Museum of Mathematics

We took a trip to the National Museum of Mathematics. There was quite a bit to do there, and many of the attractions can take a lot of time. I wouldn't mind going again.

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In The Office With The Kids

I brought the kids into the office with me. This was the first time I had them both with me at the same time. When we got to the office another dad, who also brought his son and daughter asked me if my kids could go watch TV in the conference room with his kids. He didn't believe me at first when I told them they had a bunch of work to do. It was a little awkward. Despite all the work, we all had a good time together.

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Hanukkah 2014

We went to babcia and dziadek's house for Hanukkah. We ate lots of latkes and played Hanakkah bingo as usual. Everyone was happy with their prizes and their presents, and too full for dinner.

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Trot To Liberty Science Center

After Andrea and Eason ran in the 1 mile turkey trot, we all ran off to meet our friends at the Liberty Science Center. The kids climbed around in the Infinity Climber and played at the Skyscraper exhibit, and we saw the the Rubic's Cube exhibit, the Tesla Lightning Show. The whole day was a lot of fun.

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Thanksgiving 2014

For Thanksgiving we had our family over again, except that this was the first Thanksgiving without my mom. Eason and Andrea were a big help with the cooking and setting up. Aviva made Bloody Marys. We watched slide shows of previous Thanksgivings. Eason helped Jerry carve the turkey a bit. All the food was delicious.

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Halloween 2014

For Halloween this year I spent the entire day in costume. "If you don't know who I am, then... maybe your best course would be to tread lightly."

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Jerry's Birthday Surprise

We surprised Jerry for his big birthday at El Quijote. He was surprised and a good time was had by all.

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Camping At Beaver Pond 2014

We went camping with our friends at Beaver Pond again. For a while it looked like it might be too rainy, but as soon as we got in the vicinity it was all sunny. The kids pitched the tents and helped get the camp fire going. Then we stayed up by the fire and told stories.

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Rosh Hashanah

We had Rosh Hashanah dinner with our family at Le Provençal Bistro. It wasn't as much fun as getting together at our family's house, like we used to, but it's still nice to get together with family.

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I'm Glad I Backed Up, So I Can Move On...Eventually

As my summer vacation was wrapping up, I noticed that some programs in my remote session to my computer at home were hanging. I wasn't using my computer that much so I decided to ignore it. Then I received a message on my desktop from my Carbonite backup program telling me it had frozen my backup since it detected a problem with one of my disks. There wasn't much I could do until I got home.

Packing Up At The Bungalow

We packed up the bungalow. The kids helped, including bringing the boats up, and then I took them for a ride on the tractor.

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Bad Form: Why Your Core Workout Isn't Working Out

In Why ab workouts are a waste of time personal trainer Steve Steinberg gets it right about how the only way to achieve abdominal definition is to reduce the fat around your belly. And because spot reduction is a myth, the way to do this is primarily improving your diet and increasing muscle mass (which burns calories throughout the day), and only secondarily with cardiovascular exercise. So if what you're looking for is definition, you never have to work your abs again.

Bungalow Vacation

A typical day at the bungalow is sleeping late, going for a run around the lake with the kids, going out on one of the boats (we have a row boat, a pedal boat, a canoe, and multiple kayaks), going for a swim in the lake if it is warm enough, playing games (either throwing a ball around, or on the tennis court, or board or card games on the porch), reading stories, and hanging out late on the porch or under the stars. All this is interspersed with lots of good meals. I took two weeks off at the end of August so I had a lot of time at the bungalow.

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Action Park

We went to Action Park for Eason's birthday. Our favorite ride was High Anxiety and we went on it a bunch of times. The most exciting part for me was when Eason jumped off the cliff (on his second try). He had to get his feet wet on the shorter cliff first, then he went back and jumped off the higher cliff.

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Renaissance Faire 2014

We took a trip to the Renaissance Faire. It's hard to believe it has been five years since we've been there.We watched Robin Hood battle the sheriff and steal the heart of Maid Marian. Eason threw axes, Andrea was knighted by the queen, we all took the strong man test and enjoyed many the sights and activities.

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Tubing On Lake Mohawk

One of the highlights of our summer is always getting together with the Maldonado family. Among other things we went tubing (Eason fell off the tube) and Luis showed Eason how to drive the boat.

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43rd Birthday

I turned 43 and my Wednesday birthday was fairly uneventful, though my family did make me a special breakfast and my friends made me a cake.

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Father's Day At The Beach

For Father's Day my family made me the best challah french toast I ever had. My kids gave me a great t-shirt with the two of them, and it says Kamanders Assemble, which is what I say when I want them to gather together. Then we drove out to the beach for the day. Afterwards we grabbed some seafood for dinner and the kids took a ride on the carousel. It was a great day. Still my favorite holiday.

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Croton Point Park

We spent the day at Croton Point Park with our friends. We had a picnic and played Frisbee, and catch with the baseball and football, and soccer.

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Out There Science Videos - New York Times

My favorite Out There Science Videos from The New York Times Science.
                                 
Check out the videos below:

Back At The Bungalow

We went up to the bungalow for the first time of the year. Besides unpacking and setting everything up, we did all the usual things like kayaking and running around the lake and of course we ate a lot.

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Mother's Day Cruise To A Grand Island

We woke up bright and early for the 100th anniversary of Mother's Day. Andrea and I made gluten free pancakes while Eason went to the store to get Aviva's special coffee. We couldn't find any gluten free pancake mix so we made from scratch.

After breakfast we took a cruise to a luxurious island for some gourmet cuisine.

(Much more below, including pictures and video.)

Hiking At Leatherman’s Loop

We went hiking again at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, this time with the Rye Y Adventure Guides. We hiked all around Leatherman’s Loop.

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2014 Rye Derby

We all ran in the Rye Derby again this year. Eason and I ran the 5k (3.2 miles), and afterwards Aviva and Andrea and Eason ran the 1 mile fun run.

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Memorial Shindig

Just in time for my mom's birthday the Browncoats of NYC had a Memorial Shindig in her honor. A lot of her friends came and there was a lot of food and drink and stories. Leslie made a slide show of photos from past events. It was very touching. There was also cake.

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Cape May Anniversary

We spent our anniversary in Cape May. We had a great breakfast buffet at The Grand. Then we took a trolley tour around town. We visited the Hotel Alcott where we got married. Kate remembered us and took some pictures for us.We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beaches.

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Up And Down And All Around Cape May

After we got up we got breakfast and went to The Lighthouse. We had a great view of the ocean and Cape May. Then we went walking along the beach on the west side of Cape May Point. The kids collected shells and horseshoe crab shells. The we went and rented a four seat pedal car and road around Cape May. Then Eason and I did our weekly 5k run up and down Beach Avenue in Cape May. It took us between 34 and 36 minutes. At night we went to the movies.

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Cape May, Revisited

For Andrea's Birthday and our anniversary we all went up to Cape May to visit where we got married 12 years ago. Some things are a little different, but mostly it looks the same.

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Passover

We went to the Oksman's for Passover dinner.

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Derby Practice Run

Today was our last day to practice for the Rye Derby in Rye, so we tried to run as close a course as we could to the actual Derby course. We had to take an alternate route towards the end of Playland Parkway since it is not open to pedestrians, but we managed to minimize the detour and maintain the same distance.

We made the mistake of running right after lunch on a full stomach and Eason had a hard time. Towards the end there were lots tears and complaining, but he persevered. In the end, despite the crying, we cut a minute off our best time and ran 3.3 miles in 34 minutes. The best part of all is that, after all his complaining and wanting to stop, it took all of 30 minutes afterwards to be glad he didn't and proud of what he accomplished.

Running around Rye

Eason and I have been training for the Rye Derby. Today we ran 3.3 miles in 35 minutes.

View Running with Eason on 2014-04-06 in a larger map.

Who Lives On Your Lawn?

Where I grew up, there were no Jesus lawn signs. There were no lawns, but Jesus lived right down the block. And another Jesus lived right around the corner. Moving to the suburbs has been quite an adjustment.

My Wu-Wei Story

All my life people have been telling me "you think too much" to which I've usually replied "too much for what?"

This accusation has always seemed indefensible...until now.

Gypsy Friedlander Memorial

My mom passed away yesterday at Goodman Brown Hospice Residence. She was 60 and had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer 3 years ago.

I posted this memorial site for her.

My Facebook Movie

Facebook has created this short, personalized video highlight for me. I was really impressed with their selection. You can find yours at https://facebook.com/lookback/.

Dziadek's Birthday

We took Babcia and Dziadek out to dinner for Dziadek's birthday.

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