you've figured out yourself, please add them to the comments.

No word ends in the letter "v". (exceptions: "Slav", a proper noun; "rev", an abbreviation)
The only word that has an "f" pronounced like a "v" is "of".
No verb's infinitive ends in a single "s". Many, like "to miss", end in double "s".

Although not really a rule, I thought of another thing long ago and remembered it when i read something similar on the internet...The longest one syllable word i can think of is "strengths" (9 letters). This thought was inspired by the word "Schweppes", which is 9 letters, but it's a (foreign) proper noun, so it doesn't count. The other guy's page that said that "screeched" is the longest, it's also 9 letters.

Sara and Gene

Sara's latest thing is sticking out her tongue when she's happy. Every time i see her i think of Gene Simmons from KISS. I was thinking of painting those black claws on her eyes, but then i decided to just put these pictures side-by-side.

Photos of Jack

My ex's son in law, Jack, died of a heart attack this weekend in Geneva. He was an artist (painter and sculptor). He was an honest man with a lot of attitude and a very strong character. These are the only photos of him that i could find, from 2001, i believe. I am very sad to lose him. I think his death will be a loss to all that knew him.

Photos of Jack

More photos

new february 2008

click to see the slideshow

Yet Another Slideshow

It's just too easy with Picassa to upload these slideshows.

February 08

Highlights of this one:

Sara learns to hold on to a rattle.
Lauren Visit
Sara can hold her head up.
Sara sucks her thumb

Hope vs Fear

This year's US presidential election seems to be stacking up as a choice between Hope and Fear.
I don't believe the argument that there is no significant difference between the Democratic and Republican ideologies.

Barack is the candidate for Hope and McCain for Fear. Hillary is using Hope to campaign against the Republicans and fear that Barack is incompetent to win if he gets the nomination.

Republicans would probably call Fear "Pragmatism", and Hope "Idealism". But we've had "pragmatism" over the last 8 years and it hasn't been too convincing. The argument that "it would have been worse if we hadn't been pragmatic" sounds like Fear to me.

I think Barack is doing a good idea of distinguishing Hope from Idealism in his campaign speeches. But i would like to add that we are a nation founded on Ideals.

The 3 American ideals are Freedom, Independence and Equality. The Declaration of Independence stated that "All Men are Created Equal" is a self-evident truth and gave us the right to "liberty and the pursuit of happiness". We are bound to these principles from the moment of our conception. This is the fabric of the nation. It's more important than our recent economic prosperity. We got lucky and won WWII, and became the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the history of the world. That bit of luck was greatly helped by our ideals, which attracted the Jewish scientists who built the Atomic Bomb to America. But prosperity and world power is NOT what America has ever been ABOUT. We were a great nation BEFORE we were powerful. We can be greater in the future. Prosperity comes and goes, but having a solid ideological foundation can be permanent if we refuse to give it up.

As we all know, the fabric of America been forever flawed. We don't have perfect freedom, independence or equality today. It is better today than it was in the founders' days, or in the Civil War. It has always been a very painful work in progress. I, for one, am going to leap on the chance in this election to renew the reparation of the flaws in our national fabric.

I'm voting with Hope.

Sara slideshow

More Sara Baby Photos

See the latest slide show of Sara. Click on the photo to see the big photos, otherwise watch them go by on the screen.

A Smile

Gan managed to capture a smile from Sara "on film". She smiles quite a bit these days, but rarely for long enough to get a photo.

Picasa!

People have been complaining that we need to update the photos on the blog, but it's pretty time-consuming, and we're busy. So i learned about a great google program called Picasa, which allows me to organize my photos on my computer (it's truly amazing) and post sets of photos to the web. I'm now a walking advertisement for google, but hey...enjoy the photos.


Click here to see the slideshow: 2008-01