I must have been quite tired. Or my body just knew that it was going to be Saturday. I was asleep long before two last night but I did not wake up until eleven thirty this morning! That is incredibly late for me. Just a few weeks ago I was still waking up at six in the morning without needing an alarm to be set. It is amazing how quickly my body fluctuates sleeping times.
Being home and working on my desktop all of this time has really highlighted to me that I truly do need a new desktop. Mine still works fine but when this is what I am using, for everything, all day, every day – it is just too slow. I do a lot when I have the time and have three browsers running plus lots of little apps. Those browser eat a ton of memory and I need to be able to switch between things really quickly. Waiting for the system is bogging me down a lot. And that’s before mentioning the video games which I cannot play because there is no way that this ancient desktop could handle them. I have lots of games for the girls which will play just fine and some older ones for me but most of the newer games, even rather old ones, that I have been storing up are just waiting until I have a good, new computer to play them on. I am really looking forward to the Bioshock series, replaying Fable Anniversary, the newer Assassin’s Creed titles, Skyrim and, coming soon, Dragon Age Inquisition. I really want to play these but they all just have to wait.
I did a little work today and then around four made plans with Rob and Abby to meet up with them downtown for dinner and drinks. So I showered, got dressed, drove down to Croton-Harmon and caught the train to Grand Central. It was about seven thirty when I got into GCT. I caught the 6 down to Canal and walked to Baxter where I met them at a little whiskey bar on a side street. Abby’s friend Annie from Boise was there as well. We hung out there for just a little bit. The bar had a big whiskey and beer menu and, of all things, had Rochester’s own Genesee Cream Ale. So I just had to get one of those. Not something you normally see in the big city. Had to do it and believe it or not, I have never actually had a Genesee Cream Ale before! It was actually pretty good. I will get that again.
From there we tried to get to a famous Japanese restaurant but traffic was terrible so we ended up snacking at a taco stand and then eventually making it back to the Japanese restaurant much later and eating there. Really amazing food, the whole place was really impressive. Dinner was awesome.
From there we found an awesome little speakeasy hidden in Chinatown. You had to go into a rather nondescript door, up some stairs to a hard to find Japanese restaurant. Then you go through part of the restaurant and push open an unmarked door into a completely different cocktail bar. It was a little weird but the place was amazing. The cocktail selection was truly impressive. I got the Charlie Brown which was bourbon, peanut butter, milk and I think bitters or something with fresh ground nutmeg on top. It was awesome.
I could not stay late tonight, I had to catch the train back to Croton as I did not have my CPAP with me. What a pain that thing is. It really makes spontaneity very hard. I managed to make it back to Grand Central from Astor Place on the 6 just in time to walk right on to the next to last train north, the local to Croton. So it was around two thirty that I got to the car and drove back. I stopped at the Westchester Diner on the way back and grabbed some late night food so that I would not need to deal with food tomorrow as there really is nothing in the house and got home around three thirty to get into bed.
Madeline’s marching band won their competition today and are now going on to the state competition in two weeks. Dominica asked if she could change her flights so that she and the girls could stay down there for that. It is going to be pretty awful going this long without seeing the girls but this is a really big deal and they are already down there. The state competition is only every two years so it is that much more of a big deal. I had been invited to go to Dublin that week so figured it was meant to be. So Dominica and the girls are going to stay in Texas and the plan is that I am going to head over to Ireland during that time.