Tices Shoal

I finally made it to Tices Shoal. After planning to go for boys' weekend only to have overheating problems I went with the family the weekend after Labor Day and it took about an hour. The temperatures were in the 80's and the bay water was warm. The ocean might have been warm too but there was a strong breeze and the beach didn't look comfortable. We anchored 500-600 ft off shore so we'd have a lot of water around us. During the day there could have been 60 - 70 boats out there with us. At night most headed for home and only 5-6 other boats stayed the night.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves just swimming, eating, and drinking. We ran the generator for a while to cook and listen to music but the night was cool and we didn't run the A/C. We set the nav system to issue an alarm if the boat started to drift but found that running the computer for the evening drained the battery. Have to try another tact next time.

Boating Again

Kevie started talking to our neighbor John about their recent trip and we ended up in their boat drinking coffee and chatting. They're nice people and I took the opportunity to check out the houseboat. There really is a lot of room. Two berths, a big salon with a separate kitchen, and more space on the roof with a small patio out back.

Saturday afternoon we went to Seaside Heights and walked the boardwalk. Played frog bog, went on the carnival rides, and ate our way down the boardwalk. Chris went on the bungee jump trampoline. According to his expression he was uncertain about just how high the thing was going to take him but I know he had a good time. I want to try it next time.

Sunday morning we put the boat on the travel lift and poked and prodded gunk out of the intakes for both engines and the A/C. The covers that fit over the holes are shaped like clam shells and where the striations would be in the shells there are slits. I had screwdrivers to poke in the slits and when I'd removed the stuff that was hanging down thought I was done. Fortunately the more experienced around me (Dave and Jacob) had a better idea of what was needed and they dug inside with a putty knife and ended up using the power wash to force the stuff out. "Stuff" was a mix of dead and live eel grass and living barnacles.

Dave's advice is 1) Sand the bottom paint off the covers and never paint them again. He explained that the paint has metal in it that draws this stuff to it. 2) run the engines every week so that the normal suction can deal with the build up of gunk before it becomes too dense.

Needless to say that when the boat was dropped back in the water it ran at temperatures 40-50 degrees less than before. All is well.

We headed over to Tuckerton in the early afternoon to visit a boat up restaurant called Paninni Bay but when we found it the chart showed the water to be way too shallow and there was no marked channel. We chickened out and spent the afternoon at anchor in the bay splashing around and made our own lunch.

Got back to port in time for Sunset Marina's Labor Day festivities. The owners put out a nice spread and we all probably ate more than we intended. Sat with Bob and Alison and were surprised that they had just been through the same overheating problem and remedy that we went through. I guess I don't feel so singled out for abuse anymore.

Summer Vacation

Chris and Kevie arrived Sunday night after the guys had departed. The 3 of us spent the week at the beach and there were a march of days that were steamy hot made just for sitting on the beach and that's what K and C did. I joined them occasionally and really enjoyed swimming and playing around in the surf.

This season we bought beach tags only for C & K and I was never checked because I don't spend significant time on the beach. That's a $25 lesson for the future.

I asked Morrison's Marina to take a look at the boat over heating problem and Mike came on Thursday. He had the pump out in ten minutes and replaced the impeller shortly there after. He was concerned that there was inadequate water flow through the intake and made an effort to clean out what he could from the inside.

We took the boat out after he left and there was still a problem. So, I called Morrisons back to let them know the problem wasn't fixed and Jim suggested that we put the boat on the lift at Sunset and clean the gunk out of the through holes. Consensus on the dock is that this is reasonable but in the back of my mind I'm concerned that it won't be the final fix and that I'll pay 100's of dollars for the short haul only to have to take it to Morrisons for final resolution.

The boat problem took a backseat to just having fun so there was putt-putt golf, time in the arcade, and we took the SeaDoo out in the bay. Chris graduated from the ultra-slow speed pull toy tow to getting bounced around at planing speed. We get more adventurous as we get older.

Last night we ate at the Voodoo Steak House and it was good. It's on our list of places to go back to.

Boys' Weekend

This is the week to kick back. I've joined the ranks of the unemployed and Vic and Nadeem helped celebrate by joining me at the beach Friday night.

Victor and I drove down from Chatham and met Nadeem at what used to be Ott's Restaurant, now Theo's by the Sea. We had a nice dinner and afterward V & N got into a heated discussion about something. It sounded a little monotonous to me so I headed back to the marina and we all reconnected later that night.

Saturday morning the 3 of us piled onto the Seadoo to go for a ride. Twice we tipped the boat over and tumbled into the drink. Couldn't have been that we exceeded the weight limit.

The plan was to boat to Tices Shoal and anchor out Saturday night but as soon as we got under way the starboard engine overheated. I went into the bilge to check the trap but it was clean. I restarted the engine and a few minutes later it developed a terrific whine. I looked down into the open hatch and saw the intake valve was still closed. Good bye seawater pump.

We made it back to the dock and that night Vic prepared a gourmet meal with fixins that he had brought from home. I was hungry and it was delicious. Cudos! That evening we sat on the dock smoking cigars and Gary from across the way joined the conversation. It was good fun.

Vic was interested in extracting the pump and gave it a valiant try on Sunday but we had neither the tools or the know how.

Blues

We got a late start to the Red Wine and Blues Festival at Tuckerton because I was working on the boat. I got tired of the bilge pump going off every couple minutes so I went down to see what was going on and tightened a loose fitting on the emergency intake.

The air conditioners had been kicking off so I cleaned the trap but the flow of water through the hull was still pretty anemic so we went for a cruise to sweep the eel grass out of the through hole. That worked but while we were out there...

Encountered some problem where the port engine would rev but it didn't seem like there was any power to the prop. Spent some time just floundering but the problem passed and we spent a half hour on plane with everything working OK. When I got back to port I checked the transmission fluid and it was fine. Hoping that the prob was related to the boat just sitting for several weeks. Time will tell.

Were hoping to boat to The Red Wine and Blues Festival but the kibosh was put on that when we found out we couldn't spend Saturday night there. There were not as many wineries this year but the music was good.

The beach newspapers list a boat up restaurant in Tuckerton called Panini Bay so we drove by just to check it out. It looks like fun for one of these weekends.

Sunday we took the annual dip at Thundering Surf. We had a small emergency when Chris cut his foot somehow in the Lazy River but eked out a good time anyway. When we were leaving I backed into a Toyota parked behind me and scratched the bumper. See what that does to our insurance premiums.

LBI

Took off for the beach on July 3 and saw the fireworks yesterday. They were squeezed in around the high winds and rain. So far we've had 2 nights of water noise (waves against the hull) and then the bay really gets rough a couple of hours before dawn. At 4:00 in the morning the bow of the boat, where we sleep, starts to bounce up and down and we're shaken awake.

Yesterday we found a place that sells live crabs here on the island so K had a feast. Rocko found some cast off crab shells and ate them. Dumb mutt!

Ch-ch-changes

Patrick D and Dwaraka S came to the office and asked Ramandeep and me to come to the conference room with them. Patrick told us that he was taking another job within pfe and that we'd be reporting to Dwarka from this point on.

He talked about the outstanding work and Dwaraka said that he'd catch up with details by reading the spec document that Ramandeep has put together. I got the impression that he won't be into the fine details the way that Patrick has been.

Doesn't seem like a bad thing just different.

Governors Island

I spent some of the weekend refreshing my memory about OOP, design patterns, and Perl for a phone screen interview Monday morning. I find all of it fascinating especially as I consider its applicability to what I do today. Even if I don't get the job it was still worthwhile.



K has been to Governors island in NY harbor a couple times because her company has had their summer picnic there but Sunday she shared it with C and I. What's remarkable about the place is that it's a small town. You walk down tree lined streets with houses and apartment buildings like you'd find in many suburbs but if you lift your head the skyscrapers of Manhattan are right there.

The Indian Quarter

Rich suggested lunch at one of the Indian restaurants on Lexington in the 20's. I didn't know that there was a span of 5 blocks or so from 30th St south on Lex that is home to many Indian restaurants. We had lunch at the Curry Leaf on 27th St and the food was good. I'd like to go back and explore.

Lucas Foss

Kevie's choral group The Greenwich Village Singers pulled off a coup last night when they sang at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall. Before the choir took the stage there was a performance of Foss' Renaissance Concerto for Flute and Orchestra. He wrote the concerto for Carol Wincenc who performed the flute piece. K and I both really enjoyed her performance.

Later the chorus came on and did some Aaron Copland songs and Foss' The Prairie. They were in fine form and I know some part of Kevie wanted to be up there with them.

Bell tolls for Rich T

After considerable unhappiness Rich received word that his contract with pfe will end on 7/12. I hope he'll be happier at the next gig and I wish him good luck.

The Orthodontist

Chris came home from the Orthodontist yesterday with braces on his upper teeth and a plethora of brushes, floss, and pamphlets on how to care for his new appliance. From the beginning he's seemed excited about this. I think he's seen some of his classmates with braces and feels that there's some status involved.

I'm told that the strategy is to correct his overbite first and then proceed to straightening the bottom teeth.

Rocko also got a new doo yesterday. We let the hair mats get pretty thick during the cold weather and then have him shaved in the summer. Kevie told me on the phone that he was a much smaller dog and that is what I noticed first. It's like somebody hit him with a shrink ray.

Delsea Drive-in

Last night we went to the drive-in and saw a double bill of Surf's Up and The Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I liked Surf's Up. It was sweet without being cornball. But the thing here is the drive-in experience. The last movie I saw at a drive in was Capricorn One in 1978. I remember because I was on my honeymoon. There's just something about watching a movie in your car. Of course they don't have the speakers on the pole that you bring in and set on the window anymore.

This morning C and I went into town for breakfast at The Looking Glass cafe and then stopped at the barber on High St. and got hair cuts.

The District

It seems that we've won the latest round with the Jersey City school district. We have a settlement in which they've agreed to cover the bulk of the cost of sending Chris to Winston Prep. Our success is due to Kevie's tireless activism and very professional assistance from Hillary D. Freeman, Esq. of G. Emerson Dickman's Office.

As negotiations with the school board came to a close it was clear that we won't get to send Chris to a Summer Camp that offers academic remediation so, he'll be going back to BJCC for another summer. According to the schedule he'll be on the road a lot this summer. Does that mean the "I'm bored" complaints will diminish?

Left a little early on 6/8 and had dinner at Daddy O's (used to be Wida's) Friday night. It was a nice early celebration of K's birthday. The food was good and the atmosphere was fun. There was even live entertainment.

Went to Atlantic City on Sunday to explore the mall at The Tropicana and take in the sights. I've been there a couple times in the last year but K hadn't seen the "New" AC. She bought some funky earings at The Zephyr Gallery. Had dinner at The Trinity Pub on the top floor of the Mall at Caesars. The food was fine but the highlight of the evening was the light show at the fountain. Wow! It was spectacular. "You give me fever all through the night."

Thought that I would never see the contract from Watersports for the Jet Ski slip. I had called Rick Quelch a couple of times over the winter to ask him for same but never got one. It actually showed up in the mail on Friday after I had handed over the season's payment.

I started feeling sick right before the birthday weekend with runny nose and sore throat. I was determined to let it pass without recognition but it got me down and I spent Monday in bed.

Fathers Day was fun. Kevie and Chris spent the day at the beach. Later Nadeem & Eddie came by and we walked on the beach for while. Eddie loves the surf.

Pfizer Gig

As the project at Pfizer changes from new development to maintenance I've been casually looking at the job boards thinking about the next big thing. I also looked at the calendar and noticed I have an anniversary coming up.

So, I contacted the broker I'm working for and started rate negotiations to get some kind of recognition that I'm worth more now than I was a year ago. It was easy enough to wrangle a couple bux more and it puts me in the mood to stay longer. These guys at Sunrise Systems have been very straight up. I recommend them.

Seadoo Unveiling

Called Surf City on Thursday and she said that my "ski" was scheduled to be done on Saturday so I rode off into the wild blue Saturday morning. I tried to convince Chris to come by making the deal that we'd spend half the time going his speed and the other half going mine. He bought it initially but when it came time to commit he rode back with mom. Had a great time jumping wakes, making high speed sharp turns and generally getting wet. But...

After riding for some 20 minutes it lost power and a "check engine" alert came up on the console. I called Surf City and they asked me ride it back so they could hook it up to their analyzer. I put it on one of the pads outside the shop and they tossed out a cable that attached to the wiring harness somewhere. After a few minutes the tech came out, tightened the wire on the coil and told me it was good to go.

Nadeem and I went to Atlantic City on Sunday 6/3 and had lunch at Hooters. The plan was to walk the boardwalk and smoke a cigar but it was raining heavily so we stood under an overhang and smoked and talked.

Memorial Day Weekend

On Wednesday C played his first concert as a member of JW Wakeman's concert band. There were 2 songs and we couldn't see him because of his position on stage but I did hear the trumpets.

Chris has had stomach problems the whole week; nausea & constipation. He seems better now.

He went for evaluation at The Winston School on Friday. Among other things he sat in on a math class and was given a page of exercises that he drew a blank on. K says it was material he had last year. When you want your kid to strut to strut his stuff it seldom works out. I hope they got the idea that he was motivated and well behaved. We'll see.

I got a call from Ken T on Wednesday saying that they needed a pin out for the DB-9 connector on the heading sensor so I called Nobeltec and they recommended that I use their serial to USB adapter. With that being shipped I asked Ken to just leave the heading sensor disconnected as the radar should work fine without it.

When K rented the car from Budget they told her that the right rear tire had a "slow leak" and that if she saw it getting flat to just add some air. So, on the way to LBI, she passes a woman who is anxiously pointing to her tire. She pulls over to find it very flat, drives to the next rest area and inflates it. Later when I met her at the marina it is flat again.

Thought we would spend the night on the boat but first stop by the Millville house to get the air compressor for dealing with the flat. By the time we had dragged stuff in and repacked the car we decided that it would be too much to try and load the boat that night.

We got up at 4:00 on Saturday to hit Spring Garden around day break. When we got to the marina the first thing I tried to do was connect the laptop to the radar but I couldn't get any of the inverters to work. Turns out that the cigarette lighter just doesn't provide a sufficient connection anymore. We had a new inverter in the car that had a supply cord with alligator clips. So I clipped it into the electrical block above fridge and that solved the problem.

As soon as the laptop was fired up it was evident that nothing had been tested. I turned on the radar and the antenna didn't rotate :( I told Ken that it didn't seem like anything had been tested and he said that they just stopped when they couldn't hook up the heading sensor. Great. By this time I'd determined that I'd need a software upgrade before I could get the interface working so decided to leave it alone until I could test the interface.

Because of goofing with the radar, etc. we left Spring Garden at 9:30 for a completely uneventful ride up to LBI. We hit Morrison's around 2:30 and were surprised to find gas $.04 cheaper there than at Spring Garden. I think a lot of operators are cutting margins on fuel in order to support boating.

Talked to Rick Quelch at Watersports and he told me to put the ski on a pad and call him to let him know where it was. In return I left a check for $900 at the desk.

Went to Surf City Marina Sunday morning half expecting to ride the Seadoo away but the woman there sold us a Spring prep job and said that it would be ready the next weekend.

Went back to Millville on Monday to collect bird, etc. K had tried to start the lawn mower with no success so I checked the oil and put gas in it. We had left a little gas in it over the winter and could have collected some water. I've read that's common with the ethanol mix we're using in NJ. I shot some starter fluid into the cylinder and it fired up. Finished both the front and back yard before the sun went down.

Dancin' Feet

This weekend I moved this blog from .Mac here to Blogger. The ability to make entries without using iWeb is really important to me. This got me thinking that the return of thin clients is just around the corner. I'd bet that sites like Google documents and spreadsheets will see more and more traffic until they become the de-facto standard.

C was really ill on Thursday but started to turn around on Friday. Fever, runny nose, cough. He's feeling pretty human now but still has a juicy cough. Now K has it. She took to her bed yesterday and stayed home today. Guess I'm next :(

K overnighted the RJ-45 connector to Spring Garden on Wed and I called them on Friday to make sure they got it. I spoke to a woman (either John's or Ken's wife) who said she hadn't seen it so I gave her the tracking info confirming delivery. She said she'd look for it. I have the feeling that the boat will be launched very late this season.

Hillary F told Kevie that the consultant had finished her work and that we had a strong case to proceed against the JC school district. We agreed that we'd forward the retainer and her office would file the complaint. Now we're really into it!

On Saturday we went to New Milford to witness The Dancin' Feet. I enjoyed it but missed all of Stephanie's dance because I was trying to take pictures. I probably should have used a wider angle but was worried that you wouldn't be able to recognize her. I'll know better next time.

We got an early morning phone call from LGN which I ignored thinking that it would be a request to bring her home. After 2 more messages we learned that her TV remote had stopped working so C and I went to Harborview to re-program the thing. Didn't have any tape to secure the battery cover so I know the prob will recur. Just a question of when.

The Milones came over later in the day and K made a Chili recipe that she got from an acquaintance at work. I thought it was great but she spent the night with bad heartburn. Susan brought home made cookies and Vic tossed a salad. All in all it was a feast. Andy and Mark introduced C to Club Penguin and it has become the top priority activity.

Enhance and debug

K and C spent Tuesday in Millville to take care of the Car and clothes washer.


The bracket that holds the plug for a trailer electrical connection had fallen off the undercarriage and was welded back on by Foschi. They looked at the cruise control that had ceased to function when they replaced the ABS computer. We thought that it was caused by something done during the last repair but no such luck.


The welding and the diagnostics came to $70 and he recommended that we get a used cruise control module but that will have to be ordered. It doesn't seem practical to make a Millville run just for the cruise control so it'll probably be taken to the dealer in Jersey City.


K stopped by Spring Garden to check on the boat's progress. We're expecting the engines to be tuned, zincs replaced, bottom painted, and the radar to be installed. T

Indiana

We left the house at 4:30 to catch a 7 AM flight and had the roads to ourselves. C has been worried about flying ever since we told him we were going which is hard to understand in the face of a recent successful Orlando flight. After we took off and made the banking turn to the west he was happy to be on the plane and let us know that he had surpassed all personal expectations in the brave and daring department.

K and I dozed on the plane but still felt sleep deprived when the plane landed. There was an announcement that Chicago time was an hour earlier than New York so we felt we had time to burn. We accepted an invitation to stay the night with Tari Haff but I waited too long to cancel the hotel reservation and got stuck with the full tab. Thinking that we could salvage some utility from the reservation we headed to the hotel for a short nap. Once we saw the time in the room it became clear that Ft Wayne time was the same as New York and that we didn't have the extra hour we thought we had.

The GPS had us twist and turn over so many country roads that I had no idea where we were but we arrived around 3:00 without getting lost. We might have been the last ones to get there.

There were many familiar faces and many that I just drew a blank on. It really helped that Kevie had license to go up and ask, "Now, who are you?" Butch was being very stoic and such a gentleman. He greeted everyone, made smalltalk, and asked asked after Louise. More pictures are here.

Several of us took a walk to see the cottage that Al and Lucille had when we were kids. As soon as we walked over the rise I recognized it. It was easy to remember being 12 and rowing around the lake with Mike and swimming at the public beach.

We spent Saturday night with Teri and Jim at their lake cottage. Warm hospitality and good conversation.

Got on the road early and made it back to Midway with few troubles. Christopher asked when we were coming back; a sign that he had a good time.

Stopped at Harborview to see my mom as it was Mother's Day. I thought she would be brimming with questions about the wake but she wasn't. I don't know if she forgot or just got the days mixed up but we gave her the blow by blow.

Conversations with Mom

Told my mom last night that we were going to Alene's wake and asked if there was anything she wanted to pass along. She told me to give them some popcorn. I'm never sure if she actually hears what I'm saying.

Weekend in Review

This week C complained about the buttons sticking on his trumpet so they gave him one with better buttons but it was in rough shape. So Saturday morning we went to Regional Music in Millville and rented a newish trumpet. There's been a lot of tooting since.

K and I were sitting on the starboard rear facing seat eating lunch when the rotten wooden support collapsed. I showed it to Ken and his idea was to screw the seat frame to the fiberglass and and put a leg under it.

The transom door has scraped the jam since we got the boat so the fiberglass contractors took it last weekend and I'm thinking he intends to move the hinges.

There was plenty of evidence that they had started work on installing the radar. Cables and boxes everywhere. Ken told me there's a warning in the instructions not to run the radar cables close to the VHF antenna cable and that the installer is having difficulty finding an alternate way to run the cable. We left them the laptop and a patch cable.

A couple of years ago one of the neighbors in the boat yard recommended Collinite Insulator Wax and we've used it as a second coat but buffing has always been a problem. This season the entire hull was waxed with the Insulator Wax except for the starboard side under the lip which was done with Marine Wax from the Spring Garden boat store. K says that wax was SO much easier to buff.

I used full strength Simple Green cleanser as a teak stripper for all the trim on the port side seat/cabinet and it worked but didn't do the same job as Te-Ka. K stripped the teak on the gunwale with Te-Ka.

Wake and re-acquaintance

Alene's obituary in the Marion paper said that there would be no service but I got an email from her daughter, Teri Haff and there is going to be a gathering at her house in Silver Lake on Saturday the 12th.

We've decided to go.

Dinner at Taboon

Vic and I went to Taboon on 52nd and 10th. The food was Mediterranean and tasty. We had a tzatziki appetizer and I had lamb kabobs.

Afterwards we walked and smoked our way down to the west village and had drinks outside at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Good fun.

Alene's Death

My cousin Alene Goodman died today in Marion, IN. We were not close but she was one of my Mom's favorites. I suspect that she was a real anchor to the Matrejek clan and know that she'll be missed.

Boat Cleaning

After many weeks of cold temperatures and drizzle the sun came out on Saturday and the boat cleaning began. I've been working on vinyl seats and teak trim and K has been swabbing the deck.

The northeast had drenching rains the week of 4/16 and NJ flooding was in the national news. I think the water we get in the Millville basement has been due to drainage from the window wells but this time the rugs were soaked even away from the windows. I wouldn't be surprised if the water table actually rose into the basement.

We now have a washer that won't spin and a furnace that won't heat and it's likely that both were caused by water in the basement.

Taxes

I started the income taxes the first week of Feb but it was easy to get sidetracked so I was sitting at the computer Tue night putting on the final touches. When I was ready to send things off I clicked on the transmit button and got a message from Intuit saying that their server couldn't deal with me right now and to try again later.

After trying for an hour I printed all 3 returns (Federal, NJ, and NY)and went off to the Post Office party that always rolls on tax night. The main downtown P.O. in Jersey City was shut tight as was the building in Hoboken. I guess that shrinking postal services reflect a shrinking bottom line.

K and I dumped the returns in the Hoboken mail box and retired to a local bar to celebrate the end of tax season.

Not Quite

Kevie drove home last night and reports that the cruise control no longer works. It's always something.

Lingering Winter

Christopher had Spring Break the week of 4/9 so he and K spent the time in Millville. A tradition has developed around this such that she gets a good start on boat chores during the week but this year the temps were cold and it rained continuously.

K took the car to Foschi to have them repair a long standing problem with the brake warning light. Replacing the computer has turned off the light and my expectation is that the ABS will function should we find ourselves in a situation where it's needed.

Safe!

On Saturday K and I took the NJ Safe Boating course at Husted’s Landing. The Coast Guard Auxiliary gave the course in a marina garage. The room was cold and the seating was less than comfortable but it was exciting to be around boaters talking about boats at this time of year when we’re contemplating taking the shrink wrap off and getting back in the water.

Last year NJ implemented new legislation that says if you were born before 1959 that you have through June 2008 to become certified. Because of our advanced years we could have waited till then except for the clause that PWC operators must be certified immediately.

$40 covered 7 hours of power point narration peppered with stories from old salts about the calamities they’d been witness to. Emphasis on there being a price for not following the rules.

What was in that Glass?

Last Sunday we were invited over to Vic & Susan's for dinner. They had previously planned a get together with Jim and Sharon Scanlan so it was the six of us plus all the boys.

Vic, Jim, and I took the kids to the local sledding spot and they had a blast while the 3 of us stood at the bottom of the hill and talked. I wish I had a place to sled like this when I was a kid. It was about 70 ft up a steep incline so you can gather a lot of speed but have to be mindful about your angle/approach to the road.

When we got back to the house K and S were 3 sheets to the wind and having a grand time. It was a good release for K who had spent the day with homework, etc. all the time watching the clock so that we would make it to Chatham at 2. I consumed my share of wine and at some point Vic brought out the long island iced tea.

Jim had some definite ideas on broiling and took over cooking in the Milones newly renovated kitchen producing nicely seared steaks for dinner. Shortly after dinner I noticed that K was missing and Susan let me know that she had retired to the car.

I detached C from sledding in the Milone's back yard and drove home. It was a fun time. Too much alcohol but sometimes...

First warm day

We had a 70 degree day yesterday and I convinced the family to go for a walk after dinner. We made a 20 minute trek down to Exchange Place and stopped into a hotel bar for refreshments before turning around. Beautiful night but today they’re talking snow.

Mike & Jack

Visited my Cousin Mike and his partner Jack over the weekend of 2/24. It was great to connect again. We picked up right where we left off some 17 years ago! I was only there from Friday to Sunday but I got caught up on family news and thawed out in the warm sun after some bitter New York weather.

When we got to the house I met their 2 Maltese Harley and Smokey who can become insistent that the ball be thrown for an endless game of fetch.

Mike works in Ft. Lauderdale and maintains an apartment there but spends his down time in Hobe Sound.

He had never come out to me though I had suspected he was gay. Before the end of the weekend we casually talked about it as though I’d always known. I’m glad there’s no more pretense.

Jack and I are both early risers and so got to spend both mornings together. Loved the Army stories. His latest avocation has been to head the neighborhood community board so I got the dish on the neighbor’s bad behavior and what it takes to keep flora and fauna at bay in a tropical environment.

I had expected to do some drinking and I did but, Mike has given up booze because of prescription meds that he was taking. There was a beer or 2 just to be social and we ate at some great places like Shrimpers and Flanigans.

Saturday night we went to the Vari Asian Crazy Buffet in West Palm with their friend Robert. Mike knew one of the waitresses and was able to get us a seat ahead of others who were waiting in a long line. It pays to have connections.

Frank’s Latest

After a lot of missed calls from Frank we connected last night and began to talk about his availability via telephone. I was surprised to learn that he spends days and nights in the lobby of his apartment building close to the phone. He doesn’t have a phone in his room.

One thing led to another so I asked him about the practicality of waiting for a call from his family that probably wasn’t going to come. That irked him a little but then I asked if he thought that Kelly, Jon, or Lise might be pissed at him for anything and he answered, “yes.” I said that patching things up with someone who is angry with you starts with an apology and that changed the tone of the conversation. He became pugnacious and I’m not sure what would have happened if we’d been in the same room but it could have become physical.

Today he left a message saying, “If I’m so wrong then you should send me a priest.”

Astoria

Saturday we took the N train all the way to Ditmars Blvd and walked around Astoria. It was fun to walk down 31st St and see the taverna’s and all the Greek names.

We stopped at a record store and K bought a CD of a contemporary pop star whose music was playing on the store’s sound system. Then we stopped at Titan Foods and were overwhelmed with Goodies that K remembers from childhood. We got olives and diples and taramousalata. The taramousalata was made with potatoes and not much garlic. A far cry from what I’ve come to expect.

We stopped at a coffee bar and K ordered Greek coffee while I went for expresso. The pastries were sweet and the atmosphere comfortable. We sat next to an exhaust fan that was kicking up a breeze and a man in back of the room lit a cigarette. No one seemed to care. I think Greeks have a different perspective on smoking.

We cut over to Steinway and walked for a long block. It was kind of boring. Lot’s of women’s clothing and shoes. Nothing Greek there so we cut back to 31st and wondered how people lived so close to the elevated train.

We got down to Broadway and used the Not For Tourist Guide to find a restaurant called Uncle George's. It was a diner atmosphere with all the expected Hellenic cuisine on the menu.

The Sunday project was to consolidate both of Mom’s storage bins into one. It is done and it seems like a landmark achievement.

Gia had arthroscopy on her right knee a week ago last Friday 2/9 and is still in a lot of pain. This after being told that she should be up and around the following Monday. The doctor didn’t declare success after the surgery saying that there was so much inflammation that it was hard to tell the state of the joint. I’m concerned.

Friends and Food

K, C, and I have spent the last 3 Thursdays at Keepers just clearing stuff out of my Mom’s storage lockers. Progress has been slow but soon we’ll have cleared enough space to consolidate the remaining stuff into one locker.

On Tuesday I went out with Richard T for cheap Guinness Stout at a college bar close to Cooper Union and afterward went for kebob’s at The Olive Tree Cafe on MacDougal. Richard said it’s popular in the Russian community. The food was good and the company entertaining.

This was a second try at getting together. We set off together on Monday but got separated in the Subway.

Wednesday was Vic and my every other “Thursday” get together. We started at his place where he showed me some of the finer points of kitchen cabinet installation. Vic pointed at a seam between cabinets and even after he showed it to me I wasn’t really sure it was there. So close to invisible.

We ate at Pop’s, the Cajun place we’d ordered from at Halloween. I had a sandwich that was so huge I didn’t feel like breakfast in the morning. We ended at The Hunt Club in The Grand Summit Hotel. They’d advertised dancing and it’s a candidate for taking the girls (and maybe the men) dancing. Seemed like a fine place.

More Tivo

Kevie spent Monday morning with the Comcast tech and I am in Hi Def, dual tuner heaven. Even better, there is free server software from Tivo that turns my Mac into a media server that supplies photos and music to Tivo. This is much more than I expected!

Exit the Eyehome box. It is no longer needed and hopefully I can find it a new home via eBay.

Pfizer Woes

Some of the reports about job cuts at Pfizer got it wrong. They said that the cuts were a result of anticipated revenue drops when Lipitor goes generic in 2010. I don't give them that much credit because they’re feeling the pinch now. Merck's Zocor went generic over the Summer and Lipitor is not cost competitive with generic Zocor. So, when Pfizer can't sell their biggest money maker they have to think about cutting overhead.

Add to this the experience of having to pull the statin Torcetrapib from late trials and they're in hot soup.

Tivo

After 3 months of using Comcast’s PVR I was sick of the interface. I find it hard to navigate and the damn thing has a preference to record standard TV over Hi Def.

Having lived with both Tivo and Windows MCE I opted for Tivo. There’s not a big difference between the two but, for me, MCE is overkill. I can’t really use the music or picture interface because of my preference for Mac.

The box came today and it’s very sleek and light and connects with a modest number of cables. It’s a much neater package than the Wintel PC it replaces. I was concerned about my DVI TV’s compatibility with the HDMI connection on the Tivo but for $15 Radio Shack sold me an adapter that allows me to plug the DVI cable into the Tivo box.

We await the Comcast tech who’ll come on Monday and insert the cablecards.

New Years at Montebello

As a prelude to our Canada trip I got the EVDO connection working on the MacBook, bought an invereter to supply juice to the laptop in the car, and a GPS all in the name of staying connected and not getting lost.

So it turned out that the inverter wasn’t powerful enough to supply the laptop and the GPS took us to the middle of nowhere when we got off the highway looking for gas. Ah, the wonderful world of high tech!

The Montebello stay was very enjoyable. We went skating on Sunday but there wasn’t enough snow to ski. We broke out a card game called Set to pass the time in the hotel. What a mind bender that is.

K and I had a 7 course meal and danced the night away on New Years Eve. C joined us a little later and was convinced to dance too. There was a memorable conga line that he and his mother danced in!

Kevie was ill on Monday with the beginning of a cold. She played a little tennis in the morning but took to the bed early in the evening. Christopher and I went on an organized hike down to the slope where they have tubing. There was a bon fire and they had opened the tubing for a little night time action.

C almost conquered his fear of tubing but backed away at the last minute. He says he’s concerned that the tow rope will break and he’d end up sliding down the hill backwards.