Planning Our Honeymoon

I've added a little poll to the blog. See it over there? Just to the right? If you're here before March 1, then you can help us decide by submitting your answer. Since this will likely be the last time for a long time that we will be able to go on a big trip, we want to make it something special. So, random passerby, friend or family member, I'd love your thoughts. If non of the options seem good, add a comment! My thoughts...

- Relaxing and exciting, depending on the day
Scuba diving would be a huge plus. And beaches are great... but for a day or so, then it gets boring. A new culture and exotic food also big pluses.

- Can plan it ourselves
So no cruise or all-inclusive.

- Good weather in November
No Caribbean, most of the Northern Hemisphere. Japan would have been great... but too cold in November. Booo on the Sun heating up the Southern Hemisphere when we're not there.

- Somewhere neither of us have been
This knocks out most of Europe. Besides the Big Trip, we've made some separate trips that cancel out Spain, Eastern Europe, Ireland & Greece, among others. All of which could have been good options. I've seen a good deal of the US and Dana's been to Costa Rica already. Obviously Australia & New Zealand are also out.

So we found ourselves thinking about South America, specifically Brazil and Argentina. In Brazil we could check the Amazon before or after doing some great diving and sun-bathing. In Argentina, there are loads of interesting parks and gorgeous places to hike. Buenos Aires would feed us well. Plus Dana's fluent in Spanish, and I can get by. And we also are giving Hawaii a thought. My parents loved it 40 years ago.

Your thoughts, human?

Syd's New Home

Syd, our Russian tortoise, was getting a bit cramped in her home, so I built her a new one. Using these plans as a base, I constructed a 4 by 2 pen for her and threw some wheels on the bottom. Syd seems much happier now, cruising around in circles. Here's a clip of Syd checking things out:


A little more on these interesting animals... they're also called the Horsfield's tortoise. Agrionemys horsfieldii.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: Testudinidae
Genus: Testudo (disputed)
Species: T. horsfieldii

Native to central Asia, around the border of Russia and Afghanistan, these war-weary animals are bred in captivity and make for low-maintenance pets. Unfortunately, many are smuggled into the country as part of the exotic pet trade. If you decide to find a Russian tortoise for your household, make sure he or she had been bred in captivity.


Russian tortoises like to climb and burrow. The bedding, made from recycled paper and cardboard, gives her something to dig in, and we're looking to add some more toys for her to climb on. For now, she has to make do with the tunnel and rock from her last residence:


When people meet Syd for the first time, they're always surprised by two things:
1. Her speed. Lightning.
2. Her compassion. She's the most affectionate tortoise you could imagine.

Here she is climbing over her retreat and then doing a faceplant:


Syd dancing - just a bit:

Syd Eats

Best Sensory Items of 2007

With all the "best of" lists floating around, I figured I would put together a little list of my own.

Best Taste:
Kangaroo. I miss that bouncy meat. Low in fat, high in protein and Iron, and environmentally friendly! We used it for everything from burritos to spaghetti Bolognese.

Best Smell:
Gorilla Coffee. Roasted right here in Brooklyn and making it easier for me to adjust from the excellent Aussie coffees, a bag of this powdered gold sends me to heaven without ever leaving the borough.

Best Sight:
Sydney Harbour - Opera House, Harbour Bridge and all - from Kirribilli as the sun set on the day Dana and I got engaged.

Best Feeling:
Being attacked by mosquitoes in Florence. Possibly the most fun miserable night.

Best Sound:
LCD Soundsystem or Talk of the Nation - from my nano.

Pet Warfare

"An absurd future civilization, where the human capacity to empathize has been eliminated because of the absence of all household pets, reinvents creativity through massive infusions of crayons, puppets, pendulums and TV programs."

That concise description accompanied "Pet Warfare" during its release at the Notre Dame Student Film Festival in 1998. I made the short with Brian Fremeau and the help of many fellow students. Thanks to Ted Mandell at the Department of Film, Television & Theater, I have a copy of this film today! I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to leave a comment here.

To view a higher quality version of this, click here. It works if you have QuickTime installed. I'll get other versions up after the holidays.

A Break For My Lead Arms

I have not been posting much because I have been so busy with the new apartment. Every day for weeks I've had to lift, pull, drill, hammer, pack, push, work! Don't get me wrong, it's very rewarding to see the place come together, but my arms feel like lead. So yesterday was going to be the one day I wouldn't do any physical labor. I decided to give my arms a day's rest. In the late afternoon, I was heading out to meet some friends and passed an older woman in the lobby. She had one of those large carts, packed with laundry, and she was getting into the elevator. I said hello, continued outside and didn't make it too far before I realized I forgot my phone. When I went back into the building, the woman was pulling her cart up the first step in the stairwell.
"You don't want to use the elevator?" I asked.
"It's not working," she replied.
Obviously I offered to carry it up for her. "What floor?"
"Six."
I needed the exercise.

U is for Uncompetent and also it's for Uncomparablefriends

We're in!

Saturday was the busy day, after the many busy days before it. Ben & Beth came out to South Orange on Friday night so that we could get an early start in the morning. I picked up bagels before 7AM from Sonny's, where they assured me that I would still be able to get good bagels in Brooklyn. In fact, good ole Bergen Bagel's is only a five-minute walk from our new place... I was there first thing on Sunday, at 10AM.

We also hired two professional movers we know, Edwin and Marlon, and this made the move run even smoother. Loading started at 8:20 and finished at 10:20. The result was a 17 foot U-Haul jam-packed with everything except the stuff we forgot. Not bad for only 6 pairs of hands.

My folks came and drove Dana and Beth to Brooklyn, along with some other stuff that had to get there one way or another. Ben and I took the truck. There to meet us at the new place at around noon were seven more: Cristi, Jay, Jon, Ken, Nate, Pierre and Randy. Thanks to these great friends, we were able to get the truck back to U-Haul at 2PM. It didn't stop there! As soon as all of our stuff was in the apartment, our mover/friends founds things to do: putting together the bed or the couch or the overcomplicated thing that goes over the toilet. Good friends.

We ordered Cherry Tree pizza, which was not closed, as Phil had reported, and which was excellent. The moving party turned into a regular party!

Since then, we've had the phone, Internet & cable installed. A burglar alarm, and C02 and smoke detectors. We've installed shelving and have been unpacking and organizing like mad... but the place is still not presentable. Until it is, all we have are the moving photos. I couldn't whip out the camera at the most interesting moments, like trying to get the 500lb armoire out of the truck and up four flights... if I had done that, I would have smacked myself.

*U is for Uncompetent refers to U-Haul. I suggest you never use them, even if it's cheaper.