It may have been Friday last night, but it was also month end at the firm. I had to stay late to prepare and post the invoices for the clients of two of my partners who were late in responding to me. There were numerous edits to be made. However, I managed to get everything finished before the deadline of midnight, with an hour to spare. At midnight the accounting and computer staffs close down the accounting system for month end processing. After I shut down my computer at 11 PM I was able to use a car service home. The Lincoln Town Car was quite comfortable after 14 hours in the office.
Yesterday I also moved to another office on a different floor from the rest of my department. I have two suite mates, and we share the floor with attorneys and secretaries. I will have to get used to the idea that the cafeteria in no longer on my floor, but is now 11 floors above me.
The weather in New York was quite balmy for the beginning of December, hitting the 60’s with 90% humidity.
Yesterday and today I slept in until around 9 AM for the first time in years. Somehow a 14 hour day like I had on Friday will do that to you.
Most of the weekend was spent helping around the house and responding to fire calls. This afternoon I watched some football games. The Giants lost again, so they can kiss this season goodbye. A big surprise was the Jets’ winning in Green Bay. Seattle is leading Denver by 1 point in the 4th quarter. If Denver loses, the Jets move up in the wild card race.
Since today is the first Sunday of Advent, the Christmas decorations went up. My wife put most of them up, and our daughter helped her out. We don’t have anything spectacular, just ceramic Christmas trees – one in the bay window and another on top of the piano - as well as a wreath on the front door and a miniature town in the bay window.
There have been a few interesting things happening since Sunday. Besides watching basketball on Monday night (the Knicks), and getting settled in to my new office, I actually got to get together with someone whom I got to know on Yahoo 360.
Fellow sports fan Nick came to New York City from England to visit and we met up at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan after my workday on Tuesday. We first went for coffee at a shop in World Wide Plaza (site of the prior Madison Square Garden) and later went to a pub restaurant on 8th Avenue for a beer and a burger while watching college basketball on TV: Syracuse vs. Oklahoma at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy Valvano Classic Benefit. Syracuse lost, though.
Yesterday I met Nick & his dad after work and we walked down to Madison Square Garden to see the New York Knicks play the Washington Wizards play. We were hoping for a two game winning streak, since the Knicks beat Memphis on Monday 98-90. After a 9-2 start by New York, we had a feeling that it was too good to last. Yep, by the second quarter the Wizards went ahead to stay. By the last quarter the fans were calling for the owners to fire coach Isiah Thomas. Since I have a personal reason for the Knicks to keep Coach Thomas, hopefully they will not (see my November 21 entry). Besides, if the general manager and the owners are not providing him with the best players, there is only so much that he can do. Anyway, the Wizards ended up winning 113-102. I have the premonition that we will be saying “wait until next year” soon.
Today I was off since my wife, my daughter and I went to Stony Brook Hospital to have blood work done as part of a genetic research project into the causes of autism. Needless to say, my daughter did not like getting stuck with a needle. As for me, I have had so much blood work done to me over the last several years that while I don’t like it, it does not hurt that much anymore.
Today is the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Hopefully we will never get caught off guard like that again. It’s also the 13th anniversary of the Long Island Railroad Massacre in which a crazed gunman killed several people and wounded several more on an evening rush hour train.
Since the Knicks game and the blood work I went back to my office on Friday and somehow managed to catch an upper respiratory infection (perhaps from my wife). The worst thing was that while at my desk my phone rings and with caller ID, and I saw that it was the director of my department, asking me to come up to her office. My heart was pounding. What did I do wrong now? Once I got to her office my boss and the other supervisor were in with her. She told me to go to my boss’s office and she will be right with us. So the first thing that transpired was that my boss showed me an e/mail that I sent to her asking for some days off. It turns out that I could not get one of them – December 26th – since too many others had asked for it and I was too late, so had to change it to the 28th.
When the director comes in the door is closed and they wanted to tell me that it was brought to their attention that:
My Internet radio was too loud;
The ring tone on my phone was too loud;
I had been nodding at my desk (afraid that I was).
As for snoozing, after lunch I can get drowsy, and with a long commute I don’t sleep as much as I would like to. Staring at a computer does not help either. I fixed my ring tone and decided that I can live without the Internet radio. After lunch I will have to go for a quick stroll if I get tired and drowsy, or head to the pantry for some strong coffee.
During the day, I also took a few minutes to remember former Beatle John Lennon, who was murdered 26 years ago on December 8, 1980.
On the basketball scene this evening, the New York Knicks managed to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 115-107.
I am finally feeling better now and the upper respiratory infection is in its last throes.
We just got back from bowling at the East Islip Lanes. It was the monthly St. Mary’s Bowling League get together. While I did not bowl 300 in one game, I came close in 3 games – 290, or an average score of 97 per game. Unfortunately, my daughter lost several points, including a strike, because she inadvertently crossed the foul line. I am still busy at work, and so far there has not been any fallout. With baseball over until spring, I have been watching the NBA games on television. Unfortunately, the Knicks and the Nets are finding ways to lose. Being an internet junkie, I created a new webpage on Homestead dedicated to New York basketball. The URL is http://www.newyorkbaseball.homestead.com/ny_hoops.html. Please check it out and remember to sign the guestbook.
On Sunday we went to visit my mom & dad in Queens and do some last minute Christmas shopping. After leaving our daughter with my parents my wife and I took the subway to Manhattan to visit the Lord & Taylor main store on 5th Avenue. There were a couple of last minute things to get for my daughter, as well as some personal shopping for my wife (new shoes). So while she was shopping in the store, I went for a walk to visit the Yankees Clubhouse store (did not buy anything) and the Macy’s ground floor windows with their dioramas. After the stroll we met up at the ladies’ shoe department and then we checked out the Christmas window dioramas on the ground floor of Lord & Taylor (interesting Christmas themes though the 19 and 20th centuries – try and go see them). We then went back to Flushing for dinner at The Green Papaya.
I had two Christmas parties yesterday – one with my department at work, and the other at the firehouse. The office party had a grab bag, I got what I had asked for – a New York Knicks tee shirt. Perhaps it’s a good thing that I asked for the shirt. Buying some Knicks merchandize will help their financial woes. It turns that the NBA fined both the Knicks and the Nuggets $500,000 each for the brawl over the weekend at Madison Square Garden. While I am a fan of basketball, I feel that the league was right in its actions. This is basketball, not hockey. Fights like that do not belong on the hardwood floor.
The fire department Christmas party was also good. What I was surprised to see that there were several sushi trays with the other hors d’oeuvres. I honestly thought that most of the other members would think of sushi as fishing bait. However, most of us enjoyed what was there and not much sushi was left at the end.
Since I have probably put on several pounds yesterday, I hope to lose it over the next few days. While I walk to the Long Island Railroad Station each morning from the house, and walk the half mile between the office and Penn Station each way, I need to walk more often and longer distances. I just might have the answer. On Christmas Eve the 3 of us will be back at my folks’ place for the traditional Christmas Eve fish & pasta dinner. If the weather cooperates, I will have time to go for a long walk through Flushing Meadow Park. Perhaps there will be a few cricket matches to watch, as an extra treat.
The Islip Fire Department has been busy with automatic alarms over the last few days. It seems that at one development we kept getting called there due to alarms being tripped off, but there was no fire. In fact, over the Friday night-Saturday morning time span we were called there three times. If we spent any more time there they were going to charge us rent.
On the basketball front, the New Jersey Nets will be moving back to New York – to Brooklyn. The owner got the okay to build the new arena at the Atlantic Yards, where the Long Island Railroad’s Flatbush Avenue Terminal is located. The area has been getting gentrified since the 1970’s, and some yuppies feared getting displaced. Yet nobody complained when people were displaced for Lincoln Center or the United Nations headquarters complex. Then again, they were not rich. However, I hope that the arena gets finished soon with as little displacement as possible.
Since it was Christmas Eve until a few minutes ago, we went to visit my mom & dad and enjoyed the traditional pasta and crabs dinner. In the past it was blue claw crabs, which are much harder to open and get to the crab meat than king crabs. In 1981, when my mom served blue claws, my hands were so dirty from the tomato sauce that I was wiping them on the tablecloth. She was ready to kill me, since the oil from the tomato sauce did not come out and the table cloth, while old, had hand prints on it from then on.
I also got to take my nice long walk that I promised myself. It was through Flushing Meadow Park, across the tracks from Shea Stadium and the site of the two New York World’s Fairs (1939 and 1964) and then through my old neighborhood – Queensboro Hill. Since I was gone about 60 minutes, I must have walked 4 miles. Hopefully I lost some of the weight that I gained at the Christmas parties earlier in the week.
Does any body on 20six.co know much about HTML code? On the National Basketball Association’s site http://www.nba.com/players/ you can download widgets that show pictures and statistics on all of the NBA players. The code for the widget of Shaq O'Neal is below:
When I tried to do it on another blog, all I got was the code, but no widget. Are there any other characters that should be typed in before and after height="undefined" src="/ap/jscript/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/images/spacer.gif" mce_src="/ap/jscript/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/images/spacer.gif" title="undefined"p>
I had to stay late to prepare and post the invoices for the clients of two of my partners who were late in responding to me. There were numerous edits to be made. 
However, I managed to get everything finished before the deadline of midnight, with an hour to spare. At midnight the accounting and computer staffs close down the accounting system for month end processing. After I shut down my computer at 11 PM I was able to use a car service home. 
The Lincoln Town Car was quite comfortable after 14 hours in the office.
Yesterday I also moved to another office on a different floor from the rest of my department. I have two suite mates, and we share the floor with attorneys and secretaries. I will have to get used to the idea that the cafeteria in no longer on my floor, but is now 11 floors above me. 
The weather in New York was quite balmy for the beginning of December, hitting the 60’s with 90% humidity.
The Giants lost again, so they can kiss this season goodbye. 
A big surprise was the Jets’ winning in Green Bay. Seattle is leading Denver by 1 point in the 4th quarter. If Denver loses, the Jets move up in the wild card race.
Syracuse lost, though. 
Yep, by the second quarter the Wizards went ahead to stay. By the last quarter the fans were calling for the owners to fire coach Isiah Thomas. Since I have a personal reason for the Knicks to keep Coach Thomas, hopefully they will not (see my November 21 entry). Besides, if the general manager and the owners are not providing him with the best players, there is only so much that he can do. Anyway, the Wizards ended up winning 113-102. I have the premonition that we will be saying “wait until next year” soon.
Today is the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Hopefully we will never get caught off guard like that again. 
My heart was pounding. 
When the director comes in the door is closed and they wanted to tell me that it was brought to their attention that:
afraid that I was).
As for snoozing, after lunch I can get drowsy, and with a long commute I don’t sleep as much as I would like to. Staring at a computer does not help either. I fixed my ring tone and decided that I can live without the Internet radio. 
On the basketball scene this evening, the New York Knicks managed to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 115-107.
I came close in 3 games – 290, or an average score of 97 per game. 
Unfortunately, the Knicks and the Nets are finding ways to lose. 
Perhaps it’s a good thing that I asked for the shirt. Buying some Knicks merchandize will help their financial woes. 
Yet nobody complained when people were displaced for Lincoln Center or the United Nations headquarters complex. Then again, they were not rich. However, I hope that the arena gets finished soon with as little displacement as possible. 
She was ready to kill me, since the oil from the tomato sauce did not come out and the table cloth, while old, had hand prints on it from then on.
Does any body on 20six.co know much about HTML code? On the National Basketball Association’s site