Food

A Birthday Dinner With The Folks

by

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday. My parents were at my sisters last night, so we ended up going out to dinner tonight after they came back into the city since I am on the way home. Well I can be on their way home if they go through Manhattan instead of taking the GWB. We went to the Waterfront Crab Shack. I love that place. Well I love good sea food. I had some crab cakes. It was a nice night with my parents.

I gave my mom her gift. I gave her my Amazon Kindle. She had interest in one when my sister was given one so I decided to upgrade and give her mine since it was in perfect condition. Actually when she got home and opened it up she called all mad at me since she thought I spent a ton of money giving her a brand new one since i put it back in the original packaging. I assured her it wasn’t. She wont use it until she travels so I hope she remembers how to use it.

Dinner And a Wedding With Far Away Friends

by

This weekend was my friend’s Joe & Karen’s wedding. I know Joe from my time working and living in Baton Rouge. I know Karen since she went to the same High School as I and we have the same group of friends we kept in touch with after school. As an aside I find it interesting I hang out with Karen now, but didn’t know her at all when I actually was in HS. That is true for a few of the friends I know from back then. Ok back to the story. One of my other friends John introduced both of them to each other when he was living down in BTR. And now they got married. Karen moved down south a few years ago to be with Joe, but they decided to come back to NYC to have the wedding.

Friday night there was a rehearsal dinner of sorts, but in reality it was just friends and family getting together for dinner. We went to City Crab. On a previous trip to NYC a bunch of us took the couple their (I had to be reminded that since i was like hey we are going to city crab i love that place when they told me the venue, and couldn’t figure out why they chose that location) so we went back. I had the surf and turf. Filet and Crab Legs. It was fantastic. Afterwards a bunch of guys went out for a mini bachelor party. We were going to do that Thursday but Jayson couldn’t get out on Thursday so we pushed to Friday. Gretchen did just have a baby on Sunday! We had a good time, and that is allt he details on that subject.

Jayson ended up crashing at my place instead of having to pay for a hotel. We got up today and hung out by my place for a while before heading into the city for the wedding. There may be another post on the shopping spree we went on. We meet up with Scott (yes another one) and went over to the hotel where the wedding was.

The ceremony was nice on a deck at the top of the hotel. We just missed the rain so it was perfect timing. John actually showed up. That was a pleasant surprise since no one expected him. His wife also just had a baby so he wasn’t sure if he could get out. He did. It was a fun wedding. I even danced a bit, but not much. It was relatively small, but I don’t like huge parties.

I grabbed a ride home from John after the festivities were over. Overall it was a great weekend.

Around NYC With Out of Towners

by

Yesterday I got a call late from my friend Joe. He is in from Baton Rouge (or nearby BTR to be exact) for his wedding. His local friends and family flew in a few days early. He gave me a call to find somewhere interesting to do. I ended up meeting up with him and his friends at his hotel. We headed out to Little Italy for some dinner at my favorite italian place on Mulberry Street. We then headed to Union Square for a round of drinks at Heartland. We were going to head to some other pubs but Karen called and we meet her and some of her friends at a bar we went to back in May near their hotel. We hung out there for a while and then everyone headed home. it was a fun night. I met allot of Joe’s friends for the first time. I will be hanging with them tonight for dinner and at the wedding tomorrow.

I grabbed a cab home and thankfully it only took me 10 minutes to get from the east side to my apartment. I decided last time I was out with Joe & Karen that I will pay the extra money for use of the Tunnel to get home, vs the 59th Street bridge. it is so much faster, especially at night. I didn’t get home till 2AM, so I am glad I took today off.

Another Unplanned Day

by

Today I was planning on heading to my “home base” office downtown. Everything was going according to plan until I got the email saying the express 7 train wasn’t running and I would be expecting delays. The station was packed when I got there. As I was waiting for the train I got an email from someone I am sharing office space with and he was going to be in the office at the same time as me. Thankfully if there wasn’t a train delay I wouldn’t have gotten the email since I would have been on the subway. Due to a short shuffle of desks I am sharing a desk with someone since we are both rarely in that office. Today we would be conflicting. With the train delay I wouldn’t make it to that office and make my 9AM call anyway. I decided to goto the midtown office and forage for an open spot. That place is allot bigger and I have a much better chance of finding space. Sure enough I did. The rest of the day was a bit different since i was somewhere i wasn’t planning on being. Now I had meetings that I could do in person vs over the phone. Things actually worked out really well since I got allot done. I like the mid town office, but I don’t always like schedules changing at the last minute.

I didn’t get out of the office till almost 6. So much to do! Thankfully I got my inbox to 0. My to do emails are only at 34. That is great for me. I am off to the mid town office again tomorrow to meet with someone who is visiting from out of town. That trip to mid town was planned though!

For dinner I tried some prepared chicken parm from the grocery store by my house that I bought yesterday. It was pretty good. That was the first or second time I have tired prepared foods from them. I will use them again for that sine I have had good luck so far. It is nice to just heat the oven and drop something in. It is also a change of pace from grilling up fish or steak. Either way it was tasty. If it keeps I have the other half of the portion for dinner tomorrow.

The Weekend Went By So Fast

by

This was a totally lazy weekend, even by my standards. It was partially unintentional. I got a head ache in the early afternoon yesterday, and it didn’t go away the rest of the day. Thankfully it didn’t get really bad, but it was bad enough to curtail any evening plans I had.

Today was not much better. I did a bunch of shopping online for things I have been procrastinating buying. It was mainly replacing some clothes that I have that are getting ratty. I also did my laundry and cleaned up my apartment a bit. I waited for a Fresh Direct Delivery in the afternoon. Dined on fresh Sword Fish in the evening. I gotta love fresh stuff from Fresh Direct. I also decided to try and finish a book I started over a year ago. Not sure why I stopped reading Pattern Recognition because it was good, but I have about 1/3 left to go.

Now it is getting late and I don’t know where the weekend went. Oh well. I am off to read another chapter or two before bed.

Travel Day

by

Today was an in the office day for me. Unfortunately the office in question was in NJ. I typically have a full day of meetings when I goto the NJ office on Thursdays. It is my only time to meet face to face with some people so the day is packed. Today was a bit different. For starters the entire afternoon was set aside for a certification meeting i had face to face with some people. Can’t really go into too much more details besides we had to review a long list of standards and processes. I still had two hours of other meetings in the morning. I brought lunch since we were supposed to work from 12 through 5pm. Thankfully we finished the items on the agenda after only around two hours. That left me the remainder of the afternoon to take care of other outstanding items I had. It was good to be able to catch up stuff that was piling up.

I was able to head home normal time. It still took me about 2 hours to get home. I didn’t do anything memorable at night, unless you consider ordering in dinner memorable?

Uncle x3

by

Yesterday I became an uncle again. This is my sisters 3rd. Alexis Zoe. I love the name! My sister and baby are doing great. I am not sure when I will get to see either of them. It is always hard to get to South Jersey. I am aiming for sometime next week.

I didn’t get to write about the new baby yesterday since I spent last night at my parents house. I had to goto the eye doctor for a checkup. Besides my eyes being really dry I am in good shape. My prescription hasn’t changed. It is now like 5 or 6 years since the last time I have changed it. According to my doctor at my age that is a great sign.

My parents were at my sisters during the day to take care of the other two kids while my brother in law and sister were in the hospital. I ended up taking the LIRR to their place and took a cab from the train station. Since they weren’t going to be home for dinner I walked to the outback down the block. I had lobster tails! They were yummy. I then went and got the customary present I have gotten for Morgan & Zachary. Thats a long story for another time. I now need to find the other present I get the kids, but unfortunately FAO does not sell the size stuffed dog I want to buy. They only have the small one, and the super big one that I don’t know who buys. The middle sized one that is actually really big is not for sale anymore. I am upset. I got Morgan that sized elephant, and Zachary the boy dog of the same size. I need to spend some time over the weekend finding something else. Gretchen is having a kid at the end of the week (or anytime at this point) so I need to find something for that little guy as well.

Alexis Zoe

Update: photo now added of the new little one resting.

Friday Travel Day

by

Friday was a bit hectic for me. I went to the NJ office where most of my team is. I was going with a new Project Manager, and two other people from the mid town office who work on the same project. One guy was new, one never met the rest of the team and the other hadn’t seen everyone in almost a year so it was nice getting everyone together to talk. We spent over 3 hours going over stuff. It went really well. We all then went out for lunch after the visitors got a tour of the facility. Those tours never get old for me.

The downside of the travel day was I was only in front of my computer for about an hour and that was in a conference room for a meeting going over a spread sheet. I was only able to read and respond to a few of the many emails I received this week. Since I am going to my sisters tonight I won’t be able to try to catch up from my backlog until Monday!

Because of the tour and lunch we didn’t head back to the city till almost 3. By the time we got to mid town it was well after 4. I ended up going home and finished up some work there before going out to meet up with friends for drinks. I was delayed in getting out because I waited to sync up my new iPhone 3GS before I left. It arrived in the mail while I was out during the day.

Drinks were cool. Meet up with Luke, Stanley, & Danny to name a few. I didn’t stay out too late so I was happy! All in all a busy and productive day.

Lunch Out

by

Today was a work in the office day.  I got lunch with a vendor.  We hadn't spoken in several months so it was good to catch up and get him up to speed with my current needs.  Some work lunches can be painful or painfully boring.  Thankfully this one wasn't.

I thought my meeting schedule was relatively light but enough stuff came up to make me think twice about that assessment by the time the day ended.  I don't know why I ever think that because when I do I always learn to regret it.

On the way home I grabbed a hair cut.  Then it was home for a quick dinner.  I was tired so nothing major went on this evening.