September 22, 2008

New Online Islamic Bookstore

We have just finished setting up out new online Islamic bookstore. The website is http://www.hudastore.com/store and we have over 100 titles ranging from Children's books to books on learning Arabic to Qur'an's to books on Aqeedah (creed) and Fiqh (jurisprudence).

December 23, 2006

2006 Card

Unfortunately we have not had time to get cards out this year but here is the picture, so just pretend you got this as a card, OK?



-Brian

August 23, 2006

Nag fits right in here

We took Nag out tonight to let him explore a little. He decided to crawl across Jen's computer where he proceeded to climb the side of her screen and settled himself in on top of it. He sat there completely content until I decided it was time to put him back in his tank for the night. Apparently he likes spending time "on" the computer as much as we do. Yeah, bad pun, here's a picture.



-Brian

August 15, 2006

Who is Nag? I am Nag!

In case you don't get the title, its from Rikki Tikki Tavi. It is what the cobra Nag says when Rikki asks who Nag is. It also means there is a new addition to our mengerie and his name is Nag.

This is Nag:





Nag is not a cobra obviously. He is a baby ball python. He is pretty small now but eventually he will be about 4 feet long and pretty heavy. He is adjusting to his new home now so we aren't supposed to bug him too much but we wanted to get a couple of pictures of him.

He is Ian's birthday present because he has become really interested in snakes lately and ball pythons are good beginner snakes. They are not inclined to bite and are pretty easy to care for. Ian is anxious to be able to hold him but we want to give Nag some time. Ian did hold him at the pet store and thought he was pretty cool so hopefully he does well with him.

-Brian

May 1, 2006

Harkness

This weekend we went to the beach at Harkness. We had a nice picnic first and then walked along the beach for a while. Here are some pictures from our day.









-Brian

April 18, 2006

Mens sana in corpore sano

My father suggested the title for this one. If you aren't a Latin geek it means "A sound mind in a sound body".

The reason for this post is to pass on some news from a couple weeks ago. I had 2 pretty cool things happen on the same day. First I got home from work to get ready for a martial arts belt test and had received an acceptance letter to American Mensa. I had taken a test several weeks ago to see if I qualified and so I am now a member. Then I went a took my martial arts test and received my Orange belt.

So I guess going back to the latin phrase, I guess the mind is doing pretty good and the body, well, its getting there. I'm down 59 pounds as of this morning. My body fat percent has gone done by 5% and I've lost several inches off my waist. I am wearing 1 size smaller in shirts and I can now wear pants about 4 inches smaller in the waist then what I had been wearing.

-Brian

March 11, 2006

Ozzie talks

One of our African Grey parrots began to talk recently. Here is a recording of him.

Ozzie saying Hello

Ozzie Whistling

-Brian

March 8, 2006

30 Day Update

I managed to do 30 pounds in 30 days and am down a total of 41 pounds.

Jen was down 33 pounds a few days ago but came back up a little.

We're going to try to stop weighing ourselves daily so the little ups and downs don't drive us so crazy.

-Brian

February 28, 2006

Weightloss Update #3

I have now lost 24 pounds in 3 weeks and a total of 35 pounds.

Jen is now down 31 pounds.

-Brian

February 21, 2006

Weightloss Update #2

I realized I had Jen's weightloss wrong last week so with losing a couple more pounds she is now at a total of 29 pounds lost.

I lost another 6 pounds since the last update to make 20 pounds since February 6 and 31 pounds total.

I found out last week the link to our online store wasn't working for everyone. I think I corrected the problem but if this link doesn't work...

http://www.herbalsolutionstore.com

try this one.

Herbal Solution Store Direct Link

-Brian

February 13, 2006

Weightloss update

As some people may remember Jen and I had lost a lot of weight years ago using Herbalife but between a couple of moves and Jen's pregnancy with Ian (I couldn't let her eat alone) we put it back on. Well after trying several times to lose weight since then we have found our way back to Herbalife.

Jen has now lost 21 lbs but I was a little slow to get with the program. I had lost about 11 lbs but was not being very serious about it until last week. I started last Monday doing everything the way I was supposed to and increased my exercise. The result, I lost 14 lbs in a week, for a total since we started of 25 lbs. I'm really excited and determined to keep going and get down to a healthy weight.

We have also renewed our status as an Herbalife Independent Distributor so we can sell the products and have set up a website at http://www.herbalsolutionstore.com.

I'll try to do periodic updates of our progress with the weightloss and the business.

-Brian

January 20, 2006

New addition to the zoo

We got a new Akita puppy. His name is Zorro, you can probably see why in the pictures. We think he is adorable but I think we are a little crazy now that we are going through all the fun puppy stuff. He is already pretty good about going out and has only had a couple accidents but he still need to get out every 3-4 hours or so. Hopefully it won't be long before he can make it through the night because getting up at 2 or 3 in the morning to take him out is getting old, fast.

Zorro

Don't touch my toy!

-Brian

October 5, 2005

New Site

Jen and I just set up a site to sell Herbalife products. We used them with great results years ago and have continued to use some of their products for years and we recently renewed our status as distributors because they recently set up an easy to use online store so we thought we'd give it a try.

Check out the site here: http://www.herbalsolutionstore.com

August 15, 2005

Ivan

Almost exactly 12 years ago mom gave me and Jen a tiny, cute, little kitten. It didn't take long to realize he liked eating human flesh so he was given the name Ivan as in Ivan the Terrible.

Ivan grew up to be a very large cat, probably part Maine Coon and eventually bonded with me and allowed me to pet him, although anyone else still risked losing large chunks of skin if they got too close. Taking him to the vet was always an experience. He either had to be held by someone with thick leather falconry type gloves, which usually proved to not offer as much protection as you might think, or he had to be given something to put him to sleep. First the vets tried injecting him but after many broken needles decided dumping him in a tank and gassing him was the safest method. (I'm not kidding) Even when heavily sedated you have never seen an animal fight it like Ivan. There were times they had to given him so much that he couldn't even walk for 12 hours afterwards but they said he was still fighting it the whole time.

Ivan mellowed a bit as he got older and for the last few years has allowed people he was familiar with to pet him. Even Ian could pet him, as long as he was gentle. He spent most of his time in the basement, even though he had a door he could use to get upstairs, he didn't like the dogs so he stayed downstairs. He would usually come out when we were doing laundry and rub against our legs and want to be petted.

Ivan died on Saturday, he was the first pet Jen and I had as a couple and he will be missed.

-Brian

July 11, 2005

Devil's Hopyard Waterfall

Here are some pictures we took at the waterfall at Devil's Hopyard State Park

First a picture of Ian looking at the falls


The lower part of the falls


Three pictures of the whole falls






-Brian

July 8, 2005

Trip to Vermont

We went to Vermont for the 4th of July weekend. On the way up we went through some pretty strong thunderstorms but then the skies opened up just in time for a beautiful sunset. We got to Jen's parents around 10 and pretty much just went to bed.

The next day we met up with Jen's sister and her kids Jade and Brandon. We went to McDonald's and did some shopping and went back to Jen's parents house and let the kids go in the pool and play. Jen and Vickey went out to play bingo later that night so Jen's parents and I watched the 3 kids.

Sunday we went to visit Heidi, Chris and their kids at a cabin they had rented on Lake Champlain. We had lunch and hung out on the dock. Ian and I fished a little and Ian went for a quick dunk in the Lake. On the way back we saw some osprey in a nest near the road. Then while we were outside playing with the kids back at the Honeywood's we saw a hot air balloon. Then a few minutes later we saw another one. They flew pretty much right over us. After dark we watched the fireworks.

All in all it was a pretty good trip. Ian said it was the best days ever.

-Brian

July 6, 2005

Ian's a Wheel Watcher

Every night at around 7:15 lately, Ian comes and says, "Daddy, can I watch my show?". Of all things he could be referring to as "his show" he is talking about Wheel of Fortune. I'm not sure why he likes it, probably all the clapping and enthusiasm when people solve the puzzle but he absolutely loves it and we have to watch it.

Ian is also a big Star Wars fan right now, especially the light saber duels. He has a couple toy light sabers that he uses to act out the scenes and he watches them over and over. I'm going to have to video tape this and post a short clip of it up here because he is hillarious. For one scene in Episode 1 they jump off something, fire up their light sabers and attack some droids. Ian gets out his little wooden chair, stands on it, jumps at the right moment flicking out his toy light saber in mid-air and acts out the attack as the movie plays.

-Brian

June 21, 2005

Ian's Teeth

I hadn't mentioned yet but Ian lost another tooth, his lower left canine I think but that's not really the reason for this post.

Ian had an appointment at the dentist today.

A year or so ago Ian had major dental issues, he had 6 or 8 cavities and needed 4 crowns. This visit he was a little scared at first but settled down when he realized it was just a cleaning. He had a full check-up including X-Rays and this time he has no new cavities. We learned our lesson about the chewy fruit snacks. They are evil. Ian used to eat them all the time but after the dentist told us how bad they were we stopped and that seems to have done the trick. One of his 2 missing front teeth is starting to come in and his 6 year molars are starting to push in at the back of his mouth.

-Brian

June 7, 2005

Another Bird

We added another bird to our managerie. He is an African Grey Congo Parrot and his name is Ozzy or Ozzie, I'm not sure how we are spelling it. African Greys are great imitators and are considered to be the best talkers and among the smartest birds. They can even learn to use their words in context to ask for things. Ozzy is still a little young, he's about 8 months old and they generally start talking around a year but he is doing what babies do and making all kinds of different sounds and noises. He is already a pretty good whistle imitator and he even does a different whistle when imitating me then he does when imitating Ian. He also laughs kind of like Popeye or a pirate. He is still a little shy about being petted but he is getting better as he gets used to his surroundings. The other birds are doing good. Basil has learned to spin and wave on command and I'm working on shaking his head no and yes. Gromit has been a little slower but I think its because he doesn't like sunflower seeds like Basil so we have to give him larger treats so he only gets one or 2 repititions while Basil gets 10-20. We haven't started trying to teach Ozzy any tricks. We want him to get more used to us first. Basil and Gromit also seem to be interested in immitating Ozzy more than they do us, so he may end up teaching them to talk eventually.

Here are a couple of pictures of Ozzy.



June 1, 2005

One more video of Ian's Show

I finally got another video to upload.

We Rock

-Brian

May 27, 2005

Ian's School Show

Yesterday Ian had a show with the Kindergarten class at school. They did a bunch of songs and poems. Ian did great, he sang and did the hand motions to all the songs. I pulled some video off my camcorder and am trying to make some reasonable size files out of it and upload it. I'll post them here as I get them up to the server.

Here's the first one, its about 15MB so it might take a couple minutes to download if you have a slow connection.
I Like School

Here's another one, 10 MB.
Ian Acting Silly

May 10, 2005

Pirate Ian

Ian has been interested in pirates and treasure chests lately so when we saw a treasure chest at the book store this weekend we decided to get it for him. Inside was some small books and things like a pirate journal. Under that was a "secret" compartment that had a bandana, eye patch, treasure map and a few other things. Ian was so excited to put on the costume and play with his treasure map so we snapped a couple of pictures.

Consulting the Treasure Map
Argh Matey!
Feed the scurvey scoundrel to the fishes!
Argh again!

-Brian

April 30, 2005

My new baby

Last weekend I traded in my motorcycle and got a new one. Its a Black and Silver 2005 Kawasaki Vulcan Nomad. So far I've put about 200 miles on it. Anyway here are some pictures.

http://www.zebarth.com/images/nomadside1.jpg
http://www.zebarth.com/images/nomadback1.jpg

-Brian

April 18, 2005

Jen's Review

Jen recently had her annual review and her 5 year anniversary at Data-Mail. She got a raise and a very positive review.

Unfortunately, there has been no news with my job. They finally put the budget through but my boss has been too busy to figure out if he has it in his budget to give me a permanent positition. For now, though, I have a stable contracting position so I can't complain.

-Brian

Birds

We recently decided that parakeets were too small and gave away the sole survivor to a friend. In their place we got 2 Conures. Conures are small parrots basically. They are about midway between a parakeet and the larger parrots in size. We got one Sun Conure whose name is Gromit (after one of Ian's favorite animated characters from Wallace & Gromit). The other is a Cinnamon Green Cheek Conure whose name is Basil (pronounced the English way with a hard 'a' not like the herb). Gromit is about 6 months old and is a bit bigger and Basil is only about 3 months old. Unlike the parakeets they actually enjoy being handled and taken out of their cage and Ian loves them. He has been very brave about letting them climb up his arm and onto his shoulder but still gets a little upset if they flap their wings or nibble on his ear. We've decided that ear must be a bird delicacy because they won't stop trying to eat ours. We are going to try to train them a little (at least enough to not poop on us). Training is supposed to be good for them because they are fairly smart and they can get bored if you don't give them something to work their minds on. Bored birds sometimes pluck out their on feathers so we want to avoid that.

Anway here are a couple of pictures.
Basil

Gromit

Gromit close up

-Brian

April 3, 2005

Ian Karate

Here's a picture of Ian in his Gi, imitating Daddy.

April 1, 2005

Everybody was kung-fu fighting

I just started doing something I've always wanted to try, I'm taking martial arts lessons. It isn't actually kung fu it is Kosho Ryu Kempo Karate. Kosho Ryu means the Old Pine Tree School because a monk was meditating under an old pine tree when he developed the technique. Kempo means Fist Law. I have had 2 private lessons so far, with 1 more on Saturday. After that I will join the class 2 days a week. My Sensei is a 4th degree black belt in Kosho Ryu with black belts is Jujitsu, Aikido and a couple other styles so he teaches mainly Kosho Ryu with other techniques added in. So far it is very interesting. I think I will pick up the concepts pretty quickly because its all about Physics. Its amazing how easy it is to control someone with very little force if you know when and where to apply the force. Now getting my body to do the things is another matter. So far, so good. I haven't hurt myself but my kicks aren't exactly in the Jean Claude Van Dam class.

I'll probably post some picutes of me looking dorky in my Gi (uniform) in the next week or so.

March 18, 2005

Ian School Update

Jen went to Ian's school today for a meeting. They said he is doing great. Their only concern is with his hand coordination and how it affects his ability to write. In all other areas he is already at the level he needs to be to move on to 1st Grade next year.

They are going to try some different things to help his writing like using an inclined or vertical writing surface which we have noticed at home seems to help. He may end up doing some work on a computer to show that he can put together thoughts into words since he already has an understanding of using the keyboard at least to type his name for games he plays. We will push for them to keep working hard on his handwriting though. Even though they can use the computer to test his writing skills it is still really important that he continue to put in a lot of work writing by hand.

All in all it was a glowing report of how hard of a worker he is and how much progress he has made this year.

-Brian

February 27, 2005

Vermont

Our trip to Vermont this weekend was great. We got to Jen's parent's house around 8 Friday night. Other than Ian losing a tooth, the trip up was pretty uneventful, we beat traffic through Hartford and Springfield. We hit some dinner time skier traffic in Ludlow but the rest was smooth sailing. Ian had a hard time the first night there with different noises, we all had a pretty fitful night as a result.

Saturday Ian got to play with his cousins Jade and Brandon and they had a great time. The kids all went for a walk with Jen, Vicky and Grandma. The kids held hands pretty much the whole time. On the walk they saw some wild turkey tracks. Then they went to see some cows. After a full day of playing we had a nice ham dinner and then Vicky, Jade and Brandon went home. We played some Uno Attack, worked on a jigsaw puzzle for a while but we were all really tired so we made it an early night and went to bed. Ian didn't have any problem sleeping that night.

Sunday we had a quiet morning, packed up and headed home. The trip home went well also, again except for Ian losing a tooth. We stopped at the Vermont Country Store but it was crazy and we didn't get to look around as much as we wanted to. After we got home, Ian and Jen went to the store to get some groceries and I went to get the dogs. Now we're just relaxing and having a nice quiet Sunday evening.

-Brian

Ian's Teeth

Well I promised a picture after he lost one of his front teeth on the way to Vermont so here it is.

But then on the way back from Vermont the other one fell out too so here is a picture after we got home.

I'll post the pictures in the picture section also.

-Brian

February 25, 2005

Ian's Tooth

Ian lost one of his front teeth on the way to Vermont today. He looks pretty funny now.

I'll post a picture when we get back home.

-Brian

February 24, 2005

Job Update

Just a quick update of where Jen and I are with work at the moment.

Jen is still working at Data-Mail. She has been there almost 5 years. Last year she was promoted to Account Manager and was put in charge of the Citibank account (the company's largest account). In this new role Jen has had to adjust to the pressure of being the one ultimately responsible for millions of pieces of mail getting out and dealing with employee issues for the people on her team but she is doing great.

I am currently working as a consultant for a company called Open Solutions that creates banking software. My primary responsibility is as a Business Analysis, gathering requirements, doing analysis, creating specifications, working with the programmers, testing, delivering, documenting, and doing a little programming. I have been working here since November and am enjoying it so far. I am supposed to be hired on permanantly once the new budget is approved.

Hopefully I'll have good news about the permanent position to report soon.

-Brian

February 22, 2005

Quick Note

Jen and I have recently become involved in the community. We were told by the Director of Special Services for own school system about a group of people in town calling themselves the Common Sense Citizens Group that came to all the town budget meetings and School Board meetings and fought everything in the budgets taking a particular interest in the special education budget. After we heard that we started working on a website http://www.bettersense.org and are planning to attend all the school board and town meetings regarding budget and posting information from those meetings on the site along with other information about the spending and performance of our town schools. The website is just getting started and has a long way to go but please check it out and let me know what you think.

-Brian

Ian

Ian Update - 02/22/2005

Ian is doing great. He got his first report card for Kindergarden a few weeks ago. He is making good progress in most areas and has already met some of his year end goals. He is off this week, which should be good because I think he needs the break.

His 2 top front teeth are loose and causing him some problems eating. I think at least one of them will fall out this week.

Ian had a great time at Drew's birthday party a week ago at the duck pin bowling alley. All the kids got plastic bowling pins filled with goodies and Ian slept with his the first 2 nights after the party. He has also been setting it up along with some empty plastic water bottles and bowling in the living room. We ended up breaking down and buying him a plastic bowling set with 6 pins and a ball which he loves. He is also crazy about car washes. He has been watching an episode of Blue's Clues where they go to a car wash. He goes around the house on his 3 wheel bike making us be the car wash for him. He even has us draw a car wash on a piece of paper and takes his hot wheel cars "through" it. And of course any time we go in the cars he wants to go to the actual car wash.

Well I'll stop there for now. More updates coming soon.

-Brian