September 16, 2009

Last weekend, Jo and I traveled to New York as we had tickets to the NY Yankees for Saturday and decided we should just enjoy the entire weekend in the big apple. We took the train into the city from New Haven, CT and after checking into the Pfizer condo (Pfizer folks use it when staying in the city for extended times or are tired of the hotel life and then Pfizer lets employees stay there at reasonable rates for the weekends) we headed over to Broadway to see what shows had available tickets. We settled on "39 Steps" which is a comedic rendition of the Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Poor Al is probably a bit steamy in his heavenly spot as while the show is a absolute stitch, it does tend to mangle a fine film's plot. The cast did a great job and I was laughing so hard it hurt at times. As there are only 4 cast members (well 5 if you count some person's arm late in the second act) and 30-40 roles (could be more, but I stopped counting) it was a riot to see the transitions between roles. Additionally, they did several clever scenes using minimal props that were very eye-opening - the use of picture frames for windows and the train scene come to mind. After the show, while many New Yorkers would hit the bars for a night cap, we headed back to our room for a well deserved night of sleep.

Saturday morning dawned gray and overcast which was actually an improvement from the raining weather on Friday. We donned our running gear and headed out for our last big training run for the half-marathon. We covered from 38th street all the way to the top of Central Park and back. It was fun to run in Central Park with all the other New York athletes and fortunately the weather held out the entire time. After a shower and a quick bite to eat it was off to Yankee Stadium for the game. We took the subway to the ballpark which was great as it left you off practically right at the gate. We had gotten the tickets through Pfizer (ok, Jo got the tickets - has to be some advantage to all those hours she travels) and had great seats about 20 rows up just up from the Yankee dugout - seats even came with food service (which consisted of paying someone 20% of the food price to have the food magically show up at your seat). For those that haven't made it to the Yankees new stadium - it was very nice with well padded seats and more than comfortable leg room. However, for the price that was stamped on the ticket it should be. Food was on the pricey side (I mean $4 for a hot dog and $5 for a glass of lemonade - not counting the 20% if you used the food service) and it certainly made me long for the days of my youth at Wrigley Field where hot dogs were 25 cents (at least that is my memory). We had great weather, as it didn't start raining again until we in the subway headed back, and a wonderful day enjoying some professional baseball. Unfortunately, the Yankees didn't win - but we did great to see the Baltimore Orioles hit a grand slam.

We hit a diner for dinner as this is one of my favorite restaurant types to eat in when in New York. I went with the classic turkey dinner - roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry, and veggie. Quite tasty and very filling. We were pretty tired by that point and after a bit of search for a soft, chewy chocolate cookie we headed back to the room. Jo needed to get packed up as she left on Sunday for a business trip to the UK and we enjoyed watching some college football. So with an early start on Sunday (up at 5), I headed back on the train to CT and Jo got a car to JFK. Uneventful week at work. Jo made it to London and back successfully although she had several late nights while there and needs some beauty sleep. I did my thing in CT with a day's worth of work in NY (yes I had to go back down after being there all weekend).

That brings everything up to date - 'til next time.