Holidays

We had a nice Christmas, but not too exciting. I worked at the Ritz so I slept in on Christmas day. Corey made a chicken dinner and we played video games. The night before, we exchanged gifts- Corey got me a nice coat to wear with my suit. Eventually, we plan on getting a Wii, but I couldn't find one to buy before Christmas.

Corey will be in MI for the next few days, so if you want to say hi, give him a call. He has a couple weeks off from work due to a factory shutdown, but I, of course, do not. I will work through next week normally, except that we get out early on New Year's Eve and have the 1st off. I have to work Friday, but we will probably get out a little early if this week is any guide.

Have a happy New Years!

Snow!

We had our first real snow storm of the season today. Probably snowed 8 inches or so during the afternoon on Friday. Happily, both Corey and I were able to leave work by one o'clock or so. It was nice to get home early and be able to sleep before work again. It is very pretty now though- Christmasy!

Not much else new to report! I hope everyone has a nice Christmas.

Christmas

On Tuesday, Corey and I went to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show. We got 1/2 off discounted tickets at the TKTS booth only an hour before the show. We had great seats and it was fun. Lots and lots of Rockettes, but also some fake snow (Corey said it was bubbles, I say real snow from a snow machine), 3-D stuff, etc. It's fun and great to take people to when visiting NYC at Christmas.

We are expecting our first big snowfall tomorrow from the same storm that's hitting Michigan today, so I'm sure all of the NYC area will find an excuse not to go to work tomorrow. Sounds good to me :)

Happy Monday!

Not much new going on here. Still no snow. In fact, the weather has varied from very rainy and over 60 degrees to 20 degrees but no snow. We expect a drizzly week, ending with some snow next weekend. Corey and I put up a cute tree. I'll try to figure out how to get pictures on here. We may go in the city to see Radio City Christmas Show on Tuesday, but we aren't sure yet.

December

Well, I started December out with a cold! It was not a real bad one, just annoying. I'm starting to feel better. A lot of people are sick here with it. I went on the Zicam site to see what this area's cold risk was, but the site doesn't seem to be working. We are going to have our first real snow supposedly on Sunday, but even that is not supposed to amount to much.

Not much else new here. Three weeks to Christmas!

Black Friday

I didn't do any early morning Black Friday shopping, but did notice early morning shoppers as early as 4 a.m. in downtown White Plains, which is usually dead at that point of the morning. Corey and I went to the city instead of the malls because of the shoppers.

In the City, we bought Corey a computer bag and some Dolce & Gabbana cologne for the both of us in Chinatown. Afterwards, we had dinner at Union Square and looked around at the Christmas Market they have set up there. We also went up to Rockafellar Center to see the tree (not lit yet), had some drinks at our New Year's Eve spot (the bar at McCormick and Schmick's on 52nd and 6th). I also wanted to look at the new TKTS Discount Booth at Time's Square. It's pretty nice, with these illuminated red bleacher-like steps that allow for a great vantage point in Time's Square. Then we had to head home so I could work!

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! We didn't end up going to the city because Corey didn't feel well. I slept a bit after work and then went to the new "Super Stop & Shop" in Ossining to buy Thanksgiving dinner which Corey and I prepared. We had a turkey, basted in pineapple and brown sugar mix, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, rolls, and sweet potatoes. It was all really good and we could have had 4-6 more people over and still had enough food! I've never had the turkey basted in the brown sugar/pineapple sauce mix but it was really good. I also bought what I thought was half a sweet potato pie for Corey and half a pumpkin pie for me. I don't really like sweet potato pie and Corey isn't fond of pumpkin pie. Unfortunately for me, they both turned out to actually be sweet potato pie. Given the fact that Corey only eats about four bites of food per meal, he'll probably have sweet potato pie for the next two months.

After dinner we just stayed home and played a video game on the X-Box360 we had bought a few weeks ago. It was fun and relaxing just to hang out at home. On Friday, I think we will avoid the malls and probably go into the city, maybe to China Town for some cheap stuff and out to eat. I haven't been in Manhattan just for fun in a while because of my schedule so it should be fun. Have a great weekend!

Weekend

Hope everyone had a great weekend! We really didn't do anything special. Went to the Palisades Mall Saturday and bought some winter stuff (hats and gloves). I finally found a winter hat that doesn't make my head look like Roger the Alien (from American Dad). We ate at Applebee's in Hawthorne, only a few minutes from our house. Their mac and cheese with chicken is really good!

I'm looking forward to this week, as I know everyone is, because I don't have to work Thurs-Fri at the law firm. Even though I work the overnights, it will still be a nice break. We may go to the parade on Thursday morning in the city, depending on the weather. I went last year and even though I didn't camp out for hours, I still got a decent view. It's hard to miss the big balloons anyway!

City Island

Yesterday, Corey and I went to City Island for the first time. City Island is a small island off the coast of the Bronx, connected to the Bronx by small bridge. It is full of seafood restaurants and little shops that are busy mostly in the summer. We ate at "Sammy's," one of the kitschier(they're all kitschy to some extent) restaurants. It was really good. I had King crab legs and shrimp, which came with potato, rice, vegetables, salad and bread with cheese and this wierd relish tray. Corey had the same, but lobster tail and shrimp scampi. The portions were very big, so we couldn't even eat it all. We also had a pitcher of Sangria that was very good. Next time anyone comes to visit, we will visit there.

Not much else is new except that Minnie is very sick. :( She is either 15 or 16 years-old and has done very well. We'll see how it turns out.

Winter

It looks like winter is around the corner and maybe has arrived in MI already. In NY, our first snows are scheduled to arrive this week, but nothing too significant.

Corey should be back from MI tomorrow night. Hopefully he will leave early enough to get back before I go to sleep, but I really doubt it. Not much else is new here. Write me with what is new with you!

Thurs

Hi! Corey is out in MI if anyone wants to say hi to him. He'll probably be in Jackson most of the time visiting his sister and her new baby. He will be there through Sunday, coming back to NY on Monday.

Not much is new here. Nothing really. Started raining a bit ago and today (Thur) is not supposed to be that nice. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and not too cold.

I greeted one resident when he came home tonight and got his car parked, otherwise that's the extent of the "work" I've done here today! I'm going to go eat soon, I think.

Have a good day!

Not much new

I hope everyone had a nice week. Nothing much new here. Corey is going to Michigan on Tuesday night after his class, so if anyone wants to see him give him (or me) a call. I'm going to stay in NY because of my work schedule.

Today, Corey and I went out to eat at Friday's. It was really good.. and cheap! Yesterday, Corey had Cornish game hens for me when I woke up. They were really good. We didn't do much but went to Santa Fe, a restaurant in Tarrytown, and had some Sangria (Corey's new favorite drink) and nacho chips. It was really good but they didn't have queso dip! I couldn't believe that, but at least we had some good salsa and drinks.

We are going to try to go to DC for the inauguration. I'm not sure how it's all going to work out, but when I know, I'll let you all know too, in case you want to come :)

Election 08

We all know I'm very pleased with the result, so I won't go on at length about that. As for Philadelphia, I really liked it. It is only a couple of hours from NY so I'm sure I'll be back there soon.

The Ritz downtown was very nice and it really did only cost $50, though every other thing (including Internet) costs extra. It's in a great location, central to everything. I went there immediately after parking my car in a garage (as opposed to Ritz valet). After checking in on Monday night, I took the Philly subway system to an Obama site in a not-so-great neighborhood a couple of miles from the hotel. The subway was not very busy (compared to NYC) at all but it was nice and easy to use. I picked up my "credential," which was just a little card to wear around my neck with some information on it to remind me of my role. It wasn't specific to me or anything, just generic.

On Tuesday, everyone at the hotel I spoke with told me to drive to my polling site, which I did. I'm happy I did because it was kind of far from downtown and parking was easy to find once I got there. The polling place was a recreation center next to a school. When I arrived, there were already a couple hundred people in line, which swelled to well over 300 by the time the polls opened. A news helicopter was overhead and apparently we were on CNN. During the time people were in line, we served coffee and donuts (courtesy of Dunkin Donuts gift cards provided by the Obama campaign). They were much appreciated. The district I was in was clearly 99.9% black, so our reception was rather warm.

Besides myself, there were at least 11 lawyers, all NY except for one. It was way too many and several left for other jobs throughout the course of the day. The lines never returned to the site, as people just streamed in and out all day, especially in the late afternoon. We had a couple of confrontations with the most stereotypical Republicans I've ever seen (white, very conservative suits, all looking like C. Montgomery Burns or Warren Huffington, III). They were upset that we were so close to the door of the polling site (they were particularly mad that I was opening and closing the door for people). PA law bans electioneering within 10 feet from the entrance to the polls. The election judge at the site decided that was 10 feet from the door to the gym, not the door to the building, so she said we were ok. They didn't like that but it did not matter anyway. Obama took Philadelphia with 83% of the vote, more than his own Cook County in Illinois.

After the election ended, I drove back to "Center City" (downtown Philly) and checked into the Marriott. I heard from NPR on the radio that PA was won already, so I knew things were going to go well. I quickly checked in and then took a cab to the official PA election results party at a multi-level Irish bar a couple of miles away. The party was really fun, lots of people, TV news casters, drinks, etc. I watched the results and stayed for about a half an hour after the acceptance speech. I only knew one person there- a Canadian who helped us at the polls all day, but it was still fun.

After the party, I decided to walk back to the hotel since I could see downtown and didn't want to pay for a cab. Along the way I heard cars honking, etc, but when I got downtown, there was an impromptu rally going on. It was exciting- lots of people blocking streets and celebrating with music (from cars), banging pots and pans, etc. It was mostly younger people, 18-30 years old, so some of it was silly, but not out of control. The police were there, but only a couple of officers and I thought they did a great job dealing with it and not overreacting. Everyone seemed happy and pleased. After spending a bit of time there, I went back the hotel.

I was able to spend a little time in Philly on Wednesday, including eating a cheesesteak sandwich and walking around downtown. It's an interesting downtown with quite a bit to do in a small-ish area (compared to NYC). Reminded me a bit of some of the nicer areas of Chicago, maybe like Chelsea in NYC or so. It was fun and I want to go back as a tourist soon.

I am definately going to go to the inaguartion in DC in January. I'm sure numerous people I know will be there, including possibly Val, Phil, Sarah, Spencer, AJ, Brian, etc.???? I do know that Birdie, my friend from law school is planning on being there too. I think Corey wants to come, though I'm not sure he will want to brave the cold or the early hour that I will want to be up in order to get a good spot to see it, but we'll see. All the DC hotels are book (I checked) but we could maybe just stay nearby or even take the train just for the day. We'll see.

Thanks for reading my detailed outline of my day, but was the most interesting day I've had in a while, so I though I would elaborate. Have a great rest of the week!

Philadelphia

Everything is all set for my Philadelphia work. I watch an hour-long video that was meant to train me as an unofficial election observer. Official election observers must be registered to vote in that county, which clearly I am not. Basically, I am going to be outside the polling place answering voter questions about the voting process, etc. Also, I will be helping the Obama people keep track of the line- if it gets too long or if there are any suspicious activities going on, I have a special number to the "Obama Boiler Room" for PA, (a sort of central command center) and they will presumably send people to find out what's going on and remedy it. I understand that they also have entertainment, food, ponchos, etc. in case the lines get really long along with the wait.

I hope everyone has a great Election Day and night! If everything goes well, I'm sure I'll text or call.

SUN

Tonight I went to Audrey's Halloween party at her apartment in Danbury, CT. It was fun! She did a very nice job decorating and making food and the people there were nice. I didn't wear a costume because I was coming right to work and didn't feel like changing, but wore an Obama shirt instead. I ate so much there and at home that I haven't taken a break to eat at all tonight (and it's 6 a.m.!).

I'm happy for Spencer! He gets to go behind the scenes at the hopefully-Obama-victory-party in Chicago on Tuesday because he is working communications for Sprint/Nextel. I'm hoping he can text me some cool pics while I'm in Philadelphia.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. We didn't really do anything. Went to Palisades Mall to eat and watch little kids trick or treat from store to store.

Kendra had her baby! He is really cute- Casey Michael Letek, Jr. 8 lbs., 6 oz or so. Very healthy! It was about 1 a.m. last night and so we were awoken in the night.

I am happy because I have Mon-Wed off next week to go to Philadelphia for the election. I'm supposed to be a "voter protection" person. Basically, I'll probably stand outside a polling place and not do much, but be visible and encourage people to vote (for Obama, of course.). Have a great day!

Brooklyn

I'm happy because tomorrow I'm going to court in Brooklyn. I used to go at least a couple to three times a month to Brooklyn, but lately I almost never go there. There's nothing really special about the court there, but I like going in the city and it eats up a lot of time :) I was supposed to argue a motion but apparently the plaintiff is just going to ask for an adjournment. Seeings how this case is pending since 1991, what's one more adjournment?

Rainy

It's a rainy night in White Plains. Not much going on but at least it's more intersting than calm, quiet weather. They celebrated Halloween earlier today with the hotel staff, so there was leftover cake and stuff for dinner. It was pretty good. I hope Val, etc. are having fun in KY! Wish I could be there, but next year we will do something similar and, hopefully, I'll be able to make it.

Woodbury Commons/ Mom's Birthday

Corey and I ran up to Woodbury Commons in Orange County today. That was a mistake! The Woodbury Commons is an outlet mall about 40 mins. or so from our house. It is very big and has a lot of stores, including high end. We enjoy window shopping, but we didn't realize it would be so busy there today. We were only there about 30 mins and had to wait nearly 45 just to get out of the parking lot! Then we went to the Super Walmart and got some things.

Other than that, not much new today. Had some TGI Friday's for lunch- it was pretty good. Tomorrow starst a new week!

Happy Birthday to my MOTHER!!

Sat night

We had a nasty storm tonight- the rain and wind felt like a hurricane. It's all done now, though. There was some flooding in the upper floors of the building due to the rain, but we don't have anyone living up that far now.

Not much else new. I'm working 12 hours today because we are short staffed. The concierge before me worked 7 a.m.-7:30 p.m and I'm working 7:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. I'll probably sneak out though as soon as my replacement comes :)

Hello??

Hi! Is anyone reading these? Leave a comment or email me! My phone is still mostly dead- I can't see the screen at all, so if I call anyone but the 3 numbers I have memorized (Corey, Christina, Mom), I have to look it up online.

Corey and I ate at "Legal Seafoods" tonight. I'm not sure if they have those in MI, but it is similar to McCormick and Schmick, or maybe Red Lobster. The food was excellent- we each actually had a lobster dinner with two sides, plus clam chowder (really good!) and dessert for only $29.95 and I got 1/2 off on mine because of my Ritz discount. It was really good there.

This weekend, I'm going to work a lot because they are short staffed here. I am working 7:30 p.m. tomorrow to 7:30 a.m. Sunday and then Sunday through Tuesday nights. It will be a pain, but I'll get lots of overtime!

I may be going to PA on election day (probably the night before) to help with the election. Obama's people called everyone registered as a lawyer (and a volunteer) to go to a "battleground" state to help with whatever it is we can do. It should be fun, although I'm not sure how much of a battleground PA really is anymore.

I talked to the BC assessor today about my house's tax status. My mother and I were worried that, since they found out I don't actually live there, that the taxes would be unmanageable. But, in reality, it will only go up $500 a year or so. That's not insignificant, but it is hardly insurmountable. I was worried it might go up $2000+! Guess I've been in NY too long :)

Email me!!!

Night off!

Tonight is Wednesday and I have it off! I can't wait to sleep 10 hours :) Not much new here. One of our elevators isn't working because of a wind storm tonight. The other tower's elevator got knocked out because a couple decided to fulfill their wildest fantasy in the elevator and knocked it off balance. The fire department ended up coming to get them out, but we get them out first.

In a couple of hours, after I get off work, I have to go to court in the Bronx. I didn't go to court at all last week so I'm excited to get out of the office for a while.

Toot

I was sad to read that Obama's grandmother is not doing well. It is clear from reading his book that she has been his de facto mother since his own mother died. It would be sad if she did not make until Election Day.

Not much else new here. I've been working a lot, of course, but it's been pretty nice having a lot of time to get my law work done. Tomorrow night (tonight really) is my last overnight and then I get two days off from here. So that will be very nice to relax and enjoy the evenings.

Sunday

I slept until about 2:30-3 today. Then we went to Friendly's (I know, we never eat at home anymore). It is good! They have this deal where, for $9.99, you get a drink, meal and ice cream sundae. We really like. Afterwards, we looked at various baby items for Kendra, but didn't buy anything. Kendra is going to have her baby any day now and Corey is very excited. After shopping, I went for a quick walk in Tarrytown, where everything is done up cute for Halloween. Tarrytown puts out Jack O'Lanterns for the light poles, blueish lights for some of the light poles and other scarecrows and things. It's all very cute. Sleepy Hollow does similar, but not quite as cute.

Next week I hope to go to some sort of Halloween thing around here. There are haunted houses in the City that could be fun, but also some bigs ones that are probably similar to the one in Three Rivers (in Michigan) outside the City in Orange and Rockland Counties. I don't know of anything right in Westchester, but there probably is too. The trees should be real pretty next week as well.

Palisades- Again

I slept until 4:30 this afternoon. I meant to get up earlier, but somehow I fell back asleep. When I did wake up, Corey and I decided to just go to dinner and a movie. We ate at Dave and Busters at the mall, again. It was really good. We didn't even play any games, but the food there is actually quite good. Then we saw "The Secret Lives of Bees" with Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Dakota Fawning (spelling??). It was really a good movie.

Nothing much happening here at the condos tonight. Very quiet. Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

TGI Fridays

Tonight is Friday night. Not much going on here at the condos. Corey and I went to TGI Friday's tonight at the Palisades Mall. We've gone to Friday's about three times in the last week. We discovered they have some really good meals for about $8.50-$9.99. You can get steak and potato, salmon and pasta, various chicken dishes too. I had the chicken with "jalepeno" macaroni and cheese and it's excellent. Corey kept nibbling off my plate!

After dinner, we went around the mall a bit. We were going to get cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory, but it was too busy. Corey's car seems to be working really well. It is a very nice car now that it is working properly, so I hope it stays that way. Tomorrow we are going to either go to the City or do something "fallish," but I need to investigate that online tonight.

Thursday

I don't work tonight! Yay! Corey's car appears to be fixed and, for that, we are very happy. Have a good day.

Car trouble

Corey's car was supposedly fixed on Tuesday. When Corey came to get it, it would not start, despite the guy's assurances that he drove it "all day." So, it still sits at the garage. How hard can it be to fix a 1995 Bonneville?

I hope I can stay awake long enough for the debate tonight. I'm hoping that McCain makes the mistake of being accusatory and pissy towards Obama, making him look even more small than he has this entire campaign. I'm tired now though, so 9 p.m. might be a bit of a stretch. Hope everyone has a good day!

Work

Hi! I hope Spencer had a good Birthday yesterday. I wonder what he did??? Christina is having fun in Vegas, she just texted me a bit ago. She's never been there, so I'm sure she'll find it quite pleasing. Nothing new here at the condos, but I did write a whole motion tonight for my law job, which will make Tuesday much easier.

Corey and I might sue the first place we took his car to get fixed. It's ridiculous! We took it to the dealer because we figured they'd know what to do easier. They replaced the fuel pump, but we still had the same problem over and over again. Well, now, it turns out that they should have replaced the whole fuel pump assembly, not just the pump. It's quite obvious once "my mechanic" showed it to me. Now we have to replace the pump again and the assembly. The dealer should have known that and they should have followed guidelines from the manufacturer. I'm going to write a letter, but, if that fails, we will probably have to sue in small claims court. There's no way we are paying for the same thing twice!!

IT'S SPENCER'S BIRTHDAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPENCER!!

Monday- My first entry!

Good morning! This is my very first blog and I am so excited. Now I have something fun to do (instead of actually working :) I've spent all night online and reading my book, Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama. It's Obama's first book and I'm enjoying it. It was written in 1995, long before he really became any kind of national figure, so I think there is a genuineness in it that's lacking in Clinton's book, which came out in 2005. I doubt Obama ever really thought in 1995, with any degree of certainty, that he'd be running for President someday. I think Clinton came out of the womb running for office.

I'm off to my other job down the street in a bit. Nothing exciting happened here at the condos tonight. It's Columbus Day, so the Courts are closed as well. Should make for an easy day.

Corey's car has been at "my mechanic" all weekend. Hopefully we'll hear something useful today. The car really is in great shape (engine, interior, exterior). The only problem is the stupid integrated-alarm system. It's so dumb. The car won't start, or will even shut itself down while driving, because the security system is so integrated with the car it has the power to prevent it from starting or running. It's been a huge aggravation and the dealer was totally useless, but I really like the place right by my job, so hopefully they will be successful.