what a weekend
What a weekend. Sorry, I had meant to update yesterday (Monday) but I was a little too busy to be able to get to it. It’s been insane since we have been two people short, but there are interviews and such in the making, which makes me very happy to have more people around since the workload has been nothing less than hectic.
Friday- Steve (my brother) came over late Thursday night so that we would all be in the same place Friday morning since I wanted to leave pretty early to beat the traffic and get a good day of errands done in Albany. So we all got up around 6:30 and pulled everything together, walked the dog, went to 3rd avenue in Brooklyn and picked up our hot little red Jeep Liberty rental to get us all the way upstate. By the way, even though it was a little light on the pick up and get go when you hit the gas, I really like the jeep liberty. I do have to think about the fact that the pick up is probably fine its just that I have become used to driving my gas guzzling v8 for so many years I cant quite grasp what I might feel like to drive something that isn’t reminiscent of a Monster Truck. The Liberty was really great on gas and a really nice car. If I am ever in need of a car somewhere in life this could definitely be a consideration.
Steve and Murphy dogs on the way home!
We got to Albany at about 11 am and went to Target and the Christmas tree shop to get some odds and ends we needed for the apartment and of course we needed some Easter Decorations. Ah I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of the cheese lawn ornament we got for my mom for $7.00. See, my mom actually despises that huge blow up lawn ornaments that have become popular in the past year or so during Christmas time, you know the type with the 9 foot blow up snow globe with the blow up Santa inside and the loud obnoxious motor that is spitting up fake snow inside of it. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it! They have become a staple on the stoops in the neighborhood and I guess upstate as well. So Eric and I did our best to find a cheap imitation one for Easter. Only wish I had taken a picture, she loved the gesture but hated the 4-foot tall light up bunny rabbit adorning our front door step.
Then we went to dinner at Ta-Ke restaurant near Albany. There is back-story to this as well. Eric and I were watching the Food network channel a while back and the were having a network challenge for teppanyaki (a type of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word "teppanyaki" is derived from teppan, which means iron plate, and yaki , which means grilled. In North America, it is also known by the name of hibachi.) You know the chef performs a small show for the customers. The show can range from juggling utensils, flipping a shrimp into his shirt pocket, tossing an egg up in the air and splitting it with his knife to a flaming onion volcano. Well, we decided that it would be awesome to go out and check out the skills of our local places in NYC, I mean come on this is New York you gotta be good to make it here! So we did some research and came up with the famous Benihana which made the Americanized style of the traditional Japanese style very popular in 1964. So we go into to this time warp of pictures on the wall of super celebrities from 1980 and the food as well as the experience was awful, and expensive to boot! Our "chef" Jimmy was terrible and I think I added 1/2 a can of sesame seeds just to make my noodles somewhat appetizing.
So I had to show Eric what I had grown up with in Albany as Hibachi, Eric was skeptical but definitely enjoyed our 2nd teppanyaki experience.
mmm noodles!
We even joked about it loudly that it was Eric’s birthday (which it was not) so that the waitress would pick up on it and do their usual birthday celebrations, which involve a gong and the entire restaurant singing happy birthday to you while a waitress grabs your arms and makes you waive around in the air like an idiot. It as hilarious to say the least!
Eric’s “Birthday” dessert
We went home and then met a few of my friends from high school out and had a nice evening catching up.
Saturday: Went to one of the best hole-in-the-wall diners, the Window Box. We always get my neighbor Mary Leigh as our waitress; we have lived next to her since I was 8 (17 years!). I remember going over and playing Barbie’s with her daughter and hide and go seek with them and the Montisanos and the other kids in the neighborhood.
More errands and spring-cleaning and we went to my favorite place in the whole world. I practically grew up here especially when I hung out down town for shows and such…Bombers! I am pretty sure I have eaten over a million of their burritos and not matter what the slight changes they go through with different staff and slightly different food techniques I think it is more the romantic and reminiscent experience of eating there for me more so than it is the food, even though the food is usually good-better when bob worked there but that was years ago. I remember meeting Matty there once when we were first getting to know each other and eating before going to see MPB play at Valentines. Oh how i miss Valentines and hanging out at shows...some really great memories.
Eric got a “Red Stripe” Burrito, some sort of play on a Jamaican pork sandwich. Get it "Red-Stripe" eh-eh ! ha.
I got my usual veggie burrito, no salsa, no tomatoes; little bit of BBQ sauce...it’s been the same order for almost 10 years. Its not that I don't like tomatoes, i just learned that they add a fair amount of liquid to the Burrito making it an extremely messy experience. Plus I think it tastes better with out them. To give you an idea of the size of these thing this particular burrito is probably 2/3 of the way in my belly!
Sunday: Was quiet, Eric made a great Easter lunch then we rounded up the troops and headed out (again early to miss traffic). Made good time and didn’t get caught up in the usual holiday gridlock in and out of the city.
GW on the way back in to NYC to take Steve home then on to BK
When we got back we unpacked and then got into watching one of our Netflix picks, Fast Food Nation.
If anything it definitely firmed up my vegetarian beliefs. I haven’t eaten meat since I was 13, and to be honest I was really young to understand why I went vegetarian so I never really have much of an answer to people asking me why I went, it just never felt right to eat that stuff. Much like it doesn’t make sense to most people to eat paper it never made sense for me to eat meat (I don’t know if that is a good analogy, they have never really been my forte, but I try). Even though this is strictly put to the tune of fast food restaurants I didn’t really feel that there was much of a difference between what could potentially be in any meat. Yuck. Hey it’s for others to enjoy not for me.
Afterwards we snuck over to 132 (my old apt) and watched the Sopranos and Entourage (eric and i don't have HBO). They both were entertaining but nothing gripping. Went home and right to bed. It was nice to be out of the city; although sometimes I think I need vacations from my vacation!
Friday- Steve (my brother) came over late Thursday night so that we would all be in the same place Friday morning since I wanted to leave pretty early to beat the traffic and get a good day of errands done in Albany. So we all got up around 6:30 and pulled everything together, walked the dog, went to 3rd avenue in Brooklyn and picked up our hot little red Jeep Liberty rental to get us all the way upstate. By the way, even though it was a little light on the pick up and get go when you hit the gas, I really like the jeep liberty. I do have to think about the fact that the pick up is probably fine its just that I have become used to driving my gas guzzling v8 for so many years I cant quite grasp what I might feel like to drive something that isn’t reminiscent of a Monster Truck. The Liberty was really great on gas and a really nice car. If I am ever in need of a car somewhere in life this could definitely be a consideration.
Steve and Murphy dogs on the way home!
We got to Albany at about 11 am and went to Target and the Christmas tree shop to get some odds and ends we needed for the apartment and of course we needed some Easter Decorations. Ah I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of the cheese lawn ornament we got for my mom for $7.00. See, my mom actually despises that huge blow up lawn ornaments that have become popular in the past year or so during Christmas time, you know the type with the 9 foot blow up snow globe with the blow up Santa inside and the loud obnoxious motor that is spitting up fake snow inside of it. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it! They have become a staple on the stoops in the neighborhood and I guess upstate as well. So Eric and I did our best to find a cheap imitation one for Easter. Only wish I had taken a picture, she loved the gesture but hated the 4-foot tall light up bunny rabbit adorning our front door step.
Then we went to dinner at Ta-Ke restaurant near Albany. There is back-story to this as well. Eric and I were watching the Food network channel a while back and the were having a network challenge for teppanyaki (a type of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word "teppanyaki" is derived from teppan, which means iron plate, and yaki , which means grilled. In North America, it is also known by the name of hibachi.) You know the chef performs a small show for the customers. The show can range from juggling utensils, flipping a shrimp into his shirt pocket, tossing an egg up in the air and splitting it with his knife to a flaming onion volcano. Well, we decided that it would be awesome to go out and check out the skills of our local places in NYC, I mean come on this is New York you gotta be good to make it here! So we did some research and came up with the famous Benihana which made the Americanized style of the traditional Japanese style very popular in 1964. So we go into to this time warp of pictures on the wall of super celebrities from 1980 and the food as well as the experience was awful, and expensive to boot! Our "chef" Jimmy was terrible and I think I added 1/2 a can of sesame seeds just to make my noodles somewhat appetizing.
So I had to show Eric what I had grown up with in Albany as Hibachi, Eric was skeptical but definitely enjoyed our 2nd teppanyaki experience.
mmm noodles!
We even joked about it loudly that it was Eric’s birthday (which it was not) so that the waitress would pick up on it and do their usual birthday celebrations, which involve a gong and the entire restaurant singing happy birthday to you while a waitress grabs your arms and makes you waive around in the air like an idiot. It as hilarious to say the least!
Eric’s “Birthday” dessert
We went home and then met a few of my friends from high school out and had a nice evening catching up.
Saturday: Went to one of the best hole-in-the-wall diners, the Window Box. We always get my neighbor Mary Leigh as our waitress; we have lived next to her since I was 8 (17 years!). I remember going over and playing Barbie’s with her daughter and hide and go seek with them and the Montisanos and the other kids in the neighborhood.
More errands and spring-cleaning and we went to my favorite place in the whole world. I practically grew up here especially when I hung out down town for shows and such…Bombers! I am pretty sure I have eaten over a million of their burritos and not matter what the slight changes they go through with different staff and slightly different food techniques I think it is more the romantic and reminiscent experience of eating there for me more so than it is the food, even though the food is usually good-better when bob worked there but that was years ago. I remember meeting Matty there once when we were first getting to know each other and eating before going to see MPB play at Valentines. Oh how i miss Valentines and hanging out at shows...some really great memories.
Eric got a “Red Stripe” Burrito, some sort of play on a Jamaican pork sandwich. Get it "Red-Stripe" eh-eh ! ha.
I got my usual veggie burrito, no salsa, no tomatoes; little bit of BBQ sauce...it’s been the same order for almost 10 years. Its not that I don't like tomatoes, i just learned that they add a fair amount of liquid to the Burrito making it an extremely messy experience. Plus I think it tastes better with out them. To give you an idea of the size of these thing this particular burrito is probably 2/3 of the way in my belly!
Sunday: Was quiet, Eric made a great Easter lunch then we rounded up the troops and headed out (again early to miss traffic). Made good time and didn’t get caught up in the usual holiday gridlock in and out of the city.
GW on the way back in to NYC to take Steve home then on to BK
When we got back we unpacked and then got into watching one of our Netflix picks, Fast Food Nation.
If anything it definitely firmed up my vegetarian beliefs. I haven’t eaten meat since I was 13, and to be honest I was really young to understand why I went vegetarian so I never really have much of an answer to people asking me why I went, it just never felt right to eat that stuff. Much like it doesn’t make sense to most people to eat paper it never made sense for me to eat meat (I don’t know if that is a good analogy, they have never really been my forte, but I try). Even though this is strictly put to the tune of fast food restaurants I didn’t really feel that there was much of a difference between what could potentially be in any meat. Yuck. Hey it’s for others to enjoy not for me.
Afterwards we snuck over to 132 (my old apt) and watched the Sopranos and Entourage (eric and i don't have HBO). They both were entertaining but nothing gripping. Went home and right to bed. It was nice to be out of the city; although sometimes I think I need vacations from my vacation!
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