Our Exciting Weekend with the President, the Zoo and a Salute to Israel

We did a lot this weekend. Many of our activities deserve their own post. However, if I waited to write a full post on the various events, nothing would ever get posted (as happens with most of the stuff we do). So, in bullet-point format, here are the things we did in the past 48 hours:

• Watched President Obama and his motercade blocks from our apartment as he enjoyed his "date night" on Broadway (that was a LOT of security).
  
• Visited the Central Park Zoo to gawk at seals, penguins, monkeys and the polar bear (seriously, Wife was content to leave as soon as we saw her favorite exhibits).
• Attended the Salute to Israel Parade (I think this had even more security than Obama's visit). This may have been the biggest parade we've ever witnessed in person with over a hundred thousand participants (not observers, over 100,000 marchers). We saw countless celebrities, politicians and musicians at the parade, including Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and New York Governor David Patterson.
• Husband inadvertently participated in the Salute to Israel Parade.
• Shook Senator Chuck Schumer's hand at the parade.
• Listened to an assortment of Israeli pop stars (and were shocked by the number of "boy bands").
  
• Enjoyed a Saturday evening pizza party at the park off the Hudson River.
• Enjoyed a Sunday morning picnic at Bryant Park.
• Attended church.
• Watched the Lakers pound the Nuggets and the Magic finish off the Cavs (Wife is very excited to get a few days free of NBA-related stress).
  
• Typical weekend shopping (groceries, toiletries, etc.).
  
• Window shopped for baby stuff at FAO Schwartz.
• Admired the Laker Western Conference Champtionship gear at the NBA Store on 5th Avenue.
• Wandered around the Disney Store on 5th Avenue.
• Laughed at people spending ridiculous amounts of money for shoes at Niketown.
  

Have You Seen My Three Championship Rings?

I'm sure a wonderful, award winning advertising company created this new ad campaign.

Our Baby Registry

Over the last few months, we have gotten many calls and emails asking with a couple questions whether Wife is having having a baby shower and what we will need for the baby. To answer the question about the baby shower, I doubt Wife will have one. Since her friends and family are scattered throughout the country (and mostly not anywhere near where we live), having a shower would be tough. For some reason, all the guys she works with don't seem to feel like throwing a big shower. Weird. To answer the question about what we need, we need everything. So, the bottom line, buy us stuff. Obviously, I'm just kidding. For those that have a deep burning desire to buy something for the baby (and for those who just want to laugh at what we think we'll need), feel free to take a look at our baby registry. We have finished our baby registry on Amazon.com. To find it, simply go to Amazon and then search the baby registries using either one of our names.

The registry is nice because when someone chooses to buy something on the list, it will give the buyer of shipping to either the buyer's address or our address. In about six weeks, we will probably go through the registry and buy everything that we need that has not already been purchased.

Yes, you need our real name to look at the registry, so I guess that means that about seventy-five percent of our regular readers won't be able to check it out. Sorry.

Family Vacation to Connecticut

Our baby had her first vacation this past weekend. I have been talking to husband about wanting to get out of the City for awhile (ok, I'll admit it...I've been nagging him about it), so when a three day opened up, Husband suggested we venture out to the beautiful state of Connecticut. I quickly agreed.

After talking to coworkers and searching on the internet, Husband and I decided to go to South Norwalk for the day, where we could enjoy the small New England town and visit the Maritime Center. I was so excited. I am not sure what excited me more: the train ride, getting out of the City, a whole day with Husband (without any work) or getting to see the Maritime Center.

Our day began early with our weekly Saturday morning breakfast in Bryant Park. We woke up a bit earlier than normal, so this was the earliest we have had breakfast in Bryant Park. Our park was so empty and serene. I love this park. This is the closes thing to a backyard that we have. In fact, Husband and I had a conversation that the lawn at Bryant Park will probably be the first grass our baby ever gets to touch and play on.

After breakfast, we continued on our walk to Grand Central Station. We purchased our tickets and boarded the Metro North bound for South Norwalk, Connecticut. The train ride had it charm. I loved staring out the window and watching the pretty landscape (I love the City, but getting out of the business for a little while is nice too). On the train, we had some tunes to keep us entertained. A fellow passenger was listening to her iPod (at an extremely high decimal). After a few head jerks, she was fast asleep and her earphone fell out of her ear providing the whole car the listening pleasures to the hip hop jams. The funniest part was how everyone on the train car took turns looking over at her in disgust. I’m not sure how she slept through all that noise.

We also were able to enjoy the lovely anecdotes of an adorable three year old boy. While the boy was definitely cute, he enjoyed talking and asking questions through the entire train trip and what was worst was that he didn’t understand the concept of using his “indoor voice.”

The train trip lasted just over an hour. After a couple wrong turns walking trying to figure out where in South Norwalk we were, we walked through an adorable little New England town and ended up at the Maritime Center. While waiting to cross the street at the light (yes, we waited at a crosswalk - a sure sign we weren’t in Manhattan anymore) we saw something that I have never seen before. A street divided in half and rose up so that a boat could pass on the water underneath it. Husband was pretty nonchalant about it, but I started screaming for him to take out his camera.

The aquarium was really interesting. We were able to see seals, sharks, penguins, lots of colorful fish (my favorite was the lionfish) and cool turtles (the fun of looking turtles made me want to get an aquarium; looking up at the thousand pound sea turtle scared me a little bit). We spent several hours walking around the center, but I quickly tired, so we walked through the town to find a nice place to eat lunch.

We wanted to find someplace special for lunch, so we asked some locals for suggestions on where we should go. We got a few different responses, but we finally chose a quaint little diner with great service and even better food (I’m really starting to like food!).

After a much needed rest and a wonderful meal, we traveled back to the Maritime Center to see all that we had missed earlier in the day. Our day was filled with a great deal of walking, so I was thrilled that one of our afternoon activities was kicking back to watch an IMAX movie (well actually, I kicked back and our little girl just kicked!). I have only seen one other IMAX movie before (years ago Husband – before he was “Husband” - took me to see my favorite Disney movie Beauty and the Beast at an IMAX theater). Our movie for this trip was the nature film “Wild Ocean.” It was an exciting 40 minute flick about the wild ocean off the coast of Africa.

The day was a ton of fun for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed it is so much that it knocked me out, and I slept the whole trip home (Husband makes a wonderful travel pillow on the train).

Our baby has now experienced her first trip out of New York with her trip Maritime Center and her adventure into her second state, Connecticut.

Lakers Win!

That was a stressful first game of the Western Conference Finals. Wife is way too big of a Laker fan and way, way too competitive to deal with these playoff Laker games in her pregnant state. We were watching the game in the bedroom, but for the final six minutes of the game, Wife paced back and forth in the living room. The first thing Wife said to me when the game was over was, "I think if I was any further along, these games would induce labor."

During these last few games, Wife has taken to rubbing her stomach and repeating, "Can you say, 'Gooo Lakers!'"

Wife is also trying to convince me that this baby onesie is appropriate (although she hasn't convinced me).

Our International Feast in New York City

This afternoon, Wife and I decided to go out and get some lunch. We left our apartment planning on getting something rather mundane (probably a hamburger). When we walked outside, we remembered that just down the street our community is holding an international food festival this weekend. As far as I could see (about 20 blocks), the streets were filled with food booths and thousands upon thousands of hungry people. The food booths were made up of not only the typical carnival type food, but also each of the local restaurants had their own booths where the masses could sample their culinary masterpieces (side rant: the street is filled with carnival booths selling fried oreos and other junk and the best restaurants selling plates of their best dishes for the same price. Why were the lines for the carnival junk huge while the lines for the excellent local restaurants much shorter? The good local cuisine was actually cheaper than the carnival junk).

Our initial plan to go out and grab a burger was kicked to the curb. Instead, we walked up the street and began our progressive lunch. We began up the street at a local Indonesian restaurant where we shared a plate full of assorted appetizers. Up about a fifteen blocks we stopped for some French cuisine where we shared a savory crepe (we learned that pregnant wife likes - really, really likes - crepes). We completed our feast with a plate of tandoori chicken with the best piece of naan that I have ever had. Our lunch was absolutely delicious. Shockingly, the grand total that we spent on our feast was a mere eight bucks.

Basketball Rambling

Wife and I are watching the Lakers get worked over by the Rockets. I'm a little concerned about letting Wife watch Laker playoff games because it gets her WAY too riled up in her pregnant state. However, watching her scream at the television is some of the best entertainment in my life. In the energetic way that only she can, over the years Wife has given each Laker player his own nickname:

* Kobe Bryant = Kobes
* Lamar Odem = Odie
* Pau Gasol = Gassy
* Derek Fisher = Fishy Fish
* Jordon Farmar = Mighty Mouse
* Luke Walton = "Luuuke...I am your father."
* Andrew Bynum = Byno or Drew or "The Kid"
* Trevor Ariza = Trev or Scrawny

Many woman refuse to watch sports, but not Wife. I don't think I've ever seen anyone, man or woman, get more passionate about basketball games than her (and that's really saying something given my passion).

Baby's First Book

If you know me, you know I love books. Generally, I think a love of books is healthy. However, in my case the addiction borders on alarming. If you've seen my library, you know what I mean (but nobody has seen my full library - only pieces). If I have anything to do with it, Baby Girl will love books too. After reading some of her pregnancy material, Wife mentioned that we should start reading to the Baby. She then hinted that we could use a children's book. Buy a book? No need to tell me twice. I picked out and ordered a "Baby's First Bible" earlier this week. It finally arrived today. This kid is definitively in for a treat. I just watched Wife read the Baby its first Bible story. I don't think I've ever seen such a dramatic reading. Unfortunately, I may have been the only one that enjoyed the story this evening- when Wife was done she looked at me and said, "I think the baby is asleep."

Work at the firm continues to go well, but the hours are frequently pretty long. Last night (Friday night), I was about to leave just after seven in the evening. I was thrilled about the notion of leaving that early, but before getting to the elevator I was handed an emergency project. That consumed my time until about two this morning. I then put in almost a full day of work today. Fortunately, Wife and I were able to spend some good quality time together this evening (I'll probably write a blog on that soon).

I'm Already an Overprotective Father

I'm not sure if this is a sign of things to come, but I'm already overprotective. It was a wet, wet weekend here in the Big Apple. Combine that with the Swine Flu hysteria, and I was able to convince Wife that we should have a lazy weekend (mostly in our apartment). I'm probably overprotective, but given all the reports of a pandemic here in the city, I just couldn't rationalize the risk a pregnant woman crammed into a packed subway (even if it really is a slight risk).

Wife and I did walk to a few stores this weekend to do some shopping, but other than that, it was a pretty lazy weekend.

Of course, who could possibly complain about a weekend at home when we're in the middle of the playoffs? As one commentator recently wrote, "I feel like Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith should be paying part of my rent since they spend so much time in my living room." I know most of our readers keep up with this blog for my basketball insight, so I will leave you with a few thoughts.

* The Celtics-Bulls series was a shockingly exciting series. I keep hearing phrases such as "One for the ages" and "most epic series of all time." As great as the series was, those kind of characterizations are ridiculous. This was a first round playoff series with two short handed teams. This isn't the championship; it's just the first round. Unfortunately, Evil prevailed. As much as I despise them, Evil consistently knocked down big shots. I am a bit puzzled as to why they struggled so badly against a team that is under 500. Yeah, yeah, I know, Kevin Garnett is out.

* I think the NBA needs to do a much better job in being consistent with flagrant fouls and suspensions. I really don't care if the NBA wants to be more or less stringent with these penalties, but I do care that the decisions need to be consistent. Dwight Howard was suspended but Rajon Rondo wasn't for nearly identical behavior. The Celtics need to send the NBA front office a thank card because otherwise, they would probably be going home.

* I keep hearing the experts picking the Lakers to beat Houston in either five or six games. I'm not sure I believe it. Houston is a really good team that should not be counted out. Kobe will need to perform against Artest and Battier. I can't think of two other players I think will consistently do a better job against him. I am also interested to see how the Lakers will try to defend Yao Ming. I'm a big Andrew Bynum fan, but I think I would try to play small-ball and force Yao to guard Gasol and Odom on the perimeter. I think we could pick up some quick fouls on him that way because he doesn't have the quickness. Once Yao is out, then put Bynum in the game to pound the ball in the paint. I doubt Phil Jackson will use my strategy.

* How is Curry still employed as the coach of the Detroit Pistons? I realize that the Pistons have a list of excuses, but I don't think anyone can argue with a straight face that this isn't the worst coaching performance by a Pistons coach in recent memory. And in this recent history coaches were on a very short leash. I don't understand how the last three Pistons were shown such little patience but Curry still has a job ("What, you only made the conference finals for the last three years in a row? We demand more. You're fired").

* Lebron may be the greatest player in the NBA, but I have no interest in watching the Hawks-Cavs series. I'll just assume that the Cavs will sweep this one.

* I'm looking forward to the two Western Conference series being some of the best coached games ever. I have a tremendous amount of respect for all four of those coaches (even if I don't like their teams - George Karl may be the the only guy I like on the Nuggets). I really laughed last year when Nugget fans were crying for Karl to be fired. I hoped he would because I don't think they would have made the playoffs this year if he wasn't there.

* I'm really curious to see how Evil plays against the Orlando Magic in this series. Evil needed some good luck to squeak by the Bulls. How will they play against a decent team? I won't be surprised if Evil does better against the Magic than they did against the Bulls.