Pool Party
Hello World,
Well, it certainly does seem to be the case nowadays that when you look around, there's a decided paucity of good news to be had, no matter how hard you look, and there's just no denying it. But I invite anyone who's feeling down in the dumps to come on over here to our fair city now and again, and drive past the Sunoco station by our house, and I expect that would put the spring back in your step and make you realize that life is worth living again. The price of regular at this station doesn't just creep down in tiny increments when no one is watching, it goes by bunches, one day after another, so every day is a new and joyous revelation, and really gives you a reason to get out of bed in the morning. From the time it first went below $3/gallon for regular, it's been a virtual free-fall since then and -- dare I say it? -- no end in sight. It seems like every time I go past it, I find myself saying things like, "Look at that, it's $2.89, that's 4 cents lower than Thursday." Then it'll be, "Holy smoke, $2.71, and that's just since yesterday, when it came down to $2.75." This week alone, I watched it go from $2.59 to $2.55 to $2.51 and today it's $2.48. I tell you, there's nothing like a whole lot of $4 gasoline to make you really appreciate $2.48, and that's a plain fact. So if that's not reason enough to give us all hope for the future, I don't know what it would take, because I'm just about ready to break out the champagne and fireworks here.
Speaking of fireworks, last week I got a phone call from one of the executive secretaries at our sister institution in Mount Vernon, who I don't mind saying, is the veriest soul of patience, and often under the most difficult conditions. At this particular time, she must have been having an extremely bad day, and finally in her frustration, she found herself yelling at me, not because of anything I had done, but just because she couldn't take it anymore, and I could certainly understand why. A few days later when I needed to speak to her, I found out that she was out of the office temporarily for a dentist appointment. I spoke to her later after she got back and I said, "I called you earlier, but they said you had gone to the dentist to have your teeth filed down into points, so that when you bite someone, it really makes an impression they won't forget, not like when you used to bite them and they didn't care." She laughed.
And what may be new and exciting in the local hotel scene, you may be wondering, and well may you wonder. I'm glad you asked, because last weekend, we availed ourselves of some local lodging, along with our friends from upstate, and I am happy to report that all's well that ends well. Of course, this wasn't exactly a new and exciting hotel experience for us, because we went back to the Renaissance Hotel in West Harrison by popular demand, where we have stayed several times already. I said to Bill that one of the problems with staying in different hotels in different places, as we have been doing for a while, is that you get exposed to a wider range of amenities, decor and discounts, so that a place that you once thought was the cream of the crop, suddenly starts to suffer by comparison. The Renaissance is a lovely hotel with many fine features, but it is very expensive, and the rooms are rather ordinary. But we always have fun with our friends, so we were looking forward to getting a jump on the frivolity, bright and early on Saturday morning.
Not so fast! Our friends decided that later was better than earlier, and rather than meeting for brunch in White Plains as usual, they would meet us at the hotel at 3:00 PM when we could check in and go directly to our rooms. This left me and Bill sort of at loose ends on Saturday, since it would only take us 20 minutes to get to the hotel, and we had no other plans for the time before that. The idea of doing our regular Saturday chores, which has little enough appeal at the best of times, was beyond even considering, on what was supposed to be a sort of holiday for us. Since Daffy Duck was nowhere in evidence, I found myself saying, "Why don't we go have breakfast at IHOP, since I'm still trying to have some nice pancakes, after those horrible ones at the diner in Bristol?" So we got dressed, climbed into the car and drove to the local IHOP in Larchmont, where we were lucky to find a parking space all the way in the back of the lot, and people lined up outside with beepers, waiting for tables. We didn't want to get at the end of that line, so we headed back toward home, and decided that they would probably have pretty good pancakes at our local diner, where we eat on Friday nights. Apparently, you can't get into the place on Saturday morning, and one look at the parking lot was all it took for us to give up on that idea and keep going, and I don't mind saying, no thank you, Daffy Duck. In the end, we decided to go to the supermarket and get a package of Entenmann's Ultimate Cinnamon Buns, which you can heat up in the microwave and they come out sort of like Cinnabons, which we love, but have none near us. So that was a somewhat inauspicious start to the day, but we salvaged what we could of it, and then got packed up and ready to go.
I'm not sure if the reservation staff remembered us from last time and feared for the consequences, or if it's just their interpretation that a request for "three rooms near each other" means to them simply "on the same floor" is good enough, because it turned out that our rooms were certainly not too close for comfort, and that's putting it mildly. Of course, I realize that it's hard for a large hotel chain to organize all of the various logistics, and still somehow manage to always put us in the room right next to the elevator, ice dispenser or vending machines, no matter where we stay. After we got settled and unpacked and took pictures, it was just about time to decide about dinner. Because there were signs all over the lobby, we already knew that the hotel was playing host to a welter of bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs and a wedding, and a plan to dress up and wander from one to another for the free food was only narrowly defeated in a spirited vote. (Some of us pointed out that in addition to free food, we would most likely be given goodie bags full of party favors, which you certainly can't get at a restaurant, but even this gambit failed to turn the tide.) On a previous visit, we had eaten in the hotel's pub, which was nice enough as a novelty, but didn't have as much appeal the second time around for us. And once again, since Daffy Duck didn't show up, we set out in two cars with our trusty GPS devices at the ready, on our way to a nearby Pizzeria Uno, or know the reason why.
The city of White Plains does everything in its power to prevent people from getting to their destination, and they threw everything they could at us, but we eventually got to the restaurant in spite of all the obstacles. I will say that I had a wonderful tropical fruit smoothie and enjoyed it immensely, but Bill's drink was awful and our meal was almost ludicrously bad, which I wouldn't have expected when ordering a pizza in a chain famous for their pizzas. When we got back to the hotel, our friends invited us down the hall to their room, where they threw a surprise birthday party for Bill, which surprised me, although Bill didn't seem all that surprised. There were party hats and streamers, brownies and cookies, cocoa and coffee, even a decorative candle that played Happy Birthday! Adding a sort of surreal touch to the proceedings was the hotel plumber, who came to fix the toilet, and was there so long that we finally had no choice but to offer him some brownies and a drink, although he declined the party hat. As if this wasn't enough fun for one day, after that we made our way to the hotel pool, which is handily open until 11:00 PM, and features a variety of pool toys, including foam noodles, kick boards and inflatable balls. At that time of night, we pretty much had the place to ourselves and we splashed around to our heart's content, and then relaxed in the Jacuzzi afterward. By then, it was bed time, so we tramped back to our rooms and turned in.
Some of us were up at 7:30 and went hiking on the trail that runs behind the hotel, and a lovely brisk morning it was for that. When we finished and came back, it was still too early for breakfast, so my hiking companion said that she would keep me company while I walked around the hotel grounds taking pictures. Not wanting to seem unfriendly, I agreed to the idea, and found that no matter where I stood, or what I wanted to take a picture of, my friend was almost invariably in the way every time. Her blue plaid jacket is in so many of my pictures that you would think it was a paid promotional message from the American Wool Council. After that, we all headed to the dining area for what we remembered as the sumptuous breakfast buffet that was the highlight of former stays. But even here, we found it had been scaled back so that it was still nice enough, but not the epicurean ecstasy of revered memory. We enjoyed it anyway, and tried not to be disappointed, but it was another one of those small matters that seemed to change our impressions of the hotel compared to other places we had stayed. We decided against going in the pool again, so we had time to relax a bit after breakfast, before it became time to pack up and check out.
The ostensible purpose for the trip was to peruse the Christmas display at Fortunoff's in White Plains, so we set off for there in what has become an annual ritual to kick off the holiday season for us. The displays are not as elaborate as they once were, but the store always manages to fill the department with new and interesting seasonal merchandise of every description, and some of which, utterly defies description. There's so much to see, and so many aisles, that after a while, you can't tell where you've been or where you're going. No matter where you are standing, at least half of everything plays music, and it doesn't take long before you're so full of jingle bells, snowmen, reindeers and chestnuts roasting, that you're about to go out of your fa-la-la-la-la-la mind. I will admit to being in a merry little holly jolly stupor, but anyone who thinks I would pass up salt and pepper shakers that look like ribbon candy doesn't know me very well, and we can't count on Daffy Duck, that's for sure. Our friends also found some things to their liking, so it was another successful occasion where fun meets commerce, and everyone comes out a winner.
Because we had been there before, we knew that Whole Foods (a chain of organic supermarkets) downstairs would have a cozy seating area with tables and chairs where we could have some snacks and relax before our friends had to hit the road. The store has everything under the sun, and they also have a deli section and vast salad bar where you can buy food already prepared and ready to eat. So we picked out an assortment of drinks and goodies, and settled down to enjoy ourselves after our retail exertions. One disadvantage of eating there is that everything is natural and organic, and unless it's something that you're already familiar with, might turn out to be just so much leaves and bark as to be totally inedible. That's what happened with my drink, which as fruit drinks go, was certainly no Hawaiian Punch, and was so horrible tasting that I figured it must be so healthy for you that it should only be sold by prescription. Finally our friends had to leave for that long ride home, so we got them back in their cars and sent them off in the direction of the highway. Since we were there, and usually aren't, we took advantage of the opportunity to go back inside the store to do some shopping for groceries, and picked up some frozen dinners that we like that our local stores often don't carry. After that, it was a quick drive home, and still early enough so that we weren't going home in the dark. Someday, we're going to go away and not have to make 10 trips to unpack the car when we get back, but not this time. The cats greeted our return with the bored disdain that is their trademark, which serves the purpose of keeping us humble, heaven knows. It turned out to be a long and eventful weekend, but it's always fun to get together with our friends and stay at a nice hotel, which has many therapeutic benefits that are a tonic for world-weary souls. In fact, I can highly recommend it to anyone, and if you go, please save me a spot in the pool!
Well, it certainly does seem to be the case nowadays that when you look around, there's a decided paucity of good news to be had, no matter how hard you look, and there's just no denying it. But I invite anyone who's feeling down in the dumps to come on over here to our fair city now and again, and drive past the Sunoco station by our house, and I expect that would put the spring back in your step and make you realize that life is worth living again. The price of regular at this station doesn't just creep down in tiny increments when no one is watching, it goes by bunches, one day after another, so every day is a new and joyous revelation, and really gives you a reason to get out of bed in the morning. From the time it first went below $3/gallon for regular, it's been a virtual free-fall since then and -- dare I say it? -- no end in sight. It seems like every time I go past it, I find myself saying things like, "Look at that, it's $2.89, that's 4 cents lower than Thursday." Then it'll be, "Holy smoke, $2.71, and that's just since yesterday, when it came down to $2.75." This week alone, I watched it go from $2.59 to $2.55 to $2.51 and today it's $2.48. I tell you, there's nothing like a whole lot of $4 gasoline to make you really appreciate $2.48, and that's a plain fact. So if that's not reason enough to give us all hope for the future, I don't know what it would take, because I'm just about ready to break out the champagne and fireworks here.
Speaking of fireworks, last week I got a phone call from one of the executive secretaries at our sister institution in Mount Vernon, who I don't mind saying, is the veriest soul of patience, and often under the most difficult conditions. At this particular time, she must have been having an extremely bad day, and finally in her frustration, she found herself yelling at me, not because of anything I had done, but just because she couldn't take it anymore, and I could certainly understand why. A few days later when I needed to speak to her, I found out that she was out of the office temporarily for a dentist appointment. I spoke to her later after she got back and I said, "I called you earlier, but they said you had gone to the dentist to have your teeth filed down into points, so that when you bite someone, it really makes an impression they won't forget, not like when you used to bite them and they didn't care." She laughed.
And what may be new and exciting in the local hotel scene, you may be wondering, and well may you wonder. I'm glad you asked, because last weekend, we availed ourselves of some local lodging, along with our friends from upstate, and I am happy to report that all's well that ends well. Of course, this wasn't exactly a new and exciting hotel experience for us, because we went back to the Renaissance Hotel in West Harrison by popular demand, where we have stayed several times already. I said to Bill that one of the problems with staying in different hotels in different places, as we have been doing for a while, is that you get exposed to a wider range of amenities, decor and discounts, so that a place that you once thought was the cream of the crop, suddenly starts to suffer by comparison. The Renaissance is a lovely hotel with many fine features, but it is very expensive, and the rooms are rather ordinary. But we always have fun with our friends, so we were looking forward to getting a jump on the frivolity, bright and early on Saturday morning.
Not so fast! Our friends decided that later was better than earlier, and rather than meeting for brunch in White Plains as usual, they would meet us at the hotel at 3:00 PM when we could check in and go directly to our rooms. This left me and Bill sort of at loose ends on Saturday, since it would only take us 20 minutes to get to the hotel, and we had no other plans for the time before that. The idea of doing our regular Saturday chores, which has little enough appeal at the best of times, was beyond even considering, on what was supposed to be a sort of holiday for us. Since Daffy Duck was nowhere in evidence, I found myself saying, "Why don't we go have breakfast at IHOP, since I'm still trying to have some nice pancakes, after those horrible ones at the diner in Bristol?" So we got dressed, climbed into the car and drove to the local IHOP in Larchmont, where we were lucky to find a parking space all the way in the back of the lot, and people lined up outside with beepers, waiting for tables. We didn't want to get at the end of that line, so we headed back toward home, and decided that they would probably have pretty good pancakes at our local diner, where we eat on Friday nights. Apparently, you can't get into the place on Saturday morning, and one look at the parking lot was all it took for us to give up on that idea and keep going, and I don't mind saying, no thank you, Daffy Duck. In the end, we decided to go to the supermarket and get a package of Entenmann's Ultimate Cinnamon Buns, which you can heat up in the microwave and they come out sort of like Cinnabons, which we love, but have none near us. So that was a somewhat inauspicious start to the day, but we salvaged what we could of it, and then got packed up and ready to go.
I'm not sure if the reservation staff remembered us from last time and feared for the consequences, or if it's just their interpretation that a request for "three rooms near each other" means to them simply "on the same floor" is good enough, because it turned out that our rooms were certainly not too close for comfort, and that's putting it mildly. Of course, I realize that it's hard for a large hotel chain to organize all of the various logistics, and still somehow manage to always put us in the room right next to the elevator, ice dispenser or vending machines, no matter where we stay. After we got settled and unpacked and took pictures, it was just about time to decide about dinner. Because there were signs all over the lobby, we already knew that the hotel was playing host to a welter of bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs and a wedding, and a plan to dress up and wander from one to another for the free food was only narrowly defeated in a spirited vote. (Some of us pointed out that in addition to free food, we would most likely be given goodie bags full of party favors, which you certainly can't get at a restaurant, but even this gambit failed to turn the tide.) On a previous visit, we had eaten in the hotel's pub, which was nice enough as a novelty, but didn't have as much appeal the second time around for us. And once again, since Daffy Duck didn't show up, we set out in two cars with our trusty GPS devices at the ready, on our way to a nearby Pizzeria Uno, or know the reason why.
The city of White Plains does everything in its power to prevent people from getting to their destination, and they threw everything they could at us, but we eventually got to the restaurant in spite of all the obstacles. I will say that I had a wonderful tropical fruit smoothie and enjoyed it immensely, but Bill's drink was awful and our meal was almost ludicrously bad, which I wouldn't have expected when ordering a pizza in a chain famous for their pizzas. When we got back to the hotel, our friends invited us down the hall to their room, where they threw a surprise birthday party for Bill, which surprised me, although Bill didn't seem all that surprised. There were party hats and streamers, brownies and cookies, cocoa and coffee, even a decorative candle that played Happy Birthday! Adding a sort of surreal touch to the proceedings was the hotel plumber, who came to fix the toilet, and was there so long that we finally had no choice but to offer him some brownies and a drink, although he declined the party hat. As if this wasn't enough fun for one day, after that we made our way to the hotel pool, which is handily open until 11:00 PM, and features a variety of pool toys, including foam noodles, kick boards and inflatable balls. At that time of night, we pretty much had the place to ourselves and we splashed around to our heart's content, and then relaxed in the Jacuzzi afterward. By then, it was bed time, so we tramped back to our rooms and turned in.
Some of us were up at 7:30 and went hiking on the trail that runs behind the hotel, and a lovely brisk morning it was for that. When we finished and came back, it was still too early for breakfast, so my hiking companion said that she would keep me company while I walked around the hotel grounds taking pictures. Not wanting to seem unfriendly, I agreed to the idea, and found that no matter where I stood, or what I wanted to take a picture of, my friend was almost invariably in the way every time. Her blue plaid jacket is in so many of my pictures that you would think it was a paid promotional message from the American Wool Council. After that, we all headed to the dining area for what we remembered as the sumptuous breakfast buffet that was the highlight of former stays. But even here, we found it had been scaled back so that it was still nice enough, but not the epicurean ecstasy of revered memory. We enjoyed it anyway, and tried not to be disappointed, but it was another one of those small matters that seemed to change our impressions of the hotel compared to other places we had stayed. We decided against going in the pool again, so we had time to relax a bit after breakfast, before it became time to pack up and check out.
The ostensible purpose for the trip was to peruse the Christmas display at Fortunoff's in White Plains, so we set off for there in what has become an annual ritual to kick off the holiday season for us. The displays are not as elaborate as they once were, but the store always manages to fill the department with new and interesting seasonal merchandise of every description, and some of which, utterly defies description. There's so much to see, and so many aisles, that after a while, you can't tell where you've been or where you're going. No matter where you are standing, at least half of everything plays music, and it doesn't take long before you're so full of jingle bells, snowmen, reindeers and chestnuts roasting, that you're about to go out of your fa-la-la-la-la-la mind. I will admit to being in a merry little holly jolly stupor, but anyone who thinks I would pass up salt and pepper shakers that look like ribbon candy doesn't know me very well, and we can't count on Daffy Duck, that's for sure. Our friends also found some things to their liking, so it was another successful occasion where fun meets commerce, and everyone comes out a winner.
Because we had been there before, we knew that Whole Foods (a chain of organic supermarkets) downstairs would have a cozy seating area with tables and chairs where we could have some snacks and relax before our friends had to hit the road. The store has everything under the sun, and they also have a deli section and vast salad bar where you can buy food already prepared and ready to eat. So we picked out an assortment of drinks and goodies, and settled down to enjoy ourselves after our retail exertions. One disadvantage of eating there is that everything is natural and organic, and unless it's something that you're already familiar with, might turn out to be just so much leaves and bark as to be totally inedible. That's what happened with my drink, which as fruit drinks go, was certainly no Hawaiian Punch, and was so horrible tasting that I figured it must be so healthy for you that it should only be sold by prescription. Finally our friends had to leave for that long ride home, so we got them back in their cars and sent them off in the direction of the highway. Since we were there, and usually aren't, we took advantage of the opportunity to go back inside the store to do some shopping for groceries, and picked up some frozen dinners that we like that our local stores often don't carry. After that, it was a quick drive home, and still early enough so that we weren't going home in the dark. Someday, we're going to go away and not have to make 10 trips to unpack the car when we get back, but not this time. The cats greeted our return with the bored disdain that is their trademark, which serves the purpose of keeping us humble, heaven knows. It turned out to be a long and eventful weekend, but it's always fun to get together with our friends and stay at a nice hotel, which has many therapeutic benefits that are a tonic for world-weary souls. In fact, I can highly recommend it to anyone, and if you go, please save me a spot in the pool!
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 7:12 PM
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