meals (12.30)

breakfast

bagel w/ veggie cream cheese
oj
coffee
iced tea

lunch

pasta salad
water
cafe mocha (grande)

at Starbucks. Pasta salad wasn't very good. Cafe mocha was pretty good.

dinner

chicken w/ sauteed zucchini, onions over rice
broc
iced tea

pretty good. I added teriyaki sauce to mine.

dessert

sweet tater pie w/ whipped cream
iced tea

meals (12.29)

Slept late this morning. Felt much better than yesterday. It was about 13 when I woke up. Crazy cold. Elizabeth slept in too but she was up when I got up.

breakfast


oatmeal
coffee
iced tea

oatmeal is so good on a cold day. oatmeal is tasty on a hot day but it is a little overwhelming as well. a little too much. but on a cold day. oatmeal tastes extry-extry-good as Andy Griffith would say.

Elizabeth went to get her hair cut in the afternoon. I went to get groceries.


lunch

meatball sub
chips
sierra mist

at Wegmans food court. The older gent who used to make such a good sub at Wegmans hasn't been there lately. The last several subs I've had there have been blah. I thought I hot sub might snap the string of weak subs and it worked.

I lost my grocery list as soon as I walked through the door at Wegmans. Jeez louise. It was a nice short list and I did manage to get everything on the list.

dinner

scrambled eggs (3)
fried bologna (2)
sesame bagel with veggie cream cheese
iced tea

Elizabeth's off the cuff dinner. Really good. The bagels were so fresh that they were steaming the bag and I think that's what inspired the choice. Also the fact that E didn't eat lunch because it took so long to get the hair cut. She has had so many headaches with hair cutting people lately that I think she would buy a flowbee if those people spammed her at the right moment.

dessert

sweet potato pie
whipped cream

good. but way too much.

We watched the Mel Brooks presentation on Kennedy Center Honors. Nice job by everyone. The guy from Glee can dance just as good as he wants. I just thought he was a singer.

They kept showing the audience and you would see Donald Sutherland or Alan Alda or ... Just famous people wherever you turn. It felt like twitter.

I always feel a little sorry for the honorees at those events. There is such an amazing gush factor involved and it always seems a bit embarrassing.

meals (12.28)

very sick in the morning. sore throat, ear ache, dizziness, some fever.

breakfast

cereal
oj
iced tea

Went back to bed at around 9:00 and slept for 2 hrs. Felt wiped out but not so ill any more.

lunch

strawberry jelly sandwiches (2)
iced tea

Elizabeth got home at about 6 pm. She said the traffic was mostly pretty good on the way back.

dinner

chili mac
iced tea

E. want to bed at 9:00. I watched Big Bang Theory and then fell asleep on the couch. Woke up at 12:15 listening to a very doom-filled interview on Letterman. Everybody tells you the damage that global warming is doing but nobody tells you how to stop it. Does simply cutting back on carbon emissions do it? That seems too simple. Seems like the train is already a-rollin'

meals (12.27)

Nora Jones is playing on the iPod. Don't Know Why. It is the sort of song that you are sure you heard somebody sing on a Dean Martin special in 1971. A song that people have been singing for the last 100 years and yet Don't Know Why I Didn't was written by Jesse Harris around 1999.

breakfast

cereal
milk
coffee
iced tea

Elizabeth and Candace are reading to Charlotte today. Claire is also planning to come over this morning with the TV.

Claire arrived just about the time E & C were preparing to leave so at least they got to congreet. Claire looks like she's losing some weight. Between the two of us we managed to get the TV wrassled into the family room. We had a bit of a chat but Claire had to do the grocery shopping so she left around noon.

I got the TV up to the point where I could watch cable. I think I need a remote to be able to switch between TV and DVD. I'll look for that later.

lunch

pizza (2 sl)
iced tea
pretzels

I watched football for several hours after lunch. It was nice to be able to read the scores.

dinner

grilled ham, turkey and onion sandwiches (2)
chips
iced tea

yellow cake w/ chocolate icing for desert

I watched the Sunday night game until I fell asleep. I looked up the TV model on-line. It is 36 in. Our old TV was 27in. Looks tres different.

meals (12.26)

breakfast

cereal
coffee
iced tea

Elizabeth went downstairs at about 10:30 and saw that we had water seeping in from under the foundation.We worked for about two hours to get as much water up as possible. Then E. went to work outside getting snow away from the foundation while I kept getting up the water.We took a break at around 2:30 pm for lunch.


lunch

pizza (4 sl)
coke (20 oz)

from Domino's. Definitely hit the spot.

Worked on the basement off and on for a few more hours. Got to the point where it seemed stable.

dinner

grilled turkey sandwiches (2)
iced tea
chips

cake for dessert

meals (12.25)

Christmas Day

Very quite celebration this year. It was nice to have Candace here.

breakfast

pancakes
bacon
coffee
banana
iced tea

We wanted to see a movie in the afternoon. We didn't really have anything we could prepare quickly at home so we thought we'd get a hot dog or something at the movie.We originally wanted to see It's Complicated (not my first choice!) but got to the theater to late for that showing. We got tickets to my first choice which was Up in the Air. We got two pizzas, two hot dogs and two sodas for our lunch. I got the hot dogs. They were ok. E and C both liked the pizza so that worked out ok.

lunch

hot dogs (2)
coke

Freezing rain when we left the movie.

dinner

turkey w/ gravy
ham
mashed potatoes
stuffing
green beans
cranberry sauce
iced tea

very good. We ate like peegs.

yellow cake w/ chocolate icing
coffee

for dessert.

meals (12.24)

Christmas Eve

breakfast

eggs
bacon
coffee
iced tea
banana

lunch

cheese crackers
orange
banana
walnuts

dinner

veggie burgers (2)
pretzels
salad

meals (12.23)

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
banana
oj
coffee
iced tea

Candace is coming to visit for Christmas. Her flight lands at BWI at 1:10. It is supposed to take about 90 min to get to BWI so we decided to leave 2 hrs early. We left at 11:10.

snack

crackers
coke
bottle of water

in the car on the way. For some reason it did not occur to us that taking 66 to 495 to 95 to 195 two days before Christmas might mean running into Christmas traffic. I guess the idea that we were just going to the airport would put us in a parallel dimension where the traffic would just be normal. Apparently the parallel dimension did not kick in. It took us nearly 3 hours to get to BWI.

lunch

cheeseburger
fries
iced tea

at Bill Bateman's Restaurant in the terminal at BWI. Good burger. so so fries. bad tea. Why do so many places have bad tea?

snack 

venti caramel macchiato

from Starbucks in the terminal

The traffic on the way back wasn't quite as bad as on the way down but I was getting very tired. I had expected to drive about 4-5 hours and drove over 6:00. When we got to 66 the traffic report was that it was running extremely slow so we went down 50 in Fairfax and stopped at Panera for dinner.

italian combo
part of an order of mac and cheese
iced tea / dr. pepper

The peppers on the combo were much hotter than usual. Burned my face off. The mac and cheese was pretty tasty. We all shared an order. We all thought it was good but overpriced at about $5 for a small order.

Elizabeth drove after Panera. We finally got home at about 8:00. I don't remember much after that.

meals (12.22)

since we couldn't move furniture on Saturday, we are moving it today. I dropped E at VRE and then drove to Manassas. I was hoping to avoid driving in the van in rush hour so I scheduled it for 10:00. I went to breakfast at Bob Evans. The parking lot there was full of FH Furr trucks. I thought it was a convention but I guess they just have a deal to park there when it snows.


breakfast


eggs, scrambled (2)
sausage, patties (2)
hash browns
biscuits (1.5) w/ sausage gravy
iced tea

they bring you a bowl of sausage gravy the size of Arkansas. I used about a third of it.


I missed the UHaul place the first time by even thought I'd checked it out before. With all of the snow around I didn't see the landmark I had noticed before and saw the UHaul sign as I drove by. I went down to Manassas Mall to turn-around. While at the Mall I drove to the Walmart side. I was going to buy a shower curtain for E and I asked the waitress at Bob Evans if the Walmart was still open since I knew it was supposed to move. She said it was now at Manassas Mall and that it is HUGE.


She was not kidding. The store was so big that I couldn't guess which door was likely to be closest so I decided not to go in.

When I passed the UHaul place I noticed there was no place to park. I parked at the Giant across the street. I'm not sure how I got across the street. The snow was still more than a foot deep on all of the medians and where the sidewalks should have been. The edges of the road were guarded by piles of snow 3-4 ft deep. Anyway I got across somehow without soaking my feet and rented the van.


It took a bit more than an hour to get to Alexandria. Most of the drive was not bad but you never feel like you can really see properly in a van. It was a thrill any time I had to change lanes quickly to avoid piles of snow. I took one wrong turn in Alexandria and finally got to the right street at about 11:15. Someone had been parked in the loading area for a long time so I ended up going around the block a few times until E showed me where I could park to wait for the loading zone. Finally got parked in the right place at around 11:35 and started moving furniture. I got to briefly meet E's boss and a few associates but everyone was pretty busy preparing for the move. E had a nice view from her window. Too bad the new office won't have such a nice view.


The lateral file we wanted most was so heavy we couldn't move it. In any case we got two tall book cases, one short book case and a file cabinet. It will be nice to get some of the books out of boxes. I started on the way back home at about 1:00. Traffic on the beltway has terrible. They had to close a lane for snow clearance and this brought traffic to a standstill many times.


I finally got home at about 2:30 and realized that I couldn't get in through the garage as usual since I didn't have my car. I had to navigate to the front door to get in. I got a pretty good soaking in the process. Unloading the truck by myself was quite fun. It took about 45 minutes to get everything in the house. I could not lift the file cabinet over the steps because my elbow was still sore from shoveling. had to fit it in the garage in order to move it later.


I had to stop to get gas on the way back. I would much rather have just turned the truck in and been done with it but the gas policy was absolutely ridiculous. Something like $35 for the first gallon or part of a gallon. I ended up putting in $20 worth of gas at the sieben elf next door to the UHaul. My $19.95 cargo van came out to almost $130 after insurance and mileage and dolly rental, etc. With the $20 in gas it cost nearly $150 to rent the gizmo.

I felt so much better when I got back to my car.


lunch

steak and cheese sub
chips
iced tea

at Firehouse Subs (http://www.firehousesubs.com/) in Manassas. I had never eaten at this place before. It was the best steak and cheese I've had in many years. Probably since I last went to Marino's in Arlington. I had lunch at 5:00. E's train would arrive at 7:25 in Bristow so I had to decide whether to go home kill 45 minutes and then go back to the train or run errands and go directly to the train. I was afraid that if I went home and took off my shoes I would probably fall asleep so I decided to run the errands.

snack

chocolate milk shake at Chick-fil-a

Very good. I wish they had a short shake about half the size of the original. Basically the size of a small frosty.

I picked up E at the train at about 7:35. They were a little late.

dinner

bagel with butter
iced tea

I don't remember much after that. I was about dead to the world by the time I finished my bagel.

meals (12.21)

breakfast 

cereal w/ milk
coffee
banana
iced tea

lunch

pizza (2 sl)
cookie
iced tea

at Wegmans. I have to remember that one slice of their pizza is plenty.

dinner

chili mac
iced tea

meals (12.20)

it stopped snowing sometime during the night. we had about 18-20 inches on the ground in the morning and the sun was shining.

breakfast

bacon and cheese sandwich
banana
coffee
iced tea

we started digging the snow at about 10:00. the snow up against the garage was about 24 in. high. It took a little over two hours to get the car out of the garage. We were getting cold at that point and went in for a break.

lunch

tomato soup
crackers
cashews. pecans
iced tea
coke

we went back out to dig at about two. a neighbor with a snow plow plowed our driveway from the street to the bridge. that saved us at least an hour. Jeff, from next door, then helped finish off the driveway. Those helping hands were real life savers. we were certainly flagging when they arrived. We were clear from the garage to the street by about 4:00.

snack

pretzels
iced tea

dinner

potato soup
bread and butter
iced tea

in bed with an aching back by about 9:00

meals (12.19)

It really did snow. It was snowing when I got up at 6:30. It was still snowing when I went to bed. We had about 8 inches on Saturday morning and about 12 or 13 by dark. It was really beautiful to watch. We didn't have to go out so that helped a lot.

breakfast

scrambled eggs
bananas
eng. muffins
coffee
iced tea

lunch

chicken and swiss cheese sandwich (2)
cashews
iced tea
pudding

snack

cookies (3)

dinner

tuna melts (2)
fruit cocktail
iced tea

meals (12.18)

breakfast

cereal w/ milk
oj
coffee
iced tea

I drove E to the VRE this morning. She was right on the borderline so we didn't want to risk it.

Weather reports are calling for heavy snow starting tonight and finishing on Sunday am.

lunch

angus cheeseburger sub
fries
iced tea

at Ledo's. This is a great deal. Basically $6.00 for a really good sub, fries, and iced tea. With tax and tip it's about $8.50. You can easily spend $8.50 at BK or Wendy's and not eat as well.

Traffic was insane in Warrenton. I had to go to Walmart to refill my prescriptions and by a few things and then go to Giant for the traditional bread, milk, and tp that Washington area residents are required to buy when the word SNOW appears in the forecast. DC stations just about have a fit when snow is coming.

I got home just in time to put away the groceries and go back out to do the next set of chores. I had to get cat food at PetSmart and pickup dry cleaning. Both of these were in Bristow near the VRE station.

dinner

ravioli w/ tomato sauce
salad
iced tea

snack

cookies

It did start snowing at around 7:30 or 8:00 in the evening. It was coming down pretty well when I went to bed at 10:30.

meals (12.17)

breakfast

bagel egg and cheese from Micky D
sausage burrito (ditto)
banana
coffeee
iced tea

It seems like my hands are always cold.

lunch

hot dog (2)
chips
coke
club soda

snack

crackers
iced tea

dinner

dinner salad with ranch
number 6 combo
rice
beans
iced tea

at Casa Chimaya in Manassas. Very good but I got too much food.

We were planning to go to CC on Saturday night but they are now calling for a pretty good snowfall on Saturday so we decided to go on Thursday.

meals (12.16)

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
banana
oj
coffee
iced tea

snack

crackers
iced tea

I went to the post office at around 1:30. Very crowded.

lunch

whopper avec cheese
spicy chicken sandwich (dollar menu)
iced tea

at Burger King

I went to Giant for the first time in many months. It seemed like they had lowered a lot of prices. Last time I was at Giant it was clearly more expensive than Wegmans.

dinnner

chili dogs (2)
beans
slaw
iced tea

ice cream w/ chocolate sauce

meals (12.15)

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
banana
coffee
V8
iced tea

Left the house before 9:00 to get the car to the dealership by 10:00. I got there just at 10:00 o'clock. It wasn't such a busy day at the dealer. They actually finished the car by 12:30.

snack

egg sandwich
dr. pepper

at La Torre in Fairfax. La Torre is the cafe in the 50/66 office complex where I used to work in FFX city. It was the 2nd time I've been there since 2005 but they still remembered me. It was kind of nice. The lady that runs the place reminded me that we had talked about colleges when her son was getting ready to go to school. He had decided on W&M. He is now a grad student at Indiana University/Purdue University (I assume in Indianapolis rather than Fort Wayne). Time, she is auf-gefliegende.

It's funny. Pat Kaczaral, my high school palsy-wal, went to W&M undergrad and went to Purdue (not IUPU but close) for his PhD. Pat's parents gave him a car to persuade him to live at home and go to W&M. He used to say that he worked to put his car through school.

They had to replace one of the ignition coils. Since two had already been replaced that means either 3 of the original 4 were bad or one was replaced twice. I've filed the paper work for the other repairs. I'm hoping to get a check in January. They also suggested replacing the battery. Goodyear made the same recommendation when I last had the car there so I had the battery changed. Elizabeth is taking the car to NC after Christmas so I'd rather not have the battery crap out on her.

I was supposed to meet Elinor for lunch but she couldn't come. The book she was working on is now over a week late so she was stuck. She says she is now working 12 hr days routinely. Jeez.


lunch

two beef tacos
two chicken taquitos
rice beans
iced tea

at Anita's in FFX City.They no longer had the delectable Fajita Burrito on the menu. Tacos were good. Taquitos were so so. I don't think Taquitos are legit. They seem very 7-11 to me.

It is extremely difficult to highlight the word "lunch" in the text editor used in blogger.


snack

creme brulee latte

from the Starbucks inside the Harris Teeter at Madison Crescent.

dinner

chicken and rice w/ gravy
green beans
iced tea

meals (12.14)

breakfast

cereal

iced tea

coffee

V8

lunch

sub at Wegman's
really bad iced tea at Wegman's

snack

peppermint patties (2) from Wythe

dinner 

lasagna (Mrs. Callendar)
broc.
iced tea

cherry pie w/ ice cream

weigh in, Dec. 14

I finally had the nerve to weigh in today. Last time was over two months ago.

325.1

Not good but not as bad as I feared.

last weigh in, Oct. 20: 323.6

I'm +1.5 in that period.

meals (12.13)

breakfast

cereal
coffee
iced tea

lunch 

bologna/cheese sandwich (2 on eng. muffins)
iced tea

worked on dishes and the laundry while watching UVA vs. Akron for the ncaa mens' soccer championship. UVA won the game on pks. I thought UVA played better in fhe first half and Akron played better in the 2nd. By the end of the 2nd OT, UVAs players were really dragging and Akron clearly dominated but they couldn't score. Each goalie stopped one shot. Akron's players totally missed two shots and UVA missed one shot.

Elizabeth went to Oatlands to see the decorations and talk to Liz and a few other people. She said the decorations were not so good except that the had a really amazing Christmas tree.

When Elizabeth got back from Oatlands we realized that we didn't have any cat food. We had to go back out. We went to Petco in Warrenton and Borders to get a few Christmas cards. It was insanely foggy on the way back.

dinner

veggie burger on a roll
tomato soup
iced tea

We are trying to get into the Christmas spirit. We watched the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol with Reginald Owen as Scrooge and Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit. Elizabeth prefers the 1951 version with Alastair Sim as old uncle ebeneezer. Other favorites are the 1970 musical version with Albert Finney as Scrooge. The cold is so cold in that version! I also like Bill Murray's 1988 Scrooged though I still can't figure out why Put a Little Love in Your Heart is the song they all choose  to sing at the end.

It is very hard to watch A Christmas Carol with care. I've simply seen so many versions of the story that it is hard to actually pay attention from start to finish.

meals (12.12)

breakfast

coffee
v8 juice

We decided to go to Williamsburg for the day. We left at about 9:15. Elizabeth drove. We stopped at the Shell station at Rt. 28 and Rt. 17. We got some crackers and water there. I got a Starbuck's coffee drink there. Didn't much care for the Starbuck's drink. Traffic was not very heavy but it was still about 12:30 when we stopped at the Red Lobster in Williamsburg for lunch.

lunch

breaded fish
scallops
fries
salad w/ blue cheese dressing
iced tea

When we got to B-burg my hip was very sore. Usually I have problems with my right hip but in this case it was my left hip. I hobbled around a bit and then settled on a bench in front of the book store. Elizabeth went on a voyage down DOG street. Billsburg was crowded.

After a while I went to the drug store at the other end of merchant's square to get some tylenol. No luck. The drug store is now a Williams Sonoma.  Don't know when that happened. The Rizzoli book store is also long gone. I went to the bookstore and got some tylenol and a soda. It was nice and warm in the store. I finally found a seat.

Elizabeth came into the store around 3:30. She got us java from the starbucks there.

caramel macchiato, grande

Wasn't very good. In fact it left me feeling a bit sick. We looked around a little in the book store. E. went to the craft store then we went to Wythe and got some candy. If the Wythe store ever closes I'll be very surprised. I also walked through the cheese shop. Amazing crowd.

We headed back around 4:30. Stopped at McDonald's at Bottom's Bridge at about 5:30.

dinner

big mac
large fries (shared with E)
iced tea

Got home around 8:00. Very cold by that time. Watched a little TV. E went to bed around 9:00. I fell asleep on the couch. Woke up to see some odd person hosting SNL.Turns out the person was Taylor Lautner. Taylor Lautner? Google says he is in Twilight. I guess that explains the cheesy plaid shirt.

cavahoos beat wake in soccer on Friday. scored the winning goal in ot. UVA vs. Akron today in the national championship. Akron is undefeated this year. Remarkable.

meals (12.11)

breakfast

cereal w/ milk
coffee
iced tea


lunch

bologna, salami, cheese sandwich (2)
crackers
cherry pie
iced tea

dinner

pancakes
eggs
bacon
iced tea

meals (12.10)

breakfast

bagel w/ butter
V8
coffee
iced tea

lunch 

moo shu chicken
spring rolls
iced tea

at Lin's CHina Bistro in Bristow. Very good. The authentic Chinese I had in Chinatown last week was no good so I thought I'd get some regular old Merican Chinese. I'm all about the Merican Chinese.

Lin's is really nice restaurant. I felt like I was in Lothlorien.

dinner

chili mac (no beans)
iced tea
cherry pie with vanilla ice cream

Our chili mac is very complex. It has to be Kraft's three cheese mac and cheese. I like to use Hormel chili. E prefers chili with no beans.I acually like the chili with beans better. Ratio is 2/3 mac/cheese to 1/3 chili.

Gourmet stuff, no?

dinner (12.9)

ravioli w/ tomato sauce

bread and butter

iced tea

I made a salad but didn't feel eating salad

4 tabs of chocolate/almond bar for dessert

lunch (12.9)

I finally got around to taking care of the recycling. I should try to do it the first time the containers look full. I always end up doing it two weeks after that so it is a lot more work.

italian combo
apple
donut
cafe mocha
iced tea

from Panera. I hadn't been to Panera in a long time. The lunch I had was excellent.

breakfast (12.9)

bagel w/ butter
iced tea
coffee

A bagel tastes really good when you haven't had a bagel in a long time. I used to have a bagel almost every day. I read in several places that bagels for breakfast is basically a road map for weight gain. Cereal or good old eggs are both supposed to be better for a weight loss plan.

dinner (12.8)

salmon patties (4)
corn
iced tea


donut

lunch (12.8)

tater soup
toast (2 sl)
iced tea
coke

breakfast (12.8)

cereal
banana
clementine
coffee
iced tea
V8

dinner (12.7)

scrambled eggs & cheese
little smokies
toast
v8 juice
iced tea

lunch (12.7)

bacon cheeseburger
spicy asian chicken nuggets
iced tea
(coke)

at Wendy's in Warrenton. Burger is way overpriced if you don't buy the combo. iced tea at Wendy's always tastes bad!

breakfast (12.7)

sausage, egg, and cheese croissant
ham, egg, and cheese on sourdough
iced tea

from Arbies

meals (12.6)

breakfast

cereal
coffee
iced tea


lunch

crackers
coke

On the way to Claire's church. Matthew performed in the church pageant on Sunday. We took a few wrong turns and missed Matt's performance. We did see the end of the show and went back to Claire's house afterwards.

We saw Claire, Dave, and Mattthew. We also saw Claire's friends Pattie and M for the first time in many years. M's 8 yr old son J was also there. We had a nice chat and had

pizza (3 slices)
water

for supper. The pizza was from a local Pizzeria. Pretty good.

We tried to bring home the TV Claire got from a friend. It is huge and we couldn't wrestle it into the car. We'll  arrange to pick it up at a different time.  We left around 6. Stopped at Bloom on the way home to get some necessities. Got home about 7:30.

birthday cake
coffee

was our dessert. The cake was very good but overpoweringly sweet. I'm glad E brought back only a two pieces of cake.

dinner (12.5)

burritos (2)
iced tea

Elizabeth made the burritos with bison meat as an experiment.The taste was fine. I think we both would like to find a burrito recipe that is about half meat and half beans.

lunch (12.5)

snowing today. very heavily. we were supposed to get minor snowfall but we are well over three inches already.

bologna, salami, and swiss sandwiches (2)
chips (handfull)

breakfast (12.5)

I woke up at 6 am with a huge headache and a scratchy throat. I went downstairs and took some tylenol and got a drink.

When I started to feel better I ate

bagel w/ cream cheese
banana
iced tea
club soda

I watched Who Mourns for Adonais (Star Trek, Season 2, Episode 2).An enjoyable episode. Probably a B episode. I've got to subtract points for the really tall Adonis special effect. Lt. Palamas (Leslie Parrish) is very cute and probably earns a few bonus points.

It started to snow. When E. came down I had second breakfast

oatmeal
coffee
iced tea

meals (12.4)

In New York.

small bagel with butter
sweet roll
pineapple, melon slices
bottle of water

for breakfast at the hotel.

met with client at their offices on Friday morning.

Left for Penn Station at 12:45. Dropped off Iris at Laguardia on the way. Arrived at Penn Station around 1:50. Pete went to catch a NJ transit train. My train was listed as on time. I went to get a quick bite to eat

slice of pizza (hamburger, onion, pepperoni)
coke

pizza was good.

By the time I got back to the status board the train that was on time at 1:50 was now delayed at 2:02. Insane.

2:05 train arrived at 2:45. 2:05 train left at 3:05. Oh boy. With the delay it became touch and go as to whether I would be able to catch the last VRE to get home. If I missed the VRE that would mean taking the metro and a cab at $60 or more. Oh boy.

I had a seat mate from NYC to Trenton. She was an atty from Boston who was visiting her parental units a little early for the holidays. I was surprised that she was so nice and then I found out that she specialized in employment law. I think you'd have to be a pretty good egg to focus on that. I assume her hair was tinted but whatever she had the best hair cut and hair coloring I've seen on a person in real life. Whoever cut her hair did an excellent job.

I got a 30 min nap when my seatmate left. Then I got

corned beef and swiss sandwich
iced tea
bottle of water

for a snack. Sandwich was not so great. I only ate half even though I was pretty hungry.

The cafe lady on the train didn't say "Hello" or "May I help you" or "What can I get for you bub?' She said "You have the most beautiful hair!" I guess my seatmate and I should have been in a magazine spread with all the good hair we were having.

The train was supposed to arrive at 6:35. By the time we were actually stopped at the platform with the door open it was 6:45. The VRE left at 6:50.

I was lucky. The VRE ticket machine was at the top of the stairs and the VRE was boarding about 2 gates down so I didn't have to go through the terminal . The train pulled out about 2 minutes after I got on board. Luckily it was mostly empty.

Arrived at Broad Run at 8:00 (five min early).Passed through the Manassas station (the same one that is on the cover of the Stephen Stills album). The whole old town area of Manassas is decorated for Christmas so it was very nice and sparkly.

I was starving when I got to the train station so we went to the Red Robin Gourmet Burgers restaurant for dinner. I can't figure out what robins have to do with burgers. I was glad to see that the Robin was not present on Friday.

house salad w/ blue cheese dressing
guacamole bacon burger
fries
iced tea

everything was good. nice hot fries. burger was done just right. definitely hit the spot.

E.went to bed at about 10:30. I watched most of Leno and part of the stand up comedy show. Bill Engval. I woke up on the coach at about midnight. Crawled up to the bed and don't remember anything else until Saturday morning.

from one of the over-crowded pizza places at the train station.

meals (12.3)

Early morning to catch the train to New York.


Left the house at 5:30. Elizabeth dropped me off at the VRE at 6:00. Arrived at Union Station at about 7:30. 


bacon, egg, and cheese bagel
hash browns
coke


at the McDonald's at Union Station. Possibly the only McD in the world that doesn't have unsweetened tea. I love the Union Station store. They treat everyone like stir-fried shit. Just a warm, welcoming, "fuck you" feeling about the store. 


On the up side, the food was actually hot. 


Caught the train at 8:05. I got a business class ticket this time. A little extra space was nice. 


utz party mix
bottled water


for a snack on train.


Arrived at the Union Station at about 11:30. Caught a cab at 11:45 and got to the hotel (Sheraton Laguardia East, there is no Sheraton Laguardia West) in Chinatown in Queens at about 12:20.


Pete was checking in ahead of me. So we arranged our meetings for the afternoon. Client was running late so my meeting wouldn't start until 2:30 or 3:00.


Pete didn't want to go to lunch so I went to the next block where there were 6 or 7 Chinese restaurants in a row. They all had Chinese writing in the windows except for the phrase "We don't take credit cards. Cash only." The first few were so crowded that I didn't see a seat. I went into the fifth restaurant.


mixed seafood on pan fried noodles
iced tea
hot tea


Most boring Chinese meal I ever had. 


Meeting finally started at 3:00. Met from 3:00 to 4:45. 


Left for dinner at 5:15. Met at Armando's in Queens at about 5:45.


capellini pomodoro as an appetizer (excellent)
eggplant parmesan (excellent)
iced tea
Moretti beer (1)


a little Italian cheese cake, a little chocolate cake, a little tiramisu for dessert
capacino


got back to the hotel around 9:30. Asleep by 10:00

dinner (12.2)

hot dogs (2)
beans
iced tea

lunch (12.2)

roast beef and cheddar sandwich
roasted chicken sandwich
iced tea

at Arby's

caramel brulee latte
chocolate chip cookie

at Starbuck's in Manassas

breakfast (12.2)

cereal
coffee
iced tea

dinner (12.1)

cassoulet
corn bread
iced tea

Elizabeth made cassoulet for the first time in a long time. Really excellent. Unfortunately we had to buy corn bread at the store. As usual the corn bread was way too sweet.

We watched one of the funnier episodes of ST:TNG last night. Rascals is the title I think. Picard, Guinan, Ro, and Keiko are transformed into children by a transporter fluke The kid they got to play Ro as a kid looked a great deal like Ro. Very enjoyable episode from the 6th season of the series.

lunch (12.1)

I read somewhere that Tiger Woods has earned more that one billion dollars (billion, I think that's the one with 9 zeros) in his career. I know that's small potatoes compared Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or The Sultan of Brunei but my o my o my. I don't think I've even hit the one million mark yet. It is mind-boggling to imagine that much dough.

Tiger doesn't even have to fix the Caddy if he doesn't want to. He can just ditch it.

(Shouldn't the caddy be an oldsmobile?)

(I wonder if Tiger has a pair of adidas hidden in a closet somewhere.)

soup
toast (2 slices)
iced tea

breakfast (12.1)

It is the first of December. Wow.

cereal
coffee
iced tea

dinner (11.30)

chili mac
iced tea

lunch (11.30)

swiss cheese on croissant
bbq chips
iced tea