My Mini-Vacation Starts Now

I have a Community Teamworks project tomorrow to help out at an animal shelter and Labor Day is on Monday. It's almost like a 4-day weekend! Plus, we're going to Carmine's, a new york family style Italian restaurant and House of Brews tomorrow for my birthday. Woohoo!!

Archives Archives Archives!

Since my website expired, I "lost" all of my entry archives so it's not easy to read them. I was smart enough to create a small program that downloaded them all to my computer automatically but they are just sitting there in a folder. SO, I have been slowly re-posting them on this new blog. You may have noticed that there are a lot more entries from the past in the archives section. This has been grueling manual labor but well worth the effort. The memories came flooding back from the winter when it was cold and snowing, the beautiful, cool and crisp fall in NY, the summer of training, the Europe trip and my chaotic apt search. Man, a lot has happened in the past year! I was reading entries from when I wasn't even living in New York yet! Pretty crazy to think that it was just a little over a year ago... June Archives: http://www.gabefender.com/2006_06_01_archive.html

Padres vs. Mets @ Shea Stadium

On Thursday, I took a nice break from the city and work to go to a baseball game with my colleague John. It was very unexpected and short notice but since we weren't overly busy that day, we decided to make the trek out to queens. I had been asking John for awhile to let me know if any tickets came up for when the Pads came to town but he said all his connections fell through. Oddly enough, one of his old co-workers had an extra pair of tickets and he couldn't go so we got to go instead.

We had a good time and the seats were decent although they were way out in the outfield on the second level. We still had a good view of the field and the action of the game. It was a really good game with the Padres winning off Gonzalez's home run in the 10th to put the Pads ahead 9-8. It was such short notice that I couldn't bring my camera along to take any pictures so I'll just have to remember the game from this entry. Now I've been to both baseball stadium's in the New York area. Pretty cool :-)



Tonight, Michelle and I are going to see Superbad. We're really looking forward to it!

Unusually cold week

It's been quite interesting weather this week: rain and mid-50 degree temperatures. I'm all for having weather like this instead of 95 degree hot and humid days but it is still weird...

http://gothamist.com/2007/08/22/confirmed_yeste.php

Our trek through the city - mapped by google

I mapped our walking today on google...this tool is soo sweeet! It adds up to about 4 miles.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=113499753442189307308.000438025484af874255c&ll=40.770077,-73.974466&spn=0.044462,0.11467&z=14&om=1

It's a GORGEOUS day outside

Hot and rainy weather swept through the tri-state area last night which brought beautiful weather behind it. We woke up this morning to 60 degree weather...in AUGUST! I went for a run just to soak it all in. The cool wind felt so good against my face and body. I have been longing for this kind of weather for what seems like ages. It's been such a nice summer now that I think about it, which only a few hot days here and there. We are going to spend most of the day outside to fully enjoy this perfect weather.

So last night, my project was supposed to go-live but it was postponed due to senior management intervention. I'm not going to get into details but I feel very bittersweet about it. Not dark chocolate bittersweet because that's just tasty, but more of an instant relief that I'm not working all weekend added with the stress of needing to do this next weekend or labor day weekend (hopefully not!). I really wanted to get this rollout done and over with so it's almost extra stress that the project is not in place. Sigh...

The Maryland Crab Trip

It's been a very fun, relaxing and stress free weekend which is EXACTLY what I needed right now. I really could not ask for a better weekend at this point. Let me explain...

Me, Stephanie and Andrew met at the port authority bus terminal at. 10:45 on Saturday morning and boarded a bus to Philadelphia. After a bit of traffic, we arrived in Philly where Andrew's dad, Patrick, picked us up. We drove to Andrew's house in Wayne, PA which is about 30min outside of Philly. I really like the town, it's small but not tiny and is very quaint. It had a very cozy, suburb feel to it with lots of greenery and trees. It seemed like a great town to grow up in.

Once we got back, there were "a few" snacks that Andrew's mom put together. We went outside to their patio and lounged with a perfect summer evening surrounding us. There was a HUGE bowl of fruit salad, cheese, crackers, homemeade salsa, blue chips, iced tea and lemonade. Wow... What a way to be greeted! Steph and I wanted to bring them something as a thank you so we each got a different chocolate. I bought some assorted pieces from Chocolate Bar and steph bought truffles from max brenner's. They all seemed to really like the chocolates so we felt good about our contribution.

After enjoying the delicious snacks and the lovely weather, we headed down to Havre de Grace, MD for hard shell crabs. As mentioned in the title of this entry, by the end of our day we had traveled through 5 different states which is pretty cool is my mind: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. We were all impressed with the fact that we did that. :)

We arrived in Havre de Grace and parked in front of Price's, a house converted into a cozy restaurant. We ordered two and a half dozen ahead of time which was smart since we would later hear the hostess saying "we're all sold out" to many customers. The atmosphere was really nice: a homey restaurant with butcher paper for table clothes and people all around happily enjoying their crabs.



We were seated in the back and ordered some pitchers of beer and a couple of apps. The sweet potato fries were really good! The crabs came out a short while later and the feast began. I learned the right technique from andrew and was well on my way to crab eating by the second one. My favorite part was the inside where there was lots of meat and it was still warm by the time I cracked my way through. I enjoyed the old bay seasoning they put on these guys, especially licking it off my fingers. I admit, it was all really, really messy but very good. The beer and fries helped balance out the overload of crab meat.

Steph's super excited!


Defeated...


A group of happy crabbers


After taking down 6 crabs, which is half as many as the good eaters, I was ready to walk...but instead we went to a homemade ice cream shop down the street. I couldn't resist ordering two scoops to try the different flavors but the scoops were GINORMOUS. My goodness, they were huge scoops piled into a pint sized cup. I choose mint chocolate chip and chocolate madness with the latter being my favorite. I looooved the ice cream here even though it filled my stomach beyond capacity. The name of the place was bomboys I believe and if I ever go back to Havre de Grace I will be hitting up this spot again.

Epitomy of a food coma


Monster ice cream cone...yes, he ate the whole thing shortly after I took this picture.


We drove back and dropped kaufjo off at uPenn before getting mildy lost in the city. We were driving a Lexus so the navigation system saved us. While continuing to be lost we passed one restaurant that is worth noting: Hilal Bilal - steak and take. Sounds like a fine establishment and somewhere to go next time I'm in philly, except for the exact opposite. I suppose if I'm ever in the mood for some steak and take, I'll now know where to go!

When we got back to andrew's house, we decided to give Teresa's next door a visit. It's an italian food restaurant with a recently opened beer bar next door. It sounded intriguing for andrew and I since we love beer so off we went. Our waiter knew so many details about beer, I was really impressed. He made some very good recommendations for beer and we had a great time hanging out there. One really interesting beer was a sour cherry drink that tasted more like sour champagne that beer. It was from Belgium and extremely interesting. I wasn't a huge fan, but I'm glad I tried it. OH and did I mention each beer was $5, yeah...crazy! They are at least $7 in new york and that adds up really quickly. Anyways, we had a brilliant time at Teresa's and it was a perfect ending to an already great day.

BUT, that wasn't the end... We had a few too many beers to drive back so we went out for a really nice walk back to andrew's house. What we thought was going to be a nice walk turned into a weird rendition of the twilight zone...I'm exaggerating but it was really bizarre. When we were about half way back, we heard
a hoarse and quiet "help" from off in there distance. Andrew responded with "oh, ya need some help over there?" We walked over to this semi-senile lady trying to put two ridiculously heavy bikes on the back of her car. Mind you, this was at 1:30 in the morning! We were all a bit buzzed from the beers, and wine for steph, so were we very confused at the events that occurred. The woman was coaxing us into helping her by explaining how "fiendish" this bike rack was. She said she had been trying to do this for the past 3 hours, which I felt bad about but ya gotta give up at some point...know your limits. So while she continued to talk about the fiendish bike rack, we dismounted the bikes and attempted to get them mounted properly. The bike rack was a total piece of crap so I could see how it would be hated, but I don't think it was fiendishly plotting against her...at least not while we were there. We got everything on as best we could while the woman was telling a story about her Styrofoam sailboat that she and her husband rode years ago until it flew off the top of the car and into oncoming traffic. A Styrofoam sailboat...WHAT?? This story only added to the weirdness...or maybe our night was meant to be fiendish.

We crashed when we got back to andrew's house, out of fatigue, alcohol and pure confusion...we all couldn't comprehend what just happened to us.

The next morning we were greeted with a large, home cooked breakfast complete with oven-baked bacon, orange juice, bagels, tea and eggs. It was soooo nice to be in a house and not a tiny apt. I was loving it! We ate our meal outside on the covered and enclosed patio which protected us from the bugs with a screen all around. Instead of going canoeing like we originally planned, we sat out on the patio all day and just enjoyed the nice weather, peaceful surroundings and noiseless suburbs. We had all been working hard so this lazy sunday was exactly what we needed to drop our stress-o-meter's down to a 1 or 2. We sat around, talked, layed around, hung out on the 2-seater rocking chair and relaxed. Steph and I polished off the enormous bowl of fruit while andrew just enjoyed the comfort of being home. It was such a lovely day and I enjoyed our relaxing day of doing nothing so much!



On our way to the bus station this afternoon, we stopped at a famous Philadelphia restaurant and had a token sandwich: the philly cheese steak. We had an American cheese and onion cheese steak from Geno's in south philly. I was instructed on how to order it beforehand so I didn't look like an idiot. My turn came up and I spouted off "american with" to the cashier. "Seven dollars" he fired back. Literally 20 seconds later, a hot cheese steak with american cheese and onions came out of the window next to me. I agree that this simple sandwich was the best cheese steak I've had.



My hands are starting to hurt from typing away this entire entry on my blackberry so I think it needs to be put away for the rest of the trip. Hopefully it’s not too much longer. Steph’s asleep behind me…email me and I’ll send you the picture of her. :-) I’m not mean enough to post it here.

Update from the depths of work

What a way to end such a chaotic week. I was so incredibly busy this week at work BUT after withstanding all the chaos and long nights, things seem to be somewhat in order by the time I left today. Not to mention that the temperature dropped 30 degrees since yesterday! What a blessing!! It was in the 60's when I left work today and I was actually, get ready for it, a little bit COLD...in AUGUST. Craziness.

Anyway, that's the update. Still a ton of work to do in the next two weeks in preparing and supporting the go-live of the security project. As of now, I'm tired but in good spirits. :-)

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It's HOT in New York

Things are warming up here a bit. This past week has been in a mid-90's every day which sounds about right for August. I was trying to look back at when it turned hot last year but I don't have my archives any more since I took my site down...boo. Well, I have it now for next year, August 1 = start of the heat!

A lot has been going on during my busy summer. Work is eating up a lot of my time and any free time I've had lately has been used to go out with friends or Michelle. Time is flying by which is good and bad. I want the heat to be over with already but that means my life is more of a blur if my time is in fast motion.

Regardless, it's been a lot of fun lately the only downside being that more activities mean more money spent...it's worth it though! I went to a James Morrison concert last weekend with Michelle which was a lot of fun. I went to Amy Ruth's (a southern soul food restaurant in Harlem - see my review on yelp which is listed on the right) with Steph and Andrew aka GSEEC on Friday which was outstanding and Saturday was spent BBQ'ing up a storm at Andrew's new apartment (picture perfect below). Today Michelle and I finally saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in IMAX which was well worth the wait. The ending scene was SO COOL in 3-D. My goodness!

Tonight we're making lasagna as our Sunday meal and that pretty much wraps up the week.

James Morrison @ The Fillmore on July 28th

Speak to you soon!

End of My Day and Week

Listening to: Screeching of the Subway Over My Mp3 Player

It’s been a long day and I’m stuck in a team meeting which has to do with formatting a word document. Everyone is going back and forth about sentences being italic, bold, etc… My stomach began to growl and my patience for this document dropped significantly. A few people left to go work on homework but I stayed to make sure everything got completed by our deadline which is today.



We submitted the document and the meeting ended. I sprang out of my chair and wished everyone a good weekend on my way through the door. I walked up the stairs that connect the 30th and 31st floor and looked out through the large windows to where the Brooklyn Bridge spanned across the river. Shadows cast down across the river from the skyscrapers blocking the sun but beyond the bridge the water glistened with sunlight.



I went back into my classroom, logged off from my computer and headed for my locker. I quickly shoved my books in and hurried to the elevator; I wanted to get out of there and start my weekend! I took the elevator down to the lobby and pushed my way through the revolving door into humid evening. I walked swiftly up the street, admiring the giants towering above me but kept with the flow of traffic towards Wall St. I walked down the stairs, swept past the turnstile with a beep echoing behind me. I walked down another flight of stairs and kept to the right trying to find a spot close to the uptown track. I wedged myself into the crowd and waited a couple of minutes for the train to arrive. I was lucky enough to get a seat as a rush of people swept onto the 3 train.



I reached for my paper but realized that I had finished reading it on my way to work. So I just sat there and thought about my day and my work. The train sped up and visible shapes turned to blurs which turned to black as we exited the station. We zoomed past stations where posts, people and shapes on the walls formed a pseudo-collage as we passed by. Dark fell again. Then all of a sudden a bright light flashed into the window across from me. I’d seen it the previous day but couldn’t figure out what it was. The train slowed just enough for me to make out silhouettes working on the tracks under bright spotlights hanging above them. More white canvases passed as we sped past the stations.



We slowed at Fulton, Chambers, Park Pl, 14th st, 34th st, 42nd times square, flew thirty blocks to 72nd and I departed at 96th…home sweet home.


View from my office building, 31st floor: