We're going to DC tomorrow for Xander's first birthday party. It's happening in the afternoon. I don't think there's a set time--folks are just stopping by.
We hope to schedule a trip to City Bikes after the party and before they close to pick out a bicycle helmet for Xan's birthday gift. Everything I've read suggests that an in-person fitting is necessary. City Bikes has a good selection on their web site so I'm hoping that means they have a good selection in stock.
I believe they're open until 7pm on Saturday. We're just spending Saturday night and then heading back sometime Sunday, probably midday.
Lee is picking up a little outfit for him today so we'll have something wrapped to give him at the party.
We hope to be on the road at 6am tomorrow, which means there are a few things that must get done tonight:
Going to meet Lee and her mother at the Nassau Blvd station. I finally got it straight in my tiny mind which end of the Hempstead train I want to be on. So I'm in the first car, and it's very crowded. I think next time I'll try the second or third car. Not too much walking on the Nassau Blvd platform, but maybe less crowded.
Of course, this train stops at both Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, and I think only the head four cars platform at both of those stations.
secrets.pannI've got to update this file and then distribute encrypted versions of it to the various PCs I use.
Here it is on the T23:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 pann users 2994 2006-12-27 10:57 /working/secrets.pann.asc
AGES had their annual fall barbeque this afternoon and, against my better judgment, I had a beer with my hamburger and hot dog. Now my butt is dragging. I don't know if I can stay awake on the train long enough to finish typing.
And the beer wasn't all that good. It was some sort of Brooklyn Brewery Weissen (I didn't read the label carefully), and it was way too sweet for my taste.
I got away early this afternoon and got great subway connections so I was able to get a good seat on the Farmingdale train. It's more crowded than usual and more folks than usual have luggage, exacerbating the crowding.
I just beat the thunderstorm to the subway station at 116th St. Hopefully we won't have a "heavy rain messes up the LIRR" incident. And hopefully my "backpack umbrella" will be adequate for whatever awaits me at Roslyn.
Lee and her mother are visiting Jodi and are spending a couple of nights up there, so I slept with the cat last night. The cat was in pig heaven 'cause she's normally locked out of the bedroom at night (after sleeping with me for several years), but I missed Lee.
This morning I was a bit discombobulated. When I got the the train station I realized I wasn't fully dressed, that I'd forgotten my belt. Not the end of the world, there's no danger of my pants falling down. Speaking of pants, my left leg is soaked. I wasn't paying sufficient attention to a sprinkler when I walked by the nursing home on my way to the train station.
So this week is off to a great start!
Because I take such an early train in the morning I had no idea what was waiting for me in Manhattan. Essentially, there were no subways running. After a couple of false starts, I walked to 40th St and 10th Ave and caught an M11 bus. I even got a seat. Took an hour to get uptown, but I got there. Several folks didn't come in today owing to the transit problems.
By the time I left the office (giving myself an hour to get to Penn Station instead of the usual 40 minutes) the MTA had announced that the Number 1 train was running. And it was. Very crowded by the time it got to Penn, but other than that, running more or less normally.
And, apparently par for the course, the MTA web site crashed from all the extra traffic generated by folks wanting to know what was up. While there may be nothing to be done about the problems caused by between two and three inches of rain falling in an hour, it is certainly possible to create a web site that doesn't fail under the occasional heavy traffic situation.
Fortunately the NY Times website was doing just fine and providing updates from the MTA, so I had a pretty good idea what to expect when I left work.
This morning I want to:
Tomorrow (a vacation day) I want to:
In the near future: