Medieval Times

Skippy wanted to go to Medieval Times for his birthday so off we went. It was fun but the acting was just awful. A guy would get hit and two seconds later would fall off his horse. Two fights were awesome but besides that it was like a first-time stage-fighting class. But the virgin margaritas were great!

Despite the pictures, we each had only (part of) one.

Gaston

I am sitting on the Acela Express coming home from NYC. I think I like the train a lot. It's not crowded and I see a fair amount of water, so all is good.

Gaston is our coming-up-on-16 year old dog. He was hit by a car as a pup and has hip issues, can't walk very fast, etc. One of the first thing I did when I got back to the area was pick up one of my favorite magazines, The Washingtonian. In it I saw an article about a woman that has had great success doing pet acupuncture. Well I have been a massage therapist and a rolfer so I am certainly not one to poo-poo different modalities.

Long story short he had his first session last Saturday. On Sunday, he woke up without burning hot hips for the first time in forever, was spry, wanted multiple walks, etc. We are very happy and he is too. I could swear he was following me around religiously asking me to take him back.

Just don't ask me to get any acupuncture done on myself. Needles? No way.

Updates

Let's see...

It looks like my years of working out, tennis, volleyball and raquetball are taking a toll on me. I'm going to have knee surgery one one or both knees rather soon. At this point I can only do the treadmill for 10 minutes at a time and can't even take my hour long strolls around NYC! Yay medicine.

I'm in NYC today but will be working from home starting tomorrow until who knows when. The client doesn't want to pay for travel and that's fine with me! It will be great to be home.

Skippy's birthday is on Monday. Over the last few years he has made a humongous cake and we've had a party. This year we decided to just go to Medieval Times. He might still make a smaller cake just to keep the Alzheimers at bay.

Do you know we have Blossom (our 1 year old Beagle) in day care? People seem to think that's very strange. Beagles are bred to run for long periods of time so short of me taking her out for 10 mile daily runs I see it as a very good choice and wise investment in her health and happiness.

I have been on the NYC subway more in the last month than my whole life combined. We stay in midtown but work on Wall Street so it's pretty much a necessity. Needless to say, being used to the ease and efficiency of the Washington area Metro, NYC's subway is very hard to understand for a newcomer. After a few bad detours (why am I in the Village?) I decided to give up and just use hopstop.com. I put in my route and it tells me exactly what subway line to take. Even I can do that.

I still love my iPhone.

What a day

Tuesday that is...

It was only my second time travelling since I moved back to Baltimore. I decided to take the train to NYC. I haven't been on a train in years and even then it's only been once or twice. Since booking the Acela means automatic business class I went that route. So we left the house at 5:30 am for my 6:20 flight (yay) and at the station I find out that American Express has cancelled my ticket. (AmEx has no idea why that happened. Gee, thanks.) I had changed my reservation a week ago to add the train ticket and to change my hotel reservation from Mon-Thurs to Tues-Thurs. I got dizzy listening, but the AmEx lady was trying to explain to me that my itinerary would show my hotel at Mon-Thurs but not to worry she changed it and I wouldn't have a problem. Well I should have just gotten cold chills right there because sure enough they had it as Mon-Thurs. Which means that I missed my first night's reservation and would not only have to pay for it ($599/night) I was now a walk-in and would have to pay $649/night for my stay. Again AmEx couldn't explain this. They showed that I requested the change but couldn't explain why that change was never conveyed to the hotel. This means that the price for my train ticket and my hotel are invalid on my AmEx itinerary are invalid so I will have to write a note and verbally defend the price change for invoicing purposes. Blech.

So the day wasn't a total waste. We normally work this project near the old World Trade Center but were told the day before to report to Jersey City which was easily accessible via the Path train from the Newark Amtrak station. I had never done the Path train but it was very easy and despite my changed itinerary I arrived at 8:58 am. Sweet!

Oh but don't get lulled into complacency, dear reader. I forgot my suitcase at the office and was halfway to Manhattan on the train before I remembered. And, for the first time ever, I forgot my plug for my laptop. We had a thank-you dinner for another client at Tao (one of the best meals I've ever had) which was conveniently located two blocks from the 5th Avenue Apple Store. The store was out of the plug I needed but I obviously needed a plug. I explained that I was from out of town and if I couldn't do my work I could get fired. They couldn't find anything in the back, etc., so I said, "fine, what's your cheapest MacBook? I'll just return it this weekend." They thought this was the strangest thing ever but it drove home the point that I REALLY needed a plug. So (now there were 3 people involved) they walked over to the guy routing traffic to the genius bar, explained my situation and told me that someone from the genius bar could help me but I'd have to wait in line, probably an hour. An hour and a half later there were less than 12 names on the screen meaning they weren't taking new names and the only Jeff I saw was Jeff S. At this time there was a new traffic guy so I said to him, "I'm assuming that I'm Jeff S. as I've been waiting for an hour and a half." Oh no, I wasn't on the list anywhere. I explained my situation yet again and he said they couldn't help me. I stayed calm but got very sad (I had been up since 3 am and it was now 11 pm) and said, "the only reason I've been standing here for the last 90 minutes was they I was told I could get a plug from someone at the Genius Bar." Another Apple employee overheard us and, just like magic, I had a plug 25 minutes later. It doesn't have the normal extension so I can't actually use it from my desk at a conference room but hey, it's a plug.

Usually I walk to my hotel (Hilton Times Square this week) but I was beyond tired so I cabbed it. Normally I never even set an alarm but not only did I set it for 7 am but it took until 7:02 for it to register with my brain.

The rest of the week has gone much smoother. I seem to be here every time Brad and Angelina are at one of their movie premiere's close by and this one was no exception. I'll be home tonight.

Skip's Favorite Cake

I wanted to link to Skip's first Little Mermaid cake in the last post and after searching realized I had never actually posted a picture of it. Skip made this cake for my niece's 6th birthday and it is his favorite cake. I agree.

It is so tall that it did not fit in the back of our hybrid SUV fully assembled. The only part of the cake Skip didn't make from scratch are the little pearls in the treasure chest on the middle layer.

The Little Mermaid again

Call me crazy, but it seems that The Little Mermaid is a popular theme for birthday cakes. Happy 10th birthday to Amber!

Oh yeah, Skippy had both of these cakes due this morning.

Tattoine

I know you haven't seen many cake pictures lately but that's about to change. Skip has 10 orders for cakes and that doesn't even count the one I "nudged" him into making for his birthday. Today was Owen's 4th birthday and here is the cake.

New Music

This fall is shaping up to be a great time for new music. New releases by Kylie Minogue, Annie Lennox, Madonna and Mariah Carey all have me excited. I can now add Leona Lewis' new album to that list. Leona won British Idol (?) last year and her first single "Bleeding Love" can be found here. I'm on my 6th listen in a row, that's a good sign I'm going to love the song!

Annie Lennox is even touring this fall. If I can get tickets I will definitely be there. Love her.

Failed Audition

This may look like a blurry picture of an adorable dog, but it in fact her audition photo for the Resident Evil movies. If you've seen the movies you know them's some uuuuuugly dogs.

Needless to say even in this photo she is too pretty.

Don't make me choose between my babies!

Do you get the reference? Please tell me you get the reference. I'm 0 for 3 on the people I've asked so far.

Update:
Oh fine. She's playing Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice!

Positive role models, or the lack thereof

Blossom has no doggie role models at home. Gaston is 15, walks very slow and can barely see or hear. The cats on the other hand are full of life and always getting into and on everything. So who do you think Blossom is emulating? Take a wild guess.

Childish

To protect his identity, his name is Flip.

Flip applied for a transfer within his company while moving from one state to another. Everything was handled via the computer, all work was done, he was ready to go.

Flip arrived at work this morning where he was told he had been reported missing by his former location as he didn't report for work last week during his scheduled vacation and they had no idea about his transfer.

This is also the store where an employee told Skip that if he (the employee) were dying that Flip was to keep his "faggot" lips off him. Would HR do anything? No.

Happy September!