Stuck in L.A.

We're not really stuck in L.A. -it just sounded like a cool title. Right now we are actually just on a layove. The anouncer says that it will be another 20 minutes while they refresh the plane. I have to say one thing before I go: BUSINESS CLASS RULES!

The Journey Down Under

After about a week of some severe stressing, Amber and I finally had our apartment closed out and our car arrived to take us to the airport for our flight to Australia. We got to the airport with our mountain of bags only to find out that our flight had been canceled as the plane never arrived. Luckily the airline put us up in a hotel. So here I am in the JFK Courtyard Marriott waiting for tomorrow to arrive.

Pretty much the entire plane ended up here -what a a debacle. The airline if footing the bill for the hotel along with meals. The room is nice but the food....I had a chicken burger and Amber had teriyaki salmon. Mine was barely edible and Amber's was barely that. Before actually getting the food we sat for a very long 45-minutes before we even saw our food. I got my burger and then by the time I finished mine Amber's came out. The couple sitting next to us finished eating the main course and then they ordered thei rdesert:

Woman: Excuse me, we would like to order our desert.
Waiter: Your cake will be right out...
Woman: Wait...what kind of cake are we getting?
Waiter: Oh...chocolate and cheese cake...
Woman: Can we order what what we want?
Waiter: ...oh...yes, of course...what would you like?
Woman: Two pieces of cheese cake please....

Long story short: ridiculous. There are people downstairs even now still waiting to sit down and then maybe get some food. If all goes well tomorrow we will finally be in the airplane and heading to Sydney.

In about another 16 minutes I the presidential debate will be beginning so I must now wrap this up.

The A Train (Chambers)

As the A train was creeping up town we made a stop at Chambers. The announcer, in one of his few comprehensible times, announced , "..and path train in service to Jersey!" He sounded very enthusiastic about Jersey.

Right before the train doors at chambers closed a guy walked onto the train asking us for money. No one actually looked at him as he walked up and down the car talking. Here's the only part of what he said that I can remember, ""....if I can't be a good crack head how can I be a good Christian? God bless, y'all!" Then a few people gave him some money and then he disappeared at the next stop.

Long live the MTA!

I ***heart*** Needles

Today I got my shots for my trip to Australia as my lady and I are probably going to be doing some interesting traveling in that part of the world. Have I ever said how much I hate needles. Well I do and I almost passed out.

Now, some people might call this being wimpy and it is but there is a name for this type of wimpiness. That name is the vasovagal reflex. First, due to your wimpiness, your heart beats faster and your blood pressure goes up. Then your heart slows down to make sure that you brain gets enough blood and that causes your blood pressure to fall. Finally may sweat, get pale, nauseous, light headed (you get the drift) and then you may or may not pass out. A quick way to fix it is to lay on your back, elevate your legs, and breath deeply. Note that it may take upwards of 20 mnutes to begin feeling like normal. When getting back up don't do it really fast as you may then pass out anyways.

I Love New York

At my Thunderbird Hospitality Weekend I had the opportunity to meet one of the cast members of the from the still asleep hit reality TV show "I love New York". The cast member in question is T-Money. I remember thinking that I had seen this guy somewhere before but I couldn't remember exactly where that was. I was going to let it go until his buddy, for whatever reason, just came out with it. I think he was embarrassed. Why on earth would someone be embarrassed at being on TV? I mean the guy is now a Reality Television Star. We're talking at least E-list here.

Go to this link. He is the guy at the 18-second mark about to be beat down by New York.

How soon we forget

I was at the airport this morning and everything was going rather smoothly. I checked in and even got decent seat assignments. Security was cleared without a hitch. After I put myself back together I made my way to my gate so that I would wait for the first leg of my flight to Arizona.

Walking down the hallway I noticed a lime green duffle bag just sitting under seat. There was no one anywhere around the bag. Being the good citizen, I made my way back to the security check point to tell someone about it. Security merely looked at me, shrugged, and then said not to worry about it. I blinked once and said, "Okay."

Essentially security didn't even lift a finger.

The point: Why does America seem to forget so quickly? Something bad happens and everyone is all up in arms and ultra paranoid. If anything is out of place even an iota then the area is cordoned off and all of the "right people" are called in to investigate. Not too far after an event, the extra precautionary measures, like breathing, are soon taken for granted and forgotten about. Security becomes more worried with the guy who isn't taking their shoes off at the security point.

NTPS 2008

Live coverage of the NGS 2008 (a.k.a. NYC Trapeze Pro Spectacular)

'Touched' (Again)

My iPod Touch died on me again.

I eventually figured out that it was a software corruption issue. I was downloading multiple application updates directly to my Touch when the battery died in mid-download cycle. After that the unit would not get past the initial boot screen. I went to this link to figure out how to fix the problem: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808.

The result is a total factory reset of your unit and a little bit of reconfiguring...go Apple...I guess.

I have a huge complaint about the iPod Touch. Why, I repeat, why does it have to do the back-up every single time? Does Apple realize that it takes hours, I repeat, hours to do this? What a pain in the buttocks.

August's End (Pt 2)

The story continues...

The Monday after the Davis Family picnic I returned back to JFK and on Tuesday I went back to JFK the next day to meet Marcus's flight. We took it easy on his first day here with plenty of brews accompanied by stimulating conversation about both everything and nothing.

The next day we made the one-hour plus trip to Coney Island. I have been wanting to get out there and my brother's visit provided the ideal opportunity. Did you know that there are plans to redevelop Coney Island into upscale condominiums?

Here is some background. After opening sometime in the 1860's Coney Island became a major part of New York City's history. In the more recent past the area began being bullied by real estate development companies. Even though these parties have not succeeded yet in getting rezoning for luxury condominiums the company has started evicting various business in preparation for the anticipated rezoning action. There are groups who are trying to save Coney Island from redevelopment. Check out http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/167257276. It's an interesting read.

Getting back to the present...my brother and I got off of the subway and made our way to the legendary boardwalk and then down to the Baywatch-esk beach. It was the middle of the week so it wasn't too busy. The seagulls outnumbered the people and there were guys running around in their skivvies. After a quick dip we sat out on the beach and enjoyed the fresh sea air. We even threw around the frisbee hitting a few people in the process (Sorry peeps!). Soon we could hear the pang of hunger and we thought of hot dog and fries with out names written on them. We hurried ly made our way up there, ordered, and then grubbed out. Delicious!

To process the injested grease we walked to the end of the boardwalk. Along the way we passed a movie shoot, a russian community and a crazy cat that was running circles and digging holes in the sand. We stopped along the way to check out a group of people playing handball. As a cherry on the Coney Island Sunday there were the local bums taking their morning naps on the benches. It's all exactly the kind of thing that you'd expect to see there. A long story short: Check out Coney Island. Check out the boardwalk. Eat a hot (what-kind-of-meat?) dog.

Tired, we made our way into the city to get supplies and then it was back to the apartment to settle in for an evening for good eats and conversation. Dinner that night was a Marcus Special consisting of barley, carrots, onions, and chicken breast. That guy is a master of the food concoction. He could make a quality bisque out of nothing more than a dirty sock and a bouillon cube. My bro kind of reminds me of my old Army chef from my days in Vecenzia days. We'll call this guy 'Chef' and 'Chef' had similar culonary talents. Yes, my brother is the McGyver of the kitchen. Give him a tooth pick, a banana peel, and ductape. Why? Because he's gonna make some dinner.

The next day we paid a visit to Canal street and then it was onward to Central Park. We were questing for some rocks to boulder (aka climb) on. I honestly didn't believe that these rocks existed in Central Park but I was proven very wrong. We found a really great traverse complete with a killer crux. Needless to say I did it (ONCE!) and then was wiped. The next day I was feeling muscles that I had forgotten that I had. The day was wrapped up by a massive walking tour of NYC and a visit to Spitzer's Corner. See this link for further details. Through all of this hubnub we somehow managed to avoid Times Square. Lucky us!

...and the story ends.

August's End (Pt 1)

Happy September everyone and all. Here is a friendly reminder telling you that you can no longer wear white pants. Sorry. It's non-negotiable according to the F.P. (Fashionista Police). I serious. If you do it then you will be looked upon as a social pariah.

The last two weeks have been the busiest (and maybe the craziest) of the summer. It started with yet another family reunion in Detroit, MI and ended with a visit to my old college buddy Mike in Portland, ME. Over the next few days I will be filling you all in about these events.

The Davis Family Barbecue was held at a place whose name I can't remember but I definitely know is located somewhere in Michigan. It is the type of location where every family and/or large group loves to congregate. It offers a wide open spaces as well as numerous (and extremely large!) trash cans. Go city park, whose-name-I-cannot-remember, go! Usually you go to a city park and all of the cans are overflowing. My lady and I even bought a badminton set. It was one of those budget ones where the rackets were just like the real ones except they were missing the neck. It was more like we were playing Squash but without the wall or any of the rules that go with it. After playing the game for the first time in over a decade I realized just how much I really suck at the game.

The food was amazing! I lost count of how many different types of foods they had there. There were the usual items like fried chicken, steak, greens, corn, beans, mac and cheese, and bread. Desert offered chocolate cake, brownies and peach cobbler. The food offered a variety of pleasant assaults on our culinary senses. To top it all offer there was plenty of Faygo! What is Fayo you ask? Read on...

Faygo has been around for 101 years and seems to be a major part of the Michigan culture. they have all of the classic flavors and plenty of sugar! They give the other soda makes a run for their money. Faygo seems to have held onto their identity while remaining innovative at the same time. A quick example is their website. It has that cutting edge norm of the website that maintains the classic retro look and appeal of the product. This is still the case even after being bought out in 1987 by the National Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:FIZZ).

There were a few other games. Two that were played were the 'Tug-of-War' and the other was the water balloon toss. The water balloon replaced the raw egg years back from obvious reasons. I'll let you, the reader, decide what that reasons. The picnic ended as quickly as it had began. There was the big cleanup and then everyone went home.

Join me tomorrow for the next part of the craziness.