play guitar (sometimes with me and the 6 chords that I know), soccer (4 yellow cards per previous comment), and bas-ketball. A highlight of the year was a re-cent fishing trip with Grandpa Antonelli to the Clamath River in Northern Cali-fornia. Danny hooked and landed his first salmon…an 18 pounder! Another proud moment was when he purpose-fully locked himself in the dog crate and couldn’t escape on his own. His release was contingent on him repeating the phrase: “Oh, most wonderful mommy, I promise to lift the seat every time I pee, close the lid, flush, and wash my hands.” He refused to comply, but he did manage to escape on his own after a looong time. Look for the video on You-tube!

With cousin Sawyer, Summer 2009

So this letter is meant to make up for two years worth of Ringni hap-

penins’. And what a two years it has been, needless to say. There seems to be a direct relationship between the kids’ growth and the amount my hair-line recedes. Since we last wrote, our family has experienced: the fall from grace of the color pink and princess-es; Danny’s phases 1,2 and 3 with the orthodontist (I am too scared to ask how many phases we will have to go through, but since the orthodontist begins salivating whenever we dis-cuss the tooth growing into the middle of the roof of Danny’s mouth, I fear the worst!); weekends overscheduled with birthday parties and sports; our first long road-trips in years (one in a “house-car”); and our capitulation to the plaintive requests from the chil-dren to get a puppy.

theRinglet

Oh yeah…that’s right, we got a puppy. With my manly friends, I

refer to her as a “Lab Mix”. She is ac-tually an Australian Labradoodle. But I am so anti-poodle and insecure about using any word that ends in “oodle” other than “noodle” that I refer to her as a Lab Mix. On a recent fishing trip I was standing next to a guide and his yellow lab at 4:30am (a manly hour) in line at “the chow wag-on” (a manly place – otherwise known as “the Roach Coach”). “I am getting a Lab Mix” I said. “Mixed with what?” he asked. How had I

Penny: the Puppy (5 months).

Dangerous Dan now 10, 4th grade, wants to be a doctor or mad scientist

not seen this question coming?? “A poodle” I quietly stated, hoping he wasn’t listening to me anymore. He didn’t say anything, but gave me a look that said: “Get back in your Audi and drive back to whatever Yuppie

suburb you came from and don’t fish on my river or I

will kick your butt with my steel toed boot!” Actually, the kids love her and we are coping

well with the multiple visits to the vet to deal with whatever weird thing she has ingested (so far: all the plants in the garden, rocks, legos and

a pencil). Kadi is very glad that she is non-shedding, but bummed that while they

can make designer breeds that don’t shed, they still can’t make dogs that don’t poop.

Yeah, we have a 10 year old. For the first time this year (and I remember

where I was at the time) Dan wanted to hang out with his friends instead of me and Kadi one lazy Saturday afternoon. Our little boy is growing up so quickly. He still has a couple of stuffed animals in his room, but they reside on his other bunk, and are no longer needed for comfort…except when I borrow Sam the Pig after stressful days in the office. We were thrilled with his excite-ment about lacrosse this year. I knew he was meant to transition from soccer to lacrosse upon observing several, non-malicious yet “profound” impacts during some soccer games. He plays so hard and with so much heart, it is fun to watch him. He also continues to

February, 2010

Our youngest child literally ripped away from Kadi and I and ran into her Kin-

dergarten class this year. Here we were all misty and reflective and BOOM off she went into her next phase in life, fearlessly and with a ton of positive energy. That is Jessie: Resilient. I recently had a “bad parent” moment when I was driving the kids back from an advanced children’s mathematics and bio-sciences seminar at my friend, Charles E. Cheese’s. I dis-covered Danny eating chocolate in the backseat after being explicitly told not to (I had just finished cleaning up some dried up vanilla milkshake there). I “raised my voice” for “an extended period of time” while using “marginally acceptable” “adult” language. I regained my composure at a stoplight and turned to the kids to apolo-

Jessie: now 5, Kindergarten, no idea what she wants to be, see below…

Ellie has blos-somed into quite

the little tomboy. She refuses to wear dresses because “mommy doesn’t” and wears pony tails because “mommy does”. Despite her objections to soccer earlier in life, she now really likes it. She is built tall and lean like me (ed note: Art thinks of himself as “lean” and “tall”). As a former elite 9th grade track athlete, I know a good stride when I see one, and Ellie has it: She will be a good run-ner someday if she ever wants to try it out. She remains very interested in art: drawing, painting,

Ellie: now 8, 2nd grade,

wants to be a Vet etc. Her favorite subject at school is “lunch”…tears

streaming in my eyes…she is her father’s

daughter. Penny’s arrival has inspired her to take an inter-

est in everything with four legs and

fur. We always have to leave an extra five min-utes to get to school so Ellie can pet every dog she meets on the way there. We can’t close without discussing one of Ellie’s more notable talents: she has mastered the art of eating her food molecule by

mol- ecule. She is still eating a raspberry I fed her last week. She’s not quite ready for Guiness, but she’s working on it!

gize for yelling (and of course emphasize my no-eating policy calmly). I asked, “Did Daddy yell-ing scare you Jessie?” “NOPE!” Jessie’s latest obsession is with bunnies – she is all about the bunnies. And the color orange. And, the jackpot: orange bun-nies. When I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up she replied: “I’m not sure what I want to be, but I definitely want to hire the man (read “father of my child”) to take care of the kids so I can go to work and get some peace and quiet.”

I decided to switch purses this fall, and the contents of my old

purse said volumes about my life. The contents were: wallet,

lip-gloss, Hello Kitty brush, a large bottle of Advil, Jes-sie’s Epi-pen, a pair of Ellie’s dirty underwear (in a Ziploc–whew!), a Swiss army knife, biodegradable doggie doo bags, duct tape, post-its, pen, sanitizer, field permits for soc-cer, a snakebite kit, a whistle, sunglasses, sunscreen, and an unused gift certificate for a massage issued in 2007. I have now switched to a smaller purse with no room for dirty underwear to remain unnoticed for more than two hours. When I was not busy refereeing and mediating the children’s numerous disputes, I actually accomplished a few

things this year. Art and I celebrated our 14th wedding an-niversary with a hike to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. I followed that with the Avon walk for Breast Cancer with my good friend, Lisa Spodak. I was fortunate enough to get a few minutes of fame this year: 1) I got to appear for 102 seconds on TV for raising over $15,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in 2009. Unfortunately, most of those 102 seconds on air were spent focused on my “girls” (as Ellie likes to call them), due to some very bad camera work; and 2) my picture appeared in the November issue of “The Fish Sniffer” highlighting a 35 pound salmon that I caught on a fishing trip. Woohoo! I celebrated my birthday by being treated to beautiful dinners from Art and my brother, Steve. I also got to spend three hours at the vet after Penny ate something that didn’t agree with her (think massive poop explosion inside her crate – Happy Birthday to me). My celebrating was cut short by a long bout with the swine flu for the whole family. Luckily, we all survived and I was able to cross off “get swine flu vaccine” off my to-do list (I get a real pleasure crossing things off my to-do list, so it was all good ☺). Other than all that, I coached Ellie and Jessie’s soccer teams. I still love coaching due mostly to the fact that most girls don’t seem to care whether they win or lose, just what’s for snack after the game!

KADI40!!!! And still deciding what I want to be when I grow up.

ART29, Senior Year

Thankfully, I survived the economic crisis, along with Morgan Stanley. Like many of my colleagues at work, we

lived and breathed it together and we are glad to be looking back at it now. Last year, in the height of the crisis, I started,

and have continued, tutoring at the Boys and Girls Club in the area as often as I can. It really helps me to keep perspective, and makes me feel good when I can connect with a kid and help them. I finished up 5 years of coaching Danny in soccer. I am also coaching basketball, and after this season, will move to coaching the girls as Dan starts to play for his school next year. I really like coaching and would have pursued teaching and coaching if my Wall Street career had blown up.