steveblock.com

I went to visit Andy and Lindsey in New York last week. It was good to get out of town and away from work for a few days. I got in on Thursday afternoon and other than a poor showing by SuperShuttle (they forgot me) managed to meet Andy and Lindsey near his office. After doing everything backwards we managed to get a good meal of gigantic burgers near his apartment.

I spent Friday afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History, which is adjacent to Central Park. It’s an amazing place, and in the 4+ hours I wandered I think I managed to glimpse everything but did not get a careful look at very much at all. The place is huge.

After I left the museum I hung out in Central Park for a while. The weather was perfect and people were out in force. I met Lindsey in the mall on the way back to Jersey and Andy met us shortly after. We hung out at his place and while I was working on some of the photos I took and then I looked up and SAM was there. Turns out they had been planning this for months and I was completely unprepared. I think my exact works when it all clicked were “brilliant.”

We ate at the apartment and drank on roof deck that night, and I met a bunch of Andy’s neighbors. It seems like everyone in his building knows everyone else, which is pretty cool as long as people get along.

On Saturday we wandered around Manhattan. We rode the ferry out to Staten Island, which was pretty awesome, and took Sam to his Mecca, the Nintendo World Store. Andy and Sam managed to pick up Mario Kart a day before it officially came out.

After that we went to Top of the Rock, which has an amazing view over the city. $20 to get it but totally worth it. That night we ate at Dell’Anima, which I highly recommend. You may need a reservation well ahead of time, however. We probably started eating around 11 PM and left well after midnight.

Andy’s neighbor lent him her gigantic Mustang GT, which he had told us about before. It’s a beast, but super fun if you can get some open road. It absolutely hates driving slowly. We even took it to Ikea and managed to get a box over 6 feet long in there without it sticking out the back, though we squished Lindsey in the process.

New York is a very fun place to visit, especially when you know people. I’ll get my pictures organized some and get a gallery up here soon.

steve :: Apr.30.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 2 Comments »

Several fun things going on. My new TV showed up last week. I had been saving up for one since around Christmas, and ordered it a couple of weeks ago. It’s a 46″ Samsung LCD. Looks very good. I get several HD stations over the cable line I use for the internet, including Fox and NBC. I don’t get ABC or CBS in HD, but I think it is because of the line filter they install since I am buying cable internet. I have thought about getting an antenna but I don’t know if it would be good enough or if I care that much.

The issue is that there is supposed to be a massive new tower installed on Lookout mountain (I think that’s the right place) for all the local affiliates digital broadcast, and getting that permitted etc is taking forever. Right now the various internet sites that deal with broadcast locations and signal strength show that I would receive barely marginal signals for everything.

Out of curiosity I checked, and my parents would be able to get all the regular networks in HD already with nice, strong signals. Denver is this big city and Des Moines has it beat for HD television. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

The other fun thing (arguably more fun, actually, I mean a TV is just a TV) is that I am going to New York City in a week. I haven’t been there since November of 2006, and now Andy has a new place and I have more money. I’m so busy at work that I need to get the hell out of here for a while, and next week’s trip is the ticket. I just have to survive another week.

The weather here has been a little bit silly. It was in the 70s yesterday and I ran my car AC to cool it down from sitting in the sun. Today it has been snowing since the early afternoon. It is expected to snow tomorrow and then be almost 70 on Friday. Welcome to Colorado, I guess.

Speaking of Colorado, New Belgium Brewery has mentioned a beer on their site called La Folie for a while, but I always got the impression it was only available at the brewery in Fort Collins. They decided to bottle it though, since I found and bought a bottle at the local liquor store yesterday. I look forward to drinking it, but it won’t happen tonight.

I have a pretty sizable patio, and I expect to stay in this apartment for another year unless they really jack up the rent. I have been meaning to buy some chairs and a table for the outside so I can sit out there and drink and grill in the summertime. With nights not being sweltering like KC I should try to take advantage.

That’s all for now I think.

steve :: Apr.16.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 2 Comments »