My brother's kid had to come to the office today for an hour or so. During that time, she ended up playing with something in my office.

She then got up, walked into the corner of the room and laid down.

Seconds later, she was out cold. Sleeping away. So my brother first tried offering her a pillow but that didn't work out too well. He then grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures.

Now, how often do I have kids falling asleep in my office? This is the first time. I am sure, some of you have home offices, and this may not be uncommon for you - but very uncommon here.

Anyway, she then woke up 15 minutes later and looked around. She seemed a bit frightened, and I told her that her dad was in the office next door. She walked over there and then seconds later, I hear a big cry. I scoot over to his door and close it.

Why did I close the door. People were on the phone with clients, and it might sound weird hearing a kid crying in the background.

Posted at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Category: Family , Just Funny | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

A name plate. My birthday was recently and my wife and my brother's wife (remember, I am a twin) had to think of something to get us.

I pretty much have everything I would want, I am a lucky guy and blessed. So what did they get us? Name plates:

First thought was... "Cool, I have a name plate for my door." But then I thought, "hmm... I feel weird hanging it up on my door." I was never in to titles, i.e. CEO, etc. Labeling myself makes me feel weird. Plus the factor that we have five doors in our office, two will have name tags, one is the company tag and the rest are unlabeled now? Will this help confusion when people come into my office? Where is the utility? I guess there is some.

All in all, it was a very thoughtful gift. I will hang it up and maybe I will add a no soliciting sign to my personal office door as well.

Posted at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I have written about him time and time again in the family and RustyBrick categories, most recently the post named My Brother & Sister-in-Law Had a Baby Girl Last Night.

In any event, Taylor Pratt wrote about The Secret to Becoming an SEO Celebrity and mentioned something about me possibly having "an identical twin" or a "clone" of myself. Although I don't have an "identical" twin, I do have a twin brother. The guy in the picture in the post.

He and I own and run RustyBrick. He is basically the behind the scenes man at the company. He actually came up with the name RustyBrick in high school, based on his initials are RBS, so it was RustyBrickSoftware until we formed a real business and wanted to keep it short and made it RustyBrick. More on our old name and old web sites over here.

So, yes, I have a twin that helps me tremendously. He handles the day to day RustyBrick stuff. I get the client, get them going and then he is the one who gets his hands dirty with the day to day. I would not be able to do all the blogging I do without him.

I can talk a lot more about him but I'll spare you all. For those who did not know, now you do. I got a twin brother.

Posted at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I skipped Friday from Thursday, because nothing really significant happened Friday day. Now, although Avi was officially Bar Mitzvah'ed on Thursday, Shabbos (Friday night and Saturday) was a continuation of that celebration.

The plan was for many of us to meet at the kotel and pray Shabbos night services there. Many of us took taxi's prior to Shabbos beginning and got there early to prepare for services. When we arrived, we secured a place to pray in about the same location as on Thursday. As more people came, we decided to start. If I remember correctly, Avi lead services for both afternoon and evening services.

The thing is, soon after we started two new groups formed in front and behind us. The ones behind us were a Carlebach group, extremely loud. Then in front of us was a "mission" from the US. Great cause, they basically take a group of children who are ill, to Israel for a week or so, to experience it. So that group, although very nice, was a bit loud, as you can imagine. It was almost impossible to hear Avi lead us, but we managed.

After services, we walked back to the area of our hotels. It was about 20 - 30 minutes to walk, but it was a bit hilly. My sister and brother-in-law reserved the OU Center in Jerusalem for the shabbos meals. They had a caterer and more at this place, and it turned out very nice. They hosted meals for Friday night, Saturday day and Saturday night. Shabbos morning, we held services at the OU Center, where Avi read the whole Parsha Trumah, as opposed to just the first Aliyah, which is done during the weekday. He read perfectly and he wasn't nervous. When I did that, I was extremely nervous. Yes, he was only in front of 30 or so close friends and family, while I was in front of hundreds who were looking for me to make mistakes - but still, impressive for a 13 year-old.

My wife wasn't feeling well, so after the meal, we went back to our hotel and tried to sleep a bit. Then came back to the OU center for the third-meal. After that, we were pretty much done with Israel. It was time to go back to the airport to catch our flight to Newark. More on that later...

Posted at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Religion , Travels | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night was an exciting night for me and my family. My twin-brother, who is the co-owner and founder of RustyBrick (which some of you may or may not know, he is the behind the scenes guy) and his wife had a little baby girl last night.

My brother left work a bit early in anticipation of the delivery. I get a call that it is likely going to happen. That night, my sister-in-law's mother and aunt were coming in from Texas. My brother was the one who was going to pick them up, but obviously he could not. So I offered and drove to pick them up at Newark (yea, I have been to Newark Airport a lot this week). About 10 minutes from driving back home, we find out they had a baby girl.

So instead of taking them to Ronnie's home, I take them directly to the hospital. I drop them off in front and then park the car. I then go up to the room to check out my new niece. Of course, I snap a picture on my iPhone - the one you see above. The mother, father and baby are all doing well.

I then snapped a picture of the fresh foot prints. We literally got there within 30 minutes of the baby being born, so the ink on that paper is still wet.

Cute kid, no? That makes for a second girl!

Posted at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Thursday was Avi, my oldest nephew, Bar Mitzvah - the day he became of age to be counted as a man in the Jewish world.

We all met at the Kotel, Western Wall, in the morning. I had to hunt down a representative that would secure a table for us to use during morning services. I finally found the guy, he brought me a table amongst the masses of people (keep in mind it was a new month and a Thursday, so lot's going on at the Kotel that day). He told me to stand and guard the table until more people came. But then they needed me for pictures, so we got someone to take my place while I did some pictures. Then we all went to the Kotel, by the table, for morning services. We got a position near the men and women dividing wall (mechitza (spelling)), so the women can see what was going on.

Avi's brother, second oldest son, Jeremy lead the introductory part of the morning services. Then two of my brother-in-law's friends did the rest of the services. The picture above is of Avi reading the Torah. I was honored with one of the alyiahs. He did a great job!

During all of this, we had a very loud group behind us. It was this Carlebach group behind us, and as some of you know, they can get loud. But we survived and finished up services. After services we all either walked or took a taxi to the event hall for the party.

When I got to the event hall, I helped my sister set up her computer to the projector. The first problem we had was that there was only one outlet and we had two things to plug in. So they got us a plug that expanded into two. Then when I tried out the outlet, I noticed the power wasn't working. So I asked them for an extension cord so we can try an outlet that was further away. They didn't have an extension cord, so they built one on the spot for me. When that was built, I was a bit afraid to plug the devices into it, cause it can fry the computer and projector. I took my chances and it worked out perfectly.

The party was very nice, the food was good, the music was good, the speeches were nice as well. The dessert was also very good. And yes, there was dancing and more pictures. I was very impressed on how well everything went.

That was the Bar Mitzvah, after the Bar Mitzvah - we did a few other things to extend the event. More to come on that in later posts.

Posted at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

To continue my documentation of my Israel trip... Monday morning, my wife visited her friends in Bet Shemesh, a city in Israel's Jerusalem District, home, as of 2006 to 68,400 people. While she visited her friend, I was allowed to do some work that morning.

Then after work, I met my nephews, brother, brother-in-law and father in Mesharim where they did a tour of places like the Mir Yeshiva and other historic places in Mesharim. From there, we took one taxi and my brother's car back to his home in Beitar Illit, where my wife met me. All the kids got together and my nephews saw their cousins home for the first time. It was cool.

My wife and I left around dinner time to meet friends. We ate at a place not far from our hotel, while the rest of the family ate in Beitar.

The picture above is of the Rosh (head) Yeshiva of Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel.

Posted at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

To continue my documentation of my Israel trip, I'll pick up from leaving beitar. So we take a taxi from Beitar to Jerusalem with my parents. I know I am getting a good deal on that taxi ride because my brother or sister-in-law speak the language and if you speak the language, you don't get ripped off.

The guy drops me off at the hotel, the bellhop takes our piles and piles of bags (99% of it not being mine). They initially tell us our room isn't available but then a minute later, they said it was now available. So instead of leaving our stuff with the bellhop, he brings it up to our room. I give him some US dollars, which is now not worth as much as it was a year or two ago in Israel. We put our stuff down, I lock my precious laptop in the safe and we head to Cup O Joe for drinks and free WiFi.

I order something to drink and my wife does as well. I then pull out my iPhone and I see I can connect to a network for free. I connect and download emails to my iPhone. A guy then comes over to me and asks me if I was using an iPhone (the first of many comments on my iPhone while traveling in Israel). Oh, forgot to mention, Israel's airport as some sweet fast Internet, downloaded email there as well. We continue to drink, while I mess around with email - knowing that WiFi is a security risk but willing to take the risk at that time.

After Cup O Joe we go to both Geula and Ben Yehuda street to do some "shopping." That is where I found the touch of Google in Jerusalem, by the way...

I quickly learn that not only do I hate shopping in American stores, I also hate shopping in Israeli stores. I get this tiring and sick feeling going into a store, hard to explain. Anyway, as my wife looks for stuff to buy, I try to pick up free Wifi spots in town. The most popular network I was able to find was Unwire Jerusalem.

We go into a few stores and my wife buys some stuff from one of them. Now this guy is a smooth talker. Everything 50% off. I like you, this costs X but Ill give it to you for Y. No tourism, need to make a sale... Etc. Etc. The whole time my wife is saying, what a great deal and I am thinking, we are getting ripped off. In any event, thinking like that while on vacation is not healthy, so we buy some things, which in hindsight, were probably good deals.

Then I finally convince my wife to head back to the hotel. As we begin to walk back, we bump into my parents who are going to lunch. So, being frugal, I latch on and score a free meal at a popular restaurant in town. Then we all walk back to our respective lodges.

At that point, I sign up for a week's worth of Internet at the hotel. The hotel speed is grossly over prices and incredibly slow. I do some email processing, some feeds, etc and then I think we go out to dinner, just the two of us, at a nice place.

Anyway, I learned that day - that shopping in Israel also makes me feel ill.

Posted at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Category: Family , Food , Shopping , Travels | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

So after my my flight to Israel, my brother picked us up in a van and drove us back to his home in Beitar Illit. Beitar Illit is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, just outside of Jerusalem. It is also known as one of the most Jewish orthodox communities in the world.

As soon as we arrived, my two nieces and sister-in-law were waiting outside for us. So were several dozen other kids, who happen to be watching a broken down bus in front of my brother's home. After we made our way with our bags past the heard of children, we said our hellos. I then skipped into the room with Internet and began working. Pause...

My brother just upgraded to a higher connection 5mbps or something like that. The new ISP controls his wireless router, and uses mac addresses to give access. The issue is, my computer would not connect, so I used a hard wire. But when we called to ask the ISP why, we got a weird response. So here is that story...

My brother calls his ISP. After telling the tech rep the story, the tech rep decided to get his supervisor on, since he couldn't figure it out. His supervisor comes on and starts talking to my brother. My brother tried to tell him what the issue was, but the supervisor would not listen. So the original tech guy told his supervisor to listen to my brother. Then the supervisor told the original tech guy, "you don't tell me what to do!" and hung up the phone. The original tech guy said, "hello, hello, are you there" to his supervisor and then hung up. We were left without an answer. That is typical Israel for you. :)

Since I arrived late, I was unable to do the billing that day. Instead, I just did the feeds for Danny, which was good timing for him. I then did some forum stuff and organized a trillion emails. Then an hour or so later was shabbos. We showered before shabbos and then turned off our work stuff and went to synagogue (shul). At shul I saw a childhood friend that moved to the community there, so that was a nice surprise.

Then we came back and my sister-in-law fed us like we never ate before - yes, I was in heaven. :) Then some chatting and then sleep. Then the same thing Saturday day.

Shabbos ended and I went back on the computer to do more email (all the emails from the Friday workday), tons... Then after email, I did all the billing. After a couple of hours, I was then able to finish billing and then did some of the feeds and more work. Felt bad but it had to get done. Then I went back to the family to do family stuff.

Sunday AM we left Baitar to go to Jerusalem and our hotel. More on that later...

Posted at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night was a historic night for my oldest nephew, Avi. As reported on the ASHAR Hockey site, my nephew scored his first goal ever, in an official elementary school game.

And I quote:

The big goal of the night came late in the game from defenseman Avi Borgen who took a pass back at the point and lasered it towards the net passed a screened Aaron Turkel.

Avi Borgen, he is my nephew. Congrats Avi on the goal!

I actually always hoped Avi would be more into basketball but his father influenced him in a different direction - Hockey. Well, I guess that is his father's problem now, since hockey is a much more expensive sport to be involved with. Joke is on you!

I guess hockey is your sport and it shows! Congrats again and I am sure you will be scoring plenty of goals this year and throughout your life!

Posted at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Sports | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

This morning, my oldest nephew put on Tefillin (תפילין) for the first time. It took place at his elementary day school, the same place I put on Tefillin for the first time. But yes, times have changed a bit since then at that school.

What is Tefillin? The picture above shows what they look like. Wikipedia has a bunch of pictures showing people wearing Tefillin. Orthodox Jewish males above the age of 13 where it every day except for Shabbos and special holidays. We wear them during morning services.

My nephew turns 13 in about a month. He will have his Bar Mitzvah when he is 13 in Israel. Yes, my trip and the SphinnCon Israel event coincide with the Bar Mitzvah for a reason. It is customary for a Jewish boy to put on Tefillin about a month prior to his Bar Mitzvah to learn how to properly wear and hold the responsibilities of the mitzvah.

In any event - they had some dunkin donuts at the end. :)

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Religion | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now, how did I get in there?

Image warped from this site.

Posted at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Mr American brother-in-law sent me an article named Children's Day: 30% of Israel's Jewish Population are Children. It basically explains that 30% of the Israeli Jewish population are kids. Looking at other countries, Israel is not too far off. 25% of the US population are kids also.

But then I read deeper and the kid to adult ratio is unusually high in the city my brother lives in. My brother lives in one of the most Jewish orthodox cities in the world, it is named Beitar Illit (ביתר עילית‎). Beitar has tons of children, actually 63% of the population there are kids.

I've been to Beitar to visit my brother, my sister-in-law and their two kids a few times. I didn't particularly notice an overwhelming number of kids. But when I go in February, I will make sure to be looking for it.

Wikipedia has some stats but I can't confirm it is 100% accurate:

According to Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), in 2001, the ethnic makeup of the city was 100.0% Jewish, consisting of 8,900 males and 8,400 females. The predominantly Haredi population of the city was spread out with 62.9% 19 years of age or younger, 18.1% between 20 and 29, 14.6% between 30 and 44, 3.4% from 45 to 59, 0.4% from 60 to 64, and 0.7% 65 years of age or older. The population growth rate in 2001 was 9.6%. According to the statistics from the Ministry of Interior, the population figures for January 2007 there are 34,427 members listed on their computers and 29,404 citizens that are listed as active.

For more on Beitar, I guess check out this web site.

Oh, one more tidbit from the article that Tamar may enjoy....

As in the past eight years, Noa was the most popular girls' name, and has become even more so. It was given to 3.4% of the baby girls born in 2006, compared to 3% the year before. The next-most popular names were Shira, Maya, Yael, Tamar, Sarah, Roni, Agam, Michal, Adi and Talya.

On the SMX Israel front, I should have more good news on that shortly.

Posted at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wow, it was so weird sleeping in a new house yesterday. We moved from a small place to a fairly large home, so it was just weird.

After a long day of moving (which I will blog about later), you finally put everything away and then get ready for bed. Then it hits you. Wow, this is mine, this house, well - it is mine in 30 years, I guess.

My parents brought Chinese food over for dinner last night. We ate in our new kitchen. It was very nice. kind of surreal. Until one of the RB servers started acting up. But then the server issues got better and I was able to enjoy the moment again.

Waking up this morning at 5:40 am (EST), was weird. I look around and its not my old place. But then I go through the routine and get out of the door normal time. I then learn that I am 7 minutes further from my synagogue than I once was, so I now need to set my clock 7 minutes earlier. I will miss those seven minutes, but its for a good cause.

Thank Yous:

My mother was absolutely outstanding. She was with my wife and I most of the day. She helped with all our packing. She was there when the movers came and loaded the trucks. She was critical in last minute packing. Then she was there to unload us and unpack with my wife. She bought us dinner and even more importantly "shepped nachas" from my wife and I. I can't express enough how much we both appreciate that.

My wife. Well, she did most of the packing with my mother. She actually got the whole house done the same day we moved. I woke up this morning and my clothing was in the dressers. Wow. I would say 99% is done, expect for the 1% that I have to finish. So huge thanks to the wife for doing this all and taking the leap to the new house and community.

Also need to thank my dad for helping at the end and at the beginning figuring out all this house stuff. He has helped countless times with this move.

Sister and brother-in-law for the garbage cans, tables, misc items and welcoming us in to their community. Oh, I am sure we will be eating over by them on Saturdays very often. So lots of pre-thank yous for all of that.

My brother and sister-in-law in Israel for providing halachic guidance during this time.

My brother and sister-in-law in America, my brother was critical in helping set up the network in the house last night. Which got my online with FiOS and got my phone line working with Vonage.

The in-laws for their support with all of this. As well as my sister-in-laws and brother-in-law. Friends. Cable guy, Verizon guy, movers... I hope I didn't forget anyone or anything.

Next up, the moving experience.

Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Some times, my wife asks me to give her a wake up call.

Back when I had my Treo, that required me to make a new event or use a 3rd party alarm application. This resulted in me often forgetting to call my wife to wake her up at the time she specified. She learned to not trust my wake up calls.

But now, that I have the iPhone, I am now a trustworthy wake up call specialist. She gives me a time, I plug it in, it buzzes and me, I call and we are all very happy.

The iPhone, a device that makes for happy marriages.

It is pretty cool how it works. You go to the clock application, then click on the alarm icon at the bottom. Then you add a new alarm and you can schedule it to repeat on specific days, customize the alert tones, add if you want a snooze option and then scroll the little time pad up and down to the time you want the alarm to go off.

It is pretty neat.

Posted at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Family | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

The other week, I was looking for a way to email private photos to a friend without requiring them to sign up with Flickr.

Remember I was upset in the past that there was no way to do this? And then the founder of Flickr told me it is on its way...

Well, it is here and has been here for a while now and I didn't even know!

On November 20, 2006, Flickr released a feature called Guest Pass.

Basically, you can email a photo set to up to 50 people, granting them access to that set or more for an unlimited or set time frame.

To share photos, you must add those photos to a set. After you do that, click on the set and click "Share this set."

Then it will take you to a page like this, simply fill it out.

Click send and presto. Yes, you can invite people to see pictures even if they are already contacts, which is nice for those who forget their passwords. :)

What is also nice is you can view your "guest passes" and send them again, see if they were used and also "expire" them so they no longer work.

You can do that at your Guest Pass History page.

I cannot believe I missed this feature until recently.

Flickr now totally rocks!

Posted at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Rambling | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My wife works with children who are hard of hearing.

This video demonstrates some of the social and political challenges the deaf community has gone through. It also shows the achievements.

Posted at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The whole doctor being poor post got me thinking a bit about costs.

Specifically, what it costs to be what is called a "Modern Orthodox Jew" in the New York Tri-State area. Now, I do not have a family yet, so I don't have these costs. I also do not know exactly how much each item costs, but I took educated guesses in my numbers.

The biggest item is tuition. I would guess if you had four or five kids in private school, they would give you a break on tuition. Imagine $60,000 a year for four kids, $75,000 for five kids. I assume you get a discount as you keep adding kids. Keep in mind, all your kids are not the same age, so then you have High School and college.

Another thing about being an orthodox Jew and living in New York is that you have to really live in a "Jewish neighborhood." Homes are simply not cheap in NY, especially in areas where there is demand set by having to be in walking distance to a local synagogue. A typically home in Teaneck, NJ would go for a $800,000 to $1.2M on average. Out by me, maybe $600,000 to $850,000 on average. Brooklyn, Manhattan, forget about it. Figure your mortgage will cost you at least $40,000 per year with taxes, if you bought now.

These numbers may be off, but I think the approximates are not bad. I can be wrong, if so, feel free to correct me.

Honestly, these numbers seem too high. Something doesn't seem right...

Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Religion | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

I blog so much that even my family members and friends want to know if they will be on the blog soon.

If I am with friends or family and we are doing something interesting or even ordinary, they joke. "So will this be on your blog today?"

In fact, this happened a few times in the past week. Once when I was at a "guy's night out" last week, they asked if I would blog about it. I did not, but I guess now I am. It also happened with family this weekend, where one family member asked if I would blog about the meal I ate.

So although I decided not to blog about those two events, I am actually blogging about those two events.

Makes you wonder...

Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Blogging , Family | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday, my inlaws flew in from STL and are staying by my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's home in NJ. So we drove there to celebrate July 4th.

My brother-in-law cooked up tons of meat on his BBQ. There must have been five full chickens, two dozen hamburgers, six or more steaks, and these huge hot dogs.

I personally ate two large pieces of white meat chicken, two burgers, and a few piece of the hot dogs. Great job - broinlaw! Oh, nice job cleaning up also.

Then the home made brownies came out - ouch!

Oh, there were salads and stuff like that - but it just took up space on the table. :)

Makes me hungry now thinking about it.

If you missed the Search Engine Roundtable's July Fourth theme, here is a screen cap:

Posted at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Food | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Remember, this Friday I posted My Condo For Sale in Monsey - Home For Sale?

There I said, I was hoping to achieve top rankings in Google for terms like [condo for sale in monsey], [monsey condo], [apartment for sale in monsey], [monsey home for sale] and so on.

Well, I checked Saturday night, and I am doing pretty well.

- condo for sale in monsey

Notice the Flickr results are mine also, so I have three of the top four results for that search.

- monsey condo

Top four listings here

- apartment for sale in monsey

That is Tamar mocking me moving to a house, which links to my post.

- monsey home for sale

#2, not bad.

Will it last? I doubt it. Since this is fresh content, Google will give it some love for some time. Hopefully by then, I would have sold.

So step one, complete. I will send any leads to my agent.

Step two, is to sell.

Posted at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey , SEO Tips | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Who knew that when I bought my condo in Monsey that I would be looking to sell a year and a half later?

Well I am potentially looking to sell my condo now. It was a scary decision but I think the right one.

Why is it scary? Well, I simply bought at the peak, so I will have to take a loss on the condo. But at the same time, I don't think the loss will be more than what it would have cost to rent for the past two years or so.

We are just ready to buy a real home and it is exciting but at the same time - a bit scary, as I said.

The good thing is that our condo is in great condition to sell. It was completely renovated two years ago before we moved. I mean completely! The condo management did all the work themselves, so it was done right. They knocked down the walls, gutted all the piping, redid the whole kitchen and wood floors. I had them add a small room for a washer and dryer, which required them to install a new circuit breaker and water lines into that area of the condo. I also added two new air conditioners that are both energy efficient and powerful. In addition, the condo has one of the largest, if not the largest, patio of all condos. The neighbors are nice and friendly also.

I put a lot into the condo and I expect to make less of the purchase price of the condominium. Yes, this is sad. But it is currently a buyers market, so I am on both ends. I am selling and buying. The location is where most people in Monsey want to be. I live in a very orthodox Jewish area - in the heart of Monsey. I would be moving far out to a less Jewish dense area, but into a full home (hopefully about an acre). No, I did not find a home yet, I won't until I know I can sell the condo.

Here is a picture of the condo I took at about 6am this morning from the outside (a bit dark outside then):

Any tips for a first time home seller?

OH: If you are interested in buying this condominium or know someone who is interested, let me know. How? I guess use the RustyBrick contact form and I will get it.

Posted at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Homey | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday, we had exactly and hour to spare, so my wife and I decided to drive to Bear Mountain, up by the west bank of the Hudson River.

It is about 20 minutes away from us, so we drove up, and took Perkins Memorial Drive to the top. We parked, got out, my wife took this picture of me next to the bear. We got back into the car and drove back down.

The drive was nice (especially with the top down), so I suspect we will go back. There is a lot to do there, but I am not really the nature or outdoors type of guy. My Treo did work in most areas, so that was good to know.

I know my wife wants to take her parents here when they come to visit from St. Louis.

Plenty to do, like: Biking, Boat Rentals, Dockage , Fishing, Food, Gift Shop, Hiking, Ice Skating, Museum/Vistor Center, Nature Trail, Picnic Tables, Playground, Playing Field(s), Pool, and X-Country Skiing.

We then drove for a birthday/fathers day BBQ.

Posted at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

My brother and partner at RustyBrick, Ronnie, purchased an electric drum set a while back. He bought it because the neighbors did not like the noise from his real drum set.

Well, eventually, he had to move it to RustyBrick, because his kid was kinda getting to it and breaking it.

He actually hooked it up to his iTunes library on his computer so that he doesn't need to sync his iPod anymore.

Posted at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Family , Music , RustyBrick | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday, I had to unfortunately fly to St. Louis last minute. Late Friday afternoon, I got word from my wife that her grandfather passed away. Although the passing was expected, one is truly never fully ready for such an event. I won't talk more about the funeral, because some things are best kept private in some situations.

My brother-in-law, the same one who mistakenly thought "The Algorithm" was Google, booked the flights. He booked his flight and my flight on the same schedule.

The whole immediate family in New York flew in to St. Louis on a Sunday morning flight at 7:55am. The funeral was early afternoon. The funeral was over at about 3pm. On the way back from the funeral, we looked up the next flight out. It was at 4:10pm. Our flight was scheduled for 7:20pm. So we decided to go to the airport and see if we can get on the 4:10pm flight. Why? Well, it was raining and there was a chance that we would not make it back at all that night. Just my brother-in-law and I were scheduled to fly out that night. When we got back from the funeral, there were tons of people in the house. One of the people offered to drive us to the airport, so my brother-in-law, my wife (who came for the ride) and I took off to the airport.

We arrived at the airport about 3:40pm, asked the lady if it looks good for standby on the 4:10. She said, there are about 25 seats open, so it looks good. We got to the gate after going through security (I picked up some geek travel tips) and the guy at the gate said it should be no problem. Ten minutes later, he called folks on standby and we got on.

Now get this....

We ask for a seat together, they give us the first row behind first class. Row 7. In addition, there was no person between us in the 3 row seat. Wonderful seats. I am not done.... Typically, if you are sitting in the higher rows, your "Group Number," the numbers they call when they board you, is the last one. So folks in the back of the plane have group number one, while folks in the front of the plane have group number six. We actually got group number one.

People are walking by me while I sit in row 7, and I feel like I cheated them. I always wonder how so many people get on before me, and are sitting so far upfront, when I should be in a higher group number. Now I was one of them!

In any event, it was a nice flight. Seats were excellent. Landed at 7:30pm as opposed to 11pm (which rocked). This was my first flight where I went and came in under 12 hours. Had a nice conversation with my brother-in-law. And the drive back was pretty decent.

All of this in light of a sad day.

Posted at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Category: Family , Travels | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

As you now know, today is my first wedding anniversary. I will be leaving work shortly to spend the rest of the day with the wife.

I wanted to share with you what she got me for an anniversary present. Well, she asked me what I wanted, and I said, a tie rack. I always kept all my ties on hangers, it was a pain to get to ties that were under an other tie. So yesterday, she bought me the ultimate tie rack.

The Sharper Image PowerTie Motorized Tie Rack. This thing either operates on batteries or AC plug. It goes in both directions, and has an emergency, detachable flashlight, if needed. It mounts on all different closet types. I installed in already and my wife put all my ties on, in some logical order that I don't fully appreciate.

So now I can browse through 72 ties in 20 seconds! Except on the Shabbos. :)

Thanks Wife!

Posted at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A little over a week ago, I posted that it was my Hebrew Anniversary: 1st of Sivan (סִיוָן). Well, today, it is my English anniversary. A year ago today (it was a Sunday), my wife and I got married in St. Louis, MO.

A lot of the history of how I about barry page. But let me revisit some of the past year, at least things I publicly wrote here.

On October 2, 2005, I proposed via Ask Jeeves to my wife. It got lots of buzz and inspired others with ideas on how to propose to their girl friends. On May 25, 2006, I went off to get married, which took place the Sunday after, on May 28, 2006.

The shopping began, returning stuff to stores, yada yada. I expressed my dislike to shopping. I also expressed my appreciation to my friends for the BBQ grill, a sweet wedding present. Another cool gift was the Philips 7FF1AW Digital Photo Frame and I have to thank Matt Cutts for his donation. I also can't believe how much stuff I had to move to get my wife moved in, but it turned out not to be that bad - or was I wrong!

I talked about our great adventure to see one of the world's largest Amoco signs, but does that top my Leaning Tower of Snapple story? Talking about great blog posts, my post on scoleciphobia took off pretty well, ahem...

Anyway, since getting married, I not only traveled for business, I traveled for pleasure. So it started adding up. I blogged about The Traveling Geek and then followed it up with an analytical comparison of Traveling With The Wife Vs. Traveling Without The Wife. Deep, deep thoughts... But sometimes, I was able to convince my wife to join me on business, here is a nice picture of my wife, Danny Sullivan and myself at Google (note: I also visited Google NYC thanks to Vanessa. Once, we saw Jesse Jackson at the airport. But then, my wife thought it would be fun to travel with out me - no fun. I then encouraged my wife to come on business again but she really just wanted to see her friends.

Then came weight issues. I knew I had a serious problem with my addiction towards Super Double Big Gulps, I guess admitting I had a problem was the first step. I then started my new no soda diet, which now means just drink Fresca at home. Oh, apparently, I also have a dressing problem. I think the diet caused my to break out in hives but who knows for sure? I know it wasn't from wearing a wedding ring, because I don't do that.

We even expressed credit card fraud - yes a true sign of a successful marriage is when you get through not having a credit card for a week and still remain married. ;-) But then we almost got Cell Phone 9 Scam but it turned out ok. But all was good, I was able to buy Leopard slippers for my wife. But then I was invited to Hugh Hefner's Vegas Suit in Palms Hotel, which required me to buy a robotic cleaning pet to make sure our home was in order - which is was. But one of our worst traveling days together, turned out to be awesome - which I was too happy about.

Any who... How fitting is it that our first year of marriage, my favorite baseball team loses to her favorite baseball team in the playoffs? I.e. Mets lose to Cardinals and Cardinals won it all, which was great. Even thought it may be considered the most dangerous city in the U.S., I was still proud.

After that, Danny, Chris, myself and others made the move from Search Engine Watch to Search Engine Land.

My wife and I went out our honeymoon on January 7, 2007. Here is the picture of the plane that took us to Israel. We looked at my old soccer field, we visited the kotel, almost got scammed by a woman, then almost died from electrocution, visited a client who has a picture by Bucky Schwartz (no joke), saw Israel in miniature form, went to the zoo, and finally yad vashem. I was happy that Canon fixed our camera as a honeymoon present, thank you Canon!

Since then we have been religiously been going out for Thursday night dinners, I always look forward to them. Even when my car gets stuck in the snow time and time again. But then I realized I need to hire a sidekick so I can free some of my time up - has it helped? Yea, a bit and should help more and more as time goes on. Where will I spend that time? Wife? Well, I did get a new PlayStation 3. Just kidding. I had a birthday, where my wife took me to one of my favorite places to eat, I like simple food.

Well that was our first year together. At least the stuff I blogged about.

Get ready.... Here is some mushy stuff...

In all honesty, people say the first year of marriage is a couple's hardest. I can honestly say, this was the easiest and most enjoyable year of my life.

Posted at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is the first Hebrew anniversary for my wife and I. The Hebrew day is the 1st of Sivan (סִיוָן), also known as Rosh Chodesh (1st of the month) Sivan. We got married a year ago today, which was May 28th (a week and two days) from now in the English Calendar.

More about our wedding at the about barry page.

My wife and I really don't celebrate this anniversary but it is easy to remember, since it is on Rosh Chodesh. But we will celebrate, some how, our english anniversary.

It has been a good good year.

Good weekend all.

Posted at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

My wife asked me to mail a couple cards last night, but we didn't have any stamps at home. So I took it to work where I have a Postage Meter from Pitney Bowes.

I stamped the cards already but is it impersonal to send cards via the mail addressed with a business meter?

I mean, there is no way you would send out wedding invitations with a postage meter stamping them all (although I think that would be the best way to do that). So in this case, did I do something wrong?

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Category: Family | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Monday and Tuesday, my wife and I will be at my parents for the last days of Passover.

For you SEO people, I will be off the blog until Wednesday. The other authors will be writing, plus we will have live SES NYC coverage Tuesday.

I will be joining the rest of you at SES NY on Wednesday.

See you there!

Happy Pesach!

Posted at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Category: Family , Religion | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)