RIP Moneypenny and combine food, wine and friends and you get…..

One of the charities that Marc and I actively support is JDRF because we have some close family members who have Type 1 diabetes. BTW, if you click on the JDRF link, you can learn about some of the great initiatives they are working on - including the Artificial Pancreas project.

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the fact that this is the time of the year that I hit up everyone I know to contribute to JDRF.

Last night, Marc and I had a dinner party with everyone agreeing to make a generous contribution to JDRF in exchange for a multi-course dinner paired with some of our favorite wines. You can find some pictures from the evening here. The evening was a HUGE success and we were able to raise a ton of money for a very worthy cause. There was a fair amount of wine consumed (just ask Marc) and Sally (of Hurricane Sally fame) prepared an awesome menu (see right) which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone in attendance. A big thanks to our friends who participated in this event. We really appreciate their support as we try and find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

If you would like to still contribute, it is not too late and you can do so here.

And this just came over the newswires – Lois Maxwell (aka Miss Moneypenny) just passed away. Weird how our friends just had the James Bond-themed party and I decided to go as Miss Moneypenny. Even though there have been a couple of other actresses since Lois Maxwell who have played the character, in my mind she will always be Miss Moneypenny - even when re-reading the books, she will always be Miss Moneypenny to me.

BREAKING NEWS: Moneypenny snags Bond after all.....

For those of you who know me fairly well, you know that I am a huge James Bond fan. It started back when I was in elementary school and was home sick for a couple of weeks with bronchitis or pneumonia (something like that) and my Mom would bring home a James Bond tape each day for me to watch. I then read some of the novels too.

So needless to say when our friends Elisabeth and Neil decided to host a birthday party in honor of Neil (Happy Birthday!) on Saturday and set a dress code of "James Bond" attire, I was all over it. Unfortunately not many of the Bond chicks had my mop of hair and when I went to try on some wigs, none of them would fit.

This meant "Plan B" for me - as a Project Manager for a living, you always need a "Plan B", I decided to be Miss Moneypenny. I have some suits from my Wall Street days, so I plucked out one of the more conservative ones of the bunch, and threw on some "extra nerdy glasses". For those of you who don't know, Miss Moneypenny (the secretary to Bond's boss at the British Secret Service) has an unrequited crush on Bond. Such a shame.

Anyway we also had to dress up Marc. Now keeping in mind that Bond was either in tight bathing suits or tuxedos, I figured I had quite a challenge ahead of me. As a matter of fact, both Elisabeth and Neil fully expected Marc to show up at the party in a golf shirt and cargo shorts. How wrong they were.

Marc surfed the web for some images of Bond, and one of the images caught my eye of Oddjob - the best evil sidekick ever in a James Bond film. Oddjob was in Goldfinger, my favorite Bond film of all time. Now Marc would have been an awesome Oddjob, but again the attire would not have suited him, so I thought more about Goldfinger and remembered the 'golf scene'. Hat (no, not cap), sweater, slacks, golf shirt and black shoes. Yes, we could do this!








Lots of similarities here - the attire, drink in hand, Slazenger logo on the sweater, the golf club in his right hand that you can barely make out. Gosh, I was proud.

Needless to say when we walked into the party (and BTW, Marc had a golf club in tow), we received lots of laughs. As a matter of fact, we actually got to see the scene that Marc "was in" during the party as Neil was playing some Bond movies throughout the evening. Applause from the other guests ensued, which of course embarassed Marc - but hey, that's the price you pay for being famous.

Fun times, fun times.... and in this case, Moneypenny got her man in the end. Yeah, baby! [ok, had to throw in an Austin Powers reference, which takes a number of things from Goldfinger - like the character, Random Task - take-off on Oddjob]

On another note, the Yanks are sending the biggest bust of the year - Kei Igawa - to the mound tonight since Roger Clemens is still nursing the hamstring. I have a feeling it is going to be an ugly night for our pitching staff - I'll be hoping and praying for the Yankee bats to take over tonight, or else we have some problems.

It was the craziest of times, it was the looniest of times....

Sorry for the delay in posting. We started the week off in NYC visiting the family, checking out some new restaurants with friends and taking in a Yankees game at the Stadium. Pictures from the entire weekend, including some shenanigans with the family, can be found here – note the youngster in Yankee attire. :-) Loony times.

As luck would have it, the Pinstripes were playing the Mariners on Labor Day. So of course, Marc and I went along with “Brother Glenn”, Gwen (sister-in-law) and Harrison (nephew). Marc got to see Monument Park for the first time, which is good because we don’t know when we will be in town in 2008 and the Yanks are building a new stadium across the street. We needed to see it in its original form. Roger Clemens was going against Felix Hernandez so we had a match-up of old veteran vs. young phenom. Unfortunately for me, Clemens had blister, elbow and ego ailments, so King Felix (as he is known around these parts) put on quite the show and shut down the Yanks.

At that juncture, it wasn’t good for the Yanks since the playoff races were pretty tight. But things turned around, the Ms continued their slide and the Yanks dominated the remaining 2 games of the series – click here and here, and we got one back (scroll down to the bottom) for the Willie Bloomquist thing back in May.

Other things we did in NYC were:

  • hanging with the family (Puff Daddy, Big Yves, Lisa, JB, Jeffrey, Glenn, Gwen, Harrison, Aunt Joyce, Charlie, Linda, Arianna) at Volare – see picture to the left which kind of sums up the evening
  • meeting Siu Yun for dim sum (good stuff)
  • dinner with Andi & Marshall at Blue Hill (excellent all around and 2 star sightings in one night – Natalie Portman and Hilary Swank; Marc hasn’t had all that many celebrity sightings since we met, so it was exciting to say the least)
  • dinner with Chris W., Jeanne & Rahul at Perilla (good, but not fabulous as far as the food/service were concerned; on the other hand, the company was fun for sure – lots of laughs)
  • dinner with Stef at Strip House (pretty good, but yet another star sighting – Jean-Luc Picard – aka Patrick Stewart)
  • BBQ at Puff Daddy and Big Yves’ house with special guest star appearance from Janice and Michael

Crazy times. We headed back to Seattle to re-group for the remainder of week, and continued to celebrate with our neighbors – Jim, Gure and Eneko. They made a great dinner for us and we drank enough wine to cause a slight headache on the actual birthday, but that’s ok. Marc had a big dinner planned for the two of us at a surprise location, so I made sure I hit the elliptical for a long time. It is depressing when it asks for your age and you have to move the dial up a notch now that you are a year older, but what are you going to do? At least I was on the thing working out, right?

We took the bus downtown near the market and Marc led me to a restaurant called 94 Stewart, which is predictably located at 94 Stewart Street. When we got to our table, a cheese selection was waiting for us. Let me reiterate how cool my husband is. The whole experience was really enjoyable – a very comfortable atmosphere, great service, excellent food, and a nice selection of wine and cheese. If you haven’t been, you should check it out. Double thumbs up from me.

The next night, we had a get together at the house for some friends – it started as wine and chocolate, but then grew to beer and cookies. Whatever it was, it was fun to catch up with friends. There were some great desserts on hand (I kind of felt a little sick from the sugar overload) as well as some great wines on hand. We spent Sunday recovering, which worked out because it was NFL – Week #1 so Marc took his usual spot on the couch for most of the day. I ended birthWEEK by whipping up a short ribs dish from Second Helpings, a cookbook by Danny Meyer and Michael Romano (Union Square Café). Good stuff all around. I am a lucky gal.

Oh yeah, the other thing that happened during the week was the kick-off of the annual “shamelessly hit my family, friends, colleagues” up for money for JDRF. If you would like to donate, please click here. This is a cause that is near and dear to me because I have both family and friends who are impacted by Type 1 diabetes. I’ll blog about some of our other fundraising activities in another post. Stay tuned. The fundraising for JDRF is one of the most important things that we do each year and we have already received some very generous support from folks. Another reason to be thankful.

And finally, we’re winding down on baseball season. The Yanks are leading the Wild Card, but still are in the hunt for the AL East against the ‘Evil People’ – but hey, we did take 2 out of 3 this weekend against them. Highlight of the weekend: Jeter spanking Schilling on Sunday night with a doozy into the Green Monster. I was referring to that game as a match-up of Egomaniac (Clemens) vs. Blowhard (Schilling) and it lived up to the hype. The 6-run comeback against Boston’s vaunted bullpen in the 8th inning wasn’t too shabby either. I was pretty much speechless after that half inning, which is beyond rare for me while watching a Yankees game. And I think I have a favorite Baby Bomber (a young Yankee that will carry on the traditions set by Yankees before him) and he goes by the name of Joba Chamberlain. It’s going to be a crazy 12 days, and that’s just before the playoffs. Go Yanks!

And if anyone has seen the New York Giants defense, can they please let Tom Coughlin know?

Being a fan....

I’ve been a sports fan for pretty much my entire life. It’s served me well both on a personal level and on a professional level. When I wanted to make friends when I started working on Wall Street without coming across as flirty, being able to talk intelligently about NY sports teams was huge. More importantly, there is a rumor that my love of sports was for my husband and I started dating way back when. But I have had the pleasure of meeting fans of my team’s arch-rival, the Evil People, and having some great conversations about the game of baseball. It’s cool.

I became a Yanks fan because my brother and I, separated by 18 months, used to fight all of the time. It took my sister arriving about 6 years later to break up the fighting. Anyway my brother instilled in me the very important lesson of “once you pick a team, you can’t change it”. Unlike most kids who wanted to emulate their older sibling(s), I always felt I should do the opposite. So he, as was the rest of the family, was a Mets fan, and I then made a lifelong choice – I became a Yankees fan. Coincidentally, this was in 1977. Yeah, you could say that I got the better end of the deal since ’77.

As the regular readers of this blog know, I am a die-hard Yankee fan to the point where the officiant at our wedding announced that the Yankees had won earlier that day. Of course I already knew the score even though my Blackberry was confiscated but that is besides the point.

OK – so where is this going? One of the players on the Yankees, Alex Rodriguez, is having a ridiculously fabulous season. Note that Marc absolutely hates A-Rod because of his promise to stay in Seattle and then bolting to Texas.

I was watching the game yesterday as I was working out, and A-Rod hit a HR in the 4th inning. I was impressed because it was the 4th game in a row that he clocked one. He gets up to bat in the 6th inning and spanks another one. I’m just nodding my head in disbelief. Keep in mind that A-Rod hit 2 home runs in the same inning earlier in the week against the Mariners. The last time that happened on the Yankees was 30 years ago just to give you some perspective on the achievement.

As I was recovering on the couch from some birthWEEK festivities (more on this in another post tomorrow) this morning, an acquaintance of mine IM’ed about my out of date tagline that the ‘Yanks are pathetic’. I informed him that since the Yanks had not lost since I put that tagline on, I was not going to change it. Yes, I am strange. See here for more idiocy on my part.

So during this IM chat, A-Rod came up to bat. The person on the other end was watching on his end, as was I. And what do you know – A-Rod bashes another home run. My IM buddy’s response, “Oh my God”. My thought was “why in the world is the opposing team pitching to this guy since he seems to own the opposing team’s staff?” in addition to being completely awed like my friend. Needless to say, A-Rod has a high probability to win the MVP award. I really hope he can replicate this success in October, if my boys get that far.

Lost in all of this is the season that Jorge Posada is having. Posada is the catcher who has had to deal with the long list of people who pitched for the Yankees this season. The catcher is also a physically grueling position because you are squatting for a long time; I don’t even want to know about the amount of squats he does. Jorge (think – hor-hay) has the 4th highest batting average in the American League and he is on the older side for a catcher– 36 years old.

On the more depressing side of things, apparently the NY Giants defense decided not to show up this evening. Bummer.

Friday... woo woo... Friday... woo woo...

So some of you may have heard about the 30-3 baseball score in Baltimore on Wednesday.  Yep, that is a baseball score.  The game broke all sorts of records, and the best recap is here (play video) by Tim Kurkjian of ESPN.  Mr. Kurkjian is normally a pretty professional commentator but I guess because of his ties to Baltimore, he is a tad "over excited".  It's hysterical.

It's Friday and all I can say is - the Yanks are still 2 games behind the Mariners in the wild card.  I find this all very distressing, regardless if we get playoff tickets as Mariners regular ticket holders.  The only thing I can hope for is that the Angels (who owned the Yanks this week) implode which would mean the M's take the AL West and the Yanks get the wildcard.  Actually that would be the ideal scenario. 

The thing that burns me about Seattle fans is that they epitomize the "fair-weather" in the term "fair-weather fans".  And it has nothing to do with the supposed rain we get here [BTW, that's a myth to keep everyone else from moving here].  When the M's pretty much stunk, the stadium was half-full.  No one went to games and it was a crowd dominated by Yankees and Red Sox fans.  Now that the M's are competing, the stadium is filling up.  It's not right.

This article about what not do at the ballpark cracked me up, particularly the 'Attire' section. 

More action from the ballpark - this hurts.  The person decides to pop the question to his girlfriend at the ballpark and let's just say that it didn't work out so well for him.  Poor guy.  I remember that one time my friend Michele and I were at an Islanders game, and we saw someone pop the question via the Jumbotron, and we were both thought that was not exactly the most romantic way to capture the moment.  Anyway, tough break for the guy.  Hope it works out for them.

My sister and her husband are excited about the return of this show.  All I can say is that I am scared to what my nephew will now be exposed to.  I will only watch if they return to the hairstyles of the late 80s/early 90s.  Hehe.

Happy Birthday to Rebecca (a day late).  Good luck on your knee surgery Maureen.  And to Michele (same one mentioned above) - hope the A/C is helping in the final days of your pregnancy.  Congrats to my cousin Bobby for getting "Rookie of the Year" at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation golf tournament - we're proud of you (and shhh... I'm cheering for your A's to win every game in September).

Go Yanks!  Don't let me down!

Who is John Galt?

In 2000, I was traveling so much for business that I instituted a rule for myself – no work on business-related flights. My rationale was that I was dipping into my personal time by flying all over the globe, and felt as though I needed to have some control over my life. So I started ensuring that I always had a good book with me for any trip I took. While Marc and I were getting to know each other in Europe in 2002 and I was flying back and forth, one of the books that I read that summer was The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. I really enjoyed it and was telling Marc about it when he said, “Atlas Shrugged [also written by Ayn Rand] is way better” or something to that effect, which is what someone else at work also said. So I went to Barnes & Noble over lunch one day before another flight and picked it up.

Marc and my former colleague were correct. While The Fountainhead was a great book and very thought provoking, I enjoyed reading Atlas Shrugged much more – the characters, the story, everything. Dagny Taggart, one of the main characters in the book, is probably one of my favorites out of all of the books that I have read. Here is a very quick summary of the book – for a more comprehensive discussion, click here.

 

In the world of Atlas Shrugged, society stagnated when independent productive achievers began to be socially demonized and even punished for their accomplishments, even though society had been far more healthy and prosperous by allowing, encouraging and rewarding self-reliance and individual achievement. Independence and personal happiness flourished to the extent that people were free, and achievement was rewarded to the extent that individual ownership of private property was strictly respected. The hero, John Galt, lives a life of laissez-faire capitalism as the only way to live consistent with his beliefs. [From Wikipedia]

Throughout the book as more and more achievers decide to give in and not pursue excellence, these productive achievers start reciting the phrase, “Who is John Galt”, which basically implies not to ask tough questions because no one knows the answers. OK what does this have to do with anything, right?

So some of you may have heard about the fire in NYC at the former Deutsche Bank building where 2 firemen were killed last weekend. This building was in the process of being demolished as it was at the World Trade Center site where some of the tragic events of 9/11 occurred. As I was reading an article about the lack of water available to the firefighters to quell the fire, I read that the company managing the demolition was called The John Galt Corporation of the Bronx. I thought to myself what an odd name for a company and of course thought back to when I was reading Atlas Shrugged. In today’s NYT, there is an article entitled, “Obscure Company is Behind 9/11 Demolition Work”. How ironic since most of the book is spent with Dagny trying to figure out who exactly is John Galt and now we have this mystery company somewhat in the middle of this tragic accident. Anyway the fire was a horrible event in an area where plenty of suffering has already occurred, and I read someplace that 2 more workers were injured at the same site today. Not good.

Another book that I recently wrapped up is The Conservative Soul, by Andrew Sullivan, a political blogger. One of my friends, Nat, told me about him and that he had some interesting ideas so I thought it would be worth a read. Basically the book examines what it’s like to be a conservative in today’s political climate and discusses how the Republican party has moved away from its roots of fiscal responsibility and taken on a new mandate of religious fundamentalism. Some of the text was kind of tough to get through because when you were able to comprehend what he was saying, he would hammer it home again…. and again…. and again. I didn’t agree with everything in the book, but it was worth the time to get a different perspective on things. For me: I personally wonder what our country could achieve if we focused on managing the US (i.e., budget, veterans care, health care, education) as opposed to preaching their religious beliefs into law (i.e., no federal funding of stem cell research – why?). I’d probably respect our current administration a little bit more if they actually stuck to fiscal responsibility and not spending so much money on things that are really not helping much of its constituents.

[NOTE: This is my opinion, and not Marc’s. It’s not that Marc agrees or disagrees – I just don’t speak for him.]

Go Yankees! ???

With the tight races in the American League, I find it hard to cheer for “rivals”. I’m certainly not cheering for the Angels right now and have never cheered for the Yankees. Now they are playing each other and I need the Angels to lose more than the Yankees. At least for the AL West title shot. But in a month, it may be that the wildcard was all that was needed and the Yankees are the threat there at the moment.

So I am cheering for a game like last night. Action from both teams, back and forth scores, stress for players and coaches, and EXTRA INNINGS whenever possible. Wear each other out. Please!

YCMSTU... and then depression set in...

For those of you who are newer readers to the blog and wonder what YCMSTU stands for, it refers to the phrase "you can't make this stuff up".  How many times do you come across some absurd story that makes you sit there and think that you couldn't make this up if you tried.  Well that is what YCMSTU is for.  So when you see it in the blog, now you'll have some idea as to what we're talking about.  And now back to our regularly scheduled programm....

YCMSTU - Sports AND Legal Edition - woo woo!  According to Fox News, Michael Vick is being sued by an inmate in a South Carolina prison for $63 BILLION - yes, that is USD not Japenese Yen - on the grounds that he has ties with Al Qaeda.  The link to the story is above, but my favorite part is the actual filing (it's a PDF so you'll need Adobe Acrobat) made by the plaintiff. 

Say what you want about the recent problems that Mr. Vick has encountered, but after what happened in the Duke lacrosse case (scroll down) I am trying really hard to stick with the good old "innocent until proven guilty" tenet that governs our country.  That being said, dogfighting is a grotesque and an atrocious actvity and I hope we can use this case to help eradicate people participating in it.

Continuing with absurd legal cases, the pants lawsuit is continuing.  The plaintiff, who also happens to be a DC Administrative Law Judge, is appealing the judgment against him.  Supposedly this person is up for renewal as a judge and his candidacy has been negatively impacted by all of the bad press he has received because he decided to sue his dry cleaners $54 MILLION (again USD) for losing his pants - they were misplaced and subsequently found.  Unbelievable.  More info here.

And now on to the depressing.... everytime the Yanks start to make you believe in them, they gotta throw in some stinkers to make you wonder if they have what it takes to get to October.  Take tonight's game for example.  Mike Mussina, who makes $11+ MILLION/year, decided to have another crappy outing and put his team in a big hole early in the game.  Mike, giving up a grandslam in the 1st inning doesn't really set thing on the right footing.  And so with the Tigers and loud mouthed Gary Sheffield in town, the Yanks couldn't muster enough offense to come back.... For the entire year, Mussina has been mediocre at best - unfortunately he is signed for another year.  Do us a favor Mike - go back to Pennsylvania. 

Maybe the M's are going to get the wild card; the Yanks aren't playing like they want it.

Pacific NW stuff, pennant races and RIP Phil

I would be remiss if I did not comment on the fact that the New York Yankees are now 4 games behind the Red Sox. On May 29th, they were 14+ games behind so this is a huge deal. As luck would have it, they are actually tied for the wildcard lead with – you guessed it – the Seattle Mariners. Looks like the Twinkies couldn’t buy a run if they tried. So that will even things up again. The Yankees have the best record in the majors since June 1st, so I am hoping that they keep up the pressure on the Sawx as well as the other contenders. They have a difficult stretch between now and Labor Day, so stay tuned to see if the Yanks are contenders or pretenders.

I have 2 MVPs on the Yanks and no, it’s not the usual suspects like A-Rod, Jeter, Rocket, Mo or Posada (although he’s up there) – my choice is split between Frick and Frack aka Cano and Cabrera. Even the usually stoic Mike Mussina has commented on their positive impact on the clubhouse with their youthful exuberance. Could this be the year that we reclaim the WS? We’ll see but after Rocket went after Alex Rios in Toronto because of the A-Rod plunking, I think there might actually be some chemistry around the clubhouse for a change and tonight’s win was a prime example of everyone contributing, picking each other up. Look for some commentary from my lovely husband on this topic, who happens to be an M’s fan – I always like to say that we have a “mixed marriage”.

In last week’s Dining & Wine section of the NYT, the Pacific NW received some prominent billing. Alaskan salmon was the topic of an article where the merits of king vs. sockeye salmon. It’s all good, let me assure you. When we were in Chicago and Iowa recently, the servers would offer salmon or halibut – also from Alaska – and we would politely decline. Why bother when you know you can get it fresh at home? Yep, we’re lucky. Or at least I am since I enjoy seafood more than Marc but there’s hope as evidenced by previous entries here, here, here and here. My folks tend to be fans of Chilean Sea Bass, which was also referenced here and here. And then the NYT reviewed Wild Salmon, a new restaurant in NYC that is focused on the bounties of the Pacific NW. My take – why do imitations? Come to Seattle for the real thing.

And yep – Washington state red wines rock if you know where to look. The winery profiled here focuses on Cabs, but there are quite a few good ones over here. Same with Oregon.

RIP Phil Rizzuto – a true Yankee in every sense of the word.

Chicago – food, architecture, music, baseball and…. Galaga

Before we headed out to Iowa for Matt and Rebecca's wedding, we spent 3 days hanging out in Chicago. It was a great opportunity to spend some time with our friend Andrea (pictured with me on the right), who lives there. I've known Andrea for a REALLY LONG time – our moms have been friends since they were kids, so the families have grown up together so to speak.
Marc had 2 things he really wanted to do while we were in Chicago – take in a Cubs game at Wrigley Field if they were home and have some Chicago-style pizza. So we checked out Lou Malnati's, which was decent. I prefer New York-style pizza, but that could also be related to the fact that I grew up in New York. Doh! Andrea was kind enough to hook us up with seats (ok, she played hooky from work as well) for the Cubbies game against the Phillies. It was really humid, but Andrea scored by getting us tickets in the covered seats section. Woo woo. Unfortunately the Cubbies lost but there was a great crowd since they are actually in the mix for the NL Central title. Marc took a bunch of pictures, so I'll let him post those.
In addition to the pizza, we checked out the restaurant scene. Marc and I checked out Tru (awesome), Blackbird (very nice) and Everest (excellent). Personally I liked Tru the best, but I think Marc was a bit peeved that he had to wear a jacket to dinner. Regardless the food, wine and service were top notch. I also thought it would be nice to get a jog in along Lake Michigan. Unfortunately it was the hottest and most humid part of the day, but I got in 4 miles – Coach Lesley would be proud.
Both Andrea and another friend of mine, Josh, recommended that we do one of the Chicago architectural boat tours, so we did that on one of the days. The one we took was about 90 minutes, but was a great way to get oriented and understand where things are. We also walked around some of the different neighborhoods in Chicago, including Lincoln Park where we were on a mission to find some great local chocolate. The service captain recommended Vosges Haut-Chocolat, so we went north to check it out for ourselves. It was kind of like wine tasting, except with chocolate, so we tasted lots of different kinds of truffles – very yummy and very different. There was one spiced with coconut and curry powder that I really enjoyed.
One of the nights that we met up with Andrea, we headed to Kingston Mines to listen to some blues. So given it was a Wednesday night, it was not too packed. It was noted as soon as we sat down that there was a Galaga machine in the back, which happens to be Marc's favorite arcade game. What a coincidence that it is one of Andrea's as well. Can we say 'smackdown'? And most people do not know about Marc's competitive streak until they play against him in something. Well Andrea was not intimidated and spanked Marc 3 times in a row! Marc, of course, has challenged Andrea to come to Seattle and play Galaga on Xbox360, so we'll see how that goes. J
We had an excellent time, in no small part because of Andrea and her hospitality. Thanks!
BTW, our nephew Harrison turned one this past week. Here are some pics from the party.

Q: Is this heaven? A: It’s Iowa.


The title of this post is taken from a baseball movie made in 1989 called Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster, Amy Madigan and James Earl Jones. The film takes place in Iowa and is about a farmer who is convinced that he needs to build a baseball diamond in his very profitable cornfields.
Well Marc and I made a trip to Iowa City, Iowa – also home to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes – to see one of our friends get married. Matt and Rebecca (pictured to the right) are both from Iowa and met at the University of Iowa, so it only seemed appropriate that they decided to hold their celebrations back where it all began. Iowa City is definitely a college town, and we were told that the population swells from 30,000 to 60,000 during the school year. We actually met up with Matt, Rebecca and some of the other wedding attendees at a bar that played songs that I don't think I heard since I graduated Oswego back in 1993. Oh yeah, check out what Marc's company has on the Hawkeyes here.
Matt INSISTED that we check out Kinnick Stadium (home of the Iowa football team) while we were in town, which we did. According to Matt's father, the stadium was recently renovated to include luxury boxes and press booths. It's a pretty nice football stadium – at least compared to any other D-1 college football stadiums I have seen. Another tidbit – the stadium was named for Nile Kinnick, a player who won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and graduated with distinction because of his excellent grades. Unfortunately he was killed during a Naval training flight during WWII.
The other cool thing we checked out while in Iowa was the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, about 10 miles east of Iowa City. Now the only thing I knew about our 31st President was that he had the unfortunate luck of being in office during the Great Depression in the early 20th century. What I learned is how this man really took a leadership role in trying to end world hunger during WWI, amongst other endeavors. The most striking thing to me was the "Child's Bill of Rights" (scroll down) that he created while he led the American Child Health Association – no longer in existence. He cared a great deal about the welfare of children and put programs in place to reduce disease and famine. Unfortunately because of the time he was President of the US, he lasted one term and his reputation was in shambles.
But he turned his legacy around by really getting involved in what is now known as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and by also being asked by the 33rd President of the US (Harry Truman) to assist with famine efforts after WWII. At 71 years old, President Hoover went to 38 countries to avert mass starvation in war ravaged countries. This is before the time of luxury private jets and such. Pretty cool. Thanks to Mike G. for telling us to go check it out!
Back to the wedding – the weather cooperated in the sense that it was about 10-15 degrees cooler than we expected, which was nice. The reception had lots of crazy dancing and I think Marc was truly scared that I knew all of the words to the song "Billie Jean" from Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Fun times. Anyway – congratulations to Matt and Rebecca, who are probably sunning somewhere in the Pacific. We look forward to having you guys come and hang in Seattle soon!

Overdue Entry On Bend, Sunriver, and Crater Lake

So we took a little road trip recently to Central Oregon. We started with a 6 1/2 hour drive to Bend and stayed at McMenamins Old St. Francis School right in the heart of the downtown. This place was clean, had a nice soaking pool at about 90 degrees, and of course had the brewpubs attached with great beer. We highly recommend staying here when going to Bend as most of the other hotels seem to be much farther from the core of downtown.

 We had some wonderful food & wine and we hiked a couple of times in addition to a round of golf. The most interesting experience was at Deep, which just opened not long before we rolled into town. They have a trough of water above the restaurant that supposedly has a waterfall attached although that wasn't running. The food was excellent - kind of a Japanese-Northwest Tapas exprience. Jill had Angry Lobster on a bed of nails. 

 Our dining neighbors (Barry, Shannon, and Tod) became our friends by the end of the evening. It all got interesting once Tod and I learned we were both Gauchos that graduated in 1991 (weird meeting in Bend in 2007). Eventually we moved over to their table and bought them drinks because Barry was celebrating his birthday. They invited us to his party the following night at a house only 3 blocks from McMenamins - but we were so worn out we just couldn't attend.

 I'm sure Jill can tell of other restaurants or experiences. We certainly enjoyed the outdoors while we were there.

 We moved on down to Sunriver (15 miles south), which is master planned and just has soooo much to do. We biked around on some of the 37 miles of bike trails and worked out at the . The main reason for going there was to play the Crosswater golf course, home to the Jeld-Wen Tradition (Champions Tour event) for the next 4 years. The course is VERY nice. And strangely, we got paired with another twosome in which one of the guys is also a Gaucho!

 And for the Grand Finale, we drove to Crater Lake. Words do not describe the natural beauty so if you contact us by email or webform, we can send you a link to about 100 photos we took while at the lake. These are 1.5mb to 5mb per photo so we will email anyone interested a link to a page of thumbnails. Wikipedia has a decent intro, but YOU MUST GO THERE before you die.


 In the summer, the surface temperature of the water is normally between 50°F (10°C) and 60°F (16°C) and it felt close to 50. They told us on the boat if you fall in, you become useless within 15 minutes at these temperatures.

 The only downside to the natural wonder of this lake is that a company called Xanterra runs the place (along with several other National Parks). They could not do any worse with service (if you could call it that) if they tried. I can't even type how many things they screwed up, but if you ask, I'm sure one of us will tell you the horrors. Don't stay at the lodge, find a campground (or other lodging) outside the park if you can.

Harry Potter…..

With no thanks to Amazon (sorry E.), I went out and picked up the final installment of Harry Potter on Saturday. The book, which is entitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, has been a long time coming. I have a few friends who are in the process of reading it, so no spoilers here. That being said, I'll be curious to get your feedback on what you thought of the book. I do have a favorite line from it which I will be happy to share once I hear back from the folks whom I know are reading it.

It's really quite phenomenal, if you think about it, what kind of impact that the Harry Potter series has had on society. How many books can transcend generations simultaneously? So a friend of Marc's mom was reading it (she's probably around my folks age), I was reading it and the daughter of a close friend of ours was reading it (she is 10) – all on Saturday. I've heard of classics being handed down through generations (i.e., Little Women, Great Expectations – books like that), but to have multiple generations excited to read the same book at the same time – that speaks a lot to JK Rowling and the cultural phenomenon that is Harry Potter.

Marc – FYI. According to Barnes and Noble's page on JK Rowling, if you like her work, you'll also like Neil Gaiman. Interesting.

Difference between living in New York and Seattle

So Puff Daddy (soon to be Slim Shady) and Sunny D came into town this past week to visit us. Both Puffy and Sunny have been looking forward to visiting Seattle, and have recently taken to modifying their lifestyle for the better in terms of their health. This is excellent news. They thought it was going to be vacation, but I told them to expect boot camp. You see – whenever I tell my Dad that I am going to exercise, his response is, "Be careful. Don't hurt yourself" as if exercise is the equivalent of a 4-letter word (no examples will be cited as this is a family-friendly blog). Being that we live so close to Green Lake, I knew I had an opportunity to try and change this line of thinking.

 I caught a huge break when I found out that Puffy drinks decaf coffee, which we have none of in our home. So we had to walk down the hill to get coffee, and then walk back up the hill. Mom wanted her decaf tea, so she came along as well. Dad came along on a walk to Whole Foods one day, which also has a bit of an incline. 

 By Sunday, Marc and I had them ready to walk all the way around Green Lake (2.8 miles). I took the easy way out by running 4 miles, and walking a mile back with the group. Marc, on the other hand, walked with the 'rents around the lake. Yep, I married well as if any of you had any doubt. J Anyway who needs Canyon Ranch when you have Camp Beck to keep you honest about your eating and exercise. Spots are filling up quickly for 2008, so operators are standing by to take your reservation for next year.

Some of the highlights from Puffy and Sunny's 2nd visit to Seattle include dinner with Rebecca and Michael at the house (congrats Michael on the STP ride), dinner with Chris and Robyn at Coupage (very nice on all fronts), visit to Snoqualmie Falls (see picture above), playing miniature golf at Newcastle on the famed 'Rusty Putter' course, celebrating 5 years of Marc and I being together at Lola (surprisingly excellent) and of course, catching a Mariners game – hence the real reason for this post.

My parents really had one request for their visit – if the M's were home, they wanted to go to a game. So as luck would have it, Detroit was in town and it was a game of significance as both teams are in the playoff race. The M's played horrible, in no small part to the overpriced Jeff Weaver and the back-up catcher Jamie Burke. Weaver walked 3, hit one guy, threw multiple wild pitches, gave up 10 hits, and didn't try and hold any of the runners. So the Tigers were stealing bases left and right, including one by Sean Casey (who is known as a good hitter and one of the nicest guys, but the slowest runner ever – ok, Bengie Molina may be slower), and two by Gary Sheffield (one of those was stealing home). So in the top of the 6th, Weaver hits a guy, then walks a guy and is finally pulled. And then the perfect moment transpires that personifies life in New York vs. life in Seattle:
As Weaver walks off the mound, the crowd applauds and we actually hear people around us saying, "Nice try, Jeff."
"Nice try, Jeff." Are you [bleeping] kidding me? The guy is getting paid $8mm+/year and the fans are actually applauding and saying, "Nice try, Jeff." My Dad was stunned and thought he needed to get his hearing checked. He asked, "Why are people applauding this guy? He didn't try to keep anyone on base. He walked guys and he's getting paid how much?" I just nodded my head and said, "Welcome to life in the Pacific Northwest". But as usual, Harv took the loss in stride and both of my parents really enjoyed Safeco Field. He talks about the stadium like it's the only thing to see in the Pacific Northwest. Just ask him about it and he'll start in, "Oh, that Safeco Field….." (think Jerry Stiller in Seinfeld or King of Queens). We booked them on a tour the following day, which they enjoyed. Overall, it was a great visit and we expect to see them back in Seattle in 2008.

 I know, we still need to post pics from our recent trip to Bend, Sunriver and Crater Lake. I'll leave that to Marc. J

P.S. – Dad, just so you know – there is a coffee shop closer to the house than Peet's. We walked by it everyday.

There’s actually some passion within the confines of Safeco Field!

So I think the Yankees have mailed it in for this season. There is absolutely no passion in how they are being managed or are playing. I think there are a number of players (no ARod is not included) that have a certain sense of entitlement that they should just automatically win and teams should just roll over. Well teams are wising up and playing all 27 outs against the Yanks, and the Yanks don't seem to want to compete once a lead has been lost for whatever reason. Maybe I'll be wrong and they'll get a wildcard spot as there is no way that they are claiming the AL East from Boston.

Fortunately for my friends who are Red Sox fans, the past couple of games in Seattle haven't caused a dent in their lead over the Blue Jays (yes, the Yankees are actually in 3rd place). Anyway Marc and I have been to 3 baseball games in a space of 5 days. That's a lot of baseball even for us so let me explain.

Ken Griffey, Jr. returned to Seattle for the first time since he left in 2000 to play in his hometown of Cincinnati, so Friday was the first game of the series. Marc said that we had to go since Griffey is his favorite (or at least one of his favorites) player. No problem. To be honest with you, I can't remember something being so hyped up in the 4 ½ years that I have lived in Seattle. This was a big deal – weeks and weeks of news coverage in print, TV and the web. Tons of tributes. More of the 1995 ALDS game winning play where Griffey scored the winning run against – yep, you guessed it – the Yankees, which is the single most over-played moment in Mariners history.

Anyway Marc wanted to see Griffey and to be fair to the Mariners, they did a very touching tribute to Griffey which had most of the men crying. To me, I just loved being in a packed ballpark again where you felt the energy of the crowd. In Seattle, people may come to the game but it's more of a social thing as opposed to watching the game. The fans don't get as vocal in key situations unless prompted by the PA announcer. In New York or Boston, vocal crowds are the norm and no prompting is required. Unfortunately the Mariners got their tails kicked in on that Friday night game after the tribute by a score of 16-1. To me, it was a shame. The Mariners had a packed house with everyone super pumped up because of Griffey's return and their pitching put them in such a hole that made it near impossible to crawl out of.

So anyway we had tickets for Monday and Tuesday of this week to see the Mariners play the "Evil People" aka Red Sox. Monday night's game was pretty good and the M's took it by a score of 9-4. Sat next to a family where the 7-year old had dance moves that made me wonder if he was somehow frozen in time from about 1977 since he really looked like he was imitating John Travolta of Saturday Night Fever. It was hysterical.

Last night's game started out pretty bad from a pitching perspective for both teams. Felix Hernandez, the M's ace, walked a bunch of people and clearly has not been the same pitcher since going on the DL earlier this season. Kason Gabbard, filling in for loud mouthed Curt Schilling – on the DL, had it worse. So it was something like 4-2 with the M's on top after 3 innings. This game seemed to have a bit of everything – defensive lapses, great catches, tie-breaking home runs, back and forth lead changes, huge strikeouts against big sluggers, etc. Made it really fun to watch. The M's end up pulling it out by a score of 8-7. They could give the Yankees a lesson or two about not giving up and playing hard until the end.

What made it great was that when the Yankees and Red Sox visit Safeco, once again the stadium becomes alive because of all of the transplants. Us fans from the Northeast are taught to be as vocally supportive of your team as possible and we tend not to disappoint regardless of the stadium we are in. For once, Mariners fans refused to be out-shouted by Red Sox fans and actually started yelling back at the Red Sox fans. It was great! Must say that the Mariners relief corps did an awesome job, particularly George Sherrill and JJ Putz, on shutting down two of the best hitters in the game – David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Safeco was rocking until the last strike and it was great. I wish it was like that all of the time, although it made me a little homesick for Yankee Stadium, but still. To me, the energy and the crowd are what really make going to a baseball game special and I have no doubt that the players feed off of it, whether they are home or away.

The Land of Oz

Most of you know that I went to college (or 'university' for the folks from outside of the States) at the State University of New York – College at Oswego. It was in upstate New York, so you can guarantee that it was cold, windy and snowy for most of the school year unlike where Marc went to college – University of California at Santa Barbara – where sun was the prevailing weather influence. I graduated back in 1993, and this past weekend, a few of us from our group of friends had a mini-reunion of sorts on Long Island while I was visiting the clan.

Now considering that of the 4 of us who saw each other on Saturday that 1 person lives in Ireland, 1 person lives in North Carolina, 1 person actually still lives in Long Island and I live in Seattle, this is quite a feat. Karen (North Carolina) and her husband, Mart, just had a beautiful baby girl named Gianna; they had the christening on Long Island this past weekend since that is where Karen and Mart are from. Theresa (Ireland) was in the NY area because her family was celebrating her grandmother's 90th birthday – very cool. Michele (Long Island) was in attendance and it was great to see her since she and her husband are expecting their first child in late summer – see picture to the right. So the stars were aligning based on my previously scheduled trip into town. All good.

I saw Michele and Bernie (her husband) back in February, but had not seen Karen or Theresa since 2000. Long time. Everyone pretty much looked the same, and Theresa now has 2 kids (Alex and Harry) with her husband Tom – pictured to the left I was able to see Karen and Mart, and chat with them for a bit. Karen's dad still wanted to talk about the financial markets after all of these years. Whenever I would stop by to pick up Karen before we would head out to some "classy establishment" such as "The Park Bench" in Stony Brook (now closed down), he would always want to talk about the markets since I was working at Morgan Stanley at the time.

One note – Theresa and I were roommates for a bit back in college (see right for a picture of the two of us). She is still the same as when I talked to her over the phone for the first time back in 1991. Theresa still has all of that of exuberance and charm. Karen always said that Theresa could sell someone the Brooklyn Bridge and I have no doubt that is still the case. Seems like she still moves at 1000 miles/hour. Her kids are great and seem to smile all of the time (except maybe on 7 hour plane rides from Europe).

It was good to see everyone but unfortunately it was only for a couple of hours so no true reminiscing happened while I was in attendance. That, of course, may have changed once I left. J One of the gents took a nice picture of the 4 of us – see below.

Hanging with the Consor Clan

After TechEd, I routed my return to Seattle via New York so I could spend time with my family. Since the last visit, we had a new addition to the family – Lisa and JB's son named Jeffrey (aka "Little JB"). Little JB looks very much like JB, but upon further reflection I think he has Consor cheeks (read: chubby). You can find a bunch of pictures of Jeffrey here, plus I posted one on the left.

On Friday night, we went to one of my favorite places in NYC for dinner – Volare. Joining Lisa, JB and I were my folks, Glenn, Gwen (Happy Birthday Gwen!), Harrison (now 10 months old!), Aunt Joyce, Cousins Charlie, Linda and their daughter, Arianna.










I do not recall Arianna's exact age but I would guess she is around 6 years old, and she is quite precocious. Arianna is also full of laughs, which makes her much fun to be around. She also has a very natural talent for taking pictures, so who knows – maybe we have a budding professional artist in our family!

Volare always comes through with excellent food, wine, service and they put on the Yankee game, which was very cool. To the right, you'll see a picture of Gwen and Harrison (love those Consor Curls) - notice the Yankee game on in the corner. J
My boys pulled it out in extra innings and are now in the midst of their longest winning streak of 2007! Just remember Yankee naysayers that in 2004, the Red Sox were 9+ games behind at the end of July and we all know what happened in October. I'll also include a picture of Aunt Joyce declaring victory over Volare's house specialty of osso buco.

Other happenings over the weekend included attending a college chum's daughter's christening (more on that here) and cooking dinner for Puff Daddy, Sunny D, Lisa and JB. Jeffrey is not ready for seafood at 8 weeks old, I guess. Hehe. I re-did the Copper River Salmon recipe that I talked about last week, and it came out much better (we sent some salmon straight from Seattle through the guys at Pike Place). Prepared some sautéed spinach with garlic, shallots and lemon zest to go with it. JB cooked up some flank steak since he said he was not a seafood fan, which was very tasty, and he opened up one of their special occasion bottles of wine – a Sauvignon Blanc from Groth. Lisa and JB picked it up on a trip to Napa with Cousin Claire and Pete. Good stuff and thanks for sharing, JB.

We purchased some webcams for the distant relatives so our ever-increasing collection of nieces and nephews can have an idea of what Uncle Marc and Aunt Jill look like. Installed one of the cams at my folks house and showed them how to use it. I am sure we will need to show them again. Marc was a gracious guinea pig, although I did catch him wearing a Fenway Park shirt so I'll be dealing with that upon my return to Seattle. J

We also connected Lisa and JB's webcam to Marc, and it was really cool that Marc got to see Jeffrey for the first time. Love technology – there are some kinks with the audio, but it is pretty awesome nevertheless.

As Marc and JB are talking back and forth on the webcams, JB is talking about how I am cooking salmon. Marc then laments about how proud I was that he ate the salmon I cooked last week…. lots of sarcasm here. Anyway JB is joking with him on the topic, but did promise me earlier that he would try it at dinner. Well the joke is on you boys! JB liked it and said he would eaten it if it was served to him. HAHA.

Gotta run…. We just hit 10,000 feet and I am being told to put the laptop away. More later on the christening.