Friday, December 19, 2008
Was möchten Sie essen heute?
Street vendors are everywhere in the city and while some you wouldn't go near if they were giving out the food for free, others are so good that people will line up around the corner. One of these carts where people line up is the Hallo Berlin cart on 54th St. and 5th Ave. It's run by some German guys and they serve up the best sausage, kraut and potatoes I've ever had.
I went yesterday with a co-worker and for $11 you can get the "Barack Obama" or "Democracy Special" which includes a choice of two different sausages, a Bavarian meatball, potato salad, red and white kraut. and a roll. It's probably way too much food, but I ate it all anyway.
So if you are ever in the mood for some excellent German food and you're in midtown, check out the Hallo Berlin cart on 54th street at 5th avenue between 11:30am and 3:30pm Monday through Friday. Look for the Lufthansa umbrella.
Was möchten Sie essen heute? ( What do you want to eat today?)
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Birthday Burgers
I'm not immune to getting excited about free stuff though. I signed us up for the Red Robin birthday club. A week before your birthday you get a coupon by email for a free burger. So I took my wife to Red Robin on her birthday and we chowed down on some high quality burgers. When my daughter is born next month I'm going to sign her up right away so I get a free burger on her birthday... it doesn't say that YOU have to eat it for it to be free, you just have to be there.
I wonder what other companies offer free stuff on your birthday... I should sign us up for all of them.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Costco is awesome
So we went to Costco to stock up and they have their flat screen TV's on sale. I was considering buying one back in August but couldn't bring myself to spend the money. But the price had come down by $400 since then and I knew that once they were gone the new models would come in and the price would be back up. So... yep you guessed it, I am now the proud owner of a 47" Vizio LCD TV. The thing looks massive on our TV stand, it's about 4 inches narrower than the stand itself. I found out right away that Cablevision doesn't automatically give you an HD cable box, you have take the regular one in and trade it in order to get the HD channels. So now I'm into checking out what is on the HD channels, and seeing how different it looks.
I don't go in for buying the latest technology when it comes out, so I'm glad to say that I paid about a quarter of what this TV cost a few years ago. Don't get me wrong, the latest technology is some cool stuff but not worth spending the money just to say you had it first.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Black Friday
I'd like to say that this could only happen in New York, but I know that isn't true. When people get frenzied it doesn't matter where they are.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The Big 3-0
My original plan was to ditch on that day so I could spend it with my wife in Nashville about 2 1/2 hours away from the workshop site of Mayfield, Kentucky. I didn't think that I would be so wrapped up in the work this year, but I had a much larger role than I have had in previous years. So as the day grew nearer I decided that we could celebrate my birthday when I got back to Nashville a few days later. So instead of spending the day with my wife I opted to stare at Actionscript 3 and Flex MXML code all day. I feel liek what we accomplished will help us out in workshops to come and make things a lot easier for us.
I still haven't had my birthday dinner but I think with all of the fast food I've had and the mountains of bar-b-cue at the workshops I'm not really in the mood to eat. Don't get me wrong, I still eat and probably more often that I should but I can't decide ahead of time what it is I want to eat. I think I've finally decided that I want to go to Logan's Steakhouse not too far from my wife's parent's home in Nashville and get me a nice steak or maybe ribs... oh I don't know.
Either way I'm still 30 and I'm still not sure what that means for me in this next year.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Jet lag
So this is week 2 of a 4 week absence from my desk in New York. Last week I was in Virginia Beach at a conference where I was a panelist. This week I'm in Seattle, next week at the Mountain Workshops in Kentucky and then I'm on vacation for a week. Total time spent away from my desk, 31 days. You can go through a lot of fast food and heavy restaurant meals in 4 weeks. I'm on day 3 of week 2 and already I don't want to see another burrito, fajita or egg McMuffin for a long time but I still have 17 days to go.
On top of the pain I'm feeling in my gut morning and night, I can't seem to sleep past 6 a.m. PT (9 a.m. ET) even though I keep staying up until 12 a.m. PT ( 3 a.m. ET ) each night. This jet lag is already starting to get to me, good thing once I'm back in Kentucky there is only one hour time difference.
I feel like I'm walking around in a fog at the office. I'm able to function but the hunger comes early and the fatigue hits about 4 p.m. ( 7 p.m. ET ) the time that I'm usually at home having dinner. I think it makes time pass more slowly when your body thinks it's one time but your brain is trying to trick it into changing routines.
Regardless, I'm glad to be out here enjoying the crisp fall weather and noticing the leaves starting to change from green to a brilliant red before falling and sticking to anything and everything the rain has touched. Gray skies as far as the eye can see and moody people who forget how to think when and if the sun ever comes out. Maybe that's because their eyes become sensitive and their skin immediately begins to melt off when they get a little bit of UVA exposure. Oh Seattle, what a town!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Dutchess County Fair
Who would have thought that so close to New York City you would even have a 4H competition, I didn't know that New Yorkers knew about 4H. But there it was in all it's glory and smell. We saw some prize winning hogs, plenty of cows and steers, goats, sheep and horses. Not far from the 4H stalls we found the food.
I'd been wanting a funnel cake since we found out about the fair. We started off with a corndog for $3.50, a drink for $5 and a cheeseburger for $4.50. Once we polished those off we found the french fry guy and got a large basket of piping hot taters for $5. The funnel cake came later though and it was awesome! It was fun to be full of fair food again.
The fair was crowded with people, more so than others I've been to. The weirdest thing was that for a few minutes there I totally forgot that we were in New York, but then all of a sudden there's some guy yelling to his wife in that Brooklyn accent... "Hey, get me a hotdog while you's is up. Where d'ya think you're going?"
The ever popular pig racing was too crowded to see anything but the dog agility course was open and we got to see everything from a Chihuahua to a Lab run the course. The announcer was a rough looking woman who kept yelling into the microphone. "The next dog is a LONG HAIRED CHIHUAHUA.... her NAME is BUTTONS.... she's a FEMALE and 2 YEARS of AGE!" Everyone kept cringing every time she opened her mouse because it was so loud.
This year they added a grand stand to the fair. Little Big Town was the headliner that night and the bleachers were free but pregnant women and benches don't mix. So we thought it wasn't such a good idea to stay around for that. We thought about riding the ferris wheel but by the time we got ready to ride it my wife was starting to get very tired from walking around so much. By the time we left we had stayed for 3 hours. It took us another 30 min. to get out of the parking area with all the traffic.
I would go again, if not just to get a $5 funnel cake.
Friday, August 22, 2008
No reason to complain
West Point Military Academy is one of these architectural wonders sitting up on the cliffs above the water. The buildings overshadow everything around them and sometimes you can catch a mirrored reflection on the water below. Around Beacon, NY there are the ruins of a castle on a small island on the east side of the river. Who built a castle in the Hudson and why did they let it go into disrepair?
Sometimes the water is smooth as glass and other times it's so windblown that whitecaps appear and mist is blowing off the tops of the small waves. But today is one of those days where the blue sky is reflecting off the top of the water as you go past Yonkers, Sleepy Hollow, the Tappan Zee bridge and of course Sing Sing prison. It's beautiful and makes me glad I don't live in the cramped city and that I get to enjoy such sights.
To tell the truth, I have no reason to complain. If I had to pick a place to live and still have proximity to New York City I'm not sure I could do any better. The train ride is a little long but in my opinion it's worth the trip to be away from all the hustle and bustle and stink of the city.
Speaking of stink, ever walk down 48th street between Madison and 5th avenues on a warm summer day? It smells like garbage and vomit. There is a milky-white liquid in the gutter of the street that won't go away and it stays there and the smell gets worse as the day gets warmer. Then there is a cafe on the block where for some reason people sit outside and eat their breakfast. I guess tried and true New Yorkers have lost their sense of smell.
But what a place! Tourists everywhere in midtown. Today there were three groups of people blocking the sidewalk and by the time I got to the third I was audibly telling people to move out of the way. "Excuse me... move please... THANK YOU" was all I said and the tour guide
says, "It's ok sir, settle down, it's ok." I think they were from Indiana or somewhere like that, I wasn't even being rude. If I wanted to be rude I would have said, "HEY! PEOPLE BLOCKING THE SIDEWALK!! THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE IN THIS CITY BESIDES YOU!! MOVE!!"
I like New York but I won't be sad when I leave it all behind me... for the second time. Ok, maybe I did a little complaining, but who could blame me?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Too Old for Old Navy
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Blockbuster Video
This morning I went to the Blockbuster video and noticed a guy standing outside smoking. I thought to myself, "that guy looks like a rocker" and said to my wife, "is that a two headed moose on that guy's shirt?" My wife asks me, "is that Rob Thomas?" I said, "it kind of looks like him. He lives around here somewhere. Probably not though."
He kept looking around as if to see if anyone was watching him and I said, "maybe it IS Rob Thomas." I wondered what kind of car Rob Thomas might drive thinking sports car of some sort. The guy left with a 10-year-old kid in a 700 series BMW and I thought, "he wouldn't drive a Beemer, and does he have a kid?"
So I get home and Wikipedia says that he has a son named Maison and he's 10 years old. Then I look at some pictures on Getty Images from two weeks ago, looks like the guy I saw. Then the clincher, Wikipedia entry for the town says he lives there.
I guess you never can tell who you might run into at Blockbuster video on a Saturday morning in upper Westchester county.