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Christmas Card to Warm Your Heart

Kate,
receiving this card from you really made my day. Thank you so much.

You know that Christmas without family around could be a very difficult time. It really meant a lot to me that you thought about me and sent me such a great card.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year.
Miss you much,
SA

Diverse Desserts, Friends’ Success

Two years ago, Paul had made a cake for his sister, I think, and in a very Paul fashion, he sent a picture of it via text message. Benny made a comment on the cake and said that he was good at making cakes too. The picture he showed us was ridiculous. The cake looked like absolute perfection for an amateur cake maker. This is where the story started for me.

A year went by and Benny mentioned that he was thinking of taking a couple of classes on cake making. After this idea was realized, he mentioned that he was thinking about opening a studio for cakes. He also said that Marc would be interested in business partnership by taking the finance side of the venture. In the beginning of this year I heard them talking about finding a spot in the city to setup shoppe. I even recall one time taking a long walk on the west side, just looking around for what’s available and discussing the possibilities. Through the year, the more we revisit this dream the more impossible it seemed to me.

I confess, I was a complete and utter pessimist. I didn’t think that they will be able to obtain financing and worst yet to find an affordable rent for a startup business. I envisioned the worst-case scenarios of hyper expensive rents and loan rejections, piled up with lack of time and experience.

I hope that when my time comes to open an office I’ll be braver and more optimistic. I’ll certainly remember Benny & Marc as well as my long time mentor Zakki and how they took the big step and started an enterprise.

As you can already guess Benny Rivera & Marc Matthias business venture as “Diverse Desserts” is a fact today. Diverse Deserts is located on 251 West 18th St, New York, NY 10011.

You simply need to check out the pictures on their website to realize what an incredible dream has come true.

To get the true DD experience, of course, you must try the scrumptious creations in person or by simply ordering from their website - www.diversedesserts.com

Happy Holidays!

Living in the country most concerned with political correctness, I’m slowly getting used to saying and hearing “Happy Holidays” in stead of “Merry Christmas.”
In the spirit of the Holiday Dennis and Chris didn’t forget about me.

Thank you guys.

Live From The Field

JH Cohn Christmas party.

Live From The Field

Live From The Field

ROCKEFELLER

In the Spirit of the Holiday

Today is Marc Stellrecht’s Birthday.

Happy Birthday Marc.

A whole bunch of us got together to celebrated with Marc on Saturday at Elmo. It was exciting to see so many of my friends. I mentioned a couple of times that it felt as if it were my birthday too, just having everybody around and with all the festiveness of the season.

Since this year I will be celebrating Christmas in NY and I don’t have any family around (even Maggie went home to BG for the holidays) Benny and I decided to cook and invite all of our friends who don’t have family around. I think I want to make a turkey and I’m sure that Benny will come up with a cake, :).

Do It Yourself If You Can

How do you replace the headlight bulb on a 2002 Hyundai Accent; driver’s side?

What kind of bulb do you need for 2002 Hyundai Accent? Answer: 9003 (HB2)

Hyundai recommends that the timing belt be replaced around 60,000 miles. Alternatively, you are running the risk it’ll snap and the engine will jam and become useless. I’ve been aware of that for about 20,000 miles or 2 years. Moving to NY didn’t help having the money to do it. I was finally able to spare the money (~ $600) and bring my car to the dealership.

You know how with age we develop these peculiar habits and customs – I for instance, always buy my underwear from the Filene’s Basement and in Hyannis and service my car at the Hyundai dealership close by it. The dealership changed owners a few times in the past 5 years but kept the same mechanics and great service, at an awesome price. They gave me an incredibly low quote for the timing belt and the service belts, even much lower than 2 years ago. I also did an oil change. I absolutely recommend them.

Unfortunately, a couple of days later I found out that the driver’s side headlight was out. The driver’s side is an important detail. Knowing that even if I’m able to safely commute for a few days in this condition, the black and white cruisers wont thinks so, and will kindly remind me by handing me a ticket, I started asking around where I can by a bulb.

It was easier on the Cape where everything was in Hyannis. I thought that I might be able to find one at Walmart, and after confirming with a colleague I went to the one in White Plains.

Funnily, I asked a guy-employee who advised me that there is no way to find out what type of bulb I needed in the store and sent me back to my car to consult with the driver’s manual. This proved unsuccessful because the manual doesn’t state this info. Not believing that I can’t find this info at the store, I went back. Sure enough, a nice looking lady-employee was able to guide me to a “bulb guide” where I found the needed info.

Now pleased that that I have the bulb I popped the hood open right at the Walmart parking lot but discovered that the battery is positioned about an inch from the headlights back and all the driver’s manual said was to remove the cable and the rubber gasket to replace the bulb. It was dark; I couldn’t see anything so I postponed it for another time.

I finally got to this yesterday in my lunch break. I tried reading some instructions online but they were all from dilettantes like me and with no pictures so I decided to just do it.
For all intents and purposes, it’s a very simple process – unclip the cable, take the rubber cover off, release the wire clip, and remove the bulb.

The problem is that there is no room to pull the cable off. Once I squeezed the latches to unclip the cable, the back of my hand would hit the battery! I tried this over and over and over, and then some till my fingers hurt and I got green in the face. I felt like the monkey in the experiment with the box with candy. The monkey would be smart enough to squeeze its hand trough the small opening in the box, grab the treats but its fist wouldn’t go back out through the opening so it will drop the candy and start over.

I knew it could be done without removing the battery because the driver’s manual would have suggested to do so if otherwise. I also didn’t have right wrench to do it. After discovering that my sore fingers wont do the job I employed a screw driver, on one side, and my car key, on the other, to press the latches. This didn’t prove much easier and after 10 minutes I was ready to give up and on my last try the cable simply unclipped. The rest was easy. I removed the rubber cover by simply pulling it by the little handle at the bottom, unhooked the clip by pushing outwards and down and removed the bad bulb. I had borrowed a pair of clear gloves from the cafeteria so that I don’t touch the halogen bulb with my bare fingers. The gloves also came handy to keep my hands clean.

An Old Friend Visiting Before Christmas.

My friend Diana (DD) came to visit NY this week. She called me on Monday and told me that she was coming on Tuesday and wanted to hang out on Wednesday evening after work. She’s been trying to come to NY for the last 2 years and I was so excited that I totally forgot that on Wednesday I was supposed to drive Maggie to drop off her car at a friend’s house before she when to Bulgaria for her vacation.

Things piled up but it all worked out well. I left work a few min earlier, followed Maggie and drove her home after. I made it to the city by 7:00pm. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do. I didn’t know how tired DD would be and if she’d be in the mood for dinner, more sightseeing or simply go to my house to eat and catch up. It was also raining.

I picked up DD in front of Macy’s and parked the car on 30th between 6 & 7. we took a stroll down 7th Avenue back to Time Square.We actually managed to go to Madame Tussot, where besides the wax figures we saw a 4D movie; there were bubbles, snow, squirting water, strobe light, back poking and a lot of vibration to make up for the 4th D. I don’t have any pictures because we were very old fashioned and bought a disposable camera form the museum. This was a forgotten experience – not being able to see the picture immediately.

We left the museum around 9:30 and drove to Chelsea where we enjoyed a nice dinner at Vinyl. One of the things I love about Manhattan is that you can go to your favorite bakery as late as 11:00pm and have your favorite dessert. We got to my house and were even able to go through the pictures from my last visit home.

It was great to spend this time with DD it was like are privet Christmas party.

Thanksgiving

The week of Thanksgiving I was able to combine another memorable Thanksgiving experience with some mandatory car maintenance. I got to Hyannis late Wednesday and stopped by the bank to take some cash out and say hello to whomever had remained employed by Citizens bank. After a quick stop at Filene’s Basement I was at Joan’s house for dinner. We watch almost an entire season worth of BBC show “Prime Evil.”

I’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving with Joan for 5 years now. She had introduced me to it as “the most dysfunctional holiday in America.” She explained that is the most traveled for holiday. People usually cook like crazy, families gathered, pretended like all is well, till all stress and tension blows up to a huge fight.
I tend to agree with this so that it’s usually just 2 of us cooking, eating, and watching TV all day; when I say all day this means from 8:00am till about 1:00am next day!

This year we introduced a couple of novelties to our already tradition. An official slogan and a new, otherwise traditional TG, dish:

“What is Thanksgiving all about? – Gluttony and Sloth!”

And Green Been Casserole.

Thanksgiving Day opened festively with an elaborate breakfast – Eggs Milendict and a bottle of champagne worth of Mimosas. We had the turkey in the oven by noon. As soon as we did this Dennis & Chris and Steve & Ed showed up for a quick visit and some more mimosas. Then more TV watching, side dishes were prepared at 5:00pm and Thanksgiving dinner was served at 6:00pm.