2013 feels like it was one of my fastest years in recent memory.  One of the highlights of the year was that the I was featured as a dead body in an episode of Law & Order: SVU.  The episode came out in January.  You can read more about my experience here.

On my son’s 9th birthday in February, he met an Abraham Lincoln reenactor.  This was of special significance since he and Lincoln both share the same birthdays.

For his 9th birthday in February, we celebrated at the Museum of Math (MoMath) in Manhattan.  There you can ride on a square-wheeled tricycle that really works.

Hunter had made a goal to run both the Brooklyn Triple Crown and Staten Island Triple Crown races series.  He completed both race series and was invited to both awards ceremonies.  Here he is posing with several members of my running club, the Staten Island Athletic Club.  Our awards were the jackets that we’re wearing in the photo.  Pictured below are Me, Barbara North, Katie Kulichenko, Darin Magras, Jules Moore, and Yessica Herrera with Hunter in the front.

With three years of gymnastics under her belt, Emma has been getting very flexible.  She can easily do splits on the floor as well as in the air.

And one-handed flips performed here at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

She made Arista, the Junior National Honor Society.

In the Spring, I made friends with a very sweet lady named Lisa Castillo.  She’s a member of the West Side Runners running club who’s also an actress.  She has a tremendous positive attitude about life and is a talented  runner who has become one of my running partners.

In May, Hunter was invited to the Staten Island Triple Crown ceremony and received a trophy for his age group.  The race series consisted of a 5k, 4-miler and 5-miler.

In the summertime, we went on a 4-day mini-vacation to Niagara Falls.  One of the exciting things we did was take a hike to the bottom of the Falls and a boat ride underneath Horseshoe Falls.

I was invited by my friend Marteen to an informal high school reunion for the Class of ’83 (I graduated in the Class of ’84).  I was extremely happy to see my old high school track coach Mark Silverman there.  It was a total fluke that he was there since he was invited by a friend of a friend.  Seeing each other was the highlight of the year for the both of us.  Here is how we looked back in 1984 with my old running buddy and track captain Jimmy Gonzalez…

…and 29 years later in 2013….

Emma and Hunter both visited their preschool teacher Carolyn.

One of the hobbies that Emma has developed is knitting.  She learned it from her after-school program and can now knit her own winter hats and even her own shirt.

We visited Governor’s Island and had fun on the rides at a 19th Century French amusement park that goes touring throughout the World.  Here’s Emma and Hunter on a ride with their friend Salil.

This year, I’ve had the privilege of playing a bootlegger in several episodes of Season 4 of Boardwalk Empire.  Here I am hanging out with a bunch of my background friends during a break on location in an old warehouse in Staten Island.  The warehouse served as the bootlegging distillery.

My family participated in a family-style adventure race sponsored by the New York City Parks Department.

In August, we went to Cape May where we met the Steve Thomas and his family.  We went on a dinner cruise together.  Here’s Emma with Steve’s daughter Sara.

Emma and I participated in a local protest in our community.  We protested the building of a new dumping facility that would adversely affect the health of our community.

As the publicity director of the Staten Island Athletic Club, I was invited to hear a speech given by Senator Chuck Schumer.  He spoke at a press conference at the Staten Island Greenbelt about the rapidly growing incidents of Lyme Disease in the Staten Island area.

I participated in the Super Spartan race for the first time.  Some of the challenges I had to do was drag a 50-pound bag of rocks over a long distance, climb a rope and jump over fire.  My left hand got hurt badly from being hit by a punji stick by a large gladiator moments before I crossed the finish line.  After several months, my hand finally returned back to normal.  Here’s a photo of me and my good friend, running buddy, fellow thespian and teammate Mark Vogt.  Our antics together during the race helped make it fun.

In October, I participated in the Ridiculous Obstacle Race (ROC) with Emma.  We wore costumes that Emma selected and had a ton of fun getting soaking wet in many of the obstacles.

In September, I signed up Hunter with the boy scouts.  At first, he did not want to go, but after the great experience he had at the first meeting, he is now likes it.

In November, I ran my fourth NYC Marathon, but this time as a pacer.  As an official 4:30 pacer, I lead a large group of runners to the finish line.  It was a very satisfying experience to help other people achieve their marathon goals and dreams.  I even crossed the finish line with my friend Bob Wisner, which was an added bonus.

In December, I played a news reporter in a remake of the musical ‘Annie’.  During the grand finale scene I was in with many other background actors, we had to lip-sync and dance to the song Tomorrow.  The movie should come out sometime in December 2014.