Friday, September 21, 2001

a brief laugh for the new year

Tuesday we bought a Carvel ice cream cake for dessert after our Rosh Hashanah
dinner. When we put it out on the table, Jolee remarked about the writing on
the cake and said "Happy Jew Year!" Shayna then did some performance art in
which she simultaneously ate the cake and wore it as well.

Sunday, September 16, 2001

Waiter, there are gymnasts in my soup!

What a week. Thanks to all of you who have sent thoughts and prayers our way.

If you hadn't heard, we're all okay here. I work in midtown so I was not displaced by the events of September 11.

I would like to share some happy thoughts with you all. On Saturday, Jolee returned to gymnastics classes at the Brooklyn Gymnastics Center, and Shayna started her classes too. Jolee had a blast, but Shayna proved she is no scaredy cat and an avid student of the sport.

Afterwards, we went to the park.

I have some photos up on photopoint. My apologies for the quality on some of the gymnastics shots, they're a bit blurry, but cute nonetheless.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=852120&a=13762428

Everyone please take care

Bill

Thursday, September 06, 2001

Jolee Goes to Kindergarten

Ok Ok, if you feel old with the knowledge that Jolee has now entered
kindergarten, imagine how we feel.

Jolee started kindergarten today at New York City P.S. 104, also known as The
Fort Hamilton School (We live on the southern tip of Bay Ridge, bordering
historic Fort Hamilton, in Brooklyn).

If you want to see what Jolee looked like on her first day of school, please
visit our Photopoint website at:

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=852120&a=13725864

If you're really bored and want to learn more about PS 104, you can read the
school's Annual Report by going to http://www.nycenet.edu/daa/00asr/d20.html
and clicking on the link for PS 104. You will need Adobe Acrobat to do so.

Jolee has half-days today and tomorrow.

Shayna misses Jolee already and cried when we took her alone to daycare. On
full days, Jolee will spend her late afternoons there, so Shayna won't be
entirely lonely.

Thanks to all of you who sent such nice comments about the Coney Island
pictures!

Talk to you soon,

Bill

Tuesday, September 04, 2001

Is this thing on?

Testing 1, 2, 3

I was recently talking to someone on the phone when they complained to me
about the lack of Jolee and Shayna updates since the turn of the millennium,
and I asked them what they were talking about. I've been doing them
religiously, I asserted, perhaps they were just not getting them. I showed
them my computer and the hundreds of saved files that I have toiled
laboriously over in the past several years. "Bill, you dolt!" my friend
replied, "You used a 2 instead of an ampersand (@) in everyone's e-mail
address! You forgot to hit the shift key! Didn't the e-mail come back to you
as unsendable?" Hmmm, I thought, now that you mention it, no one sent me
comments about my Dave Barry-like wit over the past several years, no
comments about my Pulitzer-like writing style. "Yes," I grudgingly admitted,
"But I just thought it was a side effect of the AOL-Time Warner deal. At
least I have them saved, so I can send them out to everyone belatedly!" It
was at this point that my friend morphed into a Mako shark and said, "Yeah,
right! Like anyone will believe such a story!" He then grabbed my hard drive
in his fierce jaws and dove out through the hole in the window screen that
Jolee and Shayna have managed to widen with numerous digits and Barbie heads.

What can I say? I hope everyone has had a splendid holiday weekend. We all
went to Coney Island yesterday and visited the New York aquarium. Among the
highlights were the beluga whales and the dolphin show, except for the part
when I was violently splashed by a Dolphin named Presley. Shayna only
shielded me partially, and I learned, Never Laugh at Your Wife When She Has
Been Splashed By A Dolphin Because You Will End Up With A Mouthful of
Seawater.

Then, we headed over to the plethora of amusement rides that are along the
boardwalk, the highlight of which was riding on the world-famous Wonder
Wheel. Of course, pictures are worth a thousand words, and so it goes: for
visual images, please visit

(Defunct Site)

Enjoy!

Bill