CT Christmas Trip

This past Christmas my wife and I decided to head up to CT. I'm not going to chronicle everything because it wasn't all that exciting. What was exciting was trying to actually get TO Connecticut. We flew out on Dec 19th and it just so happens that there was a huge winter storm front going through the NY area. I had signed up for email alerts to make sure we don't go to the airport too early in case our flight was delayed. Since the plane going to NY was coming from NY, it was delayed because the FAA decided to slow down traffic in the NY Metro area.

We were originally slated to leave at around 6PM which would have gotten us to NY at around 10PM or 11PM. The snow storm decided to push our departure time all the way back to 1:20AM which is totally crazy. Most airlines would have canceled but not JetBlue!

We decided to go to the airport a little early just in case and waited around for a bit for our flight to come in from NY so we could leave. There was one other flight that was going to Syracuse and they kept on getting pushed back as well. There were these "Valley" girls that kept on pestering the gate agent because what he was saying wasn't what the call center people were saying. They brought out a manager that decided it would be best to give people some stuff to eat which I thought was a nice touch since it really doesn't cost them much.

Now here's the interesting part. The flight crew coming from NY Metro was slated to fly the Syracuse plane which had been sitting at the gate since 7PM, but since JetBlue isn't as big as Delta they don't just have stand by flight crews in the area that can fly the plane so they have to wait for crews to come in from other flights. The flight that we took touched down and the crew filed out and they boarded a new crew for NY Metro. Now the crew from NY Metro that was supposed to go to Syracuse just gathered up their stuff and walked out of the airport. This incited a mini riot because now Syracuse wasn't going to fly at all. I can understand why the Syracuse flight wasn't going out, there are FAA rules that say if a crew has been working 10 hours its time for them to go home for the safety of the passengers because they might be too tired by that point.

JetBlue boarded the NY Metro flight pretty quickly and I think a lot of people canceled their reservations so we practically had the whole plane to ourselves which was nice. The rest of the trip I may blog about but I doubt it, the creative juices aren't flowing that well right now.

TomTom 720 for me!

I am now a proud owner of a TomTom 720 GPS system for my car. I lost my Bluetooth GPS receiver for my Palm Treo a few weeks ago so I've been without GPS for a little bit. I decided that instead of getting another GPS receiver, it might be better just to get the whole unit this time around. I went with TomTom because I know how it works already since I have TomTom 5 software. This particular GPS has TomTom 8 which isn't a huge difference from TomTom 5 but it does have updated maps which is totally awesome.

The only thing that I have a gripe with is the battery life. But I guess its something that I can forgive because it's supposed to be hooked into a charger while using it in a car. I can also get online map updates when I hook it up to my computer which is awesome for corrections and such.

I'll be testing this out over the next few weeks to see how it works. There were a ton of features on my old TomTom 5 that I never used because it might mess up my phone but now I should be alright with the new TomTom 720 since its a totally enclosed unit. Gotta love it!

Thumper's New Trick

My older cat Thumper has a new trick. Actually its an old trick that he forgot about but has recently remembered. About 2-3 years ago Thumper figured out how I was opening doors by twisting the door knob. I have a picture of him trying this because my wife took a picture of him trying. Well the door handles in the townhouse are not knobs and recently he figured out that if he pushes it down and then pushes on the door, it magically opens!

I know he's opening the office door downstairs because I close the door at night and so does my wife and the next morning its open with both of my cats sleeping in there. The office is their favorite room I suspect because I'm always in there when I'm at home and it has a nice window to look out of when I open the blinds. I've had to put tape on the door handles for now to prevent Thumper from trying to open the doors. Cats don't like sticky things on their paws and so far so good. I might need to find another solution if this doesn't work but its the cheapest solution I know of besides buying another scat mat which I use for another door in the house.

I wish I could catch him in the act, it would make a good YouTube video.

Date Night

Every now and then my wife and I go on a date night. It's just a way for us to get out of the house and enjoy some of the things that are around the area. Last night we decided to have a date night and go to dinner and a comedy show that was playing in Miami.

We decided on some Japanese food for the evening and stayed local by going to a place called Ra. I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this place before so I won't bore people with the details of the place. It was a nice dinner that wasn't too expensive and it helped that we also got the California rolls for free. I like having the new mall near the house, it gives us some nice dining options without being too far away and because we went early we didn't even have to wait for a table. SWEET!

To top the night off, we decided to see one of our favorite comedians Gabriel Iglesias. Check out the cheesy picture that we took with my wife's phone.

The great thing about his act is that he keeps on changing it up so what you see on TV, you won't hear the same thing when you see him live on stage. This is the second time that we have seen him live. The first time was a couple of years ago at the Hard Rock near Ft. Lauderdale and this time we went to see him at the Miami Improv. Carlos Mencia is going to be in town this coming week but he's here on Wednesday and I'm going to be in Atlanta for work so I won't get to see him. Too bad that would have been awesome!

Well thats all that happened on date night, can't wait to do it again.

Black Friday Maddness

This past Friday I partook in the lovely ritual that is Black Friday. This year was a bit different beacuse instead of going super early in the morning, sales started at midnight at the Sawgrass Outlet mall near my sister in laws house. My wife convinced her family to go in order to avoid having to wake up super early on Friday. I was all about that because I really didn't want to wake up early on Friday anyway.

Little did I know how crazy it was going to be. We had to take I-75 just to get to the mall and man was it busy! I even decided to skip the normal exit because it was so crowded for a different one off of the toll road. Once there it was a mad house just to get parking. I haven't seen the parking lot this busy in a long time, probably not since last Christmas and certainly not at night. We decided to park near the outdoor shops just in case we could go there but that wasn't such a hot idea. There was a HUGE line just to get to the Coach store so we all decided it was best not to go there. We headed inside and proceeded to shop around, holy cow there were people everywhere looking for bargains. It didn't look like there was an economic crisis to me.

I would say that the deals were pretty decent but I didn't find anything there that I wanted to buy personally. My wife and her sisters ended up buying a ton of stuff and I think they got a good amount of their shopping done. I think we finally left there at 3AM or something like that I was too tired to even really notice.

Not only did I go to the mall that night, I even went out on Black Friday itself to get more stuff! I know I'm crazy but I did get at least 5 hours worth of sleep. There was some crazy woman that I over heard talking to the cashier that said she was up since midnight and was still going strong buying stuff. To me thats just plain crazy. I was quickly running out of steam by the afternoon but we didn't buy that much more stuff. Now its all a matter of wrapping everything up and playing Santa to each other. If I need more Christmas gifts, I'm just buying that stuff online and having it delivered. It should make my life much easier.

Christmas is coming

The holidays are upon us once again and Black Friday is approaching pretty quick. I'm actually at home this week because its Thanksgiving this week and no one wants to fly out for only 2 days just to go back home. So here I am writing my blog and doing some work at the same time.

The only thing that's really hard about Christmas is that I never know what I want. I have one goal from my wife this year, letting her know what I want and what I need this year. Now this really shouldn't be all that hard because every body has a little list somewhere of what they want and what they need. My problem with that currently is that I have everything I want (within reason, I certainly can't ask for a $40,000 car for Christmas unless we won the lottery or something in the next few days) and everything that I need for home and for work so this is a bit challenging.

I have been looking around on Amazon for stuff that I want and need but so far I'm coming up blank. I don't have a lot of time but I need to find something that I want. Black Friday is coming up quick so thats when all the good sales are going to be too. I'm going to be getting up at the crack of dawn, I probably won't be buying anything for myself but eh, my wife enjoys the experience.

Overage Charges

If there is one thing that really stinks its going over my minutes on my cell phone. I think this is the second time in only 3 years that I've ever done it but it still surprised me when I got the bill on my phone (the emails get sent to me and its all auto payed). I think the last time this happened was when I had my wedding in Tampa and I had to keep calling people to see where they were. This month I don't know where all the minutes went but I suspect its from calling my mom and my aunt during October since I was in CT this past month. I was also working from home and people call me on my cell rather than my office or home phone.

I should consider getting more minutes but seeing how this is only the second time this has really happened I probably won't end up doing it. Family plans are out of the question, I need a new phone every two years and so does my wife. I'm just waiting for the day that I can expense this stuff in with my company. Maybe they'll let me do the data plan too and I'll get work email on my personal phone. We'll see! For now I'll gladly pay the money because I really have no choice. Haha

Airport Security Principle

I recently went to Atlanta for business and it was cool to see a frequent and a leisure security line. In Ft. Lauderdale there is no such thing which at times is frustrating because frequent flyers know about the Airport Security Principle: Get out of the way!!

All too often I see people trying to put on their crap at the end of the conveyor belt or load their stuff into their bags. These people seem to forget that more crap is coming their way and they're holding up the process for everyone else.

The frequent traveler understands this principle and promptly moves out of the way and puts their stuff on at the nice benches the TSA provides. Holiday travelers are the worst because there are so damn many of them and they are trying to bring too much through. I'm not looking forward to flying in the coming weeks, you can bet that the airport is going to be jam packed even though the ecomony is in the crapper.

Beware the wrath of the TWEEN!

High School Musical 3!
Originally uploaded by l980's_chick

Before I went to Disney this past weekend, I took my wife to see the movie High School Musical 3. She's a fan of the movies so I thought I would take her to the midnight showing. I didn't expect to see so many little tweens running all over the place. Don't these kids have parents? Didn't they have school the next day? Geez!

Anyway, the movie was going just fine until maybe the last 1/3 of the movie when all of a sudden the video flipped and the audio got all messed up. There was a near riot by the little tweens in the theater! So funny! Then some of the little punks started singing the songs *truly annoying really* and we had to wait around 30 minutes to fix the film. They finally fixed it and we were able to watch it just fine and on top of that we got free movie passes too. I will remember this night as being absolutely hysterical. Remember, never get in the way of a tween and their Disney movie....

Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween and I'm actually home for it. I won't be really be home per se, I'm going to my sister-in-laws place. I am going to dress up sort of. I am going to be going full out with my Yankee gear. This will make it so that I don't have to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids.

I'm not that into Halloween anymore, I used to have some fun at the office with it but I don't really go to the office all that often since I am trying to enjoy working from home. It gives me time to enjoy my home since I'm away from it for so much of the time.

To my friends and family that are enjoying dressing up, Happy Halloween!

Halloween Horror Nights Orlando!

In addition to doing the 13K race at Disney, my wife and I decided to go to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. This was a pretty scary night to say the least but I think it ranks up there with Howl-O-Scream that Busch Gardens does in Tampa. We hit up a few of the haunted houses and were thoroughly scared and of course we had to go through the various scare zones in order to get from place to place.

There were a few rides open too and one of the rides that really stands out is the new Simpson's Ride. This ride took the place of Back to the Future (I doubt the current generation even remembers the movie). This was a 4D ride and it was done very well. I liked that as you waited in line you could watch old episodes of the Simpson's. Just for the hell of it we also did the Men in Black Ride and some other cheesy ride that escapes me right now.

The Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure show was awesome. It was really funny and had cameo's of all the presidential candidates and a lot of popular music that they play on stations like Z100 (for you NY'ers you'll know what that is). I think that show made my night and made the whole trip worth it for Halloween Horror Nights. I probably won't go again, Disney is just way more fun over all!

Oh and one last note, my wife and I were walking through one of the scare zones and this girl was probably walking with her boyfriend. One of the "scary" people walked right up to her and growled in her face, she damn near wet herself when he did that! LOL She basically threw her boyfriends hand away which she had been holding and made a bee line in the opposite direction. That was hysterical, I wish I was able to catch that on video.

Tower of Terror 13K

This past weekend I ran the Tower of Terror 13K race in Orlando FL. Roughly thats a bit over 8 miles in total distance. The route wasn't so bad, being FL it was basically a flat race the entire way. The experience was pretty good. I did only 8 miles once before and I ended hurting my leg for 2 weeks. My doctor said I shouldn't run the race but it seemed a shame not to after paying for the entrance fee and they said I could also walk the race too which wasn't bad.

I ended up walking about 4 miles and running 4 miles. I couldn't run the whole race because I'm just not that fit. My wife on the other hand smoked me because she was able to run the whole thing. My time was 1:56 which isn't bad but it isn't great either. It's around a 14 minute mile which isn't all that bad. I might do the race again next year but we'll see. I also never ever thought a banana could taste so good. They gave us a snack at the finish line and my wife was waiting there for me to cross.

Oh and the best part! There was an after partywards where they opened up some of Hollywood Studios for the participants. I rode on the Aerosmith ride (I actually had my glasses on too so I could see what the heck is going on in the ride) and of course I went on the Tower of Terror. There was a new Pixar section to the park and a new Toy Story ride. That ride was totally awesome. It was very interactive and had you shooting all sorts of stuff like if you were at a carnival with a small gun. I wanted to go on the ride again but they were closing the park.

I also picked up some good swag while at the race. I got the commemorative pin, a finishers medal, a short sleeve shirt, and a long sleeve shirt. Not a bad haul if I do say so myself. There are tons of other running events at Disney throughout the year but I think I'm going to switch back to the eliptical until my legs get better. My feet could also use a rest.

The ever falling gas price

I've been home for the past few weeks and I haven't had to drive much but I always pass this particular Shell station that has the cheapest gas in the area. I know this because I check gas prices online to look for the lowest one in a 3 mile radius of my home. This Shell station has been dropping its gas price almost every day for the past few days. It was around $2.80 on Monday and just today its around $2.69. Thats a pretty big deal in my book.

There was a time when I would have considered $2.69 as expensive but no longer which is a bit sad. I do enjoy looking at the news and seeing that oil has dropped to around $70.00 a barrel for oil. There are all these oil exporting countries that depend on high oil prices but that don't like America that depend on the world buying oil at a high price. Take that!! Muahahaha! I'm hoping that prices continue to fall so that people will be able to buy gas and afford heating oil. There are large disparities depending on where you live but as long as prices continue to fall it will be good for all.

CT in the fall

Cheesed out HDR of apartment view
Originally uploaded by mcbill

I personally didn't take this picture but its a great picture of CT in the fall. I think I know why I like being up in Stamford so much, its all the unique things that are up that way to the city streets, all the different types of houses, and all the trees and hills that are in the area.

Maybe thats the thing that I don't like about Floriduh. It's all so cookie cutter and dull. Everywhere you go there are cookie cutter houses and strip malls. There are some unique places I must admit but they are few and far between. It doesn't really leave an impression in my mind except to tell my inner compass where to go when I need something.

Even though I haven't been to CT in a little while, I still know where everything is and how to get there. There are still places up there that I will also go to and remember when I take a trip (Stewies being one of these places) and who knows, maybe I'll call that area home again (they're going to have to lower income and property taxes to make it even somewhat affordable to people like me).

Granted I doubt I would retire there, my old bones wouldn't be able to take doing all that yard work but maybe a small vacation home for when I want to go and visit where I grew up. The area is changing, no doubt about that (I think the Trump tower was a bad idea btw) but at least there are some un-touched areas that make it feel like New England.

No 13K Tower of Terror Race for Me

All the way back in April, Claire and I decided that we would do the 13K Tower of Terror race in Orlando FL. This race takes place at night and you run through the Disney Hollywood Studios theme park. About 2 weeks ago to ensure that we would be able to actually run the entire race we decided to at least try and run that distance on Saturday morning. I felt fine actually running that distance although near the end I totally ran out of gas and had to walk it.

The next day I started limping but I thought nothing of it because I thought it was just my legs being tired or something. Monday things didn't improve so I started to get a bit concerned but still shrugged it off and went about my week and my trip to CT thinking that I should be ready by this weekend. I went and saw the sports medicine doctor that's been helping me with my heel pain in my left foot and the diagnosis that he gave me was that I either have tendinitis or I have a pinched nerve and should be running for the next 3 weeks. That's a real bummer since I was looking forward to running the race with Claire and also because the race is non-refundable. My doctor did say that if I'm feeling about 95% better I could still run it but he still advised against it so I don't injure myself further. Total bummer! Now I'm going to have to do stuff like use the bike or something instead of running. I wouldn't mind swimming if there was a lap pool somewhere close by or something so I can get in some exercise.

I guess I'll have to settle for cheering on Claire as she runs the race this weekend. We'll be doing a host of other things and maybe one day I'll be able to keep up with her on distance running. I can still outrun her in sprints though.

Trip to CT

This past weekend I went up to CT to see my mom for her birthday. It was very nice up in CT during this time of year with all the leaves turning into fall colors with lots of yellows, oranges, and reds. I have numerous pictures of trees from my trip. I was able to rent a car for this trip because I had some free rental coupons from Avis. The rental wasn't totally free but it was close enough. I was able to get a Man Wagon aka The Dodge Magnum. The car wasn't bad but it could have been better if there was a bit more power behind it.

I arrived late Friday night so I didn't do much on Friday. Saturday was the day that I arranged to go to New Jersey to see some of my mom's family. I saw my cousin, his 4 kids, my aunt and uncle and their grand daughter. We ended up eating at Penang which had a branch near Princeton NJ. It was nice to have everyone around for the lunch and the food was excellent as well. Afterwards we spent the rest of the day in NJ with the family. I ended up going home really late and I could hardly stay awake on the trip back. Personally I don't even remember the last 1/3 of the trip home and it was on my favorite highway too.

Sunday was a really late day for me. There's something about my old bedroom that just puts me to sleep. I didn't get up till almost 11am which is highly unusual for me these days. I had planned to go to the mall or something but I got up too late and my mom wanted to go to the 4:15PM Mass too which totally cuts into the day. One of the things that my mom wanted me to try and do is setup the digital boxes so she can get TV past February. The only problem is that the antenna on top of the house is pointed towards the World Trade Center. In order to try and correct this problem my mom had me climb up to the top of the house to see if I can move the antenna. Unfortunately I was unable to move the antenna because there's about 50 years of rust on it and I was afraid that if I moved it, it might just break or something which wouldn't be a good thing at all. I did bring my camera up with me so I was able to take some pictures while I was on the roof of the house. I also ended up going to EMS but I couldn't find a jacket that I liked enough to buy. I also wanted to look at the camel back backpacks that hold water but after today's doctors appointment I don't think I'll be needing it. I also had just enough time to head on over to Stew Leonards, no CT trip is complete without a trip to Stewies! I went there specifically to buy some food to bring home (which is currently sitting in my fridge).

Mass at my old church was pretty uneventful. There are a lot of new people and the priest is also different. I noticed some sublte differences like the stations of the cross being a bit different since they are carvings now intead of paintings, and the chairs up on the alter are different from the ones that I used to sit in when I used to be an alter boy. I kind of miss some of the old stuff since some of the pieces in the church go back to when the old church was still functioning instead of just being the school. Just to indluge myself I decided to have some Garden Catering for dinner. This also saved my mom from having to wash dishes that evening too. Well those were the major highlights of my trip. I should be up there next year for my mom's birthday or for some other reason. We'll see.

Returning to CT

Stamford Welcomes You
Originally uploaded by Bob the Astorian

This coming weekend I'm going to be returning to my hometown of Stamford CT. Next week it's my mom's birthday but it falls on a Tuesday which is kind of weird so I'm just heading up for the weekend to help her celebrate. I'm going to be heading to New Jersey to see family that still lives in the area (not like there was a lot to begin with) but it should be nice. I won't have time to see my friends this time around but it will be nice to go back to where I grew up. If I'm ever rich enough, I should just buy a vacation place there (most people would consider that weird but I live in a tropical area so some cold would be nice).

I'm going to bring my camera with me and if I'm lucky I'll be able to take some nice photo's while I'm there. I don't have a lot of photo's from Stamford itself even though I've lived there during my formative years. The digital camera is a wonderful thing! If anything I'll get some shots of New Jersey since thats where I'm basically spending my entire Saturday.

Stamford here I come, ready or not!! Booyah!

Xbox360 Update

Well I just paid to get my damn console repaired. The only good thing that came out of it is that I have another year to see if the thing will die on me because with the $99.00 fee I get an extended warranty.

This is still bull crap. All of my other consoles still work. My Sega Master System (circa 1989) is still WORKING. I should write an email to Microsoft complaining about this.... HUMBUG!

My Xbox360 is busted again!

OK now I'm getting a little miffed at Microsoft. I own the original Xbox and that bad boy was solid. I had one of the first production units since I bought the thing when it came out in Christmas of 2001 or something like that. It's back in its box because I don't play it much but my Xbox 360 has died 3 times now.

I tried calling Xbox 360 support and they're telling me that I need to shell out $99.00 to fix it. From the term "fix it" I'm guessing that they're going to send me another refurb unit. My original Xbox 360 was just fine until I experienced the 3 red rings of death. It lasted for 3 years chugging along just fine. I am on my second refurb unit and the same DVD drive problems continue to occur. I've had the current Xbox for a little less than 3 months.

I have tried looking online to see if there are Xbox's that are refurbs at stores for cheaper but there aren't any. The cheapest ones are for almost $180 which is too much. I'd much rather pay the $99.00 but I think Microsoft should just give me a new box anyway since this one didn't even last half a year. I'll try calling them again and see if I get another support specialist who will be willing to let this slide and get me into another Xbox without a charge. In the mean time, I gotta do more role searching so I can get my butt off the bench.

The Storm Cometh!!

Coming soon to Verizon is a new phone to take on the iPhone, namely the BlackBerry Storm. I personally am not the biggest fan of BlackBerry but they might be on to something here. The interface looks pretty awesome and the fact that its totally touch screen also helps. It doesn't have a lot of the innovative stuff that Apple has done for its iPhone but it does have one interesting feature, a flexible touch screen! It basically flexes so that you can "feel" that you've done something. This is quite the contrast to the iPhone. Now the only thing that they need to improve is the overall software and it will be a killer!

I'm still going to get my Treo because I like having physical keys on my phone and my company is moving everyone away from BlackBerry and heading towards iPhones and WM devices. After having an iPod Touch for a little bit I can see the appeal of the iPhone. If they bring that bad boy out for Verizon, it will be totally HUGE! Especially if they make it to work on CDMA and GSM at the same time.

My wife will probably be getting one of these unless there is something new and improved from BB to come out in the next year. I'll be checking this out in the store if I get the chance, just to see how it is.

Down goes the economy!

Unless you've been hiding in a cave for the last few weeks, you would have noticed that the economy isn't doing so hot these days. Normally you'd expect some ups and downs in the stock market but right now its just going down and I mean down in a massive hurry! Bailouts are everywhere and nothing seems to be able to stem the tide of mounting losses. Everyone has been touched in some way, whether its the fresh out of college employee watching his 401K looking kinda grim or the retiree that just realized his life savings was wiped out because his company went bankrupt or invested in bad debt securities. Well there is one silver lining that I can see, its not just our problem anymore! Muahahaha!

Oh how I've enjoyed watching the Europeans and the Asians start to flounder. Everyone over across the oceans thought it was a US problem, haha jokes on you! It's not our fault that they bought bad US debt securities and now they need some injections from the central banks in order to stay in business :) I'm just waiting for the begging to begin for the US to help bail out some countries economy with a huge package. It's funny that no one ever offers the US help but if something goes wrong its always the question of "why doesn't the US do something to help?". HUMBUG! There are billions of tax payer dollars going to foreign aid and my country is dealing with a trillion dollar deficit. I'd start pulling that money home to start funding infrastructure projects like they had when Roosavelt was president. Nothing like some new rail lines, roads, and an enhanced power grid to make things alright in the ole USA.

Anyway, thats the rant for now. More will be forthcoming in the next few days since I'm stuck at home.

Got me an iPod Touch

Late last week I was able to get my iPod Touch and sync that baby up with all my music and what not. I can now see the appeal of the iPhone to many people since the Touch is just an iPhone without the phone component. I can use it for most of the applications while I'm here at home connected to my Wifi. There are some gripes and I'll get to those in a second. I just wanted to say that I think it is true that this is the most fun I will ever have with an iPod when compared to my old one or at least until Apple comes out with yet another version thats even cooler.

I downloaded a bunch of apps and most of them work fine. I don't know how useful they will be when I'm on the road since they require a network connection but I did get some games that are really fun. One of the games that I truely like is CannonGame. It's like playing Worms but with a huge artillery cannon. I've been trying out the email and the web browser and both are really cool. I like the web browser more than the email. I'm still trying to get over the no physical keyboard thing. I think I'll still be gunning for my Treo with its regular keyboard.

The video and music capabilities are good. I espeically like it for video since thats what I bought the thing for. It shows my movies in a much larger format so now I can actually read the sub-titles. I haven't had a chance to try out the Nike+ stuff yet but I'm dying to. I just need to get one of the sensors and I'll be all set to try that out. I'm also in the market for a case but they don't have many of those out yet either. One thing I did discover is that it won't play on my current iTrip. Not like I was going to use it for that purpose anyway, my old iPod is now the car iPod in my view. It's mainly there for use in the car because the click wheel is still easier to manage than the touch screen while you drive around town.

I can't wait to take this thing out on the road, it's going to be so freakin sweet! Other than a few small gripes, this new iPod rules!

Enter the ANDROID

Well a new player has come forth in the Smartphone world.  Google has released Android which is basically a Google Powered phone.  I've been reading around the net about this little gem and trying to see what threat it poses to any phone that I may potentially buy.

Right now it seems that it is no threat at all.  This is a barebones smart phone that just uses Google crap.  I will admit I use a lot of Google crap personally but not so much on my phone.  So why do I consider this phone a non-issue over all?  It pretty much boils down to the biggest group of users that have a reason to use a Smartphone and thats business users.  The Android phone doesn't have any way for IT organizations to actively manage or push information to Android.  The big deal breaker is no Exchange support which most companies run on as well as no advanced security feature set (they let you monkey with everything in the phone).  Last but not least (this is huge for me) no desktop syncronization.  Thats just plain STUPID!  I don't want all my crap in the "cloud".  There are some things I keep locally only because thats where it belongs.  Security is a big thing for me and I like my privacy.

We'll see how well Android sells, I can see this for teens or something but not for your 20-50 somethings.  Even though I don't like admitting this, the iPhone is better than this thing by leaps and bounds in terms of useability and acceptance by IT departments (I'm still buying my Windows Mobile phone and having my iPod touch because I need something that syncs with my desktop seamlessly and I really need the Copy Paste functionality).

More bail out maddness

It would appear that in the infinite wisdom of the government, it needs to use my tax money to start bailing out private companies left and right because they would totally kill the economy.  Well, if these companies are going to be bailed out by me and my tax money, whats in it for me?  I'm the average citizen who isn't in financial trouble, I pay my mortgage and my taxes on time, and generally don't give a crap what government does as long as my life keeps humming and no one is raising my taxes.

Now with this bailout I expect a little something in return, some interest would be nice but seeing that most of this is for bailing out companies that bought troubled mortgage securities a really nice thing they could do is to reduce my mortgage.  There are tons of people that over stretched themselves when they bought their houses and they are allowed to "re-negotiate", so why can't I?  I don't think its fair at all to punish people that are making regular payments on their mortgages while people that can't pay have the ability to make some adjustments to keep them in their homes and maybe get the chance to pay lower payments while I'm still chugging along while watching my home value tank.

The fair way to do this would be to take an assessment for say 2008 for all property and renegotiate all outstanding mortgages and re-adjust them so todays value is the baseline for payback to these troubled firms.  Granted the firm I'm with is just fine and dandy but still, it would be nice to give the benefit to everyone.  Oh and one more thing, I want a stake in any of these companies that need a bailout.  I want stock or something that I can hold on to and cash in later for some profit.  If my taxes are fueling a bailout I deserve a little something something in my pocket book and not see it go to the government to fund some other social program I will never use.  We need to take care of the 95% of the people who benefit from programs and stop focusing on the last 5% because the return on investment just isn't there to the average joe.

Treo 800W for Verizon?

Well the rumor mill has it that Verizon will be getting the Treo 800W rather than the Treo Pro. The 800W is already out for Sprint and should be arriving in the next month or so. Thats going to be uber sweet. I was expecting the Treo Pro but that sucker is GSM and the rumors that its going to be CDMA are still rumors while the 800W is currently out and active. I hope it keeps a lot of the cool trimmings that Palm puts into the device and maybe add some apps to make it more useable out of the box. I'll be picking this little gem up in January when I'm due for new every two with Verizon. BOOYAH!!

iPod Touch for ME!

Today I decided to treat myself to a new iPod Touch. It's basically an iPhone without the phone component. It's only 32GB but it has some neat features that I'll take advantage of. It has wireless internet, access to the apps store, Nike+ sensor, and the best part is that it has a large screen. This is somewhat replacing my current iPod Classic 5G that my wife got me. I'm still going to use it but it will be relegated to car useage beacuse I can control it by touch (that sounds funny), ok maybe I should say by feel to change songs and what not really quickly. The iPod Touch is mainly for my plane rides during the week so that I can watch my movies on them. The Nike+ thing will also be cool since I run a couple times a week and it will be interesting to track all that stuff. There are lots of free apps and games available too so that means I will have even more things to distract me while flying the un-friendly skies.

This won't replace my phone and I will NOT get an iPhone because I don't like AT&T. My phone will still be my number one device because it is my phone and I can get internet everywhere. I was able to use my discount and engrave it. Now all I need to do is wait for it to ship and to buy a case for it so I don't scratch it up too bad. I can't wait, this is gonna be soo sweet. OK on to the next post!

Another big bail out by the Fed

Well it seems that the Fed isn't done using my tax payer money to bail out companies in private industry. Now its AIG that needs some help and another $85 Billion of tax payer money in order to make sure it doesn't fail. This is starting to get a little crazy. My tax money is to improve infrastructure and pay for projects that make the country a little better than it was yesterday, not to keep failing companies from going bankrupt. Like I said earlier, let them fail. Granted its a sad thing to see people lose their job but the government should not be in private industry, regulate it sure but not actually own and liquidate stuff while risking the money I pay in taxes.

I'm hoping that AIG gets dismantled quickly so that my money will be safe. I'm fine with the Lehman solution but if this continues we're going to be in deep doo doo. If the financial markets need to take a nose dive, maybe its for the best to do the correction and start fresh with some new regulation to ensure this doesn't happen again (i.e. 1929 crash). OK thats it for my rant, time to create some new blog entries about other stuff.

Bye bye Investment Banks!

Things got really interesting this past weekend.  The investment Bank Lehman Brothers is going down with a knock out blow to its balance sheet in the form of mortgage securities and Merrill Lynch is running for cover by getting bought out by Bank of America while it still has some value on the open market.  To Wall Street, this is a crushing blow because 2 of the major players in Investment Banking just got pounded into oblivion in no time flat.  I feel bad for the rank and file people who are losing their jobs over this endeavor, as if the collapse of Bear Sterns wasn't enough, 2 more bite the dust!  I do believe that the C level execs that get the fat pay checks should give up something since the companies are basically bankrupt or heading in that direction.  Where is the fairness that some CEO gets 10-20 million bucks in severance while everyone else is going to lose their job and probably their savings because they were paid in stock as part of their compensation package?

As far as I can see, the fun isn't going to be over just yet with AIG on the brink and WaMu looking kinda weak in the knees.  It won't even take a big whack from a stick to bring them down which is kind of frightening.  Now the part that hurts me personally is what this is doing to my 401K which is going into the toilet pretty quick as the market loses ground.  Kind of pisses me off but there isn't much I can do except pull out and leave it in the money market account or something where it will be semi-safe.

Could all have this been preventable?  Who knows!  20/20 hindsight vision is great but for the here and now it doesn't do anyone any good except to become an example of what not to do in the future.  This might be a good thing, kind of like when Arthur Andresen got creamed (I didn't agree with that on a personal note, the Houston firm should have been the one that got clobered and not the whole firm) but more regulation will come of this, stricter rules everywhere and the people that will ultimately benefit are the professional services firms like mine.  I wonder what company will flounder at the end of the week.  Just so long as the Fed isn't propping it up with my tax payer money I couldn't care less for the most part but it will be interesting to see how the market deals with all this change.

Creating the Big Bang!

Today the people in Europe, specifically at CERN, just flipped the switch on the new Large Hadron Collider.  So what exactly is this thing?  In a nutshell, go read Angels and Demon's by Dan Brown to find out... j/k.  What it really does is that its supposed to smash particles together to try and kind of re-create what happened during the big bang.  The thing is absolutely huge!  17 miles in diameter I think.  It takes two particles and starts spinning them in opposite directions, then when its at max velocity it opens a door so they can smash together and the entire scientific community takes note of what happens.

What they are trying to do is to find anti-matter and to see if matter can also be created in this fashion.  I think its pretty cool, although there are some funny rumors that it might open a mini-black hole and suck the whole planet into it causing the end of the world as we know it.  I don't think this will happen, it will just result in a really cool explosion and make some nice swirly pictures that will be posted on the internet.  They aren't scheduled to start real testing till later this fall but the concept in itself is mighty cool.

I hope they mention this sucker in the show The Big Bang Theory, that show is quite funny and it would tie in perfectly with the characters and the title of the show.

Housing Bailout

Late last night before bed and early this morning I saw all the crud about bailing out Fannie May and Freddie Mack.  For those of you that don't know who they are, shame on you!  They are the big mortgage lenders that banks count on for capital in case they need it.  The Fed's decided that a big overhaul was required so they basically took them over and are going to be running the joint.  So what does that mean to people like you and me?  Well in reality, it just means its another pit that will suck in my tax money and provide no real benefit to me but it will provide benefits to people that made the poor decision of buying houses that were way beyond their means.  Another problem I have with the whole bail out thing is that the CEO's of these two companies get to keep a crap load of pay due to the nature of their contracts.  Whatever happened to firing someone and them getting nothing because they did such a poor job?  Executive pay seems to be getting out of hand with contracts rewarding performance but in the event of trouble, executives get to walk away with full benefits and huge pay out packages as well.  If thats not a kick in the nuts to share holders and rank and file employee's I don't know what is.

So was this good for the economy?  Short term it probably will be just for the simple fact it has the perception that things are going to be corrected and what not.  Long term, probably nothing to scream about.  I always remember that this is the Fed's we're talking about here.  Decisions need to go through a lot of red tape, lots of ego's need to be massaged, and sometimes it takes an act of Congress to move forward so the agility required to help fix things might need a better solution.  I'm all for consolidating them and then taking it apart piece by piece so my tax money can be used for a better purpose than bailing out banks and ex-home owners who made bad decisions.  Yes income goes up, housing value goes up, but so does inflation so that pretty quarter that you carry in your pocket might be worth a decent amount today but as time marches on that quarter won't buy as much. Comparison's with the past are dangerous unless the playing field is leveled by calculating what past prices are today and I don't see that kind of stuff in the news.  This gives people this false sense that they're making so much more than their predecessors and thus can afford more.  Thats the type of thing that has us in this pickle right now because research wasn't done right and we let banks do what they wanted to the detriment of the average tax payer. I say let them fall, if anything it will teach other institutions lessons in higher finance and to be wary.  Anyone remember Bear Sterns?  I doubt anyone will in 5 years but that is one lesson they should teach to people in college, if you mess up ad enough you'll be nothing more than a footnote.

Entertainment and Politics Don't Mix

Even though very few people read my blog, I just feel the need right now to vent a little. It's a Sunday night and I have to go to bed early but I thought that I would catch the MTV VMA's this year to see if it was any good. The past few years have been a disappointment, the production quality sucked, the presenters made mistakes that were hard to ignore, but the worst part about it is that people keep on bringing in politics into the show. I'm watching a show for its entertainment value, not to hear some big ego'ed dip shit spout off about the presidential election and who he wants us to vote for.

Tonight's host is some dude from the UK, he was in a movie this past year but other than that I didn't even know who he was. He decided in his infinate wisdom to go ahead and start spouting off how we should all vote for Obama. Now I follow politics like every other American, but there are specific times and channels to do that sort of thing like MSNBC of CNN, not on MTV. Promoting people to vote, OK I might be fine with that but don't tell people who to vote for. I personally am a Republican (my father is still questioning that since he's a Democrat and so is the state of Connecticut for the most part) so hearing this dip wad go on for about 5 minutes about Obama and then bashing the Royal Family in the UK was a bit much (after that bit I would have revoked his citizenship/passport). I turned it off and I probably will go on to MTV.com just to watch the musical performances. I was even eager to see some stuff from America's Best Dance Crew but I won't be seeing that live anymore.

I know that there are other shows and what not that have celebrities mouth of their beliefs and stuff but that sort of thing doesn't interest me. If Oprah wants to sing the high praises of Obama, she can do it on a political show but not when I want to be entertained. I guess thats why I'm glad there aren't that many celebrities that like McCain, I don't have to listen to them ruining my shows with their opinion.

It's time for bed, hopefully I won't hear any political crap in anymore shows except for CNN or the odd ball commercial which is also acceptable. Take a hint Hollywood, just because you're famous doesn't mean you know shit about anything. Stop trying to influence people with your un-educated opinions by shutting your pie holes. Pissing off the general public is the best way to become poor since I doubt any of you are talented at anything else. OK rant complete until tomorrow.....

We now take you back to your regularly scheduled blogging.....

I haven't blogged about current events for a long time but thats because I didn't want to break up my vacation blog. I know I know its been over a month since I went and only 2 entries actually have pictures. I've been a bit busy at work of late so I haven't had any time to do real blogging.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on a few topics that interest me at the present moment.

1) The US Open

I have attended this tournament from time to time and I must say that it looks like its been pretty exciting so far. I wouldn't have minded catching a few matches. It's too bad that most of the American players on the Men's side are out at this point but they have been playing pretty well so far. I need to go and catch Wimbledon one of these days but they have some archaic way of getting tickets. I'll get there eventually though. The finals are this weekend and I'm curious to see who's going to be playing in the finals. Being a Friday night, I'm surprised that there are no matches on TV right now. I guess they're going to all the Men's semi-final matches tomorrow and of course tomorrow is the Women's Final.

2) The Republican National Convention

This was something that I haven't really paid attention to in the past few elections, mainly because I really didn't care because I was voting Republican anyway. This year I paid a little closer attention because McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. This is very new because she is the first woman on a major party ticket. It's even more interesting to me that she has no exposure to Washington politics so far. I normally don't blog about politics but just for this brief moment I will. I watched her speech on CNN and it was really good. Any doubts I had before about voting this year are gone and I will be voting Republican once again (I would like some lower income taxes please).

OK I'm very distracted right now watching The Incredibles on Disney Channel so I'm just going to end this sucker right here. I should be able to blog on a more regular basis now. We'll see if I have the time though.

Last Day in NY

Ahh this is it, my last day in NY. Being a Sunday Claire and I decided that to start things off right we should go to church. I haven't gone to church in a while but thats more because I don't like the churches in South Florida compared to the North East. What better church to go to when you're in NY than to hit up St. Patricks Cathedral. Now this is what I call a church! It's huge, its the seat of the NY Arch Diocese, and its historical. I actually did sit through an entire Mass and went and looked at all the different alters where I could light candles for loved ones. Claire and I lit two candles and went to the store to get a souvanir. The only thing that I didn't like were all the people taking pictures indoors. I don't agree with people doing that inside a church, it seems disrespectful. I'll give them that its a beautiful church but don't interfere with the Mass by taking flash photography. Well thats my gripe about St. Patricks but over all I enjoyed the experience (especially because no one held my hand like they do in the South).

One thing that we did miss out on was our planned brunch in Brooklyn. At this point we were just too tired to go anymore and we also decided we wouldn't have enough time to get there and back and also catch our plane. Instead we ended our stay in NY the way it began, by hitting up Penang for some good eats that will have to last a long time. I don't know when I'm going to be in NY again but I do know that I'm going to remember the food, the sights, and the good times with old friends and of course Claire.

One of the more memorable moments of my final day in NY was actually at the airport. Now I was using reward tickets from Delta Airlines but since I got them so early I was actually upgraded to First Class. It doesn't mean all that much on domestic but it lets you use the short security line, get all the drinks you want, have a bigger seat and more leg room.... you get the idea! I also happen to be a Gold Medallion member with Delta so that lets me use the short security line anyway but I don't normally get First Class. Anyway,Claire and I have our tickets in hand and we head on over to the short line for First Class and Gold and Platinum Medallion members. As we walk towards the line a security agent blocks our way and tries and directs us to the regular line which is decently long. We try and push through and she insists that we should go to the regular line. We proceed to tell her that we're First Class so we can go through the line and that I'm a Gold Medalliion member so even on those merits I can go through the line. She takes our boarding passes and inspects them and just waves us through, no appology or anything like that. How RUDE! I'm sure it was the way I was dressed or how old I look that threw her off. I can sort of understand that. I look young for my age and so does Claire so she wouldn't expect us to be riding around in First Class but at least check and not be rude about it.

After zipping through Security, no thanks to that dumb bitch at the First Class line we found out that our flight was delayed because of storms in other parts of the country. There were a lot of other flights canceled or delayed as well so the terminal was quite busy. I considered going to the Crown Club room but since the delay was so short we skipped it in favor of sitting with the people and getting some grub. This is where Claire and I experience our second run in with people that think we're not entitled to boarding with Zone 1 (basically First Class). When flights run late they normally try and board the plane really quick so they were calling zones pretty quick. When they called Zone 1 (the Zone I was in) I headed to the gate like everyone else and went through the Breezeway Lane. Some woman who was in the regular lane had the gall to ask the gate agent what zone they were boarding since I was walking up to show my pass. The gate agent turned to the woman and said something like this in a snotty tone "Ma'am we're seating Zone 1 and he's Zone 1". That put a smile on my face, take that! I may not look it or dress like it when I'm on vacation but I know I have status and First Class tickets and damn it I'll use it to my advantage! The rest of the trip home was pretty un-eventful. We slept a little on the plane and got some extra drinks but the ride was smooth and pretty plush. Thats the way to end a vacation. I should have taken another couple of days off, that would have been a nice little night cap to it all.

Birthday Surprise!

It's July 26 so its around 4 days past my 30th birthday. On this day I decided to head to CT for a little bit just to take in some of the sites that I haven't seen in a good long time because I was feeling a bit of nostalgia. There were two things on my agenda, Fairfield Prep where I went to High School many years ago and to go to Stew Leonards which is the most awesome grocery store in the entire world.

I started the day like always, breakfast at the Waldorf and then a train ride up to Greenwich. Claire and I took a nice walk on Greenwich Ave which I haven't done in ages. There were quite a few new stores that I haven't been to lately and so we took the opportunity to do a little window shopping. We didn't buy anything because we can't afford Greenwich at this point in the trip. We had spent the better part of the week in the city and my budget was running low (I lie of course I had no budget :)).

First stop on my tour was of course Stew Leonards. This place is simply awesome and even though I was only there for a day, Claire and I actually bought stuff to eat just because we could and it was Stewies after all!! They still have all the great animatronic stuff all over the store, there are a few departments that are new (how the cram all that stuff into the same floor space they had in 1988 I have no idea but its being done!), and of course I had to head on over to the little petting zoo that the keep around for the kids. Lots of pics there which I would post but right now I'm too lazy to try and put it into my blog post (blogger doesn't have the best editor on the planet for this task).

The next stop that I made was to my old high school of Fairfield Prep. I haven't seen my old High School in a very long time. Since then they have built a new section of the school for a bigger library and to eliminate the need to walk out doors in the snow or the rain. Claire took pics of me here as well. The old buildings were there but there was a new alumni hall across the street which was kind of weird to me. I don't think I like the new design. The old design of the school made it more open by having the separation of the two buildings. Claire took a bunch of pictures of me here which was nice because I don't have that many pics from my Prep days in highschool. I wish I had some older pics so I could show the differences between then and now but oh well.

After visiting the ole FP, I headed back down to Greenwich to await pickup from my friend Tiny aka Johnson for dinner. I thought that it was only going to be dinner with Claire, myself, and Tiny. As it turns out Claire planned a surprise party for me at one of our favorite Japanese restaurants called Kujaku. There were a whole slew of people that I haven't seen in a couple of years and they came from all over the North East from as far away as Philadelphia PA and Amherst MA. There are pics of course but its easier to see them on my Picasa Web Albums. Needless to say it was a very good evening so far with all my friends around wishing me a happy 30th while eating kick ass Japanese food. There were so many people that we took up two Hibachi tables, now thats very impressive in my eyes. Afterwards a bunch of us headed out to a bar, some of my friends that lived a bit further away had to head home because of the very long drive but thats alright, it was just great to see them after so long. We didn't stay at the bar too long and it was a new bar that I had never heard of. I think they took over the restaurant that used to be at the corner or something. Anyway, we had a few shots just because we could and it was a night to celebrate not only my birthday but also Claire's since she had the party on her birthday. I'll make it up to her for her 30th. After that another smaller set of us decided to head over to 9 Ball to play pool. This is something that I haven't done since I lived in CT and it cemented the fact that I can not play pool to save my life. We stayed and played for a while, at least an hour or two but it was a lot of fun. Luu was nice enough to drive us back into the city since he has to head that way anyway. The next day would be our last day on vacation but thats for the next blog post!

For pics of my party click the link! Jason's 30th Birthday Party

Sightseeing in NY

Today was a day that Claire and I spent going sightseeing in NY. I wanted to see the Falls of New York display which are a series of man made water falls that were put in the East River by some artist. The best way to see this of course is from the water so I booked us some tickets on the Water Taxi in South Street Seaport. The actual challenge was getting TO South Street Seaport. The Seaport is all the way downtown near city hall and I got a little lost. On the way there, we did end up running into Pace University New York where Claire picked up a t-shirt. That stop was totally not planned but it was cool to actually go and Claire also was able to get a student discount even though she hasn’t been a student in a while now.

After getting my bearings we made it to South Street Seaport just fine. For those of you unfamiliar with South Street Seaport, it’s a mall on Pier 17 on the island of Manhattan. The area used to be a major market place for getting fresh fish. This recently changed and most of the actual fish market has left and gone to the Bronx or something like that. There has always been a shopping center there and I also used to enjoy the food too so I was hoping that this experience would be no different. Well anyway I digress, I did get the tickets to the NY Water Taxi since not only would they show the Falls of NY but it would also go right up to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty so I could get some good pictures of that. For me the next part is the funny part in this little adventure. I didn’t expect to see a lot of people going sightseeing on Friday morning, it is Friday morning after all! Well lo and behold, Claire and I get sucked into a tourist group. And this isn’t just any tourist group it’s a tourist group from China! I haven’t seen so many Asians in one group in a long time and the fact that they were Chinese made it all the funnier to me. You can tell that some of these guys were from the motherland, they brought out their best 1970’s era polyester and up to your man boobs pants just for the trip to NY. I guess it was fine because I was able to blend in with everyone else there and for once not be in the minority.

I got some really good pictures of the Statue of Liberty, some decent ones of Ellis Island and a lot of good ones of each of the falls and the 3 different bridges that we went under while on the NY Water Taxi. The cool part is that I didn’t get sea sick and throw up over the edge. I have a little bit of sea sickness so I’m not big on boats but this was one of the experiences that you just had to have while in NYC. It was funny to see all the little Chinese people running around the boat with their cameras taking pictures of just about everything. I know I was right there with them so I didn’t feel like a dork doing it as well. We stayed out on the water for about an hour or so and I have lots of pictures as proof. After we got off the boat we headed into the mall. One of the reasons that I love NY is that I can actually get raw clams on the half shell. For some reason I can’t get this down in Florida so I have no choice but to go northward in order to have one of my favorite foods. I of course had Claire take a picture of me eating them. I only had half a dozen but that was more than enough to sate my appetite. Claire had a bubble drink which is a drink we first encountered in Hawaii and we have been lucky enough to find it in other places.

Well that takes care of Friday morning, but it was Friday afternoon that was going to be special. One of the events that I think every visitor should do is High Tea at the Plaza Hotel. I consider this one of the high points of our trip. We even got all dressed up for it and walked the 10 blocks or so to the Plaza. Now the Waldorf is a nice hotel but the Plaza just totally kicks its ass in almost every way. Too bad its not a Hilton property, I would have totally stayed there instead of the Waldorf. You couldn’t even take pictures with the flash on your camera so as not to damage environment and the mood in the hotel. Now that’s classy! LOL! OK, now on to the tea part. There is a specific area where tea is held and we read that you should dress up a bit for it. So of course I’m in my business attire minus jacket and Claire is looking awesome in her dress. The chairs were nice and comfy, the china looked totally expensive, and there was even a harp player in the middle of the room. Some of the people weren’t dressed all that well so we put on our CT snooty noses and made fun of them for being so craptacular in such a fabulous setting. The neat thing about high tea is that the only thing you really need to choose is the actual tea blend that you want to sip on. The rest of the food is included in the price that you’re paying. The tea is brewed in a lovely china pot and they give you lots of cream and sugar to flavor it further if you so choose. I chose to only add sugar to mine but I did try it cream, just to give it that British zing. I can’t remember what the food was that we had but it was at least 3-4 different courses. It wasn’t a meal really, it was all finger food but since Claire and I got two different pots of tea, we each got our own trays of finger foods. I didn’t know how long tea would actually last but from the time we started to the time we finished, it took over two hours to finish all the tea and all the finger foods that came our way. The service was excellent, the man was attentive without being overly so. He would probably take glances of us to make sure everything as ok and cleared up plates and everything when we were just about done but also had some time to have some conversation and such between ourselves. Overall, a grand experience which I wouldn’t mind doing again in 10 years or so, maybe by then the menu would have changed.

The final spot that we did our sightseeing was at the lovely Empire State Building (which we walked to since we had to burn some calories after having high tea). In all my years of living up north in CT I never once went to the top of the Empire State building. It was just one of those things that you sort of take for granted when you’re living so close to NY. The building is there so I don’t really need to see it any time soon but when you move away you start to think of all the little touristy things that you should have done just to experience them. I bought the tickets to go to the Empire State Building before we even embarked on our trip to NYC so I was well prepared to go to the top. What was kind of surprising was the number of lines that we had to pass through and these lines weren’t short by any means. There is the security line, then the ticket line, then the line to go all the way up the elevator to the 86^th floor which is where the observation deck is. Now this is the part that slightly annoyed me and Claire about this part of the trip, we actually got stuck with another group of freakin tourists and this time they were French. CRAP! I have found during my time waiting in lines at various amusement parks and other major tourist attractions that people from Europe and people from North America have very different concepts of “personal space”. There was a family of four behind us in line and they were literally right up my ass. The father of the group kept on hitting my sneakers with his feet. His wife was no different to me and kept on trying to push us forward. The kids were alright, I assumed they were in their teens. The son I thought was hilarious, he looked like a girl! Well since they kept on bumping me, I shielded Claire as best I could from them and we started to play a little game to make sure they didn’t progress as fast as they wanted. Whenever we had to make a turn in the line, I would take the inside track and Claire would take the outside one to prevent them from coming right beside us in line or attempt to cut. To top it off we did it EXTRA slow so there was a nice gap in front of us so we had some breathing space. I know this annoyed our little friends and they kept on trying to push and we would just stand there and do nothing. Ahh how I love annoying tourists from the European continent. My major point about personal space is that we’re all in the same freakin line, no matter how much you try and push and force others to go forward, there is a shit load of people before me and we’re not going to get there any faster, so rather than ride up my ass and make me mad, back off a little, talk to the family and enjoy the wonders that is the line to get to the top of the Empire State Building. We got to the top of the building and we were able to take some pretty good pictures from the top of the building. We decided to stay there till dusk so we could get some sunset shots as well. Overall I think we spent about 2 hours roaming the deck and taking different pictures of different areas of the city. We had every intention of going to a comedy club that night but we were just too tired and instead of taking the subway back we thought, to hell with it lets just try and walk it. Man that wasn’t the best idea we’ve had to date but even though we missed the comedy club, the next day would be awesome since it would be our day in CT.

Broadway Night

It's been a little while since I've blogged but I need to finish chronicling my trip to NY. Some of the details are getting a bit hazy already since it was over two weeks ago but I'll try my best to get things going.

First off my wife and I decided to do a bit more exploring in Central Park and take things a little easier for the day. Even though we did do a lot of Central Park a couple of days ago, we decided to go back and see what else we missed. I personally wanted to go to the Central Park Zoo simply because I've never been there before. Of course I had to see things like penguins and birds and all manner of critters. I thought it was a good experience. In all the years that I've lived in the North East I don't think I've ever really been to Central Park itself. In true New York fashion the wife and I had to have a pretzel in the park and naturally I took some pics.

This one is of the gate to the Central Park Zoo, I thought this was appropriate to take a pic of it while I had the chance.

Now the rest of the day was pretty relaxing since we didn't do anything to make us too tired, we had a Broadway show to attend! But naturally, I remember events based on meals so we had to make the night extra special by heading over to one of Bobby Flay's restaurants before we could go and see Spring Awakening.

Bar Americain was an excellent place for us to eat our dinner out. Originally we were going to try and hit up the Mesa Grill but it was way too far downtown near the Flat Iron district and would have required two subway trips. By no means do I think the choice we made was a mistake. I dont' even remember what my entre was personally but I do know that the dessert was so good that my wife cant' even remember what she had for dinner. Too bad I probably should have taken a picture of it.

OK now on to the show! I haven't been to Broadway since I think the 1980's (I know I'm old right?). I won't give away the plot or anything but the show was really good. The theater wasn't as big as I thought it would be and for some really weird reason there were tons of little high schoolers going to the show. This didn't really annoy me that much and we had decent seats to watch. The good thing was that no one tall was in front of us. I still have the PlayBills at home but haven't really looked at them since the show. I would recommend anyone going to see a Broadway show to check this one out. I wouldn't mind going to see Avenue Q, I hear that show is also good if a little on the crude side, but being me I know I would enjoy that.

After the show we were just wiped out so we ended up heading home afterwards. I did take one more picture that night that was pretty cool and it was of Times Square. I could have stayed at a hotel there instead of at the Waldorf but it's way too loud there so I'm pleased with my choice.

Yankee Game Day

Day 3 of my vacation almost started badly because I was supposed to go to a NY Yankee Game with my wife at Yankee stadium. This was going to be special because it was one of the last games that would be played at Yankee Stadium until the new one is completed for the 2009 season.

In order to kick things off we decided to have some breakfast and checked the weather to make sure that it wouldn’t rain. This part was important since we would have to take the subway all the way up to the Bronx in order to get to Yankee Stadium. Breakfast was the same and afterwards we did another little walk up 5^th Avenue to go into some stores that we didn’t before. My wife was wearing my Yankee hat that I always keep around and I wore the new batting jersey that she bought for me before we left Florida. We were fortunate that the subway that we needed to take was very close to the hotel. Nothing like taking the Number 6 express all the way to the Bronx!

The Yankee game was against the Twins and the game itself was awesome. To have the true baseball experience my wife and I had some hot dogs and cracker jacks from one of the concession stands. I know that’s really expensive but we wanted the true ball park experience. The game was very good I do say so myself. Not only did the Yankee’s win but it was a close enough game that they had to bring out Mariano Rivera. I didn’t think they would bring him in but when the 9^th inning hit with We took quite a few pictures while we were there at the ball park, we wanted to go to Monument Park but the park is closed on game day so I didn’t get to see it. We tried again at the end of the game but the line was so long it wouldn’t have been worth it. It was also going to start raining soon and we didn’t want to get caught since I didn’t have an umbrella with me. I also got a good pic of the new stadium that the Yankee’s are building right next door to the current stadium. You can see it in the pic of myself and my wife earlier in this post. The new stadium looks pretty awesome, I can’t wait to see a game there one day. Maybe if I’m lucky enough I’ll be able to go there during its opening season although I suspect everyone in the Tri-State area that loves the Yankees and even people beyond will be rushing to get a good glimpse and share the new experience.

After we were done with the game and getting some souvenir’s (OK I was the only one to get anything, I picked up a final season patch for a Jersey I want to get and a t-shirt that looked uber cool) we hopped back on the subway to find some dinner. I was supposed to go out with a family friend but because of some mis-communication we didn’t end up going out to dinner together. The original plan was to go to Little Italy or Chinatown but that was no longer in the cards because just as we got to midtown Manhattan it started to rain. This normally would not present a problem but we were looking for some Chinese food and Chinatown seemed too far away and the smell of wet garbage also wasn’t very appealing. Before I set out on the trip to NY I made sure to send away for an official NY Visitor’s guide and found a nice Chinese place called The Peking Duck. I have never heard of this place before but I guess it had to be good if its mentioned in the guide. After getting cleaned up after the game we decided to walk over to The Peking Duck for dinner. This place looked pretty nice from outward appearances if a bit fancier than we thought by the description. As the name implies, this place specializes in Peking Duck so of course that’s what we ordered. I have to say that the duck was awesome. My wife and I split an entire duck for dinner and to top everything off we also had some friend flounder since its hard to find in Florida. The flounder was also excellent and we both over ate by a lot but we were quite content with the meal. I do know that I’m going to be heading to that place again.

Oh and one last thing, on our way to dinner, we saw the new Japanese trade ambassador on 5^th Ave. It was kind of funny so of course I took a picture J