There is a very large pothole on the Deegan Expressway

And by weekend, I mean an almost 24 hour time period off from work and (mostly) seperated from my Blackberry.

Sheila and I took a jaunt to good ol CT to wish a friend of hers a Happy Birthday. I had a really good time. Here is Frank, determined to use the remote, completely disregarding the balloons attached to it, which I thought was amusing:



Frank is one of the people who robbed me of about $55 at the poker table that night. Now, not really. They were just playing some new games that I had no idea even existed. They were very fun and I considered it an even trade to have lost the money and gain knowledge of new poker games. The hosts had a large fish tank:



Which I became immediately obsessed with. Take a close look at those fish. They are looking at me, no joke. Some of those fish are over 10 yrs old, which was pretty inpressive. Sheila and I are thinking of trying our hand in the aquatic sciences. It was very soothing to space out and get lost in that little tank.

I went sledding with Sheila's nephews, which was a blast. Definitely the highlight of the weekend, playing air hockey, providing a personal soundtrack for a giggling girl, and just barreling down a snow hill without a care in the world. We grabbed some hot chocolate afterwards and headed back into the city.

The City did not want us to return:



That's me changing a flat tire on the Deegan Expressway, just before the Triboro Bridge. We hit a pot hole and the tire exploded. I am pleased to report that THIS guy knows how to change a flat (as well as his oil, if he had a car) and the exchange of said flat and spare went smooth.

Until I lowered the jack and the spare tire crumbled like a little girl. Those "donuts" aren't meant to keep too long, and once they are no good, they are NO GOOD. So there we were stuck on the side of the highway with a flat......AND a flat spare. So I locked Sheila in the car and took off in search of a place to purchase a new tire. The story is too long to tell word for word, I will just say i searched for an hour, and was finally making headway, when I returned to the car (via taxi) to pick up the rim of the flat, to bring to a place, to get a new tire on it, to find the car being hooked up to a police tow truck. Good thing i came back when I did, because the police officer was NOT sympathetic to the fact that I wasn't there and was going to tow her to a place to get the tire fixed, WITHOUT ME. Thus, I was close to being stranded in the middle of nowhere.

But it all worked out in the end. Tire fixed, made it to work only 1 1/2 hours late. We are going on vacation in two weeks, and I tell you, i can't wait. Got to get out of this city and think of nothing. Absolutely nothing, just for a few days.