New York City

Joyce and I went to New York City this past week to see the sights and some of her friends. Joyce is originally from Buffalo so she was far more familiar with the area than I was. I had been there once before for work. I must have walked 30 miles that week. In short form, here's the list of all the things we did:

- A New York taxi ride
- Times Square
- Broadway show, Fiddler on the Roof
- The MET
- Central Park
- Cleopatra's Needle
- New York Public Library
- Greenwich Village
- Tour of Brooklyn
- Brooklyn botanical gardens
- Downtown Brooklyn
- Walked the Brooklyn Bridge
- Ground Zero
- China Town
- Little Italy
- Saw a concert in a small club called The Bitter End
- Went to Redeemer Presbyterian Church on Sunday
- Empire State Building
- The Skyscraper Museum
- The Financial District
- Federal Hall
- Saw the Late Show with David Letterman
- Saw Rupert in the Hello Deli (he's featured many times on the Late Show if you didn't know)
- Tried to get tickets to Late Night with Conan O'Brien, but we were eliminated in the second round for standby tickets
- Rockefeller Center
- Radio City Music Hall
- The UN
- Carnegie Deli
- The Chrysler Building
- The Citigroup Building
- Broadway Show, Phantom of the Opera
- Shopped with Joyce
- NYU and Washington Square Park
- The Flatiron Building
- Broadway Show, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
- Saw Brook Shields as she left the theater where she stars in Chicago

I think that's about it. I may have forgotten something. I have some pictures here.

20 Random Facts

I can't believe I got tagged. I'm not even on Xanga. Ok, thanks Joy for thinking of the non-Xanga-ers.

1. I was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, but my parents are both American, and I'm not adopted. Think about that one.

2. When I got my security clearance, the government didn't have any questions about my 3 trips to Eastern Europe or about me being born in a foreign country, but had numerous questions about my dad. Some of my friends think my dad is a spy. Maybe the government does, too.

3. I tried jumps on my first day of snowboarding. I learned landings two years later.

4. I could have been an extra in that movie Hollywood Homicide, but I got bored waiting around for them to start so I left. It's ok cuz the PA just thought I was one of the extras when really I was just walking by anyways.

5. I've never been in a car accident.

6. At Iron Sharpens Iron, I was determined to have had the worst job ever out of all the men at my church. I cleaned up horse manure for $5/hr when I was in high school.

7. Most kids buy their pets, but when I was a kid, my brother and I caught most of ours.

8. When my dad wasn't home, it was my job to kill the rattlesnakes. I was also slated to "take care of" any animals that got into the house (lizards, scorpions, mice, etc.).

9. None of my immediate family lives in the United States.

10. I once co-wrote and acted in a film that was featured in a UCLA film festival. It was called Squambo: First Blood. I still don't understand how it made it into the film festival.

11. I've written about 60 skits. Less than half of them are on the Skit DVD and some of those on the DVD aren't even mine.

12. In high school, the fastest I ran 3 miles was 15 minutes 45 seconds. The fastest I ran a mile was 4 minutes 33 seconds. The fastest I ran a half mile was 1 minute 58 seconds.

13. I've had my name in the newspaper for running many many times, but it took untangling knots for a bunch of four year olds at a vacation bible school to get my picture in the paper.

14. My first pet was a bird that flew into the sliding glass door of our house. I named him Lucky.

15. I played piano for 7 years. Do I still play? Of course not, 7 years and no more!

16. I've visited the sets of two shows I've never seen: Dawson's Creek and Third Watch. Both times the person giving me the tour assumed I had intimate knowledge of the show and I had to pretend like I knew what they were talking about.

17. I once gave this guy a ride to get some gas who turned out to be a gay pornstar. (I'm about 99% certain.)

18. I had my first driving lesson when I was 12 years old. My second driving lesson occurred when I got my learner's permit. I guess the first lesson didn't go that well. Or maybe my mom had something to say to my dad about the first one.

19. The fastest I drove a car was 140 mph on the autobahn in Germany. I'll never do that again.

20. I hate Souplantation.

I tag Amy and Rommel.

Souplantation

I don't know how, but somehow, the group was convinced to go to Souplantation after church. I have to say that Souplantation is one of the most offensive restaurants to ever exist. They sell soup and salad. These are side orders not meals! It's so wrong. Not only that, but I don't even think their salad is that good. If you're going to specialize in salad, at least make it better or as good as anyone else's. Everything is so bland tasting. Bleh. I think they know their salad is gross cuz as you're in line grabbing gross things for your plate, they have this little plastic case of chicken you can buy for like $1.25. Forget that, it's probably just as bland as their salad. I was given a tip from a guy last time I was there that if you get chicken noodle soup, you get unlimited chicken. This seemed like a good plan except the chicken turned out to be so dry. I don't know how you keep chicken soaked in broth all day and it still manages to stay dry. So basically Souplantation can't even make soups and salads that good which makes them really suck in my opinion cuz that's all they make. Souplantation is high school cafeteria food at best. Oh, and the price. It's like $10 for soup and salad. There is some serious profit margin going on here.

My second peeve (I was going to say "beef", but that didn't make any sense!) with Souplantation is that they are going with the healthy angle successfully convincing many people that by eating there they are eating healthy. It's true, if you know what to eat there, you are eating healthy, but that goes for most restaurants even ones that serve yummy beef. But if you're going to get a salad and then drown it in dressing and then have some fatty soup and a Coke, guess what, you are on the road to Fatty Town, sucka. Souplantation has a healthy fact about almost every item in the salad bar except when you get to the dressing. Most people think they're eating healthy there, but they are probably not. Oh, I forgot to mention, they also have unlimited soft serve ice cream. So if you're on a diet, I think Souplantation has got to be the worst place you could go because they have unlimited supply of stuff that gets you fat like soda and ice cream (and toppings). Think they are a healthy place now?

Souplantation's motto is "Create. Indulge. Enjoy." I find this to be more of a challenge than a motto. Maybe it's more of a dare than a challenge. Anyways, Chane and I came up with an ingenious way to rise to the challenge. Take your unlimited soda and combine it with unlimited soft serve and BAM!...you get unlimited root beer floats at "healthy" Souplantation. Create. Indulge. Enjoy. I did. Suck on that, Souplantation!

Now you know how to get your $10 worth if you're ever roped into going to that place.