November 29, 2014

It will be two years this Wednesday when my wife died. Seems like yesterday. People have started asking me if I will start seeing someone else. My answer is "maybe" to deal with the question, my mind says doubtful. You never know what life throws at you, I do know I am not looking. My brain is still draped in black.



I start to listen to Christmas songs at this time of year to force-feed the mood. I have an enormous collection on my I-Pod, 131 songs in all. But, I'm always looking for another one that I don't have yet. SiriusXM already has two stations playing and more to come. I am also on the lookout for the annual Starbucks Christmas collection which is always good. And, I just bought it. Rod Stewart's Auld Lang Syne ( “times gone by”) is great.



The Starbucks 2014 Christmas Album: Merry and Bright -

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas – Michael Bublé
The Christmas Song – Celine Dion
Carol of the Bells – David Foster
Little Drummer Boy – Josh Groban featuring Andy McKee
This Christmas – Mary J. Blige
O Tannenbaum – Andrea Bocelli
Blue Christmas – Wynonna
Auld Lang Syne – Rod Stewart
Pie Jesu – Jackie Evancho
Jingle Bells – Andrea Bocelli featuring The Muppets



40% off, a Christmas gift. Will read it before giving. Is that wrong ? I don't think so, and who will know.

November 28, 2014

Thanksgiving videos. Man, Chaka Khan was beautiful.




"No Sex" by Chris Rock






Chaka Khan and Rufus - Tell me something Good.



Star Wars: The Force Awakens official trailer.

November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving !



Wild Turkeys along Route 55.



Wines for the day.



Jax Cheese Curls with Beaujolais Nouveau for the March of the Wooden Soldiers.



Elmer the Pig.

November 26, 2014

Tomorrow at 9 am, Channel 11 (NYC): March of the Wooden Soldiers. A holiday staple.



Another is Mary Martin's Peter Pan. Can't locate my DVD. Will have to watch Peter Pan Live ! just to see Christopher Walken's Captain Hook. It will be hard to top Cyril Ritchard.

November 24, 2014

Found an old ticket that was a free ticket win, redeemed it, now a $19 win.



Great Rod Serling overview in Grantland.

November 23, 2014

Thanks to my weekly Brain Pickings e-mail: Walking by Henry David Thoreau.

"I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks – who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering, which word is beautifully derived “from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going a la Sainte Terre, to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, “There goes a Sainte-Terrer,” a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in their walks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but they who do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, however, would derive the word from sans terre, without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret of successful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea."

November 22, 2014

Before I invested $ in boosters, I tried the TWC chat line. They reset the modem settings and the range seems better. Now Netflix works in the living room.

Yeah ! I-Pad connection fades at times. When I get finally unpacked, I will set up a Linksys WiFi on my old computer and see if that helps.



The new building I am in has a great Laundry, open 24 hours a day. I am an early bird, so Laundry is a breeze and not crowded. The cost is also less than my old place.



Brussels Sprouts, described as miniature cabbages.

November 21, 2014

That time of year again, a list always helps. Will take a day off in mid-December but having some plan is a help.



Very disappointed in my new place with the WiFi signal. It drops in the living room. A TWC Technician came in an fiddled with the Modem which is in my bedroom. Now the signal works on an I-Pad but drops after 20 minutes. I guess I will do self-help, get a booster or set up another network on an old computer. Since I pay so much for the service, this is really annoying. I just can't have them coming back and it still doesn't work. Netflix in the Living Room won't connect via ROKU. I don't watch it anyway and the kids watch it on their I-Pads. But, it is still annoying.

November 20, 2014

Just ordered the Franken Pie from Momofuku Milk Bar. T-Day is coming.



Will also get Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies , made by a Red Hook merchant.

November 17, 2014

My favorite Holiday Market opens this Thursday.



Just read the reviews on the new Frank Bascombe book and I came across this one, the first, while unpacking. Will give it a re-read.

November 15, 2014

La Goulue !



Now to tackle Box City and see if the new place can become habitable.

November 13, 2014

Last view from the balcony.



What an ordeal, forty bags of garbage, currently living in box city. But, the old place was cleared out and am now in new place. Took apart a big metal bunk bed. Wrapped the mattress. All gone.



Yeah, $18.50 win.