December 2007 Acapulco Pix

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We finally got all the pictures uploaded to Flickr. CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO ALL OUR ACAPULCO PHOTOS You can view them from the link. Christmas shopping and traveling took some time! Anna went to Vermont to visit her family there. She had a white Christmas but delayed flights and lost luggage. But she was happy to see everyone including a few friends.

Myron and Anna are spending Christmas relaxing and eating.

Jeff's Haircut

Jeff, Anna's youngest son, came to stay for 2 days before heading up to Stowe, Vermont for 10 days during the holidays. We did the necessary shopping; boots, socks,etc. But the requisite haircut also occurred. The poor student can hardly afford to get his haircut and when his Mom offers to pay, not much really gets cut off as you can see from the before and after shots.

Anna heads up to VT to spend 2 days with Jeff and Sean and her parents and visit some old friends over Christmas, but she returns to work on the 26th to ready courses online for the new year. Paul remains alone over Christmas but has a new girlfriend!

MERRY CHRISTMAS
ANNA AND MYRON

Deep Sea Fishing and Birthday in Acapulco

We went to Acapulco Dec 2-9th for Michael's 60th birthday. Michael is Stephanie's husband. Stephanie is Myron's sister for all of you out there who don't know.
We had a blast with Michael, Stephanie and all of Michael's fishing buddies who also came out to celebrate.
The weather was great, the hotel superb and the fishing terrific. Anna caught a 25 pound Mahi Mahi and another 2 were caught by Karen and Angela. So the girls were awesome. We all ate them for dinner at a local restaurant. They were prepared 4 ways and the taxi driver and the Captain and his family joined us for dinner. The 3 Mahi Mahi fed around 20 people with plenty leftover for the taxi driver to take to his family.

Everything was simply amazing. However on one morning, Anna ate some Papaya that just didn't taste good. After the first bite, she mentioned it to Myron but took one more bite and then decided it wasn't good and didn't finish it. Within 5 minutes she started having a stomachache and with in 30 minutes after having increasing stomach pain violently vomited. She thought she was better but the pain returned with terrible sharp stomach spasms. After writhing in the bed for awhile and trying to throw up again, Myron convinced her to go to the doctor at the resort.
Bent over and in agony Anna went to the doc with Myron. His exam indicated she was food poisoned and required an IV of 3 medications: an antiinflammatory, antispasmotic and antibiotic.
Within minutes of the IV the pain was gone! Anna, the nurse, asked for the names of the drugs and only knew one of them. The other 2 were not FDA approved or available in the US. Oh well, this was Mexico and they worked. She has yet to grow a new ear or develop ESP. Because the food poisoned bacteria was unknown, she also had to have 7 days of oral Cipro. The doc suspected that it could have been Salmonella or E-coli so ......

Anyway not to let the problem affect her negatively, Anna got her bathing suit on and headed to the pool to relax for the rest of the day. She didn't feel like eating for about 36 hours but nibbled on bland stuff. She still went for a horseback ride on the beach anyway and was back to normal soon after.
We will attach more pix via flickr.
But here are some to get the preview.

Love
anna and myron

OBXciting

This is how you know you are in North Carolina... you gotta have a truck and a dog who sits on the tool box in the bed of the truck....
We have a way to go... but we are workin' on it.

Ya'll have a nice day now!
:-)
Anna and Myron

ménage à trois

Myron captured these mannequins outside a clothing store in Chapel Hill.... what would the EEOC and presidential candidate John Edwards think!!! John Edwards lives in Chapel Hill.....

Moonlight over OBX

Lovely days and fantastic nights. I love the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
The moon over the sea!
Tonight we go to Kelly's for some local music and perhaps some dancing.
Then it's the neighbor's hot tub under the stars!

Anna and Myron

Pumpkin Pie and Bacon

Ok so I am a little nuts over homemade pumpkin pie. We had breakfast after Thanksgiving and I made eggs and bacon for Myron but.......alas... I had to have pie and bacon !!!
So what! I loved it.....

Anna

Fantastic Weather at OBX

It is 75% and wonderful at OBX.
Myron and I had a quiet but nice Thanksgiving.
Next year... everyone should come here!

Love
Anna and Myron

Happy Thanksgiving!!

73 Degrees and sunny at OBX on Turkey Day!
We took a 5 mile walk and cooked up a Turkey breast with stuffing and candied yams.
I made fresh cranberry sauce and a pumpkin pie!
We ate till we were stuffed.
The ocean was lovely and many people were about with family and friends.
We called sons and folk to wish them a happy T-day. Paul was working as a firefighter, Jeff was baking a pie to take to a friends and Sean and girlfriend Liz were going over to his Dad's house for turkey dinner. Oma and Opa were relaxing and Grandma Esther was over at Stephanie's and Michaels house. Chris and Keiran were cooking at home.

Love you all!
anna and myron

Smoking in a Non-smoking room?

At the hotel in Middletown, CT where we stayed over for Oma Anni's ( Anna's Mom) 80th Birthday, we were in a non-smoking room, as you can see by the notice card,but there was an ashtray and matches on the coffee table....
Irony....
I left a message for the management , but I probably won't get a reply. It was only a Best Western, after all.

anna and myron

Bourbon Pound Cake

Grandma Story made the best Bourbon Pound Cake.
I got her recipe and made it. It was delicious but never as good as Grandma made.

anna

Chocolate Chip Cookies for the Cookie Monsters

I made Chocolate Chip cookies for Myron because he likes them thin, chocolately and crisp. I will not let him eat them all! All that work at the gym and Tango lessons will go to waste!

I will send some to Jeff and Paul in Salt Lake City because they are my real cookie monsters. :-)

anna

Jordan Lake

Weather for November remains spectacular. Yesterday we had a spinning class at the gym. Myron was so tough he broke the chain.... But the 4 triathlon girls in the front of the class never broke stride. It was his first spinning class... I have been doing spinning for awhile and this class never sits on the seat. It is up, up , up the entire time... I managed most of my time up but Myron has to get used to it.

We then went for a ride through the foliage, partly sunny and 60 degrees. Here is a picture from the shore.Beautiful by Lake Jordan where we were just about the only people there. The drought has brought the lake levels down tremendously and apparently Durham county only has around 3 months left of a water supply. The drought is the worst in recorded history so the governor has restricted water usage. NO car washing, no watering of lawns or hosing off driveways, and no water at restaurants unless requested. He has requested that all citizens voluntarily reduce water consumption by 50%. We take short showers, flush only when necessary and reduce washer and dishwasher use unless full. It is rather serious.

Last night we when out to a Milonga... a Tango dance social event. We got there at 8:00 and danced till almost 11:00. We have taken 4 Tango lessons and are slowly getting better.
Today, Sunday will be 66 degrees and sunny!!!!!

anna and myron

Hurricane Noel in OBX

We went to OBX this weekend... only a 3 and 1/2 hour drive from Chapel Hill. Hurricane Noel was 300 miles off shore but the waves were incredible and the wind howled all night. The ocean came under First Wave, the house actually on the beach. We are standing on its deck....

Amelia?? on Franklin Street

On Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, Myron discovered a rather interesting error in French spelling.
The same cafe with the 2 signs with the French accent marks going in opposite directions! One is "egu" and the other a "grave" and cause a different pronunciation. ... Must have been 2 separate sign makers and the owners wanted to be sure that they got one right!!

Great Grandma meets Chikage!

Myron flew to NYC this week to visit with his Mom and see Ren, Hiroko and Chikage while they made a visit to see Grandma Barbara and friends before heading out to California.
Great-Grandma Esther and Grandpapa Myron met Ren, Hiroko and Chikage at the Rodeo Bar, 27th and 3rd Avenue, and the 4 generations reveled in the moment and, of course, Chikage was the center of attraction. She has 4 teeth now and a smile that slays!

Paul's B-day Halloween Party in SLC

Went to Salt Lake City this weekend to visit my sons, Paul and Jeff. Paul went to U. Utah and graduated in 2004 and ended up loving it and buying a house. Jeff, the youngest brother, started at the Uof Utah this September and lives with Paul. Mom gets to visit and see them both in one fell swoop now. Paul had his 28th b-day on October 20th and we went to a combo housewarming , Halloween and Paul's birthday party as his friends house.

Here are some pix of friends and sons at this party. Jeff is costumed as the German in lederhosen and Paul is wearing my old Transport Team uniform.

The others are various friends. Jeff's skating friend is the woman in the catwoman costume. She is a coach for some pretty good skaters

Anna

Remote Control Sailboats

We took a bike ride around Lake Johnson outside of Raleigh on Sunday. The weather was terrific. 78 and sunny!!!
We stopped and watched the remote controlled sailboat races... The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys...
The weather here in Durham/Chapel Hill remains absolutely spectacular. Always sunny and wonderfully warm.
We have been here for 5 1/2 weeks and never a bad day!
Tonight is Tango!
Watch out Myron ... I will definitely step on your toes.
http://triangletango.com

Hey Y'all, We went to our First Pig Pickin'!!

We were invited to a Pig Pickin' (pig roast) on Saturday night.
A 165 pound porker was cooked and simultaneously wood-smoked beginning at 4:00 a.m.
the night before. Half the meat was removed and chopped with a vinegar sauce and the other half was there for pickin'. EXCELLENT! There was also Brunswick Stew and other goodies. Anna especially loved the banana pudding!!
About 80 people were there and a band on stage played blue grass music.
This was held on a 5 acre lot at the home of a realtor (Anna's work colleague is the next-door neighbor of the realtor).

Bye for now Y'all
Anna and Myron

The Ensemble!

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted a complete bed ensemble.
This summer , we waited for the Bloomingdale sale and watched and waited and we bought the ensemble I thought was perfect. It is made by Natori and is made of 50% bamboo and 50% cotton. The colors are rich and the spread texture is remniscent of a dragon. But even more perfect was the fact that it matched the curtain I purchased in Tokyo when we went to visit Ren, Hiroko and little Chikage. So here it is.... a beautiful bed ensemble in our new apartment. It is a picture!

Moved to Chapel Hill/Durham NC!!

Well we made it and have unpacked completely! We simply have to put up the pix on the walls.
The weather here is fantastic, my new job interesting and challenging, and our apartment very nice! Everything is close by, the restaurants delicious, the people extremely friendly and once again ------- the weather terrific! It has been in the 80's and sunny with low humidity. Today was actually cooler in the 70's with not a cloud in the sky. We went biking on a beautiful bike friendly loop on our new bikes. I have biked for a long time but Myron is relatively new to the sport. He did just great even though hand brakes, 24 gears and shocks are new to him. He remembers his old Schwinn when he was 14! I haven't told him yet we are working up to a very long trek from the NC mountains to the Outer Banks oceanfront in 7 days !!! :-)))
Here we are with the new bikes.

Moving Day!

We packed, were moved and drove!
Despite the moving company arriving 3 hours late on Friday.... we only had the elevator from 9am-1pm, we got out by 3:30pm and hit the road with both cars packed to the gills . I had my plants in the front seat of my car, Myron had the TV in the front seat of his car.... the backseat of his was filled with the wall pictures and my Vibe was filled to the roof! I also had my bike rack attached to the hatchback. We were relieved to find no traffic on the holiday Friday night and made it to Dover, Delaware by 6:30 for a seafood diner and then to Salisbury, Maryland for an overnight at a hotel.
We left at 8:30 am on Saturday and made it to my beach house in Nags Head, OBX ( The Outer Banks ) North Carolina. The weather is perfect and we don't care if they don't deliver the furniture until Thursday!!! We can beach it the entire week! The weather is perfect, the ocean warm and our neighbor's hot tub is hot! I love this beach house ......

Here are 2 pix of the old apartment in West New York on moving day

Anna and Myron

Oops... more fam

Mike and Diane had been to a barbecue the night before( and up till 3am!) and were heading out to a Christening in the early afternoon.... They felt a bit tired and shagged out after a prolonged squawk but managed to stop by to say goodbye. Actually they look pretty good!!!

A & M

Visiting the Long Island Family

We picked up Grandma Esther and headed out to Stephanie and Michael's house for au revoir's before we move to North Carolina. Mike D and Diane, Nick and Alaina as well as little Nick and Adriana all came over to say ciao for now.
Enjoyed ourselves and took some pix. The kids were just the cutest.
Everyone was invited to visit as we have a three bedroom apartment with two bathrooms!
I am sure we will have visitors!

M & A

Chris and Keiran arrived from Denver

Keiran and Chris arrived and we took them to the Empire State Building, to Fred's in Barneys for the best burger, to Times Square, a walk of the East Village and to see the Blue Man Group!
The weather was great and we had a great time!
Chris and Keiran also got to briefly visit Grandma Esther and Great Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Michael.

Happy Birthday Ren and Jeff

It is Ren and Jeff's birthday today on August 1st. Ren is Myron's youngest son in Japan and he is a big 35 today. Jeff is Anna's youngest son and is 21 today! Jeff is presently in OBX with his 2 brothers, friends and Mom having a great time in the sun and sand.

Here is a pix Jeff and his brothers,Sean and Paul at the beach .
And a pix of Ren in Japan!

Happy Birthday Ren and Jeff!!!

Love
Anna and Myron

More pix of OBXtreme adventures

The weather is OBXceptional!

Paul and Jeff and Ryan and Evan and Ben are here and we anxiously await Sean and Liz and Mark and Dooray and Bob. Myron and I are good at barbecuing and making margaritas!!! Oh yea and stocking the fridge for this hungry bunch. The weather is terrific, the water warm and the drinks cold. Heat lightening at night is beautiful and the moon is almost full. Myron tried the ocean kayak and did pretty well for a senior citizen. He had the senior citizen discount with the boys pushing him up and over the surf. He didn't make it back to shore without dumping it in the surf and banging his elbow... margaritas have an anesthetizing effect!!!
Horseshoes with other revelers on the beach, frisbee and swimming find us older folk in bed by 10:00. But the young men come in after sunrise!!! I think they sleep a little on the beach!!

This pix is Myron on the Kayak before the dump.

A & M

More OBXstacy

These images are from top to bottom : Ben and Evan with rainbow on the deck of the beach house. The "Bronze God Jeff". Paul the firefighter, fisbee king. Paul riding the surf. The guys on the buried Trampoline.

OBXcstacy

We are having a wonderful time at the beach house in OBX NC...the Outer Banks for those not accustomed to the native language.
The weather is great and so far Paul, Jeff and friends Ben and Evan have arrived. Ryan is due in tomorrow and brother Sean and friends Liz, Mark and Bob are due in on Saturday.
Margarita time is always at 3pm after kayaking, swimming and girl watching...
Mom Anna is the resident cook and finds that cooking for all these guys is quite a feat of magic. So far so good! Soft shell crabs, tuna steaks, rib eyes, lasagna and tonkatsu chicken have been successful.... one night dining on dungeness crab and king crab was also a highlight.
Myron and Anna are also successfully managing to go to the local club and workout to keep up the good work initiated by there personal trainer David.
Here is Anna on the kayak.

On to Chapel Hill and UNC

After much angst, trepidation, and downright fear... I took the plunge.
I am taking the position of Learning Management System Administrator at UNC Chapel Hill.
Even though the position offers less money than what I am making now, I will be in a nice area, and have an interesting job with opportunities for advancement at a prestigious hospital center.
The cost of living is much less and we are looking at apartments right now. A 2 bedroom 2 bath beautiful apartment with pool, tennis courts, fitness center and w/d in the apartment is around 850.00 per month!!! Oh and did I tell you I could walk to work and I am only 3 hours from my beach house!!!
So duh a no brainer to be sure.
Myron and I are apt shopping this weekend and the hope is to move on Aug 31.

Love ya all
anna and myron

Yoga for Myron?

Yes. We went to a Yoga class on Saturday morning.

You may ask why. So I will tell you.

We started a physical fitness program with a personal trainer last week. Our goals were 3...lose weight, lose inches and get more fit. We both run and exercise quite regularly. We even watch our caloric intake and our carb of choice is a glass of wine, but age is becoming absolutely determined to keep the pounds on so we decided to try out the personal trainer route for one month and see if we see a difference.

So...3 days a week at 7:30am we work out for 90 minutes with Dave...our holistic, spiritual, natural food consuming personal trainer. He informs us that fitness is a combination of flexibility, endurance and strength. OK we get it.... so we begin..
He has us doing these core exercises that has us shaking, sweating and grunting on mats. He has Myron balancing on funky wobbly things with his eyes closed! Ha... you should see this...it could cause a grown man to cry. He has us doing nasty planks and other core exercises that look so easy and hurt so bad.
But that isn't even the worst... He has us eating Manna bread which is sprouted grains with spelt and flax and hemp and such... Myron puts cream cheese on his and I put butter on mine!
We have moved on to red wine versus white.

But Dave suggested that we do Yoga to help our flexibility, especially Myron... he has difficulty stretching and feeling one with the earth!

So you should have seen us doing: downward dog, little cobra, sun salutations, the dolphin, camel, tree pose, happy baby, and "f****ing" tired!!! But the best was meditation after the exhausting impossible stretches... Myron was ONE with the EARTH!!! He had an outer body experience and I was hard pressed not to laugh out loud...

Keep posted for more ramblings of our rebirth!!

Anna and Myron

Hope and Possibility 5 Mile Race

Today we ran in the Hope and Possibility 5 mile race in Central Park. This race is an inspirational race as it has able bodied and disabled running side by side in solidarity. Over 4500 runners participated today. Among these were many American soldiers wounded in Iraq. They ran with prosthetic limbs, in wheelchairs and push-rims and with their families. It was so sad to see so many maimed young man. They called themselves the Freedom Team and on their t-shirts were the words: "Just doing our job". Very sad indeed...

Two years ago, my son Sean's friend Mike Dolan was swimming at our beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and dove into the water and broke his neck. He is a high level quadriplegic and we ran for him today. Our t-shirts had a picture of him when he was in Stowe skiing in a special sled with ski instructors, a tribute to his courage and determination not to let this tragedy break his spirit or slow him down. When we got to the finish line, the announcer saw our t-shirts and announced that we were running for Mike Dolan! We were so happy to hear his name.

We finished in 56 minutes, I slowed Myron down because of heel pain from plantar fascitis, but we came in 12th in our age groups. There were 33 in my female age group ( 55-60) and 19 in the Myron's men's age group ( 60-64). Not too bad!

BTW Our head bands are from Japan. They say Kamikaze which means "divine wind" ... we were so fast.... :-)

Once we got home, we hung out by the pool for 4 hours! Resting and recuperating!

Myron and Anna

Double Rainbow in West New York, NJ

Rain squall and a rainbow terminating on the next street!

Tonkatsu on the Hudson

Anna and Myron went shopping at Mitsuwa in Edgewater, NJ - Anna then made tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets) and miso soup with udon noodles. Thank you Hiroko and Chie!!