Philly and Arlington Visit to New York

We had a wonderful Sinagra family visit from Philadelphia and Virginia!

The house was noisy but alot of fun!

Take a look at the "bathing beauties" at the beach! We Italians got a nice tan, but those family members who are half polish had to coat themselves in sunscreen to avoid being sunburned. It pays to have olive skin!

Alice was Jessie Dog's tail, and they enjoyed each other all week. Alice especially loved having a backyard to run around in.

Our grandchildren are growing up so fast and are so entertaining. Each one has their own personality.

They gave us lots of laughs, hugs and kisses.

We are ready for another visit from them all! Maybe in about a month. :)

Episode II

Happy Summer

Today is the first day of summer! And with a new season we're going with another new look!

Bummer Vacation

Today is the first day of my summer vacation. My plan was to wake up late, fart around on the internet, and generally do nothing all day.
This is how my day actually went…

5:04 am Drank too much water last night, got up to pee.
6:00 am Alarm went off, forgot to turn it off last night.
6:30 am Carmellina climbs into bed and makes a game of kicking me.
7:15 am Rosemary and Joey join in.
7:45 am Carmellina punches me in the family jewels, Jess takes them all downstairs for breakfast
8:15 am Carmellina comes back upstairs to tell me Rosemary is getting spanked downstairs (which the entire neighborhood can hear)
8:30 am Walk the dog.
9:00 am sit down to breakfast with the family, Joey poops, Jessie leaves, Rosie follows.
9:15 am Jess remembers Carmellina has piano lessons in 15 minutes, we all scramble
9:20 am Carmellina and I head out the door to her lessons
10:30 am Swing back to the house to get Rosemary and head back up town to the comic book shop with the girls
12:00 pm Home
12:15 pm Fell asleep on the couch
1:15 pm Lunch
1:45 pm Sat back down on my bed (which is where I intended to be all morning) and wrote this blog.
1:46 pm Jess, Rosemary, Carmellina, and Joey are all back on the bed with me.

It’s now 2:16 and in less than an hour an air conditioner repair man is coming to fix our leaking wall unit, as well as my landlord who is coming to replace a broken light fixture in the basement. Before today is over I expect
1) the air conditioner will still be broken
2) I’ll end up doing most of the work on the light fixture in the basement
3) the light fixture will still be broken

As far as relaxing on my summer vacation…well we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Hulk vs. Superman

Before I forget to give all of you the answer...

In the original Hulk vs. Superman comic, the Incredible Hulk won the first fight in the comic, but Superman came back and beat him the second time around.

In true comic fashion...the two eventually realized that Lex Luthor was playing them against each other and they team up to defeat him.

Now as far as your votes on who you think would win...

Really? You guys think Superman would win? I thought the Hulk had, like, impervious skin and stuff...wouldn't he be unstoppable? Besides, didn't Superman get his butt kicked when he fought Doomsday? We wasn't as strong as the Hulk and he killed Superman!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Dad(s)!

We love you(se).

Ahhhhh...

The heat is gone! Let's party like it's 1959!

Seven Years

Seven years ago today Jess and I tied the knot.
After searching through many photo discs and files I have discovered that I own absolutely zero digital pictures from our wedding. I guess we've come a long way since then.
Even better, this is the only pic I could find of us together!

I think we need to spend the next seven years trying to get a nice photo of the two of us!

Can't Take The Heat

Okay...so I'm writing this blog at 9:45 at night and the thermometer says IT'S STILL 88 DEGREES OUTSIDE!!! I am roasting!

Awww nuts.

Okay, so for some reason our digital point-and-shoot camera has stopped working. We can still take pics with our SLR but Jess is a little nervous to use that one, also no more point-and-shoot means no more digital videos for now. So there might be a little less to see here for a little bit. Sorry folks.

Wizard World

This Saturday I reached a personal plateau in geek-ness. I attended my first Wizard World convention. The convention run by Wizard Magazine, a mag entirely devoted to previewing, reviewing, and pricing comics, action figures, and comic related collectibles. My personal interest in the convention is tied to the "Magic: The Gathering" TCG, but I won't bore you with the details of the game. I'll just let you explore that one on your own.

I went with Jeremy, a very dear friend of mine who used to be my roommate back in grad-school, Roger, one of my current students and avid Star Wars and comic book fan, and met up with Paul, one of my former students who is now almost done with college.

We spent the day looking at comics, toys and costumes and eating at Reading Terminal Market (a must on any trip to Old City).

I got some Star Wars toys for the kids, a Wonder Woman limited edition collectible figurine (not a doll) for Jess and a couple t-shirts for myself.

One of the best things about the day, though, was the annual costume contest. Always prepared ever vigilant, I of course left my camera at home. But fear not! Thanks to modern day technology I was, with the help of my cell phone, able to take some really bad pictures to share with all of you. So without further ado, my cell phone photo essay.

Security was really tight that day. This poor kid tried to take an extra post card when the Halo guy just ran in and nabbed him.

I don't know about the rubber rain boot Cyclops back there, but that Sean Connery/Dr. Jones guy has it going on!

Okay, this isn't a costume, but it's a major geek related item. A flail with 2d20 on the end instead of spiked heads! Wow, I'll bet those lvl.4 Dark Elves won't know what hit them!

Oh Kong...those eyes...those lips...kiss me you fool!

Found him!

Wow buddy. I don't know what your secret is, but you want to let us in on it?

Who ya gonna call? This guy!

Yes, it's really him, Lou Ferrigno. And for just $30 you can get a Polaroid of him. Or, if you stand a little to the right you can use your cell phone and get one for free. I hope I didn't get him angry.

I'm not even sure this character even had a name but that didn't stop this lady from making it a costume.

If you want to leave you gotta get past this guy first...

...then this guy.

I really wish I had brought my camera. Then I could have shown you even more of these costumes. I could have shown you a bald, 275 lb Robin in a speedo, the Flash in his pajamas, Iron Man reduced to "Cardboard and Tempera Paint Man", the Stay-Puft Storm Trooper, a 5'2" Batman, a half dozen Jokers, two dozen Storm Troopers, and, of course, the obligatory Princess Leia in the slave costume. I'll just have to leave it to your imagination.

But it really was a lot of fun to go and enjoy yourself and not worry about what people around you are thinking, because clearly they're not thinking anything.

The best part is, Jeremy and I plan to go as the Hulk and Captain America next year. Just gotta find myself some red speedos and bright blue spandex first...

P.S. Check out the new polls in honor of this geek-centric weekend.