AA 757 skids off runway on 12/29/2010

Wednesday morning in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, an American Airlines 757 slid off the runway in snowy conditions (additional info here and here.) My friend Mike (who is also my friend Doug’s older brother) had been vacationing in Wyoming for two weeks. He wasn’t on that particular AA flight, but was due to fly back to NJ Wednesday afternoon. The original Wednesday plan was that after the movie, Doug & Kathy would drive 10 mins over to Newark Airport and pick him up.

After the Wednesday accident, the Jackson Hole airport was closed down, and no AA or United flights were going in or out that day. Mike was able to make arrangements to catch another flight the next day (Thursday) to O’Hare, but ending in Philadelphia. Since I live only an hour from Philadelphia, and Mike lives 15 mins from our house, I volunteered to pick him up. I left for the Philadelphia airport around 12:30am, and dropped him home in NJ without issue. By the time I got home, it was 3:15am. What a long day!

Liberty Science Center

In years past when the kids were both in daycare, my wife and I would normally be off to enjoy life as adults. As Joshua is now in kindergarten, he is off this week, and he’s been bored. He’s not saying it in so many words, but he certainly has cabin fever, and constantly asks us, “What can I do now?”  We decided that a trip to the museum, and outside of the house, would be good for him. Lily went to daycare, and my wife had some office work to do, so it was just a boys’ trip to the museum. We haven’t been to the LSC since January 2009, so it has certainly been a while.

It was an easy drive up to Jersey City mid-morning, and LSC looked exactly the same. After spending about $50 last year, I was determined to cut the costs. I looked for discounts through my employee, but found none. I checked the 3D and IMAX films, but there were none that looked that interesting. I elected to skip the movie and save $20. I’m also realizing that there is no benefit of shoehorning a million activities into the itinerary of a 5-year old. Kids end up exhausted, and they don’t enjoy it. There were a few new exhibits, but I elected to skip the new Mastodon Lubya to save money. We visited all the floors, but Joshua most enjoyed the I-Explore childrens area. Apparently, he’s been yearning to play with uncooked rice and use the ball contraption machines since 2009, and that was all he was interested. As a matter of fact, he wrote down what his itinerary was, and “rice” was on there twice.

I decided not to fight it, as long as he was having a good time, but next time I’m just buying a bag of Uncle Ben’s. I do want to tell others that there quite a number of exhibits that weren’t functioning. Cutbacks?

Today, we dropped both kids off to Lily’s daycare, and drove up to Jersey Gardens to meet with our friends Doug & Kathy for lunch and a movie. We had lunch at Ruby Tuesday (FYI, I’m not impressed with their steaks), and went to see the Coen Brothers new movie True Grit, a remake of the original 1969 John Wayne picture. Our options for the double-date were either True Grit or TRON: Legacy, but I didn’t think the lovely womenfolk would want to sit through TRON. After watching the various trailers for True Grit, I thought it looked great.

True Grit stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, and Josh Brolin. If you haven’t heard, Hailee Steinfeld hires Jeff Bridges’ character Rooster Cogburn to hunt the man (Josh Brolin) who shot and killed her father. Matt Damon plays Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (“LeBeef”) who accompanies them during the journey, also on the trail of this murderer. Although the trailer looked phenomenal, I wasn’t blown away by this movie. It was well done, and the script was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue, especially newcomer Hailee Steinfeld’s lines. I was pleased to see Barry Pepper (of Saving Private Ryan and Battlefield Earth fame) making an appearance as an outlaw.

There is some normal and expected Joel & Ethan Coen oddness to the film, for better or worse, but the overall experience was enjoyable, and I would recommend this movie.

True Grit (2010)

New gadget alert! My sister and my BIL got us a Cisco Flip UltraHD video camera. Nice! I feel both happy & excited, and sad & guilt-ridden about this though, to be honest. Why?

Happy & Excited– Now it will be easy to shoot HD-quality home video of the kids and family that can be easily uploaded to the desktop PC, and ultimately publish them online.

Sad & Guilt-Ridden — We bought in 2005/2006 our Canon GS250 camcorder after much research and saving up the $700 for the purchase. One of the advantages is the quality of the video and the ability to transfer to a home PC. The reality of the situation is that I have experienced nothing but frustration it attempting to transfer recorded video to our PC. It is hit-or-miss to get the PC software to recognize the camcorder when connected. I’ve probably gotten the software to successfully connect only a handful of times. When it has worked, you can’t hit download and have it transferred to your PC. The only way to transfer is to hit PLAY on the camcorder, hit CAPTURE on the desktop software, and have the PC capture the video as it plays each minute on the camcorder. Talk about a kludgy design. To make the situation worse, I lost the external DC power cord, so I can only transfer for as long as the camcorder battery lasts. Ridiculous.

New year, new process for recording video. Let’s hope for the best this year, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Cisco Flip UltraHD video camera

Yikes, how did we get a blizzard? We have 1-2 feet of snow here in New Jersey, and I am very glad to be home. I checked the weather last week and there was no snowfall in the forecast. All of a sudden, I started hearing on Friday that there was a large snowstorm expected Sunday night. Eh? What? Snowstorm?

Snowstorm indeed. We spent Sunday night and Monday all day inside as the snow fell and the high winds whipped the snow through the air. It was nice to stay inside, but I had to go shoveling in the evening around 4pm. My sister and her husband were supposed to come over on Christmas, but everyone was too tired. Sunday’s forecast included a blizzard, so we postponed their visit to Monday evening.

I spent three hours shoveling and doing my best to clear a path. The snow wasn’t too heavy, but the high winds had resulted in tall drifts of snow that took me forever to shovel.

Bundled up for the blizzard

Christmas Excellence continues to reign supreme. In hallowed tradition, my wife cooks up a nice lunch/dinner for us, and my sister and her husband Robbie come over to partake and exchange gifts. I don’t remember the exact name for it, but this year she made some sort of braised pork loin filled with ham and gruyere cheese, covered with an awesome mushroom/carrot/onion gravy. The sides were roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes. My sister made some delicious flan for dessert.

Christmas Excellence Dinner

Another fine Christmas season, my friends. Another fine Christmas seeing family and friends, being on vacation, and getting new toys.

1. I’m officially on vacation until January 3rd. Yes!
2. Friday, we drove up to NY to have lunch with my parents at their place. Among other things, my folks got Josh his first Nintendo DSi XL. We were a little concerned that it might be a little too advanced for him, and he did have some trouble with Mario Kart, but he said his Digging for Dinosaurs game was “awesome.” I’ll take that to mean he likes it.
3. Friday evening, we went to my in-laws for dinner. Um, we hung around, and the kids ran throughout the house screaming.
4. Saturday morning, we went to church, and then came home to open gifts. The kids had a good time, and my wife got me/us a new Tivo Premiere DVR to replace our Verizon-supplied Motorola STB for our FiOS television service.
5. I’m relaxing right now, but there’s talk of a blizzard tomorrow.

Opening presents at my parents'

At my in-laws'

With my niece Abigail

In keeping with tradition, it is the end of December, and time for my eighth recap of the year. Truth be told, I only started this in 2002, but for years before, I had another tradition. On the night before my birthday around midnight, I traditionally took a long walk around the neighborhood to think about my life — trying to figure out who I was, where my life was going, and where I needed to go. I think this stopped around the time I got married and Joshua was born. At that point, I was too busy to worry where I was going and what I was doing. It was more important to get some sleep and keep him (and later, Lily) out of trouble. I like the end-of-the-year recap better.

Life, Love, and Family

I would call this the year of transition. After much thinking, discussing, and soul-searching, we decided we’ve had enough kids. The two we have are good, and despite Joshua’s requests for a baby brother, we don’t feel like rolling the dice again. Personally, if you have two well-behaved smart children, one boy and one girl, that’s all you really need. We don’t need seven children to help run the farm, we’re not outnumbered, and we have room to easily accomodate two children, not a third. Once we decided that we’re done, it moved us to a new era of less stress and clutter. We could now safely donate and discard all the obsolete toys, clothes, and paraphenalia that we didn’t need to save for a possible future child. We took down the infant crib, and can make room for just what we need. We can even remove the baby-proofing around the house. We’re still in the process, but I like the decluttering process.

Speaking of the house, we also completed major redecorations. After five long years, we had the interior walls painted in March, followed by new window treatments & blinds in the living room. Once we did that, we began hanging up new artwork and photos. We also had new new gutters installed, which isn’t fun or exciting, but hey, it cost me $500, so I’ll mention it. I also replaced two light fixtures in our hallways with better, brighter ceiling lamps. Everyone loves more lighting, except vampires.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we moved to the world of high def television. After years (years!) of dreaming, salivating, and lusting for watching television and movies on the big screen, we picked up a new HDTV, new AV receiver, and a new stand to go along with our recently redecorated living room.  It’s been six months, and while Verizon FiOS doesn’t offer all the channels that I want (e.g Cartoon Network), it’s been a joy. I love watching movies on the big screen in my own living room, with a great sound system. I absolutely love it.  I would watch cooking shows in HD. Games look great, and getting the Logitech Harmony One remote has made overall navigation easier.

Joshua and Lily continued to keep us on our toes, but they were a lot of fun this year. They’ve gotten a year older and I admit that I find them interesting. Joshua is now five years old, and Lily turned two. They get along well with each other, apart from the occasional argument. Sometimes I’m torn between getting involved to resolve the argument, or letting them figure it out on their own.

Joshua’s genetics finally caught up with him, and he started wearing eyeglasses. He expressed interest in cycling, so we got him his first bicycle. He “graduated” from his daycare, and entered kindergarten in September. He also lost his first tooth, and there are more on the way out. In the first half of the year, we had enrolled him in a Saturday morning gym class. In the second half of the year, we enrolled him in a weekend township soccer league. Certainly an important year for him. We call him the Professor, because he still enjoys reading, and I laugh when wears his eyeglasses on the end of his nose and makes some astute observation about life.

Lily has been adorable, and she’s some sort of star of the daycare. She’s talking, laughing, and everyone loves her. She is definitely a drama queen, so I expect more trouble as the years go on. One night she wouldn’t sleep, so I scolded her. From the living room, I heard her run back up the stairs crying, running down upstairs hallway crying, slamming the bedroom door crying, and crying in her room. When did she become a teenager?

I’m an uncle again! My sister Julie gave birth to a happy and healthy baby girl named Abigail. I like being an uncle, and we’re trying to spoil her already. Yea, spoiled children!

I am now the ripe old age of 34. I am truly 30-something now. Next year, I’m 35. In five short years, I’ll be 40. I’m a little freaked out. Am I on track to conquering the world? Who am I? Am I committed to being an internal auditor for the rest of my life? Am I doing enough to climb the ladder of success? Do I need to kick it up a thousand notches?

Trips

Compared to last year, we didn’t take many trips. There was a lot of staycations — it was simply easier and cheaper. I am proud of our big Chicago-Michigan roadtrip in July. We haven’t been to the Midwest in two years since Thanksgiving 2008, while our friends Paul & Biji have visited us numerous times. Also, I’ve wanted to experience Chicago in the worst way. The trip was a lot of fun for everyone, and Nums and I celebrated this year’s “dating anniversary” with a nice dinner and movie.

Career

I suppose the big highlight that deserves mentioning is that I celebrated five years with Citi. That’s a big accomplishment — I’ve never reached that milestone with an employer before.

This year, I didn’t have a lot of work-related travel. I travelled to Jersey City for numerous audits during the year, spent two weeks in Delaware, and travelled to Dallas for a week.

I’m still trying to figure out the whole career direction. I started a Saturday GMAT course this year, but had to drop out due to the time committments. I couldn’t find the time after getting out of work, getting the kids to bed, and trying to find time to study each week. I’m retaking the course again in January, but I have my doubts on whether I want to pursue an MBA or not. What troubles me is that I’m still uncertain if the ROI on the MBA will justify the costs. I also haven’t made any headway on getting my fabled CISSP certification, but I haven’t given up hope. There’s also this new CRISC certification from ISACA that I could get grandfathered into, which I plan to do.

Favorite Moments

• Watching the kids grow up and be so damn cute. Yeah, I said cute. They’re funny kids.
• Finally moving up to seeing the world in high definition. It made my year.
• Getting back in the bike saddle after a long hiatus, and raising about $600 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. I was also proud for riding 90 miles in the same week (during a practice ride and during the charity ride itself.) I’ve never done that before in my entire life.
• We had two big parties at our house, both after major redecorating, in March and July. It was fun to have people over, and feel good about the house looking good too.

Worst Moments

• I tried losing the excess weight this year, but it was much harder than I thought. I ate better, I worked out more, but the initial weight loss slowed down, and eventually stopped. My weight gain over the past 5 years is depressing and frustrating to me. I have to rethink the attack plan for next year. I’m drawing a line in the fat
• In February, after spending a nice together, and then visiting some friends in the area, we were in bad car accident that ultimately resulted in about $12,000 worth of damage to our Toyota Highlander. It took six weeks, but the car is in mostly working order.
• We experienced an inordinate number of flat tires this year on the Toyota. Four flat tires, all on the same car. I’ve written plenty about it, but the only word I can use now to describe it is “inconceivable.”

Other Stuff

• One of my best friends, Sayali, moved to London. We’ll always have Facebook, but I miss laughing with her in person.
• Sad to see Better Off Ted and Stargate Universe cancelled.
• I said farewell to my BlackBerry, and got an iPhone 4. It’s different, but very interesting.
• I did a lot of grilling this summer, which is fun and easier than I thought it would be. The key is putting the grill together, then turning it on. Also, not dialing up the temperature to a high heat.
• Either in the movie theater or Netflix, I have watched 38 movies this year. That’s a lot. Is that a record? I can’t remember. It was a year of having more free time to rent and watch movies. When we could find babysitters, we went to the movie theater. Most of the time, we enjoyed the benefits of Netflix streaming.
  • The best ones were Inception, The Hangover, (500) Days of Summer, Tangled, The Blind Side, The Big Lebowski, The Departed, 3:10 to Yuma, and Into the Wild.
  • Worst ones were Valentine’s Day, Justice League: The New Frontier, Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs, A-Team, and Killers.

Looking Ahead to 2011

1. I want to take the kids on more day trips. Last year, I took Josh to a number of places, but this year was a quiet one. I was busy at work, so I want to balance that out with a few trips here and there for the kids. I suppose I should start taking Lily as well, but we’ll keep them more fun-focused instead of science-focused.
2. I’d like to visit Florida next year, or maybe Nevada. I’ve never seen the Grand Canyon before. Flights to California are not as expensive as I thought they were. I’m giving up my long-sought-after Boston train trip plans. I’d prefer some quality time at the beach.
3. I have to lose weight. I need a better plan, because what I’m doing now is not working. I need to further curtail the caloric intake, and up the frequency of cardio activity.
4. We’re also talking about redoing the backyard patio, which I think is a good idea. I might also want to paint the bathrooms.
5. Attaining CISSP and CRISC certifications, and making a decision about graduate school — yea or nay.
6. Finally, after serving us faithfully since March 2005, it’s time to get a new desktop PC. I’m pricing out quad-core or six-core HP PCs with 24″ HD LCD monitors in anticipation. I’m hoping to upgrade in March.

Some weekends are lazy, some have one event to keep us busy, and others are very popular. This past Saturday was one of those busy weekends. In the early afternoon, we had a birthday party for friends’ two-year old son. Afterwards, we had our traditional Christmas party for a specific circle of good friends.

In the morning, I had to run errands, and prep my entree for dinner that night. Somehow during the initial planning process, the men were drafted to do the primary cooking, while the women were taking care of some other small items. While I do simple cooking for the family, my wife is the expert when it comes to fancy food that guests eat. My dishes are easy, simple, and every-day-type cooking. I was surprised that this was really happening.

Luckily, my wife wasn’t about to let me hang out there to dry. She helped me by picking up the necessary groceries earlier that week, and then directing me that morning in how to make tandoori chicken — skin the chicken, here’s how to make the marinade/paste, etc.

Calum's 2nd Birthday Party

After the food was prepped and in the fridge, we all got ready for both parties, and hit the road. We dropped off the food with our dinner party hosts that evening, Pradeesh and Sona, and went to the birthday party. The party was very nice, and the kids had their faces painted. It was also good to converse and hang out with friends we haven’t seen in person for a long while.

In the evening, we went to pick up some champagne and other items, and went to the dinner party. All of the men’s food came out great, but so did everyone’s. My tandoori chicken was a big hit, and was finished in about 10 minutes. Nobody could believe that this was my first time making tandoori chicken, but I explained that I had a lot of help.

My Tandoori chicken

The highlight of the dinner party was the Secret Santa Gift exchange. This year, Vijay handed over the mantle of “Christmas Santa”, and Pradeesh was now “Christmas Pappa.” All that actually entails is setting up the participants in Elfster, and ensuring that everyone gets matched up appropriately. Interestingly enough, Nums was my secret santa, and got me a classy black winter coat and a nice dressy sweater to match. I’ve been waiting to get a nice coat for work, so this was great.

Great party, and we got home around 1am. Phew, it was a long day. I didn’t take too many photos, so the ones published online are courtesy of Master Photographer Sunil.

On Saturday night after the kids went to bed, we watched (500) Days of Summer. I would classify this film as a 2009 indie offbeat romantic comedy. It probably wasn’t a true romantic comedy, as you know early on that the couple breaks up at the beginning of the film. I won’t spoil the end of the film, but by film telling you they have broken up, it changes the dynamics. The audience now has no idea the path where the story will go, or how it will end. After watching so many of these lazy paint-by-the-numbers romantic comedy films churned out by the Hollywood movie machine, it is refreshing to be surprised and not know how a story will turn out.

Joseph Gordon-Leavitt plays Tom, an aspiring/struggling architect who is currently working for a greeting card company. He meets the new hire admin asst Summer, played by Zoey Deschanel. As the film progresses, the story jumps back and forth in time (marked by a counter denoting which day of the relationship it is), but the audiences that, due to the timer, the relationship is a ticking time bomb.

The story was entertaining and fresh, the direction was well done, and acting was very good. I liked Joseph Gordon-Leavitt in this. I recommend this movie.

(500) Days of Summer (2009)