Slibocker.s World

Us by Northwest

2010-10-24T17:09:00.041-04:00

Saturday October 16, 2010

The adventure begins! We drive (with the dog in tow) to my inlaws in Brooklyn, where we deposit the dog (he’ll be well taken care of for the week) and my father in-law takes us to JFK. We’re taking a 10:30 AM flight to Seattle on JetBlue. Of course this trip is a different one, the biggest thing being that my wife is 4 months pregnant with our first child, so we won’t be pushing ourselves as much as usual, as we gotta worry about the future one too. We’re taking JetBlue because of the good price, and the fact it’s a more comfortable experience. In fact, we splurged on the extra legroom seats, which turns out to be a good idea as A) There’s obviously the extra legroom thing, and there is quite a bit of extra space B) We get to board first, which makes things easier for the other half as she doesn’t have to wait in line as long and C) We lucked out and had no one sitting next to us so we had the whole set of 3 seats to ourselves. The flight leaves on time and arrives on time, proving that traveling on Saturdays is usually a good idea. We grab the rental when we arrive, a Nissan Rogue in a really cool shade of blue. The Rogue is a sort of mini SUV which also works well for this trip since we’ll be doing a lot of driving and this will give the other half more space to stretch out.

Leaving the airport, we make our way to the hotel for this first leg (two nights in Seattle). We booked two nights at the University Inn, which is (as one might cleverly surmise) near the University of Washington in the city of Seattle, but north of downtown. We head to the hotel, park, head to the desk and we’re offered a deal. Cool! I like deals. I’m offered a free night if we stay at their sister property, the Water Tower. I ask where it is. I’m told one block away, and that it’s a newer property. Since one block makes absolutely no difference to me, and there’s free parking there too. I go for it. It turns out to be a good idea. The room is nice, while it doesn’t have a spectacular view, you can see Mt. Rainer from the room. Plus it has a fridge, nice TV, safe, and it’s a decent size. We drop our bags off and decide to stay local for the night. Now, before we came out here, I did a little research of some things I wanted to check out. Since, we had been to Seattle before, we decided to do different things on this trip. One of the places I wanted to pass by was Archie McPhee’s (http://www.archiemcpheeseattle.com/) which is a shop full of oddities. It seemed right up my alley. In fact, I even got some coupons off their site for some free things. So, we head over to the store, which lives up to its name (they sell squirrel underpants! – I did NOT buy these). After I buy a few small things (a water bottle that has a tipsy squirrel on it) and get my free items (a postcard) and a Lil’ Edgar Allen Poe), we walk around the area. We grab dinner at a little place called the Blue Star Café and Pub (www.bluestarcafeandpub.com), and stop at a local supermarket, QFC (I even signed up for a discount card) to buy some food for the week since we’ll be going from place to place and it’s far cheaper to buy a case of water here than buy water as needed. We grab milk, snacks and water and then head back to the hotel.

When we get back, we learn why we were made that deal before. It seems like there’s a big game going on at the university and the hotels are packed (it turns out to be homecoming weekend). So, we have an adventure trying to find a spot to park the Rogue. After our first attempt doesn’t work, we go out to find local parking, have no luck there, so we head back to the hotel where we cram the car into a spot. Next time, rent a compact is the takeaway here. We kick back at the room and since we’re exhausted, go to sleep relatively early.

PS: Happy Birthday Dad!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

We’re up early, so we grab the free breakfast at the hotel and figure out what to do. We decide to head to the Boeing factory tour up in Everett . We head up there. About a 25 minute drive, and get there for just after the opening at 8:30. We buy tickets for the 9AM tour, and we’re in for quite a treat. We’re unable to take pictures during the tour, but you do get to see the factory floors for 747, 777 and 787 jets. It’s a really cool tour and you have to do it if you’re up here. You get to see a lot of stuff one normally never gets to see.

We ask a woman at the gift shop if she has any suggestions for anything in the area, and she recommends that one town over you can go right by Puget Sound. We drive the short drive over to Mukiteo and we’re in for a treat. We get a beautiful view and we walk around a bit noticing the massive line of cars for the ferry that goes across the sound.

Getting hungry, we decide to head back towards Seattle for lunch. We make our way to a place called Agua Verde (aguaverde.com) which is a nice little Mexican food place right on the water actually not far from our hotel.

After a very nice moderately priced lunch, we head for one of the other places we wanted to go to, Gas Works Park. This is a really cool park you should get to, it’s a converted industrial site that’s right on the Sound with some amazing views of Seattle.

We walk around for a bit, taking it easy before we figure out what to do next. We decide to head over to Discovery Park next, which is ANOTHER amazing park. Needless to say, Seattle has some really good parks. After walking around the park for a while, we get tired and decide to find dinner in a nice area called Fremont. We find the end of a street fair there and I buy some smoked bacon jerky. Yes kids, smoked bacon jerky. I’m in love! We grab dinner at a place called the Nickerson Street Saloon (www.nickersonstreetsaloon.net) which isn’t bad.

Now, a quick note about the weather, it’s been great so far, and it projects for being perfect the entire week. It looks like we lucked out and found a week where there isn’t going to be much rain.

We make our way back to the hotel, as homecoming is over, parking is much much easier. We head to bed early as tomorrow is going to be a long day of driving and again we’re taking it cautiously due to the coming newbie.

Monday October 18, 2010

Up early, we check out (we did get that free night, cool, nice when you can save over a hundred bucks) and make our way to our next destination, Yachats, Oregon. We head out, not hitting any Seattle rush hour traffic luckily. First, we make a very important stop. Yes, of course, I’m talking about Cabelas! We discovered there is one literally on the way, and there’s not way we could pass up not stopping. I snag a cheap pair of jeans there as I packed one set short and of course, some of the really good fudge they got there. Of course, no blog of mine is complete unless I include a classic picture from Cabela's. Here ya go!

Leaving Cabela’s, we head down I5 towards Oregon. We know we want to ride down the Oregon coast along the Pacific Coast Highway, but we don’t know quite where to start. I do know that I’d like to cross the big bridge over the Columbia river, so I opt for taking Route 4 from Longview.

This turns out to be a great idea as the drive is literally magical, with some incredible views along the Columbia river. The Astoria Bridge itself over the Columbia river is kinda cool. Here's the tail end of it:

We stop for lunch at the Pier 11 Steakhouse (http://www.pier11steakhouse.com/), well frankly, because it's right on the water, and I thought that eating right on the water would be cool. It turns out to be a good idea, the food isn't bad and the view of the ships coming down the Columbia river is worth it.

From there, we stop at Seaside, which is a boardwalky type of town the shapes up as a cleaner version of the Jersey Shore. And a nifty Lewis and Clark statue:

As well as some cool views (get used to this, there's a lot of cool views coming up):

Shortly after our stop at Seaside, we make another stop over at Ecola State Park. Look, if you're going to do this trip, this is one of the places you MUST stop at. Here's why:

Here's why too:

This is kinda where I really started digging the whole Oregon coast thing. Heck, even the ride into the park itself was cool.

Realizing how long we've taken already, we decide to minimize the stops until we get to Yachats. Luckily, the 101 goes inland for 50 miles, so nothing is missed here. Unless you count the fact we skip the Tillamook Cheese factory, which, on any other trip, I'm sure we'd stop by, but, when you're traveling with a pregnant wife who is very sensitive to smells, you tend to want to skip to avoid any nasty unpleasantness that might occur with said smells. So, we amble along, until I notice something: The sun is setting! I was so not going to pass up a sunset on the Pacific, so we pull off right around Beverly Beach, and watch it. It turns out to be a good idea. Check this out:

You see why we stopped now? Anyway, we continue to Yachats, where we check in at the Overleaf Lodge (http://www.overleaflodge.com/), our location for the next two nights. Knowing in advance that this place is right on the water, I opt to spend a little more and get a room literally right on the water. Granted, as we check in, it's dark at the time we check in, but you can see how close it is. We dump our bags, then grab a dinner at The Drift Inn (http://www.the-drift-inn.com/). We also grab some milk and I buy some The Amazing Race scratch off tickets because I like the show and apparently, I'm easily hooked by marketing. Exhausted, we head to bed in a very nice and spacious room, complete with a tub overlooking the water:

Tuesday October 19, 2010

We decide that this is an official rest day, and that we won't go anywhere we can't walk to, with the exception of dinner. Breakfast is included at the hotel (I love that trend!) and we take advantage. So why do we decide not to go far? Well, here's what's literally outside our hotel and what we can see from our room:

We basically spend the whole day walking part of the Yachats 804 Trail which goes right along the beach. Here are some of things you'll find along the way:

You'll also find odd shaped buildings:

People like to play with rocks here too:

And here's our hotel from the outside. Our room is the one in the red box:

There was another cool sunset that we watched from our balcony too:

After sunset, we went and have dinner at the Luna Sea Fish House. It's good, but we make it an early night since Wednesday is going to be a long day (but not as long as Monday)....

Wednesday, October 20

We have breakfast at the hotel again, and get in one last walk along the water before we go. Back in the Rogue, (or "Big Blue" as I've been calling it all week), we make our way down the 101. The plan is to take it to Florence, then hang a left on 126 and make our way inland. Our first stop is another of the places you MUST stop at on a trip like this, Cape Pepetua (http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/siuslaw/recreation/tripplanning/capeperpetua/index.shtml). Why you might ask? You know where this is going...

Because you can get views like that. And this:

From there, we head a few feet down the road to see a blow hole? What's a blow hole? This is:

Water + Rock erosion = Blow Hole. I climb around the path and rocks a bit, and then we head on. Next up, the Haceta Head lighthouse (http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/siuslaw/recreation/tripplanning/newpflor/trails/lighthouse1370.shtml) where we see (obviously) a lighthouse:

And some more amazing views:

Our next stop is lunch in Florence, where we grab some food at The Bridgewater Restaurant, where we have a nice lunch. We then take a quick walk around the Old Town section of Florence.

Back in the car, we make our way along 126. We luck out and have a very picturesque ride back too:

We essentially make a left at Eugene, and make our way up I-5 towards Portland. Interstates are fast, but generally boring, and this trip is one of the quieter ones as we make our way towards Portland. We arrive in Portland and check in at the RiverPlace Hotel (http://www.larkspurhotels.com/collection/riverplace). Checking in, I snag an offer to upgrade to a larger room for a little more. Since my wife and I are working on different sleep schedules due to the newbie coming, I opt for it. It pays off in the form of a nice room. We drop off our bags and since we're there early enough (around 4PM) we decide to walk around a bit and walk off the long trip. We walk up a nice path on the Willamette River (there are a LOT of bikes here!):

And make our way towards Powell's bookstore, the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. But first, we make an important stop, Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade (http://groundkontrol.com/) where we drop a bunch of quarters playing some classic arcade and pinball machines. From there, we make it to Powell's (http://www.powells.com/) and, get this, I only buy one book! (Future fatherhood is changing me!) After, my wife is beat (understandably) so we grab a ride on Portland's Streetcar, which has a free loop through downtown. This saves us a ton of walking. I decide we should grab dinner at the hotel (it was on our list of places to eat anyway), and we call it a night.

Thursday, October 21

Awake and conscious, we grab breakfast at a little place along the river, and then go back into the city. We take the Streetcar into downtown, and walk through Pioneer Square and wander around a bit. Aside from a stop at a mall, nothing of note really happens. We grab the Streetcar back towards the hotel, and grab a quick slice of pizza. We decide to hop in the car and head over to the Portland Rose Gardens:

And then over to the Pittock Mansion which isn't too far.

And offers some great views too:

We follow this with a futile attempt at finding the Portland Tram (http://www.portlandtram.org/), but my wife is getting tired (so am I!), so we head back to the room. She takes a nap, and I do some exploring along the river. I find I'm able to walk out onto a public boat dock and get some unique views of the city:

I also find some paths which go right down to the river too:

Oh, here's the tram I was talking about before too:

I get back to the room and my wife has just woken up, we decide to have dinner at McCormick and Schmick's (http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/) which, even though it's a chain, actually has some of the better food we've had on this trip. (The food hasn't been spectacular, just middin'). We then head back to the room and call it a night. Tomorrow is the decent trip back to Seattle as we start to wrap this thing up.

Friday, October 22

Up at a decent hour, we grab breakfast at the hotel, check out and hop in Big Blue to make our way back towards Seattle. The plan is to stay at a hotel near SeaTac airport since we have an 8:30 AM flight, and the proximity will make travel easier. Plus, I'm able to use my piddling amount of hotel points with Hilton to snag a free room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Renton, WA.

The trip up I-5 is nowhere near as cool at the Oregon Coast Highway was. But there were two signs I had to get pix of:

Yes, apparently the Dark Lord of Sith has a town in Washington, and last name and the state of Pennsylvania got together and made a state park.

We stop hit a few outlet shops in Centralia (my wife went to Coach, I opted for Eddie Bauer) where we both got some good deals.

A stop at a McDonald's for lunch near a military base where we saw a lot of military folks with their families put life in perspective for a bit.

Next, we make our way up I-5 towards Seattle. Our last major stop on this trip is at the Museum of Flight (http://www.museumofflight.org/) in the southern end of Seattle. This, like the Boeing turned out to be a must stop. While there are plenty of planes and all that there, the two things that stand out are these folks:

And:

What's really cool about them is that you can go in them:

And you can make goofy faces as you leave them:

The museum has plenty of planes from World War I:

And World War II:

And more modern times:

We finish up at the museum and check in at the Hilton Garden Inn, in Renton, WA. It's a free night, since I used my hotel points to get us the room. We make it a quick and early night and get dinner at New Zen Sushi (newzensushi.com) a little place that has some good sushi and a good community feel to it. Off to sleep as we have an early day and long day of travel.

Saturday, October 23

Our flight leaves at 8:30AM, so we're up early. I'm really thankful for the hotel we stay at as the bed isn't bad (a note about this trip, the three other hotels we stayed at ALL had harder beds than my back was used to, oddly the beds got better as we went along from place to place with the Hilton having the best one of the trip), and it's literally 10 minutes from the airport. We check in, grab breakfast, and take our flight back to JFK. The flight is uneventful, and those extra legroom seats are still a godsend. We finish up watching Season 5 of the Amazing Race (which we've been slowly watching over the year) and make it home. This was a good trip, but was just about the right length as my wife is exhausted carrying the future one. One last thing we discover when we go home and unpack:

Our dog seems to like suitcases!

A Jersey Shore show I actually find funny!

2010-04-20T21:36:00.002-04:00

The song "Turn Off the Liight" by Nelly Furtado would be so much better if it didn't include a donkey.

2010-04-19T06:34:00.000-04:00

Proof? Watch the video below and note the donkey sounds beginning at the 32 second mark.

It would have been such a good sound, but if you include donkeys in it, it becomes all ruined.

The weekend part of the San Francisco trip

2010-03-14T17:41:00.000-04:00

Saturday

We decide to begin the day by heading to a farmer's market at the Ferry Building since it was way too crowded with pretentiousness the night before. We wander around, take some pics:

The inside of the Ferry Terminal

The outside of the Ferry Building with bonus Farmer's Market.

Then, we decide to head towards that infamous Golden Gate Bridge. Being somewhat smarter than last time, we don't walk the entire way. We take the streetcar up the Embarcadero to the end at Jefferson Beach right near the Maritime Museum. From here, we start one of our favorite walks, walking all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge.

I stop at my new favorite bookstore (heck we literally passed right by it!), and that's the last time I do it for this trip, I promise.

It's here where one gets great views and pictures such as this:

We make our way to Fort Point, which is the fort that's right at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. We'd never actually been there before so we were doing something new here. I like it, if for no other reason that you get some really unique views of the Bridge and Bay.

Some really unique views of the Golden Gate Bridge

We even get to see a Coast Guard search for a missing surfer (nothing comes out of it, so we're not sure if the person was never found or if the person was never actually lost).

Next, we start the long walk back, only we decide to walk down Union Street where we grab a lunch. We keep walking the really long walk, and make our way to North Beach, where we wind up having a dinner at Trattoria Pinocchio (http://www.trattoriapinocchio.com/). The walk from Fort Point to North Beach is around 4 miles, and keep in mind, you kinda wind up hitting some hills in there.

Dinner is good, as we sit in a sidewalk table and people watch while listening to firecrackers happening in the next neighborhood because of Chinese New Year happening the next day.

Stuffed from dinner, we headed back to the apartment to rest our beat up feet and legs.

Sunday

Well, I have to admit, I've never been kicked off of public transportation before, but that all changed on a cable car. You see, after waking up, deciding to find Cottage Row (more on this in a bit), and my wife grabbing her morning cup of Starbucks, we got on the California Street Cable Car to get us closer.

A view to a...street (from a cable car)

So apparently, one cannot have coffee while riding in a cable car and since my wife had just bought the coffee and the conductor told us to lose the coffee or get off the cable car. Knowing my wife's priorities, we got off the cable car. Now, I could see what they don't want you to have coffee on a cable car, (steep hills, etc) for safety reasons and to keep things clean, however, there is a bit of flaw with this logic:

ONE CAN HANG OFF THE SIDE OF THE CABLE CAR WITH YOUR ARSE HANGING OUT IN TRAFFIC.

So let me get this straight, coffee is unsafe, but hanging off the side of a cable car with your butt inches from traffic is OK. Got that kids? Coffee=Evil, Arse in Traffic = OK

At least we got off after we went up the big hills, so we lucked out.

We continue along and find Cottage Row (http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/nat1982000983.asp) which is a small street of historic houses.

Cottage Row

From there, we make our way over to Japantown and have a nice lunch.

This is where we had lunch - Miyako.

Next, we hop on two buses and make our way out to the Cable Car Museum (http://www.cablecarmuseum.org/) which is exactly what it says it is, and where you can see this:

The cables for the cable cars being pulled.

We decide to walk back, passing the famous curved street, Lombard Street and the Transamerica Pyramid.

Lombard Street

The Transamerica Pyramid

Back at the apartment, we watch a San Francisco DVD that I picked up. On it, we see that we've done most of things they show, but the one thing we haven't done is Muir Woods, which is a forest of big Redwood trees. We decide to rent a car for the next, our last, day in San Francisco.

San Fran continues

2010-03-02T21:18:00.000-05:00

Friday

We start out by having breakfast at the apartment, and then head out to grab some Starbucks. We walk over to Union Square, which is only a few blocks away. While we're there, we stop at what I consider the promised land for my wife - the flagship store of Williams Sonoma. I also realize that my wife brought a jacket with her that was way too heavy and warm for San Francisco, so we head to Macy's of all places and snag a great deal on a North Face fleece jacket for her. While we're there, I grab a new North Face jacket and gloves as well since I was well overdue for a new jacket. Go figure, we buy new coats in San Francisco of all places. We drop the purchased wares at the apartment, then head back out. We walk up through Chinatown and grab lunch there. Next, we stop at the famous City Lights bookstore (http://www.citylights.com/) which was nice, but not my favorite bookstore ever. For a change, we decide to walk down Columbus Avenue, heading towards the bay. We walk through the Italian neighborhood of North Beach, which is far better than Little Italy in NYC.

We have a leisurely walk over along the bay around the marina and over to Fort Mason, which we never really explored before. Here, I found a new book promised land for myself in San Francisco when headed into Book Bay Fort Mason (http://www.friendssfpl.org/?Book_Bay_Fort_Mason) and I bought (as usual) way too many books, but I did find a new "I must now always go to this bookstore" bookstore for San Francisco. After, we wandered around Fort Mason a bit. A little tired, we decided to head back towards the number 1 tourist trap in San Fran, Fisherman's Wharf.

(My new favorite bookstore is located behind a giant lampshade)

While the whole area is a complete trap for tourists, there are two place one must stop when go there. And no, I'm not talking about those sea lions you heard about because really, it's kind of stinky there and when we passed by, there were all of 6 of them there. No, the 2 must stops (for us at least) are:

Boudin's Bakery (http://www.boudinbakery.com/) - My wife digs the sourdough bread, and this is probably the best place to get it, no matter how touristy it is.
Musee Mechanique (http://www.museemechanique.org/) - A free museum of what one would consider to be the oldest arcade games around - before they went all video like, they had machines where you'd put a quarter in and odd things would happen. One bonus, they also have classic arcade games there, and I played me some classic San Francisco Rush and the original Star Wars Arcade. My wife got in on the deal and played her some Centipede.

An example of a classic machine

After getting our fill of old arcade games and sourdough bread, we decide to walk down The Embarcadero towards the Ferry Building which we keep seeing on the Food Network, we figure we'll eat dinner there.

However, as we're walking, I see a place called the Fog City Diner, which is a restaurant name that has literally been sitting in my Outlook Tasks for a decade (through various upgrades in case the geeks out there are wondering...). Someone had recommended this place to me before my first trip there in 2000. This seemed like one of those random things that happens to me that we had to take advantage of.

The Fog City Diner (http://www.fogcitydiner.com/) was not your typical diner. It looked like an old fashioned diner, but it was a bit more upscale, and apparently is a place where one should make reservations. Luckily, in most restaurants, you can almost always get a seat if you agree to sit at the bar/counter where they have the same menu. In this case, we sat at the counter, and I had me a breakfast hamburger, which was a hamburger with egg and seemingly everything else. Not a bad meal, but most importantly I finally got to this place after a decade.

After dinner, we continued down The Embarcadero to the Ferry Building, which is really a ferry terminal with a whole lot of upscale food places. (http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/). Unfortunately, when we get there, the place is packed with young single annoying people having a mass wine tasting. (Those who are single and young that are reading this, I do not mean you). I say annoying because the place was packed and it was essentially a building filled with men and/or women trying to get lucky. For fun, my wife and I would check out their pickup lines to see what flies these. Now, I'm not an old married guy, but I've been married for almost 7 years, with a 9 (!) year courtship, so one might say I've been out of the loop for a while. However, I was still not impressed.

This part was not a total wash as we did stop at Boccalone Salumeria (http://www.boccalone.com/index.cfm) where we picked up a few salami samplers, which contained some of the best sliced meats one will ever have.

Tired, we finally decide to head back to the apartment to get some zzzzz's.

The San Fran Leg Begins...

2010-02-23T19:05:00.000-05:00

Thursday

I teach a very pleasant class in the morning, and then take my suitcases and check into the apartment we rented for the weekend. Yes, instead of getting a hotel room, I opted for renting an apartment which is literally located on Grant Avenue, on the border of Chinatown and the Financial District. The apartment is nice, if a bit on the older side, with a full bedroom, kitchen, living room and dining room. The location is perfect as it's near pretty much everything and whatever it's not near can easily be reached by nearby public transportation. I drop my bags off, and since my wife isn't scheduled to arrive for a few hours, I decide to walk around and start getting stuff for the apartment for the weekend.

Earlier in the week, I was able to snag a free expo pass to Macworld, so I figure I might as well take advantage. I make my way down to the Moscone Center and go in. Now, I'm mainly a PC user, so my expectations were low, and I wasn't really wasn't impressed. Apple doesn't even show up to these anymore, so all that was there were 3rd party vendors showing off their wares. I buy a cool Sam & Max t shirt:

And really get nothing else from there. If I had paid for the expo pass, I would have really been ticked off. Next, I pick up some supplies for the weekend, and then await the arrival of my wife.

Her flight amazingly makes it in on time, and makes her way over to the apartment. She drops off her bags, and we make a run to Whole Foods to pick up some food for the weekend (and dinner for the night).

After, it's an early night, and we head to bed.

There was a blizzard in New Jersey? The California trip continues...

2010-02-20T14:19:00.000-05:00

Since I was out in California around Valentine's Day. The plan was to have my other half join me in San Francisco for an extended Valentine's Day weekend. Apparently, Mother Nature was against this, and did all in her power to try and make this not happen.

So, while I was eating at Yamashiro, I got a text from my wife telling me that all flights out of Newark were canceled for Thursday, which was when she was to fly. This led to a bunch of texts and calls back and forth while Plan B was created and enacted. Plan B became her flying from Philadelphia to Houston to San Fran. Which was finally resolved towards the end of dinner.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where we continued our Plan B planning.

Wednesday

After teaching in a very unique spot in Downtown LA, literally in a type of basement in a room entitled "Emergency Training Room", my colleague and I hopped in the car and drove to LAX. Amazingly, WE HIT NO TRAFFIC!

We get seats on a earlier flight, ensuring that we'll get in at 5PM to San Francisco instead of 9:30PM. The flight is (oddly) empty and we have the center seat between us empty, enabling us to stretch out a bit on the United flight. We also take off and land on time, another rarity. We hop in a cab, head to the W Hotel and check in.

My colleague and I meet a few minutes later, and head out to dinner. We wind up at Thirstybear (www.thirstybear.com) which is a brewery with Spanish cuisine. I have a really good paella and their in-house Polar Bear beer. After that, I head back to the room and while the W room is small, it does have a nifty place on the window where you can lay and watch the view.

It was nice to be back at the W Hotel (I had stayed there a decade ago, in fact it was on the night of the finale of the very first season of Survivor, as I remember watching it then). I talked to the other half, who was still on for the trip to Philly, then Houston, then San Fran. Later on, I check my home voicemail, and my cool neighbor, who works at Newark, leaves a message letting us know that all flights from Newark have been reopened on that Thursday. As my wife went to stay at my parent's that day, I call her immediately there and let her know.

She lucks out and gets on a 4 PM flight directly from Newark to San Fran the next day, which will make things a lot easier (and it turns out, to be a good thing, as the flight from Philly to Houston actually turned out to arrive 2 hours late and she would have missed the Houston to San Fran connection). I head to bed, feeling quite a bit better...

You can't get directly to the Hollywood sign, but you can get sorta close if you go ABOVE it

2010-02-18T20:21:00.000-05:00

And the title says it all. Where last we left Todd on his little adventure, I had made it back to my hotel after working, and decided next to head towards the Hollywood sign, since, somehow, I missed it the last time I was there. Realizing that Hollywood Boulevard and the walk of fame were literally on the way, I decided to pass by there first. I found some street parking a block away, and walked around the area. It's still not the best place in the world, and feels Times Square like before it got all safe, and really, I'm not totally convinced that there's any real validity to this whole Walk of Fame stuff anyway. For proof, I present the following stars I found:

Dude, Judge Wapner has a star, does that mean I can get one too?

I did find the Kodak Theater, which is where they hold the Academy Awards, and which is in a...mall. Sadly, yes, a mall. But, you can apparently see the Hollywood sign, and for the first (real) time, I finally did. And, resolved to get closer to it, because that's how I do things.

I finally see the Hollywood sign!

So, I made my way over towards the sign. I read the best way to get there was to take Beachwood Drive all the way to the end, which I did. I parked, and made my way onto the Hollyside trail which was right there. I made my way up the trail, and had not only some great views of the sign, but also of LA:

Along the way, I asked a local how close one could get. While you can't get next to the sign, you can get ABOVE the sign:

Which was pretty cool.

I made my way back to the car, and decided what to do next. One of the suggestions I had gotten was to head over to Malibu via the Pacific Coast Highway. I looked at my map and realized that instead of going that way, I could take the 101 over and then come down through the Malibu Creek State Park to the Pacific Coast highway. This turned out to be another good idea as I had some great views.

I made it to the Pacific Coast Highway and stopped at the Malibu Bluff. I hadn't eaten all day yet, so I asked somewhere there for a recommendation for dinner. He recommended Malibu Seafood (http://www.malibuseafood.com/), which was a few miles north of where I was, but worth it. I took the man's advice, and I had me some very good fresh fish and chips.

From there, I made my way down the Pacific Coast Highway, enjoying some cool views down to the Santa Monica pier, parking there. I walked down to Venice Beach, which is best described as if they were to take the creatures found in the Star Wars Cantina and place them next to a beach. I walked back to the car, grabbing some decent pictures along the way.

This plant reminded me of my dog:

Back at the car, I was exhausted, so I went back to the Hotel, and grabbed dinner there, as my legs did not want to move much anymore.

Tuesday

I taught my class with my colleague to a very nice group of people, and as we finished early, made our way to downtown LA after as we were teaching there the next day. I attempted to stop by Kevin Smith's West Coast comic shop, but apparently, it was no longer there. Since it wasn't too far out of the way, I didn't feel bad. I made my way all the way down Olympic Boulevard to the Millennium Biltmore, where I checked in to a room that was nowhere near as nice as the previous hotel. I had 2 hours to kill before dinner and since I'm incapable of not exploring wherever I am, I headed out for a quick walk around the area. I found the US Bank tower right near by, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall:

The US Bank Tower

The Walt Disney Concert Hall

I also found a really cool antique book store a block from the hotel, where, not shockingly, I did some damage. As it was raining, I made my way back to the hotel, and got dressed for dinner, which was at Yamashiro (http://www.yamashirorestaurant.com/index.html) which is located on a hillside above Los Angeles with amazing views.

Even 2500 miles away from home though, I had to deal with a little blizzard happening on the east coast...

Slibocker's California Adventure (so far...)

2010-02-16T00:53:00.001-05:00

Welcome back kids! It's been one heck of a busy, crazy, nutty week in Slibocker's World. The title being the giveaway, my job had me (FINALLY!) flying out to California. The week started on Sunday, February 7th, where I hopped on a 1PM flight out of Newark to that magical city of Angels, Los Angeles. The fact that it was, in fact, Superbowl Sunday did not make for a emptier flight, but I did luckily have an aisle seat. (This was not the first time I've flown somewhere on Superbowl Sunday in the past few years, I did fly to Chicago when they were last in the Superbowl). The flight was fairly standard, there was in-flight entertainment, and I did have my PSP with me, so I was kept amused. For fun, I started re-reading V (the version from the 80's). Even though I did not have to work until Tuesday, I wanted to come in on a Sunday so that I had time to adjust to the time difference before I taught my class. It's never good to teach a class when jet lagged.

Upon landing, I got my bag and made my way over to Avis to pick up my car. I got a Nissan Altima, which had one of those new-fangled (well to me) keyless startup systems, which took me much longer to figure out than it really should have. From there, my first stop was the hotel. For the LA leg, I was going to be teaching in two parts of LA, Downtown and Century City. Since Century City was up first, I stayed over there first. My two choices of hotels where either the Hyatt or The Intercontinental. Oddly, pricewise, they were about the same, so I opted for the Intercontinental, remembering I had a good stay at one in Chicago. This turned out to be a good decision, as I was not disappointed at all when I checked in.

I had a nice sized room with a great view of almost all of LA. In fact, from my room, you could see the Hollywood sign way off in the distance. This in fact, meant that I was able to do the one thing that I did not do the last time I was there: See the Hollywood sign. You see, somewhere in this blog below, there's mention of a trip where I spent a few hours in LA on a Thanksgiving weekend, drove around Hollywood, and somehow missed seeing the friggin' sign!

But I digress. I was starving and it was only around 5, so I decided I needed to do stuff. You know me, I always need to do stuff when I travel. Really, the mini quest started out with a desire to buy some bottled water so that I could save my company a bunch of money. I got back in the rental and made my way over to Wilshire Boulevard, calling me friend Lee in NYC who guided me on Google Maps. I drove through the tail end of Rodeo Drive, and finally tracked down a Rite Aid drugstore, where I picked up some bottles of water (I mainly needed them for when I teach) and some snackage.

Afterwards, my stomach reminded me that it was in need of sustenance, so I listened to a suggestion from the Rite Aid checkout cleark and wound up at Callendar's Grill on Wilshire. (http://www.mariecallendersgrill.com/index.html) Where I ate that meat item you see on the main page. While I was there, I caught the end of the Superbowl, watching the Saints beat the Colts (sweet!)

After chatting with the waitress, I realized I was literally right next to the La Brea tar pit, so I figured I'd better go and check it out. I can safely say it lived up to it's name. It's a big 'ole pit of tar.

Figuring that I should make my way back, I hopped in my car and decided to take the long way back, passing by Hollywood Boulevard, which was still quite busy on a Sunday night. And still dumpy.

Back at the room, I snagged some zzzzz's and pondered what the heck I was going to do on Monday.

Monday

As readers of this blog are well aware of, I never really have a plan of what I'm going to do when I have some free time. I did know that first I had to go into the office to make sure everything was set for my classes the next day. Since the building was only 2 blocks away, I walked it, taking pictures of Fox Plaza (Nakatomi Plaza in the first Die Hard movie! You can't really comprehend how excited I was by this...) along the way. After spending some time with the really nice people in the office, I made my way back to the hotel. (I seemed to have skipped breakfast, but didn't really miss it.) All I knew was that today was going to be the day I FINALLY saw the Hollywood sign for real, since, like I said earlier, I missed it completely on a previous trip.

Nakatomi Plaza!

Little did I know how close I'd get.

More to come...

A long long long way to Rochester

2010-01-31T08:28:00.003-05:00

Continuing my traveling roadshow, earlier this week, I was off to Rochester, NY, which, on the surface doesn't seem like a big deal. Hop on a plane, and 1.5 hours later I'd be in Rochester in upstate NY. Stay over one night, do my work and fly on home the next evening.

Simple right?

Not in my world.

For some reason, it cost an awful lot to fly out of Newark to Rochester, as in 3 times the price I could get flying out of JFK. So, I booked my flights in and out of JFK. JetBlue going out at 1 PM on Monday, and Delta coming home at 6 PM the next day.

Simple right?

Not in my world.

I wake up Monday morning to a lovely e-mail warning me that my JetBlue flight has been canceled. Ok, not a big deal, I can always find one of the many other flights. So I get my refund and book a new flight on Delta, which leaves at 3. This is cool as I can spend more time at home before I have to go. As it is that day, it was monsooning most of the day before and that morning, so I figure later is better.

Simple right?

Not in my world.

I get to JFK, and, in a rarity, have only a duffel carry-on since it's a quick hop of a trip. I'm sitting there, playing Yahtzee on my phone, where I learn my flight has been delayed. No biggie, I'm used to that as well. I continue playing Yahtzee for about an hour, when I get a call from my co-worker, who's ironically on the same flight as me, warning me that the 3 o'clock has been canceled.

Ok, not so simple now, but still plenty of time to reschedule onto one of the many other flights. My cow0rker is bumped to the 8PM flight. I speak to an agent and find out I'm been bumped to an 8:55 AM flight, THE NEXT DAY, or I could go on standby (not an option in my book). An issue, since I have a major meeting at 10AM that morning that cannot be moved or canceled. I check to see what other flights go there, and the only other one is JetBlue. So I call them and they tell me while their 8PM flight is booked, they do have a 10:20 PM flight with open seats.

So, the logical thing here would be to take the 10:20 flight.

But then I start thinking:

What if that one is canceled too? Then I'll be in a very bad spot. So I think of the other airports, and realize they will all be delayed too, plus it will cost an awful lot to get on one of those flights, plus I'd have to drive there and all that too....

Wait, drive there...That's a very long trip (360 miles), BUT it would guarantee I would get there on time. Plus, it was around 3:15 now, I'd still have to wait at least 7 hours at JFK. OR, I could drive there in around 6-7 hours, in the (relative) comfort of my tiny Hyundai Accent, and not just BE SITTING THERE with no control.

There are times in your live where you decide if destiny controls you, or vice versa. I learned that I'm one who likes to control my destiny, so I decide to drive it.

Great! How the heck do I get there? I did take a casual glance at google maps the day before, so I know roughly where I had to go.

Moving fast, I hop back in my car (AND I had a good spot too!), and start making my way. After a little confusion, I get myself on the Van Wyck, and call my other half and tell her what I'm doing. After she tells me I'm crazy (well, she is right), she texts me the directions to Rochester.

I make my way onto the Grand Central, ironically passing LaGuardia Airport, over the Triborough Bridge (who actually calls it the RFK Bridge?), up the Harlem River drive, over the George Washington Bridge, onto 80 West. That doesn't take as much time as it should so close to rush hour, so I get a little lucky.

Then, it's a long drive on 80 out towards Pennsylvania. By the way, did I mention I had no GPS? That was in the other car. I didn't have a lot of stuff with me, since I wasn't planning on driving 360 miles that day.

I make one stop at the NJ/PA border so I can get some cheap gas. I also pick up a quick Pizza Hut dinner, soda, etc, then continue along. I take I-80 to 380, up to Scranton (the town the show The Office takes place in), and onto 81 North. By now, it's dark, so it feels like a longer drive than it really is.

Although, there isn't much traffic at least, and I pass the time driving, listening to music, charging my cell phone, and using the same phone to call my friends and the other half.

The drive up 81 takes a while (120 miles), and then I hang a left on I90 towards Rochester. Not an exciting drive at night. About, a half hour out of Rochester, I hear from my coworker, who is JUST BOARDING HIS PLANE! His flight, not shockingly, was running a tad late.

I continue on 90 to 490, where I make another stop to fill up the tank so I have a full tank leaving the next day. I make it to Rochester around 9:45, where my final stop is the Hyatt there. Exhausted, I check in, order some room service and fall asleep.

Up the next day, I do my work, and while talking to my coworker, learn he got in around midnight. So, it was literally quicker to drive to Rochester that day than take a plane.

We finish up around 1, and I'm on the road back to NJ by 1:30. The trip back is much nicer since in daylight, you can see the pretty mountains. I don't stop at all until I'm in Pennsylvania, where I fill up the gas tank and buy me a box of fresh popcorn. I even attend a conference call while driving to pass the time. My next stop is at home, where I arrive at 6:45. Not bad at all I say.

I will tell you this, after all that, my expense report is going to be a mess, and have a heck of a time getting approved, but ultimately, it was worth. I made it there on time, did my job, and it was almost fun. Plus, I found out that late JetBlue flight at 10 PM did not get out of JFK until almost 1AM that next morning, which means I would have gotten to the hotel by 3:30 AM or so.

Driving was definitely the better choice...

By the way, here's my trip in map form:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=22+York+St,+Old+Bridge,+NJ+08857&daddr=JFK+Airport+to:Essex+St+to:Hyatt+Regency+Rochester,+NY+to:40.802895,-74.279251+to:22+York+St,+Old+Bridge,+NJ+08857&hl=en&geocode=FXZpaAIdM82R-ylV8QWjaM7DiTEZVyvEmSWFxA%3BFTwvbAIdJyqa-yllVw8rV2bCiTHwEZ9IE7JP7A%3BFYwBcAIdGqqV-w%3BFbiDkgId4Mpf-yF6zFuwNDq6nimV3pgxVbTWiTE9EI7-PNmSjQ%3B%3BFXZpaAIdM82R-ylV8QWjaM7DiTEZVyvEmSWFxA&mra=dpe&mrcr=2&mrsp=4&sz=11&via=2,4&sll=40.739454,-74.325256&sspn=0.376669,1.044388&ie=UTF8&ll=40.700422,-74.499664&spn=0.753778,2.088776&z=10

Cleveland = Best meal ever?

2010-01-17T11:10:00.003-05:00

The Todd's World traveling tour started this week. My first stop was Ohio. The plan was to go to Cleveland and then down to Columbus, but since Continental wanted to charge 800 for the pleasure, and that ticked me off to no end, I found that if I flew roundtrip out of Columbus from LaGuardia, I would save $550, so that's what I did.

I hadn't flown out of LaGuardia in years, and was dreading the experience. Oddly, it turned out to be one of my better flying experiences in a long time. I drove up to LaGuardia Monday morning, and parked in the lot right next to the Delta Terminal, which was all of a 2 minute walk. I took one of those baby jets out to Columbus, which means you don't actually board a the gate, you hop a bus which drives you across the tarmac to the plane, this was pretty cool. I like the small plans as they have the best seating configuration, one row of single seats on the left, and rows of double seats on the right, so I was able to ride by myself. The plane left on time and even arrived EARLY to Columbus. I grabbed my rental, a PT Cruiser, and made my way up to Cleveland.

I discovered that my cell phone was not working starting up after shutting it down on the plane, and managed to do my own tech support while making my way up to Cleveland (which was a 120 miles away). (Incidentally, the issue was due to the memory card having a glitch on it, that was easily solved by me popping the card out and the phone working fine. ) The trip itself was fairly boring, I71 turns into I90, get off at 9th Street in Cleveland, go down a few blocks and then there I was at the Crowne Plaza Cleveland.

I checked in, dropped my bags off and checked out the view, which was that of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (which I had been to before) and the Cleveland Browns Stadium, as well as Lake Erie, which was partially frozen for a cool effect.

Starving, I needed food. Since I had one night in Cleveland, I wanted to make sure I had a good meal. My other half picked the restaurant I needed to eat at, and little did I know of the culinary masterpiece I was about to eat.

Being an Iron Chef fan, my wife determined that I should eat at either Lola or Lolita, both owned by Michael Symon. Since Lola was a short walk away, and it was cold and snowy, I opted for that.

I got to Lola's (www.lolabistro.com) for an early dinner (around 5:30) and ordered. I lucked out in that there was a price fixe menu, meaning I could fit this in under my company's per diem for dinner. Not only that, I figured I could even get another appetizer. Since I had barely eaten all day, and I had a long week ahead, this worked out good.

The price fixe menu consisted of an appetizer, main course and dessert for 30 bucks. The appetizer I chose off this menu was an excellent bowl of black bean soup. The additional appetizer I chose was called "Bacon" which was pork bellies (the stuff from which bacon comes). Both of these were incredible, and I can't really express how good that food was.

Next up, I had the Beef Hanger Steak with French Fries. This had to go down as one of the best pieces of meat I've ever had. It was 100% perfect. I was in culinary heaven.

To top it off, I had a Panna Cotta with fresh berries sauce for dessert, this was also incredible. This was truly one of the best meals of my entire life, and I found it in Cleveland? Go figure.

After dinner, I made my way over to Tower City mall and picked up a wire I left at home. Then back to the room and sleep. The hotel was nice, fairly standard and relatively clean, so I couldn't ask for more.

Tuesday, I woke up, checked out, went to work, taught the class I was there to teach to a wonderful group of people, and then made my way to Columbus. On this leg, I had company with me as a coworker was going to be in the class I was teaching the next day as well, so to save money, we drove together.

The trip to Columbus was nice and easy, and straight, and we made it there in no time. I dropped my colleague off at his hotel and I went to mine - the extended stay suites outside of Columbus in the Polaris Center. The room was nice, it was actually a mini apartment, so I had some space that night. I dropped my bags off, and since I had some time before I met a different friend for dinner, I headed over to the Polaris Fashion Mall, where, I found of all things, a better winter coat for my dog since he loves to jump in the snow.

After, I met my friend for dinner at the Bonefish Grill where we caught up on things, then back to the hotel to hypothetically sleep. I say hypothetically, because I didn't have a great night's sleep. Luckily, I was functional enough the next day to go to work.

The office location here is in one of the largest buildings in the US, at the McCoy Center in Polaris. This place is one massive spead out complex, that looks more like a shopping mall than an office. It's its own mini city, complete with everything including a Starbucks, post office, cleaners and more. Amazingly, I didn't get lost, and also taught a very nice group of people.

After, we managed to finish up early, so we rushed to the airport, and I was able to get flight that was 3 hours earlier than planned. Getting back to LaGuardia (on time!), I also experienced my first miracle of 2010: I was able to get from LaGuardia to my house in a shade over an hour, during RUSH HOUR in NYC!!!!!

This was the perfect way to end the first of many trips for 2010.

Here's one good way to ruin your childhood memories if you were a male who played with GI Joe toys when you were little....

2009-11-27T21:27:00.002-05:00

...watch the GI Joe movie.

Star Wars in Concert?!?!?!?!?

2009-11-16T08:17:00.002-05:00

Either this was very geeky or very cool or both. We headed down to Philadelphia yesterday to see Star Wars in Concert.

Now, first about going to Philly versus staying in the lovely garden state to see a show at the Meadowlands. The Meadowlands absolutely sucks as a venue. It is the most goddawful, overpriced, crowded place on earth to see a concert and if GOD him or herself were to make a one time only appearance at earth and it was only to be at the Meadowlands, I would not go because it is at the Meadowlands. Not only is there always massive traffic getting into the place (no matter how early you arrive), but getting out is like those disaster movies where the roads are clogged for miles. Top that off with you could wind up parking 2(!) miles from the venue itself in one of the "local" lots provided. Top that with the fact that parking will cost $25 bucks as well. Top that with the very high prices for nourishment at the Meadowlands (this includes Giants Stadium and the IZOD Arena). Top that with tiny tiny seats. So really, seeing a show anyplace else (including in a pit of fire being eaten by live snakes) is generally a better idea.

So, I like seeing my shows in Philly. It's easy to get to. There are multiple parking areas. Parking is $10 cheaper. Food prices are more reasonable. Seats at the Wachovia Center are not comfortable either, but, at least they're padded. I got home an hour and a quarter quicker from the show last night than when I saw U2 at the Meadowlands (the show that made me swear off ever going there again) in September.

So anywho, we did go see Star Wars in Concert (http://www.starwarsinconcert.com/ - Note sound plays), which was actually a very good, well put together show. It's basically a live orchestra that plays music from all six movies, with narration by Anthony Daniels (who played C3P0) and a giant screen that shows clips from the movies above them. For me, it was worth it just to hear the Imperial March and more importantly, the Cantina song from the movies played live. What was rare was that it was show for all ages, and all liked it.

Now, as proof that anyone will like this, my wife, not the biggest Star Wars fan at all, even liked it. As she put it, even as a non-fan, you were entertained.

So, as I end this shameless plug for going to go see the show, and my exposing of my hatred of the Meadowlands, I do have to say that even, I, Star Wars fan since the age of 4, was very impressed with the show.

A quick trip to Chicago

2009-11-13T19:22:00.002-05:00

This trip to Chicago was heavy on the work, light on the sightseeing, but as always a good one. I made my way Monday catching a 10:15 flight from Newark to O'Hare. Oddly, the flight was on time, even better, I got a good exit row seat, even better better, when we landed, we were actually early, even better better better, my baggage was waiting for me to pick up at the luggage carousel. I hopped the blue line into the city itself and walked a few blocks to the Club Quarters on the Chicago River. I made reservations at this one for a change since it is at a location that is a quite a bit closer to my favorite bookstore.

Continuing my good luck, my room was even ready, so I dropped my bags off, changed and made my way to work. I put in a busy few hours, and met a coworker who I've worked with for almost a year but never met in person until today. This happens a lot in my life. For dinner, my boss was nice enough to take us out to the Gage where I had a nice basket of fish and chips. Can't go wrong from that. After, I decided to make my way up to the Lego store (grabbing a few things) and then on to my favorite bookstore in Chicago, Afterwords, which I've talked about a 1000 times in this blog already. Not shockingly, I snag a bunch of books. I make my way back to my room and crash, since Tuesday is going to be a busy work day.

Tuesday was an extremely successful workday. One thing that was cool about it is I was in a fairly tall building where I got a great view of the city on a clear day. Later, I met up with a friend who needed tech support and fixed her laptop, which had not been able to perform windows updates since last February, which is kinda a bad thing. Dinner that night is some Chinese food.

Wednesday, I made my way out to Batavia, Illinois to work with Jennifer on creating some more classes. We met out there since it was Veteran's Day and the office was closed. I took the Metra back and forth and was able to spend some quality time re-watching season 1 of Battlestar Galactica, which I've been meaning to do for a long time while on the train. I got off the train at Union Station, and, instead of walking back, did one of those random things and took the Water Taxi back to Michigan and Wacker Drive. This was a great idea and I'm really glad I did this. I highly recommend it if you can when in Chicago. The ride was only 2 bucks and you get some great views of the city.

I drop my bags off at my hotel, then for some odd reason, make my way back to the same two places I did on Monday, Afterwords and the Lego store. Not shockingly again, I buy more stuff. I drop THAT stuff off, then make my way down to another favorite place, Miller's Pub. Those who read this blog know that I of course, had some butt steak, which I really like and gets better every time I eat it. I like Miller's Pub because you can chill out there, and it has a cool atmosphere that I like. I snag some extra bottles of Steak Sauce on the way out (they're really good) and call it a relatively early night. Although, I do stay up late watching more Battlestar.

Thursday is a work day too, and it's nice to catch up with people I talk to all the time but never see. I have a really nice lunch with my friend Allison who appreciates the coolnees/geekiness of the fact that I'm going to see Star Wars in concert on Sunday. I try to convince her to see the Fab Faux, who are going to be in Chicago that Saturday.

I make my way out to O'Hare, hoping that I get an earlier flight to get home earlier. When I get here, all my good luck from Monday evaporates as due to bad weather in NY, there are extensive delays, So, I write this as I wait, wondering when I'll get home....

I finally make it home around midnight. A quick long trip, so to speak.

Austin Wrap Up

2009-10-28T11:27:00.003-04:00

The last day was relatively quiet. It was raining all day, so we stayed in, packed and then headed out for lunch at the Salt Lick (http://www.saltlickbbq.com) next to Dell Diamond, home of the AAA Round Rock Express (http://www.roundrockexpress.com/). The food was good, as most BBQ in Texas seems to be.

Now, a quick note here, for the record, we stayed in Round Rock, Texas, which is just outside Austin. I just had to clarify that.

Another thing I learned on Monday flying back. Don't wait until the last second to go through security, in case you're stopped the way I was and your entire carry on is searched. Even if this is caused by a "faulty" machine (as they said), they still search the entire bag, and, while it is fun being the last on the plane, we did cut it a tad close...

And, everyone, be proud, the only books I bought were the two antique ones I mentioned!

This wraps up the Texas 2009 trip.

Next up, Chicago, in uh, 2 weeks...

Day 3 – Sunday in San Antionio

2009-10-26T11:00:00.002-04:00

After yet another weird night's sleep, where I either slept heavily or barely, I wake up groggy from the Tylenol Nighttime cold pill I took. We have breakfast and make our way to San Antonio to meet up with a friend of my wife's, who lives in the area.

But first, there's an important stop to make. Can you guess where we stopped based on this picture?

Why Cabela's of course. Bernd had never been to one, and there was one literally on the way, so we had to stop. It's always an experience when one goes to a Cabelas....

Moving on, we head to San Antonio, meeting up with Gaby in front the Rainforest Cafe on Riverwalk, which is basically what it says it is, a bunch of restaurants and stores winding along a river in the middle of San Antionio. We walk around Riverwalk for a bit, before making our way over to Market Square for lunch at Mi Tiera. Lunch was some great Mexican food which included a slight rumble where my wife and Gaby fought over who was going to pay for lunch. Having learned that getting in the middle of two hispanic women arguing is about as useless as trying to follow traffic laws in NJ, I stay quiet. When the dust settles, we head out, but not after making our waiter happy as he seems to dig hispanic women settling their differences, even suggesting he bring some mud.

We head over to the Alamo next and walk around a bit, so now I can say I remember the Alamo. From there our next stop is the Tower of the Americas where you up high above San Antonio and get a great view of the city. It was really nice up there and there was a nice cool breeze, enough where my shirt was flapping around in the breeze like a flag, so, if you're on a date with a guy and he suggests you all go up to the tower, you may want to consider whether wearing a loose skirt is a good idea or not. I'll leave that decision up to you, as I couldn't possibly tell you whether this is a good or bad thing for you on a date.

Next, we head back to Riverwalk and walk around a bit more, finally stopping at Waxy Oconnors Irish Pub to people watch and grab a beer. And, to rest our weary feet.

Saying goodbye to Gaby, we head back to Austin, which is where I'm writing this as we head up I35, having just been stuck behind an accident for a bit.

Before I sign this day off though, I have to note one thing I have learned about Texas, the spandex industry can survive any recession as people of any shape or size seem to wear it, often with disastrous results.

Finally, we grab some Arby's and head to watch the Yankees win and make it to the World Series!

Day 2 – I get wet, I see crime, I mix drugs and alchohol, and I have kickass Barbeque

2009-10-25T23:16:00.001-04:00

Before I talk of day 2, I need to mention that the past week I've had one of the worst allergy attacks in memory. I get allergy attacks that act like full blown colds, but aren't colds because no one areound me gets sick, and I don't run massively high fevers. I've been dealing with this all week, so it's made for an interesting bonus to the trip. For example, since I taught Thursday night, I completely lost my voice, as in I couldn't even get sounds out. So of course, Friday was interesting. Flying on a plane, with no voice with my neck wrapped in a scarf with a runny nose. People love people like me on a plane.

My voice returned mostly on Saturday so that I could at least put 80% of a sentence together.

To start Saturday, I took an Advil cold and sinus pill. Remember this for later.

We had breakfast at Bernd's, and our first stop of the day is Georgetown, which is a "classic" town complete with a town square. There was even a car show going on that we walked around. I also hit a few antique shops, and picked up:

The book: The Brothers Karamazov (circa at least 1940)
The book: The World's 100 Best Short Stories - Volume 9: Ghost (printed in 1910)
A case of old Hot Wheels cars from the 1970's in an original carrying case, and coming with around 26 cars or so.
A gift for my parents that I can't say here or they'll read it and know.

Next we headed to Barton Springs park. We walk around the park and get to the other side of the creek where we realize we have to walk back. Well, unless you're me. My other half and Bernd take the long way back, I take the more challenging way back by crossing the creek, in jeans. Not the smartest thing I did, but one hell of a fun way to do it, and even though I got soaked, I had so much fun doing it, it was worth it. It's just one more thing I can say I did that most (smart, normal) folks didn't do.

So, while I'm drying off and being told repeatedly by my traveling companions how insane I am (at this point in my life, I'm so used to it anyway), we see some action happening. At the water crossing location, there was a guy sitting in a chair in the water with his dog chilling out. Some idiot comes over and dunks the guy in the water. Words are exchanged and the chair guy takes the idiot down. Not something one sees every day. Now, to add to this, already in our 24 hours in Texas, we had seen two different people cuffed at two times. One in Austin itself, and one on the side of the highway. Apparently, I'm a crime magnet. What's really odd, is that Austin is a safe city, it just seems that this 24 hour period has all the crime happening as I happen to be there.

Anyway, next up we head to a beer festival, and uh, wait in long lines to have beer. Remember how I metnioned that Advil from earlier? Apparently, that stuff stays in your system much longer than I thought it would, because after 2 beers, I become completely out of it, including feeling very spacey and an almost total loss of temper. So, to avoid a crazy big scene, I excuse myself, find a nice shady seat and sit/sleep, in the middle of a festival for almost 2 hours while the others drinks beer samples.

Once I get the planet to stop spinning at 45 times the normal pace, we make our way to Lochhart, Texas, about 30 miles away, to a barbeque place called Black's BBQ (www.blacksbbq.com). It's a trip that's well worth it as we have some kickase cheap BBQ food. Go there. In fact, you can order their food online.

Since the Yankees playoff game was postponed, we skip heading to a sports bar and make our way back to the apartment, where I attempt sleeping...

Next, Austin

2009-10-23T23:08:00.002-04:00

Day 1

For a long weekend, me and my other half have come down to Austin, Texas to visit our friend Bernd (formerly of Germany and Ireland). But this comes at the end of a weird week. The earlier part of this week was spent enjoying the pleasures of a massive allergy attack. Now, I don't know about you folks, but my allergy attacks act like colds without being a cold. So, for most of the week, I've either had a sore throat, been unable to breathe, or both. As we got closer to the leaving on Friday, I managed to add one more fun symptom - A total loss of my voice (from teaching).

Also, I might add, it's never fun flying when you have congestion. Like I did today. Which brings us to today. Mute me and my wife made our way to Austin. I only lost about 50% of my hearing in my right ear, which was better than when I flew congested a few years ago.

We get to Austin and learn that our bag will be joining us later, oddly, it does, around about 6 in the evening. Anyway, Bernd meets us at the airport, and, after a quick stop at his apartment, we head out to a truly magical lunch at: Rudy's which was an incredible way to start the trip. I could eat here every meal of every day.

Next, we headed into downtown Austin and walked around for a bit (even stopping at the flagship Whole Foods) until we got the call that our bag was going to meet us at Bernd's apartment (apparently, our bag has gained sentience and controls its own destiny).

Reclaiming our sentient luggage, we head for dinner at North by Northwest where we all had excellent dinners.

Back at the apartment now, this entry will be fairly short, since I've slept all of about 10 hours the entire week. Time to sleep, more writing tomorrow...

I'm addicted to Plants vs. Zombies

2009-10-04T21:57:00.002-04:00

A game from PopCap, they even have a nifty video for it:

Last week, we went to Chicago really quickly to see U2

2009-09-20T17:27:00.005-04:00

And that's exactly what happened, we haven't traveled for a while, but since the other half is quite the U2 fan, and I'm grateful she likes U2 vs. say Celine Dion or something, when she asked a few months ago if I wanted to go to Chicago to see them, I was in.

Saturday

So last Saturday (9/12), we hopped on a 9AM flight from Newark to O'Hare, that oddly, wasn't too late. The flight was short and good, and I lucked into snagging the exit row seats where there are only 2 next to each other and not three, so we were able to avoid sitting next to a mutant. For the trip, as we're on an Amazing Race tv show obsession lately, I loaded half of Season 3 onto the PSP. So we watched that on the way over. We took the Blue line into the city (the best way to get to the city from the airport, and cheapest), and checked in at the Club Quarters in the Loop. Not the most luxurious hotel, but, it was A) Within walking distance to Soldier Field to see the show and B) Cheap with bonus C) Free bottles of water, which for some reason is the most useful item, along with free internet access, a hotel can provide.

After checking in, we threw down our bags in the room and went back out to walk around Chicago. We attempted to eat lunch at one of Rick Bayless' places, but the long wait and high price didn't make it worth it. So, instead, we had a pizza at the famous Gino's East. Next, we hit Afterwords bookstore, which, if you've read this blog before, is a critical stop on any trip to Chicago. From there up and down Michigan Avenue back to the hotel.

After a mandatory 2 hour rest break (note Amazing Race reference here), we walked over to Solider Field to see U2. Snow Patrol opened (they were good and seemed really happy to be there) and U2 followed with a really good show. The other half took some great pix, considering we were in the upper deck. You can see them here. The weather was great, and overall the stadium was nice, aside from the bottleneck of crowd getting out of the stadium. One trick I learned quick is to right around the Field Museum instead of left when leaving, it lets you cut in front of about 10,000 people.

There were a ton of people walking back into the Loop, which helped when walking around at 11:30 at night. By the time we got back, we were starving, so we stopped at another of my favorites places: Miller's Pub, where I had (yet another) Miller's butt steak. This was the first time the other half had gone here, so it was quite special for her to see her husband's butt handed to her on a plate. We rolled back to the hotel, and rolled into bed.

Sunday

We slept in, and had a big breakfast downstairs at Elephant & Castle. From there, we walked over to Millennium Park and wandered around. We stopped in at the Architecture Institute (http://www.architecture.org) then went back to the hotel to change. For next, we were off to my friend Jennifer's house in Batavia. To get there, it was an easy ride on the Metra train from Union Station (a 3 block walk from the hotel), and not shockingly, some more Amazing Race was watched on the way. The train's last stop is in Aurora, (Wayne's World! Wayne's World! Party Time, Excellent!) where Jennifer met us and gave us a tour of the area. We had dinner at her place, and were graciously welcomed by her and her husband. It was nice to get out of the city for a bit and see other parts around Chicago. Oh, I failed to mention here, that our latest addiction (in addition to the Amazing Race), the Beatles Rock Band was played at her house, as I had gotten the game just a few days before, and she had asked to bring it so she could check it out.

I never really dug the Rock Band games, as most of the songs on them are crap with the exception of 1 or 2 that are actually worth it. On the other hand, the Beatles Rock Band is pure genius, as generally all Beatles songs are good to sing/play along too. My other half is patiently awaiting a U2 Rock Band game. If that were to ever happen, I doubt she'd ever see daylight again...

After dinner and dessert at Jennifer's, we took the train back to Chicago (watching more of the Amazing Race) and went back to the hotel. The train ride each way is about an hour and a quarter, so it's a good distance out there.

Monday

Our last day in Chicago was by no means restful, as we got up, packed, checked out and dropped our bags off at my company's office there as I was going to cram in a lunch with coworkers I never get to see and another meeting which I wanted to have while I was there (even on vacation, you sometimes need to take care of business). But first, we made our way to the Museum of Science and Industry via bus (you really can't go wrong with public transportation in Chicago) to check out Harry Potter: The Exhibition (http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/harry-potter/) which just happened to be running. As we're both fans, it seemed like the perfect thing to check out. Unlike the crappy Star Trek exhibition I saw in Philly a few weeks ago, this one was done right. They had a ton of props from all the movies, and it was set up in a professional and entertaining manner that made the cost seem worth it.

After seeing the exhibit, we had just enough time to wander around a bit before heading back (by bus) to the office, where we caught up with friend I haven't seen in a long time. We all grab lunch at Sopprafinna and then I have my meeting.

With a few hours to kill before we head out to O'Hare, we decide to check out the new wing of the Art Institute of Chicago since it just opened. The wing was nice, but the art, which is modern, was not to my tastes (which is a nice way of saying that I think my dog could paint better). We go back to the office, grab our bags and hope the Blue line out to O'Hare.

Dinner is fast food from Wolfgang Puck's (mainly because we found seats), and in the oddest of oddities, we arrive back at Newark on time.

It was a quick trip, but it was a good trip. And it's certainly not the last of 2009 as there are at least 2 more trips coming...

London Trip, Post Mortem

2009-04-21T17:47:00.004-04:00

Well, another trip done and this one was particularly good. I had been to London before, and I remembered liking it, but this trip went far better than many others. I think it had to do with the fact that we saw so much of the city, and had the time to take it in.

The food was very good. Everyone kept telling us "why London? The food is so bad there!" before they left, and frankly, that wasn't the case. Either we chose the right places to eat or the food has improved greatly. Regardless, we didn't have a single bad meal. Heck, even the jam I bought at the local Tesco supermarket was better than anything I've ever had in the US.

If you haven't been to London, and you like big cities, this is the trip for you. There's a lot to do, and you can easily spend a week or more traversing the city alone like we did. Next time we come back we figure to venture more outside London, but for this trip, with the location we had for the apartment, it made sense to stay in the city and explore it.

Moving along, I bought a TON of books on this trip. Antique bookstores and great deals on other books was the cause of this.

Here's what I bought:

Antique Books:

Infantry Training Pamphlet No. 1 - General Introduction (All Arms) 1969
Land Operations Volume V - Operational Techniques Under Special Conditions 1977 (not a true antique, but still cool)
1940 - 1942 Combined Operations (WWII book detailing the war for those 2 years) published in 1943
The Study of American History - Published in 1921
Target Germany - The US Army Air Forces' Official Story of the VIII Bomber Command's First Year Over Europe - published in 1944
The Campaign in Burma - Published in 1946
The Last Days of Hitler 3rd Edition - Published in 1958
The Six Million Dollar Man Annual 1977 - (Remember that old show? This was a kid's comic book/other stories compendum from that series)

Non Antique Books:

The Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides - (twisted sickly funny book and a bargain at 2 pounds)
Bunnies in a Box - The Bunny Suicide Postcard Collection (also a bargain at 2 pounds)
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
London 1945 by Maureen Waller
Stephen Fry in America (another 2 pound book about a Brit traveling through all 50 states)
Americans at Work - A Guide to the Can-Do People by Craig Storti
Introducing Stephen Hawking - (A guide to Stephen Hawking's work)
The Twilight of a Millennium - With Projects, Hopes and Fears (about the things that England was doing for the year 2000 including structures like the London Eye)
London Transport Museum Guide
Metro Maps of the World
A History of American Architecture
Pigs Might Fly - The Inside Story of Pink Floyd (check out the cover below)

And of course:

How to Survive a Robot Uprising (dude, you never know!)

DVD's Purchased:

Groove Armada Presents Lovebox - Festivals & Fiestas
Guiness - Music from the TV Ads
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Ministry of Sound -Anthems II

Like I said, I went a tad nuts. Still I was able to fit it all in the bags, so that's all that matters.

Let's wrap this up with a few tips/things we learned on this trip:

If you want to check for airline deals, kayak.com is a good place to start, it aggregates prices from multiple airlines into one spot.
The best deals for hotels seem to be found on the actual sites for the hotels themselves.
London has a lot of easily accessible transportation so you can easily get around the city, negating the need to stay exactly in the center of the city.
Tripadvisor.com is a good way to assess whether the hotel you are staying it is good or not.
When you can check in for a flight online, do it the moment you can, you stand a far better chance of getting good seats.
Getting the apartment instead of a hotel room was an overall good idea. The extra space made it much easier to relax after a long day of walking, and if you have one spouse that likes to get up much earlier than the other, then everyone is happy. Plus, the kitchen with fridge meant we could save on meals.
As you may have guessed, we hate guided tours. We like exploring at our own pace and doing things on the fly. This trip was full of that; each morning we'd have a rough idea of what we wanted to do, but the plans would constantly change as we did things on a whim. If you don't like structure, obviously stay away from tours.
Public transportation in London is very good. If you can't get there by an Underground (subway), there's always a bus to get you there. The per trip rate is high, but if you get a daily pass or an Oyster card (think transit debit card) you'll save a bunch of money.
Every airport has either a high speed train, or in our case, an underground line that gets you into the city far cheaper than a taxi will. Much the same way you can in Chicago, but not so much in NYC.

Well, that wraps this one up for now. I'm beat, I need some sleep.

Until next time!

Day 9 - The Muffin Man & Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2009-04-21T12:00:00.005-04:00

Day 9

We get up, pack up everything and leave our bags at the front desk. For breakfast, Marlene found a place called the Muffin Man not far away in Kensington, so we head there. We have a nice heavy breakfast which is good since we'll be flying later on and food on planes = not so good. We both have traditional english breakfasts consisting of Scrambled Eggs, Bacon (which is more like ham), toast, sausage and baked beans. It's very good and we're very full so we decide next to walk back to Harrod's to finish our souvenir shopping and to walk off the food.

Now you know the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man

We spend a ton of time in Harrod's getting gifts for others and ourselves. From Harrod's, we head back towards the apartments to grab our bags. We get to the area around 1 and we really don't have to leave until 3 so we decide to hit the Victoria and Albert Museum which turns out to be an excellend idea. We spend a few hours there, taking in sights such as this:

Above: Things not found in most homes

After, we go back to the apartments, add our Harrod's stuff to our bags, and hop on the tube to Heathrow. The tube is crowded, but at only 4 pounds each to go to the airport, it's well worth it.

At Heathrow, we wander around and marvel at the new Terminal 5. It's really a great airport terminal, it feels more like a mall than a terminal and it's a far better experience than most airports I've been at. We hit a few more stores there, and then for lunch, we find...yet another Wagamama! As we are now hooked on the place, we have our last meal in London at it. The lunch is good as always, and it's a good way to end the trip.

We board our flight and it turns out the exit row seats are a great idea. The flight has a ton of kids on it but oddly, they are not that loud on this flight as most of them fall asleep about 1 hour into it. No, the real issue is with the, how does one put this nicely? The flight was full of people who don't make controlling one's body odor a priority in life. In fact, I think it would fall pretty much down at the bottom of the list, if it's even on the list. This leads me to give up breathing through my nose for most of the flight.

By having the bulkhead exit row you don't have the seats that cram down into your chest (see earlier post) and you can stretch the legs. I also wear headphones that burrow so deep into my head that a sudden whack to my skull might cause an accidental lobotomy so it helps to negate the noise issues. What British Airways does do right is the entertainment system, which lets you pick movies/tv shows/music on demand and let's you pause, fast forward, etc. I watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which I haven't seen in years. Then I switch to the Playstation Portable and watch Airplane! We also watch an episode of the Amazing Race on the laptop which I had downloaded while in London.

The flight's a bit bumpy as it was apparently monsooning in NJ for most of the day and the landing is a bit adventurous. But, we do land on time(!) and getting through customs isn't too bad.

Home by around midnight thanks to a pick up at the airport by the parents (thanks parents!) and yet another trip is complete.

Next, the post mortem.

Day 8 - Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' down the River.

2009-04-21T11:51:00.007-04:00

Day 8

Bernd has a flight out in the morning, so I say good bye to him at 8 and he's off. You know, I figure my life is pretty cool when it's at a point where you know people that will fly into a city to meet you in Europe.

The plan today is to make our way out to Greenwich and see what happens. We have the normal (and last breakfast in the room as we finish up all our bread and jam) breakfast. Hopping on the tube we make our way out to take the Docklands Light Rail to go to Greenwich. When we get to the stop, we learn that it has been replaced by bus service for the day, so we take it to Canary Wharf and figure to head out from there.

We go to Canary Wharf and walk around a bit where I buy a game for the PS3. (See previous posts for why). Once at Canary Wharf, the thought of taking the bus further out to Greenwich doesn't seem like something to do since I did actually want to ride the Light Rail, not a bus. So, I see a fairly high speed boat that we can take back along the Thames towards Westminster. We opt for that instead, and we get to see London by boat, which is something that was very cool.

Here's some proof:

Coolness on the Thames

Next, we get off the boat and decide to walk back to SoHo to explore the area more since we didn't earlier in the week.

We have lunch at Angus Steakhouse, which is like a Sizzler, but you know, every so often, you have to hit the chains too. Before we head over to SoHo, we hit a bunch of antique bookstores on Charing Cross Road where I pick up some sweet WW II era books. From there, it's off to SoHo where we pick up a few more things and just walk around the area with the beautiful weather in London that day.

We decide to take a slow walk back to the room, since I have to check us in for tomorrow's flight 24 hours before and I want good seats since it's a long flight home (longer than going).

The casual walk takes us through Piccadilly Circus (a shade over 12 hours from when we were there last).

Along the way, I find a van apparently made for my dog:

Note: I ain't that tall of a person.

It's a great day for a walk, but our feet start to kill us, so we catch a bus at the edge of St James Park to save some wear and tear on our already worn and torn legs and feet.

We've walked a ton this week, we figure at least 5-10 miles each day so by now we're feeling every time we go out. I've gone through more socks this week than anytime in my past. So much so that there is a "sock death watch" going on every day according to my wife.

We get off the bus at Royal Albert Hall and take some pix:

A concert venue quite unlike Madison Square Garden in NYC

Then, we head back to the room to rest up and start packing. I've bought a ton of books on this trip so I get to work.

At 7:30 I check in and snag us some sweet exit row seats for the trip home. Plus it's only 2 seats next to each other so I don't need to climb over other people (which turns out to be a blessing).

We're very tired, so we stay in South kensington, opting for Thai for dinner. Back at the room, we finish packing and get some much needed sleep.

Day 7 - Quite an Abbey Normal day.

2009-04-19T16:58:00.006-04:00

Day 7

Oddly, I sleep pretty good, in spite of the bed. Bernd, who slept on a rollaway bed in the living room, and the two of us have breakfast at the room.

The plan for the day is to head up to the Regent Park area as we've never been that way and I want to see the canal that is there. As it turns out, Bernd's friend Monika, who we almost met up with the night before, lives in the area, so the plan is to meet up with her at a Starbuck's near her place and go from there.

We head out and take the tube up to the Maida Vale stop. (I love the names at the stations in London, so much cooler than NYC). We meet up at a Starbucks there (note, there seem to be as many Starbucks in London as there are in New York), chat for a bit and then start walking around.

Monika is very nice and shows us the area, which reminds me a little bit of the Park Slope area in Brooklyn with the main difference that you find this there:

The closest you get to this in Brooklyn is the Gowanus canal, also known as Lavendar Lake (for its toxic content), so this was much nicer.

We make our way over to Regent's Park, where we wander around for a while too and take in the beautiful day. There are some amazing flowers here and we all have a great time.

We head for lunch next, eating at the Duke of York in the St. John's Wood area (http://www.thedukeofyork.com/index.html) I have a Ploughman's cheese lunch, which is basically a plate of bread, cheese and veggies, making this the healthiest thing I have eaten in 2009. While we were walking to the place, Monika mentioned that we were near a famous recording studio.

I do a search on google maps on my phone and realize we're 3 blocks from a certain famous recording studio.

Hint:

Here's that crosswalk today:

Incidentally, if you are so inclined, here's a live webcam for it:

http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit/# The webcam is from the opposite angle that the two pictures are.

We head to Starbucks (again!) for a quick dessert and we determine the plan next is to meet Monika's friend ZB (which is not the actual spelling, but that is how it's pronounced and it's much easier to type), at the Elephant & Castle station at 6:15 or so to go with him to some sort of Jazz concert at a Polish center. Well, that was the general gist, the actual details seems to be fluid.

We walk around the nice area a bit more then hop on the Bakerloo line south to the last station, Elephant & Castle.

We get out, and, uh, well, the area is not the most pristine part of London. So, we waited for ZB, who was running a tad late. We eventually met up, and we made our way, deeper into the Southwark area (320 Old Kent Road, london). We manage to get to the community center, we we are offered, and take, some much needed wine. The jazz band comes on and plays for around and hour and we chill and hang out.

After, we're starving, our feet are hurting, and the neighborhood does not entice one to walk the long distance back to the Underground in the dark, so we decide to hop a bus a block away. ZB says goodbye to us and Bernd, Monika, and us hop on a bus back towards the Piccadilly Circus area. The bus, is not a double decker bus, but it does have a smell that reminds me all too much of the NY City Transit system. My guess is that somehow, the bus was bathed in sewage before going on it's run. Luckily, windows are opened, and the smell fades into the background, much in the same way that it used to in Staten Island.

Back at Piccadilly Circus, we have a late dinner at Noura (http://www.noura.co.uk/central/) a Lebanese restaurant. From what I can recall, this might be the first time I have eaten at a Lebanese restaurant. Again, the food is very good, we haven't had a bad meal all week.

Tired, exhausted, we stop at a Boots drugstore in Piccadilly Circus (it's Saturday night, so it's amusing to watch the various Bachelor and Bachelorette parties (called Hen parties here - endless jokes abound) wandering around, some barely able to walk. We then walk Monika to the bus stop, say our goodbyes, then head back on the Tube to the apartments for some much needed sleep.

Day 6 - Harrod's! Afternoon Tea! Bernd!

2009-04-18T04:32:00.003-04:00

Day 6

Sleeping in a little, we have breakfast and get dressed up for the day ahead.

First stop is at Harrod's. We spend a while there wandering around this ridiculously large store. Think Macy's only with actual customer service and a far better selection. It takes almost 2 hours to get through the store, but that's not a problem since our next item to go to is not far from there.

Next up, afternoon tea at the Chesterfield Hotel in the Mayfair section of London (http://www.chesterfieldmayfair.com/dining/conservatory/afternoon-tea). It was a very relaxing afternoon and truly an English experience. I actually liked it better than when I had tea at the Plaza Hotel last year. The scones were very good here and London hands down, has the best jam in existence.

Good scones, now in our bellies.

From there, we headed up to Oxford Street, a very very very busy street full of shops along the lines of 34st Street in New York City. We headed here to experience it, and to satisfy 2 mini quests I had:

Pick up a copy of the UK only Sci Fi magazine Sci Fi Now.
Find the DVD of the British Series Edge of Darkness, a show that was on back in the 80's.

Oddly, I was able to accomplish both of these tasks at Borders of all places. Hey, whatever works.

For those that are curious, (and I'm sure this mostly no one) DVD's bought in the UK cannot play on players in the US and vice versa (something apparently our President didn't know), but there are ways, and I have the software that lets me do it, so that's why I got the DVD. Also, Playstation Portable (PSP),Playstation 3 (PS3) and PC games bought around the world work on all of their respective systems. The same is not true for the other systems. So, on this trip, I've been picking up some unique games for the PSP and soon, the PS3.

After walking around a bit, my friend Bernd, no stranger to this blog, called to let us know he had made it in. We meet up at the Marble Arch station and walk the long distance back to the hotel. Since we have the apartment while we're here, we get him an extra rollaway bed so he can crash here for a few nights.

Dinner is literally 10 feet out the door at a tiny little sushi place where you pick your dish off a conveyor belt. It's quite good, and since it was close by, is a nice rest for our feet.

Tomorrow, Regent's Park?

Day 5 - I buy a hat and we wander through Notting Hill and Kensington

2009-04-17T03:48:00.005-04:00

Day 5

The weather for this trip so far has been very good, but today was going to be a bit wetter. Realizing that, we decided to make our way around Notting Hill and the Kensington areas, which isn't too far from where we're staying in South Kensington.

After the normal breakfast, we take the tube up to Notting Hill. It's nice having a tube station near the hotel, but it gets a lot of traffic from people heading to the museums nearby, which, is something we haven't seem to have done yet.

Getting off at Notting Hill, we start to wander the streets. Someone is actually crazy enough to ask me for directions, and oddly, I know the answer. There's hope yet.

A note about streets in London, they ain't straight. NY has got to be one of the easiest cities in the world to navigate as it is generally a grid, and it is surrounded by water. So, even if you get lost, once you walk a few blocks in either direction, you'll have a good idea of where the heck you are.

Walking around Notting Hill, is nice, even though it is pouring rain. (This is the point where I keep thanking myself for having the odd foresight to remember to bring my rain coat). There are a bunch of little shops here and we jump in and out. I pick up a few books, and I find the most amazing thing.

A hat that actually fits my fat head:

Yes, I know it's not the most magical looking hat, but, as I pointed it out, it actually fits my head.

You see, I got me a big head, usually it's well hidden with hair (thank god, knock on wood and all that). But underneath all that, I got me a fat head. When you own one of these, you generally don't find hats that fit it. For example, this would make hat #2 that I own that fits, the other being New Era's 3930 baseball caps. So, finding one that fits is a significant milestone.

On the plus side, the hat has so many colors in it that it will match every single piece of clothing I own.

Anyway, with hat purchased, and my head now dry, (and might I add, incredibly toasty as the hat is made of wool), we continued to walk around.

Next, we made our way to Kensington Palace (http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/) and saw this grand place.

Proof that it is grand is that it has a garden that looks like this:

From there, we made our way down to High Street (where, apparently, one can find the dregs of socitey like Paris Hilton shopping recently) and had lunch at Wagamamma. (Hey, if I could eat at Wagamama every day, I would).

In Kensington, we find the rooftop garden (http://www.roofgardens.virgin.com/en/the_roof_gardens/about_us), which is literally what it says it is and is not a commonly known attraction. Here's why it is so cool:

It's a nice little hidden gem.

From there, we continued down High Street and wandered through the stores. As the rain had stopped, it was a nice day to do this.

For a change of pace, we took the bus back to the apartments. This was my wife's first ride on a double decker bus, so of course we rode on the top.

After dropping our stuff off we had dinner at Dim t (http://www.dimt.co.uk/) which was close by and as I look at the web site (which is quite nice), I notice they seem to have a cool location by Tower Bridge.

Tomorrow, we're having high tea in London and we're being joined here by our friend Bernd who's flying over from Poland for a few days.

Day 4 - Financialness! Churchiness!

2009-04-16T17:03:00.006-04:00

Day 4 started off with our normal breakfast at the room and then a ride on the tube to the Monument station. In the heart of the financial district, we wandered around and since this is where I had stayed in previous trips my memory of the area returned a bit.

We made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral and then proceeded along the streets of London, many of them, it seems, older than the US. It's in this area that we found Temple church, literally buried away off the main street. We also stopped in the courtyard of Somerset house to rest for a bit and take in the nice day.

Next, we found ourselves in Convent Garden, a large market area, and a very busy place to go for lunch. And, to my geek's delight, found the British Transport museum. This was pretty cool as my favorite museum in NYC in the Transit Museum there.

The next hour was spent among old buses and trains. Gotta dig that.

Buses!

For lunch we had sushi at Tobiko (http://www.tobiko.co.uk) which was quite good.

From there, we wandered around the area some more and passed through Trafalgar Square again as we made our way towards our next destination, Westminster Abbey.

We passed 10 Downing Street (http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour) the seat of the UK government, and made our way past Big Ben to Westminster Abbey. We went in and spent the next hour touring this massive church (http://www.westminster-abbey.org/).

Don't $*&^ with 10 Downing Street.

Westminster Abbey. Big. Churchy.

From there, we made the trek back to the hotel stopping for dinner the Daquise Restaurant, the oldest Polish restaurant in London. I can't recall the last time or if I've even eaten at a Polish restaurant before. I had the Polish platter which consisted of: pirogi (ravioli-like dumplings stuffed with mushrooms or cheese), golabki (cabbage rolls), platski (potato pancakes) and bigos (meat and cabbage hunter's stew) and it was very good, and very filling.

So far, the food in London has been good, which is a great thing.

From there, we rolled back to the apartment, awaiting the next adventure.

London! Days 1 and 2 and 3! Or, we've done so much walking I want to cut my feet off!

2009-04-13T17:11:00.019-04:00

Welcome back!

Been too long since I posted, but since not much has gone on in my life of late, short of attending an exhibition game at the new Yankee Stadium last weekend (quick note on that, nice stadium, expensive stuff, more space to walk around the concourse and when you sit at your seats inside it feels a lot like the old stadium, aside from the gargantuan TV screen in center field) not much has been going on.

Well, until this week.

This week, my wife and I are in London for a vacation (or, holiday). I haven't been here in 7 years, my wife has never been here. We figured that London was close enough to fly to, the airfare we got was good ($960 total for both of us roundtrip on British Airways) and heck, why not?

Day 1

We left on the red eye on Saturday, April 11, from Newark, which was relatively dead. (Note to all humans: Fly out of Newark on Saturdays, it's very quiet there). We arrived in London on Easter morning. The flight over wasn't too bad, we had two seats at the very rear of the plane, and aside from some really really really large people sitting in front of us who brought their seats back so much that you have to act like you were going spelunking into a mine to get into and out of them, the flight was good. (By the way, not to worry, I was sure to purposely whack the idiots seats in front of me as I climbed in and out of the seat, knowing for a fact I knocked the ugly fat male out of a deep sleep and I think forcing him to stay up for most of the flight, my other half did the same, so airplane seat justice was accomplished - Note, do these idiots have any clue that when they bring their seats back, they jame them so deep into the chests of the people behind them that I'm pretty sure when they bring their seats back up, there will be a lung stuck to the back of the seat?)

Anyway, I did oddly sleep 2 hours on the flight, which is 2 hours more than normal. Watched about 3 hours of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries (which is part of my minor quest to rewatch the entire series) too. We left on time and arrived pretty much on time too.

After a relatively short trip through customs, we found the Underground station and took the tube to our hotel.

For this trip, we're staying at the Harrington Courts apartments in South Kensington. Since we were going to be here for 8 nights, I wanted to stay some place that had a little more space and some extra amenities so we could save on food. I also wanted a location that was close enough to the city, and near transportation. This place fits the bill. After being temporarily moved to the larger two bedroom apartment the first night due to some issues with no hot water in the room were were going to be in, we moved into our actual room the 2nd night. The apartment itself is fairly spacious, with a seperate bedroom, small Kitchen and nice sized living room. The extra space is good especially in relationships where one spouse (my wife) tends to sleep a bit later, letting me wake up to go out to the living room to blog.

Of course, if one is used to American beds, one learns real quick (as I have in the past) that European beds are A) Lower to the ground and B) Made of bedrock. This means I can get about 7-8 hours in a bed tops before the massive back pain takes over. Oddly, I'm used to this by now from the various trips to Europe so I plan accordingly: I start by sleeping on my sides.

Also, while the apartment faces the busier street side of the hotel, it is noisy, but, the fact that this apartment has two balconies and it's fun to just watch London life outside through the windows (plus there's a lot of light in the living room at 7:30 AM on Tuesday as I type this).

The apartments are a block away from the tube stop, so transporting luggage here was not an ordeal at all.

So, after arriving here on Sunday morning, and learning our temporary room was not ready, we walked around for a few hours. We were really tired from the flight (by the way, when you go to Europe, red eyes are the best way to adjust to the new time zone since you're so exhausted by the end of the first full day in Europe you have no problems falling asleep). We wandered around the local area, making our way up to Hyde Park and spending Easter Sunday just having a slow walk. We're not too far from Harrod's either and passed by their on our way back to the hotel.

There will be no jumping into the water at Hyde Park!

We got back here by around 3 or so and our temporary room was ready. We got in and wound up taking naps to let the body catch up on sleep a little.

We then headed out for dinner, sticking in the South Kensington area as it's easy to walk around here. We had dinner at Byron's where we both had some surprisingly good British burgers. We stopped at a small grocery store on the way back and picked up breakfast for the next morning too.

Then, we headed to sleep in our temporary 2-bedroom apartment.

Day 2

Up by 9 or so (an hour earlier on my part), we packed up our stuff and had breakfast.

We decided to make our way roughly to Piccadilly Circus and see what happens. We walked up past Harrod's (which was open on Easter Monday, a holiday here) but didn't go in, deciding to save that for later. We walked over to Buckingham Palace and were amazed at the sheer number of people who seemed to have been there for the changing of the guard even though it wasn't happening on the Holiday.

London - Teeming with happy tourists!

We took it all in and then just started wandering the streets heading over to Piccadilly Circus. Since we're here for a week, we took it easy, and just kind of meandered around. I did manage to get to the Forbidden Planet, a comic store I had wanted to get to on this trip, and we grabbed some Thai food for lunch nearby on a quiet street a block away. We wandered around the SoHo area too, hitting a cool discount bookstore/music store, Fopp, where not shockingly, I bought really cheap books.

After, walking around quite a bit, we started to meander back towards the hotel. We stopped and grabbed a park bench in St. James Park where we sat for about 45 minutes just taking in the nice day.

We made it back to the hotel, moved to our now permanent room and after an adventure with the wireless, was able to get hooked up to the internet using a wired connection, which I actually prefer.

For dinner, we made our way into Kensington and had dinner at a little place called A Taste of India, which was very good and very filling. Then, we made our way back to the apartment and collapsed.

Day 3

Up at 7, started writing this blog and had breakfast at the apartment. Today, we decided to start at the Tower of London and see where it goes from there.

Here's what ultimately happened:

View Larger Map

What started out as an innocent day at the Tower of London turned into a trek literally across the city. The Tower of London was good, if a bit pricey for the admission. Here's what I learned at the Tower of London:

You can see the Crown Jewels there
Apparently, Henry the VIII thought the crown jewels were his, uh, his "special area", which was evident (in a way that has tarnished my mind forever so much so that I have the need to claw out my Mind's eye) in his suit of armor.

From there, we walked over the Tower Bridge to the South Bank where we decided to walk along the Thames River until we basically got to the the London Eye (that really big famous Ferris Wheel). It was a great walk and we got to see a lot of the South Bank along the way.

Lunch was at Wagamama (www.wagamama.com) a really good chain of noodle shops that is based in Europe (although there are 3 locations in Boston now, I just checked) and someplace I had been to years ago and wanted to get to on this trip.

We continued on, making a stop at Waterloo station (hey Jason Bourne fans, that was the big station in the Bourne Ultimatum!) before we decided to take a ride on the London Eye, which is this massive ferris wheel on the bank of the Thames River. It's well worth doing, although it is also a tad pricey, but you do get an incredible view of the city. It takes about a half hour to go around, but you have really good views that entire time and you can barely tell you are on a Ferris wheel as you get into these large cabins where you stand the entire time.

Ben, sometimes, he's not so big.

From there, we crossed the Thames River making our way past Big Ben and wandering around the Parliament building.

From there, we somehow wound up in Embassy Row (hey! we found the US Embassy!) and wandered down quiet back streets away from the massive throngs of tourists (I may be a tourist, but I sure don't like 'em, must be a residual from working in NYC all those years).

For dinner we found this little pub called The Hour Glass in Brompton, which was a good place to have a few beers, some fish and chips (look! we ate actual English food!) and not be on our feet for at least once today.

We came back to the hotel, dropped off our stuff and then ran over to the local Tesco because I had a mad urge for chips.

And that's where we are as I write this.

We have a vague idea of what to do tomorrow, but lord knows what will happen until we actually do it. That seems to be the norm on this trip so far.

So far, 2009 = Car Repairs, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Ebay

2009-01-26T18:31:00.002-05:00

So, I seem to have an addiction to the Terrorist Hunt mode of the game Rainbow Six Vegas 2. For those who haven't played, well, you uh, hunt terrorists. The rounds are quick, and, oddly, a great way to de-stress. Highly recommended for those who need to safely de-stress. By the way, this has nothing to do with what ebay told me to do a few postings below...

Winter is also that time of the year where your car will go in for repairs. On the plus side, both my cars are used, so I feel better that they are going in for repairs. If I had a brand new car, and it needed repairs, I'm sure I'd be really ticked off about this. Found this great repair shop in Fords, NJ too, - JAB Auto. Took me years to find a place I actually like. This one seems to be good.

Also, ebaying continues, some things sell well, some don't, but at least it goes away.

There was some sort of presidential inauguration too. Here's what I learned from the inauguration. Katie Couric is a dumb ass. Seriously, my dog could have done a better job with the whole newscast. I made the mistake of tivoing CBS the day of the inauguration. Apparently, to be a newscaster, you don't have to recognize politicians, you can ignore when Carter snubs the Clintons, and then drone on about stuff that no one cares about. Wait! I'm doing that here!

Ok, my rant is done.

It is not recommended that you follow Ebay's suggestions

2008-12-19T18:38:00.004-05:00

Here's why:

(actual screen shot from this morning while I was putting an item up for sale)

Crud, it's January already? How'd this happen?

2008-12-04T20:17:00.004-05:00

Since we last spoke:

Halloween occurred
I saw the Fab Faux in concert in New Brunswick
I saw a Kevin Smith Q&A seesion in Red Bank
I went to Chicago, but didn't see any shows there
My parent's dog died, (very sad, but she had a great life)
I saw Madonna in Philly
I continued to sell odd and old stuff on ebay
December occurred, and I got a year older officially.
Christmas came and went
2009 seems to have occurred.

So, about this New Year thing. My basic resolution every year is this: To not die.

If I can pull that off, then I know it's generally a good year. Of course, there's the other normal stuff like lose weight, pay off my debt to Jabba the Hutt (oh wait, that's Han Solo) and part the Red Sea (oh wait, that's Moses), but the not dying objective is my main one.

Always something to consider....

Me + Last Week = Trip to Puerto Rico

2008-10-23T18:25:00.019-04:00

So, you know those people that do stuff at the last second? As in go on vacation and all that with only a few days notice? I was just one of those people. We knew that from Oct 16 - 22 or so that we were going to go somewhere. We just had no idea where.

That is until Oct 10, when I found a great deal on Travelocity, one of those last minute ones.

The chosen location?

Puerto Rico.

My wife had been wanting to go there to the El Conquistador Resort (http://www.elconresort.com/) for about 15 years. This trip made this a reality.

We flew out early on Friday the 17th from JFK (part of the package, hence the leaving from JFK instead of the much closer Newark). Here's what transpired:

Friday

We flew out on a 6:50 AM flight on American (el cheapo) Airlines. I'm not a big fan of this airline, but we didn't die, so I guess that's a plus.

We landed on time (oddly) and got our bags and picked up our rental (also included in the package and from Avis, so it was a real car rental place). The car of choice on this trip was a Toyota Yaris, which turned out to be a good thing as I learned that small cars in Puerto Rico are good.

We made our way towards the El Conquistador Resort which was on the east coast of the island. The airport in San Juan was on the North center of the island. To get there, one must drive. Over the five days I drove in Puerto Rico, I learned a few things about how driving occurs on this island:

There are no rules as to whether slow cars drive on the left or right side of the road. Cars will drive slow on either side and you can pass them on either side. Apparently, many people have passed cars on the shoulders as well as there are a multitude of signs pointing out that the shoulders are for emergency use only.
Turn signals are not used and seem to be frowned upon.
Traffic lights take forever. It's a good time to kick back and drink an entire can of soda.

I actually dug the lack of turn signal use. It was kinda refreshing not having to tell people where you are going.
So, we did head to the resort. Got there, unpacked, got our room (which was a garden view, not an ocean view which would have cost $600 more for the trip - as it is, our garden view, did have a view of the garden, and, of the bay as well, and mountains, so really, it was a very good view). The room was big too. And it did have a nice flatscreen tv.

Our view:

We grabbed some sandwiches at the resort then decided to head back into town to grab some basics from the supermarket. It's always cool to go to a supermarket in some place other than where you live, and this market lived up to my expectations. We bought some snacks and a case of water to save ourselves from paying ridiculous prices for a bottle of water at the resort. We also stopped to buy a good roadmap of Puerto Rico. This was something that was needed as the map provided with the rental was bad, and you need a good map when in PR.

Back at the resort, we had dinner (Spanish food, which was so-so) and then headed for the casino for a bit.

Saturday

The El Conquistador Resort has its own Starbucks. My wife was very happy with this. After coffee was purchased, we made our way over to Old San Juan. Making our way on Route 3, which is a highway with really long traffic lights, the trip felt longer than it did. They have a Route 66 which you can take for part of the trip. This Route 66 is really good. For a buck fifty, you get to ride on a highway where there are no lights and traffic moves at a decent speed, well worth it.

After some minor mishaps, including riding through the cobblestoned tiny streets of San Juan looking for parking. we finally got to walk around. We went to El Morro, the old fort by the sea. Really a great spot to visit. We had lunch at Raices then headed back to the resort. For dinner, we had appetizers (lunch was really heavy) and enjoyed the great view from the resort.

El Morro:

Not shockingly, I found an antique store there too. I picked up a picture book of NY from the 50's.

Sunday

After a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed to El Yunque, the only rainforest in US territory. It was a short trip to get there (thank god, already I was tired of driving), and the views were spectacular. We did one hike that took us to this waterfall, it was amazing. See for yourself:

One thing about rainforests. They are humid, and as this one was at a slightly higher altitude, it made things interesting. If you ever go to Puerto Rico, you have to come here.

Instead of heading straight back to the resort, we decided to check out this restaurant called the Ocean View that was literally out the back gate of the resort. We drove the long way to get there to see some of the town of Fajaldo where it was located. The road the restaurant is on a circle where the road ends by the sea. On Sundays, it's a place where everyone goes to relax, hang out and eat. We got there just before the rush and had a great lunch. I had my first taste of Mofundo, which is smashed plaintains, I had this with shrimp. It was really really good.

After lunch, and tired from all the hiking, we headed back to the resort for the rest of the day. It was nice that this was a trip where we actually relaxed. Relaxation was needed.

Monday

A day at the spa. My other half had been wanting to go to the spa. With all the stress she's had of late, this was an excellent idea. I had never been to a spa mainly due to the fact that the idea of people rubbing their hands over me if said hands don't belong to my wife seems alien to me. As I looked through the catalog, I did see one thing that might be cool, and decided to go for it. I wound up going for this thing where I got in this tub (with bathing suit on, mind you, get all those evil thoughts out of your mind!) and had high pressure water blasted at me. The concept was cool, and it sort of relaxed, but the catch is, after you finish, you feel like you're going to pass out. So that part I wasn't enthralled with. But, it was an experience and it was cool.

After the spa, we headed out for lunch at that Ocean View restaurant again. This time, we went out the back door of the place and walked there. What's cool about the resort, is that it basically exists on two planes. The main part of the resort is at the top of the cliff, and there is a marina and other parts of the hotel at the bottom of the cliff. To get between the too, you take this funicular vehicle, which is like a cable car. Here, this should clarify it:

You can see the marina part towards the right and the funicular vehicle in the middle of the page (it's the small square white box like vehicle).In the picture above, to get to the restaurant, we basically walked around the resort on the lower half, past the employee parking lot, right into the area. Lunch was great again.

That night, we had sushi (which was oddly very good) at the resort.

Tuesday

One of the things the resort has is its own island too. Palomino Island. This is where the resort's beach is and it's where we spent most of Tuesday. They run ferries from the marina to the island (included free in staying at the resort), so we headed over there (after the normal Starbuck's stop, every day, there was a Starbuck's stop). While the other half found a nice beach chair and got some sun, I did a little hiking. I like going to place where there aren't other people, and I had these trails all to myself. It was a bit hot, but worth the trip, especially when I got to climb on the rocks by the ocean. Here's an example of the view I had:

I also made a new friend too:

Back at the beach an hour later, we got some sun and went in the ocean for a bit. One thing that was good about this trip too is that it was the offseason, so the resort was very quiet, and the beach here was quiet too.

After heading back on the boat to Puerto Rico proper, we went out for lunch to another restaurant next to that Ocean View restaurant (as the Ocean View was closed on Tuesdays). Lunch was great as always.

Back at the resort, we had Chinese food (I know, Chinese food in Puerto Rico, what the heck is wrong with you! But it was very very good) for dinner and walked around the resort. At night, you're encouraged to dress up a bit, and we did, (well, I went from shorts, to business casual, which is dressing up for me).

One thing I need to mention here too, is Puerto Rico is renowned for the Coqui. These are tiny little frogs that at night, chirp. They do it in bunches. It gets loud. Check it out:

That video was taken in the garden area outside our hotel room. Each night, we'd go out and listen to the coquis, and fruitlessly try to see one, as they hide quite well.

Wednesday

For the last day, we headed over to the Bacardi factory in San Juan. Since we had a 5PM flight that day, it made sense to go here first. Now, the tour is free, and they do give you 2 free small drinks per person, but, the tour? Well, one thing that bugs be about it is that you don't actually get to see the factory! This kind of makes things moot for me. You park at this visitor center, then take a tram bus about 20 feet to a little museum where you go into a room with fountain, while someone tells us how wonder Bacardi is. Then you watch a 9 minute movie telling you about how Bacardi is made, bookended by Bacardi commercials. Then you walk through a recreation of part of the distillery and get to smell their liquor. Then, you go into a recreation of an exclusive bar where they demo how to make a mojito (sorta). Then onwards into a room where you can see Bacardi ads from over the the years and you can send a video message. But again, you don't actually see stuff being made, at a factory. This kind of killed the magic for me. But, the free drinks were nice, and it was a free tour, so maybe I'm complaining too much.

Bacardi Magic below:

Afterwards, we made our way over to the Las Plazas de Americas mall, one of the largest malls in Puerto Rico. We had lunch at the food court as my wife spent most of the trip in quest to have Bacalao. This quest was finally achieved at this food court of all places.

From there, over the airport, and back to reality.

Things we learned on this trip:

Driving is random in Puerto Rico. And turn signals should not be bothered to be included on cars as they are never used.
There is some sort of obsession with Thousand Island dressing. Every meal seemed to include a cup with this dressing. I'm shocked it wasn't included with desserts.
I apparently do like Plaintains, I didn't really up until this trip, go figure.
The place seems rough around the edges, but I felt very safe. Safer than I do when I'm in Brooklyn.
People are very friendly, it helps to have a Spanish speaker to make this more possible.
You can find really good deals on Travelocity if you look at the last minute and are very flexible.

I'm sure I'll be back...stay tuned...

What's happened in a month?

2008-10-04T21:55:00.004-04:00

I acquired my own slot machine. Well, a sort of slot machine. In my home state of NJ, we have morals, so it is illegal to purchase a slot machine that takes quarters, but ones that take quarters are ok. Got one on ebay for $99, and took a road trip up to Connecticut with my dad to pick up. This is what road trips are supposed to be about, getting in a car with someone to run a wild errand in a short period of time...sort of like the Cannonball Run movies.
Went to the last ever game at Yankee Stadium. Proof:

and:

Game was ok, ceremony was ok, but it was cool to say I was at the last game ever at the Stadium.
Worked my butt off for work.
Had a visit from my friend Bernd, who lives in Poland, took an impromptu trip to Boston and passed by NJ for 3 days in between.
Discovered that facebook is far too time sucking and is almost like an online version of high school. Do I REALLY need to know that much about people?
Kept selling stuff like crazy on ebay. Some stuff sold like crazy, some stuff didn't sell like crazy.
Watched the new Knight Rider show. This show has set new levels of suckage on TV. Example of a better actor than anyone on that show: The Emergency Broadcast Signal sound.
Started watching comedy shorts at: www.sethcomedy.com - shorts by the same creator of Family Guy.
Bought a new keyboard with light up keys. This makes typing in the dark a lot easier.
Watched the Mets do their magic. Official Sound of the Mets: Choking.
Went to the Anime convention without wearing a costume. I was in the minority. (More on this soon).
Other stuff to be revealed in the future, nothing magical, but worthy of more than one line.

9.11.01

2008-09-07T13:51:00.002-04:00

7 years later, can you believe it's been 7 years? I can't. It still feels like yesterday. I won't dwell on it here, but you can see what happened to me on that day at www.slibocker.com.

I'm blogging in class again...

2008-09-05T20:43:00.002-04:00

Now, this has to stop, this is the second time I've done this. I need help.

Batman!

2008-08-01T17:53:00.002-04:00

Over the past two weekends I finally caught up with the two new Batman movies.

And wow, they're good, really really really good.

I have always liked Batman, in fact, one of my all time favorite comic books is the mini-series: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (info about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Dark_Knight_Returns).

I saw the first four Batman movies back in the 90's and they weren't bad, but they never did quite do it for me in terms of being great movies, in fact, 2 of them were just terrible (Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin), 1 was good (Batman), and 1 was eh (Batman Returns).

So I never got around to seeing Batman Begins. Which was a dumb move on my part. When I saw it on DVD two weeks ago, I was hooked. As was my wife. A comic book movie with good acting? A good plot? Not campy? That what this was.

I don't actually like going to movie theaters, I'm more of a DVD/Large TV/Good sound system type of guy, but my other half really wanted to go to see the Dark Knight in the theaters. And it was a good idea.

The Dark Knight was great! It was a comic book movie where the costumes and all that were secondary. Good acting, good story, good cinematography. Worth seeing.

This is not a movie for the young ones though. It is rated PG-13 for a reason. But, at the show I was at they brought a bunch of 9-10 year olds. Gotta love parents in NJ. At least they didn't get them beers too.

Back to the Dark Knight movie, if you're a fan of Chicago, you'll love this one too. Lots of Chicago scenery...

So, if you haven't gone, go now.

And now, some Muppets...

2008-07-21T23:25:00.004-04:00

or how about:

or this?

or get patriotic!

What I did last week - Billy Joel at Shea

2008-07-21T23:07:00.002-04:00

Last Wednesday, we went to Shea Stadium where Billy Joel performed what he was calling the last play at Shea. It was supposed to be a one of a kind event, but he added one that Friday as well which really didn't make it as unique. But, don't get me started on the scam that are concerts of late.

I was going to write this blog about the really fun time I had at the concert, but I was researching the shows, and while we had Tony Bennett, John Mayer (am I the only person who doesn't care he lives?), John Cougar Mellancamp and Don Henley as guest stars. Friday's show had Paul McCartney. Friggin' Paul McCartney. Also, Steven Tyler Aerosmith, Roger Daltrey (of the Who) and Garth Brooks. So, now I kinda feel ripped off by Mr. Joel. Friday's show had a friggin' Beatle. We got John Mayer. Mr. Joel did announce during the show that our show was supposed to be the last one, but because the show sold out so quickly because of scalpers they had added the next one. Yeah, that made me feel better. How is it in 2008, we can defeat every form of crime but as a society, we are completely unable to control ticket sales to concerts? Are concerts the most complicated thing ever in existence that even Einstein would not be able to figure out how to throw a concert and ensure that normal humans can buy tix?

Just pondering that point.

I'm not one for scalpers, I've never bought tix from a scalper, or overpaid past the face value of a ticket for a concert. There's a thin line between having the "experience" of a concert and realizing you spent a few hundred bucks for 2-3 hours of entertainment.

I tend to go to smaller venues if I can. The Count Basie theater in Red Bank, NJ is a great example. They get decent shows there, parking is cheap and I don't have to haul 45 miles to NYC to see a show. I saw Kevin Smith there last year (see blog post way below) and I'm seeing him again in November.

Anyway, back to the main topic. Mr. Joel's show was good, they always are, but still, one can't help but feel a little jaded by that whole "the last play at shea, oh wait, not really, FRIDAY'S show is really the last play at shea" thing...

Next post, Muppets!

The All Star Futures Game/Celebrity Softball Game - or What if they had a game at Yankee Stadium and not many people came?

2008-07-15T11:26:00.005-04:00

Look! Yankee Stadium with no people in it!

What brings so few people to Yankee Stadium? Why it's the All Star Futures Game/Celebrity Softball Game.

The Futures game featured baseball players in the minor leagues playing each other. One team (Team USA) featured players that will be playing for the US in the Olympics. The other team featured another team of Minor League All Stars that will not play for the US (Team World). The World team beat Team USA. This does not bode well for next month.

Next up, the celebrity softball game.

The rosters were:

American League
Wade Boggs
George Brett
Goose Gossage
Rollie Fingers
Tino Martinez
Paul O'Neill
Billy Crystal (actor/comedian)
Spike Lee (director)
Whoopi Goldberg (actress)
Kenny Mayne (ESPN)
Mike Golic (ESPN)
Billy Baldwin (actor)
Maria Menounos (Access Hollywood)

National League Ozzie Smith
Dave Winfield
Gary Carter
Paul Molitor
Tony Perez
Tim Raines
Bobby Flay (celebrity chef)
Kyle Massey (actor, Disney's Corey in the House)
Marlee Matlin (actress)
George Lopez (actor/comedian)
Mike Greenberg (ESPN)
James Denton (actor, "Desperate Housewives")
AJ Calloway (EXTRA)
Chris Rock (comedian)
Justin Tuck (NY Giants DL)

A very dubious definition of the word "Celebrity" if you ask me...

The game was announced by the Mike and Mike team from ESPN, they were about as entertaining as a head cold. In fact, all the folks from ESPN on the field were fairly useless, and somehow they thought they were funny. They weren't.

But, some of the actors played surprisingly well. Billy Crystal did good, Spike Lee knows what he's doing out there. James Denton did a good job, and even Billy Baldwin did good. Justin Tuck from the NY Giants made some good plays too.

Of course, in a celebrity softball game, whenever someone actually CATCHES a ball, it's a good play.

Maria Menounos got incessantly booed because she wore a Red Sox cap. She must not have heard about that whole Yankee/Red Sox rivalry. Chris Rock struck out all his times at bat.

Tino Martinez and Paul O'Neill got some of the loudest cheers, as they should, being former Yankees.

Since the stadium was not that filled, (as in empty to Yankee Stadium standards), it was actually pretty cool. There were no lines for food, for restrooms and I was even able to take the George Washington Bridge home with minimal traffic! (This is normally impossible without a 1-2 hour wait to get over the bridge after a game at Yankee Stadium).

Our seats started out in the upper deck in left field, but we moved behind home plate on the upper deck for the softball game as it was in the shade.

Celebrities playing softball.

It was a pretty cool day, the ticket prices were a tad high, but I brought snacks for everyone, including that great American treat one has at baseball games....

Matzos! Enjoyed here by Marjie and Pablo.

Next week, Dr. Horrible!

2008-07-11T08:39:00.002-04:00

Now this looks cool:

Next week, there will be this unique FREE miniseries taking place only on the web. Created by Joss Whedon (the man who made Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and starring Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie! How I met your Mother) and Nathan Fillion (you've seen him on Desperate Housewives and Firefly among other shows...), this is a musical miniseries that will be released with this schedule:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.
ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.
ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

The catch is that all 3 acts will only be up until midnight on July 20. After that, they will reappear in another form that will not be free.

I'm going to see this, thought you all might be interested too...click the banner above for more info and to see the trailer.

What a game!

2008-07-07T18:27:00.004-04:00

I've been a NY Yankees fan for a long time, even in the days when Wayne Tolleson was shortstop during the dark times called the 1980's.

So when I get to see a great game, it makes life good. Last night was such a game. Under the headlines that A-Rod is getting a divorce (not shocking, he was married to a woman who wore a shirt saying f&*# you to Yankee stadium (read the story here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2923254) was a great game.

Yankees - Red Sox games are always good, and last night we had a game that had them both tied at 4 going into the bottom of the 10th inning, until a rookie knocks in the winning run with a single. Great way to end the night...

...And a great way to ruin the hope and dreams of some obnoxious 12 year old boy Red Sox fan who was sitting 2 rows in front of us. You know things are messed up when there are 2 12-year old boys with a family and the kid that's the Yankee fan is the subdued one. Mr. Obnoxious 12 year old fan was really into the Red Sox. There's nothing wrong with that, but he was OBNOXIOUS. For someone to stand out as obnoxious at Yankee Stadium, you really have to go that extra mile. The kid was yelling Yankee Sucks (nice job of raising the kid by the parents!) and was getting in the fans faces when ever the Sox did good. Oddly, his same aged Yankee cohort was relatively subdued (again, a very odd thing).

He got real quiet however when Manny Ramirez just watched 3 pitches go right by him for a strikeout in the 9th with a runner on 3rd base, and was particularly crushed when the Yanks came back for the win.

Now, I'm not one to wish badness upon obnoxious 12-year olds. Oh, wait, no, I am. But, it's so very nice when karma plays out. What amazed me is that his so-called parents/guardians let the kid go at it. At Yankee Stadium? Maybe they hated him and were just hoping that someone would take him out? One only wonders...

But what kills me is that us Yankee fans get this rap as being a tad mean, (we are, but the insults that are thrown are oddly creative), while the Sox fans are supposed to be civilized. Obviously this is some new version of civilized that I'm not quite aware of, proof:
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view/2008_07_07_Cape_Cod_man_attacks_suspected_Yankees_fan/srvc=home&position=recent

I'm guessing they take their baseball realllllllllllly serious up in Mass.

Phoenix - Post Op

2008-07-05T12:27:00.003-04:00

A few days later...

Flight home on Tuesday was easy, got home on time and the flight was smooth. Spent a good portion of it watching the Bourne Ultimatum on my PSP. Again, the PSP is the single greatest piece of electronics ever made for traveling. My music, games and movies can all be watched on a decent sized screen.

It looks like I won't be traveling much for the next few months, which will be a nice change from the first half of the year.

Coming up, I got the Yanks - Sox game on Sunday night, Billy Joel at Shea on July 16 and Kevin Smith back in Red Bank in November. So, a quiet slate.

As for things bought on the trip:

A bunch of books:

Nothing's Sacred - Lewis Black
Soon I will be Invincible - Austin Grossman
The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright
Kiss - Behind the Mask - David Leaf and Ken Sharp
Thirteen Days - Robert F. Kennedy

A few antique books too:

Sears 1954 Midwinter Catalog - (seriously! An old Sears catalog - really cool)
Sheaffers Handbook for Secretaries (1957)
Remains of Calendar from 1886
NBC Radio Announcers Magazine from 1934

A bunch of McFarlane figures too, but I won't list all those in detail.

An item that hung on the wall of the McFarlane Stores shop in Tempe:

Something cool for the wall.

And now, back to normal, it was a good run of trips, but now I'm looking forward to spending some quality time catching up on things at the house, I got that pool of mine open and now need some good weather to be able to use it...

Phoenix, Part 6 - For once, we don't do that much.

2008-07-02T14:48:00.001-04:00

This time, we slept late, which was nice. No Starbucks today as we grabbed coffee at the Borgata shopping area, which was a shopping center that looks like an Italian Village. Next up, we headed to the Fashion Square Mall where we wandered around for a bit in Air Conditioning. Which is oh so nice. Next up, we searched fruitlessly for souvenirs in Scottsdale. Stopping at various stores along the way. We made it back to the hotel, cleaned up a bit, and had some very expensive drinks by the pool. Next, back out into Scottsdale where we found this nice shopping center which had misters around each store. These misters are cool as you cool down without really getting wet. We found another Ra Sushi, and knowing how good the food was, had dinner there. After a walk around, we headed back to the hotel...

Sunday - 110 Degrees? Let's go to the Botanical Garden. Outside! - Phoenix, Part 5

2008-07-02T14:47:00.005-04:00

Up sort of early Sunday too, it's better to get up and out early with the heat.

We stopped again at Starbucks (see a trend?) and made our way towards Coolidge, east of Phoenix. We stopped at Casa Grande, which was a house made in prehistoric times. This thing was older than Christ, and was a site to see.

Casa Grande - a really old building

What was cool about this trip out there was that going there we hit the really desolate desert roads which are fun to drive. Some great views from there. From Coolidge, we made our way North, driving through some mostly desolate desert highways.

We decided to stop at the Botanical Gardens in Tempe/Phoenix because we were there. It was very hot, but well worth the trip as you can see from the pic below. The botanical gardens had a bit of everything, and was a nice stopover.

The Botanical Gardens and Todd

From there, I knew I had to show Marlene the Cabela's store, as it was life changing event for me, so I could imagine her take. So, we headed over to Glendale, and after stopping at the McFarlane store (again), and watching the fountains show, we had lunch at a place called Moe's which had some good southwestern fast food. Good stuff. Then, onto Cabela's. Marlene was skeptical about how much it would impact her, but when she saw it, she admitted I was right. The store is still ridiculously large, and surreal, especially from a kid from Brooklyn (now NJ). We saw the exhibits we had, some pics are below for your viewing pleasure. If you ever have a chance to go to Cabela's, go, now.

A store, with animals (real, but not alive...)

Cabela's Store - A happy place to take the kids

See? Something for everyone here

After Glendale, we headed back to the hotel, rested for a bit. Then went out and got lost for a bit. We would up eating at the Bamboo Club, an Asian Bistro. After a stop at Barnes and Noble, we headed back to the hotel.

Saturday - Or up a tall rock without a paddle - Phoenix - Part 4

2008-07-02T14:46:00.004-04:00

Up early on Saturday and after a quick stop at Starbuck's for coffee, we made our way up towards Sedona. On the way, we stopped at Montezuma's Castle, which is a building that was literally built into the side of a mountain a few hundred years ago. It was something that was truly unique.

From there, we headed into Sedona where we stopped at the visitor center, always a good move. After talking with a ranger there, we decide to make our way to Cathedral Rock, where, it's decided that hiking up int is a good idea. The temperature was only in the 80's so it was sort of bearable. We park at the base, and do a spectactular hike up the side. This was a not a flat sloping hike, this was very steep and at time you'd have to pull yourself up a lot of rocks. So it was quite a challenge for us folks from NJ. The views were spectacular, as you can see in the pix below. But, there were a lot of times where you couldn't believe you were supposed to go up at certain points.

That's what we climbed, well, to the base of the bigger looking rocks at the top.

That makes it a cool hike.

At the top, exhausted, we rested and had a quick snack. Then, we had to go, uh, down. Mostly on our butts, as that was the easiest way to traverse down the steep rock and not have to worry about falling down/off the mountain. We mostly survived although I smashed my ring finger moving a loose rock out of the way. But, I didn't worry about that much then, I was focusing on getting down the mountain mostly intact.

After the hike we stopped for CoffeePot Diner in Sedona. Good food, much needed food, was consumed there. We went through Sedona, stopping at Red Rocks state park and enjoyed the fact we had to go off-road to get to it. From Sedona, which is very very very pretty, we made the long haul to Jerome, which was once an abandoned town in the side of a mountain. It wasn't abandoned currently, but was nice to drive through.

From there, we headed around a mountain on very Road to Hana like roads to Prescott. This was a town with a hometown type of feel. We stopped for bit to see the infamous Whiskey Row and enjoyed the rest. From there, back to Scottsdale where dinner was some Hawaiian BBQ as we were both beat, bloodied (in my case) and tired.

Whiskey Row

A little bit of this, a little bit of that - Phoenix Part 3

2008-07-02T14:45:00.001-04:00

Up early today while Marlene slept and I got some work in. Checked out of the Wyndham Phoenix and off on adventures. Our first stop of the day was at the McFarlane Toys store in Tempe.

Quite an eventful trip. I saw Todd McFarlane in person for a few seconds and chatted with Al Simmons for a bit too. Todd McFarlane is known for his line of highly detailed toys (including the latest halo 3 figures) as a comic book artist (he created Spawn, and had a major run as artist on Spiderman) and a collector of baseball memorabilia. Al Simmons was a character in the Spawn series and I got to meet the namesake Well, at the store itself, I was helped the assistant store manager take stuff down off the walls as they were prepping to move out of that location and shift everything to the Glendale location (see the first Phoenix post). That was quite an experience and in between all of it, got some more great deals as well as purchasing a plaque they had on the wall for the Spawn cartoon series. It was truly unique.

From there we headed into downtown Tempe, a college town, and had lunch at Ra Sushi (the same chain I ate at in Chicago a few weeks ago). A great filling lunch. Tempe was nice and even in the 110 degree weather, which oddly, was bearable due to no humidity, and we wandered around a bit. I found an antique store that was going out of business and bought some really old items that I'll talk about at the end of this trip.

Next up, back in the car (a yellow PT Cruiser for this trip) and off to Mesa. Which wasn't much. So we left there and stopped at a casino along the way towards Scottsdale where we broke even on playing slots. From there, Scottsdale and the Fairmont Resort, where even our low level room is very large. A really nice place that we'll explore more over the next few days.

Dinner was in Scottsdale where we had some Thai food that was good as well. And a stop at Wal-Mart to buy a first aid kit. Why? It seems a cactus attacked Marlene and we had to get a bunch of needles that were still hiding in her hand. Kids, when you see a cactus, stay as far away as you can. Trust me on this.

Two Days Where nothing much happened in Phoenix

2008-07-02T13:17:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, I taught all day for work, and headed up to the Camelback area to have dinner at the Omaha Steak Restaurant, a place I usually eat at on every trip. Also a quick stop at Borders. But details on books will be at the end of the trip.

Thursday, more work, only the bonus here was that Marlene came in around lunch time and hung out while I finished up. After, I drove her around Phoenix a bit and took her back up to the Camelback area where I took her to her favorite store, Williams Sonoma, after dinner at a place called the Cork and Cleaver. more good food was had there.

Like I said, a quiet 2 days....

Phoenix - 2008 Act 1, Scene 1

2008-06-25T00:15:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Phoenix, where it's so hot here, to cool down, people go to Hell as it's actually cooler there.

Busy day today.

Up at 4:30, cab to airport at 5, plane left at 7AM and GOT IN ON TIME!!!! Flight was uneventful, although I did watch the Bourne Supremacy yet again.

Landed, got my bags, got my rental (a PT Cruiser in a cream/tan shade) saw that it had an aux jack and plugged my ipod in. Came to the Wyndham Hotel downtown. Room wasn't ready so I walked over to the office which is only a block away. Worked for a few hours, then headed 6 miles over to Target to buy candy for upcoming classes. A case of water, some bananas and some hot wheels cars (I dont know why it seemed like a good idea at the time) were purchased.

Back to hotel since leaving the candy in the car would = candy murder when the temp outside is just shy of 120 degrees. But it is a dry heat so you can actually breathe the air.

Back at the room, I decide that I need to go out again, so I follow my latest ToddQuest: To go to the McFarlane toys (they make the really detailed sports, Halo and other figures) showroom store in Glendale, which is where the superbowl was held this year. The store was really cool and they had a big sale, so you can imagine that damage was done. Walked over to a Japanese Restaurant called Kabuki (www.kabukirestaurants.com) and had dinner there.

After dinner, I found the most amazing store, the Cabela's (http://www.cabelas.com) outdoors store, where they have everything related to doing stuff outdoors. The darned place had a mini museum and an aquarium. I took pix and will post upon my return to NJ. Truly a magical experience.

Took the long way back to the hotel, and apparently thinking I hadn't done enough, I ran on the treadmill at the hotel for a while.

Then this blog.

Ok, so it's been a long day.

I'm done for now.

Work tomorrow.

Dallas, Part 2

2008-06-20T17:30:00.004-04:00

Let’s take a step back to Wednesday for a few minutes...

I taught all day. What was nice was I was teaching one of my favorite topics, a class dealing with professional development skills that includes a section on presentation skills. The classroom itself was unique. It was in downtown Dallas in the convention center area. North Pearl Street. This classroom had a nice view of the inside atrium of this complex, and in fact even had a balcony you could go out on to view the world inside the atrium. The large atrium itself includes shops, restaurants, the Westin Hotel and an ice skating rink. Yes, an ice skating rink. But wait, there’s more. At this said ice skating rink, there was a production of High School Musical that was to occur on Thursday night and Friday.

As you can imagine, my class had the bonus soundtrack of High School Musical as the kids (this was an ice skating show done by kids) practiced though out the day.

But, I did dig the view. More on that tomorrow…well, not the part I dig.

Now, back on Tuesday night, I also wound up in West Dallas (think East LA) at a Walmart to buy candy for my classes the next few days. One cannot say they have lived life until you can say you’ve been to the Walmart in West Dallas. I have now gained new appreciation for the Port Authority bus terminal after that little sojourn as the Port Authority Bus Terminal (in NY, by the way) looked like the Ritz Carlton in comparison.

Onwards to Thursday now.

Don't all these time jumps make you feel like you're watching Lost? For clarity, I'm so done with the Tuesday and Wednesday events now. So here's Thursday:

Did the same class, but this time, well, I teach a section in this class about how to deal with distractions while presenting, and in this class I had:

The soundtrack from the High School Musical, only it was much louder and more often today.

A warm training room. Warm training rooms are bad, people tend to fall unconscious, no matter how good the class may be. Unconscious = bad.

Random software decided to install itself on my machine too, WHILE I was using it to show my PowerPoint for the class.

A fire drill, at 2PM, right in the heart of the presentation skills portion of the class.

Oh, and of course, the fact that two of the women in the class were mooned by a teenage girl. Yep, see, the atrium has the Westin Hotel, with rooms that face the atrium, and guests that either A) Have no concept of the fact that said windows are 2-way, or B) Want to give the world a show on purpose. In this case, it was the latter. I think I also mentioned previously, (but wasn’t completely sure as I’m writing this at the Dallas Fort-Worth Airport with no internet access) that the HOSA convention was happening. HOSA stands for Health Occupation Student Association. So, many thousands of teenaged future health professionals are staying in the area. And, it seems two of them decided to moon (although I was informed there was some coverage of the rear end, so I guess it wasn’t a full moon?) two of my students in the class.

So, needless to say, quite an interesting class.

For dinner, I met up with Cynthia and her two young ones. And we went to eat the natural choice for food in Texas. Pizza. At a place called New York Pizza in Arlington. Oddly, the food there was quite good. I had a stromboli and was duly impressed. A couple of firsts happened here too:

I fed my first baby ever a bottle. Cynthia let me feed her 6-Month old daughter Meagan her bottles. It was a fascinating experience.

I took her son to the rest room, who, luckily, is well versed in the ways of the restroom even though he is 3. He was even thoughtful enough to flush before (it needed it) and after he did what he did (to not get too graphic, luckily it was the uh, easier of the removal of waste things one could do, if that helps). The fact that Aidan knew to flush puts him ahead of about 98% of the male population.

I also had Meagan using my finger as a teething ring.

Now I know many won't believe it when I say that someone let me feed their young child, so here is proof:

See? Me. Actual child. Feeding. And all survived.

Here's one of Aidan and I:

After dinner, came back to the hotel, and didn’t do much except read and play the PSP (MLB the Show 2008 as usual).

Friday, I got up early, checked out, drove to the airport, and walked around a bit. The highlight of the airport must have been when I used one of those really cool Apple machines to buy a set of Apple headphones. You may have seen these machines; you can buy an ipod literally on the spot. Cool stuff. For once, I didn’t need an mp3 player, so I opted for a nicer set of headphones for the trip home today and the trip out to Phoenix next Tuesday(!). Really cool.

Yes, I get home Friday and head back out to Phoenix on Tuesday. I certainly can’t say that June is a dull month.

The truly weirdest thing to happen to me on Friday was this: I landed on TIME! At Newark airport! On a FRIDAY! There were higher odds of pod people randomly popping into existence than of me actually landing on time.

A nice way to end this trip.

Coming soon: Me + Phoenix = ????

Dallas 2008 - Part 1

2008-06-18T22:03:00.003-04:00

The Todd Tour continues! This week, I'm in Dallas, Texas. Got here on Tuesday and had a slightly eventful flight.

Things were going well, we even sort of left on time from Newark. Which, was odd. Then, as we got closer to Dallas, the captain announces:

(In pilot drawl)
Something along the lines of:

"Well, it seems there's a bit of weather in Dallas and they have closed the Dallas Forth Worth airport for now, but, as we don't have enough fuel to circle around, we're going to have to divert to Dallas Love Field."

"Ok", I'm thinking, that's a tad odd, but we'll see what happens. The part that kinda concerned me was that whole lack of fuel thing. Not really reassuring. But, since there wasn't really much I could do, I just let it play out.

Luckily a few minutes later the pilot announces that DFW is in fact open for arrivals and they seemed to kind enough to let us land there. And so we did.

But, that lack of fuel thing...

The rest of Tuesday was spent going into the office and getting things squared away for the training I was doing the next day. This time, I'm staying a the Sheraton downtown (formerly called the Adam's Mark Hotel).

I like this hotel.

I think because I was upgraded to a suite. That might have something to do with it.

Yeah, got me a suite with a bedroom, living room, desk, entry way and for some odd reason, a teeny tiny bathroom. But I do appreciate the space.

And the Club room where I'm able to get snacks at night, and some breakfast in the morning. And bottles of water and stuff. That's good.

Dinner on Tuesday was with Cynthia, her husband, her son Aidan, and the newest member of her brood, Megan. That Megan is a cutie....We ate at a place called the Saltgrass Steakhouse (in Cedar Hill), not a bad place, and I had a Texas Cheesteak, that was good. (http://www.saltgrass.com/)

Wednesday, I taught all day, and had dinner with my old colleage Linda and her son. Dinner was at El Fenix in Downtown Dallas. (http://www.elfenix.com/) where I had some good Mexican food.

I may not dig being away from my wife and the little furball but I do like the food when I travel.

Shockingly, no books have been purchased on this trip...

More to come

Chicago 2008 - Part 2

2008-06-09T16:43:00.005-04:00

So, where were we? Last Thursday, after work, a bunch of us stopped for drinks and then took the subway to the White Sox game, not the Cubs, the White Sox, as, you know, the White Sox have actually WON in the past 100 years (the Cubs do currently have the best record in baseball though, but, if I were a Cubs fan, I so wouldn't mention this right now, they're only playing with fire...) From the Loop (where my office is there), it was only 5(!) stops to the stadium, and a 5 minute walk (if that) to the stadium. The New Comiskey (or US Cellular Field) was really nice, hopefully everything the new stadiums in NY will be. Through a sweet deal with my company, the tickets came out to $38 a piece. But, you gotta see where I was...

Dude, I was 8 rows from the field, behind the Sox dugout. For $38 bucks!!!! In NYC, the only way this happens is if A) You kill the owners of the seats or B) Your last name is Giuliani So it was a good game. We got 6 seats, my friend Jude was instrumental in getting us hooked up. They even had the best peanuts there, so that was good.

After the game, one of the group was nice enough to give us a lift back to the office/my hotel since it was a half block away.

By the way, the hotel of choice was the Hampton Inn, a nice little hotel with above average rooms, and free internet and breakfast, right in the middle of the loop. A good central place to stay.

Friday, was work and I was able to get some sightseeing in. This time, I headed up Michigan Avenue, over to the Chicago river, took a picture of a jet spray across it:

From there, I stopped at Navy Pier for a while and chilled, it was very windy and the water was very choppy, here, look:

From there, I headed along the lake to where Michigan Avenue meets the lake and headed west to Rush Street, from there, headed up to Ra Sushi (I'd been there before, probably mentioned in a post somewhere down this page) and stopped at Barnes and Noble. Next up, headed up to the ritzy Lincoln Park area, looked around, and made my way back to the Loop.

Onto the Blue Line to O'Hare. I still think Chicago has the best way to get to and from the airport if you're willing to take public transportation. Not surprisingly, the plane was running late, but I figured it would, so I chilled at the airport and took solace in the fact that my 5:20 flight boarded around 6:30 or so and left around the same time as the 2:45 PM flight to Newark left. So, it could have been much worse...

So, that's it for now. A quieter week ahead, but, out to Dallas the week after that....

Chicago 2008 - Part 1

2008-06-04T22:58:00.002-04:00

Yep, I'm at it again. This week, it's Chicago. I'm teaching two full days so I've been tempering my activities a bit. I got here on Tuesday, June 3. And, the most amazing thing happened in the process....I GOT HERE ON TIME!!!!

From Newark Airport to Chicago O'Hare.

On time (just about)

You realize this is as rare as winning the lotto, right?

Tuesday itself was setting up for my classes at the office in Chicago. After work, I headed out to 3 of my favorite places.

1 - Dinner at the Weber Grill restaurant. Great food here (http://www.webergrillrestaurant.com/index.html) I've been here a few times. Worth a trip.

2 - A stop at the lego store on Michigan Avenue. Just to look at toys. Legos rock. Go buy some.

3 - And, of course, my favorite bookstore here - Afterwords Books on East Illinois avenue. There, I bought these books:

Realityland - True Life Adventures at Walt Disney World
Star Wars - Death Star
Marvel - The Ultimates - Volumes 1 & 2
Further Adventures - A novel
Emily & the Intergalactic Lemonade Stand
Battlestar Galactica - The Cylon Death Machine and The Tombs of Kobol

So, just a normal trip.

Wednesday, I taught all day, met up with coworkers for drinks at Nick's Fish Market, then, headed over to Miller's Pub where I got me the infamous Miller's Butt Steak, thus having my butt handed on a plate yet again. From there, walked over to Millennium Park where I was able to see a really really really cool fireworks show that was going on at Navy Pier.

So, all in all, not a bad trip so far.

Tomorrow, work then good seats at the White Sox game.

Busy times...

2008-05-26T13:24:00.003-04:00

Things are busy of late, but just wanted to note I'm selling a bunch of stuff on ebay. The link is on the right. Tell friends.

Oh, and Happy Memorial Day!!!!

This weekend for me has been housework and watching the 1st 3 Indiana Jones movies.

I also am writing this from a new desktop.

Yes, I broke down and got myself a loaded Dell XPS 630

This BigRedBox has 4GB of RAM, a 500 GB Hard Drive (I added an additional 750 GB Drive, so I have over 1 TERABYTE of storage on this thing - we're measuring in Terabytes, who knew?), a quadcore processor and it's really pretty.

I'm in computer geek heaven...

I haven't blogged in a while, and I'm doing this while teaching

2008-05-07T20:31:00.001-04:00

So, I haven't blogged in a while, but there is more to come...

But, I'm teaching a lesson on blogs and needed to show an example, so I am typing this in front of 12 students right now.

The Mexican Wrap Up

2008-04-09T20:07:00.004-04:00

So, here it is Wednesday, a few days after getting back. Came down with a slight stomach thingy AFTER I got back. Ironic. But, able to write today.

Mexico was cool, very different than what I've dealt with in the past, but still very cool. The food was great, the people were extremely nice. The air conditioning? Not so good.

I only bought ONE book on this trip, and it was a small souvenir book of Cuernavaca that I bought at the museum last Thursday. I did buy 3 CD's though:

Ricardo Montaner - Las Mejores Canciones del Mundo II
Vicente Fernandez - Estatua de Marfil
Idolos de Rock & Roll - Volume 2

I only listened to the first one so far, and it wasn't bad. I bought them all just as random guesses while at that Mega store last Thursday. It seems I did all my purchasing for the trip last Thursday.

One thing of note is that at Seth's wedding, for the cake part - Everyone sang, to the tune of "On the beautfiul Blue Danube" - Queremos Pastel, pastel, pastel. (I want cake, cake, cake) If you can't picture the song, here's a video to jog your memory.

That was also unique...

It was a great experience and I'm glad we went down there. It's always good when you can go to a new place where you know someone already there to help you get around.

Next up, I'll blog about Seth's FIRST wedding 2 weeks ago.

Then, coming up in June, I do the crazy trip thing and head to Chicago, Dallas and Phoenix, all in the same month it seems.

Happy Anniversary!? - Buses, Airports, and I can drive home faster than it takes to get luggage from JFK

2008-04-07T16:41:00.002-04:00

Sabado (gigante) el cinco de Abril de 2008

Up at 8 or so on Saturday, we pack and have a loooooong breakfast with Seth, Mar, the rest of the Americans and varying family members of Mar who stayed at the hotel.

A few weeks ago, I made the (semi) wise decision to get a hotel at the Mexico City airport the night before since we had a 9:45 AM flight on Sunday. So, Mar and Seth drop us off at the bus station in Cuernavaca and we catch the 2:01 PM bus to Mexico City Airport.

Oddly, as we get on, the females who are riding are given a goody bag that contains 3 boxes of dulcolax and some feminine products. What an odd giveaway at an odd place. Imagine getting a goody bag like that at the Port Authority of NY?

The bus ride to Mexico City includes the normal bottle of soda a small cookie. The movie of the ride is the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean Movie.

There's a LOT of traffic so the trip takes an extra half hour, but we get to Terminal 1 of Mexico City airport. I booked us a room at the Hilton which is literally IN the airport, as in it's on the fourth floor of Terminal 1. So, can't beat the location. We check in, the room isn't bad, not too small, not very big, but it has little extras like toothbrushes and slippers and robes. We drop our stuff off, which isn't much, we packed light for the trip - 1 garment bag, 1 small suitcase and carry ons for Marlene and I. Then, we walk around terminal 1. We figure, why not? It's the first time we've every stayed IN an airport, so we figure to live it up.

Did I mention that this our 5 year anniversary is today? We have an odd way of celebrating...

After wandering around the terminal, we head back to the room for a few minutes and then contemplate dinner. We figure to grab something at the airport since we're both very very tired.

Oddly, we wind up eating at the hotel itself. It works out well as the restaurant is empty aside from us, so it turns out to be a good anniversary meal.

After dinner, we're both beat so we go to sleep.

Domingo, el seis de Abril de 2008

Up at 7AM, checked out of hotel at 7:30. The room hypothetically had air conditioning, but it didn't keep the room cool. Ugh. So, not a great hotel, but it was clean....

Took the air train over to terminal 2 and got checked in.

Flight was boring, I watched the Avengers 2 (animation) and some of Star Wars Episode 3.

We landed at JFK at 3:10 PM, and didn't get to the car until 5PM. Immigration was quick oddly, but waiting for the baggage and a gate delay added to the time. We made it home by 5:45PM. Which means it took longer to get from the airplane to the car than it took to drive 52 miles from JFK airport to NJ. Go figure.

At home, we sorted through mail and spent quality time with the dog.

Next up, the normal follow up post!

La Boda de Seth y Mar en Mejico or The Wedding of Seth and Mar, Part 2 - The Mexican Version

2008-04-05T14:56:00.000-04:00

Viernes el 4 de Abril de 2008

Up early, as I don't tend to sleep as much as I should when I need to. Meet up with Seth, Mar,

Ginny and Fred for breakfast, where I have some amazing food. The food here is great, and

breakfast is an event here. Next up, we head back down to the "internet room" where we also put

together the party favors for the wedding. We get that done fairly quickly, and Mar's brother

takes us into town to see the Gardens of Cuernavaca.

The place is amazing. First off, you could not even tell the entrance is to an amazing
garden/aqueduct that runs through a good part of Cuernavaca. We walk through it quite a bit and get some amazing views, right in the heart of the city. We grab some shaved ice and make our way back to the hotel. A note here, on this little adventure we fit 6 people in a tiny honda
sized car, it was like a college prank.

Back at the hotel, we start to get into "it's time for Seth to get married today at 4PM mode"
but first, we have a light lunch and just hang out and talk for bit. Mar is off getting her
hair done at this time.

We arrange the name cards in alphabetical order then it's off to get ready. I get showered and
dressed into my tux in all of 20 minutes due to time constraints.

(I bought a tux a few weeks ago, and picked up a vest for the tux earlier in the week. I hate
cummerbunds, they are evil.)

At 3:30 I help Seth wrap up a few last minute things and then the wedding begins.

Weddings in Mexico are far far different than U.S. weddings.

There isn't a true best man role here, but I fill the role of close friend of the groom, or
something similar. The wedding takes place entirely at the hotel here, so an open tent was set
up in the garden here where the ceremony takes place. Seth marches in with his mother-in-law, I march in with Marlene, which is cool, followed by the rest of Mar's family.

The ceremony is a Catholic mass, which sorta follows a traditional catholic mass, but with some
changes. Obviously, it's all in Spanish, and I'm able to pick up parts of it. My part in the
ceremony is to just hold the vows, which I hand off during the ceremony. During the ceremony,
the priest tells Mar to translate the important parts to Seth during the ceremony, this is good
as Seth doesn't understand enough Spanish and really, it helps.

The ceremony ends, and about 10 minutes later, there is a civil ceremony. In Mexico, you need
to do both. This part is really unique, a justice of the peace has Seth and Mar and 4 witnesses
(I'm one of them) stand up on what was an altar a few minutes before while the justice gives the
sermon. For a justice of the peace, she gives a fairly in depth one. And everyone signs off on
the certificates, in triplicate. In fact, Seth and Mar have to give their fingerprints too. At
least they didn't have to pop a vein and give blood too, that would be weird.

After the civil ceremony, Mar gets her train fixed while Seth and I wait. It's a very informal
march into the other yard where the reception is being held. Of course, Seth does march in to
the Star Wars processional (the song that is played at the end of the first film when Han and
Luke get the awards).

Then, we start right on the first course. Whereas in the US, there's all that intro stuff, here
you just go right into the food. Cool. Ginny, Fred, Marlene and I are all sitting at the table
with Seth and Mar, which is good, put all the gringos in one spot. The wedding has about 80
attendees and there is a stage set up with a band. Soup is followed by the main course. After,
I do the second best man speech in two weeks. This one, like last week is also done in two
languages, which means I have to read them off a paper, which is weird for me, as I don't
usually do that. People laugh where they're supposed to in both languages, so I'm happy.
After, dancing ensues, and there is a surreal mix of music played. Mostly in Spanish, but also
including the disco spanish versions of YMCA, Macho man and other 70's classics. Very very
surreal. But, very very cool. The version of the bouquet of flowers involves all the women
streaming around the crowd and around and under a bridge made by Seth holding Mar's wedding dress train. The guys do the same thing, but I'm instructed to knock into Seth, as we go along.

The guys are really good at knocking into Seth and manage to knock him down. That was oddly
fun. The band plays until 11PM and is immediately followed by a Mariachi band, which is really really really cool. The play for an hour. This part was hilarious, as the Mariachi band plays by
request. So when they asked for a song the entire crowd kept asking for songs to play. Since
it was Mar and Seth's wedding, Mar's requests of course, won.

What was very nice and very cool for Seth and Mar to do was they had a song dedicated to Marlene and I as our 5 year anniversary is on April 5th. So that was very cool to have a Mariachi band play a song especially for us. A great way to end the night.

The party ends in the neighborhood of 12:30 AM, so the wedding was an 8 and a half hour party.
Really cool.

Asleep by 1AM and on to Saturday...

Office Depot, Drugstores and run like hell...

2008-04-05T14:55:00.000-04:00

Jueves, 3 de Abril de 2008 - Parte dos

So, after we I post up, we head out with Seth and Mar to Office Depot to help them finalize some printed materials for the wedding.

While they do that we run over to the drugstore for them to pick up some bug repellent for the wedding the next day. The drugstore is unique. It's an open air store where you ask the attendant behind the counter for whatever you need. Even something as basic as bug repellent. We go across the street back to Office Depot and hang with Seth and Mar while they work through a ton of technical issues.

A quick note, when one crosses the street in Cuernavaca, the best way to do it is to find an epmty spot in traffic and just run like hell, hoping you don't die. For some reason, in Mexico, red lights are treated as suggestions. It's like driving in NJ without all the etiquette involved, and if you've driven in NJ, you know there is no such thing as etiquette when driving.

From Office Depot, we head back to the hotel and have dinner there where we are joined by Ginny and Fred, two more of Seth's friends who came in that day.

My Kind of Town, Cuernavaca is.

2008-04-03T19:20:00.003-04:00

Jueves, el 3 de Abril de 2008:

Up early to go with Seth and Mar to finalize license stuff for the wedding tomorrow. First, a quick breakfast at the restaurant where, get this, I had some coffee, just to throw Marlene into a state of confusion for the day. It worked. Next, into Cuernavaca to the local government offices, which, seem to be in what was at some point, a large motel complex. Seriously, you could have changed the signs to Motel 6 and rented a room. There was even a large working pool in the center of it all. At some point, it had to have been a hotel. Licensing part went fine, since I'm the best man, I needed to show proof I was who I am. Although, I'm rarely sure what that is in the first place. From there, we went back to the car and Mar (not Marlene, Mar is Seth's wife), gave us a tour of the area. She dropped Seth, Marlene and I off to tour around while Mar took care of wedding stuff.

Now, driving in Cuernavaca, or Mexico in general reminds me of when you see movies of India. Lots of cars, tiny roads, and no space. In the cities we've seen so far, everything is truly on top of each other. Even the airport in Mexico city. There's the terminal, and literally across the side street, city. It's surreal. So yeah, tight twisty roads, like the road to Hana without Hana and with enclosed walls. Anyway, the three of us saw the famous Cathedral here, so famous, I don't know the name offhand. But it was nice. Then we walked through town, which was cool. From there, we went the local museum and spent oddly, a few hours there. It was really nice, even if I barely understood anything in said museum.

From there, Mar picked us up and went out for a very nice lunch, where I had some Pacifico beer, which was quite good.

Next went to the Mega Mart of course. You know me, I'm a geek, so we went to this ridiculously large supermarket/electronics store/toy/motorcycle/guns store. You know, like Walmart on steroids (that was the official canned steroids allegory for this blog today). I was good, I bought no books (well, they are in Spanish here, so that's a handicap), but I did buy some CD's that I'll recap at the end of this trip.

From there, we headed back to the hotel, where we tried to find the hypothetical internet connection that they say exists here.

As you can tell by reading this, I did finally get a hold of one. Although it's only 5:30 now, so I'll continue the rest of this on the next one...There is a supposed wireless network, which my computer swears exists, but the network doesn't want to let anyone connect...so I'm using the wire for the only wire network they have here...

I'll post at some point, but tonight, there's a good dinner ahead, and tomorrow, a wedding where I will give a best man speech in 2 languages - for the second time in a week....

Bienvenido a Mexico - And Aeromexico has shockingly good food.

2008-04-03T19:15:00.002-04:00

Quick note, I have more to update on events before this trip, but, oddly, I'll do that AFTER this trip...

Anywho,

Miercoles, el 2 de Abril de 2008

Up at 4:30 to get to JFK. We got a good price on a flight to Mexico City, and the only catch was that it was from JFK, not Newark (or EWR to flying geeks). Left the house at 5 and made record time to JFK, getting to the long time parking lot at around 6ish. Took the airtrain a long 4 miles to Terminal one and checked in.

When we packed for the trip, we packed a bunch of bottles of water and wondered if they would be confiscated. We needn't have worried once we saw what others were passing for luggage for the flight. I literally saw sacks wrapped in tape. Once I saw that, my mere unassuming suitcase was nothing.

Killed some time at the terminal and the boarded. Oddly, we really didn't get checked for our legal status until we got to the gate. Then we got checked 3 times before boarding. Although, not all of the folks waiting for the plane got on.

Apparently, if you're flying to Mexico, it helps if you have, uh, PAPERWORK to show your citizen status before getting on the plane. Three guys in front of us hit the wall of the INS just before the plane entrance. For some odd reason, they didn't have paperwork and yet told the INS officer they were bringing 5000 US dollars to Mexico. Needless to say things did not go well for them. This was verified when we were stuck at the gate as it was announced that the bags of 3 people had to be found and removed from the baggage area of the plane.

Flight wasn't bad. Food was shockingly good on the Aeromexico flight. Breakfast was huevos rancheros, which is eggs with everything, bread, muffin, fruit salad, coffee and juice. Far far better than normal. Kids were only slightly annoying, and kept to seem following us as we moved seats on the plane. Luckily when they kicked, it felt like a massage chair so that was good.

On the flight, Marlene watched "The Golden Compass" I watched Aliens on the PSP, and something called Babylon 5: Lost Tales which was a straight to DVD special for the series Babylon 5 and had a budget of $3.75. Babylon 5 was a great tv series, but this lost tales thing mucho sucked. I started reading the movie adaptation to Iron Man because I'm a geek....

Landed a tad late, and spent a half hour in immigration. But it was the new terminal 2 in Mexico City and was quite nice. The line moved quick too. Got some pesos from Citibank's Mexico equivalent (Banamex) at an ATM right after immigration. The airport was fine and after many false starts, we found the new bus terminal at terminal 2 that had buses to Cuernavaca, our ultimate destination.

Bus ride was better than NJ Transit. But then again, most things are. This was cool because A) They gave us a soda and some cookies and B) They showed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the one that came out last year) in Spanish. We rode through Mexico City, and Seth had the best analogy for it: New York City in the '70s. Luckily, we just rode through it. The ride to Cuernavaca was easy and really cool.

We got to the bus terminal where we met up with Seth. He got us in a taxi with his wife's sister to take us to the Villa Rosa Hotel while they scrambled to work on wedding stuff.

A ride through Cuernavaca reminded me of a chase from the Bourne movies. (More on this later)

Got to the hotel, which is very pink, but very nice, but oddly, located down what seems is a back alley off a street. However, the compound here is very nice with great views. The room which was a basic room, was quite large with a huuuuuge shower and big bed. No AC, but I could stand to sweat off some weight and there is a bunch of fans to compensate.

With just Marlene and I around, we had an incredible dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. It had to be one of the top 10 meals of my life. After we headed back to the room and chilled.

Seth joined us soon after and we headed back to the restaurant (which is like 10 feet from the room) and hung out while he got dinner, we joined in on dessert and just talked for a few hours.

After, we hit the sack and went to sleep. A long day, but a very very different day.

Adventures in Dog Ownership

2008-03-16T14:16:00.004-04:00

So, as you know, we have a dog, named Bombon. He's a Pekingese which I'm fairly sure means "insane, 'it's my world, you're just living in it" and hairy" in some other language.

He is a rip though.

Look:

Sometimes, as a form of protest he likes to go under his bed.

So, one interesting tidbit did arise while we were away, and Anita asked me to relay this story to the masses. So, here it is.

Bombon is like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, these guys, remember?

He finds any opening and tries to get through it, and he's constantly learning, so he's very smart.

This was proven, when, I got a call in Hawaii that started with this line:

"Do you own a dog named Bombon?"

I replied, "yes I do"

The conversation then proceeded along the lines of the fact that this wonderful gentleman found Bombon wandering around Manalapan and called the contact numbers on his collar.

Note to ALL dog owners: Buy a thing for your dog's collar that lists his Name, address, and MULTIPLE phone #'s so that you can be easily contacted in cases like this.

Apparently, Bombon, had found an opening, and ran out of my poor parent's house.

Bombon is fast. Like Road Runner fast. And when you chase after him, he thinks you're playing a game with him. Never a good combo.

So, of course, my next call after telling the gentleman that my parents will call him directly to get him since I'm, uh, in Hawaii. The call started like this:

"Hi Todd!"

"Hi! I found my dog"

Hilarity ensued, but in the end Bombon was returned back to my parents house.

This didn't make it in the blog because, gosh, I forget why at this point, but now it's here.

So I guess this is kind of a note that:

A) Pekingese dogs will keep you on your toes.
B) Make you have ID on your dog's collar
C) If you own a Pekingese, go back and watch Jurassic Park to remind you of what they can do.

The Wrap-Up - And exit rows rock!

2008-03-12T17:36:00.002-04:00

Up at 5AM PST, a taxi to the airport and a flight that left slightly late. This was expected, we were flying into Newark. Anything related to Newark Airport = Delay. Always. The flight was ok, we flew Continental and I snagged us some exit row seats so we had legroom.

Home by 5PM and dealt with the effects of the heavy winds on our house. Our front door was knocked off and my incredible neighbors actually put it back on my house while we were gone. I have the best neighbors in existence. Also, lost some of the siding on the house. The dog was happy to see us.

So, let's tie this trip into a neat bow...

Books purchased on the trip:

You Suck - by Christopher Moore
Images of Haleakala - Picture book
The Eyre Affair - by Jasper Fforde
Fantasyland - by Sam Walker
The Lost Legends of New Jersey - by Frederick Reiken
The Tom Clancy Companion

Obscure rare book related items purchased at this incredible book shop we found in Maui called: JoAnn Carroll's Old Lahaina Book Emporium. This place was tucked away and had a crazy collection of books and other documents:

Young Pillars by Charles M Schulz - He didn't just write Peanuts, he did this one too
A Comics Scene Magazine from March 1982 - It had an article written by John Byrne, one of my favorite comic book writers
A program from the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular circa 1989

And of course:

U.S. Department of Agriculture - Painting the Farm- A US Government guide from 1925 on how to paint your farm

Oh, bought a Ninja Devil Duckie too (http://accoutrements.com/products/11573.html)

Everyone needs a Ninja Devil Duckie.

All in all, a good trip. Here's some random thoughts about it:

If you go to Maui, try to stay in West Maui as it doesn't rain much there.
The place we stayed at, the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort is a good place for good value (http://www.lahainashores.com/) For far less of a price than most resorts we had a small apartment facing the ocean with a quiet beach that was almost private, was a few blocks from town and had a fully functional kitchen.
If you stay at a place with a kitchen, go to the local store and buy food so that you can eat a few meals a day at the hotel. Food is very expensive in Maui, having breakfast and a few dinners at the room saved us a ton of money.
When in Hawaii, buy a pineapple (it's actually cheaper than in the mainland) and eat it. You will thank me for this. We did this twice during the trip.
Rent a small car (I mentioned this in a past post).
Do ziplining, it's really fun and as long as you don't think about what you are doing, you'll be fine.
Seattle is a cool city, but the city itself can really be covered in one day. So it makes for an ideal stop if you have a chance to lay over there like we did. Also, the Grand Hyatt there was really good.

I'm sure there's more, but I'm kinda tired right now, so I'll do that in the next entry. Oh, and a link for pics too...

I will not use the standard "Sleepless in Seattle" title here

2008-03-11T21:33:00.002-04:00

So, what would you call a day where you walk around an entire city, see a famous fish market, see the Space Needle, the Science fiction Hall of Fame museum, a rock music museum, are extras in a small movie, eat some great sushi oh and see Stephen Hawking up close in person? Monday.

Today had it all, and I'm so tired writing this one...

We arrived in Seattle just shy of 6AM Seattle time. We get our bags and make it to the Grand Hyatt Seattle at around 7 AM. Somehow, our room is READY(!), so we check in to a really great room with a view of the Space Needle, a bathroom larger than some apartments, a nice king sized bed and a vestibule. We snag an hour and a half of sleep, giving me a total of 3.5 hours for the whole night when you add in the plane sleep. Up and out at 9, we head to the orignal Starbuck's (the first one), and over to Pike Street fish market. For training geeks like myself, this is the famous fish market where the FISH video was based. While there, they are filming what looks to be a small film called "Marry Me" where Marlene and I are in the background while they film a few scenes. A cool way to start the day. We wander around the market some more, then make our way out to the space needle.

We take the monorail that runs directly there, and head up to the top of the Space Needle for some great views on a surprising cloudy day that oddly had a great view anyway. We head down, and I make a snap decision that winds up changing my life.

We head to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame museum which turns out to be beyong amazing. Why? The museum itself is really good, and while y'all are saying, oh, "Todd's being a geek again", who do I see with a fairly large entourage at the museum? Stephen Hawking. A living legend. One of the greatest humans, one of the smartest humans to ever grace the planet Earth. For those who are going, "who the heck is he?" Stephen Hawking is beyond genius. Wiki him. But for perspective, it's the equivalent of walking into a museum and seeing Albert Einstein wandering around. Rarely do I get awestruck, but today I was. All this because I decided at the last second to go to the museum.

Ok, I'm done being gobsmacked (look the term up, it's real). But it was amazing. The Sci Fi HOF museum also includes the Experience Music Project which was a museum that felt like a mini version of the rock and roll hall of fame museum. It was a cool museum, and was a good snap decision.

From there, we walked along the Seattle waterfront stopping in various stores along the way. We had lunch at a restaurant on a pier and then made our way over to the Pioneer Square area where I found this amazing bookstore that felt a lot like the Strand in New York and Afterwords Bookstore in Chicago, only, it was amazing large. From there, a quick walk into the International District and a long walk back to the hotel.

Quick naps later, we headed over to this great sushi restaurant called Red Fin (http://www.redfinsushi.com/about.html) which was a great way to end the day. By this time we were both beat due to jet lag/lack of sleep/walking around an entire city. So we walked around a little bit then back to the hotel for an early wakeup...

Next, more flyin'

Turtles and suitcases and planes oh my

2008-03-11T21:32:00.000-04:00

Our last day in Maui starts with Marlene grabbing bagels for us that we eat on the balcony watching the view for the last time this trip. Then, much packing, where we realize another suitcase is needed. Luckily, we scoped one out the night before, and run out and snag it just before we check out.

We check out at 11AM and grab some gas for the car, stop at a brand spanking new Barnes & Noble in Lahaina and then over to Cannery Mall where Marlene picks up a piece of jewelry she had eyed a few days ago.

From there, we head over to the heliport to pick up a DVD we had ordered of our flight earlier in the week. Since we basically have about 5 hours to kill still, we head over to the aquarium, where we see much in oceanic creature beautifulness. It also puts an exclamation on the point of an interesting tidbit I learned about Marlene this week. She's a really really really big fan of sea turtles. As there were sea turtles at the aquarium, she's in sea turtle nirvana. The aquarium itself isn't big, but it passes about an hour for us. From there, we wander around the town where the aquarium is, and have lunch at Buzz's wharf, a local eatery that has some good food. In Ma'alena.

Luckily, since this is Hawaii, lunch takes a few hours, so that by the time we finish, and head to the car to reload the suitcases for the flight to Seattle, it's almost time.

To note here, for the week, we rented a red Chevy Cobalt from Avis for a good rate. If you rent a car in Hawaii, particularly Maui, I really really really recommend getting a small car. Small roads = better with small cars. You have the maneuverability you need and good gas mileage. Gas is very expensive on Maui, not that this is shocking. Gas ran us usually around 3.89 a gallon. With all the hundreds of miles we drove this trip, I only filled up the tiny 10 gallon tank twice, and one of those was only a half fill. Alot of dorks come to Maui and rent these bigger convertibles or SUVs then go nuts trying to fit them into the tiny sized Maui parking spots, or nuts trying to fit them on the tiny sized Maui roads (see Road to Hana). So the Cobalt worked great for us, plus it was able to play my cd loaded with mp3s and had an aux input so I was able to hook the PSP up to it and play tunes off of that. And yes, when I travel, I bring the correct cord, because, uh, it's my business to know to bring that cord. And I bring cd's so we have tunes to listen to since local music always consists of christian radio programming no matter what city in the US you are in. (The exception being NYC where god is afraid to hang out)

We headed to Kahului airport (airport code OGG - my new favorite aiport code) and dropped off the car. The airport is very small, so I was able to drop Marlene with the bags while I went over to drop the car off so we didn't have to schlep them around. An odd thing: Before we even checked in, our check in bags were scanned for agriculture, which we had none of. We checked in and then put our carry ons through an agriculture check too. Then got to the gate and hung out for about 45 minutes, where we watched most of the helicopter ride DVD we picked up earlier.

The flight was on Northwest, and for once, I was smart, I snagged us the super deluxe exit row seat, which turned out to be bulkheads with more leg room space that got everyone else on the plane jealous. Since I got that continental airlines elite status, I was able to get the seat for me for free and paid $35 for Marlene's pseudo upgrade. While some may think this is a rip off, we had more legroom than the folks in first class, plus, I got these airplane tix for basically frequent flyer miles, so the fee wasn't too much.

The plane was eh, Northwest was eh, but the seats were slamming. We left at 7:30 PM Maui time, layed over (staying on the plane) in Kona, Hawaii for about an hour and a half before taking off for Seattle.

On the five hour flight, I read (currently reading the book 9 Innings - The anatomy of a baseball game, by Daniel Okrent), slept for 2 hours (which was sweet because I usually don't sleep, but had the leg room this time, so I did) and watched the Bourne Ultimatum on my PSP. Marlene slept and read, but mostly slept.

We arrived on time on Seattle, but that's the next blog entry...

Hot Toddy Lobster continued, Lahaina Redux, and a Luau

2008-03-09T05:06:00.002-04:00

Interesting night of sleep that involved more slathering of aloe, and a truckload of tylenol., but I slept better than I thought I would. Go figure.

Of course, I couldn't move much, so we had a casual breakfast on the balcony, then, as I regained motion, headed into Lahaina for some souvenirs etc. Passed through the shops, including the Wyland art gallery and took in the town.

Came back to the hotel for lunch (we had bought some cans of chili earlier in the week) hung out for a bit, slathered more aloe on me, and then got ready for the luau, which luckily, was located very close to the hotel.

The luau was cool. We had seating at our own table and the food was served to us, no buffet lines, no wait, it was nice. We had a five course meal and some cool entertainment. I'll get the pix up there soon too. It was a great way to end our time in Maui.

The Maui adventure is almost over, we leave Sunday night at 7:30PM on a redeye to Seattle, where we'll spend Monday and leave there early Tuesday morning. In getting the boarding passes ready for tomorrow, I realized y'all are doing that daylight savings time thingy. They don't do that in Hawaii, so this should make things interesting.

Tomorrow, the aquarium, we pick up the helicopter DVD and onwards to Seattle!

A day at the beach, a sunset on a boat and Red Lobster

2008-03-09T04:59:00.002-04:00

The day started with breakfast on the balcony. Still digging that. Headed out to South Maui, passing through Kihei and finding parking at Wailea beach. After walking along the path by the ocean for a while, we hit the beach. Put on the suntan lotion, and got some rays. Oh, and I played Yahtzee with the waves, the big waves. I call it Yahtzee because I kept getting thrown around like the dice, but it was fun. South Maui is a tad crowded, but cool.

After, we headed back to the hotel, to get cleaned up for a sunset cruise on the water.

After a delay in boarding due to a cruise ship in the area (Princess cruises) which gunked up all the boats at Lahaina, (seriously bad too, there was a massive line to get back on the cruise ship), we headed out on the Quest for a cocktail/sunset cruise. The drinks and food was good. Many whales were seen up close too. And a good sunset.

After the cruise, I realized that the sunscreen applied earlier, didn't really do the "screening" part.

It seemed I turned into a lobster. A hairy lobster, but a lobster nonetheless. Picked up a massive amount of aloe, and went back to the room and slathered myself up in aloe, then went to sleep. You know, this gives the term "Hot Toddy" and entirely new meaning...

Tomorrow: Lahaina, a luau and "It's daylight savings time?"

Sweet jesus, Marlene got me in a helicopter

2008-03-07T13:40:00.005-05:00

Yeah, so, uh, never really liked heights much, but, we did the helicopter thing yesterday.

Some proof:

While the helicopter ride was a tad unnerving (for me, not Marlene as she made me point out here, you know, she had no problems with the zipline too, I'm starting to think she's Spiderwoman), the views were amazing, look:

The helicopter tour was with a company called Mauiscape and the ride was about 45 minutes long. It was my first time in a helicopter, and I'm sure I'll be in one again, but not on this trip. :)

By the way, stopped at Borders on the way to the airport, bought (shockingly) a few books, the final tally will be on the last blog.

From there we headed out to West Maui so the ritzy resort area. Unlike the area we are in which I actually like better, as the room is far more reasonable, larger and the beaches are far quieter here. The area we went to yesterday was basically a few mile stretch with about 15 large hotels in one stretch, so it was almost completely full of tourists and very few locals. This would be the area where all the rich folks go. The area was nice, but too crowded for our tastes.

From there, we made a stop at Safeway to grab a few basic vittles.

Back at the hotel, we did some jogging at the beach. This was the first time in 2 weeks I had jogged as I was sick with a cold the week before and having saw pics of me on this trip realized that I so had to jog again before small children ran away in fear of my belly.

Dinner was at the Cool Kat Cafe in Lahaina, which was a few block walk from the hotel. Good place to eat with reasonable prices. Worth a look.

A diversified day, but good.

Tomorrow, some beaches and a sunset cruise.

Today, I turned my steering wheel a lot

2008-03-06T01:30:00.003-05:00

The title isn't a metaphor, or innuendo, or anything like that. Today, I did turn my steering wheel more than I ever did, ever. Today, we took the road to Hana.

Yesterday we were in a dormat volcano, today, we drove around the forests on the outside of yesterday's volcano. The road to Hana is twisty, very very very very very twisty. Here's how twisty it is. You know when kids play with a steering wheel and they turn it left and right really quickly? That's what I did in real life today. Picture driving 30 miles and having about 3 stretches of straight road the entire time. That's the road to Hana. So yes, you keep making turns and curves and all that. And, you do it on a very non-wide road. Only some of the time do two cars fit side by side on the road. There are a ton of 1 lane bridges, yields, and just plain 'ole tight roads.
Great scenery, but very stressful driving.

Here, take a look:

So, while the road to Hana is cool, it's also a pain in the arse. We did stop at some waterfalls along the way. Waterfalls are pretty. We also stopped at a black sand beach, and yes, the sand was black. Pix will come up at some point. In Hana itself, we found a hidden path and found a red sand beach too. Cool stuff.

Driving back, I had the hang of the road down, so I was zipping along. Like in Bourne movie.
We stopped for a really cool pork taco along the way and bought some coconut candy at a roadside stand. Overpriced, but good. Hit the spot.

Coming back, we made our way back to the hotel, and spent a few hours on the beach. Also, got yesterday's blog up, was a tad behind due to some internet issues at the hotel. Dinner was on the balcony again watching the sunset.

Tonight, we're just chilling.

Tomorrow, apparently, we're taking a helicopter tour.

Like I said earlier, just getting over my fear of heights on this trip.

Flying by the seat of my pants

2008-03-05T19:27:00.006-05:00

So, what did we do first thing yesterday morning?

This:

That would be Marlene

And that would be me. (The one with the yellow helmet)

Yes, for fun, we did some ziplining yesterday. For those who are wondering "WTF?" Ziplining is when you get put in a harness and then go from one point to another on a rope wearing said harness. It's easy, all you have to do is hold on, and, steer. I don't like heights, but on this trip, I seem to be ignoring that. If you've never done ziplining go do it now. Seriously, get a rope, tie it to 2 points, get a harness together and go nuts you'll love it. On the one we did, you did a total of 5 zips each getting progressively bigger and deeper, until you get to the last one which is uh, insane. The trick is to not THINK about the fact that you're attached to a rope. The experience itself is great, you go fast, (the last one we did, which is the pic of me, you hit 40MPH) and you see some great sites. So yes, that's how we started the day.

From there, we went upwards to the peak of Haleakala which is a dormant volcano, incredible views. While up there, we took a hike that heads down into the dormant volcano to see scenery reminiscent of Mars. Incredible stuff. When I get the pix up, you'll see.

From there, we headed back into town, stopping at Gamestop (dude, the new MLB '08 game for the PSP came out, I'm hooked on the MLB series, and plus, you never know how much airport time I'll have later on so I snagged it), lunch where we had some really good burgers and of course, Walmart. Always gotta see the Walmart.

Came back to the hotel and sat on the beach for a few hours to watch the sunset. We actually relaxed (go play lotto now). Dinner was sushi at a place 10 feet from the hotel, where you could watch Deathwish 3 and the history channel on 2 separate tv's. Surreal...

Great day today. Tomorrow, the Road to Hana!

Aloha from Maui - Alternate tittle: Choose Oceanic Air over Delta

2008-03-04T01:08:00.002-05:00

So, back on another trip. This time, we're in Maui, and only Maui, for the next week or so.

Getting here was half the fun, took a mere 24 hours.

So, ponder this, if you have the choice of taking either Delta airlines or Oceanic, choose Oceanic, at the very least you know you'll at least make it to the tropical island...

When Marlene and I take long flights, we try to break them up so that we have a layover somewhere in the middle to recover. The plan yesterday was to fly to LAX, layover in LA for 4 hours and then fly to Maui. Reality turned out to be, fly out to LA, and, uh, layover for 10 hours. The flight to LA was Continental, which went magically well. The second was Delta, which, I was shocked to find out, was still in business. The plane was delayed for mechanical reasons, and info was spotty throughout the day as usual. But, exciting, we were given a $7 meal voucher, which, at LAX, gets you a water. So, really, avoid Delta, just wait for them to be taken over by a real airline and you'll be better.

The flight did finally leave LA at 10:30PM (LA Time) and the flight was very empty, so were were able to spread out a bit. We arrived in Maui at 2AM (Hawaiian time, 7AM EST) and got the rental, then drove the hour west to the hotel. Arriving at around 3:30 or so (8:30AM EST). Since our first flight left Newark at 8:30AM EST on Sunday, it literally took 24 hours to get here. On the plus side, LAX was decent, and we found a place to plug this laptop in and watch the Bourne Supremacy, which is a always a good way to pass the time.

We got in to the Lahaina Shores hotel, got to our nice ocean view room and went to bed.

Woke up at 8:30 to check out the view. It's really really good. The room is great too, having a small kitchen with oven, microwave, stove, fridge, etc. Good sized room too.

We sat through the boring speech they give to new arrivals, but snagged some free breakfast. From there, we walked into the town of Lahaina and wandered around, marveling at the fact that we were not on a plane, or at LAX anymore. We came back to hotel, and since we had a car, and a kitchen, drove to Safeway to round up some vittles (not Tender). We bought snacks, breakfast foods, and dinner foods, came back, and then headed out to the beach, which is right outside the hotel property.

Did some sunbathing, well Marlene did, I kept burying my feet in the sand and wandering into the ocean trying to see the effect of salt water on open cuts from a very stupid past Friday event. The beach was great, the weather was great and my sunburn is mildly great.

Stupid event from this past Friday: So, if you're even carrying a knapsack with 2 laptops in it and enough stuff to make it weight over 30 pounds, and then you trip on the sidewalk in NYC, you WILL go down hard enough to cut your knee (ripping the jeans), your hands at the palms and your forehead. Yes, this is what I did, I looked like I was in a bar fight. My favorite part was I did this right outside the school I teach at and had to make my way back to my car in Jersey City before applying basic first aid. This involved taking the NYC subway and the PATH train, where I managed to bleed profusely on both. What a mess.

But, the cuts are sealing now, which is good, because we seem to be going ziplining tomorrow.

As for the rest of today, after the beach, we headed back into town to buy foot items to wear when going in the ocean as it is very very rocky in Maui. Then, back to hotel where we cooked up a roasted chicken and some rice a roni for dinner, and sat on our balcony where we ate dinner and watched the sunset. A great way to end the day.

So, uh, if we survive tomorrow, I'll let you know how this ziplining thing goes...

Tmobile is as stupid as those baseball players who paid for their steriods with CHECKS!

2007-12-15T17:23:00.002-05:00

File this under the you can't make crap like this up folder....

I attempted to switch Marlene's T-mobile account under my corporate one which would have a discount. Here's a portion of the rejection email I got back...

Upon discovering that your rate plan was no longer being offered, I sought another similar rate plan option for you to choose from. You are currently on the Nationwide Get More which includes the following: 1,000 whenever minutes for $39.99 per month. I have reviewed the usage on your account for the past three months and I found that our Individual Get More would meet and exceed your calling needs. This plan includes the following: 300 anytime minutes,unlimited weekends for $39.99 per month. By changing your rate plan you may be required to extend your contractual agreement with T-Mobile.

OK how about a big WTF? So, let me get this straight, I should apparently give up the 1000 minutes per month I have and go for the 300 minutes per month (with unlimited weekends, not nights, but weekends...).

If you can make sense of this, you're a better person than I...

Crap! I'm actually back in NJ?

2007-11-25T17:37:00.000-05:00

Wow, been a while since I've written. Totally my bad. I've been everywhere and nowhere it seems. So let's go back...

To Dallas...

This was a quick trip. Got there Sunday night. Taught Monday and Tuesday and got an early flight back to NJ on that Tuesday. Didn't see much of the city, but I barely had time to. I did manage to eat fried pickles with Cynthia and her husband, so that was cool.

To Newark and New York City....

November 1st, that was a crazy day. Started the morning driving to Newark, NJ and parking at the Hilton. (21 bucks for the day) Took the Path to NYC then hightailed it up to midtown where I taught a class all day. From there, back downtown to meet Marlene. Dinner in the city. Then the Path back to Newark to the new Prudential Arena where we saw Mr. Bon Jovi in one of apparently 4000 shows he was doing at the new center (it was actually 10 shows, but seemed like 4000). The show opener was Gretchen Wilson, and then the concert, which was pretty cool. The new Newark arena isn't bad also, plenty of cops around and plenty of parking. In fact, it was the quickest I ever got out of a concert in terms of traffic too, go figure.

To Phoenix...

3 days later, on Nov 4th, I was back on a plane to Phoenix. Stayed at the Hyatt downtown. Nice place too. Had dinner a block from the hotel the first night. The second night I had dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel, pretty darned cool. The third night, I had dinner at the Omaha Steak restaurant on the other side of town, picked up some hiking equipment, and went to the apple store.

There, I had my iPod Touch replaced. For some odd reason, the letters "S" and "E" would not work on the keyboard. Go figure. Luckily, they replaced it on the spot, which is why it's sometimes cool to buy stuff online. The receipt is always up there. Also, I picked up a 4GB nano because it's nice and small, and better for the travelin' part. As it turned out, Marlene now has possession of the touch. The Nano is good. Good for hiking too, because...

On the last day, I had some free time before I flew out that afternoon at 5PM. So, for fun, I got up at sunrise and hiked Piestewa Peak Summit Trail. The official description:

Trail #300 - Summit Trail
Length: 1.2 miles
Elevation: 2,608 ft. - 1,400 ft. (hikers gain more than 1,200 feet in elevation on this trail)
Hiking trail only
Difficulty: Moderate to difficult

So it was a cool way to start the day. Used the new nano on the hike too, (which I had loaded up the night before with 100 songs). It is a steep trail, but I found it a little easier than Camelback, which I had hiked last year. This might be because I'm in a little bit of better shape than last year though. Spent a while at the peak where I just sat on a rock listening to music and relaxing with the view. The night before, I bought was waistpack made for hiking that was great for the hike, it held everything I needed. Also picked up weightlifting gloves as I tend to cut myself on rocks and wanted the extra coverage.

Next, went back to the hotel, showered, checked out, and made my way over to Chase Field (home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team) for a tour. Not a bad way to spend an hour and a half. I had lunch at a TGI Fridays that was actually IN the park too. In fact, my table overlooked left field. Really cool. Food was eh, location was A+.

The rest of the day was spent at...Target. Go figure, but I needed a case for the new nano. From there, back to the airport, and eventually back home. I think that flight was one of the few on time. Oh yeah, it was. The bitchy part was Newark airport itself. In fact I had landed early, then slow baggage return and a semi functioning monorail (they were not running regularly) had me spending another 1.5 hours at the airport. So yes, Newark Airport officially sucks.

A few happy days were spent at home, but I was busy cleaning for most of it. Started the process of moving the home office from the living room (a sort of dumb place for it to be) up to the study (a better place for it to be)

To Detroit/Grand Rapids...

That next Tuesday, I was back to Newark. Lots of cars there, so I had to park in lot P1 instead of the normal P3 lot (ugh). The flight was quick (1 hour) and I was in Detroit. Hopped a cab to the city. Stayed at the Courtyard Marriott literally across the street from GM's world headquarters. So, I wandered over there, and found, uh, Canada. Literally, it was across the river. I hadn't seen Canada since my early 20's so this was cool. Also checked out some of GM's HQ and had a sushi dinner in the lobby there, where a Marriott hotel (another one, not the one I was staying at) is. Did you know that Detroit has a monorail? Well, they call it a peoplemover, but it's the same idea. I took it around, stopped at a casino too. Uhh, it was interesting. (More on this later)

Taught the next day 3 blocks from the hotel, and got a lift to the airport. They seem to like monorails in Detroit. There was one actually IN the airport that went from one end of the terminal (it was really big) to the other. Hopped a very quick (25 minutes! The flight went like this. "We have reached cruising altitude/We are beginning our initial descent into Grand Rapids, oh heck, don't bother getting out of your seats") flight to Grand Rapids. Landed and got a nice lift (a town car for only 37 bucks!) to the Amway Grand Plaza hotel. Nice hotel. I had dinner there and almost made it an early night, but I wound up finally finishing book 7 of Harry Potter.

Taught the next day and met Nicole, her husband, and the very new to this world Sara for dinner. They took me around Grand Rapids (nice town) and even past the World Headquarters for the Amway Corporation and back to their very nice house for dinner. I can die now. All I have set to accomplish has been achieved. Dinner was great, and a very nice change from restaurants.

While back at the hotel (also owned by the Amway dudes), I realized that I was across the river from the Gerald Ford Library (but didn't have time to go there) and that the airport in Grand Rapids is the Gerald Ford Airport. Who knew?

Flew back home (finally on the 16th of November) and continued cleaning.

I few days later, I learned that Detroit was the most dangerous city in America. This would explain why I felt odd when I was walking around Detroit by myself and the town was desolate. Hmmm, let this be a lesson kids, don't do things that I do!

Now that was a busy 4 weeks. I'm glad I'm home...

Where the #$%(&(&(*(&& have I been?

2007-10-29T21:11:00.000-04:00

Everywhere, and still many places to go.

Today, it's Dallas. Been here since Sunday night. 36 hours before that, I was in Chicago. 48 hours before that, I was home.

So, at home, what's news?

New TV stand!
New TV for said new stand!
Oh, and new dog it seems...

So, about the TV and stand first. We broke down and finally got a tv we could be proud of, a 40inch Samsung HDTV 1080i. It sure is purty, and looks niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. Got that whole HDTV cable thing going too. Not easily, thanks to said TV Stand of course.

So, when you buy a TV stand, what's one thing you would a tv stand for have?

How about holes big enough for wires to fit through. Hooked up to this TV are (now):

Tivo (well, ReplayTV techinically)

Cable Box

XBOX 360

Nintendo Wii

DVD player that plays basically anything you put in it. Seriously, it'll even play a pie, I swear...

So, a lot of cables, most of them not small had to be run through the stand. Well, it was attempted, and after the purchase of a real drill (I needed a new one) and some bits to drill big holes, I did it. Ugh.

But, the TV sure is sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Oh, and the dog, well, we seem to have adopted my neighbor's highly feisty yet highly amusing Pekinese entitled Bombon, for reference, here is a picture of said creature:

He's an interesting one, but more on him in the future...

Moving right along, I'm in the middle of what I have entitled the haul, starting last Wednesday, October 24, and continuing through November 16, I'm taking my show on the road. My stops on this tour are:

Oct 24-26 (that actually became the 27th due to a late flight) - Chicago

Oct 28-31 - Dallas, TX

Nov 1 - New York, NY (had to come back to see Bon Jovi in Newark, oh and do work in NYC as well)

Nov 4-8 - Phoenix, AZ

Nov 13-14 - Detroit, MI

Nov 14-16 - Grand Rapids, MI

No rest for the weary in this time period, and good luck to me trying to figure out where the heck I'm staying/flights/all that related stuff.

On the past weekend I was home, in my full 36 hours I was home, I:

Cleaned the house

Went to a Halloween party

Had a bad stomach virus

The second bullet was good, the rest weren't. My costume? Luke Skywalker in the morning. Picture me in pajamas, robe, and a backpack with Yoda (see a few posts down for that). It was quite amusing. The virus, wasn't.

Luckily, I literally felt better about 2 hours before I left for the airport on Sunday.

Plenty more adventures await me, but I shall tell of them as they happen on the Haul...

Happy Meal Todd

2007-09-30T08:18:00.001-04:00

No getting around this one, today will be a classic, and it's all Barbie's fault. Before we begin though, let's catch up,:

Chicago - 2 weeks ago took a quick trip (overnight) - Went there to learn how to teach a Time Management course I'll be teaching in late October, and yes, I know the irony of me teaching a Time Management course is very very funny. Hung out with the coworkers, who are always nice to see and oddly, flew in AND out on time from Chicago, which, is impossible to do. Quick note, next person who sits in the aisle seat who DOES NOT get up when I ask to get by gets a beat down. Look, I always take window seats for the extra millimeter of room they provide, I don't get up from my seat on any flight under 4 hours so I don't ask for much. I only ask the you GIVE ME THE SPACE TO GET BY YOU. Look, I don't like rubbing my private parts or my butt against anyone I don't know as I struggle to get past you into my seat, so just get your arse out of the seat and let me by. Yes, I'm not the thinnest person in the world, but I have lost a bunch of weight (more on that in a few bullets), so make the dang effort.

The Perfect (Geek) Storm - This past week, I had the trifecta of geekness. First off, the iPod Touch, got it, love it, great interface, and, in a rarity for anything electronic, a joy to use. I got the 8GB model as oddly, I don't like to have too much music to choose from when I listen to my mp3s...Next up Halo 3, which, I've completed already. Great game, and if you've played the first 2, you'll like this one. Fun to play with others too and David and Ariel were my wingmen in Co-operative mode in Halo 3 this week. It's a good reason to buy the Xbox 360 for those who are considering it. I got the Legendary version of it which comes with it's own helmet, like this:

You'll note the helmet is posing next to Yoda. Yes, this my life.

Now, to finish it off, I got a new 22inch flatscreen monitor for my work desk, which, if you don't have one, I recommend going to get right now. It's by NEC and it's amazing. I can SEE again! It's making my job a 1000 times easier with all the stuff I work on the computer with.

In other news, the Yankees are, oddly, in the playoffs, which means I'll be going to a playoff game next Sunday, it seems. Woo hoo!

But the capper, has to be Happy Meal Todd...

Happy Meal Todd

Happy Meal Todd was made by Barbie in the 90's. Happy Meal Todd is cruelty in doll form.

I have taken pictures.

We shall discuss them.

Note the picture that has the overall packaging. While the package is a little battered, note how the child packaged here will obviously grow up to enjoy showtunes, and more than likely , date men.

Note the pink Barbie box.

Note that not only is it Barbie, but it is also a blessed union with McDonalds. Added bonus, HAPPY MEAL is included too.

Ponder the name: "Happy Meal Todd" and all the wrongness that implies. While endless crude jokes can be made here, I shall not digress. Oh, ok maybe for one of them: "Happy Meal Todd, I'm lovin' it!" Or "Nothing says a Happy Meal like having Todd around" Or "Happy Meal Todd...Prove it!" or "Happy Meal Todd Tastes Great Less Filling Miller". Alas, I could continue all century but the damage is done.

Note the fact that the Todd doll is packaged with his right hand up, as if to say: "Please! Take me! Take me from this hell that is my packaging."

Now, this image, which comes from the back of the box. A maze game. Note the fine text:

"Stacie, Todd and their two friends, Whitney and Janet love eating their favorite Happy Meal treats. Help them find the right path to McDonalds"

This kind of backs up my point before that Happy Meal Todd will be a happy man dating men, dressed as he is, hanging out with women...on the other hand, what if Whitney and Janet consider their favorite Happy Meal treat to be Happy Meal Todd? What would that mean? Maybe Happy Meal Todd might not date men when Happy Meal Todd grows up?

Is there a right path to McDonalds? Is the right path to McDonalds to get the heck away because they partner with Barbie to make creepy looking Happy Meal Todd toys?

Ah, onto the next picture, where you can see Ronald McDonald. It looks like Ronald McDonald wants a taste of Happy Meal Todd. Mr McDonald is eating a hamburger in the picture, but the buns he's pondering seem not to be the ones in his hands....

Moving along, we see that there is "Surprise! Jewelry for you inside!" I can only assume they mean inside of the BOX and not inside Happy Meal Todd, that would be very, very wrong. I would doubt that Happy Meal Todd has any jewels to speak of based on the way he looks. I wonder if this jewelry concept was the impetus for anyone to purchase Happy Meal Todd. If so, how many things have gone wrong in a child's life for this to occur? To what level has a child's life been destroyed that the concept of Surprise! Jewelry for you inside! makes one want to purchase the hideously creepy Happy Meal Todd? And, the writer of said line, was apparently, a Speak and Spell.

So, ever worrying about dressing badly? One's worst fashion day will never match Happy Meal Todd's outfit of choice, seen a bit more closer in the picture above. Yes folks, the gayest shirt ever created. On Happy Meal Todd. Topped off by a backwards cap, as if that will add to the "cool factor". For this outfit to occur, so many things would have had to go fashionly wrong it's staggering.

Finally, a closer look at the logo for Mr. Happy Meal Todd. Who, my god, has a twin named Stacie, as we learn in this picture. One can only pray that Stacie: A) Is not an identical twin B) Is wearing a burlap bag, as that would be a better fashion choice than what Happy Meal Todd is wearing C) That Stacie is not called Happy Meal Stacie, because, while this will make her the most popular girl in high school with that name, will not bode well for her in her adult years.

Now, note the lettering in Todd. As if adding the words "Happy Meal" before the name weren't devastating enough, it was decided that we should pick the, uh, least masculine colors ever for the letters T-o-d-d.

Now ponder this, this Happy Meal Todd doll had to get APPROVED by (one would think) human beings for this to get produced. Who on earth would look at this and say: "This doll is f***ing brilliant! We must make thousands of them now!" Who? Is this not proof that satan walks the earth?

So yes, that is the hell that is Happy Meal Todd.

Next time you're having a bad day, just remember, they didn't make THIS doll with your name on it...

The Apple Keyboard - a life changing event

2007-09-16T18:46:00.000-04:00

So, here's the oddest thing I've done recently, before that Florida trip. I went to an Apple Store. I'm mainly a PC type of person, but unlike PC folks, I don't despise the Mac and unlike Mac folks I don't despise the PC, I think I'm a computer version of Switzerland. It's kinda nuts to fall one way or the other, and as a teacher I shouldn't lean either way. Mainly, PC's have been generally cheaper for me to buy, but the Macs are generally far more user friendly. I keep up on both worlds as my students use both PC's and Macs. So, while I haven't bought a full blown Mac, and have no plans too, I do have an older G4 powerbook that I use to answer student questions. But, I was bored on that fateful day so I wandered into the Apple Store, and I found this:

That my friends, is a keyboard, from the side and top. It's smaller and cooler than it looks in those pix, and it's my new best friend. I don't have a small desk to work off of, so the keyboard is a perfect fit, and feels oddly comfortable. It's kind of sad when one falls for a keyboard the way I have, but it has happened. Costs just a shade under $50, but best keyboard I've bought. It's sturdy too.

I think the trick with apple is that they actually pay their research team to do usability studies with the people that use their products. Unlike most other companies it seems.

Proof of that has to be the iPhone, one of the most amazing user interfaces I have ever seen. If you get a chance, (and don't own one), hop over to the local Apple store and play with one. It's an experience. Of course, I had no use for the phone, but did ponder, "if only they came up with an iPod that is like the iPhone without the Phone part". A few weeks later, they announced the iPod touch. A week after that, yours truly pre-ordered one. Now, mind you, I hate iPods, they are a great user experience, but I don't like the restrictions on it. However, I'm have this innate desire to own that user interface so I'm taking the plunge. I'll let you know how it pans out when I get it in 2 weeks.

That's going to be one heck of a week too. Halo 3, the only game I care about coming out for any system, is coming out that week. I'm a big fan of the series, and particularly, the music (good stuff). So that week will be geek week for me.

In other tech news, from the Slibocker world, the new PSP came out, and I, shockingly, got one. There's not other way to put this: I'm a PSP addict. I love that handheld. It does it all, games, movies, music, and it's great for traveling. I do a lot of traveling, so this works out well. In particular, I constantly play MLB '07 on it. I had just about beaten my current one into the ground, so I ordered the new one, and I'm happy with it. It's thinner, lighter, and less noisy, plus the screen looks better. So, it was a good thing for me to get. I got the limited edition silver one for a change of pace, and this thing will be traveling a lot with me.

Speaking of traveling, seems like I'll be doing it a lot soon too:

Tomorrow, I go to Chicago.
Then I'm home for a month (I think)
Then: at the end of October and beginning of November, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix
Mid November: Detroit and Grand Rapids

So, should be interesting...

The return

2007-09-10T20:21:00.001-04:00

So, one day later, back home. And time to wrap that Florida trip up...

Get this, I bought only ONE book. ONE!!!! It was a souvenir Disneyworld book too, I had gotten similar ones when I was younger so I opted for this one too. In fact, I don't think I stepped in a bookstore all week. Hell has frozen over folks, run, now, like the wind.

Forgot to mention a totally cool thing we saw too. At 10:30 at night, they burn off the excess propane in the Epcot World Showcase Lagoon, so out of nowhere, we saw this enormous fireball. Cool stuff.

No problems with Jetblue, easy flight in, easy flight out, no luggage issues as well. Even got exit row seats coming and going.

Same deal with the car rental, used Budget again and was a very easy process.

Didn't say much about the Dolphin hotel, but it's a very nice place to stay. It's a Sheraton Hotel on Disney property and it tends to be used more for conventions so it's not as kid friendly as the other hotels, but very nice for us adults. Decent sized rooms too. I snagged the rooms for $125 a night when they ran a special, worth checking out if they do it again.

The best sushi in Disney is at Kimono's at the Swan Hotel. The tuna salsa (see past posts) is magically delicious!

If you're legs can handle walking, you can walk to the Disney Studios from the Dolphin hotel. It's actually a lot quicker than the bus and far more healthier than taking the boat.

Hmmm, I think those are the quick notes for now.

Until next time...which is going to be about that new Apple keyboard I've fallen in love with...

Oh, I added more pix to the florida stuff too, check it out on the right.

Who brings a fishing pole to Disneyworld?

2007-09-09T10:36:00.001-04:00

For once a quieter day!

Woke up around 9ish, and we grabbed breakfast at the Boardwalk hotel, something we did last trip. We ate on a balcony, very peaceful and serene.

After, made our way back to Epcot where we strolled around, and rode the Mexico ride again (future research for next year) and fastpassed Soaring. Park was busier today and the weather was warmer. Dang heat, this trip I've been showering 3 times a day.

So, this is how my life works...got a call from a friend on tuesday who wanted to meet up this past week because he snagged some stuff from his company's store, I tell him I can't meet him this week, but that next week is good, he can't make that because he is, oddly, going to Orlando this week and staying for a week. So plans were made then to meet up. That day is today, his family has a house in Kissimee, and we head over for a BBQ. Also meeting us there is another former coworker who just moved down to Florida (we all used to work together).

We head over there and meet Aneil and the rest of his family, including his son Aidan. I brought his son some Legos (shockingly for those who know me, he says with heavy sarcasm) and we have a great afternoon and evening.

We head back at around 9ish so that we can pack.

After packing, we walked around the lagoon a bit, where we saw a man fishing, which begs the question: Who brings a fishing pole to Disneyworld?

Obviously, he was a guest, but what was his thought process that said: you know, them's good fishin' in that them there lagoon at epcot?

Something to ponder...more to come later, wrote this one from my phone as I wait to take off...

Size does matter!

2007-09-07T23:13:00.001-04:00

Size, as in distance, weight and amount was the theme of the day.

Oddly, I woke up early and jogged 4 miles in humid weather, but I was happy, I managed to jog twice this week, even while on vacay.

Jogging will be a future entry.

Topping all previous known levels of geekdom, I'm blogging this as I walk thru epcot at 10pm

Quick bfast @ the boardwalk and we walked over to disney studios, killed a few hours there, bought stuff there, boated back to the hotel and walked over to epcot first time. Rode the mexico ride (for you Seth & Mar), and wandered around a bit, it was more crowded today so we just took it easy in the ridiculously hot weather today.

BTW-just rode the Land ride

Back to the hotel where we saw part of the original Runng Scared movie with Biily Crystal (note to Chicago folks reading, watch the movie it shows Chicago in the 80s)

Went to dinner at Kimonos at the swan hotel, nuch sushi and particularly tuna salsa was consumed.

Back to epcot where more merchandise was purchased and a crepe was consumed

Quick programming note, lunch was a turkey leg per miller family member.

Back to hotel to freshen up, then watched fireworks at epcot from the hotel area.

Epcot is open till 11 tonight for hotel guests so we headed back over, where I write this now.

So, we walked a lot, bought a lot and truly realized people weigh a lot...

Now look, I'm not the thinnest person, and I'm far from happy with my weight, but, the sheer number of obese folks, and I'm talking "holy crap!" level obese I've seen is staggering. Those stories are right, we're a large country in the wrong sense.

Case in point, after we saw the fireworks, we passed by the pool and I saw a 300 pounder in a bikini. After clawing my eyes out and washing my mind's eye out with soap I have considered starting a charity that will distribute mirrors to those in need to prevent things like this from happening. I shall call this charity: Operation Take A Second Look Before You Leap...

As we walk back to the hotel, this was a good, busy day...

What a Magical world?

2007-09-06T21:45:00.002-04:00

You know, for a vacation, I seem to be keeping quite busy...

Today, we got up at 9. Went over to that Magic Kingdom place. We took the car and parked over at the Grand Floridian, which is a nice hotel to walk around. Took the 'ole monorail (hey kids! sing the monorail song from the Simpsons!)

But first, before I continue, last night.

After seeing the fake beatles group who didn't sing I am the walrus, we made our way back towards the hotel, my feet were kinda being ripped to shreds so I had to patch them up. Made our way back out, and got ICE CREAM!!!! Well, a root beer float for me, shake for the Mrs. Hung out a bit and then walked over to the beach where we caught the last 30 minutes of the Incredibles while sitting on a swing on the beach. Not a bad way to end the day.

Ah, so today. The Magic Kingdom was far more crowded than Epcot was yesterday, but according to the workers this week is far quieter than last week, which makes me think last week was the apocalypse here.

Saw the revised Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was really only changed by adding Jack Sparrow to the scenes. The scariest part was the fact that the family in front of us brought their NEWBORN Child on the ride. So let's see:

Dark ride that could be potentially scary for young children? Check.
Semi loud noises that could scare the child? Check.
Ride goes down a steep incline at one point? Check.

Yes, let's bring the newborn!

Now, I know I don't have kids, so what do I know? But I could swear that the parents might have wanted to possibly donate the child to the pirates, but that's just a hypothesis.

Normal stops at the Tiki Room were included as well.

Also rode that Splash Mountain. Got wet. That was needed. It was hot today. Like Florida hot out.

Rode Space Mountain twice too. Gotta love a ride that throws your body around like a punching bag.

Haunted Mansion was closed for rebuilding, booooooo.

Although I did ride the Carousel for I think the first time ever...

Wandered around a bit more then left the park and walked over to the Contemporary Resort.

There wasn't much going on there, so we took the Monorail over to the Polynesian, wandered around there then walked over to the Grand Floridian. Did the coolest thing of the day there. Rented a small 2 seater boat and we rode around the lagoon for a half hour - if you ever get a chance, do this, you won't regret it. Great great way to see a part of Disney you normally wouldn't see.

From there, we made our way over to Downtown Disney, where we did a little shopping. Bought my favorite thing of the day there too: A 2 foot tall Yoda? It just seemed like a good idea.

He's already become a part of the family.

We tracked down dinner at the Port Orleans resort and made our way back here on the earlier side (9ish), I have plans of jogging early tomorrow...

Oh quick note: You know those machines where the claw grabs the stuffed animal and you never can get them and win? There's a science to them, was able to snag little spaceman Mickey doll from it today.

Oh, put some pix up too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7386407@N02/sets/72157601901622799/

EPCOT! The future of tomorrow today

2007-09-05T20:22:00.001-04:00

Today=Florida. Easy flight on Jetblue from Newark, we even landed early! We're staying at the Dolphin Hotel in the Epcot resort area. Got a great deal on rooms @ 125 a night. Room was even ready too. Walked over to Epcot.

Its 8PM and we're watching a beatles cover group called the British Invasion as I blog this at the England pavilion. 'twas a busy day...had a large lunch in mexico. Went on test track twice (say that 1000 times fast). Rode soaring too (a great ride too) the new nemo ride was eh at living seas.

Was reminded that people in the US still have fashion sense of blind semi conscious porcupines too. Quick note for them: Never underestimate the power of a MIRROR

Its actually warm here too, so at least we experienced summer somewhere this year.

Weve been to epcot a lot, but we're doing things a bit different so far-seeing new things, different shows...and we're relaxing!

Also managed to have 3 of my food groups within 2 hours of each other: A giant turkey leg, popcorn, and a crepe. Ah. Love my food groups.

I'm also noticing that its harder to be a creative blogger from my phone, so I do apologize for the dryness...

The beatles were ok, but no I am the Walrus, so I can't die and go to the heaven. I am the Walrus is my all time fave Beatles song...

Ah well, for now I shall take my leave, tomorrow the magic kingdom

Oh, PS- we FORGOT OUR CAMERA AT HOME! LOL cell phone pix will have to do..

Blog by phone

2007-08-30T18:43:00.001-04:00

Hello there! In advance of the big trip to Disneyworld next week, I'm seeing if I can send blogs via my phone. If you're reading this, it works! Commence rejoicing!