Fun and Games Dept

Since we had a long drive ahead of us and we were out kind of late last night, we decided to bow out of this afternoon’s GB:NYC4 festivities and opted to hit the road after breakfast this morning.

After going to bed at nearly 3 a.m., the Universe felt that I didn’t really need that much sleep. At 5 a.m. the hotel front desk called to let us know that the bus for Newark Airport was waiting for us. I replied with a “That’s nice.” and hung up. Vexed by my ambivalence, the hotel decided to continue the merriment by firing off the fire alarms at 9:30 a.m. I yelled, cussed and told Earl to tell the front desk to get a helicopter to pick me up on the roof if it really was an emergency. Of course there was no emergency.

Frustrated and blurry-eyed, I stumbled through a shower, snored through breakfast and then woke up just in time to see that there was a computer show going on at the convention center next to the hotel.

Now that’s the proper way to wake a geek.

Here’s a shot of the Manhattan skyline from our hotel room.

Here’s a photo I took in Central Park yesterday. I don’t know the name of the area but I thought it was rather scenic.

I mentioned yesterday that we joined bears and bloggers on “Bear Hill”, overlooking the roller skating area, so that we could watch the skaters, listen to some disco music, enjoy the sunshine and hang out with everyone. Earl and I loved the experience and wished we lived closer to New York so we could do it more often. Here’s a shot of my favorite skater, “Roller Grandma”, she has great style and presence. Her routine with a man and a Segueway is unmatched. Rumor has it she’s 71 years old.

This is John, otherwise known as Bardvern. He joined us from New Haven, Connecticut. He’s a really nice guy, we chatted like a couple of bearish geeks.

After the afternoon in Central Park, we zipped back to Secaucus to switch to our “night gear” and then zipped back through the Lincoln Tunnel to Manhattan. We parked in Chelsea and took the train to Times Square. I just took random pictures, not even paying attention to where I was pointing when I clicked, here’s a couple of the shots:

It seems like every time we go to Manhattan we eat at Stage Deli. Last night was no exception.

After supper we took the train into The Village and just walked around, drinking in the vibe. After that we headed back to Chelsea and went to The Eagle, not before we stopped back at the Jeep so Earl could switch from “night gear” to “late night gear”.

He likes it when I’m snapping photos with the flash and he’s half naked in the middle of Chelsea.

Today has been one of them days where you think you’re accomplishing things but then you look around and it seems like nothing has been done.

We started the morning fairly early. At 8 a.m. on the dot, a contractor arrived to give us the quote for the new patio we’re having put in. The back deck is gone and we’ve opted for a stamped concrete patio; the contractor gave us two bits of good news: 1. It will be done within two weeks, 2: the price is very reasonable.

Yay! Where do we sign on the dotted line?

With that accomplished, we had hoped to clean up what was left of the deck but April showers prevailed. So I suggested “Plan B”. In an effort to save money, Earl and I have been talking about dropping DirecTV and going with a traditional antenna instead. Several of the stations in the area are now broadcasting HDTV digitally over-the-air, so I figured between these feeds and the AppleTV, we’d be fine with our entertainment fill. Off to Radio Shack we went, where we picked out a moderately priced antenna that could be mounted on the side of the house without looking like we were trying to pick up secret conversations from Telstar.

Just for kicks I installed the antenna in a makeshift arrangement in an effort to confirm that we’d be getting a decent signal. I figured it’s better to be safe than sorry before calling DirecTV and telling them to pull our plug.

That’s when Earl realized that we weren’t going to get ESPN, Discovery, Lifetime, Logo, et. al. anymore.

I think he paled.

So the antenna went back in the box and is destined to be returned and DirecTV will continue to tap our wallets for something that was free back in the day.

After our little Telstar drama, Earl and I made supper together, which was an enjoyable experience. After our delicious meal, he said he’d help with loading the dishwasher, where I was presented with this (images are clickable in this new blog format):

He’s such a kidder.

Earl and I are spending the night in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He is here on business and I sort of tagged along. He has informed me that I will not need to refer to myself as the “First Lady of Cardboard” on this trip (he works in the specialty packaging business), as I have not been invited to the local plant he is visiting, I will be installed in the hotel room until his work is done.

We just returned from supper at “The Pub” at One Lincoln Square in the center of Gettysburg. You know, it’s quite historic in these parts. The food was wonderful, the beer was flowing and all is right with the world. Earl asked for a complimentary room upgrade so now we have a two room suite, complete with jacuzzi. I was asked to go fetch some diet pops for the room, so I did and I was not allowed back in until I knocked on the door and announced myself as “housekeeping”. I guess we’re playing the naughty hotel boy tonight.

I love it when we get kinky.

After Earl’s meeting tomorrow we are going tour some of the sites (it’s quite historic in these parts) before heading back home.

I love quick little getaways when it involves an expense account.

I snagged this blog idea from Manhattan Chowder and found it interesting. Apparently my dialect indicates that I’m living in the right place, as I speak as I am suppose to.

Earl and I went to Pinnacle State Park today. We played around with the movie feature on the digital camera, click the picture below to download the 34MB file. You probably need Quicktime.

Since today was the first beautiful day we’ve had (at least when we’ve been here) this year, I decided to celebrate by going on one of my roadgeek rides. Today’s journey took me to the Southern Tier of The Empire State, including the thriving metropolii of Auburn, Ithaca, Elmira, Owego and Binghamton.

I rarely will admit this, but I love New York.

I observed a couple of things:

– It was refreshing to see the rapidly melting snow and to realize that the only portion of the state that I drove through that still had snow was our area.

– I thanked the Universe for Wegmans for with my water and iced tea consumption during this ride, I basically drove from Wegmans to Wegmans so that I could use their conveniently located restrooms in the front of each store. I consider my urine too good for the Wal*Mart potty, God Bless Wegmans.

– I ate relatively healthy courtesy of Wegmans, as they had a wide selection of healthy choices for lunch and snack.

– I discovered that there is a certain quaintness to several Southern Tier village downtown areas, including Horseheads, Elmira, Owego, Endicott and Sayre, Pa.

– I don’t miss my mustache like I thought I would, as I caught the eye of more than a few. Humility 0, Confidence 1

The ride was absolutely gorgeous and I made several notes for my roadgeek website and took several pictures as well.

Along the ride I listened to about five hours of podcasts on my iPod. I am now well-versed in all things Mac once again. Sip of kool aid anyone?

Life is good.

Now that I’m awake and can hopefully write coherently. As I mentioned last night, I was co-host for a local scholarship pageant, Miss Mohawk Valley. This was my third time as the host, and this year I shared the duties with the current Miss New York, Bethlene Pancoast. I was a little nervous about sharing the spotlight in this regard for two reasons: 1. I often see myself as a bumbling fool when I’m on stage and Bethlene has a wonderous stage presence about her and 2. I don’t have a lot of experience with co-hosting as during my radio days I was mostly a solo act.

It turned out that my fears were for nothing (which is usually the case) as I had a wonderful time at the gig. The executive director of the pageant provides me with a script and asks that I stick to it. I rarely do that and to keep things interesting I save my ad-libs for the actual performance. I like to add an air of spontaneity. For example, last night I took stopped the show to take a picture of the audience.

As you can see there were about 100 people or so. Perhaps the chair-fillers were in the rest room as this was just prior to intermission. One unintentional ad-lib was when I flipped two cue cards instead of one, skipping a contestant during the talent portion which meant I introduced the wrong one, throwing the entire backstage crew into a panic as walky-talkies started squawking “he’s skipping! what’s he doing! stop him!” and sets started moving around to adjust for my erroneous dialogue. Bethlene came out and corrected me, and all got back on track. To cover, I made a few jokes about “deja vu” as I ran through the same dialogue again at the right time. Next year my agent will have to make sure there’s a teleprompter instead of cue cards written in crayon.

All in all, it was a great experience. The new Miss Mohawk Valley is Theresa Tokarowski, originally froom Amsterdam (N.Y.) and an exceptionally talented graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. From here she goes to Miss New York and then from there she would go on to compete for Miss America.

I really admire the ladies in these pageants as some are just finishing high school, there seems to be a lot of outfit changes involving dressing assistants, there’s that whole talent thing where you have to be absolutely spectacular in less than two minutes and it has to be absolutely nervewracking to be asked a question that will most likely be politically charged yet have nothing to do with world peace. I found Bethlene to be an amazing woman in that she is completely down to earth, yet confident and strikingly beautiful. And Theresa is like her in many regards. I wish them both success.

Then there’s me, the goofball on stage comparing myself to Ryan Seacrest and hamming it up on stage. I guess I did o.k. though, I’ve been asked to come back next year for more fun.

Here I am with Bethlene and the contestants, getting ready to make the big announcement.

And here’s a photo of Earl and I with Miss Mohawk Valley 2007.

I’m dog tired. The day started early this morning, we had rehearsals all day long and then the big show was tonight at 7:00 p.m. It’s hard work being the emcee for the Miss Mohawk Valley scholarship program pageant!

Here I am pictured with my co-host and Miss New York 2006, Bethlene Pancoast.

I felt I needed to get super spiffed up to hit the stage tonight. 🙂

The experience was wonderful and I’ll write more tomorrow.

This weekend I hit the stage for the first time in a couple of years. It is the annual “Miss Mohawk Valley Scholarship Program Pageant”, and while some would chuckle to think that I’m competing for Miss Mohawk Valley I am actually the emcee. Actually, this year I am a co-host, sharing the emcee duties with the current Miss New York. This winner from this pageant goes to Miss New York, and then Miss New York goes to Miss America, so it’s mildly exciting.

The last time I had the honor of being a host for this show was two years ago. I hope I’m not a little rusty and that my jokes have not run stale. It’s a good thing I have a script to follow, so I don’t try to funny with words like “shizzle”.

I suppose I’m going to have to get cleaned up in order for the tux I have to look right. Perhaps I’ll share a picture on the blog by the end of the weekend.