Sorry I haven't updated in a while...

Here are some pictures from the Thanksgiving cruise and some other random stuff.

Emily and I have been very busy with all of our real estate work. We haven't had much time to do stuff worth writing about. The cruise was fun, of course. We went to St. Thomas, St. Maartens and the Princess Island. It was nice to be able to just sit in a lounge chair for hours at a time. The service was really good to, but they charged you for every little thing (plus there was a almost constant stream of sales pitches).

We're still working on selling our Shady Lane Drive house. The market has slowed a bit, so it takes a bit longer to make a sale, but I'm not worried about it. The realtor said that this is a slow time of year for real estate. It will pickup again after New Years.

Emily is getting hair extensions tomorrow, so I wanted to find out what she would look like. Here is my "artist's rendition".

Does anyone else thing it's strange that John Roberts gets to be chief justice right from the start? I mean, there are a bunch of other people that have been patiently waiting their turn, then this guy comes out of nowhere and cuts in line! Isn't there some kind of order to this whole "chief justice" thing?

Our Shady Lane Drive house went onto the MLS today! We finished working on it over the weekend (actually Greg finished working on it, he should get all the credit). The project has gone very quickly; we bought the house last month and now it's ready to go! Anyone want a house in College Park? Here is some before and after pictures: http://bpdvd.com/shadylanealbum.html

I'm happy to say that the bee's nest that had been plaguing the pups has been removed. I have been busy working on a new garden planter box thing. Last year when I planted the garden, I just mixed in some fertile soil with the dirt that was already there. This lead to a meager crop. So I spent Sunday digging a big hole where the garden once was, laying down newspaper (which prevents weeds from growing and helps trap water in the soil), and putting big boards around the outside of the plot to hold in the water and soil. I'll start growing some new stuff as soon as Home Depot restocks their seeds.

Howdy! I have some new pictures. The first few are ones my dad took of my sister, Lindsey, when she was in town a few weeks ago. Then we have Emily sleeping with all the animals (Morty is in the leopard print pouch). Turtle and Morty get along great now. Morty will jump off my arm, onto Turtle, and ride on his back. It's very cute. The last picture is the reason we can't let the dogs into the backyard anymore. It's a huge yellow jacket hive, about the size of a softball.

Emily and I have a new addition to our family! He is a little Sugar-glider named Mordechai (Morty for short). We got him yesterday, so he is still adjusting to us and his new surroundings. Sugar-gliders are nocturnal marsupials, so we can play with him at night. He gets upset if we wake him up during the day and makes a crazy growling noise at us. Tonight was the first time we really got to take him out to play. He liked running all over our arms, jumping between us, and pissing on Emily's arm!

Spent the weekend on a whirlwind tour of major life events. My Grandpa Arnold died last week, so Lindsey, Emily, my parents and I flew up for the funeral. The service was nice and my family members seemed to be coping. I have never been one to get very upset by death. It's unavoidable, so you really have to expect it. No one is immune. There were about 300 people at the service, not bad for a Tuesday afternoon. I had never been to a funeral before, so it was all pretty new. The traditions were nice and everyone spoke well of my grandpa.

The next morning, Abe and Dan drove Emily's car up to South Carolina. Lindsey, Emily and I took a plane and met them there. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner for my friend Tad's wedding. It was catered by Sonny's so the food was great. That night we all hung out at Tad's friend's apartment. The wedding was Saturday afternoon, outside in the ridiculous South Carolina heat. It was even hotter than Florida, and we were wearing wool jackets! I had a waterfall of sweat going down my back. Thankfully the service was short, but the photographer kept us there for an hour taking pictures. The reception was just as hot as the service. I don't think the hall was air conditioned. I asked them why they had an outside wedding in August. They couldn't answer why it was outside, but it was in August so there would be no conflict with the football season!

Sunday Lindsey, Emily and I drove home with a brief stop in Savannah, Georgia. I love that city. It is beautiful and not overrun with strip-malls.

I finally got around to redesigning the Big Picture DVD website. Check it out and tell me what you think... http://www.bpdvd.com

In other news, we started work on our College Park house. The outside has been painted and the central a/c will be going in soon. We put a for sale by owner sign in front and have been receiving calls about the house. I also put some classified ads in the local papers. We are hoping to have it sold before the work is even finished!

Abe, Lindsey, Emily and I spent the weekend at the beach. It was great! We just swam and sat around getting sunburnt all weekend. It was just what we needed after taking the mortgage broker course. Speaking of... the class was long and boring. Of course, we ended up getting the bad teacher. Emily and I will be taking the state test sometime next week. And I'm sure we'll be getting a lot of studying done at Tad's wedding this weekend.

In a couple weeks I'm going to a Hospice Gala. I will be one of those fancy events where you have to dress up act well behaved. The dressing up part has always been a problem, because I have not had a suit that fit since my Bar Mitzvah. They just don't seem to make suits in my size! Emily and I visited all the local places including Men's Warehouse and the mall department stores. No luck. So I went online and found this place called Baron's Boutique in Nepal. Yeah, the far away Nepal, not some city in the US. They make custom clothing for cheap! All you have to do is enter your measurements in their online form and send them money (the one I chose cost $299 including shipping). I decided to take a chance and buy from them. Abe took the measurements (so that if it didn't fit, I could blame it on him).

It took about a week for them to make the suit and a week for it to arrive from Nepal. I tracked it all the way through Bangkok, Thailand and Ohio to here. The box was basically wrecked when it finally got here, but the suit looked like it was in good shape. So I tried it on and it fit like a glove! I've never had clothing actually made for my body, but it sure is nice. Now I have to share the site with everyone else (they make woman's clothes too). http://www.baronboutique.com/

As you may or may not know, Abe, Emily and I have been trying to buy an investment property for months. We finally found a couple. Well, we didn't find them. We got them from wholesalers - people why buy investment properties for very little money, then sell it for a few thousand more to another investor. The first house we will be closing on is a 3/1 in College Park (a very cool area of Orlando). We're going to try to sell it as is, for a quick profit, but if that doesn't work, we have a guy who will help us fix it up and sell it for much more.

I finally got around to scanning some photos from my trip to Nevada and Utah. Check them out on my photo page: http://flickr.com/photos/zigawatt/

I was sitting at my desk this afternoon (Emily was manning the fort at the Volusia Asset office), when I suddenly heard a knock at the door. Could it be Abe or Diane making an unannounced visit? Maybe the delivery man? Nope. I opened the door and saw a middle aged woman with two young children. "Hi" they said. "We're here to welcome you as new members to the Temple". "Um, OK." They handed me a bag with some jew stuff in it. "Thanks, for the stuff." They stood there staring at me. "I appreciate you coming by..." More blank stares. "Thanks again." I slowly began to close the door. "Um it was nice meeting you." They said.

I closed the door and recoiled at the shock of the strange visit. What freaks. I never even joined the stupid temple.

I made a smoker out of a large terra-cotta pot, an electric burner and a grate from a small Webber grill. Last weekend Abe, Emily and I spent all day smoking some ribs slathering on my homemade BBQ sauce. Needless to say, the results were phenomenal. Next I'm going to make a brisket!

Thanks to everyone who voted for my song in the "Chunks Beatmix Beatdown" contest. I WON!!! You can all come over and watch my brand new Tivo anytime you want (assuming I ever set it up).

Emily, my parents and I just got back from our whirlwind tour of the DC/Baltimore area. Here's the summary:

We left for the airport at 2:00. Flight left at 4:00. Got in around 6:00. Rented a car and drove into DC - 8:00. Got on the metro and took it all the way out to Springfield. Got picked up at the metro and finally arrived at 10:30. We almost could have driven!

Friday we had a leisurely breakfast, then I took the metro into DC while Emily went shopping with her mom. I met my dad at the spy museum. I couldn't find him at first, then a saw someone hiding behind a newspaper with eye-holes cut out and I knew that must be him. We went through the museum, which was very interesting, before heading over to the National Gallery. They had an exhibit by the photographer Irving Penn and an expressionist exhibit (including works by Van Gogh, Monet, and Degas). We met up with the rest of my family and Em's family for dinner at Chef Geoff's. The food was great, as always. After dinner, Lindsey, Emily and I went to Walmart, where we tried on funny hats and got farted on, before picking up Kat.

Saturday Emily and I went over her friend Rachel's house for a bit before heading to the Tyson's Corner Mall. I had to walk around the mall alone most of the time while Emily tried on dresses. They dropped Emily and I off at my sister's house after shopping, so we could go to Baltimore. We had dinner at the Hantman's party for Josh's graduation and Michael's birthday.

Sunday morning we had brunch at my Grandparent's house. Emily was introduced to my mom's yenta friends before we left for the inner harbor. Our first stop was the Dime Museum, a collection of artifacts from carnival sideshows and traveling freak shows. Very interesting! Then we parked the car and walked around the pier while waiting for the baseball game. We arrived at the stadium during the second inning. The Orioles were already losing 6 to 0. The game was fun, but Baltimore never recovered.

Today we ate breakfast at the hotel before starting the long journey home. It was a nice trip, but I hope I don't have to see those people again for a long time! Just Kidding.

So far so good... I don't know what it is, but every Friday something crazy/stressful happens. I was worried because I had a doctor's appointment this morning (I HATE doctors). The appointment went well (no needles) and I was given a clean bill of health. This afternoon Emily and I finished a Photo Slide Show we've been working on. I'm going to deliver it in about half an hour. Tonight Emily's dad and step-mom are coming to town and having dinner with my family. There's something to worry about!

We had an interesting day yesterday, to say the least.

Emily was shopping at the mall with our friend Diane. They were in Anthropology trying on clothes, but when Diane called Emily from the adjacent dressing room, she didn't answer. Diane got an employee to open the door and found Emily on the floor having a seizure. The paramedics arrived a short while later and told Emily that she had to go to the hospital. Emily argued with them because she didn't even realize that she had passed out. When they asked where she lived, she gave them her old Burke, VA address. It took her the entire ride to the hospital to remember her age and current address.

Diane called me from the ambulance and I rushed down there. Emily was lying in bed in the ER when I arrived and was acting a bit loopy. Luckily she felt much better, but still didn't remember what had happened. The doctors performed the usual array of tests, while I spoke to Emily's mom, sister and Aunt. The general consensus was that it was caused by a medicine that Emily had just begun taking, which is known to cause seizures. It was scary as hell, but I'm glad to see that she's OK.

I don't know how many of my or Emily's family members actually read this, but if you do, we need your input. Please let me know if there are any specific cultural or religious traditions which must go into the wedding. You can e-mail me at bradzerivitz @ gmail.com (take out the spaces of course, I just put them in to thwart spammers)

Last night I got an e-mail about a new wholesale house on Realnet (a company that sells houses for investment purposes). Emily and I immediately went down there to check it out. It seemed like a great deal! We could buy it for $92,000 and sell it for $125,000 after repairs. We checked the numbers and found that the after repair value was a bit heigh (typical of houses from Realnet), but we were still interested in the deal. So, I called one of my mom's borrowers who specializes in that area. He checked it out for us and noticed that the square footage listed on Realnet was about 200 sqft more than what was listed on the property appraiser site. Abe and I went to the house this morning with a tape measure and checked it out for ourselves. Sure enough Realnet was wrong. I asked them about it and they said that there had been an addition. I didn't see any additions and we certainly didn't measure any extra square footage. So we tried to get in contact with the guy who actually buys the houses for Realnet and prepares the numbers, but he was hung-over and didn't show up for work. Abe and I put in a bid of $75,000. Later they called me and said that someone else had put in a full price offer. I hope for their sake they measured the house!

Later that afternoon I went driving around with Chuck and Bruce, two more of my mom's borrowers. They were in the middle of buying two houses worth over a million dollars each. The first one needed very little work, so Chuck was planning to move in. The second will be worth $800,000 more than they paid for it after they finish bringing it into the 21st century (currently it is firmly planted in the 1980s). They were very helpful, answering all of my questions and giving me some pointers.

Around 8:30 Abe and I went to the studio of the local talk radio station. The guys who do the new evening show recently relocated from Washington DC (where I use to listen to them). On Friday nights they have an open house, and let members of the community come on their show. It was great! Their intern "Chunks" needed to be punished for going through the suitcase (and looking at the panties) of El Jefe's cousin, who is visiting from Texas. So they took a pair of underwear, covered it with Icy Hot and hot-sauce and made him wear them. Then they gave him a wedgie and smacked him in the balls. He was screaming in pain for ten minutes before running to the bathroom, where he screamed for another 20 minutes. Hilarious!

Abe, Emily and I have been working furiously to find a house (to invest in, not live in). It's much harder than it seems. We've been working non stop for months with no luck. Actually we almost bought one in Sanford... We made an appointment to see the house on the same afternoon we found it, but it was gone before we even made the appointment. And Tuesday we were looking at two houses to buy at auction, but both auctions were canceled.

I finally finshed my cd! I've been working on it for about two years and it's finally done. A few weeks ago I decided that I didn't need to write any more songs (I had already written over 100 songs for this album). My challenge for the last few weeks has been mastering the cd. I know almost nothing about mastering, so it was quite a learning process. About a week ago I gave up and decided to bring it to the pros. So I went over to Greg Rike Productions, let them listen and to my surprise, they said that it was done... They couldn't do anything more to the music. I spent the last couple days tweaking some of the sounds and now I'm done!

I made an important decision in my life. It is a major change from my upbringing. I have decided to become an ordained minister. Please try to respect my religious choices. As my first act, I married my dogs Turtle and Piggy. They are on their honeymoon now (Turtle is humping Piggy in the backyard). Abe became a minister too, maybe he'll marry Em and I.

Please refer to me as Reverend from now on.

Abe and I have been busy looking for investment houses. We've been running around every day from the courthouse to locations throughout the city. We have a few good prospects, but no signed contract so far. One house has been an ongoing project - the owner of the house got divorced and rents the house to his ex-wife. He stopped paying the mortgage and left town. If we can find him and buy the house, we'll make a ton of money.

Em has been doing great with the hard money lending. She is constantly talking to new and existing borrowers, making the deals and even learning how to write up the loan documents! I'm so proud.

I'm in more magazine articles! When I was a student at American University, I developed a new way of creating photographic images. It involves printing a digital file onto lazerjet transparency paper, waiting for the ink to smear, then scanning the resulting transparency. I called this method the "Bradotype".

A few months ago, I wrote a press release about the process and sent it to a variety of photography magazines. Studio Photography and Design was the first to publish the article. However, they didn't tell me that they had published it, so I didn't find out until my dad read the magazine and stumbled across the article (he was shocked, of course). Today I got a copy of the British Journal of Photography in the mail and sure enough, they published the article too! At least they were considerate enough to send a copy.

Emily and I are engaged!! It's very exciting. There wasn't any big dramatic proposal (it's me, what did you expect?), but it's something we've been talking about for a while and we decided that now is the right time! Our families have been great. They are all very excited and supportive.

Typical of my mom - Literally two minutes after we told her, she ran out of the room, not to call family, not to call friends, but to call her diamond jeweler in New York. We have visited a local diamond store yesterday and today. Emily found the perfect ring and we bought it! Too bad it won't be ready for a month. She did, however, get to take home the stone (picture above). And she has already begun the "for the rest of your life" threats.

It has taken me a while to post info about our Rome trip. Now that it's done, I will hopefully start posting more regularly. Emily and I have been incredibly busy since returning from our trip. My sister and Diane are both in Orlando now, because their school semester just ended.

Lindsey, Em and I spent Saturday night and part of Sunday at the beach. There were suppose to be a bunch more people coming to meet us, but they took too long to get ready, so we told them not to come (they wouldn't have gotten to the beach house until midnight). But we had a great time anyway - laying on the beach and eating at Steve's Diner.

We went bowling last night with Diane, Will and Kelly. I watched an instructional bowling video online beforehand, and was convinced I was going to bowl a perfect game. I got a strike on the first frame and was ecstatic, but it was all downhill from there.

I got breakfast for everyone this morning, because everyone else was to tired or hung-over to get food. Emily and I walked around for a while, buying presents for people and hanging out. Came back for Abe and took the metro to San Clemente. We didn't go into the underground part, just hung out outside for a while. Then took the metro back to the Spanish Steps and had a tea break at Babington's tea room, which is something Emily had been wanting to do since last time we were here. It was good, although overpriced.

We watched a small communist protest. There was about 50 communists, who looked like a bunch of dirty hippies, holding signs and playing music. They were surrounded by at least 500 cops in full riot gear, standing around looking bored.

Abe and I had a great dinner at a small, family owned restaurant near Termini Station. The food was wonderful. We had a three course meal and a bottle of wine to celebrate a great trip!

We went to the Vatican Museum today. The metro was closed for some reason, so we had to take a cab instead. Last time we went, the line into the museum was horrendous, this time it was nonexistent. The galleries were incredible, unfortunately the Sistine Chapel was closed, because there was still "Cardinal Juice" everywhere. Too bad Abe the Art HIstory minor missed it.

Emily went shoe shopping near the Vatican, then did some more shopping near the Jewish Ghetto. We visited a Chocolateria near the Piazza Navona while waiting for the pizza restaurant to open. Emily got a no sugar added hot chocolate drink, which tasted phenomenal. The pizza restaurant was something I had been looking forward to for a while, because the book said that it was the best in the city. And boy was it good! Although the mushroom pizza near Piazza del Popolo was just as good if not better.

Abe went to an Irish Pub at 1:00 am to watch the Boston Red Sox game. He got waisted and met some chick who also liked his team. They hit it off right away, and made out a little bit. When they left, she wouldn't kiss him goodbye (probably because he was obnoxiously drunk). He stumbled back to the hotel at 4:30, woke us up with the story, fell asleep, and kept us awake with his snoring.

Woke up late and got ready slowly. Emily slept till noon, while Abe and I had a leisurely breakfast. We walked down near the Jewish Ghetto, which is now a trendy shopping district, and watched Emily shop. Ate lunch near the Piazza Navona and took a cab to the Forum, after walking through the Museum of Rome (which was boring).

We didn't make the mistake of going inside the Colosseum again (it was boring the first time). Instead we saw the Arch of Constantine and walked around the Roman Forum, which was awe inspiring! We strolled leisurely amongst the ruins and took in the scenery. I got some great pictures, but Emily decided to walk up the hill without telling Abe or I. We looked for her in a panic, on the wrong side of the hill, and finally spotted her bright pink shopping bag in the distance.

Ate dinner at the hotel and had "The Witch" for dessert.

Ate breakfast at the hotel. Excellent, as always. Went over to the Spanish Steps and hung out for a while, while dirty people tried to sell us cheap crap. Left there and ate at the Piazza del Popolo. I had mushroom pizza, Em and Abe had four cheese pizza. They were all good, but mine was so good that Abe and I had to order a second one to spilt. Emily got annoyed at me for reading the guide book all the time and took it away from me. I was sad.

Hung out at the Piazza del Popolo and visited the Santa Maria del Popolo, an amazing, multifaceted church which Abe had been bugging us for days to go see. Inside were works by Raphael, Pinturicchio, Bernini, Bramante, and many others. We left there and climbed back to the top of the lookout point Abe and I had visited our first day in Rome. The lookout point is right on the edge of Villa Borghese park. We walked around the park, rented a three seater bike shaped like a car. Wore ourselves out in about ten minutes riding the bike. Walked around the park for a while looking at the scenery and ancient ruins.

We tried to get into the Borghese Museum, but it was sold out. Instead we hung out in the secret garden behind the building. Emily and I skipped rocks across a fountain at Abe. I tried to climb an old wall, but I almost killed myself while Emily through rocks at me and Abe laughed.

Ate dinner at a restaurant recommended by the concierge. Delizioso!

We started the day at the Capuchin Crypt, an amazing space decorated with the bones of 4000 dead monks. The morbid decorations covered the floor, walls, and ceiling. A mass of pelvises in one room, skulls in the next. Bones lining the walls and full skeletons lying in small recesses between the bones. Absolutely incredible.

After that we took a cab to St. Peter's Square. It wasn't as crowded as I expected it to be. Today is the second day of voting to elect the new pope. Our plan was to sit around the square all day, just taking in the sights and watching the crowds. The cardinals let off black smoke, for the first voting session, around noon. The next voting session wasn't until 4:00, but they weren't going to let off smoke until 7:00 (or so we thought). So we hung out a little longer, then went to see some local sights. The first was a church where people in purgatory supposedly left their marks. Kinda lame. Then we went to the Castle of St. Angelo, which Abe and I though was great, but Emily thought was boring.

On the way back to the Vatican, we grabbed a quick meal, and returned to St. Peter's around 6:00 (so we could get a good seat while waiting for the 7:00 smoke). Two minutes after we sat down, the chimney started smoking. At first it looked black, but the longer we looked, the lighter it looked. Soon the whole crowd had come to the same conclusion. White smoke!! In no time, the square was packed. As we waited for the emergence of the new pope, it just got more and more crowded. Pope Benedict XVI was announced about 45 minutes after the smoke. He came out looking bewildered, preformed some awkward hand motions and blessed the crowd. It was terribly exciting! Trying to get out of the square, however, was a different story. The entire area in and around St. Peters was completely packed. You couldn't move an inch. People were smashed together like a rock concert. Or worse. Abe hurt his knee trying to jump over a small fence. The crowd helped everyone else, but when Abe tried to get over the fence, they cleared a path for him to fall.

We ate dinner at a beer and sausage house. I was the only one who had a good meal.

Abe, Emily and I arrived in Rome (Italy not Georgia) at around 9:30 am, got to the hotel and had some of the best pastries and cappuccino ever. The trip there was an ordeal in itself. Well, not so much the ride, but the layover. We stopped in New York and had one hour to make our connecting flight. It was obvious that we would starve on the way to Rome, if we didn't get some food in the airport. Abe decided to grab a beer at the airport bar, which almost made us miss our flight. Somehow he was under the impression that the plane wouldn't leave without him. Emily was pissed when people started to board the plane, but he wouldn't come. He eventually got on the plane, but it was not a pleasant start to the trip.

We were all pretty exhausted from the flight, but Abe and I wanted to go walk around and Emily wanted to take a nap. So, Abe and I walked over to the Spanish Steps and sat around for a while.

I love Rome. When Emily, Shannon and I went to Europe last year, this was my favorite city. We decided to come back here just on a whim after the pope died, so we could see the election of the new pope. It took a great deal of convincing to get Abe to quit his job and come, but we managed to pull it off (it helped that he was sick of working there and had already been thinking about leaving).

We left the Spanish and headed up to the Piazza del Popolo, one of my favorite squares in the city. From there we spotted an observation point heigh above the square and the city. In our airplane weary delirium, we decided to climb to the top. I'm glad we did though, the view was amazing, but it wore us out.

Emily woke up from her nap when we got back to the hotel, and we all walked to the Pantheon. We ate a pretty terrible lunch on the way (the only bad meal of the trip). Last time I was here, I didn't spend enough time at the Pantheon, so I was glad to go back. We sat at a cafe across from the ancient church and ate dessert.

Next stop was the Piazza Navona. Always a fun place to hang out and grab a great meal. I bought a painting by a local artist as a souvenir. We stopped at the Trevi Fountain on the way back to the hotel. It is one of the most beautiful sights in the city. I could watch it all day. You think they would build me one in my backyard?