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In the New York Groove...

I'm teaching in Manhattan this week, I'm actually right in Penn Station.. Well, I guess it's technically in 2 Penn Plaza which is right upstairs, the entrance is also the entrance to Madison Square Garden.. Hotel is right in Times Square..

They are in the process of closing Broadway to cars! They are starting in Times Square (47th - 42nd) but I guess the plan is to close it to cars for most of Manhattan, I think it's a good thing because that stupid street does not follow the grid anyway so I think it will help car traffic and it will certainly help people walking in Times Square.. They are starting to put neat things to look at in the middle of the street, right now they have a "runway on Broadway" which is a row of mannequins dressed in designer clothing.. Speaking of designer clothing, Macys is going to have a Material Girl collection starting in August. I can't wait to see what they have.. :D

My office being in Penn Station has a great view of the Empire State Building and the building down the street has this really cool air bridge. I took a picture and will post it to Flickr later today..

I came down by train on Monday, I found out you can take Amtrack from New London right into Penn Station. It was supposed to be a quick train ride but the train had some kind of issue and therefore had to drive real slow.. We ended up being an hour late to arrive. Felt like kind of a dick pushing through Manhattan with my luggage but I was not about to take a cab 10 blocks. Got to the hotel and unpacked before heading out into the mob that is Times Square, took some time to check out the runway and then grabbed a salad wrap at Chop't which was very good. You start by picking your salad base, I picked mixed greens, then you pick up to four additions (mushrooms, cucumber, egg and cheese) and then a dressing (bacon thousand island), they take all that and cut it up and put it in a wrap. It was actually so big I only had about 2/3 of it. A friend from Laire picked me up around 8pm and we went to a bar in NJ for drinks and wings. Got to hang out with a bunch of people I normally only see at Laire so it was lots of fun but I didn't get back to real late..

Tuesday I went and hung out with Jim, we met at his new apartment which is super awesome, he even has a patio big enough for table and chairs.. We went to a mexican place for dinner and afterwards to a sports bar for drinks with one of his friends.. His friend of course assumed I was gay and when he found out I was not could not give me enough crap for it.. Not in a bad way, just in a really funny way.. It was very funny to be discriminated against for being straight.. lol

Yesterday I meet up with Rick and Michelle. We were going to go to Shake Shack, they opened a new one in Times Square, but the smegging line was insane! We ended up going to 5 Napkin Burger which was voted best burger in NYC, it lived up to the hype! Here is a good trick, when you forget your ID in the hotel room just talk about working in a bar as the waitress comes up and bingo no carding! Michelle dropped her stuff off in my room before we went out and she realized she forget her ID. We were actually talking about Laire and she was saying something like "she came up to me at the bar and asked if I would charge her cell phone, I said I didn't want it behind the bar because I don't want to be responsible if anything spills on it", the lady waited till she was done and asked what we wanted.. It was not done on purpose but it is a great technique! We planned to go to a 9pm show of Toy Story 3 so we went to Dave and Busters to kill some time, we played some good games and one real bad one before heading to the cinema. The movie was great!!! It was very touching and very well done, I won't say too much about it other than to say it revolves around Andy going away to college. Señor Lightyear was OMG funny!!

---Diversion of the Day

FiveFingers Take Two

My VibramFiveFingers broke again the other day, I put the piece of the strap somewhere for safe keeping till I had a chance to sew it back on.. But... It would appear that wherever I put it is so safe that I can't even find it now... The only thing left to say is SMEG!

I kinda need them functional for this weekend since I'm playing Chatima and wear them as him.. I decided today to look for a knockoff pair but after searching for a while I'm finding that Vibram is doing a great job of shutting those places down as soon as they show up.. grrr.. The few that were still up and running were charging $50-$60 for the shoes + shipping.. The only place on ebay I did find for $25 wanted $25 in shipping and is in China so no hurried shipping would be available.. I hear REI has a crazy return policy so I might just buy a pair there and that way every time they break I can bring them back. I sent Vibram an amusing email today, they had a big thing on their website about if you have any information on counterfeit ones you should email.. Here is my email..

I purchased a pair of your fivefingers back in August of last year. They ripped for the first time in April, when I called your company the response was "well, you're not supposed to wear them everyday" and "we know they rip, you should try duct tape".. With comments like that how can you expect people to *not* purchase counterfeit ones? I sewed mine in April and have been wearing them everyday until they just ripped again. I now begin the process of looking for a counterfeit pair, I understand that they will probably fall apart in less than a year but how is that any different than yours?

Anyway, I ended up cutting the straps off today, I was reading on the vibram forums and people said that the shoes stay on with no straps. There are few people who say otherwise but at this point I don't really have another choice since I lost half of one of the straps anyway.. I figure I'll wear them today/tomorrow this way and if I really need to I can stop and REI on the way to Laire tomorrow..

....

Anyway, back to the Zev Zev..

I was up to Saturday July 3rd which was spent at my friend Chris' birthday party in NY.. Well that's not entirely true, most of the day was getting there.. We had a lazy morning but it was a good lazy because we didn't really have a time in mind to be there. He had these fireworks which can only be described by watching it in action. I have found a youtube video so you can enjoy the smegging beauty.. They are called Magic Snakes!

Sunday morning we (me, Jessie, Dianne and Randy) went to a raw restaurant in Beacon NY called Superfood Citizen, I can't find their real website in my 1.5 seconds of searching so here is the google link... :) I had a pizza and a "purple drink" which was all very good. The purple drink was beets and mangosteen as well as other good stuff. It did however make my pee purplish for the next few days.. After brunch we went to Brotherhood Winery which is right near their house. It is the oldest (never closed) winery in America, they made a alter wine before prohibition so they petitioned the government to stay open because the church needed their alter wine.. Gotta love the church?! Smegging politics.. Anyway, they make a really good riesling and one of the best meeds made commercially.

Monday was a craft day.. The main accomplishment was getting my Laire closet fixed, we took everything out of it and made a new frame for the top and then re-supported the straps and actually nailed it into the wood. It is MUCH bigger now and has everything in it.. We also found the tent we will get for FI, it's the Coleman Hampton Tent, it's $199 at Target but I'm sure I can find it cheaper online when we are ready to order. Interesting.. I may need to go get that now.. I just did a search for that tent and it's not listed on Coleman's website and the only sites I do see it on are more than Target... It's apparently a discontinued tent.. Here is a picture of it from an ebay listing..

Tuesday was dinner, Hoyle brought a little grill and we used that and Ryan's to grill up some tastiness!

Last night I went to my brother's house for dinner because we will be watching the kitties while they are away.. So you know how a lot of houses have a little loft area above stairs? Well, they have one of those areas and it's been just a wasted area till now... They made it a cat haven with their food, water scratching posts and play things.. So cute and probably the best use of that space I've seen.. :D

All night by the ...

All night by the dead Zev

All night by dead Zev I did lay

If only my tears could be real

I would rust myself away

All night by the Zev Zev

All night by the Zev I lay

I found her tongue along my casing

Licking my dirt away

All night by the Zev Zev

All night by the Zev I did sigh

As she whispered sweet nothing to Stanley

While plunging a fork in his eye

All year by the Zev Zev

All year by the Zev I lay

I found her fist jammed in my neck stalk

And pleaded for it to stay

All year by the Zev Zev

All year by the Zev I lay

I found her smile bathing my being

Oh it should always be this way

That's right, that made no sense and no bearing on anything really.. Just felt like posting it..

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I have not blogged in a while because I really have not had the time to sit down and type stuff up, and when I have I've been dealing with other stuff and junk.. Speaking of which..

I just got my PC fully working again, apparently McAfee had installed an update of Site Advisor and it decided to block most programs that were trying to get out to the web including McAfee updater!? Anyway, after fighting with McAfee Tech Support and then finally fixing it myself (with a co-workers suggestions) I am back up and running, and apparently blogging.. :)

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Now the daunting task of running back through the last two weeks, jeez, it's really been that long.. If you're out there reading I'm sorry for the disappearing act.. Last time I blogged I was teaching in Milford on antibiotics for Lyme's Disease and getting ready for Laire. Stupid antibiotics made me so tired, especially when in the sun.. Laire + Sun Avoiding Antibiotics = Not a good idea.. I played Chatima to boot which means I got to wear a sleeveless shirt and LOTS of sun screen! I actually had a real enjoyable time playing him, got to laze about the camp and just sorta enjoy the weather. I am a bit disappointed I went to bed early on Saturday because I didn't get to see the awesome big battle but, sleep won out in the end so oh well..

.... - Week in DC

Left Laire on Sunday and drove to Mclean, Monday night I went to dinner at Zaytinya with Pam. I got into DC early so I walked over the National Mall and the Washington Monument before circling back to meet at the restaurant. It's a greek mezze restaurant, we got a few dishes and they were all very good but the best one was probably the lamb special dish. After dinner we wandered around the city for a bit and ran into a street corner big band, they were pretty good and surprisingly all dressed in shirts and ties carrying big brass instruments in the heat! Speaking of heat, for dessert we went to Pitango which is a gelato place that uses all grass fed milk.. After dessert we wandered around a bit more before I dropped her at the bus and headed back to Mclean. Tuesday I had dinner at Pam and Christian's house, they made fish tacos and cauliflower which was very good. It was the first time I had met Christian but it felt like I was reconnecting with an old friend instead of meeting someone new. Lots of fun was had just sitting around the kitchen table chatting and telling stories.

Wednesday I went to Gordon Biersch with Josh and Marvin from work.. I got them to use my frequent buyer card for all our bills so I should get some serious points for that.. Thursday I went into the city pretty early and went to the Smithsonian for a bit before heading over to the Folklife Festival, I was a bit disappointed in the festival because they were in "rain mode" which meant everything was either closed or mostly closed. The main concert was supposed to be at 6:30 but they cancelled that because it started thundering. I went to the American Museum which was a thrill a minute, they had such artifacts as Archie Bunker's chair..

Drove home on Friday and once again got stuck in MASSIVE traffic in CT! I'm getting real sick of 95 between Greenwich and New Haven, it used to only be bad around Stamford and New Haven now it seems to be bad the entire way!

.... - Two Weeks Home!?

Saturday I went to Kaitlyn's birthday party, the food was awesome! Her dad made chicken wings which were a-maz-ing... I unfortunately didn't hang out there too long because I was still on the antibiotics and was already getting tired so I didn't want to press the tiredness while attempting to drive home.

Sunday I went to the Mets/Twinkies game with Kevin and Hoyle. It was a good game and the weather was great, the stadium now has Poutine at the fries place.. Oh wait, it's not poutine, it's Disco Fries.. What a stupid name, they would probably do better just calling it Poutine. If you don't know, Poutine is fries with cheese curd, cheese and brown gravy.. I had it for the first (and many) time(s) in Montreal so it was nice to have it again.. But, um.. Should have realized they would American size it! For $10 it was enough food for me and Lynz to be full on.. I ate about half of them and then had a few bites of a pulled pork sammich from Blue Smoke. We sat in our seats till about 3:30 when we moved to section 424 which is where I want my seats to eventually be. They were already in the shade and the view is so much better there. Not that my seats stink but those are better..

Had a nice (but very quick) week at home, Lynz and Anja came over on Monday and we finished up watching Life. Tuesday was dinner. Wednesday I went with Lynz to dinner at Asian Bistro for our do-over anniversary (remember the beginning of this f'n Lyme's Disease started on our actual anniversary).. Thursday.. Thursday.. Something just occurred to me... Feel a tangent, must control it... nooooooo

It's amazing how you communicate with each person in a different way, I would say I talk to Jessie and Lynz at least once every day.. Any re-cap or important conversations however are either done on the phone (Lynz) or in person (Jessie), if I look back in my IM logs for Friday I don't see anything about Thursday.. Then I realized that used to be my fail safe because I would always IM Holly with the re-cap of the day/weekend before.. It's just odd to me that in the entire time I was with Holly I don't think we had one conversation over 10 minutes via the phone but yet we talked almost every day..

Anyway, back to Thursday.. I figured it out (I think).. I remember watching the last episode of Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps, I think that was Thursday.. Then again that could have been over the weekend. I know we watched some Chopped and ICA as well..

Friday night was the Putnam Fireworks, Hoyle came over for that and before hand we went to Bellas for Big Al's BBQ. We got to the fireworks right before they started and somehow still managed to get the best possible spot! We were literary right in front of the shoot off point.

... I'm going to end this blog now because I want to go home.. Will blog more later.. In the meantime, enjoy..