Tossing and Turning...errrr, Shooting

Earlier this week, the big boss of my group of geeks decided that, in
the spirit of this weekend's Super Bowl and the fact that the New York
Giants were playing in it, today would be "Jersey Day". When I first
quickly scanned the email, I reacted in horror seeing the word
"Jersey" in the body, figuring that he was scheduling something social
in New Jersey. But, thankfully, I took the time to read the full two
sentences and realized that he wanted people to wear their favorite
jersey to work today. In typical fashion, I dusted off my Liverpool
jersey (dusting wasn't really required), laid it on my new pair of
jeans so as not to forget that it was Jersey Day on Friday (and, thus,
our self-declared Jeans Day), and was pumped up for today. I was
acting out a little Euro-arrogance skit in my head when I laid in bed
last night thinking about Jersey Day, imagining one of the
golf-club-swinging, jock-type managers saying "That's not a football
jersey!" and then me pulling out a soap-box, standing on it, and then
launching into my typical tirade about the difference between
"football" and "American football", feeling smug and comforted about
having won that illustrious battle ;o).

J. Riley, I didn't sleep well last night. I kept waking up thinking
"Don't forget to wear your jersey! Don't forget to wear your jersey!"
Well, that and the fact I couldn't breathe thanks to my congestion :-?
!!

Visiting an Institution

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I continued my geographic traversals by flying out to San Diego to meet my new nephew Ryder and visit my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and Faryn, who drove down from Los Angeles. It was a classical San Diego weekend with time spent playing with my niece at the playground and briefly at the beach, sunny, warm weather, lots of eating - including an awesome Peruvian lunch in Encinitas and a Thai dish that we made at home that I take credit for....picking out ;o), plenty of Pike's coffee, breakfast burritos, and fish tacos - and a case of bronchitis for my poor niece, and therefore my poor brother and sister-in-law. The house was a pool of germs by the time I left and it seems as though I contracted something myself that has caught up to me now, hence the reason for me sitting at home blogging when I should be at the gym :o) !! I still had a great time, as it's always fun to sit around and chit chat or watch TV with my siblings. And my nephew? He is very cute and has Graham's perma-scowl :) !

This weekend I woke up with a scratchy throat on Saturday, but endeavored to go bowling with my volunteer group and a bunch of kids regardless. I must say that I am working on my form and I'm making some serious progress on my curve-ball - when it's not in the gutter :o) . Since I was bowling with kids, I went ahead and used bumpers once. I have no doubt that the Upper East Side volunteers thought much less of their leader once they saw me bouncing off those a few times!

Sunday, after brunch at amazingly (geographically and demographically) local Uptown near Paul and Cathy's with their friends Alicia and Erika, I hit the town on a mission: to find new jeans! I'm of the opinion, rightly or wrongly, that bootcut jeans are on their way out but that seems to be the only thing I can find these days in the chain stores that I hit on the way to Macy's, the holy grail of jeans shopping. It's very hard to find slim-cut jeans with regular legs that are not ultra-low rise. That is, until I found them at Macy's, of course the very last pair that I tried on! They fit me like a glove!

On my way home, it was dinner time so I wanted to find a place in the area to eat before heading back to the restaurant-dry neighborhood that I live in. I settled on a place of New York folklore, an institution standing alone amongst the modern buildings in Murray Hill - the Second Avenue Deli, which was recently, and controversially, shuttered in it's original location in the East Village and relocated uptown a bit. This place is a famous deli serving up gynormous pastrami sandwiches and a million other traditional Jewish dishes.

When I sat down to eat at the counter, I found myself in the middle of two worlds - quite literally. To my left were two recently-graduated college kids with their Blackberries and their voracious post-hangover appetities ordering many a thing from the gentleman behind the counter taking our orders. To my right, a cranky old Jewish couple with the man with a serious scowl on his face, thrusting his bowl of soup at the waiter because he didn't like it and the woman complaining about the fact she didn't get her fries immediately after she ordered them. It was a great experience to sit and observe these two pairs while eating my meatloaf (which they both looked at rather jealously).

After they left and I was alone with the waiter behind the counter, who's service was awesome despite the hectic nature of the place. I asked him frankly "Do you just get numb to the number of people that you churn through here?" He told me that sometimes you get customers like the ones to my right who want to be served immediately despite the crowds and aren't happy with anything, but you just have to take it and do your best to smile. It was a great New York moment, but you just had to be there to experience it :o) !

J. Riley, back to my wheezing and sniffling

Nineties Nostalgia

Former geek classmates of mine, do you remember those long evenings
together in the late-nineties, huddled up in the COB Computer Lab
until 10:00pm (closing time) madly writing code together before going
our separate ways to log in remotely to continue writing the code that
would get us a passing grade in that damn CSC 101 class? Yes, I
remember that, I remember those that couldn't make the grade (pun
intended) and fell by the wayside, switching their Business
concentrations to something like Human Resources or Management.

But, I digress. The point is, I got a phone call at 9:00pm on Thursday
night with an interesting proposition from Paul, who's company was in
desperate times and in desperation called me to see if I would be
interested in doing some MS Access coding work for them. I told them I
would consider it after I could see what was going to be involved.
Confident in my skills after reviewing their database, I set off
coding away at night, confident that it shouldn't take toooo long to
finish this project. Unfortunately Erika had just come home after
spending a loooong day with her grandfather (who has terminal cancer)
and deserved my attention at the same time. Being the wonderful girl
that she is however, she was fine with me just talking for a few
minutes before letting me continue on.

Fast forward 14 hours later, and it was 12:30pm and it felt like the
day was over. I hadn't even finished but I had called in sick because
I just couldn't give up at that point, and I couldn't go to work after
pulling an all nighter, the first in years – Risk-game-playing-night
aside. I quickly passed out on my bed and didn't wake up for many
hours, and when I did, I wanted to go back to sleep again.

After a deflating draw for Liverpool Saturday morning, I headed to
Sean's apartment to continue with the project where I left off on my
coding project. First we had a nice "business lunch" over in
Williamsburg at Dumont, where I enjoyed a fine, thick burger with a
slice of Danish blue cheese. It was one of the better burgers I'd had
in a while. Considering that I had eaten two pieces of wheat toast in
a 14 hour coding session, it was no surprise that I had a famish-like
hunger!

After continuing my work for a few more hours, Paul and I headed out
to Manhattan to meet up with a group for dinner at Samba Le, a dining
establishment long the object of my dining obsession for its cuisine
genre: Italian-Brazilian. Fascinating combination! I had tried to take
a girl there years back for a first date to take their complimentary
Samba lessons and eat dinner, only to arrive and find the place
shackled up and closed. The story of my former dating life!

This time, however, it was open and our reservations were well
respected. For some reason, I can never resist the Feijoda dish when I
eat Brazilian food. Every place I go, they always note that, hey,
Feijoda is the national dish of Brazil. How many countries do you know
have a "National Dish"? Not to mention their "National Drink"
(caiparinha). So, of course, that's what I ordered and I was
definitely satisfied by this meal, as were the others (note to self:
grilled skirt steak was awesomely garlicky!).

Not satisfied with having a wrecked sleeping schedule from just one
night, after having a drink at our newly-found favorite watering-hole
The Bourgeois Pig, I got a ride from my Dominican Republic / Hungarian
group of friends (a wonderful combination of friends for me, don't you
think?) to check out this new Latin night-spot downtown. Well, after
mediocre music and having my package touched "accidentally" by a
gentleman in line at the bar, we decided to go somewhere else and we
(they) chose Gonzales Gonzales in Noho.

I've heard about this place having the best Mexican food around from a
Chinese/Cuban mix guy that actually lives with his family in the East
Village, so it wasn't totally unknown to me. But I didn't know they
had Latin dancing there and when we arrived, there were police showing
up because of some conflict that had happened inside and later a guy
came out with his face bleeding from another conflict at the bar, I
knew that I was at a REAL Latin establishment. Excellent! They had
great music (live Salsa band followed by DJ) to boot!

We capped the late-night off in Washington Heights at a roach coach
serving fine Latin cuisine to all the locals leaving the clubs up
there. We ordered up a couple of Patacones, which are essentially meat
sandwiches with the bread replaced by a fried plaintain "bread" that
was absolutely amazing! A good end to a late night – I wasn't really
planning on being up until 5:00am :-# !!

J. Riley, not much for the public consumption happened on Sunday, but
I did research a new mobile phone, which I purchased this morning! The
new Motorola Z6C Global Phone from Verizon! Looking forward to getting
that in two days :-D

Reverse Commute

This weekend I did the unthinkable. No, I'm not talking about the poker game that I actually was the first one eliminated from. I fought, I twisted arms, I slyly coerced my friends from Manhattan into coming to the Bronx - three of them!

The strategy was three fold: First, Melissa and I offered an evening of poker on her new set. Obviously everyone was angling to get their money back that I easily swept from them a fortnight ago, so it wasn't much of a stretch. Then, we offered to make them dinner. Dinner and poker? Who could resist? Finally, we pulled a bait and switch and offered an olive branch in the form of olive oil - we would take them to the irreverable (sp.? thesaurus?), infamous Little Italy - in the Bronx! It worked like a charm, they were sold! To add a cherry on top, they even coerced D into driving us up from midtown so that we didn't have to take the subway on a chilly evening!

And the night was splendid. Well, the meal was anyway - poker was a disaster for me. After a plethora of research, we decided to hit up Roberto's on Crescent Avenue. We went for an early dinner because the last time I went, the area was packed and the waits were long. Roberto's didn't let us down - it was packed with an "older" crowd - most likely from further uptown in the suburbs - while most other restaurants were empty. But, my oh my was it worth the wait. Fabulous food, a greeting from Roberto himself (the chef), and comments from the Manhattanites like "wow, this is probably one of the best Italian meals, best surprises that I've had in a long long time". That's right, that's how we role in the Bronx - legit fo' sho'!

Today as I was waiting at the back of the train platform for a subway to arrive - forever - I remembered the first time that Paul and left our safety zone soon after I arrived in New York and - shocker - rode in the VERY LAST CAR of the train all the way to Brooklyn. Talk about being sheltered! Now, it's the ONLY place I go ;o).

J. Riley, I have restarted my Spanish lessons in preparation for February!

Special Report - Happy Holidays!

When home for the holidays, I got plenty of comments from the myriad of relatives that I saw that my blog has become lame because I never update it - my bad! This is a somewhat true statement and I have no excuse really. Sure, the Bronx isn't exactly the kind of environment that influences my creativity or makes me the envy of my loyal readers, but there is plenty of time for me to sit and think up here, especially since there is nothing to do except ride a half-hour to the city or go to the gym. But, I made the choice to live up here for a reason, I just gotta do what I can to continue motivating myself I guess!!

But the new year has come. Maybe it's time for me to turn the proverbial leaf and try to write more. We'll see what happens!

After today, the holidays are officially over. My holidays were a good way to end a year that has touched both highs and lows, from my introduction to a special person in my life to the introduction of difficult health circumstances that I will have to deal with in the coming year. But I suppose that this is life and it is what everyone has to appreciate or deal with.

I spent the Christmas season in California getting a chance to visit many of my relatives, some for the first time. We had a good four days of Christmas this year, with fantastic food on Saturday at my grandparent's house, a Christmas tradition at my grandma's house next door with all of the relatives from my dad's side of the family, a Christmas-eve traditional crab feast at my house, and then a Christmas traditional leg o' lamb meal at my house. It was fairly quiet around my house this year since it was just my family who was around, but that's not a bad thing. My dad and I got to do a grueling two-hour hike up in the hills around my house, my mom and sister and I got to do some "shopping", and my remaining Los Gatos friend and I got to do some nerdy server and web photo album setup (stay tuned for details on that!).

Unfortunately, I had to miss out on my sister's 21st birthday bash because of my work schedule, but the lack of anyone around the office gave me time to finish up paperwork and also to prepare for the upcoming trip to Peru at the end of February for myself and my parents, with whom Erika and I will travel to the wonderfully historic and cultural capital city of the Inca's, Cusco. With this paperwork completed, hopefully Erika can be with me next year at this time and get to meet everyone!

For New Year's, I joined in on the annual traditional pub crawl, this year starting in Little Italy and wondering up into the East Village. We started at the Australian establishment Eight Mile Creek before stops at the dive Tom & Jerry's, DBA, Three of Cups (where we celebrated the New Year) , and the pinnacle of the evening, The Bourgeois Pig. This is a place that I had always wanted to visit but never actually made it to, so the fact that we happened to come across it on our pub crawl made it especially nice. We sat at the aristocrat location of the place and drank our drinks in awesome little metal goblets and ordered a Bailey's chocolate fondue that came with an assortment of fruits to dip. It was definitely the high spot of the evening and capped a wonderful holiday season!

J. Riley, Good Luck to all in the new year!

Falling Off The Wagon

It had to happen eventually. Things were just going to easy for me, what with the corn on the cob, the ribs, and biting my finger nails. My orthodontist told me today that he thinks my teeth have fallen off the wagon, they are having a relapse. It's either my teeth (in conjunction with my tongue) or the bones, but something's not right. Why he didn't figure this out the FIRST time, I don't know. Hopefully the extensive imaging that I'm going to have to go through AGAIN (Third time? Fourth time? Fifth time? nTh time.) will provide him with evidence that he can fix the problem, whatever it is. But one thing is certain, and I've told him: I am not having surgery again. So I guess I'll just wait for the results from the x-rays and pictures.

New pictures of Ryder Linden Haines, courtesy of two emails that made my Inbox explode:








J. Riley, One of the many reasons I can still answer "good" when people ask how I'm doing!

Chanchamayo or Bust: Day 2

I didn't sleep fantastically at the high-altitude, low frills (perfect!) Galaxia
Hotel in Tarma on Thursday night, but we did get up early nonetheless and get
ready for the rest of our journey. After packing up our goods, we headed down
the road to a Hacienda-like hotel that Renzo was familiar with to have our
breakfast. Following our typical eggs, ham, fresh bread, and panettone
breakfast, we were back on the road for the next hour or two to get to
Chanchamayo.

The geography was certainly interesting in this area, how it changed so much and
so quickly. The coastal regions of Peru are very much a desert with little to no
plant life. As we climbed the rugged volcanic peaks of the Andes, the ground
turned into a reddish clay with some shrubbery, but still few, if any, trees.
Once on the other side of the mountains, as we descended down towards
Chanchamayo, the terrain suddenly changed, with green plants growing without a
problem. The ground was fertile enough for the local people to be growing
things like corn on the farms littering the side of the road. However, an hour
later, the terrain changed again into a lush, tropical environment.

I always imagined the jungle being something like the rain forest, with twisted,
gnarly trees growing under the shade of canopy trees that lift high into the sky
with amazing amounts of wildlife, snakes, bugs, and birds galore. The terrain
around Chanchamayo hinted at this kind of environment, but only just. There
were trees that I imagined to be canopy-like with bare trunks that rose high
and branches and leaves at the top that grew almost horizontal, but they were
spread around the area. The smaller trees and plant-life were certainly lush,
but I didn't see any crazy animals and it wasn't dark and smelling of rain or
anything like that. It was very much open terrain, but very lush and
mountainous still.

The Andes affect the weather significantly, pushing the clouds from the coast up
to higher elevations, causing them to compress and rain, which causes the
condensation that falls to the fertile grounds on the Eastern side of the
Andes, which in turn creates the lush environment. The rain water eventually
drains down to the flatland further east, where it pools up in the Amazon and
even more condensation there creates the rain forests of my imagination.

However, Chanchamayo was not this rain forest. However, it was lush and fertile
enough to grow a myriad of tropical fruits, as we found in the first hotel that
we checked out. It had an orchard of mango and other fruit trees with small,
private bungalows that were apparently very nice inside. Ketty walked around
picking up and peeling mangos from the ground while we got the tour of the
premises from the hotel keeper. Renzo recommended this one because they'd
stayed there before and it was at a special rate - around $30 a night! But we
ventured further down the street and found another place that had private
bungalows in a more tropical setting with plants growing overhead along the
paths. This was $25 a night and since we were only going to be there at night
and in the morning, we decided to go for it.

By the time we were moved in and settled, it was time for a late lunch, so we
went into town and ate at a place recommended at the hotel. Again the aji,
again the avocado salad, and again the delicious meal (I had fish with rice
this time).

After lunch, Renzo was burnt out from all the driving and headed back to the
hotel for a nap while I went with the girls in a moto-taxi / tuk-tuk-tuk up to
the hill that overlooked the valley to take pictures. We eventually made it
back to the hotel in the late afternoon to relax for a bit before going out at
night. I busted out my dominoes set to teach Erika and Ketty the Haines
tradition of Mexican Train dominoes while we drank some beer and drank some
juice and vodkas and enjoyed the wonderful weather. I spotted a wild red
parrot in a nearby tree (hard to see in the pictures), which was pretty crazy.
It was massive and was the only true jungle animal that I saw on the trip.

Renzo finally rose from his slumber to join us and we ended up going to a disco
just a few minutes away (walking) to dance, munch on some food, and drink some
chelas (beer) before finally crashing after a full day!

J. Riley, to be continued...

Chanchamayo or Bust: Day 1

Thanksgiving weekend, I completed the final leg of my 20,000-miles-in-five-weeks journey and capped it off nicely with a trip down to see my love in Peru. Erika and I were going to be taking a road trip on my four-day trip there to a town called Chanchamayo, which is on the Eastern side of the Andes in the hilly jungle of Peru. Her friend Ketty is from this town and her and her boyfriend offered to take us there for the trip. Logistically, it was challenging making the long road trip, but, hey, logistically making a trip to Peru for four days is bad enough, what's another two days of driving :o) ??

Lucky for me, the flights to and from Peru are both red-eyes, so I can maximize my sleeping and traveling time for short trips like this - assuming I can sleep. I do things like staying up late the night before, stay away from caffeine substances the day of the flight, and drink some wine before boarding the plane, all in order to catch as much shut-eye as possible on my journey. Usually it isn't very solid sleep, and I caught about three hours worth on the seven hour journey, watching plenty of videos on the comfortable Lan Peru flight.

I arrived drowsy and feeling gross with a raw throat at 7:00 in the morning in Lima. Lili, the link between Erika and I, graciously picked me up at the airport since Erika was taking her English test for her class that morning at the American Institute (ICPNA) when I arrived. Lili and I drove to ICPNA in time to pick her up and head to a cafe to get some breakfast - a turkey sandwich (Happy Thanksgiving!!) and a coffee (wake up!) for me. Afterwards, we drove to their friend Ketty's house and prepared for that day's adventure: shopping at Gamarra!

I'm not really sure how to explain Gamarra. You know the Christmas booths that they set up in places like Union Square (for you New Yorkers)? Well, Gamarra is one street that is probably about two miles long with thousands and thousands of these little booths inside maze-like buildings, some as high as eight floors, lining this street. We spent probably over an hour in one building alone, courageously led by the expert shopper Ketty. It's difficult to explain how crazy this area was, but I promise to take Summer and Faryn there if they ever come to Lima someday (hmmmm) because it has all the latest fashions (designer or otherwise), all for dirt cheap. I ended up buying two t-shirts and two-button up party shirts - all of which are good quality - for about thirty dollars in total. Lili bought several tops for $2 each. Ridiculously cheap. And, I was the only gringo in the whole area to boot! Highly recommended shopping for gringos with a sense of adventure and patience :o) .

After this we headed back to Ketty's house to prepare for the trip - which included me finally taking a shower - no wonder Erika was offering me so many cough drops for my throat all day ;o). Finally ready to depart, the four of us (including Renzo, the boyfriend) piled into his impressive work car - a Kia Sorrento. More on this car later. Anyway, we ran a few errands doing important things like buying more cough drops for my throat, gas, and panettone, which I don't think I've actually tried. Renzo is a big fan of panettone, so I rolled with it. But damn, that stuff is tasty! For the Haines family who hasn't tried it before, the bread tastes like that yummy Hawaiian bread that we used to eat as kids except it's also got a lot of dried fruits in it like mango, papaya, raisins, etc. I think I need to add this to my Christmas-treats inventory every year from now on!

Anyway, we hit the road. Traffic in Lima is nuts, so it was a crawl out of town before we hit a hotel that we stopped and had dinner at. Renzo enjoys the finer things in life down in Peru, so we frequently dined at the nicest places in town, all of which are dirt cheap nonetheless, so I was fine with this. Of course, we're not talking about dining in Jean Georges or anything like that, we're talking about nicest places in town for Peru. Typically, this means a simple, non-lavish (by our - my?? - standards) restaurant with amazing food and good service. Food tourism in Peru is growing pretty rapidly because the food there is incredible!

We fit a game of foosball in before dinner out in the back lawn that overlooked a river and I realized that the foosball standards for South Americans is infinitely higher than for us Americans. Renzo and Ketty both were amazing players, but my Liverpool-like defensive prowess was respectful enough to ensure that myself and Erika, who was poaching many-a-goal like Fernando Torres does every week for Liverpool, dominated the preceding before we got tired of the bugs and went inside for our typical Peruvian appetizer - avocado salad with lettuce, onions, and tomatoes (yum!), topped with oil and vinegar.

One interesting thing that I noticed on the trip was that everywhere that you go to eat, they bring you your forks and knives on a little dish, along with a small bowl of their house-aji - hot sauce! It's not hot sauce in the American Tabasco-like sense, though. It is usually mixed with something creamy (mayonnaise?) and is made from any combination of the plethora of peppers available in Peru. On the trip we dined on aji that was yellow, orange, or light red, all with pepper specks and all with the perfect balance of picante with my palate. I never refrained from adding a dollop or five to my plate to mix with the meal.

Following a fantastic dinner of Loma......something (which was beef in a sauce served with rice I think) and nibbling on Erika's trout as the sole diners in this restaurant, we further gorged ourselves on crepes with ice cream and chocolate. I was seriously stuffed by this time and was already establishing myself as the fat-American and living up to my college nickname "Two-Racks" by this time.

Back on the road, we finally got out of town on the eastern-highway and were slowed, briefly, by many semi trucks that were making the crazy drive through the Andes to the mining towns up in the hills. They proved no match for Renzo's SUV, though. I'm not a huge fan of Kia because I've always considered them to be cheap, no frills cars. But this car had some serious power passing these semis on the twisting, climbing highway with four adults on-board. The interior was simple and functional, a nice contrast compared to most cars these days that make you feel like you're driving a plane with all their frills and gadgets. I had no complaints about the head or leg-room in the leather seats in the back, it was very nice. I came to find out the next day that this thing was actually a diesel! I've never been in a diesel that was so quiet and had so much passing power, not to mention that it sips gas like a Honda Civic. So I was very impressed.

Anyway, since it was dark outside, there wasn't much to see on our trip. We went over the top of the Andes, hitting elevations above 5000 meters (~15,000 feet), passed through dilapidated mining towns with rivers so polluted that nothing could live in them, had pannetone and tea in a one-street town with about 5 nightclubs on it, and finally decided to stop for the night in Tarma at around 11:00pm. I was exhausted!

J. Riley, To be continued....

I'm an Uncle! Again!

I haven't met the strapping young Ryder Linden, heir to the Haines dynasty, yet, but Summer has provided lots of on-location reporting from her blog here! I can't wait to meet him!

Queen of the throne Elliana was busy spreading the news to everyone. Is the phone upside down?


J. Riley, Proud Uncle!

Ketchup

I've got some serious miles to cover on my blog - pun intended! I've actually been pretty busy lately running around to see various doctors since my diagnosis of myotonic dystrophy, not to mention the regularly scheduled trips to the chiropractor, orthodontist, California, and Peru :o) .

First of all, three weeks ago I went out to Southern California to attend my friend Jeff's surprise birthday party and to hang out with my good friend Ryan. I got an awesome deal on flights and it was a three-day weekend for me, so I made the trip on pretty short notice. As I've said before, I usually don't like to go to LA because there are so many different pockets of friends and family there that I would have to spend a week there just to visit them all. So if I didn't visit or I didn't tell you I was going, don't blame it on me - blame it on...something else (??).

I've been in sort of an outdoorsy mood recently, so Ryan stacked the weekend's events around various outdoor activities - which is a good thing because 66.6% of the time there was 70-80 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Saturday I woke up early (jetlag) and Ry and I got some early morning breakfast at a local joint before heading down to Newport Beach to go water kayaking around Balboa Island on a perfect, warm day with a light breeze. We took our time, spending most of the day cruising around, giving my shoulders a nice workout while admiring the rich and the famous's huge yachts. I can't imagine living in a place and having one of these monstrous things sitting right outside my house. I don't ency them, I just think it would be kind of crazy to have a lifestyle like that.

After a short visit back at his parent's house, Ryan and I went home and relaxed until our night-time event - Jeff's birthday party at a place called El Coyote in West Hollywood. It's a classic, old school Mexican restaurant from the 1930s with mediocre food but an interesting atmosphere. I can't put my finger on exactly what, but LA is definitely much more different than New York, but I can't really tell you why that is. Anyway, after that we went to a bar called St. Nick's and had a few drinks before heading back home.

For some reason, when I stepped off the plane the night before, my voice was squeaky and was going away - probably from the air-conditioning on the airplane. It was even worse by Saturday night so I asked my local pharmacist - the bartender - to prescribe me with something to make it feel better. One shot of Patron tequila with hot sauce and salt later, and my throat was in fact feeling a little better. It was a short-term fix, though...


Sunday, being the other 33.333% of the weekend, was overcast and cold, a good day to sleep in and be lazy. Ryan's friend was having a barbecue at his house that day so we headed up to the hill above Long Beach to his place in the afternoon. He made some wonderful burgers on his massive barbecue set and we had a good time meeting his friends, one couple - half of which was from Bulgaria - recently getting married and dealing with Greencards and what not. Interesting to get their perspective on the amount of time dealing with the government for such matters. The evening's meal was followed up with some drunk piano debauchery, Ryan's friend and the gay couple from next door singing pop classics while playing the piano - well I might add!

We finished up the night watching two movies - Alpha Dog (with my hero Justin Timberlake) and a movie with Morgan Freeman and John Cusack. I found the story-line of Alpha Dog to be pretty blase, but I thought the acting was great. The other movie, however, was absolutel probably the worst movie I have seen in my life. Poor story, poor acting, it was just terrible. I lost an ounce of respect for those two actors' agents' skills in finding them good movies to start in after seeing that one. It was so bad, I don't even remember the name of it. But don't watch it :-s!!

Monday, my last day in town, Ry and I headed up to the hills above Palas Verdes (sp.) to try to go hiking. He hadn't been up there before, but we figured it was close and the views should be nice for such a nice day, so we hit the road and spent some time trying to figure out if there was actually a trail or not at the place we found online. We found some marked trails, took some other unmarked trails and finally ended up in some rich people's backyards. We wandered back downhill and enjoyed stretching the muscles and getting some California sunshine.

After burning those calories (do I sound old yet?), we went to a nice Greek place in downtown Long Beach and ate a ton of food and had a bit of wine in the nice weather before it was time for me to go to the airport and fly on my red-eye back to the cold, wet NYC!

J. Riley, Next stop: Peru