Fun and Games Dept

The roadway: An interstate in Upstate New York.

The vehicles: One VW Jetta, One Suburu WRX, One Acura RSX Type-S.

Top Speed: 101 MPH.

The victor: One Acura RSX Type-S.

The look of the other two drivers when a bald 30+ man effortlessly breezed by them: Priceless.

Earl and I just got back from enjoying the fireworks from the lawn of Utica College. Always a popular gathering place for young and old alike, Earl brought along a bunch of glowsticks and handed them out to all the kids surrounding the lawn chairs we had set up for the show. The kids threw the glowsticks up in the air in attempt to make their own fireworks. There was a dazzling array of orange, pink, purple, blue and green before the official fireworks show began.

I mentioned a couple of days that fireworks should be reserved for Independence Day. I firmly believe that as the dazzling pyrotechnics seem more special when we use them as a symbol to celebrate our country’s birthday.

Mother Nature wasn’t in the mood for a barbecue today, so we went and saw the movie “Click” after enjoying a hot dog (or two) at a locally famous hot dog joint. Nothing fires up your summer like eating a chili dog under a tent that’s being pelted by very large rain drops. Luckily the skies cleared up this evening so that we could see the fireworks!

Happy Independence Day.

Earl has been generous enough to make his “refreshing fruit dip” for me to take to work tomorrow and naturally we needed fresh strawberries to compliment the effort. So this afternoon, Earl and I took a short drive down to a neighboring field to do some strawberry picking.

We had such fun.

It’s been about 25 years or so since I last picked strawberries. We used to pick wild strawberries at the airport we were always at (my dad is a private pilot). We’d fill styrofoam coffee cups of these little strawberries, wash them off and then cover them with sugar and eat them. So tasty. Small wonder I was a relatively hyper child.

My grandmother used to take us “real” strawberry picking when we were in our early grade school years. I think I remember eating more berries than what I put in the little cardboard carrier.

Today I only had two berries while we were picking. I had to make sure that they were ripe and ready to go. They were quite tasty.

Every impulse in my body screams that Earl and I should be taking some sort of mini Jeep tour this weekend. I’d love to see us jump in the Jeep, bag in tow, and go someplace, anyplace and just hang out. But my work schedule isn’t really affording us that luxury this weekend, so we’re going to do something here at home.

We are going to have a picnic in the backyard.

I’m actually looking forward to spending the weekend at home and enjoying some (fingers crossed) down time. I have to work on Monday so it’s not really a long weekend for me, but thought sentiment is still there. But this Saturday and/or Sunday we are going to fire up the grill and have us some good JPnEarl cooked food and a couple of beers.

Enjoy the weekend!

I just got back from the lovely city of Schenectady. I joined Earl for dinner tonight; he’s out of town on business but luckily he’s close enough that I can drive a couple of hours and see him during his down time. It keeps us both out of mischief.

We had dinner at a great little place called “Pinhead Susan’s”. I didn’t see any pinheads running around, and the burly guy behind the bar really didn’t look like a Susan to me, so I read the whole tale of the name of the restaurant on the back of the menu and found it quite interesting. You’ll have to stop by to find out for yourself.

We then took a walk through downtown Schenectady, which is undergoing a rather extensive renovation project. It’s good to see a city’s downtown area being revitalized without being entirely ripped down in the process. Earl is staying at The Parker Hotel tonight; a delightfully early 1900s hotel renovated to modern standards and quite nice. We also took a walk along the Mohawk River, which runs between Schenectady and the neighboring Village of Scotia (SKO-shuh, in case you’re wondering). There was a water-skiing demonstration on the river for those that were interested. We also had the obligatory ice cream at Jumpin’ Jacks, where they have old early 20th century cash registers in the ice cream parlor and in the food area, a beautiful mid 1970s mechanical NCR cash register that I really wish I could get my hands on. When you tip the folks working the ice cream counter, they yell out “Subway!” and all thank you. Quite charming.

Mother Nature treated me to a small lightning show on the ride home along the Thruway. I celebrated by rolling down all the windows in the car and cranking up the Eagles’ “One Of These Nights”.

Earl and I are on our way home from suburban Philadelphia after spending some time down here with his dad for Father’s Day. The weather has been beautiful; I wish I could bottle up a little bit of it and bring it home and convince Mother Nature that it’s summertime where we live too.

Last night we watched the Phillies play Tampa Bay at Citizens Bank Park. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, though it could have been even better if the Phillies had won the game. We ended up leaving at the 7th inning stretch.

After the game we headed over the famous Geno’s Steaks in South Philly for a Philly Cheesesteak. Geno’s has been in the news lately because of their new policy, which is posted all over the establishment: You must speak English when you order. This has some folks up in arms because it runs contrary to the ultra-PC notion that has taken grip of our society, but personally I support the policy.

When Earl and I travel to Montréal, I always make a valiant attempt to speak French. My success at this has been moderate in that I’m relying on my four years of high school French with very little practice in the 20 years since, but at the very least, the person I’m trying to talk with usually gets frustrated enough to switch to English. I like to think they appreciated my efforts of trying to be do as the natives do.

There was one time that I thought I was going to slugged by an old woman, though. We were at some touristy place and Earl was in the bathroom. It was the middle of July and very, very hot, even in metric. This older woman was smiling at me, so I figured I’d say something. So I said, “boy it’s hot” in French. “Il est chaud.”

She then looked rather startled and then annoyed because I had told her “he’s in heat”.

I should have said “Il fait chaud.” Must be she wasn’t interested.

Back to Geno’s. My “provolone wit” (cheese steak with provolone and onions) was delicious and it proved that the U.S. is the home of diverse English, because I don’t think there’s many places that you can order a “provolone wit” and have someone understand what you’re saying.

Outside.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Do what I am doing today during my lunch hour. Get outside and enjoy the sunshine. Breathe in some fresh air, even if you live in the middle of a big urban area. There’s still fresh air to be found. So what if it’s raining where you are. Get outside and splash around in some puddles.

Enjoy the moment.

I know it’s only Wednesday but I’m already thinking about our activities for the upcoming weekend. There’s so much to do with such little time – it’s bear night in Rochester, I believe it’s Pride weekend in Buffalo, there’s BBQ to be had just about anywhere; the list goes on and on. But there’s one thing that tops the list of “must-do” activities this weekend.

We’ll be waiting for our cable repairman.

Nothing says “fun-filled weekend” like waiting for the fourth visit of the Adelphia repairman. It really is a necessity, since our internet connection only works when the sun isn’t out and the temperatures are cool. I suggested to the technician on the line that predictable outages may be related to a heat issue but I think I deviated from the script or something because they immediately sounded flustered and mumbled something about writing that note down in my technical file.

I wonder what else my technical file contains. Are there notes about my demeanor on the phone? Because technically I hate Adelphia, but they’re the only game in town when it comes to broadband internet so I have to put up with them. But they’re not good at what they do and I’ve told them that.

I know what you’re saying. “It’s only your internet connection.” First of all, how dare you speak such profane things to a Super Geek like myself and secondly, our phone service rides the same connection so our telephones don’t work when the sun is out or when it’s warm.

I called Adelphia on Monday where they set up the service call for me. “Oh, you’re lucky, there’s an appointment available on Sunday.”, said the perky technician.

“Yesterday was Sunday.”

“Yes, but I’m talking about this coming Sunday.”

I just sighed and took the appointment, grateful that I didn’t have to wait for some second coming or something. So this weekend I may be arrested for kidnapping the cable repairman and holding him hostage until he gets this internet connection fixed. Let’s hope he’s cute.

I’m still getting used to iWeb, but I’ve posted a few pictures from our harbor cruise while we were in Portland, Maine.

Portland, Maine Lighthouse.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I spent the day in Portland, Maine doing the things that tourists visitors in Portland, Maine do.

I don’t know if I’m the only one that has noticed this, but “Tourist Information Centers” on the turnpikes have become “Visitor Information Centers”. Apparently in our über-PC world, “tourist” has become a derogatory word and instead we need to use “visitor” instead. Maybe it has something to do with accessorizing with fanny-packs. I found the whole concept amusing.

Anyways, Earl and I went on a boat cruise around the sites of Portland, Maine. This little boat ride focused on the various lighthouses, summer mansions and scattered islands around the Portland area. It was a very enjoyable journey.

Afterwards we walked around the Old Port area, which is very, uh, “visitory”. We picked up a couple of Christmas ornaments for our tree; it’s a tradition in our merry little household to pick up an ornament from every place we visit so that we can reflect our journeys around the holidays. There was talk today about adding a third tree to our holiday decorating to accomodate these new ornaments and of course I’m very excited about that. I’m writing about it in my blog now so that I remember the conversation come December.

After a little shopping we went to a local microbrewery for lunch where I had a Lobster Roll sandwich. It may have been the first time I’ve ever had lobster. While quite tasty, I don’t know what the big deal is, but then again I’m really not into seafood all that much. I was semi-expecting some sort of salt water orgasmic experience after observing the way some people carry on about lobster, donning their bibs and cracking over the poor little beast’s various appendages with something that looks like a walnut cracker. At least it didn’t taste like chicken.

Afterwards we made the trek home and once in Massachusetts we opted to do some shunpiking, taking the more scenic Mohawk Trail/MA 2. We stopped at the restaurant at the famous Hairpin Turn just east of North Adams for supper and ate out on their patio that overlooks the mountains and the parking lot. We both found the parking lot quite entertaining, watching cars try to manuever their way around the very small area that sits on the edge of a cliff. Good times.

There was more shunpiking home as we made our way through the darkness along NY 5S, winding our way through the Mohawk Valley.

We’re all ready for our next adventure.