Todd's Universe

2009-11-15T09:25:00.004-05:00

I just returned from five days in Cancun with Greg and Pete and really enjoyed the trip.

We stayed at the Le Meridien, which was on the main strip of large hotels. We were able to book the rooms at under $100 per night and I was able to upgrade to a nice suite using some Starwood magic. The suite's spacious balcony was unique to the hotel (room 810) and afforded fine views of the lagoon and the sea. The room itself was very nicely appointed in continental European style. My only complaint about the room is that the in-room coffee was awful. The hotel did not provide free coffee or water, so we had to stock up on provisions at a small convenience store about 100 yards to the right of the hotel. The hotel has three nicely designed pools, one of which is heated. The hotel grounds are not extensive, but the space that is available is well used. An issue which anyone researching the hotel will probably come across is that a large hotel is being constructed right next to the hotel. As a city boy, I did not mind the occasional construction noise which other visitors have complained about, but it is unfortunate that the new structure casts a shadow that blocks the sun from most of the pool area in the afternoon.

Another unfortunate situation that impacts not only this hotel, but probably virtually every other property in Cancun, is the severe beach erosion. We arrived immediately after hurricane Ida passed by and there was virtually no beach. In fact, it was not easy to access the beach since so much sand has eroded, that guests have to descend down some temporary wooden steps to a strip of beach that is just a few feet wide, and that more or less disappears entirely at high tide.

After spending a few hours poolside, where lunch and mixed drinks were quite good, we hopped on the R1 bus to downtown Cancun for dinner. The bus costs about 50 cents, runs frequently, and is nice and clean. It travels at breakneck speed and may arrive at your destination before most taxis would - at a tiny fraction of the cost. We had dinner at La Habichuela, which is generally noted as one of the best restaurants in Cancun. This was our most formal dinner of the trip and probably not our favorite. My skirt steak was fine but my friends did not care very much for their food and Pete (who eats most anything) did not finish his ceviche.

For the next morning, we reserved a tour of the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza through the hotel tour office. Everything is negotiable in Cancun and we got the tour price down to $60 from the list price of $75. This trip was an all day affair, departing the hotel shortly after 7:00 am and not returning until after 7:00 pm. The bus stops at a "cenote" (sinkhole), where visitors descend into a cave sacred to the Maya and can take a dip in the underground river, hopefully not offending any local deities in the process. Next it is on to lunch - well, actually we had to wait a bit for lunch and we were strongly encouraged to spend some pesos in the adjoining handicrafts shop. Lunch was served buffet style and was quite good, if basic, local cuisine. Finally, after another half hour or so on the bus, we arrived at the ruins. Our guide, Simon, did a wonderful job of explaining the history of the site and the development of the various architectural periods of Maya construction. Almost as impressive to means the temples, palaces, ball courts, observatories and so forth was the jungle wildlife. We saw huge lizards, highly colorful birds and a micro-highway carrying thousand of ants bearing leaves. The Mexican authorities keep the park in pristine condition, but for some reason they permit local vendors selling trinkets to operate throughout the park.

The next day, Wednesday, we spent the morning at the hotel lounging by the pool. Although Hurricane Ida was long gone, this was our windiest day. Red flags were up along the beach all week, but we jumped into the warm azure water anyway and the waves were not very high at all. The undertow is strong but manageable. For lunch we headed back downtown (on the R2 bus this time) and wandered around the Mercado 28, where shopkeepers aggressively sought our business (I bought some sunglasses for about $10, after some moderately successful haggling). We had a delicious lunch in the middle of the market - I believe the restaurant was called Veracruz, but I am not certain. My grilled squid and octopus was probably my favorite meal of the trip. We headed hack to the "hotel zone" and stopped at Playa Tortugas on the north shore. Tortugas is supposed to be one of the best beaches in Cancun but it has been severely impacted by erosion. In the evening we went to the La Isla outdoor mall - a well-designed place with a large number of medium and high-end shops. We had a drink at the La Madonna (rated in DK Guide as the #1 bar in Cancun) and were rather disappointed that the staff of a place which describes itself as a "martini bar" did not know what type of gin the place had! All of the "top ten martinis" on the menu were various types of vodka drinks that happened to be served in martini glasses. Dinner was at a local place on the lagoon which was quite good. After dinner we headed to Senor Frogs, which had some semi-descent live music that stopped after 3 songs. My friends said the frozen drinks were awful. I stuck to beer - although I was almost put into a headlock by a waitress who tried to force me to drink a shot of some glowing blue liquid (perhaps Curacao?)

Thursday we headed to Isla Mujeres off the north coast of Cancun. We asked the hotel about tours involving a catamaran, snorkeling, lunch and swimming with sharks, but decided to go on our own. This was probably the best decision of the trip - we later saw the catamaran tour and people were virtually spilling over the sides ofthe boat, it looked miserable and cost $75 per person. We just walked down the dock and found a local captain who took us out to the reef for $20 per person (plus $5 national park fee) for a great snorkeling adventure. We saw huge schools of brightly colored fish in dozens of varieties, a lobster, a squid and a barracuda. After snorkeling we wandered around town for a bit, checked out the fascinating local cemetery, had a couple of cervezas at a beach bar and then had a delicious lunch a a little place in town. I had the local soup (sopa de lima) and the local grilled pork dish (pok chuk) both of which were among my favorite eats on the trip. I found that my enjoyment of my meals was inversely proportional to the cost. We rented a golf cart and scooted around the island, winding up at the southern tip, which is supposed to be the eastern-most point in Mexico. There is an outdoor sculpture garden with some semi-interesting abstract designs, some weird honeycombed rocks and a small Mayan temple at the end of the island.

After relaxing at the hotel for a bit, we headed back to Cancun and went downtown for dinner again, this time to La Padrilla. This restaurant is near La Habicuela and generally is referenced as one of the better place in town. It had a more festive atmosphere than La Habicuella and we all enjoyed our food, so this is probably where we would go again for dinner. However, as noted above, I ost enjoyed our little hole-in-the-wall lunch places. On the way back to the hotel, we were determined to get a good deal on a taxi, hoping to bargain the driver down from the listed rate of 180 pesos to 120 pesos, Things must have been slow, however, since he gave us a 120 rate when we asked the price.

Friday was the best day weather-wise, but unfortunately I had to fly home in the afternoon. I spent the morning bobbing around in the ocean and lounging poolside before packing up and heading home. It was a great little trip

2009-11-04T21:37:00.002-05:00

We had a brief dog-napping incident earlier this evening. It has been a somewhat odd time here at my normally sedate apartment building, where the average tenant age is probably about 82. Aside from griping about te elevators and the heat, the neighbors are generally no problem and we rarely even hear any noise from the other apartments. However, one of our neighbors occasionally has a bit too much to drink and makes various noises that make me think that someone is attempting to break in and/or attacking her, until I investigate and realize that she is smashing things up and screaming all by herself, or sometimes with her poor husband as the target.

Unfortunately, Loki is obsessed with her apartment, since she has a cat - the only other pet on the floor. Tonight, when I opened my door to verify that the loud thumping I was hearing was just this neighbor smashing up her own apartment while on a bender, and not some burglar trying to kick in a door, Loki dashed out and headed down the hall. Some woman I had never seen before was standing in the doorway of the drunken neighbor's apartment holding a bottle of wine - which is just about the last thing this lady needs.

Loki dashed inside the apartment, hot on the trail of the cat. We have been through this before and it is no big deal -I usually just have to listen to a boozy monologue for a few minutes and refuse a drink a couple of times. However, tonight she was really out of it and let the other woman in, but slammed the door in my face. This was quite a shock, as she has always been nice to me, even when in this state. I gave it a minute or so and then knocked on the door. She opened the door and acted as if nothing had happened. The other woman turned out to be a TV producer who was asking what was causing the thumping, as it was evidently disturbing a shoot that they were doing upstairs.

My doorman later told me that this is one of those reality shows where they clean up your messy home and the upstairs neighbor, who I suppose has a messy apartment, was having her cleanup filmed. The crew was apparently apologizing for the noise that they had caused, which resulted in the drunken neighbor banging back in retaliation. They must not have realized that she was drunk - since their peace offering was a bottle of wine! Fortunately, Loki and I were able to get out of there after listening to a few minutes of insensible ranting. The banging and screaming have stopped, so I imagine she drank the wine and passed out.

2009-10-04T19:44:00.002-04:00

The Todd birthday festivities seem to be winding down at last, which is welcome, since I can't handle much more celebrating at my advanced age. During my birthday we were at Disney, our third and final week with the annual passes we bought in November. We hit all of the parks but our focus was on Epcot because of the food and wine festival. About twenty food stands were set up around the lake at Epcot with appetizer sized portions of various tidbits plus wine pairings from around the world. It was very nice, but since each day;s temperatures were above 90 degrees, intake of food ad wine was somewhat curtailed. The sensible thing to do would be to partake at night, but our small companion's bedtime is 7:30, and he likes a schedule.

We returned on Tuesday, some work stuff happened for the rest of the week and then it was down to Philadelphia on Friday. I first dropped in on Pete, who presented me with some goat cheese with a candle in it along with some surprisingly good box wine. Soon after the goat cheese, Greg and Susan joined us for a tasty dinner at Pub and Kitchen. The Anniversary Ale at Pub and Kitchen was really good. Unfortunately I did not stick to beer and wine for the evening - there were subsequent encounters with tequila and more exotic beverages and then... well, lets just say it takes a little longer to recover from this type of adventure at 41 than it used to.

2009-09-20T20:09:00.002-04:00

There were an unusual amount of lederhosen scampering about in Central Park yesterday. It turned out to be the Steuben Day parade. A couple of blocks from our house are a few of the remaining businesses from the days when Yorkville was an ethnic German enclave, so there were big crowds quaffing Spaten at the Heidelberg and devouring bratwurst at Schaller and Weber. Unfortunately they were out of brats by the time we arrived, which was probably for the best. I reminded our little companion that he is approximately 3/8 German, but he did not seem to be very interested.

On Friday I took a little extra time at lunch to check out the High Line. The High Line is a new park in Chelsea which is set in the track bed of a former elevated railway. The park is quite original and has many creative touches. The designers did a great job of incorporating the old rails at various points. One of the most interesting things about walking through the city along an elevated path is seeing into the second and third floors of buildings and generally getting a different perspective on the town. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything interest going on in the Standard Hotel, where several guests were recently observed by Highline visitors to be engaged in various normally private activities with the shades open - good for them!

2009-09-15T19:51:00.002-04:00

We had a very nice lunch on Sunday for my father's 75th birthday. About 35 people showed up early at Lamberti's in Cherry Hill to surprise my dad. He did not really seemed all that surprised, evidently my stepmother is not going to win an oscar for acting out her cover story. I had to give a little speech after the cake was served. I often do a lot of public speaking for my job, but this assignment was a little more tricky. I think I wound up doing a mild roast, but I think it went just fine.

After that was over, we hit the road again and continued on to Baltimore. We scored a spacious suite at the Sheraton with a view of the inner harbor. It was a very nice evening as we walked around the harbor and had dinner at the harborplace. The next day, a bit of work interrupted this otherwise pleasant visit, but that turned out to be less painful than anticipated. After that, we packed up and did the long drive back to New York. I was very glad to leave the car at the parking lot for the rest of the week this morning.

2009-08-22T09:01:00.002-04:00

I spent the week in Minneapolis and, although I did not throw my hat into the air upon arrival, it was a nice place to visit. The Ivy hotel was surprisingly high-end (Starwood "luxury collection") for one of our work conferences and my room was very well furnished, if somewhat on the small side. The only problem with the Ivy was that every street in every direction was being torn up (thanks economic stimulus!) so the area around the hotel was sort of a war zone. Fortunately, Minneapolis is festooned with skywalks throughout the downtown so people can remain indoors during the frigid winter months. The Ivy's skywalk led to the Hilton and then to the larger network of downtown malls and offices, thereby enabling hotel guests to walk a couple of stories above the ripped up streets.

The first night was perfect, so large group of us ate dinner outdoors, but after that the weather deteriorated and we did not venture far from the skyways. On Wednesday there was a tornado warning, but we managed to make it through without losing our ruby slippers.

2009-08-04T20:47:00.002-04:00

Loki was quite the rock star at the dog park tonight. There was a group of kids about 7 to 8 years old who were playing with the dogs, giving them nicknames like "low rider fox" or, in the case of Loki, "high rider curly." Loki soon became a favorite of the kids because he was the most eager of the dozens of dogs to fetch and return the various tennis balls lying around. The kids were competing for Loki's attention and, after one of them asked me his name, began chanting "Loki! Loki!" All of this took place with the song "Who Let the Dogs Out" playing in the background as people gathered for the nearby outdoor film. Now Loki is lying next to me, completely exhausted.

2009-07-29T10:38:00.002-04:00

15 years ago this summer, after I took the bar exam, I travelled around the Pacific Northwest, excited about a new coffee place I had discovered in Seattle called Starbucks. For the last week and a half I was retracing the northern leg of that post-bar trip, heading north from Seattle to Vancouver and Victoria. In Seattle, I had to work all week, so I did not get to see many of the sights. The Pike Place Market is sort of the center of downtown activity so I did see fish being thrown a couple of times at the fish market (as featured in various films) while stopping in for a bite at one of the many delicious eateries there. My first night in Seattle I stumbled upon a parade in the International District which featured Chinese dragons, marching bands and various other contingents. But aside from that, it was mostly downtown office buildings and lunch spots for me, with the occasional after-work happy hour or dinner.

Seattle certainly lives up to its reputation in the coffee department. I like coffee quite a lot, but the coffee thing in Seattle is crazy - there is a Starbucks on virtually every corner, but there are also two or three other coffee shops per block as well. A constant subject of conversation is how the Seattleites can drink so much caffeine and yet maintain suck a mellow "duude" attitude. Seattle did not quite live up to its reputation in the rain department - I only felt a couple of drops and most of the time it was warm and sunny.

Vancouver is gearing up for the Olympics next winter, so there is a lot of construction and other activity going on. I visited Granville Island, Stanley Park and many other parts of town that I did not see when I was here in 1994. I returned to the waterfront area, which I had visited previously, and happened upon a festive Indian wedding party, with the groom on horseback. The ferry ride from Vancouver to Victoria is very scenic, with jagged cliffs plunging into narrow straits, where seals frolic on the rocks. Victoria seems to have sprawled a bit in the last 15 years, but the center of town retains its Merrie Olde England charm. We had a traditional English breakfast in a tea house stuffed with pictures of the royal family and we watched a completely incomprehensible cricket match for a bit. The Butchart Gardens were magnificent, with millions of flowers blooming in numerous creative settings.

We did our usual hotel shuffle, at one point scoring the gigantic "Imperial Suite" at the Westin in Seattle. This behemoth room covered 1/3 of the 46th floor of the circular hotel, so we had a 120 degree view of the waterfront and north side of the city - including a dead-on view of the Space Needle. The Westin Bear Mountain near Victoria gave us a very spacious suite with a full kitchen and a nice private terrace overlooking the mountains.

2009-07-13T21:23:00.000-04:00

One of our new friends from Maine

2009-07-11T10:03:00.002-04:00

We are back from a relaxing trip to Maine with Pete and Greg. The fishing cabin on Loon Lake is basically a small two bedroom house which has been recently renovated. There were four canoes and two kyacks at the dock. I was so eager to go out onto the lake that I took a canoe out on my own while it was quite windy and could not make it back to the dock despite frantic paddling. I pulled up to a neighbor's dock and Pete helped me carry the canoe back on land. Subsequent explorations of the lake by canoe and kyack on calmer days were more successful.

It rained quit a lot, turning one of our hikes into an arduous muddy slog, but most of the trails were well maintained. We did some grilling and made s'mores by the campfire, although both were limited by continued rain. I did not spot any moose until our last day, when I saw three of them.

2009-06-17T21:03:00.003-04:00

I am going to be published at last! I received this e-mail today from www.fodors.com, where I typically post my travel narratives:

Dear Fodor's Member,

Congratulations! You were quoted in Fodor's Switzerland along with other travelers like you as a part of the guide's "Word of Mouth" feature.

Each title in the Fodor's Gold Guide series includes "Word of Mouth", suggestions and tips from travelers who have posted on Fodors.com, both in the Forums and within the site's member reviews sections. We believe that the first-hand experiences of our members add much to our guides; these stories and recommendations are a part of what makes Fodor's guides unique.

But which Switzerland posting are they talking about? I seem to have commented on Switzerland at least three times on Fodors. This first posting, part of a much longer narrative on a two-week trip to Italy in 2006, is the most likely candidate.

Wednesday March 22

We arrived at Zurich in the morning and had a six hour layover. We put the bags in a locker and took a train into the city. We walked down the main street, the Banhofstrasser, which is lined with banks and fancy shops. Supposedly a significant fraction of the world’s gold is stored in vaults under this street. Trams sped back and forth along the busy street. After about a half hour of wandering around, we arrived at the Zeughauskeller and had a tasty traditional Swiss lunch and enjoyed some local beer while admiring William Tell’s crossbow and, oddly enough, various pieces of modern field artillery on display in the restaurant. After lunch, we continued along the last few blocks of the Banhofstrasser until we came to the lakefront, where we had panoramic views of snow-capped mountains and the city. We crossed the bridge over the river and wandered around the old town for a bit and then headed back to the railroad station and subsequently back to the airport.

you can read the full report at

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/trip-report-on-umbria-tuscany-and-puglia.cfm

Another leading contender would be this comment to someone else's posting, which largely recounts some of the material in my main narrative:

This spring I had a layover of a few hours in Zurich, so I took a train into the old town (about 15 minutes from airport) and found it to be surprisingly charming. It has a beautiful lakefront and many historic buildings. I had a delicious lunch at the Zeughaukeller (or something like that) on the main street -- William Tell's crossbow is mounted on the wall, as are some more modern pieces of field artillery. Certainly the best-defended lunch I have ever eaten!

And then there is the following snippet from an older trip report about a brief jaunt into the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland:

After we wandered through the gardens, we hopped back on the water taxi, returned to the mainland and then drove about one hour north to Switzerland. We visited Ascona, a charming town on the northern tip of the lake. We had lunch at a lakeside cafe and then rented a paddleboat to work off the calories. It was almost 80 degrees at the lakeshore, but snow-capped mountains ringed the town in the distance. Next we drove a few minutes to the larger town of Locarno, where we explored the historic sites and took a funicular ride to the top of a hill which afforded great views of the surrounding area. After a bit more sightseeing, we headed back to the Villa Aminta for the night.

This last posting lacks some of the zing of my Zurich postings, so I doubt it is the one, but you never know.

2009-06-10T22:27:00.003-04:00

After living in my neighborhood for almost two years, this is the first week I can walk down the south side of 86th Street, the main east-west thoroughfare (once known as the "Sauerkraut Boulevard" when Yorkville was an ethnic German enclave) without going through all sorts of construction scaffolding. Recently the second of two major condo complexes has been completed to a sufficient stage that they can free up the sidewalk at last. The condo building at the corner of 87th and East End has also recently released its sidewalk back to pedestrians.

So now it is much easier to walk (particularly with a stroller) along 86th Street, but the scene is not pretty. Many businesses have closed recently. Last week the "French" cafe on 86th between First and Second closed and this week the "Greek" market announced it is closing. Very soon the big Barnes and Noble between Second and Third will close, leaving another large empty space adjacent to the space vacated by Circuit City months ago. Shops and restaurants on side streets are also closing at an alarming rate. There are few signs of new operations moving into these vacant spaces any time soon.

2009-06-02T21:32:00.002-04:00

I seem to have become the victim of some sort of identity theft. First, one of my credit cards notified me that the mailing address had been changed and someone I never heard of in another part of the country had been added to the account. Fortunately no new purchases had been charged to the card and I was told anew one with a new account number would be issued in a few days. Then a couple of days later, I get a Mastercard in the mail which is linked to a chain store. I never applied for that card, so I just cut it up into tiny pieces and threw it away. A few days after this uninvited guest arrives, I received a letter indicating that this card was questionable and that the account was suspended. When I called up to tell them that it is indeed not valid, they can't figure out what account it is since I already cut up the card and do not otherwise have the account number. So I had to write a letter today to try to sort all that out.

Back to card #1, it turns out that they never got around to canceling the account or issuing me a new card, but after another long series of phone calls yesterday I am supposed going to see the new card in the mail any day now. It seems like, more than ever before, when you call these customer service people about something like this, they just say "yes, yes, yes" and then do nothing. I think there is about a 30% chance that they will actually do what they say they are going to do. Since this situation actually involves fraud, one would think it would receive more attention, but I guess it's just the same old thing. Customer service gripes aside, I know more people who have been identity theft victims in the past few months than I have heard about in years -- it seems to be a real crisis now.

2009-05-17T21:32:00.002-04:00

It's back to work tomorrow for me after two weeks vacation. The original plan was to follow the Disney trip almost immediately with a week-long tour of New England and Quebec. This was scaled back to just two nights in Vermont. We stayed at the Equinox "resort" in Manchester, which was something of a disappointment. There were extra fees for virtually everything resort related and the room was rather small. However, the town of Manchester was charming and we had our fill of blueberry pancakes with Vermont maple syrup and other tasty local eats. I picked up a couple of nice shirts at the Orvis outlet - I'm a dad now and sometimes have to dress the part.

Back in Manhattan, I am having real trouble with my bread suppliers. I love my carbs, particularly of the Parisian variety. The bagel cafe on 86th, which had great croissants, has really dropped the ball recently - but at least the bagels are still good. The "French"place across the street, which I went to today for the first time in months, has also gone terribly awry on the croissant front. So now there are no good croissants in my neighborhood - and, francophile that I (sort of) am, I love a flaky croissant and coffee on a weekend afternoon. Worse than that, Eli's, which had some of the best baguettes on this side of the pond, apparently recently changed their baking formula. At first this was mostly for the good as it hardly changed the taste or texture of the bread and kept it fresh longer. However, yesterday I bought a baguette and it was soft and mushy - as bad (possibly worse) as a regular supermarket loaf. If this keeps up, I may as well move back to suburbia - mon dieu!

2009-05-09T22:07:00.002-04:00

We are back from a great trip to Disney World. We visited all four of the major parks over the course of five days. As we have done in the past, we stayed at the Swan and Dolphin hotels (with tremendous suites at each) which are a short walk or boat ride from Epcot or Hollywood Studios. They also have a very nice resort pool complex and are right next to the Disney "boardwalk" area. We were able to do everything that we wanted to do and more and generally had a wonderful time. The only drawback was the heat, which was really quite intense - in the mid-90s every day.

2009-05-04T09:29:00.002-04:00

My legs are slightly achy but I feel surprisingly good after finishing the Five Boro Bike Tour yesterday. It was a soggy event, with few breaks from the rain. It was mostly drizzle in the Manhattan portion, but increased in intensity as we rode through Queens and Brooklyn, catching a bit of a break as we crossed the Verazzano Bridge on the lower deck. Once over the Verazzano, participants are "finished" and have ridden 42 miles. However, you are in the middle of nowhere on Staten Island, so there is another few miles to catch the ferry, a wait for the ferry, the ferry ride itself and then you have to get back home from the tip of Manhattan. So although the ride itself is 42 miles, I think I did closer to 50.

In another water-related mishap, last week's trip to Baltimore was cut short when a water main break shut down a good portion of downtown Baltimore, including the place where I was supposed to work. We had a nice suite at our hotel, but couldn't hang out there for long, as they were running out of fresh water. We hopped in the car and headed to Annapolis for lunch before driving home.

2009-04-18T20:00:00.002-04:00

It was one of the first nice weekend days of the year, so we headed to Central Park first thing in the morning. This required me to get of coffee "to go" from Dunkin' Donuts. Unlike just about everyone else in the world these days, I do not like to drink coffee on the go, but some times you have no choice. I used to be a big fan of Dunkin' coffee, but it seems to have lost something of late. It's still better than Starbucks, which I usually avoid, but I did have a cup of it last week, bleah. Unfortunately, the only place near my apartment with nice outdoor seating is Starbucks, so I will be spending some time there in the coming months regardless of my opinion of the coffee.

In any event, it was on to the Park with a very eager little dog. I wonder what he can remember -- it has been over six months since we took him to Central park in the early morning when dogs are allowed off-leash. He certainly seemed to know what was in store, as he was more or less walking on hind legs half way to the Park. Then the leash was removed and he ran around like a little rocket. There were approximately five billion dogs running loose in the Park and basically Loki was in heaven. We made our way through the Ramble, which had been closed for renovation last year and headed to the Boathouse for breakfast, along with a couple dozen other dog owners. The barking was quite something and I think non-dog owners were few and far between at the outdoor seating area. Of course our pooch was so worked up by this point that he was basically having an epileptic fit, so it was not our most relaxing breakfast. Now however, he is so exhausted that I have to check to see that he is till breathing from time to time.

2009-03-28T11:07:00.002-04:00

I was in Baltimore yesterday for work and I woke up to the sound of Loki scratching at the hotel door. We headed out to a nearby park so Loki could take care f some personal business. I noticed a deli at the edge of the park and decided to go in and get some coffee. In New York, people tie the dogs up outside of delis all the time. I typically do not do this with Loki because he gets too excited by the passing pedestrians. However, this place was set back from the street and there was not much foot traffic this early in the morning, so I thought it would be ok.

I poured a cup of coffee, but there was no one to pay for the coffee and, as I was looking around to see if anyone worked in the shop, I noticed somebody petting Loki outside. I left the coffee on the counter and headed outside to see what was going on. The woman who had been petting Loki was in some kind of uniform and she looked at me sternly. I feared it would be another trip to dog court. However, she was not a cop, just some sort of security person, I suppose for the nearby office buildings. She said "sir, are you new to Baltimore?" I told her I was staying at the Sheraton across the street. "Well sir, in Baltimore, we have a lot of dog-napping." She went on to tell me that gangs steal dogs and use them for dog fights. I don't think Loki would be very good at that, so we headed home to New York, where dog napping seems to be relatively uncommon. I never did get my cup of coffee.

2009-03-17T21:11:00.001-04:00

Riding mechanical bull at country/western bar on Bourbon Street

2009-03-16T21:56:00.002-04:00

I am back from New Orleans and enjoyed the trip more than I expected. I was last in New Orleans when I was about ten years old, with my grandfather. This time I had to go for work and then spent a few extra days checking out the town. After losing a battle with a mechanical bull early in the week, I tended to avoid the Bourbon Street bars, but I found the rest of the French Quarter more charming and genuine than I had expected. My favorite area of town, however, was the Garden District/Uptown area. We checked this section out over the weekend, taking the quaint St. Charles street car across town and walking around the very genteel neighborhoods. We rented a car and headed upriver, checking out plantations, including the spectacular Oak Alley, which was supposedly featured in "Interview With a Vampire" and other films. On Saturday night I had a very good (but not quite as fantastic as anticipated) dinner at the Commander's Palace, which is across the street from the cemetery where Lestat the vampire supposedly hangs out. Despite all of the vampires lurking about, I avoided being attacked by any of them - probably due to my frequent checking of mirrors.

Another highlight was the free ferry across the river to Algiers. We watched the steamboat Natchez turn around and dock as we crossed. Algiers itself is a miniature version of the Garden District, with many brightly painted houses sporting lots of gingerbread details. On the return trip a fog rolled in and we were able to watch a big tanker jostle for room in the river with the gigantic cruise ship Norwegian Spirit.

2009-03-06T20:54:00.002-05:00

One of the many things I like about living in my neighborhood is the variety of places to buy fruits and veggies. We have stands on almost every corner of 86th Street and little grocery stores on virtually every block. Some of these little grocery shops have interesting names such as the slippery "KY Deli," the somewhat insulting "U Don't Know Nothing Produce" and the "OK Central Deli" which I call the "OK Corral." The OK Corral is really more of a typical "bodega" but it does have a small but high quality selection of fruit, particularly avocados. U Don't Know Nothing has the biggest selection, but the avocados are never ripe and a lot of things are overpriced. Obviously, avocados are my benchmark.

Although there is a Gristedes "supermarket" on our block, its quality is best understood by the level of care given to its sign, which only has the middle "S" illuminated. The Food Emporium a couple blocks away is a little better but can be pricey. C-Town, a is another nearby supermarket which is on balance probably the best, but has very narrow aisles, which can be difficult to navigate with a stroller. Of course a typical "supermarket" in Manhattan is about as big as the cereal section in a real suburban supermarket.

2009-02-20T18:17:00.002-05:00

It looks like we are in for a long recession, so it's time to cut expenses. Oh well, there was nothing good on HBO anyway. The major adjustment to my daily routine is that I have started bringing my own lunch to work. Every day this week but Tuesday I had leftovers from home or a microwave soup. That is probably more frequently than I typically bring my own lunch in a few months. I am not missing much by bringing my lunch to work -- there are plenty of places to eat near my office, but none are particularly good and lunch usually costs $10 or more, regardless of what I get.

Walking around the city, I see more than a few vacant stores. In some places prime real estate has been sitting idle for months. At one major intersection a couple of blocks from my house, three stores in a row have closed. Even the Starbucks are closing down. If they can't make money selling mediocre $4 coffee, who can?

2009-02-08T20:15:00.003-05:00

We visited the Cloisters today, which is a little island of medieval Europe in Upper Manhattan. The Cloisters is part of the Metropolitan Museum and houses quite a bit of the museum's medieval art collection, including the famous unicorn tapestries. To me the most interesting part of the museum is the cloisters themselves, which are (mostly) original courtyards from various ancient monasteries in France and Spain. The setting of the Cloisters is very dramatic - it must be the highest point in Manhattan - there are sweeping views of the Hudson River and the cliffs of New Jersey. The only drawback is that one has to climb a lot of stairs to get there, and to move around inside the museum, so it is not very accessible to those of us with strollers.

2009-02-07T19:58:00.002-05:00

This was the first day of decent weather in a couple of weeks, so Loki and I headed to the dog park. It was more crowded than I have ever seen it, dozens of little dogs were racing around at least twenty or thirty people in the small dog run area. Loki can handle himself in the big dog run as well, but I thought it best to stick to the small dog run today as he was just groomed yesterday. Since his grooming costs three times as much as my haircuts, I like to keep him looking clean for at least a few days after the big event. Nonetheless, he still managed to get a little scruffy, but he's just that kind of pooch. He was in heaven, racing around like crazy with all of the other little fluffy dogs. Our little companion had a great time as well.

I am from Philadelphia, where we have hoagies. Any other sandwich consisting of a long roll with assorted meats and cheeses served in any other location is invariably a disappointment. But I keep trying. So the other day I ordered an "Italian sub" which turned out not to be so bad. However, when I went to pay I guess I said "Italian hero" which I notice because it costs $1.00 more than the "sub." I have no idea what the difference between a sub and a hero might be. A couple of days before that I tried a new place which had "grilled subs" including many varieties of "Philly Cheesesteak sub" or something like that. I had one and it was ok, but no one would mistake it for the genuine article.

2009-01-25T07:51:00.002-05:00

For the first time in many years, I visited the Museum of Natural History yesterday. It has some amazing exhibits, particularly the very impressive dinosaur fossil displays. Unfortunately none of the fossils came to life to chase Ben Stiller around while I was there. The space wing, which I did not have enough time to check out in detail, is also spectacular. However, there are other areas which are unchanged since I first visited as a kid 30-odd years ago and probably have not changed since Eisenhower was President. The stuffed animals in particular are a tad creepy, but I suppose that the collection is based on items Teddy Roosevelt brought home from his safaris. Some rooms, which are clearly unchanged for many decades, have 70s-style wood paneling on the walls. It was nice to see certain things unchanged from when I first saw them as a kid, such as the 4,500 year-old tree sections, showing which rings on the tree were growing when the Magna Carta was signed and then a couple of feet further out when Columbus discovered America, etc. There were at least two "Climate Change" special exhibits which i did not have time to check out, but when I emerged from the museum the climate had indeed changed and it was at least 20 degrees colder.

2009-01-15T22:28:00.003-05:00

Although my flight back from Dallas was delayed a couple of hours, I really can't complain, because we landed on the runway, and not in the river as another plane did today. The flight was already delayed when I saw a group of people gathered around a TV in the airport and I saw that a LaGuardia flight had ditched in the Hudson. I was flying to LaGuardia so I assumed I would be lucky to get home at all tonight. Fortunately, everyone made it out of the river more or less ok and I was only about two hours late.

It was nice to spend some time in Dallas, where it was warm enough to sit outside and sip a cerveza in the sun. I checked out the Dallas Museum of Art, which - like a lot of newer museums -had more impressive architecture than art and then ambled around the downtown area for a bit, circling back to the Dealy Plaza area and the JFK museum on the sixth floor of the Book Depository. The Plaza is virtually unchanged from 1963, which is impressive since most of the rest of the city looks like it was built last week. I ambled around the grassy knoll and called Tony for an update in the various conspiracy theories. Maybe, maybe not... we may never know.

2009-01-08T20:45:00.003-05:00

I have been in Baltimore for the past few days, most of which was very soggy due to non-stop rain. My plans to explore Fells Point, Federal Hill and other neighborhoods were nixed by the torrential downpour. Other sites I wanted to see, like the aquarium or the Walters Museum, closed before I got out of work, so I was more or less forced to hang around the Inner Harbor, which is the only part of Baltimore that I know well.

Since the Inner Harbor has a lot of places to eat and some shops I am not really interested in, this meant that I spent a lot of time at the sushi place, at the tapas place, and generally ate too much all week. This is not something I normally do, but my entertainment options were sparse and I had to get out of the hotel room. That being said, my predecessor had negotiated a very good deal with the hotel which gave me a nice suite with access to the club lounge. Of course, the club lounge had a lot of tasty things to nibble on at all hours.

2009-01-04T14:16:00.003-05:00

We paid a visit to the MOMA yesterday, hoping to see the Van Gogh show, but it was sold out. The Miro show was included in general admission and was definitely worth seeing, although it was limited to the period from 1927-37, so a lot of his better-known work was not included. The big attraction for me was the film projected onto the four walls of the central atrium. Hard to explain, but quite a cool experience - the first time I have seen them put the unique atrium space to really good use.

After having some delicious Ethiopian food for lunch with Gail and Megan, we walked through the park and up to the Metropolitan, where we checked out the survey of works acquired under outgoing director of the museum Phillipe de Montebello. Evidently, the Metropolitan acquired tens of thousands of objects so it is unclear how representative the hundred or so that were on display were of the overall acquisition. Interestingly, there were a lot of antiquities, costumes and "objects" and rather little traditional painting and sculpture.

2009-01-01T16:14:00.002-05:00

It was very cold today so I was walking quickly down the street, all bundled up, not paying much attention to my fellow pedestrians. Some guy said something to me, but I don't quite make it out at first, only realizing about ten seconds later that it involved something about the Yankees sucking. Why was he telling me this? It took me a few more seconds to figure out that I was wearing a Yankees hat, so the guy thought I was a Yankees fan, and evidently sought to enlighten me that my choice of baseball team was ill-considered. I am not sure where this hat even came from, but it certainly is not intended by me to be a statement of support for the Yankees. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I really don't care. If I did care, however, what should I have done? Should I have engaged in some sort of debate with the guy? "No, you must be mistaken, they do not suck, they are great." Beyond that, I wouldn't know what to say. I guess I have to get a new hat if this one is going to cause me to be drawn into these type of debates.

2008-12-28T21:48:00.002-05:00

Somehow I have survived another holiday season. After all of the running around I feel a bit like my Christmas tree, which, although tilted at a somewhat precarious angle, is somehow still standing. All in all, I can't really complain, I did after all have three close encounters with Santa - perhaps a personal best.

For once we tried to do Pete's birthday justice. Since his birthday is the day after Christmas, it tends to get lost in the shuffle, but since this was the big 40, a few of us took him out to dinner at Osteria, a great new Philadelphia restaurant. Unfortunately, just as I was getting ready to order dessert, I received a call that Loki was losing his marbles and that we might get thrown out of the hotel - so I had to leave early to tend to my crazy dog. He is usually fairly well behaved in hotels, but maybe the new chew toys he received for Christmas just got him too excited.

2008-12-25T08:13:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday Mithras! A Joyous Saturnalia to all!

2008-12-22T20:53:00.002-05:00

In what I suppose is potentially becoming a cherished holiday tradition, for a second year in a row, I did not get around to decorating the tree until a week after I bought it. I needed some motivation, so I invited Tony to come over and help me out. He did a great job and the tree looks very festive, except for the fact that it has some difficult to hide gaps in the branches and tilts at a precarious angle - aside from that, perfect!

Now our story goes down a dark path. Since it was late, I invited Tony to stay over. After I went to bed, Loki indicated that he wanted to wander around. I thought he might want some water or a midnight Purina snack. The reality was much more troubling -- Loki decided to sleep on the sofa with Tony. Now Loki has a history of spending some quality time with our visitors, sometimes eliciting a scream by pouncing on them at 3:00 am, but after a little while he always come back to our bed. However, last night Loki apparently spent the entire night with Tony. Most shockingly, when I woke up in the morning and jangled the leash around, Loki just stared at me. This was highly disconcerting, as Loki is always very anxious for his morning walk. If I have to doubt Loki's loyalty, who can I rely on!?!

2008-12-05T21:36:00.002-05:00

Like all long driving trips,my recent trip to Florida was basically fine,except for the driving. It was great to stroll around Disney is the warm sun. A cruise on the Intercoastal waterway from Del Ray to Boca Raton was the highlight of the South Florida leg of the trip. The surprise gem of the vacation was Charleston, SC. I hadf often heard of how charming the town was, and it did not disappoint. If this keyboard was not busted, I would give more details.

2008-11-16T20:05:00.002-05:00

For some reason we are having a lot of dripping water issues lately which the super does not seem very motivated to fix. The kitchen sink has moved from a drip to an almost constant stream and there is a lot of water movement sound from the master bathroom, but it is not clear exactly where it is coming from in there. Now that it is getting cold, we also have the constant hiss of the heaters, joining with the continual trickling of water to create a symphony of sorts in here. So imagine my surprise when I went to the Guggenheim Museum today, plunked down my $18 and walked up the big spiral, only to encounter an installation piece consisting entirely of the sound of dipping water and hissing somethings - which sounded a lot like my heaters.

Henceforth, my apartment will be titled "Steam and Water 2" - admission a bargain at $5.

2008-10-27T20:33:00.002-04:00

It was good to stay in one state for an entire day today after my wacky weekend of running around. The crazy began on Friday when I had to do one of my Baltimore trips. On the way back, I got off in Wilmington and caught a ride to Atlantic City. I checked into Bally's and got a room on the 40th floor. If I pressed my face against the glass and looked left, I could see the ocean, but basically it was a view of the expressway. That night I ate a bit too much sauerkraut and bratwurst at the Bally's Oktoberfest. The scene was basically like a big wedding at a nursing home.

Saturday involved a lot of driving around during the day, eventually arriving in Philadelphia in the early eveing, picking up Tony in Chinatown, where he arrived by bus from New York. We linked up with Pete and headed to Greg's 40th birthday party at Alex's place. It was a good party and it was nice to catch up with the Greg crew. After a night on Pete's futon it was off to suburban Pennsylvania and into the storage locker. Wow we have a lot of stuff in there - better check up on it in another six months or so to see if it's still there.

2008-10-14T20:31:00.003-04:00

I took today off from work and headed down to Philadelphia to see my father, who has been sick for the past few weeks. He was doing somewhat better and it was a beautiful day, so we headed over to the city, picked up Pete and had lunch at Cafe de Laos in South Philly. Pete was laid off as off last week, but seems to be more busy than ever with independent contract work. After lunch, I dropped my dad off and drove back to New York. That was more driving than I like to do in one day but I'm glad I was able to see him.

And so ends my glorious four day weekend, tacking on a vacation day at the tail end of the Colombus Day weekend. I did not do much yesterday to honor the discoverer of our fair continient, as I was mainly focused on changing diapers, mixing formula and related tasks. Over the weekend, we had a visit from Megan, who satyed with us Friday night before continuing on to Boston on Saturday. Saturday we spent a lot of time being mislead by our Garmin GPS through various New Jersey towns. On Sunday, we paid a visit to the Bronx zoo and saw the children's zoo and the new Madagascar exhibit for the first time.

2008-10-05T13:41:00.002-04:00

It's a shame that during the "freedom fries" frenzy we did not take the opportunity to jettison the metric system. The metric system and I have been at odds recently. First, something happened to my digital scale that converted the measurements to kilograms. Am I really supposed to multiply numbers and fool around with decimal points when I am about to brush my teeth? And then there is this darn digital thermometer. Celsius to Fahrenheit is even more of a tricky math problem. Am I really supposed to do math when I have a fever?

On Friday I had a meeting in Newark about various issues, including tainted seafood. Right after that, it was over to the Ironbound for some Spanish paella - shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams - delicious! Wait a minute, what about that tainted seafood? Fortunately, I seem to be surviving. I love the Ironbound, a real piece of the old world in the middle of Jersey, and probably have not eaten there in seven years or more.

2008-09-28T21:06:00.002-04:00

Just about the first thing that happened on the morning of my 40th birthday was my back seized up -- welcome to middle age! Gradually some flexibility returned and things got better. Pete and Greg came up from Philly and Tony joined us for brunch. We checked out the 84th Street "Oktoberfest" block party which had virtually nothing German going for it except for three ancient guys in lederhosen playing oompa band music. I guess you can't expect much Oktoberfest in September. Carrying on the German theme for some reason, we headed over to the Heidelberg and had some Spaten Oktoberfest beer.

In the evening, we headed to the Modern, the restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art. This is one of the best meals I have had in quite some time. We had an eight course tasting menu over almost five hours. The food and service were wonderful but the presentation of the food was spectacular, each plate really was a piece of art. After dinner I had some 40 year old port to mark the 40th birthday.

2008-09-26T20:26:00.002-04:00

I took the day off from work today but it was a dreary rainy day and my plans to ride my bike and do other outdoor-type things were washed away. Nonetheless, it was nice to have a relaxing day to get some chores done and to sit around reading, finishing up the very good "Augustus" by Allan Massie. Loki got a much-needed grooming today and looks like a big puff-ball.

This is the last day of my 30s, so I am a little sad. However, I can't complain at all as the 30s were a very good decade for me -- I settled into a relatively satisfying career, got married, had a baby, had my eyes fixed with Lasik, and travelled quite a bit (15 trips to Europe in the last ten years, plus South America, Mexico, and all sorts of places in the USA). I have been very fortunate with my health, kept most of my hair and maintained my waistline throughout the decade. Well, it has not been an entirely free ride -- I have had to cut back on the carbs and a couple drinks puts me right to sleep these days, so I am not quite as fun as I used to be. C'est la vie.

2008-09-18T16:48:00.002-04:00

I was concerned about the economy, so I took off from work today and headed down to Wall Street to try to help solve all of the troubles they seem to be having there lately. I guess it worked, because the market closed up over 400 points today. Since I headed down to Wall Street by bike, I continued down to the Battery and headed back north along the Hudson. It was a beautiful day to semi-circumnavigate Manhattan.

After the bike ride, I headed down to Greenwich Village for lunch and wandered around many of my old hangouts there and in Soho. Not much has really changed in the last dozen or so years. My old post office is now an Ipod store, but most of the bars, restaurants, bookstores, and felafel shops I used to frequent are more or less unchanged from circa 1992.

In addition to my physical presence on Wall Street, another contribution that I may have made to help the Dow increase by 400 points today is that this is my 400th Blogger post. I think the stock market must be comfortated that this blog is such a rock of stability in these turbulent times.

2008-09-15T16:42:00.001-04:00

Yikes - the Dow is down over 500 points today! Is it too late to get Bloomberg on the ballot?

2008-09-13T15:46:00.002-04:00

I have returned safely from my trip to Baltimore. Fortunately, I was not caught in any gun battles while in one of the most dangerous cities in the country, although I think the pizza from Uno's at Harborplace that I had for lunch was a potentialy life-threatening move. I like Baltimore and, while strolling around the very nice Inner Harbor area, you would never guess that the city has so many problems. It has done a much better job than Philadelphia at making the waterfront a fun and attractive place to spend some time (and money). The train back was miserable, delayed almost an hour.

2008-09-04T21:36:00.003-04:00

I rarely have nightmares, but for many years I had recurring dreams centered around various school-related anxieties ranging from "missed a test" to "forgot I had a class for an entire semester" to "who is this surprise new roommate?" In the past few years those have mostly faded away. However, there must be some weird biological clock going off deep in my subconcious with the new school year as I have had some variation of the above "school-mares" every night this week. I wonder what it will be tonight -- please not the final exam in Mandarin Chinese again! Anything but that!

Another stressful thing about the week after Labor Day is the return to formal business attire at work. Gone are the polo shirts and khakis and back are the suits and ties. Some people grumble about it, but I really don't mind the whole suit thing very much and actually it makes getting dressed simpler in the morning. The real issue is that we still have summer temperatures - particularly in the subway. It really is not comfortable to wear a suit until the leaves start to turn. Then in a couple weeks, you need more than that to stay warm. The underlying issue is that the suit is not a very practical garment for this climate. I think we should all wear baby clothes. Life would be much simpler if we all wore one-piece outfits with feet built in.

2008-09-02T21:22:00.002-04:00

This election season has certainly been interesting. The current hoopla over the Jerry Springer-style personal life of Gov. Palin is obscuring more important issues such as her involvement with a group that seeks to have Alaska secede from the Union. The last Vice President who involved himself in schemes to detach a part of the Union was Aaron Burr, and I do not recall that things ended well for him, although Jefferson as never able to secure a treason conviction against him. I doubt Palin will be tried for treason, but if she were a Democrat, I'm sure the Republicans would not hesitate to use that type of language against her.

In the end I think what is most likely to bring Palin down is the ongoing investigation into potentially illegal firings of state employees. The real troubling thing, aside from the fact that this creationist gun nut could well wind up as President (in the quite possible event that McCain does not live four or eight years) is that McCain's "vetting" seems to have ignored all of these serious problems. Not a hopeful sign that we will soon turn away from the "heck of a job, Brownie" selection process for senior positions that we have experienced over the past eight years.

2008-09-01T08:45:00.002-04:00

It has been a delightful weekend here on Cape Cod. We are mid-Cape at Orleans. This is a very scenic and forested area. We are staying at Greg's father's place which is nicely secluded but fairly close to the beach. The beach is protected by extensive wetlands and dunes. No sharks but we saw some seals playing in the water on Saturday. Our other wildlife encounter was with a few dozen clams that Greg dug up yesterday and which Pete cooked up into some delicious linguini sauce for dinner last night. We have to take off soon and battle the traffic on the way home.

2008-08-26T22:04:00.002-04:00

A couple of years ago, 12-pound Loki chased a full-grown deer up a hill and into the woods. I thought that was impressive, but evidently he has been outdone. An even more brave little cockapoo chased away three bears in New Jersey yesterday:

Feisty N.J. puppy scares off 3 bears

WYCKOFF, N.J. (AP) — If only Goldilocks had a cockapoo.
A 15-pound cocker spaniel-poodle mix named Pawlee scared off a mother bear and her two cubs Sunday morning after they strayed into his owners' backyard.
Whether his bark was worse than his bite, Pawlee's tactic worked just fine. These three bears got the hint and took off.
"We had just let him out for the morning and he ran into the yard and started barking his head off," owner Fran Osiason said.
Osiason said her 9-year-old son, Jacob, went outside to see what the commotion was about and came running back in to report there were bears in the yard.
She was worried that the mother would come after Pawlee to protect her cubs, but the pugnacious pup, just 8 months old, had other plans.
His barking drove the two cubs up a tree, and they eventually climbed down and hopped over a fence with their mother and retreated into the woods.
Osiason said she, her son, husband Andrew and daughter Eden, 6, have had Pawlee since he was about 8 weeks old. She marveled at his fearlessness.
"He's a little fur ball," she said.
Northern New Jersey seems to breed feisty pets: In 2006, a tabby cat named Jack chased a bear up a tree in his West Milford yard.
Bears are not uncommon in Wyckoff, but Osiason said her family has lived there for about 10 years and had not seen any until Sunday.
With Pawlee on guard, they might not see another one anytime soon.

2008-08-24T16:30:00.002-04:00

We just returned from the Turkish festival in Central Park. I think they were not prepared for such a big turnout, as there were long lines at most of the food stands. There were not enough food stand generally, but there were plenty of other stands selling all kinds of stuff. Natually there were carpet stands but one rather big stand was selling sofas, an odd thing to see in the park. Oddly enough for a turkish festival, no one seemed to be selling ottomans.

It was hot and dusty waiting in the sun for our potentially unlicensed kebab stand to cook up our kebabs. However, it was worth it as they were quite tasty. I ate a bit too much and heartburn is threatening. We plopped down in the shady and listened to some spooky hypnotic turkish music. I was interested in seeing the dancers, but they came on late and I just caught a glimpse of them whirling away as we were headed out.

2008-08-16T10:14:00.002-04:00

Maybe I need to get more exercise in general, but my arm is worn out from playing tennis on our new Wii. In fact, I was a little winded after playing for awhile, swinging my arm around in my living room. The Wii is very good at replicating a real tennis game -- I make a lot of the same mistakes on Wii tennis that I do in real life tennis.

I spent the week in Louisville, Kentucky. The trip out there was a debacle of delayed flights and cancelled connections. When faced with the prospect of being stranded in Cincinatti, one of my co-workers and I abandoned the airport and rented a car to drive the last 100 miles. Louisville is a town that, after the workday ends, resembles the New York of "I am Legend." There is essentially one block in the whole place that has any activity after 5 pm. They have done a nice job landscaping the area by the Ohio River, but again, not much to see or do once you are there. Yeah, not quite sure why we had to do that.

2008-08-06T21:02:00.000-04:00

Oxford, England

Fes, Morocco

Arles, France

Florence, Italy

Positano, Italy

Seville, Spain

Tallinn, Estonia

Bar Harbor, ME, USA

Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

San Francisco, CA, USA

View my profile

Create your own travel map or travel blog

Visit TripAdvisor.com

2008-07-28T21:38:00.000-04:00

Loki pays a visit to Central Park

2008-07-20T21:31:00.002-04:00

We have returned after a week in Boston. It was an eventful week, working by day, checking out the town at night with friends old and new. Loki enjoyed harassing the squirrels in the Common and he was in turn harassed by a pack of dogs at the Old North Church. I sampled plenty of clam chowder early in the week, but cut back as temperatures rose. A sampling of microbrews at the John Harvard brewpub was less satifying, as there was a disappointing tendency to overdo the highlighted ingredient (i.e. the "toasted" malt was a bit too toasty) however the live Celtic music was great.

The hotel Onyx was a chic, dark"W" type botique hotel. We upgraded to a suite (which supposedly used to be the "Brittany Spears Suite"). My students were very pleased with the hotel, particularly becasue of the happy hour from 5 to 6 each night with free booze and cheese. More that usual, I made sure to wrap up class before 5 each day. The most interesting thing about the rooms is that the bathrobes are in leopard-print. This I already knew (one of the reasons for picking the hotel), what I did not know was that the closets also contained leopard print lingerie. One of the students wore his robe to the happy hour one night and I told him I would buy his dinner the next night if he wore the lingerie to the big group dinner. Alas, we were disappointed.

2008-07-07T13:07:00.002-04:00

We just returned from our first visit to the seashore this year. Unfortunately, there was not much sun but there was plenty of mist and fog. At times, walking along the beach, I could only see twenty or thirty feet ahead of me. Although sunbathing opportunties were limited, there was a surprising amount of wildlife to observe. There was a marsh behind where we were staying which was home to a number of elegant white cranes or egrets or something, as well as other interesting birds. We stayed on the second floor and, during a rare fog-free time, we could see the over the dunes to the ocean, where several dolphins were at play, leaping around in the waves.

2008-06-26T22:05:00.002-04:00

I used to see a lot of movies in my previous New York incarnation, but for various reasons I sort of got out of the habit during my time in Pennsylvania. Since moving back here it has not been easyfor me to get to the movies and I think I have seen precisely two films at the theater in the past nine months. However, I have been watching a fair amount of Netflix lately and have seen some good stuff recently. I just finished watching the Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a brilliantly filmed and very touching movie about a guy who has a stroke and can only communicate by blinking his eye. Nonetheless, being French, he still carries on affairs with two women.

The Savages was another very well done film that I saw tis week, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as a professor who has to deal with putting his father in a nursing home. Cheery stuff I'm watching huh? Well on a more upbeat note, I also watched Charlie Wilson's War, again with Philip Seymour Hoffman, but this time as an eccentric CIA agent helping the eponymous Tom Hanks character arm the Afghans against the Soviets. In the midst of watching these very good films, I was home from work today and somehow managed to sit through the entirety of "Wicker Man" a Nicholas Cage movie directed by Niel LaBute, which was like a really, really bad episode of Charmed.

2008-06-22T09:01:00.002-04:00

As a special treat, we have guest blogger today, take it away, Xansky:
What a treat to spend the summer solstice in New York City. The evening sky was mesmorizing just like a scene from a Batman movie. The buildings, the lights, the contrast, it was so intense. Something a person from the 'burbs does not see often. Oh I could go on and one......So now it hits me...............As some of you know, I often criticize the blog for not providing enough insight or analysis of any situation. I feel that Todd S. is one of the great minds of the 21st century and while we love reading the descriptions of his antics we just want more! He owes it to the people of a lesser mind to inform us and tell us how to think. However, after walking around NYC last night all I want to do is talk about the NYC sky. I do not care about George Bush, the war in Iraq, how much cement is being used per capita in China. So now I understand why I do not get more. So the important lesson I learned this weekend never criticize someone until you walked around NYC in their shoes.

2008-06-15T22:00:00.002-04:00

I circumnavigated a good part of Manhattan this morning. Starting at 96th Street, I rode along the East River. Aside from a set of stairs around 79th Street, there is a nice bike/jogging path along the river with no cars, although at points you are just a couple of feet from the FDR traffic. From 63rd down to 34th, you have to hit the streets. Fortunately there is not much traffic around the UN area on a Sunday morning, so that is not so bad. The riverside bikepath picks up again at 34 and continues down to the Battery. There was a lot of flooding from last night's storm on the Lower East Side and I got a lot of mud splattered on my legs as I could not avoid riding through huge puddles.

I rode through the South Street Seaport which I used to visit a lot when I was in school, but have not been to in many years -- it looked exactly the same. Soon enough, I came to the Battery, where I stopped for a pretzel while gazing at the Statue of Liberty. Rounding the tip of Manhattan, I pedalled through wonderfully landscaped Battery Park City. I next came to the boat basin at the World Financial Center, which I do not think I have been to since I evacuated from the World Trade Center on 9/11 and saw the second plane crash into the south tower from here.

The bike path along the Hudson is generally better maintained and much more consistently straight and wide then the spotty East Side path. In the 40s, I came to the cruise ship terminals. The Norwegian Dawn was in port, as big as a skyscraper turned on its side in the water. I paused a second time at the boat basin in the west 70s, finishing off mater water supply. For the home stretch, I cross over to Central Park on 95th Street and continued across the East Side to my apartment in oddly traffic-free streets.

2008-06-14T20:17:00.002-04:00

Loki is curled up in a tight little ball next to me right now, shivering with fear of the very loud thunderstorm outside. I have never before seen him quite so fearful of thunder. He was quite fearless this morning, during his first off-leash experience in Central Park. Readers of this blog know that we have had our scrapes with the law in the past and, having narrowly escaped punishment for our transgressions, hope to maintain a clean leash-law record in the Big Apple. Dog are allowed off leash in the park on weekends between 7 AM and 9 AM but it was not until last week that I got his license tags, so now he is finally street legal. The whole family headed to the park shortly before 7 AM and Loki made the most of his freedom -- racing around, chasing squirrels, fetching stick and sniffing the rears of his fellow canines with abandon. Between the stress of the storm and the exhaustion of running around at warp speed for the better part of two hours this morning, Loki should sleep well tonight.

2008-06-05T12:19:00.002-04:00

I am a little cranky, having just returned from an absolutely miserable trip to North Carolina. All seemed to be going well Monday afternoon when I arrived at Newark Airport. Oh, there was going to be a slight delay, but I was not really in any hurry. Then the plane was having mechanical problems, but nothing really to worry about. Then that plane was really broken, so on to a new gate and a new plane, which I guess is better than flying in a broken plane. Thanks for thinking of our safety, Continental!

We eventually took off and landed in Raleigh-Durham only a couple hours late. Next it was on to Thrifty rental car. I have rented hundreds of cars in my day and this was just about the most disorganized operation I have ever seen, the less said about that the better. On to the conference, where my travel companion was struck by food poisoning at the hotel buffet and I later found myself on a dais speaking to a ballroom full of a couple hundred not entirely friendly people -- yikes!

Finally last night I thought I was safely in the home stretch, enjoying a beer at the airport bar, waiting for my slightly delayed flight. Then the flight was delayed indefinitely. Then the gate changed. At some point the flight vanished entirely from the list of flights on the monitors -- never a good sign. Then they towed the plane away from the second gate and left it out on the tarmac. I could see things were not looking good, so I thought I would stock up for the siege. Too bad, every shop at the airport closed at 8:00 pm, so I had to drink from rusty water fountains and ponder whether the stuffing which was popping out of my seat might be edible if things got really bad. Next a plane full of people which had been diverted from Boston arrived, dumping its confused and angry passengers into our waiting area. We were later told to move to yet another gate, but no one was there to give us any information. A riot might have started if there was anything to riot against, but Continental wisely let all of its staff go home, so there was no one to receive our complaints. Finally we were able to board the plane, only to sit out on the tarmac for another hour before being cleared. I got home shortly before 3:00 AM, which is definitely past my bedtime.

2008-05-31T14:06:00.002-04:00

Yesterday morning brought a bit of pandemonioum to my relatively quiet corner of Manhattan with the collapse of a construction crane just a few blocks from where I live. For an hour or so after the accident, police, ambulance and fire truck sirens wailed continuously. Helicopters circled overhead. It all brought back chilling memories of 9/11 for me. I walk by this site all the time -- the building into which the crane collapsed had a drugstore on the first floor where I have shopped several times. The building which is under construction is one of several being built on the tail end of our big condo boom here which seemed to be proceedingly rather slowly -- perhaps due to funding difficulties which could lead the builder to cut corners.

Loki and I walked to 90th and First last night, the closest the police would let people stand. In place of the collapsed crane there are now two gigantic cranes on trucks. I guess this is necessary to remove the debris but it is certainly an unsettling site, as are so many of the other cranes which are towering over many other parts of town.

2008-05-28T21:49:00.002-04:00

We headed to the Metropolitan Museum today to check out the Jeff Koons exhibit. I always like Koons, particularly his "Puppy" -- a 42 foot high flower-covered topiary of a terrier -- which I saw in New York and later in Bilbao. The exhibit was on the roof, which had spectacular views of the park and the city on this beautiful clear day. Unfortunately, the exhibit was somewhat limited, with precisely three pieces. Good thing my admission was free. My companion never bothered to get out of his stroller to take a look.

2008-05-26T17:07:00.002-04:00

We had a visit from Spiffy Pete this weekend. To ensure that he got the full New York Experience, we took him to both Queens and the Bronx, in addition to walking all over Manhattan. In my neighborhood, it is rare to see any parking space open for more than a minute or two. However since half the city went to the beach this weekend, there are spaces everywhere. We had a space right in front of our building which I sort of hated to leave (even though we park in a garage) but we wanted to go to Astoria for Greek food. Unbelievably, we were able to park right in front of the restaurant.

Today we headed to the Bronx to check out the zoo. After interacting with the gorilla and giraffes, it was a short walk to Arthur Avenue, the Little Italy of the Bronx. Unfortunately, a lot of places were closed for the holiday. However, we were lucky in that our favorite restaurant, Roberto's, was open. As with Stamatis, our Greek restaurant in Astoria, Roberto's was as good as I remembered.

2008-05-15T21:20:00.002-04:00

Loki looks like a different dog with his ver short new haircut. It was not really his choice, or ours. We had to do it because his fur was not in the best shape due to a steep decline in brushing. The groomer assured me that this happens to all new parents with dogs, but I feel guilty nonetheless. So Loki is having enough issues with self esteem as he is no longer the center of attention and now he has to go to the dog park with this silly haircut, making him even more depressed. The poor thing looks just like a little lamb who had all of his wool shaved off.

2008-05-06T16:50:00.003-04:00

I did a little biking over the weekend -- getting a taste of the five boro bike tour of New York by sampling two boros. Yeah I kind of wimped out but I was recovering from what has probably been my worst cold in about ten years, so I thought that showing up and doing a little peddling would be better than nothing. I waited in a crowd of about 30,000 people lined up along Church street from the Battery to Tribeca for almost an hour in 50 degree weather. I stood atop a subway grate, which made the temperature about a balmy 53 degrees -- great for standing still in shorts. Finally things got moving, sort of. It was very crowded and I could not really move freely until we got into Greenwich Village. We had a nice ride up Sixth Avenue until everything came to a halt a few blocks below 57th Street -- the only crosstown street not closed to traffic (do not try to drive in New York on Bike Tour day!) After about ten minutes, I made it through that bottleneck and soon had a nice ride through the park and up into Harlem, followed by a brief jaunt through the Bronx and then back to Manhattan. I toyed with the idea of crossing the 59th Street Bride to Queens and finishing the whole thing but I was not feeling so great and decided to pack it in as I passed my apartment. I think it was probably a distance of about 12 miles.

2008-04-23T16:23:00.003-04:00

The Pope's visit created quite a bit of excitement in my little corner of the Earth (a planet which the Vatican recently admitted does in fact revolve around the Sun). My neighborhood used to be a German enclave and it has one of the only churches in New York (and maybe the only one in Manhattan) with German church services. Therefore the German Pope popped by to work his magic a half a block away from my apartment. This involved blocking off my street for almost an entire day, removing all trash cans,placing police sharpshooters on the roofs of surrounding buildings (including mine) and stationing dozens of cops at each intersection. I have seen many Presidential motorcades, but I have never seen anything like the 100-plus vehicle armada that accompanied the Pope to this little church. I leaned out of my window, risking fire from the sharpshooters, and captured some great video footage of the Pope getting out of his limo and into the church. I thought he might drop by to ask me some advice but I guess he was running late, so he and his vast entourage took off and the neighborhood soon returned to normal.

2008-04-17T16:30:00.002-04:00

We spent a few days in Saratoga Springs at a work conference which I organized. Everyone was pleased with the hotel, but it was a bit difficult to find, even though it was probably the largest hotel in town. This is because the hotel had recently been taken over by a national chain and they took the old sign down without getting zoning board approval for a new sign. Somewhat less successful was the group dinner which I organized. The place had a circus theme, which would be nice for a group of kindergarteners, but was not quite what we were looking for. Walking around town, I realized that this was about the least appealing place to have a dinner. The worst part was that we were cheated out of our cotton candy that we were promised as dessert.

Before leaving town yesterday, we stopped in at the state park which has most of the mineral springs. There are a number of large bathouses named after various presidents spread out in a very pleasant college campus type setting. I think the Roosevelt baths are the only ones currently operating. From what I hear the bath is quite nice but the supposedly drinkable water tastes awful.

2008-04-05T20:06:00.002-04:00

After 18 years, I decided it was time for a bike tune up. I picked up my bike from the shop yesterday after having it adjusted, tightened, greased and so forth and it is as good as new. The only thing that slightly disappointed was that they were out of the kevlar tires that I had been promised -- I really wanted my tires to be bulletproof. The reason for all of this activity is that I have less than a month to go for the 5 borough bike tour, which is 42 miles long and may well put me in the emergency room. Although I have tried to register on line twice and by fax once, my credit card has not yet been charged and I have no other confirmation, so it is unclear whether I really am registered for this -- maybe the Fates are telling me this is not such a good idea.

2008-03-29T16:35:00.002-04:00

It was a night at the opera last night as I went to see "Tristan und Isolde" at the Met. I have seen a few Wagner operas before, but had never this one. Like other Wagners, it is quite long. I left after Act 2 (3 1/2 hours into it) since I knew Act 3 was really just going to be one long death scene for Tristan. Since he spent most of Act 2 singing about his pending death, it seemed redundant. The set design was striking, emphasizing the day/night duality of Schoppenhauer, whose philosophy Wagner was evidently fascinated by at the time. This was the sixth and final perormance of Tristan this season at the Met. The previous five have evidently been plagued by problems and absent lead singers, but this one seems to have come off perfectly.

2008-03-22T23:12:00.002-04:00

I have returned from a wacky six-state roadtrip which I took over the last several days in a car packed with dog toys, diapers and other things that I do not ordinarily travel with. The first stop was the Westin in Philadelphia, where we scored the Presidential Suite. Accommodations on the rest of the trip were not quite so nice. After a stop over in York, we pushed on through heavy rains to West Virginia. This part of the trip was work-related, although fortunately I was not required to literally go into the coal mines.

Next it was on to Richmond, Virginia -- a delightful town which appears to be in denial about the outcome of the Civil War. The return trip took us through more familiar territory as we visited such favorite locales as the Cherry Hill Wegmans and the Exton Buca di Beppo (alas, we were not able to secure the room with the rotating Pope head in the latter). After this crazy trip, I have vowed not to leave the city again, or at least for a few days.

2008-03-16T08:49:00.002-04:00

Although I usually do not like to leave the house on the Ides of March, yesterday was a nice day and there did not seem to be any assassins lurking about, so I thought it might be safe to venture outside. We decided to head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We had actually visited the museum last weekend to see the very good Courbet show. The museum is so huge, you could go there a dozen times and discover new treasures each time. We stopped for lunch at the cafeteria, sitting next to a closed-off section where a children's birthday party was taking place.

One of the adults at this party looked familiar. Could it be? Yes, I am almost certain it was Paul Giamatti. Wait a minute, shouldn't he be running around promoting the new HBO series "John Adams," which premieres tonight? I am very excited about this series and put off cancelling HBO (which otherwise has little of interest to me right now) while the series runs.

2008-03-09T10:04:00.002-04:00

My watch is showing the wrong time again. I just returned from a week in California, where I never bothered to set my watch to Pacific time. I came back in the wee hours yesterday morning and the watch was correct again. However, without consulting me, someone decided that it would be a good idea to "spring forward" last niht, so my watch is an hour behind, with little hope of catching up on its own. Now I have to decide whether to move to Newfoundland or to reset my watch.

The trip to the warm and sunny west coast was a nice break from winter. I had never been to Los Angeles before so I did some of the Hollywood tourist stuff -- walk of fame, handprints of the stars, Rodeo Drive, etc. and also checked out the Getty Museum. I was a bit underwhelmed by the tourist stuff, but the Getty was quite impressive. Most of the week was spent at the training session in Long Beach. This worked out very well and I was pleasantly surprised by Long Beach. We had some nice dinners by the harbor and generally enjoyed this very convenient seaside location. All of the trainees seemed to have a great time, which is good news for me since I was in charge of the whole complex operation. On our last night, a few of us drove to Santa Monica where we played skee-ball, walked out to the end of the pier, and wandered around the promenade.

2008-02-24T17:22:00.002-05:00

I was in Washington last week but miserable weather and work, work, work kept me from visiting any of my old haunts. I basically never left a two block radius of the hotel, at 13th and Pennsylvania. Supposedly I could have been reimbursed for almost the entire cost of a room at the fancy Willard Hotel, which was just across the street, but I was quite happy with the JW Mariott. Well, I liked the JW except for the elevators, which require you to punch in the floor that you want to go to on a master keypad and then report to a specified elevator. This odd system created a lot of confusion, and not just all on my part.

The weather deteriorated on Friday so I had to skip out a bit ahead of schedule to catch a train, which was very crowded with refugees from the airplanes, which were delayed for several hours. Amtrak, not to be outdone, decided it would be nice to delay the trains as well. My train, which shold have taken a bit over three hours to get back to New York, clocked in at about five hours. I guess Amtrak missed me and wanted to spend some time with me.

2008-02-15T18:21:00.003-05:00

My cyber-popularity has tripled! In the past couple of days, I have gone from one Facebook friend (a state of affairs which has persisted for the past several months) to three! I have actually known these people in the real world for, on average, well over a decade, but they are new cyber-friends nonetheless. Check out my exciting Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=559507372

2008-02-03T08:18:00.001-05:00

I just finished reading "World Without End" by Ken Follett, no small achievement at 1008 pages. I had been waiting for some time to read this long anticipated "sequel" to Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" one of my favorite books ever, and it did not disappoint. I find it hard to imagine that anyone but me and my friends at the Renaissance Faire would be particularly interested in these novels about life in a medieval town, but evidently "World" has hit #1 on the bestseller list and "Pillars" is an Oprah book club selection.

I am not sure what I think about Oprah, but I have to say she does pick some good stuff for that book club of hers. Earlier this year I read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, which is a brillantly written book and another Oprah selection. Other recent reads, that may or may not bear the Oprah seal of approval, that I would recomend are "Middlesex," "Bangkok 8" and "Straight Man." I am trying to wrap up "Team of Rivals" but that could take some time as I am probably not going to have much free time for the next year or two.

2008-02-01T22:05:00.000-05:00

It was back to work today after seven weeks off, a weird feeling. Since it was just a one day work week for me, it wasn't such a difficult transition. What might prove to be a bit more difficult is that I have shifted my hours to 7:00 to 3:30, which requires that I get up around 5:40. Oddly, this is exactly when I had to wake up when I used to commute from Philadelphia to New York. Although I have a lot more time at home, I am pretty tired, since I can't take a nap on the 6 train like I used to on Amtrak. Well, I could, but I would wake up in the Bronx.

2008-01-29T20:40:00.000-05:00

I just took the Jeopardy online test, which is evidently only offered about once per year. I probably did not do very well. My strengths are history and geography, but there was not a lot of that on the test today, instead there was a lot of pop culture (ie. what rapper won some award) and other topics that left me guessing. I think my moment may have passed. Once upon a time I could answer almost an entire Jeopardy board correctly, but these days I am lucky to get 75%. Part of it is that I knew my pop culture better 20 years ago, but most of it is just senility. I think when I hit about 35 my hard drive filled up, so each new bit of information that goes in has to kick something out. Usually this means boring practical stuff boots out interesting but irrelevant trivia. In goes the New York DMV process, out goes the list of Roman Emperors; in goes the complicated facts of some legal case I'm working on, out goes the names of the dinosaurs, etc. Anyway, I doubt I will wind up being chosen to be a contestant but it was a fun thing to do.

2008-01-24T08:17:00.000-05:00

I have a cold which might be severe enough for me to stay home from work, if I were not already home from work. That's kind of a bummer, wasting a perfectly good sick day this way. Since I have been hanging around watching daytime TV for weeks now, even that part of the cold is not enjoyable. This ends a remarkably healthy streak for me where I have not had a full blown cold or any other sickness in well over three years. I suppose I've had a sniffle or sore throat a couple of times, but nothing that developed into the real thing since before I moved to Pennsylvania in mid-2004. I am fairly sure the only sick time I have taken from work in the past three years is for doctor and dentist appointments. That's how I have built up over 16 weeks of sick leave over ten years, which I am now using a portion of for paternity leave. I think that between riding the subway and being exposed to lots of kids in the near future, I can expect more colds inmy future.

I seem to have lost my cell phone. Even if it turns p, it was not working properly at the last use, so if you are leaving messages on there and I am not calling you back, please try the home phone. If you don't have the updated home phone, try a psychic message.

2008-01-15T17:54:00.000-05:00

The Pope is coming to the church one block from my apartment:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/this-papal-visit-will-be-smaller-than-the-last-one/?scp=1&sq=pope+yorkville

Although not stated in the article, I assume this is because my neighborhood is the historic heart of the German community in Manhattan -- a fitting place for the German Pope to visit. Unfortunately, it seems as if he is still having trouble with the whole Earth goes around the Sun thing....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7188860.stm

2008-01-13T19:07:00.000-05:00

I have now been off from work for over a month and have a couple more weeks to go. This is the longest time that I have not been working in many years. It's nice to have a change of pace and something to focus on besides work, but hanging around the house for days at a time eventually begins to lose its charm. I may have a different opinion in twenty years but right now I can't imagine ever permanently retiring, I think I would lose my mind in a few months. Fortunately, we have been able to reduce cabin fever to some extent recently as we can now take the little guy out in public. Over the past few days, we took a trip to the Bronx Zoo and ate at a couple local restaurants with him.

2008-01-06T12:21:00.000-05:00

Greg braved the perils of the big city to pay us a visit yesterday. He presented us with a very nice blanket that his mother had made for our new addition. I think he was somewhat disappointed in the corned beef sandwich that he purchased at the local bagel shop, but hopefully we will get a full report on that soon on his blog, which is supposed to focus on sandwiches.

If my calculations are correct, this is the twelfth day of Christmas, so it is time to take down the tree. This tree is big, it touches the ceiling, so it will be a bit of a challenge to get out of here. I plan on doing it around 11:00 pm tonight when hallway traffic is at a minimum. Loki and the tree had a complicated relationship this year. In an improvement from prior years, he did not really attack the ornaments in earnest until yesterday, when the tree had been up for over three weeks. However, he loved to drink the water from the stand, which coated his fur in sap. I think it's time for the tree to go now. Happy Festivus!

2007-12-31T14:47:00.000-05:00

It's time for the 2007 roundup. It has been quite an eventful year with some major life changes -- the top three developments being the arrival of a new family member, the move and my promotion. The promotion has lead to a lot more traveling around the country for various reasons, but my leisure travel has been curtailed this year. In fact, 2007 is the first year since 1996 that I have not crossed the Atlantic. Day to day travel has been cut from about 180 miles (Philadelphia to New York and back) to about six miles (Upper East Side to Madison Square Garden and back). That also adds about three hours a day to time at home, but I think most of that will be taken up by my new responsibilities for the foreseeable future.

2007-12-25T14:24:00.000-05:00

Loki has his head on my lap, as he has been doing more than usual recently, he has been a bit lethargic lately. I'm not sure if he is physically ill (perhaps due to drinking all of the sap from the Christmas tree water?) or if he is depressed. When I picked him up from the kennel after he had to spend a few days there last weeks, he was not quite himself. He usually freaks out a bit when he is in prison conditions, even though this was a posh "spa" kennel. Perhaps the other dogs made fun of him due to the very pouffy hairdo he was given at he spa. One thing is for sure, he is having trouble taking second place to the new addition to our household. The days of unlimited attention for Loki are over.

2007-12-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

Senility is fast approaching. I seem to be losing track of stuff all the time lately. Yesterday I locked my keys in my car for the first time in many years. The big one was I thought I lost my passport for the past couple weeks. Did I leave it at the DMV? I went back to the DMV yet again last week, waited yet again while they looked for it, but no luck. The next day I arrived at work and realized I forgot my security swipe card, making it difficult to get into the building and worse, difficult to go out to lunch. Today I was looking at an old closed out file and noticed something odd creating a bulge in the papers -- there it was, my passport! How did it get in there? And another thing... oh, I can't remember....

2007-12-02T22:40:00.000-05:00

The first snow of the year always perplexes Loki initially, then he revels in it. We made our way through the freshly fallen snow to the park, where hundreds of people had gathered to sing carols and watch the tree lighting. A choir from the local private girls school was singing as hot cider was provided to the crowd. Unfortunately, Loki was acting a bit too hyper for me to make my way into the middle of the crowd for cider.

Last night we took our maiden voyage with the new GPS. The Garmin Nuvi 660 has some great features but we probably need to make some adjustments for urban driving. It wanted us to go about 200 blocks out of our way, taking us to the southern tip of Manhattan and then going through the tunnel to Brooklyn so we could double back to Queens, where we were headed. This is probably because it defaults to favor highways. In the city that may not be the best idea. So we relied on old-fashioned neurons instead and successfully made our way to Astoria, where we had some delicious food at our favorite Greek restaurant, Stamatis - opa!

2007-11-29T22:21:00.000-05:00

I had a day of DMV hell that was truly the stuff of legend. In the end it was all worth it, although I told the clerk in the midst of the process that I might just abandon my car. Three trips to my three favorite little letters, over the course of four hours, finally resulted in me walking away with New York license plates. This was, of course, after many days of working with the insurance company, bank, and other entities (each of which was vying to outdo the other in screwing things up and giving me bad advice) to set this up so it could all go like clockwork. So all of you guys who tell me I should buy a house, which is exponentially more complicated than this, thanks for the advice, but I think I will let that go for awhile.

I took another trip in my series "Airports of the East Coast" yesterday when I went to Baltimore-Washington International ("BWI"). To mix things up a little, I actually took the train, which might have been slightly more time, but which is much less hassle. Plus, Amtrak and I miss one another, so this was a nice little reunion for us. Although it may lack the supposed architectural panache of Dulles, BWI was a surprisingly large, bright and busy operation.

As I noted awhile ago, I lost my Comcast account when I moved so I may not have all of the e-mail addresses I need when I send messages from my Hotmail account. The reason I mention this is that I sent e-mails to some people recently noting that our home phone number changed again (long story) so if you did not receive notification from me by e-mail or other means, you may not have my most current number. The good news is that I may have figured out how to access the voicemail, so if you left a message and did not hear back from me, try again and you just might get lucky!

2007-11-25T08:33:00.000-05:00

I visited the Neue Galery on Friday to see the Gustav Klimpt show. The Neue is an elegant mansion at 86th and 5th that was turned into a museum for Austrian and German art a few years ago. The museum already had a few Klimpts which were probably their biggest attraction. The show, which took over the entire two-story exhibition space was well done but somewhat disappointing in that there seemed to be few, if any, additional completed paintings by Klimpt. Instead there were sketches, photos and other curios. This was mildly interesting, but unless one is really a big fan of the artist it is not quite worth the $15 admission price. I was also somewhat disappointed that the museum cafe, which replicates a Viennese cafe, was very crowded, with the line to get a seat snaking out the front door of the museum. Alas, no linzertorte for me!

2007-11-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

I certainly do not want to give thanks for global warming, but it was nice to have such pleasant weather on a day off from work. Since it was so nice, I violated my stated goal of not leaving the block by riding my bike across Central Park and up to Columbia University. Otherwise, aside from Loki walks and a Loki food-gathering expedition, I did stay on the block as we had brunch and subsequently a delicious full Thanksgiving dinner at the local diner.

Yesterday the office closed early so I took the opportunity to visit the Frick Collection. I thought I had checked out the Frick during my prior tenure in New York, but I quickly realized that I had never visited the museum before. The former guilded age robber baron's mansion (palace really) makes a very elegant museum, which is packed with Rembrants, Titians, Vermeers and other old masters. There are a couple Renoirs and Manets, and one great Ingres, but most of the collection is pre-Impressionist. I was eager to see the Frick before the end of the year, which is the end of my Philadelphia Museum of Art membership, because the Frick, along with the Metropolitan, permit me to visit free of charge as a Philadelphia Museum of Art member.

2007-11-20T21:11:00.000-05:00

Alas she is no more.
The elegant buff leather interior,
such a pleasing compliment to
her shiny spruce exterior.

The gentle purr of her engine,
never to whisper to us again;
The supple curve of her seats,
never to hold us again.

Farewell Sprucy,
we will always remember
the many wonderful miles
we drove with you.

RIP Sprucy 2004 - 2007.

2007-11-18T18:53:00.000-05:00

I went to the Mertopolitan Museum today for the first time since moving back to New York. I checked out the renovated Greek and Roman galleries, where the museum has done a very impressive job of replacing the old, somewhat gloomy, cafeteria with a bright and beautiful atrium gallery. The big show is dutch painting arranged in a unique way -- by order of aquisition by the Met. It was an interesting way to set up a show and served a secondary purpose as a history of the museum. The Met's first Vermeer cost $800 -- it might be a bit more than that today.

2007-11-15T19:48:00.000-05:00

Of the many reasons I am glad to be back to the city, walking around instead of driving is one of my favorites. I have never been much for formal exercise, going to the gym and so on, but I love to walk all over the place and it sort of keeps me in some kind of shape. I think I initially gained about ten or fifteen pounds when I moved to the burbs because I stopped walking.

Unfortunately, my feet have become tender after three years in suburbia and are giving me a little trouble. I don't know if I am just getting older and flat feet are some sort of middle aged thing or if my relative pedestrian inactivity over the past three years is what really did me in. Anyway, yesterday they were really hurting and I was not looking forward to the trip home, which involves a fair amount of walking. Today I wore my Pikolinos to work, which are sort of Doc Martinish shoes, and my feet felt much better. I have to change to dress shoes once I get to my office, but at least I am not limping around.

2007-11-12T21:02:00.000-05:00

I have not been to the movies in quite awhile, so it was a nice treat to have some time today to see "Michael Clayton" which is a fantastic film about a "fixer" at a big law firm who has to deal with a particularly difficult environmental case. I found it particularly interesting as someone who, once upon a time, did environmental law for a big law firm. Fortunately, I was never involved in any plots to murder anyone, as we see in "Michael Clayton" but there was nonetheless plenty of moral ambiguity doing that kind of work. Fortunately, there is absolutely no such moral ambiguity in what I do now. Well, sometimes....

Speaking of my legal doings, I think I mostly enjoy my job, which mainly involves navigating bureaucracies and occasionally being adversarial with opposing counsel and other difficult creatures. However, I find that, in my personal life, I generally do not like to navigate bureaucracies or act adversarial with people. Unfortunately, between battling the various landlords, dealing with the DMV and doing the hundred and one other things required to set up a moderately complicated middle class life in a new state, I find that a lot of my free time is spent on this kind of stuff lately.

2007-11-06T19:46:00.000-05:00

I guess it's good that I work for the government, because I really don't understand business sometimes. Yesterday I went to Trader Joes on Union Square and waited on a line the likes of which I have not seen since my visit to the Soviet Union under communism. However, I was in the center of the capitalist universe, shuffling through the store on a line that snaked around virtually the entire perimeter of the place. This afternoon I went to Whole Foods in Chelsea to pick up lunch and it was almost as bad. Clearly there is an intense demand for these high quality food markets, but why are there so few of them? It's not like retailers are hesitant to set up stores in areas where they can make a profit -- there must be literally a dozen Starbucks in a three block radius of my office.

Are they not able to make a decent profit? Maybe that's the problem, as Trader Joes seems to have the same prices as I used to pay in Ardmore, where I am sure rent and labor costs are less. It seems to me the sensible think to do is to raise prices. Perhaps there is some reason why they can not have different prices in different locations. And that analysis does not hold for Whole Foods, which is not cheap. However, it is more reasonable than the gourmet markets, which are the only places to get good food on this part of Manhattan. The regular "supermarkets" are really not very good at all on price, quality or service. All I know is that I would love to have a Trader Joes in this neighborhood -- or at least somewhere north of 14th Street.

2007-11-04T13:53:00.000-05:00

It is quite a festive day here as the marathon route goes up First Avenue, just a block from our apartment. The cheers of the spectators are calming down now, but it was quite loud for awhile. I walked over to First and 87th in time to see the female leaders go by, already led by the woman who came in first. There is a real the party atmosphere at the sidelines, as the spectators cheer on runners from dozens of countries.

Although I decided not to run in the marathon myself this year, I got in a little exercise yesterday when I rode my bike across Manhattan to the Hudson River for the first time since moving back here. On the return trip through Central Park I rode by the finish line for the marathon, which was quite a scene with all of the gradstands being set up.

2007-10-31T21:03:00.000-04:00

I spent the day today at beautiful Dulles Airport. Not bad as airports go, but it has a weird design which requires everyone to take moon-rover type shuttle buses between each terminal. Fortunately I did not have to take the moon rover as I was met on the jetway and was given a slightly harrowing ride around he tarmac. I have been driven around JFK many times but the moon rovers and planes combine to create something of a traffic jam at Dulles. After I put on my little show, it was time to be driven back to the terminal. We walked up the exterior staircase to the jetway and I found myself at the gate without a boarding pass. Scary!Fortunately, they were able to print one for me right at the gate, so it was no problem. Happy Halloween!

2007-10-22T23:08:00.000-04:00

Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but I imagine that someone might be wondering why Todd is not responding to their e-mails. Since I moved from Philadelphia, I cancelled my account with Comcast, which nixed my Comcast.net e-mail account. This is annoying, becasue that was what I had linked up to my blackberry. Since I have a work blackberry now, I might just cancel the personal one. In any event, if anyone has been trying to reach me at the Comcast.net address, that is no longer working, so try the same prefix (or whatever the techincal term for the first part of an e-mail address might be) @Hotmail.com. Or just leave a comment on here.

2007-10-21T20:10:00.000-04:00

It was an even more canine-centered day than usual in the park today as the "Halloween Howl" festival involved hundreds of dogs in costumes on parade. We took Loki to see the festivities, but purely as a spectator, as experience has taught us that he does not care for costumes or any sort of clothing. I could not spend much time at the Howl, as I had to scoot downtown for another off-off-Broadway show. Today's show was "Spain" starring Annabella Sciorra as a woman having a nervous breakdown who imagines that she is visited by a conquistador, a Mayan priestess and other interesting guests. As with the show the other day, the acting was quite good and the set design was fairly impressive. Quite a bargain for $4.

2007-10-20T22:26:00.000-04:00

After work last night I headed down to the Village and met up with Tony to see "Walmartopia" and off-off-Broadway show which I knew nothing about, aside from the title and the fact that the ticket was going to cost me $4. Well, it actually cost me a pint of Blue Moon beer later that evening. The show was in the small Minetta Lane Theater, which I have passed by a thousand times but had never been inside peviously. I really enjoyed Walmartopia, which was, as the name suggests, a satire about the retail giant. Thirty years in the future, Walmart rules the entire world, except for Vermont. There was fairly good singing, dancing, set design etc. -- but for me the hilarious performances of the actors who played the disembodied head of Sam Walton and the Wal-mart mad scientist really made the show.

2007-10-18T20:57:00.000-04:00

After three years of getting up before 6:00 am and getting home around 7:00 pm, it sure is nice to flip that around and get up at 7:00 am and get home before 6:00 pm. If I hustle, I can get from my apartment to my office in about 35 minutes. If I take my time but don't make any stops, it is usually less than 45 minutes. For the first time since I was in high school I am taking a bus semi-regularly. I take the M86 across 86th Street from York to Lex and take the 6 train down to 33rd Street, then walk over to my office at 7th and 33rd. I have experimented with taking the bus across the Park and riding the C train down. I did this today and it worked fairly well, but the bus can get caught in a lot of traffic after Lex and this often takes longer than the 6 train route, but it will work better in bad weather as it cuts out the walk along 33rd Street.

Take out food in this neighborhood is abundant, varied and relatively cheap. However, supermarkets round here are fairly dingy and/or expensive. There is a Gristides supermarket on the ground floor of this building which is slightly better than the Gristides in our old neighborhood 24 blocks south, but nothing special. In my quest for not terribly expensive prepared foods, I went to the Gourmet Garage at 96th and Broadway after work today. It was ok, but not as nice as the one I used to live near on 64th Street. The bus ride on the 96th street bus on the way home took almost half an hour, so I'm not sure we are going to be doing that again anytime soon.

2007-10-12T19:44:00.000-04:00

We finally have cable again, after almost two weeks of living like savages by watching broadcast TV since we moved to our new apartment. Fortunately, since we are on the 14th floor we actually had decent reception. Normally, I watch almost everything on TiVO, so it was odd to watch so many commercials. Of course having the cable internet connection is the most important thing, so I am finally able to blog again.

We have to head down to Philadelphia tomorrow to clean up the house, as our lease ends on Monday. Oh, and we have a wdding to attend tomorrow, a party in Delaware on Sunday, and I have to drive Frank from Pottstown to Trenton, and we have to sell the Taurus, and... wow, this is really going to be a busy weekend.

Despite our lack of cable, the new place is really working out well. The painting and carpentry work we had done before moving in was definitely worth the expense, making the place much more of a home. The area is fantastic, much more of a cozy neighborhood than our previous Manhattan abodes. The best amenity is the Carl Schutz Park, which is on the river just a block away from our building, where Loki seems to prefer the large dog run over the separate small dog run. The Mayor's mansion is in the park, which is very safe and well-kept at all times.

2007-09-27T23:20:00.000-04:00

I am typing this entry while wearing my "Italia" biking shirt, a brand-new birthday present. Today was my birthday and, to celebrate, I spent most of the day in airports, flying to Boston and back. I had a busy week of racing around the Northeast, taking the train to Baltimore on Tuesday and flying to Boston today. On Wednesday I took my last ever Philadelphia/New York Amtrak ride as a commuter. I certainly won't miss it, but it is a shame to leave behind the vast body of commuting knowledge that I have gathered over the years.

As my time in suburbia winds down, I am thinking about what I will miss once I depart from the land of leaves and squirels. One thing I will definitely miss is seeing the stars at night when I walk Loki. The past few nights have been quite clear and the full moon, in addition to making Loki more crazy than normal, is so bright that you can almost read by it. Lately, as it is also dark in the morning when we go for our walk before I go to work, the stars are still out and Venus has been very prominent on the eastern horizon this week. I also get a great view of Orion above the roof of the house across the street when we head out for the morning walk at around 6:02 am. However, when I leave for the train at 6:15, the sky starts to lighten up and the stars venish, leaving only Venus.

2007-09-21T22:34:00.000-04:00

The lilys are gone, but we decided to keep the dog.

2007-09-20T22:53:00.000-04:00

Between the move, the promotion, and many other things, this has been a very busy year so I have not been able to do much personal travel. I realized the other day that 2007 will be the first year in over a decade that I have not been to Europe. I came home tonight and realized that I am definitely in travel withdrawal as half the things I have recorded on the DVR are from the travel channel. This is after crafting the following e-mail today to a friend who asked for tip on her upcoming trip to Rome and Venice:

Everyone needs a theme for their trip, I suggest drinking:

Every American tourist in Venice has to visit Harry’s Bar and have a Bellini cocktail in honor of Ernest Hemingway, I think it is the law.

Frank would recommend High Tea at Babbington’s Tea Rooms by the Spanish Steps in Rome, but I think the real English have their high tea where I had it, at the Hassler (sp?) hotel at the top of the steps.

Sip a glass of prosecco (Italian Champagne) at Florian’s Caffe in the Piazza San Marco, Venice. Do this in the evening while their band competes with the band at the Caffe Quadi across the square.

When in Venice, take a vaporetto to the Lido, walk along the beach for a bit, then stop in at one of the grand old hotels for a glass of Cinzano on the rocks and/or a Campari and soda while sitting on the terrace overlooking the sea.

Find a nice trattoria for a light dinner near the Campo de Fiore in Rome, or maybe across the river in the less-touristy Trestevere neighborhood, and wash it down with a glass of Brunello de Montalcino. If the exchange rate is getting to you and you want to take it down a notch, order Montepulciano (Toscana only, not Abruzzo), which is the other excellent Italian red wine, but which can be a bit cheaper. If the budget is really running over, just order Chianti, but always check to make sure it has the black rooster (“gallo nero”) on the neck, otherwise it is no good. Afterwards wander over to the Piazza Navona and find the gelatto place in the northeast corner of the piazza and have a hazelnut gelato – best ice cream in the world!

Get away from the San Marco/Rialto main tourist area and find a little neighborhood place off the beaten path in Venice for dinner and order a glass of Poli Grappa as an after dinner drink.

Don’t pay $25 for breakfast at your hotel, find a little coffee shop on a side street, stand at the counter and order an espresso and a pastry. Even with the terrible exchange rate this is only a couple bucks, but beware: sitting doubles the price and is less fun. The locals never order cappuccino in the morning, only espresso.

If it is a warm day and you want something refreshing after a long day of touring, go to an outdoor place on the Via Venato in Rome and sip a limoncello.