Day 34: Maple Leafs, Alec Baldwin and Giada

Time once again for another posting. Jen seems to think that we should mention in the subject lines who is writing the post (Jen Post or Mike Post), but you know, I think most if not all of the people reading this blog can figure out that anything titled "New Hair, New Look" or whatever isn't coming from yours truly....
Its been awhile so some catching up to do...during the last weekend of October, Jen got us tickets from the Maple Leafs - Rangers game at the Garden...first time at MSG and its everything its cracked up to be...really cool arena and amazing to look up into the rafters and see all the banners (from when the Knicks and Rangers were..you know...actually good)..more importantly, I was able to wear a Leafs jersey and cheer for my team, and not feel like I was going to get tossed from the second deck by angry Rangers fans...pretty respectful...who would have figured...

The Leafs won 4-1, making it a good night all in all...now if we could just start winning some other games....sigh....

The birthday dinner previously mentioned in earlier posts was spectactular...great restaurant run by Bobby Flay...in fact I don't think we've had a bad meal out since we've been here...we do have our Zagat guide (our restaurant bible) and we're slowly eating our way through Manhattan and the boroughs....at this rate, I'll be 486 pounds when I come back to CA next....

Halloween was fairly uneventful. We attempted to go down to the annual parade that runs through Greenwich Village, but it was WAYYYY too crowded, and just not interesting enough to hang around for more than 30 minutes...I wonder if we got any trick-or-treaters at our apartment while we were gone?? Should we have left a bowl of candy on the stoop?? Now I feel bad....ok, not really....

While walking in the Village earlier in the week I noticed signs posted on trees and poles saying cars needed be moved from the roadway by Thursday morning or they would be towed. A closer look revealed the reason: they would be filming scenes for Law and Order on Thursday! I had heard from my sister's friend that this is fairly commonplace around town, that you'll wake up and all of a sudden, one of the Law and Orders will be shooting in your neighborhood. How many Law and Orders are there these days?? 14? 22? I think this one was Law and Order: Yard Duty Patrol....

Anyways, I went back Thursday after work to see if I could watch some of the filming, but by the time I got out of work and got down there, they were wrapping up and putting cameras back in trucks and all that...oh well, its not like I won't have another chance while we're here...

I did manage to catch a TV show filming this past week...I was wandering down around Rockefeller Center when I saw a large crowd gathering around the ice rink...so I strolled over and asked a burly security guard what was going on...he said they were filming scenes for "30 Rock" the NBC show...and sure as anything, there was Alec Baldwin in a Christmas sweater doing some scene...never got to say anything to him (what would I have said? "You were great in BeetleJuice!!" yeah, probably something like that) but was neat to see them set up every shot and film them at different angles or so...I didn't have the camera with me (a problem I no longer have now that the camera is firmly entrenched in my bag for future celebrity sightings and such)

One last celebrity run-in, but this one was planned...as I was walking the streets during the week, I was handed a flier about the Bon Appetit Supper Club events going on, including a book signing by Giada De Laurentis on Friday (she's the one with the big teeth of Food Network fame)...I thought, "Hey, Jen and I watch the Food Network religiously...I'll swing by and get her autograph"

So I show up and I'm planning to have Giada make out the book to Jen, cause that seems like the nice thing to do...and Giada's being real sweet, taking an extra minute with everyone to talk to them (about what, I don't know...cooking rigatoni, the issues in Pakistan, the Jets quarterback controversy...its anybody's guess).....though you're not allowed to take pictures with her (maybe her big teeth would screw up your flash, I don't know)...but you can take pictures of her from a little ways off...but you can't use your flash (SEE, it IS the teeth thing!!) so I have one stalkerish picture of Giada that Jen will post for me at some point within this writing...I'm not that talented to do that...

Anyways I get up there and say hi, and tell her "you know my wife and I watch the show a ton" and she's appreciative to hear that, and she sees from the post-it note inside the page that I'd like it made out to "Jennifer" and she says "well, I know you're not Jennifer." And so I introduce myself, and she's signing the book saying " thats great you both watch the show, and so does your wife do most of the cooking??"

And I think for a minute and say, "Well, no actually...I do most of the cooking. I'm not quite sure why I'm having you make the book out to Jen!"

She laughs and says "well, I'll make it out to both of you...thats easy."

So then I tell her, "real quick...I don't want to take up too much time, but we just moved here from California last month, and we're always looking for good places to go eat, and you HAVE to have some favorites..." So she ended up spending an extra minute or so just reeling off her 3 or 4 favorites...couldn't have been nicer...overall a good experience...even if I couldn't take a picture with her and had to settle for the paparazzi version...

Of course, I tell Jen the story and the first thing out of her mouth is "Well, did you tell her that the reason I don't cook as much is because I HAVE TO WORK INTO THE EVENING EACH NIGHT?!?!?" Ummm...nope, didn't tell her that. So now Jen thinks that Giada thinks that she's a horrible wife and cook....yeah, I'm sure Giada is lying awake at night going "that poor pasty guy I met in NY...his wife never cooks for him....maybe I should send him some Stouffers meals or something..."

This past weekend was fairly uneventful for me (I was the one who DIDN'T get their hair done and post 49 pictures about it..) Picked up an extra shift at work on Saturday and then we took Cooper for a long walk on Sunday and had a mellow dinner before I went to work for my overnight shift...work is going well, though I miss the camaraderie from the Sac Metro office...

While we're here, a new segment in the Mike posts...

THINGS I MISS FROM SACRAMENTO: the Metro office people, our Kitchen Aid mixer, being able to let Cooper out to go to the bathroom by just opening a screen door, lunch at BJ's with Dave Knight, my car (ok, more like Jen's car), Emily Mae Martin, Emma King and Anisa Yavrom Huthman (my three favorite children that don't actually belong to me...great, now I sound like a pedophile...I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY!!), not wanting to cook dinner and being able to call Mom and tell her we'll be over for dinner, Katie Neal cheating at every board game known to man, and all of our friends and family...

Celebrities spotted: I think we covered that fairly well above.

People coming to visit: Bec and Gabe will be here Thursday to Monday (also just learned that Jen's cousin Jake and his fiance Carrie will be in town at the same time, so it'll be like a mini-family reunion) and then Dave comes Wednesday to Monday of the following week...can't wait for all those people...everyone else, start booking your trips dammit!

Fun fact about New Yorkers: I'll try to hit a vocabulary lesson every now and then with these posts because Lord knows NY'ers have their own language (most of the time usually involving 37 variations of the F-word), but today's word is:

Straphangers

No, its not the name of some gay porn title, its what people who ride the subways and buses are called....as in "straphangers are upset over the MTA's plan to increase fares on subways." The name obviously comes from the days of yore when people actually held onto straps in buses and subways, but even though those items have gone the way of the dodo and Ben Affleck's career, they are still called "straphangers." Every newscaster in town calls them this, all of my fellow writers at Metro call them this, and now I'm supposed to call them this...

Thats about it for now...I'm off to do loads of laundry and get dinner made (because you know I'm the only one who makes dinner around here...hahaha!!)

Mike (hey, its a Mike post!)