Just another Auld Lang Syne*

With Christmas and all the drama of buying poor presents for my wife and maybe only Nastia (now Anna) and myself needing or really wanting the presents (Sorry, Elena, you were quite when the gifts were opened and I'm sure you appreciate them.)in the rear view mirror New Years is rushing up upon us. New Years is a holiday like Thanksgiving that usually doesn't require purchasing gifts. You just have to show up to eat or drink or maybe stay home and be safe. When I was younger we had a friend who'd throw parties and New Years was one of them. If it wasn't for him I might have rarely gone out on New Years. Since Covid Eric has not had any New Years parties and look who is staying home. I guess that's not totally true. I went to the movies on New Year's eve yesterday. I saw 'Avatar, way of the water' ' or something like that. I hope all of you future people don't know what 'woke culture' is, but right now I am very aware of it. So aware of it that I count the types of people Disney has put into their films. I'm a live and let live person, but Disney has a check list when it makes a movie these days and they have to check all of the boxes. Make sure they include a little bit of everything, except when it comes to the bad guys, they're usually middle aged to old white guys, like in Avatar. Enough on the soap box.

This picture is from last January. This year New Years Day it was 51. Nastia, told her new job she could only work mornings, so it is no surprise when they ignored her wishes and schedule her for one in the afternoon to nine at night Saturday New Years eve and one to nine New Years Day. Teri told her to find a new job. In this economy, even with it slowing, there are alot of low wage jobs open she could get, but she'll stay until she gets worn out by them. It sorta of explains her dating life, except she's a stayer, you know someone who doesn't leave a relationship even if it's not perfect, He who will not be named, her former boyfriend is the perfect example.She was always chasing after him and he seemed to only be in it only when it worked for him. Sean is a 180 from him. He is fully invested in the relationship and so is Nastia. So when someone talks about the future...(it'll get here way too soon...), oh, boy. I did tell her if she wants to live here after she got married, if memory serves, she laughed and said "hell, no" or words to that effect. When she has to pay bills and fix dinner every night after working a full day, we'll revisit it, I'm sure. So Nastia is working. Sean is picking her up and Elena is going over to Matt's, while Teri and I are going to see Avatar. Just before the movie starts Elena texts us, Matt canceled, he has a headache. I'm beginning to wonder if something is up with him? So she stayed home. She ate dinner in front of the TV and is in bed before midnight, I think. I didn't see her or Nastia after Teri and I got home from the movies. I'm trying to give Nastia and Sean space, the way Al Galan gave his daughter (girlfriend when I was around 24) and I space when we were going out. Teri and I watch Netflix until five minutes to twelve. I put on Dick Clark's Rockin New Years with Ryan Seacrest. I didn't remember it being this stupid, insipid* and annoying. Does that mean I'm growing up or are younger people willing to watch all that stupidity? A woman is trying to interview a couple that was kissing and her questions just made my skin crawl and I had to yell. Once Teri found out what I was going on about, she ignored me.

Nastia was upstairs with Sean watching Japanese Animi Hunter x Hunter and something about the shower or bath scene scene. Nastia said she like his hair when it is down and wouldn't kick him out of her bed, while Sean kept calling him a pedophile. I think I watched the scene they were talking about and he is a perv. Japanese animi is a weird place, I've watched some. Elena continued to sleep. At midnight, Teri and I kiss and she goes to bed. Somhow I don't get to bed until 1:30 and yes, somehow I wake her up. The next morning, about 9AM or so, Elena is out of bed bright and early to go over Matt's house for the day.She leaves and everything is quiet. Teri is watching TV when I come down around 10AM. Nastia gets up around noon, to get ready to go to work. Sean slept over and is heading home, saying he is tired and is going to take a nap. Yesterday I made biscuits and they were good. Today, I ate some of the leftovers. They were not so good. Nastia eats the ones I leave. She hugs me and leaves for work. She'll work until nine and drive herself home. The eye doctor said her sight is good enough to drive at night. With her we always pray to God that she'li arrive home safely. I had eight days off in December. This is the last official day off until Memorial Day. *Lacks vigor or interest. *What is the poem Auld Lang Syne about? The lyrics of “Auld Lang Syne” are in the Scots language. The title, translated literally into standard English, is Old Long Since. The words can be interpreted as since long ago or for old times' sake. The lyrics are about old friends having a drink and recalling adventures they had long ago. Now we all know what the song means, maybe?

Christmas 2022

Well believe it or not, Christmas is upon us. Life gets into a routine,It's Monday, let me just get through Monday. Then it's Tuesday, almost half way through the week and so on, Wednesday, bowling, Thursday, last day until casual Friday. Then it's the weekend.This how the weeks mostly go and then suddenly it's Christmas. It seems like just last week I was looking at Christmas in the rearview mirror and now the weather is colder and it's suddenly past Thanksgiving, but wait, slow it down. I need time to get the tree up and the decorations outside up and I want to make cookies!!

With Elena's help and encouragement, sorta, a light that showed Christmas pictures on the side of the house and the light up deer were put on the north lawn. I was going to put up actual lights, but I got Covid after getting

a cold and Teri got Covid the same week. She could work from home, I said I couldn't. I checked when I went back and yes I would have not been able to work from home. Through all of this Nastia and Elena didn't get Covid or a cold or the flu. Nastia did get a cough and it got to the point she went to the doctor and got medicine for it. Neither Teri or I went to the doctor even though we both had Covid, mild cases.

Christmas Eve was a nonevent, nothing exciting happened. It was a Saturday, the weather was cold, below normal. I wrapped Teri's gifts. As good as I did last year, this year her gifts were all impersonal and functional (a soap holder for the tub, vacuum bags for the rumba- I'm embarrassed to even write them down.) My whole problem with what Christmas has become

was on full display this year. No one needed anything, but gifts you must buy.I feel that a gift to the 'Human Fund' would have been better then what I got her.* Now as far as the girls go, Teri came up with the idea to get them remote car starters. I thought they would be, "oh, thank you" and move on to the next gift. I was very pleased to see Nastia (who now goes by Anna, if I haven't said) was very happy to get one. Elena, I don't remember. I guess she opened it after Amanda's big reveal. I don't remember much after that. I was surprised.

Amanda had just gotten off a twelve hour overnight shift at Good Sam. She wanted to open presents as early as possible so she could get some sleep. The girls got up grouchily, oh for the days they'd wake up at 6AM and run down stairs when I told them Santa Claus had been her in the night. They don't even remember the story I told them about how I saw Santa when we lived in the Nyack House. Or when I told them I heard Santa and they better get to bed quickly and they did. They did get up and came down stairs. Everyone sat down and Elena and Teri started handing out presents. I didn't notice anything strange about the way Amanda was acting. She hands Teri a box to open first. I saw the corner of the picture, but I was always told Amanda didn't want kids. I guess everyone can change their minds Elena, and I guess she did. Neither Teri nor I knew what to say. Congratulations were handed out and the grandma joke started toward Nancy. I wish them well and I hope they can financially pull this off. Having kids cost so much and the costs seem to all be hidden, at least to me they were.

When we got the girls, the money started to flow out with the trip to Russia and for a while afterwards it didn't stop and I guess that was one of the things we did wrong. The other was a few poor financial decisions I made. The biggest was not wanting to refinance the house because I wanted the mortgage to end when I was still young enough to enjoy life. We finally refinanced just prior to Covid and I'll be 76 when it ends, if Teri doesn't insist we go south or I pay enough extra to end it earlier. Good luck to them, they'll need it, it's not easy to do. After presents Teri and Nastia made pizza-frete, you know fried pizza dough. It's always good.

Teri planned Christmas dinner for 2PM. It got tangled up in Muller time(still not patented) and we ate a little after 3:15. The meat thermometer, it turns out, didn't work and quit registering at 120. So our $5.99 Roast that we wanted medium rare came out medium well. It was still good, just not as good as it could have been. Dinner guests were only Nancy this year. Jessica (not the one with the son) had gone home on the 23rd. Sean spent time at one of his parents. Matt, who Teri was really looking forward to having him suffer, no that doesn't sound right, experience sounds nice and neutral. Teri wanted him to experience his second Christmas, but positive Covid tests were still happening around here. So he missed out. After dinner, Teri realized the dogs hadn't gotten their gifts. Athena really got into it, while Mesha and Bandi both looked at us with the expression, 'What are we supposed to do with this'. Mesha got so frustrated she left to find her ball. *What is the Human Fund from Seinfeld? Image result for Seinfeld- the human fund "The Human Fund" is a fake charity used by George Costanza. After getting a similar gift from his friend Tim Whatley, George gave out cards to his co-workers stating that a donation had been made to a charity called "The Human Fund", with the slogan, "Money For People." /

I'M NOT SICC!!

I test positive for Covid, Teri tests positive for Covid, Elena tests negative and Nastia, who's been hacking and coughing like she trying to thrown up a lung tests nevative. Of course Nastia is the one who insists on living life as if nothing is wrong. She goes out with Sean, she spends money she doesn't have. She goes bowling on Wednesday with Sean. Life is good, she is twenty-four and the future is not today. Then Thursday morning, I'm in the chair in the living room, you know self isolating in front of the TV. I haven't felt too bad this whole Covid time and 'Thank You Dr. Fauci', I'm updated on my shots. I hear someone upstairs gaging like they were trying not to throw up. Some quick foot steps to the bathroom and now they are thrwing up. I know it's Nastia, so I stay in the chair. I'm thinking karma. She's been told to stay home because she is sick, but refused to listen. Teri walks from the kitchen and hers her. There is sudden deep concern in her voice. I'm thinking Nastia can hold her own hair back as she prays to the porcelain queen. Teri yells upstairs, "Nastia is everything alright?!!" No it's not, I think as I listen and again think karma. And hey, we're not even to the fun part yet. Teri goes upstairs to hold her hair back or whatever a second person does when you're throwing up. I've always done that by myself. Teri comes down, about twenty minutes later, Nastia comes down fully dressed like she is going somewhere. I'm sorry, I have to sit back and watch. It's like a car accident that you know is going to happen. There is nothing you can do to stop it, but you can't look away either. Teri sees her,"Why are you dressed, you're not going anywhere!" This is where it gets fun. Nastia replys, full of her usual vim and vigor* (Energy and enthusiasm,Back in the dark ages of my youth, 'vim and vigor' were used more often.) "I'm not sicc,(I know it's spelt sick, but it's supposed to imply her stuffy nose affecting the way she talks.) I'm going out." The overprotective mother alert system came on line the moment the wrong end of one of her children (If it was me, she'd tell me to make sure I flush and don't miss) pointed towards the porcelain queen. From here on, no one gets out alive. "What do you mean, you're not sick! You were just upstairs throwing up!" Nastia tries to parry the assault, but it is weak, "I threw up because I took medicine!!" "Nastia," her mother sensing weakness attempts to go for the kill, "You are sick,you are not going out, go upstairs and change!" Nastia knowing she is losing pulls out the nuclear option, and it might have worked, "I'm twenty-four and you can't..." the rest trails off as she opens and leans into the garbage can to throw up. Now please remember the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Some incidences have been condensed due to time constraints, but the end result is real...hehe

This time I act like the gentleman I am and hold open the garbage can and tell Teri who doesn't like her throwing up in the garbage can 'it's alright'. Teri makes me promise I will throw the brand new bag away. Nastia after a few minutes is done. Later while she is having breakfast,video chatting with Sean, I will show Sean the pictures of her throwing up into the garbage can. Nastia tells me,"Don't show him the video." I didn't take a video and now I feel I've missed out on a special event in my daughter's life.You know, You can't go home again, it's so sad!! (hehe) *The noun vim is thought to come from the Latin vis, meaning strength and energy, and became American slang around the mid-1800s. Vigor, on the other hand, has meant energetic strength since the 1300s.

Fun with COVID, still??

Yeah, fun with Covid. It's been a little over three years since the pandemic started in China and I remember the new talking about how it was spreading in China. I wasn't too concerned because it was China and China is so far away. It won't make it here. Yeah, and I thought the internet on phones was silly and excessive. (Can't live without it now) Monday, December 5th, I went for my colonscopy. I'd never in three years taken a Covid test. I haven't been sick in at least four years, most likely closer to seven years. I took the test an as expected it was negative. I go for my procedure. The previous week I'd had a slight cold. I called the doctors office and they said if I felt I could go through with the procedure, then to come in. That was Monday. On Saturday, Teri and I both go to get our Covid shot. We'd been neglectful and hadn't gotten our summer shot. You know because like everyone else we thought it was over. That Monday, I don't feel 100%, but I still go into work. About an hour or so into my day I start coughing. I still feel fine, it's juTuesday morning, I feel a little worse and I call in sick figuring why not. I don't want a repeat of yesterday.

After Sunday's chicken fiasco and me being the dope I am. I get a text from Nastia asking what is for dinner and can Sean come to dinner? I had planned leftovers and they were on there own as far as dinner, but now Sean was coming to dinner. I told them I wasn't feeling well and they'd have to help. Elena, who'd been the most obnoxious one the previous day (She gets that way because of her peroid, I'm told and she doesn't care)takes the lead and gets things going for tacos. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but she wasn't sure how to make tacos, I'd always made them. I instruct her to defrost the meat and to brown it in the pan. I was going to be a little late this night getting home. When I do and offer to take over, she says no and continues on. Sean and Nastia arrive along with Jessica. Eventually everyone is in the kitchen doing something for dinner. I notice late we are almost out of corn shells. Sean and Nastia go out to get them. They have to go to two stores so our 7PM dinner becomes a 8PM dinner. I wasn't overly hungry it turns out so we didn't need the extra shells. They help with the clean up and they end the night sitting around the table drinking vodka and lemonade or 43, that wonderful vanilla liquor. Non of them are big drinkers, thank God, so minimal supervision is needed. Sean is sleeping over, so he joins in. No one over does it. The next day, Tuesday, I call in sick. I call in sick mostly because I'm afraid I'd start coughing like I did on Monday. I have felt worse and gone to work, precovid though. Being sick has changed since Covid. I used to soldier on no matter how bad I felt. I'd go to school sick. I would do any work at school, but I went. I went to work sick because there was no one else to run my route most of the time. There was one time I just couldn't do it and Bruce ran it for me for two days. Like I said I haven't been sick in four or so years. People don't or are not supposed to do that any more. I was lost. So I spend the day watching old movies. Around six or so Nastia and I go to get some Covid tests. I'm doing it so she'll be happy. I don't have Covid. I got my shot on Saturday. I take my second Covid test ever. I look at the test before the fifteen minutes is up and the Covid line keeps getting darker and darker. I hope the line will disappear at fifteen minutes, it doesn't, I have Covid. I think the reason I have Covid is because I took a Covid test and it you know like broke the seal. I could have gone through life never having gotten Covid if I never took a test. That only works for me, so don't you try this at home. Well it would have... Teri gets home from work and she goes out to buy more tests so everyone in th ehouse is tested. Sean is alerted and he tests, I hope. Teri, who sleeps in the same bed as me is positive. Nastia hwo has an awful cough is negative. Elena also tests negativeand has no cough. Life goes on beyond the Palisades (yes you sharp reader, that's a Billy Joel song line). I'll miss the Helmar Christmas party tonight, but there is next year. You know I said that when I skipped the Consolidated Christmas party in 2000 because I was not comfortable going and there wasn't a second one. Christmas is eleven days away. I've done most of my shopping (yes on line, from my phone, yeah, why would you need the internet on your phone) so Santa will be coming this 25th, just a little light in the sack is all. /

Angry Parents

Some, no most of you parents out there will relate to this story. Teri decides to make a roast chicken for dinner one night. She goes through all of the hoops. She makes stuffing to go with the chicken. Opps, I mean dressing, it was out of the bird. I only recently became aware of the difference. Stuffing is inside the bird, dressing is outside. So simple, but the taste difference is worlds apart. I'd have preferred to have stuffing over dressing, but after twenty-seven years of marriage, you learn things along the way. She asked me closer to dinner what I wanted with the chicken. I said "How about flavored rice," She wants to make two boxes, but I say to make one box. Later it will be a good thing we did. Oh about half an hour before dinner Teri calls Nastia, Elena and Jessica down to get ready to eat. They assemble in the dinning room and each proceeds to say they are not eating dinner tonight. The one that gets me and I don't remeber who. It could be all three, but one of them said they ate at four, it's now six-thirty. I'm the one who has been cooking lately because I now get home by 5:15-5:20. I have delt with this for six months telling them to not eat so late or to text me and tell me they are not having dinner to night. I once made dinner and was the only one to eat it. The girls were not hungry, they ate late and Teri couldn't eat it. I've made some wonderful food most of the time. This time it was different, it was Teri who'd cooked. She has been off the front lines for the last six months and that's OK, I like cooking. Teri is a good cook. She know what spices go together better then I and she has an intuition about cooking. I'm a good cook because I can follow a recipe and how difficult it is doesn't matter, I will learn it, eventually. Whenever I go off the grid, so to speak, it can get messy. I tried to make home made fried rice one night, no recipe. It was OK, but I think I ate 90% of it, because everyone else didn't want any more.

So here we are after Teri has cooked the whole afternoon. The girls have told us they are not hungry. Teri gets angry, can't blame her, been there, done that. She sends them off after a few blistering comments concerning her having cooked and she'd told them and they could have had the decency to let her know they were not eating. And to top it off the chicken gets over cooked. I carve the chicken the best I can, but my not too sharp knife shreads the dry meat.Teri and I fill our plates and go into the living room. Out of guilt or whatever, Nastia joins us, eating a small plate of food. Moral of the story... I really don't know. When they're young, you cook, they mostly eat it. When they get older, get jobs and are not home, you miss them. When they're in their twenties and are home and don't eat should we still consider ourself lucky they are still here? Well the day they move out I know I'll have a definate answer for you. I have it now, because I dread them leaving. I'll miss them too much. I know they have to eventually, but I don't want them to. /

Nastia's Birthday, she's now 24...*

* There's those three dots again...

Nastia turned twenty-four sometime today. She was born, as everybody knows in Obluche' Russia. A small town somewhere in the far east of Russia, fifteen hour ahead of the east coast of the United States. A running joke back when we were adopting them was if you want to know the future call me and I'd tell you. We adopted Nastia and Elena a few years before Putin cut off adoptions because of a slight by America. In reality he was trying to build the Russian population even if it meant denying some wonderful, beautiful children loving families. So you see even back then Putin had plans, sick as they may have been.

Nastia took off today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday), the second to last weekend she'll be working at Stop and Shop, to celebrate her birthday. I was not in a mood to do anything today either. I'm getting over a small cold and I'm, oh so looking forward to that colonoscopy on Monday. So Nastia settled in with me sometime around noon to watch dumb movies. We watched The two Addam's Family movies from the 90's starring Raoul Julia. The actress from The Addam's family movies who plays Wednesday, Christina Ricci is in the series 'Wednesday' now on Netflix. Hey future people, does Netflix still exist or has it gone the way of compuServe and MaBell?

Teri comes home from doing groceries and after they are put away and we are ready to leave, we leave. We pick up my mom and head up to Gilligans. I haven't been there since Nastia's last birthday we had up there two years ago, I think. We are a group of seven tonight. Teri, Nancy, Nastia, Elena, Sean,My mom and myself. Jessica, if she wasn't working would have make it eight. They bring bread, and we order appetizers and drinks. Elena orders a grapefruit mojito. Teri tells her she won't like it. She says she will, but she drinks it slolwly. Eventually Teri will drink part of it. After mussels and fried calamari. Next come the salades and finally the main meal come.

During dinner all around us people are having birthdays. One waitress sings happy birthday to the tune of Gilligan's Island. It was pretty cool.

The dinners don't disappear as quickly as the bread and appatizers. Everyone is full when th emain meals hit our table. The food is good and as I was raised I cleaned my plate and God did I over eat. Nastia finds room for a chocolate lava cake. The waiter puts a candle in it and a broken Happy Birthday is sung to Nastia. After dinner we drop off people and Teri's and my night is over. Elena goes to bed complaining that Matt wants her to get up early to go to this Elephant thing in Connecticut Sunday when she rather sleep in. >

Thanksgiving Week...

Nastia wanted Sean to try Kotleta. Orginally it was going to be Wednesday night. With everyone working and all it was decided that Kotleta would be Sunday night.

I thought about preparing things for Nastia to cook them when I remembered my job was having a bring a dish to celebrate Thanksgiving on Wednesday. So I decided to start making a black bottom pie. It's a bit of a job to make and like pin wheel cookies it is made once a year and usually around Thanksgiving or Christmas. Last year I bought it to The Crystal Spoon for Christmas. I got into the kitchen early, turned on so 80's music that just sounded right and began to make the pie for Wednesday. Nastia came home from work and a little while later Sean arrives. I asked Nastia to start helping to make the kotleta right away. She complaines that she just got home from work and needs some time. I ask her what do you think I do during the week when I get home? That didn't make much of an impression on her because her and Sean went upstairs and didn't come down for a while. I did go upstairs to find out when they were coming down. I was noisey, but I guess they didn't hear me. What I saw when I knocked on her door was PG, but they need to be a little more aware of who's coming up the stairs.

Eventually they do come down. I'm mostly done with what I was going to do with my pie and a little while later I open the vodka and pour it and some lemonade over ice. I'm drinking and I'm talking and you know loose lips and all. I'm joking about stuff. Nastia has a small glass of vodka and lemonade and I notice the only person cooking is Sean. Well, I guess he did want to learn how to make them. I dump some pierogies in boiling water others I fry. My big mistake is using the oil I used to fry the kotleta in, making the pierogies look burned and a little dirty.I must remember to not be cheap with the oil and never do that again. To make it as Russian as possible we even have beats. I will also warm up a little broccoli in case someone wants it. Nastia and Sean do most of the cooking. Dinner is very good. Everyone is stuffed afterwards. I don't think there was a dessert.

That was Sunday. Wednesday was the celebration of Thanksgiving at work. I make the black bottom pie to show off. I admit it. I'm vain and I love it when someone comes by, asks if I made something then they say they love it. There's not much better then that. I spend an hour and a half making the vanilla rum cream topping on Monday to be sure it is done for Wednesday. I bring it in to work and everyone is impressed. Though I do bring three quarters of it home that night. It is a very rich dish and you can only eat small slices. Several people did complement me. And I gave myself an other gold star for making one of just a few home made dishes for the celebration. Let's see what can I make for Christmas? There is a large amount of Italian's working there maybe Manicotti?? I'd need a crock pot to keep it warm. I'm thinking about it, really hard...

Thanksgiving. I spoke to my mom earlier in the week. She'd been invited to Billy's for Thanksgiving. It is a large group of people she barely knows and I told her if she didn't want to go she could come over mine and Teri's house. I always invite her late and she is always going over to Lynn and Eric's. It's all my fault. I admit it. Wednesday night I find out Eric and Lynn have Covid. There are ok, but Thanksgiving has been cancelled. I asked my mom if she wants to come over since it is cancelled. She said she and Bruce will have some turkey together. She'd cook it up and bring some over to Eric and Lynn. Dennis is home from school and he could come and get it I tell her. She said Eric was going to maybe drive his truck over and she might put the turkey in the back of it. Whatever happened she promised to stay far away from Lynn and Eric. Our dinner is scheduled for 2PM, with it possibly being a Muller 2PM time. Now in the past I have discussed Muller time and I have still not patented it. So it is still out there for you to aquire it, rename it and call it your own. Teri made a spot Saturday for the turkey to defrost in the refrigerator for four days. She put it in on Saturday afternoon and on Thursday morning she takes it out and it is still frozen in spots (Muller time it is) She runs copious (abundant in supply) amounts of water over it trying to free the neck and the gizzard still frozen in place like mastodons in the tundra. In past years I've detailed how my mom would use these parts and make a simple broth out of them to baste the turkey. And like every year (about 20) Teri has cooked these items have been thrown away in favor of chicken broth. Many years ago I gave up any thought of fighting for what my mom did and let her do what hee mom did. I have to admit her mother makes a mean stuffing. And now she does.

I know some of you must know this, but I didn't. Stuffin is inside the bird, dress is outside of the bird. I prefer stuffing 10-1. Teri goes through the process her mother used to do. It starts with toasting the bread, soaking it in milk and onion soup mix. Mixing it with browned breakfast sausage. The real large roll, not the puny one and not the precooked one. This is the large raw, uncased ones. Mix it together add some spices, which I've forgotten because I haven't made it in many years and then stuff the bird. Always stuff the bird. It best when it's stuffed. Because the turkey was still a little frozen, it was Muller dinner time (3:30) I decided to watch 'My Fair Lady' while the turkey cooked. Every so often I'd ask if she wanted help, she mostly didn't until I sat back down and continued the show, you know how it is. Dessert is the left over black bottom pie and an apple pie that work gave out. Nice touch work. Another nice touch is work is closed on Friday as well as Thanksgiving. I think I like my job. Sean came over after dinner. He went for a walk with Elena, Nastia and Jessica (both of their friend, not the one with the son) after that they all went upstairs and I'm writing this at 11:53 Thanksgiving night. I'm sitting in the chair instead of working from the dinning roon table and boy does my back regret it. Day one of my fist four day weekend in several years is just about at an end. I forgot Sean is sleeping over again. Teri keeps saying, she thinks he's the one. I don't think about it, I'm not ready to lose Nastia just yet even though she has started ignoring me for him, so I guess I'm being eased into it. Can it really be just 31 days until Christmas??? I sware it was just September yesterday. /

How could I forget the Turkey shoot???

Today is Sunday November 20th. It is cold, Buffalo is still getting snow, like I said in the other post, I just posted, I like continuity and I love words like pedantic. A week ago, yesterday, it's oh, I don't know, maybe 11:13 at night, I'm not ready for bed. It is after all the weekend. Teri has gone up and I'm flipping through Netflix. I see a comedy special for Gabriel Iglesias, aka

'Fluffy'. Now I haven't followed comedians since Robin Williams and I didn't even notice it until the other night about two weeks ago, when I decided to turn on another comedian, Iliza Shlesinger. Teri is sleeping on the couch and doesn't care. She starts out slow, I'm figuring, ah, it's a generational thing. But, she's just getting going. By the end of it, I'm in love with her. So on this particular Saturday night I'm thinking, auh, how funny could he be. I've got nothing culturally in common with him. What I did not know was he does voices, which

I love. He did 'Speedy Gonzalez' voice in the remake, which I didn't watch for 'Space Jam" the remake and stopped the woke crowd from cancelling Speedy Gonzalez like they did Apu on 'The Simpson's'. So I don't know any of this before I start the Netflix one hour special. Remember it's 11:13 and this piece is post is titled, 'How could I forget the Turkey Shoot?'. I start the show. This guy is amazing. I'm loving his show. He's doing all these differet

voices. Pointing out the oddities of daily life. He's not an angry comedian. He points this out in the show. He wants to bring people together, which we very much need today. I planned to stop watching around 11:30. I have to get up for that turkey shoot around 7. At 11:45 I think, well, just a little longer. Sometime after midnight, I've run out of water in my glass and I'm laughing so much, my throat hurts. I do pause it around 12:15 because I just have to get water. About an hour and a half into the show he picks up a clock on the stage that was pointing toward him letting him know how much time he's been on the stage for his one hour special and it is at an hour and thirty-four minutes. He points this out and says he is going to do one more story. About half an hour later the show is over. It's almost one and I haven't showered.

I get to bed around 1:30. I wake up the next morning, a little tired, but hey, I'm 64, I know the cost of not getting a good nights sleep.

A few days earlier, I brought two of my guns into thea house I share with my wife. I have known her for thirty years this month and I know how she feels about guns. I have respected that. Sean is big into guns and Elena has wanted to shoot guns and Nastia is dating him and want to shoot guns. So here we are, we're going to a turkey shoot. It is mid-November. It is cold even for December and it's raining. It's supposed to clear. I figure I'll be warm in a jacket and sweater. The rain eventually does clear.

I ask Elena if she wants to drive. After the disaster when we went to the movies I think I will just grim and bare it. She askes me to drive and at the last moment changes her mind and says she will drive. She does fine. The Turkey shoot is in Pomona near Boulder stadium where the Rockland Boulders play. We arrive before eight and are told the starting time has been pushed to nine. I'm surprised at the number of people who attend the turkey shoot in this very much Democrastic strong hold of New York. I'm uncomfortable with how comfortable these people feel around guns. I take the shot gun out of the car. I take it out of it's case, open it up and look down the barrel to make sure it's empty. I know it is, it hasn't been used in many years, but I check to make a point to the girls. I hand the gun to Elena and tell her to check too even though I just did. If there is an accident, it's your fault. I sure Alex Baldwin wishes he'd checked the prop gun before he pulled the triger and killed that women on the set of the movie Rust.

Later I will talk with Sean's father and we'll both agree a person who doesn't know how to handel guns or is afraid of guns is the most dangerous person to have a gun. So if I teach the girls how to handle guns and to respect them they should be safe. I never think to bring money when I go anywhere any more. So we get on line to buy shots. I quickly check my wallet and I have $11.00. Enough money for Nastia, Elena and myself to get one shot each. I anopunce this to the two of them and they so don't worry, they'll buy their own shots. Which was fine with me. I buy two rounds. One is a money round for $5.00, the other is a turkey round for $3.00. In both rounds I do ok, but not well enough to win. On the first round Elena has target number 11. Ol' blood and guts, ol' rough and ready stands up with the gun in her arms. Her stance is good. She's as careful as a newbe can be, she takes aim and gets a direct hit on the number eleven. Problem is no one told her to aim for the target above it. beginners mistake. Nastia is using Sean's dad's gun. It's smaller and lighter then my gun. In her arms it still looks too big for her. She tucks it into her shoulder. Looks down the bsrrel and it almost knocked off her feet when she pulls the trigger. Neither hit the target.

On the second round Elena hits the target, looking good as she does. Nastia also hits the target, looking good as she does it. I've forgotten alot about guns so I listened to what everyone said about stance and arm angle and leaning into the shot. So on Nastia's second shot her and I talk about all of that and she looks alot better on the shot. She is hardly rocked by the kick back from the gun. She does well. Both pay for a third round. I wait for Elena to finish her third round. It's now almost two in the afternoon. I'm cold and tired and want to go home. THe rounds go at a sluggish pace and I can't wait for Nastia to finish her third round three rounds after Elena's last round. I ask Elena if we can go home. It was loads of fun. No one got hurt and maybe we'll all do it again on a warmer day. /

When your twenty-three year old daughter asks if her boyfriend can sleep over...

Yeah, tell me about it... There were other things that have happened this passed week or so, but this one tops the list. It all started in a kingdom far far away from here. In a land ruled by women, yeah, I know. they do rule, but not in the way you'd think or were taught or not in school. Anyway...(love those three dots today don't I) The weather in Buffalo, yes Buffalo, which is a couple hundred miles from us as the crow flys was experencing a very bad, even for Buffalo snow storm.They were talking at least three feet of snow. (As of today they are at about six and a half feet) There was a thought we'd get some of that snow. Granted the snow was all lake effect. For all of you non-meteorologist types 'Lake Effect Snow' is when cold dry air from the north comes across the still warm waters of one of the Great Lakes, in this instance, Lake Ontario and like a dry sponge, it sucks up the warm moisture from the lake. When it encounters the still cold land it can not hold all that moisture because cold air canot hold moisture that is why we all have dry skin in the winter and the result is the air drops that moisture causing, lets say it all together, 'a Buffalo Winter' God, those poor people. Now on this night, a Friday, Teri decides to make empanadas. She buys the dough, to make life simple. Me, I'd have tried to make the dough and make it a complex late running adventure. Nastia and Sean go out to dinner. Elena and Jessica are eating with us.

The empanadas are easy with store bought dough and once we get into a rythm, me doing what Teri wants me to do, it goes quickly. I end up frying the empanadas in a cast iron pan (I'd wanted to use the cast iron dutch oven my mom gave me but Teri wanted to use the cast iron frying pan, but not fry them because that would make them hard. She relented and after I turned my full attention to frying them I was able to get some of them to a light golden brown, almost soft texture. The four of us sit down to dinner and I have to text Nastia what we are having for dinner. I would have liked them to stay for dinner. So I text her a picture. After dinner Sean and Nastia come home and are going to play 'RageAgainst the Machine' a card game or something like that.Originally they were going to play at teh dinning room table but they changed their minds. So the girls,Sean and Jessica all go upstairs to play games.

I think it is funny when we get our first snow of the year to send a picture with the text..."Better let Sean know it's getting deep outside." I thought it was funny, Nastia's reply is, "ok". I was disappointed, but remember she was playing games and her boyfriend was there, or more specifically, HER BOYFRIEND WAS THERE.She's in that stage where and I'm sure we all remember and wish we could experence it again, she's in that 'New Relationship phase of her relationship where you can't get enough of the other person, but you're still hiding most of your affection, for him, from at least your father. That was about 9:30. At 10:25 I'm part of a group text asking if Sean can sleep over. It starts with 'Hey guys', when did I become part of hey guys? Does she use this all the time or is it only for these 'special favors' she wants? Yes, I've noticed her use 'hey guys' before but this is different, she wants a guy to sleep in the same house as her and I and it is different. Teri tells me to text, "If Elena can clean off the bed and someone get him blankets and a pillow and fix the bed right.And a tooth brush" Nastia asks and in retrospect, I understand, "Which bed are u talking about?" Boy her kids are gonna love or be banned from reading these when there teenagers. I reply without a thought of any other bed, "The office bed." Nastia's simple reply, "Ok" Teri, "Where were you thinking?" This is where it gets fun Nastia, "The extra bed in my room." Now, this is not a, ah... what's a good word, ah... bad or maybe... convenient as it might look, because I've left out the fact that for the last week Jessica, Elena's and Nastia's friend has been staying with us after her and her mother got into an arguement and Jessica was asked to leave in a loud voice (yes, I'm being a wise-ass. They had a fight and she threw Jessica out and in her anger, this is all second hand and biased, threw Jessica's phone toward or maybe near the (I can't think of a good word here. it's a re word I want to use and regressing or retreating don't fit. Especially retreating, it sounds like going back to the same house on Halloween because they have good candy. Let's just go with car, it's boring and I'm being pedantic- someone who is very concerned with the detais of a subject and tends to overly show off their knowledge, so car it is.) car. (Maybe she was not very good at sports growing up.... no lets not go down that road) We have veered way off subject here. We're so far in the bushes we can't even see where the road is supposed to be. So Jessica is staying here and sleeping in Nastia's bed. Nastia has a queen size bed and maybe she likes having someone in bed with her. When she sleeps over at Jessie's (she's the one with the child) she sleeps in the same bed as her. So, a recap to where we were...(those dots are a pandemic today) Nastia has asked for Sean to sleep over and has asked he sleep in the same room as her and Jessica in a bed next to her's. We can go back into the weeds and talk about sex and how you can't stop it even if you tried, but there are limits that neither Teri or I feel are right even in this day and age. After Nastia says 'The extra bed in my room' she quickly adds, 'But ya, I'll get everything for him.' Teri's reply to the first part, "Think again, buttercup." That's a cute way of saying, No f'n way is that going to happen. Defensively Nastia replys, now knowing she has pushed things too far, "LOL, Mom, relax". I have nothing to do with getting him set up in 'ol' squeeky', I go downstairs to shower. The bed he sleeps in, would be a newlyweds nightmare. Everytime you move in it, everyone on that floor who's not a deep sleeper (Me) knows. That entire night I get a good nights sleep. I wake up at six and Bandi has left a little gift in the hallway. As I start to clean it up, I take a quick glance into the partly open door(we have clips on the doors up there so the cats can go through and the dogs can't follow.) and I don't see him. I finish what I'm doing and lead Misha and Bandi outside so Athena can go down the stairs without Misha attacking her.It's Saturday, Sean and Elena have to go to work, but I can go back to bed. I don't hear Sean get up or leave. I might have heard him thank Teri for letting him sleep over. Elena says good bye and it is over. The boyfriend has slept over. The world is still turning and doom has not cracked. The end of days might still be coming, but it was not last night. Growing up I slept with my girlfriend when we went away somewhere, but I never slept in the same house with her as her parents.Nastia has slept in the same room as her boyfriend, at teh time when they went away. Sean and Nastia are talking about going up to Monticello Race track to gamble and stay ove. I think it is too early in their relationship. How long was she going out with the last guy before we let her stay with him over night in a motel? I guess it's an open question. She did tell me if they go to Monticello on her birthday, which I don't like, they will be dating two months by then. It's still seems a little too quick. I'd like to end this on ahigh note, but the Yankees haven't signed Aaron Judge to a long term contract and it won't hsppen until at least January. Buffalo is still shoveling out of almost six feet of snow and the snow blower I asked my brother to look over in October and then asked Bruce to look at around Halloween is sitting without a tarp, my fault at my mother's. What is a good high note to end on? I guess the best one is atleast we're not in Buffalo with my snow blower. /

It's Saturday morning and ...well ... Sorry, no great title came to mind.

It's is a Saturday morning in November a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. Elena went to work today, Nastia has gone to work at Stop and Shop- we're trying to convince her to go somewhere else. She wants to go to Dave and Buster's we're thinking that is not a great idea. And for the last couple of nights Jessica has been staying over.

The three of them went to Dave and Buster's on Thursday. Jessica works there and the three of them have dinner and play some games. When they went to drop Jessica off, something happened between her and her mother. I only heard bits and pieces of what happened, so if it is wrong, I'm sorry. It goes something like Jessica didn't clean her room before going out and her mother got mad. Maybe something else happened because her mother supposedly threw her phone at the car before or after throwing Jessica out. Maybe there is more to the story, I don't want to voice any opinions. Boy, that can be tough. So Jessica (not JJ or Jessie from New City who has a child) is staying with us. Jessica is making herself so invisable I saw her for the first time this morning. Nastia is staying over Jessie's (New City, child, JJ) tonight like she normally does. I hope Jessie's (JJ, child, New City) parents are not getting tired of Nastia staying over. Nastia has work today from 9AM to 5PM. There has been no 6AM to 2PM lately. I think she changed her hours of availability. Back when I worked a grocery store part time workers were a dime a dozen and if you desired you could have a career at a supermarket. Back then they told you when you were going to work and how late you were going to work. There was no choice back then. If you were not available, they'd get someone else. Also, another blast from the past. I made $2.25 an hour when I started. A friend who started a while before me started at $1.90 an hour. I felt rich when I got my check every friday back then. Nastia makes mininium wage (about $13.00 an hour) at Stop and Shop. They took everything away from her after she got the job with the YMCA and left and then returned. Friday night, yesterday Sean was going to take Nastia up to visit with his mother. Nastia spent time with her last weekend, so this was the second visit. Only thing is the remains of a rare November hurricane was heading our way. In the past, before global warming made storms so much more intense it would have been okay to let her go. I text Nastia telling her to let me know when she gets there and when she is leaving and when she's expecting to be home. A little while later I talk to Teri and she says she really doesn't want Nastia to go. I say I'll call her and I do. I tell her the weather is going to be bad (and it had started coming down ral hard off and on since around three in the afternoon) and I'd rather you didn't go. She said she was alreay on her way. I then did a sort of bad thing, I told Nastia to talk it over with Sean and call me back. It was bad because I was banking on Sean still wanting to make a good impression that he'd turn around. They did turn around and of course the storm was mostly over. Nastia was not to happy about not going, but she got over it pretty quickly. I was happy she was safe. Nastia has this habit of always being with her boyfriend as often as possible. And with modern technology she talks to him on her phone. She'll come in from work and will talk to you. Your saying stuff that maybe you don't want someone who is not in the family yet to hear and suddenly she'll lean in a direction and you'll see his face or she say,"Could you wait a second, Sean?" and then you realize you have been talking to two people. Nastia is the type of person who can make you feel very important. She did it with Dylan and Kevin. Both suffered from being under the delusion, no that is too strong of a word. They suffered from being guys who want to date a girl who wants to be just a friend.She said she told them she just wanted to be friends, but she hung around with them all of the time. I'm sure some girls would call that delusional. I'd call it a guy just being a guy. So many women out there claim there are no great guys. They're just not looking. Dylan and Kevin were great guys. My daughter, Nastia was just not interested in them. In cases like this and I know he is not politically correct these days, but some of his ideas on relationships still hit home. I always remember what Woody Allen said at the beginning of Annie Hall. "I'd never want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member" I feel alot of people act that way. Elena and her now on and previously off again relationship with Matt. Elena has gotten to be ...ah,... let's say more colorful in her language. I think she feels using curse words, as often as she does and yes Nastia is just as bad gives her an aura of power and a 'don't mess with me cause you could get hurt' personality. It goes along with the tatoos and the short haircuts. She has her defenses up so she won't get hurt. When she is angry with him, she'll call him a 'little pussy'. He's a nice guy and he is laidback. He wants to be a NYC cop. Right now the Police in NYC are losing the battle because of politicians. I think it could eat him up if he becomes an NYC Cop and things don't change. Elena on the other hand is working still in New City with Sean and his family. His father and uncle own the shop. Elena doesn't make much, but she has few needs and desires, so her salary goes far. When it is time to pay insurance, she is the only one ready to pay. She got her 'sleeve finished this past Tuesday and since I have to act like it doesn't exist because I don't approve, I don't have pictures. One day I will and I'll post them. It's not ugly, it just not what someone should want on their arm for the rest of there life. Styles and customes change AND SKIN DOES SAG AS YOU GET OLDER. What is done is done. /

Halloween Parties , the parade in Nyack et al.

Alot has gone on lately and I've been remiss in writting about it.

Before Halloween Nastia gets her Halloween costume in the mail. It is a patient leather shiny black short dress that she is going to wear and be a cat for Halloween. She trys it on for my opinion. I tell her it is too short to wear without shorts on. She says she will wear shorts and she asks me what stocking she should wear? (Should I have voiced my opinion? well, I did)I never see the complete costume on her and as far as I know no photos exist of it. I will ask her if she has any. When she got to the party and put her costume on it was too uncomfortable and she changed out of it. We get a text somewhere south of midnight...I just checked for the text where she said she was at CJ's where she was going to spend the night and maybe I imagined it, I can't find it. I thought she left the party early. She is at the age where she can do things that no one will find out about unless she tells them. I know a few of those stories, but I'm sure some of the more, well we all know the stories we don't tell our parents. If she left the party earlier or it was early in the morning it doesn't matter because she lived through it.

On the same night as Nastia goes to her Halloween party Nyack has their parade. Over the years Nyack has had some really good and some really bad parades. The best ones were when we lived in Nyack and the parade went right by the house. We had a party and the parade was almost an after thought. This year I put the two usual chairs in the car. We're a little late getting down there so we park on Catherine street and walk. I take my chair and offer to take Teri's. She says to leave it in the car. We find a good spot behind a barricade in front of the bank that is just off the corner of South Franklin Avenue. We spread out and I

sit. No one else wanted a chair and as we wait people start crowding in on our spot.In the past the barricade didn't exist all the way up the street. I'd sit down with a front row view and when the parade started I'd be six rows back. With the barricade I keep my front row view. It is great and the parade is pretty good this year. After the parade we go out to eat. I think we go to the Hard Wok. It is weird, it's just Teri, Nancy and I, no kids.I miss them.

Several weeks before Halloween I am cleaning in the attic and find all or at least most of the Halloween stuff. We hadn't put anything up in years. Elena sees it and puts it all up. She even buys a blow up cat and and blow up T-Rex costume. While we're at the Halloween Parade she sends us a video of her in the costume. Later she tells us the music is from Jurassic Park

On Halloween eve, called gate night when I grew up, kids would go out in packs and get into 'mischief' The next day you'd see toilet paper hanging from trees, peoples windows soaped up. In later years it got to be a little more destructive and pumpkins would get smashed. As I got older we'd make sure the cars were not in a place to get hit. This year as in most of the last twenty or so 'Gate Night' is not what it was, if anyone even remembers it. In this hyper partisan world I guess that's not a bad thing.

At dinner one night before Halloween Nastia anounces she has to wear a costume to her job at West Nyack Elementry. She rules out the cat costume, too short and sexy. She thinks she has an old costume. I tell her I have the lion costumes from when they were fist here in America. Nastia always game for something really silly agrees to try them on. She tries on the first one I pull out, her old costume, not even close. I pull out her sister costume and I'd say not quite big enough.

Now Halloween, it self like 'Gate Night' has also suffered. Razor blades in candy and all of those other things ruined it. Covid put the last few nails in it's coffin, except in Nyack, on North Broadway. I haven't been down there in the last several years, but Halloween in Congers, on South Harrison Avenue has never been that exciting. We had our decorations up I got out of work and I'm driving down South Harrison Avenue towards the house and I see a group of kid and parents. A quick count would have come up with a total of about twelve. I think, well maybe Covid hangover is going to bring everybody out. They'd passed the house by the time I'd gotten there, but Elena's car is parked in the driveway so she must have given them candy. I enter the house and she is in the shower, she's going out with Matt. and the candy is still in the bags. I set everything up and then wait... Sometime about two hours late we get our first kids. Then sometime around eight I answer the door and two little kids are at the door. We have so much candy left. I give both of them some. Mom is down at the bottom of the stairs watching. The older girl gets her's first. The boy of about four, I guess gets his. Just before he leaves I say, "Give your mom this and hand him a candy. I have to laugh when he grabs the candy and says, "No, that's mine." So I try again and hand him a second candy saying give this one to mom and this time he says, "No, that's mine." Twice is funny, I give up and let him go. It's the highlight of the night. Oh, about two weeks or so ago Nastia began hanging out with Elena and Sean from work. I thought little about it. Not to insult anybody, but he is not the type of guy she would be interested in. I thought she was hanging out with Elena when she happened to be with Sean.

One night, this past Tuesday, she asks if she can invite Sean to dinner. She's done this before with Dylan and before that Kevin. During dinner everyone is talking about going on vacation to different places. Nastia keeps saying something like when are you going to take me there? She has this habit of flirting with guys she is not going to date. And again Sean is not her type. He is tall, a little heavy and he's white. Nastia tends toward skinny black guys. Call me a racist if you want, but a fact is a fact. We all wish we just saw a person, but we don't. Anyway...Nastia goes into the kitchen with some plates and I follow. Quietly I say to her she needs to quit flirting with someone she is not going to date. I tell her, "You have broken enough hearts and one day someone will not take it so well." I think her reply is something along the lines of," Well, you might be seeing him here more often, I think I'd like to date him." Again it's something like that. Her message is we're not dating yet, negotiations are under way, nah, that's not either. Well, they weren't dating yet, but they hope to be soon. To say the least I was surprised. We talked briefly about Jonathan and how he is leaving for three years, he's in the service. Teri sushes us every so often. The bottom line is they are dating, I think now. Speaking of dating, guess who are back together...(It's hard to write that with out laughing) Matt and Elena. He came over for dinner too. Nastia came to me one night and said, "Guess who are back together? Matt and my sister." I think I laughed and said they never broke up. It's like a sunny day. It may not be here right now, but it's going to be back and that, like Matt is a good thing. I think they make each other happy. Now if they could just solve whatever it is that makes them need space from each other. I'll see if I can look in the book of Elena and see why they need space from one and other every so often. Damn, it's locked like it usually is. That dinner was on a Tuesday.

Sean came over again for dinner on Thursday for enchiladas, Tuesday's orginial dinner. Well she did say we'd be seeing him around more often then the last one. /

Inside the book of Elena again, a little, with pictures.

Elena has always been the private one of the two. Nastia if she has a secret, wait and she'll maybe tell you. Elena, before she tells a secret, you'll have to go through a few birthdays and then she'll tell you she forgot what the secret is, but I'm sure she now has another secret to keep, like the fact she really didn't forget the first secret. Teri won't agree with me that Elena is a big mystery. She will agree that she is private and loyal and puts up a big tough front that will sometime crumble and she'll start crying disolving into your arms and suddenly her vulnerability is breaking your heart. Is she this really tough person who has a wall of paper mache (for all you neophytes (a person who is new to a subject, skill, or belief.) Paper mache is glue and water with shredded newpaper or use flour and water with newpaper) protecting herself. Sometimes it doesn't feel that way.

There have been times where her and I will get into an arguement and it will escalate to a dangerous point. Once and I talked about it, oh about a year and change ago I came home and didn't realize I was in a bad mood. I went up to talk to the girls about dinner and I find out they are going for a walk. I tell them, the fuck you are. Elena rips into me and she keeps verbally coming at me. I guess I was at her too, I'm not sure anymore. What I am sure of is I almost put her through a wall that night.Looking back at it if I had, I don't think my relationship with Elena and Teri would have ever recovered. They would have changed toward me for the worse and who know how much worse. After that night I promised myself I'd never lose my temper like that again with her. Whenever I feel that anger raising I disengage. I stop talking to her. If she continues on I don't reply. I never want to get that angry at her ever again. Nastia has noticed the difference in how we treat the two of them and I admitted to her that because herr sister never backs down, she gets away with things that Nastia would not. I asked her to not tell her sister that. And since Elena doesn't read this blog either she may never find out.

Elena is a contradiction to me. She has Anami charactors on her car hood and doors. She has T-Rex seat covers. If she gets married she wants a dinosaur wedding (yes, just what it sounds like) and she has a Stitch steering wheel cover. She wears mens underwear and only occationally womens. She is independant, sometimes forgets she is part of a family, she has strong feeling towards Matt. I think she loves him, sometimes she might even like him. When he comes around the house that is when she likes him and he has been around the house lately. Which also means hickies are again appearing on her neck. Such is Elena. She works in a tire place in New City. She normally has few wants. She took a pay cut to move to the tire place, but works more hours. She has more money in the bank then any of us. She has tattoos, she hasn't gotten her complete sleeve yet. All that she has is vines going up her arm.She wants sculls, her mother is trying to convince her out of it. Me, I think tattoos make a persons skin look like it needs a good washing, so I keep my mouth shut. Elena is private. Nastia will say she has her peroid. Only way you know Elena has her's is after she has been unusually nasty in an arguement Teri will say, she is getting her peroid.

Life in a house of women is fun and maddening. I guess women in a house of men/boys have another version of it. I try to be as close to each of them as they will let me. Sometimes I feel real close to Elena. Maybe after I've shown her how to fix something that I learned how to do on my own I will feel there is no barriers between us. Then there will be that time, maybe around dinner time after she has showered and her hands are still a little black from work, her mother will comment about them. "Oh, Elena your hands are still so dirty!". Of course Elena will reply, "I like em like that!" Elena will get testy, all right, nasty and say things that should not be said and if they are said should not be left unanswered. But going down that road leads to damaged walls and broke relationships. A route I never want to travel.So mostly I've learned to sit quietly and let the waves of anger from her wash over and past me. If I ever feel the desire to answer one of her statements and I can't resist or maybe I've forgotten I need to sit this one out. Teri will alway tell me to leave it alone and mostly after the first leave it alone I do, thank God.

Don't get me wrong life with Elena is lots of fun. Someone told Teri that Elena was going to be the one who breaks your heart. I've alway assumed that is in a good way, you know when she does something that is unexpected and just totally out of left field. You'll sit back and go, " My God,what possessed her to do that. I have been so touched by her generosity of spirit sometime that I have no words for it. She is always the one who goes all in for the holidays. I found some Halloween decorations from years past. She saw them and up they went. Now when it comes to taking them down...yeah, well no one is perfect. /