Monday, June 1, 2009

Shublya’s New Toys

Today we stopped by a local Petco to buy Shublya some food and have gotten some toys for him.

His favorite is still the feather on a string. We got this thing for him on his first day and by now there was barely anything left of it. So we got a new feather and he’s been running all over the apartment today with the feather in his mouth.

And then we also got him a new toy. There are 2 balls inside and a mouse on a spring.

So far he seems to like it. He keeps sticking his paws in the holes and spinning the balls inside. Both must be moving at all times. Such a funny creature.

In: Life In General Tags: feather, Shublik, toy
Time: 00:13 Comments: 5 Comments Post a Comment

Today was Galya’s last day (or rather half-day, since she left around 12:30 to catch a flight to Florida) at the company. What can I say? It was wonderful to work with her, and, more importantly, she’s been a really good friend to me.

I know that I got very lucky to have somebody like her around — after all, we spend a considerable amount of time at work… She made my days a little brighter, and I will really miss her! I hope she’ll be happy and successful, and maybe sometimes we’ll meet to chat, although it will be different. 0

Friday, June 5, 2009

Big Island, Hawaii

Satellite image of Hilton resort on Big Island.

Alena and I booked our next-next vacation. We’re going to go back to Hawaii for our 3 year wedding anniversary. But if last time we went to Oahu and stayed in Honolulu, this time we’re going to to the Big Island.

We’re going to stay in luxurious Hilton Waikoloa Village resort. And the best part is that we don’t have to pay¹ anything for the hotel at all thanks to us being a part of Hilton Honors program.

What we do have to pay² for is the flight. But flights these days seem to be much cheaper than they were even when we went to Hawaii the first time in 2005. We’re going to rent a car and explore the whole island. I can’t wait to visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for example.

This should be a great honeymoon vacation.

I can’t wait.

We’re staying here for 8 nights. Normally each night runs 40,000 points here, but Gold VIP members get a discount, so we’re spending 235,000. And we have plenty more left for long weekend trips. [↩]
No direct flights, so there is a plane change in LAX. Total cost is going to be $1,782.80 for the 2 of us. The flight is about 13 hours each way. [↩]

In: Travel Tags: anniversary, Big Island, Hawaii, vacation
Time: 12:11 Comments: 3 Comments Post a Comment

I just got an urge to say — the most awesome feeling is being so much in love with your wife. We have a 6.5 anniversary coming up tomorrow since our first date and on May 23rd we had our 2.5 year wedding anniversary. We were in Bar Harbor at the time and forgot to drink for that! Anyhow, back to being in love.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Shublik and T-Shirts

Shublya really likes carrying our t-shirts around the apartment in his mouth and playing with them.

Shublik on the move with stolen property.

Just yesterday after work I wasn’t able to find my pink VS tank which I was wearing in the morning. Shublik stole it from the chair where it was left hanging, and hid it someplace (I still have no idea where).

Later that evening the shirt reappeared in the middle of the living room and happy Shublik was playing with it for a while.

More jumping. He keeps throwing it around.

He also like to hide under the old puffy jacket of mine. Danya says that he can put Shublya under it with a toy — and the little creature can entertain himself for almost an hour. Funny!

Sitting under a jacket. He climbed into it himself.

In: Life In General Tags: playing, Shublik, t-shirt
Time: 00:12 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

Apple’s keynote from WWDC 2009 is happening now. Mac and iPhone news — incoming.

Update: Well, that was pretty boring. Mostly rehashing everything that was already known. News — Snow Leopard upgrade will be $29, iPhone 3.0 software out on June 17th, iPhone 3G S out on June 19th.

Update 2: Apple released firmware 3.0 Gold Master to paid iPhone developers today. Update went through smoothly.0

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Bronx Zoo

Today we’ve done something that we’ve been planning to do for some number of years now — we visited Bronx Zoo. For Alena it was a first time, while I was there once before, more than 10 years ago, and remembered nothing. We also invited Ignat, Vika and their daughter Alisa to go with us.

With current New York weather being more in line with that of London-Seattle, today was no different. Most of the time we were in the zoo it was raining. Luckily for us it wasn’t raining hard, so we got to see almost everything we wanted to see.

We saw a lot of animals, but tigers, lions, giraffes, gorillas and polar bear were my favorites. We also saw some crazy lemurs which seem like they wouldn’t be able to make a sound, but at one point they created such a ruckus that I thought I’ll go deaf.

We didn’t have enough time to catch a ride on a monorail and as a result we didn’t get to see elephants and rhinos. This is the only thing that I would’ve liked to add to our listed today, but alas — next time.

In: Travel Tags: bear, Bronx Zoo, giraffe, gorilla, lion, tiger, zoo
Time: 00:01 Comments: 8 Comments Post a Comment

Boris says: Subscribed

June 14, 2009 @ 11:31

Даня! Ты сделал просто замечательные фотографии. Особенно мне нравится портрет гориллы. Это именно портрет, причем удачный, существа, так похожего на нас и так внимательно вглядывающегося в мир, как не всем людям удается. У гориллы вполне осмысленный взгляд. По-моему это фото – твоя удача.

Alena says: Subscribed

June 14, 2009 @ 11:57

А я хотела добавить что, несмотря на дождливую погоду, я получила большое удовольствие от поездки. Мне очень понравилось не только смотреть на животных, но и гулять по территории парка, которую мы, кстати, за 3.5 не успели всю обойти.

Зоопарк оказался очень зелёным, а вольеры животных на диво просторными. Некоторые звери живут в помещениях (лемуры, мангусты, многие виды обезьян) – в их клетках работники зоопарка попытались воссоздать естественную среду обитания. Многие же животные живут под открытым небом – они отделены от посетителей или глубоким рвом (львы), или низеньким заборчиком (жирафы). Павлины и утки вообще свободно гуляли по всей террирории. Мы от души посмеялись над павлином, который гордо позировал для фотографий, распустив свой ну очень уж облезший от дождя хвост.

Хочу сделать комплимент самому младшему члену нашей группы, Алисе, которая совсем не крапризничала несмотря на то, что поездка получилась долгой.

ufly says: Subscribed

June 21, 2009 @ 11:14

Да, поход в зоопарк получился отличным. Мне очень понравилось, что у животных так много места в вольерах, практически никто не заключен в маленькие клетки. У некоторых животных есть детеныши, что свидетельствует об очень хороших условиях обитания.

А горилла, чей фотопортрет ты разместил, настоящий философ – в такой неподвижной позе с задумчивым взглядом она сидела все то время, пока мы были в павильоне и, казалось, внимательно наблюдала за людьми, которые вели себя достаточно оживленно, показывали пальцами и выражали гораздо больше эмоций, чем сами обезьяны.

Went to AT&T store at lunch — no line, but their systems are barely moving. It took them 40 minutes of me talking to a sales rep to realize that they are out of 16GB versions and I have no need nor will to pay for 32GB one.

Also Apple is not approving any real push notification applications and this is really uncool. Either they are really swamped with new applications or decided to control the load on their network by controlling apps, or both. Again, not cool.

Impatiently waiting for Beejive to get through.0

Friday, June 19, 2009

Pan Roasted Sea Bass

Surprisingly enough my husband, who normally tries to avoid seafood (unless it is canned tuna, which he kind of likes) asked me to cook some fish for dinner a couple of days ago.

When we were vacationing in Mexico back in April, he got really impressed by the sea bass served in one of the restaurants, and he also ordered sea bass with tofu two weeks ago at David’s place (and liked it!). I think that trick here is that this fish is very mild-flavored.

So knowing this, the choice of fish was easy. Chilean sea bass, mind you, was the most expensive kind of fish in the little Chinese store where I made my purchase ($11.99/lb). There are plenty of recipes of sea bass online, but I did not have much time to look through them, and just picked one of the first ones I stumbled upon (recipe). The dinner came out really nice, and to my joy Danya was happy with it!

In: Food & Dining Tags: fish, sea bass
Time: 15:18 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Rain, Rain, Rain

The start of this summer has been “amazing”. It’s been raining for weeks now and it just keeps going. Next week weather forecast looks even worse. This is really strange and really atypical for New York.

In: Life In General Tags: New York, rain, weather
Time: 16:54 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment

Alena says: Subscribed

June 25, 2009 @ 06:56

А дождь всё льёт. На прошлой неделе я стояла на кухне в нашем офисе и смотрела из окна на серый Манхэттен — и вид города под косыми струями дождя был таким загадочно-мрачным, что поневоле в голову приходили разные зловещие фильмы, которые могли бы быть сняты в такую погоду.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Beejive IM 3.0

Apple has finally approved the newest version of Beejive, the one that supports new push notifications. In essence that makes IM as effective as SMS with a key difference of IM being completely free.

Feel free to contact me through AIM or ICQ on iDR2000 or 424614398 respectively. I will get your messages instantly on my phone.

In: Gadgets & Gear, Software Tags: Apple, Beejive, IM, iPhone, push
Time: 12:06 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Cycling in Colorado

A bit of exciting news for us with regards to cycling — yesterday, with Eldar’s help, I made a reservation for a pair of road bikes at a local to Eldar store.

If we can’t have our cycling in this city at least we’ll enjoy some of it during our trip next month. And not only we’ll do some cycling, but we’ll do it in the heart of cycling country. I think everyone in Boulder owns a road bike.

We’ll be renting a pair of Specialized Roubaix road bikes for $50 a day.

P.S. This is the only photo of me on my bike in existence.

In: Games & Sport Tags: Colorado, cycling
Time: 10:42 Comments: 3 Comments Post a Comment

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Shublya TV

Shublya TV presents.

We have an hour worth of video of all kinds of tricks that Shublik does, but these short clips are probably the best.

The first one is Shublik trying to get to a piece of pineapple that is inside a clear box.

And this one is my favorite of the two. Towel stealing skills at work. He’s much better at this now and usually does this to every t-shirt he gets his eyes on.

In: Life In General Tags: playing, Shublik, video
Time: 17:01 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment