Year of the Startup

Day two of the return to work, but it was already Friday!  I wound up working late, but mostly because I spent the last part of the day getting caught up with my fellow workers, and strategizing about how we might succeed at this startup thing.  We still have holes to fill, employee-wise, but we’ll need to take any hiring slowly so we don’t run out of money.  Our immediate goal is to become profitable so that we might get paid sometime next year!

When I got home, the elliptical unit had been moved in front of the couch – hardly ideal, and what it will mostly do, sitting there, is require me to move it (soon) so I can watch TV (while exercising?).  My wife definitely wants to keep the Total Gym that we already have (and do not use).  I want to get rid of it because we have no place for it in the house.  Maybe it will have to simply disappear someday.  At least we agree on getting rid of the Gazelle–the large piece of exercise equipment that doesn’t actually do anything.

I still haven’t unpacked.  Maybe I should do that, and a month’s worth of bills before my half-day AED/CPR class tomorrow (and prep for a class I’m teaching on Sunday).

It was actually a pretty great day.  I got to drive my yellow car to work, the gang missed me, I got a fair amount of work done, and we hired a new top-notch employee.  We all celebrated by going out to lunch on the company’s dime.

I got home early so I could spend time with Jeffrey; going over tonight’s music.  This is the first time he’ll be playing with the Mt. Olive church band.  Neither of us had a chance to practice up to this point, since we were traveling all day yesterday, so we were really behind the eight ball.  Even after more than an hour of practice, neither of us were ready by the time we got to rehearsal.  I guess we’ll need to practice some more between now and Sunday.  Still, it was absolutely great to see my son participating in the band.  I think he enjoyed it as well.

It was a beautiful dawn when we started packing the car.  Before we knew it, we were on the road (on time!).  The drive to BUF was uneventful, though we were driving on vapors from Keuka to Canandaigua.  Once we pulled into the station, I put in just enough gas for the drive to the airport, since we had purchased the “we’ll fill your tank” option at Hertz.

Not much further down the road, we saw a Dunkin Doughnuts so we pulled over for one last indulgence.  The kids complained constantly about the quality of Dunkin Doughnuts, and about their rude and/or stupid employees, yet they pointed out every one we saw, and wanted to stop at every one.  I can only conclude that secretly, they liked the place.

Dropping off our car and getting through security was easy – we had plenty of time left over to read and play cards.  The flight to Chicago Midway was brief.  We then had a couple of hours to kill there.  Jeffrey and I discovered that the cheapest place to eat in concourse B was McDonalds.  It took the girls much longer to come to the same conclusion.  It’s too bad we ate there, there was a nice food court between the concourses.

We saw a P51 Mustang hanging from the ceiling as we entered concourse A.  Pretty cool.  Our next flight was a bit longer, and though not stated on our tickets, the plane landed in San Diego first before heading to San Jose.  That would explain the six hour timeframe from Chicago.

Well, we landed, and only eight of us were continuing on to San Jose.  The four of us grabbed the bulkhead seats in the front of the plane – a definite improvement!  The last leg was nice and easy, and our stowed bags showed up first in baggage claim.  It was not long before we were out the door and into Rosa’s car.

The evening was spent trying to stay awake until 11PM.  Barbara and I did this by driving to Hayward to test out an elliptical machine, paying for it, then transporting it back to our house.  Yeah, we now have a massively large machine that we can’t really afford, given that I have no income, but hey, we got it for half off the “low” sales price on Amazon.  Now we’ll have to use it!

You would think that I’d be spending my last day at the lake swimming and boating, but really, I spent much of it doing computer work:  I put in some final pictures, wrote a couple of blogs, bought a stock and got tomorrow’s plane tickets.

I did get out to Penn Yan three times today as well, so I did get out.  The first time was to get money from the local bank.  Barbara and I were on Craigslist today and we found an Elliptical exercise machine we liked at an OK price.  The thing is, the owner is moving in 1.5 days (from Hayward), and we’re still in New York.  He’s going to meet us at our (California) house about the time we get there tomorrow evening.  Trip two was for ice cream.  Trip three was for a final dinner out at the Keuka.  These guys always have great food!

There was a little swimming done after that, then packing and TV.  We’ll be up early tomorrow to drive to Buffalo Airport.  Sigh… I’m going to miss this place.  So long “green;” hello “golden hills” of California.

A nice easy day today; didn’t go anywhere, barely did anything.

The morning started with a two-mile walk.  I’m out of allergy medicine, so it was hard for me to breathe – or talk – while walking with my dad, though talk I did.  He wanted to know about digital versus analog chips, and where the industry was headed in both geometry size and power requirements.

I was pretty much on the computer after that until noon, going through a weekend’s worth of emails and Facebook posts.  I also checked out a few potential stock buys, since the market was way down, and I still have enough cash on hand in my portfolio to buy one more stock.

In the afternoon, I mowed the lawn, but before that, I let the kids drive the lawn mower.  They had a blast – their smiles were HUGE.  They have never driven a John Deere before.  I mowed the one acre back yard as fast as I could to beat the oncoming rain.  I just made it.

After the brief rainstorm, I took the kids out in the boat. Today it was knee-boarding, but the kids lasted one round and pretty much kept in the wake; the lake was rough and the wind coming from the north was making waves with whitecaps.  It was great weather for sailing; not so good for motorboats.

We watched a little TV, then played some Frisbee (right-handed for me – my elbow and bicep are still hurt), and then went for a swim.  I floated on a blow-up recliner, watching dark clouds and rain approaching from the north.  We lasted 15 minutes before the rain hit.  Within an hour, there was lightning and thunder.  We stayed in, watching TV, for the rest of the evening.  The night was very humid.

It was so nice to see the Hartke’s over the weekend!

We drove to Orchard Park mid-day on Saturday.  The threat of rain was ever-present, but it never actually presented itself.  My dad had warned me that highway 87 had a large population of police.  He was right, and as a result, I was a real model citizen.  We mostly listened to Jazz – I’m still working on broadening my children’s musical education.  When we got to Orchard Park, I was surprised to find that it was a small city, and it had a real hometown feel.  At least where Nate & Laura are, it looks like middle upper class white suburbia.  With Orchard Park being so near to Buffalo and the Buffalo Stadium, I expected it to be more city-like, with industrial buildings and a general gray tint.  This place was green and free of industry.

When we greeted the Hartke’s at the door, we found that Jen Riske was also there.  What a pleasant surprise!  Last time I had seen her was at the end of our Kyrgyzstan trip together two years ago.  She is such a GOOD hugger.  I think she missed me too… as did Nate and Laura.  We also met Nate & Laura’s latest addition: Jacob, who is now 13 months old.  What a cute kid!  They now have three redheaded kids, and both parents are blonde.  Nate quickly showed me his latest interest: he had an entire fridge dedicated to homemade beer.  Three taps were on the side of the fridge, so over the course of the evening, I tried all three brews.  The “brown bear, brown bear, brown ale” I tried twice because I liked it so much.  I also tried a black beer from a local East Coast brewer.  Just like the German counterpart, it was quite dark and quite sweet.  I liked it (wow, five pints in an evening – I haven’t done that in 20+ years!).

Nate’s (Lloyds) ribs and chicken were spectacular.  Chocolate dessert was served with a sweet Muscat wine, which totally worked with the chocolate.  Yummy!

Jeffrey taught the group how to play “Kems,” a fun and easy card game that works with all ages.  We had a good time with that.  Later in the evening, the kids (plus neighbor kids) were getting a little loud, so I asked Jeffrey if he would teach the group of kids “Possum,” one of my favorite kid games (that I had made up years ago because I had active, noisy kids of my own).  With Possum, the idea is to lie down quietly, without moving, as long as possible.  If you move or talk, you get an “O” (we actually play Opossum), and so on.  The winner must stay still for at least 10 minutes. The kids were initially really into this, but after 15 minutes or so, they realized what we were up to.  The parents thought it was a brilliant game and wondered why they hadn’t thought of it.  Two of the winners were very good – totally lying still.  The third winner, Abby, had fallen asleep.

Nate also took most of my family to see his church.  He did so today so that he would have the time to show us the whole place.  Sundays for a pastor is just crazy, so we’d miss the opportunity.  The main church was beautiful, but the rooms surrounding it were out of some sort of Escher nightmare.  It was obvious that the complex had been built up over several years, and by several committees.  There was no flow to the building.  Somehow, they even incorporated the old parsonage with the new main church structure (the old church was now the narthex/lobby of the new church).  This meant that the “apse” end of the church was a split level bachelor’s pad.  Below that, in the “crypt” (formerly the parsonage basement?) is where they decided to put child care.  Parents would have to bring their kids under the church and across its length to put their kids in childcare, then backtrack the whole way, and go up a flight of stairs to get to church.  Nate thought, and I agree, that whoever did this (decided where to stick the kids) didn’t value young families in the church.  There was also no cry room “skybox” where parents could take care of their infants and still see the service.  Now that Nate is attempting to bring in young families, facilities will need to change.  The church has extensive grounds, and owns two or three other houses, so there is plenty of room to make a complete “redo” if necessary… if money were no object.

I had also noticed that the speaker mains were underpowered for the room, but that’s a different diatribe.

Sunday service went great.  Nate needed a bassist at the last minute, so I was volunteered.  It was fun to play at a different church, and I was given a very nice bass and amp (both Fender).  The set list was also set up for me – sort of Nate’s all-time rock & roll favorites.  These days, Nate is playing electric guitar, and I was very impressed with his guitar solo on “Let the Praises Ring.”  I wish I could have heard the other vocalists (or Nate and his guitar in my monitor), but at least I was near the drummer.

One big burly guy gave me a hug upon meeting him.  I love it when church folk do that.  Aside from him, I really didn’t meet many other people except for the band.

Lunch afterward was at Duffs, famous for their Buffalo Wings.  Duffs and Anchor Bar have had a long-standing argument on who was the first to introduce Buffalo Wings, and who is the best today.  Most of my online sources say that Anchor was the first, but that Duff’s is the best.  After having Duff’s Wings, I couldn’t refute the “best” claim.  These wings were great!

When we got back to the Hartke house on this very rainy day, Jen said good-bye to us and headed to her parent’s house in Detroit.  She’ll be back at the Hartke house on Friday on her way to her new temporary assignment in Boston (she’s a traveling nurse).  The remaining group played a little more “Kems”, and then we left around 4PM to head back to the Lake.  It was nice to be back at the Lake, but I miss the Hartke’s very much, and I know that the feeling’s mutual.

Today, we drove through several states on our way back to my parent’s house in Upstate NY.

From Boston, we headed Northeast through New Hampshire and into Maine.  Maine is very green and pretty.  We found a seaport town (Kittery) to stop in for supplies and a bathroom break, and then headed back to New Hampshire.

We couldn’t see much of New Hampshire because we were on a two-lane road constantly surrounded by trees the whole time.  Eventually, we found a town (yeah, civilization!) in the town of Keene just before the Vermont border.  This little town had a Target and a Borders Books (that was closing) so we went to both.  For once the Science Fiction section wasn’t picked clean at one of these closing bookstores so I got a couple of books.

Vermont was a little hillier, and so you could see more.  It too was pretty and green.  We ate lunch by a stream in the city of Bennington, near the NY border.  Just before Bennington, we spotted a young moose that was crossing the road (we had seen moose crossing signs all morning but didn’t believe them).  You don’t see that every day!  In New York, we saw a lot of deer on the side of the road, and while we were parked on the side of the interstate for a while, two hunting dogs came up to our car from out of a nearby swamp – one of them very muddy.  No owners were in sight.  My window was down so the muddy dog came right up to me.  Fortunately he was friendly, though he did bark a lot.  Maybe he was just happy to see civilization.  I hope those two don’t try to cross the interstate!

Before long, we met up with my parents in Geneva, NY so we could go to a Mexican restaurant in town.  I didn’t have any great expectations for a Mexican restaurant in Upstate NY, but it wasn’t bad!  The guys at the table next to us were Mexican day laborers, so I guess if they chose to eat here, then the place was going to be alright.

When we got home, we all did laundry.

This time, the pillows were great, but the mattress was lumpy.  I’m not finding a lot of joy in these East Coast hotels so far.  Are my expectations too high?  At least there was a breakfast and it was good.

We made our way to the terminal, found parking on the roof, then descended down the long escalator.  What was neat about the escalator was that each floor had its own escalator, side by side with the other escalators.  The third floor’s escalator was one flight up (from the second floor), the forth was two flights up, and our fifth floor was three flights up.  It looked like art.

Getting our day passes was a breeze, and we were soon on our way.  The train dropped us off at Boston Common, the big park in the middle of the city where our tour would begin.

We found (temporary) bathrooms, and then we found our guide, a history teacher who did these Freedom Trail walks on the side.  Today, he was dressed in a Redcoat outfit.  I am so glad that we got a historian rather than an actor.  Sure, the actor would have been more lively, but the historian was more accurate, and as it turned out, he had a wicked dry sense of humor.

We learned about various men, some of the original buildings, but mostly about the misinformation that can be found in our history texts:

• We did not win the war because the Redcoats wore red coats and we employed guerrilla tactics.  Both armies used standard “linear” battle techniques, and we lost almost every battle because the British were so much better trained.  We only won because we never quit and the British got tired of this.  Also, we used Dutch money to finance the war, and most important, we used French ships to blockade every American port.  Without that, the British would have sent wave after wave of infantry and we would have lost.  Oh ya, all of Europe was fighting at that time as well, so “our” war was seen as secondary.  Eventually, the British asked us to split with them at the treaty of Paris.
• George Washington only won three battles the entire war, and only due to special circumstances (He attacked German mercenaries on Christmas – Crossing the Delaware, He surprised an outpost while they were sleeping – Valley Forge, and in his most famous victory, half the opposing troops were conscripted French who were allies with the Americans – Yorktown).
• Paul Revere would never had said “The British are coming, the British are coming,” since he and everyone else considered themselves British at the time.  He would have said: “The regulars are coming, the regulars are coming!”
• It was a bunch of rabble rousers who dressed unconvincingly as Indians who did the whole Tea Party thing.  The truth is that the tea tax was so small that it didn’t bother anyone, and the tax was placed on the Americans five years after it had been placed on the British subjects, and at one tenth the amount.  The colonists would have had to drink a gallon of tea a day for a year before they would have been charged the eighty cent tax.  The amount of tea they threw overboard would amount to 1.3 million dollars today.
• “Taxation without representation” would never have been uttered.  The colonists were the wealthiest people in the world at that time, yet they were paying almost no taxes.  Also, if America got representation in the British Parliament, they would have had only eight seats, and their votes would have been defeated every time.  Also, IF they got representation, they would then be adhering to British rule and British law.  They did not want to do that: Americans are a selfish lot who want to do what they want to do.  We call it “liberty,” which is definitely not the same thing as equality.  Liberty is the notion that we want to be left alone to do whatever we want to do.  We are a nation of Anarchists.  We are, even today… and we pay just about the lowest amount of taxes on the planet today as well (and for this reason, we have no expectation of good government – all other top-tier countries do).
• John Hancock, Massachusetts’ first Governor, was mean, rude, and not very bright.
• Samuel Adams, Massachusetts’ second Governor was a master of spin.  He lied for a living, and he was very good at it.  He did not brew beer.
• John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were best friends until they both ran for the Presidency.  Both were super smart, in their own way; Adams a Lawyer and theologian; Jefferson an inventor.  Both spoke multiple languages and spent time overseas as Ambassadors for the US.  They wound up in different parties when seeking the top office, and Jefferson hired a professional mudslinger to slander Adams, who was by all accounts a decent guy (and Christian, versus Jefferson who was a Deist… and a colossal jerk).  Unfortunately, back then, the loser of the election became Vice President – the most useless job in the world according to Adams.  Jefferson lost round one, and didn’t talk to Adams for ten years.  They also changed that law about the loser becoming Vice President.  In round two, Jefferson won and got his own VP.  Years later, the two started corresponding with each other and discovered that they liked each other again.  Adams’ last words were: “At least Jefferson still lives.”  Adams died on the 50^th anniversary of our Nation’s Independence Day, July 4^th.  What Adams didn’t know is that Jefferson had died a few hours earlier on the same day.

OK, enough of the history lesson.  Let’s just say that the whole family learned stuff, and that it was eye-opening and interesting. I HIGHLY recommend this “Freedom Trail” walk to anyone visiting Boston.

After the freedom tour, we decided to peek into Faneuil Hall, then upon exiting, we ran into a rather sizable crowd.  Ellen DeGeneres was doing her show in the courtyard between Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.  We scooted past the crowd and went into Quincy Market.  Nice market!  We got out of the market at the center “rotunda” section then headed over to Hard Rock Café.  We had lunch there and I got another shirt.  Boston makes 26 Hard Rock Café’s for me!  Wow, more than I would have guessed (I used a map of all the locations to figure this out).  There were pool tables there so the kids played some pool.  We then retraced our steps to the Old Meeting House because there was a bookstore nearby that had stuff for Barbara.  She shopped; the rest of us rested.

Yeah, she was done!  We headed back near the Hard Rock and saw Ellen leave in a stretch Navigator.  We then proceeded to Paul Revere’s house.  Wow, smaller than I would have guessed, and the exterior color was just awful.  Barbara liked that the wood house was built right against the neighbor’s brick building.  Back then, that’s how they did it – common walls.

From there, we moved on to the Old North Church which was the tallest building in Boston at the time of the Revolution.  That is why it was used to signal which way the British were traveling. (“one if by land; two if by sea”).  Two lanterns were lit that night, and were held out for under a minute – long enough for Revere and his fellow rider to see it and get the message out.  Revere also got captured by the British that night, but history rarely records that.  He could have been hung for being out past the 9:00PM curfew, but he wasn’t.  The British were too busy sending out a flotilla down the coast to Lexington and Concord, the site of the first battle.  The American side was ready for the British thanks to Revere’s warning.

We found a bakery on our walk back and tried a Boston Creme Pie, and something called a Lobster Tail, which I really liked (sweet creme filled filo dough)  We ate all our goodies at the metro station, and then went to the Old South Church and Trinity Church (one of the 10 American Architectural wonders).  Right next to Trinity was the new Hancock Building, which was absolutely stunning with its blue tinted glass wall.  It blended with the sky so well.  Trinity church charged seven dollars to get in, so only I went.  It was indeed a marvelous building.  Even the “crypt,” which was actually the bookstore and a social gathering place was beautiful.  I had never before seen the central pillar foundations used as part of the crypt’s décor, but it was in this case to great effect (four large stone pyramids with benches around them).

After being accosted by a Hare Krishna, and getting some free five hour energy handouts, we took the metro to Harvard.

The walk around Harvard was nice.  We found John Harvard’s statue, then we found his brew house.  We ate there.  My pizza used the grain remnants from the brewing process.  It was some of the best pizza I had ever had.  The beers were excellent as well (I had the Stout and the Heffeweissen).

The metro to the terminal was nice and easy, as was our drive home.  The kids played in the pool for a while, but it was crowded with a bunch of Chinese youth who were traveling for the summer (wow, another Chinese group in America.  I would say that the creation of a Chinese middle class is definitely happening).

Breakfast was at Starbucks this morning.  I think we all needed coffee.  The barista there seemed to think that we didn’t understand how to order at Starbucks and was talking down at us as a result.  I think he needed more training; all our orders would not have been out of place at any Starbucks in California.  I think California Starbuck employees are a bit more sophisticated, and their patrons definitely have more demands as well.  This little Starbucks in Mystic had the opposite problem:  There is a Dunkin Doughnuts on every corner here, but a Starbucks is rare, so the barista assumes that the patrons have no previous knowledge of how to “work” a Starbucks as they walk through the doors.

With coffee in hand, we zipped through Rhode Island and landed in Plymouth, MA.  While there, we saw a replica of the Mayflower.  It was  a nice boat.  To think: there were 40ish crew members who largely stayed on the top deck and 102 Pilgrims who never left the bowels of the ship.  It was pretty tight quarters.

Jeffrey wasn’t feeling too good, not having had any breakfast except for a coffee; he was dehydrated.  He did a very quick tour of the boat and then went to the bathroom.  I went to find him some Gatorade.  He felt better after that.

Next stop was Plymouth Rock – where the Pilgrims landed.  The rock itself was just a small boulder with “1620” written on it.  It was housed in a large colonnade structure (that looked like a bus stop on Google Earth).  OK, not very impressive, but it did show where they landed.

Courtney and Barbara shopped across the street after that while Jeffrey and I (definitely NOT shoppers) waited outside.  For lunch, Barbara ordered a lobster roll, which was pretty good, and much cheaper than we had seen elsewhere.  I wasn’t too impressed with it, but at least the price was right and we could then say that we had tried it.

Next stop was John Adams’ house.  Barbara has been reading a biography on John Adams all summer, so this was going to be the highlight of the trip for her (To get the girls back to the car at our last stop, I told Barbara that there was a John Adams monument right by the car park, and I told Courtney that they were having a puppy parade near that monument.  The girls are “unmovable” when they are shopping, but they will move for John Adams and puppies).

After Plymouth, we drove to Quincy, home of John Adams and John Quincy Adams.  We actually got to see three houses on the “trolley tour” that the Quincy Parks Services offered.  The first house was where John Adams was born.  The house next door is where John Adams lived in his early years and where John Quincy Adams was born.  Across town, we came to the much more grand home of John Adams (post presidency).  This was also the home of John Quincy Adams and two generations after him.  Nice home!  But what I really liked was the stone library outside the home.  The library was placed there to avoid being consumed by fire in case the mansion burned down (being a wood structure, this was a very real possibility).  John Q had this library commissioned, but he died before he saw it completed.  The single room library has two floors of leather-bound books; 8,000 volumes in all.  I would be very happy to stay in here for a while!

But return we did to where we started on the trolley tour.  All of us were tired and dehydrated, and it had started raining, so we decided to skip Lexington and go straight to our hotel.  This was probably a good idea because we also hit the leading edge of the afternoon commute.

The hotel was very nice.  Since we were all hungry, we decided that dinner had to be now.  Well, I had booked this particular hotel because it was next to a Chili’s, and this is the one restaurant that both my kids liked.  My wife decided that we could not possibly eat there because we can eat there any time back in CA.  Fortunately, right next door was an Italian place called “the Chateau” (now, why an Italian place would have a French name is beyond me).  The food was both good and filling.  I think we also packaged up lunch for our drive back – it’s now in the hotel refrigerator.

When we got back, Barb and the kids went swimming, and I spent my time writing this.  I sure hope these beds and pillows are better!  I’ve lost a lot of sleep!

Extra:  Funny stuff that’s happened.

1.       The kids are making fun of mom (Barbara) because she can’t pronounce Massachusetts.  She skips the two “T’s” and always has.  Even with some impromptu diction lesions by the rest of the family, she still can’t say it.

2.      This brings us to another word that apparently Barbara can’t say.  While visiting parents recently (without me) in Pennsylvania, Barbara mentioned that there were wildebeests roaming around in Australia (there aren’t, but that’s a separate issue).  She calls them “wild-e-beasts.”

3.      The kids were also telling me of their hotel stay in Pennsylvania.  They thought it strange that grandma brought a vacuum cleaner with her.  She vacuumed the floors, and asked the kids to make their beds in the morning.  Her reason:  She’s a long-time patron of this particular hotel, and she wants to make sure that she continues to make a good impression so that they will continue to offer her good pricing and service… like what?  From what I understand, she actually needed to vacuum the floors, and the maids routinely skip her room.  I’d never go there again, but grandma is determined to endear herself to them.

Yeah, Mystic Seaport day!

The day didn’t start off so well.

Though the hotel had been advertised online as coming with a continental breakfast, it had none.  We had to go out for breakfast.  Fortunately, there was a Friendly’s across the street.  The breakfast wasn’t bad.

Soon, we walked across the street to the Mystic Village… only to discover that it wasn’t the place we wanted to go to.  On the plus side, we were able to purchase discount tickets to the correct location at this location, so our mishap wound up saving us $12.

Parking was a breeze (and free!) and soon, we were in the Mystic Seaport.  It was not crowded, but it was hot and humid.  We spent the day sweaty and dehydrated.

There was a Whaling Ship that was being restored in dry dock.  Apparently, it is the last Whaling Ship in the US.  I found it fascinating; an actual wooden sailing vessel that is still functional today (except that they no longer go out whaling for 3-5 years at a time; only returning when the ship is full of whale oil).  The workshops nearby were recreating all the oak members of the ship.

Beyond that area was the more permanent collection of exhibits.  There were ships of various kinds, rope making exhibits, candle making, barrel making – anything you would find at a colonial seaport.

The kid’s favorite room was the “toy room,” where there were maritime toys to play with and ropes to tie together.  I taught Jeffrey how to make a noose.  He then started tying his sister up.  And just like last year, the kids started sitting on every bench: so begins “bench tour 2011.”  Basically, the kids have little interest in anything educational, so they sit on benches until the parents are done, commenting instead on the relative comfort of the various benches.

Lunch was going to be “downtown” except that we couldn’t find any parking.  We eventually parked at the CVS and walked into town.  Good thing we did, the bridge was up and all traffic was backed up.  The bridge dropped down just as we got to it.  We then went across the bridge and across the very small downtown then walked right into Mystic Pizza (again).  The food was good (again) except this time, they forgot my meal, so I got free pizza while I waited.  I’ll take that deal every time!

We did go to the Aquarium briefly, but when we saw the prices, we decided not to go in.  We went back to our hotel room instead… which was hot!  The A/C wasn’t working.  The kids went swimming.  I tried the Jacuzzi thing we had in our bathroom (a free upgrade with my online purchase!)  It was refreshing.  When the kids got back, they also took a turn in the jacuzzi, and then mom.

I don’t know why, but when I turned off the A/C and then turned it back on again, we had “cool” air again.  Yeah!  By the time we left for dinner, the place was frosty.

Dinner was at a lobster place in New London.  The kids had their own lobster (for only $15!).  Barb and I had fried stuff.  I think the only thing Courtney didn’t eat on that whole lobster was the exoskeleton and the eyeballs.  Jeffrey, on the other hand, lost his appetite while dismembering his lobster.  He decided that eating lobster was really gross and that he would only eat lobster tails from now on.  Hey, at least they both had fun with their food!

We asked for new pillows, and got pillows that were even lumpier than our original pillows.  The room also got hot in the middle of the night again.  This time though, Courtney had nothing to do with it.  The A/C was just really inconsistent.