Food

Last Minute Plans With Friends

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I went into the city this afternoon to do some shopping. I hit Macy’s and finally broke down and bought a new dress shirt. I had needed to get a few for a while, or wanted to so I finally went. if i like the way this new shirt fits I will get a few more. I looked for a bunch of other things but didn’t find anything I liked so I called it a day.

I was wet from rain and doing grocery shopping for dinner when I got an unexpected call from Jayson. Apparently him and the wife (and Seth) were in for Gretchen’s birthday and wanted to goto dinner. I put what I was shopping for back and decided to goto dinner with them since even though I saw them twice in Dec, I don’t normally get to see them that much.

We went to dinner at Carmines. Jay loves that place. The food was good. 4 of us split a 40oz steak, among other items. It was good seeing them. Seth was a super well behaved baby too.

New Years

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For new years I made plans to goto Jayson & Gretchen’s for the night. Originally we had thought about going to a restaurant near them and get a group of people together. The group didn’t materialize so I went anyway. We had a lower key night. We bought steaks and cooked and stayed in. Dave also came over, but I don’t know what is wrong with him. He is always such a buzkill and needs to control his emotions. Other than Dave being a bit crazy we had a good time. I stayed over and we went for breakfast and then I headed back to the city in the afternoon.

Other items of note on this trip was I ended up breaking down and buying a pair of boots. I had needed after all the snow, but opted for the less water proof ones and went with the more comfortable ones. I got a pair of Doc Martin boots that feel really comfy. My mom said I can do something to them to water proof them a bit. They are still a step up from the shoes I wear when it snows!

Groundhog Day

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My return trip home was not as uneventful as the other legs of my trip this week. Actually so far it has been a disaster. I got to the airport over two hours in advance like the resort and the airline suggested. I got through customs and security pretty quick, even if security had me take my belt off and swapped my entire bag. The lines werent horrible. Then I sat. There was no free wifi like the Jetblue site suggested there was and I couldn’t get the pay WIFI point to take any of my credit cards.

This is where the fun began. My flight got delayed. At first just an hour. Then that hour past and a flight that was supposed to leave at 2:10 got moved to 6PM. They claimed that they needed a part from NY that they had to fly in. This would have been ok if there was a place to eat (I don’t count a skeevy cafeteria that only looked like it had fried chicken and rice) and the fact that they are doing construction in the small terminal. That mean drilling and other loud banging sounds all day. Top off the no WIFI, power outlets, and the terminal was packed. it was not pleasant. Then we hear the flight was canceled. There would be no flight until tomorrow morning.

Thankfully they put us up at a decent hotel. Unfortunately getting to the hotel was not fun. First we had to wait on line to get travel vouchers. Then we had to wait for luggage while the bus drivers waited to take us to the hotel. For about an hour no one knew what was going on. Then the luggage shows up and we have to claim it, then put it on a van for the hotel. Thankfully I got a seat on one of the first bus’s. Then it was waiting at the hotel for a room. Thankfully again I walk fast and actually got to the head of the line for rooms. I have been in this situation before and kinda knew what to do. After a wait for my luggage to show up I headed to dinner.

There was a decent steakhouse in the hotel so I went there and had a nice filet. Half of it was paid for by Jetblue. On the plus side at the restaurant there was an acapella group from stanford that held a small performance for the guests. It was pretty good and something nice to break up the crazy day.

My luck didn’t hold out and I walked out of dinner without my Kindle. I didn’t realize it until I was back at my room. I ran back to the restaurant and thankfully the waiter found it and held onto it. That would have been really bad if that was lost too.

I took a quick shower and am getting ready for bed now since I need to be up at 4:30AM to catch my flight. Apparently Jetblue is flying out a plane for us and we can leave tomorrow morning. I am not happy about the events of today, but in context it could have been (and still may become) much worse. Right now I am worried that we may be delayed again and have problems getting into NYC since a storm is supposed to be on its way. We shall see what happens. Right now I am thankful I have an extra change of clothes for tomorrow.

No one likes being stranded. Jetblue did the right thing by putting us all up for the night, but overall the entire process was horrible. There was very little to no communication about what was going on. It looked like Jetblue staff wasn’t communicating to each other because no one had the entire picture of what was going on. In the end things worked out but during the entire situation it was frustrating not know what was going on.

Off To The Bahamas

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Today I was off to the Bahamas. I thought long and hard about this trip but in the end I decided to head out on vacation by myself for a few days. I didn’t really want to but timing, funding, and other issues prevented anyone I wanted to travel with from being able to actually going. SInce I hadn’t had a real going away to a resort vacation in years (around 4) I figured what the heck. So here I am sitting at Atlantis in the Bahamas.

The flight down was ok. There was a slight delay due to a flat tire. That made us lose an hour. The seat was nice. I am glad I paid a bit extra for the extra leg room. I would do that again if given the chance. I don’t like the charge, but the space is nice.

I just got back from a deep tissue massage and dinner. Man the massage hurt. I seriously needed it but I have never done a deep tissue one before. You really get beaten up.

For dinner I hit the steakhouse. The food was really good, but really over priced. I was a bit saddened that they only had 12 year old scotch. For a fancy place you should carry better stuff. I stuck with Jack and Coke instead. Can’t go wrong with Jack.

Tomorrow I look forward to doing pretty much nothing. The joys of vacation. In fact I am doing so little that these posts will most likely get post dated since they wont make it online until after I get back!

On The Third Dav of Vacation…

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Saturday it rained. It wasn’t a typical southern rain. It didn’t rain for a few minutes and be over. It rained all day. We were pondering making the drive to New Orleans but the rain totally ended those plans. Instead we went to the shooting range. I had only gone shooting once before at Gretchen’s dad’s place but this was my first time at a real range.

Joe and Chris brought an assortment of weapons. Some would say a small arsenal. Others would say they were not waiting in the car while they went and got a few things from a store (that someone was me). We were only kidding but Joe loads up.

I got to fire a 45 and a 9mm. I even got to use a laser sight. For someone with as poor vision as I do, I (and everyone else) was amazed that I wasn’t a half bad shot. I naturally aim a bit high but with practice that I wont get I could compensate for that. I wasn’t as impressed with the laser sight as I thought I would be.

After the range we headed back to Joe’s place to relax for a bit, and then we went out to a really nice dinner. Joe and Karen (mainly Joe) does know how to find nice places, and I am amazed that the staff knew him! The meal was great. Afterward Chris headed off to a bar, but I was tired so I headed back to the house with Joe and Karen.

What was funny was Karen was prodding Joe to find stuff for us to do so I wouldn’t be bored. The fact is what we did do was inline with exactly what I was looking for. Minor activities, but nothing too crazy. I even got to goto Waffle House for Breakfast this morning! Vacation was almost perfect! Points were lost for the weather.

Day 2

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Friday was low key. Joe, Karen, & Chris had to work. I slept in and thankfully slept off the drinking from Thursday. I didn’t drink a lot but for me after one or two I start to feel it the next day. Getting old stinks sometimes!

I went to Joe’s office. Hung out for a bit, they ordered lunch for us and some of his guys that were in the office. I then took a quick run on two jobs with him to just tag along. We got to drive around the wet and dreary Baton Rouge for a bit.

For dinner Joe grilled up some steaks from some place they order from a lot. They place seasoned everything in some special seasoning and sauce. It was really good, even if Joe did over grill the steaks.

After ward we played some xBox. I hadn’t played anyone on xBox in a while. I forgot how fun it is. I didn’t forget how bad I was at it though.

Friday Off

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Today is a half day for my office. Since I took off Wednesday and there was a holiday on Thursday I decided to take off today and have a nice 5 day weekend. I just realized this was the longest I have had off in about a year. I didn’t do anything special today. I just hung out and relaxed. After the hectic two days at my sisters it was nice to relax.

I did go out for a bit to meet up with Danny for drinks and dinner at Stout. He was braver than me and went shopping today.

Not really sure what I am going to do this weekend. I am trying to avoid most stores but I do need some stuff so I shall see how the weekend goes.

Thanksgiving With The Family

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For the holiday I took off Wednesday and Friday so I could have a long weekend. I ended up getting a cold over the weekend so ended up taking Monday as a sick day also. That meant I was in the office for Tuesday only. Wed. morning I was off with my parents to my sisters for Thanksgiving. We left early enough in the morning (10:30 is early for me) we didn’t hit much traffic. We brought in Pizza for dinner Wed. night. It was a good day. I got to play a bit with Zach and Alexis. Morgan was out with friends most of the afternoon but saw her for dinner.

Thursday was fun. I think I had more fun playing around with Morgan and Zach before breakfast than I did all year. Zach can always put a smile on my face, and Morgan scares me with how smart she is! Dinner was fun, but I am never a fan of holiday meals. Not a huge fan of Turkey. We ate with Carrie’s fine china on several card tables in their family room. They don’t have a dinning room table and the dinning room has been converted into a downstairs play / sleep room for Alexis. For a small kid she has tons of stuff. Speaking of Alexis I did get to have nice bonding time with her Wednesday and Thursday. She generally didn’t cry and she didn’t spit up on me so we are bonding really well.

After dinner (well during desert actually) Michaels dad and I took off for the train to be back in the city at a reasonable hour. My dad gave us a ride to NJ transit. Door to door it only took us about 2 hours. For a trip to my sisters that is really good. In order to make the train I had to eat my piece of Pecan Pie fast, and I didn’t have time for seconds, or to take home left overs.

All in all except for a short period of time Thursday afternoon when I thought I was getting a headache the two days with the family was great.

Friday Off

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I took today and Monday off. I needed to relax and burn some days off after a hectic month. I tried to avoid work but I had to make 2 calls in the afternoon. I also will admit i checked email a few times durring the day. It was hard not to since I know a lot was going on. It took every bit of self control I had to not reply to most of the messages. I am on vacation so I needed to act like it a little.

I slept in, but got woken up by a caller ID unknown person at around 11. That was not fun, but it wasn’t too early so I can’t really complain.

I meet up with Danny by Union Square for dinner and drinks. I called it a night early. I am thankful for that since I started drinking early. I wasn’t too bad, but lets just say I didn’t follow my self imposed 2 drink maximum that I almost never follow! Overall it was a nice relaxing day.