Tag: Stef

Baseball Begins!

All the teams are in first place. All the pitchers have a 0.00 ERA. My cellphone ringtone is the ESPN baseball theme music!

All the teams are in first place. All the pitchers have a 0.00 ERA. My cellphone ringtone is the ESPN baseball theme music!

Let the games begin. Baseball season begins tonight with the Yankees versus the Red Sox.

Baseball season used to begin in Cincinnati with the Reds playing a weekday game in the sunshine. Fat chance now. TV rules.

The Reds are in the Great Flyover. Yanks-Sox are big city draws and will play in primetime. The rest of you purists be damned.

“You know,” I said to Helaine. “At some time the Phils won’t make the playoffs. At some point they won’t get to the World Series.”

I got the type of scowl only a wife can give to her husband. I dropped the subject. Our marriage needs to be preserved.

One day last week Helaine sent me three emails in rapid succession. One Phillies pitcher was getting cortisone shots while another would start the season on the DL. I can’t remember what the third email was about, but it’s possible another pitcher had tied himself to the SEPTA tracks outside Suburban Station. Helaine implied the team would have to look for pitchers in the stands before each game.

Fans–bring your glove and spikes.

Once again I gave Helaine the MLB.tv package for her computer as a birthday gift. What a husband. I bought the companion app for my iPhone. It’s possible we can watch games on both simultaneously. The terms of service aren’t clear.

Oh, who am I kidding? Bank error in your favor only happens in Monopoly!

Stef, who returns to SoCal tomorrow has promised to watch tonight’s game with us. She wasn’t forced. She wants to watch. She is surely Helaine’s child!

Go Phils.

Mom’s Home And On The Mend

That’s not to say she isn’t in some pain. She is. The percocets have begun to flow.

First impression–my mom is doing better than I expected! That’s not to say she isn’t in some pain. She is. The percocets have begun to flow.

Still, she was able to get out of bed and sit at the dining room table for dinner. I went to Subway for three roasted chicken subs. Hey Subway–I love those roasted chicken subs.

My mom’s arm is living in its own little foam rubber house. Without a hard cast this is the way the arm is kept immobile. When she sees her orthopod in a week it will be replaced by something a little more substantial. Stef suggested she ask for it to be made in pink.

I’m not sure if the attached photo gives an idea of how cumbersome the foam form is, but we drove back from the hospital with my mom NOT wearing her seatbelt. When I tried to fasten it the belt kept going up across her throat!

A friend said tomorrow would be the worst day then she’d slowly get better. We take it moment-by-moment.

Roxie Is The Easter Puppy

Roxie and Stef–one with enhanced ears.

Roxie and Stef–one with enhanced ears.

Roxie’s Back In Town

She doesn’t object to photos. That makes her life easier to chronicle.

Stef’s back in Connecticut for a short visit. I’d write about that but no pictures! Also appearing, Roxie. She loves doesn’t object to photos. That makes her life easier to chronicle.

Is Roxie still small? Yes, but she’s bigger than we thought she’d be at nearly 14 pounds.

Is Roxie still cute? Hello!

She’s still not a year old but has calmed down a lot. In fact she’s sitting on the sofa with me right now. She was totally content until she heard Stef’s voice on the phone upstairs.

Roxie’s crate (aka: gated community) is back on the family room floor. Suitcases block easy access to ‘sensitive’ areas.

In many ways having Roxie here is like having a child in the house… if you could only get a child to poop on the front lawn!

Fashions, Phones And Our Modern Life

Getting sunglasses is different than getting fashionably acceptable sunglasses.

I went for another eye exam today. As far as I can tell these multifocal contact lenses never really act as prescribed. You’ve got to tweak the prescription by trial-and-error.

As long as I was at the mall Helaine and Stef suggested I get sunglasses. Glare has been a problem lately. I should wear sunglasses as a matter of course anyway to protect my sight.

Getting sunglasses is different than getting fashionably acceptable sunglasses.

Stefanie has been installed as our family fashionista. I maintain my status as prime candidate to be cast on “What Not To Wear.” As long as we both understand that paradigm we get along fine.

The plan was to go to H&M, try a few pairs on and send photos from the iPhone to Stef for her approval.

I don’t want to sound old, but this is a crazy advantage (or burden) of our modern era. It’s as if Stef is there with me… well it would have been if there had been cell service at the sunglass rack at H&M. Buried deep within the store the answer to “Can you hear me now,” would have been no!

I was in a jam. Whatever I like is by definition the wrong thing!

Two young girls were walking by. “Excuse me girls,” I said in my best “I don’t want to sound like a sexual predator” voice, “could I ask a favor?”

They were fashionably dressed and willing to help. I’d struck gold at the mall!

They gave thumbs down to a pair of wraparounds. They approved the aviator glasses I did buy for $6.

“You look like Tom Cruise,” one said.

In the abstract that’s fine, but I’m guessing he’s old enough to be their father!

And They’re Back

As I understand it Roxie flew on Stef’s lap coast-to-coast on two separate flights!

It’s my understand child and dog have returned to Connecticut. As I understand it Roxie flew on Stef’s lap coast-to-coast on two separate flights! The Foxes are rebels if nothing else.

We will find a plastic hard case that fits under the seat for Roxie’s return to the Coast.

“What if she barks?” Stef asked?

I haven’t figured that part out yet.

Roxie And Stef Are On The Way

Roxie took a pill and a half which hasn’t taken effect yet. Uh oh.

Helaine spoke to Stef a little while ago. They were on their way to the airport. Roxie took a pill and a half which hasn’t taken effect yet. Uh oh. Earlier Helaine saw Stef’s Chicago flight was the continuation of a Sydney/Los Angeles.

“It’s running an hour early,” she said.

It’s not quite that simple, because other than the flight number these seem like two totally separate flights. The Sydney/Los Angeles leg is aboard a 747. Los Angeles to Chicago is on an A320.

Why does United present it this way? Is it so they can claim ‘direct’ Australia/Chicago service? I don’t know.

In the meantime I’m hoping Roxie sleeps coast-to-coast.

I Wish They All Could Be California Dogs

Stef saw the vet today looking for some chemical help in relieving Roxie’s anxiety–in other words “Doggie Valium.”

Yes, that’s Roxie in a suitcase preparing to fly east with Stef for a short visit. If it was only as easy as putting her in a suitcase!

If you’ll remember Roxie flew out to California in a perfectly good dog carrier with mesh sides. They didn’t last as far as the Mississippi! Roxie chewed her way out before we landed at Midway in Chicago.

Stef saw the vet today looking for some chemical help in relieving Roxie’s anxiety–in other words “Doggie Valium.” She even gave her a test taste tonight. Not good. Roxie was up and playing in no time.

Stef’s looked around for a hard sided carrier but if anyone is selling them in Los Angeles we haven’t found them. This afternoon I called a company in Texas that makes them, but they knew little about where their product was sold! Petsmart and Petco they offered. Sorry, neither stock the hard stuff!

Hopefully the trip goes smoothly and Roxie sleeps her way across America. It’s unlikely, but it’s a hope.

In the meantime, did I really need an excuse to post the picture?

The Golden Grandchild Returns From South Florida

Stef and I have discussed the reality show potential of my folk’s condo. The show writes itself!

Stef just came back from visiting my folks. Where they live having your 22 year old granddaughter visit and visibly spend time gets you rock star status! She and they had a fabulous time. Harold and Betty, my parents, are not kids but they’re sharp and active and have lots of friends.

Stef and I have discussed the reality show potential of my folk’s condo. The show writes itself!

“She doesn’t have a mirror?” That’s my mother asking Stef is she noticed a neighbor walking by.

It’s just like Real World or The Hills, except everyone’s a lot older–but it’s really the same.

They all have money without working, spend lots of time in social situations and… well let’s just say sexual freedom and Viagra have hit South Florida and it’s singles! And there are lots of yentas to supply the narrative.

This is an exciting and scary time for my dad. He totally lost the use of one eye while here in Connecticut. Now the good eye is awful courtesy of cataracts. I know it’s awful because he’ll have surgery in a few weeks to correct it. When you only have one eye you don’t go into eye surgery lightly.

One of the good stories Stef told me was of her time with my friend John who recently moved to Florida. I’ve probably known John for 15 years–maybe more.

John came as a team the day I met my friend Kevin. Like Kevin he’s a ‘shirt off his back’ kinds guy.

Stef has seen John but never really spent time with him or Alyce, his wife. That changed this week. There are good stories from the dinner the five of them had.

It was John who drove my parents to pick up Stef at the airport and drove them back earlier today. I’m not sure how I could ever repay that kind of dedicated friendship.

It’s no surprise John dd this, because it’s simply what he does. In South Florida a person like John is called a mensch.

Mensch (Yiddish: מענטש mentsh, German: Mensch, for human being) means “a person of integrity and honor”.

So, Stef is back. My folks can recuperate as we begin the process of getting Stef ready to ship out.

The Diploma Arrives

As I opened the door he reached down to pick up and hand me a large cardboard envelope he’d just leaned against our door. “It’s a diploma,” he said

IMG00134.jpgI was upstairs when the doorbell rang. A USPS truck was in the driveway.

Usually, if I take my sweet time coming downstairs, Rudy is gone. Not today. As I opened the door he reached down to pick up and hand me a large cardboard envelope he’d just leaned against our door.

“It’s a diploma,” he said.

The normally understated Rudy looked up at me and smiled.

Rudy isn’t going through our mail. Printed on the envelope is “DIPLOMA-DO NOT BEND.”

We’ve been waiting for this since May! “Didn’t they expect anyone would graduate?” Helaine asked a few weeks ago. I’m told last year’s diplomas went out in November!

The long journey is complete. After 17 years, Kindergarten through senior, Stef is officially done and we officially need a frame!

We are very proud.

Roxie Hits The Dog Park

Our town has a dog park with two fenced in areas. One is for dogs. The other is for small dogs. Yeah–that didn’t make sense to me either.

roxie-meets-LuLi.jpg

small-dog-area.jpgAfter a friend questioned the volume of posts about Roxie I intended to slow down. I truly did. And then I went to the dog park with Stef and Roxie.

Our town has a dog park with two fenced in areas. One is for dogs. The other is for small dogs. Yeah–that didn’t make sense to me either.

The ‘all’ dogs area was full with 50-80 pound behemoths. The small dog area had LuLi. I’m guessing at that spelling. LuLi is a Chinese Crested.

chinese-crested-luli.jpg“They usually win the ugliest dog contest,” Luli’s owner said.

As soon as we put Roxie on the ground Luli jumped to the top of a picnic table. Impressive! Roxie is the first alpha dog whose not yet conscious she’s a dog.

Stef will be returning with Roxie.

My Sense Of Direction

Like an air traffic controller guiding an errant Cessna that mistakenly made it to the wrong airspace I started moving Stef in a large circular path back toward the Throgs Neck.

“You have no sense of direction.” Those are my wife’s words talking about me. She’s probably right, though I grew up thinking the opposite.

There have been two times I’ve had to overcome that genetic blindspot. Both have to do with Stef and one happened about 10 minutes ago.

She’s on her way back having visited college friends from Long Island. She heard construction was causing problems getting to the Throgs Neck Bridge. Would I help her with a detour?

Though I left Queens the very first day I owned a car, I still know my way around. There really haven’t been too many new highways built there in the last forty years.

All was going well until Stef blurted, “Oh shit.” That’s never good.

She’d found her way to a lane which forced her to exit toward the Whitestone Bridge. Whatever traffic problems the Throgs Neck has the Whitestone has more–by far.

“I’ve gone 2/10 mile in 20 minutes,” Stef said when, in frustration, she called me back.

Like an air traffic controller guiding an errant Cessna that mistakenly made it to the wrong airspace I started moving Stef in a large circular path back toward the Throgs Neck.

At times like this her GPS system is an impediment. Stef told me where she was, heard my words and followed the GPS. It had no idea how bad the Whitestone was. It only knew that was currently the shortest route. The last thing I needed was directions competition!

“Turn the damned thing off,” I barked.

Stef sped through Northern Queens, finally getting off the highway and heading through a residential area and finally onto the northbound Clearview Expressway.

“You’re Father-of-the-Year,” she said.

“Just don’t get a ticket,” I replied.

The New Deal With Comcast

“Worse than getting a mortgage!” That’s a direct quote from Helaine after her conversation with a Comcast. She then proceeded to tell me about the dizzying array of packages and prices.

Customer service. It seems to be MIA in modern day America. How often is a customer left happy after a transaction and does the merchant care.

Tonight’s cautionary tale concerns Comcast. Even though I will leave this transaction paying less per month I leave upset.

Stef is done with college, working here in Connecticut and living at home. “Why don’t we have HBO?” she asked, confusing our home for her ‘HBO included’ dorm room.

Hold on. She had HBO in her room? We had a TV… a single black and white TV in the basement of my dorm. It had rabbit ears and could barely get anything through the snow. I watched 20 minutes of TV during my brief college tenure. She had HBO! Good grief!

Where were we?

“I’ll pay for it,” Stef added. And with that Helaine went to calling Comcast to make arrangements.

“Worse than getting a mortgage!” That’s a direct quote from Helaine after her conversation with a Comcast. She then proceeded to tell me about the dizzying array of packages and prices.

Helaine took notes as she moved along with the CSR. My wife is nothing if not organized. She had copious notes.

The conversation finally ended with Helaine agreeing to take HBO and Showtime, keep the service we already have and pay about $35 less for the first six months. After that we continue to pay less, just not as much.

Our end of the deal was committing for two years. I get it. Comcast is worried about AT&T’s U-verse. Surprise, it won’t be here in the next two years.

At this point I was feeling pretty good. It didn’t last.

Today the official agreement came in the mail and SURPRISE it was different than what Helaine had agreed to. In this new agreement we lose another $10 off the discount in the second year. That’s $120, not an inconsequential number.

Helaine called Comcast tonight. The rep admitted sometimes the package is sold and the agent ‘forgets’ to mention this second year adjustment, but there was nothing she could do. It’s their absolutely lowest price. Why am I not satisfied?

We signed up. We are still saving money every month for the length of our two year agreement, but I’m not happy with Comcast. My only solace is, they’re the loser in this deal getting less each and every month.

If we would have been given the right price to begin with I’d be happy as a pig in s**t. This seems to be a textbook case of how not to win friends and influence people.

The Cake Arrives

I asked her if Ace of Cakes had changed her business? Then I complained how so much of their cakes wasn’t edible. “It’s like construction,” she said. Totally.

stef-birthday-cake-1.jpg

stef-birthday-cake-2.jpgI drove into the garage a few moments before midnight. That made it a few minutes before Stef’s birthday too.

The cake was on the floor in front of the passenger seat in Helaine’s 4Runner. I walked around the car, opened the door and got the three candles. I lit a match, then the candles, fondled the cake gently in my arms and walked into the house. I am not coordinated. Happy birthday Stefanie.

The cake itself wasn’t without logistical problems. It was made, as have Stef’s birthday cakes for nearly 20 years, by Cindy at Cakeworks in Hamden. We couldn’t get to her before her shop closed so I arranged a rendezvous, but the cake shifted as she transported it. The letters at the bottom were smudged. She called a ‘do-over’ and I drove to her home on my way home from work.

I asked her if Ace of Cakes had changed her business? Then I complained how so much of their cakes wasn’t edible. “It’s like construction,” she said. Totally.

All of this cake is cake or icing…. except the dog. She’s made of fondant (a word I had never heard until tonight).

The cake is fashioned after a cupcake. Those are full size candles on top. It’s a full size cake! Cindy told me three layers and I take her word for it, though you can see every exquisite exterior inch is frosted.

Happy birthday Stef. Many happy returns.

Very Connected With My Blackberry

It is effortless as an email handler and its web browser is so vastly superior to the one on my earlier Samsung Blackjack with Windows 6 it’s criminal!

Helaine and I went to the JDRF Gala tonight. I was the emcee. More on that later.

Before we left we had the Phils/Mets game on. Good game and, of course, Helaine is a rabid Phillies fan. We continued listening in the car.

“Who is that guy? He’s awful.” Helaine was hearing a new Mets announcer for the first time. So much access now. There’s less reason to listen on the radio.

We got to the Gala. No TV. I pulled out my BlackBerry and hit the Phillies logo icon. My screen was updated every 15 seconds. There was a reasonably steady stream of text enumerated the action pitch-by-pitch. Text only. No video or audio.

This is nuts, right? Can’t we miss the end of an early season game? Obviously, no.

A few minutes later I got some text via BlackBerry’s messenger. It was Erik wishing the Phils luck and then predicting Shane Victorino would win the game for the Phillies.

He did!

This BlackBerry is magical. Stef told me before she got hers, but I took a long time to catch on. It is effortless as an email handler and its web browser is so vastly superior to the one on my earlier Samsung Blackjack with Windows 6 it’s criminal! I see people with iPhone’s and wonder how the experience could possibly be better than what I have?

People who purposely wander from the web often chide me for being too connected. They equate being in the digital cloud with work. No! My phone is a tool I use to my advantage. I understand why it is call “Crackberry.”