1 more full week in January 2010

Kate and I had a good weekend.
It started with us seeing the "Antarctica" movie at the Museum of Science on their curved IMAX screen. The shows are free on a hand full of the Fridays during the winter and we took advantage.

We followed it up with some Thai food at "The King & I" on Beacon hill. Lots of leftovers. Saturday were errand days as usual, and Saturday evening Kate came over and made Shepherd's pie. We just took it easy and watched some TV.

Sunday we debated whether or not to go see Avatar in 3D Imax. I'm not particularly enthusiastic about it myself- and ironically, Kate who usually isn't much of an action movie fan wants to see it. We opted on going to the gym, and then staying in and cooking supper instead. Perhaps next weekend.

Well time for another week. I have to get back to picking this popcorn kernel out of my teeth and then head to bed. Perhaps I'll read a little more Atlas Shrugged before I nod off.

Conan is my Johnny Carson

He was there for my study breaks in college, and was my late night voice in my early years out of school. It is a shame to see him go, hopefully FOX or someone else sees the big opportunity to have him coming back bigger and better.

See finale at link below:

http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/

Awesome! Meat without the mistreatment of Animals

Not to mention a process that will be greener and have the potential to produce massive quantities of food over a small land footprint- regardless of weather and other limiting factors.

Scientists turn stem cells into pork


Funny thing is I was just exclaiming to Kate that I didn't understand why there weren't people working on this. Now of course it will probably be a tough pill to swallow for the "Organic" fans, or the "Anti-science" crew who, some of which will immediately say it is an abomination, or playing God. Hopefully the market need, and intelligence will be a driving force rather than these ignorant sentiments.

I love the advancement of technology!

2010- Gingerbread?

Well... here they are the first images of a new year. My Aunt Gigi bought me a gingerbread house for Christmas to remind me of being little. We used to make cookies together every year, and we made a couple gingerbread houses too. One year my cousins and I made a whole gingerbread village.

The idea I had was to show the process of destruction of the gingerbread house. Capture the consumption over time. Obviously these are the starting points... and honestly I'm not sure I'll follow through with this stunt.

NYC 2009: End of the last day of the trip

OK... so far my computer hasn't started going batty tonight. I guess it is getting near the end of its life, I want to make it last till the end of the year however... So the rest of the day.

I guess I wasn't too far from the conclusion to be completely honest. We spent some time in the Medieval art wing where I took this picture of an unusual manger. Unusual because notice that baby Jesus is up with the angels, and not in Mary's care. I thought it seemed a bit demeaning in a sense to Mary, making her seem like a "vessel" and a servant rather than an important Biblical figure.

We saw a transition of European art to just about Modern times. Kate in particular liked a display that was made to represent the room of an English palace. The pieces of china reminded me of the tourist knick-knacks that were available at Buckingham Palace in London (Westminster technically). They had a bright blue color scheme, accented in gold.

We eventually started looking at the modern art wing, but didn't get any where close to seeing everything. We were trying to be a bit creative with this photo. It didn't really work for us.

Soon we were arted out and we decided to head out for Lunch. We were going to go to Lombardi's Pizza in Little Italy but it was way to busy with over an hour long wait. We ended up just randomly choosing a restaurant where we got pizza and bruschetta. It was a nice meal and it had a very cozy, old fashioned Italian restaurant atmosphere.

Soon we were on the Chinese bus back to Boston. We took the Lucky Star instead of Fung Wah. It was also $15 and sported some of the same broken seats inside the bus. I think I preferred Fung Wah as did Kate, but if you ask me why it really is difficult for me to pinpoint why. The crotchety bus driver on Lucky Star didn't win them any points.

NYC 2009: The last day

It was frigid again in the Big apple and we headed quickly back to the Met after our free breakfast. Kate managed to get her Belgium waffles on this day so all was good. We started out in the Egyptian section, checking out some of the things we missed. I busied myself taking pictures of various hippos which the Ancient Egyptians seemed rather fond of. This guy looks like he shouldn't be messed with. The ever popular blue hippo.

An assortment of hippos, with what appears to be two rather amorous hippos.

Another Blue Hippo. And finally the hippo painting.

I planned to put this day all in one post... but after some problems with my Internet connectivity tonight I'm rather beat... soooo... till tomorrow. Enjoy the hippos.

NYC 2009: Conclusion of Day 2

This first picture is not the Tal Bagels we had lunch at, But, at the suggestion of Jeff, we did indeed have lunch at a Tal Bagels. I forgot to snap the photo at the time and saw this one a day later in the same neighborhood. It is my understanding that there is a handful of them in Manhattan, mostly in the Upper East side.

They made a mean roast beef sandwich, truthfully one of the best I've ever had. Kate had a turkey sandwich on a bagel, and I can't recall if Jeff had roast beef on a bagel or the traditional rye. I went for wheat bread.... I know, I know. But I'm not a big fan of bagel sandwiches, let alone bagels themselves. I probably would try a bagel from a nice NY deli for breakfast however, perhaps another time.

After eating we went to Jeff's apartment which was nearby. We sat around and chatted while the first disc of the White Album served as the afternoon's soundtrack. We all drank copious amounts of NYC tap water. Jeff travels a lot for work & pleasure, as well as eats out frequently- his refrigerator reflects this. However, I really can't say I'm too much better on the food stock front- especially since I've largely given up soda. Jeff had some previously planned evening engagements, so around 5 or 6 pm Kate and I headed off on our own.We decided to go to the main branch of the NYC public library which usually has some nice free exhibits. We were out of luck this time. The only large exhibit was a series of antique maps, which only holds one's interest for so long. We walked around the reading rooms and I snapped the picture of the Christmas tree in the lobby. It was decorated with birds and I thought my mother would appreciate that (It is a theme she'd like to accent her own tree with in the future), however it appears a little blurry since I was not allowed to use a flash.After the library we weren't quite ready for supper. We decided to walk to Rockefeller Center to take in the lights. We've seen them twice already during two different years, however they really don't get old.It was very very cold, Kate had a very nice get-up that I'm certain many people, including myself, were envious of.

Skaters still braved the cold, and the streets still were packed around Radio City Music Hall and 30 Rock. That rink was in desperate need of the Zamboni.

We had enough after briefly taking it all in. It was time to head back to the Comfort Inn and perhaps get a quick bite to eat on the way. In the spur of the moment we decided to go to the "Famous Rays Pizza"- the original one (There are several knock-offs) in Little Italy. It was a neat little place with a friendly blue-collar staff that seemed to be chatting up several regulars. Kate and I each got a coffee and a slice of Sicilian pizza. It was good- I'm not sure I feel it was exceptional, but it hit the spot, and the atmosphere was great. I did find it tough to imagine it as "famous" because it did not have that quasi touristy vibe, or hipster magnet feel that some of these places acquire. This was an unchanged, rough around the edges, neighborhood pizzeria that could exist in almost any "older" American town/city center in the northeast.

After eating we went across the street to a tiny grocery store where I bought a milk to bring back to the hotel (to go with Aunt Gigi's left over Brownies). We were really close to the hotel in Little Italy, literally a couple of blocks. However, with the wind howling and the cold burning our cheeks we decided to get back on the Subway and spend as little time on the surface as we had to.

We settled in quickly upon arrival. After brownies, milk, and a game of Skip-Bo we were ready to count some sheep.

Stay tuned for Day 3...

NYC 2009: Day 2 cont.

While we were in the Asian art wing Kate received a call from her friend Jeff who we were going to have a late lunch with later. We were to meet Jeff at a nearby Barnes and Noble at 3:00 pm. This meant we had to leave the Met at approximately 2:30 pm. We had about 40 minutes to walk around before getting our coats.

Kate had wanted to find a painting that she had seen over Thanksgiving when she visited and we spent some time trying to track it down. During this period we stumbled upon many different exhibits which we quickly took in. A hall of arms, a relocated Egyptian tomb, and the impressive courtyard entrance to "The American Wing".

We thought we would probably return on Wednesday to take a bit more of the museum, so in a sense we were also conducting a little bit of reconnaissance.

When we left the museum it was still bitterly cold (surprise surprise) and we struggled down the wind tunnels that are Manhattan streets. We waited inside the bookstore entrance for Jeff and he arrived promptly at 3:00 pm.

To be continued.....

NYC 2009: Day 2 begins

Day two began with a lovely complimentary breakfast in the tiny, overcrowded continental breakfast dining room. Everyone seemed to be taking the Comfort Inn up on their boiled eggs, cereal, fruit, muffins and donuts, and Belgium Waffle maker. Kate had been dreaming of those waffles all night, and unfortunately they ran out right before we arrived. I had a nice bowl of frosted flakes, a donut, a juice, and coffee.

We didn't sleep terrific, it wasn't super noisy in the room but there is enough noise from trash trucks, and some sparse traffic late at night which really is louder than anything Kate and I are used to hearing in Melrose or Brookline. Midway through the night I discovered the trick of turning the heater fan on which provided enough grey noise to get me to sleep.

Chinatown was already bustling again in the morning. We made our way through displays of fish and fruit to Grand St. station and headed towards our destination, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or "The Met" as it is known.

It was a very cold walk over from 86th street station, and we couldn't wait to get inside. The first day we primarily saw the Asian exhibits. There is a recreation of a Japanese garden in the museum that makes use of natural light where you could almost (the key word being almost) forget that it is winter outside.Much of the displays were devoted to a traditional Chinese type of Art. An artist named Luo Ping was heavily featured as was the artwork of some of his family. His teacher Jin Nong was also featured in the exhibit. We took in a great deal of art, and I really didn't take that many pictures. I felt that this Cambodian piece called "pot in the shape of a rabbit" was worthy of capturing. It seems like it belongs in Donnie Darko, although I guess this guy is a bit cuter and more approachable than Frank.

To be continued...

NYC 2009: Conclusion of the first night

Of course the perfect ending to our first day in the Big Apple is a nice meal. Kate found an Italian Restaurant in her guidebook called Carino's. I think the owners paid off the guide book people because the description in the book really wasn't all that accurate. They said it was affordable, which it really wasn't, and they said it had "classic Italian fare", which while wasn't completely false, it wasn't exactly true either. Lets just say if you just wanted pasta, sauce, and meatballs you weren't going to get it. Our food was OK, just not really worth what we paid. The interior was borderline cafeteria style with large tiled floors, bright lighting, and tacky Christmas decorations. The picture of the front of the restaurant is quite misleading. As we were walking in a group came out and they were mocking the place. We didn't pay much heed but perhaps we should have.

Afterwards we walked around the upper East Side a little while. Out of curiosity we popped into Serendipity 3, a famous pastry/ jewelry store featured in multiple films. It was pricey, and very, very busy. After one over priced disappointment we really weren't willing to go try for another. Luckily we had more of my Aunt's Brownies back at the room. Kate had a Skip-Bo card game that she purchased while we were in Greenpoint, and we were eager to get to the warmth and security of the room and relax.

NYC 2009, Continued

We began our exploration walking around a neighborhood in Brooklyn called Greenpoint, which actually isn't that far from Williamsburg. We walked down a main commercial street as well as down several side streets. Portions of this area are a Polish community which contain many unique shops, delis and restaurants catering to the community. There was a very picturesque park called McGolrick Park in the center of one of Greenpoint's neighborhoods which is where I took the above photo. Next we headed to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to check out a tradition of some REALLY extravagant holiday decorations. It was cold but it was worth seeing. The central commercial area in Bay Ridge was very nice to visit as well. It has an old fashioned city "downtown" feeling, complete with several department stores and many mom & pop shops and restaurants. Kate and I got a terrific hot chocolate from a McDonalds that helped to keep us warm. It even came with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Who knew McDonalds had good hot chocolate?

I forgot to bring my gloves to NYC, so it was nice to have a hot cup of something in my hand.

The house of misfit... inflatable toys.

Ooooh Aahhh!

Does Kate look cold?

To be continued...again.....

NYC 2009 - arrival

As I've mentioned briefly in a prior post, Kate and I decided to spend a few days in the Big Apple after the holidays. I met Kate in NYC, I took the Fung Wah, a Chinatown bus which is $15 in each direction. It dropped me off right at the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge in the heart of Chinatown. I arrived a bit earlier than Kate and wondered around the Bowery for a while after dropping off my luggage at the Comfort Inn we were staying at, which was steps from the bus stop. By bus stop, I mean spot between the Chinese grocery stores and knock off Rolex sellers where they hastily put your luggage on the sidewalk and send you on your way.

The Comfort Inn is the newer building with the blue awning.



As Kate would probably arrive an hour after me, I burnt some time getting a sandwich from the Popeye's Chicken pictured above. I was in no mood to find a good dumpling place because it seemed like it would involve too much mental exertion, and I was rather tired.

This water tank pictured below was our view from the hotel window. It was actually visibly leaking, which can't be very cost effective depending on what the purpose of the tank is.
Kate smiling next to the the TV. Kate's desire to watch the food channel after a day of walking is basically all that I need to convince her that a "cheap" Manhattan hotel is better than a hostel. Yes, I take full responsibility for at least partially spoiling Kate's frugality when it comes to hotel rooms. If I was 18, I could probably handle the hostel, but I find my extra comfort is worth a little extra cash.
Not that we aren't budget travelers. Every time we've gone to NYC we have found an excellent deal. This place was very clean, located a block from the subway, brand new, and they included Breakfast in the cost of the room. Previously we had to sacrifice either distance or amenities for our budget. This time we found a good compromise. We may very well be return customers some day.

After relaxing, checking out the room, and eating some of my Aunt Gigi's brownies that I had packed in my suitcase, Kate and I came up with a game plan and headed out on the town.

To be Continued....

Another year

Well 2010 has arrived and here I stand upon the threshold of uncharted waters. I recall thinking about the future when I was 12, 17, and perhaps 20. I remember imagining, or assuming what I might be doing in the year 2001, or perhaps 2003. This year, however, was not present on the spectrum of my imagination.

I was not forced to think about 2010 in any respect until I stood there teetering at the edge, waiting to fall forward into this short but vast expanse of time in which history shall be forged and lives shall change. Even in recent times 2010 seemed like sort of a non-year, no that isn't really a good descriptor. It seemed like a vacuum. It is filled with uncertainties and it seems to contain no hard deadlines by which to chart my progress, and no concrete events by which to define my life by. Deadlines at work and potential changes in life seem to skip this year, and suggestive changes within this span seemed uncertain, undefined, and ages from now.

With certainty, there are some substantial events that will take place in 2010. For example, the U.S. midterm elections, which will hopefully begin to usher in better times.

I suppose in many ways 2009 was also rather uncertain for me. I had only some semblance of anticipated direction at the start, and yet 2008 seems both recent and far away. The past year represented extensive travel for me, primarily for work in which I spent time in Spain and visited several other European locations, but also for leisure. Kate and I travelled to Baltimore and D.C. where we explored and saw friends and family. We had a nice visit to Schenectady and upstate New York where we spent time visiting with Kate's Mom & Aunt, as well as one of Kate's high school friends. My close friend Jason Duplissis was married suddenly with short notice to Mary (Millie) Heatwole. I was pleased to be part of the wedding. Jason found himself someone who seems very kind, down to earth, and an excellent match for him on multiple levels. In early November Kate and I visited with my cousin Mandy, and her husband Ryan in El Mirage near Phoenix. We also toured much of northern Arizona taking in the Grand Canyon among many other sights. After the holidays Kate & I headed to NYC via the Fung Wah bus ($15) and took in the Metropolitan Art Museum, braved the Arctic cold a little and walked around Brooklyn and midtown, as well as had an enjoyable lunch with her friend Jeff. We closed out the year playing games New Years Eve with Millie and Jason.

Many changes for me were related to keeping a closer eye on my health. I can surely say that for the first time in my life aside from looking older I'm fully aware of feeling older too. For my part, I continue to look for ways to improve in this regard.

In closing, for a year that seemed like it should have been business as usual, 2009 changed me. I suppose I am more cautious, more aware of my limitations, and most significantly, more aware than I ever have been of how fleeting the moment really can be.

I need to be aware more of the moment at hand, what is good about it, what I can learn from it, and how it will make me a better person in the days to come. At the same time I must find that balance which allows me to take pleasure in the immediacy of life, rather than worrying over-extensively of anticipated, yet unseen bumps further down the road.