Scattered Thoughts . . .

W hile we were at FAO Schwarz this past weekend with Lukey and Kenzie, we saw quite a few demonstrations of toys but one demonstration immediately caught our eye.   As we approached one end of the store, our attention was captured by this woman with a magic floating orb and she easily drew us in while holding our attention.  I could clearly tell that Lukey was quite interested.   The orb would float in between open hands above and below the orb and then the open hands would move to each side while the orb continued to float in mid-air...  then the orb would fly off and around her body...  the orb would slowly lower toward the ground and then back upward...  sometimes hands were above and below, other times hands were on each side...  sometimes no hands were anywhere near this floating orb!  This glowing orb just floated around our young female magician.   After we watched her short demonstration, I asked Lukey if that was something of interest and he enthusiastically said, "YES!&q

This is a rant about televisions we've encountered while traveling recently.  I don't think I'm feeling lousy but maybe I am considering this rant and another rant in another blog entry.  Or, maybe I'm simply in a lousy mood due to a blackout causing expensive damage to some of our electronics. I n the past couple of weeks, we spent two weekends out-of-town.  In the big scheme of things, we had nice accommodations and a nice time at both places.  One place was a VRBO apartment with well above average accommodations, the other place was a Hampton Inn suite which was nicer than other Hampton Inns we've frequented over the years.  Both places were nice but the televisions were frustrating and not at all pleasing in any way especially to the eye.  The quality of the televisions did not match the quality of the accommodations. Both of these places were furnished with Samsung televisions.   Both of these places had frustrating televisions with poor colors, poor sound and

M y best desktop monitor that I use for photo and video editing...  4K, IPS, 27", wide gamut, calibrated...  has bit the dust.  This was a stark and painful reminder that even the best computer will look like garbage if you use a low quality monitor. We awoke to a blackout at 6am this past Friday around the time when we had planned to get up out of bed before leaving for Long Island for the weekend.  The power came on again just before it was time for us to head out the door so I never did check my computer.  When I turned it on this morning, however, the screen was black. When we arrived home, I had problems getting our living room television to work too.  It had the same problem...  the screen was black.  I immediately suspected this problem was due to the blackout and, fortunately, I managed to force a reboot on this expensive television and managed to get it to work again.  Actually, I had to reboot numerous times but I got it working again.  This morning, my thoughts immediat

A fter our short visit to Manhattan this past Saturday, we rode on the Long Island Railroad from Grand Central Madison to Rockville Centre then walked the few short blocks back to the hotel.  I have to say that, as a tourist wanting easy and quick access to midtown Manhattan, the new Madison extension to Grand Central is very convenient! I needed to make a short stop at a pharmacy so we stopped at a pharmacy that was next to the hotel.  While we were there, we picked up a few additional drinks for the hotel.  Below, we are waiting for Sheila to come out of the pharmacy...  we somehow got separated in the store so checked out separately... Six hours of sleep the previous night was now taking its toll on Kenzie.  She laid down to take a short nap with her new stuffed animal but I don't think she got more than a few minutes of sleep, if at all.  I managed to capture a photo of her lying with her stuffed animal though... Before long, it was time to drive to my sister's house for di

A s we were departing Rockefeller Center with the kids this past weekend, we were walking toward Sak's on Fifth Avenue.  When we got to Fifth Avenue I immediately noticed St Patrick's Cathedral and was reminded that we didn't get to show the inside of this cathedral to the kids when we were here at Christmastime.   We had hoped to show the kids this landmark cathedral when we were here Christmas week but it was locked up since it was nighttime.  On this warm morning, however, the cathedral was open to the public so we walked across the street to St Patrick's. Before entering the cathedral, we quickly went over a few rules and customs so nobody would make a fool of themselves in this famous landmark.  It would have been nice to do a tour of the cathedral but, unfortunately, we didn't have time for that.  I'm not sure the two 12 year olds would have appreciated the significance of what they were seeing in a tour anyway. St Patrick's Cathedral was perhaps Sheil

A fter a short stroll through Bryant Park this past weekend, Sheila, Lukey, Kenzie and I walked up the few blocks to Rockefeller Center.  We walked up Sixth Avenue so we approached Rockefeller Center from that side.   We had hoped to bring the kids to FAO Schwarz when we were here this past Christmas but the line to get into the store was ridiculously long so we aborted that part of our Christmas plan.  This day was a far better day.  It was much more quiet which allowed us to play with whatever we wanted in the store! As we walked up 49th Street from Sixth Avenue, we passed the Rainbow Room entrance.   Just beyond the NBC Studios and Rainbow Room entrance is one of the entrances to FAO Schwarz... One of the reasons we had hoped that the store would be relatively quiet is because we wanted the kids to be able to play a bit on the giant keyboard, if FAO Schwarz still had that giant toy made famous by the movie "Big".  If the store was crowded, then gaining access to this toy w

A s mentioned in my previous blog entry, we visited Bryant Park with the kids twice now.  This last time was just this past weekend during the warmer months so it didn't at all resemble the winter park with an ice rink like the last time we were at Bryant Park with Lukey and Kenzie.  If we hadn't told the kids this was Bryant Park, they might not have recognized it in the warm weather!  The park really does look a lot different in the summer months compared to the winter months. During the winter months, they jam-pack this park with a big ice rink, a locker and changing facility, a few different socializing areas, and close to a hundred small shops.  When all the winter seasonal attractions are packed away for the summer, the park looks completely different.   We quickly walked the few blocks from Grand Central Terminal to Bryant Park... Below, the Public Library is behind them as they try to get their bearings... Below is the back side of the Public Library facing Bryant Park.

W henever Sheila and I are in Manhattan and are looking for a place to eat breakfast, we always head to Pershing Square.  The breakfast here is consistently delicious.  Even Lukey and Kenzie love it!  This was their second visit to this restaurant. I had a perfectly prepared omelette (and I'm pretty picky about my eggs).  I also had a glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.  Lukey and Kenzie had freshly squeezed orange juice with their breakfast.  The freshly squeezed juices are incredible! Lukey and Sheila had the French Toast on Challah bread which is delicious.  If I remember correctly, Kenzie had a fresh fruit bowl for breakfast... The main purpose of our visit to Manhattan was to visit FAO Schwarz.  Lukey and Kenzie had never been there.  Actually, we found out that they didn't even know this toy store existed because they had never seen the movie "Big".  Anyway, we still had a little time to kill before FAO Schwarz opened so we walked over to the public libr

W hen we visited Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie back at Christmastime, we never did tour the new Grand Central Madison part of Grand Central Terminal so we were seeing this new part of Grand Central for the first time just this past weekend.  If we had the time back at Christmastime, we would have spent a little time exploring this new extension to Grand Central.  It just so happens that our Long Island Railroad train arrives in this new extension to Grand Central so we were finally able to experience this new train station ourselves. This part of the station is quite large and extends for six blocks underground...  very much  underground at about 180 feet below street level.  Consequently, we encountered numerous sets of stairs and escalators to get back up to street level.  One of these escalators is noteworthy which I will mention later in this blog entry. When we stepped out of the train, we were on a beautiful, clean and bright station platform!  Even the kids said, "Wow&quo