End of the Year Update

HEY!! four days without a new blog! What's going on? Your daily blogs is what keeps me going! Hope all is okay, Justin

Love, nana

Geez, tough crowd!

Well, it's the end of the year. Last week I spent Christmas back in California with my family. Lucky for me, everything went very well after my miserable flight experience. I was afraid that the flight was going to be a bad omen for my trip, but that wasn't the case! Thanks to the calendar this year, I got to experience back-to-back Christmases, one with my family and one with my dad's side of the family on Sunday. And, to top of the gorging festivities, my sister Faryn turned 18 on Monday, so we went to my favorite chain restaurant, Buca di Beppo's.

I got back to New York on Wednesday morning after a red-eye flight from SFO. By the time I got home, it was already 8:00am and I had just enough time to shower, change, and head to work for the day. This being a holiday week, work has been slow and mellow, which aided me greatly after the red-eye. On top of this, Matt Bullock, an old college friend of mine, was in town with his girlfriend, so I met up with them on Wednesday night and took them down to the East Village for dinner, followed by a tinychino down in the Lower East Side.

Now it's Friday and I've finally recovered from the flight. Just in time, since it's New Year's Eve! I've got a few things lined up for the evening, including a party at Sean's apartment and a pub crawl scheduled for 4:00pm. I have no idea how late things are going to happen tonight, but I can tell you that I won't be anywhere near Times Square!!

Until my next update,
J. Riley

Christmas Card For My Fans

There's a first time for everything: your first words, your first steps, your first birthday, your first Christmas, your first bikeride without training wheels, your first day of school, your first time driving a car, your first time legally driving a car, your first (and last) taste of cognac, your first time voting, your first college party, your first illegal download, your first REAL job, and....your first missed flight.

I spent three years as a consultant travelling around the country every week (and hating every minute of it, but that's besides the point). I've flown about 250,000 miles in the last two years on American Airlines alone, but I've never missed a flight. Today, on arguably the busiest flight day of the year, I did it. Normally I fly on the JFK to San Jose / San Francisco flight at around 6:00 or 6:30. So I was chilling...I mean working...at home today mentally preparing for my 2 hour commute to the airport on the subway - and nursing a mean hangover, but that's besides the point. At 2:00, I decided I should probably start packing (I have to leave at 3:00) and get dressed for the day. But first, I figured I'd check on my flight status to make sure that the rain and wind wasn't going to delay my flight. I found my flight reservation and my jaw dropped to the floor - my flight was at 3:45. I couldn't believe it, what was I thinking booking a flight that early??? I threw some clothes on, packed my luggage, and was out the door in about 5 minutes. I caught a cab and $50 later (ouch) arrived at the airport at 3:10. The flight check-in lady said that I was too late and wouldn't be able to catch my flight because I was checking luggage. My luggage being practically empty, I almost considered ditching my luggage, but that wouldn't be the best idea. I told her I didn't care when my baggage arrived, but she said the FAA required that the person be on the same flight as their luggage. She said all I could do is go stand-by on the 6:00 flight. I asked what would happen to my luggage if I didn't get on that flight and she said that it would go to San Francisco on the flight - with or without me. Wait, didn't she just say that that wasn't allowed???

To piss me off even more (as if not having an aisle emergency-row seat wasn't enough), when I got through security my original flight was still boarding but they wouldn't let me fly on it because I was already on stand-by on the 6:00 flight = ANNOYING.

For good measure, the heavens opened up and brought thunder and lightning to the airport right before the 6:00pm flight. So we'll add an hour delay for that. And then, despite already being delayed an additional hour, they couldn't get all the luggage into the plane in time, so we'll go ahead and add another hour for that. Then we get to wait in line to depart for another half hour for a grand total of.....2.5 hour delay! That's fun! The real kicker came on the flight when they couldn't get the VCR to work, so they couldn't show the first decent movie to play on an airplane - Shark Tales. And of course that caused me to miss out on catching up in my sleep....

I'm ready to go to sleep and wake up tomorrow...

Merry Christmas!

J. Riley

Wait, my flight is at

Wait, my flight is at 3, not 6. Oops. (Note the timestamp). I may not be going home afterall if there's bad traffic..

Chilly Willy

It's snowing!! Finally, after months of anticipation and a few weeks of cold nights, we got our first snow last night. It makes the 11 degree weather much more tolerable to know that at least we're getting something (besides frostbite) out of it. Now, where did I put those beanie hats....

My weekend (uhh...like most) began on Friday when I got home from work all amped to cook my organic, free-range whole chicken for myself and some lucky guests. I stopped by the store on my way home and bought all the ingredients I needed (you know, onions, fruits, rosemary, sage, etc.) and I got home early enough to start cooking the bird at a reasonable hour. Unfortunately, when I pulled the chicken out of fridge, I realized that the bird had already gone fowl (pun intended) and totally reeked! I was tempted to cook it anyway ("maybe it's just the paper that's making it smell like that"), but thoughts of spelling the world "salmanella" (sp.??) ran through my head and I didn't feel like keeling over just yet.

So when your whole Friday night is screwed up because you bought a chicken a few weeks before you actually cooked it, what other options do you really have? Well, the bars are always open. So I met up with Sean and some of his friends that were going out for a few happy hour drinks and dinner. After eating a mediocre burger, we started hopping mid-town bars and found ourselves at the entrance to a nightclub at about 8:15pm. The cover charge was $8 to get in, but Sean's friend quickly said "No, we're here with 'Mike', the guy with glasses". The bouncer said "Oh, you're with MSI (or MISI or something like that)" and we were like "Uhh...yea...we're from MSI". So we got in for free, and it turned out that this MSI company was having a holiday party inside and had an open bar. So, naturally, we instantly became MSI employees (or friends with "Mike" or "Joe") and our happy hour turned into happy night!

I woke up early on Saturday and headed down to Hell's Kitchen for my monthly gig with some kids from a transitional housing center. This month we took a trip down to Seaport Village to make candles. It was a huge group of volunteers and we had a good time with them at the candle-making facility. It's pretty cook now that I've been on this trip a few times because a lot of the kids know me and I get picked as their "buddy" pretty quickly. Too bad I never got picked for any sports this quick when I was their age ;o)

Saturday night D's mother was in town, so I went with them and Paul & Cathy to Patsy's down near Broadway for an old-fashioned Italian dinner. This place is totally New York style, complete with the serious, no-BS host and the non-smiling older gentlemen waiters dressed in their white coats. This place has been around since 1944 and was one of Sinatra's hang-outs and I can see why. A very old-school ambience to it, it was pretty cool...

Sunday morning I played Cathy a few games of raquetball at our gym. I lost all four games; no wonder I never got picked quickly for sports when I was young ;o). We had some intense games, though, and I'm confident that she will pay for it one of these days! After doing some cleanup and laundry, I met up with Alan for some budget sushi at Yuka. I'd heard about this place for some time but I hadn't actually tried it out. I had a couple great rolls and I walked out of there paying $18 for a full meal of sushi, tax and tip included! Talk about a steal of a deal! With prices like that, I will definitely be eating down there again soon.

I seriously messed up my knee on Sunday afternoon. I wish I could say that I was playing tackle football in the park, or I was running out of a burning house with a pair of babies in my arms, or I was running the New York Marathon. No, this injury is right up my ally and is the result of me running up the stairs in my apartment building and catching the edge of last step with the front of my sandals. I was suspended in mid-air for what seemed like a minute before I went crashing down and landed on me knees at the top of the concrete stairwell. Apparently my right knee landed first because it's busted up pretty good and I got a nice little black and blue lump there. I think it's just a bruise, but it hurt enough to make walking in the morning difficult. Once I got it lubed up by walking in the brisk morning it was a bit better. New York is not very knee-injury-friendly with all the required walking, but I can still get around alright...

Sunday night I got a taste of Christmas when I went to Paul and Cathy's to help with their tree and watch some flicks like Elf. It was nice and cozy inside and snowing outside, so it had a very Christmas feel to it, much like most of the city. New York for the holidays is the stuff legends are made of, and I can see why. It has a very special ambience, but one that cannot be captured with a camera. It's definitely something that I'll remember for quite some time!

Bushism

I like how they spelled "challanges" (sic) for Bush. A bit of a personal touch for our intelligent leader...

Cure for the Common Cold

Wednesdays, especially at night, tend to be days to ponder vacation and travels of the past for me. The prime-time night event for me is my yoga class at my gym. There's a lot of mental and physical relief from the class, all the way up to the final five minutes of class, when the lights go out and you let energy radiate from your frozen body while you lay on your back with your eyes closed and arms out-stretched. Each time I get into this position, I only think of one thing: my vacation in Portugal back in September. The beaches in southern Portugal (Lagos) were prime territory for yoga. Every day, throughout the day, I would swim out into the water and enjoy the serene environment floating on my back with my arms behind my head and legs stretched out, just like yoga. And I would just breathe deeply and could almost fall asleep out in the cold water. I get back into this frame of mind every Wednesday night and I think about my trip, my stories, and my yoga on the beach, with the only sound being the water lapping on the golden sand.

I dress lightly for the gym, which is only a few blocks away. I wear my warm-up pants and a cotton sweater, gloves, and a beanie and have to practically run to the gym before I freeze solid. Today was no exception - it was cold out there! By the time I got to the gym, my body temperature dropped from 98.5 degrees to about 37 degrees. The light wind went right through my sweater and punished by face, neck, and whole body. So, after yoga, I spent some time going up to Northern Europe - Scandanavia. I do this by heading upstairs and waltzing into the sauna for a session. Considering the weather, I thought I would put my body through an extended session, Finnish style, to see what it would do for my walk home.

In 2001, when I was working in Germany for the summer, some friends and I went up to Finland to visit my Finnish friend Anssi for an extended weekend trip. Anssi is very well travelled and loves to get into discussions about cultures that he's experienced, so he is very good at explaining his own culture. One important aspect of the Nordic culture is their sauna. We took a trip out to his summer home, which was on a lake in the woods and had no running water and limited electricity. And, of course, a sauna. It was a wood-fired sauna and he would bring a bucket of lake water into the sauna and ladel water onto the sauna rocks to raise the temperature inside. He would explain to us the importance of the lake's water's minerals and the elements of the birch branch that we would slap on each other. Once our body temperature was rocking, we would sprint down to the little boat dock on the lake and jump into the frigid water, immediately closing all of the pores that were wide open from sitting in the sauna. We would repeat this process for several hours.

This is all I ever think of when I sit in the sauna - my four days of sauna bliss in Scandanavia. So, for tonight's session, I decided I would heat up, take a freezing cold shower, and then repeat the process a few times. The first shower was painfully cold, and I just stayed in long enough for me to cover my whole body with the freezing water and then jumped back into the sauna. And that's when the amazing events take place - the sauna's warmth quickly dries off the cold water and I start sweating again. The second shower stage was just climactic. It was comfortable being in the cold water and I could stay in as long as I wanted because the heat would just radiate from my body. I knew at that point that the walk home was going to be fun :).

Stepping out of the shower, I dried my hair off and left the rest of my body wet. By the time I had walked to my locker, my whole body was nearly dry from my skin's heat. Amazing. I quickly dressed in my light clothing and headed outside to see how the temperature was. This, my friends and family, is the cure for the common New York winter cold. I was so comfortable outside that I even took off my beanie and gloves and strolled home like it was June....

I also spent some time reviewing picture from my old travels today. I have been very fortunate to spend time in many parts of the world and if I could impart any wisdom on someone, it would be to see as much of the world as you can, especially when you're young and have crazy vacation time as a student. There really is no better time. Going over my photos from my trips to South America and Europe, I was reminded of Roland Vas's words of wisdom regarding taking pictures - they mean nothing without a person in them. I realized how few pictures I have of me and all of my great friends and family members. As I get older, I'm looking back at these pictures and I want to see what we all looked like a mere two, three, four, ten years ago. Sadly, those pictures are few and far between. If I want a picture of Machu Picchu, I can buy a postcard. But I can't buy a postcard of me and some of my best friends goofing off at our hotel with crazy hairstyles (like my mohawk in Brazil)! So, from now on, those will be the focus of my digital eye....

J. Riley

Celebrated Hawks to Return to NYC Home

This story has been dominating the news here in the city. Crazy New Yorkers :) !!

Spanish for Dinner

I once took a Food Science class (Foods of the World) in college. The class took place from 7-10pm on Monday evenings, and it was impossible to concentrate on ingredients and culinary cultures when I was starving to DEATH (weight scales have always presented evidence that I'm starving to death, 24x7 ;o) . Well college is over and I successfully gained a few pounds.

So last night I experienced deja vu, all over again. I showed up to my Spanish class directly after my 1.5 hour commute from North Bronx at 6pm. The teacher had the brilliant idea to focus that session's lesson on foods - fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. I was livid, and I let the teacher know that this was an irresponsible idea and that we should take a field trip to Harlem to practice pronouncing on a menu and drinking margaritas. That idea didn't go over too well. And neither did my suggestion that we take a field trip next week for our final class session...

My weekend was pretty mellow. Friday night Paul and I explored the East Village and found a cool little French bistro that was packed with people and served free-range meats. Afterwards, we headed up to Murray Hill to catch a live band who's drummer sat near Paul for a few days at work. Awesome band, though, I dug deep and bought a CD.

We sat next to a group of girls and, in the interest of conversation, I asked them if they were groupies. You know, female fans that see all of the shows of the band, right? Well, Paul informed me that I misused the word and that I was implying that I wanted to know if they were not just fans, but sleeping with the band. I later clarified it with the ladies, but the damage was done.

BTW, Paul:
group·ie - A fan, especially a young woman, who follows a rock group around on tours

Looks like I wasn't misusing the word after all....

Saturday night was a night of feasting. A pure, digestive orgy with hundreds of friends, all dressed in costumes that were designed to scare passerbys. Unfortunately, it wasn't me that was involved in the scene. It was rats, right outside of the subway station at about 1:00am. They were literally all over the place, hundreds or thousands of them. I have never seen such a scene in my life, it was disgusting. They were all over some bags of garbage placed on the curb, right in front of the most convenient Jamba Juice in the city. Disgusting....

Last night I finished The Poisonwood Bible. I enjoyed the book immensley, it was quite eye-opening about issues in Africa, the world's involvement in their affairs (especially colonialism and America), things we don't understand about the region, and the ramifications of these things on a family who's father takes them to Africa as missionaries. Two thumbs up!

J. Riley

Can I Rock Pink?

I've added a few new items to my wardrobe lately, which has (temporarily) quenched my thirst for shopping and required me to go buy some more wooden hangers (I mean, I surely can't use metal hangers, right?). I bought a new dual-use shirt at Banana (on sale, of course) and when picking up my new, tailored pants (non-pleated) from Jos A. Bank yesterday, I went ahead and purchased the required "white" shirt for work and formal occassions - textured, non-wrinkle cotton button up (on sale, of course). I find it midly amusing that I will, on a whim, spend double digits on a shirt but have a real hard time spending $3 on fabric softener sheets. In the academic world, this is known as "The Yogurt Affect" (self titled; possible research thesis if I ever decide to get my PhD in marketing).

But, getting back to my title: I can't stand Banana Republic. But I like them, sometimes. What can I say? They do have nice clothes, good quality stuff, fashionable (for a yuppy), and I find their shirts fit me very well. But it's expensive, and it seems like the whole city is crammed into each store. But I bought this new shirt (on sale, I repeat), and it's kinda risque: White base, with lots of red-hue stripes on it....including pink. I mean, my closet it chock-full of blues, yellows, oranges, grays, browns, greens, but very little reds, and NO pinks (or, as they say on Friends, "salmon"). I made sure to save the receipt for this shirt, because I wasn't sure if it would work with me. But, as they say in NY, "pink is the new black". I really have no idea what they mean by that.

After a few hours of ironing last night (I got through two shirts), the new shirt was queued up for today. The question lingered all last night: Can I really rock pink?

Why, Yes I Can.

The J. Riley

The Arts

Humanities and Linguistic Arts - Today I bit the bullet and signed up to attend a Weihnachtsparty on Thursday night. For you non-German speakers (I guess that's everyone, since the Germans don't care about my blog now that the political discussions are over), that is a Christmas Party. The difference is that this is for German speakers! Not German speakers like the ones dad just bought for the family room, but people who speak the language. I haven't attended this before, but they have rented out Hall Berlin and will have a DJ, beer (of course), sausages (of course), potatoes (of course), and other German stuff. It should be fun to dust off that side of my cranium and put the German to use for once. I'll find some people that are at my level and we can pretend to be in Kindergarten and talk about the color of the floor, the alphabet, and practice counting from one to ten.

In other linguistic news, my Spanish lessons are almost over :( . I'm not quite fluent yet, especially when I've been a major slacker on the studying. Today's class had quite an impact on me, as I will get into as this blog develops. The lesson was about possessive pronouns..zzzzzzz.....and romance... zzzzzz....wait, I'm the only guy in the class! So when I was asked to say, in Spanish "The girl is an angel", and the teacher made a point to mention that there is no feminine version of the word "Angel" in Spanish because languages are prejudiced, I quipped "Well, the feminine version would be 'the devil'". I am such a lady's man. I got some giggles from around the table on that one ;o)

Musical Arts - Today, my iPod (on shuffle) decided to play a song from Phish. I'd forgotten that I'd inherited quite a few Phish songs on my computer, so, after Spanish, I returned home and decided to listen to them for a while. We all know about Phish's rendition of Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Gin 'n Juice" song (even though it wasn't really them), but did you know that Phish has a few cd's dedicated to remaking Beatles songs??? I had no idea until now, and it's filled me with loads of energy and motivation - hence the blog, and hence ---

Culinary Arts - For some reason (probably because it was on sale), I ordered a pork tenderloin from Fresh Direct a few months back. After thawing it out last week, I'd declared that I would cook it on Wednesday. And then I declared I would cook it on Thursday. Well, that didn't work, so I would cook it on Friday. Friday was a downer day, so I would cook it on Sunday. Well, I ran out of time on Sunday, so I would cook it on Monday. Monday, I was - SUPER MOTIVATED FROM SPANISH and PHISH music, so the tenderloin is in the oven. I'm looking forward to it....

Literary Arts - I am reading "The Poisonwood Bible" from Barbara Kingsolver. It's about a Southern Baptist family that moves to the Congo in the 50's to become missionaries (just prior to them declaring their independance from Belgium). The book is told from the perspective of the four daughters and the mother. It kept me awake last night because it's getting so juicy! It was a bit slow in the beginning, but I think it's going to become part of Justin's Book Club, along with East of Eden...

And finally, I'm blogging, which falls under the latter category....

The J. Riley

The Forgotten Blog

In my most recent post, I mentioned that I had an important topic (which I subsequently forgot) that I wanted to throw to the masses and get feedback on. Well, today, during my volunteer activities with some kids up at the Bronx Botanical Gardens (which are beautiful, by the way!), the topic returned to me.

In an effort to save money, I have been making my own lunch lately. So, I would like to hear from you what the contents of the ultimate brown-bagged lunch are. Usuually I toss in a sandwhich, yogurt, and a piece of fruit, but that just doesn't do the job. So let me know!! I want feedback on this one!

A Walk Through Time

What happened? I take a few days off from blogging, and suddenly my hits plummet! That's kinda funny because it's like everyone in the WORLD has fallen into the holiday spirit of becoming fat, lazy, and happy :o) !

This week was D's birthday. Paul, Cathy, D, and I have sort of started a tradition of going to a legendary NYC restaurant for each of our birthdays. Cathy got Peter Luger's, I got Le Souk, and D picked Tao. The place was packed with frolicking girls looking to become mistresses for old Upper East Side curmudgens, young lawyers with their sport coats and suits, and apparently, move stars. But, we didn't see any that night. The food and environment were awesome though, with a huge buddha at one end of the three level room and gigantic Chinese tapestries lilting from the cealing. The food? Pan-Asiatic and awesome! I particularly liked the tuna sashimi with a small slice of jalapeno (sort of like the ones you get on your nachos at ballgames, except they taste good). Mmmmm...my mouth waters just thinking about it. Maybe I should have eaten more than an avocado and pita chips for dinner tonight, especially after that workout....

I've been thinking about vacations for next year and, in true holiday spirit, losing sleep over it. I have a friend getting married in Poland in August and have been invited to go on a three week expedition to Argentina with Paul and Cathy + Cathy's relatives, who have contacts and friends down there. In September. With my two weeks of vacation. Hmm...I'm not quite sure how that's going to work out. I haven't mentioned it to my boss yet, but I'm thinking "sabbatical". My employer will probably be thinking "pink slip". So we'll see how that shakes out in a few months.

There was something else significant I was going to blog about that I thought about in the sauna after the gym tonight. It was going to be magnificent. It was going to allow me to interact with my audience. It was really a brilliant idea. But, alas, I'm blonde. I'll think of it when I'm crammed in the subway tomorrow morning and don't have enough free space to blog from my cell phone.....

Write comments, people!!
J. Riley

I'm back. I just realized that my title makes no sense because I lost that thought. Anyways, over Thanksgiving I got rid of my old computer and backed up a bunch of old pictures and documents from college to my new computer. It was pretty funny going back and reading some of the stuff I wrote earlier this week, like letters to friends (pre-email), looking at digital pics I took of things like the world's largest pizza ever ordered by my roommate and I in Sunnyvale, CA (I think it fed us for a week or something), and pictures from a gathering that I couldn't remember taking place :o/ . Gee, and I wonder why I didn't get any work done this week....

I'm just sayin....

Read the footnote at the bottom for my disclaimer:

You Have Got To See This...

Note To Self:

Happy Holidays! So last night I was standing in the mile-long taxi line at LaGuardia Airport at 12:30am and an idea hit me after waiting about a half hour in the line. Maybe, just maybe, one of the other thousands of people in this taxi line are going to Manhattan, like me. I know it's a long shot, but I would have put money down that there was at least one other person going to Manhattan. I looked at the couple in front of me and the guy behind me and thought, yea, they might be going to Manhattan. But I wasn't in a sociable mood, so I left it at that. Another ten minutes go by and right when I hit the front of the line, somebody else was hit with a similar idea and a lady and gentleman asked if anyone else was going to Manhattan. Quickly realizing that this was an opportunity to save some cash, I volunteered to share my cab. It was a win-win situation for both of us, they didn't have to wait in the line and I didn't have to pay the full fare. Why don't people do this more often at the airport? I mean, probably at least 50% of the people are going to the same 12x3 mile island, so it makes perfect sense. I ended up paying $10 for door to door service rather than the $25-$30 it would have cost me if I rode alone. It doesn't get any cheaper than that, folks....

I had a great trip back to Cali for the past few days for Thanksgiving. It wasn't warm enough for me to work on my tan, but I guess the company of friends and family more than made up for that! I even scored on the shopping front, purchasing a new pair of running shoes for $30 and finding a hip Sears & Roebuck jacket, light blue with white paint and black grease stains galore, in my dad's closet that he probably hadn't worn in about 10 years....

The J. Riley

Bushwhacked!

Tonight, my schedule was bushwhacked - and I'm not referring to the movie, the book, or any other media piece about the effect of President Bush on our country. My Spanish teacher went off and got sick on us, leaving me with a big hole in my Monday night schedule. Luckily, my favorite Yoga class (which I normally have to miss) is at the same location, so I walked downstairs to the gym. But I was bushwhacked! I didn't have my yoga clothes with me! Rats. So, I decided since I'm there, I could always go to the sauna, because clothes are not optional in a sauna. But, yet again - bushwhacked! Since I had the Justin-the-academic backpack with me rather than the Justin-the-super-athlete backpack, I didn't have my padlock with me. I huffed and I puffed, and I walked home.

Maybe I need to create a contingency plan for all of my events, in the event that someone bushwhacks my schedule next time. Great, something else for me to lose sleep over....

Carpe Diem,
J. Riley

Latest Major Purchase

Maybe it's the new job, but I seem to be going out of control on spending my money lately. I've been thinking about this latest purchase for at least two weeks, losing sleep over whether or not it was worth buying or not. I thought about trying to find it on sale or maybe searching the internet for coupons, but just the thought of dedicating that much time made me very self-conscience. I contemplated putting it on my Christmas wish list, but I just wouldn't feel right putting it down and actually expecting (or hoping) someone would come through and spare me the drama of buying it. Today, at around 12:37pm, I decided that it was something I could not live without anymore. And I walked down and made the purchase. I am now the very, very, very proud owner of 80 sheets of Snuggle Botanical Bliss fabric softener sheets. Actually, make that 78 sheets now...

In an effort to make purchases of grand spectacle like these seem more reasonable, I've been taking measures to save money. For the last two weeks, I have more or less consistently been making my lunch at home every morning before heading off to work. Spending $8 a day (at least) on lunch can really break the bank over time. In addition, and more significantly, I have been trying to reduce my booze intake in public places over the last month, which can potentially save me $60-$100 per weekend. Of course, this hasn't been taking place purely for financial reasons, but, more importantly, for both philosophical and health reasons (note the reduction in chalazion occurrences ;o) . I've been happy with the results, and for the first time in months I have made contributions to my savings account (in addition to my automatic withdrawls for investing at the beginning of the month).

In accordance with my new healthy, strict lifestyle, I went to Alan's house Friday night to make some dinner. I had a ton of organic veggies that I needed to use up, so I waltzed over to his place around 8:00. He bought some (organic, on my insistence) chicken breasts use as a side dish for our dinner. We popped a bottle of not-so-good Merlot (we didn't want to waste it, though, so we struggled through it) soon after I arrived while Andrea sipped her French martinis. The boys got to work in the kitchen, me cooking up some delicata and striped squash with maple syrup glaze as well as fresh green beans with honey-lemon vinagrette and roasted pine nuts. Alan put his apron to work on chicken cooked in broth and bourbon. Andrea....read a magazine.

Dinner was great (and cheap), so we went ahead and popped another bottle of better-tasting wine while Andrea continued drinking her Vodka and Pucker paint-thinner drinks. We decided to play some Balderdash, which I hadn't played before. In a nutshell, a topic is read and each participant writes the definition or what have you and you try to guess the one that is actually correct. Well, suffice to say that by the time the second bottle of wine was done, the alcohol-induced definitions weren't really G-rated anymore and so Andrea scalded us and I ended up the winner. :)

Saturday was a crazy day. To begin with, my thoughts go out to the Arnaudo family who lost Grandma Rita this weekend. Many of you knew were fortunate, as I was, to hear her stories about Los Gatos before the Silicon Valley SUV's moved in and have a classic Italian dinner at her house over the years. She will be missed by many people in Los Gatos and by our and her friends and family around the world. Her passing ends a chapter of the original Italian families that helped bring the Bay Area intoworld prominence as an agricultural center.

After waking up around noon, I got on the phone with Stefan to help him with some web page stuff. At about 3:00, I decided to get dressed for the day and go down to watch the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona FC soccer game, which are basically like two of the best teams in the world. Stefan broke the news to me about Grandma Rita right before I arrived and it cast a dark cloud over me the rest of the day. When I arrived at the bar showing the soccer game, I found a line around the block to get in and see the game. Who are these soccer fans, and why haven't I met them before!?!? By that time, the bar was already full, so about 40 of us broke rank and crowded around the window in the door to try to catch Ronaldhino jinking and tricking the defenders with Brazillian passion while Zinidene Zidane roamed the midfield with his talismic French character, looking to punch holes through to his Brazillian and Spanish forwards. As fun as it was to sit outside in 40 degree weather and a crooked head, trying to make out the dots on the TV monitors inside, I gave up after half time and left with game being broken open by the speedy Ivorian Samuel Eto'o and Dutchman Giovanne van Brockhorst's left foot.

After wandering around downtown for a few hours and reading a few chapters of a book on Real Madrid and David Beckham, I met up with a former coworker and friend of mine who is (finally) leaving EY and moving to Africa (Mauritania, mom) to work as a voluteer for a year. Chatting it up with him and his friends helped me break out of my anti-social state-of-mind. After dinner, I met up with my buddy Sean, who rummaged up some girls he knew from the spa to go out with us. Yes, in true New York fashion, Sean does go to a spa and get facials. A true Upper East Side metrosexual, no doubt ;o) .

So the four of us headed down to catch some live music in Greenwhich Village and chill out with a glass of wine or something. The amazing part of the evening was that, of all places in the city, I ran into Baltimore Jenn in the same bar. I guess great minds think alike ;o). She had friends in town from down in Maryland and Virginia and I was just amazed that we would end up in the same place. So we chit-chatted briefly before the four of us headed back up to the Upper East Side and somehow ended up in the Euro-trashy restaurant Baraonda, where the gorgeous and glamorous hang out. Never a dull moment in the packed indoor area that felt more like a club than a restaurant with their Latin, American, and Middle-Eastern music blasting out of the corners....

Today, I contemplated the meaning of life and whether that meaning required the use of fabric softener. The apartment is clean, the clothes are botanic blissfully clean, and I am living static free for another 78 loads of laundry!

Carpe Diem, see some of you next week for Thanksgiving...
J. Riley

P.S. I've got a new "Comment" deal down below, so check it out and drop me a line!

What I Want for Christmas (Geeks-Eyes' Only)

I think I need this for my apartment so I can run X-Windows in Linux at reasonable speeds. I mean, built-in liquid-cooling? How tight is THAT?

Where'd I Put That Dunce Cap?

Wednesday night I was fortunate to have the opportunity to go to dinner with my new friend, Baltimore Jen. We headed out to La Paella down in the East Villiage for some healthy conversation, tapas, paella, sangria, and demonstration of my hair's attributes - the pigmentation, to be specific (see the next paragraph). Maybe we should have noted that the paella said "2 person minimum" before ordering up the tapas (stuffed peppers with goat cheese...yummy) as well as indulging ourselves with bread. Two paella plates each later (verrrrry slow plates on my side of the table, of course), we still had roughly half of the paella, shellfish, lamb, and chicken left to eat, which would prove to be vital to providing me with calories at lunchtime on Thursday in preperation for my regularly scheduled cardio class at the gym.

Thursday morning, I quickly realized that I had lost my debit card somewhere along the way. Thinking back to the last time this happened (a span of maybe three weeks, folks...), I figured I left it at the restaurant. What is ironic about this situation is that Paul, Cathy, and Dee have been pestering me lately about getting a credit card so that I can be protected in the event that I lose my credit card or wallet (hey, it's not like I have a HISTORY of losing these things....oh, wait, nevermind. ;o) I refuse to change my position on the issue, although I'm beginnging to soften my stance. Especially when I do things like leave debit/credit cards at restaurants on a regular basis, as the trend indicates....

In other news, I'm happy to say that roughly 50% of my blog hits are coming from Firefox now. Thank you to everyone who upgraded, you saved me the trouble of trying to figure out how to trick Google/Blogger.com into allowing me to block hits from Internet Explorer. Once I established the obvious link between using Internet Explorer and supporting George W. Bush, the Euros quickly made the switch. During the consultation phase of demonstrating Firefox's badass-ness, I was able to demonstrate to Alex the power of Firefox by showing him all the spyware that was in his computer. We cleaned him up with Ad-aware and some registry hacks, but it just goes to show what happens when you use something as un-secure as Internet Explorer. You people think I'm lying, but I'm not.... :o)

Yesterday I bought tickets for some Lake Tahoe skiing during a weekend in late February with a bunch of former coworkers. Who woulda thunk that I could get round trip tickets for a measley $185 from San Jo to NYC? Siblings, you really have no excuses for not having visited me yet, especially with these prices. Or at least for planning to visit me. Summer, I recommend that you come before you graduate since you know that your trip will be significantly subsidized ;o) .... Faryn, you too....

Note to self: consider eating Tibetan vegetarian food sometime at Tsampa, which is near La Paella.

Readers who need to upgrade to Firefox

OK, I warned you to upgrade to Firefox. Please note that Firefox is created by the open-source community, who is quite notorious for being fanatically liberal (politically speaking). By supporting Internet Explorer (as you violators currently do), you are supporting Microsoft and, therefore, are supporting the Republican party. In other words, if you're not using Firefox, you are supporting Bush. How's that for slippery-slope? Here's the list:

Alexander, please download and install Firefox (click here)
Rebecca, please download and install Firefox (click here)
Summer, please download and install Firefox (click here)
Nana, please download and install Firefox (click here)

I'm going to consider setting up a page to block people who use Internet Explorer, just to make my point. It's a small download (4.5mb), so you would be wise to go ahead and start preventing viruses, trojans, and spyware from invading your computer.

In other news, I played three or four games of racketball tonight (my blood blister is still flourishing on my thumb, but the activities didn't piss it off) and continued my out-of-form (as they say in soccer news) streak by losing all three. All I gotta say is that payback is a bitch, and thou who art challenging me to a game will feel my wrath on thy backhand.

Tomorrow I'm taking Jenn out to dinner. I believe that tapas are definitely in order....

The J. Riley

To Russia, With Love

Today I began my regularly scheduled walking tour of the area that I'm working in, and this month it's South Brooklyn. More specifically, Brighton Beach / Coney Island. Yes, the same Coney Island where they have the infamous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest every Fourth of July weekend. Yes, the Coney Island that has the east-coast equivalent of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Yes, the Coney Island that has inspired the delictable "Coney Island Hot Dog", which has....some kind of ingredients on it that...are...from...Coney Island (OK, I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I know such a thing exists, just like the elusive minivan taxi here in NYC!!) Coney Island (which isn't really an island) is home to America's connection to the Russian mafia and thousands of other Russians. So, today I ate some authentic beef stroganov served by a lovely Russian gal at a coffee cafe that was playing Euro-techno and was filled with the sweet music of the Russian language (:-\ ??). In the heart of Brighton Beach, which I caught a glimpse of when passing it on the subway, has Russian signs on buildings (and no English) and the beach itself looked marvelous with our beautiful, warm (~55 degrees), sunny afternoon. I was tempted to take my three layers off and go for a skinny dip, but I withheld the urge...for any spectators sake.

I realized that I haven't given anyone an update on my Spanish classes. I will not embarrass myself by attempting to write something legible, but suffice to say that the further I get in Spanish, the better I realize my German is. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can see that my German is actually pretty good. I can put sentences together with ease, I can conjugate verbs without thinking about it, and my vocabulary is pretty extensive. It's a good feeling to realize how far I've come with learning a foreign language and to realize that the five years of German I took and the two summers I spent there were not wasted! On that note, someone told me about a website called meetup.com that has all sorts of random meeting groups for a million different events, including one for people like me that want to practice speaking German. So, I went ahead and signed up for that one, maybe I'll miss a Thursday-night cardio class sometime and meet up with some other kraut-speakers at Hallo Berlin down in Hell's Kitchen (I love saying that!) for some beers and bratwursts...or knockwursts....or tueringers...or bockwursts...or weisswursts....or....well, you get the idea.

Bis dann,
J. Riley

How Many Blondes Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?

Well, I'm checking in with my weekly weekend update blog. Like most weekends recently, it's been busy, it's been late, and it's been COLD! Ladies and gentleman, winter is here, whether we like it or not. There were reports of snow in Jersey on Friday night / Saturday morning, and my layer-count increased to three on Saturday, not including gloves, scarf, and beanie hat....

Friday, to add to the unpleasant temperature, we were inundated with some rain and heavy winds. However, even this wouldn't prevent me from attending my first cooking class in New York downtown in the Murray Hill area. The theme for this class is eating well and living well, so there were only fresh, organic vegetables used as ingredients. And only organic wine was drinken...drunken...drunk?? In any case, the class was a great way to spend a Friday night, meeting a group of about 10 people and a wide variety of age groups. We were given recipes and cooked up an autumn dinner, from adzuki bean soup to Delicata squash, black rice, and green beans. and it was wonderful! I plan on putting some of these recipes to use in the near future to impress my guests. "Oh, it's just something I threw together"...

Speaking of impressing guests with my cooking, I may have the opporunity to invite someone I met on Saturday over for a little dining delite and conversation. Saturday was my monthly engagement at a Hell's Kitchen housing center with some kids. This month, we took the kids to the Sony Wonderlabs, which is basically like a place that kids can go to and play with multimedia items that teach them a little about technology today (and sends subliminal messages to ask for Sony gadgets for Christmas). I was hoping that some of the volunteers from last month would be there again because it was a great group. Unfortunately, there was only one repeat volunteer, an intruiging young lady named Jen that I got along with very well last month. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to meet up with her in the very near future....

After "saving the world" (as some of my friends call it), I did a little shopping for some work pants at Jos. A Bank. Paul just returned from his second business trip to Israel in three weeks, so I met up with him and Cathy to try to get lottery tickets to see Rent! on Broadway. After being unsuccessful, we headed over to another street to try to get standing room or cheap tickets to something else. We struck gold at the theater playing "Dracula", $21 student fare for upper orchestra seats. We all whipped out our Cal Poly ID's and were golden.

I have to admit something: Dracula just plain and simply freaks me out. I envision Translyvania as a dark, mystic place with ghosts and vampires flying around. What is it about "Transexual....transvestites....from Tra-tra-tra-Transylvaaaaniaaaa" (Rocky Horror Picture Show)? I don't know, but one of these days maybe I'll get over it and take a trip to Romania to visit Vlad the Impaler's castle and get over this dracularphobia.

In any case, the show was mediocre, it was worth seeing for $21! The singing was good, but the melodies didn't sound right to me. The killer part of the show was all of the flying and physically suspended effects that the characters went through. Oh yea, and the part where the main actress pulls her dress down to her waist ;-) . Cool stuff! The story line was typical Dracula, cheesy at some points, freaky creepy at others....

Sunday I spent half the day trying to fix a guy I know's computer (stupid CDROM hardware issue - nothing I can do about that!). And also trying to change a LIGHTBULB! How hard can that be? Well, it's pretty tough if you're blonde. My badass chrome halogen light went out the other day and, after a trip to the local hardware store, I had my part. Except that now the lightbulb doesn't FIT into the spot?!?!? Does anyone have any hints? It's the right part, but it just isn't quite wide enough for both sides of the lightbulb contacts to touch. I guess I don't have the mechanic in me like....my sister does :-
J. Riley

WWJD?

We've all seen this acronym on bumper stickers (well, those of us in the 'States, anyway). This question was posed as a comment by Dad on my massive political debate blog:

"Doug said: "One other thought. I have heard a lot about how to not deal with terrorists, ie war. What would some of you have done? I have not heard much on that. I am also interested in situations like Ruanda (sp??). Here is a case where tons of people are dying. What is our response? We know sanctions only hurt the little guy, and don't like war, so what are some other options?"

To paraphrase, "What Would Justin('s friends and family) Do?" Enquiring minds want to know...

Polyester and Inferior Genes

With winter quickly approaching, my wardrobe is being reshuffled, with shorts being replaced by jeans, my boxers being replaced by thermals, and my t-shirts being replaced by anything made out of wool or cashmere. Or polyester.

There's a big difference between polyester and wool, in terms of warmth, quality, durability, and, one of the most important factors for me, price. In the past, if something was made of polyester, but it was significantly cheaper than something made out of wool or an equivalent fabric, I didn't think twice about going for the polyester. But now I know the real truth about it. I've learned that the most important trait of polyester is it's incredible ability to generate enormous amounts of static electricity during the winter months in cold places (that would be anywhere BUT California). And this static electricity is released frequently during these winter months, often passing through my body and out through my finger tips whenever i touch something made of metal. And this is extremely annoying. I'm starting to feel like the main character in Office Space (who is shocked every time he touches his office door). Does anyone know how I can make myself shock proof???? Maybe one of my "layers" should be aluminum foil or something like that.

After taking some time off to recover from a horrific injury caused by yogan down-dogs (my thumb hurt), I returned to the gym to start playing some raquetball against Cathy. Being the masculine man that I am, I refused to stop playing until I beat her. Well, we went five games and all I had to show for it was a massive blister on my thumb. And a big 0 in the "Win" column. Clearly there is an inferior gene in my body that relates to my thumb. Not to mention my inferior lower eye-lids.....

P.S. Funny article (among many others) on Craigslist. And there's lots of activity going on on my Friday Night Smackdown blog entry...

Upgrade to Firefox 1.0 NOW!

Do you like getting spyware on your computer? Do you like viruses? Do you like the fact that someone has the ability to look at the files on your computer, or see your financial information? Do you like those annoying pop-ups that always appear when you use Internet Explorer? If not, I highly recommend you upgrade your web browser to Firefox 1.0 NOW. It's a quick, easy installation and you will be able to sleep at night knowing that people won't be able to read that essay you had to write for your college entrance exams....

Czeching out Brooklyn

Things are finally getting back to normal for me in my humble New York abode. On Thursday night, the last of my string of Autumn visitors left to return to Germany, leaving me with an odd-feeling empty apartment. Without having to entertain anyone and finally having ample floor space again, I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself, so I hunkered down on my futon and thumbed through my weekly Time Out New York magazine that I get. It's a great magazine, it tells you what's going on in town and where it's happening, as well as random articles on fashion, style, art, culture, dining, partying, etc. As I was going through the pages and pages of events, I realized that I'd never really focused on the events, mostly because I rarely have time to hunker down and read the mag before the next issue arrives. With nothing on my weekend agenda, I started making a list of things that I could do to keep myself entertained.

One of the gems that I found hidden in the magazine was right up my alley: New Czech Films being presented at the BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) as part of the Czech Independance Day festivities. Many of you know that I have a weird obsession with Eastern Europe, especially with the Czech Republic. Maybe it's the beautiful women, maybe it's the magical architecture, or maybe it's the interesting history, but regardless, I am obsessed with that region of the world. When I relocate to Europe someday in the future, that area is definetely on my shortlist of locations. But I digress....so Saturday night Sean and I headed over to Brooklyn, checked out the hip restaurants on Smith St. (two thumbs up!! I'll be going back there; We ate Thai food at Tuk Tuk) and then walked to the BAM to see this random Czech film with subtitles called "Bored in Brno". After some of the movies, they have a Q&A session with the directors, but unfortunately, our's wasn't one of them. BUT, the movie was excellent. It was totally low-budget, but the actors did a great job and it was a hilarious movie. Let's just say that it's about a couple (both of whom have a few screws loose upstairs) who are going to spend their first night together, and everyone is giving them advice. It was really great....

While I'm on the subject of Eastern European obsession - and Brooklyn -, I spent most of Saturday in Brooklyn at Fort Greene park with some people from New York Cares, my volunteer organization. We performed some reconstructive surgery on an area of the park that, interestingly enough, I had performed some reconstructive surgery on back in May for Spring Cleanup Day. We also planted a ton of bulbs in preparation for the winter, so next spring it should be looking good. I was talking to one of the other volunteers (who, coincidently, I had met about a month back at a completely different event in Manhattan) about how I was going to be going to BAM to see a Czech film that night and I declared that I had a strange obsession with Eastern Europe. It turns out that she's studying Eastern European history at Columbia and just got back from spending a summer in Berlin, because she's learning German as well. Unfortunately, she took off before I had a chance to say goodbye and invite her to that evening's festivities, but I'm sure I'll see her next weekend at my monthly kid's event in Hell's Kitchen...

Also of note, I ate at Angelica's Kitchen in the East Village on Friday night. It's one of those vegan organic restaurants that are all over the place here in the city. It was quite good, though, and had something called a "community table" for people who are eating by themselves or in small groups. I ended up sitting next to an 85 year-old lady who eats at the restaurant almost daily. She was born and raised in New York City and now is an artist after raising her family on the 20th floor of a building overlooking the East River and downtown.

Sunday I shopped for winter clothing. I was somewhat successful at limiting the spending and still picking up some vital items like cashmere-lined gloves, beanies, scarfs, and socks. Gotta love discount shopping at Century 21!

And, finally, the last event of the weekend was signing up for a health-and-fitness cooking class sponsored by Whole Foods Market for next Friday. I have no doubt that this will inspire a yogan outlook on in-home dining in the near future!

J. Riley

Friday Night Smackdown

Enquiring minds want to know: Why was Bush re-elected? I know a lot of my readers voted for Bush (myself excluded), and a lot of my readers either voted for Kerry or would have voted for Kerry if they were citizens. See the link below this post that says "Comments"? Let's hear why you voted for the candidate that you chose (or would have chose if you were a citizen), and hopefully we'll get some discussion going on this subject. No holds barred!! Feel free to hide behind the "anonymous" cover if you don't want to reveal who you are, or put your name in your post if you are courageous enough. I will delete any comments that are personal attacks (unless they are personal attacks on Bush) and I will steer the discussion to my one-sided viewpoint. Just kidding!!

Raiders of the Lost Blog

I had a great blog qeued up yesterday, but thanks to the worthlessness of Internet Explorer, it has been lost. Fear not - a new version of my preferred browser Firefox is coming out next week, which I will install and use for future blogging.

Most of you know how I feel about the elections, so I shouldn't have to say much. It was pretty disappointing to hear Bush's victory speech, using rhetoric about how he "needs support from those that voted for Kerry...bla bla bla". Obviously he doesn't need our support since he's been re-elected and now has no reason to do anything but push his "radical" (as BBC termed it) conservative agenda. He didn't "need" our support before, so why should he need it now?

I'm done, and I'm stepping off my soap box. Politics are pointless to discuss for the next three years....

Please, Think of the Kittens....

One Day Left Before Voting Time!

Well it looks like we're getting one last stretch of nice weather here in the city before it becomes miserably cold outside. Yesterday the thermometer mercury reached somewhere around 70 degrees, which isn't too bad for the end of October! It made it much more appealing to wander downtown to see the Halloween parade with the millions of other people crowded into the corner of 14th St. and 6th Avenue, where I was standing. Of course, with that many people, it would have probably been a comfortable temperature regardless of the thermometer reading...

This was my first time actually seeing (partially) the infamous New York City Halloween parade. Last year, we wandered down to catch a glimpse, but with so many people on the streets, it was impossible to get close enough to see anything. This year wasn't much different, but the visiting Germans and I left early to get good "seats" and we got reasonably close enough to see some interesting costumes. And getting there early also meant that we were subjected to a wide variety of people complaining about minor things like "I can't breathe", "Stop pushing", "Excuse me, can you please keep walking", "You're stepping on my dog", etc. I wish I could have kept track of some of the things people say when they are faced with stressful situations like not being able to move. Of course, being a family-oriented blog, I wouldn't be able to publish most of them without requiring the visual equivalent of "EarMuff It"...

This week I start working way way way down in South Brooklyn, near Coney Island (you know, where they have the annual hot-dog eating contest, which is almost always won by a short, skinny Japanese guy). This is the first hospital that I've been to that actually has English signs, Spanish signs, and Russian signs. Yes, this is where the Russian mafia resides. Of course, when you cross "Moscow" with "Hospital", you get "Russian Nurses", and that is not a bad thing, as those of you who have had the pleasure of visiting Eastern Europe can attest ;o)....

The Onion | Countdown To The Recount 2004

Countdown To The Recount 2004

Brie's Cheese

Thanks to my ability to successfully peer pressure, I'm adding Brie's Cheese to my list of blogs to read...

Eminem's New Video

Is Eminem the next Che? Or is he just tired of the BS like the rest of us?

Strange Sense of Motivation

Today was a very strange day for me. It all started off pretty normal, working from home, getting very little done, but preparing for my usual after-lunch surge of productivity. I had a lunch meeting with my boss and co-worker (part of the new "please give us some feedback, Mr. Boss-man") downtown, which I thought would be fun. It was fine, he gave us positive feedback and said we were on schedule and doing fine. My co-worker (who is very very strong technically) and boss (who is super-man when it comes to technology, a former member of the Israeli Special Forces for IT stuff) started talking about interview questions for some new guy that we are hiring. Naturally, being "soft" technically (relatively speaking), I couldn't answer the questions they were talking about asking. My boss was very surprised that he hadn't asked me some of these questions, but I'm sure he didn't, because otherwise I would have been much more pessimistic about getting the job to begin with. Suddenly, I started to feel quite inferior and realize that I haven't really taken the initiative to learn a lot in the three months at this new job, considering how much technical material there is to learn in this area, especially considering the fact that I sold my boss on my ability to learn things.

So I walked away from the meeting feeling a little dodgy about myself, but I didn't really think about it much after that. I headed up to the Bronx to finish up some clinic site visits at two high schools. Maybe it was hearing the kids screaming (I mean, out-of-control screaming) in the hallways, maybe it was the armed policeman walking around the halls, maybe it was the junior high kids sneaking into the nurses office to take something out of one of the nurses drawers while she was tending to another student in another room, or maybe it was the...espresso I had after lunch, but on my way home, I suddenly got really...motivated.

My previous job pretty much totally drained me of all motivation, but suddenly it's back, with a vengence. On my way home, I changed courses and went to Barnes & Nobles, intent on finding a book recommended by my coworker on TCP/IP. I found the book, realized that it was probably written for people pursuing a PhD in Geekology and WAY over my head, but I still had the burning desire to find a book to buy on the subject, and a burning desire to get some serious work accomplished. I went home and totally dove headfirst into my work.

I don't know what's gotten into me, but I am going to take some serious time out of my irresponsible schedule and get some work and edu-ma-cating of myself done. Because life, it's a balancing act.....

I got the first of 12 World Soccer magazines in the mail today, shortly after I drooled over the same edition at the Barnes and Noble. It's quite ironic, because I had to force my wallet back into my pants to refrain from buying it right there on the spot, a mere 10 minutes before I pulled it out of my mailbox at home.

Strange day, strange blog....

Album: Fall 2004

Other than cleaning up my apartment, I also got a little exercise walking through Central Park. Check it!

Album: Fall 2004

Oblique Master

Well this was certainly one of my busier weekends. Graham and Brie were out here for a week and they left on Saturday afternoon. The problem was that I had already signed up, a few months back, to volunteer for New York Cares Day, which is an annual Fall event with my volunteer organization when they go clean up schools around the city. I was banished to...I mean assigned to Washington Heights, which is way up at the north-western tip of Manhattan, one of the more difficult areas to get to from the Upper East Side where I reside. I thought that the best resolution was for me to flake out and sleep in until noon, but then I felt guilty, knowing that there was probably a door at a school that would remain unpainted because of my selfishness. And I don't think that I could justify my existence on earth if that door remained unpainted...

I stayed up moderately late on Friday night (til around 2:00am) with Graham and Brie, with whom I went to dinner, went to the Coffee Bar (where there was no coat-check girl working; Loretta from Madrid, if you read my blog, please let me know where you are!), went to an improv comedy show starring Graham's childhood friend, went to a few bars, and met a few of Graham's college friends down in the West Villiage. So, yea, it was a busy night. The subway cards were utilized to their full extent.

So, a few hours later, I was awake and bus-bound for Washington Heights with Cathy. Paul was going to join us, but the poor guy had to go to Israel for work. So while he was basking in the Mediteranean Sea getting sunburnt, I was utilizing my unusually large bicep, pectoral, and glutious maximus muscles carrying school books from a bookroom to organized piles out in the auditorium. I tell you, public schools are amazingly disorganized. It's amazing what a team of 10 volunteers can do for a school in just one hour. We had that book room completely cleaned out and had the other book room completely organized within another 45 minutes.

To show their appreciation, the parents' of the students (primarily immigrant families) made us an awesomely authentic lunch with about 3.5 tons of rice, beans, whole chickens, salad, desserts, and some orange-colored substance that tasted exactly how easter eggs smell. I guess that would be vinegar? Well, suffice to say that I burned a few K-calories and added some more lean mass to my already bulging triangle-shaped upper body. Uh...that would be an inverted-triangle, I suppose.

...All of which brings me to my blog title for today. In my Eight Hour Abs post (a not-so-witty reference to There's Something About Mary), I mentioned how I wanted an exercise ball for Christmas. Well, Santa came early for me this year, because the very next day I went to the sporting goods shop to investigate said exercise balls. And, naturally, if I was already checking them out, I might as well buy one. So I did. And now I sit here, blogging away while sitting with yogan posture on my 65cm exercise ball. The muscles along my spinal cord and down around my waist are very curious about this new posture, and they seem to be complaining about the lack of bad posture. I will provide updates as I adapt to this new lifestyle, but, regardless, I hope to actually use the exercise ball for exercise, as well. Since these are frequently used for pilates, I have no doubt that I will make one or two attempts to use them for these exercises. And I have no doubt that I will be able to add the "oblique" muscle to my list of abnormally burly physical attributes....

Bushism

Q: What's the difference between Vietnam and the war in Iraq?

A: George W. had a plan on how to get out of Vietnam

lol...

The Container Store: Obsession, for

The Container Store: Obsession, for men.Or maybe it's just me.

"Ooops! I...Did-it-again"

I played with your heart, got lost in the game.

Well, actually, not really. But I did succeed in summoning calamity for the second time in a row when it comes to getting tickets for a Broadway show. The last time I bought tickets for a show ("Mamma Mia"), I got them for Sandy and Daniel, and I got them for a Wednesday night rather than a Saturday night (since they were only in town for a long weekend, this was a problem). A few weeks back I went down to get tickets for "The Lion King" for Graham, Brie, and myself. Well, I took a gander at them today just to make sure that I didn't screw things up again, and, once again, a blonde moment. The tickets are for next week, not for tomorrow.

In a morning panic, I got dressed and rushed down to Time Square to try to exchange the tickets. Apparently Lion King is the second most popular show on Broadway at the moment, so the outlook was bleak. An hour later, and I was back home, $60 poorer after paying $20 more per ticket for tomorrow's show.Hmmm, Ramen noodles sound good for lunch.

Good lord, I need to dye my hair black or something....

J. Riley, the man with the almighty-whitey blonde hair.

Eight Hour Abs

For Christmas I want a giant exercise ball, which will replace my chair at home. I need something to help me with my posture and strengthen my body core, and the exercise ball is the perfect ingredient. Seeing as how I work so much from home, and when I'm not working I'm dorking around on my computer (or writing my blog, if that's not dorking around), I think I could use a little help with aligning my head with my spine with my hips with my legs with my ankles -- a true Yogan posture.

The Best Wurst Sauce Ever

So the brother and wife are in town (his, not mine). They arrived on Saturday night after the long flight from San Diego. Seeing as how this was their only weekend night at my place (since they're leaving on Saturday), we cruised down to the Lower East Side (where else?) with a mini-entourage of Paul and Cathy. After waltzing around trying to find a new place to eat at (I know they exist, I read about them all the time!!), we ended up at Kuma Inn, which some of you may recognize because it was in J. Riley's premiere blog posting back in March. This time, it wasn't Valentine's Day and there was no prix-fixe menu. Being an Asian-French fusion restaurant serving tapas (which are Spanish), we were in for a treat. The classic plate, which we ordered two of, are the Chinese sausages with lime-chili sauce, which I have termed the best wurst (uhh....that means "sausage" auf deutsch) sauce ever. It really is the bomb. Really.

Afterwards, we cruised around to some of the overcrowded bars in the neighborhood. The flavor in that part of town is definetely punk/vintage/rock and roll, as were the places we stopped by in. We did find a cool band playing and we hung out there for a bit. The lead singer was wearing a "John Kerry is a Rockstar" shirt (because he is) and low-rise jeans.

Question for the audience: who thinks that low-rise jeans on a guy are stylish? I think they are, but the Californians seem to differ. Can you PLEASE click on "Comments" down below and tell me what you think? If you don't know what low-rise jeans are, feel free to tell me about how my blog is the best (or worst) thing you've ever read. Ever.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. After cruising the nightlife scene, we headed to the traditional Teany tea-shop to get a bellies full of warm milk teanychinos to cap the night off. MMmmhhh....teanychinos.

Sunday morning (more like afternoon), we headed down to Chelsea and went to Rue de Crepe, a French brunch joint. While waiting an hour for our seat, we noticed that right in front of us was Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay. Unfortunately, his wife Gweneth Paltrow must have been at home in the West Villiage with their baby, Apple. I was going to ask about their upcoming tour dates, but I figured I'd just leave him alone and let him enjoy his banana-nutella crepe with a side of fresh fruit (two pieces of orange, three grapes, and four pieces of pineapple) and a pot of fries. I wasn't stairing or anything.....

No más tango chalazio,

J. Riley

Trivia

"I had a nice little weekend planned. I'll blog about it, but I don't know if I'll have the TIME!" (Name that movie!)

The Wanderer

Today I capped my work-week with a journey around Brooklyn. A benefit (or is it liability?) of my job is that I get to scour the streets of all five boroughs of NYC, auditing clinics located in glamorous places like the projects and low-income areas. I admit that, as a young man raised in safe, suburban California, there are stereotypes and prejudices that I harbor, and I'm not exactly proud of that, but it is reality. However, I embraked on my journey through Brooklyn on my own and, as I discovered with other parts of New York: I believed what I see in movies and what I hear in rap songs, but it's really not as bad as what my prejudices had me believing. It's really not that bad!

Hey, which one of you works for Phillip Morris (or a susidiary)? An unknown fanclub? An overworked, miserable consultant? Take off your mask and REVEAL YOURSELF! Enquiring minds (uhh...that would be me) want to know....

Graham and Brie arrive tomorrow....

Oh, the irony of it all....

If Bush was running against Jesus in the campaign (JPEG Image, 375x499 pixels)

Isn't it ironic.....don't you think?

The Hit-Counter

Maybe some of you have noticed that I've added a nifty little counter to the blog, down at the bottom of the right-hand side, near the Firefox logo. Firefox is a browser that is much much much more secure than Internet Explorer and is very easy to use! You should download and install it, you will discover the true meaning of life with it. Maybe that's an exaggeration. But, I digress - back to the hit counter. With the addition of this counter, I can now track who comes to my site - and who doesn't :-o !! Christmas time is approaching, and just like Santa, J. Riley knows who's been naughty (and if you're one of them, you're not reading this right now) and who's been nice. The Haines household holds a significant lead in checking my blog the most frequently, and I'm sure they're disappointed at not seeing many updates lately. It's been quite a busy week, however. Some of us have actually been diligently working, which, much like many illegal drugs, has ill side effects on time dedicated to blogging.

I've also had a full social calendar after work this week. After shopping and cooking all day Sunday, I had Spanish classes Monday night, Yoga Tuesday night, Yoga + debates Wednesday night, meeting up with Jules (ex-former-coworker) from Chicago on Thursday night to catch up on life on the road, and meeting a friend-of-a-friend on Friday night (hopefully). Then, Graham and Brie arrive on Saturday night and stay for a week. Then, the German invasion continues with some of Alex's old friends coming to town for ten days.

Folks, I'm gonna be busy. But not busy enough to not watch the hit-counter!!!

J. Riley

A Case of the Sundays

Well, the end of the weekend approaches. Okay, it's actually here.....

Friday night was pretty crazy. Dinner was excellent at Rain East, which is a Malaysian restaurant serving up delightful food. And white-wine sangria! Afterwards, we headed down Pioneer Bar on Bowery Avenue, which was a massive, pretty mellow place to sit with everyone and have a few cold ones. Per birthday boy's request, we then walked down the block to a local karaoke place. While waiting for our private room, I thought it would be fun to sit in the absent "security guard's" chair. It then occurred to me that it would be great to pretend like I actually had muscles and was taller than six feet. So, I started asking for ID's from the people walking through the front door. Some people were bummed about being carded, maybe because they were underage, but I "let them go this time" after glancing at their ID. I don't even know where birthdates are on NY drivers' licenses. And it was a BYOB joint, so it's not like people even had to be over...10. Good times, good times....

After returning home from the events, I got my four hours of sleep before I had to wake up and do my community duties with some kids from a Hell's Kitchen housing authority. I begrudgingly headed downtown and met some great citizens of the city, most of which were my age, while having fun with some kids. I got to learn the basics of capoeira (intriguing; could I fit that in my schedule???) and hung out at some parks down in the East Village. I'll definitely be back next month to meet up with some of the other volunteers and see the kids again...

After a few hours of napping afterwards, I saw The Motorcycle Diaries, a film about the revolutionary Che Guevara and the events that he witnessed while touring South America that caused him to want to change the world later in his life (he helped create the Cuban Revolution). It was a very moving film and I recommend seeing it. It's amazing how so little has changed in South America from the 1950's (when the movie took place) and now....

Taking the movie to heart, I spent Sunday shopping, starting at about 3:00 when everyone was ready to go. I began with spending last week's paycheck buying vegetables for dinner at the local gourmet grocery store. I mean, it's ridiculous. $15 for strawberries???? Okay, I won't go there again. I passed on the strawberries, but did buy some great stuff for tonight's Couscous and Winter Vegetables dinner. If anyone wants the easy recipe, email me.

Afterwards, it was on to the seven-floor Macy's in Herald's Square and all of the stores between the 33rd St. subway stop and there. I got me some new jeans (of questionable Euro-tightness) as well as a new shirt (dual purpose, as always, for work and/or social activities), a killer orange/grey wool/cashmere sweater, and a new comforter for the guests (I hope no one is allergic to down feathers!).

And then I made dinner for myself, and......I mean Paul, Cathy, and myself. It was fabulous, and the $1,357 in vegetables that I bought earlier in the day were delectable. So was the $1.59 couscous..... :)

J. Riley

Webcam Action

I recently invested in a new geeky gadget - a webcam. It's pretty nifty, I can use any of the major chat programs to have a live video conference with my friends. I need to figure out how to get the audio to work, but I have faith that eventually other webcam geeks can look and talk to me over instant messengers. Remember those AT&T commercials about ten years ago, showing the workaholic fathers on the road travelling, but checking in with the happy wife and role-model children? Yea, it's like that....

On Monday, I'm embarking on a new adventure by starting up Spanish classes - introductory, of course. I have little doubt that within the ten weeks that I have class, I will be completely fluent. I guess it would've helped to have taken this class a few months ago - before I went to Spain. But, hey, at least I'll have it for the next trip I take, in about two years when I have more than 4 days of vacation left.

Leif came on Sunday, but he's gone already. Yea, that's what I said. He didn't stay a weekend here!! Man, I was disappointed. But, I took him to a happening place on Sunday night - Baraonda. It supposed to be a crazy party there on Sunday nights at around midnight, so I thought we would check it out. Unfortunately, Leif and his girlfriend aren't the loud, crowded restaurant types, and some of us had to work the next day, so we called it in early, at about 12:15. I gotta go back there on a three-day weekend, though. I've gotta!!

Tonight I'm heading down to Rain East in midtown for dinner with my ex-roommate Alan and his friends. Afterwards, we're heading down to the Lower East Side to check out Pioneer Bar. Should be a big night! Tomorrow, I'm going with some kids to capoeira (a Brazilian martial art / dance) lessons with a housing assistance group. Big weekend....

Mighty Mighty Boss Tunes

Wednesday night I get a call from Cathy at around 11:15pm. As many of you know, this is well past my bedtime. Well, more like 15 minutes past my bedtime. On a good night. In any case, she caught me on a good night because I was at a karaoke bar with Sean and Alan for some post-dinner festivities. Sean quit his job at my former employer this week, and Alan had Thursday and Friday off, so of course they wanted to go out. But, I digress....

So Cathy called me and asked if I wanted to go see Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., and John Fogerty in Philadelphia on Friday for a "Vote for Change" (aka Bush sucks) benefit concert. I said "Sure", even though I'm not like the world's biggest "Boss" fan. It's not that I don't like him, I'm just...indifferent.

We high-tailed it down to Philly on Friday after work on a few trains and, after checking into the airport Hilton (free, thanks to spending my last three years living in hotels such as these), we caught the concert. And I have a lot more respect for the Boss now that I've seen him jam in concert. He, Fogerty, R.E.M., and Bright Eyes (the opening garage band from NYC) put on an awesome show!!

Saturday consisted of travelling back to the city after spending the night in Philly and getting home just in time for the futon installers to arrive. The futon was installed just in time for Paul and Cathy to pull an Enron on my apartment (complete reorganization of my assets; please note that my financial well-being was not affected, however). Even with the addition of my futon, I feel like my apartment is bigger than it was before. Check it out for yourself, as soon as I post pictures!

Futon Potato

I made a big step towards having a normal apartment lifestyle today by purchasing a full-size futon. I realized that I needed something QUICK last weekend when I was watching TV and sitting on my BED. It's hard to sit with good back-lengthening yoga posture on a bed. So, on Saturday, I will be able to sit more with good posture, and therefore watch more TV. Excellent!

Speaking of potatoes....I started rehabilitating the eye chalazion today. I found out, from my licensed practitioner, that putting a microwaved (30 seconds) potato in a wet wash cloth can help transition the chalazion back to the ugly nothingless that it come from. Since these pet chalazions seem to keep popping up (pun intended), I decided to go ahead and name it. I call it Nate.

Nate and the chalazion are very similar, yet unique in their own way. Nate was one of those guys that was harmless, annoying, but someone you just kept running into, no matter how hard you tried to avoid him, just like the chalazion. Just when I thought that I'd seem him the last time, he "popped up" and started working at the same place that I was working at in college. Sound familiar? Yea...

Nate and the chalazion come from different backgrounds, however. Nate from the private gated community streets of upper-class Los Angeles, and the chalazion from the streets of the New York slums....

J. Riley

Birthday Pictures

I've posted my birthday pictures. You would be wise to look at them. And not laugh at them. Euro pics are still being worked on! But, if you must have a sneak preview, take a look on sixpak.

My Monday night Yoga class is being elevated from an intro class to a "normal person" class. This means more Down-Dogs and Warrior-poses, thus increasing my breathing from deep, back-of-the-throat breaths to hyper-ventilating breaths. Regardless, I achieved a deep state at the end of class, during the part of class we are supposed to just breathe and relax with the lights turned off. It was like I was dreaming, I had peaceful images in my head. Or maybe I was just on the crux of falling asleep.... :-/ . Good session, regardless....

J. Riley

Mission Impossible III: The Microwave

This was a weekend of running errands. Still nursing my cold, I ran around town trying to finish my apartment, looking for things like glasses for my cabinet (thanks Dad!), Bath and Body Works "Wallflowers" scents, etc. After runnings some errands and eating a grilled cheese at Sean's favorite grill (I was nursing my cold, he a hangover), I relaxed at home for a while, preparing for the evening. Being my birthday, Paul organized a dinner with some friends, location unknown to me. We ended up going to a North African place called Le Souk down in the East Villiage. Paul has a talent for finding these places. The dinner and entertainment was great, as the pictures will show. I'm sure that I am beat-red when they made me put dollar bills in the female belly-dancer's...err...clothing. And when she made me get up and dance with her. Much to my friends' chagrin, I refused to put money into the male belly-dancer's clothing. I mean, do male belly dancers even really exist in their native land? Of course not....which is why I wouldn't tip him, despite the fact that he could shake it almost as well as the girl ;o) . On the way home, we found a few cool lounges, like Sala. Because of my cold, I made sure that I only drank healthy drinks that night like Sangria, which, being red-wine based, is high in antioxidants ;o) ....

Today, my sole goal was to find a microwave. I checked a local place, but couldn't find one under $60. Surely, a low-end microwave should be cheaper than that (I don't need a built-in toaster, and I don't need a silver-plated one). KMart should have some cheap microwaves, right? I strolled downtown and, come hell or high-water, they were sold out of the cheap ones. Again, only silver or gold-plated ones were left. Well, I needed to go to Bed Bath and Beyond anyway to find my garlic peeler (which I didn't find, BTW) and they didn't have a cheap (enough) microwave. Geez, I'd just spent five hours looking to save $10 on a microwave. I stopped in a futon store on the way back to the subway and bought a futon within minutes. Remember the yogurt story, this is not unusual.

Anyway, Paul found a microwave in his apartment's basement. Microwave installed, crisis averted, $64.99 saved :o)

Old roommate Ryan Hess is coming to visit this weekend possibly, and Leif from Germany (and his girlfriend) are coming next week. And the sisters still have no confirmed flights to come visit me....

J. Riley

Chicken Soup For The...Wallet

So, all the travelling in Euroland has caught up to me. In addition to my pet chalazion, I'm also nursing a nasty cold., which decided to hit me yesterday after lunch. Maybe it was the free-range Brooklyn beef I ate at the free lunch provided by the hospital yesterday, who knows.

Regardless, I'm nursing this puppy and hoping to be fit for the weekend's festivities. So, rather than going to a party at my former boss's newly renovated apartment (oh, woh-is-me - I can't hang out with a bunch of EY people :o| ), I decided to take it easy tonight and have some chicken soup.

Whenever I need a ready-to-eat meal, I like to go to the neighborhood gourmet grocery store, Zabar's Vinegar Factory. Much like Whole Foods (or, as Ewa calls it, "Whole Paycheck"), it has fantastic grocery items, produce, and home-made items like soup - though I admit that I've never actually purchased any of these items to date (fore-shadowing!). I was totally ready to fork over the money required to buy this chicken-vegetable soup, but then I found it and saw the price tag. $5!!! $5???? $5 for 16 ounces of soup? I mean, I knew it would be good, but $5 good? I can buy a can of Campbells for less than a $1. So my brain began to churn over the numbers and the utility gained by eating $5 chicken soup versus $0.79 chicken soup while my eyes perused the freshly-made soup shelf looking for a lower-cost alternative to make me feel better. I quickly realized that, even though I just got a massive raise and can live comfortably in NYC on my new salary, this gourmet shopping thing is going to be tough. Especially for things like....yogurt (inside joke: I have mentioned to my friends here that sometimes I will deliberate for up to 10 minutes in front of the dairy section on whether I should by the yogurt on sale for $0.59 or if I should buy the good yogurt for $0.64 - and this is after I just forked over $5.00 for some gourmet, organic potato chips.)

I bought it. I ate it. It was excellent. But $5 excellent?

I'm going to bed,
J. Riley

Post-Vacation Blogging Quandry

As great as my vacation was, and as refreshed as I feel about life following it, there are certainly more serious ramifications of the vacation on my blogging abilities. Witty blogging requires a certain rhythm, week in and week out, and the vacation has definetely interrupted that rhythm. So, bare with me as I just ramble on about life until I get back into that witty rhythm....

Well, the weekend is almost here again, finally. I realized upon my return that there are some household items that I need to acquire in order to develop my lifestyle from caveman-like to industrialized-like. Items such as:
- A microwave
- Smelly stuff to...uhh...alter my apartment's aroma
- Love seat / Futon / Something-other-than-a-wooden-chair
- A cross-cutting shredder, to get rid of the evidence
- Zabar's bread, from the grocery store 2 minutes away

I am happy to say that the floor in my apartment is once again visible and I have left the dark ages and now have a cable modem and cable TV! This means I can now watch soccer pretty much 7 days a week. This also means that I can write during peak-blogging periods, at night when I'm in a goofy mood....

Google Mail Invitations

I have four Google Gmail invitations. This web email account gives you 1000 Megabytes of space (1 Gigabyte), which is pretty sweet. If you want an account, email me!!

Eu Retornei (or, The Return of J. Riley)

So, I survived my trip. I am in the process of organizing, collating, and blogging my trip along with the digital pics that I took. I hope to have things organized sometime this week.

But, really, my apartment is thoroughly trashed and needs my immediate attention. It's a synonym of what Iraq looks like with President Bush in charge. And people are going to vote for this guy :-? ???

From North Brooklyn,
J. Riley

Lagos

Hey folks, I´m checking in from Lagos, Portugal. It´s on the southern Atlantic coast of the country and is beautiful. Wait til you see the pictures! We got hooked up with a ~$20 per night apartment with a full kitchen and everything here in town. Yesterday we spent at the beach, where Alex proceded to increase his chances at getting skin cancer by getting fried. I, the older and mature one, lathered up with my SPF 36 sunscreen and am looking nice and pale still. Surprisingly, the water here is quite chilly, around the same as Santa Cruz. But, it´s so awesomely beautiful here, it´s worth facing the cold water to relax.

Cheers,
J. Riley

I´m alive!

Hey folks, I have four minutes to write about my whole trip so far. So hear goes nothing...

I´ m in Portugal at the moment, been in Lisbon for three days now. This is an awesome city, I´ve really enjoyed it. Lots of seafood and very pretty. I was in Spain before this, in Alex´s small town. The geography is just like CA only the majority of the people speak only Spanish or Portuguese. Oh wait, I guess it´s the same in CA....but lots of dry, arid landscapes, taking lots of photos, which I´l post later. On our way to the beaches in south Portugal after this, and then to Sevilla in Spain for a few days. I used some points to treat Alex and Verena to a stay at the Sheraton for free here, they were excited about the five-star hotelling that I´m used too.

Hope all is well,

J. Riley

I may have Chalazion numero

I may have Chalazion numero tres incubating on the same eyelid :-I . I hope they have running hot water in Spain

Eurobound - The Next Chapter

Well, tonight is the big night. I will be heading to Euroland for the second time this year, following up a successful trip to Germany and the Czech Republic in December 2003 / January 2004. I will be meeting up with my friends Alex and Verena again and will once again establish and secure my position as the third-wheel of the group.

This trip takes me to Spain and Portugal, where I will travel for a whole ten days. Yea, the new job gives me a total of two weeks paid vacation, so I don't think I'll be taking many more trips to the locations on the right in the next year :-( .

I don't expect to be hanging out online during my trip, but if I'm blind-sided by a high-speed connection at one point on the trip, I'll be sure to drop a line and let you know about the warm, baleric nights along the Andalusian penninsula.........

Peace Out,
J. Riley

The Midnight Special

So I've been piggy-backing off of my neighbors wireless intenet connection(s) for the past year, but I think that the free-loading has finally been put to a halt, but I'm not sure what the cause is. In any case, this, along with the fact that I'll be on vacation for 10 days starting on Thursday, means a shortage of blogging for the next few weeks. But, I digress....

The 3-day weekend came, and it is now about to leave. For you internationals out there, today is Labor Day. Friday night was pretty mellow, my former roommate Alan and his girlfriend came by and I cooked us some organic dinner, though it was a bit late by the time we sat down and ate (gotta love the traffic at 9:00pm on a Friday night coming into the city!!). I made a pitstop at my favorite gourmet grocery store, a mere block down from my apartment, and picked up an organic whole chicken (3-pounder), and whipped up some organic brown rice, cooked in free-range chicken broth and saffron. I didn't realize that brown rice takes a bit longer to cook (like, 40 minutes longer), which further delayed the full meal. But the chicken, treated with some oranges, rosemary, and onions, turned out quite juicy and quite tasty. Happy (free-range) chicken makes happy consumers :o)

Saturday, I was in for a treat. Jennifer Pitzen, who some of you may remember as my baby-sitting employer for my last two years in high school, was in town for the US Open Tennis Tour. I haven't seen any of the Pitzens for at least five years, probably more like 6 or 7 years. I used to babysit their three daughters, who were all in middle-school or elementary school the last time I saw them. Now, one of them is a year away from graduating college, the second is in her second year of college, and the baby of the family is entering high school. Unreal! So I spent the day with Jennifer, Rachel (the middle child, who is attending American University in Washington DC), and a few of Rachel's friends. I don't follow tennis, but it was pretty fun to see a top rated player like Agassi from the second row in the stands.

Saturday night was my former roommate Alan's open house, or "trying to think of a reason why we should go out", party. Well, we went out. We headed downtown to a cool hotel lounge called the Church Lounge, which was a pretty hip and pretty swank place, the type I don't frequent too often. After about an hour there, we walked down the street to S.O.B., a Latin dance club. Being the night before Brazilian Independance Day, I had high expectations for the atmosphere and I wasn't let down. We all had so much fun that we ended up staying until almost 4:00am! I got a chance to show off my moves (or lack-of) and get some cardio exercise on a weekend!

Sunday was the Brazilian Independance Day street festival in midtown, which was crazy! I gotta say, those Brazilian's sure do like to have their fun. There was lots of music, food, Capoeira (which is sort of like a martial art, sort of like dancing), and tons of Ronaldo jerseys.

After running errands, Sean and I met up for a movie (Wicker Park, which I highly recommend), followed by a trip down to Brasserie Julien to meet up with one of his acquantinces. It's a pretty cool French restaurant with good wine and a cozy atmosphere. They show old black and white French movies on two television sets set behind the bar. I was highly distracted by what was behind the bar, and I'm not talking about the television sets ;o) ...