Balloon Inflation/Cousin Rachel

Hi. The last few days have gotten away from me. My tryptophan-induced coma lasted thru the weekend and I'm just now deciding to rejoin the human race. I have no choice. Got a busy few days coming up.

Last week, day before Thanksgiving, we were fortunate/stupid enough to be in the city. We were there on a mission. Fran has a cousin, Rachel. Rachel has a car & an apartment in NYC. The two don't make good nice with one another. So she has sought us out to help her sell it. We just had to go pick it up.

So we found ourselves uptown on Thanksgiving Eve and thought "Hey don't they inflate the parade balloons 'round here?". Indeed they did. But we had no idea of the catastrophe involved. This was right up there with New Years Eve in Times Square all squeezed into two blocks just west of Central Park. Strongly outnumbered by seemingly disappointed 6 year olds, we attempted to enjoy the sight, but it was surprisingly disturbing, as upon their inflation the beloved cartoon balloons are strapped and netted to the pavement like they just committed a hate crime or something. It was odd, but we did it, and never will again.

Consider this a noir tribute to the Thanksgiving parade:












We met up with Rachel halfway thru the balloon brouhaha followed shortly by this photo op


Fran & Travis with Kermit watching over us

But that wasn't where the fun ended. We decided to have dinner before venturing into Queens where Rachel's car was parked, and as the official advocates for Indian food amongst our family and friends, the choice of cuisine wasn't really up for debate. Tracking down a good place without a long wait however proved a daunting task. Somehow we were lucky enough to hop into a cab whose driver himslf had a taste for the curry sauce and knew exactly what to do. After about 15 blocks of him divulging more information than we were interested in hearing we arrived. Abul, we later learned his name, jumped out and asked us to wait in the cab while he got us a table. After about ten minutes of more uncomfortable & relatively incoherent conversation we were escorted inside to the corner table and handed menus. Now that was service. It was only after we devoured quite a delectable collection of Indian dishes that we learned that Abul the cab drive was also Abul the Indian Food Restaurant owner. It was a little odd that he knew exactly how many people the place seated.


Travis, Abul, Fran & Rachel looking fairly tough & really hungry

The rest of the night went as planned. The subway took us to Queens from where we headed back across town and dropped Rachel off in front of her place. It was an interesting night to say the least and I'm glad I am finally getting to meet more of Frans family. Hopefully we'll see more of her, since we do live so close......and we got her car and all.

Takksgiving II: The Feastgiving

Takksgiving

predictions:

Green Bay over Detroit
34-19

Indianapolis over Atlanta
45-9

Dallas over New York
436-0

(that's not a typo)

Go eat some turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving Abul!

Thanks for the ride & the Indian food!!

The End Of Nothingness/Buffalo 11.20.07

Usually, a general lack of activity of this here blog constitutes a general lack of activity in our real lives. Such is the case for the past ten days, but all that is about to change...

Or has it already?

Yesterday I finally got up to Buffalo to work with my beloved O.P. kids. This may be my favorite version of them yet. I call it O.P. 5.0. But in usual Vinnie fashion, my flights were isane. Not quite as insane as a month ago (Newark>Pittsburgh>Philly>Buffalo) but still nutty. When my first flight was delayed I knew I would miss the connection. I didn't wake up at 3am for nothing. I complain, very uncharacteristic of me but, this was getting ridiculous. This was the third time a daytrip to Buffalo was ruined because of delayed flights. After barely insisting on it, a very helpful US Airways employee gave me a new ticket; DIRECT! Relief.
Downside: It was on US Airways Express, and I kid you not, this plane had ashtrays & propellers, eight rows front to back, filled with suits and trenchcoats. I must've looked like a real odd duck in my gym shorts and Krew hoodie, but flying is already uncomfortable enough. They don't get dressed up for me.



Landing early, I had the chance to explore the miniscule Buffalo airport so I took a few photos. Nothing spectacular.









Wrote for seven hours straight, all on videotape. Taught the girls on my own for about three. Went fast. Too fast to take any photos. These one day visits often do. That's the idea.

Naturally, my flight home was delayed. The whole Buffalo airport was delayed. No one seemed upset or even remotely surprised.

It gave me a chance to relax in one of those massage chairs. What a brilliant idea to place these in the airport terminal. Ideal for moments just like this. Finally boarded around 9:30 to find my seat positioned in direct path to yet another giant propeller spining at however fast those things go. More than a little intimidating if not terrifying, I couldn't rest, couldn't sleep a wink on the flight home. Just kept invisioning the blade coming loose and slicing thru the plane, and me. I mean I coulda reached out and touched the thing. Once I gathered myself I was able to snap a few shots that I found interesting.





Got home and crawled into a warm bed around 1am. Twenty-Two hours awake. I had to get up at 6am to drive the wife into Woodbridge. She's managing another store today. Moving on up. Showing 'em how it's done.

Lots more events upcoming; multiple city trips, teaching camps, Thanksgiving, friends visiting from out-of-town, birthdays, visiting the Krupps in Georgia, banquets, farmers markets, all in the next three weeks. Then there's Christmas. So yeah, plan on some updates. I know you can hardly wait.

Sin Spotting

I been watching/reading/ingesting an inordinate amount or "world news" the past couple days and, much to my chagrin, with the disturbing stories fresh on my mind and suffering from severe boredom today, was able to categorize these stories according to the vices they endorse; the sins they represent. All seven of em'.

Starting off slowly:

GREED
Following hot on the heels of the writers guild, broadway stagehands decided they would go on strike earlier today, thereby turning away ticket holders at the door & breaking the hearts of many a wide-eyed 8 year olds wishing to see The Grinch or possibly singalong with Mama Mia this weekend. C'mon people! It's Mama Mia! How can you deny people their Abba? I'm sure there's good reason for all this, I just disagree with picketing. I could just never figure out how to show it.

SLOTH
Something I don't know much about is the gaming world, but apparently the highly anticipated arrival of Manhunt 2, the sequel to the surpisingly named Manhunt, has done nothing but disappoint, receiving no more than 2.5 stars out of 5 in many of the popular gamer publications. It's not the controversial content that is upsetting, no you get to kill as many people as digitally possible, don't worry, but rather the lack of substance and development of the storyline. What? People if you want an intelligent & intriguing story, pick up a book or even see a good film. But if you want to stab and maim in the privacy of your own house, then don't complain if the storyline is geared more towards 10 year olds, because....they are.

GLUTTONY
I like this one. A telephone survey done by the state health department has reported that 30% of the state of Mississippi is "officially obese", followed closely by Alabama & West Virginia. That's just fantastic. In honor of this enormous feat Mississippians are gonna take their enormous feet down to Biloxi where there's gonna be a great celebration involving a massive group heart attack followed by free fried Twinkies.

ENVY
John McCain's mother joined Johnny for an interview on MSNBC the other night and revelaed that Mormons, such as Mitt Romny, were to blame for the Olympics scandal in Salt Lake City in 2002, and continued on attempting to convince the nation that her son is the right man for the Republican nomination. McCain replied with a stinging, "The views of my mothers are not necessarily the views of mine". John is jealous of his running mate Mitt Romny because his mother is dead.

PRIDE
Kanye West is the new Michael Jackson, according to...well....Kanye West. This is actually very refreshing considering Kanye has been more likely to commit acts, like crashing the podium at the Grammy's, that resemble the envy rather than the pride, but they're almost interchangeable so.... yeah, Kanye claims to be the new MJ. King Of Pop. I'm guessing the skin bleaching and friendly sleepovers with 12 year old boys will commence shortly.

WRATH
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office said Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, of New York, was "acutely intoxicated on alcohol and prescription drugs" when she died in a police holding room at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Sept. 28. Police had taken her into custody after running rampant thru the airport terminal and being denied the right to board her plane, drunk. After leaving her irate & screaming in the holding room, they returned a few minutes later to find her with her handcuffs wrapped tightly around her neck. She must've been seriously pissed.

LUST
Norman Mailer, creator of New Journalism, died this morning at the age of 84, succumbing to acute renal failure. Mailer was the author of over 30 novels, he helped found the Village Voice, was the director of numerous low budget films, became a regular guest on several television talk shows, and twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He was known as the first person to be known as being "famous for being famous". He also had nine children. That's were the lust comes in.

I love the news, but I need a break.

Victory Róse

I would expect nothing more

HoHum

I've been excrutiatingly inactive lately. Got some "littleprojects" going on. Gonna start teaching a bunch soon, holidays coming, gonna get busy, so I'm utilizing my "downtime". Watching a lot of "worldnews" which is disturbing. The Wife has been "busybusy" at her new gig. Already made assistant manager of the store. Salary. That's my girl. Mrs. Manager.

It's getting cold. The leaves-on-the-ground statistic has increased significantly as-of-late. Yeah raking! Yeah leaf-blower!! That may be more enjoyable than power-washing. We shall see.

Some random photos from the past week or so (for no reason)

Lightspeed Champion = new favorite
this weekend = football /cat baths
laundry = clean
iTunes = 43,788
I think today is Eric's birthday...