NYC with the Sinful Six

September 19-22 we enjoyed a four day weekend with our dear friends, Mike & Emily Crowton and Joe & Wendy Dallimore. We had an incredible time! Quite possibly one of my most favorite trips we have ever been on. We did it all...the boys did a Yankee game on the second to last game in the old stadium while the girls took in Hairspray, shopping, dinner in Little Italy, Wicked, the Staton Island Ferry...the list goes on and on and on. I have included a re-cap courtesy of Joe, who has a way with words...enjoy...

Friends, to me, there is nothing better after a wonderful trip to do a quick recap via e-mail, so everyone can weigh in. For our recently completed NYC adventure, I'd like to present some awards:

• Poorest Dental Hygiene Award: the lady selling ½ priced tickets in front of the Marriott Marquis. It was like a train wreck and not even the non-dentists could look away. When homeless people have better teeth than you do, it may be time to give up on the theater scene and try something else…something that Casey astutely noted by declaring peddling discount tickets to morons from the Midwest would likely be his least favorite occupation in the entire world.
• The Perfect Night Award: for the brilliant insight of all involved parties in sending the women to the theater and the boys to the ballpark, preceded by large amounts of pasta. Does life get better than that?
• The You Can't Escape Who You Are Award: Casey Madsen for finding obscure Weber State personnel in the deep recesses of the Newark airport, flying standby of course, which is about right for our athletic department.
• The "Did You Think To Bathe Today?" Award: Mulberry Street, lower Manhattan. I haven't seen that many people packed into one place since the football field filming scene for 3 o'clock High in '87. I think I've seen my last San Gennaro festival. I'll award myself a runner up here since I actually didn't bathe 2 of the 4 days we were there.
• Most Memorable Yankees Fan Award: the Marlboro Man with respect to Jockey Boy. The pot-belly, the 70's hair, the homemade t-shirt. Runner up goes to the bitter guy sitting behind us for his obvious jealousy of said Marlboro Man ("What's he doing now!?! He's taking a victory lap!! He's just a loos-ah, living in his muthas basement"…after he said that the tenth time, I wanted to ask him: where do you live sir? Even money he lived in his mutha's basement as well).
• Beached Whale Award. To our shirtless friend on the rock in the Park. If that was his final destination, we may never know, but whether he lived or died, he appeared to be a man of healthy appetites who was enjoying/enjoyed the journey (sort of like when Kramer correctly identified George as a portly fellow who craved .
• Biggest Understatement Award: Michael Crowton for the statement, "I don't really like musicals"
• Most Memorable Dance: Wendy H. Dallimore for her reinacting of wrist-flipping George Wendt in Hairspray. Runner Up: George Wendt for the actual dance.
• Most Surreal Moment Award: 6 Train (green line), 2 a.m., Saturday morning. When do these flipping New Yorkers sleep. 99% of West Haven is asleep by 10 p.m. The only people up at that hour where we come from are the farmers who are starting their day.
• Most Misguided Food Decision: Joe Dallimore and the do-it-yourself popcorn. The power of the butter should not be put in the hands of the people. Luckily, like with every other ailment faced, Emily had pharma supplies to help. Runner up: Mike's decision to purchase the boxed donuts. Runner, runner up: carrying milk through the streets of New York in the middle of the night, not only did it probably look ridiculous (grown men carrying milk in a cup), it was probably a health hazard of some kind.
• Best Named Retail Establishment: Shoegasm. Dr. Crowton nearly had a couple of shoegasms himself on this trip.

There would have been several other awards given, but I didn't have all the specifics (e.g. The New Yorker Award would go to Katie for her brusque conduct toward cabbies, but I had no first-hand knowledge of said event or a good quote)….I'll look to you people to help me finalize the list. I welcome all contradictions, additions and subtractions. Great times my friends. Can't wait for next year! Joe

The Animals in our Life

Our girl, Shadow aka Stinker
Chipper Jones or Buddy Boy

Animal Lovin'

We are pretty lucky to have really cool animals in our life. It's funny how each one has a personality all their own. Casey and I have 2 cats who are our children. Shadow is a gray and white domestic short hair and Chipper is a gray Blue Russian. Shadow who we call Stink or Stinker is so much like me. She totally had a mind of her own and is only going to do what she wants to do. She loves to cuddle and can be a bit demanding at times. Chipper is a stray we picked up when we lived in Atlanta. We call him Buddy usually and ironically he is a lot like Casey. Really mellow, comes when called, he'll cuddle to but only only his terms and when he is in the mood, he is such a sweet boy.

We also have a lot of extended "family". My sister, Sara, and her husband have two Japanese Chins, Yoshi and Suki. Since we spend so much time in San Diego we have gotten pretty close to these two cuties. When I am in town, Suki definately sleeps with me in my bedroom down there. They are such fun dogs. My mother in law, Lorrie, has a beautiful King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, Boo Radley. What a fabulous dog. He is a total lover boy and requires lots of attention and rubs. We feel pretty blessed to have the additional love of animals in our life.