September 25, 2006: Commuting

Dominica had her car brought around early this morning because she didn’t know how long it was going to take her to get to work from the new apartment. It is a good thing that she did because the valet took a really long time getting her car for her even though it was scheduled last night so she was just barely able to make it on time even though it took her only fifteen minutes to get there. But fifteen minutes! That is great. What an incredible lifestyle change that is going to make. She will only need to be in the car for thirty to fourty minutes a day instead of one hundred and fifty! That is going to save a fortune as well.

I attempted to get my car at a quarter after eight but we have to expect a half hour wait for cars during “rush hour” in the morning so I ordered it for a quarter to nine and I took Oreo out for his morning walk. We walked down the east side of Military Park and discovered the location of some cool places like the Robert Treat Hotel which is supposed to be the best hotel in the city. It is great that it is right next to us almost. The Robert Treat Hotel has the restaurant Maize which was advertised in our move-in packet and looked really good. We are really looking forward to trying that place out. (Note for people looking to stay near us: The Robert Treat’s room rates are just barely over half of the cost of staying at the Hilton, are closer and the walk from the RTH to us is along the park and better lit at night than the walk from the Hilton although the Hilton is connected to Penn Station.)

The sun coming up behind the Manhattan skyline this morning was amazing. What a great view that is going to be every morning. The livingroom is so completely full of light. What a wonderful change from the dungeon that we have been living in for the last six months. Even in contrast with the house in Geneseo which was on the dark side. This place is made of light.

My car didn’t come by a quarter to nine as it was supposed to. At twenty after nine I finally gave up because I had a phone conference to call in to and I didn’t want to do that from the car so I had them wait on bringing up the car and scheduled it for ten thirty. Then I went back up to the apartment and hung out with Oreo for an hour and just worked from home. That worked out well so that Oreo wasn’t alone nearly as long as he would have been otherwise. Doggie Paradise has been closed since Friday for renovations so Oreo has been stuck at home. Today is going to be really tough for him since he is home alone in the new apartment. The weekend was decently traumatic for him and he had some shaking spells but overall he did really well and we are really proud of him. Dominica is coming home today at lunch time to spend half an hour with him. We figure that if we break up the day enough it might not be so bad.

At ten thirty they had forgotten to get my car but they ran and got it tutte suite (I have no idea how to spell that) and I was on the road very shortly. To my great surprise the commute did not take the fifty minutes that everyone said that it was going to but actually took only twenty six minutes! Now that was fast. It is going to be awesome only needing to drive for a little under an hour a day. What a wonderful change. I will be getting a bonus half an hour or more per day. Maybe closer to an hour.

Okay, here is funny news. Filming for the movie Battle in Seatle has begun (never see a movie with a rhyming title) and is being filmed… in Vancouver. Yup.

More exploding laptop fun today. Officially there is no link yet between this explosion and previous fires and explosions but it seems unlikely to be an isolated incident given the number of revent issues and the continued finding of the number of places that have the Sony batteries deployed. But that is just speculation. It really does illustrate why working with desktops still makes a lot of sense even with today’s powerful desktops.

Today was a busy day but not a crazy day at work. By the end of the day I felt mostly unproductive even though stuff had been accomplished. Very blah.

I left work at six thirty but didn’t feel like writing tonight and the last few days have been pretty lengthy so I am posting early. I know that there are a lot of people wanting to know about the move so I will give them as much as possible to read right away.

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