Back in New York City!

So I'm back home after an all-too-brief trip...well...home.  Is it weird that I call two places 3000 miles apart from each other by the same name?  Yeah, I don't think so either.  Anyway, a few highlights from that visit:

-Baby!  I met the newest member of my extended family, an adorable little confused-by-my-aunt's-puppy 6-month-old named Drake.  He would reach for my aunt Gretchen's dog when it was across the room, then the dog would run up and lick his face, and he would start crying, which for some reason is the only thing that deters that dog from licking something, so he would run away, then the baby would try to reach for it again.  I pretty much just spent two hours watching that happen.

-NBA Jam for Wii!  I know, it pales in comparison to a new baby, but I don't care, this game is amazing.  Greg Oden never gets hurt, and you learn valuable lessons about the history of basketball.  For example, you learn that if Dwayne Wade and Lebron James were to play Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer, Isiah would pretty much need to have that fire thing spitting out from behind his basketball the whole time in order to win.  Also, a question for those readers of mine who are doctors, is it possible to get insta-carpal-tunnel syndrome from doing something as harmless as playing 6 hours of NBA Jam straight?

-$4 Beer that is easily distinguished from urine!  There is a serious shortage of this in my life on the east coast, and that's all I have to say about that.

-Mike Fish having a sugar crash.  You had to be there, but it was hilarious.


So now all that is over, and I'm back to my wonderful apartment and my kittens.  I figure I'll just keep this going as a highlight reel, so first of all:


Window Cats!

 

I think that one kind of explains itself.

Trenta!  That's right kids, we got news just yesterday that Starbucks is about to roll out...wait for it...a BIGGER SIZE!  It will be called the Trenta, which is Italian for "thirty," so naturally it will hold 31 ounces.  Apparently calling it "the trentuno" was no good.  Now according to CNN, Starbucks has been testing this for a year.  Read that sentence again, because raw news just doesn't get any funnier.  This isn't a new drink, there are no new ingredients, there's nothing new to sell, there's just more of what was there before.  And it took them a year.   Now I can see maybe a week of discussing the pros and cons of the name "Trenta" as opposed to "Trentuno" or "Trentadue," trying different combinations of names with different sizes of cups...like what happens when we call it Trentadue, but only give them 30 oz?  Then, after a week, they settle on calling it thirty, giving thirty-one ounces, and charging thirty-two dollars.  I just don't know what happens in the intervening 51 weeks between that and when they just order the damn bathtubs that they're going to serve this in.  Although, from my 3 month tenure at Starbucks as a barista extraordinaire, I suppose I'm not at all surprised it took them that long.

Mouse hunters! I know, I'm back to cats again, but the mouse-hunting score is now even, with both cats having one dead mouse to their name.  I'm sure both are eager for the lead, so this will definitely be interesting to watch.

I am now off to get a haircut.  I think I want this one