Tuesday

It is totally ridiculous what goes on in this country. On November 8 there was a presidential election. On that election Donald Trump won the electorate vote with a pretty considerable margin. Now some sore losers are demanding a recount just because the election didn't turn out the way they wanted to.

I thought we live in a democratic society. But apparently we are not.  This seems like a dictatorship where a minority dictates the rules the way it is advantageous for them.

Hillary Clinton conceded the election. Accepted Trump as the winner. The world accepted him as the winner. Now why it is necessary to go through this circus of a recount. What does that old woman from the Green Party expect to achieve.

And why did she run and what the hell is the Green Party? I'll bet she is getting aid by the Clintons to create this chaos. Because that is exactly what would happen if the election results are changed.

First there would be such a chaos in this country that nobody would believe it, second the United States would become the total laughing stock of the world. No money or loud talk would be able to buy back their prestige.

The new president would also be the laughing stock of the world and would be looked at as the Castro of the US.

Is that is what we want? I always thought a democratic election is one where the winner wins according to the rules. May those be the electoral votes or popular votes. Neither system is perfect but that is what we have here. And, if we don't like the results we live with it for four years and then change it.

But certainly don't change the outcome of a democratic election just because it was not as democratic as we wanted it.

Monday

When I returned from my visit in Hungary in 2014 I brought back a few bottles of Hungarian brandy (palinka) and a couple of bottles of Polish slivovitz. This is same as the brandy.

Somehow if I drink the American stuff it gives me a shake and I just don't like it. But when I drink the Hungarian or the Polish stuff they give me no problem. To me this is a scientific miracle.

Well, sadly we finished off the last bottle during the Thanksgiving weekend. Now there is no more of this and I am very sad about it.

I just will have to make sure hat when somebody whom I know will go to Hungary will bring me back a few bottles of this good stuff. Interestingly there are a lots of different kinds of alcoholic drinks on the store shelves but none of these can be found here in the States.

I wonder why there is no market for such things. Vodkas are on the other hand in abundance. Every week there is a new brand coming out. Some claim to be Russian some re really Russian. And their price ranges are all over the scale.

I like vodka and to me the good vodka is the cheap vodka. Since I only drink it mixed I will not spend extra money on a designer brand.

Cheapovski brand is the best.

Sunday

Today is Sunday and as it is usual we rested. We really didn't do anything useful. Slept late and then went out to lunch with a  very good friend and his wife.

It was just the four of us, Abigail stayed home.

This is a very nice couple whom I know for a long time and fortunately my wife warmed to them also. We see each other about once a month and most of the time for a late lunch.

Today was no exception. We met at 2 pm and didn't leave the restaurant until almost 6 pm. Well, the place is a diner and they let us sit there for a long time without any bother.

What can we talk about for four hours?

Anything and everything. From travel, to shopping to health to food to politics to personal things. We know each other well, meaning there is nothing to hold back on. And that makes talking very easy.

I love to talk to friends and so does my friend. But don't feel sorry for the women. They were not left behind in our little talk festival.

At the end we all had a good time, ate well and around 6 pm parted company. This doesn't mean we won't talk for a month. We'll be communicating on the telephone pretty frequently. At least until they go away.

My friend and his wife are going on a two month vacation that will include cruise and land stay.

Tough life they live.

Thursday/Frday

So I ate too much turkey yesterday and afterwards was not able to think straight.

Well, Thanksgiving (the day) is over. Yesterday we were invited to my wife's son for a traditional turkey dinner.

For a guy who never ever cooked a turkey in his life this one turned out fantastic. I love the drumstick and polished one off with half the turkey attached to it. There was soup, stuffing others side dishes, deserts and drinks.

We had wine and for desert we had Polish Slivovitz. This is a very potent short drink that we drank the long way. Put us all into a very happy frame of mind.

Today is Black Friday when the throngs of people go shopping and all hoping to land the deals of a lifetime. On this day the malls are wall to wall people with many stores opening around midnight and surprisingly people taking advantage of it.

Today is an official workday but most of the workplaces give today off. I for one don't remember when the Friday after Thanksgiving was not a holiday for me.

I keep telling my wife that today is still part of the holiday but she doesn't give me any breaks. Laundry, house cleaning and other mundane chores. Abigail is home from school and that is just about the only thing that makes today different.

But the good husband that I am, I just grin and bear it.

Wednesday

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. This will be a long, four day weekend. For those who work and get Friday off it is great. For a retiree it doesn't much matter. Except there will be crowds everywhere throughout the entire weekend.

Abigail wil take advantage of this because she will be home until Monday morning.

Right after this Holiday the Christmas madness will start. Actually at some places it has already started. At my apartment building the staff yesterday decorated the entrance with colored lights and decorating the two large trees at each side of the entrance.

Yesterday I saw into a private house where there was a christmas tree standing in all its glory.

Now that is idiotic. X-mas is on December 25 and to decorate a tree in a private home on November is kind of stupid.

Pretty soon they will be having the decorations on all year through. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

Anyway I wish a nice Thanksgiving  to all.

Tuesday

Really don't mind giving pleasure to people. Even if it costs me money.

My wife's son's birthday is on December 25. The poor guy is losing out on either Christmas or his birthday.

He is 25 years old. How can somebody be that young? It is very upsetting.

Anyway the poor kid loves computers and his broke down quite a while ago. So, we decided to buy him one for his Day. This afternoon my wife and I went to the nearest Apple Store and bought him a new computer. Not a notebook but a full 21.5" computer.

We asked him very cryptically if he was home tonight and when he said yes we showed up with the stuff.

That look of surprise on his face was worth anything. He was completely taken back with the present. He kept repeatedly hugging his mom and me he was o happy. He immediately set up the computer, tomorrow the Internet will be installed by the cable company so he will be ready to go.

Even if I am a Scrooge at other things giving pleasure like this is worth anything.

Monday

I don't pretend to be a wine connoisseur. I don't know wine and any good wine just would be a waste on me. However I do like sweet wines, fruity wines.

The experts drawn on these but I really don't care. It is my palate and not theirs. I read several times that people bought really old wines at auctions for lots of money and when they opened the bottle it turned out to be vinegar.

For me the cheaper and sweeter is the better.

I know that Walmart sells wine for about $5.99 a bottle. They have a variety of different types. I heard on the radio that there was a wine contest or whatever they call it and from all the different wines one of Walmart's $5.99 type won the first prize.

Now that is a kick n the groin for all the wine drinking snobs.

Sunday

In my school years I was never good at biology and chemistry. Not that I flunked but just couldn't understand it. I'm sure our subjects were not as complicated as they are now but still, they were difficult enough for me.

I chose a field to work in and "excell" and it had nothing to do with biology and chemistry.

Tonight Abigail asked me to help her out with some homework questions in biology.

Now, I have no problem with the English language but listening to the questions I had no clue what she was talking about. It was a little embarrassing. But Abigail has a very good memory for certain things.

She remembered that my cousin's wife majored in biology a "few" years ago. So, we called her and she graciously offered to help. She was fantastic. Remembered most of the stuff and with her help Abigail was able to finish the homework.

It was funny. To her the questions didn't sound foreign at all.

Saturday

Today is the 19th of November and I am already totally bored of Christmas. There is a radio station sex listen to every day because they play good easy music. Well, as of today they will be playing Christmas music every single day.

We had this station on all day and I'm getting sick of it.

When it all boils down there are not so too many Christmas songs that they can play. Meaning they are already repeating several of them and that will certainly not put me in a Holiday mood.

Every year mentioning of Christmas is beginning earlier and earlier. I think they should just leave everything up and have  Christmas all year long. That is what businesses strive for anyway.

In various vacation spots I did see Christmas shops that were open all year long and believe it or not they had costumers. OK, they were not selling the cheap stuff local stores do but better quality almost like designer items.

Maybe they had the right idea, keep Christmas alive all year long. At least business wise.

Friday

Night before last my wife and I went to our first coop meeting. This is an annual happening where the owners of the apartments in our building meet with the elected board of directors. Last year we had opera tickets for the same night and we kind of selfishly chose to to the Opera instead the coop meeting.

This time we had no tickets  and went to the meeting. What an assembly of losers! After the reading of the financial statement and the board president's report there were general questions from the attendees.

And this is when the fun started. Old ladies boring the assembly about lack of lights, why the doors are so heavy to open, why the doors don't close and a myriad of similar questions. I basically enjoyed listening to these because this way we kind go got to know our fellow residents.

One young lady walked up to us when she heard us speaking in Hungarian and it turned out that she was Hungarian too. We talked but I don't think we will become lifelong buddies. This just proves our old adage that there are Hungarians to be found everywhere.

There is a Jewish Temple in our neighborhood that rents out their hall to similar meetings. I think they make pretty good many since there are several large coop or condominium apartment buildings in this area.

The meeting lasted two hours and I think next year we will go to the Opera instead.

Thursday

Today we didn't go shopping for doors, yet. But we did go to the quasi Hungarian butcher/meat store and bought good Hungarian style cold cuts.

We bought Pick salami, spicy head cheese, some spicy kielbasa (kolbasz), some fantastic bread and also some pig knuckles for later use.

I say for later use because the cold cuts very likely will not see the weekend. Actually, we ate most of it tonight for dinner.

I think it is along accepted thing that one can not go to shop for food in a hungry condition. Everything look good and everything look appetizing. If we compare prices the cost of food shopping is lower when we go on a full stomach than the other way around.

Today at the meat store my wife and I were both hungry.

Wednesday

My wife,  God bless her is a fantastic women. She wants nothing for herself and everything for the family. For me she wants nothing but the best things.

Regardless how busy she is she always has time to think about bettering our lives.

Yesterday she came forward with a thought that she had which keeps me awake at night.

We moved into this apartment that was fixed up. Meaning it was painted, a new kitchen built and two very nice, modern bathrooms. Good enough for me for many, many years.

My darling wife suggested that we have the entire place painted next Spring. Why, I asked? Just because, she said.

I could live with this small request but then she went on. As long as the walls are being painted why don't we replace all the base boards at the bottom. Now this would run to serious footage since it has to be done throughout the apartment.

If it must I can go along with this small request. But there was more. She advised me that she hated the doors we had and wanted to replace all of them, too. That is about thirteen doors with hardware (handles and not knobs and gold colored).

This was when I hit the floor and started to have sleepless nights.

I think I will have to go to back to work.

Monday

This evening I called a friend of mine I didn't tag to for quite a while. We used to work together and we always had a lot in common.

One common thing is that we both like to talk. Our telephone conversations used to last over an hour. Today's was much shorter only 45 minutes. My wife said we were like two gossipy old women.

I really take exceptions to that. We were not gossiping and we were not women. The old I agree with.

He shows genuine interest in our lives while I am interested in his affairs. That is not gossiping. That is just plain conversation between two friends.

What else two men can talk about? We were not discussing politics. He knows our views and we know his. Discussing politics would just lead to arguments and that must be avoided if friendships are to be maintained.

We talked about restaurants, travel and health issues. None of these were gossips.

Actually I wish he would have told me some gossips, I would have loved to hear some.

Sunday

Today was a very hard day for me. Was in bed 'till noon. The exhaustion of the last several days just came out. But it felt really good. Today we had nothing planned and we stuck to it.

Abigail is healing nicely but unfortunately she just developed a brutal cold. Now her nose is stuffed up and she is sneezing and coughing. I know my wife and I will eventually catch it it's just a question, when.

Tonight we were watching Sixty Minutes on CBS. This was a one hour segment where Trump and his family were interviewed last Friday. The show was very interesting and informative. This time he was more presidential and serious than ever before. I guess he now accepts the fact that he is the president elect.

At this time the more I listen to him the more I am convinced that he will be good for the country.

I have one advise to all those objectors here. If you don't like this democratic system, move. Russia can always use American expatriets.

And those outside the country who oppose him, stay wherever the hell you are because we certainly don't need your smartass kind.

Saturday

My wife tells me we have a Facebook and if she tells me we have one than who am I to question it. Anyway, that Facebook is full of comments about the recent election. Some comments are positive while some are really negative.

Here I want to address the negative issues. First, people should be ashamed of themselves to write what they do write about the future president of the United States.

If they do not realize this election was done according to a democratic process. A process described in the Constitution. If these people do not want to accept a democratic process maybe they should go back where they came from. IF their countries would want them.

I just love the comments from those Hungarians who can not even write English. Maybe they should learn the language first before they comment on the system.

I also seen comments from people who do not live here in the States. Canadians should worry about Canada and Europeans should worry about Europe. Hungarians should worry about Hungary and fix their affairs over there before sticking their noses where they don't belong to.

As far as I am concerned people who do not live here have no right to criticize how we live. If idiot England wants to leave the EU that is their problem and not ours. If we choose Donald Trump as our next president that is our affair and not theirs and not Canada's.

The publisher of the Hungarian paper in New York wrote such idiotic articles about the President Elect and accused him of such things that if I were him I would just bury my head in sand and hope it will be forgotten.

I chose to live here in a free country. I chose to accept its ways. I might not like everything that happens but be it as it may I will accept it and not revolt against it. This is not a banana republic where revolts will change the regime.

Here is a thought: some Hungarians call him nazi and racist and bigot. If that is the case why are they so upset? Hungarians don't have to go next door for racial hatred. They get through their mothers' milk. They are all nazi sympathizers, racists and bigots. They hate Jews and they hate gypsies and everybody else.

If that is the case Trump should be their man.

Friday

There is a government publication called the Plum Book. This publication lists every political government position and employee from the Executive branch all the way down to the last agency.

I found it because I stared to read about the transition process. It just boggled my mind to see how many people work within that machinery called government. I always knew it was a huge organization but never realized just how huge.

And this list only includes the executive positions. Behind every chief there are the countless number of nameless people working who do the real work.

The government is filled with political appointees who work on borrowed time. President out, their jobs are finished. They "voluntarily" submit their resignations and leave. A new bunch comes in.

Nobody can tell me that these people have country's interest at their hearts. Their pocketbook's interest is at their hearts. They all have to make sure that when the time comes for them to leave each have a cushy job  waiting somewhere. And the only way hat will happen if they perform favors.

It's a sick system that needs to be fixed. But the way it is  that it was always like this so why change it.

Thursday

Today we had a very busy day. It was a day that was spent making Abigail look and feel better.

I think I mentioned it before that she had cyst on her right ear. Today was the day it was removed. Because of certain insurance requirements we needed a doctor who was acceptable to her insurance company. After a long search we found the doctor who today did the procedure.

This involved getting up around 5:30 am and be in Manhattan before 8:15 for her appointment. The procedure was done within a hospital facility. I was totally impressed by the professionalism the way they treated her. They were kind and understanding throughout the entire time.

The doctor and the anesthesiologist took extra time to patiently explain the entire process and made sure she understood and was comfortable with it.

The process itself took only about half an hour but still we spent about five hours there including recuperation. We were home before two o'clock in the afternoon.

Abigail behaved like a pro. She was good, didn't complain. We were both very proud of her. Now she feels good and just waits for the little scar to heal. Luckily there is no school Friday this way she can stay home and just relax. Relaxing is never a problem with Abigail. She is pretty good at it.

Her mom and I on the other hand are totally exhausted. Worrying is exhausting.

Wednesday

I am full of excuses for my tardiness. I didn't write yesterday because I was caught up in history making events. I don't know where it says that history making events make one sleepy but the end result was that I was very sleepy this morning.

Actually, we stayed up late watching the election returns but I couldn't hold it 'till 3 am when Trump was declared the winner. My wife stayed up and had the decency not to waken me up from my beauty sleep to let me know the results. She did it this morning.

Anyway, the man did it, he pulled off one of the biggest surprises in American history. Now we sit and watch what will happen. There is nothing else on TV all day but analysis of what happened and why did it happen and how did it happen.

It really pissed me off to watch people of Hilary Clinton's camp falling all over each other and crying crocodile tears because of the loss. What a ridiculous sight. Why do people have to cry because of a political loss?

The other thing what is interesting is to se how all the politicians who were anti Trump until a few days ago are now changing their colors and allegiances. They are doing it so fast that they are falling all over each other. This just proves that politicians have no conscience, no backbone. They bend whichever way the winds of power blows from.

And they have fantastic talent explaining their actions as ridiculous as it sounds.

I am too honest, I could never be a politician.

Monday

I feel really bad that I skipped yesterday. Actually, I don't feel bad at all. Yesterday was Sunday and we had a good time and at the end I just couldn't get to writing.

But I have to tell what we did on Saturday.

I already mentioned that Abigail has ambitions to become a chef when she grows up. In reality she doesn't have a clue what being a chef is all about but the bottom line is that she likes to cook. And by mutual agreement we decided to let her cook on Saturdays, at least for a while.

A week ago she prepared a pretty good chili for dinner. This Saturday because she knows that her mother loves it she made Zuppa Toscana.

This is an Italian soup with meat, kale, potatoes, onions, garlic and heavy cream. I have to admit that the soup was pretty good. Olive Gardens makes the same soup but I think hers was better.

I don't know what she is planning for next week but I'm sure it will be good. At her first try her mom had to stand by her throughout the cooking but lately she is becoming very independent.

I honestly hope she will succeed if this is what she wants to do.

Saturday

I can not get used to the fact that how much stuff we as a family use a week. There is the three of us, my wife, Abigail and me and it doesn't seem like we eat a lot, yet every week we buy enormous amounts of food.

Today we went shopping to three different stores and had to make three turns to the car to bring the stuff upstairs. Abigail doesn't eat much, my wife and I don't eat much yet, the food just disappears.

We buy snack for all of us. We do laundry every week and the detergents just fly out of the bottles. We use a lot of paper therefore paper towels, tissues, napkins and toilet papers are being used like crazy.

Soap, toothpaste and other things like bottled water and sodas just "disappear". I am in charge of filling up the paper supply in the house and every day I have to refresh some supply.

It boiled down to that whenever we come home, regardless from where we come home with shopping bags.

Last season we went to the Opera and came home with shopping bags.

Friday

As I said the other day we bought a cd of the first season of a TV show we are now hooked on. This package has I think 26 one hour episodes on. We started to watch on Sunday night and last night we finished the whole thing.

We just couldn't stop watching it. It is an action series with a lots of shooting and it was very interesting. Anyway, on Thursday night around midnight we finished it.

Now there is that empty feeling of what to do next.

I think that is the problem with watching TV shows from ids. It is difficult to watch just one episode but then one gets carried away and watches several uninterrupted hours. Most of these show are continuations of the previous episodes and watching them from ids it is easier to see the continuity.

Something else.

This morning I took Abigail to school. After that I took my wife to the dentist. After that I went to Abigail's school to take her out and take her to the orthodontist appointment.

As far as I am concerned life is full of mileage.

Wednesday

We are living in world of passwords. There are so many passwords necessary in everyday life that it is impossible to remember all.

Everything we have on the Internet need a password. The safety experts tell you use different passwords for different things and periodically change them.

We keep a two page list of all the passwords we need to look up accounts, to pay bills, to write e-mails and for other stuff. It is unbelievable how safe we must be if we really want to protect our lives.

The way I see it it is impossible to remember all of them and that is why a list is necessary. The problem comes when we want to use something that was not used a very long time and suddenly now it is needed.

That is how we are with our older computer. When it was set up a password was used but not recorded. We purchased an Apple and the other computer was neglected. The other day we wanted to use it because it is a Microsoft and asked for the password.

None of us was able to recall what we used. After several unsuccessful tries the computer locked us out for any further tries. Eventually my wife's' son solved the problem but it just emphasizes the problem with passwords.

Remembering my ss number, my telephone number, my address, today's date hope to God I'll never have amnesia.

Tuesday

Post script to Halloween.  Abigail came home with a fairly large bag of candies. They were not sorted out yet but she seemed to be pretty satisfied. I guess today she will have time to do that.

Something else.

Today is the first time that the political polls indicated a Trump lead. Granted that is only about 1% but still it is a lead. In my opinion if he doesn't mess it up he might have a good chance to win the election. Who knows. Interesting things have been known to happen in politics.  Like the Dewey/Truman election in 1948.

If anybody doesn't know what happened look it up in Wikipedia.

I'm a great fan of Wikipedia. Some people say they are not reliable but as far as I'm concerned they still know more than I do and if they miss a few facts, who cares.

Today is All Saint's Day. This is a holiday in the Roman Catholic calendar. I don't think anybody stays home from work because of this holiday. But still, alternate parking in New York City is suspended.

I can see when alternate parking is suspended on Jewish holidays. According to religion driving cars is not permitted on most of the Jewish holidays. But what difference does it make on a Christian holiday? 

Unless the Department of Sanitation is so religious that they serve all the religious holidays.

Monday

This is a repeat remembrance that I do every year on this day.

Today is Holloween. Now that by itself has absolutely no meaning of any importance to me, except that it is a special day for me.

Fifty nine years ago today I arrived at Idlewild International Airport in New York. I knew I was in New York and that was in America but that was about all of it. Didn't know much about the US but still chose to come here. And retrospect I am not sorry I came.

I and nobody on the bus on the way to our hotel had any idea about what today was. When our bus stopped at red lights we all saw these kids dressed in various forms of costumes. We just looked at each other questioningly saying is this the way American kids dress? Didn't seem very normal.

It took a while to understand the significance of Holloween. Actually it has no significance at all.

Kids dress in costumes and there is a gay parade in Manhattan. Abigail is all exited about this day because she is going out with her friends trick or treating after school. But when I asked her what Holloween is all about she had no clue. All she and her friends can think about is costumes and candy.

Nice to be a kid in these days.