After Hours (for me) In Vegas

For dinner tonight I ended up back at the Paris to meet my friend Sean & his wife Kelly for dinner. I have mentioned Sean before (sunday for starters) but I don’t know if I every gave any history on him and Kelly. I went to college with Sean, and whenever I goto vegas it is good to see him. Don’t know Kelly as well as Sean, but she is really cool. We went to this french resteraunt in the Paris (go figure) that she likes. We all had fantastic steaks. All the deserts were also great. I had this flowerless chocolate cake. It was pricey, but good. I am now wired on the cappichino that I had. I almost never get desert, and even less frequently do I get coffee. And no I cannot spell Cappichino, and I hacked it so bad that the spell checker can’t even make a suggestion.

I had a great time, and I think they had fun too. We had to cut the night short since Kellys mom was watching their baby and had to get up early tomorrow. We might hook up again this week, but my schedule is getting kind of tight. I am supposed to do this user conferece and meet up with a Cisco engineer that I know for dinner tomorrow. Then thursday is the big closing party.

I made my spa appointment for friday. I decided that I am taking my poker winnings from last week and I am going to the spa. I will relax in the morning and early afternoon and then go right to the airport for my flight home. Hopefully the day will be as nice as I have planned it to be.

Little Italy

Meet up with Cari, her sister, Jayson, Gretchen, and Jay’s mom for dinner in Little Italy tonight. We went to a place we goto allot. It was good, but I can’t remember or spell the places name right. Afterward we went shopping for junk inexpensive sunglasses and accessories for Cari’s niece. It was hot and steamy from the rain, but we had a good time.

I just got home about an hour ago. I am still not tired. Even after a relitivly strong drink at Cari’s. I know I need to lie down now in order to be normal for Monday, but I am still not tired. I will try in a little while…

Too Much To Talk About

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

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

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.

Travel Day

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.

Dari’s Birthday Bowling Bash

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!

Drinks Out

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

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.

Solo Today, And Road Trip Tomorrow

I was by myself in my office today. Jay had the day off. I am solo again tomorrow on a trip upstate. That is all I can say here, but will write more on my private work blog.

Mothers day was nice. Saw my mom, sister, dad, morgan, and others. Morgan is so funny. And the dangerous thing is she knows it. I think she is also a bit jealous of the new twins. My mom said it shouldn’t matter since the twins are not her grand kids so she will continue to spoil Morgan as much as she has. My dad quickly agreed.

After 2 changes of venues we ended up at mikes mom’s house for mothers day. I ended up taking metro north up and back. No rides for me this trip. it was not so bad. Metro north is even easier than the LIRR since it is on the east side.

I passed on desert in little Italy. Jayson wouldn’t commit to doing it until like 8PM when I got his call. By then I had just ate and I didn’t really want to trek out for a 30 minute train ride to have sugary (ohh, so good) desert at 9PM to not sleep the night because I am on a sugar high! Maybe next week.