Dinner!

I'm going to a hockey game with my friend tonight.  I usually go to a couple of them a month, but I missed all of last month.  Too busy with the travel and all that.

The game starts at 7 PM and we go to dinner beforehand.  Last week he took me to a nice Argentinian place he knew about.  Usually we eat at a few different BBQ places or Chevy's, but I like eating at nicer places.  He's not the dress up type, so I need to choose places that are more casual.  So this morning I went on a search for a few possibilites for dinner this evening.  I came up with the following...

Los Dados – Mexican

Borgo Antico – Italian

Havana Central – Cuban

HK Hell’s Kitchen – American

Fig & Olive – Mediterranean

You can click on the names to see the menu/website.

What I'd like to know is, which would you choose?  Not which you would choose for ME, but which you would choose for yourself, and why?  Looking forward to the opinions.

Have a Happy New Year everyone!!!

Run Like Hell

I live on a hill.  It's a pretty big hill.  There are 10 houses on either side of my street and the top of the hill is about 300 feet higher than the bottom of the hill.  I live in the 7th house up from the bottom, i.e. near the top.  The weather is different at the top than the bottom.  I'm serious!  The snow seems different.  We might have ice at the top and not at the bottom.

Anyway, that wasn't my point.  Every day I go down that hill to catch the bus on the bottom of it plus one block.  Sometimes I'll run down the hill.  If I leave a few minutes late, I'll run.  Don't want to miss the bus, that would be bad.  When I run down my hill I think of a friend of mine.  He was a big runner.  He ran in races all the time.  One time he told me that it's harder to run DOWN hill.  I said, "huh?  Why would it be harder to run DOWN hill?  I run down hill all the time.  It is easier."  He insisted it was harder to run down hill.  Every time I run down the hill at my house I think about Steve.

Steve died on September 11, 2001.  And it wasn't a coincidence.

But, I still disagree with him.

When I Get Home

Okay people, I got it!  I know what I'm going to do on Fridays.  I will take my iPod and randomly play a song.  Then I'll need to post something relevant to my life AND that song.  So the first song I got was, "When I Get Home," by The Beatles.  This seems like an easy one.

As previously documented, I have been travelling.  I have been travelling what I would call a lot, every other week for around 3 days.  I know others travel all the time for their job, but I do not. 

My wife travels very little for her job.  She generally has to go to Orlando for training in November, but her company moved it to NYC this year to save money.  Most of the company is in NYC and that was one of three or four training centers this year.  Sometimes she travels to a client, but most of her clients are within the tri-state area.  That's New York, New Jersey and Connecticut for those of you outside this area.

Well, guess what?  She had to travel this week too!  It made for a REALLY nutty week.  I was gone from 5 AM Monday morning till 9 PM Wednesday night.  She left at 6 AM Wednesday morning and she won't be back until midnight tonight (Friday).

So, I'm really looking forward to seeing her.  Hopefully she's up for a little hanky panky.  If not, that's actually fine.  We can snuggle up and go to sleep.  It's supposed to snow Saturday night into Sunday, maybe pretty hard.  What's better than warming up the sheets on a snowy Saturday night?  Right!  Nothing.  Bottom line, I'll be glad to see her tonight.

Whoa-ho, whoa-ho,
I got a whole lot of things to tell her,
When I get home.
When I'm getting home tonight, I'm gonna,
Hold her tight.

Pic from Chicago

This was the view outside my window of the hotel where I stayed in Chicago. It's Lake Shore Drive. It's famous.

Are You Ready For the Holidays?

Am I ready for the holidays? Seems like an innocent enough question. It's pretty much the question I get asked over and over and over again this time of year. But, what I want to know is this...

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?! Why are you asking me this question? How should I answer? Usually, just to be polite, I say, "Yeah, sure. How about you?" Then I wonder, what will this schmuck answer?

Okay, first of all, I'm Jewish, so what should this mean to me? Have I taken my menorah out yet? Cleaned out the wax from last year? Polished it so it looks all shiny and new? Ummm, no, none of those things apply to me. I pull the menorah out the DAY OF the holiday. See people, it's not that hard. Gifts? Sure, I buy the kids a few gifts. Big whoop-dee-doo! I walk into Best Buy or J&R and pick up an XBox game for my son or some new headphones for my daughter or maybe an iTunes gift card. Sure, there are lines, but that means it takes me 10 minutes more than usual.

My wife? Maybe she'll get a gift, IF I see something I want to get for her. If not, then not. And, most importantly, she won't care!

So, what does the rest of the world have to do? Well, let's see...go get a recently chopped down tree, strap it to your car, drag it through your house, get pine needles everywhere, set it up in your living room, clean up the pine needles, decorate it, and collapse from exhaustion. What else needs to be done? Well, you need to get out the ladder and put lights all over the house and the statue of Santa on the roof. Then you need to make sure THEY WORK! And do it all over again when they don't. That sounds like fun! I wish I could be doing THAT! What's next? Oh, yeah, presents. So you need to go buy everyone and their mother and their mother's pet a gift. Ummm, no thank you.

And what's the right answer to this question? "No, not this year, so I'm holding them in January instead." Does that work? Guess what, the holidays will come and go whether you are ready for them or not.

People wonder why they have so much stress over the holiday season. Well, THIS IS WHY!!! You have put so much stupid pressure on yourself to BE READY. What will happen when you are not? Sure, a couple of sad kids and pissed off relatives, but they'll get over it. They may even be happy when they get gifts mid-January when everyone else is playing with broken toys.

So, CALM DOWN people! You don't need to be READY for the holidays. Just try to have fun and enjoy. Have another rum-laced egg nog, okay?

Sheesh!

And the Beat Goes On

So, I've returned from Chicago. I had deep dish pizza like I said I would. Kitty obviously doesn't think it's pizza. I don't care if it is or it isn't. How is it? Well, it's okay. That's it, just okay. Nothing special. The crust should be tastier.

I wanted to update you on my travels. Next week I'll be going to Houston, Texas. Not sure if that's interesting or not. We'll see.

The first week of January I'll be going to Richmond Hill, Ontario. Hmm, does one of my blog readers live near there? Perhaps one does. If that one would like more information, send me an email, okay?

Then, the third week of January I will be in London. I think my wife will come too. I think, we'll see if that works out.

As always, I'll keep you posted.