BBQ

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Shuggy

YAY!! another good BBQ!! We have been very lucky this year with the timing for our BBQs. Every one so far has been a beautiful day! The last one was this past Saturday the 20th. Earlier in the week the weather was supposed to be just horrible for that day. We waited, knowing that the weather is not set in stone, and it payed off.

We invited some friends we haven’t seen in a while. It was really really good to see them. The best part of the BBQ was that i think i finally figured out what the correct temperature for doing burgers! i know it doesn’t seem like much but i suck at the grill. I just needed practice. Allen gave me some good tips last time and they worked nicely.

David, Tom and Maureen were there.

so was Peter. I haven’t seen him in a while. Here he is sticking his tung out at me. I didn’t know it till i saw the picture.

Doy was there too. She even showed up on time!!! i was shocked!!

PhotoBooth

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Shuggy

Sienna and i have rediscovered PhotoBooth on my MacBookPro. From time to time, we just hangout infront of my computer and make silly faces at the camera. photo-101

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Then we discovered that i could put effects on the pictures!!

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photo-on-2010-12-01-at-1712-21

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photo-on-2010-12-01-at-17161 Then we discovered that we could record video!!

sucky blogger

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Shuggy

Yes yes yes i know, i suck at blogging. bite me.. i’ll post shit when i’m good and ready!!

Since i’m so far behind, i’m going to try to just post random pictures and videos. I’ll explain as i go along though.

Back in early May, we were invited to a cinco de Mayo BBQ at Selinas place. Selina is one of the Santos sisters from Chicago who recently moved to Connecticut because of work. She has 2 kids and a nice big back yard.. We had a good time with them. The Mexican food was great too..

As i look through the pics i took, i realize i didn’t get a picture of her or her kids. Great job Shuggy.. i suck!!

Backyard fun

fussy

I love this picture of Lisa and Sienna..

Lisa and Sienna

From time to time Sienna and i go exploring in the “scary jungle”. The Scary jungle could be anywhere as long as there are trees and some kind of trail. This one was on the side of the belt parkway. Its a bike trail/beach. i’m not sure if you can swim there (i wouldn’t).

When we got there, we encountered a troop of boy scouts cleaning up the beach. Sienna and i started exploring the area and found some trails.

I guess she really loves that Jamaica shirt.

sienna and her binocutars

funny face

scary jungle

picking flowers for mom

We visited the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in (duh) Brooklyn. It was a beautiful day and Sienna got to run around and smell EVERYTHING!! We did have to keep telling her not to pick the flowers..

i sooooo need to take more pictures!!

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Sienna looking for the fish

Snack time

little photographer

she loves to run

Last weekend

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Shuggy

I’m a little behind on my posting. Work has been hectic lately so i haven’t had time to post much.

Here is a sequence of pictures from last Saturday when we went out for patties. I’m holding Siennas froggy umbrella. it’s cute but she still has a hard time keeping it up.

it was raining

going for patties

The next day we had Uncle Peter over for BBQ.. Below is a clip of Sienna filling up the kiddie pool. I love this clip, it shows the gradual escalation of naughtyness.

back "yard"

It was a bit hot so ijumped into the pool with Sienna. Before long, she was dousing me with water.

playing with Sienna

all wrapped up

All wet in the kiddie pool. I love weekends like this. i think we should get a bigger pool though.

all wet

Sienna was so happy that uncle peter was coming over. Here, she crawled onto his lap and fell asleep. It’s a really cute picture.

Uncle Peter

Here’s lunch. Burgers mixed with bits of bacon and stuffed with blue cheese. They came out ok. I still haven’t mastered the stuffed burger. I think i need to try other burger combinations too.

yummy burgers and corn on the cob

mmmmmmmmmm!

Riis Park Beach part 2

Posted on August 10, 2009 by Shuggy

Saturday was one of the best summer days i’ve had in a looooong time.

The original plan was to go and checkout The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival Lisa has always wanted to go shoot it. I was up for it until we found out that there were going to be some pain in the ass parking restrictions. We decided to go to the Riis park beach instead.

The day started out with a cloudless sky and cool temperatures. We packed up the truck and left the house at 9 ish. The beach is 15minutes away so it didn’t take long to get there. We decided to park and enter the beach at another spot.

Just arrived

I like the new spot. It’s closer to the actual beach and there are showers for after we’re done.

The beach was almost deserted. The only others there were other parents of toddlers.

Sienna was so excited

playing with Mom

yellow bucket

I love how happy Sienna is to be at the beach. She always has such a great time. I only wish we could actually swim more. The water didn’t seem as cold as last time.

too cute

After the beach, we headed home and i barbecued up some hot dogs and burgers. Sienna then took a long nap. She was really really tired.

Later that day, Lisa made pizzas for dinner using her new pizza stone. We’re getting better at rolling the dough and figuring out the toppings. I’m sure Lisa will have more pictures.

I hope we have more days like this.

Aquarium

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Shuggy

Saturday was a beautiful day!! We decided to revisit the Aquarium in Coney island . The last time we were there, was about a year ago and Sienna was a bit underwhelmed by the experience. This time however, she was all over the place! it was so much fun to watch her get excited at all the fish. She would point and ask “what dat?” or her favorite question, “what ____ doonin?”

a little blurry but you get the idea

Sienna also got to check out the “petting” zoo. it’s more like touch the funny looking thing zoo. Here she touches a kind of crab.

petting zoo

While Sienna and Lisa were in the ladies rm, i spotted this group of people all excited about the scuba diver cleaning the large tank. He was getting into it too, by posing for pictures with the kids.

scuba exhibit

After the Aquarium, we stopped by Nathans for a hot dog.

Sienna at Nathans

Sienna is up to something here..

so tired

Once we got home, it was nap time for Sienna then out to the pool..

little pool

I attempted a burger from scratch. I was all excited to give it a try. I picked a recipe that i thought i could pull off. This is called “Dad’s Burgers”. It is a burger stuffed with bacon bits and blue cheese.

As soon as i put them on the grill, i realized my mistake. They were WAAY too big!! I screwed up the size of the patties. I couldn’t stop so i plowed ahead. I did the 10min pre heat, the salting of the patties and the 4minute flip for a total of 8min. That wasn’t long enough. UGH!!

my burgers

The other thing that happened was that the patties started to separate from each other!! It wasn’t all bad, the burger actually tasted good. it had potential. I am more motivated than ever to do it again. All we need are more nice weekends..

my first burger

BBQ update

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Shuggy

We have been BBQ-ing for a while now. It’s a lot of fun to hang outside with friends. However, I started to get annoyed at using the coal burning BBQ. It takes up to 40min for them to get up to temperature and the heat is uneven. For the past two weeks, I have been going back and forth on getting a gas grill. I spoke to my buddy RichieO from Chicago. He pointed me in the right direction.

Monday i swung by LOWES and picked up this rocking grill !! What i didn’t count on was “some assembly required”. There were LOTS of pieces. It took about 3hours over 2 days to put it together but it was so worth it.

loving the new grill

Here i am grinning like an idiot while bubba burgers sizzle. They cooked a lot faster than on the coal BBQ so i kinda burned the hot dogs. I think that kinda adds flavor though..

bubba burgers

the master griller

waiting to eat

Now i need to look into grilling other things besides just burgers and hotdogs.

Toddler BBQ

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Shuggy

The toddler BBQ was a hit!!

Saturday started of at swim class. It was the last swim class till maybe the fall. Sienna seemed to have a good time as usual except for near the end of class when she didn’t want to do any of the dunking or the jumping into my arms. I’m not sure what was going on. She just kinda freaked out when the instructor came over. That’s ok, we’ll try it again another time.

Instead of going to the playground after class, or going to lunch, we headed strait back home to get ready for the first toddler BBQ.. I have mentioned before how i love BBQs. I was a little concerned because it was the most people we’ve ever had at one time. Not to mention the amount of toddlers that were going to be around.

Sienna helping me setup the pool

Sienna loved the pool!! She got in as soon as i filled it. I also put out the sprinkler ball and the sandbox. You guessed it, the toddlers put the sand from the sandbox in the pool. I don’t know what was so fun about that but they all did it at one point or another.

Lisa came next to test it out

Parents milling about

toddlers love the sandbox

cupcake face

We had so much good food!! I enjoyed talking to everyone that came. The toddlers seemed to enjoy themselves too. I really had a nice time. We capped off the day with a visit from Uncle Peter and his cookies.. That was fun, thanks uncle Peter!!

Swimming and BBQ

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Shuggy

YAY, we finally made it to swimming class!! If you want to see pictures and videos, just check out Lisa’s blog..

We got there early this time and it’s a good thing we did. It took a while to change into my trunks and change Sienna as well. I’ll be ready for next weeks session.

The teacher was very good. We did a lot of songs but each song corresponded to a specific skill like kicking and paddling and dunking. I was nervous at first because we missed last weeks opening class. Everything turned out fine though. Sienna was a little apprehensive at first too but she got the hang of it. I think she really enjoyed herself and so did i.

Later that day came the first BBQ of the summer!! Peter, Nate, Mari, Doy, Lisa and Sienna were all in attendance

The Setup

This is the before shot. I like this setup, i think i’ll stick with it.

Sienna looking around

I wanted to try something different this time so i put a tv in the garage so we could play the Wii. I figured it would be more fun than having to go back upstairs. Big thanks to Doy for bringing the garage band game and to Peter for the rabids game.

yummy bbq

Here we are enjoying the BBQ. I made Burgers and hot dogs. Peter brought his famous deviled eggs (so good). Nate and Mari brought fruit kabobs and Lisa made her famous crack muffins.