Got back from NY tonight, two days and one night is a nice teaser for the city and enough to get in the mood for a LOT more.

Day one, 4:30am, put everything and us into the car for the drive to the train station. We get there exactly on time (30 minutes before boarding). Dad and Pam arrived right when we did so we parked and made our way to the terminal. After a short wait we jumped onto the train for a 4 hour commute to New York’s Penn station (we weren’t on the Acela for the ride in). We caught each other up on Christmas happenings and other stuff and went over a few things we wanted to check out/do. My first suggestion was lunch.. I really need to remember to eat.

We got to Penn right on time and after a little confusion we found an info booth, everyone grabbed pamphlets and we found out how to get to the hotel (cab of course). We made our way to the streets to find that everyone wanted to take a cab to the hotel and we would have had to wait in a line (in light rain) to get a ride. We just decided to make the walk up to the Westin with luggage in tow. I think I was the only one who didn’t mind that walk, but we all agreed that it was better than waiting. We left the luggage at the desk and hit the streets again.

First task, get something in my stomach (mmmmm, food and beer). We found a Dallas BBQ a few buildings away from the hotel, and since it was the only place in the immediate area (besides BB Kings) that I’ve never seen before, I suggested it and everyone agreed. A few moments later we were on the second floor by the big Vegas like sign in the window ordering beer and watching ppl come and go on the street below. For the first 10 minutes or so we were the only ppl in the place (other than staff). They had opened minutes before we walked in. I had the initial, oh, we’re dorks being here this early but got over it fast as the Stella Artois was cold and tasty and the menu looked decent enough. I ordered my BBQ burger and everyone ordered their stuff and we waited a few for the vittles to arrive. It was actually really good. The burger was cooked to perfection, the fries crisp and tasty and the onions were actually onion rings which I found to be more pleasing than the pile of red onion so many places put on your sammich. The only problem I had was the service was a little weak, it was probably just my server. Natalie had the chicken and ribs and I can’t remember what dad and Pam had, but we all really enjoyed the meal. I originally thought this was a chain, but a quick google just turns up http://www.bbqnyc.com/. If you’re going to NYC and want some rich BBQ eats, it’s certainly worth checking out.

After that we went across the street to Madame Tussauds for a look at the wax museum. I’d never been to such a place and enjoyed the touristy fun of it. Got some good pics, had fun making fun of things and rating the wax works. Some were actually eerie, the Whoopie in the lobby felt as if it was staring at you and there was one other that gave the same impression, I just can’t remember who it was. I realized that I’m just a typical crappy American stereo type… I found the celebs far more interesting that the historical figures. At least I knew who they were for the most part and wasn’t a complete fool in that room. The only complaint I have is the House of Horrors. There were only 2 scares, Pam said there were at least 2 places she would have expected spooks to be. Maybe they were on break, but they should replace them with other staff if that’s the case. Definitely worth checking out if you’ve never done it before.

Next we made our way to 30 Rock/Top of the Rock, another cool experience for all the country mice. Once we got there we decided to grab a coffee before making the trek to the observation deck so we hunted around the shops until a really nice lady directed us to Starbucks (which was a typical SB experience). We chilled and chatted for a bit and then grabbed tickets to the observation deck. The ride up was pretty damn cool. The elevator has a glass top and lighting so that you can watch a little video (though I can’t remember what it was) and the ceiling approaching. I couldn’t look away, I dig the insides of things and exploring an elevator shaft just works for me The deck itself was great, you get a great view of NYC (though it was a little cloudy that day). I even checked out one of those binocular things until I started thinking about all of the other eyes that have been on it. I got a little freaked and bailed, I can just see myself getting conjunctivitis while trying to peek in on muggings in Central Park.

We then decided to head back to the hotel and clean up for the show, I was really hoping to visit the hotel bar for a martini, but there wasn’t enough time. Natalie showered and I watched the news. We met up w/dad and Pam and made our way to the WaMu Theater @ Madison Square Garden for Wintuk (Cirque Du Soleil). This was the inspiration for the trip. The show was a LOT of fun, these ppl are really amazing at what they do. There were 1 or 2 mistakes by the actors, but I think they did a nice job recovering and moving on. The show is very much worth checking out if want to see amazing athletes do some crazy things with bicycles, balls, ropes and whatever else they come up with. These are some really talented folks and shouldn’t be missed.

After the show we needed some chow.. Since we left our guide at the hotel and couldn’t remember the name of the French/Thai place we really wanted to check out, I suggested BB Kings. Some were skeptical, but we all agreed. We made our way back and went in. At first I was ready to bail as there was some hip-hop show going on, but that didn’t impact the dinner/blues area so we stayed (thanks to Pam and some dude confirming that dinner was no where’s near the sea of ppl). The music was good, the drinks were killers, dad and I had 2 Thrills, the house specialty, while Pam had 2 Peach thingys and Natalie had Cosmos or Pomegranate martinis (can’t remember which). We all enjoyed the food and music and it was a really nice dinner. After that we all went back to the hotel, I protested, I wanted to hit the Comedy Cellar and hopefully catch Jimmy Norton working out some material but it wasn’t gonna happen this trip. I was able to convince Nat to hit the hotel bar for a night cap. I had a PERFECT dirty Ketel One martini and she had some red drink thing which she enjoyed.

Day two, we hit the streets looking for breakfast and settled on the Hard Rock (after walking past GMA’s recording). I don’t know why I can’t remember that I don’t like the food there until I start eating it, but that’s the way it goes every time. I’ve never had a good meal there and it was no different here. Just your standard buffet fair and not cooked particularly well. Moving on.

We made our way down to 5th Ave and checked out the tree, skating rink and Trump Tower. All good and fun We spent a few minutes in Tiffany’s where dad and I were about as bored as we could be (that must be where I get my lack of interest in shiny things). We had coffee @ Trumps. That dude puts his name on EVERYTHING. He never misses an opportunity to brand something. After that we walked down and dad grabbed a scarf (looking dapper man) and we admired the MAC store. I would have liked to have gone in, but the line was just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.

We walked a little further down to Central Park and grabbed a carriage ride. The driver was just OK. He kinda chimed in once and a while to point something out. He was more interested in chatting w/a cute Italian chick in a Nissan SUV or chatting with other carriage drivers. The ride itself was nice but I much preferred the walking of the park that followed. We didn’t actually get through the whole park but we did check out a lot. We got to the boat house, poked around on the Ramble and Belvedere Castle. After that we were wiped and just wanted to eat.

We made our way to the Tavern on the Green for a nice late afternoon lunch. The food was good (not great) but the place itself was fun. We’d all heard of it on TV and radio and wanted to check it out. The service was exceptional and they did a great job decorating for Christmas. We all enjoyed the hell out of this low key NY afternoon.

The rest of the day was dedicated to souvenir shopping and travel, none of which would make for interesting reading.

Nat and I are in agreement, NY is a place we’ll be going back to. We never made it out of Manhattan (and there’s still more than enough to check out there) and I never got to visit any of the places I hear about every day on O & A. I’d like to check out a Conan O’Brien recording next time too.

Went to a couple of malls last night to finish up the Christmas shopping, I’m amazed at how many people AREN’T shopping. We first went up to the Mall of NH in Manchester, I had no problem at all parking near the Macy’s entrance and getting right into the store. Once there, it was like a mildly busy Saturday at any mall. Sure, there were people walking around and picking up goodies, but not nearly as many as I would have expected the week before Christmas.

Next we went down to the Rockingham Mall, same thing. I parked even closer to the Macy’s entrance. I figured that this mall (being the better of the two) would be packed inside. Nope. It was just like the previous, no problem walking around, no getting stuck behind slow ppl or slowing down others in a hurry. Amazing.

I guess I’m just surprised, I remember working for the Bombay Co. and this time of year being a flipping madhouse. There wasn’t a minute to take a break, eat, drink, escape from the customers (be they nice or flaming jackholes) or do anything but sell, sell, sell. I was actually chatting with bored sales people in some stores. Just amazing.

So is it an economic thing or (as is my preference) are we doing more and more with our computers (rhetorical).

Well, we’ve got the tree, the lights are up and the house is decorated. We’ve even gone out and made our Christmas cards which I’ll hopefully have time to get in the mail this week. It looks as though things are coming together a little earlier than normal this year… Though now that I think of it, we’ve yet to start shopping…

This year (like last) our tree came from the K of C in Plaistow NH. We’ve found two GREAT trees there and the place itself is a lot of fun. It’s up on top of a pseudo mountain and they drive you both up and down on ATVs. Pretty cool. This year we took down a 20 foot tree and had to cut it a bit to get the part we wanted. It’s cool that they don’t mind doing that (actually, it works to their benefit, not many ppl really want a 20′ tree). My favorite part is that they do the cutting, no dull bow saw, just flag em’ down and they come a runnin’ with a chain saw. The prices can’t be beat, they sell ANY tree, size matters not, for $40.00. I tend to tip as all the proceeds go to a food pantry. The site is maintained by a cool ass guy (wish I knew his name) who actually loses money as the tree replenishment is out of his pocket. I assume that he pays the folks who’re cutting the trees and driving us dolts around out of tree sales, but I don’t know for sure. All in all, I think it’s a pretty good place to get a tree. Sadly, we’ll have to go some place else next year, they don’t have many more 13 footers that appealed to us. We’ll go back in a couple of years and see what they’ve got.

I started a Christmas wiki this year to track all of the stuff we need to get done and what people like (I never remember). I LOVE my wiki, and I’m happily making notes and laying things out so I can always look back and see what works and what doesn’t (like vodka tonics, those DON’T work on Christmas, and even less the following morning). Just so much to keep in mind

So, for those of you that are interested, here’s a low res shot of the tree before we got it placed and decorated. The ladders give it such a warm Christmas feeling, no?

If you want to see it done up proper, you’ll have to be there on Christmas

So I’m probably late to the party, but I need to mention Google Trends. You can get more info about it here. In a nutshell, it’s a view of what is currently a hot search term relative to the total number of Google searches over time.

Take a look at my iGoogle page with one of today’s trends (center[ish] of the image):

Being that today is Cyber Monday, I suppose the results are apt. I’ve been watching it creep from Warm around 8:00 this morning, up to to Spicy, all the way to the current status of On Fire. I find it fascinating to see what people are hunting down. Yet another distraction to keep me from getting things done I suppose

Clicking on the results gets you more information, things like related searches, when the search on this particular term peaked and location information. Seems the news that Trent Lott is retiring next month most interests people in DC and NY.

Another worthy widget for your iGoogle page.

And here comes another Christmas . For those of you visiting to get the holiday list, you should be here.

If you stopped by, found that list and then backed up to see just what happens here, you’ll be bored soon. Keep reading to see what I mean.