StayHydrated
Swedish Chef
I have fallen into the phone-gazing habit more than I care to admit. Will try this, starting tonight - motivation. Thanks!
Who are 12 people who have never been in my kitchen?
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
those glasses scream safety first. A desirable trait when entering middle age.....ANSI Z87.1-2015, MIL-PRF-31013, MIL-V-43511C, and CE EN166B.
headache might be that your eyes need different Rx. Drop the $200 at lenscrafters. i just got my first pair of progressive lens glasses. great for driving. suck on the computer.
---
How do you pick your books?
Anasi Boys is sort of (but not really) a sequel from what I understand, but I haven't read it. I remember not really being blown away by American Gods either, but I read it 10-15 years ago and don't really remember anything about it. I was disappointed because I really liked some of his other stuff.
when i was working in FP, we had group lunches there. Work anniversaries and such. They did a nice job serving a large group.
shood go.
Projects (1 of 12)
Projects are going to be a sort of undetermined target. On one hand, you can sort of call a Sunday afternoon project an accomplishment. Like you could do a puzzle and say that was your goal of the day and chalk it up. I'm going for stuff that means more in terms of effort or coordination. On this one, it is more of coordination though there was some effort especially when it comes to the inputs. In a sense this project will never be complete because you can always feed the dragon more.
The Fireplace
We moved into this house a bit more than 3 years ago and there was a non-functioning fireplace in the living room. I don't have a "before" pic without going and mining Facebook so just assume it looks like a fireplace. Over the past year or so we had a few people come and look at it and the verdict was that this thing was a mess. The tiles needed boring out, the top needed rebuilding, it needed a liner. Some of the estimates were astronomical. So we always had it on our list of things to do We just never got around to it, until this year.
Probably it would be best to go from the outside in. A few years ago when we had the septic put in we needed to remove a few trees. They've been sitting there ever since, yearning to become smaller chunks to be thrown into the fireplace that didn't work. What it amounted to over this time was a place for the leaves to collect. I really dislike leaves.
The tools I use for the job are a big hunk of metal shaped into a wedge, a small 6# sledgehammer, and a bigger 8# sledgehemmer. Seed it with the small hammer, then Gallagher it with the big boy. I have gotten decent at my aim since this started. Capers said I should get a log splitter but I have been using this as my winter exercise for the past few weeks. I am seemingly allergic to the cold and a lot of days 30-60 minutes is about as much time as I can spend doing much of anything away from work.
So I chop wood. Eventually it turns into this.
At some point that pile got unwieldy and I slowly moved it over between 2 trees, not to be confused with 2 ferns. I just don't give enough of a crap to put plastic over the top like some people do to keep it maximally dry. Figure once you set it on fire it'll dry out just good & fast. I also have a smaller version of this on the porch. That was actually the last of the pieces to the puzzle. Once this was done I was able to say the project was complete, at least in as much as you can say the dragon was satisfied for the moment.
The first stack. At this writing the stack on the left is as tall as this one and I have a solid shit-ton of wood left to split. I'm going to need to find 2 more ferns.
The porch stack, which diminishes rapidly on the days when I start this puppy up at 10:00 and work in front of it all day.
And there is always a blue bucket of scrap wood that is used for odds and ends as well as slices of wood that I make with a machete and a hammer. I used the slices & yard twigs to start the fire and then I throw the oddball pieces in randomly once the fire is going. The oddballs can't really stack so well. The stack on the right is too long to fit in the stove easily so I use those to trim down for kindling. The guy who cut the tree up was a little lazy I guess. He went a little longer than standard length on some of the pieces.
Ok so let's get inside. Like I said I don't have any before pics nor do I have any during pics. But I do have this mid-stream pic of me putting the finishing touches on the wall art that D got me for Xmas this year. I broke out the pencil and tape measure and all, only to realize the mounts on the back weren't exactly centered. So I hung then rehung it. Here's the somewhat futile measure once and hammer twice session.
After a few iterations of this I think it came out pretty nicely. I am sure this is not perfect but I think in the end it's close and it looks nice. We had a team gathering here a few weeks ago and nobody informed me it was grossly unevenly spaced out. To the left is a pic I took in Italy which was a single candle on a street that drew attention to a small alley which led to a restaurant that was far off the beaten path. On the bottom you also see the empty wood bucket for storing pieces inside.
When all was said and done this wasn't exactly cheap but it was less than all of the original estimates we got. Capers had suggested this guy and we went with him and he turned out to be quick and efficient. He's a sort of no-nonsense guy and did what he said he was going to do, and was there when he said he was going to be there. As far as I'm concerned, you can't beat that.
And at the end of day, it's a really cool addition to the house to be able to fire this thing up on a cold winter night.
Projects are going to be a sort of undetermined target. On one hand, you can sort of call a Sunday afternoon project an accomplishment. Like you could do a puzzle and say that was your goal of the day and chalk it up. I'm going for stuff that means more in terms of effort or coordination. On this one, it is more of coordination though there was some effort especially when it comes to the inputs. In a sense this project will never be complete because you can always feed the dragon more.
The Fireplace
We moved into this house a bit more than 3 years ago and there was a non-functioning fireplace in the living room. I don't have a "before" pic without going and mining Facebook so just assume it looks like a fireplace. Over the past year or so we had a few people come and look at it and the verdict was that this thing was a mess. The tiles needed boring out, the top needed rebuilding, it needed a liner. Some of the estimates were astronomical. So we always had it on our list of things to do We just never got around to it, until this year.
Probably it would be best to go from the outside in. A few years ago when we had the septic put in we needed to remove a few trees. They've been sitting there ever since, yearning to become smaller chunks to be thrown into the fireplace that didn't work. What it amounted to over this time was a place for the leaves to collect. I really dislike leaves.
The tools I use for the job are a big hunk of metal shaped into a wedge, a small 6# sledgehammer, and a bigger 8# sledgehemmer. Seed it with the small hammer, then Gallagher it with the big boy. I have gotten decent at my aim since this started. Capers said I should get a log splitter but I have been using this as my winter exercise for the past few weeks. I am seemingly allergic to the cold and a lot of days 30-60 minutes is about as much time as I can spend doing much of anything away from work.
So I chop wood. Eventually it turns into this.
At some point that pile got unwieldy and I slowly moved it over between 2 trees, not to be confused with 2 ferns. I just don't give enough of a crap to put plastic over the top like some people do to keep it maximally dry. Figure once you set it on fire it'll dry out just good & fast. I also have a smaller version of this on the porch. That was actually the last of the pieces to the puzzle. Once this was done I was able to say the project was complete, at least in as much as you can say the dragon was satisfied for the moment.
The first stack. At this writing the stack on the left is as tall as this one and I have a solid shit-ton of wood left to split. I'm going to need to find 2 more ferns.
The porch stack, which diminishes rapidly on the days when I start this puppy up at 10:00 and work in front of it all day.
And there is always a blue bucket of scrap wood that is used for odds and ends as well as slices of wood that I make with a machete and a hammer. I used the slices & yard twigs to start the fire and then I throw the oddball pieces in randomly once the fire is going. The oddballs can't really stack so well. The stack on the right is too long to fit in the stove easily so I use those to trim down for kindling. The guy who cut the tree up was a little lazy I guess. He went a little longer than standard length on some of the pieces.
Ok so let's get inside. Like I said I don't have any before pics nor do I have any during pics. But I do have this mid-stream pic of me putting the finishing touches on the wall art that D got me for Xmas this year. I broke out the pencil and tape measure and all, only to realize the mounts on the back weren't exactly centered. So I hung then rehung it. Here's the somewhat futile measure once and hammer twice session.
After a few iterations of this I think it came out pretty nicely. I am sure this is not perfect but I think in the end it's close and it looks nice. We had a team gathering here a few weeks ago and nobody informed me it was grossly unevenly spaced out. To the left is a pic I took in Italy which was a single candle on a street that drew attention to a small alley which led to a restaurant that was far off the beaten path. On the bottom you also see the empty wood bucket for storing pieces inside.
When all was said and done this wasn't exactly cheap but it was less than all of the original estimates we got. Capers had suggested this guy and we went with him and he turned out to be quick and efficient. He's a sort of no-nonsense guy and did what he said he was going to do, and was there when he said he was going to be there. As far as I'm concerned, you can't beat that.
And at the end of day, it's a really cool addition to the house to be able to fire this thing up on a cold winter night.
Door looks like it's an Avalon/Lopi stove.
Can't tell you how many times we ran liners and installed stoves. The stainless liners are real expensive. And stuffing them down goes 2 ways easy or son of bitch. Best part is running chain whip to bust up clay flu. It's all heavy work and doing the dance on top is not for height challenge.
Can't tell you how many times we ran liners and installed stoves. The stainless liners are real expensive. And stuffing them down goes 2 ways easy or son of bitch. Best part is running chain whip to bust up clay flu. It's all heavy work and doing the dance on top is not for height challenge.
Kids (2 of 12)
The Kids go to see Wicked
Originally this was supposed to be my parents going to see this show with me which is why it was on a Wednesday. But as life turns out, they were sick, the kids were up for it, so we get an ad hoc kids adventure on a school night. To be sure, this isn't something I can do with them often at this stage of their lives because I knew it was going to be a late night. But I really didn't know what to do with the tickets and I sure as hell didn't want to lose out on these entirely. So away we go.
I grabbed Zac from the pick-up line at school then we headed over to the dentist to grab Julia from her appointment. Getting into the car she wasn't in the best of moods, as it often is with kids after you have someone put power tools in your mouth. But she didn't have any cavities and after a bit she came around and felt better. Eventually she snapped out of it and as we were heading into the Lincoln Tunnel they were both excited to be heading into the city. I think until this point the whole idea may have been more of a theory than reality.
Seeing the city and going into the tunnel makes it all real.
I have to say that going into the city on a weekday at 4:00 is ridiculously easy. The total trip time from getting Julia to parking the car was less than an hour and in the end we were on the street before 5:00. When I texted D that we were in, she was shocked we had made it so fast. We dropped the car at Ikon, which is our go-to when we go to midtown as you can walk 2 blocks west out of the thick of it and be in the tunnel in minutes. And for a short trip like this, parking was just $20, which is only slightly more than the tunnel.
I love the city. I did not grow up going in very often and when we did it was pretty much exclusively to go to Yankees games. I have no childhood history of going to Central Park, or midtown, or to Broadway, or any of that. I also worked in the city for almost 10 years and I was a commuter who got in, did his job, then went home. I would venture out on occasion to grab lunch or a haircut but I rarely did anything social while I was in there.
But I really still just love the city when I go in as a tourist. I have been to many cities in my life and I think NYC has a different feel than any other I have been to. I'm sure a lot of this has to do with how often I've been in, and how close we are, and that when I refer to "the city" this is what I mean. But it's just so unique to me that I never tire of going in, at least when work is not involved.
I also really love the fact that I can be the parent of these kids on this adventure and they feel secure with me. I know kids will often times be a little afraid of big, new places like this (with good reason). It makes me happy that I can take them in and we can walk around and they have total confidence in my taking care of them and making sure they are ok. This is truly one of those things I really relish as a parent, being able to show them this stuff in the world and giving them the confidence/security to enjoy it. I really look forward to more of this in the years ahead.
We find a place to eat which satisfies our 3 criteria:
1. Zac wants wings
2. Julia wants something basic
3. I want a beer
We settle on Jasper's Tap House & Kitchen, which is incidentally a 4 star, 2$ restaurant but which I will not be reviewing as I was not necessarily there for the food. It was a choice of compromise between the 3 of us and not a place we selected to go based on the food type and reviews. I will say, it was a good spot for us, we all enjoyed the food, and it wasn't crowded so it was quiet and quick. Yes, it is technically a bar but that adds to the future story the kids will tell about this.
Our waitress was from Ireland and the kids asked me why she came here. I told them to ask and in the end she didn't really give us a good answer other than that she wanted a change in life and her sister was in DC. I expressed that I was surprised she would come now given that most of Europe thinks we are going batshit crazy, and she kind of laughed in that, "Yeah I may have screwed this up totally" kind of way.
Blurry pic but it is what it is. Julia transfixed to the TV which they both could not get enough of. What was on it? Well, college basketball of course, which we never ever watch at home. Kids.
After dinner we had plenty of time to get to the show which was less than 2 blocks away. We got to the theater a bit after 6:00 and were told the doors would open at 6:15. So we stood around for 10+ minutes waiting, and took the obligatory pic outside and sent it off to mom to show her that we had actually made it, and weren't in a bar in SoHo instead.
We head upstairs and the doors were not open yet so we hung out in the lobby and looked at some of the things on display. I'll post the pictures of that when I do the show review but the stuff here was all about the play, and not the theater in general. The Gershwin Theater has a lot of history in it and it also has the American Theater Hall of Fame in the lobby. Somehow we missed it on the way up and figured these trinkets were all they were talking about. On the way out we would realize that there was more but it was too late then, we would need to get home as quickly as possible after the show was over.
Killing time of course means candy for the kids and wine for dad. We consume while waiting for the doors to open.
Eventually we get to our seats and like most shows of this caliber, there really are no bad seats in the house. At this point everything has come together for the kids and this awesome event is about to happen. I think when you bring kids to something like this the scale is so unexpected, they can't help but be in awe of it. The set of Wicked is definitely legit and one of the massive props front & center is a dragon.
We settle in here then wait for the show to start.
I'll talk about the show in another post but suffice it to say that the kids really liked it. This was Zac's first show and Julia's second, though her other shows were Christmas things which to me, pales in comparison to these longer-running productions. They were both happy to have gone and I think (hope) this is something they will both remember forever, like I remember my first every trip to Broadway when I saw Cats. I didn't know what to expect in 5th grade then, but it was so immense, so much larger than life, that I was awed by it. I hope the kids took the same away from this experience.
After the show we made a b-line to the car, and were in NJ in no time. The drive ended up being a bit chaotic due to the Turnpike being closed and then the Pulaski being a mess that it is right now, but in the end we made it in 1 piece and got home a tad after 11:00.
In the end, this whole trip was really meaningful for me to bring them to. I know in a sense I am spoiling the kids when they get to go to something like this. At the same time I work hard and I want to enjoy the long hours I put in. I also want the kids to be exposed to it and for them to get older and want to come back, to do this with us again in the future, and to do it with their friends when they are older, and then with their own kids one day. I know D feels the same way so as much as we spoil them, it's sort of an investment in their future selves.
Really good experience for all of us, them as new theater goers, me as a proud dad bringing the kids to something special.
The Kids go to see Wicked
Originally this was supposed to be my parents going to see this show with me which is why it was on a Wednesday. But as life turns out, they were sick, the kids were up for it, so we get an ad hoc kids adventure on a school night. To be sure, this isn't something I can do with them often at this stage of their lives because I knew it was going to be a late night. But I really didn't know what to do with the tickets and I sure as hell didn't want to lose out on these entirely. So away we go.
I grabbed Zac from the pick-up line at school then we headed over to the dentist to grab Julia from her appointment. Getting into the car she wasn't in the best of moods, as it often is with kids after you have someone put power tools in your mouth. But she didn't have any cavities and after a bit she came around and felt better. Eventually she snapped out of it and as we were heading into the Lincoln Tunnel they were both excited to be heading into the city. I think until this point the whole idea may have been more of a theory than reality.
Seeing the city and going into the tunnel makes it all real.
I have to say that going into the city on a weekday at 4:00 is ridiculously easy. The total trip time from getting Julia to parking the car was less than an hour and in the end we were on the street before 5:00. When I texted D that we were in, she was shocked we had made it so fast. We dropped the car at Ikon, which is our go-to when we go to midtown as you can walk 2 blocks west out of the thick of it and be in the tunnel in minutes. And for a short trip like this, parking was just $20, which is only slightly more than the tunnel.
I love the city. I did not grow up going in very often and when we did it was pretty much exclusively to go to Yankees games. I have no childhood history of going to Central Park, or midtown, or to Broadway, or any of that. I also worked in the city for almost 10 years and I was a commuter who got in, did his job, then went home. I would venture out on occasion to grab lunch or a haircut but I rarely did anything social while I was in there.
But I really still just love the city when I go in as a tourist. I have been to many cities in my life and I think NYC has a different feel than any other I have been to. I'm sure a lot of this has to do with how often I've been in, and how close we are, and that when I refer to "the city" this is what I mean. But it's just so unique to me that I never tire of going in, at least when work is not involved.
I also really love the fact that I can be the parent of these kids on this adventure and they feel secure with me. I know kids will often times be a little afraid of big, new places like this (with good reason). It makes me happy that I can take them in and we can walk around and they have total confidence in my taking care of them and making sure they are ok. This is truly one of those things I really relish as a parent, being able to show them this stuff in the world and giving them the confidence/security to enjoy it. I really look forward to more of this in the years ahead.
We find a place to eat which satisfies our 3 criteria:
1. Zac wants wings
2. Julia wants something basic
3. I want a beer
We settle on Jasper's Tap House & Kitchen, which is incidentally a 4 star, 2$ restaurant but which I will not be reviewing as I was not necessarily there for the food. It was a choice of compromise between the 3 of us and not a place we selected to go based on the food type and reviews. I will say, it was a good spot for us, we all enjoyed the food, and it wasn't crowded so it was quiet and quick. Yes, it is technically a bar but that adds to the future story the kids will tell about this.
Our waitress was from Ireland and the kids asked me why she came here. I told them to ask and in the end she didn't really give us a good answer other than that she wanted a change in life and her sister was in DC. I expressed that I was surprised she would come now given that most of Europe thinks we are going batshit crazy, and she kind of laughed in that, "Yeah I may have screwed this up totally" kind of way.
Blurry pic but it is what it is. Julia transfixed to the TV which they both could not get enough of. What was on it? Well, college basketball of course, which we never ever watch at home. Kids.
After dinner we had plenty of time to get to the show which was less than 2 blocks away. We got to the theater a bit after 6:00 and were told the doors would open at 6:15. So we stood around for 10+ minutes waiting, and took the obligatory pic outside and sent it off to mom to show her that we had actually made it, and weren't in a bar in SoHo instead.
We head upstairs and the doors were not open yet so we hung out in the lobby and looked at some of the things on display. I'll post the pictures of that when I do the show review but the stuff here was all about the play, and not the theater in general. The Gershwin Theater has a lot of history in it and it also has the American Theater Hall of Fame in the lobby. Somehow we missed it on the way up and figured these trinkets were all they were talking about. On the way out we would realize that there was more but it was too late then, we would need to get home as quickly as possible after the show was over.
Killing time of course means candy for the kids and wine for dad. We consume while waiting for the doors to open.
Eventually we get to our seats and like most shows of this caliber, there really are no bad seats in the house. At this point everything has come together for the kids and this awesome event is about to happen. I think when you bring kids to something like this the scale is so unexpected, they can't help but be in awe of it. The set of Wicked is definitely legit and one of the massive props front & center is a dragon.
We settle in here then wait for the show to start.
I'll talk about the show in another post but suffice it to say that the kids really liked it. This was Zac's first show and Julia's second, though her other shows were Christmas things which to me, pales in comparison to these longer-running productions. They were both happy to have gone and I think (hope) this is something they will both remember forever, like I remember my first every trip to Broadway when I saw Cats. I didn't know what to expect in 5th grade then, but it was so immense, so much larger than life, that I was awed by it. I hope the kids took the same away from this experience.
After the show we made a b-line to the car, and were in NJ in no time. The drive ended up being a bit chaotic due to the Turnpike being closed and then the Pulaski being a mess that it is right now, but in the end we made it in 1 piece and got home a tad after 11:00.
In the end, this whole trip was really meaningful for me to bring them to. I know in a sense I am spoiling the kids when they get to go to something like this. At the same time I work hard and I want to enjoy the long hours I put in. I also want the kids to be exposed to it and for them to get older and want to come back, to do this with us again in the future, and to do it with their friends when they are older, and then with their own kids one day. I know D feels the same way so as much as we spoil them, it's sort of an investment in their future selves.
Really good experience for all of us, them as new theater goers, me as a proud dad bringing the kids to something special.
Really cool. I particularly appreciated your comments about how you feel about them having confidence in you providing them a safe, confident environment for them to participate in these adventures and really enjoy them. That must be an awesome feeling to have as a parent!! While mrs. 'rottin and I don't have kids, we do have 10 nieces and nephews that we have done various adventures with that also filled me with a similar feeling, but the way you articulated it paints the picture so much better than I could have. Awesome...hopefully just the start of many more!!
ChrisG
Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
I think everything about this is awesome.
While my parents are angels from heaven and I couldn't possibly have asked for a better upbringing, we had essentially zero exposure to anything like this. Wonderful to see you doing this for your kids.
Awesome.
Now that I don't work in city it's much more enjoyable bringing the family in. Even I kinda miss the everyday adventure. Never came in as a kid either unless for concert or sporting event.
I have been bringing kids in since strollers and toddler size.
Got nothing to do one day just explore Central Park. You can spend a whole weekend in there and on its boarders.
We are due.
Now that I don't work in city it's much more enjoyable bringing the family in. Even I kinda miss the everyday adventure. Never came in as a kid either unless for concert or sporting event.
I have been bringing kids in since strollers and toddler size.
Got nothing to do one day just explore Central Park. You can spend a whole weekend in there and on its boarders.
We are due.
Shows (5 of 12)
So we saw the story of who got there and how it happened, but what about the show?
Wicked
The theater. For those of you who don't really know much about Broadway, and I was in this boat until recently, a theater is pretty much dedicated to a run of a show until that show ends. Wicked lives at the Gershwin Theatre (on Broadway they apparently swap the R and E to sounds MOUR BRITISH or something). If you Google it, you will see the Wicked banner on it because for the time being, the 2 are synonymous. In fact, it has been running there since 2003, which by my math, is a long time.
It's named after George & Ira Gershwin, who did stuff, the specifics of which are not really pertinent to the conversation. But even a luddite like me knows the name Gershwin (German: Gerr Schwinn, de bicycle, or roughly "hey that's a schwinn bicycle" in English). I digress.
It's the biggest theater on Broadway and holds almost 2000 people. When you enter the place you know you're in something more robust than the New World Stages, which is a newer, smaller venue and where we got to see Not That Jewish. Where New World Stages serves a purpose this place makes a statement. It is big, it is grand, it is legit. And it even had the American Theatre Hall of Fame in it. Not that we would know because we missed it.
We did get to see this stuff, which we figured was part of the "stuff to do while you're here". While not necessarily Hall of Fame material it was neat enough to look at. This was sort of odd but after having seen the show, it makes sense what all of this actually is:
So what is Wicked? Wicked is the story of the Wizard of Oz but before Dorothy got there, for the most part. In reality it overlaps but you never see that side of the story other than a side reference which was actually one of the better jokes in the play. I suppose Dorothy is technically in the play at that moment, but only in theory as you never see her. The White Witch says something like, "Just take this one road, THE WHOLE WAY," and then comments about being terrible at directions.
So everything we saw before the show was Oz-related, which this obviously is:
I am not real sure if these are from the play or this is fan art, but you have to love the dedication to the cause & art form at some level.
Eventually they open the doors and let you in. And like I said in the kids write-up, it gets real then. This set is no joke. While we did not have the best seats in the house we also did not have the worst. We were upper level but I think you get a better view a lot of times. I have long lost the desire to be as close as possible. I prefer the view. And it was a good view.
So the musical is the story of the wicked witch and the white witch, and beyond that I am not going to say much more. It is interesting, it is engaging, and it is clever what it does with the story. It paints a further picture of Oz, which shows everything in a bit of a different light. I am not a huge Wizard of Oz fan (ironically my mom is), but even still, it's easy to get drawn into this show.
The humor in the show is solid, and I think it appeals in spots to both kids and adults. I laughed at times, and the kids laughed at times. This is for sure a really good family-friendly event that can probably satisfy everyone. It's a huge production and you can't help but appreciate everything that goes into it. And at the end you maybe feel a bit better about the story as a whole. Or maybe not, that's your call.
I am typically not one to say I would do something like this again but I probably would go again if the opportunity were there to see if for a reasonable price (good luck with that). I think there was enough in the production that you could get something out of seeing it more than once. That's sort of the beauty of going to see a show like this live. Where a camera focuses on what the director/producer want you to see, when you are here you can watch any actor/actress at any stage of the show. That makes the whole production that much more impressive when you realize that even the smallest parts are being played with heart, not just the big ones.
So we saw the story of who got there and how it happened, but what about the show?
Wicked
The theater. For those of you who don't really know much about Broadway, and I was in this boat until recently, a theater is pretty much dedicated to a run of a show until that show ends. Wicked lives at the Gershwin Theatre (on Broadway they apparently swap the R and E to sounds MOUR BRITISH or something). If you Google it, you will see the Wicked banner on it because for the time being, the 2 are synonymous. In fact, it has been running there since 2003, which by my math, is a long time.
It's named after George & Ira Gershwin, who did stuff, the specifics of which are not really pertinent to the conversation. But even a luddite like me knows the name Gershwin (German: Gerr Schwinn, de bicycle, or roughly "hey that's a schwinn bicycle" in English). I digress.
It's the biggest theater on Broadway and holds almost 2000 people. When you enter the place you know you're in something more robust than the New World Stages, which is a newer, smaller venue and where we got to see Not That Jewish. Where New World Stages serves a purpose this place makes a statement. It is big, it is grand, it is legit. And it even had the American Theatre Hall of Fame in it. Not that we would know because we missed it.
We did get to see this stuff, which we figured was part of the "stuff to do while you're here". While not necessarily Hall of Fame material it was neat enough to look at. This was sort of odd but after having seen the show, it makes sense what all of this actually is:
So what is Wicked? Wicked is the story of the Wizard of Oz but before Dorothy got there, for the most part. In reality it overlaps but you never see that side of the story other than a side reference which was actually one of the better jokes in the play. I suppose Dorothy is technically in the play at that moment, but only in theory as you never see her. The White Witch says something like, "Just take this one road, THE WHOLE WAY," and then comments about being terrible at directions.
So everything we saw before the show was Oz-related, which this obviously is:
I am not real sure if these are from the play or this is fan art, but you have to love the dedication to the cause & art form at some level.
Eventually they open the doors and let you in. And like I said in the kids write-up, it gets real then. This set is no joke. While we did not have the best seats in the house we also did not have the worst. We were upper level but I think you get a better view a lot of times. I have long lost the desire to be as close as possible. I prefer the view. And it was a good view.
So the musical is the story of the wicked witch and the white witch, and beyond that I am not going to say much more. It is interesting, it is engaging, and it is clever what it does with the story. It paints a further picture of Oz, which shows everything in a bit of a different light. I am not a huge Wizard of Oz fan (ironically my mom is), but even still, it's easy to get drawn into this show.
The humor in the show is solid, and I think it appeals in spots to both kids and adults. I laughed at times, and the kids laughed at times. This is for sure a really good family-friendly event that can probably satisfy everyone. It's a huge production and you can't help but appreciate everything that goes into it. And at the end you maybe feel a bit better about the story as a whole. Or maybe not, that's your call.
I am typically not one to say I would do something like this again but I probably would go again if the opportunity were there to see if for a reasonable price (good luck with that). I think there was enough in the production that you could get something out of seeing it more than once. That's sort of the beauty of going to see a show like this live. Where a camera focuses on what the director/producer want you to see, when you are here you can watch any actor/actress at any stage of the show. That makes the whole production that much more impressive when you realize that even the smallest parts are being played with heart, not just the big ones.
Friends (3 of 12)
Matt, aka The Heckler
It was a Sunday night. I had just dropped Julia off at her mom's and I was heading back home to talk to Sean & Dan for the weekly podcast. Since we hadn't done a podcast in a while I wondered what Matt had been up to. I shot him a text and he replied saying he had meant to text me earlier but forgot. Was I going to be home the next day? he asked. He said he had a present for me. I was going to be home, and such was set in motion the impromptu Monday evening hanging out with Matt, also known as The Heckler in various circles.
So he shows up the next day with beer, 5 cans of Nugget Nectar and a single Dale's for himself. He had tried the Nectar and really didn't like it so much so he was coming by to give me the 5 remaining. And to hang out and drink beer. As you can imagine, 1 turned into more than 1. And before long 5:00 turned into 7:00, D came home from her spin class, and we were sitting in the living room drinking beer and hanging out near the fire.
When she then asked if he wanted to stay for dinner, I insisted. We helped her out by continuing to drink beer and opening a bottle of wine. She took a shower, went to the store, then made us an awesome salad. We made sure the fire did not go out.
Almost 5 hours later and we wrapped up the night. It was totally impromptu and you know, usually I don't plan to spend my Monday drinking but honestly I am at a point in this work project that I would have just been working anyway. So in the end this was a great break in my normal Monday Work Night routine.
Beyond that, I find Matt is a really easy guy to talk to. His public interface is one of a loud mouth but that is a bit of a false assessment. The kid has a great head on his shoulders and I think he's a really great guy. I enjoy talking real life with him and I think he actually appreciates this old man's perspective on things - both bike-related and work/life-related. He's considerably younger, to the point that I imagine I'm closer in age to his dad than to him. But I carry a total lack of responsibility in some respects that I guess makes him like hanging out.
Matt has been around the scene for a few years now and he's great to have here. I would love to have him race for the team and he knows that. But at the same time he has the "name" cross team he is racing for then the Marty's link for the mountain bike. Like I said to him, it doesn't make sense to try to lure him in when he has other commitments and things going on. I don't want to be in that game and I don't want to lure pressure him into doing something that closes some other potential path down the road. I have said to him we'll be around if/when he wants to ride for us.
I know Matt has his heart partially in New England, so you never really know if he sticks around here, or goes up there. As much as I think Boston sucks, hey I guess some people like it. Plus, you know, being at his age you never know when he'll be finding a Mrs Heckler and having a bunch of mini-Hecklers running around yelling obscenities at the parents.
Anyway, good times. This is what the goal of this year is all about: having good times.
Matt, aka The Heckler
It was a Sunday night. I had just dropped Julia off at her mom's and I was heading back home to talk to Sean & Dan for the weekly podcast. Since we hadn't done a podcast in a while I wondered what Matt had been up to. I shot him a text and he replied saying he had meant to text me earlier but forgot. Was I going to be home the next day? he asked. He said he had a present for me. I was going to be home, and such was set in motion the impromptu Monday evening hanging out with Matt, also known as The Heckler in various circles.
So he shows up the next day with beer, 5 cans of Nugget Nectar and a single Dale's for himself. He had tried the Nectar and really didn't like it so much so he was coming by to give me the 5 remaining. And to hang out and drink beer. As you can imagine, 1 turned into more than 1. And before long 5:00 turned into 7:00, D came home from her spin class, and we were sitting in the living room drinking beer and hanging out near the fire.
When she then asked if he wanted to stay for dinner, I insisted. We helped her out by continuing to drink beer and opening a bottle of wine. She took a shower, went to the store, then made us an awesome salad. We made sure the fire did not go out.
Almost 5 hours later and we wrapped up the night. It was totally impromptu and you know, usually I don't plan to spend my Monday drinking but honestly I am at a point in this work project that I would have just been working anyway. So in the end this was a great break in my normal Monday Work Night routine.
Beyond that, I find Matt is a really easy guy to talk to. His public interface is one of a loud mouth but that is a bit of a false assessment. The kid has a great head on his shoulders and I think he's a really great guy. I enjoy talking real life with him and I think he actually appreciates this old man's perspective on things - both bike-related and work/life-related. He's considerably younger, to the point that I imagine I'm closer in age to his dad than to him. But I carry a total lack of responsibility in some respects that I guess makes him like hanging out.
Matt has been around the scene for a few years now and he's great to have here. I would love to have him race for the team and he knows that. But at the same time he has the "name" cross team he is racing for then the Marty's link for the mountain bike. Like I said to him, it doesn't make sense to try to lure him in when he has other commitments and things going on. I don't want to be in that game and I don't want to lure pressure him into doing something that closes some other potential path down the road. I have said to him we'll be around if/when he wants to ride for us.
I know Matt has his heart partially in New England, so you never really know if he sticks around here, or goes up there. As much as I think Boston sucks, hey I guess some people like it. Plus, you know, being at his age you never know when he'll be finding a Mrs Heckler and having a bunch of mini-Hecklers running around yelling obscenities at the parents.
Anyway, good times. This is what the goal of this year is all about: having good times.
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
It looks like an awesome salad because I don't see any lettuce!
Is there a Heckler podcast in the works?
The Heckler
You bring new meaning to the term SUCK
That was a really enjoyable evening, and damn that salad was lit.
Easy with the kind words, that shit goes straight to my head.
Easy with the kind words, that shit goes straight to my head.
Friends (4 of 12)
Friday night, almost 2 weeks ago as I am sitting here now writing this. Obviously I am falling behind but work is eating my evenings, and life is eating my weekends. Going to try and catch up a bit this week but as often is the case, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Actually, as I have stated before, I think the road to hell is paved with a litany of dead bodies.
And away we go, commence a big weekend away. Starting at the house of @jmanic, hereby known as "Jason".
Jason & Elizabeth
At some point in the later half of 2016, D had a meeting in the city on a Friday afternoon and I decided to go in and meet her there for dinner or drinks or a show or something. We didn't have firm plans but I threw it out to Jason that we should meet for drinks, and he took us up on the offer and convinced his wife Elizabeth to join us. We had met before briefly at a race (I believe). But we hadn't shared more than a few pleasantries, so this evening was sort of an "intro of spouse to bike team". You never know how this will go but as is often then case, dinner that fall evening was a great time, and we ended up just spending it with them and foregoing any shows.
Fast forward a few months and here we are barging into their house for a night of drinks and dinner, and more drinks. We arrived promptly at 7:00 and got to business by sitting on the floor and introducing ourselves to the MONSTER dog. After a few brief assuring words and some dog treats, we took our places on the couch, ate some sushi appetizers, and had some drinks. Here are the hosts with their dog, Death Tongue:
Anyone who knows Jason knows he will never server anything but amazing beer, and as expected he plied me with round after round of excellent brew. They had also invited some of the neighbors over (something to the effect of "just the nice ones" in his words) so all told we were 7 people. No surprise, but the friends of our friends were good people. It quickly became obvious that everyone there got along very well. Many laughs were had very quickly.
We sat down to dinner and Elizabeth started dishing out the awesome. Here she cuts a vegetarian meat loaf (I will refrain from using Jason's exact words on describing the making of this) which was necessary because of Bob, who will appear in a later picture. Behind the meatloaf is Dan, Bob's husband. Now I know Jason (sort of) disliked making this, but goddamn this meatless meat loaf was something out of this world. If we didn't really care about being invited back, I may have stolen the leftovers and taken it with me. Alas, we hope to be invited back one day.
One of the in between dishes was this feta (I think) cheese concoction that was very similar to something we has when we had dinner with them in the city. It was delicious.
Very blurry picture of Bob (left) and Victor (right). Victor's wife, who is a chef at Google, was in Singapore for work. He was a super awesome story teller, absolutely great stuff from him. Hell of a nice guy as well. Bob is a NYC principle and had some great stories to tell as well. Between the 3 of them they had a thousand stories and could have gone all night. As it was we ended up going on until about 1:30, well past Jason & Elizabeth's bed time.
So as not to bow completely to the vegetarian faction, Jason made sure the carnivores were represented this evening as well. Ignore the vegetables on the plate, They are there for distraction. Those of you who went to Kingdom Trails with us last year will remember the super spicy relish on the left side of the plate there.
We rounded out the night with some more drinks, and a few more drinks, and then some drinks. In the background here I think Jason is trying to turn the volume down on the music. As you can see, the vicious dog has been tamed by D here.
In reality, the 4 of us did not get in much conversation as Bob, Victor, and Dan talked enough for all of us. But being honest they were great people and we had super conversations. And since we were staying over that night we'd have time in the morning to hang out more.
The next morning we woke up to some mushrooms cooking that ended up going into some delicious eggs. We sat around the breakfast table eating and drinking coffee and talking more. As is the case with pretty much everyone we hang out with these days, the topics of this blog came up in the course of conversation. Not the blog specifically, but the general run of "doing things" that we've been on. Elizabeth asked us if we would be interested in some Scottish dance (this is a hobby of hers) and we said sure. We are always open to anything, and it would be cool to see something like this that we would never go and seek out ourselves.
We haven't known Jason & Elizabeth for very long but we get along quite well with them. I have found that I resonate well with Jason on a lot of topics. He has the ability to listen as well as to know when to interject some bit of wisdom, or sarcasm. His sarcasm is sometimes delivered too deadpan for D to realize it's sarcasm at all, but she'll learn eventually. Elizabeth, while not remotely as sarcastic as Jason, is a great host and really easy to talk to on a variety of subjects. We really enjoy hanging out with them both and hope this is the start of many more of these kinds of evenings together.
Our visit to their house was a great kickoff to what ended up being a great weekend. We took off around 11:00 and drove into the city from here to take the next step on our weekend adventure.
Friday night, almost 2 weeks ago as I am sitting here now writing this. Obviously I am falling behind but work is eating my evenings, and life is eating my weekends. Going to try and catch up a bit this week but as often is the case, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Actually, as I have stated before, I think the road to hell is paved with a litany of dead bodies.
And away we go, commence a big weekend away. Starting at the house of @jmanic, hereby known as "Jason".
Jason & Elizabeth
At some point in the later half of 2016, D had a meeting in the city on a Friday afternoon and I decided to go in and meet her there for dinner or drinks or a show or something. We didn't have firm plans but I threw it out to Jason that we should meet for drinks, and he took us up on the offer and convinced his wife Elizabeth to join us. We had met before briefly at a race (I believe). But we hadn't shared more than a few pleasantries, so this evening was sort of an "intro of spouse to bike team". You never know how this will go but as is often then case, dinner that fall evening was a great time, and we ended up just spending it with them and foregoing any shows.
Fast forward a few months and here we are barging into their house for a night of drinks and dinner, and more drinks. We arrived promptly at 7:00 and got to business by sitting on the floor and introducing ourselves to the MONSTER dog. After a few brief assuring words and some dog treats, we took our places on the couch, ate some sushi appetizers, and had some drinks. Here are the hosts with their dog, Death Tongue:
Anyone who knows Jason knows he will never server anything but amazing beer, and as expected he plied me with round after round of excellent brew. They had also invited some of the neighbors over (something to the effect of "just the nice ones" in his words) so all told we were 7 people. No surprise, but the friends of our friends were good people. It quickly became obvious that everyone there got along very well. Many laughs were had very quickly.
We sat down to dinner and Elizabeth started dishing out the awesome. Here she cuts a vegetarian meat loaf (I will refrain from using Jason's exact words on describing the making of this) which was necessary because of Bob, who will appear in a later picture. Behind the meatloaf is Dan, Bob's husband. Now I know Jason (sort of) disliked making this, but goddamn this meatless meat loaf was something out of this world. If we didn't really care about being invited back, I may have stolen the leftovers and taken it with me. Alas, we hope to be invited back one day.
One of the in between dishes was this feta (I think) cheese concoction that was very similar to something we has when we had dinner with them in the city. It was delicious.
Very blurry picture of Bob (left) and Victor (right). Victor's wife, who is a chef at Google, was in Singapore for work. He was a super awesome story teller, absolutely great stuff from him. Hell of a nice guy as well. Bob is a NYC principle and had some great stories to tell as well. Between the 3 of them they had a thousand stories and could have gone all night. As it was we ended up going on until about 1:30, well past Jason & Elizabeth's bed time.
So as not to bow completely to the vegetarian faction, Jason made sure the carnivores were represented this evening as well. Ignore the vegetables on the plate, They are there for distraction. Those of you who went to Kingdom Trails with us last year will remember the super spicy relish on the left side of the plate there.
We rounded out the night with some more drinks, and a few more drinks, and then some drinks. In the background here I think Jason is trying to turn the volume down on the music. As you can see, the vicious dog has been tamed by D here.
In reality, the 4 of us did not get in much conversation as Bob, Victor, and Dan talked enough for all of us. But being honest they were great people and we had super conversations. And since we were staying over that night we'd have time in the morning to hang out more.
The next morning we woke up to some mushrooms cooking that ended up going into some delicious eggs. We sat around the breakfast table eating and drinking coffee and talking more. As is the case with pretty much everyone we hang out with these days, the topics of this blog came up in the course of conversation. Not the blog specifically, but the general run of "doing things" that we've been on. Elizabeth asked us if we would be interested in some Scottish dance (this is a hobby of hers) and we said sure. We are always open to anything, and it would be cool to see something like this that we would never go and seek out ourselves.
We haven't known Jason & Elizabeth for very long but we get along quite well with them. I have found that I resonate well with Jason on a lot of topics. He has the ability to listen as well as to know when to interject some bit of wisdom, or sarcasm. His sarcasm is sometimes delivered too deadpan for D to realize it's sarcasm at all, but she'll learn eventually. Elizabeth, while not remotely as sarcastic as Jason, is a great host and really easy to talk to on a variety of subjects. We really enjoy hanging out with them both and hope this is the start of many more of these kinds of evenings together.
Our visit to their house was a great kickoff to what ended up being a great weekend. We took off around 11:00 and drove into the city from here to take the next step on our weekend adventure.