Shopping

My Speedmaster Returns

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In early January I was distressed when one night I went to wind my watch one night and felt something give when I started to wind it.  After that there was no resistance when winding it and i knew something was wrong.  I was very concerned because my Speedmaster Professional is over 40 years old and I just had work done on it almost two years ago.  Servicing that watch is not cheap so I was not pleased that it could be expensive to fix.  I took it to the Omega store the next day and thankfully the watch was still under warranty.  That was a huge relief.  On the down side they said it would take up to six weeks to get fixed.  At that point I didn’t care because it was a free fix.

Today I went to pick up my newly fixed watch.  It seems to be working perfectly so I am happy.  it always has a tenancy to run fast so I am wondering if this work has addressed that, but I am not holding my breath on it.

Taos

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Today was our travel day to Taos.  Originally we were supposed to goto Bandelier National Monument but the concierge at the hotel said it was mostly closed due to fires.  Instead we went to a pueblo near our hotel for a bit and then headed out to Taos.

It was a a pretty decent drive of about an hour and a half.  The views along the way were stunning though.  We stopped a few times to take pictures.

Once in Taos we went to Doc Martin’s restaurant.  No affiliation to the shoe guy.  I was disappointed at that, but it was a nice lunch.  After lunch we spent time in downtown Taos checking out all the shops.  It was fun but we didn’t buy very much.

After downtown we went to our hotel.  We were spending one night at the El Monte Sagrado Living Resort and Spa.  This hotel is fantastic.  It is by far one of the best hotel rooms I have ever been in.  It was huge, we had our own fireplace and just overall really nice.  I still think the room M and I had at the Mandarin Orientel in Las Vegas is still the best I have ever stayed in this is in my top 5, and I have traveled a lot.

We spent the afternoon lounging around the indoor pool and reading.  I have been glad for the downtime to just relax.  I am finishing my Tom Clancy book I started on the cruise last December.

For dinner we stayed at the hotel restaurant.  Again a well reviewed restaurant that did not disappoint.

Getta a Schvitz

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Today M and I headed into Forest Hills again to do some apartment hunting.  Before our apointment we headed over to Mens Warehouse to look for Tuxedo’s for the wedding.  We ended up not picking a tux.  I need to go online to find one and then go back.  There were too many choices.

While we were at the store I did do some shopping for a suit.  I have been saying a need a new one for a year so I finally pushed myself to get one.  I found 2 I liked and ended up buying both of them.  There was a buy one get one free sale so it worked out.  I have to come back after vacation to pick them up.

The apartment we saw wasn’t anything to write home about.  After the apartment viewing we headed into Manhattan to use our life booker coupon at the Russian Turkish Baths.  We saw this place over the winter and wanted to check it out so we were happy when we saw only a few days later a lifebooker coupon for it.  It was really cheap but we had been procrastinating going for months.  We were glad that we went.  That place was great.  The different hot steam and sauna rooms were fantastic.  The cold plunge was even really good.  We each got a 50 minute massage.

After the schvitz we went to a sushi place called Kanoyama nearby.  It was good but TJ Asian’s by our apartment is still better.  I am totally loving the Sushi now.  I am still new to it.  I only started having some Sushi over Sashimi over the past few trips to the place by our apartment.  After dinner we went to ChikaLicious for desert nearby.  I had some really good macaroons, but the mini cupcake i had was only ok.  It was a fantastic Saturday spent with M!

Mmm Coffee

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After going to Crate and Barrel with M to do the wedding registry I became very interested in an espresso maker / milk frother. I have been using a Flavia machine to make Capuchinno’s for over 2 years now. M can’t stand it. She thinks it is brown water. Lets face it, it only makes OK coffee. I really wanted to find an easy to use and clean up coffee maker that will also make Capuchinno. I knew stuff was out there but hadn’t found anything that was cheap enough and easy enough.

On Thursday the sales lady at Crate & Barrel showed me a Nespresso Espresso machine that also had a milk frother add on in the back. It looked generally easy to use and I had heard good reviews of the Nespresso coffee makers.

Last night and this morning I did some more research online and went to Wiliam Sanoma this afternon and asked some questions. Once I was done there M and I went to the Nespresso Cafe on Madisson. One of the advantages of living in a big city is if a company is going to have an outlet store it will be in NY.

The Nespresso Cafe was pretty cool. It was a real cafe were you could get coffee and pastries but it also sold the coffee machines. I asked a bunch of questions and then they actually made M and I cup’s of Capuchinno using the model machines we were looking at. They tasted great. I opted to get a regular Espresso maker and a seperate milk frother vs the all in one unit. The price was the same but we wanted to have two units in case there was an issue with one so we don’t have to replace the whole thing.

M surprised me by buying everything since she owed me an anniversary gift. I will take delicious coffee over jewelry any day.

Registry Update

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Tonight M and I met up at Bryant Park for a quick dinner before going to work on our wedding registry again.  We got sandwiches at Witch Craft.  It was really yummy as always but we almost got drenched when it started to rain.  We got luck and weren’t too bad off.

After our brush with water we headed up town to Crate & Barrel to work get to work on our wedding registry.  We went to Macys already but there was a bunch of stuff we wanted to get from Crate and Barrel.  Their process was as easy or even easier than Macy’s.  We got the bar code reading gun and a tutorial and off we went.  I think we rounded out what we needed so we were very pleased.  We almost didn’t realize the store was closing and had to leave at 8:30.  As a rule when they stop playing music it is time to go.

Afterward we walked towards the train station but made a detour to Dillan’s Candy Shop for some Ice Cream.  It was a great end to a very productive and fun day.

Beginning a Gift Registry

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Today M went with one of her brides maid’s to look for a dress.  I got to lounge around in the morning.  Afterward I went to do some shopping at Macys.  M meet up with me and we went to work on our wedding registry.

The registry process (at least at Macy’s) was kinda fun.  We went and got a scanner gun and walked around scanning things we wanted.  They would immediately be visible on my iPhone.  We spent a few hours going through looking for items we wanted.

We found a bunch of stuff we were looking for but we are no were near complete.  We need to goto a few other stores in the next few weeks before we can tell people.

Company Shwag

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I found a note about a company store website where I can get stuff with the company logo. I had bought a polo and an unbrella on another site a few months ago but the selection wasn’t so great. I was eager to check out the new site. I bought two polos, and a fleet of top. If the polls fit well probably buy more.

Canceled Plans

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So my plans to see my dad got canceled at the last minute. Apparently he got a cold this weekend. When I called he didn’t sound to hot and he didn’t want to get me sick. There was also the not wanting to drive to get me and the computer either. We decided it best to reschedule for next week.

My dilemma was it was 11AM and I was awake and fully dressed on a Sunday. For me that is an accomplishment if I am not planning on going anywhere. I ended up going into Manhattan to do some shopping for a bit and then I headed home in the mid afternoon. I cleaned up my apartment and decided to take a crack at my task list to do at home that I have been ignoring.

Overall a nice relaxing day. Hoping this week at work wont be too hectic, but I have to goto NJ in the middle of the week so I am not so sure.

Another iMac

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So I should never talk about technology and say one thing and then a few months later totally change my tune. I know, I am bad. I say that after ranting about the all in one computer form factor. I had a love hate relationship with my 24″ iMac. I was happy and sad to see it go. I like laptop’s much better. I really do. Of course that doesn’t explain why today I went out and bought a 27″ iMac. And not just a regular 27″ iMac, I got the Quad Core i5 model. I figured the even more money for the i7 was overkill. Well the i7 was overkill or I didn’t want to wait for the special order for that. I will just keep telling myself that it was overkill.

So why after being mad at the all in ones, would I go and get another one? Well that is an interesting story. In December I finally after 2 years of pondering it, I went out and bought a 30″ LCD monitor. See my reasons for not getting one sooner in my “Monitor Upgrades & Monitor Arm Number 2” post, so I wont have to go back into that again. After all that I wanted the dam iMac again because even though the 30″ display was fantastic, it wasn’t fantastic with my Macbook Pro. The image was just crap. The stupid Apple Dual Link DVI to Display Port adapter that everyone bashes does suck as bad as everyone says. I don’t know why. And it isn’t all the time. I used the same adapter on my Mac Mini and it seemed to work better. The monitor worked fantastic on a non mac machine, but guess what all I have are Mac’s.

So why did I change my mind? Figuring out what my tax return would be on Thursday was what started my thoughts. Originally I wanted a Mac Pro. I figured I would splurge and plug it into my fancy new monitor. Then I saw the cost of the single processor model. Holly crap that is expensive. The similar quad core iMac was like $500 cheaper. I then thought about out how much i could get for reselling my 30″ monitor and the iMac is half paid for, plus i am getting a slightly smaller screen and almost as powerful a system. Lets face it I don’t “need” a Mac Pro, I wanted it to drive the monitor I had. In the end this was a cheaper and smarter decision. My desk is also thankful for the extra room.

In the short term I am still going to hold onto the Macbook Pro because I do use it out of the house, but that is also soon to go the way of ebay once I get an iPad or something else small.

Now I can’t promise that in 6 months I wont be fed up with the all in one again. But for now I think it was a smart move. To show how much I think this was a good idea, I can say I even bought the Apple Care for this thing. I almost never do that since I usually only keep a computer for a year!

Next thing I need to do is figure out how to get the VESA mount on this new computer so I can use my monitor arm again. Thanks again Apple for making a standard like VESA so hard to setup. If the reviews of this mount are any indication I am going to be not happy when I try to mount it.

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Took Monday Off

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Since I worked all day last Saturday I decided to take today off and relax. I had some shopping I wanted to do, get a haircut, etc. Just typical weekend routine stuff. It was good to just not have to goto work.