Who is Bianca Ryan?

11 year old Bianca Ryan has a power-house singing voice and a ton of natural talent, in my opinion. Watch her performance on tonite's airing of "America's Got Talent" Click here to load her VIDEO CLIP

Video of Maplewood Village

If you'd like to view a video tour of Maplewood Village, taken by ME in early April - please click
HERE. It's better to view this video at original size. Once you get to the video screen use the triangle on the lower bottom right of the screen to change the resolution. Thanks!

pic of the day

June 1996 - Lake Tahoe, Nevada...David and Dean as taken by ROZ on our trip to "Tahoe". Don't judge too harshly, the "tucked in" look..that's what we did back then.. :-) Wow..what a difference 10 years can make. Just imagine 10 years from now - let's not go there.

J can't help it.

Joaquin likes his tech-toys, and I totally understand that. I do too. Here is a short video clip as tribute to his love of the 'gadget'. Click HERE

Edward's Place Mats

Edward brought a very nice gift for me yesterday. Placemats that he saw and felt would go with my place. VERY thoughtful and was a great choice. If you want to see the video of Edward giving the gift, click HERE. Thanks Edward!

Saturday in Milford

Click HERE for pics of David and Sean's visit to Milford with Dean - We had a fun afternoon walking around the town and going in and out of the shops. We stopped on the way home and bought some chocolate!

Luis Abel Walks

Some of the first steps shot of him walking completely on his own. Mr. little penguin... lol. Click HERE to watch video clip of Luis Abel walking. Benjamin shot the video while Julie monitors him. Momma Llella is resting on the floor!

pic of the day

Eric at my farewell bowling party - Kidrobot. Nice form - :-)

*late breaking news*

Looks like I will get that job at www.nyxmedia.com It's a great match and my references have to be checked. If all works out ok for the reference check, I am likely to begin next week. This will make a total of 3 part-time clients all poised for growth. CROSS MEDIA is in the flat iron district in a very cool - two story loft environment. The feel is extremly casual, yet professional. I have also been offered space there to conduct business for my other bookkeeping clients if I like. Interesting prospect. I'll have to see. Nevertheless, it looks like I will be employed sufficiently come the turn of the month. I am pleased I did not have to compromise the kind of work I wanted and above all, my rate of pay. Yippie. So... now I need to make-up for lost ground before I move ahead.

*pic of the day (additional)

Because I missed a day there is another pic of the day. Cynthia , David, and Sean at our recent trip to Mohonk, New York. For all pics click HERE

you GOTTA meet Hector

I met HECTOR the other day. Hector happens to be black and really is very cute. You could fall in love with Hector. To see the video of Hector, click HERE

The Red hats are coming (help!)

When we stepped outside onto the deck on the Delaware River at the Inn to have lunch, Matt and I discovered a sea of RED HATS out there waiting to be served for lunch. All you could hear was "Hi Mary...how are you... Hello girls, isn't it a gorgeous day?.. Kim...that's a cute blouse...Margaret, look at the view dear..isn't it lovely?" Under the umbrellas were around 22 "ladies" wearing RED hats and Purple t-shirts. Ay yi yi... what a sight. Anyway, to top it all off the OWNER of the INN did NOT know they had booked a lunch for 22 people with seperate checks. So the Owner, also a "lady" had to get a little tough with them which was not well received. "well, that's not OUR fault that you didn't know we were coming" quipped the head red-hat. Matt and I decided to go INSIDE to get our food, as we figured we'd get served faster (and we did). We ate INSIDE and then simply spent the rest of the time sitting along the river. It was all very entertaining. And yet there was no entertainment fee!
If you'd like to see the RED HATS you can click on the video I made of a quick glimpse of them. I did not want to linger the camera on them!
Here is the link: Click HERE

pic of the day

Pic of the day is MATT from our recent visit. Lunch on the Delaware river at a very cute Inn.
(click to enlarge foto)

Delayed Update

Missed a day here..but I took the train to visit Matt up in Milford PA. I took the train to Port Jervis and Matt picked me up. From the train station we went to the grocery and got some food to prepare. We simply sat around talking and laughing and catching up. Went to bed by 10 and awoke to helping Matt move some computer equipment and furniture out of the "office/library" that is under construction. We took a drive and went to a little Inn that had a deck that was overlooking the river. We had lunch there and enjoyed talking to the owner of the place. After lunch we sat in the grass along the river and talked for a while. Was VERY peaceful. Matt drove me to the DOVER train station which reduced my train trip back to Maplewood to 40 minutes! I have posted pics and videos from my overnite stay at http://homepage.mac.com/deanishappy/ . Feel free to click around the latest additions. You will also find recent pics of Ed's excursion to Cape Cod. GO EDWARD!

*pic of the day

It's TWYLA. Because I will see her today, she is pic of the day. Twyla is wearing a lovely strand of Dominican jewelry that is estimated around $2.4 Million . This was a gift from Benjamin who saw them and couldn't resist giving them to Twyla as a token of his affection. Twyla has 18 body guards and lives reclusively in her Tribeca loft so as to protect these and other valuable assets. yo Twyla.

Tuesday is here

Just thought I'd give the heads up before things happen today. Today I am scheduled to go see MacGoddess for a meeting, and while I'm there I will probably have lunch with Twyla. After that I will be linking up to a train in Secaucus to go out to Milford for the night. Matt is doing some shifting around and I am going to help him with those nasty wires and computer set-up junk. It will be a chance to see him before he goes out to see Brian for 7 weeks! WOW - I want to go and see Singapore! - :-) . I learned today that I have an interview coming up Thursday morning with http://www.nyxmedia.com/ They are an advertising agency located in Chelsea. I originally applied for this job what seems like months ago, but what was only 6 weeks ago. Of course they ignored me like many others, but now can't find anyone they like. Although I may not be able to work things out with them schedule-wise, I am still going to meet with them and see if I can help them out on a temp-basis..or WHATEVER...you never know. That will teach them to ignore such talent as mine. hehe..

*pic of the day

Ethan (David's Cousin) doesn't look all too sure that he wants to go through with singing the National Anthem at Cythia and Murray's 50th wedding anniversary party. He almost didn't perform for us - but he DID do a fantastic job!

pics and videos links

Pics from Luis Abel's birthday- click HERE
Video clip from 9.11 memorial in West Orange, click HERE
Video clip from Rag Shop - lol, click HERE
Video clip from the list of names from 9.11 memorial click HERE
Video clip (custom made!) J buys eyedrops before breakfast click HERE
Video clip Dominican Fun - (hit pause on video and let load first, it's longer) click HERE

* Pic of the Day

Joaquin gets the award for "Best Mood Alterer". He definitely turned a frown upside down today. God Bless.

Sunday was best spent inside in the a/c

But I did manage to get out a bit. Joaquin took me to breakfast/lunch at the diner where we had fun talking with all the regulars there. We then took a drive to the 9/11 memorial on top of the mountain in West Orange.(eagle rock mountain reservation). I took a few pictures...I will post later. We stopped off at Staples and J bought me a gift: an iPod cover. He was tired of seeing me without my iPod more protected. THANK YOU J. !!! We then went to the movie house in Maplewood to see "CARS".(J Treated! - what a guy - holy cow!) Some great messages in the movie...several good laughs too! - After that, it was back to the a/c in my place and a look at several videos shot from my past: including the DR trips, Edward's Birthday party with my parents in his apartment, and several videos shot in the "cabrini" era. Wow , hats off to J. who sat through nearly 4 hours of videos off and on, and never complained and watched all of it with a lot of interest. I served Turkey burgers for us, in between, and cold ice pops. Today was a great day.

Happy Birthday LUIS ABEL!!!

Feliz Cumpleanos, Luis Abel! Today is Luis Abel's Birthday, so he gets to be "pic of the day" AGAIN.
I am wishing him a fun party filled with delicious Dominican cake and lots and lots of love.
Love from Padrino (Godfather)

Learned some software tricks

Today I learned a lot in Quickbooks about how to do time tracking and easy billing for my Accounting clients. Always something to learn.

*pic of the day

Luis Abel in Santo Domingo, very recently. He is turning into a little guy now. He will turn 1 this Saturday coming. Feliz Cumpleanos mi amor.

day in review for Thursday

Had MacGoddess work to do and did it - made phone calls, cleaned up some paper-work and went food shopping. That was IT! Nothing fancy happened on Thursday for me. I am making plans to go visit Matt in PA mid-week next week for a quick overnight stay. My front yard is now being filled in with dirt to finish-off the work done on the plumbing line. All is back to normal with that - :-)

* pic of the day

From New Years eve 2005 (2006) Ruthie strikes a pose and smile while Eric trys to reason with Howard? I wonder what he is pointing out.

day in review - for Wed.

With more and more construction going on in my front yard and the hole getting BIGGER and BIGGER, I watch while the plumbing of this house is addressed. WOW. I do have water, but the landlord here will have a large bill for this repair. Not much to report except that I worked on and off during the day and was then invited (by Derrell the Butler) for a movie: "Prairie Home Companion" with Merryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. Although it's always fun to watch these two great performers the movie lacked focus and purpose - it seemed like a collage of things that didn't add up to much, emotionally, in the end. Oh well! We went to Montclair to see the movie. On the way back Derrell stopped at a section of West Orange that had a beautiful overlook of New York City. I believe it was called Eagle Rock Mountain Reservation? Something like that. On the grounds overlooking NYC there is a restaurant: http://www.highlawn.com/
It is owned by the same people that own "The Manor" if you know that place. There is a wonderful monument and tribute to the people lost in 9/11 world trade center. It list the lives lost from the surrounding NJ area. A must-see!
I also found out that Mom did fine at the dentist and was in and out in a flash. She is home resting .

*pic of the Day!

Dean and Juan at the Atoche train station in Madrid, on our way down to Seville. It was my first time meeting Juan in 1999. The train ran through the country-side and was very fast and smooth!

day in review

Yesterday was a mixed bag of things. Joaquin picked me up at 8am to head to a nice breakfast in Milburn. We took a short walk in that village, ran a few errands and headed back to Maplewood. The apartment had water-line problems and there was heavy machinery on the lawn digging a DEEP hole to solve the problem. I now have water, but it was ugly. J took me to my parents place in the early afternoon and I arrived to a lot of confusion and problems with my parents. Their memories are really failing them and it's hard to believe they can't remember even the day before's instructions. They even demonstrated that they can't retain much even within the few hours. Not the best visit as many difficult topics had to be talked about, and unfortunately there is not a lot of comprehension on their part. I left dejected and stunned at their emotional and mental decline. I arrived in Maplewood and decided to head to the diner for a big dinner where the staff greeted me really cheered me up- Bigtime! Such kind-hearted people and it actually helped set off the tough scene just prior with my folks. I stood outside with my neighbor for one hour just talking neighborhood news, gossip and fun stuff, then entered my apartment for the night. I called my brother to discuss my parents and hung up feeling better...so I did get a good night's sleep...Thank you EVERYONE along the way for the help! :-)

Mom and Dad

I have to see Mom and Dad today to pick up some paper work and to check in on them. Mom is having 3 teeth pulled this Wed. WoW! Poor girl! -

day in review

Had a fun evening last night. My acquaintance DERRELL who I 'randomly' ran into on the street a few weeks ago had given me some bookkeeping work to do recently. He decided to swing by to speak about the work, but the whisked me off in his SUV to grab some dinner. Long story short he got to talking about things and he drove and drove and DROVE and kept missing exits. We ended up in Morristown, Flemington... you name it..we were riding past it. We made it to route 10 and grabbed a Mexican meal at Chevy's and kept chatting. Learned a lot of interesting facts about Derrell and also his employers. He is a butler for a couple in Orange. He brought me by their house and we took a peek at their pool and back yard area as well as the exterior of the house. Great looking home! I didn't get home until 10.30 PM. I learned there is a water problem with the house here in Maplewood. There is water coming out of the ground near the street and it's forcing the water pressure down inside our apt's here. Hopefully will be resolved soon!

*New* pic of the day series

I'm going to try to keep up with a "pic of the day" series, where I post a photo from my travels or my home life, or work life, or anything in-between. First post is a simple smile from Julie from DR trip 6. 2006

Networking!

I guess it's all about the networking , right? I went to an 8.30 am networking breakfast down the road here in Maplewood. It was a meeting of wellness practicioners from the area and beyond. Mostly to acquaint ourselves with eachother and what each of us does in the our respective fields. There was a variety of practicioners present for the very very nice catered breakfast. I had a wonderful time meeting the other 40 people that attended as well as standing up to speak about myself and the services I provide. I received several invitations to other events and felt it was worthwhile to have gone! It was held at a little country-club place in Maplewood. Very nice. The official website of the network group is http://hwpn.org/ . More to come, I'm sure!

Sunday June 11

Sunday was a beautiful day weatherwise ! I did manage to do a few loads of laundry as well as catch up on some nice luxurious naps. Joaquin was up for a photoshoot of him, against the buildings next door to me. You can see some of his shots by clicking here. Later that day we went into Manhattan to attend Adolfo's 40th birthday party in Inwood. Took us a long time to get there, but it was worth the trip because the food was great and we had many good laughs up at Adolfo's. Because of the long trip, we could not spend a lot of time there, and both of us still managed to get to our homes as late as 11pm.

Saturday June 11

Spent most of the day working, on and off. I created a 2 minute video montage in iMovie of the kids in Santo Dominigo. Learned a lot about the iMovie program and it opened up some more ideas for future video projects. You can view this video here. But a warning. The video will take around a minute or two to completely load into your browser, so please let it load first before attempting to view it! Later in the day I hosted David and Sean for Tea and cake in the early evening. Joaquin joined me for some dinner that I prepared and I showed off my new video. He had also taken his dog Vincenzo out for a shopping day at PETCO, which he documented with his video camera. I got to see all his footage too!

Starting out...

Hello all...

June 10th I had a meeting with Tristan Eaton of http://www.thunderdogstudios.com in connection with some bookkeeping and accounting work for his design company. We spoke late in the day on Friday. The meeting went well and we are set to do some work together. Tristan needs some organization and some readiness for his expanding business. This combined with http://themacgoddess.com should give me a good start in the freelance bookkeeping work world. Tristan is located in Brooklyn, but I will be able to do some work at home. The MacGoddess is located in Manhattan, but I am also performing most work from home.