Personal

Too Much To Talk About

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I could go into so many things that went on this week. Had a great holiday weekend. Ended up hanging out with a bunch of friends Monday night in Little Italy.

Hung out with my friend John on Tuesday. He is finally working in Manhattan so Jay, Danny and I meet up with him for a few drinks. John, Jay & I ended up back at Dan’s for a pickup game of Texas Hold-em poker. At one point we had like 7 people playing. Not bad for 30 minutes notice on the game. I had a head ache all day Tuesday, but after dinner I felt well enough to go play. I am happy I did. I doubled my money!

Being out late every nigh has taken its tole on me. I am tired. I have been going to bed at 1AM every night for days. I need to get a good night sleep. Hopefully I will be in bed by 11PM tonight.

Today I got up early for a trip upstate for a BBQ. It was fun.

Tons more to write about, but I am going to bed!

Early Friday

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Got off work early today (due to the holiday!). Jayson and I went down to the Apple store (see later post for details), then headed back to my place. Jay is/was selling his Treo 600 that I sold to him a few months back. He liked it but thought it was too big. he sold it on Craigslist in like 15 minutes. No fees or anything. I was impressed. We ran back to my place to grab the original box and manual for it. I always try to keep that stuff. The guy buying it picked it up today. It was no fuss, no muss.

I hung out at Jays place for a while and played with Pierre. he is suck a funny dog. We hit dinner at Burger Heaven and then I went home to relax. I ended up working on Quicken (see next post) for most of the night.

Star Wars Episode III

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I “finally” saw the new Star Wars movie today. Rich, Amanda, & I bought tickets last night for the noon show by their house. I got up early and trekked out to Forest Hills to see it. It was worth it. The theater was not that packed, and we had stadium seating. They have stadium seating in Manhattan you may say, but it wasn’t crowded. I would have traveled to Iowa to see the movie if I knew it wasn’t going to be crowded.

I won’t bore you with details about the movie, except for the fact that Skywalker IS Darth Vader! Why didn’t anyone tell me! Seriously, it was a good movie. Most people could predict most of it, but it was still a good story.

After the movie we walked along Austin Street. They had some street fare. I had a crab cake sandwich for lunch. The thing was like the size of a hamburger. it was good, and didn’t hurt my stomach. I got some peanut butter fudge for desert. Cold stone creamery beaconed but it started to rain before I could get over there. Still not sure why there was a fair, but it was interesting. I passed on the funnel cake. No one else seemed to want it, so I didn’t want to pig out on my own. I searched but could not find a churro guy. Man street fairs are great for really bad for you (AKA very tasty) food.

Tuesday Night Out?

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My friend John is taking a job in the city. This is a big change from working way out on Long Island. To mark the change of venue for him we are going out tonight. Not sure why tonight over any other night since he hasn’t started the job yet, but who am I to argue. As far as I know John, Dave, and Jayson are in. Not sure who else will be joining us.

As I write this, my own attendance is questionable, but looking better as the minutes pass. I took the early train back to the city and it was an hour late. Now it is running slow, so I have no idea what time we will get into Penn. They say 5:30PM, but I have no idea. If we make that time table I have enough time to goto the office and drop off my luggage and then head out to wherever we are going. Jayson claims that John will “go out” in manhattan more now that he works here. The jury is still out on that also, but we shall see. I don’t know if my wallet can keep up with John. He knows how to spend money, usually on good food and drink but spending none the less.

Travel Day

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I don’t have many of them any more, but today was a travel day (sort of). I used to consider a “travel day” a day where most of what I did was travel from one place to another. Now that I don’t travel as much (and am much happier for it) I don’t have as many as I used to. Dam, the last time I was on a plane was September. Most of my travel is train travel now a days.

I am at the hotel now. I got hear relatively early. Normally when I stay here (my companies other office) I am usually at work late. Today was different. I needed to be here for 2 days while work went on during normal business hours. That means I got to keep normal hours, well sort of.

I learned that getting to the hotel at 6PM means dinner at 7, 7:30. After checking mail, making calls, etc, I am bored and it is only 8:30. So I sit here on the bed with my ipod listening to toons, while I write on my powerbook. I will try to goto bed early, but I don’t know if that will happen.

I had the surf and turf at the hotel restaurant again tonight. I had it the last time I was up with Jayson. it was good, and only $3 more than the normal steak I get. I had a drink and felt nice and relaxed. I didn’t have more, since it was really early and I didn’t want to be tired and out of it the rest of the night. that was just in case I decide to be productive later.

Swiss Persision, & My New Omega

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My old Timex watch broke on me a few weeks ago. I have always been a cheap digital watch person. I liked the alarm, and the laziness of a digital watch. Not even the metal kind, the ones with the leather or rubber straps. My wrists are too small for a cheap metal watch. They would require cutting out of metal links. The work to do that would cost me more than the watch did, so I stayed with the cheap stuff.

Last year my dad gave me his 1969 vintage Omega Speedmaster Professional. I have worn it on and off since I got it. I have always been fearful I would damage it. My dad keeps saying that the watch has been through allot, and I shouldn’t worry. I have heard stories of it being sterilized. Been in countless peoples chests during surgery, and other interesting tidbits. My response is that most flesh wont scratch a watch, but sheet metal and a rack will destroy anything. I don’t want to destroy a great old vintage watch. That being said I have been afraid of wearing it every day. My family says I should just wear it for special occasions. Good idea, but that brings me back to my broken Timex. I got a replacement one at Walmart a few weeks ago. I hate it. It doesn’t feel right, the synthetic strap itches. I just don’t like it. What to do. The final straw was a conversation I had with Jayson on friday after he showed me the nice swiss army watch Gretchen got for his birthday. I realized my problem was I didn’t want to wear my dad’s old omega, but I wanted one I could beat up. I started smelling a spending spree coming on.

I went online and found several model’s of Omega watches that I liked. I was specifically interested in the X-33. it is the latest update to the Speedmaster Professional watch that is certified by NASA for space travel. If NASA certified something, it must be built to last. What I also liked was that the watch was both analog and digital. My main issues with the old Omega I had was that it was all analog. It takes me a few seconds to read the time since I am still not used to all analog. The digital face of the X-33 was cool. The other issue is the old one I have is heavy. it is of course stainless steel. The new X-33 is all titanium. Nice and light. I went over to Tourneau. They have a huge watch store on Madison Ave. They didn’t have any new X-33’s in stock, but the manager came out when I asked about availability of the watch. He showed me a “pre-owned” one. It had some wear on it. Nothing too noticeable, but he said it was heavily discounted since it was pre owned. When I heard the price I gave him my credit card on the spot. It was like half of what I thought it would cost, and it came with a 1 year store warrentee. I am now a happy wearer of a nice metal (yet digital) watch that I can beat up. I finally figured I would fork over some extra money for something that I keep on my wrist 16 hours a day, every day. I mean I buy a good expensive pair of eye glasses for the same reason (well that and other reasons), so why not get a good watch.

So I put my tax return money to good use. Hopefully I will have this watch around in 35 years like my dad had the one he gave me. that way grand kids can have a 70 year old watch and a 35 year old one! 🙂

Now all I need are nicer shoes, and maybe a few dress shirts and I will be presentable. On a plus note I do have the nice day to day dress paints down!

Most importantly now if NASA call’s and says I can goto the International Space Station, I have one less thing I need to buy!

Dari’s Birthday Bowling Bash

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Went to celebrate Dari’s birthday last night at Bowlmor. It is one of those places right near where I am all day but never went to. It was cool. Yes, bowling that was cool. I guess when you light up the lanes, turn down the overhead lights, play good music, and feed us food and good alcohol anything can be fun!

I bowled horribly. I did a 50 something, and a 60 something in the 2 games I played. Heather, Alyssa, & Miguel didn’t do much better than I did. The other Miguel, and a few people I cannot remember did way better! Bowling always hurts my wrists, so I got out of the games early. Thankfully we weren’t playing teams or my team would have been killed. Not only because of me, thankfully!

It was fun. I didn’t eat since the afternoon and one drink got me really buzzed. At least I got happy on 1 drinks since the mixed drinks were like $9 a drink. I owe Cari a round since she cut out early. Some lame excuse about parents visiting. Come on Cari, come up with something better than that:)

For her birthday desert we had fondu. I am not normally a fan of the non-hygenic deserts (Dam double dipping people) such as fondu, but it was good.

Even though it was really late, the subway even agreed with me and only took 10 minutes to show up!

New Lease?

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I got a letter under my door last night. That is the popular way for my land lord (aka. some big management company) to communicate to me. It contained my lease renewal information. I am glad I finally got it, since I was wondering what the deal was. At first I thought I read the price increase wrong and was thinking of where I was moving to, but then read it again and relaxed a bit. that is what I get for an overactive imagination and bad vision. The rent is only going up like $65 per month. On top of what I am paying now, I am not happy. But it is not unmanageable for me. It would be more money for me to move than pay out the increase each month, so I will probably stay. I have said that all along. I like where I am. quick trip to work. Relatively easy to get around. Near the subway. So I am happy for now.

Drinks Out

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Went with Jayson and Danny to Becky’s by Jayson’s place. We like going there. Tonight we had a really pretty (at least to me) waitress. Thank goodness for her that she was pretty since she was really slow and didn’t seem to be the brightest bulb in the bunch. We drank, ate greasy appetizers and had an all around good time. I called Gus as we got there hoping he was around for dinner. As I was in a cab on the way home I got his call back. he was ready to eat, and I was ready for bed since we already drank. Maybe next week.

I had a funny cab driver on the way home. Who would have thought I would find an old white jewish cabbie in NYC? Well I did. that guy was just too funny. I normally don’t like talking to strangers. It just feels weird most of the time. Cab drivers, car service guys, and others are probably the worst. Don’t get me wrong they are good working people, but I just don’t have anything to say to them. What if you don’t have the same interests or opinions on something they feel strongly about. Then it just gets really weird, and they are the ones driving. I tend to just agree and let them drive. The alternative is talking about the weather, or the news. Both are generic and boring topics that everyone talks about when there is nothing else you can discuss. Not sure what my point was, but that is my opinion of small talk with strangers.

Birthday Lunch

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At work when someone has a birthday, usually 10-20 or so people get together and we go out to eat. We can only goto like 3 places nearby that can accommodate that amount of people. It always turns out that no matter what you buy ($5 grilled cheese perhaps) you always end up paying at least $20. You also end up waiting like an hour to get your food since they bring everyone’s out at the same time. Don’t get me wrong we usually have fun, but it is a circus.

It was Jayson’s birthday today. He is an old 30 today. With all of the above information in mind, Jay decided he didn’t want any big lunch feast. Instead of a big group going to a mediocre restaurant, Danny, Jay and I went to Angelo & Maxi’s for the steak lunch special. Well jay and I had it, danny had a baked potato. For $20.99, you get a soup or salad, steak (i had an 8-oz fillet), and desert. I had (of course) the black and white cheese cake. it was awesome.

if you are keeping score I went no where when I had my birthday. that is what I get for being sick that week! Turns out Dan scheduled something on my birthday, and then rescheduled it for that friday. I was out both days. Opps.

We had a good time today. It was unfortunately busy at work. I didn’t get home until 20 minutes ago.