Trip Report: New York

Well, we just flew back from NYC, and boy are my arms tired .

At least our feet are tired - well, everyone's except mine. The Montrail hiking shoes that Bernie got me for my birthday last year are really comfortable, and I was the only one out of the family that didn't have any soreness from all the walking we did.

We flew in early Friday morning and dropped off the bags at the Westin at Times Square. Then we walked to Radio City Music Hall and did their tour, which was much more interesting that I expected. I had no idea that their stage was really three platforms which rise and descend on hydraulic lifts that were built in 1932. Apparently, the system is the engineering wonder of the world. Very cool.

After that, we had lunch at a place that Bernie found on some NY native internet forums, a French place called Le Bonne Soupe. Mom and Dad had a prix fixe meal consisting of onion soup, a salad, and creme caramel for dessert. Bernie had a crepe with ham, egg and cheese, and I spotted something intriguing on the menu - a sort of lasagna dish made with a crepe rather than noodles, with bechamel and bolonaise inside and mozzarella baked on top. That was just terrific. The crepe made it a much lighter dish than a real lasagna.

We went back to the hotel and napped to make up for having to get up at 4 am for our flight, and later on we had dinner at a place that got rave reviews as a Chinese bakery, Fay Da. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a big disappointment as a bakery, but it did have cheap eats - a five-choice for $5 cafeteria (Bernie and I split one). It wasn't great, but for five bucks, it was okay.

All in all, this was about 5 miles of walking on Friday.

On Saturday, we got up and had breakfast at a little bakery right next door to the hotel, Europa Bakery. Basic eggs and waffles, french toast, etc. I had a breakfast panini (well, okay, half of one was all I could manage, but it was really good).

We decided to learn the subway that day, so we rode around, went to Chinatown (big disappointment - take it off your to-do list. Very few Chinese businesses left, and the ones that are are just selling junk and are quite nasty attitudes.) We found out later that only the losers stayed in old Chinatown, and the rest moved to Flushing.

Lunch on Saturday was the famous Katz' Deli, where we all had corned beef or pastrami sandwiches (Bernie and I sharing again). This place lived up to it's long-enduring reputation very nicely, as I have never had pastrami that good ever before and don't expect to ever again. Yum.

After a little shopping and more subway sightseeing, we had to go to the fancy party that was the reason for the trip. This was a retirement/45 anniversary party for a business associate of my father's. The couple happens to be Chinese, and they learned about Bernie from my father, and they wanted to meet us, so we got invited to the party as well. We dressed up nice and took the 7 train to Flushing to a restaurant named Mulan. This is where we discovered the Chinese community in New York. Much much nicer and cleaner than old Chinatown. We lucked out and just missed the crowd attending Paul McCartney at Shea Stadium (the previous subway stop) both coming and going.

The party was great, but no one told me that it was a 12-course dinner until after the third course! I doubt anyone reading this would want a recitation of everything that was said or served, but the meal included roast pork, shrimp, chicken, lobster, Peking duck, shark fin soup, abalone, noodles, pineapple fried rice, steak, steamed sea bass, noodles, fruit, and flan with caramel for dessert. I think I managed to at least taste everything. It was a good thing the courses were spread out over two and a half hours or I couldn't have even done that. I think Bernie really enjoyed it most of all, since she hasn't seen this kind of food since our wedding reception, four years ago.

After riding the subway back to the hotel, we slept and got up on Sunday to hike the streets again. We had seen cruise ships and military ships docking from the hotel room window all weekend, and we decided to walk to the river and see them up close. Of course, it was a lot farther away than it looked from the 28th floor. We made it, however, and we got to see the USS Intrepid, two NCL ships, and three destroyer ships - two Australian and one American. We got to watch the docking of the American ship, assisted by two tugboats. Then we hiked back to the hotel in time to pack and catch our taxi for the airport.

I'm hoping Bernie will post her pics, because we took a lot of them.

Oh, I forgot to mention my accident. You know how hotels have suddenly decided it's cool to put a towel rack in the shower so your towels stay damp all the time? Well, in our hotel, the side of the shower opposite the rack was blocked by the sink and vanity, so you had to enter the shower on the end with the rack, which was exactly at eye level. So Saturday morning, when I'm sleepy and not all that attentive, I get in the shower and BONK! Right on the bridge of my nose. One small cut, but a nice little purple bruise to show for the incident. I look like I got into an MMA event.

Going to New York

Today's my last day at work this week, because we're going to NYC in the morning (EARLY - 6am flight).

On the agenda:

Katz' Deli
Rockefeller Center
Radio City Music Hall
Chinatown
Central Park
Fancy Party at Mulan in Flushing

Is it bad that I'm more interested in NYC food than I am in sightseeing?

This is our mini-vacation before we go to Calgary in early August.

This Week...

A brief update:

Losing weight again, just not as fast. The new scale reads 10 lbs higher than the other, so I'm not updating my curve again until I fall below the last reading on the previous scale. That's getting close.

We didn't go to the gym at all last week, and it threatened rain all week as well, so we didn't swim. At least we 'hiked' IKEA and Concord Mills this weekend for exercise!

I've switched at least temporarily to the Tenor Sax for band, which of course means that I have to spend some money to put my tenor into reasonable condition. Looks like the director wants to have a full-fledged jazz band concert this summer, so I may actually have to start practicing my improv.

I don't know how parents can afford to have their kids play instruments these days. $5 for a reed!

We've got a short work week - going to New York for a 3-day weekend on Friday. Big party for a friend of the family on Saturday night, and sheer tourism for the remaining time. The party is at a really fancy Chinese restaurant - hopefully, we'll have some good pictures when we get back.

This weekend, I learned to make homemade ginger ale. The best ginger ale I've ever had was Blenheim red cap before this, but the homemade stuff beats it. Very nice.

Happy July 5th

Since I played with the band for the fireworks at Tega Cay yesterday, we had our July 4th cookout on the 5th today.

I am worn out. Two hours of playing the saxophone with the concert band, followed by two more hours playing with the jazz band, getting home around 1am, then prepping for the cookout this morning, cooking, and cleaning up this afternoon.

It's a good thing I have tomorrow off. I need the rest.

Scale Has Been Replaced

We got the replacement scale from Taylor the other day and I put it in service yesterday. It does indeed seem to be accurate. Of course, that means it reads 10 pounds higher than the one we've been using - but it agrees with the doctor's scale, so that's really good overall.

It also confirms that I'm losing weight again and the dreaded plateau has been broken.

Here's my theory on why I hit that plateau in the first place:
It's all about stretching the stomach pouch. I've been drinking soda again for awhile now, even though they warned me not to. I thought I was being careful - just sipping it slowly and taking all day to finish one bottle so that the carbonation wouldn't stretch the pouch. Apparently I wasn't being careful enough and during the plateau weeks, I noticed my appetite increasing during meals. So I fixed it - not by quitting the sodas - but by pouring my soda in a glass over ice to get rid of the carbonation, instead of drinking from the bottle. It didn't take two days before I noticed that my appetite and capacity had gone back down to post-surgery "normal", and sure enough, the weight started coming off again.

Let this be a lesson to you gastric bypassers - don't drink carbonated drinks. If you fall off the wagon, pour it in a glass and over ice to minimize the bubbles.

Back in the Gym Today

The needle on the scale started moving downward a little in the last few days. Not enough to count yet, but encouraging. For some reason the portion size at meals that I've been able to tolerate has gone back down to where I think it should be, in the last few days. I've also cut way back on carbs for snacks. All snacking is nuts, nuts, nuts, and some homemade beef jerky.

Today I got to the gym for the first time this week. We went swimming over the weekend and on Monday, I was verrrry sleepy for some reason and didn't want to work out. Tuesday was a very stressful rehearsal for the concert band, so today was my first time back this week, and nearly all I did was cardio. I changed my routine to doing some hard reps on the elliptical and getting a good sweat going. When I couldn't lift my feet any more, I switched to the bike. I did get in one set of chest presses.

Today (Wednesday) at the Gym

Yesterday was band practice, so no workout. Today was day 2 at the gym:

25 minutes on the stationary bike, level 6, HR up to 120.
3 sets, each arm, cable pulls (trying to emulate a baseball swing)
3 sets of 20 reps on ab coaster (center, left, right)
3 sets tricep press
10 minutes stationary bike, level 7 (cool down)

Today at the Gym

25 minutes on the stationary bike, level 7. Last 3 minutes sprinting, HR up to 120.
3 sets bicep curls
3 sets reverse curls (triceps)
3 sets of 20 reps each on the ab coaster (1 center, 1 left, 1 right)
3 sets each arm - cable pulls
10 minutes stationary bike, level 7, cool-down.

Note to self: You can play solitaire on the iPhone while pedaling.

The Latest Updates!

Been a busy, but only moderately interesting, week.

I still haven't lost a pound in 3 weeks, but I haven't been going to the gym regularly either, so it's probably nothing to worry about (much).

I played a jazz concert with the Charlotte Jazz Band on Friday night. Our regular tenor sax players have stopped coming to rehearsals, so I have been promoted from 2nd Alto to 1st Tenor - and I had one rehearsal and two days to prepare for it. Luckily, we're not doing stuff that's incredibly hard, and my improv solos sound better on tenor anyway. It was a lot of fun, actually. I even think Bernie had fun with the "band-wives".

We had our neighborhood yard sale on Saturday morning after that. We had to get up at 6am to set up. We've been hearing in the papers that our Latino population has been leaving the country due to the poor economy, and it really showed in the turnout for the sale. We made about $200, got rid of the old TV sets, and I ended up giving away some stuff just so I wouldn't have to dispose of it. I kept some of the unsold "fat" clothes and we'll try to sell them again in the fall. Nobody's buying corduroy pants in 93-degree heat.

On Sunday, we had a Father's Day lunch at my parents' house. I made bbq ribs on Saturday and refrigerated them, and then I re-heated and sauced them in my mom's oven. Everybody liked them, except me. I guess I can chalk this up to more changes after gastric bypass.

I'm going to get back into the gym this week on a serious basis. 4 days out of 5 is the goal. (Band practice is on Tuesday, so I can't go to the gym that day).

I've started on protein shakes for breakfast again - just in case that's the problem with the weight loss plateau.

We'll be heading to NYC in a couple of weeks for a long weekend, and in August, we'll go to Calgary for our vacation and to attend one of Bernie's friend's wedding. Spring just flew by this year, and it looks like summer is going to do the same thing.

We saw a deal where Singapore Airlines has a RT to Malaysia for $698. I've asked Bernie if she wants to go, since the timing is ideal with her not working. She's interested but hasn't followed up with me on the idea. I think I'll ask her again tonight. I can't go, but I know she's pining to see her family. We'll see.

Dry Spell

I've hit a HUGE plateau for my weight loss. No pounds lost in 3 weeks, and I'm going nuts trying to figure out what's wrong. I've increased exercise and cut back on my eating somewhat, increased dosage of fish oil and vitamin D.

I've got some ligament issues in my feet that I'm hoping the fish oil will fix and then I'll try jogging if I have to. I hate jogging.

I hope I haven't stalled out permanently at 245. That would really suck.

Okay, I totally want one of these

Nothing Newsworthy

Not much is going on, folks. I haven't abandoned my blog - there's just nothing worth writing about.
We'll be making trips to NYC and Calgary this summer, so there's stuff coming up. Stay tuned!

Lightning Strikes Again!

It's almost a repeat of last year - the frontrunner with the niche market appeal loses to the dark horse with the more mainstream sound.

I like both Adam and Kris, but Adam got repetitive and didn't keep building his voter base and the rest of the field closed the gap on him each week. Kris simply survived and added the votes of those who got eliminated to his total each week.

Kris is going to be a good one, folks. He might even do better than David Cook will, who is my all-time favorite Idol. The cool thing about Kris is he can put out an album with a bunch of different songs that actually all sound different. I'm not sure Adam could do that.

Don't cry for Adam, though. He's probably got a thousand offers since the announcement. His future looks bright, too.

A Star Trek Observation

Two scenes from the Star Trek movie, involving Kirk...

Kirk and Sulu land on the platform of the planet drill with instructions to take out the Romulans hand-to-hand and then sabotage the drill. Kirk bull-rushes a Romulan, then tries to draw his phaser (if you had a phaser, why did you try to tackle the guy in the first place, Jim?) - the phaser is knocked out of his hand and over the side of the drill.

Kirk and Spock beam into the Romulan ship to rescue Captain Pike. Spock pilots the captured future-ship with the black hole-causing red matter out of the Romulan ship. Kirk attempts to sneak past the crew and gets ambushed from behind by the Romulan first officer. He drops his phaser and it goes over the side of the catwalk.

Note to Starfleet: Equip phasers with wrist straps in the future. Good return on investment there.

A Warning...

A quick warning to anyone that's had a gastric bypass.

Kashi Go Lean Crunchy! Protein and Fiber Bars are delicious, high in fiber and protein, and will pass right through you like grass through a goose.

It took me two days of rushing home from work and barely making it to the bathroom before I figured this out.

The good news is that I lost a couple of extra pounds during those two days. Seriously, though - this product should be classified as a laxative. Use with caution.

Kris Did It!

Kris vs. Adam next week! I'm very happy, because as I've stated before, I think Kris is the only legitimate artist in the top 10 this season. I never thought he'd beat out Danny.

DialIdol.com had these scores:
29 Adam
27.9 Kris
27.1 Danny

Now, imagine if 100% of Danny's fans vote for Kris next week. Do you think anyone that's been voting for Danny will start voting for Adam? I really don't.

3 To Go on AI

My thoughts on Idol tonight were that all three guys were pretty darn good. I thought Kris got a raw deal with the judges' song pick, as I hate "Apologize". Kris must hate it, too. Danny and Adam definitely got better songs for the first round.

Adam has started to grate on my nerves, though. He's pretty much settled on a persona and style and unfortunately, it's being a male version of Cher. He intentionally starts songs in a high register so he can screech even higher on the choruses. Frankly, it smacks of a Las Vegas career to me, not platinum albums. When Adam performed his second song "Cryin'" by Aerosmith, it really didn't sound good to me, and while it could have been the fault of the sound mix guy, the backup singer overshouted him through most of the song, and so did the band.

Note: I've complained of bad sound mixing on American Idol during several of the previous seasons, but this year it has been much better.

In my opinion, Danny Gokey's "You Are So Beautiful" was the best song of the night, with Kris's "Heartless" being second. Danny turned "You Are So Beautiful" into "I Believe I Can Fly", while Kris turned a bad Kanye West song into a great acoustic guitar ballad.

In my opinion, which won't be the same as America's opinion:
1. Danny
2. Kris
3. Adam

So who gets eliminated? It'll be Kris. The finals will be Danny and Adam, as everyone predicted from day one.

At 10:45 pm, Dialidol.com has it a dead heat between the three, with Adam slightly ahead, but all three with at least 30 percent of the vote so far. This could be close.

Return of Adam

Rock. What a great theme for a show! I wonder why they've never tried this before?

Tonight, Adam and Allison came back with a vengeance. It's almost like it was scripted by the producers. Seriously, the theme was unfair. Rock is the strength of Adam and Allison and not suited to Danny and Kris. At this point in the competition, we should be seeing two songs apiece per performer, and letting them have free rein with song choices. Instead, we get a tilted playing field right at the time when everyone should be able to play to their strengths to let voters choose who really is the best at what they do.

Adam started off with "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin. While not the most innovative performance (it sounded like the original), it was definitely satisfying. I agree with Simon - "Nobody can top that." Adam can rock the stage. I wish they'd done two songs apiece tonight, because I bet he'd have chosen AC/DC for the second song.

Allison went next with "Cry Baby". She was definitely in her wheelhouse with this one. I loved the new hairstyle and she really owned the stage. I'm definitely sensing a fix tonight. First, the perfect theme for the favorite and the underdog - then the order placing them 1 and 2 - then the duet pairings. Tonight was totally in the Adam & Allison team's favor.

Kris follows with a hard edge version of "Come Together". This really sounded good - probably the most creative song of the night - but Kris just can't get on top of the band with his vocals. He simply lacks the power to pull it off vocally. Kris is smart, though - he tries to make up for it with the guitar, which is the skill he has that none of the rest possess, and very nearly succeeds. Randy notices it and gives him props. Good effort.

Then Danny. I feel sorry for him because he's the worst victim of tonight's theme, but not too much because he could have been clever and found a way to think around his limitations. Instead, he gambled everything he had on being able to miraculously channel Steven Tyler on "Dream On". Danny, Danny, Danny...you know you don't have the chops to go into that high register, but you had to try it anyway. It was a calculated gamble, but the final scream wasn't remotely musical and the song failed.

My rankings for tonight, same as the order of performance:
1. Adam
2. Allison
3. Kris
4. Danny

Now for the duets, which (yeah, right) aren't supposed to be subject to voting.

Danny and Kris decided to sing Foreigner's "Renegade". In my opinion, they mailed it in. OK, but not good. From the comments afterward, it seems like they had a hard time deciding on a song and didn't get much rehearsal time on it. I think both of them just decided to wing it and if it stunk, so be it. It didn't stink, but it wasn't much to write home about. Danny had enough power to get on top of the band, but Kris didn't and his vocals were too thin to impress. The lyrics of this song are too monotonal and repetitive to make it a good choice for a competition.

Adam and Allison did "Slow Ride", which has a lot of the same limitations, but they simply benefited from being able to power it out. They also fed off of each other's energy on stage and that put it over the top. They'll be good together on tour. Simon pointed out that Adam's coattails may have bought Allison a chance to stay in the competition, and I agree.

So who's going home?

My prediction:
Kris. Danny had the worst performance by far, but Allison really won a lot of fans tonight - for the second week in a row - and I think Danny wins the voting over Kris no matter what.

I still stand by my prediction that Kris sells the most albums out of this group.

Devastating News

I had my four-month appointment with the surgeon yesterday and was immediately sucker punched by the results of the scale in his office.

20 pounds higher than my bathroom scale. My expensive, digital bathroom scale that I bought specifically to be accurate just before my surgery in December.

Today, I had an appointment with my regular doctor. Same result.

So, instead of feeling good about being 239, I'm 259 and even though in reality that's not a weight gain, it is a huge emotional hit, because it sets me back to where I thought I was a month ago.

I'm trying to figure out how I can sue the scale manufacturer for emotional distress.

Anyway, I have revised the graphs on the right of the page.

Final Five on AI

Rat Pack night. Five good singers. I was excited and I'm happy to say that I wasn't disappointed.

Kris opened the show with "The Way You Look Tonight". A completely clean performance, original and satisfying.

Allison next with "Someone To Watch Over Me". She's topping herself every week now - this was good and bridged the classic version with her own style flawlessly. Is everyone going to be this good tonight? I like Allison and I think her chronic bottom-three-ness is due to unfortunate demographics rather than a lack of star power. She's too young for most males to vote for, and the girls are all voting for their favorite guy performer.

Matt with "My Funny Valentine". Very Al Jarreau-like. A bit off-pitch on some notes, but he bends them sloooooowly to the proper tone. Interesting enunciation on the lyrics. It's OK, but a cut below the others. He's toast.

Danny blows the doors off of "Come Rain Or Come Shine". Best arrangement of the night, as it fooled me into thinking it was smoky ballad time, but suddenly became big band sizzle with a huge shout chorus. Danny's vocals were flawless as usual, but he totally rocked the Sinatra vibe and turned up the showmanship tonight. Wow. Once again, a full band can't overpower him.

Adam with "Feelin' Good". Heh. Maybe he isn't aware that this song is the kiss of death on Idol. No fewer than three performers have been sent home after performing this song, including two in the same season a couple years ago. I hate to say it, but this one was the gayest performance I think I've ever seen on Idol. I haven't seen a performance like this since I accidentally walked into the wrong bar in the Castro district in San Fran once. I was totally creeped out. If Adam has straight male fans, he lost them tonight. The judges continue to gush over him, but this was the worst performance of the night for me, just because of the creep factor and the overload of falsetto screaming. Adam has to prove to me that he can sing a song in a somewhat straightforward style before I'll become a fan.

My rankings for tonight:
5. Adam
4. Matt
3. Allison
2. Kris
1. Danny

Predicted to be eliminated:
Matt

Comment: Of the bunch, Adam will probably win, with Danny being runner-up. The Idol from this season that will sell the most albums is Kris, however.